Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Fournette Gets Dismissed & Big Ten Votes Go Public

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

31 teams have unwittingly entered the Leonard Fournette Sweepstakes, Trevor Lawrence and Ja'Marr Chase are carefully planning their futures; and despite confirmation, the Big Ten is still a Big Mess. Plus, is Ted Lasso a good show? Geoff Schwartz & Gabe Goodwin have the latest from around the league. Cold open: Rams LB Clay Johnston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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31 teams have unwittingly entered the Leonard Fournette sweepstakes. Trevor Lawrence and Jamar Chase are carefully planning their futures. And despite confirmation, the Big Ten is still a complete mess. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz's Smarter Than You. Before we make you smarter today, everyone, before we started recording, Gabe's drinking LaCroix today, not a beer,

so I don't know if that's a good or bad sign. Gabe would like to talk to you guys about the NBA playoffs and how much he loves watching bubble NBA playoffs, which we've all been watching. We've been watching NBA, NHL, and we had college football this weekend. NFL's coming very soon, don't worry. But Gabe, why are you not happy and not overjoyed that we're watching sports? What are we complaining about the bubble for?

I'm not complaining about the bubble. The bubble looks like my heaven. What I'm complaining about is everyone pretending that they think it friggin' matters which team is going to get stomped by LeBron in the next round. And acting like Jamal Murrayray is the you know the next larry bird because he made a cool layup like enough that that's luca donja he's the next larry bird oh sorry yeah you have to compare one guy who looks like that guy the other guy looks like that guy but no i mean i'm all for it man nba games are great but like

these middle of the pack eastern conference teams it gives a shit it doesn't matter you're all done oh i love it we're gonna heat with some nba i'm early in the podcast i'm just fortunate that we have sports to watch um and you know we're gonna have nfl games here within 10 days chiefs and texans uh the chiefs getting their rings today so that'll be that'll be uh something i look forward to i do feel bad for the Chiefs because, you know, they win their first championship in 50 years. And it's an opportunity to celebrate, right? And as soon as the Super Bowl ended, COVID hit, right, at the beginning of March.

And the best part of winning the Super Bowl, I know nothing about this. I never won a Super Bowl, but it looks very fun. It's the ring ceremony, right? The ring ceremony, they go to, they have a giant party. And the whole facility shows up in a big i've seen the robert craft ones with giant tent and you have a lot of fun instead obviously they're doing an era of cover i feel bad for the chiefs not getting to fully uh enjoy their um their their title run i mean you know just like it seemed like they were ready to move on right away i mean it wasn't like they were yeah but yeah but you still want to enjoy that ring party

i feel like you you want to put a cap and that's typically done like in april right and then you get ready for the offseason program and you move forward doing it so close to the game is is different um but nonetheless football is coming up very soon gabe and i i i was overjoyed to watch central arkansas and austin p it cannot match I was overjoyed to watch Central Arkansas and Austin be a cannot match. How excited I'll be to watch the Chiefs and Texans. And we have some NFL news, like we always do. So start us off. Yeah, the big news as we start the week, Leonard Fournette cut by the Jags.

Coach Marone claims it's because of his performance at camp, nothing else. I find that very hard to believe. But there's a few takes circulating right now. Twitter all over the map with this. So I'll boil it down for you. Fournette is either A, too good to play for a tanking team. And as a guy, 31 other teams should go get now because he's going to be cheap.

Or B, a total scrub garbage player who only the Jags were dumb enough to pick over people like Deshaun and Mahomes and MCC and every other good running back in the league. Okay. Most people seem to think it's B. Most people seem to think Leonard Fournette sucks and he's over the hill. I'm not with them. Where are you? All right. So this was a little bit surprising and Doug Maroon came out and said they tried to trade him and they couldn't, it felt, it felt like they were kicking him on the way out. Right? I mean, he said like, I could get a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh.

Obviously, the salary is not that bad this year. It's around $4 billion. That's a fifth-year option that they declined, really. So, just kind of a base salary for the season. And, you know, I'm surprised this happened because it happened so late in camp, right? It was kind of surprising to see it happen now. But they're clearly in tank mode and they're tanking for for trevor lawrence i will just remind you that tanking doesn't always work in the nfl in fact i think it rarely works the dolphins got

lucky last year they got lucky right they ended up picking fifth and still got their guy because two got hurt so taking for trevor lawrence is not really in my opinion the way nfl teams think anyways maybe the front office thinks that way but But I know this many times, Gabe, is you cannot tell players not play hard, okay? You cannot tell them, hey, guys, don't play hard. We're trying to lose. Coaches and players will try to win every single game. So you have to kneecap them by not having enough talent to win those games. And Jacksonville sort of fits into that mold.

But the bigger lesson here, before we get to Fournette this isn't support here the bigger lesson here Gabe is when you try to run back a team that made one improbable run to an NFC championship game even to a divisional round game you just run it back especially when your flawed quarterback never works in the NFL Jacksonville 2017 right they go up to New England and you can argue they should have won that game. Miles Jack, was he down? Was he not down? Tom Brady has busted up his thumb, which I read an excerpt, by the way, of that new book coming out about New England. I'm sure you would love to read about it.

But Tom Brady had like his thumb was jacked up, and he made the surgeon before the game cut off a millimeter of every stitch in his thumb so it wouldn't touch the ball. It's a very Tom Brady thing to do to do yeah you should go read it he was worried that it was gonna poke the over-inflated or under-inflated balls however they were back then yes he was worried about that um and they ran it back right with a flawed quarterback and a team built on rushing the football and defense which is not the way the nfl is built the bears 2018 saw the same thing even though they didn't make the championship.

And I feel the Titans are close to that as well. I think the Titans are a better coach, have more talent than Jacksonville. But running it back after an improbable run doesn't seem to work. In fact, since that game, Gabe, the 2017 AFC Championship game, Jacksonville currently has three players on offense on that roster, three offensive linemen, and two players on defense, including Miles Jacks, who unfortunately was trending today because he's the only guy still left on the roster that's any good.

This is indicative of a poorly run franchise. The franchise does not typically sign their first-round picks to long-term contracts. They either trade them, and they get some value back for them, but they have not signed them in forever. And they don't hold their value. And they're not very good. They don't win football games.

