Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Maintaining Optimism & Learning From COVID-19 Outbreaks

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

At least 13 Miami Marlins players and personnel tested positive and concern has spread to NFL media and players alike. Geoff and Gabe break down why caution is the path forward. Later, they'll discuss why first round draft picks aren't overrated & how slimmed-down telecasts will affect on-field play this season. Growing concern: (1:20) Jamal Adams: (20:15) Distanced telecasts: (28:29) 'Move the Line' Betting Segment: (39:16) 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.

it's tuesday july 27th the miami marlins had one job and they couldn't get it done gabe thinks first round picks are worthless we'll take a look at how nfl tv broadcasts might look a little different this season i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe going this is jeff schwartz you hope you had a fantastic weekend gabe this weekend felt for the first time maybe since covid started like a regular weekend. We had baseball on the television. I was watching baseball, no fans, cardboard cutouts. I don't know if I'm, I'm kind of lukewarm on those, but no fans, a little bit of crowd noise, which was nice, on the grill, at the pool, like it felt like the first time in a while.

And then it's not even close to returning to normal, but life felt sort of normal-ish in the sports world. Yes, for 36 hours, it sort of felt normal. I sat down with my two and a half year old twins and explained baseball to them. They were into it. Nice. We watched the Mets get just jobbed by the Braves while Chipper Jones was on the call.

That was a nightmare. It was, I mean, It was fun to watch baseball. It was not fun to watch the Mets serve up batting practice, but it was, you're right, for about a day and a half, beautiful. It felt like things were getting normal. Time to grind to a screeching halt, and we're going to get to the media response and all the layers of people's reactions to this.

But let me just lay out a few facts for you because today has been a not so good day for sports. We know that the NFL season is supposed to happen. The players and owners worked out the deal. We don't need to go over those details again. The only thing that could screw it up right now are those Miami Marlins who you mentioned a second ago. So they had a dozen or more positive tests over the weekend, which would be bad normally. It's especially bad because they knew about the positive tests on Sunday and basically allowed their manager and team captain to decide that they all wanted to play, thus exposing the

Philadelphia Phillies, who were about to leave town and go play the Yankees, creating an outbreak that we don't even know how to control. So the Marlins are off today. The Phill play the Yankees, creating an outbreak that we don't even know how to control. So the Marlins are off today. The Phillies and Yankees are off today. There was a chance to make this not terrible. Instead, it's become maybe like season canceling bad for the Marlins and a bigger part of the league. Dude, I am very worried about the NFL because of this. And most of Twitter's with me. I'm not a doomsdayer. I'm just a guy saying we have rules. We got to follow them or the football ain't happening.

I'll start with the latter. The last thing you said, and then we'll get back to the media reaction today. So the last thing you mentioned is exactly what players have got to do. We've talked about this for weeks. It's nothing new on this show, which is that NFL players, college ball players, major baseball players, the three major sports that are not in a bubble right now, right? Hockey's in a bubble, NBA's in a bubble, and they're doing great with it. Hockey results, no positives for the last week. NBA, we know, no positives, you know, outside of maybe

Lou Williams is positive for going to a strip club when he shouldn't have. Is that players have got to take responsibility club when he shouldn't have, is that players have got to take responsibility outside the facility to stay healthy. And that means not going to clubs, not going to bars, not going to indoor restaurants, not going to movie theaters that are open, not going to bowling alleys. Now, a lot of regions in the country, those things are not open right now. So you can't get yourself in trouble. But the NFLPA andfl look like they're

going to come down pretty hard on players that are even dining inside which is which is you know that that's um harsh in my opinion but i understand them trying to protect the players at all costs because game the bubble's not happening there's no bubble in the nfl that we travel with five buses of people five buses that's 53's 53 players, okay, that travel. And maybe less. For instance, 50 players that travel. Coaches, equipment managers, training staff, video personnel, public relations,

some marketing people, security, ops people. Like there's five buses full of people. So to quarantine, everyone says, well, bubble the players. But it's just not the players, right? The NBA has 12 players on a team, 12 to 15, and they have 35 people per team in their kind of quarantine bubble. The NFL would need at least 200, right? And the NBA bubble is three months at the most, I believe. The NHL bubble, I believe it's just the playoffs. I think that's just,

I haven't followed the NHL bubble because I'm not a hockey guy, but I like watching hockey. I watch the playoffs. The NFL bubble would have to be at least six months long. And I just don't think that's possible. So we have to find the best way to make this work without having a bubble. And that is the players have got to take it upon themselves. Devin McCourty said this in his podcast yesterday. It was great to hear him say it is that he's worried because he doesn't trust his teammates. And I'm with him there.

There's going to be 5% of players that don't do what they're supposed to do. But we have got, collectively, as a group of players, come together and say, look, we're going to have to miss some of the activities we like doing outside of football. That includes, by the way, having more than 15 people at your house, having a party. That was on the list of things that will not be acceptable. Just making sure you do everything you can to stay healthy yeah and by the way you alluded to this but part of the agreement with the owners was if you if you don't follow these rules and we can prove that you were negligent it will not be treated like a football injury it will be treated like a non-football

injury which in business terms means you don't get paid. So the owners are trying their very best to help these players protect themselves by saying, we're taking your cash if you screw up, guys. Well, to be clear, that's if you test positive. I think they can still fine you if you go to a bar and you test negative. They can still fine you for basically contra detrimental. We give you a team rule. You broke the team rule. for basically contra detrimental right in the car like we give you a team rule you broke the team rule um no but yes if you're found to have contracted covid by going to what's it magic

