Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL, NFLPA Agree to Test Players Daily

Episode Date: July 21, 2020

The NFL and the NFL Players Association reached an agreement Monday on daily testing for COVID-19 for at least the first two weeks of training camp. Geoff explains why this is such a huge leap forward . Later, we'll unpack how training camps will adversely affect rookies & what types of bets you should place this season. #WeWanttoPlay: (0:42) Training Camp: (20:32) COVID Gambling: (27:39) 'Move the Line' Gambling Segment: (32:27) Respecting Ben Stiller: (44:05) 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.

my balls on my podcast. Yeah, let's make sure. That should be the cold open right there. And it said, the thing flashed across, recording started. As you said, I want to talk about shaving my balls off. That should be the cold open, sir. It's Tuesday, July 21st. NFL players say they want to play.

We're one day into training camp and things are going smooth. And we'll give you a gambling advice for the strange season ahead. I'm Jeff Schwartz, and this is Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. I'm here with Gabe Goodwin as usual, guys. I am like so excited because football appears to be back. I couldn't even get the intro right. Gabe said to me many times that I'm just, my mind is wandering. I need my riddle in, which I don't take anyways.

Maybe I should. I am so excited that I can tell you guys that Adam Schefter reported that we are very near the start of the NFL season. We started this weekend talking about topics, Gabe, right? As we always do. We're texting back and forth, me, you, Zuri, Matt Ford, and we're like doom and gloom, doom and gloom. Nothing's going to work out.

And then boom, as Andrew Brand says, deadline spur actions. We're at a deadline as we had some rookies report yesterday and we're here now. Text from a leaked source, Adam Schefter, getting closer on most, if not all issues. And we're there. Deadlines made it happen, Gabe. We're there. Rookies have reported in Kansas City, in Houston, they have to pass a COVID test yesterday now and they get tested again on Thursday. Two negatives, and they're off and running. Quarterbacks in on tomorrow, I should say. Chiefs and Texans full roster on Friday.

Gabe, we're starting. It's happening. I'm just as excited as you are, so don't let me screw things up here, but I have to insert a few little facts and a few qualifiers because it's not as great as it sounds, Jeff. screw things up here but i just i have to insert a few little facts and a few qualifiers because it's not as great as it sounds jeff yes the we want to play movement that players kick-started over the weekend definitely seems to have worked it brought the owners to the the bargaining table

again so daily testing looks like a go which was a really important thing for players to get we're still waiting on clarity on how many pre-season games we're playing if any we're still waiting on a little bit of clarity on what happens if and when players do test positive. What are the protocols then? And what are the options for people who opt out? There's still a lot of business to be sorted. But yeah, today is probably a good day. I think that this is a good example that the players have more leverage than they realized.

These owners are fakakta and the players need to hammer them harder. A Yiddish slang word on our podcast. That's right. How great of you. So let's talk about what happened this weekend with the WeWannaPlay hashtag. So here's what I think happened, Gabe. I think the players realized that the NFL owners can compel them to show up whether they like it or not, right?

They have figured out, and this is a topic going back and forth of, do we have to show up? And the answer was yes. You have to show up and yes, they'll find you, they can, if you don't show up. Whether or not you agree with the way they're doing things, you have to be there. And then you can file a grievance. You show up, you file a grievance, and you basically work out the grievance process when you're there. So I think NFL players realized that they were going no matter what. And they put this, you know, this hashtag up on Twitter to get public support. I do not think, Gabe, this moved the owners to make all this happen this kind of after that.

Because look, the deadline was always going to be when the rookies reported. And it was even reported that the Chiefs and Texans were one of the two teams to kind of outline this disaster package, whatever they call it, you know, this relief plan, like, you know, what happens if someone gets sick type of deal. And the Chiefs and Texans got theirs approved and the rookies came in. So teams have been doing this now and preparing for a while for this to happen. Deadlines make things happen. But let's also talk about this. This is important. I know we've both, I'm the same way on this weekend, you know, kind of like, why can't the NFL figure this out? Peter King wrote a great article. I'd advise you to go read. He's back off vacation. His Monday morning quarterback article, his football morning in

America now. And he went to Minnesota and he saw the Vikings facility and it's all ready to go. So teams have been preparing for players to show up now for a little bit of time and we'll get into to kind of that in just a second so gave us i think that they've been more prepared than we thought they're just working out the testing obviously which now will be every day the salaries there's a concern there with how that'll function we'll get that just a second as well but i do think gabe they were closer than we thought and the deadline came now and they figured it out? Well, closer than they thought would be closer than nowhere at all. So, you know, great.