And so I get what they're doing, right? They're trying to trim the fat off the roster. They're trying to quote unquote tank. And I get it. Fortnite doesn't really fit what they want to do, I guess. I don't know. I'm not really sure what their offense is going to be this year. But it just signals, again, like we failed at our run it back option that we chose.

And they're paying the price for it. Okay, so let me ask you a few questions related to the franchise at large. Like, it seems like every good player who's ever been there, or at least in the last few years, has insisted on leaving. And sometimes they're insisting on leaving and it's costing them money. Sometimes they're insisting on leaving and not even going to a better team. Sometimes they're insisting on leaving and we don't even know where they're going to go. They just don't want to be there, despite the fact that you can earn 30 percent more just by getting paid in Florida. So is there something else going on in the front office?

I hear people say Tom Coughlin could have been a problem at one point. Like what's going on there? Well, that was Tom Coughlin. I like playing for Tom when I was there. He was a general manager. He's kind of very a part of it. I think the general manager and head coach have got to be separate. And we've seen it work very rarely where Bill Belichick is kind of both those guys.

But Andy Reid has said, like, he's not doing personnel anymore. At the end of his time in Philly, he said, I just, I did the personnel. I couldn't do both at the same time. All that Brett Veach. And congrats to Veach and Andy Reid on their extensions. Well-deserving, obviously. Yannick Ngakwe got traded to the Minnesota Vikings. And then took less money, $6 million less to get out of Jacksonville.

So something is going on there with the way they're building their culture, with the way they're building their spirit, with the way that they're building their foundation of their team. Because everyone wants out. And I don't think it's the city, okay? Everyone says, well, who wants to live in Jackson? Well, who wants to live in Buffalo, okay? Like you're in your city for six months of the year, maybe seven, and then you're in your off-season home. And you're right. State tax is great in Florida.

It's zero. So you can make more money in Florida than you can in your off-season home. And you're right. State tax is great in Florida. It's zero. So you can make more money in Florida than you can other states. The weather, I know it's hot, but typically it's pretty good nine months of the year. Okay, so there's reasons why you'd want to be there. It's not just the city of Jacksonville. Something else is going on.

I think it's the lack of commitment to winning. They haven't won a lot. They don't win a lot of games. They had one season where they won over like six games in the last seven years. They don't win a lot of football games. No. Although if you go to London, people over there are convinced they're a great team because they get to see them every year. And they play well. They play pretty well there because they actually have some fans. Blake Bortles. Yeah. Blake Bortles has played great over there. But this goes back, you know, I just want to make this point very clear, is that you have to be honest with yourself.

And the best advice I ever got from my high school football coach was don't lie to yourself. And it covers obviously sports and your actual life, okay? And when you're evaluating your team, you have to not lie to yourself. It's very hard to do, right? You've made a run to the AFC Championship game. You have to decide, okay, look, was that because we ran into some luck? Was that because we had an overachieving offense, overachieving defense? Was that in spite of Blake Bortles, not because of him?

He had his best season that year and obviously has never been the same quarterback since then. It's hard to do that when you win. You get intoxicated with that. But the best teams, right, the Ravens, each year continue to improve by adding important pieces. Calais Campbell, obviously, this offseason, drafted the kid from Ohio State, J.K. Dobbins, right, to play running back. The Chiefs continue to add pieces to their team. Clyde Edwards, Hilaire Edwards, I should say, is a guy that people are looking at as being the top value in running back and for fantasy, which means that people think he'll have a great season

for the Chiefs. Oh, yeah. You continue to add these pieces in, right? And you should never stop trying to improve, but you have to do it smartly. You have to do it with a quarterback you trust. And Jacksonville thought they trusted Bortles. They shouldn't have.

All the data showed them. Hey, man, this guy's not our guy. And they went forward with it. Anyways, it's tough. I thought it was with Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee. This is a very current example. And Josh Allen's going to be this way, I think, next year as well. We'll get to that next year.

Is that you cannot take one season of outlier as the norm of what a career is going to be. Especially when Ryan Tannehill's in year eight now, right? Yeah. And so I think Jacksonville made that mistake. They lied to themselves about what Blake Bortles actually was, and now it's cost them as they continue to lose. And look, again, tanking is great. I mean, it's great in theory, I should say.

It doesn't often work in sports, right? The Sixers, they tank for all the – how's that working out? How's Joel Embiid working out? He can't even run up and down the court because he's too tired in a bubble game. Tanking does not work unless it's LeBron James. Trevor Lawrence is not LeBron James. So I don't – I just – I get what they're doing, but it's not a prudent way to build your team in my opinion.

Okay, but so then let's go back to Leonard Fournette for a second because he's the guy getting dumped on on Twitter. Okay, but so then let's go back to Leonard Fournette for a second, because he's the guy getting dumped on on Twitter. And I'm kind of confused here, because he was probably the best running back I ever saw play in college. Okay. And you could probably debate me on that. But I'm just gonna say... Reggie Bush. We both saw Reggie Bush play. Come on. Okay, but Reggie Bush was like an everything. I mean, like, you know, full three down running back guy who takes it and just pounds it at you. He's like Adrian Peterson of my generation. Okay. All right. So then he gets the league pretty good, rushes for a thousand yards. I looked up his numbers last year. He's over 1100 yards. He

catches 76 balls. So he's playing the way that you're supposed to play the game now. Like, I guess I don't get it. How is there no value for this guy? To be fair, by the way, Adrian Peterson is both in our generation. I played him in college. Let's not pretend that we didn't. We're not that old, everybody. Yeah, in fact, I think I tried to cheat my way into a younger generation when I claimed Fournette because obviously my generation is Adrian Peterson.

