Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - The Big Ten is Hot on Oregon's Trail, Plus Cut Blocks and Tom Brady's Return

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Much like his idol Tom Brady, Gabe is back from vacation just in time for the end of training camp. He joins Geoff to break down the news that Oregon is considering a move to the Big Ten, and what that would mean for the rest of the PAC 12. Plus, Geoff puts to bed any controversy surrounding cut blocks, and Gabe explains why predicting Tom Brady's downfall feels different this year.On Moving the Line, Gabe asks Geoff to help him buy the Angels, and Geoff shares what he'd accomplish during the first hundred days of his term if he were to be elected President.As always, be sure to leave a rating and a comment, and follow the pod if you enjoyed this episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's wednesday august 24th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart on you powered by the varsity podcast network trust us everyone we will get to tom brady news but first we're going to start with some college realignment talk we're going to start with uh talk about a cut block in the national football league that is making everyone very very angry gabe and somehow Gabe, we haven't talked in like three weeks and you're still in England. So I feel like by now you are now someone who permanently lives overseas. I probably have overstayed a visa or something. So thanks for telling on me. The crazy thing about it is, I guess, because I'm overseas and you're your own boss,

we are not mandated like all other media to lead this show with some deep exploration of what's happening in Tom Brady's life. We can talk about something your audience and you care most about, which is a PAC 12 football, Oregon's future. It's like, should we just get into it? Let's get right into it. I can obviously tell. I'm so happy. Everyone's sleeping behind you right now. I can tell.

You're just trying to wake the kids up right now. I like it. Am I whispering? Do I not sound like my normal loud self? It sounds like you've got kids sleeping in the background. It's somewhere in your – I mean, it is like – what time is it? It's kid sleeping time in England. It's kid sleeping time.

But listen, I want to talk about the Oregon Ducks. Please, let's do it. And the excitement coming out of your microphone might wake my kids up. I'm taking my kids to the game against Georgia in like eight days. I can't wait. So Brad McMurphy over at the Action Network now, a place you and I used to go home, he is reporting that, quote, Oregon has initiated preliminary discussions to determine if the Ducks are compatible in the Big Ten.

We don't need to say this in corporate speak. Obviously, everyone's wondering if Oregon's going to change conferences. And if they did, what the hell that would mean for whatever is left of the Pac-12. I don't need to set this up with a bunch of takes. Talk. Tell me what's going on here. Yeah, so I did a little digging after I saw this tweet. Look, I think nothing has really changed, honestly. The Big Ten did their television contracts, right?

And we announced like $8 billion. Oh, yes, they did. I think they own the world now. $8 billion with escalators to go up. In the contract, there's specific language about Notre Dame joining the conference and no other school. Now, they cannot mention other schools in the escalator because they're still with certain conferences.

You can't say that if Oregon joins, you get this much more money. If Stanford joins, you'll get this much more money. So the exclusion of those schools is not as important to this. But nonetheless, this is what the contract is for the Big Ten. There's escalators for adding teams. So naturally, everyone thinks, okay, they're going to add teams. Kevin Warren, Big Ten's commissioner. I believe we're recording this on Tuesday.

I believe tonight, The Real Sports is out where he says, and then Gumbel leads him into it. He leads the witness, but he says, are you open to adding 20 teams, like that he goes yes and so they they do want to add teams but here's the thing Gabe I don't know when they're going to do it it could be tomorrow could be 10 years from now like we're going to get to these big super conferences but it might be again two years from now when this new tv deal is up. And if you're Oregon and you're looking around the landscape of the college sports and you've invested a lot of money in your program, you have done the things you thought mattered

to college sports, right? Investing in athletics, winning on the field, putting together a good product, a national brand, like all these things that you thought meant a lot to TV networks and to viewership. And it does. Viewership is very high for Oregon sports, very high for football, very high for basketball. People watch Oregon play. I live on the East Coast.

People watch Oregon. They like Oregon. And so Oregon is trying to find a way out of the Pac-12 because they see it as an inferior conference, even if it stays together as 10 members. Plus, look, think about this. Let's just say roughly the new Pac-10 media deal, 10 teams, even if they had San Jose State or Vegas or Fresno, it's the same amount of money, essentially.

Let's say they all get $30 million per year on this new TV deal. If you're Oregon, you're like, why is Maryland getting $100 million? Purdue's getting $100 million. Iowa's getting $100 million. Kansas, well $100 million. Iowa's getting $100 million. Kansas, well, I guess they're not in the Big Ten. You know, Purdue, Rutgers, they're all getting $100 million. And we're getting $30 million?

I don't like this math. And so Oregon, I think, is trying to get themselves to the Big Ten conference. The question is obviously how, okay? And it feels like a lot of the interest so far is Oregon pushing the Big Ten rather than the Big Ten saying, hey, Oregon, come to the Big Ten conference. There's many reasons for that. Obviously, again, the desperation is on Oregon, not on the Big Ten to make this happen quickly. And there has to be talks, in my opinion, about Oregon saying, look, we'll take less money early on to join your conference like Maryland and Rutgers did where they had to take less money to join.

