Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Patriots vs Seahawks: Super Bowl Matchup is Set! Conference Championship Matchups and Gabe Hates the Pats

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Geoff Schwartz and Gabe Goodwin react to the Seahawks and Patriots winning the AFC and NFC Conference Championships. Are the Patriots the luckiest team of all time? Yes. Yes they are. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code GEOFF to get $200 in free bonus bets when you bet just $5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is Monday, January 26th. I am Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe. And the Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. Presented by Drafking's. Draftings and Crown is yours. We have Super Bowl participants, Gabe. It is the Seattle Seahawks. It is the England Patriots.

And we are a mere 13 days away from Sam Darnold being presented the Lombardi Trophy by Roger Goodell. Something that I never would have imagined happening in the National Football League. We have made it, Gabe. We are here. How was your weekend? Sir, glad to be talking football. with you. Very glad to be talking football with you. My weekend was fine. I got to say, not the outcome

I was looking for in either game. Obviously, you know, L.A. guy now. So I got to root for the Rams. My kids would have enjoyed that. Always going to root against the Patriots. We'll get into it. No college. Yeah. It's a weird weekend for football watching for me. It was different for me. I mean, look, I had no dog in the fight other than my takes. And I said very, very famously gave and during the postseason that the Patriots are Fugazi and they I think we're now up to 4,000 comments on Instagram from the Bear Pets podcast right there for Gazy team and I'll be right one of these days hopefully in two weeks but the Patriots are are here and what would game would you like to start with your your hell or yeah that hell my hell I don't know if it's my

hell I've no hell for this I don't cares it's hell for me and um And it is a Fugazi team. And I think we have to just acknowledge that. So I get it. They're there. I saw a tweet that enraged me. I fired it your way. This is from a guy named Daniel Rodman.

I don't know if that's a real person or not. It doesn't even matter who Daniel is. But he likes to point out the Patriots to the first team in NFL history to beat three top five total defenses in the playoffs. Then he lists them. The Chargers, the Texans and the Broncos. Tough day for the schedule narrative, he says. Well, sir.

incorrect. The schedule in the regular season was an all-time easy one. And then the path to the Super Bowl in the postseason for the Patriots, because of the teams you just cited, is laughable. None of us, not just the haters like me, none of us have to take this Patriots team seriously. Still. So I know we have more tweets to go through this show,

so I'm sorry if I'm sort of going to hit on some of these and take your way. Fire away. But I mean, you know, here we go, right? Jets' offense in the regular season, negative 0.172 EPA per play. Patriot offense in the point season, negative point 171. So they're the same EPA per play in the regular season.

The Jets, Patriots, Pages, Pose. It's just not been good on the Patriots office. And it's funny because you listen to, like, some Patriots, you know, people in the podcasting sphere that I like to listen to on Monday mornings. and even he says the Patriot Office has not been playing well. It's not been playing well. Two games in the postseason, they have scored one whole touchdown.

And in this game, last game, it was on a weird play where... Look, so the Stid and Fumble is interesting game, or backwards pass, because if the Patriots player hit the ball and is leaving his hand, it's a deflected pass, incomplete pass. Right. but if he just hits his hand, which appeared he does, it would be a backwards pass. It's just very rare for a defensive player

to hit a quarterback's hand and not the ball, right? Like none of the ball whatsoever. Because again, if I attempt a forward pass and the ball leaves my hand, it's tipped and backwards, it's just a deflected pass backwards, incomplete pass, but they ruled this a backwards pass. And they also fudge the entire way that they should rule that, right? It should have been a live ball, pick it up, touchdown.

The Patriot had zero, zero drives in that game for, four touchdowns. The officer just hasn't been good enough, right? Then we get this many stats to continue to go down the line. Drake May and three playoff games. 55% completion percentage. Four touchdowns, two interceptions. He's had five total touchdowns and five total turnovers.

Are he ready to have some rush touchdowns as well? Average air yards per attempt, 4.71. It's just not been good enough on offense, but their defense has done a good job. Fair enough, though. They played the charged offensive line, the Texas offensive line, and a backup quarterback in general.

Jared Stidham. I will give credit to Mike Rable very quickly here, Gabe, before you fire off some more Angry Patriots takes. I think he managed that game masterfully on Sunday, and Sean Payne did not. So they go up 10-7, and it was very clear that Rable said, you know what, guys, they're not scoring on us in this game. We're doing nothing stupid the rest of the game. They ran the ball and punted and played defense the whole rest of the game, Gabe. I think he managed it perfectly. The weather started coming in. He said, we're not going to mess around here.

And we're going to make simple plays. And we're going to punt the ball and play defense. He made one good throw the entire game. It was the second drive of the game, the long pass. I thought the game plan for Sean Payne wasn't great. I thought we'd see a little more variety. But then again, you had a screen set up early in the game. For a touchdown, maybe that was a bad pass by Stidham.

