Green Light with Chris Long - Ep. 23 - AFC & NFC Championship Games. OBJ. Houston Astros. Aaron Hernandez Documentary.

Episode Date: January 18, 2020

Basketball jerseys - 1:43. Steve Gleason ceremony - 4:35. Chris’ Music Review - 11:10. OBJ - 15:00. Hernandez doc / CTE - 26:15. NFL Previews - 54:33. Titans vs Chiefs - 58:24. Titans vs Chiefs picks - 1:16:05. Packers vs 49ers - 1:17:46. Packers vs 49ers picks - 1:26:25. Mailbag - 1:25:15. Astros - 1:27:26. Corrections 1:39:09. 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

Welcome to the Michael Jordan episode of Greenlight Pod, number 23. If you didn't pick that up. It's supposed to be all about championship weekend. We had a lot more news this week in sports. And most of it's not good news. We've got the Odell thing. We've got the Astro stuff. We've got the Aaron Hernandez documentary that everybody's talking about.

And, of course, we will talk football and do a mailbag. So stick with us. It should be a lot of fun today. Okay, let's just do the pod. Okay. You see what's on the board. We got a lot going today. Welcome to episode 23 of Greenlight Pod.

I'm your host. You're welcome. Thank you. I'm your host, Chris Long. This is my esteemed co-host, making gunner, real estate, extraordinary, and wonderful co-pilot on this flight. That has been 23 episodes long.

Thanks, man. So shout out to, MJ. Yeah, we had a good idea. Yeah, I think every pod from here on out, we're gonna flash a picture up of our favorite player with that jersey number, and 23 has been monopolized.

Yeah, and we might disagree and have to do a split screen from time to time. Yeah. But it's hard to beat the MJ script Chicago jersey from the early days with the Bulls. I would agree, I would agree. That's, you know, like among the many NBA uniforms that should go backwards,

I would say that's an obvious one. Yeah. I don't know where you stand on the 90s ones. I think we've talked about this, but I was quickly a big fan of, yeah, that's beautiful. The gold chain. YouTube.com, you can check out MJ

and his script, Chicago. I think everybody should go back to 80s, 90s. Find me an organization that wouldn't be better off. Detroit Pistons should not go back to the Grant Hill. You don't like the teal pistons. I think they'd be maybe better off. They're back to the red and blue, bad boys era. I think that's where they need to be.

Even the nuggets could go back. You don't even have to go back to the, you know, the multicol. Do you just go back to the earth tone? What did they have on that thing? Do they have mountains? Well, the multicolored, the Alex English. The Alex Englishes are beautiful, but the Matumbo. I don't think they had anything.

You say Matumbo. I say Bryant Stith. I think they were just. They were just normal nuggets. Now the Utah Jazz, that's one that I heard somebody remarked that it wasn't, that it was kind of ugly back in the day. I heard that recently and I said to myself, no, today, nah, today is ugly. Agreed.

Yeah. Stockton and Malone went through different iterations. That first one is where they belong. Yeah, I love the mountain thing. And I know that it makes no sense because of the Utah Jazz, but neither do the Lakers. There's no lakes that I would go swimming in. Right, we should go back to Minnesota Lakers, New Orleans, Jazz.

But then we need new names for Utah, perhaps the peaks. Yeah, peaks would be, I guess the peaks would be good. I've thought about this before, but not in depth. L.A. Nightlife? Yeah, that'd be good. Traffic. Yeah, L.A. traffic would be a great name. The traffic and the Clippers rivalry?

That's a great idea. Thank you. But the Clippers, were they, Were they always the clippers, the LA clippers, or did the clippers come from somewhere else? We'll need to get research on that. Yeah, we'll get the research on that. We got a pack show for you today.

We're not going to spend too much time, bold, S-H-I-Ting. That doesn't count, does it? I think you missed a T, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, however you want to do that. Okay. We're not going to spend too much time BSing at the front of the show.

And for those of you listening, in 2020, I'm trying to cuss less on this pod. So by my count, and this is not a scientific analysis, my cussing is down. I did the Steve Gleason congressional medal thing this week, and it was remarkable. One of the coolest things I've seen in my life. I was very thankful to get an invite to that thing.

I met Steve a little over a year ago. Now it's been like a year and a half. Long admired him. Met him on the field. my last game actually in pregame warm-ups. If I see a celebrity on the sideline, I do not generally go say hi to them unless I know them. I had never met Steve.

I went up and just told him how much I appreciated him and met his wonderful wife, Michelle, met his kids after the game, and kind of kept in touch with Steve. And when I got the invite to this thing, I was just blown away and I said, I got to go. It's only two hours away.

It's up in D.C. So I went up there. Drew Brees spoke, a number of politicians spoke who, I presume actually don't get along in real life, but I guess they do that a lot for a living. They stand next to each other. They give their remarks. Only like 136 Americans have ever gotten that honor.

So that's pretty cool. I think he's the first NFL player. You know, you got Jackie Robinson, Steve Gleason, somebody who has revolutionized, is the way we raise money for ALS and has been just a rock star. He's described as a rock star, somebody who has helped change the tide

for technologies that give voice to the voiceless, folks who have been stricken with ALS for a long time. And it's amazing. It's Steve, somebody who's dealt with this disease for nine years got up there and gave a wonderful speech with the help of these technologies that he's made more available to everybody else and terrible disease,

but somebody who I really admire, Peter King asked me, because he was at the thing, he was like, what do you think about, what's so special about Steve Gleason to you? And initially I didn't really have an answer because some people I think are just so special,

it's hard to put it into a sentence. And I got to thinking about it, I said, you know, it's the power of his mind. And obviously he has no choice but to reflect, to write. I know he writes a lot, to save the memories that he can. But he has an incredibly powerful mind and also is pure in intention and has the mental toughness to boot. All those things combined make him a great.

change maker and you know it's easy to raise money you know we do it with water boys and all that like it's easy to get people to give money it's easy for me to give my money but to change people's hearts and give people hope that's the most charitable thing you can do in the world and I think Steve's done a magnificent job of that if he gives somebody hope not to give up and there were a number of folks with ALS and the crowd that were obviously very moved by Steve's ceremony and his remarks. You've done so much. So thank you, Steve.

It's not just people with the ALS who appreciate you. You've inspired me. When I'm having a shitty day, I just think about how laughable my shitty day would be to Steve Gleason and to his family because Michelle is a rock star as well,

his kids are rock stars, and the entire team that keeps that train moving and changing the world is awesome. So thank you Steve Gleason. That was pretty cool. Yeah, Steve became the first former NFL player to receive the congressional gold medal, the highest honor that Congress can bestow upon a civilian. It was cool as hell. I mean, pretty cool room there in Congress, the statuary hall. Obviously, I've never been to the Capitol on topic. I've turned that down twice. But, you know,

I'll take a White House tour one day. And this was way cooler than going to do a photo. By the way, I got to bring it up quickly because we're on the topic. Trump with LSU today. First off, somebody tweeted me, did you, one of the mailbag questions, and I apologize if I got this cat just assaulted on Twitter, but I didn't realize a mailbag question,

and I quote tweeted it, he asked me, in lieu of all the LSU Tiger players going, do you regret that once in a lifetime opportunity to go make a change and have a conversation? I said, well, buddy, that was a twice in a lifetime. opportunity for me, but I do not regret it. I also don't demonize these college kids for going to the White House or anybody that goes to the White House because for some people, it might not be

about the person there. It's about the building, the experience. For me, it was very much about the person there. And that's okay. We disagree on things. But what I'm certainly not going to do is demonize a bunch of college kids. You probably had no choice in the matter. What I don't like, though is what that guy did when they got there and he turned it into a political gain thing. I mean, he's turning around. He's addressing Joe Burrow by name. Joe looks wildly uncomfortable. He's clenching his hands the entire time.

You've got a bunch of dudes not laughing at his jokes. He makes mention of, you know, we've had good presidents. We have bad presidents. Thankfully we have a good one now. And they're trying to impeach this son of a bitch. And I'm just like, you know, these kids are. You've got a bunch of kids that probably don't agree with your politics and probably think you're a joke. And you invite them to the White House.

It's not just a photo op. You're using it to get your jokes off and hope that they're laughing behind you. And he said, you know, he may mention some twisted metaphor of how the football team would have done the same thing to the terrorists. I'm like, dude, the kids came for a fucking picture. Oh, excuse me. Can you leave them alone? Just let them take the picture. Half of them probably don't like you anyways.

and if you like him I know I probably have some people listening in this pod I hope you change your mind but that's the beautiful thing about America I didn't have to go I don't have to like him you can like him if you see fit

I think eventually we'll be able to revisit this you said twice in a lifetime could be three can't rule out anything yeah you can't rule out a comeback that's right you really can't

No tease there. On the good news front, Marcus King, the Marcus King band, just released a new album. I learned that right before we sat down in the chair. Marcus King is one of the best young acts in music, period. I can't wait to listen to the album. Had no idea of my music shoutouts this week. Green sky bluegrass.

What am I, I mean, like I've been listening to him for a couple years, but lately I've been really into that all. Access album theirs, which is a live album. And I don't care if it's not traditional bluegrass or what have you. It's good music. My favorite song's probably living over, but my favorite thing they do is their live stuff. Another musical shout out. If you've never heard of Shugia Otis and there's an 85% chance you have it. I'm actually going to put it at 95. Me? No, not you, the listeners. Have you heard of Sugar Otis? No, great name. Waylon loves Shuggy Otis.

