Green Light with Chris Long - Ep. 28 - XFL Review. Patriots & Tom Brady with Rob Ninkovich. Oscars Review. Masai Ujiri Lawsuit.

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

Welcome and #28s - 1:07. Valentines Day Rant - 17:33. Oscars Review - 22:41. Ninko interview regarding Patriots, Tom Brady and NFL Offseason - 38:07. XFL Review - 1:07:40. Masai Ujiri Lawsuit - 1:36:45. Mailbag - 1:43:32. 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

Episode 28 of the green light pot, I'm yelling into the microphone because I was told I need to bring more energy to the open. How am I doing, Make? Too loud. Too loud. Today we have episode 28, so our favorite number 28 of the moment.

We're going to talk about the Oscars. We're going to talk about Valentine's Day. We're going to check in on Macon's torn labrum. I'm going to talk about the XFL. Still torn. Still torn. We've got Ninkovich, Rob Ninkovich on the line,

talk about the Patriots and some of the quarterback move, in the NFL, as well as some mailbag. And as always, that's an exclusive green light segment. No one else does mailbag. We made that up. So stay tuned. Hang with us here for a little bit. Welcome to episode 28.

Because you've just said that in the open. Of the green light pot. I like to welcome. I'm a welcoming host. Well, thank you. Appreciate that very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah.

Friday and we were recording for a Saturday. Yeah. Yeah, well, the news is out of our camp that we will be doing these podcasts, you know, to release midweek. We picked a day. The analytics, the numbers tell us that you guys like our stuff most on Wednesdays. So that's what we're going to do. So we'll be joining you, Makin and I, of course, I'm your host, making the esteem co-pilot slinger of Slanger of Slamer of Slamer.

MLS, real estate, UVA sports extraordinaire, and terrific wingman, co-host. Thanks, man. Yeah, no problem. And you, you, you, humanitarian, philanthropist, former football player, glow up with your special hair. Yeah, it's special. I mean, yeah, let's give you some properties. Okay, yeah, well, that's a good intro.

I love getting praised, don't I? So here we are episode 28 That's a lot of episodes We have been of course doing You know as of late Our favorite jersey number Each episode As it corresponds with the episode number

So we are 28 Who went first last week You did because I remember you listing Every number 27 Well you're upset because I mentioned Vlad Glad And then you picked Vlad Glad That really wasn't it It was just that

Anybody who's ever wore 27 got a mention and that sets a precedent now. That's fair. I will say that your pick stayed with me for a couple days. I really liked it. Yeah? Jealous even.

Who did I pick? 27. Forgettable. It would have been. Eddie George. Yeah, I liked your pick more. Thank you. I appreciate it.

So I'll start this week because you did last week. I'm going to go with the number 28 that's near and dear to my heart. The author, or one of the main authors of my first ring in the NFL. This is James White.

I noticed how you went away from Malcolm Jenkins last week because that would be too predictable and yet you go James White this week. So did you enjoy your time in New England more than Philadelphia? Right. That's what we're doing. Yeah, well, it's kind of like, you know, I hated Carson Wentz when I liked Nick Foles

and now I'm... All you talk about is Carson Wentz. So it's hard to pin me down. James White, mostly a third down back in New England, but an incredible weapon. basically they use them like an extra wide receiver that's just getting down to it that's how they use their backs the most of them

and he's been he's been awesome little known fact or something I didn't know I shouldn't qualify there's a little known fact because there's a lot I don't know but he won a high school national championship was St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida Florida

what does that mean national championship? I don't know what that means we didn't win any of stab but like maybe even we did Maybe we did. I wasn't on the team. But like Division, 55. Well, I think the football is pretty good

down there in Florida. In fact, him and Giovanni Bernard, who obviously is Bengals' long time running back, or is getting to be a long time now. Yeah. We're in the same backfield there

at St. Thomas Aquinas. Why do you say it like that? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh. Yeah. Is he known for saying St. Thomas Aquinas? He said Thomas Aquinas in his accent in, I think it was kindergarten.

cop. Was that the movie? He said Thomas Aquinas, the way he did. And I love the way he said it. Yeah, he's a three-time Big Ten champion, three-time Super Bowl champion. He only had 29 rushing yards, though,

in that Super Bowl in 2016. But he had 110 receiving. So that's the big thing. He joined Roger Craig as the only running back with over 100 yards receiving in a Super Bowl and broke Demarius Thomas' previous record for most receptions in the Super Bowl. he of course secured that record and that blowout loss to Seattle.

Big fantasy guy in PPR leagues and I ask you what does PPR stand for? Points per. Okay, let's break it down. What did he do well in that Super Bowl? Points per reception. Very good. Yeah, that's good. Hey, but what's remarkable is that I didn't know what that stood for, that acronym.

And then I also didn't set my lineup for multiple weeks and still didn't end up with the died tips like our boy Matt Conrath. It'd be a good time. up the programming on the jersey numbers to show since we're talking about Matt Conrath really organically who joined the show last week uh with his fresh dyed tips this is the picture making took just saw this gentleman today i was with my buddy daniel we're driving along and uh look over to see a man with um fully committed was born with dark hair yeah yeah and went with the full bleach blonde um and was wearing it well was owning it but i had to do a double take it looked like i thought it was matt kind of like looked like our buddy matt who's a friend of the program and and and the the uh the the reviews of our pod

last week were very positive people like the chicago gang yeah they really did and the chicago gang like doing podcasts i think kevin back back back he sat up at the end of the podcast laboring he sat up and he said uh that's pretty easy i could do a podcast all the time that was so much fun easy nice nice easy fucking podcast huh maybe there's a little chicagland podcast under the chalk umbrella maybe we could do that i mean if the uh if the uh demand is high we can get those guys back but we were talking about james white three touchdowns in that super bowl along with the two point conversion that's 20 points in the super bowl that's the record tied the game with a touchdown uh and that of course needed that amadola two point conversion that everybody forgets about uh shout out to dola

game winner in overtime, and Brady, who won the MVP, said that James White should have gotten the award. If he thought that, though, did Brady get a truck or something? Most likely. Did he give him the truck? It's possible. I don't think Tom's really worried about if he's coming home with the F-250. I know, but the least you can do is give James White an F-250.

Yeah, I'm thinking maybe he did. Maybe he did. But I agree that, you know, we wouldn't have won it without Tom, but James White of anybody else was the obvious choice. You know, first Super Bowl game-winning touchdown in overtime, which is kind of surprising because I think that was the first overtime Super Bowl. But second in an NFL championship game, the first was in 1958.

Alan Amici, also a Wisconsin badger for the Baltimore Colts. I'm trying to look up that overtime question. So I went to Google. Yeah. Super Bowl results. but I accidentally typed in super bowel results. That's right up your alley. So I'm on a different website.

You, not to get too personal, but you bought me a poop log book once? Yeah, I did. Poo log. Poo log? Can you tell us about that book? Sure. You just, it's a way where you can register. I mean, it's, it was, you're a friend and I care about your health,

and you can document whether or not you're regular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there is a space if you want to... Document the shape. Yeah. Pooplog. It's a book you can get. I'm sure you can get it on Amazon.com.

You have a book in the downstairs bathroom about... Yeah, I noticed that. Who gave us that book here at the chalk offices? I don't know. What's the name of that book? I don't remember. It's something that has to do with... Dr. Dooze.

people love to get the poop books they're not coffee table books the thing about that would be disgusting is that everybody poops yeah that's the thing about pooping we need to get rid of that stigma it's a total stigma speaking of digestive system before we get to your number 28 I have started I'm officially a Reddit fitness fucking weirdo I have started intermittent fasting oh nice yeah you didn't know that did I didn't tell you that did you didn't know that did I did I did I did I did I did I did I did I? One of the problems with intermittent fasting is your brain doesn't work messed up. Okay, so what are you doing? You're doing the 16-8, the 14-1-1-1-1? Yeah, well-versed. Yeah, well-versed. Yeah, thus far I'm 16-8. How long into it are you?

Uh, one day. Is this day one? This is day one. Kind of risky on the day of a pod. So you just ate. I ate dinner at seven last night. I was finished by 7.15, and I ate breakfast this morning at 11.15 a.m. Check my math.

Ah, well, you're doing it wrong. Okay. Because that would be, huh. 16 hours exactly. Yeah. Nice math. Thank you. On you.

Okay. Yeah. Doesn't seem that difficult when you break it down. No, it's really not that hard. Most of that time I was sleeping and then, you know, doing some studying in the morning. But I wasn't hungry. The issue is, I found, for those of us who grind and still have jobs and haven't retired. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in our early to mid-30s.

Kick their feet up. Yeah, you can't really just say, oh, breakfast at 11. Yeah, no, I think you could. You just pack something in your little lunchbox there that you bring to your real estate office. You bring your nice little Virginia sports lunchbox that you have. Yeah, but I like to make a smoothie every morning. Oh, you do. I had the same breakfast for about seven years every day.

What's in that smoothie? Sure. Baby spinach, Greek yogurt. Sure. Raspberrys, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries. berries, protein powder, and almond milk. And actually, I'm going to start to add a couple. Can I tell you what's in my shake?

Yeah. Superfood protein. Two scoops of collagen protein, you know, keep that glow. The elasticity of your epidermis. That's your skin. It's the biggest organ in your body for most. Now, I also put almond butter in there, berries like you. but just blueberries.

Just blueberries. Yeah. That's my berry of choice. Okay. And then some almond butter as well. So it's fairly simple compared to your shake. Probably healthier. No greens?

I do a little green powder in there. You know, yeah. What does it taste like? Taste good. Taste like almond butter and berries. So yeah. So that's my first thing I eat at 1115 in the morning now going forward. I am a religious, you know, I'm an intermittent fasting zealot.

This is what I do. It's my lifestyle. I don't know if I'm keto or any of that stuff, but. And what's the objective? I think, you know, I have a friend who's cool and does all this cool stuff, and one of the cool things he does is intermittent fasting. And he's also in shape. So I'm like, well, maybe I can get in shape.

I get that, but you are already in shape. Yeah, but maybe like... Are you trying to cut? Well, they say it helps your digestive system. obviously, right? So I'm a total moron here. I did this on a whim last night. Wim Hof, you did this on a Wim Hof.

I did this on a Wim Hof. Shout out to Wim Hof, I also still do. When you combine the intermittent fasting with the Wim Hof showers, unstoppable. Yes. I don't drink coffee, nothing. Nothing. Now, I did this last night.

I was like, you know what? I think I want to join this intermittent fasting movement. The other options, there was like a, You don't eat for two days out of the week period, right? And then what's the third? There's a third, right? Combo of the two. Combo of the two.

I don't want to take any shortcuts to being great. So 16.8's the way for me. I hear it, it restores your cells, right? Oh, okay. Now we're getting to the objective. Repairs your cells. For me, I'd like more even-keeled energy. I would like, and I would like my body composition to improve.

It's almost beach time, dude. No. I'm always a couple months ahead. Okay. So who's your number 28? My number 28 is Daryl Green. Oh, wow. You can see him here on YouTube,

Big Sleeves, which was the primary reason for this selection. Daryl Green played for the Washington team, which is not my favorite team. But the guy was fast. Yeah, still is, I think, probably. Yeah. School?

Darrell Green. Texas A&M Kingsville. The 28th Powerhouse overall pick in the 83 draft, 5 foot 9, 184 pounds, ran the 110.08 in 1983. Two Super Bowls,

seven Pro Bowls, son Jared went to the university. Yeah, I played with Jared. Yeah, played for the Washington team his entire career. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Played until he was almost 40, Yeah, close to it.

