Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL COVID Policies and the End of Amateurism

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

Geoff is joined by Matt Ford to discuss the NFL's COVID policies and how some players have responded to their rules regarding the vaccine. They also talk about how the latest rule changes to the NCAA's amateurism rules will affect recruiting and athletes. 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 june 22nd i'm jeff schwartz alongside matt ford and this is jeff schwartz smarter than you we're breaking down nfl's covid restrictions supreme court rulings and everything else to do with the nfl including a quote by tom brady tom brady going a little off script i'm excited to do all that with matt before we get going some news. I know I teased we have a big show coming. The show is still coming. But after we recorded, some news broke that is worth talking about. It's great news in my opinion. Raiders defensive end Carl Nassim comes out as gay.

First active player in NFL history to come out while they're still active. He's played 73 games, had 20 career sacks. He's a veteran in the NFL. He's donating 73 games, had 20 career sacks. He's a veteran in the NFL. He's donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project, operates the Trevor Lifeline. It's a call line for LGBT kids and teens that focuses

on suicide prevention. Also included in the story was a study that showed that all it takes is one accepting adult to decrease the risk of an LGBTQ kid committing suicide by 40%.

So when people ask why now, obviously I'm very happy for Carl to be able to live the life he wants to live, especially openly and also to help kids in the same situation as him. So congratulations to Carl for coming out, for letting it be known, for living his life. Wonderful, wonderful. And people have asked me and they're going to ask me, and I'm telling you right now, over one majority of the locker room does not care. Does not care one bit.

We'll be very happy for Carl, right? We'll be very happy for him to have come out, for him to live his lifestyle the way he wants to. And it doesn't change your friendship with Carl. Carl was on Hard Knocks a couple years ago. He shared a clip of finance. Like, he could tell guys like him on the team this is not going to change that one bit and yes are there going to be players that aren't accepting of it so be it like whatever there's always players that aren't accepting just ours in society a player's choice

I've always said I don't care what people do off the field. As long as they can help me win in the field, I do not care. I think the majority of NFL players feel that way. So I just wanted to say I'm very happy for Carl. I hope this leads to more players being able to live openly and to be able to feel more comfortable in their own skin. And look, he's not the only gay player in the NFL, okay? I'm just telling you right now. And hopefully this allows for more players to feel more comfortable in their skin and be able to come out.

And so again, congratulations to Carl for making that announcement, for donating the money, for sharing some light on the Trevor Project. And now we get to the show. Me and Matt Ford. Let's do it. How are you doing, buddy? It's been a week how's your week i'm good man i i think i was really alarmed by tom brady's appearance every time i see this man he's like he looks like aged but does he know he looks like an alien like things are just happening with his like facial bones that i just can't track i can't like map the progress mentally are you aging are you moving laterally through time like

what's happening i i did a thing this weekend uh this show this idea that we're doing and i'm not going to tell you guys now but i'll tell you eventually um and i got some makeup done i got some makeup done by some random makeup lady who was there she said you know what jeff you have beautiful skin huh i was like oh all right i mean i don't know you tell me like you've been around my skin i don't know is it it's beautiful in the webcam i don't know it's like i was like i feel like tom brady beautiful skin so i didn't have procedures for it doesn't this remind you of those memes you see of like the it's like the the it's like a beautiful woman it's like uh you know they use all this all

these skin products and then we use like the same loofah we wash our balls with it's like i i told my wife i said hon you know man i got beautiful skin i mean you spent all that time on those lotions and those treatments and whatnot and your boy over here barely wears sunscreen shaves once a week put no lotion on his face and his skin is beautiful so um things i think are beautiful in the nfl right now there's there's not a lot happening but there is a big story about COVID protocols and something we're going to touch on that I think this will be a story

at least probably through September. But Matt, let's start with that. Yeah, I mean, so much, so many ways to go here. Let's just start with the sort of basic big picture. So the league released new COVID protocols for the season

and well, really the preseason and training camp. And the big takeaways are that it's two different worlds. Vaccinated players have pretty limited restrictions, obviously, like most of the rest of the country is sort of going in that direction. But for unvaccinated players, there's lots of hurdles, which, you know, is similar to what's happening in the NBA as well. But, you know, it's going to be interesting

to see how this gets navigated. Unvaccinated players, they're going to have travel restrictions. There's mask mandates. They're going to be tested every single day where vaccinated players will not have that sort of commitment. There's quarantines. And then there's these huge fines for any time, up to $50,000 that any of these rules are broken. So there's a lot here, Jeff. What was your initial takeaway? My initial takeaway was this was the closest you can get to mandating a vaccine without mandating a vaccine, right? We know that it's tough to mandate the vaccines when they're not FDA approved, obviously emergency use right now, but when they're not, when they get fully approved, maybe the NFL and other corporations decide to go to a different

policy. But as of right now, you can't mandate that they take the vaccine but what you can do to your point is make life pretty miserable for those who are unvaccinated you're basically separated right you cannot use the hot tub or the sauna you cannot eat in the meal room with the players that are vaccinated you cannot be in the weight room 15 players at a time limit if you're unvaccinated you have travel restrictions. You might go on a separate plane or be quarantined in a hotel. You know, meeting time. You might have to be on Zoom while everyone else is in the meeting room.