Mazel tov. There's your second. Like, they were closer than not even beginning. So that's a relief. But I think we bashed them for moving slow on this and I think that they, the data changed quickly and we saw that the the the ncaa put out chart of all people and it was a it was a covid chart right of where we are as far

as testing in our country and positives right positive test and it was like here was april here's it was a red dotted line going down here's what we expected things to be and oops we're way up here okay and and that's why i think things took a while to figure themselves in the nfl plus i don't know what the players ultimately want i feel like there's 1700 different opinions on what safe is is it testing every day what you're doing now it's actually as testing every day for two weeks and then it positives get below five percent uh and then we're going to test i think um you know not not as often kind of like as needed right once a week maybe you know something like that so um we're seeing things obviously

kind of ebb and flow a little bit but i think the players don't even know sometimes what exactly i saw a player today tweet out after they announced basically like we're going back what what happens if I get sick and then a media member tweeted out the proposed like the actual guidelines like dude here they are they're there if you want to find them so players are also unorganized and figuring out what exactly they want this to be totally fair and I think that players individual players need to plug in and learn what they're negotiating for but the players union seems to be pretty unified and and doing a good job they they got the biggest thing they're looking for they've got a few more wins outstanding i want to come back to

a couple things you brought up either in peter king's reporting or just sort of the common sense unpacking of all these facts having to do with testing so as i understand it daily testing which is considered a success if you're a player still doesn't mean immediate result so isn't there still a concern that you could take a test go to practice not know you're a positive be getting other guys sick find out you're positive and then have a number of guys have to quarantine just for having been exposed to you isn't that still a major flaw so So there are a couple of points there that I think are accurate. Obviously, the testing, how long it takes to get the results. There are rapid tests that come back within an hour.

Yeah. So I think that they hope that that's the case. They can test in the morning. Maybe you go into like a quarantine part of the building and do that. But they're going to test every day. And maybe they have saliva tests, which come back even quicker. I don't know what testing they're going to use. They mentioned they're going to use a lab to do all this.

But look, the rookies have to test. They tested yesterday and Thursday, which I assume the veterans have to test. You know, the Chiefs players go Friday. I assume they're going to test Friday, test Sunday. And then you're in training camp. You're kind of in a bubble in training camp. By the way, NBA players, um uh in the bubble recently you're at the hotel or you're at practice like those are two places and they're not gonna let you out of the hotel

but you have security everywhere so you can't really go anywhere families aren't going to be allowed to show up this year media members won't be there so you're in a bubble for training camp. Yeah. I'm seeing a lot of people sharing tweets from women on Instagram saying they've been invited into the NBA bubble. I mean, it's so sure that won't happen. But no one tested positive. So, I mean, that's working out so far. Maybe a prerequisite for some of these ladies is a COVID test. Hey, show me your clean COVID test and you can come in the bubble, man. I'm not commenting on that. Let's go back to this idea though, that they're, they're not going to need to test as frequently if they can keep it

under 5% positive when they are testing daily. Uh, I don't know, man, I'm not like a scientist, but it seems like if one or two guys, which would only be, you know, less than 5% test positive, the way this sport works with your faces mushed up against each other, that would mean you've exposed a lot of people to it. How are we so sure that just one guy testing positive doesn't wipe out the whole offensive line? Well, this is the question that I think I have to kind of see what the entire details the question that i think i have to kind of see what the entire details uh end up being because i know that um you know if you the the the close contact thing is the interesting part because if you are close to someone um are they going to actually if it's actually like really um

not let you be in the building for 10 days uh It says here, if the test is positive and no symptoms, then you have 10 days, five days, you have that. But the question becomes, what exactly is going to be, here it is, close contact exposure to a COVID-19 positive individual. I mean, it appears like you might actually have to, I can't imagine this. They're going to actually have to quarantine everybody for 14 days you talk to that's how it works in the real world why would it be different if i get

sick and test positive my wife has to quarantine it didn't work it didn't work that way in the pga didn't work that way in other sports doesn't work that way in baseball but those sports don't involve smashing hot breath into one another's faces but the but the early part of training camp is not going to be that they're going to do strength and conditioning same as colleges are doing oh yeah yeah okay fine fine i mean the first 21 days is is supposed to be just like okay go outside and work out i'm sorry so you're only speaking about training camp for now i i'm talking about in in the biggest sense once anyone tests positive that's

going to wipe out more guys than just guys who are actually sick or showing symptoms yeah i i i i do wonder if they're going to follow this at all times like are you telling me that like the backup quarterback the thirteenth quarterback gets covet and then pat mahomes can't play for two weeks well i don't know because this is a league and I don't want to say anything out of school here, but there was a long period of time in this league where a lot of coaches looked the other way about concussion symptoms. And until the science was better, you were kind of allowed to look the other way. I don't know if the people will be allowed to look the other way on this. I'm not accusing them of doing that, but that might be hard to track.

So here's the important part. This is something that I've seen Dr. David Chow talk about, a longtime Chargers team doctor. I'm reading the actual document now. What is a close contact? Live in the same household. Direct contact with secretions from a a sick person i.e being coughed on having direct physical contact with an affected person during practice which is i don't

i don't know how you determine that that's the case but um you know uniform handling um you know team travel but here's important being within six feet of someone for about 10 minutes and that's the important part is it does take longer than just like me coughing on you to get COVID. You have to be in the building of someone, near someone for 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes for it to like get into your body. And that's, so that's important because if, let's say that in the quarterback meeting room,

let's use quarterback for example, they're social distance apart, okay? They're six feet apart. And the backup quarterback tests positive. That does not mean that Pat Mahomes has actually been in any of these situations. They're a social distance apart, okay? They're six feet apart. And the backup quarterback tests positive. That does not mean that Pat Mahomes has actually been in any of these situations. It doesn't mean he's practiced next to him. It doesn't mean that he's been six feet in front. So you can easily get by these rules by saying, hey, he hasn't been near him.