city is is was that the strip club in the way you went to for for the food by the way for the food um you're gonna be put on a the non-football injury list which you don't get paid when you're on the football injury list so which i i'm with with you. I'm with the NFL. Guys, look, you know, everyone keeps, we love the word fair in sports, right? And I've talked about this many times. Life's not fair. Sports are not fair. This year is not fair. Okay. It's not fair. We have 140,000 dead Americans from COVID, right? We have what, over 4 million who've tested positive. We've had other things happen in this world. It's not fair. Sports are not going to be fair this year. They're going to be fair and we have to try to live with the consequences of our society not doing what it's supposed to do we we get back to the marlins the they had four

four players test positive and they decided to play through it they had two infectious disease experts said don't play don't play but they play through it so baseball has to suffer the consequences the marlins either have to be out for two weeks or call a bunch of players up and it ruins their schedule it ruins the philly schedule ruins yankee schedule that's what we're gonna have this year yeah and i mean listen there isn't a rule that says you can't play while you await results but obviously they were waiting on results when eight more guys got sick and who knows how how many guys on the phillies might get sick in the next day or two because of this here's what i don't understand uh don mattingly first of all is the marlins

manager who knew but um don mattingly basically turned it over to a shortstop who's his his captain and said you know talk to the guys text them You guys figure out what you're comfortable with. And what do you know? You've been telling us this for weeks. Players want to play. Yeah. Well, that's not how this is supposed to work, right? He's Donnie Baseball, not Donnie Protocol. Like these guys aren't going to do the smart thing if they have a few hours, you know, to go make a decision about doing what they love to do. So why are we supposed to think that NFL players are going to be any different? Well, look, that's very fair. And that's the 5% that won't listen, right?

The 5% that'll do whatever they want. This is a huge problem in college football, in my opinion. It's just kind of like, you know, there's kind of no regulation, right? And they're not listening to experts and they're not able to figure this out. You have to hope that the NFL looks at what Major League Baseball is doing and comes away with a different blueprint than they're doing, okay? And they have four people test positive. Those four are, you know, gone wherever they want to, you know, they're quarantined.

People close contact. We're seeing so far, by the way, as people are reporting, I believe the Vikings, well, obviously Eric Sugarman, their trainer has announced that he tested positive for COVID. But they quarantined four players they believe were in close contact with him. They put him on the COVID injury list heading to training camp, including their first round draft pick. And so, look, the NFL, I know we like to bash them, Gabe, but it appears they're trying to start the right way. Now, are we going to finish the right way? I don't know.

And we have yet to see, you know, Pat Mahomes is not, you know, is not getting sick, at least not yet. So I do wonder if, you know, changes when, you know, players that are more valuable, and which is bound to happen. It's bound to happen that there's a high value player who gets COVID and has to be out for two weeks. So I hope the NFL can learn from baseball and handle these situations. Will the players learn from the Marlins?

The players that already believe this is serious, believe it's serious. I'm not sure the Marlins incident will change the opinions of players who already don't take it seriously. Well, okay. I mean, I don't know what else people in this country need to see or who they need to hear from to start getting the picture here. I'm not trying to lecture people, but all the facts are there, guys. I'll say it. I tweeted this out twice today, two different times. One is that it's pretty depressing that European soccer, South Korean baseball are all able to play and have very low to zero positive

tests, right? Very low to zero. I believe like the EPL is not quarantining, right? Like they're not in a bubble. South Korean baseball players are not in a bubble, but they're taking it seriously. In America, we're not. As Sean Doolittle said, you know, sports are war for a functioning society. We're not there. But here's the thing, Gabe, is that I don't see any track where we are going to get there. Like, I don't see any track right now where I feel like our country is together and finding a way to slow down COVID cases. Like, what to you screams we're slowing down? So, either we just close everything down or we try to find a way to play sports barreling through a pandemic. Yeah. Well, so you bring up something I know that you're interested in weighing in on, and I don't even know how to qualify who counts as what

I'm about to bring up. But there is this corner, this little echo chamber that I think I'm sort of a part of, you're a part of, of like sports Twitter, specifically NFL media Twitter, that are sort of divided into camps. There's like the doomsdayers, quote unquote doomsdayers, and then there's the folks who are sort of trying to power through. And there doesn't seem like there's a lot of room for the people who I'm going to consider myself a part of, the middle ground, who are just sort of realistic about what's not working, but also really, really want all these sports to happen because our livelihoods depend on it and it brings us joy. Where do you come down on all

this? Because it seems like people are just yelling at each other and it doesn't have anything to do with the real world. I think there's three camps here. There's the camp where people are ignoring all the data and pushing forward. We know who those people are. I'm not going to talk about them. Okay. Nope. There's the people that i believe me and you are in most of sports media which is we we understand the realistic risk if you listen to the show for months now we've talked about i've shared them there are risks to playing through a pandemic there are risks to to not only you know deaths which some people like to only talk about with covid when it's very clear that there are side effects beyond just dying. So, you know, there are side effects to COVID. It's dangerous. And obviously, I'm going to be optimistic that we can find a way to play, right? You see the iceberg in front of you and

you try to find a way to avoid the iceberg, okay? There's another part of the media that's 100% negative the entire time. No matter what happens, they find a negative way to look at the story. Four Marlins test positive, then it becomes 11 or 12. Well, the NFL's screwed. NFL's screwed. Screwed. NFL can't play. They're done. Wait, wait, wait. The Marlins are going to quarantine their players. The Phillies are going to quarantine their players. And the other 20, well, really, the Yankees, the other 27 teams are going to play baseball players. And they're going to put other 20, well, really, you know, the Yankees, the other 27 teams are going to play baseball still. I'm a Giants fan.

I don't know if you're a Dodgers or you sound like you're, I think you're a Mets fan. But, you know, Zuri's a Dodgers fan. Okay. Like the Dodgers and Giants played four games this week. Why do the Giants have to stop playing? Because the Marlins got sick. Just like in the NFL.

