Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Rodgers and Wilson Bombshells, Plus What the NFL Got Wrong With Calvin Ridley

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Geoff is back along with Gabe to celebrate the end of the Rodgers saga-- he’s staying in Green Bay, exactly like Geoff told you it would happen all season. They also break down the winners and losers of the Broncos big swing, trading picks and players for Russell Wilson to take them to the promised land. And to wrap up a wild two days of NFL news, Geoff shares his reaction  to Calvin Ridley’s suspension, and Geoff and Gabe exavulate some of Twitter’s best and worst takes on the situation. Plus, combine talk, a DK Metcalf teaser, and how long would it take Gabe to push Geoff into a pool, all on Moving The Line.Be sure to comment, rate, and follow the podcast to get notifications whenever a new episode drops. Tweet @geoffschwartz to tell him what you want your favorite team to do this offseason, and join Geoff Scwartz’s Pool on Yahoo or from the link below to enter the bracket pool and win a chance to guest on an episode! Geoff Schwartz PoolSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's Wednesday, March 9th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz of Samara and You, powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. And for once, Gabe, the podcasting gods are in our favor. As soon as we were about to record this, we had news of two quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, plus a story that is in our region, gambling, NFL, Calvin Ridley. We have some combine stuff to talk about just all over the place but again huge quarterback news that happened before we record which we never get we never get like great podcasting luck like this i love it we we don't usually we we finish recording you've been up for 14 straight hours and and talk about football non-stop and then

twitter blows up and we're like oh oh, what are we going to do? No, not this time. Although, who knows? We could be jinxing ourselves right now. Tom Brady could be coming out of retirement right as this thing drops on your RSS feed. It's possible. But for now, yes, you're right. We're talking about Russ, Aaron.

This was supposed to be our combine show, Jeff. We had so much fun combine talk to get to. You were geeking out all last week and into the weekend. And I can barely remember what Jordan Davis did. Jordan Davis at 341 pounds ran a 4.78 out of Georgia. That will never be forgotten ever again. Oh, yeah. I mean, the combine, look, very quick combine take.

It was very fast. The turf was fast. People were running fast, moving fast. And I was impressed with how physical and athletic a lot of players were. But that doesn't matter anymore because the actual NFL players have taken over the news cycle. They have. So Aaron Rodgers, for a few years now, but especially the last few weeks, has been a headline hogger. He did it again.

He got outdone by Russ. We'll get to that. So anyway, his boy Pat McAf, leaked some stuff about a new deal. A lot of reporting on this. What it seems like is Aaron Rodgers four year deal, 200 million dollars, about 150 million guaranteed. It essentially means that Jordan Love pick. Whoops. They're committing to Aaron after all the back and forth. And so even though we will probably have to do this whole conversation again in a year and two years and three years, it seems like Aaron Rodgers is going to play into his 40s in Green Bay.

Problem solved. Finally. Thank you. Done. Done with the drama. It's over. I've told you guys now from the beginning of this a year and a half ago, Gabe, he was not leaving Green Bay.

He knows. He knows. He knew. Whatever you want to say. He knows that Green Bay is the best chance for him to win. They've won 39 games the last three years. Their roster is good. We're starting to record this now.

We're talking about franchising Devontae Adams. And Andrew Rodgers himself tweeted out just 15 minutes ago, yes, I will be playing with the Packers next season. However, reports about me signing a contract are inaccurate as the supposed terms of the contract I signed. I'm very excited to be back. So he's back. He's over it.

But this still gave the drama behind this. Pat McAfee tweeting out, he was close to retirement. No, he wasn't. Guys that are close to retirement dragged this thing out. He told the Packers now so they can franchise Devonta Adams. They can get working on free agency. And they can help him out, right, with his team. He wasn't close to retiring.

It's just always, there's always some sort of drama. And then the Russell Wilson news breaks, and we stopped talking about Rodgers for all three seconds, and he tweets out that he's coming back again off the reports we already knew he was coming back. He just always wants the drama. And Gabe, I want to see playoff wins in Green Bay. I'm a Packers fan.

I'm glad he's back. I'm tired of the drama. Show me the wins. Show me the playoff wins in Green Bay. I'm a Packers fan. I'm glad he's back. I'm tired of the drama. Show me the wins. Show me the playoff wins. I'm tired of talking about you, buddy. I know you're good. You're a two-time MVP. Deserve all the attention for your play in the field.

But it's enough drama off the field. Show me the playoff wins. In the NFC right now, it's Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback. Matt Stafford, too? Yeah, kyler maybe on this show we debate that but kyler by the way i was i've been you know me i've been i've had countless nights of sleep worrying about when kyler murray is going to return his instagram photos back to his profile he did he did it today and i am just finally i am finally like i just i you know last night i was i know i'm getting ready to go this on this trip and i was telling my wife like i don't know if i can go unless kyle murray puts his instagram photos back on his page i just

can't deal with the stress like it's a lot nonetheless rogers is the best quarterback in the nfc by a long shot like they have to get to the Super Bowl this year, or this is all again a complete waste. Yeah. I think that the question now is, since all of this, we're saying this is a done, wrapped up,

complete story. Even if the details are being quibbled over, if Pat McAfee wants to question Ian Rapoport's exact, who cares? Directionally, we get it. He's there for a few more years. He's going to make a lot of money

they made the commitment he's happy we think what i don't understand though is what does this mean for the draft where aaron rogers is always eye rolling he's had a problem with everything they've ever done in the draft we always keep hearing he doesn't have enough weapons meanwhile everyone agrees devonta adams is the best receiver in the game he's got two good running backs he's getting a healthier line he's got a healthier line. He's got a defense that looked more than capable for most of last year. So they could presumably draft some defense or even sign some defense. What else do you do now that you got him to make him happier

and make them the winner that he could be? I'm curious what the mock drafts have for the Packers right now because I do feel like if Valdez-Scantling is leaving, which I believe he is for agency, you might not be able to afford him. You have to go wide receiver in the draft. You can't – it's very clear that in the NFL now what you need is a defense that is just average, right? Like just okay, but they can rush the passer, get home enough,

prevent enough big plays. But you don't really need to have a top, top defense to win. Again, something that slows the offense down, the opposing offense, just enough. What you do need, though, is multiple good wide receivers and multiple weapons to throw to. And I feel like that's what the Green Bay Packers have to focus on. Look at a mock draft right here. My buddy Lance Zerline on Phone phone network has him drafting offensive linemen.

So, I mean, I think he'd be okay with being protected too. So that feels like maybe that's the way to go. Offensive linemen, wide receiver. I'm looking at all the other. Why don't you split the difference? Why don't you give him one of these super athletic tight end types? So here's another one. to give him one of these super athletic tight end types.