Shuggy Otis is an older dude. He began playing guitar when he was two years old and performed professionally with his father's band at the age of 11. He would often distinguish himself with dark sunglasses and a false mustache so he could play with his dad's band at after hour spots and he was underage.

And this dude was awesome. Like everybody wanted to play with him back in I guess it was like the 70s. I mean, the Stones, Quincy Jones wanted to produce an album, David Bowie wanted to work with him, and he just turned it all down and disappeared for the better part of 40 years. And it's like one of the biggest hidden what might have been stories in music. And I wouldn't be surprised if at some point, and maybe they have already,

there's a documentary about this guy. He was so wildly talented. So go check out Chugiotis, Freedom Flight. was a great, great album, an absolute classic. Whalen's favorite song. Sorry. No, Waylon's favorite song is me and my woman. Nice.

Yeah. Shugga's got a son name, Lucky. Does he? Lucky Otis. That's such a great name. That's a great name. I would trade my name in a heartbeat for Lucky Otis. Lucky Long.

Or just Lucky Otis. Yeah. I mean, Long's a pretty cool last name, but. Typically, we do one for one here. I see that I've downloaded one new song since we last did this. Let's hear it. Larger than Life by the Backstreet Boys. And I'm not trying to be funny.

I mean, that's legit. And the inspiration would be the UVA band playing it at JPJ. And I was like, yeah. They played it at JPJ? Yeah. I was like, man, that's good. I need to get that back in the rotation. For a second there, I didn't know what song you were talking about.

And then in my brain, the hook came. Yeah, I'd play it, but we could get in trouble with YouTube if it goes longer than five seconds. Yeah, well, I'm glad you found some new music this week. Thanks, man. That's a good fine. It's no Shuggy Otis. Might be a little dust on the bottle there. David Lee Murphy.

Yep. Anyways, Shuggy did three albums before 21 and disappeared. So check him out. I think you really like some of his old stuff. He was something else. He's still with us, by the way. Yeah. Well, musically, he was something else back then.

I don't listen to his new stuff. 66 years of age. I don't listen to, I don't know if he's got any new projects out. I'm not hip to the new stuff. But if he does tour, I'd really like to go see him. That would be on my little bucket list. Mostly instrumental album release in April 2018. There we go.

Titled Interfusion. That's why you're the music guy. Yep. Another thing, when you talked about a megaphone that reminded me of another topic we have to hit is Odell. Odell. O'Dell. So the background is, everybody knows it at this point, the first viral video, the most viral video. Actually, this proves the point.

Everybody's talking about O'Dell and a lot of media members are saying, well, that's because the media is making it about it. Well, you're in the media. So that's kind of what you do. If O'Dell has a closet full of shoes, you show up at his house with a camera. If he signs an autograph at a restaurant, you show up with a camera. you blast out all that stuff. You know, he handed out cash to a couple players on the field or allegedly cash.

Not sure if it's fake cash, it looked very real to me after the game. And the thing I've seen most, unfortunately, for the kids after the game, has been Odell's stuff, not the kids. And I know I'm going to get a lot of okay boomers, but I wasn't going to make that thing a big deal. It's not like he deserves to be crushed for that. I mean, it's weird behavior to me.

It's odd. it's not something I would have done I'm pretty sure if I'd have saw that tape the next day I'd have cringed at myself but I was led to believe that him handing out cash to Justin Jefferson and John Trey Kirkland. Yep.

I was led to believe that if we our assertion was that he was putting kids at risk it wasn't a big deal because they were done and that he was making a heroic statement for people pushing for kids to get compensated

for what they sacrificed on an athletic field in college. And I'm with that. I'm with kids getting paid and we've said this before. I don't believe that, well, how are we going to do it? We don't know how we're going to do it

is a valid argument or defense for the fact that the college football playoff is making hundreds of millions of dollars on the backs of those kids. The least they can do is get paid. So if O'Dell took matters into his own hand, fine if you're defending it fine

I don't think that everybody wondering what the aim was or thinking it looked a little awkward or cringy is a bad person or a boomer yeah I've seen it described as his trolling the NCAA which in my view is great

great I'm with that but there's a pattern of behavior within about a two hour span there's a lot that's that's that's uh cringe worthy at the very least I mean, it's look at me in a game he was not involved in. And listen, I mean, maybe he was a little popped.

You know, very likely he was popped. The megaphone video was the biggest evidence to me that he was absolutely on Jupiter. And slapping a cop on the backside. Yes, that was, and listen, I am not going to sit here and defend a cop going in there and kind of harassing those kids. But also, like, what do you think? going to happen. It's

just another thing. And like you mentioned, whether it was like talking during Coach O's speech or, you know, the megaphone thing, which was, listen, we all have bad nights and it sucks for O'Dell that he has a bad night in front of hundreds of millions of people effectively with the way videos get shared. My biggest thing here is that when I looked at it, in actuality, Justin Jefferson and John Trey Kirkland are juniors, right?

Jefferson's declared, but yeah, was a junior. So one's declared and one's coming back, and that was my worry. I don't mind showing up the NCAA. I'm on your side, but there is a fallout and a collateral damage possibility to you making that action, and one is a kid that now is wondering if he's going to get sanctioned. Well, a lot of the people defending O'Dell's actions, which is certainly reasonable on the field, I suppose,

are now at the same time calling Joe Burrow a snitch because eight hours after the game in a podcast, probably half drunk, he was asked about the money and he alluded to the fact that he got real money after the game, which is, you know, to the people defending O'Dell, big fucking whoop. That was the point of the exercise.

And by the way, I've gone back and looked at all Joe Burroughs' tweets since he was in high school. And half of his tweets are, as we discussed on the last, last pod having to do with railing against that machine that that that reinforces the amateurism scenario perpetually so um i think if i'm joe burrow and i'm half asleep at eight in the morning and i'm thinking everybody knows that's real money i'm kind of supporting my guy odell i'm i'm part of the fight right you know that was what i was told i was told but now he's a snitch according to a lot of people in my timeline. And I don't think you're very intelligent if you say he's a snitch.

I guess SportsCenter snitch is on the big game. It's all on camera. Like, what do you expect the kid? Like, what do you want him to do? It's not Odell's fault at all. It's all Joe Burroughs fault to some people. And that's, that's funny to me. I'm with you. I think with perhaps a little more time. He probably wouldn't have said anything. He might have said nothing. He might have might have said, no, of course it wasn't real. Absolutely. But at the time, in my opinion, and this is part of the important timeline, because the timeline is that Tuesday, the LSUAD months and down played it as a joke. He said the bills appeared to be fake.

And Wednesday, LSU released a statement saying that it might have been real. That same day, pardon my take came out, which was the podcast that Joe was on. So for most people, I don't know if they realize, but even with the contextual clues in the interview, I think a lot of people calling them a snitch are also reading sound bites or, you know, headlines rather than hearing the context clues that would make it obvious that the game occurred seven, eight hours ago. And this is the problem. These kids didn't get a briefing on what the talking points were.

It's not like Odell probably spent five minutes with them like, hey, if this comes up, don't say anything. At that juncture, you're thinking this is common knowledge. It's on camera. I've already seen it a million times on my timeline. So Wednesday, that pod drops. And I know this, this whole timeline because I'm out that 2, 3, 4 in the morning with PFT and Big Cat. I was with him when five sheets to win. Three, five would be more.

We got word that they were going to go do a podcast in about six hours. So they had to get their shit together. Big Cat slept in his shoes. He wore the same. That same outfit, those outfits they had on during the interview. were the outfits they had on on Bourbon Street. I saw PFT get slapped on Bourbon Street, which also went viral.

I'm glad I didn't end up in any of these videos. But anyways, the point is that on Wednesday, there was a lot of back and forth with LSU. At first, they were like, it's real, then it's not real, and then it's real. So there's a lot of second guessing it, and then the pod drops. think this is this proves the point of anybody who's like maybe this wasn't such a good idea like

whatever you think is right or wrong or indifferent maybe this wasn't one one a great idea and maybe it shouldn't it should just happen in the tunnel I'm all for a kid getting a uh an envelope sure but you also got to realize at the same time you're dealing with NCAA which might jump in the middle and try to affect players eligibility I mean they're not going to go to the degree of It's like the Texans bills kickoff, where the returner gave himself up and then give the bills a touchdown. It's like, hey, let's do the common sense thing here

and look away. Exactly. Not a big deal, but the NCAA is not known for doing that. They are not. Now, from what it sounds like, as long as the LSU Tagas and Coach O and his whole, you know, conglomerate, didn't know that this was gonna happen.

Odell was just a rogue booster. Yeah, he was a rogue booster, which at this point he was and he's harmless. I mean, the kids could give the money back. But Joe Burroughs point was the point that I think O'Dell was trying to make, which is that, yeah, I'm done with school. Why wouldn't I take cash?

And by school, he means the two online courses he was taken in his apartment. Yeah, so it's just a total, you know what, show. But Odell, tighten up, man, a bit. Is now an okay time to remind the people that Odell scored four touchdowns this season?