So it's really going to divide the locker room. And I'm curious to see how quickly players who are unvaccinated get into the locker room and realize, oh, this is not where I want to be. I'll get vaccinated. I'll do it to kind of be part of the teams i think it is a competitive advantage or disadvantage depending on how vaccinated your team is and people say well why are you asking the players their opinions on this we've heard from cole beasley obviously we've heard of montez sweat we've heard from justin herbert and patrick mahomes two players who have been vaccinated we've heard from you know no

comments from sam donald and other players the reason why people are asking matt is because it is an actual competitive balance issue in the nfl let's take the the chiefs for example or the falcons are two teams that supposedly have a higher than not vaccination rate and part of that is being alluded to or attributed to matt ryan the falcons quarterback getting vaccinated telling his teammates about it patrick mahomes getting vaccinated telling his teammates about it we know in bruce arians the tampa bay head coach is like look get vaccinated players right supposedly mike tomlin has been very vocal about this player's getting vaccinated same with cam hayward who's obviously a leader so it seems like the teams that have the most players the most leaders i should say getting vaccinated are the ones

they're ending up having this right so let's just say you're the buffalo bills it seems you know there was some positive response from some of his wide receiver teammates when Cole Beasley tweeted out what he did. And let's say that that room is unvaccinated, Matt. They've unvaccinated one receiver room. They have a big game coming up. One guy gets close contact with someone else.

That whole wide receiver room is out for the week. And now they lose a game. The Chiefs is not happening to the Chiefs. Not happening to Tampa Bay. Not happening to maybe Baltimore or Cleveland, right? So this is why this is being asked. And Matt, I feel like we might feel the same way. I don't care to hear players' opinions on the COVID vaccine.

I do not care to hear their opinions on politics. I don't care any of that. They're being asked about it because this is a competitive balance issue, in my opinion. They're being asked about it because they're leaders in the community. And the frustrating part about some of the responses is not that they're not getting vaccinated, all right? It's your choice to get vaccinated. That's your right.

I'm not arguing that. It's the lack of basic understanding about what is going on with the vaccine and how it works how it's implemented what it does what it can do where we are in society right now so you know these players the things they're saying complaining about i'm like you don't even know the basics of what you're upset about and that's what's bought is a former player just someone someone who, and look, we are, I am also sad. I'm always, we rest my, I am, we're a pro vaccine podcast. I hope you get vaccinated.

Hope we get back to real life. That bothers you. I'm sorry. I, I, you get, it's your choice to do whatever you want. But like if I was so strongly against something, I feel like I would know the basic parts of what i'm against and it feels like some of these players don't and that to me feels like that's what's bothering me the most right it's not that cole beasley put out a long statement or cole beasley's anti-vaccine or whatever it is it's that the things he's saying don't make any sense they're not a good argument for not getting the vaccine and that's what bothered me the most. And this is it.

Set aside Cole Beasley's feelings. These feelings, at least according to people around the NFL, are 20% of players feel this way, right? So not a majority, but a minority. But the NFLPA's job is to generally look out for the entire operation, right? So the NFLPA is going to say, hey, look, yeah, we might have not asked you, Cole Beasley, feel about this but guess what we're the pa we're looking out for the for the bottom the bottom line and we don't want to move a game to tuesday next year we don't want the broncos to play a game with no quarterbacks we don't want there to be a cancellation and seven games be shuffled around we just we want to play a full season on time when it is and the fastest way to do this is that the most players vaccinated continue on

with business so that's where i stand again cole beasley at montez whoever it is sam darnold no comment don't want to do it fine but at least understand like what you're upset about so true um you know we're not the resource people need to learn about vaccines, but get vaccinated, please. The point of, I think, what you were saying, Jeff, is Cole Beasley, by making this stand that I think to any person who could think critically and unemotionally about this issue makes no sense, cost the bills let's just say a play exceeding in the playoffs could cost them a home playoff game if as you mentioned jeff like you know they the whole wide receiver group has to miss a week because cole beasley doesn't care to get vaccinated like those that's a real impact and that's you know that's that's what this whole crisis has been about largely is is our shared responsibility i think think to your point, you said something true,

which is if you're listening to this podcast and you live in the USA, you do have the choice, right? It's up to you. In the NFL, the NFL isn't a usual job. The NFL pays you, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars or at least hundreds of thousands of dollars at the minimum to play. And there's lots of people with lots of families and lots least hundreds of thousands of dollars at the minimum to play. And there's lots of people with lots of families and lots of relatives and lots of places they travel and all these ripple effects. It's a huge league, older coaches, you know, everybody think about the massive footprint of just people that are involved in an NFL game or an NFL event. What the NFL is doing here, I think, is they're exercising some soft power.