So here's another one. So they have, well, someone has, Bucky Burks has a defensive lineman going to them. So, I mean, maybe I'm just, Daniel Jeremiah's latest mock draft has a defensive end. So maybe we're just, I just don't know how he's going to feel about a defensive end or defensive tackle being drafted when he clearly gets all in his feelings

when they don't do exactly what he wants a lot of people instantly uh went to the well jordan loves never taken a snap in a meaningful game ever in green bay that was i guess a wasted first round pick when they traded up to go get him well no plans change i kind of get what happened i think we can excuse green bay a little bit if you have the best quarterback in a conference, maybe the best quarterback in the league willing to play for you for a few more years, and it's cap manageable, as they've been saying, well, you scrap the plan with Jordan Love, who, by the way, looked terrible in the one time we did see him.

But will someone trade for him? Is there some value there? He is still younger even than some of the guys who might get drafted this year. Any market for him? So the Packers basically guessed wrong. Yeah. They guessed that Rodgers was going to fall off a cliff and Jordan Love was going to be their guy.

And they were wrong. Rodgers won. He won. He's two-time MVP. He showed them through his play, not his drama, that he's worthy of staying. And the Packers have to admit defeat and trade Jordan Love.

And this is a good year to do so because I would think that, and he started one game against the Chiefs this year, right? That was it when Rodgers was out because of COVID. And he hasn't played very much otherwise, even in mop-up duty. I would imagine that teams would look at their college grader, Jordan Love, and it might be higher than Kenny Pickett or Malik Wills out of Liberty or whoever else.

I don't even know. Matt Corral, whoever would be next up. And if you're a team like the Seahawks, I guess now maybe that would be awkward, but Jordan Love. Right. I mean, right?

Like, he would be maybe better than drafting Malik Willis, who supposedly they really like. It's why we'll get to that in a second. But, like, it feels like there's an opportunity to take Jordan Love. This is the hottest you're ever going to get because next year's quarterback class might not be as bad. And bad is a relative term here, but it might be better and the value is not there for Love. I would trade Love now.

I'd get a veteran backup and move it along. You admitted defeat when you gave Rodgers this new deal. Now you have to admit it all the way and trade Love. And if you're on the other side of the trade, I would think that Jordan love is incredibly valuable. This is like the Billy bean sort of world. Like he's damaged goods. People, you know,

the shine has come off. He's not a sexy play anymore. You could probably get him for very little. And yeah, he might still grade higher, at least on some teams than a few of the guys you'd have to pay first round money for. So,

I mean, it seems like trading for him and getting him in the right system would give him a chance and if we're in a week where again this was in the rundown until just a few hours ago where mitch trubisky is being talked about like the best free agent quarterback around because he was once a first rounder and jordan love is probably better than him the trubisky stuff i said something that i harp on a lot as a seventh round draft pick kind of draft pick bias right now obviously there's a physical gift that the trubisky has that got him drafted so high i mean there's there are traits there but his performance

has not been very good people want to blame matt nagy all right sure but sam darnold you know oh it's adam gaze's fault i don't think my sam donald Darnold, oh, it was Adam Gase's fault. I don't think Sam Darnold might not be any good. Is it Joe Brady's fault now? Is it the Panthers' fault? Will it be Ben McAdoo's fault after this season? You know, if he was a second or third round pick, he wouldn't get these opportunities,

but he's a first round pick. And I've heard people say, well, the Bills helped him. He threw eight passes this season, Gabe. How do we know what the Bills did? He didn't play at all. And so he's getting another chance because I saw throughout my career where there were players who were drafted

higher than me, who got better opportunities even though I was a better player than them their entire career. Your draft pick sticks with you your whole career. I was always a seventh round draft pick. Someone else was always a first round draft pick. That sticks your entire career no matter how well you play. Well, Jeff, it got you on this podcast if you'd been a first rounder you'd be sitting on

some glossy set and somebody'd be asking to make game picks and nothing else so uh it's very true i mean when when uh trey winger gave that speech about how much money uh the i'll be like yep that that's exactly right that's exactly how much money this podcast is making if i was a first round draft pick that would be true i wouldn't have it much money this podcast is making if I was a first-round draft pick. That would be true. I wouldn't have it much easier. I wouldn't have to work with Hank. It would be much easier. You wouldn't be working with Hank,

but Hank today showed his worth, whatever that might be, by quickly scrambling a rundown together. And the second thing in that rundown that we've already teased a couple times is Russell Wilson. Mr. What is he? Unlimited?

Undisputed? Uninterrupted? What is he? He's one of those. Okay. Was he unlimited, undisputed, uninterrupted? What is he? He's one of those. Okay. So he's heading to Denver, which for a long time looked like where Aaron Rodgers was going to end up.

They didn't get Rodgers, clearly. So moments later, Russell Wilson seems to be coming to town. They're also, they're reporting a little bit around,

you know, not quite locked in exactly what the deal is, but it looks like a couple first rounders for Russ. town there also they're reporting a little bit around uh you know not quite locked in exactly what the deal is but it looks like a couple first rounders for russ russ will end his career presumably in denver with all those great weapons a lot of receivers there and you know pretty good team some people think so do you like this deal and do you think the coverage of this deal at least so far has been kept in check because to me it has been completely insane. Yeah. So they got Russell Wilson for two first, two second.

They got Noah Fant, the tight end. They got Shelby Harris. They got Drew Locke. And they also have to give like a fourth round pick and got a fifth round pick in return, whatever it was. Adam Schefter does report that this was,

this trade was worked on for the last two weeks. I don't know if that's because everyone knew Rodgers was going back, which it felt like he was going back, or whether they're just scrambling. It obviously didn't happen today. Put it like that, right? It didn't happen today. Rodgers did come back, and Russell Wilson's gone. From Denver's perspective, home run.

Of course it's a home run. It's a great trade for them. It's a tough division, them uh it's a tough division though it's the best division in the nfl now patrick mahomes justin herbert russell wilson and derrick carr every one of those games will be on primetime television it's a great division for quarterbacks you mentioned it denver is very loaded right good weapons good offensive line now new coach right to put in the shanahan system Good on defense. They've won a lot of games the last couple of years without a good

quarterback, so it definitely puts them right in it to compete for the division, compete for championship. I'm curious about what Russell Wilson kind of has in the tank. He wasn't great the last couple of years in Seattle. Really, just past season, he wasn't great. He was fine otherwise. We'll see an offense, I would imagine, more tailored to him.