So yeah. I played him three times in college. His first game, by the way, was against us. His first breakout game uh 2004 went to oklahoma we got our butts whooped he had like 220 yards as a true freshman it was he's unbelievable he's he had two yards to get to three straight years he's unbelievable uh not but leonard fornet was that good at his best at lsu i just think that people look at fornet on a team that wasn't really winning outside of that one season and don't see a lot of upside in paying him the $4 million,

when you can get him much cheaper. If you don't claim him, you can get him for a million, million and a half, maybe $2 million. And I think people don't look at him as a three-down running back. If you're going to start a guy like that, you want to bring him in, you want him to be on passing downs. Well, he can catch the ball fairly well. But I think that there's just such a low value now on running backs,

especially on losing back especially on losing teams on losing teams and so i'm curious where he goes but look there's two suitors obviously one is pete carroll i mean look this is like pete carroll's dream another bruising running back um you look at at um at houston and bill o'brien and and the way he operates as well i've been told the chiefs might have interest not not as a waiver wire guy, but just like after he clears waivers. I think we're going to have 15 teams be interested in him after he clears waivers.

The question is, who will pick him up? And you'll listen to this possibly and get the answer because right now he's going through the waiver process. Who will pick him up off waivers? Because he's not a vested veteran yet. So he still has to go through the waiver process. will pick him up off waivers because he's he's not a vested veteran yet so he still has to go through the waiver process so um i um gabe i i am uh i don't know who's gonna sign him man well i don't have i just think that people don't they don't value i mean they don't value the

running alvin camara's trying to sit out now to get some more money and teams just aren't aren't going there right now okay well luckily you didn't say the one team I thought you were going to say. Who, New England? Yeah. Dude, okay, look. They have 23 running backs on their roster right now. They do not need Leonard Fournette. Well, I mean, they don't think they need anything.

And they have the Leonard Fournette. So people were bringing Leonard Fournette to be that kind of short yardage goal line running back. Guess what? They have Cam Noon. He does that very well. And you get an extra blocker when he runs the football. So they don't need to bring in Leonard Fournette. Everyone's a Patriots.

Not the Patriots. They're not going to bring him in. Okay. So give me a couple more things on this and we'll move along. Why do I read things like this? This is analysis from people who supposedly know something. Sources say he's really close with Jalen Ramsey. So he might go to L.A. because Jalen's there now.

Like, what the – who the guy's friends with has no bearing. That just means – it means absolutely nothing. And the Rams, by the way – and this is why – if they sign Leonard Fournette, I'm even hammering the under even more on their team. They do not have Leonard Fournette. I saw someone say the Eagles today. Yeah, I mean, if he can play left tackle for them um and you know i it's like it's you know he's again um there's a couple teams miami maybe washington low level teams that would take it but there's

not a winning team right now who needs a starting running back like leonard fournette well that's what scares me that it's going to be the effing patriots again it's it's gonna happen but okay did you do you think that do you think that he helps them win the afc east more than anyone they have on their roster i think he's the most talented running back i've seen play since adrian peterson yeah but not but i'm talking in the nfl not in college football i don't and he's built like the biggest nfl back I can think of, so I don't see how he isn't good. And if he plays for a team that's

good, with a quarterback that's good, with a system that's good, for a coach that's good, I think he'll be really good, and it terrifies me that he might end up there. That's it. That's the take. That, shit, what if he goes to New England? But luckily, all of Twitter thinks he sucks and he's washed.

I don't get it. I don't think they think he's washed. I just think that there is a very visceral reaction to the idea of running back value, which we've talked about a lot. Yeah. And I think it's a reaction, too, to the idea that Jacksonville kind of went all in on this strategy. And also, they drafted him over Mahomes. That's see,

that drives me crazy. And I, I hate that too, by the way, I absolutely hate that. I absolutely hate that because, and I was talking to this with someone else, um,

about the, the bears and, you know, the bears being like the, the, what's the word that was used? Not the most dreadful fan base, but the one that like,

it just kind of in the worst spot, right? And the idea is always, well, they could have had Pat Mahomes. Okay. Yeah, they could have had Pat Mahomes, but they should have drafted Deshaun Watson. That's the argument, not Pat Mahomes. It's the same in basketball, right?

The Knicks could have drafted Steph Curry. Well, Steph Curry is not the same player in New York as he was in the system that he was with Golden State. Right. Like that part of that is where you go in the system you're in. So, I do not like this Leonard Fournette thing. But what it shows you, Gabe, go back to my point here to wrap this up, is that Jacksonville lied to themselves about Blake Bortles.

The Chiefs did not lie to themselves about Alex Smith. They knew who Alex Smith was. They went and got Pat Mahomes. Okay? And Alex Smith had won the division multiple years with Andy Reid. He had won a playoff game. They beat the Texans 30-0. He was a competent NFL quarterback for many seasons

and got them to win the division almost every year he was there. I think that's out of one year, well, two years. My year, we were 11-5 and win the wild card the following season after that they won the division with Alex Smith and the Chiefs said you know what we're gonna draft Pat Mahomes they were honest with themselves Jacksonville wasn't and that's why they're in the spot now that's perfectly said I haven't heard anyone put it quite like that and obviously if they were honest with themselves they could have gone after a quarterback and then there were a whole bunch of running backs down there.

So I hate the take of, oh, they could have taken so-and-so, except, man, look at your fantasy league and then compare that to the running backs that were available in the 2017 draft. They would have ended up with someone good. Well, they're expected to be a number one pick this coming year. That's the plan, at least, according to everything you just told me. So that transitions us nicely to this big topic that came up in the last couple of days, which is the idea of tanking and who you can

get. It also brings up the flip side of that, which is that players have some options now. So thanks, I guess, air quotes, thanks to COVID. Guys are able to sit out this year if they think they're already going to be a first rounder next year so they can protect their bodies and still get themselves into the the first few picks of next year we know jamar chase lsu wide receiver top rank guy i think he's a top five guy on on mcshay's latest mock draft he is sitting out the season despite being able to play at lsu could compete for a championship we assume so he's sitting it out, which brings up the question, why is the guy who everyone thought should sit out even before COVID, why is Trevor Lawrence playing this year? Should he just sit out? But you know, some guys like playing college football. Some guys like the competition of it.

Some guys like the pageantry of it. I think he feels last year, he obviously did not, he did not play as well last season. There's no guarantee he goes number one because Justin Fields. Now, Justin Fields is not playing. So maybe he feels like if I play this year, I can end up going number one. And the kid from North Dakota State, Trey Lance, best quarterback name ever, only has one game this year.