I really don't, I don't know if that's relevant. I mean, it's relevant in the conversation, but it makes no difference whether he scored 12 or 15. I probably would be reacting the same way after one of his great Giants years, which is that I get the

intention, if your intention is indeed to make a statement. I'm all for that. I'm against the NCAA, profiting off these kids so freely, but maybe there was a better way. And, you know, people who are critical of this monologue will tell me that,

well, there's never a good way, is there? You know, it's never good enough, you know, like when you're fighting for justice. I'm like, well, I mean, like, there are possibly better ways that don't compromise some of the athletes. Yeah, exactly. Jeopardizing eligibility, literally,

when dealing with NCAA. but if it's just a stunt great subtract interrupting coach oh speech subtract slapping those were sticking points for you on the backside subtract the megaphone and and I'm much better with it and I am in no way sitting here saying um listen uh O'Dell you know I'm I'm in no way saying that those cops weren't being ridiculous in the locker room I mean they were acting like mall cops mall cops and there's people saying that O'Dell was distracting the cop who was about to start static with some of the LSU players.

But all this is done and this has proved itself out. And the media members that act like, the media members that act like, well, this is just, this is the media's fault. Like this is what you all do, so what do you mean? Just because you like Odell and I like Odell, just because you like Odell doesn't mean that in this instance you get to wash your hands

what you do 365 days a year. You're the media. Yes, we know. You are the reason everybody's seeing it. But if it's not you, somebody else is going to share the video. So you know the game, and you don't want to sit out the game,

so you got to talk about it. And I just think it's a big, big shit show. That's my biggest takeaway. Yep. So Aaron Hernandez's documentary. Yeah, talk to me about it. I am not a true crime guy.

I'm not a date line viewer, that sort of thing. Unsolved Mysteries as a kid gave me nightmares. Yeah, yeah. So I stayed away. I told you if you want to give me homework and have me watch it, I'll watch it. But for now, I'm going to let you give me your review. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it was a tough watch. It was just a tough watch because for me, it has nothing to do with watching one of my NFL peers.

and we crossed over for a couple years, not on the same teams, and I didn't know him. I knew people who knew him. I still know people that knew him. Tough watch, because, like any of these things, it's like when we did the, was it Jeffrey Dahmer last year,

they did that whole series on that thing. And, you know, a lot of people are like, why are we glorifying this? And why are we giving this thing credence by creating an entertainment value for this string of events? events. And I see that side of it, but I also see the side of it that what makes people tick, why these things happen are important, especially in this situation because it's such an outlier,

although a lot of people would lead you to believe that we're all doomed as football players to commit mass murder and off ourselves because we got hit in the head. And I'll get through that in a moment. But it's weird. I mean, it's weird to me, for a number of reasons. It's sad to me because obviously there are victims of these crimes. It's, uh, that gets lost in the shuffle a lot during this whole thing. And one scene that got driven home for me was seeing Oden Lloyd's mom, just getting like every other, uh, relative of a victim of a terrible crime, getting harassed by the news on her front porch. And just amazing that you have to go out and get. Um, just amazing, you have to go out and give a statement

and all these reporters act concerned and they stick their microphone in your face. Thank you for your time. Sorry. Really sorry you're going through this. We're going to stick a fucking microphone on your face and camp outside your house after you lost your son.

Netflix, whoever produced this directed, they took an ambitious stab at this thing and I think that, I think they fell short in some areas, but it was mostly on a production level. I heard some people that were bothered because they thought it was painting a picture

where it excuses behavior. There's no excuse for his behavior. But the why is important. If we don't learn from this stuff, it's pointless. And also, it's not like the O.J. Simpson thing where, you know, 15, 20 years later, he's committing a string of crimes of passion, it would seem. This is a guy who caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl

and in the midst of all this, he did a double murder and then went out and played all fall. Again, it was ambitious, it weaved a lot of storylines together, and I think, you know, my elevator speech to somebody who hasn't seen it, and you haven't heard any of the, any of the reasoning,

because some of this was new to me. I knew whisperings of some of the trauma he had been through, and this is, again, not excusing his behavior. I don't think there's any fucking excuse, and I'm not going to make CTE an excuse either. He was a closeted homosexual in an alpha male sport, and that's unimaginably hard. I mean, like, and this was, this is not a rumor anymore if you're taking the multiple accounts into the equation. I mean, they interviewed a fling of his, at length, a friend of his, his late years in high school, they had a fling.

And this guy spoke on it. You know, there's also evidence that he had a jailhouse fling. And that's got to be unimaginably hard for anybody in our society, but let alone a guy playing professional football, who also had an abusive father. There was mention made of an instance where the dad, who was kind of a hometown hero, they called him the king. He was a football player he played at.

Yukon, larger than life personality, but had a darker side. There was an instance that was made mention of him slamming his wife's head into a sink multiple times until she was unconscious. There was probably sexual abuse that his brother alluded to, probably happening to Aaron at a young age. He was probably a sociopath. I mean, you're talking about a guy that, you know, they may mention this in the documentary or the series.

he goes to jail he's living in a mansion immediately he's he's booked and he's in a seven by 10 and there's no adjustment you know people in the corrections facility were like what's up with this dude he's just like he's fine as then he was at home yeah he was just at home yeah and uh there was a tremendous lack of remorse with his crimes i mean talk about killing odin lloyd and the next day uh you know surveillance cameras and his man cave have and playing with his friends and playing with the kids. There was definitely a temper there. But this was a guy who was living a double life.

And also not a smart guy. I mean, he left a shell casing in his rental car and sticks of gum. Even offered the rental car lady a stick of gum before dropping the rental car off. She remembered what flavor it was. you know it was all it all shrugging together with surveillance video and and evidence that um it kind of was the nail in the coffin for him i mean mainly the shell casing i mean they they mentioned that they had his retro jordan 11

footprints in the um in the industrial complex that he dropped those in lloyd's body and the footprints perfectly preserved he had cameras in his house he was sloppy about that um not exactly a guy who had a plan um i mean beyond all the the family trauma he had after his dad passed i mean this is one of the biggest ones his dad died in um in surgery so sudden and his dad was uh by all accounts his main disciplinarian and his kid lost everything when he lost his dad he had trauma in his life he was suppressing his homosexuality um when his dad died died his mom took in the cousin's boyfriend. Like they made a lot of mention of that.

She engaged in a relationship with a relative's man. There was a lot going on for him. And on the sociopathic end of the spectrum, guys that played with him and talk about him, they say that you would never know it. I mean, like in the facility, and Robert Kraft was on the documentary talking about this, was he said he was first class in the building and i completely believe that because when you hear

people telling stories about what he was like there you would have no idea charming engaging um not somebody who was living a double life not somebody who had killed multiple people uh allegedly because he did get off on the uh second the second murder case the double murder um you know there was another guy that he was alleged to have shot in the head. So this was relatively normal for him. And I wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg. If I'm a betting man, it would stand a reason that it's happened more than we know at this point.

But the important part is that it's irrefutable that he did at least one of these things. And I'm not a fool. He probably did more of it. Now one thing I took away was that was interesting in this thing was when Aaron Hernandez did this and then subsequently a couple years later hung himself in his jail cell, one of the first things I heard, as you often do when there's a player who exhibits any erratic behavior,

goes through a tough time or does something outlandish like this, is that it's CTE. And of course that is, that's something that's relevant in this conversation because when his brain was donated for research he had I guess the highest level of CTE for somebody at his age group ever found now there's a few issues with this for me if you're going to assign all his behavior to this everything I just mentioned all the trauma also the fact that there are around 1600 players to play professional football every year and in the games history I think he might be one of the only ones I can remember that

actually killed somebody during his career I don't know ray cruh was done um but this guy also seemed like a sociopath uh there was there was trauma in his life we just always seemed to go to this head trauma um scapegoat so we can easily define things we can easily i don't know if we're excusing his behavior or if we're just in denial that somebody could do this. The thing is, in your locker room, you have no idea who you're playing with. You have no idea what's really going on at home, mentally with your teammates at some times. And I understand that he had a lot of tau protein build up in his head, his areas that were really important for a lot of decision making. processes in his brain were compromised.

But I would also say that for every Aaron Hernandez, there's an Allen page, you know, and for every suicide we hear about, there's like a Jack Kemp who's, you know, ran for president and he's deceased now, but you get the idea. I mean, there's tons of guys who are doing just fine after football. And I am not a CTE denier. It's real.

Tau protein is easily observable in the brain. You can't diagnose it in a living. That's the problem. That's what makes this so insidious is that you have no idea what's going on until they cut you open after you're... And that's what makes it scary for players. But for every guy struggling after football

wondering if it's CTE, and it could be, there's also guys quietly living out really happy lives. and I know that one of the the biggest alarms for people who are rightfully taking it to the NFL about sweeping head trauma under the rug and not giving a shit enough.

