Green Light with Chris Long - Best Sports Moments of the Decade. NFL Week 17 is Weird. Chris's Resolutions.

Episode Date: January 1, 2020

Chris is on the road in Florida this week, and Macon bailed to take the team charter home. This episode includes A full Orange bowl recap. Coaching updates. Week 17 weirdness. Best Super Bowl teams of the decade. Favorite sports moments of the decade. Mailbag with a robot automation prediction. Chris's 2020 New Years Resolutions.  Happy New Year from Chris Long and the Chalk Media team!  About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content, including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews, and more. Nothing is off-limits at Chalk - hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, green light pod, a little different today. I'm on the road. We took this show on the road. That's one detail that's different. Two details that are different because I'm still down here in sunny South Florida for the Orange Bowl, which we'll talk about in a minute. Detail number two that's way different for me is that my co-host is not here, making Gunner opted to get back on the team charter last night. You know, saving a couple bucks, hopping on the charter. I respect it. And then, Number three, I don't really have a plan today. I mean, like, I have a loose plan, but I just sat down in front of the microphone and I was like doing some last minute

prepping. And I'm just going to be up front. I have half-assed this pod. And I apologize to the people who have listened to this pod for, you know, about 18 episodes. It's been a long road. And I can honestly say that I have not half-assed anything to this point. But admittedly, New Year's Eve in South Florida, Orange Bowl last night, didn't get back one or two in the morning. I have half-ass

this pod, so I apologize. But we'll see where it goes. I've also started enjoying myself a little early today. To paint a picture, it is about 4 p.m. I am watching some college football. I'm taking in some sunshine.

Just saw Virginia Tech lose in heartbreaking fashion, and you hate to see it. You hate to see the Hokies go down to Kentucky 37 to 3,000, What you hate to see even more is me not just winning money on the Kentucky Wildcats at the expense of my friends down 81. I also hammered the live line, Kentucky minus three and a half.

And for anybody that did the opposite for any reason, that was a bad beat. If you saw the last play of the game, I could not believe this dude scored. Turnover on the hook and ladder thing. That's the most dangerous playing gambling. It really is. I've seen it go wrong so many times. But unfortunately, the Hokies not only lose the Commonwealth Cup, they lose the Belk Bowl. And I think this is the, is this the last Belk Bowl?

I'm asking my buddy Chris here, who's been gracious enough to let me podcasts in his apartment, which has a lovely view out into some open water. I think this is the last year of the Belk Bowl, which is a shame. thankfully it's not the last year of belk you can still get nautica and tommy hill figure at will um at your neighborhood belk what do we have here yep belk oh yep yep need a new name but there's still going to be a bowl in charlotte which is a great place for uh it used to be the continental tire bowl back in the day in the days of billy mcmullen and matt shob i think we beat west virginia 48 22 if my memory serves me correctly, that was before I got there, but I was a big Virginia fan.

I also saw play Pitt down there, saw Larry Fitzgerald play his last game. You know, Charlotte's a good place for bowl game. Not today for tech. And I'm not gloating. We lost the bowl game last night. Ours was called the Orange Bowl. It's a different bowl. They call it a New Year's Sixth Bowl.

Belk Bowl happens around the same time, but it's not a New Year's six bowl. So for any misunderstandings that some folks in Blacksburg might have, yeah, Belk Bowl is around New Year's, but not a New Year's six bowl. We both lost. We can commiserate, but at least I won money on both games, Virginia with the backdoor cover. And I thought they could possibly win outright. That's why I sprinkled some on the money line. Didn't recoup that. But a lot to be proud of last night for the Virginia Cavaliers. I mean, this is a team and big shout out to the seniors that got to Charlottesville. They saw a two and ten.

They saw a new regime. That seemed pretty weird, to be honest. Like when you when a dude that's been coaching out west comes to Charlottesville and he's got to recruit differently, the culture is totally different and he brings his staff. You know, ACC country is not as unique maybe as

SEC country, but it's hard to coach somewhere else completely regionally or culturally and come in. you know, kind of transform, really a project job at UVA. And there's a ton of potential, as you're seeing right now. I mean, who wouldn't want to come, not being sarcastic, who wouldn't want to come play ball in Charlottesville? It's a beautiful place.

Great academics. Awesome campus. People call it grounds. I don't do that. Awesome campus. And just a tremendous athletic department in general. I mean, Olympic sports are great. Virginia basketball is already, I mean, I was going to say, on the rise.

we have arrived. So with the national championship and football's on the way up, Carla, our new athletic director, Carla Williams, she came from Georgia, and she has completely transformed things. And Craig Littlepage was great. But the infusion of commitment and, you know,

resources into football, it's already yielding results. I know the raise for new buildings, is underway and it could be an exciting time for Virginia you talk about that senior class not to go off on too far of a tangent but two and ten new coach new system culturally polar opposite of Mike London's regime and four years later in the Orange Bowl I mean we got smacked by Navy and there's no shame in that I love the troops but we got smacked by Navy in the military bowl, which felt like an ambush.

I think we got beat by like 40 points two years ago. And then we play in the Belk Bowl. We smack South Carolina. And then this year we're in the Orange Bowl. We go toe to toe with Florida. I mean, really in a game that looked like it was going to be a blowout early, second or third play of the game, this cap for Florida to the back is total stud,

rips off about a 70-yard run. and I'm already getting the texts. You know, my friend, Big Cat, text me at least, or he tweeted me, he did it in public, he shamed me in public. I wish he would have just texted me. But he said, at least you won the coin toss. And we did win the coin toss. But, you know, we knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,

ended up being probably higher-scoring than some people even expected on the Virginia side. And again, this is a Virginia offense that I talked about this. The receivers are the best in the country. when it comes to their drop rate, our team put up more yardage and move the ball more efficiently on Clemson than anybody but Ohio State. Of course, we didn't play defense that day. We didn't play a ton of defense last night, but we've got a ton of injuries and certainly never an excuse, but the plays were there to be made. A few turnover opportunities just didn't come to fruition. And when you're playing a team that's got more talent, and that talent gap still does exist,

although we're building in Charlottesville. That SEC speed, it's a real thing. I mock it sometimes with those kids, they can really fly. They were down their best corner. Bryce Perkins, who's had a tremendous career and somebody who should be on the Virginia football Mount Rushmore. I don't know about Virginia athletics, when you're talking about Ralph Samson

and some other athletes in lesser-known sports that should definitely be in the conversation. But Bryce Perkins, for everything he's done transformationally for this program, taking a leap of faith, neck injury, Juko, way out west, never, no real ties to Charlottesville I know of. He takes a leap of faith and Bronco takes a leap of faith on him and him and Bronco Mendelhoff made a great marriage.

He lit it up this year, had a historic year for Virginia quarterback. And I know he's only here two years, but this guy has a home forever in Charlottesville. I think as the years go by and you see the way this program transforms, you'll look back at this class, you know, guys like Joe Reed, Bryce Hall, who I hope they have tremendous pro careers and a number of guys who are more role players. But Bryce Perkins deserves a lot of praise. Fun game. I decided to lay off the sauce. I talked about I went to Prime earlier in the week, which is always great. Shout out to Miles

and shout out to Prime 112 down here in South Beach. And a dinner there can turn into a hangover relatively quick. And that's what I was dealing with yesterday. I hate to sound like. like a baby but i was like let me try this thing where i go to a suite and enjoy an entire game without getting drunk and see how that goes and i loved it uh i had a great time again a lot of fun i got to be on the field before the game do the coin toss honorary captain that sort of thing um they had me up there in the college football 150 thing whatever whatever that is it's uh recognized a bunch of players from the bowl era and coaches as well steve steve Steve Spruyer was the guy for Florida.

And that was pretty cool getting to talk to him for like five minutes. You can tell that guy, he's just got juice. Like, people probably love being around him. He is your prototypical SEC football coach. I mean, you know, SEC football coach in the dictionary. I know it's not in the dictionary. But if it were next to that phrase would be a picture of a few guys, but Steve Spurrier would be one.

And he fits, if you talked him for five minutes, you could tell he was probably a great recruiter. You know, players probably loved him. He's just got that, it's not arrogance. He's got confidence. I mean, he just has that, you know, a guy that wins the Heisman trophy, and he's such a good coach, you forget about it.

He's had a pretty good run. And I felt very humble to be on the field with him. And I ran to some old Virginia legends and actually ended up, I was going to Uber, but Tiki was at the game, and Tiki gave us a ride. home back to Fort Lauderdale. It was great C. Tiki always. So Terry Kirby, Jamie Sharper, a bunch of guys there. So St. Clair was there. Good day for Virginia, even in a loss.