They're playing Central Arkansas. So I think he uses his opportunity to prove he's a number one guy. Because last year, like I said, wasn't as good, didn't play as well in the playoff game. So possibly the idea that you could go somewhere else, you mean go and play one more year

and continue up the draft boards. But what's most fascinating to me, Gabe, about this is if we take anything away from this COVID football season, it's the fundamental change in how juniors are going to be viewed and how they view themselves and the actions they take in their last season. So for those who don't know, you can get drafted into the NFL three years after high school. So that can be a true junior after your junior season. So you play as a true freshman, sophomore, junior, or as a redshirt

sophomore. You redshirt your first year. And theoretically, if you just sit on your butt for three years, you can go get drafted when you're three years out of high school. It doesn't matter what kind of where you play or what you do three years out of high school. NFL PA rule. And I agree with the rule. I do not think that a high school kid, very rare, Adrian Peterson was maybe one of them, like one of the few.

Yeah. Leonard Fournette. One of the few I think that could have gone with one year of college kind of like the nba rule to to the nfl in juniors for a long period of time high level juniors right jamar chase there's a kid uh the defensive end at miami organs left tackle panay sewell these true juniors that are locks to be top 10 picks. I mean, those three guys I just mentioned, I mean, they're not going to play bad, right? They're too good to play bad.

So they're going to have a great junior season. And one of them, obviously, Panay Sewell's not playing this season at Oregon. And they'll be top 10 draft picks. But if they don't play, they're also top 10 draft picks. And forever, guys have wanted to sit out this season. But for the stigma of sitting out this season for your coaches looking you sideways your teammates the media the nfl never able to do it

but because of covid it gives them the cover to sit out and they have said that jamar chase specifically the worst year lsu said uh you know the reports are like this is not really covid related he's just sitting out and we saw a kid kid at Washington who's a second or third round pick decide to sit out. There's a defensive tackle, LSU, who also decided to sit out. It's like a third round draft pick. Guys are sitting out everywhere because they're able to do so. I know it's going to look at them sideways about it.

Now, the lower level guys, it's a lot of risk to miss a season. But for Jamar Chase and if Trevor Lawrence sat out, there's the cornerback from Virginia Tech, there's the kid from Miami, there's guys that are going to be top draft picks who do sit out. The one thing I haven't seen enough of, in my opinion, it's been kind of odd, is the transferring from the Pac-12 and the Big Ten into the conferences that are playing. Four Pac-12 kids have done it. I don't think many Big Ten kids have.

And three of the four Pac-12 kids are graduates. They can go and play right now. But there are players around the country in those two conferences, specifically, who need one more year of film. And yeah, you can stay in college for one more year, sure. Or you can play somewhere right now, get your film and leave. So I'm curious to see as we get closer to the season. I mean, it's September 1st.

September 26th is kind of the unofficial start of the season. If someone gets hurt here and there and a transfer moves in from the Big Ten to make it happen. But yeah, Gabe, this is forever changing. It's not going back now. Juniors are now going to sit out. Maybe not Trevor Lawrence,

but a Panay Sewell, who again, is not sitting out yet. He doesn't have to because the Pac-12 is not playing. But Jamar Chase, these guys are sitting out now. Well, I guess I understand the scenario and I kind of can't understand what Trevor Lawrence's argument would be to play. Because I would say that nobody except maybe him and his coach really believes that a national championship, should it even happen this year, will count for anything. Right? So, like, Dabo said, whoever wins it, wins it. But nobody really believes that if you're not playing a full slate.

So what's he going to get out of this? Well, I know it's fun to play. I just think that he's going to get out of it the number one pick. I mean, I know that you might not think number one pick. So you really think he has to improve his status still? All I thought is he's guaranteed number one. No, Justin Fields is fantastic. He played really well last season. But also, too, Gabe, you can't be the leader of we want to play,

which he was, and then also sit out. Yeah, it's a different hashtag. We wanted to play until we looked at our mock draft there are people that that love football so much they're willing to risk being injured like with with trevor lawrence to just to play to play and i'm not gonna fault him for that i i think that at that position in college it's very rare for you to have an and basically an altering injury that alters your drafts like two had dropped two or three four spots maybe at the most by going by getting hurt and he had a bad injury dislocated a hip maybe he goes one maybe he doesn't joe burrow played better than him anyways

so joe burrow might have gone one. He might have gone two. But the 3-4-5, I mean 2-3-4 didn't need a quarterback. So, you know, it's very unlikely Trevor Lawrence would get hurt this season, especially in that conference. Yeah, well, that's true. Part of this as well is that he's actually at a position. Now, the NFL quarterbacks are hurt all the time.

It's a different sport. But at Clemson, he's not going to get hurt and he wants to compete he wants to win another title um you know travis etn came back they're running back all right and i widely criticized that decision different position he should definitely have gone to the nfl and now obviously he should sit out in my opinion he's the average nine yards of carry last season showing what he can do. Nothing he's going to do this year is going to change teams' opinions on Travis Etienne. Chuba Hubbard at Oklahoma State should sit out. I mean, all these guys,

all these running backs should just say enough is enough. Now, we saw a kid, Memphis' running back, decide to sit out as well. So look, I understand where Trevor Lawrence is coming from. I totally get it. And it makes sense why he would want to play this season. Yeah. I mean, you got through that whole segment without really even saying the word COVID.

The other concern is – But I don't think the guy's sitting out. That's their number one concern. I know. I know. And I understand that you're giving us a more practical, realistic look into the mind of of a 20 year old kid. But, you know, there were kids getting positive cases at Clemson. There were 50 on campus last week by by my check. The football team, thankfully, is staying healthy. They haven't had a positive in a while. But, you know But we saw LSU just basically get wiped out the other day. It's going to get around. Alabama's had its issues. So

that's another reason why maybe you don't play. But I guess you're right. He's been the poster boy for fighting through that. I'll just quickly mention the COVID thing in college football because it's kind of interesting. Texas Tech had, I believe, 21 players. Oklahoma had a it sounds like their offensive line lsu's offensive line tennessee i believe had an