If one team has an issue, they're probably going to have to forfeit for two weeks or find replacement players and everyone else can play so i look at this i know there's a tweet by kyle brandt that got people going i retweeted it and then i deleted it because i was tired of getting people attacking me um because i think i think kyle worried it poorly which is basically that that when presented with a chance to be optimistic about things people choose to just be negative every time, right? I mean, I saw a tweet this weekend from a prominent NFL account

that said, two days before the Dolphins open camp, four Marlins test positive. Like, I don't know how that is other than the quote-unquote fear porn. Like, that's not related at all, right? Dolphins players are coming from out of Florida to the facility to test for five days, right? They have to get three negatives to go to training camp. The Marlins players were in Philly.

Like, they weren't even in the state of Florida. They might've gone sick in Florida. It's definitely possible. Like, that to me is what that tweet was talking about, where people have gone out of their way to say, we're going to hit the iceberg. Screw it. We're not going to hit it. We're doomed, whatever. Where a lot of sports media, I believe me and you are in this, we see the iceberg ahead of us and we're trying to find

a way to move out of the way to avoid it. I don't know. Do you think there's media that see the iceberg and just think we're hitting it no matter what? Yeah, there certainly are. And all of us who use Twitter regularly also remember in part of other little circles. So I pay attention to a lot of people in politics or a lot of comedians. And I got another sort of set of inputs that aren't just folks on all the various sports networks. And so that informs people's negativity and their view on the world because they're also thinking about that stuff when they're on Twitter. their view on the world because they're also thinking about that stuff when they're on Twitter. I think, to use your analogy, I think that there's that middle group of people are just saying, we know icebergs are out there. I would like to know every single precaution we're taking before we even get in the boat to try to avoid ever even having to confront an iceberg. Because if we get to an iceberg, it might be too late. And I think that's the sensible approach that a lot of people in this doomsdayers versus let her rip crowd are missing.

Okay. But the Marlins did put in precautions. The players didn't follow it. That's the problem. You turn it over to a bunch of players and say, do you want to play or not? And they choose to play. it over to a bunch of players and say, do you want to play or not? And they choose to play. But to your point about like, baseball has put in precautions. Football has put in precautions. We've seen scores of players now. I mean, as we're recording this, there's more tweets and more tweets of players on the COVID list. We're continuing to play. To my point earlier, I am disappointed in the way our country's handled COVID, okay? And I do not see an end in sight until at least January 21st, if something happens November 3rd, okay? It's not going to change.

It's not going to change. Sorry if that offends you, but that's the truth, okay? And so, if we want to continue life, have sports, then we have to find a way to make it work. And I'm going to be optimistic about finding the way, whether it's, you know, the NFL testing every day in training camp, players opting out left and right, you know, players on the COVID list, whatever it is, you know, limiting travel as much as possible, no scrimmages, no fans, no media, do everything you can, finding players for being in the wrong place. The Pac-12 conference delaying the start of their conference-only schedule, I think is a good idea, until September 19th.

Like, people are trying to do the right thing. People, it's just sports leagues. But through all of that, people are still looking at the negative of the Marlins testing positive, which sucks. It's not good for sports. It's not good.

It's not good for the NFL. I get it. But the fact is, I remain optimistic, and maybe I'm the foolish one, that the NFL will find a way to miss the iceberg. Even though I see it there. I see it there.

It's very easily there. All it takes is one quarterback room to get it, and a team's out for two weeks, and all hell breaks loose. And I think the NFL would continue to play, by the way, if there's one team. We don't even know if the Phillies have tested positive for this yet. We have no idea. Like, if no one in the Phillies test positive for COVID, that I think is a great sign.

Now, baseball is different than football, obviously. I mean, look, why would a Phillies left fielder test positive for COVID? I mean, if he's never near a Marlins player outside, I mean, like, you know, it's definitely possible that no one got it. It's possible someone got it too. But my point is like, we just, we immediately, not we, I don't think me and you do this, but people immediately rush to being doomsdayers. And so, that's why that tweet set off a lot of people and frustrated people. I think it was poorly worded by Kyle, but I understand his point is that when you present with two options, people are choosing the negative

Nancy, not like the realistic optimism, which I think me and you have, right? We understand that there's iceberg ahead of us and people are on the boat. The boat's about to move. It's moving in baseball, basketball to moving in two or three days, hockey's moving in two or three days, football's like people are boarding right now and they put the precautions in place. It's still there, but I'm going to root for football to be back and be on time and try to play through it. Yep. I'm with you.

And I guess all I would say is that the best way to not get on a boat headed for an iceberg is to figure out with this testing, why would you have people who are pending results still able to mingle as though there's no problem? That's what took place here. The Marlins were waiting on results and then they knowingly had contact with the Phillies, which means the Phillies can't play. So like you said, why would a right fielder for the Phillies get COVID from a guy not even on the field for the Marlins? It doesn't make sense. He said, we just don't know.

And now it's costing us games and it's going to set the whole schedule out of whack. And that's the precaution we now have to take. So the NFL has to learn from that. Right. Last point on this, I know we have to move on, is that, you know, I think people, and this is my point about the negative part of it. I look at it and say, okay, let's think about when the Phillies players and Marlins players, and I'm a big baseball guy, I play baseball, like when are they actually going to be in a situation where they're spitting on each other, right? Like when fluid now obviously it backed right so the the phillies catcher might have it right first base maybe right they're sort of close for like a minute or two at a time sort of really but like other than that not not really i mean look the ball i guess i mean the ball can have

covet on it and maybe that's how it spreads around the Phillies. But I look at it as like, okay, well, look, it's a realistic chance that they don't have it. Where to your point, a lot of people are like, oh, all the Phillies players have it. It's like, well, guys, can we just like wait for the results? Like we see what happens. So that to me is the point about like the doomsday stuff about how why Kyle Brandt's tweet ricocheted its way through. And I understand sports writers, journalists, people who cover the sport want football back. They want to get paid. But there's definitely a negative tone to some of these tweets.