But my biggest takeaway of this is, Seattle, I would imagine, more tailored to him. But my biggest takeaway of this is Seattle. What you doing, guys? What are we doing? You sided with a 70-year-old coach over a young, relatively young quarterback in his prime still. You could have

kept Russell Wilson and got rid of Pete Carroll. Is Pete Carroll not going to be part of a rebuild at 70 years old? Is that what we're doing? What was that weird face for? The weird face is that I think behind your Pete Carroll slander is like a little bit of anti-USC feeling. No, stop. He was at USC 11 years ago.

His age is irrelevant. Pete Carroll's full of energy. It is relevant. His age is not an issue. It is relevant. He's going through a rebuild. Does he look like a guy who doesn't still want to do this? He's into

it. He does, but does he want to do this with Drew Locke? He's not going to do it with Drew Locke. They're going to figure out a quarterback. They'll probably sign and draft. Look, the thing about it is if you were a smart general manager, in my opinion,

you keep the quarterback and not the coach who refuses to adapt to modern football. It's that simple to me. Pete Carroll, they won a Super Bowl in 2014. Yes, 2014. They had a couple Super Bowl runs with Russ a while ago. Two, yeah. Yeah, but you know what?

A lot of miles on those tires, a lot of weird injuries, a lot of seemingly like his head is in another place a lot of the time. Yeah. He's not a normal cat. They haven't been great lately. Like, are we sure Russell Wilson is even a top 10 quarterback in the league? Oh, I think so.

On a team. You have no trouble putting him in the top 10? You don't want to wonder about that for a second? I hate to make it, that's dumb. This show tries to be a little smarter than that, but truly. Yeah. Let's rank our top 10s now back on ESPN. Let's see.

Okay, so Mahomes, Herbert, Burrow, Allen, Lamar, Rogers. Brady's gone. Murray. Wilson's better than Murray in my opinion okay Stafford debatable Murray debatable Dak debatable

okay you put Wilson on a better offense and by the way and by the way I think you could make an argument you could make the argument that he is the fourth best quarterback

in his division oh you certainly could but you could make the argument in his own his older division at times. No, you couldn't make the argument. He definitely was the fourth best there. You're claiming Kyler Mertz. No, no, Jimmy Garoppolo.

Okay, fair enough. Here's the thing. I had a different read on this, Jeff, so straighten me out. You're smarter than me. I looked at this and I was like, what a deal for Seattle. Two first rounders, two second rounders. I know that like the cool kids don't care about draft picks anymore and it worked out okay for the Rams, but traditionally first round draft picks are a good thing to have. Second round

picks are pretty good too. Like I, Russell Wilson is clearly on the back half of his career. They, they can go draft or sign a quarterback who fits what they want to do. I don't see how this is bad for Seattle. Well, Esmina Kimes, who is very heroically tweeting through her Seattle fandom at the moment, has brought up the point that is worth mentioning here, is that Seattle's not the best drafting team. Haven't been in quite a while now. So you're relying on them to take these draft picks and take a hall of fame worthy quarterback and basically trade them away and find another one right it's

hard to win in the nfl unless you have that type of player over many years i don't know is is kenny pickett that guy malik wills that guy is it someone else are you saving the draft picks for next year are you trying to tank for another quarterback next year's draft like are you training for Deshaun Watson like what's the plan here because unless you add in Russell Wilson back a caliber quarterback of that caliber you're going to be even worse next season no matter how you do with your draft picks so yeah great they got two first round draft picks too now next year though that first-round draft pick goes from 9 to 24, probably, right? The second-round draft pick goes from 37 to 55, right? It changes because they're better next season,

in theory, than Broncos are. In theory. I'm counting like six losses in the division. Oh, dude, if you're a Chiefs fan, I love like the odds are going to be so much better for the Chiefs to win the AFC West now. I love it. You got a much better price.

So for Seattle, they just don't draft well. Like that's the problem. And so you can't trust them to add the talent because they just haven't done it. I mean, look, to be fair, even like the Jamal Adams trade was terrible too. They don't have a first round pick this year because of that bum trade they did for Jamal Adams.

So like they just, they can't be trusted right now. So yeah, they have draft picks. Great. I just, they haven't proven they can use them. Okay. But you threw a name out there that I think enough time has passed that we can just talk about him in football terms. And I'm not diminishing the importance of all that other stuff looming over him. But Deshaun Watson, if he could just arrive in Seattle and play week one,

whatever you might think of him, football-wise, holy crap. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I just don't know if teams are going to trade for him unless his legal situation gets cleared up i mean if you if you trade you know the two first round picks that you get from denver for watson he doesn't play for a month or a year two months three months whatever it is is. Is that worth it? I don't know. Yeah, I guess I don't know either.

But, man, when you said it, my eyes lit up. Like, whoa, yeah, that could be – because then he would be the best quarterback in the division, at least right now. A couple other points here. Obviously, everyone in the league reacts when there's this big news. One that caught our attention. So, Von Miller, who, of course, reacts when there's this big news. One that caught our attention.

So Von Miller, who of course famously left Denver, got the ring. Now he seems to be hinting he's ready to go back. He's tweeting through it as well. It sounds like he's serious. He wants to go back to Denver. A, does that matter? I don't know if Von is that much of a difference maker for 18 games any longer. But B, is Denver now going to become the super team place? Is this where everyone wants to be?

I'm kind of tired of that. Vaughn Miller started tweeting about this before this news. It just didn't happen today. Is he going back? Maybe, I guess. I mean, why not? He went to L.A., won a Super Bowl, go back to Denver. Why not?

Better chance to win in Denver now than last year. I mean, if anyone played this right, the Broncos did, right? They traded away Von Miller in a year they weren't going to win anyways, got draft picks back, and then might just re-sign him again and got Russell Wilson. And Von Miller got a Super Bowl. He's happy too. I mean, Von Miller, Denver played this both correctly if it ends up being reunited again.

Yeah. All right. Well, so, I mean, on the rebuild front, you're convinced Pete Carroll doesn't actually want to be part of a rebuild. Well, I mean, he says he does, but, I mean, again, I don't know. Rebuilds take a couple years, and again, their draft history has not really been good enough to where you think like, man, they're going to, okay.

Last year, you ready? Dwayne Eskridge, Trey Brown, Stone Forsythe. The year before that. Jordan Brooks, Daryl Taylor, Damian Lewis, Colby Parkinson, DJ Dallas, Alton Robbins, I mean, you get back in the draft. The year before that. LJ Collier, Marquise Blair, DK Metcalf. Okay, sweet. draft the year before that lj collier marquise blair dk metcalf okay sweet uh cody barden

gary jennings ugo amadi played well year before that first round draft pick rashad penny rashim green will disley year before that malik mcdowell all right yeah i think you've made your point. I started tuning out when you got to Damian Lewis. I was like, wasn't that the guy in Homeland? The red-haired guy? Is that guy's name? I thought it was him.