Because again, if you're saying each school in the Big Ten is getting $100 million right now from this new TV deal, right? It's a Fox, NBC, CBS TV deal. And you add Oregon, I'm not sure their value is enough to where everyone gets still 100 million dollars right so a lot of schools are they going to agree to take less money to put Oregon in there probably not so Oregon will take less money to join the conference and everyone gets to keep their full share and in that situation Oregon would make more money than they would in the Pac-12 probably double double that money, and they're into the Big Ten Conference. And so to me, this is about Oregon, again, like just trying their best to get in.

What was interesting about the report from Brett McMurphy, he stated that the outgoing Oregon president, Michael Schill, is going to Northwestern. He's going to be the president of Northwestern. Athletic director Rob Mullins and the interim president were not at a meeting with Kevin Warren. This report is not them meeting together. So the question is, who's meeting and who leaked the report? I'll just say this from the Oregon side,

because I've obviously followed them very closely. They have said nothing this entire time. So I highly doubt, gabe this is a leak from the organ side like i don't get why this would be a thing they would have to leak out like what does it matter it doesn't like put pressure on the pac-12 to do a deal they're already trying to do a tv deal right now um so why would the big 10 leak this and obviously i mean look everyone guesses it's phil knight meeting with someone at fox or meeting someone at the Big Ten, I guess. My guess is more lawyers and people trying to figure out the evaluations of what Oregon can be in the Big Ten Conference.

But again, I don't know why Oregon would have leaked this out. So to me, this is very preliminary. I don't think anything's going to happen anytime soon. And Brett McMurphy was on a radio show this morning, and he said something about like, yeah, it happen at some point i just don't know when which we're all this is where we're all around right now i had an offensive line coach make a very crude joke a lot he would say don't show me dude don't tell me about the pain just show me the baby all right very crude obviously i'm the same way here like i don't want to know

just tell me if organ's going or not. Like, enough of this back and forth. Are they going to the Big Ten or are they not? Is the Pac-12 ending as we know it? Because if not, they're going to keep the 10 teams together and stay together. But if Oregon's gone, so is Washington, so is Stanford. Like, just tell me when it's over. I'm tired of getting these leaks every couple of weeks that this is happening.

And so, that's, I think I think we're at right now. All right. Well, I mean, that's a pretty comprehensive explanation. I'm going to ask some very basic questions then. Are we sure? Let's just imagine sometime in the future, Oregon does go. doesn't that just mean the best teams in the Big Ten are all going to have two and three losses? And aren't they maybe optically weakening themselves with championship? I mean, I realize that once that happened, then what it takes to get into the playoff changes and how many teams are in the playoff will change. I get that there's a lot of dominoes. But don't you just ensure that if your schedule includes, you know, Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Oregon or USC, UCLA or, you know, Iowa, like you're going to pull two or three losses in that in that setup. Yeah, that's a good point. But if this is about the playoff, you have more of an opportunity to make the playoff if you go probably 10-2 in the Big Ten

than you would like 11-1 in the Pac-12 playing nobody, right? Like let's say you're in the Big Ten conference game. Are we sure? Well, the Pac-12 has been left out a bunch, right? And part of it, that's our own doing. But are you telling me like, let's say you're in the Big Ten and you end up going 10-2 and you've played, you know, you've beaten, let's say you're in the big 10 and you end up going 10 and 2 and you've played you know you've been let's say you've beaten michigan and you organ beat usc but they lost to ohio state and they lost another

game to i don't know just iowa let's put it like that right sure they went 10 and 2 right they beat michigan michigan state they beat another wisconsin like three or four top 25 wins or you in the you're in the pack 12 and you've been no ranked teams or maybe utah and you're 11 and one like you did you beat one or two ranked teams in the regular season then you beat a ranked team in the in the championship i also think that the playoff is going to remove itself from conference alignment or from NCAA, like from like having to be every team or every conference as it is now, right? I'm not – sorry. It's not every team or conference.

You're eligible, right? To make it to where it's like it's just going to be a Big Ten SEC playoff system, right? Like there's going to be something to where you need to be in those conferences to to make the playoff yeah all right well so for for the next season or two while we watch all these teams change and we and we lose track of all the comings and goings oregon just plays and probably dominates the pac-12 which might inform the long-term decision. I guess what I'm confused about is Oregon needs money. I thought that they had all the money in the world. I thought you guys have 75,000 uniform combinations because Phil Knight just funds the whole place.

What's the money? Yeah, but I think it's not about money. I mean, obviously, you want money, and you would like to make a lot more of it. If you go from $30 million to $70 million or $100 million, that's a big mean, obviously you want money and you would like to make a lot more of it. You go from $30 million to $70 million or $100 million. That's a big jump, obviously. But I think it's more about the prestige of not being left behind. And I think that

means a lot. Again, the things that I thought were important to being successful in college sports and being considered in that group don't seem to be as important, right? I mean, again, UCLA has done little to no winning in football and basketball in the last 25 years

compared to what you think they should be. And they got to go to the Big Ten too. It's a prestige thing. I think Oregon feels like they're being left behind if they're not in the Big Ten. Yeah, I guess. You and I have spent plenty of Super Bowl weeks now as media members hanging out. And it's cool when you get invited to like the elite party,

the party that not everyone gets to go to, but then you go and it's the same stupid party as all the rest of them. You don't even know why you're there. You know what I mean? So like I get the prestige part of it, but I don't know that it would necessarily be better off. And I don't know. I'm reserving judgment on all of this until we've actually seen some of these teams move. We've just been speculating about all of it. Is Oregon a national championship contender this year? Yes or no?

