Green Light with Chris Long - Ep. 24 - 49ers Super Bowl Team Culture. UVA Basketball Therapy. Super Bowl Themes.

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

00:47 - Open (1917 movie, Macon vs Russillo, Wild and Wonderful Whites of WVA). 5:51 - Best 24’s and Hand Injuries. 17:09 - Hamburgers, Waylon and Lane Johnson. 21:29 - UVA Basketball Therapy for Macon. 28:24 - Football Talk (49ers Culture). 54:30 - Super Bowl Themes (Dee Ford, Pass Team be Run Team, 2 QBs with fewest starts) 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

Greenlight, Episode 24, got a lot going on on on this show. We're going to talk about how my son doesn't like hamburgers. I'm going to play psychiatrist for Macon. We're going to talk about the Niners' ascension to a Super Bowl contender, a machine, really. And we'll talk about some of our Super Bowl themes. Are we missing anything? Nope.

Okay, let's get this party started. Welcome to Greenlight Episode 24. You've already welcomed the people. and maybe you wanted to start that over because you've just said welcome, then we've played the music, and then you're saying welcome again? I mean, I can't welcome you enough. I can't welcome the listeners enough,

the viewers enough on this weird TV show type. Well, let me speak for the listeners, the viewers, and the co-host. And saying thank you for welcoming us. I am your host of this podcast, Chris Long. This is my esteem co-host, MLS extraordinaire. avid Virginia basketball fan, as we all are,

but this guy, it's another level. So we're going to have to play a psychiatrist today a little bit. Unfortunately, that's not your prototypical psychiatrist chair. I thought about getting a Chez lounge for you. Yeah. The support is going to be offered all the same. Thanks. I think modern therapy looks a lot different than how you picture it.

Like the sopranos and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, what is it? Is that a personal question? What does that look like? I think people stand, they sit, they meditate. I talk to someone sometimes. It's okay.

Oh my gosh. Everybody should. Everybody should. Literally everybody should. And that's why you're here today. It's not just to punch the ticket or punch the clock as one of the best co-hosts. Oh, golly. Ryan Rosillo, making Gunner.

He's got this thing with Ryan Rosillo. I thought we buried the hatchet on the live stream. I can't tell if it's a big. or not if there's really a co-host rivalry. I sent you a text. Yeah. We had a live stream talking about how many electoral votes George Washington got.

And the history buff, Rosillo, was called into live stream. Right. And the correct answer is 69. And Rosillo gets on and says, oh gosh, yeah, I know about this. It was different back then. Hmm, I want to say like 70, which is exactly what you would say.

say if you had been watching the live stream and knew the question was coming. Hey, I know he's a well-read guy. I know he's a smart guy. He bought me a book that's... Oh, he bought you a book that's thick and that just makes him smart? The book was thick with two Cs. Yeah. All I'm saying is...

Ulysses S. Grant. They wrote it about like every minute, the minute by minute they wrote about Ulysses S. Grant life. I cannot rule out the possibility that he tuned into the live stream, looked up the answer to the question, and then acted as if it was in his big old brain the whole time. I got to say, though, he had to have been watching because I think this is how we get guests on the live streams.

I just text them impromptu. So he would have had to have been watching anyways. That's my only thing there. Well, I know. I just think he was. It's a better answer than 15,000, which is what I gave you in real time, because I missed the electoral.

The electoral. There's a lot of, we have fun on that live stream. We do. We'll do another one here soon. Speaking of live stream, I'm going to do more watches like on YouTube where they're like reaction watches,

but it's me watching a movie, enjoying myself watching a movie. And hopefully I can give my two cents. I want to start doing those soon. And one of the first ones I want to do is the Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. It is a, I guess you can call it a documentary

on some folks in Appalachia. And I'll just say this. For those of y'all who have seen it out there, I worried that the reference might be a bit esoteric. Yeah, sometimes I get the word right. But for those of you have seen it, it is, as you know, an absolute shit show following a family in Boone County, West Virginia

that has a pretty, low life expectancy. I'll just put it that way. They live to the max, so to speak. It's an interesting watch. There are some light, funny moments

and there's some disturbing moments. The movie a year, the documentary is kind of one big disturbing moment, but in there you can find some levity. I think we'll probably hit that pretty early off the bat. You haven't seen it. Of course not. I am seeing 1917 this evening.

Oh, great. You're going to go to the theater. I am. Please, please enjoy yourself. Okay. And prepare yourself. Oh. Yeah.

Okay. Quite the movie. I talked about that on the Rosilopod. We haven't talked about this on this pod, have we yet? No, because I haven't seen the film. 1917 is it. Okay. I was going to say something really generic about it.

It's a great movie. What's that? 24. Yeah, this is the 24th episode. So we've been doing a thing now for two episodes running where, you know, corresponding back to back. We're corresponding with the, the episode numerically, we pick our favorite jersey number. Our favorite player who wore that jersey number. I'll let you go first.

Okay. I have, you want to hear some runners up? Yeah. Junior Gherfee. Yeah. I want to say that more clearly. You say that a little bit more. I was so geared up to say Junior Griffey that I've loved it.

King Griffey Jr. Yeah. Is not my pick. You thought that would be my pick. Yeah. It's not my pick. It's probably everybody's chalk pick. Swaggy.

Kobe Bryant is a guy I've come around on. Did not like starting to kind of like his mentality. The way he coaches youth girls? Yeah. And these. mode needs to be mentioned as well. My big winner, we can pop it up. His name is Charles Woodson. Yeah. He played at the University of Michigan, war number two. One of your favorite college football teams. And that was, speaking of quick turnarounds, Michigan beat Virginia

in 95 in the kickoff classic. It was a horrible 18 to 17 loss. Mercury Hayes, Mercury's Rising in the end zone. Pretty good call. At any rate, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, you know, I came around on Michigan because of Charles Woodson, only primarily defensive player to win the Heisman, played both ways. There has not been a non-quarterbacker running back since Charles Woodson to win the Heisman. It's picked by the Raiders, nine time Pro Bowl,

four time, first team all pro, four time, second team, all pro. He's cool as heck. Yeah, seems pretty cool to me. Two iconic jerseys in Michigan and the Oakland Raiders. I think he finished wearing a different number, yeah? Yeah, 21. He went to Green Bay.