A lot of people talk about a study where of over 200 brains including like 111 NFL players donated brains that the vast majority of them had CT. In fact, 110 out of 111 brains that were donated in that study out of the NFL sample size, all had it. So I find there to be some issues with that

with assigning behavioral outcomes like this one to CTE. First off, we need more research. We need more time. Another thing is the game has changed so much since some of the larger sample size I feel like we're getting, the game has changed a lot from the new CBA protecting players from injury,

from leading with your head to better helmets, to, you know, shorter training camps, to, I mean, the game is not, safe it'll never be safe play at your own risk but it's never been safer um my problem is that if 110 out of 111 players had CTE um observable in their brain after death then if your assertion is that that percentage is um is accurate across the sample size of 1600 players or you know guys that played five, seven years, then we should be hearing a lot more bad stories. And another thing that people are going to have a big problem with,

and again, I believe in CTE, it's real, head trauma is a problem, football is bad for you, I'm with all that, but the NFL suicide rate is lower than the general population suicide rate. You know, CDC did a study, the Institute for National, or the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health did a study, a couple years ago in 2016 the study involved about 3,500 guys who played five seasons

between 59 and 88. And again, these were rough years. Guys were getting knocked out cold, smelling salts, grab a Salem light and get your ass back out there. It's not like today where they can pull you out from the booth. And that's not perfect.

They need to improve it. But it's different. You get the idea. Compare with the general population during the years of 79 to 2013, there were 12 suicides to 25 suicides. So the NFL in that sample size had 12 suicides, and general population had 25.

So also another study between 60 and 2007, 2007 said the same thing. Assaults and homicides are down in comparison with the general population. Now I know there's factors like, you know, a player's health, you know, physical health might impact mental health in a positive way. Also, my bank account could make me happier

than a dude making minimum wage. Like, I get that. I'm immune to some really bad pitfalls that regular folks aren't, but if that thing's accurate and we're predicting behavioral outcomes, including depression, suicide, erratic behavior, et cetera, there should be way more murders and way more suicides if we haven't figured out.

And I just don't think we haven't figured out yet. So I think it's lazy, and with the Aaron Hernandez thing, it's a good time to talk about, you know, rant about the fact that, yeah, it can be absolutely real, but yeah, we also might not understand it yet. And we shouldn't get so arrogant and put the cart before the horse. Another study came up a year ago that compared football to baseball in a study, which was better because you're comparing an athlete to athlete.

Guess what? When I first started reading it, I felt like a moron because it showed me that baseball players live seven years longer, a whopping 66 years old compared to 59 years old from a sample size that they looked at. And football players are dying earlier. But when I read, it had nothing to do with head trauma. It had everything to do with cardiovascular disease,

two times, over two times, almost two and a half times the rate of heart disease was the big thing. It doesn't control for big guys. That's part of it. You know, there's bigger guys playing football than baseball. You know, there's mostly little dudes. Not everybody's like,

give me a fat baseball player. Yeah, Bartolo Colon. alone. I won Pablo Sandoval. Pablo Sandoval. Or John Crook in his prime was a big guy. Now, Kruck is a legend and a pillar of health, I think now, but he's a bigger guy. You know, and that study,

that study was illuminating because it just goes to show that sometimes if you dig in the numbers, it's not as obvious as people want to make it sound like, I'm not a denier and I'm not an alarmist. Football is bad for me. I'm probably going to die early because of it. But I had a good run.

And I had a dad who played 13 years in the NFL. This is very real to me. It's near and dear to my heart. And I'm not being exhaustive on the topic because I'm in denial. I'm just very realistic person. And I'd like to know what my future holds. But I'm not going to sit here when Aaron Hernandez,

does something awful, a number of awful things, and be force-fed this narrative that, yeah, my agency is gone because I played football, like automatically. Right. And his agency is gone. You're not more worried that you're at a, you have a better chance of committing violent crimes

because of CTE. No. Look at Aaron Hernandez's history, his upbringing. Those are the predictors, more so. These stressors, and probably, the fact that some people can just be bad people. Some people can be sociopaths. When we do this thing,

we do it right now with Antonio Brown, who's obviously struggling with something. We do it with NFL players all the time. When they retire and act crazy, tweet some crazy shit, commit a crime, whatever. We do two things. One, we assume that there's no other mental health issues for human beings.

Like, there's no schizophrenia, there's no bipolar disorder, there's no, and a lot of times the NFL is a bandaid for those issues. Since I've retired, I've gotten to know myself like way better. When I was playing, you know, the, is excellent, exaltion or if you're exalted, if you're praised a lot, is that the word? Yeah. You're high on being praised all the time. You run on that. You run on praise. You don't have time to think.

You're so stressed. Your performance is required all the time, even in the off season. When you have a break, you're just not living in real life. And when you get out of it, I think a lot of times what we discount for people, and obviously Aaron's an outlier because he did this while he played.

Also, if you're contending that he had, a ton of CTE for somebody his age. It's not like we have 100,000 people, you know, in our sample size from that age. Most of the people that were comparing his CTE to are people that are older and played a lot longer and it had more time to develop. Well, right, and he died at 27.

Yes. So my issue is, and I'm curious why we do this, we totally discount the existential crisis when guys leave the game. You're talking about somebody who, has been high on praise, tied their identity to football. You know, you know how drunk social media can make you? Regular people, Instagram, Twitter.

Imagine if you've got a million followers. Imagine if every time you do something, people praise you. Imagine if, you know, your normal is scoring a touchdown in front of millions of people. And we're not talking about Aaron here. We're talking about this entire issue. you get out of the game, you've got a ton of free time, you got idle time, devil's playground,

you've got realities with yourself and with the world around you that you have to face now and nobody cares about you anymore, the way they used to. Add to the fact that a lot of mental health issues arise in your 30s, they don't manifest until your 30s, it makes this a really muddy picture. and I'm no expert on this thing. I know I should say that the front end of this thing,

not the tail end, but I'm from a football family. I look at my dad and God willing, he's going to be just as brilliant as he is now at 83. He just turned 60. I don't know what causes some people that crazy. They might cut me open, you know, tomorrow. not to be morbid, and my brain could be full of tau protein.

It probably is. Why am I not acting like a nut job? You know, why do I have a bunch of teammates that have done great things after football if we're all doomed? And that's my thing. We're not all doomed. Aaron Hernandez was not doomed because they played football.

Maybe it was part of it? I don't know. We'll never know. But there was also a lot of stressors and traumas in his life that could have been a big cause. And you also had his college. college coach, according to multiple reports, saying stay away from this guy.

Urban Meyer told a scout reportedly back before that draft, this guy lies, he beats the system, he teaches his teammates how to beat the system, and I'd stay away. And then he's quoted after Belichick, a friend of his, drafts him, I have no idea why he did that. Yeah, listen, teams look the other way. all the time. It's enticing because if you talk to some people,

they'll tell you that Aaron Hernandez could have been the best tight end of all the time. I mean, when him and Grant came in a league, supposedly in the beginning, everybody was like, who is this Aaron Hernandez guy? How did he fall to the fourth? Well, we know why now there was some smoke. And so, you know, there's the Aaron part of it.

On the dock side, you know, some observations. We had a Chris Borland appearance, by the way. And Chris Borland might disagree with me on, on, you know, my, my skepticism of, you know, us all being doomed. But it was interesting because it, the documentary did not hit people over the head with it.

I thought they did a good job of showing every side of it. And I don't think they were making excuses. What they were saying was, these are the reasons that maybe somebody, did something like this. And by the way, there are a ton of people in America that tend to shoot each other with guns. Who do not play football?

They all have CTE now. I guess we got to go cut everybody open who did a murder in America. Quick aside, I used to be terrified of the whole CTE thing. It's still a very realistic concern.

But when all of it came out in the middle of my career, I was also extremely stressed. You know, I have anxiety. I've had it my whole life. Not terrible, but something I just manage. I used to have panic attacks and whatnot. When CTE came out, when everybody, the movie, and all that stuff, we used to joke about it in the locker room,

like, but we were joking about it because we were scared. You know, it was one of those things. And I thought about like, hey, do I want to be like Chris Boren Do I want to walk away? And that was enticing, but I stayed because I was such a little bitch about it. I'm glad I did. But also there's a point in your career

where you're like, oh, the damage is probably done, whatever it is, and we'll never know. I won't know until later. But there was a time where I got kind of down and I got almost like, I felt like I was changing. Well, I completely discounted all the stressors in my life. Like, you know, go in 1 in 15 perpetually

for half a decade, like being paid a bunch of money to go out there and perform the pressure of that like being just burning the candle at both ends for a better part of a decade football is hard when you add into the equation something like anxiety or whatever

it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy I'm glad that my life you know I've never been happy I've never been so like clear of thought and just emotion and part of that is the clarity that comes when you walk away from the game if you approach it right.

But in the middle of my career, I was like, oh, something might be wrong with me. I'm really stressed out. Am I depressed? Is my anxiety getting worse? Well, part of your anxiety getting worse is being told on the news every day, you're gonna die early.

Oh, and you might murder some people. Right. That's scary, and that's called a self-fulfilling prophecy if you go down that road of room and like, I'm fucked. So it's a complex topic. I'm not discounting all the great research. I appreciate the great research.

It should continue and the league should take it seriously. And when Paul Taggloboo has been in the news this year, or this week because of the centennial class in the Hall of Fame, a lot of people's biggest gripe is that he swept this stuff under the rug. That's not good. I mean, like, I don't appreciate that. I resent that. I resent any time the NFL

NFL sweeps it under the rug. We play at our own risk right now, but we need to make the game safer. It'll never be safe. I appreciate the research, but I'm also not gonna accept the fact that I'm gonna lose my mind one day. Maybe I will.