He didn't look very comfortable. Of course, he didn't look comfortable. So I want to give Ray Bull credit before we start. bash at Patriots more. Okay, well, fine. If we're going to do that, then I'll follow you down that path and ask you about this.

I saw some nerds tweeting about how, on the critical play, the Stidham Interception that seals the game. In that play, it was a bit confusing for the casual fan, but basically their substitutions happening and the official is holding up play

as some big guys come on for the Patriots. and basically, you know, the smart people out there, you're one of them, explain that like, Vrabel's playing chess here with the clock, with personnel. Can you explain this a little bit better? Because I want him to get credit if it really was that smart. Yeah, out of all things that this is to me not really a crazy one. So if an offense subs, right, the defense has the opportunity to match a substitution.

So there's 11 guys in offense. If one leaves the field, then you're allowed defensively to match one for one. And what teams do now is if you sub late as an offense. So basically, you know, typically the play ends, they wind the clock, the play clock, and you send in your subs and you send out the guys are coming out. And that happens to the first 10 seconds of the play clock, right, Gabe? But sometimes you have the wrong personnel, the wrong player in the game, and you do it with 20 seconds left.

And maybe you're already in formation. And you want to switch up a guy on a wide receiver, tight end. The defense is then giving the opportunity. to make a sub as well. And you always see there's an umpire who stands over the ball as this is happening because the ball's not to be snapped until the defense is allowed to make a substitution. This happens a lot more in college football

is then you run a defensive guy on the field and they go as slow as possible. Do do do do do do because there's no rush and they get lined up and you have two sets left to play clock office calls timeout. It happens all the time in college football. It doesn't happen as much in the NFL because you're just better with substitutions. you're better at planning ahead.

And the interception, Devere's sub-l late, the Patriots, sub-guise on. Now, part of the two is in college you typically have a two-deep on your defensive line. The NFL, you really don't, right? So if you sub out Baramore, for example, for a backup, it's a pretty big drop, right, Gabe? And that play, though, they were able to get two guys on, two guys off, and made Sidham snap the ball faster. You don't want to get delayed a game. And look, the throw was terrible.

I'm not sure it mattered if anyone was on the football field besides the cornerback. a bad play, a bad throw, I should say. So it's not really, we're able to do anything that we don't see happen every Saturday in college football. It just happens far less in the NFL. Yeah. Okay. Well, it did stand out for that reason for me.

It just felt like mine games with an inexperienced quarterback in a very, very difficult situation on a critical play. Anything else you can do to make that guy have to make decisions under pressure is smart. Correct. Correct. And he obviously made a horrible throw into the snow. Yes.

Drake May has a negative 17.7 EPA is a passer in the playoffs. But the stats are bad for it. It's just not good. The one thing, I'm telling you right now, quick Super Bowl preview, the one thing I think I'm going to be right on,

everyone's going to be wrong on. People will think Drake May is going to run for a bunch of yards in this game, and I think he's not, because Seattle plays so much zone coverage. One thing about being able to run the football for your quarterback, you have design runs, obviously,

which, look, I give him stones for making that, the final play the game, he made his own call game, he called his own number. He kept the ball. Great. If you don't make it, you're in trouble. If you make it, you're a hero.

So I loved it. Good for him. But the scrambles, when you're in man coverage on defense and you're in coverage, you turn your back to the quarterback, right? Everyone has a man. Well, a lot of times, that means there's no one in the middle of the field because the linebacker is covering a tight end or a running back. And so there's a giant hole in the middle of the defense that the pass rush is a little bit aggressive. Not in their lane, boom, take off. That's what Drake may did.

Again, zone coverage teams like Seattle, you can't do that. There's a middle linebacker standing right over the ball. So, like, I think that if you take that part away from his game, then heading into a game where he might have to throw a ball a little more, that definitely favors Seattle. Okay. I like that little knowledge there. I will bet his under when it goes higher and higher and higher.

Well, I don't even know what unders are going to look like in this game. So let's go through a couple more damning Patriots and Drake May's stats. according to Scott Kaksmar, QBs to make or win the Super Bowl with multiple playoff games where their offense didn't score 17 points. The 2000 Trent Dilfer Ravens, famously always referred to

as the worst quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, led by the defense. 2001 Tom Brady, people now call him the goat. Back then, he was a young game manager who was carried by his defense and special teams.

And 2025, Drake May. Brady had it for all three games, by the way. But he's not in the kind of company you want to be in as a quarterback who's trying to win a Super Bowl in this era. We haven't seen this for most of this century, a quarterback who just can't move the ball, get bailed out by the other phases of the game. There's other stats, by the way, and that show luck. Did you see this one, Jeff? Same guy.