Yeah. Maybe somewhere else even. But I really like that guy. In my office at home, I have a pillow. Right. That's made out of a black Charles Woodson Raiders jersey. Woodson 24. It's a pillow.

Oh, that's cute. Yeah, thanks. I am obsessed with the Heisman Trophy. Let me read you that Heisman Trophy. group group result yeah thanks man Charles Hudson one Peyton manning too many people some would argue that he should have won that Heism trophy

followed by Ryan Leaf a sophomore wide receiver named Randy Moss Ricky Williams Curtis Enis Tim Dwight Cade McNown Tim Couch and famous Amos Zero Way another sophomore running back and West Virginia A couple comments here Ryan Leaf who obviously

had his issues has become a major success story out of that group. Yep. As far as what he's been able to do and inspire people with his story of hitting rock bottom and coming out of it. He's actually he's been flirting with climbing Killy with our group. That would be awesome. And seems like a really good guy. I look forward to having him up the mountain. Also you mentioned Tim Dwight. It's a fast white guy. Yeah. I think he has a speed. school now, which makes sense. I believe it. I think it's really hard to teach people to be fast. Yeah. Incrementally, maybe you can improve, but if you don't have the goods from the from the jump, it's difficult. You're not going to be fast. My favorite 24 was not necessarily fast.

Okay, then I know who it's going to be. It's my boy, Money Lynch. Oh, I was wrong. Yeah. Hold my dick. Nice. That picture there is obviously the B-Sk. quake moment. And you know, as he's cupping his unit, diving backwards into the end zone and multiple saints are looking on. The funniest thing about that play in any long play, iconic play in Super Bowl history, or not Super Bowl history, in NFL history, is the changing of speeds you see across the All-22, which is the coaches tape. When you're an NFL player and you're caught changing speeds, which is basically like you're jogging

because you think the play's over, then you're sprinting. Like you might as well jog the whole way because if you change speeds, you're getting ream the fuck out in meetings. And if you're just jogging, say I felt a hammy. Yeah, I felt a hammy or, you know,

hey, I'm just not really in it to give effort right now. But when you change speeds, it's almost worse. And there are a number of guys changing speeds in that play. Any iconic play, when you're on the field in a big situation, you should always run to the ball anyways, but if a great player starts running with the ball

and breaking tackles, you better just run as fast as you can. Because you don't want to be immortalized changing speeds. And there's always a risk to end up on an eternal highlight. Now, Marshawn and I had a lot of good battles in the NFC West are D-Line versus Thero Line and obviously Marshawn. Marshawn also put a plate in my hand trying to tackle Marshawn Lynch. this is, I have a plate in my hand.

I can't flat in my hand. That's as flat as my hand goes. There's always going to be a little bit of curvature there. I can't make a fist. What's that from? Punching a wall or something. Slow pitch. When you didn't make a sale.

Intramural football or softball football. Slow pitch softball in college. Oh, is that right? Yeah, there was a play at the plate. I was catcher because I was a liability in the field. playoffs so homeboy rounds third and is going to try to eye balls coming to me ball in glove hand covering ball yeah standard technique yeah guy bowls me over and then kind of fucked up is it not in the interim yes it is but it was a playoffs okay understood guys run in a second

so I need to throw it a second and pull the ball out of my mitt and it just kind of falls because this finger is half. All of this is under this. And I was like, I looked at it and I'm not one for that sort of stuff. Yeah, you don't like gory shit. Yeah. So people are like, what in the world are you doing?

I'm getting screamed at and I just hold up my hand and people like turn away and start throwing up. And then I just put it into my belly. Oh, I thought you popped it yourself. Well, I pulled it out myself. Yeah. Felt great for 30 minutes. And then it was some of the most excruciating pain.

War stories here. Yeah. Trading them. Yeah. But I don't know that guy's name. He wasn't beast mode. Who did that to you was Marshawn Lynch. Yeah, Marshawn is an arm tackle.

And the worst part about this is when you're playing week 17, I think I've talked about this before. You know, you're going to play as hard as you can because if you don't, you're going to increase the likelihood of injury. But, you know, you also have to be very wary of the fact that when we were on the Rams, it was like, oh, the respite at the end of a terrible season is always a nice warm vacation and that you do get done early. last quarter of a blowout or a two-score game in Seattle, Week 17,

stuck my hand out to make an arm tackle, getting held, and just exploded my hand. So getting held. Did you guys hear that? Yeah, I was getting held. And Brenno Giacomini held relentlessly. So I got this and I got a Marchand jersey. He's one of my favorite players that I ever played against. He's obviously there's some great runner-ups, runners-up.

Henderson. Henderson, Ricky. Yep. Yep. Willie Mays. 24 is one of the swagiest numbers in sports. Mani Ramirez. Yep, Mani.

All I can think about is with Mani is him fighting that coach with the Yankees. Zimmer. Yeah. That was totally out of line. How about Rick Barry and Bill Bradley? Rick Barry. I jumped on a trampoline with one of the berries. John?

Yeah, I think. They have a place in Montana where we, that place, that Montana area where I go every summer up in the Flathead Valley, there's a big NBA contingency up there. Phil Jackson has a place. Steve Kerr wrote a C-Doo with Steve Kerr one time, wrote on the back of the C-Doo like he was my dad, you know, I think I probably put my hands around Steve Kerr. I was like 12, maybe 11, I don't know. Are there any non-famous people there?