Yeah, there's also the reality that some people's job in sports media is to be around the players and be exposed to slightly more risk. And Kyle's job, and Kyle's a buddy of mine, and I didn't take any offense to what Kyle wrote, but Kyle's job is to sit in a studio or frankly these days, sit at home safely talking to his colleagues from home. So I think some people were bristling at the fact that a guy whose job it is to talk about football for two hours every morning can do it from his living room. And they're the ones who have to go to these stadiums and interact with these players and be out in the real world. And I think those people, if they were polite about it, would have a reasonable bone to pick with Kyle privately. Doing it all on Twitter,

of course, counterproductive. Speaking of Twitter, can I shift us back to a more football centric topic? All right. So you know that the cool kids on Twitter love to talk about how sort of pointless first round picks are. You said at the top of the show that I'm one of these people. I am not. I'm actually the opposite. But anytime we get a blockbuster trade in this league, somebody pops up to tell you about how, oh, first round picks are overrated. Good teams don't even need them. The reason it came up recently is that my team, the stupid New York Jets, traded away their Pro Bowl safety, overrated I would add, but Jamal Adams, to the Seattle Seahawks for two first round picks in the future and another player. Seemed like a total haul for the Jets. Most people I trust said no brainer, great deal for the Jets.

But then sure enough, people start popping up and saying, well, I mean, you know, who do you even do with first round picks? Like the good teams don't even need them. The Patriots are the best team in the last two decades. They never use their first round picks. The Seahawks themselves, they haven't used first round picks in years. And they're the second best team in the last decade. I don't think I buy this logic. First round picks are important.

They give you the chance to build a team, even if you're already a good team, to build a team cheaply. Why do people claim first round picks don't matter oh they 100 matter and if you look at if you look at the best people that have talked about this by the way i would advise you to follow bill barnwell on twitter anyways but i read every word he said about this he obviously is the best he's the best at this he i don't know how he does it he's a genius he wrote a fantastic article on this. But also look, is that just because the Seahawks have failed at drafting first round picks at times doesn't mean that they can just trade them away. That to me is so silly. Here's the thing, when you trade away first round picks, they're typically, and Bill Barnum will talk about this,

left tackles, cornerbacks, quarterbacks, their defensive ends, premium positions. Safety is not a premium position. And the idea that the Seahawks are now Super Bowl contenders because of Jamal Adams, I think is not true. And you've traded away your future to win now. And I get it. You have Russell Wilson, you want to win now. But realistically, you're not very close to winning now.

As much as I like Russell Wilson. He was number two, by the way. Mike Sandoz article, great article on the athletic, the NFL personnel ranked the quarterback number two. Definitely supposed to be there. But Seattle played in way too many close games last year. Over 11 of them. Their point differential, I believe, was seven last season.

Seven points for the entire season. Point differential. They're not a Jamal Adams away points for the entire season. Point differential. They're not a Jamal Adams away from winning the Super Bowl. And you look to, and people will use the example, Teron Matthew with the Chiefs, who came in and energized the Chiefs' defense. Well, let's talk about that. They also have Frank Clark and Chris Jones.

Can you find me Frank Clark and Chris Jones on the Seahawks? Can you find me Steve Spagnuolo coming in with a brand new defense? Can you find me the Chiefs' offense that throws the ball? The Seahawks will win or lose based off of if they allow Russell Wilson to cook. And I just, I don't understand how Adams is worth a starting safety in McDougal and then worth a first rounder, a third rounder, and a first rounder. That's crazy to me. And I understand the idea that these will be late 20th round pick you know late late first round picks sure whatever but the jets your jetsman they had to make this trade this is a ginormous haul huge it's a huge haul so um and

then you know comes out the thomas was he lobbied the cowboys to trade for him near the deadline he just doesn't anything about moody players is that you know what's the thing won't be moody when he gets to seattle like he's in a position that typically is not you know they don't have you don't have a moody safeties i mean earl thomas definitely sales used to that i guess but most of them throughout is ed reed a guy that was like out there you're trying to get traded i know he's on a great team but a lot of these say troy palomalu these all-time safeties that i played against they're not out there making noise like this they're not being divas so there's no guarantee that jim alms comes to seattle everything works out great either um he's all pro i get it and you sent me a text it was a

tweeter text i think was a great example how we cherry pick stats sometimes he's a lot of sacks a lot of sacks but seattle's defense won't begin a lot of sacks. A lot of sacks. But in Seattle's defense, he won't be getting a lot of sacks. He'll be lining up all over the place, kind of the camp chancellor of their defense. But they don't bring a lot of pressure with their defensive backs. And so people say, well, he's got a bunch of sacks. He's not playing that defense. He only has two interceptions in three seasons. That worries me a little bit.

So I'm curious how Seattle uses him in their defense. Glad you brought that point up about the sacks versus the interceptions because listen, he's been playing for a defense that needs to score points. Their offense sucks so bad in New York that Jamal Adams is maybe the only way they stay in the game.

So he's playing every damn down. We saw Mina tweeting about this, every damn down at the line of scrimmage as a safety. Like he doesn't cover anyone. He's not playing cover three like they're gonna ask him to do in Seattle good luck to him man I'm fine with him being gone but I was really annoyed to read this sort of hipster take that first round picks are useless because Bill Belichick doesn't value them or the Seahawks haven't needed them to be good that's ridiculous you know who you could have gotten in the late first round in recent years? You could have gotten, well, I mean, we're going to skip over all the second, third, fourth round guys like Russell for one, by the way.