Record when scoring under 17 points, Justin Herbert's 2 and 16 in this career. Joe Burroughs, 1 in 10, Josh Allen's 4 and 19, Patrick Moll. Holmes is two and seven. Lamar Jackson's three and seven. Drake May, two and oh in the playoffs. Like, yeah,

look, I look, he's, he's making the plays he has to make. I'll give credit for that, but he doesn't do anything. And if Seattle scores 21, 24 points,

like, is he going to be able to match in a game where, and this is something that like, that I know we're making ahead of ourselves previewing this a little bit, but there's just, there's just, there's just like, not a lot of great matchups.

for New England in this game. And I just don't expect them to play that well in this game. Defensively probably will play just as well as they have been. But offensively, I don't know where the upside is against the Seattle defense. Yeah. All right. Last thing focusing on them, and then we'll move over to Seattle, their offense, and some other storylines out of their team.

Long time ago, Coach Vrable said that he would give up his unit in exchange for a Super Bowl ring. And we've joked about that occasionally over the years. It seems like that joke's coming up again. What do we do if he doesn't make a call to his urologist after a win? Like do we hold him accountable for that? I think the urologist has to be there like in the stadium. Right.

Like you're not allowed out of this one. Yeah. Like as soon as you win operating room, buddy. You don't even let him go like have a few beers in the locker room with the fellas? No, you have a few beers and then right, he can't leave the stadium until he, until it's finished. You think it's a in the stadium thing? Yeah. So he goes to the parade and he's already recovering?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's harsh, Jeff. I'll tell you what, I hate the Patriots. I'm going to let Coach Frable do it on his own timeline, but I think he has to do it. I mean, I just also think that obviously he's not going to, you know, to cut off his appendage anyway. So not something that he has to worry about.

But, I mean, that's so much it matters to a lot of these guys, man, you know? I mean, Devante Adams has been in five championship games now as 0 and 5. He seemed quite emotional after losing this one. Yeah, of course. Yeah, this seemed like his best chance in a while. People, you know, people say that like losing this game is like worse than, you know, than like, you know, not making it, right?

Yeah, we're covering out. Yeah. Yeah. That's harsh, Jeff. I'll tell you what, I hate the Patriots. I'm going to let Coach Frable do it on his own timeline, but I think he has to do it. I mean,

I just also think that obviously he's not going to, you know, to cut off his appendage anyway. So not something that he has to worry about. But, I mean, that's so much it matters. A lot of these guys, man, you know? I mean, Devante Adams has been in five championship games now as 0 and 5.

He seemed quite emotional after losing this one. Yeah, of course. Yeah. This seemed like his best chance in a while. People, you know, people say that like losing this game is like worse than, you know, than like, you know, not making it, right? You know, like not like, like, like, yeah, I know what you mean. Like, like not making the playoffs.

Like it's worse to lose this game. Right. Then like worse to, you know, not even make the playoffs because you get, you're so close, right? And, you know, you just, you're out, especially if you're Denver, right? Because, you know, your quarterback gets hurt. But they win that game with Bo Nix. probably and pat bryng got hurt in the early game i don't think troy frankly play in that game Patriots had one scoring drive for touchdown that was 12 yards that was it yeah all right well

let's let's talk about the seahawks then yeah um so uh yeah if arnold is to win well first well he's already the first trojan quarterback to make a super bowl i didn't realize that start which is wild start thank you um He would be the first to win, obviously. I got to tell you, and I've watched him since his Trojan days, and as the Jets picked him, that coincides with when I divorced the Jets. I have not believed in Sam Darnold. I've talked about that many times here with you.

Yeah. I don't know what to say other than the guy brought it. I mean, he really has been, he's been top notch when they needed him. And do you think he can keep it going? Yeah, we're going to have to, we're going to have to make some amends here, and eat some crow on him, I think. You know, we were wrong, Gabe, about him. And we had every right to question Sam Jones, right?

The biggest game, the two biggest games he played last year did not play well, right? Week 18 and then the playoff game. Even this season, the two Rams games he played, right? Six interceptions total. Other moments this year where you're like, I don't really know. And then he was, dude, he was unbelievably good. 91st percentile EPA game under control, on time, on target. He's always going to throw a couple passes of game that are kind of close to being intercepted.

It's just what he does. But those are mostly early. I just thought it was a massive game plan from Kubiak. It was well executed by Sam Darnold. The run game, which has not been really something they've done well this season, really took off, especially in the first half of this game. It slowed down the second half of this game, but it really took off. Their offensive line in Seattle's played much,

better in the opposing they really play in the regular season. They have some issues in the right guard, but cross played well. The left-guard center are really good. Lucas is fine and right tackle. And I thought the whole offense played such a good game against a Rams defense that really isn't as good as we think.