There's a ton of them. Frank Prakowski. who's also an NBA player. Famous. But you said famous. How many people on this? There's a ton. I mean, but per capita,

there's probably more NBA players living in, definitely more white NBA players living in this one valley than anywhere in the world. I think they should probably do it outside the lines on it. That's good stuff. What if I told you? Yeah. Hustle guys retire at the same place.

I've got a 24 I did not like. What's that? I'm going to give you a hint and see if you can guess the person. Okay, got it. The hint is, Undelay, Mommy, EI, EI, uh-oh. Oh, so that's Nelly.

That's right. So was he wearing a jersey in that? No. Call me Jeff Gordon and a black S. You don't like Jeff Gordon. With a navigation. I do not like Jeff Gordon.

I did not like Jeff Gordon. Why? Too clean cut to be a NASCAR guy. Yeah. I was, I wasn't a NASCAR guy, but I liked Bobby Labani back in those days.

Yeah, okay. For no reason, probably whatsoever. Probably not. Green interstate batteries. It's all about the logo, and that's the one sport. I feel like that you're most heavily influenced by the logo and the brand. Right. Like, you know, not to...

Who drives the Kodiak car? I don't know. Yeah, well, you... Like, to me, you've got a tin of dip on your car. It's kind of, it's kind of interesting. Jeff Gordon, in those days, just reminded me, of the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, okay, got you.

He was the clean cut buttoned up, no beard on the Yankees, yeah, I mean, yes. But by all accounts, a tremendously nice guy. He was in studio with Pops a couple weeks ago. My Pops picked up FaceTime and he's like, hey, and he shows me Jeff Gordon and I'm like, I'm drunk. Okay? I think Jeff's probably okay.

He's seeing a few drunk people in his time as a NASCAR racer. Yep. So yeah, that's our 24th. four rundown. Jack Bauer. Yep, Jack Bauer. You know that

the fuck is his name. Jack Bauer's real name in real life, the actor. Sure, I'd be happy to tell you that. Kiefer Sutherland. Yep, that's right. Kiefer is a musician. These days. Has albums.

I did not know that. I want you to check his stuff out on your own time. Don't do it now. Please don't do it now. So, a quick update my son doesn't really like hamburgers

Waylon was a name like Waylon you would think he would really like hamburgers he's not that old yeah you're right do most three-year-olds not like hamburgers or most three-year-olds picky eaters because my son took a bite of his delicious Riverside Lunch hamburger the other night we went on a hamburger date the entire date was predicated on

let's go get some hamburgers I found out he was just playing me to go on a dinner date. Sat down, ordered a hamburger immediately, took one bite, shoot it for 23 minutes like it was bubblegum. I remember one time,

I think just Whalen doesn't like red meat. Whalen had his first steak, and this was about a year ago in the summer. And he was convinced that steak was snake. So a little bit of just a, pronunciation mix up but he was convinced he was eating snake you know for two three weeks he would grill out a lot in the summer he took a bite of that fucker and there were other kids there so we let them go play in the basement you know the kids you know there's older

kid a little gang of kids and they all go play for a while where the adults finished dinner this fucking guy comes up 45 minutes later he's still chewing that piece of steak now did you explain to him what steak is We tried. Is that worse? Well, it's confusing to him because, you know, it's like chicken is a chicken. You know, you eat chicken, you're eating a chicken. So he gets that.

Yeah. Steak is a cow. How do you explain that? Right. You know, we don't refer to it as cow. So it must be confusing to a three-year-old. Now, it's gotten so bad that he plays kitchen, kind of like he's got this little kitchen thing in his playroom where he cooks me a fake dinner and runs over with, you know, like,

yogurt, a carrot, uh, some mustard. And, you know, he said, here you go. I made you a smoothie. So he's his food terminology, but he brought over a toy snake one time to my dad while he was playing kitchen. He said, here you go, Papa. Here's your snake. Eat up. I was like, if this fucking guy brings a copperhead back in the house one day, thinking he's bringing me home dinner I don't know what I'm going to do has he ever made you fake food and you just say hey man

this is shit this is a really shit meal no I haven't I have to act like every meal is like um terrible combinations but yeah shout out to Waylon who's probably going to be healthier than me

when he's older because he does not like red meat um got time to come around on that got time to come around on that Also, quick tease here. Lane Johnson was in studio. We're going to push out about an hour plus interview with him. Lane was a surprise visitor. He was driving back to Texas and decided to text me in the middle of the night and asked me if I was up.

I said, no, I'm not up. Why are you answering to Texas? Well, I'm just effectively not up. Why? He's like, well, I'm going to drive through Virginia here soon. I'm like, just on a whim, you're going to drive back to Texas? Yeah, I just feel like driving back to Texas tonight. So I said, you want to spend a day?

That's great. took him around Charlottesville he really enjoyed the town and we sat down and had a nice interview we hit a bunch of topics one topic we hit which a bunch of people are going to love is you know there was the whole are we having fun yet lane johnson thing he was talking about the fun in new england and uh we hit that topic he was very open on that and very interested uh in addressing it if any new england patriots fans are watching this pod you want to tune in for that um we also talked about You know, Carson's year, we talked about, you know, Super Bowl year, we talked about, you know, his dad, his dad was a bull rider. Very East Texas cat.

So, interesting, funny, engaging dude, one of my favorite teammates, and it really comes out in the interview. Check that one out. It will be up here soon. Just keep an eye out. I can't tell you when. So are you ready for me to play psychiatrist? Yep. All right, hold on a second.