I'm not on my quarterback play. Well, okay. So I hope you're right that that's how the science works and that guys can stay healthy that way but i want to bring it to a more practical business standpoint where i think the owners push to just like not see reality has been a little bit flawed so as i understand it and help me under help me get this right guys if they start the season are getting paid so if they get into september and play week one and week two, and then people start getting positive tests and not being able to play, they're still going to get paid for the season. Even if the season gets canceled, we're still going to see guys get paid for the year, not prorated. Do I have that right?

It appears that that's the case. Again, some of this stuff you're you're reading from people that you kind of assume know what they're talking about but if it appears that if the players play one game their salaries well this is true though if they play one game you know their salaries get guaranteed for the season right that's for guys with non-guaranteed money which a lot of veterans they're there they have guaranteed roster bonuses things like that but their salaries aren't guaranteed and then according to what pro football talk discussed what some people discuss there's no forced major contract which is like an act of god that won't allow you to pay the players so if you start one game you owe them the money and that's i think

what they're discussing now is figuring out how that's going to work if you play eight games why am i going to pay you for other eight weeks you don't play? How does that work out? There's a lot of cap implications here. How do we handle the cap the next couple of years? There's no way the revenues are going to be as high without fans. We saw Giants and Jets, no fans, at least right now in that life. We've seen the Jacksonville announced 25%, the Ravens announced 25%. It's going to be mixed and varied. The TV ratings will be high. Merchandise will probably be high. There won't be the revenue from game day atmosphere and ticket sales and things like that.

So how are they going to adjust the cap? Because in 2011, when the cap went down in the new CBA, they basically borrowed from the future to make 11, 12, and 13 flat. The owners do not like that. A lot of the owners just want to take a one-year hit and deal with it. But if you take a one-year hit, let's say you go from 200 million in the cap to 150 per team,

you got to get rid of a bunch of players. You can't afford to have a football team that's any good if that happens. And of course, veterans don't want to agree to that because they want to get their money and they want to get paid. So there are financial issues that still need to be worked on.

I think the other financial issue is also that, you know, this idea of playing players in full this year. A lot of players, you know, they forego signing bonuses for base salary structure. And a lot of them could have maybe gone $5 million more in signing bonus

and gotten $5 million less in a base salary, but they took the base salary because they assume they're going to get paid. And so the financial part of this can work. But I think the financial part can be worked out while you're in training camp still. I mean, you could just, if it doesn't work out, everyone just leaves, right? I mean, you just go and strike, I guess. But again, the NFL, both players have leverage here, right?

Because the players know if they show up and play game one, they get paid. The owners kind of know that they need the players, but the players also need them because the players want to play and get paid too. So they kind of, they have to figure, this is one thing that I wish the PA and ownership would be better at, is being partners, right? It's figuring out a way to further the game together. I feel like we're far too combative.

So I'm interested to see how this financial part of it plays out. Yeah, I am as well. And I want to bring up one sort of other topic dangling off of this because I saw some people sort of say, you know, the NFL squandered its chance. They had all spring and most of the summer to figure this out and they blew it. We're up against the deadline and they can't, they don't even have all these financial pieces figured out. And, you know, there was no way to predict some things, but they wasted all this time. Here's this sort of controversial statement I'm going to make.

And Jeff, you don't have to agree with me on this, but these owners, the reason that we have the government that blew this situation that supposedly wasn't the owner's fault is because these owners support the campaigns and administrations of those governments. Okay. So the owners of the NFL, 10 of them supported Trump's presidency. Many of them support Republicans who are in office in the states that are exploding right now. Like there is a tie between the billionaire ownership group and their interests and their politics and the reality that we all live under with the governments that we elected so you can't disassociate those two and i'm not telling people who to vote for and obviously the owners have a right to spend their money

in politics the way they want but come on man they're connected uh they are connected but i think the mindset of a lot of owners in sports is to kind of play through this and i don't know if that's just a republican thing or a Democrat thing. I feel like most owners want to get this in because they want to make the money, right? I mean, NBA owners figure out a way to make this happen. Baseball owners found a way to make it happen. Yeah. The NFL owners I would say are on more of the ruthless side. I mean, I always thought, and we talked about this for months now,

the NFL find a way to play, right? Cause the NFL owners just, and you mentioned earlier, player safety has not been a concern until they were sued. And now it's a huge concern of theirs. And so that's where I think it might differ. I also think it's pretty interesting. You know, if legislation gets passed for a new COVID relief bill, which would happen by the end of the month, I believe, because July 31st, I think benefits run out. the month, I believe, because July 31st, I think benefits run out. There's talk about some sort of protection for private companies as far as COVID liability. So I wonder if this gets passed,

hey, no liability for five years. Do owners just hardline the players and say, hey, we're coming back. You can't really sue us if you get sick here. Sucks to be you. Because I do think that that kind of plays a role in the college football as well which we're not going to talk about much today but you know if if universities know they cannot be sued especially and this is the state universities are different they might not be protected by this but the fact is like if you if you can't get sued for having your athletes back on campus you're kind of open to have them back. Yeah. I'm curious how that, like that's specific to obviously many businesses around the country who want to get back to work and might be worried about being sued.