outbreak it's happening all over and people just don't care which i said all along that's what's going to happen right the guys just they're just not going to care not going to care and i hope it doesn't have any long-term effects, but we know with athletes, we saw Von Miller and Freddie Freeman of the Braves that, you know, the respiratory system gets a little affected. You're going to bounce back. You'll be fine. But they play in 26 days. And some of these players that have COVID that are showing a little bit of symptoms, I hope they can get back in time to play. But at this point, I think nothing's going to stop i mean alabama has like a thousand infections right and like the first week back at school secondly back at school i don't think anything's going to stop them any of these

teams from continuing to go forward unless the state just shuts it down right which doesn't seem likely either um we're going to use that as a segue to our topic which is about the big 10 and and the mess that has been created in the Midwest, uh, combining politics and football. But let me just throw one more thing at you. Cause, uh, one of our guys, whether it was Zuri or Nick, I'm not sure through this in there. Last thing on Trevor Lawrence, uh, my former GM at the jets, Mike Tenenbaum floated the idea that what if Dabo ends up with the Jags job picks his boy trevor lawrence what do you like

about that scenario well you know they get paid in the nfl though and dabbo doesn't like this player's getting paid so i'm not quite sure that that's gonna fit in very well i don't see him as a pro coach i just i that the folksy that's all that rah-rah that's that's not gonna fly in the nfl i'm telling you right now i would i would I would already roll my eyes at him if I was a college player. You bring that to NFL locker room, it ain't going to fly. I don't know, man. I watch hard knocks, and there's a couple guys who are those rah-rahs, yelling in the face guys.

Yeah, and they're not making the team, which will be our over-under pretty soon. They ain't making the team, letting you know right now. Poor kid. Good tease for over-under. All right, last thing with college football. So we know the Big Ten is kind of a mess right now. Let me try to set the table aunder. All right. Last thing with college football. So we know the Big Ten is kind of a mess right now. Let me try to set the table a little bit. Cut me off if you need to. So we know that the kids in the Big Ten, they don't really have the option to

play or sit for all the reasons you suggested. We just learned that through the fact that Nebraska players were sort of suing the conference about the decision not to play, we learned that in fact the vote not to play football was 11 to 3 in favor of canceling the season. So there was a lot of speculation about what was there a vote? What was the score of the vote? Well, it was 11 to 3. It was nearly unanimous not to play football. So now there's all these other conflicting reports and silly takes out there. People who think they're know-it-alls. We've even got some conspiracy theories that this is all just one big thing to help Joe Biden get elected, you know,

to keep football out of the Midwest and steal the election from Trump. It's all going on. So here's what I want. Fill in the blank. Stop, stop. Real quick. We can get to that point. Okay, this people, this politics thing about like, so the Big Ten schools are like, you know what?

We'll show Donald Trump. We're going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Our fans are going to hate us. Small businesses that rely on the college town atmosphere are going to go bankrupt. All to own Donald Trump? Is that the argument that we're going with, folks? That they're just going to own Donald Trump because we'll shut everything down? No, no, it's not happening because of that.

Continue on. Well, I don't have much more than to make sure that you got that point out. And I don't understand the logic because even if they did— It's not logical. It's not logical. It's people wanting to deflect the actual blame, which is COVID-19 and how we have not handled it well as a country. And they're doing that by saying, obviously, that this is all political because they can't wrap their minds around, you know, the president of Northwestern, who's like an infectious

disease expert. Well, I believe that's actually at Michigan. But like Northwestern, who can't even have kids on campus, and their president's like the board of the Big Ten presidents. Well, if you can't have kids on campus, you're not going to play football. This is not going to happen, okay? Sorry. And it's people not wanting to understand the real reasons why they shut down.

And the Big Ten is, we talked about this for a while, Gabe, they were not transparent. They're starting to be transparent today. There has been a Freedom of Information Act. They were not transparent. They're starting to be transparent today. There has been a Freedom of Information Act that people have wanted to get information on the Big Ten. And Nicole Arbuck of The Athletic has been fantastic covering all this.

And she broke the story today that this 11-3 vote came out in a sworn affidavit, which, by the way, people are like, hey, they're making this up. It's a sworn affidavit. They're not making up. They voted. It was 11-3. But's a sworn affidavit. They're not making up. They voted. It was 11 to 3. But here's the kicker, Gabe. And this is something that you have to,

when you have these freedom of information acts, and when you have, when you really want to learn about someone's private information, there's stuff in there that you really don't want to know. Like you don't want to know how the sausage is made.

So from the report, this is really interesting. Among the information that push might turn up, a source indicated to The Athletic, documented failures and shortcomings in schools' ability to follow contact tracing, testing, and prevention guidelines that league presidents knew about, but did not publicly cite for their support of their decision. That's a problem.

If Ohio State's head coach, I'm not accusing Ryan Day of doing this, but Ohio State's head coach, Jim Harbaugh, Mel Tucker at Michigan State, Kurt Ferentz at Iowa, if any of those coaches were not following protocols and the presidents knew about it and tried to cover it up for them by not playing the season, that's on them, not on the presidents.

That's on the coaches for not doing their job. If that comes out, that's going to be a disaster for those programs. Yeah. And unfortunately now I think there, uh, there are some threads to pull on. If you're a good journalist and you mentioned Nicole, she is a good journalist. I'm guessing a lot of her peers are going to sort of follow the leads that she started on here. Oh yeah. It does feel like there's a lot of paper trail. And there could be some more stories on this one. So let me bring it to you this way. Let's go back to the sort of the football side of this and less the spotlight journalism side of this. What is the Big Ten going to do? Like, is there anything to this idea that late Octoberober early november maybe by then

things have cooled down and there is some form of a season like i can't sort it out at this point what should i expect from big 10 teams this year um i uh i don't expect them to play i mean look they're i know people on twitter have made a living of making up fake rumors about this. But like I mentioned about Northwestern is, you know, they sent kids home already from school. Right. Did you send me the article about the COVID hotspots in our country? Okay. So if you go and look at the COVID hotspots in our country, they're all in college towns right now.

It makes sense. It's not like I'm not it's not a diamond on on kind of covid i'm not it's not fear porn my corona bro but that it's just kids have come back to campus and the infectious rates have gone up which is understandable the density of those areas completely changes which we all predicted was going to happen yes now the question becomes how long does it last and then how quickly can quickly can those saliva tests be ramped up? Because you have to find a lab that can analyze them. You can get the test, but you have to find a lab that will analyze them accurately.