Yeah, pretty remarkable to be a defensive back still manning people up. At 40. Yeah. You got anything else on this guy? Well, you went, what, 15 minutes on James White, etc. We kind of went James White. We went intermittent fasting. We went Matt Conrass died tips.

I'd say in total I talked about James White for three minutes. Okay. No, I don't have much more. I think it's really big of me to pick a Washington team. Yeah, no, it's... There's no bias here. No. Others to consider, I know you like when I go through all the others.

But do go through all. A couple running backs that bear mentioning, Adrian Peterson, Marshall Falk. When I was looking at pictures of Marshall Falk last night, as a person who cares about uniforms, you were really done dirty. I was done really dirty with those Rams. I mean, inside that Navy and mustard

gold if we're being generous. It was bad. It was bad. It was bad. Imagine trying to swag that uniform out in a number 72 rookie year. You know, on teams that just weren't very good anyways. Which kills your swagger to begin with. But that shiny gold indoor and that kind of yellowing Edward Jones dome light,

that can be hard. Now that they're outside and going back to the old colors game looks great. Beautiful. Natural grass. Had I picked Marshall Falk, I would have gone back to the San Diego State days. Oh, would you?

Would you have? To pull out a 28, yeah. Okay. Somebody on Twitter, a website I know you don't care for, mentioned that we forgot Mike Trout last time. I didn't forget him. I didn't forget Mike Trout.

This is just 20, this is numbers that correspond with episodes that we like. Yeah, I mean, in no way am I insinuating that James was superior player to Adrian Peterson. but James White was a lot of the reason that I have one of the rings I have. So also that was a really cool picture we showed here on YouTube.com,

him spiking the ball after, I think it was a game winner in the end zone. So all that culminated to me picking James White. And 29 we have up next. I can't even think of too many 29s off the top of my head. I can think of one off the top. Yeah. Another Rams running back. Ah, E. Dick.

Yeah. Yeah, the go-to nickname of Eric Dickerson, E. Dick. Who could forget. Who could forget? So is he off limits for 29? No, I think, no, not at all. So we're playing a little psychological warfare here we've already discussed. So we'll be back with that pick next week, and that's the end of our podcast.

Yeah. Just joking. I do want to talk about Valentine's Day, everybody's favorite holiday. Okay. Do you have anything on Valentine's Day? It's coming up this week. Any advice for guys who are... And see, this is the problem, the way we're...

Hold on a second. Let me just... Let me cut to the... Let me cut to the chase here. The way I... Even I did it. Any advice to guys? You know, girls, you're on the clock, too, on Valentine's Day.

You're being evaluated, too, on Valentine's Day. I think it's... The holiday is an abomination. Co-sign. It's corporate. It's not a real holiday. There's nothing. I don't even know who,

I'm sure somebody's gonna be like, St. Valentine. That's who it's named after. He was a great guy. I don't give a fuck. It's not an important holiday and it's corporately contrived. It's just basically hallmark making a shit ton of money. Like, you've got married people

struggling to make ends meet, struggling to drop the kids off at work, taking kids to basketball practice, going to parent teacher conference, people trying to cook dinner for their kids, piling everybody into the minivan, but they got to make one stop at Hallmark to spend $35 on a fucking bear

to buy for another adult or a Hallmark card that looks the same as all the other 40 Hallmark cards that you bought your spouse. It is, it's a sham, and I refuse to, I refuse to give it any legitimacy on this podcast. Valentine's Day

and it's also one-sided okay so when I told you my theory here you're like you might get in trouble it's just a girls holiday it's just for girls have you gotten anything for Valentine's Day lately lately so you're asking me to think back a year plus I don't remember

I don't think I've ever gotten a gift for Valentine's Day so if I'm going to do Valentine's Day from now on I expect a present like a present like some I want some jewelry my lovely girlfriend Kate and I My lovely wife Historically We don't participate

We give each other our time Good There we go With that said For me Yeah There are numerous Martyrdom stories

Associated with various valentines Connected to February 14th Including a written account of St. Valentine of Rome's imprisonment For performing weddings for soldiers Who are forbidden to marry And for ministering to Christian persecuted under the Roman Empire.

So, you know, according to legend, St. Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge. I guess you're against that. And he wrote her a letter signed, Your Valentine, as a farewell before his execution, which I guess you were for. The feast of St. Valentine was established, of course, by Pope Galacius, the first.

Of course. And AD 496 to be celebrated on February 14th, in honor of the Christian martyrs, St. Valentine of Rome, who died on that date in 269. Again, I guess you were a proponent of his perishing. Was he Roman? Well, yeah. The Romans did a lot of bad stuff now.

Yeah. So I guess you're for the Romans doing all the bad stuff they did. I think it's a really special day for a lot of reasons. I don't get caught up in the hallmark part of it. I don't think it's a special day. My lovely wife and I, Meg, we don't do any gifts. That reminds me of my lovely girlfriend, Kate, who I mentioned earlier. We give each other our time.

Yeah. Well, you know, me and my lovely wife, Meg, we give each other the whole day. And that's even with two children, we just put the kids in another room and let them fend for themselves. And we just hang out all day. We do candlelight breakfast,

candlelight lunch, candlelight dinner. Yeah. You're married, huh? Yeah. I took a vow. I'll just put it that way. Okay.

and I love the institution of marriage. I love my lovely wife, Meg. Yeah, I guess my lovely girlfriend, Kate and I are doing this of our own volition. Don't even need a vow to spend time with each other. Yeah, that's how much we mean to each other. Okay. Well, just don't fall for the corporate okey-doke there. Okay, that's my whole, that's my rant.

It's one-sided. It's corporate. You know, dude, stick up for yourself. Demand a present back. if you have to get your girlfriend or your wife or your significant other a gift, then you should expect one in return.

And if you don't get that gift, I want you to make a big deal about it. I want you to make a really big deal about it and hold it over your spouse or your girlfriend's head for weeks. Cool. Yeah? Yeah.

On board with it. Yeah. Okay. Good. Let's get to the Oscars because evidently everybody likes the Oscars talking about the Oscars, so we got to talk about the Oscars on this show. You said you had some Oscar stakes. I don't know how we're going to talk about the Oscars, but you want to

just have it? Sure. I told you of the Best Picture nominees that I had seen 1917, Parasite, the Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Yes. As our friend Mori would say, that was a lie. Okay. I had intended to see Jojo Rabbit last evening. Yes. Didn't happen. Same with Parasite for me. I'm 30 minutes in. 30 minutes in, so you've stopped?

Never stop a movie. Well, you know, I have two kids. You married. Lovely wife, Meg. I got to get candlelight dinners ready all the time. I'm going to rank the four that I did see. Yeah. Coming in at number four, and here we go, 1917.

Damn, really? Number three, the Irishman. Number two, once upon a time in Hollywood. And this take was a lot cooler a week ago, but I absolutely loved Parasite. Okay, well Parasite, I'm 30 minutes in and I just noticed that... Their subtitle? There's no one speaking English in the movie.

Yep. It's one of those. Oh, okay. So it doesn't change the whole movie? Nah, afraid not. By the way, in all seriousness... Go see it in the theater, man. Is it still out?

Yeah. Okay, good. I might see it in the theater. But it doesn't seem like one of those movies you have to see in the theater. You don't have to. Anybody that sees 1917 not in the theater is really leaving a lot on the table. I want to say that I enjoyed 1917. Yeah, well, you just shit on it.

You just took a huge... I ranked it fourth out of four in a bunch of good movies. It's a category of good movies, okay? And I liked it. Not unlike Dunkirk, which is not a hot take. I just need... Wait, wait, wait. You said not unlike Dunkirk.

Do you think Dunkirk came in fourth? Can you believe that shape of water won over Dunkirk? You're just saying things. No, I'm not just... Do you remember Shape of Water the movie, Grinding Nemo? No, I didn't see that. The movie where the guy or the girl gets underwater with the fish man. I'd say woman.

Woman, girl, yeah. Valentine's Day. But the spoiler alert, she's not really a woman. She might be a fish woman. I know you text message me that you were watching it, but you said you were watching. I said Lady in the Water. That was a Freudian slip because both movies were not great, in my opinion. Lady in the Water is one of the only movies I've ever walked out of the theater.

and that was, I was a teenager at that point. Teenagers don't just walk out of movies. Yeah, I've seen neither of those films. Unless they're going to do drugs in an alley or something. Huh. Dark turn. Yeah, for me, Van Helsing, Lady in the Water,

two of the worst movies I've ever seen. But yeah, I mean, the shape of water, I couldn't believe it'd be Dunkirk. Would you agree that Dunkirk was superior as a movie to 1917? Yes. 1970 and had some scenes that were otherworldly. And the whole one-shot trick is impressive. But I need more character development.

I need more story. I need more dialogue. Those characters were not compelling to me. Yeah, okay. And also, the dudes on the red carpet, more so the taller guy in the movie. Here's to go to show you, I wasn't attached to the characters either.

I don't remember their names in the movie. he looked like he was like he just got out of World War I like he was tired as fuck like I don't know what he's been doing if he's just been partying since they did that one long shot he's just been binging but he looked pretty haggard on the red carpet my wife my lovely wife Meg she said he looks like a young Christopher Walken love Christopher Walken now you ranked what one

Parasai bro one of the best movies I've ever seen I feel like you're just, you're jumping on the bandwagon. It really is? Damn it. We should have done this last week. Okay, so 30 minutes from, you know, 30 minutes in the movie, I don't know what the movie is yet, which I have no issue with. That's a good thing.

I know it's a good thing. I just, it's got to change. It's, it's been just fine. I just, in the next, you know, 90 minutes, it's really got to take a turn to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. Okay. Well, I don't need it to be one of the best movies you've ever seen. It's got to be one of the best movies that you've ever seen.

Now, that was the first, uh, I believe it was the first, uh, I believe it was the first, the first foreign, you know, subtitled movie to ever win Best Picture. Non-English speaking.

Non-English speaking. Have you ever seen City of God? No. City of God is tremendous. Also subtitled. You ever seen Fargo? Yes. Terrific movie.

How long do you want to do this? No, I mean, it's just that one was related to the other, the other, not so much. Answer me this. Have you ever seen? You ever seen My Cousin Vinny? Have you ever seen Repo Man?

No. I tried to watch that shit this weekend. not a great movie what I did watch this weekend in the Oscar spirit was loading up on some old oldies book goodies is Truman Show

Have you ever seen Truman Show? I have. What did you think about Truman Show? Don't remember. Jesus, you need to go back and watch Truman Show. Okay. It's terrific.

I guess my big takeaway from the Oscars and I only had one eye on it the entire time is that it's awkwardly unfunny, most of it. I love the Oscars.

And that's part of the equation. Yeah. Some things are just cringeworthy. Yes. But they walk into this buzzsaw, like these very talented people have to know when they read their little lines that it's not going to be funny. They did a fairly good job this year, but sometimes it's not. I thought that the dude and Rebel Wilson in the cat suits was just marvelous.

It was marvelous because you have a guy whose whole life is made by winning an Oscar, and it's presented to them by people in catsuits. But I mean, at that point, you won a fucking Oscar, which by the way, I mean, it's insane to me. It went through this thing with Leo and The Revenant, I think, was his first one. Brad really waited that long. Yeah. It's unbelievable. What it takes to win that sucker right there.

I didn't know that that movie had anything to do with the Manson murders going in. Yeah. Oh, great movie. Another great movie. Great movie. And also, I knew going in that it had something to do with the Manson murders. and the entire time, I almost thought that was one movie

that it was good to know that going in because it made you second guess everything and it made all the twists and turns even more interesting. I thought he was terrific. I also thought Leo was, as always, like, laughably good. You want to know who the coolest guy in the world is? Who's that?