But specifically the sports, that could play a role in decisions made in a couple of weeks because, look, there's always worry about liability, right? There's always worry that you might get sued or someone might get sued if a player can prove they've been in a bubble you know since they got you know to the NFL on July 25th and they get sick and get really sick and they could possibly sue the NFL yeah and and that's the reason that these guys should be fine with paying the money the hundreds of dollars it costs to test these guys daily because if you look at this as an ATM machine there's not going to be any cash in the ATM machine if all your players are getting sick because you weren't taking precautions.

I also don't understand why NFL owners think that they're the only business in America that is guaranteed a profit. Every single business right now is hurting. Like, why do they assume that all their margins are going to get met? I don't think they do, though. I think they assume that the cap will be low next year. They just want to have a one-year hit and not do a three-year hit or four-year hit. All right.

Fair enough. Well, we start— I'm fairly certain they realize there's going to be— I mean, I saw someone tweet out this weekend that owners could expect as much as a $70 million cap hit per team next year if things don't go very well. I think they assume that there's going to be a financial loss this year. But in the end, a missed season hurts the players more than it hurts the ownership. The owners are mostly billionaires, right? They have other businesses that make them billion dollars.

Even now, their businesses are making a ton of money. The stock market continues to rise. And there's hope of a vaccine coming up at the end of september october area um they continue to make money if they miss the nfl season yes it will hurt them but to hurt the millionaires and the guys that aren't making a million dollars the rookies are a lot worse than it'll hurt the owners like the players know they have to make this work as best as possible obviously you know within health and safety regulations because they need they need the money. Like sitting out for the season hurts the players

far more than it hurts the ownership. Okay. Well, I mean, I think we could go around and around and around and we'd start sounding like lawyers if we went further than this. I just, I think that it's important to know that the players used some muscle in social media, appealed directly to the fans,

and 48 hours later, they got one of the biggest things they were asking for, and I hope they keep doing it. You've started the show joyously because training camp was opening. I think the listeners of this show are pretty familiar with how training camp works and what it's all about,

so I'm not going to ask you to go through like all the details, but I kind of want to hear a little bit more about what certain groups of players and coaches are probably dealing with this week as they head back. Right. We know that rookies and guys on the bubble and new coaches, you know, who stepped into new franchises are all facing real serious challenges. They try to figure this thing out. I'm going to throw a take at you,

but ignore me and talk about training camp in general. I think because it's going to be such a mess, unavoidably so, that rookies like Joe Burrow shouldn't start week one. There's no possible way they'll be ready. And that any guy who needs to be thoughtful about what he does this season should go with the more cautious route because he won't be prepared.

Well, I think that rookies are going to struggle a lot. This is a training camp that's not going to be good for rookies and kind of like seventh-round picks like me and undrafted players. You're not going to have practice. So what their schedule is going to be in training camp, ideally, what the PA wants, they want a 21-day ramp-up period, almost like an OTA, an organized team activity. It happens in the off-season,

four hours a day. You lift for two, work out, and you meet for two. Then they want 10 days of non-contact practice, almost like an OTA. It's supposed to be

non-contact practice. Helmets on. They want 14 days of actual practice before they play, before they head into week one. So that's why they're doing it. And it's a 46-day, 48-day ramp-up period to get ready to play.

Well, that's only 14 real practices. Imagine if you're a rookie trying to make a team and you have only 14 days to do so. You're not going to do it. They're going to take all the veterans. Joe Burrow cannot get ready to play with 14 real practices. This is where I think the pa has really erred erred error is the wrong word errored errored um screwed up error screwed up in this joint committee return to play action so look they could have come in two weeks ago and started this

process the players the players could have according to a couple players the cba prevents them from coming in early guys you could have you could have changed it come on you could have agreed to come into a server let's not pretend the cba is holding it back on that because now the nfl's trying to cram all this ramp up period into a short amount of time in training camp 14 practices is not enough time to get you right you ready to play not even remotely close i had a hall of fame offensive lineman, Gabe, tell me he needs 10 practices. This was like in year nine.

I need 10 practices. And now you're going to ask guys to get ready in 14 practices? It's not going to happen. I even asked more players this weekend, can you get ready in 14 days? Probably not. Those are 14, by the way,

that probably won't be in full pads. You might have eight or nine in full pads. The NFL and football in general is a sport where you actually do need to practice to get used to get ready to play on sundays it's a game where physical contact and practice while not tackling and not and not you know pancaking dudes is but that the feeling of getting hit and your body getting stronger you know and the pain playing through fatigue and also you know for a running back a wide receiver you

get hit in weird positions that doesn't you need to get used your body to get used to that force happening in practice and we saw in 2011 with the i guess previous cba now the one i was part of well the lockout we lowered practice time we lowered days and pads no more two days every other day uh not every other day but no more two days uh one other day, not every other day, but no more two days, one day off a week. And guess what, Gabe? Injuries did not go down. In fact, they went up, okay?

The average career length never went up. So it's not helping us stay healthy to practice less. I understand the concept of, hey, we want to keep our guys fresh, but 14 practice is not enough. They should have come in two weeks early and i get it it's easy to say now i'm sitting in my office i'm retired i'm not going to practice any two weeks extra i get that i probably would have said no to this as a player but looking back and seeing how they're going to prepare i think it's a grave mistake to not come in earlier and kind of have a full camp and there's obviously talk about preseason games and are they going to play them?