No, their offense is not there right now. All right. Fair enough. Well, let's talk about the best player they had last year, who's now the topic of why this show exists, because you get takes built upon takes and people not listening to one another's takes. And none of the people talking about this topic seem to actually understand how the game is really played, maybe with a few exceptions. few exceptions. So Kayvon Thibodeau gets hit low on a block that you're going to have to describe, but basically what a lot of people thought was a dirty play, guy goes into his legs, he's going to miss three to four weeks as the Giants rookie from Oregon. And then that set off all of Twitter and all of your friends and colleagues in two camps. It was either dirty

and a horrible thing or a very clean play that, you know, everyone should know is obviously okay. And if anything, Kayvon did something wrong. And those were the two camps and the takes were insane. And I'd just like you to calm it all down and tell me who got it right, who got it wrong,

and just make sense of this play for us, please. Well, I'm right. I mean, we'll start with that right away. So what happened? Well, our buddy Emmanuel Acho said, this is ridiculous, dangerous, and cowardly. Straight cowardly. Prayers up.

I like Acho. Come on, Acho. He went too far. He went a little far. Okay, so here's what happened. So the tight end started on the left, and he crossed behind the offensive line to the right on an inside zone. It was a handoff to the running back, and his job on that, when he crossed behind the offensive line to the right on an inside zone

was a handoff to the running back and his job on that when he goes across the line across the line like that is he then cuts down a low blocks right the defensive end and that kind of creates a little bit of uh if you get him on the ground you have a little seam there where if the back wants to go backside he can do that and the reason why those tight ends cut there is because typically they're 230 pounds and they're cutting a defensive end who's much larger than them. And this happens hundreds of times a season. It happened other times in this game.

The Giants' own coach, Brian D'Abel, came out after the game and said, was it dirty? He's like, no, we do this on our offense too. There's many different stigmas about the cut block, okay? So it's a low block, right? It's a cut block. And the NFL has, over the years, for player safety,

taken some of the cut blocks out of the game, right? So right now, you cannot cut outside of five yards from the line of scrimmage and outside of two yards outside each tackle right so this is the little box you're allowed to cut in so you can't run in space anymore if you're an offensive lineman and cut someone also you can't go in space anymore have a defensive player cut you as well but in that box it is legal if you have a one-on-one cut block the chop block is a combination of one player, one offensive player holding up the defensive player,

kind of hitting him up high, and then a player coming in low and cutting that guy down. That's illegal, not allowed, because that's a dangerous play. The defender cannot brace for that. They're in an awkward position, and you are in a situation where you might get hurt. An offensive player is taught to cut through the thigh. Because if you cut through the knee,

you typically are always going to be a little bit lower with your aiming point as you try to do this. So you want to aim for the thigh. If you aim for the thigh, your shoulder hits the thigh, your arm goes through that thigh, and you knock that player down. If you aim for the knee, you're going to be too low, and you're going to miss, and you're going to land it right on your face and defenders have drills they're taught to play off cup blocks you push the guy you can violently shove the offensive player into the ground kind of like on top of

the shoulder pads as you clear your feet and you continue on so in this specific play again happens all the time there are examples in this game of this exact thing happening and the defensive player saw it play off the cut and nothing happened but in this instance this is the first time Kayvon Thibodeau had probably seen this block in his career okay in college it's not done very often I try to look up the rules I'm not quite sure if it's outlawed or not hopefully someone smarter than me can maybe tell me that I don't I tried to look up the rules. I'm not quite sure if it's outlawed or not. Hopefully someone smarter than me can maybe tell me that. I tried to look at it. It's hard to tell you. In college, you can only cut if you're a stationary back or an offensive lineman. But I think if you're a wing player, maybe you can't if you come across.

I don't know. But it's not done very much in college. And it's not done in training camp. And it's not done in joint practice because you don't cut in training camp or joint practice. So the first time he saw this was in this instance. And what he tried to do instead of, and he saw this coming, he was unblocked. He looked right at him. And instead of turning toward the offensive player, the tight end, and playing off that block like he's taught, he stayed sideways and then lowered his shoulder,

expecting him to hit him high. Well, tight ends don't do that in that block. They hit you low every single time. It's what they're taught to do. So he played this terribly. And I was very happy that a bunch of defenders on social media, former defenders said, yeah, the block's fine. He played this terribly, which he did. this will be used across the NFL in defensive meetings to say hey this is not how we do it and it's unfortunate he got hurt if you slow down the film too Moss hits him in the thigh but because of his body position being sideways to Moss he lowers you know kind of naturally his body gets lowered into his lower leg. And so I just thought that it was very social media to be like, you know, dirty, cowardly, terrible.

