Green Light with Chris Long - Geoff Schwartz on the 2020 College Football Season, Mailbag, and Alto Reed.

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

0:37 - Open and College Football. 12:40 - Geoff Schwartz on 2020 College Football, Amateurism and Options for Players and Leagues. 46:32 - Mailbag. Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including 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. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I work for Pattoe radio on Sirius XM. And I think we're still going to have our job. But like the idea that just selfishly that I would lose a job in the media business because we didn't have football, never occurred to me. Like it's just, it's the craziest thing ever. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Chris Long. And you're listening to the green light pod.

And yesterday was a weird day, wasn't it? Like, it was so weird that people forgot there was a vice president nominated. Like somebody said earlier. that Kamala Harris nomination really stole the college football news thunder, didn't it? It was a weird day. And I'm only laughing because I'm just wildly uncomfortable at the prospect of no college football, even if it's the safest thing to do. So it's going to be interesting.

And we're not just talking about this fall. Obviously, there are far-reaching implications that I continue to try to research and dig in on, like so many people are right now. And the implications are just so hard to predict. I mean, you know it's bad, but how far will it reach? How far into the future will it change college football? And I have a guest on today who can answer those questions, in my opinion. His podcast is called Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you.

So I don't have to give it one star and say it's not true because Jeff Schwartz isn't smarter than me. I need him to be smarter than me on my podcast. And I'll give him five stars. And I think he will be. He is a bright dude, former O'Lyman in the NFL. And, you know, O'Lyman are really smart. They just tend to be smart. And Jeff, I really enjoy his football takes.

And he knows a lot about college football. Pack 12 guy. And with all the kind of the epicenter of this player mobility and the conversations we're having right now started or, you know, the roots were. in the Pact 12 this July. And so Jeff, being an Oregon guy, is going to lay all that out. And we'll talk about pretty much whatever we can as far as today's concerned, because there are so many, so many dimensions to this thing.

A little scary. So the Big Ten and the Pact 12, I mean, I don't know what success looks like for them. I suppose it's if shit hits the fan this fall, which is a really weird way to think about it. But, I mean, they certainly don't want to feel dumb. And, you know, we make a miraculous turn. for the better. I mean, I think for the greater good, they want that,

but they're in a weird spot, you know. I do get the fact that if you're trying to keep hope alive, you know, as a conference and you think it's not going to go well this fall, even if it seems implausible to move it to the spring, you're just kicking the can down the road to make a final decision at some point at a later date. because if you say cancel, it's cancel. If you postpone, it's postponed.

And there are a number of challenges that me and Jeff will talk about when it comes to spring football. And we're not talking spring football. Like if you play college football, you or I played where you practice and have a spring game. We're talking about like 22 games in a calendar year. And dudes opting out to get ready for the draft who would otherwise have played another year of college football. going to get weird. So the weird part to me is, and maybe some of y'all can help me on this, I might be missing the point, but there are some schools, like maybe some Mac schools, some smaller schools that, and the Mac already canceled, they were the first relatively major

conference to do that. They lose money some of these schools year to year. So for them, I wonder if they're looking at their, you know, their sheets, you know, I imagine like the president has some big, like, huge sheet, like the size of a fucking farmhouse table. And he's just like crossing shit off with a red pen. And he looks at football and he's like, oh, we didn't lose money this year. That's kind of nice. I worry that, you know, some of these schools might not be actually forced to go away from football or think about going away from football.

But effectively will be given kind of a choice that they look long and hard at because, you know, football wasn't that profitable to them. and maybe they're seeing that some other burdens are being eased. And right now, quite frankly, you know, football ain't the only thing in trouble. So I wonder about schools like that. I looked at 2018 rundown of, you know, the money coming in and going out. When it came to NCAA football, $1.1 billion in ticket sales. That's out the window.

You know, $2.5 or so billion in TV stuff. One of the interesting numbers, as I looked at, you know, money coming in and going out for the NCAA to make sense of like what this could actually look like in two variable situations. One being a season with no fans in the stands, the other being obviously no season at all. You know, one number that stood out to me was net across all those schools in Division 1A. It was like in 2018, $1.6 billion in donor money. That is a lot of money. And so I think one thing people look at as they, you know, check things off and cross things off as to what's going to be irrelevant this fall

and what you're going to have to foot the bill for anyways, you know, money that you're not going to get no matter what, the $1.1 billion in ticket sales. donor money is kind of an unknown because if you think about it, if you think about it really lazy, you might think people aren't going to give in a tough time to a football program that's struggling. And that might be true when it comes to some schools.