Are they not? NFL seems to now say, hey, let's play one game, not two games. I'm not, I don't really care about that, honestly. I don't think that makes or breaks whether guys make a roster and play in one game or guys get hurt or not. I think it's more the practice time.

I just think they made a mistake in that game. I feel like they've done a good job of getting what they wanted. The testing, obviously, the procedures, they're going to work on the money, but their bodies have got, we're going to see a ton, a ton what they wanted, the testing, obviously, the procedures. They're going to work on the money. But their bodies have got to be – we're going to see a ton, a ton of injuries because guys are just not physically ready to play. So we always hear about the number one pick quarterback who, you know,

should he start week one or not? You know, should we throw him out there and let him get beat up or is he not quite ready? Should we sit him behind the starting quarterback? You know, that's every offseason for my whole life. We've debated that. So with Joe Burrow, it doesn't even seem like there's any competition. In a normal year, he'd be thrown out there, even on a bad team.

I'm wondering, though, are we missing the real story? It's easy for fans like me to talk about it with quarterbacks. Are there other positions that are just as like easy to screw things up for their whole career as the quarterback like everyone knows the david carr example and he was he cautioned joe burrow are there other examples at lineman at receiver at cornerback like where else should guys be careful not to get thrown into the fire too fast um i uh i do think lineman's one of them i mean we've seen guys kind of play early on and kind of ruin their confidence um but sometimes you don't have a choice this year i mean i know

joe burrow there's really yeah he's played the backup it's like ryan finley or something sure you know you make that happen but sometimes you know teams are planned hey we're you know this offensive lineman is scheduled to play like we expect him to play you're the sixth pick overall you know andrew thomas you're picked fourth overall we expect you to play we penciled you in as a starter you have to figure it out but we're going to see game it's going to be a lot a lot of sloppy play and we're talking about gambling in a second i have some some thoughts about how you should bet a lot of these games early on um there's you know running back skill position players yeah they could probably be up to speed.

Find out whether or not they get hurt. I don't know, but I'm talking about like just kind of up to speed early in the season. Yeah, I mean, look, it's, hey, go run this route, okay? You know, run fast. Running back, find a hole, make a play. Offensive, defensive line, tackling, quarterback play, all going to be really tough for rookies early on

to get in the flow of the NFL. Yeah. Well, I mean, you've been making us smarter on that topic throughout all of this, but now here it is a reality. I think it'd be foolish to end the first couple topics here without just saying that these stories have changed overnight, every night for the last two weeks. And I would be willing to predict that some of these teams don't report fully this week, that some big star players are holdouts, that we've still got like the big headline of the week

is yet to come. So even though you started the show super happy, I'm a little worried there's still going to be an upsetting curveball coming. Let's talk gambling for a second, because this is the reality. And we just went through a whole lot of preparedness and what will happen when guys get tested positive and how bad some of these cities are versus the others. So here's a theory I want to throw at you, Jeff. As we look at the futures for teams across the league, as we think about bets to make, you know, as inconsequential and silly as that may seem right now, but as we think about laying down some money on who the favorites are this year,

would it be wise to sort of bet up the teams that play in areas that are handling COVID well, either through luck or good policy, and stay away from the teams that are in some of those states and cities that are having a really, really hard time with it? I would bet on veteran teams.

Veteran teams that don't need full training camps to get ready to play. Chiefs, Ravens, Niners, Seahawks, like veteran quarterbacks, older players, guys that don't need to build chemistry up. I would bet, I don't know if I'd bet their season win total. I think Baltimore is going to win like 12 or 13 games, probably the Chiefs too. But like week one, man, I'm hammering the Chiefs. I'm hammering the Ravens. I'm hammering the Niners. Teams that have done it, have been there, are ready to play.

I love to bet Tampa, but I don't trust them for the first month. I don't know what they're going to be with, you know, New Orleans, by the way, returning team, veteran team. I like Atlanta as well. All these teams that Eagles, they're healthy. They brought Jason Peters back. Veteran teams, veteran coaches, to me early in the season, are going to have a far higher chance to win other teams. Veteran offensive lines, I would bet unders, dude. I would hammer unders. We're going to have really bad offensive line play. play defensive line and defense is always ahead of the offense early in the season because offense kind of takes time to gel you need practice time especially in training camp it's so funny man like the first couple days in pads the offense

just gets torched and our coaches cuss us out and it sucks and as the camp goes on we just get better and better and better and better because we get we take some time to gel okay interesting so a lot of three and outs and turnovers in the first couple weeks this season we could be seeing some 13 10 wins even from teams i think so man okay so i'm not again i'm not making jokes or trying to be you know take this lightly but i'm i'm serious here teams like the bills the packers the vikings if you look at the map and you see where the hotspots are, they seem like they're the Pats. They seem like they're in the places, you know, where you got a lot less risk walking around. And then they got other teams like the Cowboys and the Rams and the Saints and, you know, the Texans. I don't know if it means very much, but it just seems like the odds of one of your players getting sick in places like buffalo you know he's not going to get sick there but also by the way what else are

you going to do like i've talked to players who played in buffalo you live in a mansion you drive your car to and from the facility there's not much going on there's no downtown right but like but like right now in california if you're a rams player what are you going to do there's nothing to do well there's plenty you could be doing. I mean, just down the street from me at Venice Beach, I could be finding myself in a lot of trouble if I wanted to. Right. But we know transmission outside is not as big of a concern as transmission inside. So you can go to the beach at Venice Beach all you want. You're not probably going to be next to someone and they're going to cough all over you. So I think it's more about like which states

have kind of, are their bars open? Are the restaurants open and indoor seating? Are bowling alleys open? Are movie theaters open? Think malls open? Things where you can get yourself inside and get infected. I'm not worried about outside being open. I'm worried about inside.