You can't mandate a vaccine, but to play in the NFL is not a right. It's a privilege, right? Like any job that pays this much, like there's more to it than just like, well, I can do it if I want, right? It's hard to do. So I commend them for these strong guidelines because A, it's responsible. You remember last year how you know how tough they were on every single team even up into the playoffs remember mahomes had that scare with the haircut everyone was like is this guy gonna miss the super bowl like those were real concerns um the only reason we got to the super bowl is because the nfl did an amazing job of of keeping everything buttoned up so i think that this this is a really intriguing story to watch,

because the thing that we've learned about these vaccines is people once they sort of see people they know getting them, they become a little bit more open to them. So I think good for the NFL, like they're wet, like it or not, they're sort of forcing players to have a disadvantage by not taking them or take them and like that's great we're gonna have a better discussion about it as a result as a country which like not to be like too highfalutin but i do think that that's an impact here it is an impact and remember that that if it was a private business they could have any protocols they want which is important to discuss here because the people that tend to you know kind of be against it you know well you know you're for private business it's their own decision um and yes i think they're trying to put peer pressure on the players that aren't vaccinated right you get in

the facility i mean look imagine if if if i'm an offensive line i'm an offensive line room and three of five starters are vaccinated two or not what then that'd be odd right like am i meeting with the other two guys in the same room am i lifting with them am i traveling with them do i get to talk to them in the locker room i'm not trying to form some sort of chemistry bond like that so the peer pressure of that could lead to more players getting vaccinated and again the the bottom line is that the nfl wants to make their money this year remember this is a conservative nfl right conservative ownership conservative at the very top. And if they're going this direction, to your point,

they're trying to salvage an entire season, not have any mistakes. And people have said, well, they're going to enforce this. Hell yeah, they're going to force this. Heck yes, they're going to force this. If you think they're not, you did not pay attention last season. Yep. Billion dollar business.

There's consequences when things break. I'm just curious like do you think you know do you how do you think this gets handled in most locker rooms like the thing that the locker room that comes to mind for sure to me is the bucks where the leader of that team you know you mentioned arians but the leader of that team i'm just gonna guess is probably not a front runner candidate to get vaccinated um you know a guy who has his own health method and some pretty out there beliefs about about some some other things i'm just curious like does does this have the potential to like to break a team like could we look at some team that's awesome and they just fall apart because there's like a massive political disagreement in their locker room about this? I think Tom Brady, if he knew to help him win a Super Bowl, he'll take any shot.

He would take any shot of helped him win a Super Bowl. Like I was like, I think he does. I think he's going to win a Super Bowl. I would say this might be the test case. I think I don't know. Obviously, but look, might be the test case. I don't know, obviously. But look, we'll be able to tell with the training camp, right? Who's wearing masks? Who feels a little isolated?

My guess is obvious. I think Tom would have done that. But yeah, it will create a divine locker room because, again, you're not going to be with your teammates that you're going to rely on Sunday because they haven't taken the vaccine yet. And again, I don't think players are going to be with your teammates that you're going to rely on Sunday because they haven't taken the vaccine yet and again I don't think players are going to say hey Matt Ford take the vaccine now and like argue in the locker room but there's gonna be peer pressure when like nine of the 11 guys on offense are all hanging out in the locker room and the two guys are isolated in their own locker room and at what point do they say man i just can't do this anymore and especially if it hurts the team eventually right if if there are players on

that team that can't play because they're in the protocol because they get covid or whatever reason um you know and part of it too is you know if you're vaccinated according to nfl protocols if you're if you're a a high risk exposure so let's say you know i'm with my family and my wife got covid i'm vaccinated i don't have to quarantine right if that seems to which happens i'm vaccinated i quote you're 14 days still and so now you're out two games right so that i think when those situations arise is when it will really and when it really could divide a team. But again, when the guys at the top, Bruce Arians, Mike Tomlin, I don't know Andy Reid's done, but Patrick Mahomes, Matt Ryan, when I throw Cam Hayward in there, I saw his name in one of these articles.

When the guys at the top, Justin Herbert, I saw Justin had taken it. When they're at the top, that message resonates with people, right? It resonates with not just i think the players but fans but the players right okay if pat mahomes is doing this or tom brady's doing this or my head coach is doing it i trust them right my trainers tell me to do it my doctors tell me to do it i trust them for other things and maybe i'll trust them for this as well and it moves in that direction where players obviously can get vaccinated. I mean, again, the way the season goes off

without a hitch is that, right? Matt is, and again, the competitive disadvantage for teams with low vaccination rates is going to be bad. And again, I think by the, I think I imagine by the end of training camp, you know, they're 75, 80% full vaccination, which is really good, right?