It's not a great defense. But I think it comes back to the idea that we just didn't believe in Seattle because of Sam Darnold game, right? All your pieces are there, right? Good coaching staff, good defense, good pass rush, attacking style. defense. Now, they didn't tackle terribly well in this game, which is something that we've

seen all season from them. Again, a good offensive design. JSN, Cooper Cup came alive in this game. They have the two running backs. Obviously, one is out now. Good enough tight ends. And we just didn't believe it because of Sam Donald. If I tell you that that team is constructed has a quarterback we trust, you would have said, oh, the Super Bowl team. And the question is now, for me, do I trust Donald going forward? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. I think this, I think this is true. Now, of course, you can throw two interceptions and look out a pumpkin in two weeks. But I think this game for me, for him, for me, you've got to be confidence for him, right?

He's got to feel like I did it. We did it. In the biggest game of his career, after hearing forever, he couldn't win that game. He was MVP of the game. Yeah. Also, the only, up until yesterday, the only true highlight of Sam Donald's career was that Rose Bowl where he just like took over and brought his way to a win the Penn State one right when they beat Penn State yeah so he yeah like he can do it he can but it's just that attitude was also how

he would play like week four against the dolphins and he'd be like what the what is this guy doing why why is he throwing it there like don't fumble that what are you doing yeah um but he seems to have outgrown a lot of it and if if they need to to drive for a touchdown late, I believe that he believes he can do it. And that belief is important, right? As we know. And again, he's made the big throws, man.

He did, he was so good yesterday. No, the defense presents a little bit different challenge. They're better inside the interior pass rush, which is going to be important to note. But, you know, the edge rushers aren't as good as what he just has seen. I'm not sure the secondary Gonzalez is very good, but as a whole, the RAM secondary is not as, as good as New England.

I'll give you that, but just as a whole, the Rams defense probably a little bit better. New England's numbers are good, but again, they haven't really played as many people this season. So a different challenge for him, right? I mean, I'm sure he'll think about,

you know, the things have happened in his past, but the confidence man, it's gotta be through the roof right now for him. Deservably so, we played well. Okay, so then talk to me a little bit about the opening line. I'm a little, oh, dude, I'm a little surprised by it. Yeah, talk to me. I smashed. I smashed the Seahawks minus three and a half and the Seahawks on the money line.

Like I was, my app was open. I was ready to go. I took both those immediately. Look, people will point to Seattle's defense not being as good as we think. But is that more of a Rams thing? Because the Rams seem to be their kryptonite, right? The Rams play well against them. Everyone else Seattle has got a good job against.

Now, they've had random games here and there. but you know outside of the Rams they have allowed what they allowed three to the Niners now the Niners were hurting that game and the season but 10 16 9 zero 24 Rams 21 Cardinals 22 14 19 12 it's a good defense the Rams just the Rams forever it's worth they play them a lot to have their quote unquote number the Rams against the Seahawks and the two in the last two games they played in Seattle, 64 points, a thousand yards,

one turnover, and their own 2 record. I think Seattle's defense just has the trouble playing Los Angeles. I don't even have trouble playing New England. All right, an interesting stat about that defense then. Dante Cop Phlegm on X points this out.

Quarterbacks under the age of 24 versus Mike McDonald defense since 2023. O and 6. one passing touchdown, eight interceptions, 22 sacks. Drake May, obviously, young, 23 years old. Yeah. What is that? Is it just confusing the young guys, taking advantage of something?

Or is that a weird coincidence? When I watch Seattle, though, I don't really see confusing defense. Okay. It's just a very sound defense. And they don't give you a lot, man. But that's, they just don't, they don't not give you a lot to, to, to throw into to look at. And they have just really, they have really good football players. And so that's what makes them in my mind really tough is that they have all those other pieces.

And then play a very, like, there are times that you motion across the formation and teams do motion a lot of times to get manner's own reads. And not a single person on Seattle's defense moves one inch. They're just like, they have their call. they're ready to play football, and they play super fast. So you say you got on three and a half as soon as it opened. Oh yeah, immediately. So where do you think that number's headed? It's a four and a half five now.

Yeah. I think it might touch five and a half. And then I think it probably closes somewhere around the three and a half four. New England's been a great covering team this season. I think people are going to get to game day and go, Sam Donald. The same thing that people say about him. So I think that that is, I would expect it to basically get back to four.

Yeah, because I was thinking the public money will pull it in the Patriots direction basically from now until the game time. I just think there's more stories going to be told about them, more Brady pieces and, you know, Belichick nostalgia. I just feel like neither team is great. Neither team has a star. Like it's just going to be the jersey we people start to bet on, right? I think so.

And they're going to look at, I think they're actually going to look at, you know, basically like the 2001 Patriots. Like this is, oh, this is Tom Brady again, right?

Like, look at that defense. They're going to win 1714 against, against the fashion show on turf. Like, that's how I think people are going to, um, to view this game.

Yeah. All right. Last question. We'll take a break. We'll talk some, coaching stuff and then a few college topics that are lingering. But I saw this presser. McDonald was talking about how he only,

I think he says he only sees his son for 30 minutes a week. That's weird. I don't like it. What is that? So, there are plenty of coaches to get to see their family. And there's plenty of people to talk about, like,

I think Kirksonetti even talked about, like, yeah, my guys go home at seven. Like, like, you just get your work done, just go home.