I'm worried about states that have bars open still. I mean, look, I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you serve food, you can be open. So these dive bars are just like, come get a grilled cheese. Come get a hot dog. We're open now. Those places worry me. And I hope that players understand they can't go out this year. You just can't. Bring your girl back to your place. You can't go to the bar and pick up chicks. You can't go to the bar and really stress this year. You have to do it all at home by yourself.

Yeah. By the way, good advice for NFL players in general is don't go to the bars. I think Coach Herm always said it. Nothing good happens after midnight. I mean – That's what he said. Yeah, after two, after midnight. Whatever the time was.

Point is, stay home, guys. All right. Well, I mean, I'm not sure that I said anything that will change anyone's mind about where to bet. But I do think at the end there, you're starting to agree with me, which is that some areas mean their team is less likely to get positive cases than others. Just because you can't tell someone they can't do something that's legal. So if it's illegal, you're probably going to, you know, the guys are going to be a little bit healthier on average. All right.

Let's move the line. What do you say? Let's do it all right this is our little betting segment we try to make some bets out of the other news going on in the league uh just before we started recording we got a another twitter update from our guy uh antonio brown ab says at this point the risk is greater than the reward thank you everyone who've been part of this journey i sincerely thank you for everything life goes on 84 and he tweeted that he's done he basically said i'm retiring without exactly saying i'm retiring so jeff i want to know times ab announces another retirement over under 0.5 are we done hearing he's done no no no because look he's retired because no one wants him right now, right?

Same as when I retired. Now, no one wanted me though. Like I wasn't going to go back and play. But the Seahawks, the Buccaneers, someone might call him if someone gets hurt. He would definitely play again. So I will go over here. The over is going to be juiced like minus 500, minus 700. I would probably still lay seven to one to make that

happen or why really one to seven i'm sorry one to seven to make that happen yeah there's no chance that antonio brown gets a call from a real nfl team that says we want to have you come in and work out and you know we're thinking we might sign you for a few million bucks if you can pass a couple tests and you know the gm likes you he's immediately saying yes to that. There's no hesitation whatsoever. And as far as accomplishing everything he meant to accomplish, has he? It's so open-ended. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what that even means.

Okay. Most guys it means more rings, but whatever. All right. I want to know the difference spring football in California will play in recruiting. Remember, they've moved high school football in the state of California into the spring season. Very strange thing to do, but it's happening out here. Will it make over under 5% of difference in general for those players?

Oh, huge difference. Big difference, okay. Yeah, we've already seen a couple players say they're skipping their senior year of school and going right to college early in the they're gonna early enroll yeah so like the same type thing a couple of quarterbacks out here at sc well what they're gonna do what they're gonna do i think is then is that just basically spend this this semester this next you know semester in high school and then go to college in january right yeah yeah. USC has started doing that with Courtney. JT Daniels.

I remember USC did a hype video for him before he even got there in May. I mean, poor kid. Yeah. Now obviously in Georgia. So I think that it's going to be a huge effect. It's not going to affect the superstars that already have offers.

Most of us are offered before we enter a senior year. Like we have tons of offers. I had a bunch of offers in a year. It's to affect guys that need this season to to get offers now the question remains is that if california is the only big state you know it would be like california texas georgia florida ohio you know pennsylvania if if they if only california moves their season does that affect recruiting wholesale? I would say no, probably not. But if three or four or five states do it, you're probably looking at moving recruiting the second signing day back to probably middle or end of March. California schools say they want

to start January 8th, I believe. So you look at, you know, January 8th, January, February, March, probably middle, end of April, somewhere around then when the season's totally over. So they could do recruiting at some point. And you could do it in February. You could just do it in February and the kids play their season out. I mean, that's fine too. But I think if multiple states decide to play in the winter, and some of them can't play that early.

Ohio can't play really in January. The weather's so bad. Texas, California, Arizona, Florida can all do that. So I think it's more than 5%. I think it's going to affect a lot of players, especially those lower guys that need this season to get more on the radar. Okay. Well, I mean, and the vast majority of kids who play high school football

in California are not going anywhere with it. It's just fun to play high school football. So, you know, good for them. They get to have a senior season now. And whether they ever play any football after, you know, they turn not right so um all right fair enough that that helped clarify a little bit i don't know jack shit about recruiting by the way everything you just said i was totally lost by just growing up in the sub i mean you're a you're a usc fan you don't know much about recruiting that's a usc fan after i turned 30 i I grew up in Westchester County, New York. College football was not on my radar.