That's herd immunity. But obviously for those unvaccinated players, they're still lingering over you as, as those, as those protocols, which I think the NFL will carry throughout the season. I don't think this will be just for the preseason for training camp. Well, it's going to be interesting. I wonder if that data is going to be publicly available because if, if we do know who's been vaccinated who isn't we will be betting on the under for the uh team i mean for those teams i think that what we'll be able to tell like based off like i said like who's wearing a mask at practice who's not wearing them i think that's like the easiest way right i

mean if you are vaccinated you're free to do that. And look, guys, another thing too that people, the NFL is allowed to ask you for your vaccine status. It's not a HIPAA violation. HIPAA violation is not at all your employer asking you about that, especially in this situation, a private company. It's like if they called my doctor and my doctor released information without

me telling them right like they can't so they can and then i might even butcher that as well i'm sorry if i butchered that but i know for a fact it's not nfl team asking if you're vaccinated that's not a violation of your hipaa rights i think i kind of sort of got it right where it's like a hospital releasing information against your will or doctor's office it's not or honestly the nfl we call the nfl up we call the giants up and say hey i want jeff schwartz's records you say no that's a violation that's how it works right not with an employer so yes um not a violation and by the way it's always ironic right the people that that always say that came and spell hippo right this is the best thing of all time so So, all right. I'm sure we- I had to show my vaccine card

to get into the Brooklyn Nets game as a fan. Wait, which game do you go to? I went to game two, which was a massive blowout, but it was insane. Can you use your, like my, I can go to my healthcare system in North Carolina and Charlotte

and pull up my vaccine on your phone. You have to show them your physical card or your vaccine or like i was able to in new york they have a thing that you can that uh it's like an app that's that shows you've got your vaccine um so they only let people in who are vaccinated or there was a special section for that i'm a little i'm not totally sure but i know that there was fully vaccinated sections that, yeah, where if you got in, like as soon as you got to your section, like mask off, like everyone's vaccinated. It was pretty wild, man. It was really something. I went to my first sporting event this weekend.

I went to two Angels games. And Otani, by the way, hit four home runs, three home runs while we were there. And I missed all three of them. Like I was out of my seat for two of them doing some stuff. And then the other one we had left. I saw him pop up though one time. And that was, that was, he's really, dude's electric. But it was, wasn't it nice to be back in the crowd?

Amazing. Yeah, I, it was overwhelming to be there for like a playoff basketball game in person. And you're just like, what the hell is going on? Like, I don't know. It's nice to be back to life. Everyone should get effing vaccinated. Let's move on to, we already talked HIPAA. We might as well talk Supreme Court.

Big ruling in college sports the day we're taping this Monday from the Supreme Court, they ruled unanimously in favor of college athletes seeking benefits tied to education. This basically just means that players are going to be able to earn a bit more, a bit, well, any money while they're still college athletes. There's so much going on here. The NCAA has a meeting later in this month uh where they're sort of figuring out some of these eligibility and yeah and paid players things I like for to be honest Jeff I'm not even exactly sure what what the Supreme Court ruling means I'm curious just your yeah please I'll tell you what it means because I do this you know for Pac-12 today on Pac-12 radio for for a living so what what this was was a a lawsuit brought for as you mentioned um for

types of education related benefits i internships laptops like anything that you can get that's kind of outside your scholarship this was a lawsuit about that okay and they won that so it's not really about name image and likeness, which I'll get to in just a second. However, Justice Kavanaugh wrote this at the end, okay, in his opinion. Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing to not pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. The NCAA is not above the law. Now, that's not really about this, right? That's about the name and likeness, which is happening July 1st. So name and likeness

essentially is you can market yourself, right? Which in any other business we can do. Any other business you can do. Even in college, if you are a student, a regular student on a financial aid scholarship or another type of scholarship guess what you can get that money for your scholarship and then also make endorsement money if you're a violinist or whatever right or anything else except in college sports that's not allowed it's changing all now because name and like this was a bill introduced in california it got passed now it's not supposed to take place till 2023 but florida and a bunch of other states are starting July 1st. So the NCAA has been dragging their feet as usual,

has been holding out on, you know, coming up with some sort of policies and protocols put in place for name and likeness. And now, because they foolishly went down this road with this lawsuit, by the way, $73 million in legal fees to go down this this road was lost by way 73 million dollars in legals fees to go down this route if they had not done this and just come up with a way to give you know athletes laptops then they don't get this justice kavanaugh ruling which basically tells them hey buddy if you try to restrict future earnings moving forward you're going to lose that case too right so name image and likeness is going to be something that happens July 1st.

Now, whether or not it's the final thing they do, I'm sure it'll be different variations, but it's happening. So basically, Jeff Schwartz goes to Oregon. Jeff Schwartz, you know, there's a car dealership there and wants to pay Jeff Schwartz $5,000 to go sign autographs at a car dealership. I can get that money now. My jersey sales, whatever it is. I will say, though, a couple things.

now my jersey sales whatever it is i will say though a couple things um you know people think name them like it's gonna quote ruin college sports it's not gonna ruin college sports um i think in the end very few athletes are gonna take big advantage of this right we're gonna see five to seven football players get get good endorsement deals the rest of the football team might get a home $1,000 to go to a touchdown club, like a 500 bucks to do this and that, get some spending money, get some extra cushion money.

It's not going to be this huge rush, right? We're going to see some social media deals, but a lot of players are not marketable without the university. And that's, I think people are missing here. Like I think we've gotten so far in one direction, Matt, where people are saying scholarships don't matter at all. No, no, they matter.