Yeah, all right. Well, so we'll see if Pete wants to stick out or rebuild. Maybe the next story this offseason or sometime in the near future will be oh Pete's the new coach of so-and-so um all right let's go to what felt like the biggest most or most earth shaking story of the offseason just 24 hours ago I know it blew my mind Calvin Ridley so obviously we know you know he sat out most of last year for what was described as sort of mental health issues. So he was not suited up, not playing. But now we learn through the league and other sources that he was actually caught red-handed betting on NFL games, which of course is a no-no.

Now, you can start to detail the specifics of how he was betting and why that is or isn't as scary as some of the other possibilities. But bottom line, crossed a line you cannot cross and now has been suspended for a year. There's a lot of takes on this, a ton flying around before I throw things at you. First reaction when you saw this and reaction now with 24 hours to process. Oh boy. Wow. When I saw the story happen, I was like, like oh shit not good for the industry like that's my first thought like ah dang it because look i love gambling we talk about gambling we've done this we've been being you've been partners in this gambling world now for what four years which i

think we met four years ago to actually network yep and we've seen the growth of this industry and almost i mean it started with action network it It kind of took off from there, right? And we always hear that gambling is, quote, unquote, bad because players are going to do this. Players are going to wager on games. It's going to ruin the integrity of the sport. So I was like, God dang it. But then the story comes out and it's really,

what do we do on the weekends? He was in Florida at a sportsbook or used a sports book app, the Hard Rock app. He played a bunch of parlays, three 518 parlays. He said on Twitter he bet $1,500 and he probably is down $1,500. You don't win any of those wagers, okay? Did it for a five-day period,

at least according to the report. He admitted it to the NFL and he spent it for a year. Couple thoughts. One, not a chance in hell is his first time ever wagering. Sorry, not true. Two, is he suspended for a year.

And I get the argument, everyone, that the NFL suspends him for a year, but does not suspend domestic violence charges and people accused of that in the NFL, players for more than six games, eight games, 10 games. Get it. Totally get it.

Understandable. I've talked about it plenty of times. The NFL is uneven discipline when it comes to a lot of the things that they try to discipline, not even just domestic violence, everything else. I hate it. They're not uniform. They should be. They should be more buttoned up nonetheless.

The reason why you have to punish Ridley a year, first of all, there's precedent for that. Josh Shaw got a year. But you cannot have people question the integrity of your games. So yesterday what happened, people go to the internet, they look up Calvin Ridley plays, put together a compilation of every time it looked like he wasn't trying his hardest on the

football field no idea if he was or was not but now you think to yourself even though he was away from the team he's in a sportsbook in florida not playing with the team you think every time now he slows down he doesn't run up the field he runs out of bounds he's throwing a game that's why you can't have this and and you can't have players wagering on the sport they're playing for that reason. Whether or not it matters. Do I think if Calvin Ridley actually wagered on a Falcons game to win and played his ass off, do I think that's, in the end, inherently bad?

No. But you shouldn't have it. It's a blanket rule. It's none. Because then you get in a gray area, right, Gabe? If you say oh yeah fine wager on your team where does it stop right you have it's not no wager in the NFL we all know it it's in the locker room it's talked about don't wager on the NFL people say well the NFL takes

money from gambling sponsors. Okay, so? Don't, okay, congratulations. They take money. But the NFL players get a cut of that too. It's not just the NFL. Owners get it. Don't gamble on the game. Very simple rule.

He broke the rule. He got in trouble. And this will deter, hopefully, players from doing it otherwise. But look, in the end, was it a terrible thing? No. it's a bad look for the nfl it's a bad look for really it brings doubt on sports wagering but also too is that it also shows that it works because the company that was hired by the nfl to track nfl players gambling caught him gambling it's elite he was gambling legally on a sportsbook app and and they caught him. That's what's supposed to happen, right? The more you have legalized gambling, the more you catch either NFL players gambling

or people trying to throw games or bet on you, whatever it is, you catch more of the inconsistencies and the issues with sports wagering if it's more legal. So I'm glad it wasn't a bigger story. I get away suspended a year. Would I suspend them a year if I was the NFL? I don't know. Eight games. Again, it wasn't the worst.

But again, you can't even have a hint, a hint of people thinking your game is compromised because players are wagering at all, at all. That's why you just can't do it. Say no to gambling if you're a player. Now, does that mean no one gambles on football? And when I was playing game, no one talked about gambling on the NFL. I don't know if players do it now. I have no idea.

Do players wager on college football? Probably. Did we have little pools in the offensive line room? $5, picked your five winners of the week? Sure we did. I mean, like that happens. People play cards. They have rivalries. You went to Oregon State, I went to Oregon. Want the $100 on a game?

Sure. The last thing too about this that I thought is pretty funny is the notion that NFL players should be allowed to gamble on the games they play in. Because like five years ago, if you talked about sports gambling, people would be like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. And now they're like, yeah, screw it. Wait, you're on the games.

Gabe, I could not imagine playing a football game. It's very hard to win and play well, right? It's very tough. And not only do you lose the game, but then you have to give money to a sports book after you lost that game. That's more of a bad beat than we complained about. Like, so, look, man, you shouldn't have done it. I get why there's deterrence in place.

I get why the punishment's as long as it is. You just can't have people thinking your sport is compromised because players are gambling on it. Even if you're upset about the sponsorship stuff, I don't really, that's the one I have a hard time with, Gabe. Like, if we're sponsored by a beer company,

am I allowed to drink and drive? Like, I don't really get that argument. Like, okay, they're sponsored by gambling companies. That doesn't mean we're allowed to gamble

in the NFL now. I don't get that, I don't get the point of that argument. I don't think there's any point in trying to make sense of that argument. That one was stupid. There were a few other ones that did jump out to me, though, that you touched on I do want to come back to. Yeah.

what Brian Flores at least has officially alleged about the owner of the Dolphins that the owner when he was the coach there offered to pay him to lose because they wanted to improve their draft status that that is a worse violation of any integrity of the game sort of trust that we have to have than anything that Calvin Ridley even even at his worst, would be capable of from his position on the field. And I think that that is an interesting point. Now, I'd love to hear you talk me off that. But that one stuck with me is like, yeah, that is icky. Granted, it's just an allegation. Show show us the proof, I guess, is the response.