It's Leo. You think? Really like Leo. Yeah, I like Bong. Oh, yeah, Bong. Nailed it. Bong was one of the fucking coolest guys I've ever seen. Yeah, the only English words he knows.

is I will be drinking until next morning. And then also him mentioning that he is pretty cool. You know, guy from South Korea growing up studying Scorsese, which he talked about in his speech, and he's sitting right out there and you're getting your, it just goes to show you that like now in film, it seems like at least for Americans, we're getting to see a little bit of everything and that's cool. And I guess it's a big deal to people. The Oscars internationally is probably a big deal to everybody.

My lovely girlfriend Kate and I had a little Oscars party. Yeah. Can we keep track of who's winning the significant, the SIG other name drop? You get to pick every category and keep track. Oh, that's fun. My wife and I, Meg, my lovely wife, Meg should try that. We've had a lot of Oscars together. We've been together for a very long time.

So it's just, you know. That's neat. Yeah, I've known my lovely girlfriend, Kate, for about 22 years now and running. What took you so long? to, you know, tie the knot or not, not sorry, to, uh, to, uh, to, again, we don't need to tie the proverbial relationship, not. We don't really need these artificial labels or vowels or anything. Okay. Got you. Okay. Uh, other, Laura Dern, Laura Dern. Let's talk about Laura Dern. Okay. Seems like one of the nicest people I've ever seen. Very maternal. Like I, I, I would just,

I would like to have Laura Dern in my corner. Yeah. She seems like good, people. She was also a shoe in to win. You probably should have been gambling on all of these because the favorites kind of knocked it out of the park. Yeah. Though people did anticipate up until the last week going in, that 1917 might win over parasite. Laura Dern also had a little fling with Baron Davis. She did. Once upon a time. Yeah, she did. Yeah. Of the warriors. Yeah, of the UCLA Bruins. I also want to mention Billy Elish. Who is Billy Elish?

Sure, Billy Elish is a singer. She has green and black hair presently. Yeah, what kind of music does she sing? Bad. Oh, it's not good? Well, some people like it. Evidently. She performs with her brother, Phineas.

Okay, got you. So you knew about this person before the Oscars. Well, you know, the award circuit. I tuned into the Grammys a little bit. Do you think she was making a face at Maya and Whig? Or do you think that it was, did you see that whole thing? Yeah. You think she was making a face at him or she just felt awkward that she was on?

That's a quick way to get. I think when the cameraman is hanging out in the aisle for minutes at a time, it's hard to keep your best face on the stage. You know what? You didn't give me that same benefit of the doubt at that. knew you were on camera. So did she. You knew.

Yeah, but yours was a three second deal. Okay. Billy Elish and me, not so much different, maybe. And Chris Long is with us. Community service award winner. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. I mean, that's pretty, I mean, like no host. That was a little different, right? They don't have a host. Parasite won without a host. I mean, ah, that's fun.

That is really fun. Where'd you read that? The internet. Yeah. And I want to say, I believe. I believe young Billy Eilich has a lovely voice and her music might be fine. After you just shit on her music, all I said was that I didn't know who she was.

I disavow my earlier account of her career. Because that could get back to her. I don't know anything about her music. I just, she got a lot of FaceTime there. Cynthia, Irivo, this is something because I, Arevo. Holy shit. What a voice. What a performance.

Yeah. Be good. Oh my gosh. That was a highlight for me. Yeah. I mean, along with the other musical act that you know so well. And by the way, you can check our social for a rerun of making, rapping the entire lose yourself.

Yeah, how about that? Yeah. I do that two, three weeks ago. And then M pops onto the Oscars. Steels your thunder. It's like somebody's been watching the pod. I think we can't rule it out. We can't rule it out.

No, it doesn't steal my thunder. I was honored by it. I am going to watch Oh, by the way, another guy that I wanted to mention was Antonio Banderas. Did you see him? I saw him. He's actually aging.

Yeah. He looks like somebody's grandad, which he should. I mean, he's 60. But, you know, who would have thought back when he was doing that one gif that everybody uses on the internet? It's young, good-looking dude

with all that hair. The relief gif, you know, the I'm relieved gif? If I say yes, Can we just move on? Yeah, that one. Yeah. Just looks so youthful.

I would have thought he'd be the guy that would never look 60, but he looks 60. I've got sources that say that pain and glory movie was good as well. Really? Yep. So I'm going to watch every,

I got to go to Africa next week. I go to Tanzania. That's my yearly trip. So I have a total of, golly, almost three days of travel back and forth. I'm going to watch every nominated movie. Do it.

And I'll do it. a little rundown. Maybe we'll do a little segment where I redo the Oscars one day. But that would probably bore you. See if you can watch every single movie in the next couple weeks. I've been told to skip marriage story.

Okay. Don't know anything about that. But okay. Yeah. I'll take that on. Best dress real quick. Gal Gadot. She was, she knocked it out of the park. Also, Margo Robbie. She had like, I don't know what you would call it

right here, like a pendant. You know, one of these. Well, that's your, like, sternum. Yeah, she had, like, a cool pendant going on there. Okay. I'm no fashionista, but I thought she was dressed really nicely. Red carpet out of the blue here. Kirsten wig?

Kristen wig? Right? That's how you say that? Yeah. Did she look like an organ? An organ? Like a, like, you know, like, if you, like a kidney or a spleen, and I wasn't sure which one. It was, did you see her dress?

Yes, our dress. Yeah. I haven't heard this take before. Look up the dress. Kind of looks like a red dress. Or a spleen or a liver. Or what I would imagine a liver or spleen would look like. Okay.

What's up with that shape? Yeah. I don't know. What would you wear to the Oscars? A tuxedo. Really? Just an old school tuxedo. Well, not that old school.

Let me tell you about it. is going to be one of them shawl collars. Yeah. And I would go, I would go, can you look at me? Yeah, I'm just, I'm getting ready for the XFL segment. I would go dark gray here. Yeah, yeah. And black shawl collar.

Okay. A black pant. Okay. And that's what I would look like. Okay. I don't know what I, I haven't decided yet. The size of my bow tie would be perfectly sized. Okay.

I'm going to work on maybe what I would wear to the Oscars, because at some point we might have, you can't win an Oscar for a podcast. can you? I don't think so. Well, we need to look into that. But this podcast could perhaps be in a documentary of some sort of one day. Yeah, it could.

Yeah, tease. Yeah, we've got some people in the building right now. Shout out Mahanes. Shout out Mahanes. Well done. They are documenting this for Virginia Sports. Yeah, UVA. UVA.

A couple of the best and the brightest from the aforementioned school running a podcast. So shout out. to Virginia Sports for taking a hard look at what we do here at the Greenlight Studios. What if it's just a hammer piece? It's just like this fucking podcast sucks. We went back to check up on two of our most distinguished alums and they are wasting their life. Yeah.

I mean, these guys are 33, 34. Sorry to docks you. Yeah, it's okay. And they're doing a fucking podcast. Yeah, this is going straight to career services. It doesn't make a lot of money. This is why you study hard. Enough about the Oscars, we have some sports to talk about.

We have Rob Ninkovich on the line here. Joining me on the Greenlight Pod, on the hotline, the Greenlight Hotline. We have a great guest in Rob Ninkovich. Rob Ninkovic, former Patriot, longtime Patriot, also Saints long-snapper, little known fact. And then also NFL Live personality, ESPN analysts, and chalk affiliate. it. Friend of the program, Rob Ninkovich. Thanks for joining me, bud. Wow. I wish we have a round of applause for that intro. Thank you so much. I am happy to be with you and look forward to diving into a few topics. It'll be cool.

Yeah, well, I mean, the thing I didn't warn you about is I had you on to talk shit about the Patriots. Oh, that's cool. I'm not a Patriot anymore, so I'll join you. Well, how does Bill treat you when you come back around the facility? Does he treat you good now that you're part of the media? I don't know. I really, I mean, he's been, he's nice, I guess. I mean, I did run into him and he said, oh, there's everyone's all-American. I don't know what that means.

This means you're awesome. I think that's what that means. But, you know. Or like, you know, everyone thinks you're better than you really were. Oh, God, here we go. I don't know, but I did text him. I had a nice text for his. you know, the wins that he had, the 300 victories.

Yeah. And he had a nice text back saying, you know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have these victories. He's a nice texter. He is a nice texter. He is. I would rather text to actually, you know, have a voice. I think he's awesome.

And I also think, you know, like being as dry as he is when you get a text from him, that's really nice. You're like, oh, this is great. He always been at his. frame this text. He always finishes with BB. Yeah, BB. You didn't know that that's Bill.

Yeah, BB. Just in case you didn't save the greatest coach of all time in your phone. So then I put RN. Oh, do you? Do you? So he knows. It's good. Yeah.

As if he needed that. There's a misunderstanding of, you know, his personality because of the way he is with the media. You know, I've seen him. A lot. I mean, the first time I saw him after I retired, it was in New Orleans. He, like, gave you a bear hug. So, you know, when you spend eight years with somebody and, you know, you have a relationship there, it's always nice to catch up with them. But I also know, just like many head coaches, the amount of hours that they work is just ridiculous. So I try not to bother. You know, Maddie P. I've texted like happy Thanksgiving, like Christmas time. He

responds, you know. So it's just, it's just, it's just, with their schedule. I know that they, you know, I think he works more than anybody. Especially you mentioned those two guys, Maddie P. and Bill, they certainly don't give themselves any breaks. I saw Matt down at the Super Bowl. He had a Tommy Bahama shirt on. He was wearing shorts. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's going to turn into Andy Reed, you know, with that look, you know. That's awesome. Eventually he's going to, he's going to shave his head down a little bit, do like a number one all the way around. Can we get our chalk team here to mock up what that might look like?

And maybe we can add that in post. Do you ever wonder, as you break down football now on, I don't have this problem really because this podcast, you know, we have 10,000 subscribers. That's nothing to scoff at, but, you know, it's not NFL live. When you fire off your Patriots takes on NFL live, do you sometimes wonder if Bill's sitting there in the facility with the TV on in his office? office and there's like this motherfucker. I don't even think he watches that stuff. So like for me, I feel like

whatever I say, I mean honestly you think Bill's watching NFL live. No, and if he is, you could say, hey, Bill, ignore the noise. Yeah, I mean, that's the he has his rules for the media and now that I'm a part of that, I'm sure he just laughs it off like

everybody else does. Like, I can remember as a player listening to people be like, ha, these guys don't know what hell they're talking about. And I'm sure people are doing that to me now. That's a right of passage. And this offseason, you are going to be a hot commodity because everybody wants to know what the hell is going on with the Patriots. Do you think that some of the guys that have been there eight, 10 years aren't going to know what to do with all this free time? I mean, they were January, you know, the first weekend of January, they're done.

Is that, does that present a different challenge? I think they're going to enjoy it, honestly, the guys that have been here a long time, you know, when you make those runs deep into the playoffs year after year after year after year, it can be very mentally exhausting. So, you know, this year, I know they came up short, but I'm sure those guys were like, let's get the heck out of here.

Let's hit a beach or something. Let's go on vacation. I can't say that, but yeah. You can't say that. You can't say that. But I'm telling you, like, I'm sure in the, like, once that game was, when they lost to the Titans

and they were like, okay, this season, I need to go recharge my batteries. Like sometimes that is, that's huge for a team that's been constantly there, you know? Yeah. A lot of these guys haven't had, you know, they've had a Super Bowl then August, or I'm sorry, not August. April 15th, they start off-season program. So, I mean, you're cutting a lot. It's 60 days off a year.