As Bryce Perkins said, we don't do moral victories, but pretty cool to be in the Orange Bowl for a team that a lot of people probably didn't think was going to be very good the last couple years and it's been a good run. So the future is bright. And on the topic of Virginia Tech, I don't just shit on Virginia Tech. I've done this before and talk about what teams I hate. I actually hate Maryland. Like I don't respect Maryland. I hate Maryland. Their uniforms are ugly. The crash test dummy looking helmets, the flag that's so self-important. The inner harbor's nice. Seafood's great. The eastern shore is beautiful. The eastern shore, I like better than the Jersey Shore. And that's going to be really unpopular to people in Philly. I like the Jersey Shore a lot. Love Ocean City,

but there are some spots on the eastern shore. Just the greenery. It's a little greener. It feels a little more, I don't know, I don't know what the word would be, bucolic on the water. Not that it's not peaceful on the Jersey Shore, but I'm, you know, Eastern Shore. I'm saying that to say this, I don't hate everything about the state of Maryland. But everything in College Park, probably hate. Scott Van Pelt, good guy, buddy of mine, was also nice enough to wish the Cavaliers luck last night. Very honest, too. I mean, he wasn't busting my balls. He was really wishing us luck. I would not do the same for Maryland. Tori Smith, really good guy, really good football player, won a Super Bowl together, hate your school. Juan Dixon, I liked him. Sorry, I hate your school.

I hated Maryland. I don't hate Virginia, like I hate Virginia Tech, but at least I respect them. You know, I respect the way they operate, the way they've historically played with toughness. You know, I, Frank Beamer was a guy who I had a hard time disliking. I was sat with him at a couple, you know, we never beat Tech. We were Owen Four against Tech. And thank God we broke that streak this year because it got to like 15. But I was on the, on the bowl circuit or award circuit with Beamer.

and had to sit with him a couple times. And really, when I got down to it, I respected the guy. And another guy I really respect and still respect is Bud Foster, who had a tremendous career at Virginia Tech. So very sincerely, I know I'm very sarcastic. I'm not fucking around. I really respect Bud Foster. And I know he's not a friend of the program.

I know he doesn't listen to the program. He probably doesn't podcast, period. But I'm sure if he did, it wouldn't be a green light. but good career a lot of respect from from a rival and then if you're ever feeling like getting some culture in your life popping up to uh to the hook to charlottesville up 81 uh i'll buy you a beer you can come on green light come on man don't turn me down so a lot of coaching changes we're talking about in college you know bud foster stepping down and uh retiring i should say after a great great career in the NFL there's been no shortage that's the biggest news this week i'm

to wait to get to our preview type stuff later in the week. A ton of coaching changes, as there always are after week 17. I talked to Rosillo a bit about this on the pod. Week 17 is a weird social experiment, you know, for the players, for the coaches. How do you act when the chips are down? There's a, you know, a third of the league, usually the chips are down. And by that, I mean, people are worried about their jobs. People are always worried about their jobs in the NFL.

But there's always, you know, 10 to 15 teams every year that you've got to be a little more worried. And then there's five teams that you're just, you know, it's over for a lot of cats in the building and for a lot of folks upstairs. And by that, I mean, front office coaches. And I've been on a lot of those teams. So I know what Week 17 is like when, you know, everybody's getting shit canned. I joked about, you know, I got so conditioned to seeing firings. I used to wish a couple coaches the best and thank them for working together that weren't getting fired after exit meetings.

I'd walk out of the building and, you know, see an unnamed coach and give him a hug and say, hey, it's been great working with you. He's like, I'll see you in April. That's just how many, I've been on a lot of bad teams. So I know the drama that comes with it. I know what exit meetings are like. Exit meetings are interesting. They're awkward. half the team's drunk, you know, usually you go, even if you don't have your team party,

because most people skate, people get out of town. They're booking their vacations the week before, a couple weeks before, for teams that are not going to be in the playoffs. And again, I know a lot of people use that as like kind of a cliche. These guys have already booked their vacations. I booked plenty of vacations in St. Louis to Virgin Gorda. My favorite place. Shout out to Virgin Gorda. And I played my ass off week 16 and 17. I was like a bad out of hell. People would turn on film. My goal was to say, for people to say,

and I know a lot of players think like this, what's wrong with this dude? Does he not know that there's nothing on the line? Well, there's always something on the line. And for the veterans who have more contract security that are kind of in the middle, maybe you're not going to play as hard. For young guys, first contract,

you're always auditioning, bad teams, a lot of turnover. Guys at the end of their career, I mean, I played Week 17 in a totally different situation a couple years ago in Philly. You know, we had a first round draft pick in Derek Barnett. Brandon Graham is obviously a star. I was the third end on first and second down. I was a nickel rusher on third down on the left. And I love playing football, but I don't love playing football when there's nothing in line.

You've got to tackle Zeke Elliott and it's fucking one degree. And I was not very appreciative of having to play so many snaps week 17 while I watched many younger players sitting. that was a different kind of week 17 but generally if you go out there week 17 you can't half ass it you half ass it on the field you're going to get hurt but the second half super weird i talked about it with rissillo on monday i blew my hand up trying to tackle marshawn lynch the fourth quarter of a meaningless game i think it was like 2011 2011 2012 my hand's still not right i can't lay my hand flat on a table because it's got a plate in it and my cmc is fused i had two surgeries on it. It changed the way I had to rush and play football. My thumb doesn't bend. That happened in a

meaningless game. And that happened in the second half. I'm ready to get on the bus and go on vacation. I want a hot shower. It's 28 degrees. Somehow it's below freezing in Seattle every week 17. And it rains and it's not snow. I don't know how that's scientifically possible, but it happened every fucking year. And so here I am getting held by some Tom Cable disciple-ass player who's just pushing me after the play and grabbing my jersey. I'm getting held so I have one arm and I reach out in the hole and Beastmo just blows my hand up. And now I've got to spend my entire off season rehabbing with pins sticking out of my hand. I don't know how that's a thing. But when you put pins in somebody, I always thought that they like buried the pins.

I had pins sticking out of my hand that were an inch and a half exposed. And then some nights I would do a party trick where I would bend the pins. Now, I don't think that was good for my hand. But it wasn't why I already knew I had to have a second surgery when I was doing that. So anyways, I knew the joint was gone. They were going to fuse it. So that happens week 17. There's no avoiding it.

Some people, I've seen guys tear their ACLs week 17. but what exacerbates all this is when you have a coach you know is getting fired and you see how grown men the people that you think are adults coaches and that's the most untrue dynamic in football that they're the adults and players of the kids by the way one of the most the most disappointing thing when you become an adult is realizing that other adults are just like grown up kids they're older children and like adulthood is such a farce like you just realize that they're this same kid that did whatever they were doing in elementary school, but they're just doing it like with adult stakes. And that is wildly disappointing. It's also wildly disappointing to get

in the NFL and realize that most position coaches are faking until they make it. And most coaches do not handle pressure or stress well. Things get really weird in the building. I had a coach one time late in the season. He made a bad call, like a fundamentally unsubstantiated. I was a guy. I'm call terrible call dumpster fire full of dog shit call and somebody broke broke off a long run for a touchdown we're all sitting in the meeting room and expecting him to apologize for making the call and he's laying into us and somebody's like hey dude this was like the exact wrong call for the thing one of these veterans that had had enough and he goes what do you want me to just bail me out bail you out is there any accountability upstairs now i'm not disparaging all coaches there's

a lot coaches work their asses off in the NFL their hours are ridiculous um they sacrifice more than the players from a family perspective i mean coaches move city to city state to state their entire career with with that's something i could not do i mean there's no there's no respite for them there's no like security there's and it's becoming even even less and less so which is is relevant in the conversation we're about to have about the coaching carousel in the NFL like the trade off from college a pro is that in college i feel like especially if you're an alumni of the school you know you i feel like you have more security like if i was to go coach as a former player thinking about going to coach at like virginia or something which i would never do because they work too hard i'm not cut out for

it at this juncture in my life if you coach in college the hours are brutal and then there's recruiting i don't know how they do it one of my best buddies marcus haggins who i'm down here now with he works his ass off. And I know he has to make a ton of sacrifices. But the tradeoff is he's not only a great coach, he's a UVA legend. If you're coaching at UVA, I feel like, you know, hopefully you have more security than somebody that went to some other like Alcorn State or some shit. Like if I went back to coaching college, there's more security for me geographically. If I want to say like I'm like if I never screw this up bad, I don't want to leave Charlottesville, hypothetically, as a former player, that might be able to have.