But like the owner of a team seems pretty obviously to be trying to pay his coach to lose. That's more problematic than Calvin Ridley maybe made a few parlay bets while he was playing. 100%. I'm with you there. But again, you have to prove Steven Russ did that. And we've talked about this from when the lawsuit happened. If you can prove that, Gabe, he's out as owner. Goodbye. See you later. He's not coming back. If you can prove that. Ridley he's out as owner. Goodbye. See you later. He's not coming back.

If you can prove that. Ridley got a tough suspension because of gambling. And if it's proven Stephen Ross asked his owner to, he asked his coach to basically throw games, then that's it. He's no longer an owner. But we don't know that yet, right? We know that Ridley admitted to doing this. Del said in his letter and Ridley tweeted to try

his best to tweet through it yesterday it's uh I'm just glad it wasn't worse if it had been worse and I don't know if I ever talked about this on this show I know I've talked about on the radio before you know fixing NFL game was would be nearly impossible I mean you'd have to have basically the quarterbacking on it but if it ever came out that they were fixing games, oh my God. I was just glad it wasn't that. Anything related to that, which it clearly wasn't. But that would have been bad. The last thing here, I just don't like where the discussion went

with regards to Calvin Ridley's mental health. Because that was discussed a lot this season because he needed to take a break from the NFL for that. As Chris Long tweeted out, you can still gamble in the NFL with a mental health problem. That doesn't mean that you have that argument of, oh, he's just soft, which is some argument people made, becomes valid because he gambled on football for five days.

I just didn't like, I knew it was going to go there. It went there and I just felt icky about it yeah I don't blame you but let me since we're going here let me raise a point and maybe I'm going to sound like I have a tinfoil hat on but I do think

even people who were fully understanding and supportive of Calvin Ridley when he came out and said that he needed a break from the game and he wanted some privacy for it he cited sort of mental health issues and i think a lot of us out there were like hmm okay we're gonna take you at your word we're not gonna ask too many hard questions we think this is an evolution for the game i i do think it's reasonable to say well wait wait wait let's go through this timeline please he sat out he couldn't play we find out through the league that this was happening while

he was out i can remember a time when people had some pretty wild conspiracies about how michael jordan's retirement had something to do with gambling. Like, I don't think it's totally unreasonable to at least ask some questions about, wait a minute, who knew what, when? Did he remain out because this was under investigation? I don't think, I agree with you. Obviously, whatever his mental health issues were,

they don't prohibit you from placing a parlay at a casino, big deal. He might have very serious things going on still. But I do think the timeline is interesting. Okay. I think it's definitely fair to say if this was more than $1,500, if this was

$15,000, not even $15,000, $150,000, $1.5 million, whatever you want to say. Okay, sure. I could buy. There were some mental health concerns that came,

some issues that came because of his gambling losses. Fair, totally fair. We don't know that though, right? We don't know. No, we don't. We don't. And so if it comes out that he lost more than $1,500, by the way, Calvin Ridley, 18 Moneyline parlays.

Oh, buddy. That is just, come on, man. That'd be better than that. We're going to gamble. If it comes out that the losses were more, Gabe, I would definitely understand if people said, hey, the mental health issues were brought on because you're losing money.

Get that. But until we get information out, I just think that two could be related, but probably aren't. And I'm not proposing that is my theory at all. I guess what I'm asking is we're going to take him at face. There's something going on that he needed to deal with in his personal life that prevented him from doing the job of playing football in a safe way. I believe all of that. But whatever that thing was, another issue related could be Andy's gambling or spending time with the wrong people or doing stupid, irresponsible things.

I don't know. I mean, it's probably not great to be gambling. And again, guys, he didn't just show up at the sports book in florida for five days and start gambling like this is come on and just unpack that for a second why do you feel that way you don't know of course but why do you feel that way uh most people that i know that start gambling don't play 18 money line parlays um that's like most and i've had friends they're like hey how do i how do i bet i'm like yeah like you know you just take and they take one team at a time

i have a friend who just started wagering and she was taking like minus 300 money line favorites and i was like whatever you say whatever do what you want like that's how people start that's how i did right you don't start with 18 multi-leg parlays sorry you just don't so um and again on the surface man i really don't care that he was doing this but i understand the integrity issues that this brings if you are a current player gambling on the sport you play it whether it's baseball, basketball, football, golf, whatever it is, I get, I mean, individual sports is different. I mean, whatever. But like team sports, I get the integrity issues with it. But yeah, could it be related to gambling?

Yes. Just don't know. And I think it's unfair for anyone to speculate on that. And of course, Twitter has done that because Twitter can be the worst. Well, that's what Twitter does. All right. Last thing I promise we can move on. You're talking about optics and optics sometimes do matter.

Just the perception of a player, you know, being mixed up in this gives us too many doubts. We can't afford to have that perception even exist. can't afford to have that perception even exist okay you would think then that the pr team informing the commissioner and the league would also have a checklist of like yeah but guys the perception of this is not going to be great and i'm curious why the most predictable response that i saw was like a whole season for this meanwhile ray rice Ray Rice, meanwhile, Greg Hardy, and all the ugly, horrible history, recent history of the NFL gets spilled out before us. And it's pretty hard to say like, yeah, those punishments seem right, given the crimes. So why wouldn't the NFL kind of be ready for that? Well, they probably are. I just don't care.

This sounds terrible to say, but I think you'll agree with me, unfortunately, is that I think the NFL doesn't look at the players that have domestic violence cases and we have the videos of Ray Rice and whatnot. I don't think they look at that as an integrity of the game issue or they look at the gambling as hurtful to the shield, right? Which sounds awful to say, but that's the way they act, right? Ray Ray's got two games.

Josh Shaw, who we didn't even know existed, got a... 2019 got a full year of suspension for gambling one time. Really got a full year of suspension for laying some parlays in a sports book while he wasn't even with the team. But the domestic violence policy is six games. i don't think they view it as an integrity

of the shield issue the view is this yeah man we got some bad apples got to deal with them it's our place just give them some games make them suffer for six weeks without getting paid maybe they learn their lesson uh we've done our job and we're moving along where they view Calvin Ridley and gambling as hurting the entire shield. Do you agree with that? It feels like that's the way they look at it. It certainly feels like that's the way they look at it. So I'm going to say let's set aside trying to correct the league's moral compass. That is maybe not possible. We've had too many disappointments about league response to things that a lot of people in society think are awful. So we can't solve that here but i do think it's reasonable

to go well wait wait wait wait like you have a system you're thinking about punishment in what it does as deterrence like if you're saying conclusively as your investigation figured out all he did was these silly parlays when he wasn't with the team. It didn't impact the games. Like we're sure this is bottled up. There's nothing systematic here. There's nothing to see here. If that's your position,

then why is it a year long suspension? Yeah. It's obviously a suspension. It's obviously a punishment, but why is it a more extreme punishment than all these other gross, hideous things? If you're absolutely certain it was limited to that tiny offense, it just doesn't add up. I think, well, first of all, like I said, I don't think this is the first time he's gambled. So that's part of this as well, right? He gambled on his own team, wasn't there,

but he bet on the Falcons to win. And I just think the NFL wants players to be fearful that if they gamble, they're gone for a year. Right? Like, I don't think players are fearful of the NFL when it comes to domestic violence. Right? Like, they're not thinking to themselves, I shouldn't do this because I'm going to be suspended. Right? Like, I never thought that. I just don't hit women. It's pretty simple, right? Like I never think to myself, I'm going to lose my job. I just don't hit my wife. Like it's not very hard concept, right? But I think if I was an NFL player and I went to make a wager, I'd think about this year-long suspension, right? So the punishment of domestic violence is not a deterrent.