So how fast can you test? Herd immunity, if that is not a thing, we kind of don't really know yet. Can you get coronavirus a second time? We're figuring out data on that. There's so many things involved in this. The big time presidents are not just going to go ahead and reverse the decision because parents are angry and they can find a freedom of information request. It's not going to happen that quickly. I think January 1st, February 1st, I'm sure they're meeting once a week and talking about this and

figuring it out but i do not think they're playing the fall i just i cannot see that being an option um it's already september 1st gabe like when are they gonna like when are they gonna start i mean at the most you need four to six weeks to ramp up so if you start tomorrow if you start today september 1st you would play october 15. Every single day that this goes on, you keep pushing out. If you don't have a decision by September 15th, you're not playing until November 1st, right? Like it just keeps – and look, I know it's fun to listen to people with their fake rumors on the internet. We mentioned Nicole, Stuart Mandel, Pete Thamel, Pat Ford. They've been right every time. They've been right every time.

They've been right every time. Yeah. They're the ones who we call fake news and they're rooting for football not to be played. They're right every time. Follow them. They'll let you know. There's nothing to the rumors that they're going to start in October. I tweeted out today.

It was a funny tweet. A lot of people liked it. You know, joking about the rumors and whatnot. It's not happening. So, please, I would love that for football to come back, especially out west. It's just not happening. And, by the way, can I say something real quick? The Pac-12 region right now is ripe to come back.

Numbers are better in California. Numbers are better in Arizona. Testing is more available. These are things that they listed as reasons why they couldn't have a season. The numbers are spiking in the Midwest right now. They're going down on the West Coast. The Pac-12 should be the league looking at like, hey, man, we might be able to play pretty soon. And obviously, they're not. Pac-12 is like an afterthought. No one's even talking about them. No. I mean, yeah. I think one of the other ways of looking at what Nicole reported on was not necessarily that there was a massive cover up within the Big Ten,

but that the adults decided we can't ensure the safety of our athletes and our students. Therefore, because either through, you know, wrongdoing or just the how the magnitude of the problem, we can't ask our coaches to pull this off. So we can't play like it seems like they just came to the conclusion that they're not going to be able to do this right. Not necessarily that they were all intentionally doing it wrong. Right. Is that a fair read as well? I do not. I think I'm with you here that that it was done like it's not a scandal per se it'd be a scandal if they knew about it just continue to go along with it but the idea that we put protocols in place and you couldn't even follow them as a coach that's the problem like

that's the issue and again yeah i think it's very clear you're right it's not a scandal as as far as they're covering up for them and they sort of are but the idea that hey we can't even do this because our coaches can't handle doing what we ask them to do which is a problem it's a problem because we're seeing the sec sort of i guess handle it acc there's not much information coming out obviously central arkansas and austin p have done a good job i saw today that central arkansas had no one test positive after the game, which is good. Obviously, it's too soon to really know, but they're playing Thursday again,

so they're playing very soon. But nonetheless, some people are doing a good job with it. Obviously, the Big Ten didn't feel like their coaches were doing well enough. Yeah. Well, I think some areas of this country are willing to accept that, yeah, your whole offensive line might get COVID, but that's okay. We'll be ready two weeks later in other parts of the country. willing to accept that. Yeah. Your whole offensive line might get COVID,

but that's okay. We'll be ready two weeks later. Which is happening right now. It's happening right now. Right. So, all right. Um,

well, we keep saying this will be the last week we have to ask the question about will the big 10 play or not. But now I think I've asked it three weeks in a row and I'm still not clear. So let's move along from here. Let's move the line. Our little betting segment. We do some over unders.

None. I think of these are real this week, but they're kind of based in reality. So my buddy Skip Bayless turned this into a topic today. You might just be eye-rolling the whole way through it. I want to know, Cowboys scrimmages we will see on TV moving forward over under 0.5. They televised a scrimmage with no jersey numbers, no names. They wanted to keep it super secret what they were doing that way, but they still put a bunch of tape out of their practice for the whole league to see. Skip thought that was a terrible idea. I don't think the idea is terrible.

The paranoia about the idea is terrible. I mean, the Giants had a full scrimmage on TV. The Eagles, I think, had a local scrimmage on TV. The Eagles, I think, had a local scrimmage on television. This is for the fans, right? The fans want to see who's playing. And the idea that you cannot put numbers on jerseys is hilarious.

I mean, look, to Ron Smith, I saw a clip of like, he's wearing his big old elbow, Don Joy and his big, like it's obviously the starting offense. Dak Prescott threw a touchdown pass. Also, they said the camera angles, like they didn't show the whole formation.

They like zoomed in on the, like the quarterback and then zoomed out at the snap. Like it's so, the paranoia in this league is incredible, right? So week one, it's the Rams and the Cowboys. And can you just imagine Sean McVay's like, you know what? We lost this week because we just couldn't watch Dallas' practice.

We just couldn't do it. I mean, Mike McCarthy's had the same offense now for 25 years. And we just, you know, we didn't know how to prepare. We just couldn't watch their scrimmage. Like, get out of here, paranoid NFL coaches. But, you know, they're not doing it again. Never. We're not going to have that situation, I hope, next fall camp either.

Yeah. So that's an under. I'll take it. Under.5. We're not going to have that situation, I hope, next fall camp either. Yeah, so that's an under. I'll take it. Under.5. We're not going to see it again. I just thought it was so absurd to think that anyone who was watching it to try to gain some slight advantage. So let's say you're some brand's advanced scout. I'm sure there were scouts that were watching it.

But it's like the idea that taking the name off the jersey or the number off the jersey. It's like when Clark Kent is wearing glasses and it's like, who is this guy? This guy, does he know who Superman is? Like, it's him, man. It's fucking him. Like, we don't know who Tyron Smith is? Here's the actual reason why.