But you could have gotten Lamar Jackson. You could have gotten Aaron Rodgers. You know who you get in the first few picks at the quarterback position? The most coveted picks, the picks that are worth something? Yeah. Well, that's when you get Sam Darnold and Jared Goff and Mitch Trubisky and your boy, Josh Allen. So I don't know why anyone would poo-poo a late first rounder, you know,

for any team other than the Patriots. Well, I just think that, you know, the draft typically can kind of be a crapshoot. But, you know, Seattle did draft Earl Thomas. Now, they drafted him high right they drafted him sixth i believe uh you know they could pick on him they drafted russell okung bruce irvin um you know but you know just because they had poor drafts does not mean that these are not valuable picks just because you're saying oh seattle sucks at drafting we'll just give them away i i that doesn't seem like sound logic to me i i get why both sides made the trade. Seattle thinks they're going to win soon. The Jets, this is an amazing haul. They had to do this. And Joe Douglas,

I say this often, guys, you know this. General managers that don't draft their own players have no emotional attachment to him. He had no attachment to Jamal Adams. He did not draft him. All Jamal does is trash his team. There's no attachment to him. He had no attachment to Jamal Adams. He did not draft him. All Jamal does is trash his team. There's no attachment to him. He's gone. It's good of a player he is. He's a good player. Gone.

So Joe Douglas is like, get out of here, man. We don't need you here with this energy. Yeah. Also, by the way, when you're a crappy team like my team

that's been rebuilding your whole life, you got to have a package that a new coach is going to want to come in and take over for, right? So if Douglas is there, he obviously doesn't want Gase to be the coach any longer. I don't think he really wants Sam Darnold to be the quarterback any longer.

If you want to go out and attract, you know, Sean Payton or whoever we're going to be talking about this coming off season about who the big quarterback, you know, who the big coach to go get is. If you want to bring him in, you got to say, hey man, come to us. We've got these nice pieces. We rebuilt the line. We've got four first rounders the next two years. Come coach our team.

Pick your quarterback. Win a Super Bowl here in a few years. Without those picks, who the hell wants to coach the Jets? Correct. And I do wonder, you know, who becomes the next coach. And you mentioned Darnold. We'll see, you know, I have still high hopes for him. We'll see. I know you hate him.

Oh, God, shut up. You hate him. I'm so sick of people. You wish T-Bone would come back. There's some sort of conspiracy going on, and you're part of it. Your boy Dan Arlovsky is part of it. What is it? Colin, too. Colin's on it, too.

Everyone is in on Sam Darnold. And then when you tweet at him and you say something like, why? Why are you so in on this guy? Here come their super fans telling you about how great his potential is. I've watched him more than anyone I know. He sucks. Okay? His potential

is great. His performance has never been. Even at USC where he was supposedly a Heisman contender, he fumbles and throws the ball away. Yeah, he fumbles a lot. God, you're a Jets-Mets fan. It's brutal. All right, let me try to bring some happy times, even though this is going to turn sad too.

So baseball's back. We covered that with the Marlins, but here's the fun part. They're having a good time with the broadcast, right? They're piping in fake crowd noise. Now we're even going to see fake fans. There's some cutouts. There's some like hologram stuff going on. It's very complicated technological stuff.

And for the most part, it's great. Except there's still those pains in the ass on Twitter who are crying and moaning about it and making fun of it and saying it sucks and wishing it wasn't there. I don't understand these people. Like who is it that says the production value of crowd noise being inserted is a bad thing? These are people who like a hot dog without mustard or ketchup. They're just angry about everything. They need to shut up. I'll take all the fake stuff we can add.

Anything to make baseball a little bit more energetic. So, I'm with you. I thought the crowd noise was good. I'm mixed in the cardboard cutouts. Like, I'm not quite sure. Because I watched, like, i watched the dodgers and giants a bunch this weekend obviously but if the season were to end today we'd have the same record which is fantastic um and then you know the brave and then the cubs and brewers great uniforms by the way oh those are awesome those are great no fans in the crowd um it the only time where it's a little bit the whole thing is weird

in my opinion is when there's a home run and they just they pan in on the ball just sitting by itself in the crowd you're like you're like like okay we get it there's no crowd there like let's get back to the game but yeah baseball announcers are fine are just a little bit odd um i feel like this is a year where you might like you might have to listen to the radio i feel like radio guys will kind of understand like storytelling a little bit better i mean it'd be great if vin scully was back like that would be like a great he would kill at this time right now um on the air but i i liked it man i like having baseball back the players seem to be enjoying themselves they're playing hard did you see the ejection and the umpire put his mask on to argue

i knew that it happened and i'm all for that that's you know that's how we're going to keep everyone safe there's an ejection and the i forget what manager what he puts his little thing on and the umpire pulls one of those surgical masks out and puts it on it's like an argue six feet apart from each other yeah well it loses some of the intensity we grew up on. Well, I think the NFL should, just like with learning from this awful Marlins situation, the NFL should learn what gets the crowd going and what works here.

I mean, Fox, to their production credits crew, has done an amazing job, and they've thrown a ton of technology at this. They're taking chances. You know, they're looking for feedback. Like, you can cry and moan all you want on Twitter, people they're really trying to make this fun and they're not trying to pretend like it isn't happening you know or distract you from the reality they're just trying to give you a new experience i think the nfl should steal a lot of this and i'm gonna throw an idea jeff

they are they're gonna have digital fans which they which they did at the dodger game did you see but i don't know if this tweet was actually accurate or not, but someone tweeted out a picture of the digital fans early in the Dodgers game. It was full. And they tweeted out a picture of the fans in the eighth inning and they were like half gone. Did you see that tweet? I didn't see it, but I know those jokes are coming. There will be other fan bases where they're late to show up.

Yeah. So I was like, NFL is going to do this. They're going to put fake fans. The digital fans seem kind of odd, I think. But also too, like baseball is a sport where you see the crowd every play, right? Like because, you know, the – Yeah, that's right. And like the NBA won't have this problem.

Football for the most part won't have this problem. Where, you know, football you're looking at the sidelines and the players. You're not always panning out. So baseball is going to have the problem of just the stadiums being empty all the time. Soccer is the same way where you have to pan out so far to see things. So I think the NFL will kind of get away with not having fans because you don't see the stadiums very much. It's going to be weird that opening shot, though, when the Skycam rolls in over. It's like, welcome to Kansas City.