No. If you want to argue to eliminate the block completely, okay, we can have that argument. If you want to say, well, it's a preseason. Thaddeus Moss is trying to make the team, Gabe. He's supposed to do something else than he's coached to do. He's not going to make the team. So we can have those discussions outside of this topic. That has nothing to do with this one. It was a legal block. It was played pretty poorly by Kayvon Thibodeau. And also, I think Moss tripped a little bit as he tried to make that

block. If you look, his right foot, I think, kind of slips out underneath him a little bit. His was a little clumsy and awkward as well. But it wasn't that big of a deal. It happens hundreds of times a season. And the only time that we try to outlaw cut blocks on social media is when this happens, which again, go look at the injury rates of legal cut blocks. Of course, every technique is not always used correctly.

So to say that players do this illegally, yeah, some guys don't do it right sometimes. They hit someone from behind or they hit someone from the side, which is not allowed to be done. Or they use poor technique. It always happens. But the injury rate for this block is very low. Otherwise, they would have eliminated it already. And it's very helpful for the offensive player to be able to use this. So I just think that a lot was made of this.

I did apologize. Rich Eisen apologized because he's like, yeah, I kind of saw everyone being like, yeah, that's not, you know, you can be angry about it, but this is a legal block. So that's where I'm at with this. I feel bad Kayvon got hurt. Luckily, he's not that bad. Just MCL. He'll be back probably by week one, maybe week two.

And, you know, Moss, I hope he can stay on social media for a little bit to stop getting attacked and we'll move on from there. Okay. So a couple of things to come back to then. So you said the statistics show it's not the kind of block that leads to a lot of serious injuries, right? So Andrew Whitworth, who I know you like, and who's had a hell of a career and now transitioning to being a broadcaster, he brings up that in the past, the NFL, whether plays had previously been legal or not, the NFL has put serious rules in place to protect people against things like helmet to helmet and horse collar and other types of cut blocks.

So you're just saying this is one of these fluky things. One guy did something clean. Another guy didn't play it correctly. Unfortunately, he got hurt moving on. Or is this something they'll look at? They look at these things every year. They look at rules and regulations every year. But I don't think this one block is going to change.

Because this is a very helpful tool for the offense to have. And when it's done correctly it's really good and i just don't think that they're going to to outlaw this because of one player not doing it correctly all right well so i i know because see previous segment that you obviously love organ you were telling us all aboutT, but long before most people in national media knew who he was. So I know you like the kid and I know you believe in him, but a lot of people questioned certain elements of his game or his sort of preparedness for the NFL. And you're saying he didn't really play this block correctly. Is there anything else to learn about him and his future as we hope a great player from this incident? I don't think so.

Oregon's former offensive line coach who's now at Miami, Alex Marabou, tweeted about the lack of practice of this. And he's exactly right. You just don't practice this thing. This is something that you have to learn in a game. And now that it happened, he's never going to forget that when action goes away he's unblocked that and he looks over and sees the tight end coming at him he's going to cut you

or he's going to kind of go on through for uh into the flat which is not cave on his job anyway so he's he'll again you my opinion you don't want to obviously learn a lesson from being hurt. You never want anyone to be hurt. But he will now learn how to play this better. And so if he does this again, I think you're like, well, you're a dummy. What are you doing? I don't think he will do that.

But again, he should now learn. And again, this is going to be used all over the NFL the next couple of weeks of like, hey, defensive guys, don't do this. This is not how we do this. Do it like we teach you. Do it like we taught you. And in the end, it will be used in that manner across the NFL

because teams definitely, I mean, every team I've been on would show clips. I mean, the Giants, like Tom Coughlin, was it Tom Coughlin? I think every week he just showed us like seven or eight plays from the NFL that happened during the week that were different and unique. And there was a coaching part that he wanted to show.

I think it was Tom Coughlin. He just wanted to show us. It's like, it had nothing to do with who we were playing the next week or we had just played. It was like, here's a play from a game. Something weird happened. Let's talk it out and

this is one he might show like hey guys look defense um you know don't take on a cut like this yeah okay um all right here speaking of weird and things we haven't seen before we're finally at the part of the show that is either our favorite part of the show or our least favorite part of the show i our least favorite part of the show. I don't know what's going to happen right now. I actually said to Hank, don't even bother writing anything down. Tom Brady was gone mysteriously.

I believe it was 11 days of training camp missed. He's now back. A lot of speculation about where he was, including things as ridiculous as the idea that he was secretly performing on The Masked Singer, which debuts in September. It appears that is not the case, but there's still some question about what he was doing and more importantly, what is missing this time at camp mean and why is this guy allowed to do this kind of thing? what's going on and it doesn't seem like anyone's trying to get all those answers yet but maybe they'll look into it so instead of us wildly

speculating uh and taking the bait no no no no i get to pat myself on the back for a little bit at least the story right now is that he was gone on a family trip which is what i said he was doing remember his his wife said i planned a trip. You told me you were going to retire. You better be on this trip now. That's what the story is now. It might change. But I'm going to give myself a pat on the back right now for nailing that one because not many people have that one out.

I had that one early. Give yourself a pat on the back there. A little pat on the back. Okay, continue. Okay. All right. So good job, Jeff. But this whole story seems a bit like bait, just like this crazy story about Dana

White almost closed the deal for Tom Brady to go to the Raiders. But then John Gruden turned it down and Gronk revealed this on some podcast, all this madness. It's all crazy. And a bit of a distraction from the real headline in Tampa, which is Tom's entire offensive line is new or broken. It's a real big problem. And he is super whiny when those guys don't block right. And I am not sure that they're going to be able to keep him standing up this season.