It's just a punishment. And I think the NFL should be tougher on those players. And again, I don't think they view that as an integrity issue in the NFL, but the gambling they do. And this can be a deterrent. I know it's messy. It's not fun to talk about, but that's kind of where I think the NFL falls on this.

It's like we're punishing players for domestic violence because... Because they have to. They have to, essentially, right? I mean, the public has called for this. They want it. They're doing it. And they're public figures, right? So, you know, they get suspended.

But again, that's not deterring anyone from doing it. It's just a punishment. Look, if I'm an NFLfl player today and i have a gaming and i have a gambling account i'm probably thinking twice about sending that wager for the nba tonight right yeah oh yeah yeah yeah i wouldn't go anywhere near it right right so that's the difference in the punishments i'm not again i'm not saying it's right or wrong but those are the differences in the punishments of the nfl again, I think that I've talked about this for many years now. The way the NFL hands out punishments in domestic violence cases

and off-the-field incidents is not correct. It's not very – what's the right word? They don't even stick to their own guidelines half the time for it. It's inconsistent. It's inconsistent. You can plead out. We talked about Jameis Winston got three games out of six because he said time for it. It's inconsistent. It's inconsistent. You know, if you, you can plead out, like we talked about Jameis Winston got three games out of six because he said he did it. It's just like, you know, the way they punished even go back to something like Tom Brady for

deflate gate, like four games, especially come on, get out of here. But I, so I get the criticism that the NFL players and NFL players that people make about, you know, Ray, Ray Rice got two games and they saw the video and gave him two games still. Yeah. Not good. Yeah. Not good. Well, listen, I, I, your, your point about deterrence makes a lot of sense. Roger Sherman, who we like to quote on this show had a good tweet. He basically said to, to lose $1,500 on a stupid bet. He costs himself about $10 million in salary next year. And I'm paraphrasing, but it's a good point by him. And so, yep, other players notice losing $10 million ain't good.

So I do think a lot of people are going to put down their apps. Why don't we take a quick break also, come back, and then, sorry for the segue, but we'll do our little gambling game. We're allowed to. Jeff, you don't play in the league anymore, and I don't't know shit so we're allowed to talk about whatever we want we'll do that on the other side of a break we'll keep it quick today all right jeff we're back time to move the line our fake little gambling game we like to play just a chance to hit a few more stories uh these are combined quick hitters i'm not even sure the over under device is going to work perfectly here but let's try it kenny pickett's hands would be the smallest of any starting quarterback in the NFL, over-under 20% chance that even makes any difference.

Oh, that made a difference. The thing that people are worried about is being able to hold onto the ball. Ross Tucker had a tweet that was great. It was something like, how can Kenny Pickett, with his small hands, throw a ball in Pittsburgh? And a bunch of people took it as serious. Like, he played in Pittsburgh for four years, Ross. And Ross was like, yeah, I know.

That's the point of the joke. That's the joke. Look, here's what a lot of the combine comes down to, right? If you like Kenny Pickett, the small hands don't bother you. If you didn't like him, it's another reason not to draft him. It's that simple. Yep. Yeah.

That's what I thought you would say, but I have to ask. College ball, NFL ball, does a half an inch or an inch here and there make a difference? Depends who you ask. Yeah. No, I mean, I have massive paws.

I have 11-inch hands, and I was an okay player. The matter. But you didn't have to handle the ball. I mean, you were a guard mostly. Does half an inch matter? I don't know. It depends who you ask.

Okay. Great, Jeff. Thanks for taking us to the getter. I know. Hank wanted to have our wives on the show, so I don't know if that's a question we save for them. I don't know. Yeah.

All right. Let's move it along here. Tyler Linderblunderbaum yes yeah linderbaum he sounds like he could be one of us uh he's thank you hank for putting this in there elite center prospect from iowa because he knows gabe over here probably didn't know that uh he has short arms not hands are no problem arms too short and remember he's the guy who's got to swing his arms up under his ass and hand the ball off to a center or a quarterback. Excuse me. So, uh, the over under 80% chance that matters. 98% of, of centers have longer arms than he does.

Yeah. Um, that's where it matters, right? Because for, for arm length, right? If, if you're blocking someone, if your arms are longer than theirs, you can get in their chest quicker and sooner. And Tyler's not a big guy. He's like barely 290, right?

So that's a problem. There are teams that will draft linemen based on their arm length. And this is not great for him. But he can, dude, he can play though. So that's part of it as well. Well, so I feel like some of these things, these measurables, like you said, it's a good excuse

not to take a guy you weren't sold on. You got a number to back up your hunch. But also, I think every year we realize that there are a lot of people, a whole industry, frankly, paid to overthink this shit. And some guys are just good at football. And a half an inch or a few extra pounds or a millisecond on some measurable doesn't really matter in reality.

But is that true for a position like this where that reach really makes a difference? Again, what this does is it makes you go back and watch this film. Yeah. And you say to yourself yourself did it matter on his film and the answer i've watched his film was no but the question is now when you're playing jordan davis does it matter when you're playing aiden hutchinson he's not going to block it hutchinson but you know when you're playing anyone else does it matter you have if you if you're quick enough to get in the body not a

problem so that just makes you go think about the play a little bit more that's what the combine is about okay well then last combine quick hitter uh unofficial 40 times were insanely fast on nfl network everyone it seemed like ran some record time and then like later on we found out no actually it was a tenth of a second slower i just kept hearing that jordan davis obviously got a great time and but who knows you said the field was fast are they in on it are they doing this just to make us more excited or is this just like a quirky thing i was pretty it was pretty pissed about that um i was doing i was doing radio on friday night thursday whenever it was and some of the

pac-12 guys were running and it was like i was like you know greg dulcich is hunting from ucla 461 wow and then they adjusted to 47 you're like i look like a jackass people listening to me on the radio right and i get the unofficial times chris olave went from a 4-2-6 to a 4-3-9. In the end, is it that big of a difference for his draft stock? No, but that's 1300th of a second. It's a big difference. So I think they got better throughout the telecast. It did feel like sometimes they were juicing the numbers, but then at the end of the week, they were going the other direction, right? Jordan Davis ran a 4-8-2 and went down a 4.78. So it was all over the place.