It's 60 days. It's, it's, and that makes a big difference between, you know, having 90 plus and that 60. And you mentioned that not being good enough in all three phases, I would argue that, and most people would say, and there were reasons that they failed on defense and some of those weaknesses got exposed, especially in the Tennessee game. But, you know, offensively, how did it get here?

The lack of offensive weapons, was it an overcorrection to losing to the Eagles in 17 and, you know, getting beat on defense and Bill saying, that's not going to happen again? Or was it kind of an unintentional accidental? dwindling of weaponry. I mean, I think that whole thing was unintentional with, you know, when you look at the offense this year, you know, the lack of weapons. They surely weren't expecting Rob to right off into the sunset.

Really? So. Do you think they were blindsided by that? I think that they might have had an idea that he was thinking about it, but I don't think, when it comes down to it, as a football player, that decision, I know you know this, is very, very difficult to know when I'm walking away. you know, on my terms, it's definitely tougher than when, you know, like, for me, it was like, man, I go out now, I'll never, ever strap it up again.

I'll never put pads on, but I know I can do it. You know, like that's a tough decision when you walk away like that. So I think that they might have been betting on, okay, he's having these thoughts, but maybe through the offseason he'll start to feel better and, you know, we offer him a little bit of cash. Maybe he'll stick around and he was just totally over it. So, you know, I think that losing grunk is huge. And then, you know, they tried. They got their first round ever draft pick as a right receiver.

They try to draft a guy high as high as you ever have. And it's tough for a rookie to come in and be successful. You know, like Tom, you know, his offense is very advanced. It's not easy to play for. And then as a rookie on top of it, you double your length of the season. I mean, just imagine that mentally. It was just probably insane. Then he had an injury in the preseason.

with Achille Harry having to deal with an injury. So you don't have really that guy. You know, the Josh Gordon stuff didn't work out. A, B, didn't work out. So, I mean, they had an opportunity to have a big, quick receiving court. When you think about if you had Julian Edelman, Antonio Brown, Josh Gordon, and Kenny and Harry. Yeah. Well, I, it just to me, it seems like there was a lot of, it wasn't so much building towards an offense.

and certainly like maybe too many eggs in the gronk basket, but how could you not? He's one of the best football players I've ever seen play, and a lot of your offense is going to center around him. But, you know, it didn't seem like there was a lot of contingency planning. It seemed like it was, hey, it was Gordon is a Band-Aid. Antonio's a Band-Aid. We are seemingly scrapping the playbook

and drafting a first-round wide receiver in Harry who got hurt. And, of course, you know, when you're a rookie, it's one thing to go somewhere and hide, usually you get to do on good teams. You're going to contribute, but there's a lot of support around you. There was an unnecessary amount of pressure for him to pick up the entire offense this year, even when he came back. It was like they had to force the ball to him to try to get something going.

It just didn't seem like they had a plan offensively. And I'm talking about a large-scale plan. You can't ignore the Devlin injury either. No, I think that was one of the biggest injuries of the season for them. but on the flip side of that, you know, for me, I look at the previous year when they did win the Super Bowl, they basically had a similar offense with production-wise in the passing game, and then they just decided, okay, we're going to get into heavy personnel, and we're going to run the football, and all these teams that couldn't stop the run,

just were getting crushed, and then you mix into play-action pass, and then there you go. So, you know, I think their offense had struggled, the year that they even won the Super Bowl, and, you know, things just happened to fall in place for them with who they played, and, you know, they played the chargers who couldn't stop the run.

You know, they travel all the way across the country after having a couple trips across the country, basically had no juice, you know, get their, you know, get their asses beat. And then the Chiefs game, you look at that game, they couldn't stop, you know, they couldn't stop anything.

anybody in the running game. And then that was their Achilles' heel. Basically, we should have won that game, but they had an off-side. So the Patriots last year, you think about it, I mean, there were one off-size away from not making it, and a PI. And a lot of really great third-down conversions to Jules in that game. Oh, yeah. In the Kansas City game, very unlikely conversions.

You know, so I got... They're one flag away from playing the Saints. And, you know, Saints versus Patriots. That would have been a bad match. And yes, so like Drew Brees is the smartest guy on the field, you know, would you be able to run the same look and blitz like they did golf over and over again and him not know what's going on? Or, you know, scramble out of the pocket and take a 20-yard sack as opposed to just underhanding, flipping it out of bounds and not, you know, having those negative loss. You know, it was third and two that he took a 15-yard sack, you know, at fourth and two, that's a little bit more attainable. So I guess you're looking at this.

I think it was a perfect storm. You're looking at this thing and you're saying it's less about this year as it is about, like, listen, they've been trending this way and some things fell apart for them. But it's not that big of a drop off from two years ago. And they were lucky enough to win a Super Bowl and good enough to win a Super Bowl. But there were some things that they overcame, some deficiencies they overcame. And then they lose Gronk. And, you know, we mentioned Devlin. You know, free agency, they're going to have to address some things,

namely a tight end position, at least in the draft or in free agency. Are there, you know, on the intake side of things, you know, with signing free agents? And this is a twofold question. One, who are you looking at signing if you're the Patriots? What areas do you have to address in two? And I'm talking offensively especially. And two, do you think that we're at the point now where free agents are less apt to join the Patriots, if they're ring chasing or you have less of that guaranteed

possibility of playing late in the year now. It doesn't feel the same as when I signed there or when certain other guys have signed there in the past few years. Well, I think it's going to be vital that they try and keep some of their leaders as far as Slater, who is a special team leader. You look at McCordy, who is the secondary defensive leader that helps everybody get lined up in the right spots. I think that that's a very vital position.

You know, I don't think they're going to be able to bring it back to annoy it because he's going to be overpriced, and, you know, we know the Patriots don't want to overpay for anybody. They like to find those veteran guys who they explain to them, look, you're a veteran, and I don't know how many of the bites of the apple you got, and you've got the house, you've got the kids in school. Why don't you just stick around, and they're able to land those guys? But I think Jamie, you know, he was on the finders keeper season.

So he's going to go, he's going to go try and make as much as he can. You know, he's not going to take a discount. You know, I don't think Kyle's going to take a discount. So those two guys, I think they're gone. They're going to try and figure out, you know, what they're going to do with High Tower. I know his cap number is pretty high. So if you lose high, that's a key piece. Like I'm saying, if they try to, you know, negotiate differently with his contract and he doesn't want to do that.

that. That could be a little bit of friction. You look at Tom, you know, if he makes $30 million a year, which, you know, I think he's going to get that from other teams north of $30. You know, so if their cap, you've got to look. If Tom does not come back, they're going to be able to go and sign a lot of guys because they won't have such a huge cap pick, you know. So. Yeah, but without Tom there, while that's all going on, people have to contend with the notion that Tom's not there anymore.

So they might have more room, but the attractiveness of, you know, New England is a free agent destination. Because let's be honest, like, it's a great place, great fans, Boston's great city, all that stuff. But, you know, let's not act like it's Los Angeles or Miami or, you know, some destination that's cushy for people. you know, to deal with the weather, to deal with the fact that you're going to be living in Foxborough, to deal with the fact that you're going to have to work harder there than a lot of places, you know, that Tom Brady effect matters for guys that are arriving in free agency. Yeah, no, I agree with you.

I think that if Tom is gone, it's going to be really hard for them to go out and actually find guys that want to come to New England. And, you know, that's the attraction as knowing that Tom's there. If you're a receiver, you don't want to catch passes from Stidham. You know, like you want to catch passes from Tom Brady, and you understand that that whole motor is run by Tom, that whole mechanism is working through Tom. So it's going to be, if they don't sign him back,

I think it's going to be pretty tough for them to get any type of, like, big-time receiver, you know, unless they go out and they get like a river, or somebody that's respectful that people, want to go play for. But I just think that it's going to be really tough if Tom does take off for them to have the same attraction. I mean, look, if Tom was gone and you were a free agent, like you wouldn't be thinking on.

No. No, not unless the money is great and it's a perfect football fit. It stops becoming that place where you know you can go and win. It starts becoming a really good program with a really good head coach that's got some established, but there's a big question mark if he's gone. One thing before we get to the what-ifs and the hypotheticals of Tom's movement, you know, you're looking at a guy like Devin McCordy who's been there his whole career, right? He's a free agent.

And I'm not singling out him. Yep. But you've got, you mentioned Van Oye and Jamie, who seem like the candidates to go get their money, right? You know, guys that, you know, you talk about Kyle. He wants to prove that he's a real rusher and, you know, he's not a system guy. And I know that he wants to get paid probably. Jamie Collins, you know, he came back for a year that had to be disappointing to see that it wasn't the automatic. Hey, let me go get that ring that I missed out on the first time around.

You got a guy like Devin who's been there his whole career who hasn't been getting, I mean, he got paid, right? So maybe he's not the best example, but these lifetime Patriots, and you were one that you've always said, like, what would have been like hitting the market for guys that are hitting it for the first time and looking back in their own house, you know, in New England? and they're saying, you know, it's not in order like it usually is. Maybe I should just go get the money. How much of that do they have to combat? The guys just want to get paid for the first time? Yeah, well, I think the NFL as a whole has changed because guys, they're not going to take less

because we all realize the effects, and we all know that when you play a long time, football is not good for you. So I think guys now are more, they're more influenced by, you know, their families, by science, by all these things that are saying, look, you've got to get it now, you've got to get it while you're young. And if you can get it, then you can leave early. You can kind of go out in your own terms early.

I think you're not going to see a linebacker play 15 years anymore, 10 plus. You know, I think guys are going to try and get paid early and bow out before they hit that 12-year mark even. Right. Yeah. So we're talking about Tom Brady, of course, in about a month now. he's hitting free agency. There's rumors about where he's going. We've heard them all.

A lot of them involve going out west. Where do you think he's going if you had to play the field here? We're not saying he's leaving. But is he leaving? And if he's leaving, what's your best bet? This one's tough. So, you know, Tom is very smart. He understands marketing and his brand and TB12

and all the things that go through with that. So just like the Hulu commercial, right? Yeah, it was unbelievable. He had me fooled. A cryptic message of is he walking in or walking out and then, boom, you see a Hulu commercial in the Super Bowl. You're like, oh, that was. That's what that was. You rich motherfucker.

So, yeah, like, how much did you get for that one? You know, take less, Tom. Yeah, exactly. You know, I think at this point right now, he, you know, he's 42, going to be, 43 in this season, realizing that he needs to have the weapons. He needs to have the offensive line. It needs to have some receivers. So that's why you're hearing, oh, he wants the Patriots to go get a lot of people.

He needs the pieces there. And I think a little bit of that is control because in the Patriots way of doing things, I don't think Tom really has any say in who comes and who goes. I think that they're in a system and they do things a certain way. And, you know, Tom is, you're so good. Tom's so good. Go make it work. You know, go make it work with everybody that we have.

And I think if you look in the past of his career, he's made certain teams work really, really well with not a lot of talent around him. So I think he's just at a point now where he knows he only has a couple years left. One, he'll probably sign two, but I don't know, like one at a very high level. He could play at a high level still. So he wants to go out and he wants to have that 2007, you know, Moss and Welker and just that air attack that he had when he had all those guys.