So before we get into that, very quickly, this Dana White Raiders thing, people take the bait so easily on this stuff. So he said that he basically negotiated a deal for him to come to vegas okay what does that mean exactly did you talk to the agents for tom brady rob ronkowski did you do the money did you like call john gruden hey john i'm their agent now can we work out a deal did you talk to don yee who's brady's agent did you guys three-way together and three-way on a phone call and figure out like oh hey all right how much are we paying tom brady like this sounds like they were just in a bar together or a text thread and like hey we should play in vegas together oh it'd be a lot of fun okay cool let me call john gruden see if he

wants to do it and john's like no i don't want to do it. Like, I don't, people just, right, Gabe? There's no way this was anything close to like almost a done deal. No, as we've learned all offseason, Tom Brady doesn't mind just kind of, yeah, you want to talk about me coming to play for your team? I'm open to a conversation. You want to have some drinks and spitball? Yeah, exactly. He also was a free agent, to be fair. Yeah, no, no, no.

I'm not comparing this to the Dolphins stuff, except that we know he'll talk. And I also like, too, that he was looking for houses. I go on Zillow once a month and look for houses in Manhattan Beach. Like, does it mean I'm moving to Manhattan Beach? Like, what do you look for? Right. By the way, and also, Tom Brady can shop for houses the way I buy shit off Instagram. You know?

I'm like, that's kind of a cool t-shirt. I'll buy that. That's how he probably buys houses in Vegas. So the issue, and I think even in Tampa Bay, is he like renting like Derek Jeter's house? Like he didn't even buy a house. He's just renting. No, he didn't buy a house.

Okay. So the offensive line issues are real in Tampa Bay. That's a real concern. You know, Ryan Jensen, we don't know how long he's out. I saw Tristan Wirfs had to kind of walk off the other day for a little bit. Another backup guard, Torres, I think maybe filling in for even Ryan Jensen, Torres, ACL

and MCL. That's a real problem. Obviously, we saw last year the playoff game and how that hurt them. They still have good players and Ryan Jensen at some point, I mean, there's not really an announcement of when he's coming back. Even though I probably could just – he's a good buddy of mine. I could probably just ask him.

You could break that news for us, Jeff. I could just ask him. I haven't done that yet. He's one of very few guests we've had on this show. Let's find out. You know what's weird about that? I just – I've talked about his health, but if he's like – I don't care to know the day-to-day about his health, but like, if he's like, I don't, I don't care to know the day-to-day

about his knee. Like, if he's better, he's better. He'll come back. Like, I don't have to text him, be like, yo, bro, when are you coming back? That's kind of weird. I don't know. I just don't do that. We were texting about Tom Brady the other day.

I didn't ask him once about his knee. I just like, I just don't, I don't, I don't, not that I don't care, but like, I feel like that's a weird thing to ask him about. So he'll be back when he's back. It's still a good offensive line. They have a couple pieces to fill in. I wouldn't worry about the chemistry, right? Got some new wide receivers.

He was gone for most of the preseason. They got into the Cowboys week one, which they had again. They had week one last year as well. But really, it doesn't change my opinion on them, Gabe. They're going to be good. NFC South is not very good. Tom, I feel like, just wants to get in the playoffs and then figure it out from there,

which is exactly what they did two years ago. So this, to me, does not change much of what their season will be, especially if Ryan can come back at some point this year. Okay. I was hoping you'd be a little bit more doom and gloom about brady and the bucks i mean i just i don't like i i just they said it's funny they said the other day that tom you know the bucks had their most crisp practice in two weeks with tom back yeah yeah you think yeah yeah yes weird who's the other guy blaine gabbert who the Who's the other guy? Blaine Gabbert? Who the hell's the backup? Yeah, it's Blaine. See, this is the thing where I think if Jimmy Garoppolo got released, the Bucs would sign Jimmy Garoppolo.

My thing with Jimmy Garoppolo has been that no one's trading for him because that salary is too expensive. But if he gets released, there are a ton of teams with veteran, with like the need veteran backups, like the Rams with Matt Stafford's elbow. Wouldn't they love Jimmy Garoppolo just to have? You pay him $10 million, be your backup, Bradford. Stafford's out for a little bit of time.

You have him play a little bit. Tom Brady gets hurt for a couple weeks. You have Jimmy Garoppolo there. I think it's very advantageous if one of these these these teams that they're in a playoff hunt each year they would sign Jimmy Garoppolo in a heartbeat to be their backup yeah I think Brady is the one guy who might not really be cool with him being a backup they seem yeah it's not the not the greatest example but like that's a team that could definitely use him. Yeah. Sure. But okay. So

let me back up. The reason he wasn't there notwithstanding, I get that he's Tom Brady. I've heard all these takes. Everyone seems to be saying if anyone deserves, you know, the benefit of the doubt, if anyone gets to play this card, if anyone can get away with doing this, it's Tom Brady. I've heard that said by everyone, people I love. I get sick when I hear this take. But if training camp matters at all, especially when your offensive line is all patchworked, you've got a new weapon in Julio Jones

and some other changes on the offense, you know, a new coach. Like, doesn't this matter? Yeah, it's not. I think the reason why people say that is because things that we have thought mattered don't seem to matter as much with Tom Brady as quarterback. Right? I think that's what a lot of us, oh, you can have good wide receivers

and running backs. You mean rules and honesty? Or are you talking about something else? No, but like, oh, you know, okay, you need to have a stud wide receiver and running back no not really oh a quarterback goes to a new place in year one and wins a championship that like never happens oh happened with tom brady as a wild card right which hadn't happened in i think uh 2012 was the last wild card team not even wild card team just a wild card some team playing the wild card round the giants were the last wild card team to win the super Bowl in 07 to beat the Patriots.