happen. You know, I could, I could at least like change positions. They could hide me. Um, if you coach in the pros, there's none of that and there's no geographical security, even if you played. It doesn't matter if you're like a legacy player at a, at a team. I mean, I'm sure they make some concessions, but coaching in the NFL or college is really tough. And coaching in the NFL has gotten even tougher because there's less and less patience. I really think, And as I, you know, in a few minutes, I'm going to go through the best moments. My favorite moments is a sports fan of the decade. And we were, Chris here was talking, we were talking before about how this is the first decade

that social media has impacted sports so much. I mean, like, our standard for officiating. I talk about that often. Like, oh, we act like this is the first decade that officiating has ever sucked. No, quite the opposite. I bet it's largely better than it ever was. But the vantage point of fans, thus increasing the, accountability factor for the league and the product has just rapidly, rapidly improved at a

rate that officiating can't keep up with. But that's just one example of how social media has impacted sports. It's also impacted, you know, the way we, I think people on Twitter, whether you're a fan or you have a blue check, which means nothing, like, yeah, I'm a former football player. I'm going to have a lot of bad takes. There are a lot of football. football fans that probably know more about football than me. They don't know how to play it more. They don't know about some of the intricacies that I know. So you know, I never take my blue check too seriously. But I feel like most people, whether you're blue check or whether you're a fan, they read the room. Everybody's take, whether you're one of the boldest people on Twitter or not,

you get on, you check the temperature. People used to sit in front of a TV and you didn't know anything about the game until the fucking newspaper came out like the next day somebody threw your takes on the lawn um and that's interesting so the way we digest you know what happened in the game the issues that arise i think for the most part we're mostly honest about what we say but everybody reads the room um and that's social media uh another thing that social media impacts i think is the way teams operate like from if a team does something you know from from a court of public opinion standpoint like talking about new orleans and signing a b do you do it maybe back in the day it'd be a lot easier to do i mean not just because of the 24 hour news cycle and social media giving him

an opportunity to act bad shit crazy but also because you you got to read the room as as a franchise and um you know it's the same thing with coaching you know if if fans are restless they can't just boo anymore. There's a lot more options and outlets than booing. And I think that, the 24-hour news cycle, the take artists on TV, the pressure that mounts, like coaches say they don't read press clippings, that's bullshit. They sit up there with their TVs on all day, all day. They read stuff. And owners read stuff. And owners don't want to be wrong or feel stupid. And if they see everybody else firing at will, they're going to fire. will. And a lot of times coaches and coaching staffs are just blown up with no solution. Like,

for what? But I just think that the patience from a fan perspective has always been short, but it's shorter than ever now because we read the room, because we have actually a say through social media, whether you like it or not. Owners read stuff, take artists, influence things. And the patience has just gone down. So it's really hard to build in the NFL. And there's different tiers of jobs you can accept. Some jobs I'm like, some jobs I see open. Like say if Allen never left, if Allen wasn't gone and Snyder wasn't, I mean, we're assuming he's going to be kept in better check.

I don't know why I'm assuming that, but maybe he's going to change. I thought that maybe axing Bruce Allen could be exhibit A of a revelation for him in the new decade. But in general, there's tiers of jobs. Washington would be one that I would think would be just like avoid. Just don't do it. Let's say they blew Jacksonville up, which inexplicably they haven't. They say they're going to keep Morone, which by the way, no free agents to go play for the Jacksonville Jaguars because that coach you just kept. He saw everything that happened.

Don't tell me it was just Tom Coughlin. Like all that stuff is above board. Morone knew it. you're just apologetic because you got caught. And if I'm a free agent, I don't want to go to Jacksonville. So like, let's say they blew Jacksonville up. That would be one that if I'm a young coach and I had my choice, I would never go coach there. But I feel like there's some coordinators or some guys that have maybe waited a while.

They're like, I got to get my job now. Even though it's like kind of career suicide, you're walking into a really bad situation with, a poor roster, bad management. You could be walking into a front office situation like Washington. The quarterback situation could be terrible. You could be married to a quarterback that you can't get rid of. Say like, say Trubisky had a couple years left on his deal. Say it was the start of this year and Nagy got axed or the defense wasn't as good.

And you're stuck with like a Trubisky. And I'm not trying to just, I'm not shitting on Trubisky. I think he could be fixed. Maybe he's never going to be a top five, top ten guys. but I think there's just some jobs that you should avoid, but some guys can't help it. Even if you're kicking the can down the road and two years down the road when you get fired because it was just Vietnam there, like you do it anyways because that's like human nature. You have to take the opportunity.

And it's hard to pass up some of these shitty jobs and say, oh, I'll get the next one. So I think some jobs, I sit there and I'm like, it'll be better if just nobody got hired for that job. Like they just promoted somebody who was already there. because some of these jobs can be career suicide. Now, some of these jobs are ironically, Cleveland, when you look at it, we're probably looking at a vacancy in Dallas. We're probably looking at, we are looking at a vacancy in Cleveland. We're looking at one in New York with the Giants, the Panthers,

and now Washington is spoken for because Snyder snatched up Riverboat Ron, and Cleveland couldn't even get to him. So most fans, and it's funny because Rule evidently passed up looking at the Cleveland job, the hot shot, big name, cat down in Baylor, which is curious because maybe he doesn't like Baker. I don't like, I don't know, maybe he has some, he had, maybe he thinks it's as much of a shit show as the fans do. Maybe he doesn't like Baker, but it doesn't bode well for like Browns fans when a guy in college won't even take an interview with the Browns. It's not a good sign.

I think they could snag because I do think you look at the Giants, you look at the Panthers, you look at maybe Dallas. Cleveland could be all things considered, depending on what you think of Baker, an attractive destination.

Now it could be a very attractive destination for Josh McDaniels, who's been talked about, obviously a Patriots coordinator, who I think is a tremendous offensive coach and a cool dude. I played for him in St. Louis and in New England.

obviously he didn't coach my side of the ball, but I've seen him kind of grow because I saw him, I think it was right before Denver, and I saw him way down the line. And people grow. He's an Ohio guy. I think somebody needs to save Baker, including Baker needs to save himself, but somebody needs to save Baker. Because once I've seen you make certain throws and put together, you know, certain little stretches as a quarterback, that's kind of how I judge you now. Like, I want that all the time because especially as a young guy, it's not like you're physically falling off a cliff or anything. The production from one year to the next, you're always going to be chasing that stretch that he had at the beginning of his working season. That's there. Somebody can get it out of him. And I think McDaniels could be the guy. I know that probably isn't going to be anybody's favorite hire in Cleveland. Maybe I'm wrong.

Is Cleveland happy about anything? Um, it's crazy to me. You had all that hope last year and then now you're in the same situation, uh, that you are in perpetually searching for a coach and you don't get first, first pick. Because you, you, you want to look at Ron. He's already hired. He's spoken for. Uh, you know, you've got guys like rule who won't even interview with you. You fired Dorsey as of today. And I guess he's the guy who pushed for kitchen. So maybe that's it. Maybe he's not a people person. that's part of it. I know there's some like interpersonal stuff there.

But for McDaniels, you've got some pieces. If you think you can manage certain personalities at skill positions, if you think you can fix Baker, I mean, I don't know, if you're an offensive coordinator, you're looking at the jobs that are available. Let's take Dallas out of it for a second because McDaniels is not getting that job. Do you like Danny Dimes?

Do you like Baker? Let's say even Washington was open. Do you like Haskins? Or do you like maybe Cam for a year? And Kyle Allen? Cleveland's got some pieces, including a really good pass rusher who's going to presumably be playing football again

at the beginning of the year next year. And for him, it would be a dream job location-wise, you know. So it's been a decade for him. And some people are like, how's that work? Well, there's been other coaches that had a decade between their first and second gig. You know, Pete Carroll, we just talked about Vermil here. There were some other guys.

A couple names escaping me. But for coaches, why wouldn't a decade be great? I mean, coaches can get better. Like, that's the thing I think a lot of people assume. Like, if somebody has self-awareness and they're smart, which I think Josh does, coaches can improve. But the self-awareness part is huge because most coaches don't have it. And the ego plays into it and all that stuff.

but if you can take what you learned the first time, aren't you better off them, even if you failed miserably, aren't you better off than some of these coaches that, you know, haven't even done it? And I'm not saying that, I'm not saying like,

hey, listen, whatever you think of Marvin Lewis. Let's say you take Marvin Lewis. A Marvin Lewis size sample size is enough to tell me you kind of, it's kind of what you do. But Josh, short, little blip in Denver, and he was rightfully, people went at him for the way he operated.

He was kind of like a little bit arrogant. Didn't seem like he had it all buttoned up there. I think in a decade he can learn a lot. He went back to New England. Now, he can change knowledge-wise and his MO can change. The thing that will probably scare some teams, and I don't think Cleveland would be as scared about it because it's kind of a geographical legacy job for him.

The thing that would scare some teams is what he did to Indy. and that'll be a cloud that's going to hang over him for a little bit. And it should. I mean, it should hang over him for a little bit because if you're a player, you're kind of like, and by the way, I trust Josh. But if you're a player, like, you're like, well, how are you going to tell me to commit to something? You bolted on the Colts.

Like, you know, that's a big thing always with coaches. Like, are you committed, this, that, and the third. Coaches are not completely committed. It's a business for everybody, and that's Exhibit A. It's not like you're signing a blood oath. you work for a team. So that's going to be a hard thing for him for a little bit. But firing the GM, that's an interesting wrinkle there.

I think let's get weird and say it is McDaniels. And McDaniels has a GM in mind. Who do you think that would be? It would be Nick Casario in New England, who's essentially been like a prominent voice in the personnel stuff. Everything runs through Bill. But Casario, if you had to name a GM, you know, Ernie's in there. I don't know what Ernie does sometimes, but I know he's doing some awesome shit.

Casario would be a guy that I could see him bringing down there. For the Giants, let's get weird. What about Bill Belichick? I don't know. Stranger things have happened. I know New York is, with his roots, kind of a dream job. It's going to be worth monitoring. I think what happens the next couple weeks.