It's Al and Chris week one and there's just nobody there. Yeah, but I think, listen, we get the best people in the business trying to figure this out. They did a good job with the draft at ESPN. The weekend number one at Fox Sports went very well, I thought. So I think that this will be fine. I'm going to throw this at you, just like with the Megacast. like with the mega cast wouldn't you actually like though the option to just hear without any kind of interference or mix just boosted up field audio a guy like you i can imagine would really geek out for hearing everything you know being yelled at the line of scrimmage um or in the

backfield wouldn't you want to know what that's like well i know what it's like well you know what it's like i i want to know what you've heard your i know what it's like well you know what it's like i i want to know what you've heard your whole life i think there's some things that are okay to remain a mystery really yeah like i like i think it's it's it's it's okay i from a football a practical a practical actual football application to this um you know snap counts are going to have to be changed every week because, you know, when we get the film, we get the all 22 and we get a TV copy. So you can actually listen to the TV copy. You can try to listen to the quarterback.

You know, if you're a defender, his audibles, you can listen, you can try to listen to the snap count, study the center and how he does his head on the silent movements. Now, and that's with crowd noise, right? There's a crowd noise. Now, all those calls will be easily detectable. You can hear them on the silent movements. Now, and that's with crowd noise, right? There's a crowd noise. Now, all those calls will be easily detectable. You can hear them on the field, I would imagine. The opposing coach could hear you make a deuce call,

an ace call, a scoop call, whatever it is. Ray, Lee, we're going right and left. So you have to switch those up every week because the defense is going to know what they are. Now, the defense knows three to know what they are. Now, the defense knows three calls, three double team calls. They know those already. But everything else, they typically are clueless.

So from a practical perspective, you're going to have to change your calls probably every week on offense. It took us 35 minutes there to get to the real meat here that i had no idea that that was going to have a practical impact here we are talking about how much we do or don't like the sound of like in the background but this will matter for football so who does that favor which like well there's certain types of coaches yeah i mean okay you know the veteran teams uh the guys who can make fake calls like you know the ones that can point to the right but slide left takes veteran teams to do that wait what the hell does that mean make fake calls, like the ones that can point to the right but slide left, it takes veteran teams to do that. Wait, what the hell does that mean?

So, you know, most of the time the center comes up over the ball and he points to who you're working to, especially in the pass game. Well, actually, it's more often in the run game. And there's times where the Eagles were good at this in the Super Bowl year, down the stretch, where they would get up to line scrimmage and to kind of fool the Patriots, they would

point to the wrong direction. So, like, they would point, like, to the left, but they would get the line scrimmage and to kind of fool the patriots they would point to the wrong direction so like they would point like to the left but they would go into the right that doesn't seem like very complicated misdirect i mean it is because because the defense sets up their line games based off of where the running back is and where the center points yeah but what you could always just fake point what the hell you're telling me but the center's like i got no choice i gotta point that direction that's but you typically don't because the one time the right guard is tired and you point to the wrong side and he fucks it up because he's too tired to know it's a fake call oh yeah man this is like that scene in princess bride like you know like or did i fake like i was faking because you know if you if you up the line of scrimmage and let's say you actually forget to

call you know for whatever reason you walk up you're like oh hey hey who are we going to and this is a fake point situation and the center's like over here but we're really going to this direction you're screwed so that's why you can't fake every call that's why it takes like a group of offensive linemen that and quarterback by the way who's in on the whole thing and the running back as well the running back watches us who we point huh so so hold on this is this is fascinating me. So the pointing that I see at the line of scrimmage is quite literally like, guys, that way. And everyone's like, oh, okay, good thing. Now we know we're going left. And then defense knows that. So they can all take like a half step in that direction now. in the pass game, they look at the running back because most times

offensive lines slide away from the running back. So when they slide away, that means there's a man side. And when the center points, like the running backs, let's just say the running backs on the right,

center points left, you know that the right guard or right tackle are man. You can run line games like twist because you want to run against man blocking, essentially a pass protection. If the running back is on the right,

and you point to the right, let's say, it's a little confusing for the defense. Is this the man side? It's not the man side. Do I have to switch the side that runs the game? We're kind of not sure. It could be mic protection as well. So there's lots of little games that happen.

We're trying to fool the defense on what's happening. Some pressures are designed more specifically to where the center turns when he, when he snaps the ball. So like, let's say it's very getting in the weeds here, but let's say there's two linebackers standing in the A gaps at either side of the center and you know, the center snaps the ball and goes left. Then that guy drops and the other linebacker comes.

So, you know, some of that is like pre-snap. They can see the center, like looking at one direction or pointing at one guy. So if you point to the left and you slide to the right, let's say, that linebacker over there kind of doesn't know what he's doing for a second. And that split second could be enough for the quarterback to throw the ball. And all of this, you're saying, will be complicated by the fact that the week before you play a team, you used to not be able to hear any of this well you can hear some but you'll be able to hear everything now and you know just basic line calls i mean like if it's it helps like if i know there's a stunt defense is doing

cover two it's called a pirate so like you can hear them call out pirate and you're like oh well here it comes like you can hear the defense too calling stuff out um but if you can hear my line calls when i'm double teaming when we're doing everything like if you can hear that as a defender you can you know how to play those better now of course there's fake calls and we used to get a lot of guys with fake calls but um there's a whole little ecosystem up front man of all this kind of wizardry and trickery and trying to find ways to get guys in in good positions and defense is the same thing. Defense is able to manipulate where the offensive line turns based on where the linebacker is at.

It's how Aaron Donald gets so many one-on-ones because they take a linebacker and move him to the other side of Aaron Donald and the center has got to turn that direction. And so there's many little things happening at the line of scrimmage like that. Huh. So you're saying this is more than just Peyton yelling Omaha. Yes. There's a little bit more going on.