Rutgers fan? No, although the most famous recent Rutgers football player grew up in the town next to me and was a local hero until he got into some trouble. We'll leave it there. I like Westchester, by the way. The county?

Yeah, I played golf up in Rye, I think it was. I played at Westchester Country Club. Yeah, nice course. I used to work at the golf course right next door. the county yeah i played golf uh up in rye i think it was or westchester country i played westchester country club yeah nice course yeah i used to work at the golf course right next door oh there we go i've actually i've uh hit my drive into westchester country club from willow ridge country club that does not seem ideal no i missed pretty hard right and it landed over there um all right percentage chance you can relate to tad prescott calling out dax team on twitter 50 chance you're a brother of a i've called the chiefs out before my brother wasn't getting paid enough money

i can relate when you did it were you accused of being like his mouthpiece uh yeah and how did you prove that you weren't or was he annoyed by that um i mean it the chiefs weren't terribly happy that's i mean just so the people that take my tweets seriously it's like just ridiculous do one of the chiefs owners find you in costco yell at you about it? No, but I had an NFL GM call me one time about my tweets. I'm like, dude, just really, really. While you were playing? No, after I retired.

He didn't like what you were tweeting? He didn't even know what I tweeted. His PR guy brought him the tweets and said, hey, I think this guy doesn't like our team. Why don't you ask why he doesn't like us? You can bring someone tweets? What'd he do? Print it out and hand it to him?

Yes. I think so. All right, so this guy was a really savvy guy. Yeah. doesn't like us you can bring someone tweets what'd he do print it out and hand it to him yes huh i think so all right so this guy was a really savvy guy yeah so but let me seriously though so dac you know got the franchise tag and then his brother who i'd never heard of before i don't know if he played i know he had a brother yeah fine so his brother basically says like well that's the end of that like screw those guys more or less what he tweets yeah but you know that you know that if he gets a long-term contract for the season he'll be the biggest cowboys fan of all time yeah of course so does the team know that too and just go like all right dac tell your brother he's a moron we don't care what he's tweeting or do they think oh that guy's speaking for our

quarterback um i think that people probably think he's speaking for dac okay well that could cause him some problems in the building. All right, Jeff. Weeks of college football season we actually get to see this year, including a potential postseason, I want to know, over under 8.5. Just give me a number. I ask you every week how we're looking. I would say that eight weeks i i would say on does under mean less than eight yeah eight and eight and a half is

over under right so saying like if you think it's only going to go for like six weeks you take the under yeah this one of those where i can never like because i technically like it's over the number eight like it's like it's like you know i mean like like in like in draft like in the draft it's opposite what you think it's going to be like if like if if you think someone's going like if it's over under the eighth spot in the draft let's say right if you think they're going to go one through seven you take the over i see what you're saying that's not how i mean it okay be very literal here how many weeks of football do you think we'll see in college i would say um i would say that we see

less than eight it's my crap okay because i think we started up in conference play and then it doesn't finish i hope it finishes but i think college has so much more work to do to get this thing going than the nfl does it's not just and that's why the conference only schedule has a chance to work question becomes like what happens if a state just says we're closed but to my point like i don't know what can be worse where states are like hey we're going to shut this down now the question becomes in california if you can't play high school football, why can't you play college football? I don't know. Why can't you play the NFL, right?

I don't have a good answer for that. I don't think that much of this has been consistent. All right. Let me ask you this last one. I'm going to kind of ditch the over-under for a second here because I saw you tweeting this and it intrigued me. So there's a meme out there and it's a little graph and it shows production and a big bar that goes up and talent, another big bar that goes up and then recognition. And it's a tiny little bar and it's basically who's somebody who this can summarize. And in football, I think you said Zach Martin, offensive lineman, production, talent through the roof, recognition, tiny. So I want to throw this to you in different categories. I would like to know the name of a TV show that you would say is terrific all around and gets no recognition.

Ooh. Well, the opposite of this would be Floor is Lava. Oh, fuck off, man. A TV show that gets too much recognition but has too much recognition i said it on this silly podcast that's how much recognition is that does parks and rec count for this yeah that i have never watched it because i have given it no recognition whatsoever but everyone says it's very good it's it's fantastic okay parks and rec will be my answer yeah okay that's a great answer i gotta watch parks watch Parks and Rec. It's that good?

Yes. Better than The Office? If you would, in the totality, yes, because if you count the last years of The Office, it struggles a little bit. Now, I think season eight and nine is not as bad as people say it is, but yes, because it's just six or seven seasons

of just all the characters. Okay. Give it a, you know, same as The Office. Give it a season. Yeah, give it a season. Parks and Rec, the characters. Okay. Give it a – same as Office. Give it a season. Yeah, give it a season. Parks and Rec. That good. Okay.

Didn't know. It's really good, dude. It's hilarious. All right. I'm going to give you one that you probably never even heard of. It was a mini series called Generation Kill by David Simon who did The Wire. And it's about Iraq. It's based on a book.