Yeah, go home and see your family for an hour and then log back. Yeah, yeah. Some more stuff. I just think that's, again, I don't want to, you know, to, you know, slam someone for working hard. And obviously he's winning. But I just think that there's a work life balance you have to achieve and part of that has seen your family.

Yeah. Yeah. I know if I've had a bad day, you know, what's great, see my kids who don't care. Like, like, just, just, like, go home, Matt, like, see your kids. I think I'd be a good coach. On To a Moan Horn, I think I'll be a great coach. But if I, if I told me, if I, if it's an eight to five job, sign me up. Like, I'm not missing family time.

I'm not missing, like, we had a long discussion before the show about changing them making to our softball league as a head coach now. Like, I'm not missing the opportunity to be with my kids in those moments. And I know coaches sacrificed a lot to do that. It's a lucrative job. And it's, it's well-paying. and it's your NFL coach. Like, how cool is that?

Only 32 of those jobs. But I know his kid's young to is like a year old, but I still, you got to see your kid more, man. And maybe he's just saying that for the camera and he sees the kid a little bit more. But obviously, he's just a skips. He guys were like, yeah, like your point, like go home and see your kid to come back to work. Yeah. Well, you said 32, only 32 jobs.

There are a couple open right now. A couple just got filled. I think we should talk about the coaching carousel. A little bit more. And then also I want to talk about Diego Pavia. And what the hell's going on with him? Mr. 5-9. Let's do that.

All right, quick break. All right, Gabe, we're back with more talk about National Football Way, some college football stuff. What do we got next? Our buddy Dave Damasheck, I think his take was basically, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard, Antonio Gates played basketball. Mike McCarthy is from the Pittsburgh area.

we're going to get tired of hearing it. So he's the Steelers coach. Yeah. What do you think of that higher? That seems lazy to me. I don't know why he would replace Mike Tomlin with Mike McCarthy, but okay. So McCarthy had Dak Prescott healthy three seasons in Dallas. He won 12 games all three times.

One thing that was not seven and ten, I believe. He's won a lot of football games in his career. I think that he's probably a better coach now than Mike Tomlin as far as getting the most. out of the position that you need to get the most out of a quarterback. The problem is they don't have a quarterback in the future. So it's a matter of me and you're the coach, Gabe. If they can't figure that thing out, Mike McCarthy won't be successful.

So my favorite Mike McCarthy thing, too, is Mike McCartney, the agent, getting all the tweets at him about whenever McCarthy has news come out. So I'm the higher, it's fine. This is also a cycle, Gabe, that doesn't have a lot of great... We're at the point now, there's three jobs open to talk. No, four.

Browns, Bills, Raiders, and Cardinals. A couple of those are waiting for Seattle to wrap up. Like, Kubiak's getting a job somewhere, okay? I feel strongly in that. The guys are talking about, so this shield house guy for the Rams, okay? He's 35. He doesn't call plays. I was thinking about coordinators,

ofteners who don't call plays, getting head coaching jobs. It's not great. Matt Nagy, Bill Callahan. The Vake called place before he got the Rams job. It's a big jump from not being in front of that room to being in front of that room as the head guy. And we're at the point of this cycle

where there's not a lot of options, Gabe. So was Pittsburgh going to go Brian Flores or McCarthy? You choose the offensive guy, right? Who can bring along hopefully a young quarterback because that's what you want to do, which McCarthy did with Aaron Rogers, he did with Dak Prescott. So you hope that's what the hope is, right?

that if you go defense a guy or a guy with no experience ever coaching in front of a room because you're, you know, the O.C of a team who doesn't, you know, don't call a place because they call some place in Los Angeles. So I get why they went with sort of the known name,

I would say, even though it probably is slightly underwhelming from what you thought you might get, but he's one of a lot of football games, man. Like, he just has. Yeah, okay.

This is knowable. I'm proving that I didn't look at this, but what is the speculation then on like, what that means for Aaron Rogers. What Aaron Rogers' rolling on this decision. I think that if you roll it back with Rogers, you're just absolutely insane. But they don't have great options because they have no,

who they're going to draft. That's a terrible quarterback draft. Okay, I'll go the other way just for the sake of it. There's a moment in history, now it's almost more than 10 years ago, where Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rogers are, Aaron Rogers the best quarterback ever for a couple seasons there with Mike McCarthy, right?

Isn't that fair to say? Yes. Okay. And neither still has that. But like, you'd take three quarters of that and you'd have one of the best quarterbacks in the league. So maybe they think they can get that back. I mean, you got a plan for the future, man.

You can't be stuck in the past. And this feels like I stuck in the past if you keep Rogers. Okay. Did you see Stephen A saying that he thought that Ryan Clark should have been given an interview for this job. I saw it.