Like, it's just things that we thought weren't supposed to happen just seem to happen with Tom Brady. And a lot of us are like, whatever. Like, oh, okay, he's gone for two weeks. It won't be that big of a deal. Okay, except that if he was gone for two weeks because he had to go on a family vacation, except that if he was gone for two weeks because he had to go on a family vacation, then he had to go on a family vacation because when he retired, his family thought that was for real, which means that things are not,

they're not totally aligned. We're both married. I know I I'm, I'm with you. I I'm with you. It's just hard to imagine that he's going to have an easy time navigating a season if he can't even get into the season without having to really be careful with his family. I know. That seems strange.

Look, you saw the video I posted of my wife punching that bag at the arcade. I sure did. If she says you're coming on a trip, I'm coming on a trip. I don't know. I really think that it's not look i don't speak about anyone's marriage that's unfair for to do but me neither but i i'm with you is some is married guys if if you're at the point where like your wife is like you better come to this trip in the middle of nfl training camp or else not great not great but look man there are guys that are able

to play look tiger woods played how many years of incredible golf banging perkins waitresses like you know i mean like there are some guys that just are able to handle stressors in their life that me and you could not handle i can barely answer my text messages for people that i care about i could not imagine having texting a hookup like i couldn't imagine that like dealing with that in my life some guys can do that they can have those lives gabe i couldn't do it you couldn't do it uh but tiger can do it and maybe tom can you know these issues at home can just go to work and do his work and that doesn't bother him i don't know yeah okay i don't know i think i think it i am i've for 20 i think it's exactly 20 years now

i've been telling myself this is the year this this stops this nightmare ends this guy goes away this guy doesn't have it anymore and but this time does feel different. It really does. I just don't think they have the pieces. I think he's more interested in selling underwear. And seemingly, if we take him at his word, very interested in being a successful broadcaster one day. I just don't think he's ready to win a Super Bowl this season. Look, I really think that there is truth to that. This offseason has been different than others before he's won a Super Bowl. So I think it's fair to say that, Gabe, that like, hey, this is different. And we keep thinking that he can overcome these differences and maybe this is the time

it doesn't happen. I mean, I think Buffalo and Kansas City are better. Like I would pick those two teams right now to beat Tampa Bay if I had to pick Super Bowl teams. I think those are the AFC teams anyways. We're doing our AFC West predictions in two weeks. We're going to have our AFC

North predictions and NFC North predictions this week. But the Chiefs and Bills, to me, are the two favorites. They are the two favorites. And Tampa Bay, they would beat Tampa Bay right now in my opinion. So the distractions don't help Tampa Bay at all. But we'll find out if they hurt them. I just don't think they do.

All right. Spoiler for me, and I bet you agree. Ravens, AFC North, no question. I bet that like seven times already this offseason. Yeah. AFC North, no question. I bet that like seven times already this offseason. Yeah. It's like the – it's a very odd – I don't know why people – it's still plus money. It's wild to me.

Crazy. So you guys will do that later in the week. Let's take a quick break, come back, move the line. We've got a few quick over-unders. All right, Jeff, we're back. RG3 says the Commanders are Super Bowl contenders with the quarterback who shall not be named on this show. Well, didn't he also say that he has to play like this 2017 version of himself?

Yeah, he put a lot of qualifies on it. So that's why the question is here. How long did RG3 think about this tweet before hitting send? Over, under 15 and a half seconds. Four seconds. Like, yeah, okay. If I, you know, it's just these hypotheticals. Yeah, if he turned to the player he was five years ago, he'd be good again.

Well, if he was that player, then he would be that player. Like, what are we talking about? I just, I tweeted the other day. I was watching a little bit of the Commanders and the Chiefs game, and I saw Tyler Heineke just move the ball a little bit. Carson Wentz didn't move the ball very well. And I was like, do you guys want – Commanders fans, do you want Wentz or Heineke? And Commanders fans were very angry by that.