So, you know, I think hypothetically, if I was like Miami and I have three first round picks, that's all down the drain now because they signed Chan Gaylee. Changayle. Yeah, like 105 years old, the combined age of Chang Galey and Fitzhackerel. hundred and five hundred and five think about that that's crazy you know like that's it's it's insane so you know he's not going to go there because that coordinator it's not happening so before they sign him i was like you know if you're miami if i was uh be flow i'd say look we got three first round picks what do you want to do with this we got a hundred plus million in cap like what do you we're going to give you the keys here you go pick what you want you you go you know pick the produce

so to speak, so you can make your meal up nice. And that's out the drain. So, or down the drain, sorry, that's out the window. Yeah, out the window down the drain. That's out the window down the drain. It's down. It can be both. The window is down the drain.

Yeah, it is. That's what it is. So when I look at what's out there right now, you know that there's teams like Vegas, right? Like Tennessee, like Tampa, like the Colts that have a certain appeal to them. I don't think he's going to the Colts either. My top pick for him would be either Vegas or Tennessee.

And when I say Vegas, you also have to think about this. Like, this is a business. This isn't, you know, teams just like, oh, that's good time. How do we sell out our stadium in one signing? How do we sell out every suite? Yeah. Howie long? Yeah, exactly.

How do we sell out every howie? What's up, Howie, Jr.? Shout out to Howie Jr. Selling tickets for the Vegas Raiders, PSLs. Call him. I would list his number on here, but I don't have it like his office number, but he's selling those tickets like their hotcakes. And yeah, I mean, to your point, the Vegas thing.

If Vegas signed Tom, say Vegas gave Tom a two-year $70 million contract. So they gave him $35 million guaranteed, $35 million for two years, making one of the high FAA quarterbacks, would that investment make their money back? I think it would. Yes. I think them signing him that would make all that money plus some back in sales,

sweet sales, jerseys, because every single, and I'll put this out there too, I don't care if you're a diehard Patriot fan, if Tom Brady goes to another place, they're going to get his jersey because they're Tom Brady fans too. Yeah. Should be. We'll find out if they're not, that'd be pretty fucked.

But if he goes to, if he does go to Vegas, me and you, week one, are going to be there. I like it. Let's, and we can talk to Paige and. We got to talk to Paige and Meg or is this, is this kind of, they can come with. They can come with, but they can't be at the game with us. Okay, cool. They can be in the hotel. Okay.

And it's just being you at the game. I like it. Front row on the, on the Raiders bench side, and we're going to have his jersey on. I love it. I love it. I love it. Presumably it's 12. Do you think he wears 12 if he goes to Vegas?

or you think it's another number? 12. Yeah, he won't change. Strictly 12. He won't change. 12 or 10? He might go to 10. Yeah, because that was Michigan, right? That was Michigan, yeah. Yeah, that would be interesting, a little callback there.

But I mean, we've got Vegas, and I like that option. You have a lot of weapons. You have a good offensive line. You have a team that seems, you know, on one side of the ball, ready to win. Now defensively, they have to improve. You know, but to your point, that sells out the stadium. That's a big focus.

in Tennessee, I think football-wise is a great fit. Do they want to forego franchising Tannahill? A lot of this stuff is kind of a musical chairs thing. Brady's not quite at the level right now where I think people will make decisions around him universally. I don't think every team is going to just hand the keys over to him. Five, seven years ago it would have been like, hey, drop everything.

I don't care who's playing quarterback. You know, I don't know what's going on in Tampa, and I think that's more relevant in the Phillip Rivers conversation. Indy, you know, but I think Tennessee would be a really good football fit. I used to be on the Miami train, of course, the Chan Galey thing has thrown me off the scent a little bit there with Brady, but I think Tennessee and Vegas would be really good options for him. Also think the Chargers would be a great option, but, you know, and I think six to one are the odds on Brady being the day one starter. He's up towards the top there

when you look at the odds for the Chargers starting quarterback week one. Why not L.A.? You know, I think that L.A. When you look at, they are moving into that new stadium, and they're going to be sharing that with some other teams. But I think that that scene, I mean, it makes sense for TB12. It really does to bring that out there and have another TB12 franchise out there. But I just think that when you think about that fan base and when he goes to L.A.,

he's been there, he's had a house there. They sold that because they didn't want to be there. I think they've been there, done that, and I think they're kind of over that whole L.A. scene. That's what I heard. And that's counterintuitive because they're so famous, but they're not really like, they're mysterious people, man. Like, Tom, it's amazing to me. You mentioned the brand and everything.

You could not meet a more down-to-earth, chill dude who's a superstar and going to be your teammate, but also, like, equally mysterious. You know, and you hear whispers that they don't like L.A., but it makes no sense to me because they're so, you would think they're, the brand, And, you know, what they would leave on the table by not going to L.A. would be just astronomical money-wise, off the field. Yeah. But then he also have to look at, like, coaching, like, does Tom mix well with the coaches there?

Yeah. You know, I think that the Vegas thing, that works out because I think Tom has respect for Gurdon and, you know, the whole tuck rule thing, like, all that stuff coming back. I said this. You need three things. Number one, you need protection. Because he's 42 years old, it would be 43. You need a great offensive line.

When I look at offensive lines, I think, you know, whenever you have Trent Brown as your tackle, that's a good offensive line. I think he missed him. Yes, yes, definitely. So, you know, Oakland has a good offensive line. Tennessee has a good offensive line. Then number two is running game.

You know, you look at Oakland last year, they were a good running team until they had an injury. the running back position. You look at Tennessee, obviously, Henry's up, but they can figure something out there to where you get back. If they sign Tom, they need him. They need that one-two punch as a running game. And then you've got to go with coaching.

So Grable, having an experience with Tom, their friends. You know, they go to the derby together every year. You know, I know that they have a good relationship. So that might potentially be a good fit. And then you look at Gruden, being an old school coach, you know, but I probably have an infatuation with Brady and the success that he's had for 20 years. I think that coaches have a respect

and they fall in love with stuff like that. So that is easy for somebody in free agency to say, I don't care what I got to do. I want Tom Brady. Well, it'll be interesting to see where Tom ends up. I do think he still got it. You know, I think one thing that got lost in the shuffle, even as much we talked about,

was just how bad the Patriots were offensively this year. We spent a lot of time talking about how bad the Eagles were offensively because of the injuries. And I know I did, having played in Philly, but haven't played in New England as well, I've seen how just in my one year there and watching the past few years, just how much the talent level offensively has dwindled and it hurts the quarterback. So wishing Tom the best of luck, we will get his jersey wherever he is. You want to make a deal now that wherever he is week one, we get the jersey and maybe fly out there? Yeah, let's do it because I want

Whatever jersey, he's rocking Unless it's a picture of Jersey Do you think Tom will Will give us post-game passes And we get to come see him I think so I think Tom likes me I think Tom likes me too

He gave me a hug I saw him in at the Super Bowl It was cool Yeah I was like I mean He responds to my text He responds to my Instagram messages

He responds He responds to my from my U.S. mail to my fan mail. I knock on his window at night. Don't be creepy, Rob. I think he likes me. I think he likes me. So I would hope that we could get passes.

Okay, good. Anything that he's involved with. All right, good. So we'll try to get some post-game passes and see Tom, week one, wherever he is. Rob Nekovitz, thanks for joining us on Greenlight, and we'll catch you soon. Keep an eye out for some chalk,

some chalk content that my man might be. be involved in down the line here. I already did a podcast with Giardi. Really loved that. So we're going to try to get that going again in a couple weeks here once things speed up in the NFL off season again and more content from Rob. So thanks for joining us, Rob. All right.

Thanks, Chris. All right, bye, man. See you. Jeff, Ron, how in the world are you starting this game tonight after taking that hit just six days ago? Well, let me answer that question by asking you two questions. One, is this or is this not the XFL? Yes, it is.

Two, do I not currently have a pulse? Yes, I do. Let's play football. So the Jeff Brown video, always one of my favorites anyways, just goes to show you how barbaric football was at the turn of the century. Before any of the, you know,

the player safety stuff started to really happen, the XFL, like, their whole marketing strategy, 2001 when they got started up was, see how edgy we can be, how big the hits can be, how dangerous this sport can appear. It's already dangerous. You don't need to make it any more dangerous than it is, but that Jeff Brom video is basically a caricature of what the XFL was, the first go-round. Now, the second go-round, it looks a lot different. And I think that's a good thing. Number one, they got more funding. Vince McMahon has more money in God. He's going to ensure that at least

it gets a fair shake here. They ran out of money. first time. You know, so again, it's back. I think it's eight teams, 10 game season. We talked about it with Kurt Meneffey, last pod, some of the exciting rule changes, etc. But now that we have a weekend of a sample size to look at, I think it was a success.

I think it was, I think all things considered, it had people talking. It was rated relatively high. It was the weekend's top four sporting events for viewers age 18 to 4. 49 were the XFL games this weekend. The real test is going to be week two though. I'll tell you why in a minute. But, you know, some figures here.

Defenders, Seattle game was, it had TV viewership of 3.3 million. Now, that's interesting to note. It's the same as the AAF opener in 2019. And, you know, the viewership peaked in the final 15 minutes of the game. You know, maybe due to the gambling or maybe due to the, the rule alterations in the final two minutes. Maybe it was just the time of the day. You know, it was one of those things where none of these games were that exciting.

None came down to like the wire per se. But people seem to be very interested in it. Ticket sales were good. They were hovering in the 17,000's range. All the games, in fact, were in like a thousand tickets sold of each other. mostly smaller stadiums except for i think new york and people notice that you know it's better to have these smaller stadiums and get impactful

to you know look like there's some real atmosphere at these games rather than like a bigger stadium and just the lower bowls full you might look at 2001 and say hey listen they average you know 23 000 in attendance about 20 years ago but that's not taking the market change into account there's a ton of different ways to watch the game now that are driving people away from stadiums, even with the affordability of these XFL tickets,

17's pretty good. So I know they want to grow that. They just seem more prepared the second time around. Much more money I mentioned. But the key part, and I alluded to this, the game is less gimmicky. There's a ton of rule changes, but not a lot of them are just done for effect.

They're really aiming at putting out more of a respectable product. This is less of a wrestling product. And it is, it's still football. You know, you heard a lot of the coaches and players talk about that. There's rule changes, but they're kind of cool rule changes on the field or with the viewing experience. And it's still at the end of the day, it's ball. You know, one big thing is the XFL had ticket salespeople in these cities working full-time, I think, as early as last summer. and you look at that in comparison to the AAF.

They didn't have these positions filled until weeks before the open. So you could see why they're a little bit more buttoned up. They're a little bit more staffed out. And, you know, if you look at the Dragons and the Battlehawks, they sold the most season tickets. And that's, of course, Seattle and St. Louis. Seattle, they always kill it. Like, whatever they do.

I mean, the Sounders, they have a pack house all the time. it seems like with soccer. You know, the Seahawks, they always fill the house. You kind of wish there were still basketball there. I know they got a lot of great baseball fans up there. I don't know as much about baseball. But it's no surprise to me that the Dragons sold a lot of season tickets, even with the Seahawks up there.

Now, the Battlehawks, their St. Louis team, and obviously I played there eight years. I know that I was interested to see, one, if they would get an XFL team, too, if they'd be able to sell out or sell a bunch of tickets. And they're actually playing at the old Edward Jones Dome, which is going to be weird to see folks playing there in the XFL. And they've sold a ton of tickets.

I think it's great. And the tickets have been reasonable. In D.C., for instance, you know, they were $100 to $500 for season tickets. I mean, that's nothing. 24 to 120 for a single game. So really affordable because the NFL has priced a lot of fans out. I know that's a soft spot they're trying to hit.