No way to know, but if I'm looking at the data, we got some work to do to make this a real predictable thing. Well, and let's hope that doesn't happen in the event it does. You can take the point. pod. I'll take the pod. I'd like to think I'm among a strong support system that you have. Guy like Aaron Hernandez did not have that. Yeah, no. And getting drafted by the Patriots, being in New England, being from Connecticut, where he grew up with guys who had similar issues,

was, it had all the makings of a bad ending. Did I also mention that he was smoking PCP and like K2? You didn't. I mean, literally there was a point in the documentary, and I can understand why some people might look at this part and be like, what the fuck? This woman was like, we were just trying to figure out. Why would somebody take their own life? What's the suicide rate in jail?

Probably higher than the gen pop, and I don't mean the gen pop in jail. I mean, like, people out in the world. Also, did you miss the part where two days earlier, somebody in the Boston media outed him? Right. That's a secret that, you know, in that, in that series, if you were listening and you understand what they were going for,

they weren't saying there's anything wrong with being homosexual. Like, I'm, like, I wish Aaron Hernandez, I wonder if that wasn't a secret what he would have acted like. I could imagine there'd be a lot of rage because our society, especially in the alpha male sport we play, is not accepting of that. but a woman McPhee in the Boston media outed him two days later it hangs himself in his cell and the night before oh yeah he was smoking K2 synthetic marijuana so plenty of reasons why somebody could lose their shit and

mental health is a complicated issue complicated issue I just don't like it when we act like we know exactly why people do the things we do keep pushing let's try to figure it out, but not all of us are doomed. Yep. There's more than one answer to questions like this. Yes. There are many. Let's finish with,

let's finish with some football. Okay. Yay football. Aaron Hernandez doc to, yay football. These guys this weekend are getting some extra football. Championship weekend. If you're ranking the weekends,

you like the divisional round, yeah? Yeah, yeah, that's tough. I really like this one. Yeah. I ranked divisional head of wild card, championship even ahead of wild card, even though there's more ball to be played. Championship weekend's great because you get to pick

your ideal Super Bowl match up and root for it. This one, I mean, we have two lines of seven points or greater. Yeah. And I can't tell you. this is why I'm glad I don't gamble. Yeah. You could convince me that tough weekend for your boy.

Tough weekend for your boy. Even playing with a little house money after the LSU Taga got after the Clemson Tigers. I should be like, yeah, this is great. I'm going to win some money this weekend. Let me put it all on the Titans,

but I am apprehensive, and I'm apprehensive on the other game too. I'm leaning the dog, especially because Green Bay, the line is swollen to nine. Oh, has it really? Yes, it has.

Wow. That's enticing. But also, there's reason to believe in both games that it could be a blowout. So as I sit here twiddling my thumbs, the line is shrinking in the Tennessee game. It was a seven and a half. Now it's a seven. But I went back and watched both games this week. If you had to Truth Gun.

Yep. Who wins? Both games. score? Kansas City wins 3417. Okay.

Golly. And the Green Bay Packers Wow. Upset the Niners 20 to 17. You are doing that because of the uniforms. I'm not.

I'm doing it because it's no, hey, the Titans are the third best team in the AFC months ago. But I'm sticking with number of 12 in white this weekend. I just think he's been undervalued

for the last month or two. Everybody keeps saying that Green Bay is not worthy of the two seed, they're not as good as 13 and 3, they just beat a not so good Seattle team. Yep. And they got Torch last time they were in Santa Clara. Well, that's why that's why that seed matters so much. I have doubted them all year.

I'm actually feeling better about them now, obviously. After you win two playoff games or a playoff, a playoff game. It was Seattle. That was an easy draw for them. But you could also argue that San Francisco had a bit of an easy draw as it played out on the field. So I don't know what to think of either of these teams. I feel a lot more secure about San Francisco.

But when it comes down to it, you're going to bet on Jimmy G in the big moment or Aaron Rogers. Right, Aaron Rogers. And who are the best offensive players in that game? The best offensive players in that game, well. I mean, I can think of one-niner, and that's George Kittle. Otherwise... He's the best offensive player in the game.

Aaron Rogers. Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones. Devanti Adams is up there. Also, Devo Samuel has gotten my attention. I think Bakhtiari is a really good player, if we're going to count non-quarterbacks and linemen. We'll get to that one.

I want to start with the game that we're going to live stream Sunday 3 p.m. That's going to be fun. We have a sponsor for this live stream. We're not going to talk about it now. But that means we're moving up in the world. Yep. Is it a sponsor that's going to bestow upon us? Blessings?

Crazy swag. That sort of deal. I would love some swag. So, yeah, let's try to get that worked out. Okay. When I watched the first Titans game, like it's amazing how far these teams have come. Like Mahomes was just coming off an injury, right?

They dislocated knee. They'd just beaten Kirk Cousins with Matt Moore at home. That's how long ago this feels. They lost three of five. And I never thought that out of those teams struggling with an injury or that kind of weren't the same that this team would be the team to never lose again after they lost the Titans.

They have not lost since. And the Titans, of course, were four. and five and would only lose two more games and those were the Saints and Texans. So really good runs for both teams. They've both gotten hot, two of the hottest teams in football. And the game was 35, 32. It was a bunch of lead changes. I think it was five. But what people might not remember about this game is the Chiefs had an opportunity to pull away early. They were up seven nothing early. They score again, make it 14-0. They had penalties in the red zone. That touchdown got call back. They settle for 10-0.

In fact, they were like 7 for 65 on penalties the first half. Mahomes looked really rusty early, right? Almost threw a couple picks right off the bat. He threw in a questionable windows all day, but that was one thing for the Titans. They didn't make the most of it. They didn't end up with a bunch of turnovers. He also threw some beautiful throws. If you remember, the Tyreek Hill Lobb, which was on the far hash.

And he basically threw like a fast guy fade. far hash to the opposite pylon in like a second and he just lofted it beautifully he also had like a jump pass to who did he throw that to who's the new kid Hardman that came along so that went for a touchdown they had some big plays

and Tyree Kill they nailed him on third down all game my home's through the ball 17 times like with five minutes five minutes into the second quarter At the half, though, Tennessee had 15 snaps. They were outgained 254 to 114. They never panicked. They kept answering.

That's kind of been the thing with this team. They had a fumble return for touchdowns, 53 yarder. They had a long pass play. That was it for them in the first half. But they answer when it mattered. And that was the game. Of course, Luan was apologizing for all his penalties. He had a sequence coming out of the half where it was like three straight.

And they were backed up. and being tied after that abysmal half, they really needed it. They didn't get it on that first drive. Henry broke that long touchdown run. And that was actually on Chris Jones, if you look back, Chris Jones, who was the best player on the field that day,

absolutely wrecked the game. And that's another important thing this weekend. Huge. Huge. When you watch that tape, he wreaked havoc. He had two sacks. He caused the sack. The best player of the day was not on the stat sheet.

Go back and watch. Frank Clark's sack. I think it was in the fourth quarter. Chris Jones picked up an interior lineman. I think was number 64 like he was a child and placed him right in Tan Hill's lap. When I saw that play watching film, I audibly gasped. And that doesn't happen a lot for me. And Chris Jones was at practice on Friday. He was at practice. But with these calves, they're tricky. I had one like leading up to the Super Bowl and I was a lot older than Chris Jones at that point. but they are tricky. You can feel good one day.

You tested out. They're dicey. I think that's the biggest hinge in the game is whether or not Chris Jones plays. But even that long run was on him because they had him at end and he didn't close fast enough and I'll explain it this way.

You know, if you're backside on a play and the tackle blocks down and disappears, you've got to get down the line and close that space in the new C gap, which gets widened. And guys are so worried front side with Derek Henry, he's a one-cut runner, and he'll get downhill. And that's why the interior linemen need to be big when they play this weekend, because if you get cut on the backside

or reached, you're in trouble. That guy gets going downhill and second level unabated. It's a problem. But if you'll remember, the game goes back and forth, back and forth. They didn't even target AJ Brown until the third, which was puzzling. Tannenhill and the Titans are down 29 to 20. and I think the biggest play of the game was Tanna Hill on 3rd and 10, tucking the ball, running for a first down, dragging a defender. You know, they get the ball back

with like two minutes left down to score, fourth and 17. They almost get it. Games over, right? Nope. They get three stops. I think it was a botch field goal or a fake, right? Yep. And then Tanna Hill had a long run again, two chunk plays of tight ends, ballgame.

So if you're Tennessee this weekend, And this is why you're hopeful looking back. I think you're hopeful because it's another game where he only threw for 180 yards. I mean, we've talked about 80 yards, the first two playoff games, not good enough, right? Well, 180 was good enough for him to beat the Chiefs and score 35 points. Also, you have to think about the fact that they just beat the number one defense and number one offense in the same playoff. That's the third time that's ever happened. And Tannenhill's made the throws he had to make so far in the playoffs.

he stood in there that first game he got crushed Chris Jones was killing him but got sacked four times in that first time got sacked four times got hit a bunch and another thing you got to feel good about is Mahomes threw the ball 50 times and they had their biggest offensive output of the season in the regular season at over 500 yards

and they still beat them you know so there's a lot to there's a lot to be hopeful for. They ran 15 plays in the first half and they still were tied. Like, they're not going to play that poorly this weekend. They had touchdown drives of 73, 74, 75, and 61. They ran for 225. That's the key.