They did not like that I put those two in the same sentence. Yeah, I went with Heineken. Yeah, a lot of Wentz hypers. I can't recall, like, who was another example of a quarterback? You know, Wentz was okay last year. He was, you know, middle average, I guess, a little bit lower than average, I think, for EPA. Who's a quarterback that's a comp of his? his like hasn't been good in five years really but we still kind of believe is was it like

a big bend the last couple years like I think people generally assumed he wasn't very good like who's that example where people cling to one season early in their career is like this is what if they could just get back to that we don don't have that in the quarterback, do we? I can't think of anyone because he was so good that one year statistically and been so average since. I think the Steelers wanted Big Ben to be that player he was five years ago even though everyone agreed it wasn't going to happen. But there's still like this –

But he'd already won a couple of games. I know, but there's a sense of like – Obviously good. There's a sense of like, well, you can he flip the switch it's like what what that's the outlier year yeah that's like oh somebody waiting around for Brady Anderson to flip the switch and go back to it in 50 home runs it ain't happening uh all right so let's talk about some other things that trigger you you tweeted something I'll get back to the question in a second you tweeted if I was president I would have an executive order that all toilet paper holders or fixtures in public bathrooms be higher. Yes. They need to accommodate taller

leg heights. So over under a hundred days into your presidency, this fictional presidency, before you've made that executive order, banned all Carson Wentz conversation, banned betting on the Cowboys over, and banned kickers. Right away. Because here's what happened. I would go in the White House and I would take my first deuce and I would realize that the toilet paper holder runs into my knee and what that does obviously is then the width of the toilet,

of the stall becomes even less, right? Because my legs can't open as far. And the toilet paper holder is in the way, so then I have to move like my whole body out the way to get toilet paper then move my body it's just it's a lot of moving parts in there and i just i think the fixture should be higher you got to accommodate people with with bigger bodies i was in the airport this morning when i tweeted out i was in the philadelphia american airlines uh lounge i was in the Philadelphia American Airlines lounge. It was in the bathroom. It was a nice bathroom.

It was doing my business. And they have a giant toilet paper thing in there, like one of those giant fixtures. And I'm like, move this out of the way. You know, this whole conversation makes me think of my favorite meme that I'm almost certain we've joked about before on this show. If not, I'm about to make your day. This has to have come up.

You know, there's a picture of this. He's kind of a big guy. He takes a selfie in a gym locker room and it says, Day one at the gym, just finished taking a shit. Let's start the workout. And he's covered in sweat oh god i love this guy so much so good um i mean i've seen that before it's really oh god what seriously you guys sent it to me that's very very, very funny. Oh, that's coming your way. It's very funny. Oh, dude.

He's just pouring sweat. Just finished taking a shit. Let's start the workout. Dude, it's a good way to clear the system up before you get those workouts going, man. Oh, it's important. It's very important. So, yeah, dude. It's – I was just – food for thought as I was in that, in that lounge bathroom this morning after my 14 hour film day for a show that I'm doing that may never air. Who knows?

I have no idea. I mean, it'll air. Yeah. Just like Oregon will be the big 10. It'll air at some point. I don't know when. Hey, uh, let's do a couple more quickies and get out of here so over under 10 million dollars that you and i could round up from our famous friends to buy

the los angeles angels from arty moreno okay can we get 10 million bucks and would that be enough to buy the uh well i think that people would pay we could do a goFundMe of Angels fans to pay the new owner to name them in the city they're actually in. Okay, back to Anaheim. Back to Anaheim Angels, yeah. They're not in Los Angeles. They're like 50 miles from Los Angeles, like from downtown.

They're not even from really anywhere. It's silly to me. Why are they in Los Angeles? You're in Anaheim. You're in Anaheim. Be the Anaheim Angels. The only ones that are close, I guess, are the Giants and Jets. They're in New York, but the Jets aren't even close, really, where they're stationed.

Giants are closer, at least. Yeah. Well, I'm going to raise my kids Angels fans, so I'm hoping that we get a good owner. I'd like the owner of my former team. You'll have Noah Ohtani, though, probably. Wow. You like the owner of your former team? Yeah, New York. Steve Cohen? The Mets.

You like Steve Cohen? I like Stevie. He just says it like it is on social media. He just talks like a fan. I mean, you know, look, if you're a rich billionaire and you buy a baseball team because you grew up rooting for them and you aren't a fan, what the hell are you doing? It's not like good business. Oh, no. Or at least they claim it

isn't. Oh, well, no. They claim it isn't, but it is good business. Yeah. I just think they need to change the name. Like, rebrand and, I mean, the Angels have had two of the three best players in baseball for years now and still stink. It's pretty remarkable. It's pretty crazy. It is incredible.

And they had Albert Pujols prior to that. He was also. I mean, Pujols is near 700 home runs and he keeps mashing the last couple of weeks. Seven away? Yeah. All right. I saw a video of Rob Gronkowski playing some basketball. It was awesome because Gronk is awesome.

So here's the question. How many points does Gronk score on Tom Brady in a game of one-on-one, game to 11, before Gronk then has to stop trying because he doesn't want to hurt the boss's feelings. Over under five and a half points before Gronk stops. I was going to say six. Six nothing, yeah. Because it's six nothing.

Gronk's just muscling him around. You feel bad. You're like, eh. So we're playing by ones to 11, I imagine. It's your halfway through. You're like, eh, I'll let him get a couple points. So you give him a couple open looks. It's very clear that you've won, you're going to win.

Yeah. Yeah, you stop doing the hard stuff and you start to enjoy yourself. When you said the question, my answer was going to be six. So I said, oh, so I guess over five and a half. Okay, over technically. All right. Texas beats Bama by over under 13 and a half. This is a Hank special.