They're not going to win a Super Bowl, in my opinion. but if they get drugged by the Titans, it could get weird up there. And I think they're going to lose the Titans. But if they lose the Titans, it's going to get weird, period. Now, if it gets ugly on Sunday or on Saturday, game's Saturday, I think.

It could get ugly. Belichick would be a weird one. I keep wondering when Harbaugh is going to come back. With Harbaugh, you get a guy that you know can coach his ass off, but there's that expiration date. So I think if you're looking at a Harbaugh, you could look at like a Dallas. His personality is very strong, though.

I don't know if him and Jerry Jones could get along. I don't know if the sweater vest plays in Dallas. That's what he rocks up at Michigan, right? He's got that little look going up there. Would his look completely change? I like Harbaugh somewhere if you got a team that has an open window. And every team has a window. You know when you see it.

Dallas's window is open. It's been open. It's high time to get somebody in there. that knows what they're doing. But my favorite hire, almost anywhere, but especially in Dallas, would be BNami, who a lot of guys I know that played with him, talk really highly of him.

And they say, I think a lot of his best attributes are his honesty. Obviously, he has great knowledge of the exes and those. I think DAC would be great in that system. That's not in question. And we know the elephant in the room is that it's really hard if you're black to get a head coaching job. I think Eric would have had a job a couple years ago if things weren't the way they are. But I think he's a great option in Dallas because by all accounts,

and I know a couple people who know him well and that played for him, they say he doesn't treat players like celebrities and he doesn't act like a celebrity himself. But he doesn't take any bullshit. And that sounds like a guy that I would want for my fixer upper in Dallas because Dallas is a shit show. and they're an underperforming team. We've talked about all the reasons they hadn't been great this year. They lost a lot of close games. I guarantee you with any game management,

they'd win those games. They lost more close games than damn near anybody this year. And their halftime adjustments haven't been great. I mean, they didn't win a game all year that they were down at the half. So Garrett has to get fired first. so let's not put the cart before the horse here. I think Bianami would be great there. I think he'd be great in New York.

The Panthers' job that I can't tell how attractive that job is. You obviously have a running back who's enticing. You have a quarterback that you probably think, hey, if he's healthy, MVP caliber guy. I mean, like, he's had those kind of years. I mean, he's been there. But, and I've loved watching Cam, I'm not going to bet on a guy who's taking a running back beating over almost a decade

who's a bigger body to magically start getting healthy after this run. And I hate saying that. I hope that Cam ends up somewhere that he can play really complimentary football. Carolina's more of a project. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this will be played back a year from now, and I'll sound like a moron. but I don't think they have enough consistency in the pieces in Carolina for it to be a one or two-year fixer-upper. And that's Cam's window.

You talk about windows for teams. Cam has a short window here. I could be wrong about that too. I hate rooting. I hope I'm wrong because I hate rooting. I wouldn't root for a player not to be healthy. I think Cam in Chicago would be awesome. You get that defense humming.

You get the run game going. change the way you do things a little bit you can take advantage of that little window you got that you haven't been doing shit with so Panthers job I'm just not sure about the Washington thing's intriguing all of a sudden I'm like okay you know they're talking about bringing

Del Rio in you've got Riverboat Ron up there already I know I know the type of guy he is he's not going to get bossed around but he can play the game and that's a big part of obviously being in that in that dysfunction factory so

I think Washington's going to be something to monitor. I think it could be better than people think quicker than people think. They got a chance to grab Chase Young high in the draft. I don't know what's happening with Kerrigan. You could have Montez sweat develop. You could have two good bookends. You know, I hate the fact that guys can't stay healthy. But you have some pieces on the O line.

Maybe Trent comes back. Haskins showed some problems late in the year. I hate giving Washington fans hope. But it's New Year's Eve. Fuck it. That's kind of what I see going on in the coaching carousel. It's going to be an interesting couple days here leading up to playoffs. I love this time of year.

Wild card weekend is one of my favorite things in sports. It always has been. And for the most part, I have been a spectator, which kind of sucks. But at the same time, I got to watch a lot of playoff football from my couch in St. Louis. and once I turned the page and the season was over, I could drink beer and watch them football. Usually I root against our rivals, and that comes into play

when I talk about this decade's best and worst Super Bowl teams. That was something I kind of jotted down again. I told you I was unprepared for this pod, so I warned you, but I was going to rank the 10, and I don't even know how you start the decade. Like, how do you, I'm always confused.

Maybe it's just me. Do you start it? Like, do you start it now? Wouldn't you just wait till the end of 2020? Like, how does that work? Are we, like, is it, does it start in 2009? Like, with the, and with Super Bowl winners, it's always like, okay, the 2010 Saints or the 2009 Saints,

how are we referring to them? I'm going to go with the decade starting with the Saints Super Bowl. Because that was the one in 10. It was the 09. season. Not making my top five here. I'll just say that. They needed an onside kick and the Porter pick six to beat an indie team that just wasn't that great. Now, ironically, Drew Breeze is only Super Bowl. I say wasn't that great. I mean, like everything's relative. We're talking about Super Bowl champions here. So don't anybody I say isn't that great. I'm just saying relative to other Super Bowl

champion. They weren't great. They needed a lot to happen. Ironically, Drew's one Super Bowl win is outdoor, which is super weird. But it was Florida, I think. That was where that game was. I think it was in Miami. Yeah, it was in Miami.

They're not the worst. The Packers, in 11, not that great, but not the worst. That was Aaron Rogers carrying a team. They were the sixth seed. They did lose all their games by a combined, points. They were the second team to win a Super Bowl as a six seed, and they had 11 playoff takeaway, so a lot had to go right for them.

And sometimes we talk about, it's funny how we talk about takeaway. Sometimes we're like, this team's doing a great job. They're creating turnovers is very intentional, and sometimes it's like, oh, they're getting breaks. I think it's a little bit of both. One thing they had for them is they never trailed by more than seven. It's an interesting little thing about them. They were competitive all the time.

time. But was that the year Brady was hurt? I think that was the year Brady was hurt. 2010. No, 2009 was. 08, 08. Oh, my rookie year. My rookie year. So, yeah, the Steelers must have beat the Patriots that year in the playoffs.

Packers, not the worst. The Giants were the worst. The Giants in 12, 2011 was their fall season, in the 2012 Super Bowl. They went 9 and 7. Their defense was awesome. They kept scoring under 20 the entire run. But just not a very good team.

They got hot. Their champs nonetheless, we talk about with Eli all the time. I think he's a Hall of Famer. You could say, all you want about the numbers or whatever. You have two Super Bowls. I don't care how it happened. We kind of judge quarterbacks on their Super Bowls. Otherwise, you'd be talking about Dan Marino as

one of the top three quarterbacks of all time. So it's relevant. They did get a win. They slayed the dragon twice. So there's something to be said for that. I mean, if the Giants weren't, if we weren't blessed with the Giants as sports fans, some people would say,

and I played for the Patriots, I'm well aware of how that dynamic works. We were really lucky as fans that the Giants, that Eli Manning was born, in a ball of lightning like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator just to save us from the Patriots winning like 10 Super Bowls. Now, they did that. They're still the worst of the decade for me.

The Ravens, I forgot about this. They lost four of their five last games in the regular season. They're down by the bottom. I would put them above, I'd actually put them above the other two teams besides the Giants I mentioned, the Saints and the Packers, because I thought San Francisco was a bona fide, like, problem that year, and they beat them. So, listen, were they a great team?

No. Like I said, down the stretch, lost 4 or 5. They need a lot of takeaways in the playoffs. Flacco went like 11 touchdown, zero interceptions. And that, his peak is so, it's so, I don't know, I'm no math major, but it deviates from the mean or whatever the fuck smart people say. His peak was so high and his lows are so low. That was a case of them getting hot.

But a lot of players I really love got rings that year, Helodi, Ed Reed. They also needed a double overtime win against the Broncos. And, oh, yeah, the 70-yard to Jones. They did beat the Pats relatively easily, 2813 before the Super Bowl. So no disrespect to that team. I don't have them in my top five. Now, we've got three Patriots teams to talk about, right?

14, 16, depending on how you're doing the year thing. You have three. You have the team that beat the Seahawks. You have the team that beat the Falcons, which I was on, and you have last year's Super Bowl championship team. I was tempted, and this goes to show you how much respect I have for the Patriots to put last year's team higher than most people would think. Their defense was ridiculous and got better as the year went on.

They had some bad losses. The Pats often have bad losses. You kind of judge it on how it ends. They also got a really good draw. I don't think they would have beat the Saints. And we all know what happened the week before. But I think they're the third best out of those Patriots, Super Bowl teams. I think that after them or right before them,

It's probably, and I only say this because I asked Rob Ninkovich, our team in 2016, and the best Patriots team was the 2014 team to beat the Seahawks. That's what Rob Ninkovich says. Now, you know, I wasn't on that team. I don't know, but looking at it from the outside end, I still think we were better in 16. I think the comeback kind of contain it. It depends on how you look at things. I mean, was it 28 to 3? Is that a strike against the Patriots?