I can act like this is a real visit, not a podcast. You want to co-pay? No. Okay. All right, how do they do it? What brings you in today? Well, Virginia basketball is 12 and 6 this season,

coming off two years when it went 66 and 6, and 1,000, and 1-Natty in the most difficult conference. in America, which it no longer is. How does that make you feel? Well, golly, if you had asked me last night, like the world is ending, feels really bad. Today, as Coach Bennett says,

joy comes in the morning, perspective comes along with that joy. Yeah. And you realize when you lose three guys to the draft early, somewhat unexpectedly. It's not as if you're going to reel off 18 straight to start the next season.

So we lose to the Wolfpack last night and being down 11 late in the second half. Feels like 30. Okay, that was my podcast personality. And after you've given your friend some moneyline advice, can you stop asking me, by the way? I don't gamble. When you ask me for advice on the who's,

I always think I'm steering you right, but I don't want you to gamble based on my advice unless I offer it. When you ask me, I feel obligated to say something. I did feel good last night. NC State has never won in John Paul Jones Arena. They shouldn't have last night.

Do you notice your body language is changing right now? Actually, yeah. Yeah, but that's you, you, you is what I'm saying. You're a part of this. Try to focus inward. This is an inward problem. Why do you take Virginia basketball so seriously? It's just the game.

It's interesting that you say that. Coach Bennett, after we lost to UMBC, would talk about how, you know, it is just a game. And we have things in our lives that are constants, and he used a particular term that's not coming to mind. but I wanted to say to him, hey dog, for some of us,

UVA hoops is number one on the list here, you know? Did you ever think that maybe it was, has to do with maybe that you weren't good at basketball growing up so you're living vicariously through the UVA basketball team?

Con, I was great. And, this is a safe space. No, I hadn't thought about that. You can share the fact that you weren't very good at basketball. Look, it's January, a lot of ball,

all left. Bubble's going to be very weak this year. Whose can come back. Led with less than five minutes to go and all the four conference losses. So they're close. Need to score more is the point. That would work. This has been a good visit.

Yeah. Thanks. Well, in summation, as your psychiatrist, I also really, I really like Virginia basketball. I don't, I don't, I'm not like you, you know, where I live and die with it because I'm overcompensating for a below average high school basketball career. You know, I was a six man on a very successful high school team. So maybe that's what's going on here. So I like Tony Bennett. I realize that it is, it's just the game. That's what we got to get to is you, we both revere Tony Bennett. maybe both of us need to start listening to him. I think only one of us is listening to Tony Bennett right now.

No, I'm listening. I listen to everything. My coach says, we're in good hands. There's a difference between using your ears and actually listening it, like the sound penetrating your ear and you taking it to heart and not crying in a closet after Virginia loses a basketball. I'm not crying, I'm good. Listen, if you learn to use adversity the right way,

it can buy you a ticket to a place you couldn't have gotten to any other way, all right? Is that a Tony Venet quote? Yes. Oh my God. From a, borrowed from a TED Talk, essentially. You gotta love that.

I saw there was a Coach Carter quote the other day that people were like, you know, it was from that shitty speech at the end of that movie. And we covered that. It was like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Coach Carter, you know,

and everybody was like, wasn't that the chick, Marianne Williamson, who just, who just ran for president. It was literally her quote that Coach Carter used, and ESPN quoted it as Coach Carter. Wow. That's awesome.

But you just quoted Tony Bennett quote that was a TED Talk quote. Let's just move on from Virginia basketball. I don't think half of our listeners care about Virginia basketball. I know they don't care, but they do care about sports by and large. Yeah, being a sports fan, I think that's an interesting offshoot conversation is that I think sometimes the fans take it harder than the players. Yeah. Because the fans, I don't know what, are powerless.

They're powerless. They have no control. Yep. I think that's what it is. For a player, you roll the ball out there, you get beat. You know, I gave it my all. And it hurts really bad, but I'm also still a professional athlete or a college athlete. And I think for some, there's quite the entitlement.

complex you know entitlement well you know you see you seem like you're I don't I don't I don't want to go that far I'm just saying that it's not that serious okay then I think we can't have this conversation another time it's very serious I just don't think it's that serious I want to I want to talk about something that you know you're working on your Virginia basketball fixation no I'm not I remain all in I just have better perspective about being 12 and 6 coming off a natty Maybe you've got to see another psychiatrist because, you know, like I'm just trying to get, I'm trying to work on some triggers with you. You are clearly not listening to me. I'm not going to work on this mattering less to me. I'm going to work on how I respond to losses and perhaps wins for that matter. You do get pretty high after wins. Not, no. Not like that. Thank you.

Anyways, football talk before we get out of here. Let's start with the Niners. I don't. I don't know. One of these teams that I feel like everybody knows how good they are, but no matter who you are, you still doubt them a little bit. Are you on that page? I guess until, until now, now I feel good about them. But here's the thing. As they've arrived in the Super Bowl.

Here's the thing. And I know they're really fucking good. It would not be hard to convince me that they're gonna win this game. And I'm actually leaning Chiefs if I had to. to right now. I think they were favored by a point. By the way, the over under was like 54, and I liked the over there. But the Niners, I feel like, have been this team that have run on doubters, and then the doubters fell by the wayside.

But even the people that believe in them, I don't know if it's the Jimmy thing, or it's the fact that they've come on the scene so quickly or their West Coast team. There's something just a little off. but the amazing thing about this ascension and we mentioned it second lowest winning percentage from 14 to 18 only better than the Browns so that's insane you know and that's that's a ledge they fell off after the Kaepernick years yeah and that's five years of people thinking they're bad that's a that's a big part of

why people aren't believing that's this moment that's probably it and I think there was also for people a lack of being able to look at those five years as what we just talked about, which is a half a decade. It felt like just this long ago, you know, the blink of an eye, they were playing the Ravens in the Super Bowl. And then that collapsed and now we're built right back up. And a lot of teams, you know, windows open and closed, but to have two big windows open up within the span of a decade. It's pretty remarkable. Most players like a Joe Staley get to see one window, not two. And that's why I think, you know, Joe's an interesting guy. I'd love to talk to at some point. We used to play against each other a lot. I know Joe pretty well. In the offseason,

I'd love to have him on and ask him what it was like to feel like you just missed the boat on being a champion. And a lot of times when that happens, whether you think the window's still open or not, you might not think you're ever going to get back there. When I talked to my dad about what he learned in his career, one of the first things he talked about was when he went in like 83 as a second or gear or rookie and played Washington and beat them in the Super Bowl, he assumed, hey, we'll be back.