That's why you come to this podcast. Here's the real reason why they didn't put the numbers on the jerseys. It's less about scheme and more about personnel is that we have cut down days, which are very soon, which are Labor Day weekend. They didn't put the numbers on the jerseys. It's less about scheme and more about personnel. It's that we have cut down days, which are very soon, which are Labor Day weekend. And the Chiefs of Texas, by the way,

have got to cut their rosters down the next couple of days to start practice for the season, for their week one game. His teams right now are scrambling to figure out who's going to be released so they can pick them on the waiver wire. And typically you have preseason games and you see, okay, this guy's on the depth chart, this guy's on the depth chart, this guy's not, and they're going to cut him, they're not. And you kind of plan out who and you see, okay, this guy's on the depth chart, this guy's on the depth chart, this guy's not. And they're going to cut him, they're not. And you kind of plan out who's going to be cut

and who we want to pick up. None of that's happening right now. I mean, look, I'll give you a personal story. 2008, I'm a rookie. I'm on the third string right tackle. And I played in game one. I'm not playing game two or three, which is normally how it works.

And then game four is my big game. The fourth game every year is when all the backups play. And so my agent called me the night before and said, hey, look, the Panthers are trying to hide you. They don't want to get you on film because they're going to put you on practice squad. That's their plan. So they're not going to play you very much in this game because they don't want you to have good film. And when they release you, someone else picks you up. And I was like, all right. So I guess that's good thing i guess so all the backups played like

the entire game i played two drives the last two drives of the game that was it um and that was to hide me so other teams couldn't watch me on film and take me on their practice squad or sign or try to sign me into the roster and this worked So then they went through the paperwork process and then you were back on the team? I don't know if that was why no one picked me up, but that's what teams think. Look, teams aren't going to pick you up if they don't have film on you. Yeah, I wouldn't. Huh, okay. Well, that's the smartest thing I heard anyone say about this.

I'm making Clark Kent jokes and you just made us a lot smarter. That's why I really think this, that's why the, the jerseys were, the numbers were on the jerseys. It's far less to do with the idea of like, Oh my God, is that Dak Prescott? Or is that, you know, is that, is that Amari Cooper? I mean, you know who they are, right? You know, that's one starting off. I think it's more about the twos and threes where they line up and how that could affect the roster building of other teams. But I mean, couldn't you then just play games with everyone and flip those around?

It's like this scene in Princess Bride. I mean, am I faking or am I faking? I mean, I guess you could do that, but that even makes it more confusing for the coaches, too, who are like who? I mean, the coaches know like who's in the game technically, right? I mean, they know, OK, I put the third string guy in. But if you put a third string guy in and he has a wrong number, and they sort of look at, like, that's tougher for the coaches to evaluate. Yeah, you're asking a lot of guys to keep track of a lot of stuff.

All right, let's move it along here. Wins, an empty stadium in Seattle will cost the Seahawks this season over under 1.5. Famously a great team at home. Going to be quiet, we think. So is it going to cost them some games? I would say under because two games is a lot to cost home field advantage, but probably one.

I mean, it's loud there, man. It is. I know Chiefs fans hate this, but it's louder than Kansas City. I know they're not measured louder than kansas city but they're loud the entire game and it's like an avalanche of noise it builds up the entire game then like just like like it just hits you and you can't think it's so loud there and it's definitely going to be an issue not have that problem look when the niners and and seahawks had their rivalry back when harbaugh was there and they they played every year, it felt like, in the championship game,

they had to make custom earpieces, like earplugs to wear in Seattle because it was so loud and they couldn't hear anything. We don't hear that about Kansas City or about New Orleans. It's about Seattle. It's so loud there. And yes, it will affect them because they're not going to have that same noise. They're not going to have the defense getting off the snap count a second sooner than the offense does because you know you can't hear anything um you're not going to have

an offense on the sidelines like i'm trying to talk and i can't i can't even hear my coach because it's so loud like you you know so part the reason why loud hurts and why it's tough is you can't hear yourself think. Like imagine doing this show and a jet engine noise was in your freaking face. I don't have to imagine it. Did you hear that helicopter just fly by? I couldn't hear anything you just said. I got a helicopter right over my house. There you go.

Now imagine doing that, trying to play football with a noise. Like it's hard to do. And so it's going to cost them. And you're right. Home field advantage and Ben Baldwin of The Athletic, who's really good with what he does, wrote an article about home field advantage. Yes, Seattle last year, most losses at home in Russell Wilson's career in a season.

The Chiefs had three home losses too last year. So home field advantage was not what it used to be last season. It's kind of odd. And I'm actually interested to explore it this year. I think this is a bad year to explore it because there's no fans. But, dude, this year, I'm thinking about even the gambling of this. I know we do a bad year to explore it because there's no fans. But, dude, this year, like, I'm thinking about, like, even the gambling of this. I know we do a lot of gambling on Wednesday.

Dude, this is a terrible year to gamble in football. Like, I don't even know what to make of any of the totals, of a lot of these lines. It's such a weird – it's going to be a weird first month of the season with gambling, Eagle. It could be good for the public and bad for the Sharps because there's no, like, system, you know. All the rules are thrown out. By the way you mentioned their their record last year four and four at home last year they did have to play the saints ravens and niners at home so yeah but they lost to the to teddy bridgewater saints um those guys were undefeated i think and they did and they did lose the niners by by half an inch yeah well this is a this is a kid's podcast. I was going to say something else, but I didn't.

Oh, boy. I don't even know where that would have gone. Let's move along. Speaking of G versus R rated, let's go to Buffalo for Bill's Mafia, the R rated fans we know. So I want to know Clorox wipes needed to sanitize each Bill's tailgate this season over under 1 million Clorox wipes. Let me explain. There is a special thing going on where they're going to have a bubble tailgate zone. The stadium, the parking lot even, it's all closed. You can't hang out there. You can't jump through a table there. But they are going to have these special areas brought to people by,

I think it's my bookie is doing this this where they're going to like test people and bring them in with certain number of people and then from inside this like bubble for tailgating you can chug all you want smash yourself on a table wear your zubaz all of it how many clorox wipes are going to be needed for that oh boy um this is a bad idea gabe and even if they test are they going to test like day of and do the rapid testing? I don't think it's going to be as organized as the NFL's plan. It's just like, it's going to be, oh boy, COVID. And they're not having fans for the first two weeks of the season. That's going to be just a COVID fest in the parking lot.