How do you get down 28 to 3? or, you know, is every team just do a bad game? And they actually overcame it and won it. We had the best defense in the league statistically. I thought we were still a little bit overrated because it was points per game. We would give up a lot of yards. You know, we had our moments. Our offense was really good.

First and third, respectively, defensively and offensively, that's why I put that Patriots team as the best Patriots team out of the three. And so the team to beat Seattle, which easily could have been a tinyest, and we saw them again sputter at the goal line, I would put that team second. And they were down 10 in the third quarter. So that was a hell of a rally by that team too. And you think about that with the Patriots too.

There were moments there being down 10 in the third quarter to the Hawks, the 28 to 3 game, and then obviously the Malcolm Butler pick. A lot, a lot, and then the Saints PI. Let's talk about that. A lot went right for them to get those three rings. things, but we, they still got them nonetheless. I'm going to rank Seattle as the best team of the decade. Seattle, of course, destroyed, destroyed.

I'd never see anything like it. The Broncos. This was the 2013 Seahawks, so it was maybe the 2014 Super Bowl. Was that, is that it? Yeah. They allowed 19 points or less their last nine years. games and this was not fluky this was a defensive team it's interesting now you see the seahawks and lob's destruction and some personalities leaving the team kind of signaled that okay it's

russell's team now and russell's always been this good but that used to be a run first um it still kind of has a run first team run first defensive football team it's certainly not that anymore but at that point they were they were badass they had a ton of guys one of the best defenses of all time. They had 149 point differential, the best of the decade in the playoffs. And then in the Super Bowl, you have Seattle as the number one defense against the number one offense in Denver. I put Seattle because of that strength on strength beat down. And of course, it all started with that bad snap at the beginning of that game at the Meadowlands. And it was outdoor, you know, outdoor Peyton Manning. I don't know how that game goes in a dome, but that was perfect Seattle weather,

played in their hands, that whole thing. Yeah, I'm going to put Seattle as the best team of the decade, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles. A lot of people are going to call me a homer. But that team we beat was really freaking good. Don't know why I just said friggin as if I don't say fuck with regularity on this pod. I don't know if there's a science to doing this, but I got the Seahawks one.

I have us two. When you win a Super Bowl and out-dued Tom Brady and the greatest coach of all time, so you got two goats there, you out-dule that team to the tune of a combined 1,200 yards, damn near. That's pretty damn special. You do it with a backup quarterback. You know, we were very, we were stacked on defense,

but very evenly distributed. I mean, we were an elite defense. We didn't have a double-digit sack guy. We didn't have any like huge superstars outside of Fletcher, although you could say Malcolm's kind of a superstar. Offensively, we spread the ball around, hit a bunch of people. The system took over when Nick got involved. You know, Nick's a great quarterback,

but that system was tailored for him to make reads and be prepared and know exactly where to go with the football. The coaches were outstanding. The chemistry was outstanding. It was like magic. And that's why because they beat one of the best, Pats teams of the decade with a backup quarterback they we uh I would put us too so I would put that 2016 team three of course I'm biased I got two teams I was on as two of the top three

then I would put yeah it was the 14 Seahawks victory for the Pats at four uh and I'm going to put Denver beating the Panthers right before I'm going to put that Patriots team from last year. Just because their defense was so dominant. And I think revisionist history, you look at the way things kind of went in Carolina afterwards and the dug the egg that they laid in the Super Bowl, relatively speaking, and they were the hottest fucking team in football for the entire year. They kind of, I think they started the whole like picture thing, like pictures in the end zone and all that stuff. After turnovers or touchdowns, like if I remember correctly, they set that trend where it was like, we're going to have fun.

We don't, we don't care who you are. We're going to beat you up. We're physical. We're boisterous. And there were other, you know, there's been other teams like that, but they did the picture thing. And of course we did that too in Philly And I don't know if that thing's over now It doesn't look like it's over

Because Philly did it last week So that's kind of like my top five to six And I talked about the other Super Bowl Super Bowl teams that that weren't as great I put the Giants last And I kind of have Green Bay, New Orleans and they're floating In Baltimore as well

I don't think we forgot anybody But again Top three Two of the teams I'm on. I was on. You've got the Seahawks, number one. You have the Eagles, the underdogs, number two. And then I, then I have the 2016, 28 to three Patriots number three. Everything after that's up for debate for me. Some of those Patriots teams seem interchangeable to some people, but that's what makes the Patriots so great, is they've had different teams. They've gotten it

done different ways and kind of pick your poison when you're ranking Super Bowl team. So That's kind of my rundown of Super Bowl champions this decade. Really quick. I'm just going to go through a quick review of some of my favorite things that have. I was looking at this. I was going to go through the entire decade and talk about the best year to be a sports fan. Not an NFL player because I could bore you with my stories, but just like the things that I saw going on.

And I only got working backwards like 2015, so forgive me. And I probably missed some stuff. ran out of time. But this decade's been drunk. Like, sports has been drunk. And as I look through a lot of this stuff, half the stuff is like, and maybe that's what makes a sports moment great, like wildly unexpected. You know, like some of the most notable stuff, it's not the chalky championships.

It's like the weird stuff. It's the, you know, Anthony Joshua getting knocked out by, you know, Ruiz, who was like an 11 to 1 underdog in that fight. or UMBC beating Virginia. That sucked for me. It's okay to have fun with it and laugh now because we won a national championship the next year. But 2019, I didn't realize how drunk 2019 was.

Like, okay, you had Tiger win the Masters. It felt like a weird dream. Along the same lines on a much more miniature scale, you've got Marshawn Lynch playing football for the Seahawks in a. classic last week. Two guys that like when if you're Tiger, you never thought you'd be back.

If you're Marchion, you step back onto the field at Seattle. It just has to, it has to feel weird. The things you didn't expect to happen. And that kind of bookended the year for me as a sports fan was you've got, like what year is it kind of stuff? Like is it 2019? It doesn't seem like it. I was not a huge fan of the Raptors run.

I know I'm sounding like a downer. some of that Raptor stuff, you know, the Canadian exceptionalism from some of their sports fans who then went on to to cheer as Kevin Durant limped off the court, maybe soured it for me. And I could vehemently argue why that was dog shit. And yes, they're not the only city that's ever done something dog shit. But boy, they had a lot of excuses, didn't they? But that entire run for me was kind of like they're champions. You can't deny them. and I'm a big fan of a lot of those players,

but when you're not beating a team that's at full strength, it was just a weird series. It just felt weird to me. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm going through the whole thing, and I'm thinking this NBA playoffs is drunk this year. You had drunken officiating. You had the PI call,

which completely altered, I think, the product we would have seen in the Super Bowl. And I think, I still think New Orleans probably wins the Super Bowl. you had you had kawai not only winning MVP but then leaving which is the first time that's happened i think win finals MVP and then skate he goes to he goes to uh la but not the la team you'd think unless you like really focused on kai's bio um shunning lebron's kind of bargaining power was such a kawai move and it kind of it kind of was it was kind of the first very welcome break from like it's ring chasing in a sense but he doesn't have to ring chase like

people are chasing kawai to l. like kawai said i'm going to go here i'm not going to do this super team thing i'm going to make my own little super team thing and i'm going to win an NBA championship in like three different places and be the reason why and i thought that was like kind of it was it was a it was a cool change of pace and um not only that but he kind of held the clipper's feet over the fire was like hey it's just going to be two years right it is two years right Kawaiian is it it's two years um which means that they have to keep their their you know their foot on the gas pedal and they have to commit to to winning uh you had uh you know dame's big shot killed the thunder which looking back a couple years you're like again how does that team

break up sports or drunk uh you had the virginia national championship which was as a fan one of my favorite moments in my life watching sports there was um you know there was we're down 10 plus to 16 seed a year after losing to a 16th seed which by the way i was at a maryland wedding like in the state of maryland not in the state of maryland but the entire side of the family was from maryland um that weekend we lost to umbc so going from that misery on st patty's day waking up for my favorite fucking holiday just with that hangover to 30 minutes of sleep in Minneapolis getting back on the plane and watching a team that I watched as I was a kid winning national championship. It was really cool.

Down 10 plus to whoever the 16 seed is that we played. I forgot. You know, the Oregon game was ugly. We barely could score. Thought we were going to lose to Oregon for a second. You know, Purdue, we survived Carson Edwards. guy could not miss. He was hitting like NBA jam shots.

Like right in dudes' grills. And then like the Diakite play at the end of the game. Then the Auburn thing, which was kind of controversial. There was a call. There were some free throws. There was a three-pointer, cow guy, ice water in his veins. And then there's the Texas Tech shot, which happened like the same place.

in Minneapolis that Brandon Graham had that strip sack. So for me, as I'm like walking on the court after the game, hanging out with a bunch of my buddies that like had stayed late and my co-host, making Gunner, to stand there at that spot where I saw BG make that play, I think. And where DeAndre Hunter hit the three, it was pretty cool, man. It's just everything about it was very cool. A year later, Tony Bennett is just a legend.