That's a, that's a, that's a goose act for you and no take on that. I just, some of those shows, it's just not, it's just not for me, man. It's just not for me. It's just, they're not for me.

They're not, I'm not the target audience. Their college will take some of that show are absolutely atrocious. They do watch no college football. That's one thing where I think, and I think they're going to use Josh Paytonmore over there, that network, which they should.

is like college football is a big deal, Gabe, and they talk about college football with only NFL people who went to SEC schools, and it's a terrible discussion all the time on college football. Everything they say on college football in that show is the worst thing about time. Stephen A. Smith doesn't watch college football. It's fine. It's not his job.

He's an NBA guy. He's not going to, NBA NFL. Cam Newton's not watching college football full time. Ryan Clark might because his son was, you know, played for a while. I'm not sure his son's in college football anymore, but he sort of pays his attention to a little bit more. But that he's, like, falling time about college football. No one's watching college football.

No one watches college football. So I tend to not. Only time I see that show is when I, is when those tweets come out that you send me or that I see. I'm not watching that show. Okay, fair enough. Of the opening spots, you listed a few of them, a lot of the stories have been,

and I don't remember seeing this in too many off seasons before. Maybe you could correct me, but I'm seeing a lot of like, Mike McDaniel's not going to take any job. Yeah. Except this one if he gets it, but he's probably going to be the OC, so he's waiting. Like, or Flores. Yeah, yeah.

It's all very qualified and, like, they have a job, but they're holding out for a better one. Are we done with that now? Like, is this, is it time to just slot the people in? Okay, so I think some of that is just agent speak, right? Just to make you sure it sounds like their client is like a, you know, I think it feels like, Phil Rivers pull himself from the bills. He's not getting the bills, like coach your job. So it just sounds better than I didn't want you.

So they were saying, hey, you know, we pull us out of this coaching search. The Browns, though, have the record, though, of people pulling out of coaching searches. I mean, they have like 12 guys. They're like, ah, I'm good. And there was a report that Andrew Barry, their GM is making them do multi-part essays and personality tests and all. It's just, it's too much, man. Like, you think inequality, any quality candidate is doing a multi-part essay to be the Brown's head coach?

Well, they do have a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yeah, they get a pro bowl or at quarterback. I was going to correct. Okay. So here's my take quickly. I didn't put this out for the internet. I might tweet this out later. I really don't care if Sjur is a pro ball or not.

There's no game. It's flag football. Who cares? The problem, Gabe, and I say this all the time, is that those awards matter when it comes to post career. Yeah. Like Hall of Fame. And like, it's got to mean a little bit more than it does now.

And I know that, like, when it comes to discussion about someone's career, and you make the Hall of Fame as the 7th, excuse me, they make the Pro Bowl's seventh alternate. That's not brought up. No one's going to like, let's say Shedur play so well he's in discussion for the Hall of Fame. I'm just making this up, right? They're not going to go, well,

he was the 18th alternate that one year for the Pro Bowl. They're not going to say that, but the fact is he's now a Pro Bowl quarterback forever. It still carries some gravitas, and they're treating this like it doesn't matter at all. And it's something it does. I was like, there's no way, even the ardent Sanders supporter, thinks he's a pro-ball level quarterback, Gabe.

And this happens with Tyler Huntley. It happens all the time. It happens with offensive alignment. And again, it matters because we use it as a way to summarize someone's career. And so the game itself is unimportant. I don't even know. I learned to play football yesterday. I'm not watching a second of it.

I didn't you watch it when used to be a real game. It's not a real game anymore. But it still matters. And that's why it kind of frustrates me when some guys, Just I'm using Sanders as an example. Just they're not deserving of this, right? And, and that part bothers me. Yeah, I agree.

And if you're gonna, if you're going to give the 17th alternate the nod, so you're basically just saying like, we need someone to show up. We and we're giving it out. Then why not give it to a guy like Joe Burrow and go like, well, you know, one day this guy's gonna have 10 or 12 of these appearances. And he's gonna maybe be a borderline Hall of Famer. He stays in. It's by voting, though, isn't it?

I know, but what I'm saying is why vote, like, who's voting for Shador's? What did he get in? Like, four games, five games? Uh, I think he started like seven, though. To get to seven games? I mean, not one of them mattered, but either way, like, I, I guess if you're just going to say, screw it, why, why isn't Trevor Lawrence in there? Like, it doesn't make any sense.