And also, you know, when you compare the TV deals and the planning to what the AAAF did last year, AAAF came out like gangbusters and they went away after that CBS opening as far as their television presence. You know, TNT, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report streaming, that's what they kind of wrote out the rest of the year on. XFL is going to be on Fox, ABC, ESPN for much of the year.

that's going to keep them relevant. And the football was just fine. I mean, it wasn't as unpredictable as college and it wasn't as polished as the NFL. And that's something they'll have to find their groove with. But, you know, one of the, I guess, if you looked at the first weekend and counted disappointments, it wasn't as high scoring as the league predicted

or quite as fast. I mean, they talked about this 3428 score, which was kind of like the ideal score, the prediction. around an hour and a half quicker or I'm sorry around about 25 minutes quicker than an NFL games like if the NFL games like north of three and three hours like inching toward like 315 or whatever it is you know the XFL was like 245 so um you know they they said it would be high scoring 3428 was kind of the model you know quicker than the NFL games five out of eight

teams scored less than 20 points and the games were 10 minutes lower than the goal but still came in quicker than the average NFL game. So when it came to scoring, only one team hit the total of 50 and a half points and that was, I forget, I think it was the Dragons game. But, you know, there wasn't a 300-yard pass, so there wasn't a hundred-yard rusher.

And people still had a good time. And they did a lot of stuff right, including in, you know, there's, it's, when you're talking about gambling in the XFL, it's a two-fold conversation, one being that, they're doing the right thing and including the lines on TV, the totals on TV.

You've got announcers talking about the over-under at the end of games, all that stuff. But this just goes to show you how naked Vegas is here, uncharacteristically. The lines were all way off. All way off. The renegades and the Vipers were the favorites to win the league, according to Vegas,

and neither team scored a touchdown this weekend. And, you know, the renegades lost to the predictability. bottom dwellers in the Battlehawks. So by the way, shout out again to the St. Louis Battlehawks. They had the highest rating, you know, TV rating locally in the nation, as good as like blues games over the weekend. So actually bested the blues games over the weekend. So St. Louis still hungry for football.

And you had stars, you had Cardell Jones. You had, you know, he played great. P.J. Walker stole the show. four touchdowns for Houston. You had big plays. You had some good pass rushes. The O-line play was good enough. It wasn't like any of the quality of football was terrible.

Even the quarterback play was good enough, you know, to put a product out there that people would watch. And more than anything, I think the play here with the X-FEL, as we all know, is chaos and freshness. And you had some chaos. And you had freshness that isn't just the sake of doing something new. Like, there are ideas that the NFL should probably look hard at, even if you know that they won't.

Because adopting elements of the XFL would concede a lack of inherent superiority or, you know, we got our shit together, we don't lower ourselves to like pluck from the XFL. Well, the NFL would be wise to look at some of these rule changes. One of my favorite things is the transparency, though, the real-time drama.

I mean, you've got, you know, I'm watching one game, a quarterback is like tossing other guys under the bus, talking about headsets and routes, you know, after a bad play and the coach is kind of looking at him funny and his teammates are kind of laughing and you know these are the stressful situations that bring out the best of the worst and guys and you get to see them on national TV so it sucks for the players in some ways but it's what they signed up for and uh you know i've got diana russini interviewing a kicker after he missed a 35 yarder um so that's that's not

that fun to get a microphone stuck in your in your face after you know your worst play the day there was a guy that downed Marquette King punt in the end zone accidentally. What happened was, and everybody saw this, but not everybody saw it in real time, was the guy covering the punt, and Marquette King, boom, this beautiful punt. He was the former Raiders and Broncos punter, I think it was.

He punted the ball about like 80 yards, and the ball's rolling into the end zone, and the coverage team's right down there and down it. This one dude just frantically dives on it and rolls in the end zone. So it's a touchback, which, by the way, that brings the ball out to 35, not the 20 in the XFL. People were like, what the fuck is this guy doing?

Well, he got to tell his side of the story immediately after to Pat McAfee, who's down there doing interviews, who, by the way, is paired really nicely with the XFL brand, edgy enough, you know, kind of a little bit more button down. And he's like, dude, I thought the guy muffed it. And when you look back at the replay, it certainly appeared that the guy muffed it,

But in most situations, some of the less perceptive fans might not be able to hear that guy, might not be able to identify that. I saw some players being like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Well, then you get a microphone in the guy's face right afterwards. You hear exactly what happened. You also got interviews when guys had big plays too. So like, you know, you get to see the raw emotion, the excitement when a player does something great, including one guy, Elijah Qualls, who I used to play with who owes me $300,

who's owed me $300 for like going on two years now. And I always bust his balls about, hey, man, if you ever make it big, I'm going to tell everybody you owe me money. And so I'm sitting there watching my first XFL game and this guy makes a great play and he comes over a sideline. And we're here with Elijah Qualls now. And I'm like, this motherfucker, he owes me $300.

So I'm like, I'm like, hey, Diana. I hit Diana up. I'm like, tell Elijah Qualls he owes me $500. So I thought we used to play pool and we used to bet on pool when he was in Philly. And he got released. he still owed me money.

And Elijah's response was it's only $300. So that's, so I got, I'm watching my first X-F-L game. I see buddies I played with people I knew from the league. I'm seeing people with microphones in their face after bad plays. I'm seeing guys with microphones in their face after good plays. You know, a guy cussed in an interview, not a big deal. You hear that all the time on Mike Booms, but to hear a guy cusses, on live TV, just part of the unpredictability of it.

You have cameras and audio in the room at the half, in the booth, in the review process. That was maybe my favorite thing. Even though I think for some fans, you're just seeing the coach speak when they have a guy up in the booth. Like, I'll do 34 ace right, boom, or something like, you're like, I don't know what that is. And for me, I can't, I can take a guess at what some of these offensive plays are. But I know that these coaches aren't necessarily going to play along and break it down. like in Madden terms like dive right like but what's cool is you get to see the process for fans it's not just the terminology you might have an inklin of you know an inclination of of where the

play's going but the cool part is you get to see the sequencing how the play's laid out and like you know how it comes down and and you get to see behind the scenes and for me as a player I was on the sideline so I didn't get to see that stuff unless I'm watching like hard knocks or something and the fact you get to see in real time is pretty cool also you know the the fact that, you know, Jim Zorn joked about this. He's like, we're going to have to go on just numbers off the wristband. Like, you know, quarterback's going to have a wristband. And we're just going to do numbers, like call number, you know, 18 or something.

And that's the play because we don't want people to be able to self-scout us. You know, people are going to watch TV copies. We do that in the NFL where we watch TV copies to hear what the quarterback is saying, like key words. Like, okay, so Peyton or, you know, you might have. of Eli, every D-Lyman knows, Omaha, Omaha was like, let's like set go. Or they were like blue, blue, you know, certain quarterbacks had verbiage that when they said these things, the ball was coming or it was a check. And believe it or not, we used to scout not just the end zone copy, but TV copy to hear different terms. Now you're having the TV copy include like play verbiage,

signals, the whole nine, including what's out on the field. So, you know, Pep Hamilton talked about the fact that there's going to be a ton of TV copy scouting and you're going to have to do some self-scouting. You know, you're going to have to change your terminology, your signals even more than you did in an NFL season. So I think it's cool. Not just the coaches in the booth, but also the review process. You really hear the officials talking, you know, calls out in real time. And I think that's great. I don't know why the NFL wouldn't do that. I know everything's about covering their ass, but it's not like the officiating process hasn't been the laughing stock, so it can only get better. What'd be wrong with sticking a microphone in there and letting

officials talk it out in front of the world? It's not like a player's getting that protection. You know, we have a bad play. It's for the world to see. I think that officials, you know, if they had a chance to do it in front of the world, could not only show some transparency, but also illustrate how hard it is to get a call right and people might appreciate them more. So you had guys chugging seltzers in St. Louis when they won that game, which doesn't seem like it's real fun.

I hope they were cold. You had a streaker who looked like he was on penis pills. This guy was just, I don't know what the hell was going on with him. You had a fan eating cheese, you know like death stare to the camera is just the perfect XFL fan just eating craft singles like a fucking serial killer

staring into the into the abyss you had a player puke obviously the first game uh yeah I'm not sure what the curfew situation is like also um you know

I'm not sure they have a full NFL training camp I don't know how in shape the guys are or maybe the guy just had some some food poisoning I had some food poisoning this past weekend by the way it's brutal. Gilbride had two headphones. That was one of the more memorable things that I saw this weekend. And even the Pepper Johnson firing after one game for L.A.,

and then subsequently a team captain, Anthony Johnson, who I played with, Kimbo, what everybody called him, who's a badass football player, tweeting that he's now a free agent. I think it had something to do with the Pepper Johnson firing. And I don't know what happened with that Pepper Johnson firing. but this is all chaos. Like, I just feel like this is XFL stuff.

And if you have the right amount of that XFL stuff, it keeps it interesting. But the rules, the rules are the really cool part. You know, the ball spotting. You have one official that sole job is to spot the ball. Get that thing to the line of scrimmage. Get it set. There's no time to waste.

The kick return, everybody loved that. It's safer. You know, everybody's seen it by now. now, you know, the returners or the return team and the coverage team are lined up like five yards apart on the returner side of the field. And it's kind of like an offensive play. Bob Stoops likened it to like, you know, an outside zone play or a stretch. You're basically running different plays out of this amended kickoff alignment. And the key here is that 91% of the kicks being returned is a far cry from the NFL. And it's safer. That's the big deal.

Remember, again, the XFL was the Jeff Brom XFL in 2001. This league is kind of making some changes to eliminate some really nasty collisions and do some of the things that the NFL is focusing on doing, but doing it at a faster click because the NFL is too scared to do away with something like the kickoff because it's so iconic. XFL, there's no tradition there. We can try some shit like that. And, again, you still got a 59-yard return this weekend.

there's a 60% chance of nothing ever happening on an NFL kickoff. 91% again of kicks being returned in the XFL. That's better. That's an improvement. And again, you have six guys on offense and they're all skill guys with the headset. So they hear the plays. Six guys on defense as well have the headset. I would imagine it's not D. Lyman,

but I sure would have liked to have been able to hear the play in my ear rather than turning around and screaming at James Laronitis for eight years. in the Edward Jones Dome or confused as shit in New England there's 15 checks I'm like yelling at High Tower to get me a check and then of course in Philly it was very simple it was just like the same

fucking thing over and over again you know another one is the clock runs and it continues to run unless it's under two minutes so the way I understand it from watching is they're not trying to stop the clock for much but every play matters under two minutes

and that's a nice little wrinkle coaches have two timeouts per half and half time is 10 minutes players would love that in the NFL coaches maybe not so much they have a lot to say I would rather it's not even go to the locker room in the NFL so 10 minutes is nice no coin toss home team decides that visitors decide OT and OT is pretty cool haven't seen one yet uh but five one play possessions from the five yard line and you keep playing until someone's mathematically eliminated um it's pretty damn cool And also the touchdown thing, the extra point. You can go for one, two, or three.

I think it's like from the two-yard line, the five-yard line, like the 10-yard line for three. And on the weekend, it's funny because there's all this analytics talk about the best thing to go for is too, which I agree with. But still, well over half went for one, 11 of 18. The rest went for two. And zero went for three. Now, the three-point thing comes into play with the 12-point lead.

you know because you're like I score a touchdown and I could just kick it or not kick it sorry there's no kicking it go for one or two or I could and if if I'm me and I'm down 12 I'm definitely going to score and then go for three to get it to a field goal game so interesting wrinkle there it makes certain leads and deficits more interesting and of course the 25 second play clock rather than the 40 is a nice touch there to keep keep the game sped up you know speed goal fell a little bit short, 10 minutes short of the forecast, but the same amount of plays as the NFL,

but 10 minutes shorter of a game. So that pace is definitely, it's not for nothing. And then there were celebrities, like for week one. I mean, listen, there was the game in Dallas alone, had Kyler Murray, because he went to high school down there. He had Steve Spurrier because he's down there watching his son Scott, I think, coaching the renegades. And then Troy Akeman,

of course there to support Moose Johnson, who's affiliated with the league. And then there was the big Twitter buzz. In fact, it felt like XFL took over Twitter. And I feel like the XFL is made for Twitter. It really is, because it's like one big reality TV show. It's imperfect.