He can never leave Charlottesville. You had this is the year of Burrow and Lamar, and there's parallels there because they've come out of nowhere if you were picking MVP candidates. There were a few wise folks who thought Lamar and Greg Roman were a terrific marriage and they are. And he is going to be the MVP. And then there's Burrow who's not even on the big board in September. And there was like a chart they were showing during the game of how he's kind of ascended to this guy who's like a super prospect. And I mean, him for him to have a Heisman moment that wasn't even on the field technically.

I mean, it was like on the field, but it wasn't. Like the Cajun or whatever, the New Orleans spelling of Burrow on the Jersey, that moment to me was his Heisman moment. I mean, that was just like, here, I'm going to just drop my sack on this field real quick. Like, that team has the biggest balls in sports, from Coach O to Burrow. Man, tall, tall task for Clemson. But this has been the year of, not out of nine, nowhere guys less so in the NFL because Lamar's still kind of been a fan favorite and somebody

who's got tantalizing talent. But nobody, like, if you had to do a quarterback parlay in college football and pro football at the beginning of the year, this would have tremendous odds for the better. You've got, you've got Gronk basically maybe being the reason the paths have been so good the past few years. That was, that's not shocking to me, but his void is huge after that. Super Bowl. That was the biggest thing that came out of that for me is surprise retirement. And the continuing trend of retirements, players leaving the game early. And Barry Sanders was a trend setter. I'm glad he did it. More guys and like me personally, not that I'm anywhere near like a gronk, but for me, I could have kept playing. It was fun for me to end

the career, my career, the way I wanted to and not being told to leave. You know, so being healthy, getting out. And obviously, gronk, it's well documented. you know, he's on the CBD train. He's had a lot of surgeries. The dude had a tough career. I can understand why he wanted to sit it down. I mentioned the Joshua fight. The Pujols returned to St. Louis.

That was cool for me because I played in St. Louis when, I played in St. Louis when Pujolos was a god, and he still is a god. And when he left, it was like, there was a visceral reaction from some people, as you would expect. Like, people were treating Albert Pujolz bad. like they were stopping eating at his restaurant like they were like the foundation stayed in town i know people still supported it for the most part but there was there was an ugly few months there for albert because he went to anaheim for all that money and to see him come back and get those great ovations and to play pretty well that was cool that was a cool moment um the black cat

was one of my favorite moments in New York. I mean, again, sports were drunk. The Blues Stanley Cup, how could I forget that? Only my second favorite team championship of the year. And then the AB thing. I mean, the AB thing has been a soap opera in itself. 2018 was weird to you had UMBC, Minnesota Miracle, Loyola run. Isn't it weird to think Tua hasn't been around forever?

like Tua Tua has not been around for five years but I feel like I've watched him play for five years and 2018 was his year you had the Philly Special I was there you know you had you had D.C. becoming a bunch of fucking frontrunners

Capitals, Nats, we get it, you're good no it's cool. A lot of my friends of D.C. wait a long time for that so the caps and they really do have great fans you know, Oveckin getting a cup you had that Notre Dame buzzer beater talking about you know NCAA women's basketball I love a buzzer beater Germany lost like super early I think they were in like the group stages

they lost the South Korea like two nothing earliest exit for them since like the 30s you had Vegas Vegas with a hockey team getting to the Stanley Cup and it was like electric They basically put ice in a medieval times rink or arena, whatever you want to call it. I've never been to medieval times. It's on my bucket list. But it was really cool.

I mean, it was just there was a lot of unexpected stuff. It was the year of Mahomes and we're already over him, which is because the show like the way we are. We won't be over him in a month. I have a feeling. You had the J.R. Smith timeout. Again, sports are drunk. you had some guy's mom walking out of his signing day because he committed to Florida.

It was the kid. I have his name here, Jacob Copeland, who committed to Florida, who beat my Virginia Cavaliers last night. His mom was at his signing day thing. And this was like a last decade trend was the signing day thing.

Well, this is a new trend where parents are that selfish that they walk out of their kids' signing day because he didn't commit to Alabama. and Tennessee, I think it was. And then you had in pro football, two biggest stories to me were the MAC trade and Kaepernick, which, you know,

Kaepernick has been a big story the past few years, but 2018, it kind of peaked for me. Because, I mean, we've been over this. We've been over this over and over again. There's a cultural implication. There's a football implication. It's one of the most nuanced, but obvious conclusions you should come

to and nobody seems to be able to come to it. And that deserves its own show, but it was the year of cap. 17 was cool, man. You had 28 to 3. I was there. You had Duke losing in the second round, I think it was, which you got to love that. You had Bill Murray hanging out like Xavier games. That tournament was fun. Russ had like 50 triple doubles. You had the Cubs. The Cubs won the series that year. LeBron. That was huge. I'll always remember where I was for that LeBron NBA finals clinch. I was at a bar and I had my then infant son, Waylon, there. So Waylon's first night at a bar. Now this is not like late at a bar. So bars become bars at like 10 o'clock. Some bars are bars all day, but some become bars after 10 because they can double as semi-respectable restaurants. This happened to be a very

nice restaurant that turns into a bar. But we were kind of in that transitional stage and we still had a baby in the bar. And I'll always remember Waylon watching that game. He didn't know what he was excited about. But when the Cavs won that title, again, that was like a dream moment. When I stopped playing football

or when I was playing in the pros, I used to have this recurring dream that I was playing at Virginia again. I don't know what it was about. I think every football player might have it. And I couldn't get my cleats on. I couldn't get my, you know, my pads on like i was struggling and the in the game started and then i i jog out there and it just

felt like really weird in the dream they're like i'm back playing football in virginia i'd have the same dream about high school football when i was in college and he used psychology majors you tell me what the fuck's going on in my brain that'd be great i have a few ideas i don't have it right now with with the NFL but i imagine that's what it's what it feels like when lebron walks back into the Q for the first time. Or, you know, Marshawn takes the field in Seattle. Or Tiger Woods wins the Masters. Like, there's moments like that that they're just, they're just very cool. We've been here before. There's an emotion that's, that's familiar, but it's been a while. And we've had some of those this decade. And then 16 was cool. I really, one of the most underrated

moments for me was the, the Diaz-McGregor fight. The rematch, that was fucking brawl. oh my goodness i'll always remember where i was that was for that one too i was at a bw three's in in foxborough there was a bunch of guys we were it was still the summer and there was a bunch of guys that were like still they hadn't made the team yet or we were like new free agents and we all went out to drink and watch that that fight that was one of the most just gutsy violent fights i've seen in a long time and then cobi's last game Kobe's last game for me is maybe the most underrated moment of the decade. And I was never a Kobe fan, although I've met him a couple times.

Now that he's an Eagles fan, I love him. I wasn't a Kobe fan because I hated the Lakers. I'll just admit it. So it was really hard to prove to me that he was awesome, even though I'm not going to shit on the Lakers or Kobe. They're good right now, so I don't want to hear it from Lakers fans. That game that he was just like, I'm playing a video game. I'm going to try to score 100 points.

it's what I always wondered I always wondered what could happen I guess it's kind of like watching Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City on any given night when he was there like what's going to happen if I put up 60 shots and nobody wanted it to stop

like I hate the Lakers and I was just watching and I had chills. The shots he was draining at the end of the game I was like okay there are basketball gods like somebody has intervened here And what did he go for? He went for 60?

I think he went for 60. I could be wrong. One of the coolest things about that night is I was watching on TV and Robert Quinn had court side seats and I was like, dude, where did you? How much did that run you? Robert Quinn, though, if you can rush, you get paid. You had to Villanova buzzer beater. That was awesome.

My folks went to Villanova. I got in trouble, though. Was that? No, that wasn't Dante DiVincenza's year. That was. I got in trouble that year because after the game, I fired off a tweet that was like, you know, Dante is giving way too many white kids false hope about basketball right now. And a lot of white dads got really angry at me. Like as if the kids, their kids were reading my tweets at 10.30 at night.

And because I tweeted that they were going to come inside from shooting hoops. I love that. That game was, people forgot about that game so fast. but that was a thrilling finish. You know, and then the Butler interception is one of my, it's one of the biggest moments of the decade in sports period. And for that guy to go from making that play to being benched for the Super Bowl, like a couple years later, that's sports in a nutshell.

You know, that's one of those moments. I always remember where I was. If I had to think about that in those terms, I was in Mexico at a My Morning Jacket concert called One Big Holiday. It's a three-day festival in Tulum, Mexico, which is a beautiful place, watching on a big screen on the beach because they had a big screen. And me and Sam Bradford and my wife and his wife, great vacation, seeing Jacket, watching the game

rooting for Danny Amandola, rooting for a couple guys I knew on the pads, hating the Seahawks that are division rivals. And that moment, so much hinged on it. I mean, one extra five minutes of preparation was the difference between, you know, another echelon of a dynasty. Well, another echelon for the Patriots and then, you know, the start of a dynasty maybe for Seattle. And a lot happened outside of that that caused LLB to break up and people break up, teams break up, groups break up, a lot of personalities in Seattle. But you have to wonder what might have been if Malcolm Butler didn't spend 10 extra minutes doing his job. No pun intended, doing his job. But I always remember where I was for that one.