He started seven games. Yeah. Uh, Trevor Lawrence is in, isn't he? I don't think he got I don't think he was unless they worked their way to him as an alternate Isn't isn't

He was like fifth MVP voting Dude I'm glad if I'm glad to find out Oh no you're right No no no no Me's in over Trevor Lawrence Okay so what like I don't care Trevor Lawrence doesn't feel like a pro bowler to me either But he's got to be one ahead of Shador Sanders

Like did we just not have our ballot correctly assembled Um Oh, it says here that Lawrence was named a Pro Bowl alternate over a month ago, but declined to participate. Declient, okay. So does he get it? Does he get named a Pro Bowl for this season? Well, so, no, so I, no, so. That's what's done, to your point. The way that I thought this always worked was you had to make the Pro Bowl on the first ballot for it to count toward any sort of future, like, endeavor. Right. Now, if you go to Tyler Holley's, you know, Wikipedia page.

It says pro bowler. But I don't know if that's like an official designation he gets his entire life. Or again, like post career, we start talking about these guys. Oh, he made a pro bowl. So it's frustrating from that perspective, but, you know, it is, it's,

it just, that's the system we have in place now. We can do about it. Can't do much. Let's talk about the draft after a quick break because there's a guy who I now believe is going to be a 14-time. Oh, boy. Oh, no.

Oh, no. I read the rundown. Not good for me. All right. So for those who are here this long, thank you for staying. Rate review subscribe. Hank told me,

I asked him for some numbers. I don't know he didn't give me the numbers, Gabe, which is fine. But he said that we're in the top 6% of retention on Spotify for podcast. Top 6%? The people like listen to our show

or 94% whatever it is. Like we were like in the top the people of retention. People listen to the show like throughout the show. Most minutes. that show up stay longer than almost anywhere else. Yes. Yes. So thank you.

So many, many, many millions more are listening to Joe Rogan. They're just not making it to the end. Yes. That's what sounds like, yes. I mean, I don't do three-hour podcast, so certainly fair that that's the case. So we've made this far, thank you, but out there. I

think he's one of the most obvious number one picks in recent memory. And I think he's going to be everything that Tim Tebow could or should have been. And more. There it is. there it is he's got the tbo thing um so here's my my take on the tbo thing so well is the tbo thing more about just like like tell me what the tbo thing is it is it the personality is it like the style of play obviously different passer is it like just like the earnestness okay i believe that he believes

everything he's saying and most people don't believe it and i don't want to get into the religious piece of it there's some comparison there. Yeah. Ernest. Nice. I'll just say this game. Yeah.

When you're four and nine, you just lost by 17 to the Broncos and week 14 next season. Okay. That doesn't play quite the same than when you're 16 in a championship in the NFL locker. I'm just going to throw it out there. I'm curious to see, like, how that goes. But other than that, I think all the good are there with Mendoza.

I thought it was, I mean, the whole thing was serenating him with the actual thing. with the Abbas song. Like, incredible. Like, how cool is that? You're the stadium serenating you. The fourth down play was incredible.

Indiana made every play the entire season they had to make. And they almost dinted the very end, right? The false start on second and one was almost a killer for them. I just, I can't explain it, Gabe. There's no way this should have happened. It did. I don't think it changes college football, by the way. I don't think there's just some revelation where now everyone tries to find

65 year old coaches and bring over JMU transfers and win a championship. I think this is just a supremely you know, unique story to college football that's never going to happen again. And they earned it, man. They beat the Shadabama and Oregon and they beat Miami, dude. I mean, unbelievable run by Indiana.

Unbelievable. Well, if I'm a Raiders fan, I'm excited. And a few weeks ago, I would be excited from Mendoza. But just, again, like, the earnest When you start losing, it can wear on guys. That's it. Just it can. Okay.

Are you thinking of a player in the past, like a guy who was a little too ra-rah-rah and Pollyannish in your locker room where you're like, is this guy serious? Does he not see how bad we are? Like, what do you draw in from? I mean, I play with someone. Well, Russell Wilson is part of it. Got it. There we go. Yeah.

Yeah. He wasn't always that. That's the bad side of what Tebow used to bring. Yeah. Like, and again, I want to make, I want to make it very clear. I don't want Mendoza to change at all. And this is not at all like anti-Mendoza. Like, again, I think it's earnest to your point. It's who he is. But a lot of us aren't that way. And when you're losing, I mentioned this with Carson Wentz before because I remember the specific example. Like, when you lose and don't take the blame for it and talk about other things that are happening the reason why you're not playing well,

a lot of guys are like, we don't like it. You know, like, just be like, I play bad. It's my fault. Like, don't blame my, don't blame the wrong word, but don't like to. And like, when you lose, I, it, the only thing that makes you happen to the NFL is winning, buddy. It is really tough. I've been on 214 team.

I've been a 11 and 5 team. I've been a 12 and 14 team. Like, I've been on good football teams and battle football teams. You're losing is tough, man. The whole building is depressed. Not just you, right? everyone in the building, you're there to win football games. You don't win, everyone gets fired, dude.

And not just like, not the players, the coaches, the coaches, families, the supports. Everyone's fired. Everyone's gone, right? I mean, even the John Harbock is hired in New York. And, you know, they're replacing, like, their trainer of 45 years. Like, everyone's going, you're gone, right? Now, Ronnie's great, and he's had a great life and he'll be fine. He'll find some other position for him, like, in the building.