You know, the way I've said before that, like, Philip Rivers is like perfect for Twitter because he's imperfect. He just does shit sometimes. You're like, that's relatable. I do that in my personal life, or I do that, you know, and I'm not a football player. I do really irrational things, impulsive things. The XFL is unpredictable.

It's chaos. Reminds us of like our life. It's not perfect like the NFL, all buttoned up. You know, mistakes are made, and you've got a microphone in everybody's face, and you have audio and microphones and for the halftime speech and all that stuff. The access is what's going to keep this thing alive more than anything. And Twitter loves access. that's why they love reality TV.

People will live tweet The Bachelor on Twitter, and I'm convinced that if it weren't for Twitter, nobody would watch, well, a lot less people would be watching The Bachelor. Twitter is this kind of, this room, this atmosphere where you love to see kind of this reality TV thing, and this is football on reality TV. It's seemingly real, it's unpredictable. and the NFL game's kind of high quality clean and corporate we all love it but the the

the XFL is kind of like you know a perfect dive bar you don't know what's going to happen if the NFL is like this this upscale martini bar the NFL is a dive bar where you just it's fucking or the XFL is a dive bar where it's kind of unpredictable you could also liken it to the NFL being this you know drop Dead Gorgeous, Perfect 10. I don't do the whole rating thing, I'm sorry. Instagram model with nothing going on upstairs. Complacent, beautiful, shiny, really cool, full stadiums.

And when the NFL leaves town for a couple months, you get the young, hungry, rough around the edges, girl who likes to have. fun, girl next door, that's the XFL, you know? And that's, and the kicker is that the girl next door is actually safer than the Instagram model. The kickoff stuff, some of the other safety rules. So don't get too complacent NFL, you Instagram model. Not if there's anything wrong with Instagram models. I could get in trouble. People could come from me and cancel me because I'd like the NFL to an Instagram model, but the XFL is kind of

that it's a wild card and it doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to it just has to be spontaneous. It has to be, it has to not take itself too seriously and it has to be fun. And I think that we've got at least

it's a start. You know, I don't think it'll ever be, it won't be a threat to the NFL ever. But I think there'll be enough demand for the transparency that we see as a value now, you know, especially 20 years after 2001. It's hard to compare that failure to this go-round. So the real test, though, as I mentioned, is week two.

You know, in 2001, the AAF, or in 2001, the XFL, and then in 2019, the AAF, drop 50% in the ratings week two. So this is the big test. You know, I'm not saying that you're out of the woods. If week two, they nail it. again, but for all the reasons I mentioned, I think they're better prepared than they were the first time around, and then the AAF was last week.

And I hope it passes. I think Macon is out on the XFL from some of these nonverbal cues. But I hope it passes. We all need football. I feel a little bit depressed when the season ends, because you're just like, listen, college basketball is great. NBA is great, We live for the tournament.

We live for the NBA playoffs. That's at least me. I can watch some college basketball here and there. It's hard for me to watch regular season in NBA as a Knicks fan. There's nothing that I really care enough about. I'm not going to lie. I'll watch it to keep up. But football fills the void.

Nice to have something predictable on your Saturday and Sunday. You know what time it is. Kurt Mennifie mentioned that. And I'll be excited to see a team playing in the Edward Jones Dome coming up. It's not this week. They travel to Houston. I'll be excited to see Seattle host a game. I want to see what that atmosphere is like.

They packed just about any house again. And you have one game in New York City that was played at the most questionable venue this week, so it can only improve that way. You're not going to see that every week. And LA is going to be hosting a game. Maybe they won't have to go on silent count like the Chargers have in the past

or like we got the Rams too when the Eagles fans, the Eagles faithful, took over the Coliseum. Interesting to start thinking about who you'd want to see play in the XFL. That might be a segment next week. I want to draft a team of guys who are not in the NFL anymore and petition for them to join the XFL. I'm thinking like a Marshawn Lynch type.

Just guys I want to keep seeing in play. James Laroniitis. Herschel Walker. You like to see Herschel Walker. I mean, fuck, for enough money I might do it. Really, like no training. And I know I'd just get my block knocked off if I didn't train.

But for the right amount of money, if a GoFund me swelled enough for charity, I might go get my ass kick and play one game with no practice in the XFL. Okay, so you're, are you swayed on the XFL? In the words of Larry David, I could give a fuck about the XFL. Oh my gosh!

That's what it took. 28 podcasts and it took the XFL to get you to cuss. Hey, saturation point Yeah. Is defined? Yeah. As the stage beyond which no more of something can be absorbed or accepted. Right.

After college football in the NFL, I've had enough. You've had enough. Yeah. Hit me back in September. Obviously, I haven't. And I'll hit you back in April when we go to a, of the whole playoff games. Maybe that's a bet we should make,

not that I've been great about my bets. No, you haven't. Well, I have been rooting for the Celtics from a distance. Yeah? What's their record? The record? That's the classic. When you don't know the answer, you repeat the question.

What's the record? They're fourth in the east. Are they? Yeah. Okay. They should be, right? Well, some might say they're third. Okay, some might say they're 33 and, no. Yeah, they're 3rd.

33 and 17. 37 and 15. Not bad. Not great. I've been rooting for the Celtics. I lost the bet and I had to root with the Celtics and I pay up. The Raptors have won 15 in a row? Yeah, dude, very quietly. The Raptors.

I noticed stable genius Ryan Rosillo didn't mention that on this. Real quick, before we get to the mailbag, this is my favorite thing. I have it on a piece of paper. He says we're on, yeah, he didn't mention that, did he? No. Um, Maasai Ujiri, president of the Raptors, uh, recently sheriff deputy, Alan Strickland is suing Ujiri for damages after an altercation near the court, uh, at Oracle Arena, June 13th, 2019.

That of course, after the Raptors won a, uh, an NBA finals, uh, decisive, uh, game against the Warriors and Ejiri, the president of the fucking team is trying to make his way onto the court in this steroided up looking. little bridge troll of a police officer if you look back at the video looked to be really animated and upset with Eugiri who looked confused

there was an altercation of some sort getting on the court I'm gonna guess that it was something like it went something like hey where the fuck are you going man and Ejiri was like look back and just kept walking

that's how I think it went because he's the president and he assumed that with his credentials he's probably on the court. But Strickland, Sheriff Deputy Alan Strickland, is suing him for damages after that altercation.

And the law firm that represents Strickland specialized in personal injury lawsuits in California, as well as a history of representing public safety officers and public employees, this isn't wasting anybody's time, guys. The suit claims that Strickland was thrown back several feet

by the force of Ujiri's blows fist blows to the chest and the face. Somehow not a lot of people saw this. Including the video footage. Yes. It's like there's nothing. There's nothing. And then he suffered serious injuries to his body and nervous system.

Nervous system, that sounds serious. T's and peas. That have resulted in permanent disability along with great mental, physical, emotional, and psychological pain and suffering. The suit claims that Ujiri's actions were foreseeable based on what it cites as Ujiri's previous altercations involving similar circumstances.

The Raptors, Maple Leaf Sports, and Entertainment were also named in the suit accused of failing to warn the plaintiff of Ujuri's violent predisposition and propensity for physical violence prior to his assault on Strickland. Assault. Lost wages, other damages in excess of 75K on the line. Also accused of the defense of failing to, provide adequate safety and security to the public

and failing to post signs warning danger, including the danger of Maasai Ujiri. What would that sign of look like? Warning. Dangerous team president. Other human beings are in this space.

Proceed with caution. Get the fuck out of here, dude. Counter suit, I say. Yeah. You know how you get there, you can have a foul called on you for flopping these days. This is the basketball equivalent of flopping. What's the real life

equivalent? This is the real life equivalent of basketball flopping. Thank you. And I think it's it's brilliant comedy if there weren't somebody who was actually getting harassed here and that's Ujiri himself

it would be something I could, well I've already laughed at it because it is ridiculous. Yeah. So I got to thinking maybe we could drum up some lawsuits. Okay. Do you have any lawsuits that you would like to levy against bad actors? Yeah, I'm going to sue the city of Charlottesville for negligence.

Okay. The manhole covers in this town. Yeah. A world-class city. Yeah. A humble world-class city at that. The manhole covers are a good seven, eight, nine inches a foot lower

than the pavement. It's like if you have a perfectly aligned motor vehicle, which I do because I recently paid for it, you're playing Frogger out there avoiding the badum because of the manhole covers. Yeah. Let's get that stuff

evened out. And that nice mid-sized SUV you've got mid-size? Full size? Full size. Okay. You don't want to be clanking the rim on the rubber there.

That's right. I'm also suing Malachi Richardson for emotional distress. And maybe I like that psychological pain and suffering. Why don't you tell people what happened with Malachi Richardson for people that don't live in? Hey, y'all probably don't know Malachi Richardson because he hasn't done a whole lot after his days at Q's. Which makes this even worse. Yeah, Elite 8, United Center, Chicago, Illinois, who's up by a whole heck ton of points with about eight, nine minutes to go. And Malachi Richardson decided to go Michael Jordan

on everybody in Chicago. And it was a crushing defeat. He literally made me cry. So I'm suing him. I would like to sue the Charlottesville Ice Park. When I was a kid, I tried to go ice skating and fell really hard and it hurt my butt. And I don't think I've recovered since.

Who's got the last laugh? That puppy is destroyed. It's gone. But I'm still going to sue whoever is responsible for that. Fair. My final one is Michael Campos on Twitter for harassment. And I quote, Amazing combination of Joel 9-1 and Ryan Rosillo.

I could listen to both of you shoot the S for hours. I instantly turn my devices off when I hear the voice of Macon Gunter. I want to sue, since you're talking about Twitter, I'd like to sue Tommy Lauren, Britt McKinney. Okay. Tommy Lauren's the Major League version.

Brin McKinney's like the AAA, double A, single A affiliate of Tommy Lauren. because one time she made fun of me for donating my salary. I remember that. And that really hurt. Yep. I mean, that is just stuck with me to this day.

Well, you were doing it for a tax break, right? I was doing it for a tax break. So for exposing me to the world, yeah. I would like to sue Britt McKenry. And she will not go quietly into the night, as you see in the tow truck video.

No. She's got some thoughts. She might counter sue. Yep. Yeah. We'll have more lawsuits for you guys as they come to us because we have been wronged a whole bunch. And thank you, Officer Strickland, for setting an example and inspiring us to write our wrongs. Let's get to mailbag real quick while you're here.

Jesse Christensen asks. Asks. That's my thing. I really enunciate asks. I didn't say asks. You got close, but really just asks. No, but asks. Asks.

Jesse Christensen asks. Nice. Chase Young off the board. Who do you take as an edge rusher and why? I kind of would kick this one over to you. AJ Epinessa. Is this the kid from the Iowa Hawkeyes? That's one.

Jonathan Granard, Florida is another. Okay. And I'll round it out with Bradley and Nye, University of Utah. I have a question for you. Yeah. Since when did DeV. end turn into edge? Are we calling that a hybrid of somebody who can stand up?