And then 2013, diving into the first half of the decade, probably the moment for me that was the craziest. Besides Lynn Sanity as a next fan. Antibomania in the playoffs. I saw that game in New Orleans. I watched that play as I woke up from a nap, half drunk on Bourbon Street,

on vacation with AJ Feely and my good buddy, Tom Sanny. We were down there for the Sugar Bowl. I woke up, half drunk, turned on the TV. And I thought maybe somebody slipped something in my drink because I saw Tim Tebow win a playoff game. And another moment in that half of the decade would be Auburn's kick six. That's one I always remember where I was. I was playing for the Rams.

I was in a hotel room in San Francisco, waking up from another nap before meetings. And just the buzz, like you could hear people screaming up and down the hall of our hotel. You know, fun to watch sports. I watched a lot of sports over this decade with teammates who I count as, you know, brothers in dining halls and hotel rooms and, you know, big ballrooms. They, you know, when we, when we take over a hotel, you have your team meals.

Like, I've watched sports in pretty cool places. I've played a lot of sports, but, you know, played for 11 years. And this decade was kind of, I was on the field for all of it. but being a sports fan for me is just as cool as playing. I can honestly say that. I still really enjoy going and checking out a game, drinking a beer. Even things I'm not that interested in, I've really started to learn that I've been a sports fan all along,

not just an athlete, which is why hopefully I'll enjoy doing this job for a long time. But those are kind of my favorite moments of the last half decade. If I was a more prepared person, I'd have the first half done for you. Let's get to some mailbag, and then I'm going to roll out and tell you what my shitty New Year's resolutions are.

I shot some mailbag out today thinking, being unprepared, these people are going to do the pod for me. Just pick my topics. That's the thing about this mailbag thing. Mailbag can do the work for you. And we invented mailbag. We're the only pod in America last time I checked that actually does something called a mailbag.

So here we go. Let's just read them in real time. I always wonder if pro athletes who blaze have to go to munchy food or if y'all maintain your discipline even when you're baked. Absolutely not. I'm sure some guys do, but for me, here's what I used to eat in St. Louis my early years. Late at night, mind you.

And at that age, you didn't have to worry about eating food late at night. you're like my metabolism will handle it the way my metabolism is set up we're good now don't eat after 10 p.m it stays there i used to do two campbell's chunky soup um clam chowders in a big bowl and that's not the kicker whole bag of goldfish crushed up in that motherfucker what i tell you the love handles were popping at 274 pounds the next day day they were popping i don't eat like that anymore now if i have the munchies i have more of a sweet tooth which is a problem i got into desserts a couple years ago i can house a keelime pie in about three seconds tops i i do mochies you know mochies at whole foods i eat about seven of those

in a city i've gotten in those little mini like they look like hamburgers but they're actually like sweet and they're different flavors like chocolate Macaroons. Macaroons? Really into those lately. Don't know if they're supposed to be frozen solid, but I put them in the freezer. Crush them just like that, straight out of the freezer. So yeah, I'm sure some discipline guys don't have any issue with it. I have an issue with it. Last thing I bought over $1,000. A ticket for Virginia to win last night. Favorite strain. Why are these all weed questions? Do you know that I do other things throughout my day?

Hold on. Let me hit the pen again. But I do other things throughout the day. I'm only smoking on this pod because it's New Year's Eve. Favorite strain. GDP, Granddaddy Purp. That'll sit you down for a little bit. Montana native here.

Give us your thoughts on this awesome place. I would love to. Montana is like Lord of the Rings beautiful. Glacier Park, it's like CGI. Flathead Lake, where I spend time in the summer, it's inexplicably unpopulated and beautiful. Yeah, Montana, the air, when I get off the plane in the summer, and you come from Virginia where it's 95 and humid,

and you smell that pine, and the air is just crisp. It's perpetually like 78 and sunny. It can be like 85 sometimes. that's perfection for me as a kid who grew up kind of on the east coast with the humidity and all that Montana is a lovely place also love Missoula. Calispell is kind of a cowboy town but I've kind of run that triangle up there in northwest corner Jewel Basin is one of my favorite places I always wanted to go to a rodeo I know that if I'm

staying up there in Montana I could shoot up to Calgary it's not that far so that's on my bucket list also when it hit bozeman i hear great things about it um let's see if anybody has any good questions hmm only question what my thoughts on my dad's roll and broken arrow this one's not about weed um i did not think the movie was realistic uh firstly my dad got kicked in the chest by christian slater through a cargo car on a train into a gorge not realistic Uh, thoughts on the Cleveland Browns. No. Favorite wine. Also, happy New Year dude. Happy New Year to you too, Aldo. Uh, favorite wine would be Silver Oak. I don't really know much about wine. Somebody, mall pancakes said, baked boy.

Baked boy. That's not a question. Not a question. Um, somebody said, why do you think people forgive celebrities for being terrible people so often? Why do they argue for them and go against really fishy stuff that they could otherwise condemn, but because they are their favorite singer or actor, etc. They ignore information and victims. Man, that is prevalent, isn't it? That's what we do is people. We're very tribal. We're tribal for one. Two, we're bad admitting we're wrong. So an admission that somebody that we love or revere formerly did something bad is like problematic for people. and then also, I mean, we generally just suck. Yeah, I guess that's it.

People don't like admitting they're wrong. We're very tribal. And, oh, identity. The people that we like, like, you know, from whether social media influencers or football players or singers or whatever, and I do this too, they become part of your identity. And so, like, you feel attacked when somebody's like, hey, what R. Kelly did is wrong. you're like but no trapped in the closet it's like my my wedding song uh or like i'm a brown's fan hey jim brown was like a prolific wife beater maybe don't have him to the draft to read a draft pick the same week as the tyreek hill stuff happened but no we just erase it and there's plenty

of people like this i do it with some of my favorites and here i am i'm not even gonna i'm not even gonna i try my best to be as as down the middle as possible But there's plenty of people. Like, fucking John Lennon. John Lennon was a bad guy. I'm sorry. John Lennon was a bad guy. Read about it.

If you tell a Beatles fan that John Lennon was a bad guy, I'm not saying he's a bad musician or that I spend a bunch of energy hating John Lennon, but John Lennon was a bad guy. It's okay. Just because somebody's really good at something doesn't mean you want to be like them. You can admit that, you know, some people who make great art or were great at football or do something. something else prolifically for a living. That's not who they are. It's what they do.

And I had to throw John Lennon in here. Chris was like, Chris's eyebrows went up. You're a big Beatles fan? Oh, yeah, you got to read about the way he treated certain people. He, uh, yeah, this is a whole another pod. The John Lennon is a bad guy take is like, you can't just do it in five minutes. So, um, let's see. Any good under the radar rookie D.Ns that we should keep our eyes on into next year. Well, there's a couple. O'Shaine Jimenez in New York. I seen him play a little bit.

He had like five sacks this year. He only started two games. He's got the same amount of sacks as Furl in Oakland. More sacks than Collier, who was picked 29th. Gary, who was picked 12th. Guys that evaluate this talent, they like him. You know, I don't really have a lot for you here. Other than I'd like to take this opportunity to give Max Crosby props.

Max Crosby had 10 sacks this year in Oakland. Not a lot of leads in Oakland. The guy on the other side of the bay, rightfully so, got a lot of attention in Nick Bosa. But Nick Bosa also had some pretty damn good covers behind him and some other dudes up front. Now, I like the pieces that Oakland's building with Hearst. And I even think Ferrell is going to come along. but Crosby, if he were on a better team, we'd be talking about him a lot.

We were talking about Nick Boso for defensive player a year earlier this year. I love the way he plays, but come on now. Yeah, I would say pay more attention to Max Crosby. He deserves more love. Let's see if there's any more good questions before we roll out. Oh, Mina Kimes asked me, and here's verified, taking care of verified here.

I sifted through all the Great questions to answer Amina Kimes question. It had to do, let me scroll back. When is the singularity coming and will we be ready? Well, I'd never heard it called the singularity. I think she's asking me that because she knows how I feel about robots. I can't stand robots. And we are absolutely in trouble.

The singularity was first referred to in 1993 in an S. say by burner vinge or whinge i don't know how you say this guy's name but it's basically the point of no return where like the past is unrecognizable for human beings and it's already happened if you read about it like the industrial revolution you could consider a singularity like an example would be and i was reading about this is like if you try to explain the way the internet works to somebody in 1200 it's impossible there's no like frame of reference to piggyback the understanding on. So I think automation is what we're all talking about and we're not ready.

The thing that's not going to allow us to handle automation is we as people don't have a really good grasp on the point of diminishing return with anything. When is enough enough? We say like, yeah, you're being a Luddite. You're like, you're so worried. There's going to be people that service robots. It's not going to destroy jobs. Like, what if it's cheaper to have robots?

robots. I guess that chain never ends, but I think we're, for lack of a better word, fucked. I'm not saying it's going to go like full on Terminator just yet, but the massive unemployment could cause some really human issues very soon. I think Terminator is interesting because it was kind of prophetic in two ways. One, this is not a clean take, but we've got Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was one of the first celebrity. people running for office successfully in the United States. We all know where that's gone. But also, the movie seems like it's kind of realistic if you look 50, 75 years in the future.