Yes. All right. Well, I get sufficiently smarter just now, which is the whole point of this show. So why don't we move the line and get a little dumber? Does that sound okay? Yes. This is our over-under betting segment we like to do. Most of these are fake bets.

I don't think you could actually find anywhere to bet on this. This can be quick. I just have to ask you every week. My check in here, college football season happening over under 50% chance. I don't like the delay. I think the Pac-12, just by conference, I think that they're going to play. Yes, I actually do. Okay.

So better than 50% chance. Yeah, I think so. Okay, great. I don't want to ask any follow-up questions. I don't want to jinx that. I want to know times you face-palmed when you saw the quarterback tears piece that our buddies at The Athletic put together. They did a whole bunch of quarterbacks and they put them in four different tiers of skill. How many times did you face-palm over under 2.5? Oh, more than that.

Then I will go through the example. More than that. Oh, you're upset by it. Well, upset's the wrong word, but I think there's people in the wrong place. But, I mean, I'm upset when people misrepresent my tweets. I'm not upset about when I read an article like this. Well, okay. So, you must have been very upset that Lamar Jackson was considered tier two, not tier one.

That must have really hurt you. I actually Jackson was considered tier two, not tier one. That must've really hurt you. I actually tweet, I actually tweet, I actually tweet about that. He should be tier one. Oh, okay. Well,

coming from you then that's heading into 2020. It should be tier one. If you want to go down the list of where I have issues, I can gladly do that. Aaron Rogers at three, Aaron Rogers at three is way too high. I don't know. I don't know how 50 votes,

50 people voted. He got 46 tier one votes. I don't know how you could look at a season last year and think he's a tier one quarterback last season. I mean, he's a couple of plays away from the Super Bowl. So I think that- So is Jimmy Garoppolo and he's 17th. So Rodgers is the third best quarterback in the NFL. I would argue that's accurate yes i mean

i guess lamar could be three and then he'd be four i want to know why drew breeze is tier one and tom brady isn't i mean made me happy believe me i smiled but how is that possible um correct i mean that's what i think like i think if you want to do this i think you do like almost the tier one's big that's a problem you have to do this, I think you do like almost – the tier one is big. That's a problem. You have to break it up somewhere. But I think you could put like Mahomes and Wilson like almost in their own special tier.

And then like Breeze and Rogers and Brady. And this is why I prefer more of a tiered system as far as like they ranked them and they tiered them. I like just like a tier system. So, you know, like I think Lamar can be tier one or kind of 1A, which he's number seven. I think after last season, he definitely should be higher than seven. I mean, I don't know. Look, you kind of have to go off of what they're supposed to be in 2020, right?

Right. And I mean, to me, that seven feels way too low for him. Yeah. Your idea of just having big chunks of tiers instead of ranking one by one, there would just be a chunk. My entire life, one chunk has been where Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, and Phillip Rivers have just been in the same tier at the same time my whole life. And you know who's headed in that direction?

Your boy,on wentz and dak prescott they cannot there's no ranker created that doesn't put them right next to each other every single time and they are right here wentz is 11 he got to five tier one votes 35 tier two votes 10 tier three dak prescott's 12 three tiers 33 tier 2s and uh 14 tier 3s yeah they're they're forever going to be linked they're going to every time every one of these articles I mean even here Matt Ryan Matt Stafford all together 9 and 10 um Rivers 13 so um you know that uh you know that that I think that makes sense um you know a couple other head scratchers, in my opinion. I mean, Josh Allen's 22.

That's about where he belongs. Bills fans are out of their minds. That seems higher than I thought you would go with him. Well, but look who's below him. I mean, you have Teddy Bridgewater, who I think still has a lot of prudence. He could be better. Sam Darnold is not better than sam darnold is he he's not better than daniel jones or nick foals mariota fits tyrod taylor drew lock i mean this is he's not better than those guys at least i mean yes i agree with that i mean this is tier

three bottom half of tier three the only tier three guy who i was like oh god this is gonna cause a problem was Cam Newton. Because Cam Newton wants to have a chip on his shoulder and he's going to try to prove something. I mean, Cam could easily be tier two by the end of the season. I just think it's hard to judge him because he's been so hurt. Right. But, okay. But Cam's tier one potential, tier two seems more appropriate.

Tier three seems like a needless insult. He got one tier five vote oh all right let's let's move along here um i want to know this may be hopefully a more uplifting story uh than than thinking about tears uh touchdown passes by alex smith this season over under 0.5 i know which side we hope he's on i hope it's zero what i'll be i'll tell you why i hope it's zero i think his return to nfl and his rehab is a fantastic story. Go watch on E60. I'm sure it's streaming on ESPN's app.

I love the motivation of getting back to playing. It's kind of the reason, you know, the rehab, right? It's hard to rehab all the time. I'm glad the motivation is there. He should not play football again. Wow. His leg, I can't imagine the risk of trying to play football on that leg. I'm not even sure he can even do it now.

He'd been cleared by his personal doctor to resume football activities. It does not mean he's cleared to play football yet. It's very important here. The Washington football team should not clear him. They owe him his money. Let him be around the team. Let him coach. But I would not.

Great story. I like Alex. I play with Alex Smith. No, just let him work out. Let him go to practice all you want. He cannot play in games anymore. I would not put him out there to risk any sort of injury again. I didn't expect that take. And I know you know him and I know you've played with him and I know you've enjoyed rooting for him to come back. So now that he's here, almost on the verge of it, and by the way, it looks like he'll start the season on the pup list. So nobody thinks he's ready week one.

But I'm interested to hear you say that for his own sake, you'd prefer he not play. I just – I can't – I just – I promise you his family doesn't want him to play. Yeah. There's no way. But I understand. I want him to play. Yeah. There's no way. But I understand. I want to make it very clear. The motivation of getting back to playing to get through your rehab is the right way to approach it.