And me, I never had that experience for much of my career, so I can't really speak to that. I think by the time I got there, I really appreciated the moment. but most young guys you talk to are like, man, I thought that would be easy. I got on a team that looked like the window was wide open and we never got back.

So for a guy like Staley, who's been a really good player throughout, you had to wonder if he was just going to rot away in San Francisco, but here he is and he's back. So one guy that took a lot of shit throughout his tenure and obviously there's talk about nepotism and, you know, guys getting, jobs when they're young and ownership, not selling teams.

And most times it's just handed on, handed down to the family, regardless of somebody's capability of running a team, Jed York, who's 39 years old, has now overseen two Super Bowl appearance teams with two different head coaches and puts him in a bit of an elite group. As an owner, he's 39 years old. He hasn't been on the job too long. But that triumvirate, am I using that work? correctly. Three-headed monster here.

That youthful three-headed monster of Jed York, Shanahan, who's in his late 30s, still younger than York, and Lynch, who's in his 50s, have done a great job together. They've worked in one accord. Before the three started working together, after 16, when Balke and that crew was fired, and York was taking a lot of heat, they were seven and 25 the previous two years.

And then 10 and 22 in their first two years together, that is Shanahan and Lynch. And both hirings were questioned a bunch. You know, there was Shanahan because of the nepotism thing, his age. He was kind of getting swept up in that young boy wonder, you know, phase that McVeigh was the poster child of. And obviously they spent time in Washington as well, Taylor and Cincinnati has been kind of fit to bill there. You had Kingsbury who seemed to be a

boiling point in this conversation for guys that were just getting jobs right off the bat because they were these young offensive minds or they knew somebody. Shanahan has proved himself to be probably the wrong example if you're pointing to, you know, guys that couldn't coach and just got in the business and were too young. He's actually paid his dues. Now, of course, we did a whole pot on this. So nepotism is most important, in my opinion, at the lowest levels, how guys get in the door. So Shanahan did, by virtue of being Mike's son, get some doors open that others haven't, and we've documented that. But in his defense, he has put his work in. By the time he was hired as a head coach, he'd been in league 14 years. And out of that class of folks that got hired,

in 17, he was right in the middle of the pack there. And there were some older guys. And there was some older guys in there. I think the two guys that had longer 10 years in the NFL, coaching-wise, were Anthony Lynn with 17 years, and Doug Marone with 15 years, and Shanahan clocked in at 14 years on the job in the NFL. You know, he had paid his dues and had done a great job in Atlanta. A lot of people talk about 28 to 3. Well, you have to score 28 points in a half on the number one defense in the league. We were giving up 15 points a game at that juncture. So, you know, him not running the ball at the end of the game is one bad quarter. One bad quarter.

It also took a defensive collapse. So there's that. Holding. There was a holding. There was a great, great edge rush that drew a hold that a lot of people forget. People do forget about that hold. Yeah. Julio Jones toe tap on the sideline, it's over.

Out of field goal range of that hold. Yep. Would have been 11 point lead. You know, I did my job. Did they kick a field goal and miss it or did they pun it? They had to pun it. Well, Trey Flowers had a sack, which knocked him back to like the 30, and then the hold knocked him back to like the 40.

So teamwork makes the dream work. Trey, the man, and then I did my little part there. I wish I'd have had a sack because it would look cooler on the stats sheet, but instead I got the chokehold there from Fisher. Anyways, you know, Shanahan is not the Postal Child. for not putting in the work. I mean, McVeigh was in the league seven years, and obviously it's played out well for him,

but McDermott was hired that year, and nobody gave a shit about him. He was eight years in the league. You know, there was another coach that was 12 years. Who was the guy that got hired in Denver in 17? Do you remember? I do. Can't remember right now.

Cowboy Reed's going to know. Vance Joseph? Bance Joseph. He was 12 years in league. So there were guys that paid their dues, you know, that year, and there were guys that came in quick, but I think Shanahan got swept up in that whole conversation. And even so that, like, Mike, his dad, Shanahan, who's obviously a legend, but most kids nowadays, the nice thing for a Kyle Shanahan is that most younger people

probably don't remember Mike Shanahan like that. I play with a lot of guys who 10 years. years in my career were like wait your dad's that guy on fox you know 23 year old kids and shit like that so generationally it's nice for for kyle to kind of stand in his own spotlight and he's done a great job and mike was you know the first guy that was like hey i'm not i'm never going to give you a job until you check off some of these boxes one of which you have to be a coordinator for another team and obviously, you know, 14 years he paid his dues. But the thing that Jed York did really well was he cut bait with some of the guys he had in 16

and made these hires at the same time. Well, he hired Shanahan first, gave Shanahan the carte blanche to bring in, you know, whatever GM you'd like. And I actually like that sequencing because it is a coach's league now. you know it's it's you know parcels famously said uh you know if i'm cooking dinner i want to buy the groceries too and that uh that was kind of the thought process when you have your guy in shanahan by the way they hired him over mcdaniels i can't see how that wasn't a good idea you know here you are sitting in the super bowl who knows what mcdials would have been able to do but shanahan has revolutionized