If Chris Jones is out, that's only going to get worse. I know we've talked about this with Derek Henry. It's unprecedented the way they continue to ride him. I mean, he's got to live in a cold bath. Yeah, well, yeah, what else are they going to do? But you know what's cool about him, though, is, yeah, you're in burn the ships mode. I mean, like, what does it matter if he's tired the next? I mean, like, you've got two weeks here you win this game.

That two weeks in a playoff run is magic for your body. I've got a question for you. Yeah, four teams left. Yeah. Fantasy draft. Yeah. Number one overall pick. Who are you taking?

Is it PRP league? I'm not saying fantasy football. I'm saying you get to pick one player. Well, non-quarterback. No, anybody. Oh, Pat Mahomes. Okay. And is Derek Henry two?

Is Aaron Rogers too? I'm taking quarterbacks the whole time, right? You're taking Tannahill over Derek Henry? Well, no, okay, so hypothetically is it... You can take an offensive player, defensive player, wherever you want. Okay, so if I took Pat Mahomes first, I have a quarterback. Oh, man. I'm just saying overall, I think some people would take Derek Henry right now as the...

Over whom? Everybody. That's insane. I agree. I would do Mahomes too, but I think there's a quarterback, right? I'm just saying, to start. Yeah. Pat Mahomes is the best player left in the playoff. That touches the ball with regularity. But Derek Henry touches it every single play.

He could, but a lot of that is predicated on, now, the Ravens loaded the box and that didn't do much for him. You still need somebody under center. I would say this, to make it interesting out of non-quarterbacks for sure. It's Derek Henry. Who's after that? Kettle. Kelsey? Kittle. Kittal is two for me. That's a good call. So there's a lot of reasons to be helpful. The chiefs are 10 and one this year when scoring 26 points or more. This was the one game.

And that might be depending on how you look at it. Another thing they should be helpful about is our guy, Juan Thornhill is out. That was huge. I mean, especially when the Texans were putting up points. Yep. It was a lot of middle of the field stuff. Yep, and that will only get better for them. And, you know, like your best player on defense is about 5-59. And, you know, Derek Henry gets in second level.

And by the way, that Kansas City Chiefs line, defensive line, and Spaggs has done a magnificent job. I would argue that he's done better job than even relative to what he's working with than even those Giants runs. The way he's turned this team around defensively, But if that big-ass dude is going to get in the second level and, you know, I love Honey Badger, size is size. Kansas City, though.

The case, I think I'm thinking about the line again, and Casey is such a square pick. People are thinking about the 51 points. When they're down 24-0, they start at the plus 42 after that kick return. then they start at the plus 33 after the failed fake punt. Right. And then they start at the plus six after that fumble on the kick return. So it's 24-21 after they've had to go not so far. Yeah, a combination of what, like 100 yards?

Yeah. That's a great point. And that's going to be a theme for me in the second game breakdown. But these guys, Tennessee, are not going to play that way. Right. They're not going to abandon the run game. They never panicked this entire game. They came out before the half in basically two minute and just ran the ball.

And then they got over to midfield because Henry just punctured it. And they're like, oh, we do want to score. Kansas City, they have a lot to be hopeful for. They haven't lost since for one. They've racked up a ton of yards. They racked up a ton of yards on Tennessee. They gave up a defensive touchdown and a long run. So I feel like if you're a team like then,

you feel like you probably should win the game. You know, after you walk out of a game where you give up a score on defense or a long run, you know, coaches usually on Monday are like, guys, we're right there. You know, we did X and Y and we still almost won. And that's true, more so on the fumble return for a touchdown on the Williams run.

But the thing that makes Henry special on this topic is he's not just Marshawn Lynch, he can do home run shit too. I mean, his stride for being 6'4 is why he runs away from people. And he gets out in the open field and it's pretty impressive. But Kansas City, again,

they probably feel like they should have won the game. They were missing a few guys, including left tackle who hurt him. 75 was getting beat like a drama a little bit. And plus, the same reason we talked about earlier with A-Rod, it's Mahomes versus Tannahill. So you got to feel good about that. And it's Kansas City versus Nashville.

Yep, it's Arrowhead. But if there's any team that can handle a road trip like this, it's a team with their backs against the wall, the underdog thing, I know what they're feeling. And with Ravel's personality, the street rat effect, street rats are going to take over Arrowhead, bro. They revel in this situation. I think sometimes like the revenge role,

because Kansas City could certainly play the revenge card. They've beaten us two times a row, et cetera. when you're the underdog that works well, doesn't work as well when you're favored. I feel like Kansas City has everything to lose with Andy Reed's history, with last year, with the way Tennessee's been after him.

Don't you think that 24-0-0-0-thole last week helps them this week? Hey guys, we need to come out, be ready. They need to, and that shocked me because off-of-by, they're usually very good with Andy. But I don't know why you think if you're Tennessee, that you've gotten better overnight defensively. They were a middle of the pack defensive team. They played really well in spots against the Titans,

but they needed, what, four turnovers or three turnovers and two fourth downstops to win that game. And that's a little bit of an outlier, and anything can happen. Against the Ravens. No, Ravens, sorry. What did I say? Against the Titans.

Yeah, they are the Titans. Remember them. Remember, I will. Not a great movie, but I will. Long Jr. Yeah. So we do have a long on the Titans, by the way. Well, and this sounds silly

because we've been watching them every week, so you're going to start to know names, but Adory Jackson, Kevin Byard, Kenny Vicaro, Logan Ryan, in that secondary? It's a nice secondary, but it hasn't yielded astronomical results this year. And by the way, I love the way Logan Ryan's been playing. Logan, I was watching that game.

He came downhill and knocked 75s block off on a crack toss. Logan will get involved in the run game. I think he had 13 tackles. He's going to have to. He's going to have to play just as well in the run game as he does in the past. And they got to do something about Tyree Kill.

That guy got the ball. He got targeted 19 times. And he had converted like four or five third downs in a row at one point. He's such a matchup problem. They do so many things in motion to identify man. And then they run them across the field through all this traffic. And guys just get picked. Or they can't run with him.

Another reason that the Chiefs probably feel good is everybody was open the first game, okay? They got to do more to pressure Mahomes. He drifts a lot. If you watch him, he's a big drifter. He will just kind of drift back into the right. So who's ever playing left end needs to play with discipline and they got to rush him.

But only 12% tight windows for Mahomes the first game. And Titans needed three turnovers, two fourth down styles. We talked about that against the Ravens. So you got to feel good about that. that if you're the Chiefs and the Chiefs are really good against the play action pass and what do the Titans do play action pass yeah dynamite um so with one out though we'll see also uh the Chiefs really good in the red zone defensively Titans have been on this you know historic

tear at 87% since uh Tanahill came in um and they ran 78 plays to tennessee's 49 you got to feel pretty good about that, I guess. Yeah. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Control the clock. That's what Tennessee has done throughout the playoffs. Dave Tobe, special teams, guru in Kansas City. Yeah. They got Buckker, they got Colquit.

Hot prop. I say Buckker outscores, Derek Henry. Who? I'm not going to do it. Maybe we'll do it on Sunday. We'll do it on a live stream. Yeah. So again, I think what Tennessee has to do get pressure on my homes. He had time to drift in the pocket, find the soft spots.

They have to set vertical edges on these stretch runs. Stretch runs are fine getting outside an end, but they have to bubble. And by bubble, I mean the back or the receiver on a jet motion, because they get to this run game a ton of different ways.

If he's running straight five yards behind the line of scrimmage without having to bubble, your second level guys do not appreciate it. If you can get vertical and say if you're going to beat me running the ball inside the tackles, that's one thing, because we have better D-Tackles than your D-Tackles if Chris Jones is down. Tennessee's D-Tackles have played really well. You know, Jarrell Casey did not play in that game. I don't think he'll be back. Simmons has been a really strong addition. And then if Chris Jones plays,

just block the fucking guy. It sounds easier said than done. But just, just, Just get it done, find a way. And get the ball to AJ Brown. Why did we wait three quarters? And now Kansas City, they got to cut down on the penalties. They had a ton that kept them from putting this team away. Tennessee can't start slow. They'll get jumped in Arrowhead.

If they pull that shit in Arrowhead that they pulled at home, there's no Johnny Cash getting played after your touchdowns. like there's just big ass dudes in red jerseys smashing beers over their heads. Barbecue. There's barbecue smell. It's just Arrowhead's a special place. Tomahawk chop. Yes, I love it.

Well, careful. I love Arrowhead. Okay, careful. They'll score, but can Tennessee kick field goals? That's a big one. Yeah. All they've done is the kicker they signed Week 16 is not attempted a field goal. goal.

Greg Joseph, not familiar with his work. Not me neither. That's probably why he hasn't attempted a field goal. So I think if I'm going to do a score and you went 3417, I'll go 30, I don't want to use the same total. You may. I'll go 3428. Chiefs.