I don't know what the hell this is referencing. Well, week one, Alabama-Texas play. Yeah, okay. Week zero this week, by the way. I don't have any wagers. Well, maybe Matt and I will do a little bit. Texas plays Bama week one? How did I not know that?

They're going to get stumped. Or maybe it's week two. I don't think it is. The issue is that they play. Texas was pissed because, yeah, it's week two, I should say. Week two, Texas-Alabama. Alabama's at two, I should say. Week two, Texas, Alabama, Alabama's at Texas and it's a 11 a.m.

Central kickoff and Texas is pissed because it's so hot. Like they want it to be a night game. They want the audience. They're going to run over. They should be happy

that this game will be less watched. Here's an interesting stat. Hank must have put this here. Nick Saban has never beaten a team that lost to Kansas the prior year. The last time he faced beaten a team that lost to Kansas the prior year. The last time he faced such a team was 2007, Louisiana Monroe,

who beat the Crimson Tide 21-14 Tuscaloosa. So there's that. It's a good sign. That's what college sports does to you, right? You come up with these silly things. What's surprise Hank question? Oh, I wrote Surprise Hank question in the rundown. So Hank doesn't know this is coming.

You teased it earlier. Sanctioned fight. Normal boxing gloves. Rules in place. Okay. My wife would beat Hank's ass. Ouch. You know what? Good job knowing the question because i bet hank dude she the question was going to be how many rounds before your wife knocks hank out oh one over under

two and a half one she uh dude my wife obviously like um like she, he after it, she had, has a history of getting after it. Um, so, oh yeah, that was impressive punch. She was in platforms. By the way, the, the best part about her, uh, punch was that that was an outfit she no only wore to an arcade, like a body suit and red shorts and five inch heels. Like I was like, what are you doing? You're on the arcade. And that's,

that's the same outfit. Like you've seen plenty of videos on Tik TOK of like the girl at the bar after a few drinks and those shoes on tries to play the knockout game and falls down. And she squared it 750 something. Someone sent me a thing that said that um she would have the second high i guess all the barstool employees like yeah did this and she would be right behind like billy football like she hit it so hard i don't who knows about the machine but she hit it the second

hardest of everyone at the thing i she hit it she said to afterwards said afterwards some man hit it and she hit it harder than him. 7-34. Well, I mean, it was impressive and I want to see her in the ring with the hammer. Oh, she'd kick Hank's ass.

He's not ready for that. Was there anything real we missed in football? This is the lull before the stone right i i yeah i feel like the nfl preseason has pretty much gone as expected like there's nothing that i've seen so far that changed my opinion very much on any team either way i want to see the browns with watson you know they're not going to have them for 11 games and whatever but we already suspect he wasn't going to play very much but like there's really nothing that's happened the Bills look good the Chiefs look good I mean some teams haven't played starters it's really

hard to tell but for teams that played their starters man teams I thought were going to be good or good Seattle's terrible because I thought like there's the teams that are bad or bad and uh get ready for the season, man. I'm excited. When's the surprise? Like the big last second deal? Or like what's the last surprise you predict happening? We're seeing trades happen of offensive linemen, oddly enough. Yeah. It's going to be Jimmy Garoppolo somewhere, but not a trade.

The Niners will release him, I think. I think. Who knows? They might not. You think they'd release him and run the risk that he goes to Seattle and Seattle doesn't suck? See, I don't think Seattle – okay, here's something about that. Is all the teams that are the favorite to land Jimmy Garoppolo

make no sense to me. Why would they need him? You want to stink. You want to be bad this year. So you don't think there's any team with a roster that's just a stable quarterback away from being good? Like, you're either terrible and even a good quarterback would only make you average.

People say the Giants, but again, would you rather win nine games or win five and have a high draft pick and get yourself a new quarterback? Or find out you have the quarterback. I think you got to stick with Daniel Jones one more year. He's either a dumpster fire or he's the guy. People have said to the Jets, for what purpose? Well, they never should have drafted the kid they drafted. Sure, but –

You have – and you have Flacco is like – There's not that much of a difference between Flacco and Garoppolo. Yeah. It's going to be Flacco versus Ravens, I think, week one, right? It's like Jets-Ravens. I think that's what – A bunch of revenge games, yeah. Mayfield here.

It's the Browns. We've got to go to the revenge game week one. I'm sure the team will be packed. The team will be packed for Browns-Panthers. Yeah. Okay, predict Browns record by the time Deshaun gets back and then we'll get out of here. 11 games.

I've looked at the schedule. I know what I think my number is. I'd say four and seven yep that's where i had it and that was generous i gave i gave them the like maybe they steal one against the stealers or the bangles or something but four and eleven four and seven is about as good as they that's what i think i didn't look at the schedule that's my guess i mean no that checks out all right well uh you can preview their division in a day or two, and we'll be back in a week or two, and then the season is on.

I've seen this meme before. I love that guy. Are they like follow-ups at all, or is this just like what it is? Does he lose weight? Day one. Just finished taking a shit. Time to get to work. Oh, God.

So funny. Thank you so much. All right. Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. We're back later this week with an AFC and NFC North preview. Hope you guys have enjoyed that. Have a great couple of days. We'll talk to you then. Peace.