the way you're running the ball nowadays in the NFL he's brought the throwback flavor with the up-to-date Flair and you know him and Lynch being hired the same time to twin six year deals insurers there's no lame ducks shit I mean it is

we're in this together you know and and Shanahan did not have to defer as much to Lynch as he has because he had the ability to accrue all the power he was like this is a team effort we're going to watch

film together. We're going to, I'm going to learn from you. You're going to learn from me. I think it was more Shanahan humbling himself and saying, like, I'm going to learn from John Lynch. He was a great player. I've been coaching the league for 14 years. I know a lot from my pops. I know a lot from coaching. We're going to work together. We're going to get a Stanford professor to kind of audit the process with which we settle disagreements, the way they argue down to, they had it all planned out. This is the thought, this is the protocol. when we have a disagreement on a player. This is a protocol when we have a disagreement on a scheme,

like this sort of thing and like how the players fits in that scheme. So they actually outsource somebody, you know, to give them some direction in that process, which is kind of unheard of. They did all their arguing in private. Even the first two years when they struggled, 10 and 22, there was no throwing each other under the bus.

There wasn't, any ownership throwing the front office under the bus or coaches under the bus or the other way around. They kept it, I don't know what the word would be, they kept it. Well, they were patient. They were patient. Plan in place.

They had a plan, they stuck to it. And I just think they did a great job. And John Lynch even talks to the team sometimes. I mean, that's kind of for a GM, obviously not every GM was a great player. But John Lynch, why wouldn't you allow your GM to talk to the team sometimes? If you are on the same page, that's cool of Shanahan and his emotional intelligence and awareness and humility to invite him in. And I think part of that is because he knows what time it is.

When he gets a job, he's the young dude. He's the guy with Mike Shanahan's last name. He's the guy who a lot of young players are going to look at and be like, I'm almost your fucking age. And you're wearing a terrible hat. You're wearing a terrible hat. You look like a Manhattan Beach dad. Yeah. But he's humbled himself, and I think this is who he is,

but I think it's also the intelligence emotionally and socially, to say, I want to bring myself down to the players level. I'm going to do things like, you know, defer to John on stuff. I'm going to bring him in and talk to the team. We're going to be on first name basis in the building. You know, players calling coach and John first name. Basis, not every place is like that. And I think they've done a good job of implementing a culture that works for them.

Obviously, the scheme has to be great. They have that. And when you talk John Lynch, he copied Ozzy Newsom a lot and that, or Harbaugh, really, more so he worked that way backwards. But he said, how do they do things in Baltimore? That's one great GM coach relationship, which when you talk to coaches in the NFL now, that's something that people take for granted is the GM. and the coach being on the same page.

And it's not that way everywhere. And on winning teams, more often than not, it is. And when you look at Harbaugh and Ozzy, they're an example. Schneider and Carroll example. You know, so much show that players that came from Seattle to play in San Francisco said, we like this as a setup, kind of like the one in Seattle that worked.

So cool system, great scheme, great players, but also a culture that is reinforced by everybody being on the same page. And that's something you take for granted in the league. Now, they made a bunch of good moves drafting people. Yeah, 19, 18, 17, 16. They had top 10 picks last year, thanks to Jimmy G. being hurt in that 4-12 record.

But they hit on Bosa, they hit on McGlinchie, mostly have hit on Solomon Thomas. Yeah, I mean, he's a good player, he's a depth guy, obviously top of the draft, but... And they hit on DeForest Buckner. I think people would push back on the Thomas thing, but I also think he's been productive. And, you know, it's also not his fault that they reached a little bit.

I mean, he seems like a great kid. Seems like he works hard. Now, they also have four really good fucking players up front. So I don't know if Solomon Thomas would start somewhere else. I think part of the reason, and by the, way they've they've really built through all three levels that's one thing that not every team is doing draft trades free agency yep you can't be a team these days and just be like we're only building through draft we're only going to we're going to build fast and and trade a bunch of people i think when

step ross hit the reset button in miami is a great example they were just trying to outsource talent uh guys who were older and were costly veterans um they had to hit the reset button a little bit in the crew draft picks and just say fuck and we're going to blow this thing up. I'm sure though if they're smart they'll not only be active in free agency but they use those picks well make trades where they have to but when I get back

to talking about the perception of the Niners and by the way there's five players that started against the Vikings that were that preceded this this three-headed monster in coaching in front office so there's been a ton of roster

turnover. I think I think the reason that people don't take them seriously, well, they take them seriously, but there's a few reasons I think they're not viewed as this powerhouse. One is they were four and 12. They're one of three teams that won four less games and made the Super Bowl the next year.

I think it was 88 Bengals, 99 Rams, and now this team. Yep. So Rams team won, big game, Bengals lost. I think that skews some people's perception. It's like, I believe what I'm seeing, but I'm not quite sure. I also think the draw they got in the playoffs so far has strengthened some people's. I mean, like, what they did the other night was really impressive, but the Packers were overhyped all year. They were suspect in the run game.

The Vikings, people, you know, don't believe in the Vikings all year long, and then they beat up the Vikings, and depending on which way you want to go with the argument, you use it to your advantage. I thought it was a good win because I think the Vikings are a good team I thought the way they beat the shit out of the Packers twice now which is really hard to do is impressive I thought maybe that it would be one of those situations where

in 18 when I was with the Eagles we got beat like 48 to 7 by the Saints down there and a lot of times you look at that blowout and the reason it doesn't make a shit is because you played your worst and it might be a bad matchup anyways but you might have had injuries and teams change

while we went and played them in the playoffs and quite easily could have beaten them. Same place. Same players. A couple injuries here and there. But teams changed the year. For them to do that and win by, you know, damn near three touchdowns each time.