I just know that I would have run probably a 4.35 on this turf instead of a 4.5. A 4.35, that's what you think? No, no, a 5.35. Oh, 5.35, okay, I can buy that. What do you think, just looking at me and knowing I do long-distance running, but I would not claim to be anything special sprinting. What do you guess I would run a 40 in? Like 6'2", 6'3".

So you think you beat me by a couple steps? Now or when I was good at it? Either, I guess. I don't know. I'd probably beat you, yeah. Both instances. I actually think you would too, but. I have long, my wife races me all the time.

It's her favorite thing to do in the world. She's like, I'm going to race you. I'm like, okay, fine. You're going to lose for the fourth time in a row, and she loses for the fourth time in a row. I have long legs, man. You're giving me a good tease. We're going to get to your wife and some physical stuff very soon.

Oh, God. Oh, so funny. Yeah. Let's do football for a couple more, and then we'll end it with Meredith. So Seahawks again. Let's do football for a couple more, and then we'll end it with Meredith. So Seahawks again, let's go back. Obviously, as soon as the Russ stuff comes out and the rebuild word is thrown around, then the best asset they have is DK Metcalf.

I don't know how the hell these trades would work, but could he be on the move? And if so, where? Over under 10% chance he's gone. I would say under, but I think there's a higher percent chance that Lockett's gone. Lockett's older. I think he's gone for sure.

If I were the Chiefs, if anyone's a wide receiver, call about DK Metcalf. See what you can offer. Interesting. Why not? I can't imagine a reason why not other than money i mean obviously that they the best offense around gets even better with another weapon but i mean then what like you put tyreek hill inside a lot more and just get even more creative with how you yeah run stuff

yeah that'd be impossible can you imagine trying to come up with a defense against pat mahomes with kelsey hill and m Caff in their prime? That's just incredible. Yeah. All right. Cowboys. They'd like to think they're something like that, but they're not. So Amari Cooper is free agent.

Money talk around him all week. Tank Lawrence also could be out, you know, over under one and a half years until the Joneses ask Dak to take a pay cut because it seems like it's hard to make the numbers work in Dallas. What's wild is that they're going to, the Packers are going to like sign Rogers' big deal, Devonta Adams, get everyone they want. The Chiefs are going to get everyone they want,

but the Cowboys can't seem to make it work out because Zeke's contract's too expensive. Yep, well, Zeke and contract's too expensive. Yep. Well, Zeke and Dak, both of them are pretty good. We told you what happened. As we're doing this, by the way, there's reports the Panthers want to trade Christian McCaffrey. I mean, stop paying running backs. Stop doing it.

It doesn't work. Draft a running back from rounds two to seven. Otherwise, no. No extensions, no first-round draft picks. It's that simple. You've been very clear about that. The Cowboys definitely put a lot of money into a quarterback and a running back,

both of whom were fan favorites, but most fans would agree outside of Dallas overpaid. So we'll see how they live through it. Just NFC East guesswork right now. Cowboys, you're number one still. We told you. You said, guys, talk they live through it. Just NFC East guesswork right now. Cowboys, you're number one still. We told you. You said, guys, talk me out of it. You said, don't let me go Cowboys.

Oh, yeah. Well, as of right now, they're the Cowboys. I think you talked about a Cowboys to win the NFC. That's what I'm not allowed to do anymore. So you're allowed to have them in the division but not the conference? Supposedly, Washington call for Russell Wilson. He said no. So they have no quarterback right now,

right? The giants have a new coach and the quarterback that we don't know is any good. And, uh, whoever's the Philly, I don't know. So yeah,

Cowboys for now. All right. Apparently whoever is making calls in Washington is like a drunk guy. Just dial in every past hookup. They just hit up whoever. Oh, yeah. Putting up shots. So desperate to find a quarterback.

Yeah. Okay. Over under 25% chance Major League Baseball cancels the whole season. Please say no. Oh, jeez. Come on, baseball. No, they're not going to cancel the whole season. But it's just bad. What I find interesting about the baseball lockout

is the coverage of the baseball lockout. That's the first time I've ever seen a labor issue in sports be given the blame to the owners for the most part. A lot of times it's the players are greedy and whatnot, but for some reason it's been framed as the owners. I agree with that. I mean, the owners, basically they have a salary cap. It's called a collective balance tax. I think that's what it's been framed as the owners. I agree with that. I mean, the owners, there's a, basically they have a salary cap. It's called a collective balance tax.

I think that's what it's called, CBT. And, you know, if you go over the tax threshold, then you have to pay a luxury tax, essentially, right? So it's a deterrent for teams that don't want to, you know, that want to spend a bunch of money. And the proposal for the CBT, like, raised, increased by like 1% a year over six years. You imagine the NFL salary cap increasing 1% a year?

No, I would never sign that deal. Like, the owners are not bargaining in good faith. They make a ton of money. Today, Apple TV announced they're going to have Friday Night Baseball, two games a week, streaming only on Apple TV. One of the owners of the, I think the Cubs owner is going to have Friday night baseball, two games a week streaming only on Apple TV. One of the, one of the owners of, of the,

I think the Cubs owner is going to buy English premier league team. They got money. They got money. Just be honest about it, man. Like it doesn't be perfect CBA, but the players expect you to, to,

it just feels like owners don't love the game. Like NFL owners, I think love football and want it to grow. They might not always like what the players do and what we ask for in a CBA, but they genuinely love football. I even feel like baseball owners feel the same way about their sport. Yeah, I don't understand

this logic from baseball owners. It's like I'm a brilliant businessman. I've made billions of dollars doing something special. And now I've bought a baseball team and I'm going to run that like a beautiful business as well. And then it's as soon as they're asked about it, they're like, oh, God, no, it's terrible business. I lose tons of money. I hate it. Oh, so you're going to sell and get out?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to keep this thing forever. This is great. Well, which is it? I just I can't ever understand their argument. It's like obviously you make money on a baseball team if you hold onto it for a decade. We know this. You probably make money every single year, even if you have a good accountant that shows that you're taking losses.