There's value in a scholarship. There's value in the brand associated with playing for that team. But also, the players should be allowed to market themselves. And with this ruling, it's heading in that direction. So it's a pretty big day. I mean, 9-0, Matt, unanimous. What in round politics right now is 9- is nine nothing yeah it's a law initiated by the state of california confirmed by brett kavanaugh that seems that seems pretty unusual

yes right exactly i i mean that's interesting because i was going to come out swinging and just say like this is the beginning of the end with college sports not necessarily this it is with amateurism amateurism is done this idea that they're not pros however okay so you're you're a big 10 guy because of maryland right so ohio state i mean look okay is maryland still does the under armor thing that you guys still sort of okay so let's say the the head of under armor there's a five-star recruit, and so he's looking at Ohio State. Maybe the head of Under Armour says, you know what? We're going to give you $100,000 to come play for Maryland and be Under Armour guy. I mean, how many guys are you really going to do that to?

Because the return on investment, they want some return on investment, right? He's already giving money to the school. If they get two or three of these five-star players, players is that gonna make a difference in the way they play maybe and maybe if it does they start trying to buy more players but really ohio state's still gonna be good matt i mean you might chip off one or two players oregon might get a couple players that might go to to oklahoma usc might chip away some players i just don't think it's gonna change recruiting because also guess what people players already get paid now they're going to get paid now so like now what's going to change the legal legal payment what i will say a lot of people i've talked to think

there are pockets like byu for example very strong uh uh kind of rich uh alumni like like like like like a place like that like like Jimmer for debt, for example. My buddy says he would have made millions of dollars in Provo. Like there's certain examples here and there where guys can make money, but I just don't think it changes recruiting very much. I think that it doesn't change college football very much or college basketball. It could get very messy. There's going to be a lot of scams out there.

So I hope these institutions have people in place to help their athletes figure out exactly like where they should, you know, what endorsements they should get, what they should be looking for. And I understand some of the, like, if you're a Nike school, you can't have a player endorse by Under Armour. Like, you know, I get that. That's fair to not have that. But it's going to be a free-for-all.

And we're going to see, too, these paid internships that are going to be allowed. That's where some of this is going to start, right? Oh, Matt Ford, how about you come to Under Armour and we give you 75 grand for the summer? It's going to be... I think you've laid out all of the tame possible outcomes and some of the nice upsides. This will get exploited so badly, and all of the like nice upsides that there will this will get exploited so badly and all of

the like like you mentioned maryland and the under armor connection like i you know that would in theory work out in my benefit right like but should maryland have the ability to sign so and so because you know the ceo happened of the former ceo and founder of under armor went to maryland and now they have these deep pockets and they can pay the next whatever kate cunningham to come to maryland like that sucks and i feel like and even though that was kind of an open secret there was this illusion in college sports that like there was this there was some community right like some kid picks oregon or maryland or whatever because they like the school and then then the fans are like cool we have this in common like

there's this like shared experience but if it becomes the the professional sports at all then what are college sports but just worse professional sports like that's what i'm sort of starting to wonder is like what does this look like and by by the way, let's not forget, there are more sports in college athletics than men's football and men's basketball. Like this is going to have far reaching impacts on the non quote unquote non revenue sports, which obviously means a lot of like women's sports and even just like, you know, track and swimming and all these other sports that really matter to a lot of schools. Lacrosse matters a lot to Maryland. Like, I just think that the impacts of where we're headed,

not necessarily this case, they're so far wide ranging and it does not lead to anything good for the NCAA, especially since they have no leader and no one guiding this. They're just kind of reacting and making it up. So two things. One is that so if you're if you're a business person right and you have a lot of money and you've been donating to your school right you typically want to return an investment on that donation right so you're

donating to a school you they put your name on the thing but you want to win right you want to win in sports yeah um so i just not sure that these boosters, who may or may not already be paying players, really want to put that much money into, quote, quote, buying players, right? Because, again, if you spend $500,000, a million dollars, and you don't win a championship, you don't win your conference, I think you're going to see it as an investment not worth it over time. And maybe they're just free to blow money. I mean, it's definitely possible.

But secondly, you mentioned other sports, basically Olympic sports. So the Olympic trials have been on for swimming, and they were on for track and field this past weekend. We have college baseballs on right now. We've seen softball. So I think this helps them more than any other group because now an Olympian, swimmer, track and field, softball, baseball, they can take endorsement money and stay in college. A lot of them have to leave college, especially on the swimming side, because they want to take Jeremy Bloom.