They won by about 30 the first time around. That game was not as close as it finished the other night. It's impressive. Maybe it's because their quarterback was a backup in New England. And I think there's some stigma there, unless you're like a high pick, and then you're a backup, like an Aaron Rogers, who's biding his time for an inevitable franchise takeover,

I think people judge you, and that stigma sticks around. I know there's the fact that he's only thrown like 20 balls in the playoffs thus far. Yeah. You went to Eastern Illinois? Eastern Illinois. Maybe it's because they're a West Coast team.

I don't know. maybe it's because everybody's like this is more of a scheme thing for them offensively which it's very scheme dependent but everywhere it is now I mean Andy Reid they got the players over there everybody knows they're awesome but

Andy Reid scheme in Baltimore Greg Roman scheme you know scheme matters so just because you know Shanahan plays a big role and he's almost like a star in the movie doesn't mean these players aren't great they have a ton of great players Everybody likes to see it thrown all over the yard.

I mean, Shaw McVeigh is the flavor of the month. All of his coaching tree branches get hired. Yep. Chiefs throw the ball a lot. Mahomes is dynamic. Right. If you want to see something different, okay, Lamar is cool. Yep.

But if you are handing the ball off, wait, nah, that's my dad's NFL. Yeah, but the thing about your dad's NFL and my dad's NFL is the run design. were so much different. We talked about it. Maybe it's because they use the fullback. Maybe it's because they got a blocking tight end. And maybe it's because, but these all,

they're the same functionalities, but they look different. Kittle is not an imposing guy physically. He just blocks his ass off. You know, juice check does not look like a 90s, you know, cowboy collar wearing fullback.

He looks more like, like an hback type. Like, you know, hey, guy, You can move him around. And that's because he can do a lot of different stuff. You see him knocking off a free runner on a play. He's not even supposed to get a piece of the runner.

He's faking a crackback block or a bin block. And then he's going to the second level. He's catching the ball of the backfield. Like everybody blocks. Everybody's interested in it. Their O line. It's not like to me, I look at that O line. It's like, damn, they're mallers.

That O line in San Francisco, when you had Gore and all those guys, you had, you know, Davis, you had Boone, you had Staley, Iupati, Goodwin. They were mallers. This group, they just, they care about the scheme and they execute it to the best of their ability, and it's a great dynamic scheme. Look no further than a player like Mostard, who a lot of people freaked out about the other night because they're like, he was on my team, and he didn't do this. This is how bad evidence of how bad my franchise is. Well, maybe so, but you're not alone. there were six teams he didn't do this with.

And Rahim is a perfect example of the type of guy. Listen, I think part of why we don't take them the way we do like Kansas City is because their players were either guys that kind of came out of nowhere or guys that were recycled, albeit great players. You know, Richard Sherman, they got him off in Achilles. That's supposed to be game over for a skill guy like that.

they've gotten everything that you had ever want out of him. You know, they brought over Kwan Alexander, who's awesome, but he was a small market star, you know. Free agent. Yeah, but a small market star. Weston Richbury wasn't good enough for the G-Men. But again, a position that's not a star position. They hit on that.

They, you know, Kittle was not a guy that was a superstar more than a year and a half ago. Jimmy G's a backup, right, before he comes over to San Francisco. He's probably a system guy to everybody. Kiddle a fifth round pick. Yep. Which is insane. I know that Iowa tight ends, nobody's going to get 100 looks. But now their first round picks.

Hawkinson last year, no offense. Yep. So you've got guys like that. I mean, you've got Debo Samuel, who you were never surprised by, but he was a second tier type star receiver in the NCAA. Yeah, played at South Carolina. South Carolina and sat out the bowl game against Virginia, which is, hey, I'm hot stuff move.

Yeah, well, he turned out to be hot stuff. Yeah. You know, a number of their players, even on a defensive line, you got Bosa who's a rookie, Armistead who, Eric was supposed to be a bus, that's what everybody said, but it goes to show you how much the scheme matters. They had him in like a reed technique scheme

and it wasn't until they changed it up and said, go attack, did he really, take off. So you got a guy everybody thought was a bus. You got a rookie. You got a guy named Buckner who nobody ever paid attention to because the teams were bad and they were really he's really, really good. He's always

been really good. And then you got an outcast from Kansas City who blew their season up last night or last year jumping off sides in D Ford. The list goes on of guys that are not traditional stars in the sense that they've been in this franchise and this market

tearing it up for years. Yeah, I don't I don't think you mentioned Tevin Coleman yet. Tevin Coleman, who was a guy who was part of the two-headed monster in Atlanta, and we played him in the Super Bowl. He was just as impressive as Freeman, but never, he was always the robin to the Batman of Freeman.

And maybe he is now to Mostert. I know he's banged up now too. But it's Breeda? Breedda, Jeff Will said even seemingly gets five yards of pop. Bit of a tangent. Yeah. Are you taking a running back in the first round

or the second round after seeing something like this? No, but you're also not, you know, Shanahan's don't grow on trees. I understand that, but it feels like another position is better used with the top pick than the running back.

And that's been the thought process in league for a while here and now we're talking about paying running backs. I think there's a lot to it because you can take a Sequin Barkley, God bless him, he's probably one of the best running backs

I've ever seen on the field with me and he might waste his career up there. Yeah. because they can't do it all. And he can't wait a decade for a Shanahan to walk through the door. He's got a Shanahan now. His name's Jason Garrett. Yeah, okay.

Real cutting-head stuff going on up there in New York. Hey, Cowboys had the second-ranked offense when Garrett was O.C. there for sure, just saying. Okay. So good for the Niners. A lot of respect for a lot of those players. Easily likable team. Yep. but people still seem to not be given them their due agreed what are they going to wear in

miami so that's a great question um i think they need to wear if i had my druthers and we talked about this i like uh the niners throwbacks all white and i agree with you on the kins city side um what you say the monogram monochrome monogram would do what i have much shopping with shopping for my lovely home your lovely wife and my children We don't really do the monogram thing, by the way. I'm not a big monogram guy. Yeah. Get that shit out of my soul space.