But, like, everything changes, right? So winning keeps everyone job employed. And you want accountability. You want those. you know, and again, when you lose, it doesn't hit, the earnestness doesn't hit quite the same way as when you win. And that's the only thing about Mendoza,

I think he's a great player, it's going to be fine, but again, does that evolve over his career? Wilson never, went the other way, it went the opposite direction with Wilson. Soon you started losing game, they were like, get out of here, buddy. Like, that's a bad example.

Like, they were like gone, right? Please, get out of here. Yeah. Well, I don't know how earnest it was. I think it was pretty manufactured in his case. But, all right, Jeff, If we want to crack the top 5% of, you know, attention on Spotify, we got to be tight with these last five minutes.

I'm going to give you a choice. You can talk about any of these three things, but only one of them. Diego Pavia finally admitting or being formally listed as the five, nine man that we all knew he was, not six feet. You can talk about that and why one would have lied for so long. We could talk about this Clemson-O-Miss transfer portal tampering scandal, Deep Davosweeney sort of threw out into the universe. or we can talk about Dionne Sanders issuing fines to his players who are still amateurs. The last one is the most interesting one to me.

All right. Because it's a fundamental argument about college athletes. So Dionne Sanders has announced he's fining the players for being late and those and those are, those NFL, right? NFL you get fine for being late. You get fine for being overweight. You're fine for everything. Those fines are collectively bargained and you're an employee of your,

of the National Football League and the team you're on, right? We've got a bargaining agreement. It's bargained for. It's negotiated. You send a contract with the team and your employee of the team in the NFL. And college athletes are not employees of the team. Now, some players have signed NAL agreements with the university. And maybe, okay, because of that, they're considered employees,

even though we know that legally they're not, okay? But if I sent a deal with a third-party collective at Colorado, I don't want to deal with the school. I'm not getting fine for it. What am I getting fine for? This is going to be a problem in the courtroom because you claim they're not employees, but this is treating them like employees, right? And this is the argument all along through this whole process, right?

Are the employees or not? These are not, to my knowledge, collectively bargained, they're not in a contract, they're not agreed upon by the players, you legally can't do this. And I'm curious to see the backlash. Look, these are all,

these are NFL fine schedules, right? This is sort of like what it is. They're like, that's what the NFL does, but I have a collectively bargain contract with the NFL. These players don't. That's a fascinating way of looking at it. I guess my question, is you're getting into like authority and like if I'm a player and Dion's like hey man you owe

you owe us 500 bucks because of violation and I'm like hey coach I hear you I won't be late again but I'm not paying that money isn't it only a problem if Dion like punishes him right like it's sort of suggestive it's it's representative the player can choose to adhere but like if he says no it's over right that's the thing about so like Indiana NFL, they take it from your paycheck. Right. It's gone. There's no, like, bargaining this.

Again, like, some of the players getting paid by the university, right, that's now allowed. Those players, I would imagine, will get it garners from their paycheck. Now, they can, they can probably take them to court and say, we're not, we didn't collectively bargain this, we're not employees. And it's not, if it's not in my contract, you can't take the money for me. I don't think, I don't know what's in their contracts, Gabe. I don't know. I don't think the fine skills is in their contract.

I don't think it's in the contract. It might be. But again, if I sign a deal with the Colorado Collective who's not associated with the school, it's definitely not on my contract then. So who's paying the money? To your point, who's paying the money? Who's getting the money?

Is it going to the University of Colorado, going to the athletics department, going to Deion's pocket? Who's getting the money? By the way, Tom Coughlin love to find his players, right? And he always used to say, like, you guys agreed to this. Just following the fine schedule. He's like, we did.

Toucheque coach. I don't know, man. I'm curious to see where this ends up. Because I, this is, this is the, there's many little things that make it feel like, you know, the guys are employees now. But, you know, this, this is one of the ones. It's sort of sneaky kind of small, like it's not a big thing.

But it, uh, it, it's very employee-esque. Well, good. Then let's next week when we chat in between games come to the topic we didn't discuss today, which I think by then will have a lot of more serious reporting. Davos Sweeney made some pretty big accusations, but it seemed like he came with receipts for some pretty odd transfer portal behavior out of a player he was expecting to bring over who's now going to Ole Miss and a lot of money is exchanging hands. It's too confusing to do in a minute.

So can we talk about that next week? Yes, because we'll have more time to get into that. And there might be more tampering stuff. It's very interesting where the college sports are going right now. Yeah. All right. All right. Super Bowl's set. It's not great. And we did just spend time talking about our strategies this year for our coaching strategies for our various youth sports. Well, of mine, I can't find kids, but I can give out donuts after the game in order of who listened to best.

And let's just say my son went last this week. Hopefully we'll do better next week.