Yes? Tighten. Titans. Titans to the Super Bowl Yep Okay Wow Okay

Yeah let's see what happens Well what needs to happen for 34 points I mean is that Derek Henry Is that a defensive score like they had the first time I think well I think You know when you looked at that first game Tannehill let him on his third Game Winning Drive in four weeks

This was the game that solidified that he was real At least in this system He's going to need to play better than he did even the first game. Everything they did was like underneath the Johnny Smith or tight ends. They're going to have to get A.J. Brown involved. He's going to have to have a big day. They have to take advantage of

Juan Thorne Hill being out. You're going to need a couple big plays and you're going to need to continue to pound the rock. Derek Henry's going to have to run for 150 yards for them to win. If he runs for 150 yards, I think they're going to win. I just can't believe this run that he's had. It ought to be over two weeks ago.

certainly last week, banking on it this week. Guy wore white after Labor Day. You think he gives a fuck? I think he wore a crown leaving M&T bank. Did he? Yeah. He doesn't give a fuck. It's like Joe Burrow with a cigar.

The two swagiest people in America right now, Joe Burrow, Derek Henry. They got the world by the balls. Pretty cool being those guys right now. I can only imagine. Now in the other game, it got ugly, right? The first time around it was like 37 to 8 or something like that.

Correct. Was that 37 to 8? Yep. bottom line for the Packers I watched the first half and turned it off that's all I needed to see they got jumped on the road

it's that simple they were down 20 to nothing at the half things slowly fell apart you had like the first drive sack fumble episode number 23 to nothing at the half

yeah was it 23 nothing yeah so three scores at the half which if you're not the Chiefs that's kind of not how you want to play. But things fell apart. You had multiple opportunities.

You had the sackfumble on the first drive. And the funny thing about the first drive was they came out and they had a couple good plays. Like right off the bat. They're at midfield on an Adams reception on left sideline. And he bumps the corner. Like, yeah, motherfucker. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Taunting. I remember that. So they back them up. Then you get the sack fumble. They get the ball in two. Bosa recovers the ball. They go in and score. So it's 7-0.

And, you know, there was bad punt coverage all the first half. They couldn't flip the field. Niners had great starting positions. They couldn't even, there was a botch snap, a possession later. Ball's kicking around. A bunch of people have an opportunity to get it. They can't fall on that. So they didn't get any breaks.

And again, they have the ball at midfield like three times. in the first quarter, it felt like. And they couldn't get over it. It's 10-0 before you can blink. They have an opportunity in plus territory at the 28, go for it on 4th and 1, down 10-0-0. They go for it, they get stuffed. And then they have San Francisco pinned in another punt.

They have San Francisco punting basically out of their end zone. And instead of getting the ball at midfield, the coverage is great, 30-yard line. they just couldn't get a break. Give up a sack to Armstead, who's been great, and I remember people calling him a bust. He is absolutely bawled out,

really happy for him. Adding him inside to Buckner, I mean, him coming along makes them, he's the domino for me, because coming into the year, you might say if you had, if you were stuck on the narrative of him being a bus, you've got this great D-line,

but there's one lesser part in the sum. And he has not been a lesser part. He's been a dominant force. And honestly, when they played the first time, I'm not worried about the tackles. If Balaga's healthy, he left the game at one point, and that's when the wheels really fell off. Balaga being healthy, Bakhtiari,

I'm not worried about the edge guys. I'm really not. The guys that worry about are inside. And that's what you've got to keep an eye on. But they gave up a sack to 91. they end up tightening up the next possession Kittle starts getting involved 13 nothing

you're okay right now you've played like shit but you're backed up you try to get points you give the Niners back and the Niners aren't even trying to score they run the ball twice to get two chunk plays

and they're like oh all right let's make this thing like 20 to nothing and at that point they hit Samuel they give him free access about 50 yards touchdown it's over so that's what you can't have happen you're on the road you're not a team

it's built to play from behind. You're not the Packers of old. You have to lean on your defense to play complimentary football. One of 15 on third downs. Terrible. 2.8 yards of play on 70 snaps. San Francisco had 45 snaps. And that was the lowest yards per play and points of the season for the Packers and the lowest yards per attempt for Rogers ever. 104 yards on 33 passes. Wild. So really wild. And I thought when I watched him, he looked off. I mean, And San Francisco also blitzed him 31% of the time. That's the highest all year. Well, second highest all year for them.

They blitz the Saints more. And when you look at it, I guess that's to me saying that if we speed up Aaron's clock, he's going to be looking, he's not going to be looking downfield. We're not afraid of the weapons, and I don't blame them outside of Adams. And I guess the same thing. They blitz the Saints a bunch. I mean, the common thread there is that there's probably not a lot of people that scare you outside of Mike Thomas and Kamara.

I mean, they have better weapons in New Orleans, but two really good offensive lines, right? So the Niners, it's going to be interesting to see, you know, how they play them, do they bring pressure? That was 10 percentage points higher than all year. I don't think they're afraid of these guys at all, and I think they expect to roll them again. But Aaron was off all day,

and it felt like everything was either really underneath or a deep shot. and the coverage was great outside. He missed some real intermediate chunk plays that if he takes what he's given this week, and I think part of that is not pressing and not being down two, three scores early, then you take what you can get

and you move the ball. So yeah, if I'm Green Bay, I'm hopeful because Aaron Rogers is not going to do this twice, right? That's what we got to bank on. Right. Throw it to Jamal Williams. Jamal Aaron seemed

Aaron had some confidence about him this week He does and that's really palpable I mean since this game They've reeled off six straight Right He's got a nice mix of the chip And his swaggerback And to be honest

That looked more like Aaron Rogers last week And I know it was the Seahawks And they're abhorrent at the second level But again You've got to figure Another team that we talked about the chiefs Just a second ago they had a bunch of plays.

Packers had 75 plays, as you mentioned. One of 15 on third down, as you mentioned, and that will improve. San Francisco only had 16 first down, the second lowest of the season. Yeah. So if you looked at that... Green Bay.

Yeah, if you looked at that first half, really San Francisco, until that drive at the end that they put it away early, there were two plays. There was the sack fumble, and there was a chunk run that put them into a field goal range.

It was 10-0 for an eternity, and Green Bay just couldn't move it. Jimmy G's pass-a-rating was a career high. Does that happen like twice? Like are you banking on that? Now it's not going to be a 30 point difference if he has a bad day. But if you remember last week, he only threw a handful of passes after that bad pick to Kendricks. Yep. So I think Zadaria Smith and Preston are not Hunter and Griffin in a good way.

You're not going to be able to just line up, head up on them and move them. That scheme is better. I don't know about some of the guys up front besides those guys. My biggest concern with Green Bay all year has been. kind of soft up front. It's Adarius. Yeah. It's a Darius.

Is he fucking awesome or what? Two sacks at halftime last week. My bold prediction was three for the ball game. Couldn't get the had. Couldn't get it. Couldn't get it. I was watching like every snap. Just come on.

I have a long shot bet with Bet America that he has a multi-sac game this week, which is not far-fetched. I mean, he's done it a lot this year. Somebody in Mailbag asked me a good question. about if I could go and be any football player for a day, who I would be, not to get the mailbag started. Chase, if you could wake up and be any other football player

from any time period for an entire season in their prime, who would you be and why? I don't know, who would you be? Any football player in any season. So that's your answer, you would just like to be any football player in any season, which makes sense. I'm repeating the question to give myself more time. This year I might want to be Zadaria Smith.

I respect his game so fucking much. He doesn't get the hype. He's starting to. But he's a complete football player. And he can rush all up and down the line. And he's just got this nasty streak to him. I'll be Derek Henry this year. That'd be pretty cool.

That would be pretty cool. Invincible. Absolutely invincible. Another mailback question. let's get right in the mailbag. Okay. You want to do a score on a... Oh yeah, my score.

Now the Niners are going to win this game, okay? I mean, that's a smart pick. I have Pack 20 to 17. Wow. Okay, I've got Niners 26 and I've got Packers 21. Okay. Which hits the over.

Pack cover. Yeah. Okay. Which hits the over. And what you might do in this game is tease this bad boy to 15 for the pack And tease the over down to 40 just a little pro tip there Tease God Chris Long I'm a tease God I have spoken

Let's do the mailbag real quick and get out of here Sweep the leg asks do you have a shelter or bunker ready for when the robots take over I don't and I have a few locations that I've discussed with my family But you know giving them out on the pod would be Because if you give out your bunker location then everybody shows up when the shit hits the van. They're like, hey. Including the bots.

Including the bots. Jake Hatcher asks, how piss would you be if that Eagles team lost the Pats in the Super Bowl and found out later they cheated somehow like Dodgers are finding out about Astros? So, yeah, so the latest on this is the buzzer thing, is that... The buzzer is the latest. And if the buzzer thing is true,

that they're getting buzzed about off-speed pitches, burn it to the ground. Yeah, but how is a buzzer, and I think this is awful, I think their World Series should be vacated. Yes. In general, I mean, just for the trash can thing,

I mean, you're using electronics. I don't, you know, I'm a baseball watcher, but I'm not a baseball expert. Cameron's Centerfield, going to a room in the hallway, banging on the trash can when all speed pitches are coming. Yeah.

The buzzer, for some reason, makes that even worse for me, but baseball's in a tricky spot. How are you getting new fans? I mean, baseball fans have been fans for life. Yeah. I mean, they're on the verge of being relegated to great sport, but it doesn't have wise-read popularity.