Right. I'm with you there. Because I've been through that process. Not that bad, obviously. But I hope for his sake, he rides off on the sunset. He's made a ton of money. He's proven everyone he can return from his injury. Did you watch the E60, by the way?

I've not seen the whole thing, no. Oh, my God. It's incredible. I know. It's gruesome what happened to his leg, and it's amazing the work he's put in to get back. It reminds me of David Wright in a way, in that being able to be back was more important than actually then playing

and just putting in the work to say I didn't quit. I tried. Well, let's see what happens with him. Obviously, I was not expecting the answer to be that he's going to, you know, one day throw a lot of touchdowns or win a Super Bowl, but be curious to see if he does try to play. All right, this one's stupid. Don't take the bait, but here goes.

Strokes Brett Favre gave President Donald Trump when they played golf together the other day. Over under 5.5. On a happier note, I shot a 98 on Friday and I've only carded myself through 18 holes like five or six times. But I'm very proud of myself. I shot a 98.

Okay. It's pretty good. Legit 98? You didn't like... Legit 98? You didn't like? Legit 98. You didn't just get like, yeah, it's about a seven. You didn't do that a few times?

No, no. Because I had a 52 through nine. I was like, I'll see what happens. No, and I periscoped my last four shots so everyone could see it. Okay. You know, I don't want to get golf technical with you,

but like you played out of bounds off the tee as out of bounds. You didn't try to lateral hazard, you know, trees on the right. Just drop it. What is a lateral hazard? Yeah. I don't want to screw up your 98, but like, let's say you drove the ball. You probably hit it pretty far. Let's say you hit it 275, but out of the, you know.

I would just drive again. Yeah. That's the right way to do it. A lot of people would walk to where it went out of bounds and then call that three no i would just drive again okay i'm not walking that far and figure no i just take a ball take another ball out of my pocket and hit it again all right so that's three from the t okay so 98 is pretty good so i'm gonna say that you would guess that brett farve had to give give Donald Trump more than 5.5 strokes. You think Favre is six strokes better than the president? Yes. I bet you didn't give him the strokes though. I bet he would think of that as an insult,

that you got to tell Trump that he's great so you don't give him any strokes at all. And then you just let him cheat or whatever he's going to do on the court. The story that Rick Riley has shared that Donald Trump has a souped up golf cart that's faster than everyone else so he can rush ahead and kick his ball forward is the most incredible thing that's probably actually really true. 100% true on brand. All right, last one real quick. This is real. Mike Tyson is having a comeback fight. He's going to fight Roy Jones Jr., who is also very old. Rounds of that that you want to watch over under.5? I mean, if football's on, probably zero.

I'll go under. Nothing's on. I'll take a little pee-ski at it. I mean, Mike Tyson still looks pretty mean. He does look bad. I mean, when they show a little clip of him hitting gloves every now and then, you think this guy still got it, but I don't know about that.

I want to know this, Jeff. It's one fight. Yeah, and they got time to train. It'll draw a crowd. People are going to want to watch that and talk about it. You were sharing a video of this, like, bodybuilder, literal bodybuilder,

hitting gloves the other day, and somebody asked the question, like, how much would it take for you to get in the ring with this guy one million dollars yeah but i but both of us looked at this guy and we're like oh i'm not afraid of that guy he couldn't swing this is not a great topic for an audio show but like he he threw punches slower than our kids would throw a punch. Right. So I would fight that guy. You wouldn't fight that guy? Remember, when you punch, it's the speed.

It typically equals the power. He just like was strong. Even though he's strong, he was just like... You're not going to hurt anybody. No. So you wouldn't fight that guy? I'd fight that guy. I would.

I 100% would. Okay. So how quickly do you think you beat that guy? I'd fight that guy. I would. I 100% would. Okay. So how quickly do you think you beat him up? Over, under one round? I just would. I'd probably just, he would be out of shape in one round. He just would be done. The way he threw those punches.

You ever been in a real fight? Like a real fight? Not a football fight. Real fight? I've been jumped before, but not like where I started the fight. I've been like fights in the football field like we've thrown punches at each other right like no not like you you always know somebody's gonna come in and break that up and you know not like a no not like i got jumped in

middle school my third day by eight people in the bathroom whoa yeah how'd that how'd that end i got out somehow i don't know i don't how. Were you a big kid already by eighth grade? Yeah, I was going in the urinal and someone punched me in the back of the head. Okay. Do you have enough time to zip up or just turn around? I don't know. I mean, I was probably wearing athletic shorts. There was no zipping up.

Just probably, you know, just put it back in there and got out of there somehow. I mean, they all surrounded me. I don't know if I hit them. I don't really remember. I just got out. Okay, but that's not really a fight. That's, yeah. No, it's not a fight.

No. Yeah, correct. So you never actually had to like throw a punch and connect with somebody's body or face. Okay, that's good. I've done it once. I'm 1-0. Whoa, okay.

There you go. That's Okay. There you go. That's surprising. Did you fight? I can't confirm how drunk the guy was that I connected with, but I got him and he went down. Oh. Was it you? Did you and Matt duke it out one time on the drunk New York streets? Not Matt Ford.

Not Matt Ford. This was a long time ago back in Westchester County. All right, Jeff. You made us a lot smarter here, especially when you're talking about what the impact of no noise will be on those trench warfares in the NFL. I'm hoping that we are not part of the doomsdayer crowd in another day or two. I want that Marlins situation to get resolved so we can watch some football.

But anything to say as we close it out? No. Remain hopeful the football comes back. Marlins situation to get resolved so we can watch some football, but anything to say as we close it out? No, remain hopeful. The football comes back. The Marlins obviously are going to quarantine and the baseball is going to continue on, which that's what they should be doing. So guys keep,

keep being hopeful. I get it. Doesn't look good at times, but keeping hopeful, take care. We'll be back later this week and take care.