Well, it's not at the parking lot. It's some other location TBD. But yeah, it's. Oh my God. This is going to be so, there's not going to be enough Clorox wipes in the world to disinfect this. Now, in fairness, I think this is like the second concern.

If you watch the Bills fans do their thing, you know, the virus is scary for a lot of us, but it's nothing like being thrown through a table from two stories up. That's your fire problem. And they do that every week. The Bills do like breaking tables, don't they? That's your fire problem and they do that every week the bills do like breaking tables don't they that's all they really like to do so okay so you're gonna you're

gonna go over on a million over oh yes over a million wipes yes um okay you mentioned him earlier chances clay johnston from hard knocks makes the rams roster over under 50.5. He is not very good. He's not making the team. Why? Fudge, what are you talking about? All they talk about is all the errors he makes on every episode. Oh, Fudge, what are you talking about? They keep saying every episode

he was drafted though, so he'll make the team. But, you know, they keep saying that all the time they talk about his errors. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. They drafted him, so he'll make the team.

But, I mean, it doesn't seem like he's very good, does it? I don't know. I mean, I didn't know for sure if I thought he was good until I saw him with Papa Farve. Papa Farve. Papa Farve gives you the co-sign. I feel like you're in. I thought i love football then i watched him he loves himself some football he loves football now is that guy for people who

haven't seen hard knocks i'm sorry we're talking about something you haven't seen but is that guy fun to have on the team or is that guy a pain in the ass it depends what type of mood you're in yeah if you're like in a in a in a bad mood you probably want to stay away from him if you're in a good movie it's probably a good time to be around what about that other guy uh dante dion who has the who has the toothpick no no no that's insane by the way have you ever played with a toothpick in that seems very dangerous i'm surprised he actually in the scrimmage he had a toothpick in his mouth. No, I mean the other cornerback who just constantly smiling and laughing.

He seems like a great hang, but also annoying. Yeah, too much optimism is not good. You need a little bit more darkness and edge in football, right? Well, no, he could be happy. But, I mean, obviously on game day, I thought those guys turned on. Well, no, he could be happy. But I mean, obviously on game day, I thought those guys turned on. You saw him.

He was so happy that he played like four plays in that scrimmage. I mean, he obviously changes when he plays. Yeah. But yeah, you know what? I don't like the fake cussing stuff. If you're going to say fudge, just say the F word. Like, come on. Like, come on.

We're adults. Just say it. Just cuss, don't fudge and dang and shoot i i i'm with you i get it there you know depending how you're raised there are some people who might throw a gosh dang or whatever in there they don't like doing the gds that's fine i can respect that but yeah fudge is a weird one i've never met somebody who actually said fudge when they're upset and meant fuck. No, he probably meant that, but he just said fudge instead. He says fudge only. Exclusively fudge.

They've never caught him saying fuck. Well, probably because he's not going to say that. But I would just say that word instead of saying, I cuss so much. That's my one thing as a parent I have to be better at is cussing in front of the kids, man. I'm like a sailor. Yeah, my two-and-a-half-year-old dropped an F-bomb on me the other day. Oh, my kids have done that too, unfortunately. They don't do it at school, at least.

Well, not yet. Give it time. Last one to get us out of here, Jeff. I want to know your estimate here. Episodes of Ted Lasso I will ever watch over under.5. Speaking of optimism, you should watch this show. Ted Lasso I will ever watch. Over under.5. Speaking of optimism, you should watch this show. Ted Lasso is hilarious. I don't give out many media recommendations.

Why don't you want to watch it? I feel like I got the story in the branded content video of six years ago. I don't feel like this one has... Oh, I didn't know it was a thing six years ago. It was like a funny sketch once. It was like a funny sketch once. It was like an ad.

Zuri probably knows more about this than I do. I remember seeing it and thinking, that's a funny concept. I get it. I'm moving on. I like Jason Sudeikis, but... It's still funny now. It's basically like Major League, the idea of like Major League, but English soccer. That I could get behind.

You've got me with both those things. It's basically what it is. Huh. It's an owner who is, spoiler alert, trying to sabotage her team. It's a she, okay. She hires an incompetent person to run the team. You know, Lou Brown. Ted Lasso.

And Ted Lasso. And shenanigans ensue. Okay. Well, I did just get a new laptop, which got me a free Apple Plus account. I don't even know how much money I spend on these streaming services. I have no idea. I have Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, athletic membership. disney plus hulu espn plus athletics athletic membership um i have apple tv i think netflix you know i have hbo through direct tv i think i've show time too i don't even know where i have no

idea this is a weird brag because you're basically saying i've got all these subscriptions but i have absolutely no life and all i do is watch a bunch of shitty free tv no disney plus is for the kids yeah of course hulu came with the bundle of disney plus with esp i bundled me i got both those so far okay netflix who doesn't have netflix of course um hbo comes with direct tv yeah i i have that one and apple tv i there's um the steve carell weese weerspoon show. Yeah. My wife wanted to watch that. So I signed up for Apple TV and then I don't think I ever, Greyhound, good movie.

Yeah. So I've used it. It's been worth it. I don't know if I pay a monthly fee. I have no idea. I think I do. Well, Greyhound was really good, by the way. True story.

I looked it up. Yeah. Yeah. Tom Hanks in a World War II movie. How could that go wrong? It was fantastic, but yes. So yeah, you should watch Ted Lasso. All right.

I'm sorry, Zuri, for cutting all this out. I'm going to take the recommendation. I'm going to watch Ted Lasso. Jeff, you made us smarter in a few ways, but really you made us a lot smarter. And the one topic I thought had no legs, which was this idea of the numbers being left off the jerseys in Dallas. I appreciate that nugget very much. You're welcome.

I'm going to continue to believe that Leonard Fournette is the best running back of my generation, not yours. And I'm going to watch some football real soon. Well, football is definitely back. And it's going to be, uh, glorious. I mean, I watched,

um, obviously this weekend, it was a terrible game, but I watched Austin being such Arkansas for as long as I took before it was time for bed. And like you said, chiefs and Texans will, uh,

we'll be here before you. All right. Thank you everyone for listening, for tuning in. Uh, we'll be back with Matt Ford on Thursday as well. Have a great couple of days. Talk to you guys then.