I don't know about like the robots looking exactly like evil C3POs. I think it's going to be a lot more black mirror-ish. I think at some point it could be a children of men thing where if you've seen the movie, It's terrific movie. I think at some point with people's lifespans expanding through, you know, computer chips and diagnostics and then eventually like technology and breakthroughs in medicine, there's going to be like a, hey, don't have any more kids thing. And it's going to be like children of men. And I think, you know, shit could hit the fan. There's going to be robots in play.

The question is, will we leave Earth? I think eventually we leave Earth. I don't know if I'll be around for it but in short Mina we're fucked like that's that's about three minutes of gibberish to say that

I am terrified and I'm not ready for singularity at all last question oh yeah uniforms I like this one okay what was my favorite uniform to wear like color combos etc here's a really underrated one

that was one of my favorites was the Patriots white tops, blue pants. It always gave you a reason to wear high white socks as part of the uniform. You had the stripes on the socks, but it was one sock. A lot of times if you want to wear high white socks, you kind of got to put a little color at the top so they don't find you.

Didn't have to do that with those. Also, the Patriots helmets pop really good. So that looked good. I did not like the blue tops there. With the Eagles, the uniforms could be a little bit better. All white was nice at night. Midnight greens great The black jerseys are awesome

Some people don't like them The Rams jerseys were kind of the worst The base Now the throwbacks are better than any jersey I've worn The throwbacks probably are my favorite That I've worn, the LA throwbacks So that would be a mailback for today Let me scan one more time to make sure there's nothing

Have you ever shoplifted or considered shoplifting Yeah, one time I took like a five-cent candy when I was a kid and my mom, I was like 10. And my mom, let's just say she got after my ass. And I never did it again. Yeah, that's good. That's probably good for today. Real quick, New Year's resolutions for me. Really quick because I know that like probably I won't stick to these like all of you out there.

Why do we have to wait for New Year's? I don't understand that. like why not new day new me some of these problems that we're addressing in new year's resolutions are kind of fucking pressing maybe we shouldn't wait for 2020 vision i guess for me um i'm gonna be more positive i'm gonna be less negative i'm actually like i have a little bit of a problem with being a bit of a crumogen uh i can look at the negative side of things a lot i'm gonna focus on my problems not being important. And everybody thinks they're more important than they are, and I'm guilty of it.

When I have something come up in my life, a lot of times I get mad, like, as if like I deserve a solution, like right now. Or like there aren't a bunch of people with huge problems around the world, like not to be cliche. Like you'd think somebody that works in the clean water space and like travels. you know does some charity work domestically spent time with people who have real problems wouldn't freak out so much about like a hotel room being booked wrong or something or even things that

that I should freak out about. I'm going to be better about it. I'm going to realize that my problems are not that fucking important. As long as I have my health, I have my family who I love very much, my two kids, my wife, Meg, I'm going to try not to dwell on things that really aren't that big a deal

and realize that I am not that important. And you already knew that. I'll probably try to be less busy. When I got out of football, I think a lot of players go through this. They're like, what is going to happen? I'm so afraid of downtime. When you're a football player and some guys aren't like this, but your nervous system actually is on such high alert for as long as you're an NFL

player that your adrenal glands are like fried. So if you go see a doctor to get, like blood work done there like what's wrong with you if you didn't tell me you play football they might be like there's something wrong with you um because you're constantly on edge you're expending physical and emotional energy and i had no idea i had a feeling but i had no idea until i got out of football how like i'm supposed to feel from a nervous system standpoint but when you're in football you're afraid of downtime you're afraid of time away away from your purpose away from your social circle. You could have a bye week. The first day you get home, you feel awesome. By the second and

third day, you're stir crazy. You're like, get me the fuck out of here. Get me back to meetings. Somebody tell me what to do. Give me some structure. And I think that like I've talked about this before, a lot of mental health issues for players to get out are oftentimes oversimplified to head trauma. Like anybody that ever did anything wrong or exhibited any weird behavior out of football, we say, well, they got hit in the head too much. So I guess everybody that has any issue in the world must have played in the NFL. That's just not true. Now, that part, you'll always be afraid of it.

You don't know what can manifest down the line with the head trauma thing. But I think what gets a lot of guys early on is that loss of purpose, the loss of being told what to do, the structure, the loss of your social circle, certainly the ego thing I can't help you there again you're not that important you never worry even if you played football and that's something that's good to realize

if you're if you're a former player or football players like the show goes on and you better be cool with it but what you better do is fill your time with a lot of stuff and that was my thing is like and I think there's a truth to that I lined up such a busy fall

and I think it was out of fear I really think it was because I was afraid And as much I tell you that like walking away from the game, um, on my terms, finishing strong as a player, not getting cut, having options,

it's good for your ego. Um, but I was still afraid. Everybody's afraid when they walk away from football. And I overcompensated by being really busy this fall. I didn't realize that's what I was doing, but I did. I'm also somebody who doesn't like to sit still anyways.

My brain is always racing. I want to do more, more, more, more. But it got a little out of hand this fall. I was doing the ringer on Mondays with Rissillo. I was doing my pod green light here shooting and recording on Tuesdays and Thursdays to air Wednesdays and Fridays. And then I was traveling to Philly on Thursdays to do Amazon Prime with Kay Adams and James Coe. So shout out to them. Kay says she listens. Again, this is a test. I usually shout you out in the first five seconds. If you listen to the whole hour and 20 or whatever the hell this is, Happy New Year and thanks for listening.

This is a test. But that was just too much. And even like Kay, who's busy as hell, like every time I'd see Kay, you know, every Thursday in Philly, outside Philly because we do it in NFL films, she'd be like, yo, slow down. You were doing so much.

And she was just more like saying kind of, I think, hey, I'm impressed by it first fall out. But like also like, hey, dude, you're going to burn out. and K's very busy. So when somebody who's that busy who wakes up for good morning football and then is in Philly at night and then back up at like four in the morning

for good morning football again, it does a tremendous job. You're like, yeah, I should listen. And then in general, Sunday becomes a work day, Saturday, if you're watching a lot of college football, like I have to be held accountable for my knowledge of the game

and then learning how to watch all the games. I got kind of burnt out this fall. I got a lot of those same like fatigues that I had playing football. So I'm going to try to be less busy and not fear the free time. Be able to just sit there and stare at a fucking wall. How many times do I really do that? I know I have friends that like meditate and shit like that.

I don't necessarily, I'm sure it's great, but I haven't gotten the hang of that. I need to spend a little more time doing nothing and hanging out with my family. And then lastly, I guess I'm going to spend less time on my phone. That's what everybody's been saying this entire decade. And it hasn't happened. And like we talked about automation earlier, the singularity. We're kind of in a singularity right now, you can argue. That phone is like part of people's bodies.

Like you might as well just attach it. And that's where we're heading like Black Mirror. We're heading there. You sit at dinner. You see everybody staring at their phone and I'm as guilty as anybody. We all do it for different reasons. I started deleting my Twitter app because not only it's not good for your mood. it's not good. You can tell me you love Twitter.

Everybody out there who's good at Twitter hates the feeling of being on Twitter, even if they're good at it. And what's the prize for being good at Twitter? There's no prize. Twitter's good because I can get my news. Instagram's cool because it's just something to do

at the airport. But after a while, you're like, what the fuck are we doing? So I'm working on it. I've had some days, I've had some days where I'm under three hours on the phone in a day. and that sounded if you'd have told me that when I was carrying around like a flip phone and I got my driver's license in like 2003 and you told somebody you're going to be on your phone

for three hours on a good day that's a sickness and we're all sick I'm going to try to get well um so I guess those would be my uh and you know I'm going to continue to just tell people I love that I love them uh that's something you should always do I'm not like a fucking life coach I am super imperfect and chances are all bad about 250 on these but I'm going to keep trying to tell people I love them I'm going to get better at texting

I text in like half complete sentences it can be very cryptic sometimes I assume that my brain is connected directly to the text message and people are like what are you saying what's wrong with you I also text like thoughts are all one text so I'm like an eight text guy when I could be just writing a nice paragraph with good punctuation.

I'm going to do that when I am on my phone. And then when I text people, I love them, I'm going to have great punctuation. So that's what I'm going to do in 2020. And tonight I'm going to have a great time. And I got to get to it. So thank you guys for listening to Greenlight. I hope that this year yields a lot of success for chalk and for Greenlight. And also we want to shout out Waterboys and our entire team,

not only at Chalk, but at Waterboys. and the Chris Long Foundation, and anybody who supported it, whether you're a listener, listen to chalk, or you're somebody who donates to various things that we do. We love you and wish you a happy new year.

So, again, we'll see you on Friday. I'll be back in the chair with Macon. Y'all take care. Happy New Year.