Famously, Jeremy Bloom, you know ski olympic skier played football colorado played football a little bit in the nfl he had to leave colorado as like a it's a freshman all-american because he was going to go ski in the winter olympics and he's like i'm going to take endorsement money they're giving me endorsement money i'm taking it and he left colorado and his career now he bounced around a little bit in nfl but like now jimmy book gets to stay in colorado if he so chooses to do so so i think it does help the olympic sports again a lot maybe not but more than it did now yeah it's going to really be interesting and and again what the ncaa decides to do on july 1st is is also going to have a huge impact this story is not going away and if like i just

can't believe that there's not a adam silver of the ncaa who's in front of this who's throwing ideas out there who's just getting the temperature on stuff it's sort of just like up to like the person who's got the best idea right now is brett kavanaugh it's like what are we doing here like we need somebody to start like making some calls and and figuring this double a is just rudderless man that they'd hate making decisions unbelievable they hate they hate actually having to do something and now and look they're waiting for they're waiting for supposedly congress to give them an antitrust exemption you ain't getting that buddy like no you just need to make this and and your model's done man get over it yeah this we will look back in in a matter of years and be like college kids didn't get paid and they were like trevor lawrence didn't get paid like that's crazy

exactly so moving on let's let's just go right to uh move the line jeff it's been a while since we've gotten to do some of these over-unders uh usually you do this with games so i'm thrilled to sort of play this play this game with you um There's so much, so many fun things to talk about. Boom. And there it is. Wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. That's cool. But with my wireless, I get unlimited for just 30 bucks. Impressive. But does yours have 5G included? Of course. And my wireless saves me 400 bucks a year. That's because you all have Xfinity Mobile with your internet.

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First of all, there was a report that came out today that justin fields is going to show up to chicago's camp two weeks early and the internet of course just like lost its mind with with enthusiasm that justin fields will be you know so eager to dive in and learn uh that everyone just is sort of blown away by him so my question jeff over or under 10 and a half games started for justin fields in chicago this season i'm i'm just like this show reported two weeks early it's just it's just like a nothing burger he's just going to show at the facility two weeks early like it doesn't mean very much like he can't he can't work out the coaches i don't think so he's just going to work out by himself at the facility like i don't

these are stories that like a bunch of players probably roll their eyes out like all right well um this one's tough man i i think over i think he starts more i think he's the starter from nearly week one okay so i just i would say i i just i i know dalton yeah but how do you you know man no he's he's not he's fighting for his job man like you need to you need to to win now and show the winning comes from the young quarterback if you go four and four with dalton and you then you bring in the fields and he's like two and six you ain't keeping your job man you're much better keeping job if you see him improve throughout the season i am saying it right now justin fields will start 15 or more games if he's healthy and i like him for rookie of the year jeff seven to one currently andy dalton's not starting over this kid

like it's just not happening and you can see the media machinations already starting of well he was there early he outworked dalton like he he won the team over like this is so obvious dude like if andy dalton was the starter for any team we'd know it like he absolutely sucked last year ben dunucci was not markedly worse than him uh i i think that there's no chance that that justin fields isn't isn't the day one starter maybe the week two starter if you know matt nagy i mean it's silly games if he's either like the week one starter or he starts in week five or six right like it won't be that long i'm with you there i think i think comes out of camp i think most of these guys start out of camp well i mean at this point it's like what is the

benefit like we've seen now over and over and over again even in a covet off season where joe burrow and justin herbert couldn't practice in the same way that everyone else could you know in years past and they came out and were gangbusters i i just i can't see it man he played at ohio state like he didn't play at North Dakota State. Like he's ready. I just think this is so silly. Like everyone should jump on Justin Fields Rookie of the Year now

if you think that he's got a chance. It's actually a good call. I mean, the Nets have been killing me, man. I need to make some money back. We'll get to some more betting stuff in a minute. Back to over-unders, also betting stuff. Okay, um back to over unders also betting stuff okay this one so there was a promo today drops for the hbo program the shop uh where tom brady who we already mentioned his weird face he came out and said something about a team that did not want

him because they were sticking with someone else and he said some silly expletive joke he said he said like they're sticking with that mfr yeah the internet like went insane so my question to you over under 90 confident you know what team he was talking about so i feel fairly certain as jimmy g but people point out to me that he's friendly with jimmy grapple and he don't think he doesn't think he would say that people point out the Bears and Trubisky. I just never thought there was a connection there. People have said Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee. I don't think that's it either.

I don't think he thought Tennessee because of their defense was not very good. I think it's Jimmy G, but you think you know who it is. Yeah, I'm over 90% sure. Who is it it is the new orleans saints i'm gonna tell you why last year there was a report from adam schaefter that came out after brady had signed with the bucks that said there was mutual interest between brady and the saints and then drew breeze decided to come back and then they sort of said, ah, we got Brees, we got to go with Brees.

Now, Brady, you think he is, you know, pretty classy dude from most exterior, you know, objective observation. He has a rivalry with Brees. Like, not only did they end up in the same division and of course playing in the playoffs, they also have the touchdown and passing yards record where they're going back and forth

over and over and over again. And Brady knew Breeze was washed. We all knew Breeze was washed and nobody knows what a washed 42 year old quarterback looks like more than a guy who's trying every day not to be that. So I think that this, I think it was Drew Breeze. two-year-old quarterback looks like more than a guy who's trying every day not to be that so i think that this i think it was drew brees and if tom brady had ended up with the saints i mean think