They're about to be hockey. I would argue hockey is much more exciting and fun and watchable than baseball. Well, personally, I would agree with you. But I'm just saying, if now the games are fixed, it's not like you were. And that's why I think, that no matter what that investigation yielded,

I could see the MLB looking the other way on the buzzer portion. They've said that there was no evidence. Right, they already have. But you have Altovae. Right. No, don't take my shirt off. And I'm supposed to believe

with all this smoke that he just wants to be modest. That's the story. Well, and then before putting on the championship shirt, he runs into the dugout. And here's the video if you're watching on YouTube. You say, no, do not rip off my jersey. I'm wearing the buzzer device. Is that what I mean pretty much?

What are you saying there? No, no, no, no. I got the thing in my shirt. Yeah. Not a nipple. No. Not, it's not a titty. It's just my buzzer.

I mean, this is not partially deflated footballs. No. And by the way, on topic, I did this whole thing on deflategate. After you righted that wrong at halftime in Indy, they went out and torched Indy in the second half. and then be one of the greatest defenses of all time, a series of big third downs on Tom Brady's back in that Super Bowl. So deflategate, I'm not moved by that.

Stroes have fired their manager, Red Sox have fired their manager, Mets have fired their manager. The organizations aren't taking it lightly. Well, they have to, yeah, they can't. And with all these stupid, unwritten rules in baseball, everything baseball players complain about, he looked at me after he hit the ball. You big old.

hypocrites. Yeah. Y'all are cheating. A bunch of cheaters. You think you know somebody. I spent a night out with Bregman. I hate to say this guy. I love Bregman.

He was so cool. And I still think he's a cool guy. But if he's a cheater, he shouldn't have his ring. Yes. None of them. Because guys got paid off of this. Like, think of the... Oh, the ramifications are huge.

Yeah. And then you have to wonder about the rest of them. Red Sox World Series too. But you know what? Yeah, the most frustrating part of that, and it's hard for you to say, right? Because you're a Sox fan. Remember that night when we partied

after the Sox finally won? 04. If I was on one of the other teams they beat, I'd be like, yeah, take it away from them, but I don't want the ring. Like, there's nothing, like, that's the worst part. It wouldn't even feel like a championship.

You can't go back and have the parade. Right. Imagine cheating like that and then doing the whole parade. I know. I know. That's sociopathic behavior. Best thing I saw on the internet

was the Astros logo with instead of the star in asterisk. It's a good-looking logo too. They let JJ Watt down. They did. They let J.J. Watt down. They let George Bush, Sr. down. That old man wheeled out there

and you let him down. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What's next? Danny Cage. Oh, shout out to Danny Cage. Ask your favorite pro wrestler as a kid. Yeah, that would be Stone Cold Steve Austin. He, I really loved when he used to stun the entire McMahon family.

How about now? Oh, how about now? That would be probably nobody. Do you know Danny Cage? Yeah, I know him from Twitter. So are we plugging his... Let's plug his... Monster Factory. At 4 Monster Factory, owned by the

handsome and stunning Danny Cage. So shout out to Danny Cage. Next question comes to us in my inbox. From Sean Brennan. With the success of the 49ers and Titans making their respective conference championship games, do you think the NFL is going to move toward a more run-based ground and pound style football? If so, do you believe the Philadelphia Eagles should give Deuce Staley the OC job. Well, that's not why they should give

Duce Daly the O.C. job, but I do think they should give Duce Daly the OC job. Unless you can get I don't know. There's guys out there, but if you're looking for a guy in your organization, I think Duce Daley's going to make a tremendous head coach one day, hopefully. And I know

we did the Rooney Rule thing yesterday and I got a couple nice comments, a couple mean comments. Duce Daley's good football coach was a really good player. I think that the Niners and Titans making their runs goes to show you that if you

throw a wrinkle into current trends, you can outmaneuver some of these rosters that are built for speed and finesse. There are still throwback teams and it's a matchup thing. It just depends. You know, in the Niners, they have

a scheme and the Titans, they have a special player. So, unless they're going to clone a bunch of Kyle Shanahan's or a bunch of Derek Henry's, I don't think, you know, the Jackson single jaguars are going to run out there and try to revamp their whole offense accordingly. But if you have something special,

you can lean into it from an identity standpoint. Well, we can have Matlow floor to that. I mean, before the season, it was Canary and Rogers deal with this run-based scheme that he's going to implement. Yep. Matt LaFleur are also Kyle Shanahan, best buddies. Yep, and McVeigh. but ironically

McVeigh caught shit and they were all in Washington McVey caught shit for not running the ball enough with Todd and then most famously 28 to 3 Kyle Shanahan forgot to run the football at the end of the game but that was good for your boy Macon from Charlottesville asks

Can you say the word parody without spelling it? Parity. Nice. I wasn't sure and you were on a heater of spelling the word parody whenever you said it. I love spelling the word parody. Ooh, favorite walk-out, walk-up song. How about you? That's from, I can't. I don't know how to say that. With no time

to prepare for that question, I'm going to say, Larger Than Life by the Backstreet Boys as I walk out. Oh, man. That's pretty good. I have a thing about mine, but I used to really like the DMX intro from It is Dark and Hell is Hot. I forget who I saw walk into that, at like an MMA match or a boxing match

and I was like, holy shit, that guy's about to win. Hardest thing I've ever had to tell a teammate. I played tennis. Never had a teammate. So I was really having to talk to myself, a lot of self-talk. And it was, hey man, don't have it today.

That's the hardest thing I probably ever had to say. That's good. I've never had to tell a teammate something awful. I don't think. let me jog my memory. We'll table that one. If we had to save our species like that Galapagos turtle did recently, who would you select to do the job and why?

All right. Who would you select? To repopulate our species. That's a trap question. I'm not afraid to talk about a... You pick a white guy. You're kind of saying I want everybody to be white. Oh, golly day.

That's the trap there. Okay. I'm staying out. Go ahead. Who's your? yours. I'm not sure. What's the worst fan interaction story?

When do you get most upset of a fan? Yeah, I smacked the guy's phone out of his hand recently at a bar because I'm really not a big fan of sneak pictures. Assault. Assault! Especially if, like, I will always take a picture, even drunk,

because that's some people I get it. Like, if you're drinking, you don't want to get caught on camera drunk. If I'm drunk, if I'm high, I don't care. Like if you're polite, I'm not a big smiler. Now, if you're going to come up to me for a picture, don't take pictures while we're setting up to take the pictures.

Like, you know, you know. So I'm talking to the guy that I'm getting ready to take a picture with. His friend is taking sneak pictures at a bar. The flash is on. I say, hey, what the fuck are you doing? Then he takes another one as my hands out. So I go, what.

And I smacked the phone out. of his hand. So maybe I'm telling on myself, maybe I have a case coming. Yeah. But that's probably the war. That's about as bad as it's been for me. Um, you can eat only eat one food for the rest of your life. This is the last one. Butter beans. Butter beans. Wait. I'm going to say, uh, yeah, butter beans. I'm going to say, um, the first thing that came to mind was fried shrimp, which is just ridiculous. It was so, I, if I could only eat one quick, you know, if I could only eat one cuisine the rest of my life. One city's cuisine the rest of my life, it would be New Orleans.

Is that fair? That's fair. It's fair if you let me amend to say suck attach. I want to add some corn in there. Succatash? Yeah. Well, that does it for the mailbag. We'll be more prepared next time.

Check us out this Sunday. We have a 3 p.m. live watch, sponsored by corporate Bigwig. so you know we're moving in the right direction. Can't wait. Who, who, who, Kenny Pows. Nice. We're starting to pick up a little attraction. Oh.

I sell fucking Kia's. It's not going to be Kia. It's going to be a mystery sponsor. And I will feel really dumb if they pulled out at the last second. And it's not confirmed. We're going to have to make up a sponsor. We're going to be Titans Chiefs. We'll do that game.

Might be some interviews dropping soon. If not, check us out Sunday and check us out next week on Greenlight Pod. This has been number 23. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Y'all. Take care, y'all. I think you said somebody ran 70 plays when they ran.

You said 75 when they ran 70. Yep, Packers, boom. Ran 70 plays on. Okay. On. On. On. On.

On. On. On. On. on the San Francisco 49ers? Well, yeah, but I was going to give you a date. They always give me the date right here. Oh.

On November 24th. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems like a lifetime ago. The Clippers. Okay, the Clippers were founded in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves. Yeah. One of three expansion teams to join the NBA in 1970. You remember the Portland and Cleveland franchises joined that year as well.

Yeah, sure. In 78, they moved to San Diego and became the Clippers. I'll always remember where I, was when that happened. In 81, they were purchased by Donald Sterling. Yeah. And in 84 relocated to L.A. Clipperships.

Yeah. Naval maritime. Right. From the San Diego origin. Yeah. God, what a clean show. It wasn't that clean, but we corrected a lot in real time. Okay.

And you also butcher Bova's name. You can find that live stream on YouTube.com. You can go to Twitter at Chalk Network and click the link right after 3 o'clock. We will be live. I also want to shout out my son's triceratops there that's been on the... That is nice. I want to shout out your son's drawing of me, which I have on my refrigerator. Oh, really?

Yep. That's cool. All right, y'all take care.