Yeah. If the No Fun League mandates that the Niners go traditional away uni, it's still a good uni. The question is, will there be too much red on the field? Because the all whites, they're wearing white socks with that. Yeah. with the traditional road they put on those red guys

be a lot of red but I think if Casey goes monochrome color rush all red that's the biggest catalyst for me is if Kansas City goes all red then that opens the door for the Niners to go

all white and the throwbacks from their NFC West days where they shared the NFC West with the Panthers the Saints and the Atlanta Falcons Yeah. So I think that's the best Super Bowl combo, in my opinion. Super Bowl themes this year, obviously you've got the most past happy team in the league and the most run happy team in the league.

But it's this weird marriage of, you know, analytics freaks and, you know, coaches tape hardos, can kind of agree that this is an enjoyable Super Bowl. I don't think whatever your flavor is, I think that the run game is dynamic and interesting enough on the San Francisco side to appease the analytics folks the way it's executed and carried out. I think even old school grunts love to see Patrick Mahomes sling the ball around the yard. Yeah, I think you're right.

I just realized what we've been talking about for half an hour. The Niners aren't sexy. I was thinking about the ideal matchup probably would have been Chief Saints Old school That was my pick for the Super Bowl But tossing around the yard Camara

Yeah Yeah contrast to styles I think it will be interesting Another thing is like It's a big yard after the yards after the catch offense For San Francisco It's like an in cut

A slant that goes for like You know Kittl finds a soft spot in the zone And you know Just breaks 15 tackle it's not like you're wowed with quarterback play. And Jimmy G needs to be New Orleans Jimmy G not the last two weeks.

And that's why we'll find out. If they pass this test, no one should ever slander the Niners or Jimmy again. Because what it's going to take is for him to make throws. And he's done that at different junctures this year. Okay, there are two quarterbacks with the fewest starts combined in the history of the Super Bowl. That's interesting, not that compelling to me

because I think that you have two unique situations. You have a program that was built out partially for Alex Smith, and their window was wide open, and then they just landed this kid in the middle of the first that, quite frankly, should have been, you know, first overall. First overall done deal weeks before the draft.

And then Jimmy was obviously a trade, and I think that to your point, they were a good team last year but his injury skewed our perception of who they are and got them both so and took away starts from this statistic where he would have accrued like what 12 more starts so um the one for me that's interesting is uh is the d ford storyline i'm watching the game and i'm like are people talking about the fact that you've got a guy who kind of blew it for them last year, and I liked D-Fort a lot.

I mean, that off-sides was my worst nightmare in football. Like, getting to that stage for me and having waited 10, 11 years, you're out on that field. There's so much adrenaline. Your job is to get a good jump, especially a speed guy. And I look back at the Super Bowl against the Patriots

and, you know, against the Falcons, I was humming off the ball, and I was not thinking about jumping off sides. I know D. Ford wasn't either. That could happen to anybody. And, you know, lining up in the neutral zone, it's a nightmare, you know, on the biggest stage. And to think that not only would he have a chance

to rectify that situation. With another club. But against your old team? Yeah, it's wild. I can't tell if he's excited or it's a nightmare for him because I will say when I left New England, it wasn't like it was bad blood, but I would love to have proven to them that,

you know, there was a reason I thought I should have played on the edge more, you know, been more involved down the stretch. It was never a vendetta, but once they're there, it's like, oh my God, this is really happening. You know, for me when I left, it was more of a question of if I'd play in a Super Bowl again and because I was going to the Eagles, not some traditional powerhouse.

It wasn't a question of, like if I get there, there's a 50% chance, I'm going to see the Patriots. Right. And in that AFC championship, were you rooting for the Patriots? Did you want to see them?

Well, I wanted to see the Jags, because I knew they weren't as good. But the Jags, you know, who led a lot of the game, and there were some calls in there that went the Pats way, etc. And, of course, the Pats will point out that Corey Clement touched on the next Super Bowl,

but they're in the Super Bowl. But, you know, we watched that game in the locker room before our game. I don't care what anybody says. The TV's on, guys are watching. I'm getting taped up, like, who are we going to play? Yeah. You know, and I was like, holy shit.

We could go upset the Minnesota Vikings, and all I have to do then is go out and beat my former team, which is the biggest dynasty in pro football. And if you lose, especially because I left on my own will, under my own will, where D was traded

or they let him walk. D was traded, yeah. D was traded. So like D's traded away. So even if he loses this game, it's not like the end of the world. Like I left.

I willingly left. So if I lose that game, it would just everybody waiting to point the finger and Lagerid as well, you guys don't care about winning, told you, you fucking lost,

you guys are dorks, nerds. Good thing you won. Oh my God, such a relief. So I can only imagine what's going through D. Ford's head right now. You hit that case Keenham. Yeah, I hit that case Keenham. Still get chills.

Adjusted the football. Yeah. I think did one of these. But yeah, what's your big theme with the Super Bowl? You got anything? My big theme with this Super Bowl? Yeah, with this Super Bowl. I think it's the,

I think it's the color red. Yeah, it's fucking sucks. I think it's a contrasting style. Thank God it's outside at night. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll catch you later this week. I got a correction for you. You do?

Yeah. When did Howie Long, in what year of his career did he go to the Super Bowl? 84. And how, what year of his career? Third. That's right. Yeah.

I mean, it's not that big a deal. Okay. But yeah, you're right. I mean I said it wrong yeah I said it wrong and that's what the corrections are for and you're very good at that Thank you um so watch the Lane Johnson interview if you if you have time it is going to be really it's going to be funny and you'll get to know him a lot better he's he's a great dude and we'll be back uh Saturday take care yourself y'all take care