about that sliding doors of what could have happened oh yeah i'm pretty confident that's drew brees i've not heard that one yet yeah i know i was i was excited to drop that i know that's a good one i mean i i don't put it past you that it's true. I just, you know, maybe maybe Carr. I don't think so. I don't think Tom Brady would speak so condescendingly about a guy who is not in his class. And I think that that's why he was so, so sharp on this. Like he doesn't view Derek Carr as competition for him right he doesn't view Mitch Trubisky as competition for him and I just want to read what Schefter had said uh this was last this was this was this February he reported this uh Brees came back in March if he hadn't come back I really believe there's a chance Tom Brady would have been the Saints quarterback this year that's what that's what Schefter told Rich Eisen so I think that's what it was

oh Matt look at you coming you've been saving that quote haven't you I love it clip that shit I want to share it I think I can get some buzz you've been saying we got we we will make an audio an audiogram of that one that's fantastic um all right I I didn't I didn't know you I was curious where that was going. OK, let's Drew, breeze it up. Let's go. All right. Well, we've earned a Taylor Heineke topic with after I gave you all that fire on the last one, Jeff. Ron Rivera said there is a coaching or I'm sorry, a quarterback competition in Washington. The reports out of camp have been the Taylor Heineke has actually looked better than fitzpatrick now fitzpatrick has said look i'm throwing the ball where they're supposed to go the receivers

and i are going to get on the same page but apparently heineke has looked crisped and fitzpatrick has looked a little bit shaky so my question jeff to that question about is there a competition over under taylor heineke starts this year let's put it at three and a half because that would be substantial are we assuming that this is a healthy fitzpatrick and he's starting yes assuming he will not play a game this year if fitzpatrick is healthy zero zero games zero games this year yeah i mean maybe week set you know week 18 and they're out of it but he will not get any significant time if Fitz is healthy okay I agree that Fitz is going to win this competition if that even is a thing my question is like why exactly are we have we

all written out written off the possibility that Taylor Heineke might be kind of good like I like tell me why exactly will be very rare for a quarterback of his kind of draft class and stature to be good in the nfl that's why okay it's very rare but it happens it i mean happened with fitzpatrick it happened with carl warner like it happens but fitz is not like if you drafted fitz you just drafted a good quarterback there'd be no chance to win a super bowl right like that's the goal right is to win a super bowl and heineke is just not that guy i think but wait hold on you're saying you're saying because fitz you're saying fitzpatrick isn't a guy who's good enough to win you a super i'm saying well you have a better chance with him than heineke i'm not saying you're gonna win a super bowl with Fitzpatrick, but Heineke, man.

I just think that, like, I'm half kidding, kind of. Ron Rivera doesn't strike me as like a play random young guy quarterback. I don't think he is either. I'm just curious if, like, here's what we actually know about Taylor Heineke. Bounced around, was okay, you know, wasn't great in carolina with rivera then he played one game in the playoffs against the team that won the super bowl with a great defense and did not embarrass himself at all like i'm just curious why we've all like it just seems like everyone's kind of throwing and making him a punch line but why like i feel like there is there there should be a competition like if he's good enough to unseat fitzpatrick like let's see it well we're

gonna see the competition i just don't think he's good enough to unseat him that's that's the difference like there's there's a competition but i just i can't see him winning it dude yeah well i my obviously i would i would take the under here too but i am just curious why everyone has written heineke off when all we've seen is it played pretty well um all right well those are the those are the big ones i have for this uh any other any other stuff you want to hit before i ask you a very pressing gambling question um well we're going gambling you you hit the gambling question because we gotta talk about how eagerly excited you are for week one bet you don't tell me any bets you made but i've matt is very very excited he's already wagered the nfl season let's hear your hedge well i guess let's let's start there so i

look smart and then we can talk about how dumb i am so uh a few let me see on june 15th so not that long ago i felt this was longer ago i took the Hawks to win the Eastern Conference plus 1250. So I think I think they were tied with Philly at that point. And the odds were still crazy. And by the way, if you like the Hawks, there's still like 11 to one to win the title. There's four teams left. Like, what what am I missing here? But Jeff, I bet I bet eight dollars to win 100.

OK, that's how I mean, not very confident, but granted, I'm not a big bettor over here. I bet $8 to win $100, okay? That's how, I mean, not very confident, but granted, I'm not a big bettor over here, okay? So that's pretty good, man. Like a $100 win would be nice. Should I hedge it? Should I go and take the bucks? Like I genuinely just like don't know how to do this now.

So I'm curious what you think I should do. the bucks are minus 477 to win this series so i'd have to lay a lot of juice uh to hedge this so so i think okay the the reason you hedge or the reason people will tell you to hedge is so you make some money right so you're winning what 92 dollars on that oh it's eight dollars to win a hundred you said okay yeah to win you're winning a hundred dollars on that oh it's eight dollars to win a hundred you said okay yeah to win you're winning a hundred dollars on that one bet so you know you basically just want to bet as much as you can to get the eight dollars back if the bucks win right like i mean that's basically how you do it so what you have to bet it's four to one right so what thirty six dollars somewhere around there forty dollars yeah who cares about my eight dollars like i don't care

about that so the answer is you do not hedge absolutely not or you find moments in the series to take the bucks on the money line which will probably be a cheaper price than their series price right so like let's say that close out game even that but like let's say like let's look at the i'm curious what the line is for game one yeah so to win game one they're minus 290 so you could take the game one which they're at home they're obviously off a big win but they have one extra day and to rest they're at home you take a minus 290 you win the eight dollars back and then you just sit pretty yeah Yeah, that's not bad. That's not bad. So I shouldn't put like 50, so to like try to win 50 and like somehow lose.