We all know that's nonsense. I agree. It's not good faith. And that's why owners are getting hammered. I hope they come back. I hope they come back. By the way, there's a lot of Seahawks fans on Twitter, man. They are tweeting right through it and they're doing their darndest to tweet through it. I am enjoying come back. I hope they come back. By the way, there's a lot of Seahawks fans on Twitter, man. They are tweeting right through it,

and they're doing their darndest to tweet through it. I am enjoying the tweeting. Well, God bless them. They're going to have quite an off season. Jeff, I would like to know, and you can explain why I'm asking this question to the audience that may not know. Would it take me over under 19 and one half minutes

to push you into a pool if you knew I was trying to do it. So this weekend, it was nice in Charlotte. It was like 85 degrees. We heated up the pool for the weekend. And so we started to get the pool supplies back into the pool, like the chairs and the table. And they had to be filled with water. And then, you know, so my wife asked me and the kids were at Hebrew school or they were at lunch with then you know so my wife asked me and the kids were at hebrew school or they were at lunch with my parents so my wife asked me to come out and help them uh help her set everything up and i i know my wife pretty well and i knew that the second i got to the edge of the pool she would try to throw me in the pool so i took my phone out and

put it on the couch walked outside oh that was, that was your phone. No, no, no, no, no. She recorded on her phone. I didn't know she was recording. I didn't know she was recording. I took my phone out. Oh, to avoid it getting wet in case. To avoid it getting wet because I knew she was going to try to push me in.

The problem is she didn't catch me when I was leaned over. She caught me when I was straight up in the air and I saw her coming. So my wife tries to push me over into the pool. It is absolutely hilarious. She tries her darndest. I eventually. It is absolutely hilarious. He tries her darndest. I eventually let her do it later. I have security camera footage of that because he just was so, she tried her darndest to push me over. Gabe, you wouldn't be able to do it if I didn't

want you to. So I would just, I would hip check you. I would just hip check you right in the pool. So I have 19 and a half minutes, which means I can fail at this many, many, many times. And eventually you might get a little bit tired. And I didn't say I have to do something legal, right? So like I can go at your knees. I can, I can do whatever it takes.

You think I cannot get you in the pool? No, I don't think so. Okay. Uh, Hank wants to know, uh, it, I was 19 and a half minutes hank thinks that he should

be over under four and a half minutes because he quote understands leverage i don't know what that means my wife hit me on the hip she understands leverage too and did i move at all i didn't see any movement at all you look my wife is stronger. My wife is stronger than Hank, for certain. The day before she gave birth to our son, she picked up a fridge and moved in our house because she's just crazy. But that's besides the point. It was so funny. That video on Twitter I put on there got like 350,000 views. And my wife's not on social media too, so it's great.

She has no idea what's happening. It's fantastic. So I made a what's happening. It's fantastic. So I made a funny joke at your expense on Instagram this past week. I was proud of myself. You did. For the real, real deep listeners, you will know that not only did Matt Ford,

our other producer and co-host to Jeff when they talk gambling, posted something he loves to do, a Headspace meditation. And he has a very long streak going, like five years of doing it every day. And Jeff commented something about how, well, you must have to do this

if you want to work with Gabe every day. And you know who responded to you? Your wife. My wife, who said, I should probably be doing this twice a day. See, we get to savage wives. Savage wives. Who might be appearing one day if Hank gets his wish on this show.

Before we leave, Jeff, that's a tease for a future episode when the off-season is slow, not like this week. We thought it was going to be slow today. We scrapped our whole show. We thought we had all the room in the world to goof around and have our wives on making fun of all kinds of nonsense. No time for that. Last thing before we go

because by next week it might be almost too late. How many brackets are you filling out over under seven and a half? Yeah, we were supposed to have a college basketball today, weren't we?

And we will. We will a lot next week. Next week. We will next week. We'll preview March Madness as we move forward. So I do like, we should do, you know what we should do gabe yeah we should do a bracket pool for the podcast all right i like that on like no like a public one like on yahoo yeah let's do it people who

listen want to join we should do that hank and we'll we'll give away something we'll give away something cool like maybe someone could come on the podcast for 15 minutes and just try their hand at podcasting. That would be lovely. I would happily give my seat up for the winner of a pool. Is that too much? No, I feel like that could be fun. Listen, we have a few listeners who have been with us for a while who are really cool on Twitter, shoot an idea every now and then. A few of those guys might end up winning the bracket.

It would be fun to have them on. Hank, take some notes. Less jokes. More doing stuff. Figure out a way that we can create a bracket pool that a few of the listeners who have been with us until the very end of the show each week could join. We'll see if their picks are better than Jeff's. I know

my picks will suck, but Jeff, maybe you'll do well. This year though for college basketball is going to be interesting because Gonzaga's the favorite, as they should be, but they haven't won yet, right? They've been close. They've had the most tournament wins over the last three years. But Arizona, who is basically Gonzaga-lite,

has a chance to win this. The way they get up and down the court, they've had some issues this year scoring at times in certain games. They just go dead in the second half of games, first half of games. That doesn't happen often. Happened a couple weeks ago against Colorado. You have Kentucky who's playing good basketball. You have the Bruins who played their best game in a long time this past weekend.

You have Auburn and you have Purdue. You just have a lot of good basketball teams at the top, and it feels like a year where there's no – I mean, everyone was like, Duke, it's going to be their year. North Carolina beat them in the last Coach K game. was like Duke, it's going to be their year. Like North Carolina beats them in the, in the last coach K game. So I think this, this tournament is going to be wild.

There's not going to be a definitive, like it's not going to be one of those times where we look at the bracket challenge and there's some, like there's like three people that are, that are perfect through, through the first two rounds. It's not going to happen this year. No,

I wouldn't think so. And just looking up and seeing Bruce Pearl, Auburn, one of the top teams in the country, that was, all of that is surprising. No, I wouldn't think so. And just looking up and seeing Bruce Pearl, Auburn, one of the top teams in the country, all of that is surprising. So we'll track it. We will do more with the tourney for the next three weeks. You're back for that all of next week. We'll start going back to doing extra episodes. We didn't have all the gambling talk we would normally have later in the week, but we're going to get back to doing more of this. So, Jeff, thanks for hanging.

We did a long show. There was a lot to cover, but it was a fun one. Yeah, of course. Man, NFL never sleeps. Please rate, review, subscribe. If you've been here this long, you obviously like us. Please leave me a five-star rating. It helps with just making us feel better.

It's just that simple. It doesn't mean anything else. It just helps us feel better about ourselves. And if you like the show, please do that. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We'll be back next week. I will be recording from Mexico. I haven't told my wife yet, so we'll see how that goes.

But we'll be back next week. We'll talk some college basketball, get you ready for the tournament. All right, guys, have a great week. Have a great weekend. Talk to you guys next week. Bye. Bye.

Bye.