It's awesome. Oh, I love to watch it. What channel is it on? It's on HBO. Very, very well done. almost nobody ever talked about it it was like just before you know twitter became the thing you you do and yeah but it's i think it's still on hbo max or go or whatever the hell hbo thing's called now check it out generation kill a lot of the same actors from the wire okay all right give me a movie wildly underrated movie um oh movie it's not my movie is not my forte um i mean look it has a recognition now but like i

mean shawshank originally was fit this originally when it first came out not now obviously when it won an academy award or something so recognition i would say um oh man i don't know dude i'm not a movie guy i have no uh i mean so a lot of movies i watch is like i don't this is not my i don't know okay hey I you know I gave you time to think about this you didn't want to put any time into it all right

and then how about a band or musician you could go to the EDM world I don't even know what to call them Don Diablo is fantastic but is he recognized

as fantastic no really oh Don Diablo is a very good answer I like Don Diablo it's my new it's a

it's a I'm talking about movies man I gotta get back. You, you talk about, you didn't mention your movie yet. Along Came Polly. Fantastic. Triumphant comedy.

It doesn't get the recognition? I feel like, but Ben Stiller's whole career does not get the recognition it deserves. And I'm coming to you as like a devote, a devoted Adam Sandler fan. I like Jim Carrey. I love Will Ferrell. You know, there's a lot of guys of that era. For some reason, we lose track of Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller's top five is maybe better than anyone's in history.

So you would say like meet the parents. Would you say dodgeball? No, I mean, meet the parents would be lucky to get in. I would say Zoolander. I'm not sure I've ever seen Zoolander start to finish. It's a bummer, of course. Fuck, man. You've never seen Zoolander start to finish?

I think I have. I don't remember the plot. The plot? I don't remember nothing from the movie. I don't even think Ben Stiller knew the plot of the movie. The plot doesn't make any damn difference. No, dude, go watch Zoolander tonight. Zoolander for sure.

I guess Meet the Parents is pretty great. I would have said Tropic Thunder. Very good, yes. Okay. Okay, I would argue Along Came Polly is in his top five. It's a fantastic movie, yes. And then he's, I'm forgetting

a few others, but he's in a bunch of like insanely funny movies where he has a smaller role so he's you know he's very very put a good one in something about mary oh my god yeah duh something about mary so that's like top three he's in happy gilmore he's in anchorman well okay so i didn't have to convince you of a long game poly and then my performer So you have Don Diablo, I have Jimmy Buffett, who's well recognized by his fans, but I'd say the mass public does not recognize

Jimmy Buffett's brilliance. I would not. Have you ever seen him live? No, I've only been to a couple concerts in my life. Alright, we're going to work on that. I've been to Aerosmith. Cool.

Usher. Okay. That might be it. Usher's a good performance. I saw Usher at MSG. I had good seats. I saw Aerosmith. Yeah, I'd go.

I saw Aerosmith. I was a seventh row. Jordan Gross knew the drummer or something. So I was backstage too. And there's only two concerts I've been to. Is that it? Did you just name drop? So one of your NFL friends invited you to an aerosmith concert and you went backstage in minneapolis when i was playing for the vikings yeah wow he knew like the drummer or something so

any other uh any other parts of that story you feel comfortable sharing no no it was no it was so boring backstage it was it was dry back there no alcohol oh because arrow smith i'd already they'd already been this is this is 2012 i already kind of you needed like 30 years earlier to see yeah 30 years earlier um so i'm trying to have an artist that uh is underappreciated that i'd like to i don't know i think we'll go edm i've been i've been vibing on some don diablo lately yeah i would have guessed that was a tequila brand, but I will look up Don Diablo on Spotify later and give him a try. I think that

movies, like, I think of movies that I just watch like mainstream movies, nothing like I'd be like, oh man, that doesn't get enough recognition. I mean, I'm a big fan of Pitch Perfect. I feel like that gets plenty of recognition. Devil Wears Prada. Devil Wears Prada. Are you just looking at your wife's

dvd collection right now what are you talking about these are fantastic oh man um saving private ryan shawshank i mean watching greyhound right now getting through that that seems pretty good um yeah yeah this is these are not movies that qualify no i know they're not i'm just talking about movies that like i've seen recently and just you know i like major league it's like major league beverly hills cop those are those are those aren't those don't fit no plenty No, I know they're not. I'm just talking about movies that I've seen recently. I like Major League. It's like Major League Beverly Hills Cop. Those don't fit. No. Plenty of recognition.

All deservedly. All right. Well, Jeff, listen. We got to hope that the news doesn't turn in the wrong direction in the next couple days as more guys file into camp. It was good to hear you explain how training camps really work and what this latest news means for players and for owners. So thank you for making me a little smarter about that. I'm going to go check out Don Diablo and good luck with your pool. I'm sorry your pool is flooded with mud.

It is. We're making the best of it. We're making the best of it. I know it's a first world problem. And by the way, Gabe, I don't know if you're not like that big of a baseball guy, but baseball is back this week. I'm excited about baseball being back. I'm pumped.

There's a preseason game on behind me. Can't wait for it to be back. Can't wait to be back on Friday this week. Hopefully we have everything wrapped up. We'll have a little tidy bone NFL season and we'll get after it on Friday. Thank you guys for joining me. Please rate, review, subscribe. Let me know how you feel about this episode.

All right, guys. Have a great week. Go NFL. It's back. Woo! please rate review subscribe let me know how you feel about this episode alright guys have a great week go NFL it's back woo