We talked this through about how my Tampa Bay plus 1100 future bet. Remember for the Super Bowl? And we were like, well, do I put, I was going to win 550. Do I put like 250 on the Chiefs

and then I still win some money in the end but for eight dollars man let it freaking ride bro or like i said or you just take the bucks money line at some point in the series and you can try to make that eight dollars back right i mean you you know you might lose that bet and then i don't then you're down more even more money but if you feel good about the bucks you know minus 290 in game one, then that's where you make your money back, right? If you're trying to hedge that bet. There's some other weird way I could maybe do this,

which is bet all the exact finals outcomes that don't include Atlanta. Like I could bet like the Bucs to beat the Clippers plus 700. Yeah, but Matt, you don't care that much, buddy. No, this is the thing, Jeff. This is why I lose. Because even when I have a good bet,

I'm going to end up losing somehow anyways, even though that was a great call and I stand by it and I'm glad I cracked on it. Just let it ride, buddy. Make your $8 back somewhere else. Here, I'll give you some obscure baseball game to bet tonight.

There's reverse line movement in twins reds for the twins money line tonight it goes take the twins it's it goes so the twins were plus 110 to open they're plus 104 39 36 percent of bet 65 percent of tickets the reds went from 130 to minus 130 to minus 114 with 64 percent of the of the tickets So there's some good reverse line movement there. And then, yeah, so that's there.

Maybe you take that in the money line and, and you see it, you know, let it ride. Oh, all right. Well, you don't want to think I've been doing,

by the way, I just been taking the run lines against the Orioles. Cause there's, or is it so bad? Just run lining every game. Screw it. My, I have, I have $ dollars on the line on the

minnesota twins tonight yes and i could be playing with house money yes let's go twins all right so this is now this is the this is the part where it's like usually you hear people about their bets and they're like they're like so proud because they don't tell you like what it really is like of course and look jeff it clear. I think a lot about the NFL. I think about the NFL probably every day. And there's not a really good reason why I'm in like a couple of really aggressive fantasy leagues, but there's no reason I'm thinking about the NFL this much in June. I just went to my, um, my betting account and just looked at, I was like, I think I've made some week one bets already which is

like really silly because like anything could happen a meteor could destroy the city of detroit like anything's possible these lines could really move as a result of that you know that meteor jeff i have i have 11 week one bets already i don't even i don't even really recall making but i do have 11 of them i bet almost the whole board i know there's a few i've bet a few times because i've seen the line change over time and i'm like oh that's a good line i'll let me just snag that early and i just have no recollection of having done it i know when we first the lines first came out for week one you were all over washington football team right yeah so yes i have them on the money line and then they dipped and now now i have them plus i think i have them plus one and a

half and plus one i think no just one just just plus one so there's a um our friend chris raybon who's like now wearing a suit doing like a bunch of stuff on like nba and tnt it's awesome i think it's where he's at for action. He has big time on us. He did get big time. He has a week one bet that I love. Here we go. Seattle.

So they're plus two and a half plus three. Frank Reich is oh, and three straight up in week one with losses to the one in 15 Jacksonville Jaguars, the five 11 charger and the six and 10 bangles. Wow. Yeah. So it's bad. Number 12. Is that what's about to happen here? the 5-11 Chargers and the 6-10 Bengals wow yeah is this bet number 12 is that what's about to happen here

Harbaugh minus 4 Ravens minus 4 at Las Vegas Harbaugh 10-3 against the spread in week 1 most profitable week 1 in our action labs database going back to 2003 I'm making that bet right now wow

maybe it's a little two team teaseam tease there seahawks and ravens like maybe or no you don't you won't you won't tease the ravens through through i mean plus two i don't know i'll just take a money line just parlay them right yeah that's uh i don't have money line available on here but that's interesting i have a minus a minus 220 money line for the ravens i'm gonna you know what i'm gonna do the ravens ravens sea chickens right now we're gonna have a we're gonna have a bird a bird first that's the first game with the crowd in las vegas and you're going a bird a bird a bird parlay the parlay pays off wait why can't i put the ravens in here wait what it won't let me let me parlay these what's going on here jeff i think this is the Wait, why can't I put the Ravens in here? Wait, what?

It won't let me parlay these. What's going on here? Jeff, I think this is the sign that we should probably end the podcast. No, no, no, no. Hey, I'm trying to parlay this, man. It won't let me do it. Maybe it's too early. I don't know.

But I mean, well, there we go, guys. I made my first week one bet of the year Ravens minus four alright guys great show today we covered a lot today it was a good time as usual we're back next week I believe Gabe will join me next week and we're off and rolling man look we're only

nine weeks away from college football August 28th UCLA hosts Hawaii week zero so we're getting close. Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you guys next week. Out.