Well, I think the way I look at it now is there's so many different ways people are playing that edge position in the league. So, you know, there isn't, there aren't like as many true defensive ends anymore. You know, I look at his epiniscite and his size, like it looks to me like he's a true defensive end. Maybe a guy who can slide in some with his length. But I haven't looked at the guys long enough to make a determination. I think most of these teams feel like

the difference between a 4-3N and an outside backer at this point is lesser than what it was when I got in the league. I mean, would you agree? I mean... Yeah, it's just interesting to go through a mock draft and see a bunch of D-Tackles and no D-Ns. They are edge.

Yeah, edge. It's interesting that way. But I haven't watched enough of these guys. Favorite NFL prospects, this comes from K-Money. CD-LAM for me. I mean, I said that earlier in the fall. I know that like this in the hot take, but I've loved watching CD Lamb.

I saw him in an Instagram picture with Anquam Bolden, who was no small guy, and he was kind of dwarfing him. Also, I really like to detackle from South Carolina. He's supposed to go, like, bottom of the first round. Kid was homeless. What's his number seven? He's got a single-digit number.

I was watching his tape a little bit without remembering his name, if you could locate that one for me. Do you have a favorite prospect? A favorite. I have about 12. Yeah, give me all 12. Cam Acres, J.K. Dobbins, T. Higgins, Mackay Beckton, Chase Young, Derek Brown, Isaiah Simmons, Troy Dye, Bryce Hall, Kvon Wallace.

Love Bryce Hall. Heard that name there, Virginia. Also, really into the Dobbins thing. It's hard to imagine how he's a miss. Agreed. Yeah. Favorite My Morning Jacket song. That's from Thoughts of Lamb. I don't think you are going to have anything here, are you? I will.

Javon Kinlaw. Do you remember him? I don't. Nice player. Nice player. I have to do a little tape study. Nice player. I like his story too.

So I got five for you. Don Dante, Golden. Steam engine. Of course, you could listen to that live and it's one of the best songs you ever heard. Same goes for Don Dante. Touch me, part two. and I think I'm going to hell but you have to listen to that live.

You like any of those songs? Those are my morning jacket songs. I know what they are. I'm not familiar with them. I'll tell you the ones that I know. Magida. Yeah, you like that one? I'm amazed.

Yeah, you like that one. That's going to be my top two. Okay, good. Top two is an interesting number. You don't see it as much. You don't see that so much. Usually that means it's... Somebody asked,

and you're going to love this one. favorite Rosillo moment. This is from Reed Bingham. Do you have a favorite Rosillo moment? Actually I do. Yeah? And he's done this more than once I found out, but he was on his own radio show with Scott and somebody asked him a comp to Derek Favors and he thought for a second and said, I don't know, Jesus. And I laughed out loud as I was driving. No. And yeah, and that's before I learned that Ryan was mean. Bad. Yeah.

Self-centered. Self-centered, yeah, self-serving. Jealous. Toxic. Toxic. Yeah, it's a good adjective. Yep. For me, it was when he jumped out of a moving boat to save Wayland's toddler-sized

quicksilver hat. Oh, you can't lose that. Yeah, no, I mean, Whalen, two years in a row, he can't lose that hat. He lost the hat last year. And I was in the water in Flathead Lake, like I was on the cadaver team looking for a body trying to find this fucking $3 quicksilver hat. And all the while he's just crying his eyes out. So when we went out for a little Sunday cruise over the summer and Uncle Ryan was in town, Brian as his as Whalen calls him. You know, Ryan's trying to earn his keep as a good house guest.

The hat flies off full, you know, the boat's going 20 miles an hour. Ryan, of course, rips his shirt off immediately, right? I'm surprised it wasn't already off. Baywatch. Yeah. You know, Nantucket Baywatch. Martha's Vineyard Baywatch. Martha's Vineyard.

Yeah, I don't want to screw the island up. And he jumps in the water and retrieves the hat. So that was probably my favorite Ryan moment because now every time Ryan's on FaceTime, which is more than you'd like, even if it's after hours and Whalen's still up because the you know sometimes you know Ryan's hit the bars in Manhattan Beach a little early he might call me and well and goes is that the guy that saved my hat so that's uh that's my favorite Ryan moment what's the best college game I played in is from Gilroy that would be Maryland 2008 um 2007 sorry um the safety the safety among other things among other things and we came back Michael

Juke Simpson had a big game love beating the Terps when you can beat them on the road that's even better we hate the Terps yeah Yeah, Big Tam Sanny had a nice game. Tom Sannie had a big game. Unacceptable airplane behaviors. This is from Ben Potter. Do you have any? I have a lot.

Okay. If the flight is under two hours, there are no bathroom breaks. Okay. Don't get up. Got you. If you're on an aisle. Absolutely. Okay.

That's an insidious rule. How do you mean? You got to hydrate when you're in a metal tube that's pressurized to dehydrate you. You do. And if we're just puddle jumping, you can hold it. Nah, can't. Not for a 90-minute flight, not for- What about armrests?

Here's what I do. I just get in there as early as possible, and I go deep, just elbows only, and then I'll have my hands. My hands can be in my lap, and you can have the front 70%, but I just need a little something to anchor me. I'm okay with that.

My big thing with armrests is get rid of them, if you can. Touching the strangers? I need the room. You don't anymore. I do need the room still. I'm wider than most. Everyone's going to want to talk about shoes on and off. Yeah, I mean, the feet thing on, you know, just keep your feet off everybody else's space.

What about shoes? I'm not worried about the shoes. I get yelled at once for putting my shoes up on the wall when I was in the bulkhead. This flight attendant talked to me like she purchased the jet cash, like, and it was hers. Just keep your shoes on Yeah, keep them on Well, socks are okay I think socks are okay

Especially on like an international flight Okay You gotta go over Yeah International waters though Yeah yeah yeah yeah Safety demo Across country

D-C to L.A I'm sorry I'm gonna be socking it And I also have good good hygiene Safety demo Okay I think we at least owe The flight attendants our eyes

Eye contact Yeah even if you have the the earbuds. Just pretend you give a fuck. Give them your eyes. Yes. They don't want to do it either. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

Let's hope. Not to be morbid, but it kind of doesn't matter. Oh, you're saying it's going to importantly if it's... Yeah, I mean, unless you've got Sully up there and you've got the perfect river to land on. Yeah, I've always wondered that, because what they're really talking about is opening up the door and then the slide goes out. Like, I think we can handle that. Yeah, until it's a shit show. And everybody's like, I didn't pay attention.

to the fucking thing. Like everybody's screaming. That's kind of the most likely scenario, but, you know, if you get there, you're lucky anyways. So I'm not really worried about the safety thing, but I'll at least act like I am.

Boozing? Boosing. Yeah. I don't do it. I don't do it because I don't, yeah, I don't need the hangover plus the jet lag. Your Super Bowl where in Houston?

That would have been Pat's? Yep. When that flight landed, that group of individuals was well lubricated, yelling about their beloved Pats. Now it was flying out of, like, D.C. or something. A lot of Pats fans everywhere. Also, for me, I would add, you know,

this is, again, unacceptable airplane behaviors, reclining unnecessarily. Reclining at all, thank you. Don't do it. Unless you're like in a seat that backs up to like a wall, don't do it. You don't need it. Chances are you're small.

I'm big. Don't ever recline. Don't recline. Be kind. Don't recline. Some would say recline because then everybody else can recline. No, that's not true. Because at some point the chain is going to be broken.

I will kick your seat like I'm fucking three years old. Oh, I wouldn't do that. That's... If you recline on me, no, if you're a little guy and you do the whole like business class, like, you know, hard ass. I'm a CEO of like whatever kind of company. Like, I don't know what you do. but you're not big and you look behind you,

you see how much I struggled to slide into my seat and you probably feel my knees on the seat in front and you just recline anyways, like violently too. I'm gonna kick your seat the entire flight like I'm three until you say something. And then I'm gonna tell you I don't have any room. That was like a three year old. I was at the doctor yesterday.

Yeah. Measured in at six, four and a half. Nice, that's good. So imagine being me on an airplane. Yeah, I get it, this is harder for you actually. it is for me. Being mad at kids, don't do it. Parents are trying to control their kids.

You might be a be mad at kids person, huh? I'm not, well, to myself. Yeah. Listen, here's the thing. No kid is crying on purpose. Like, they don't know what they're doing. Now, like a nine-year-old that's kicking your seat for no reason. Now, if you've reclined, then have at it nine-year-old. But like a toddler who's screaming or a baby that's crying, like, if you so much as like

give a dirty look to that person, I'm going to start giving you dirty looks and look for confrontation. And one of us is going to get hauled off the plane, and it's not going to be me. I'm going to get you mad, and then you're going to be the person on viral video getting handcuffed and taking off the plane.

If you are regularly coughing or sneezing before your flight, stay home. Do not get on the flight. Just cancel your trip if you're sneezing. Another one would be jumping up and cutting the line. on the way out. Yep.

Can't stand that. Yep. You're just soulless. You have no concept of karma. When we're boarding by zones these days, why are you jumping up? Why are you standing in the front? Yeah. If I have to ask you, is this first class?

Like, yes, it's right here. Where is it? It's right here. Are you first class? No. First class, flex. Yeah, well, no, I'm large. Again, I'm not just tall.

I'm wide too. So, you know, Skechers wide fit. Shout out to Howie Long. Worst non-football-related plane ride and then we'll let you go here. Do you have one? I have one. This comes from Owen Burkhard.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Worst non-football related plane ride. No, I heard it. Yeah, I mean, you've been on a few football flights, losses and whatnot, but... Okay, you go first. Probably when I was going to Hawaii in the 80s, I was, of course, a toddler.

my mom was wearing a white jumpsuit because in the 80s it was cool to wear like starter jackets and the pants that corresponded with it as like an adult woman and I was a toddler and decided to explosive diarrhea

all over my mom on the way to Hawaii and it's a white jumpsuit and I'm sitting there she's sitting there for three hours in this shitty white jumpsuit and it was all due to yours truly. I think that was probably my worst flight.

In retrospect, it hasn't stuck with me because I was a careless toddler, but that was my worst flight. Okay. And in the 80s, you're flying. There's no like, let me flip on a movie. There's no internet. There's no Wi-Fi.

You just got to sit there in your shitty jumpsuit. Maybe eight-ish years ago. Bachelor party shot out Juan, way back from New Orleans. window seat, bad time. Bad time. Yeah.

Yeah, anxiety, sweats. Yeah, bad time. Second guessing your entire existence. That's right. Worst unsolicited advice anyone I ever gave you. That's from Derek Blaylock. That was when Coach Lewis, who I love.

Remember Coach Lewis at Stab? Mm-hmm. Told me I should play basketball over football because I have a better chance of becoming a professional basketball player. And he meant that as a compliment. but it's as if he didn't watch me play basketball. Yeah.

That was bad advice. You were a glue guy. Yeah, I was a glue guy, exactly. My worst unsolicited advice, keep doing that podcast. Good. That's good. Yeah, thanks. Well, that's a good way to close the show.

Thanks for watching. Chalk, what do we got going? We got Killy tapes being released intermittently here. Two dudes on a rock. We got what else there, Cowboys? Oh, yeah. The Fishbowl podcasts. You know, we've got DJ Premier, Kirstianis,

Aaron Donald, a bunch of folks that we did an interview series with over the summer and we have converted them into audio for some of you, guys that hate YouTube.com, check those out. And we'll be back with episode 29. Can't wait, man. Yeah, don't, you know, don't have to lie.

I can wait a little bit. Yeah, y'all take care. Take care. Thank you.