I mean, most of that donor money is, you know, pushed into a corner of a proverbial table to schools like Alabama and Michigan and that sort of thing. They're heavily represented. and weighted in that number of $1.6 billion in donor money. And also when it comes to the TV deals as well,

but at a big school, I don't feel like donors are going to abandon the program. I really think that, you know, you have to consider the fact that a lot of these donations come from really rich dudes. And when really rich dudes give to football programs, they care deeply about the program. It becomes like part of who they are. like, you know, guys that give a lot of money to, say, UVA, really identify with the, you know,

the family aspect of I'm a part of this. And they are. And you can't underestimate the fact that some people might want to be the savior, the hero. Like, I'm going to, I'm going to take it up a notch because I'm not hurting right now. America is largely hurting, but the really rich people are doing fine. And that's kind of fucked up. But, I mean, people, that are cutting checks are still going to cut checks, especially for something that they are already invested in. So I think that, you know, I could be dead wrong and you might look at a net number that represents, you know, me being off the mark at the end of this year. I still think that, you know, the number might be low, but it probably won't be as low as you think it will be for big

schools. And I think I think that's an interesting discussion. What's going to happen with the, with the donor money, because there is so much of it flying out the door year to year in college football. But this is not just a different year because there might be no football in the fall. It's also a year where people are feeling financial strain, but the really rich guys, the big donations might still come in. I also thought it was interesting. I saw a college basketball team. I think it was New Mexico State, you know, missed out on the whack tournament. in basketball this year. They sold $44,000 worth of tickets. And if you've read this, and I'm butchering this, just tell me. But they gave fans three options in the refund process. One,

do nothing, get your money back. Two, turn your ticket, you know, investment into a one-time tax deductible donation. Now, the third option was to roll it into next year as a credit. through options two and three, they got back $17,000, which is certainly not 44, but every little bit helps. And right now, you're seeing some college football programs do that as well, some really prominent ones, giving out that kind of three-option system to fans who were all in this year on buying tickets. Another thing that I found interesting is trying to identify the schools, which is a really morbid exercise. but the schools that are going to struggle here the most, because we talked about schools that, you know,

don't depend on football as their lifeblood anyways, they could move away from it for that reason and seeing that they're no longer in the red on something like that. You know, the big money schools are going to survive. They'll get creative. Donors will step up. They have endowments. Football factories are going to be fine.

I'm curious about the working man schools, like the, you know, the middle management type schools, relatively speaking, in college football that populate these Power 5 conferences and give you the parity that you love. You know, anything can happen when it comes to college football every Saturday. And that's why I love about it. That's why I like watching it more than the NFL. The quality of play is not that high outside of, you know, a select few teams. But we love it. I mean, we freak out over, you know, Big Cat says Macian, okay? Like, people are into watching Mac football on the reg.

A lot of them are gamblers, but I love college football because of the parody, because of the, you know, the pageantry, whatever, the tradition. And then, you know, just the volume. So the very thing I love about college football is probably threatened where I don't know who these teams are and where this line, this imaginary line is that when you cross the teams are in danger. but, you know, I figure if you break down the NCAA and all the football teams that represent it into three zones, you know, people would think there's probably a green zone, a yellow zone, and a red zone coming out of this. You know, schools that are fine, but, you know, they feel it.

Schools that don't feel it at all, those are the green zone ones, and then the red zone are ones that are in fucking trouble. here's what I think. I think it goes straight green to, I guess, light red and then dark red. Like outside of a relative few schools, everybody's feeling this. And it's like a crisis. So the financials, you know, are over my head. I do know that there are going to be schools that are going to struggle. And the gap's going to widen for a number of reasons in conferences where there's like juggernaut. So like if you get tired of seeing Bama win, you're going to be more tired. I mean, unless I'm missing the point here, because some other schools

that give them competition, you know, relatively speaking, Saturday in and Saturday out or in trouble. And I don't know what the answer is. So let's get Jeff Schwartz on. Maybe we'll cover some of this stuff.

That's just like my brain dump on what's going on today. And there's so many questions I still have. Back on the greenlight pod, my good buddy from Twitter.com, although I'm not on Twitter.com so much anymore. It's a good day to be off to it. It's the most chaotic, one of the most chaotic days in sports history.

Jeff Schwartz, what say you? Yeah, it's chaotic. It's a chaotic actually, it's a historic day in the world as well for politics. But this has been maybe trumped by college sports. So yes, for those who don't know, the PAC 12, the Big 10, or cancel the football season, I tell you what, man, I work for Pac-12 radio on Sirius XM. And I think we're still going to have our job, but like the idea that just selfishly that I would lose a job in the media business because we didn't have football. Never occurred to me.

Like it's just, it's the craziest thing ever. And as we see the PAC 12 and Big Ten come out and talk, the PAC 12 is talking right now. And they're being very forceful with the idea that, you know, the COVID is just still so unknown, right? You know, a medical expert saying that, you know, it's still very prevalent. We don't really have the testing capabilities to feel comfortable testing our players. We know about the heart condition, the heart symptoms that has been showing in athletes with COVID as well. And they're just worried about the liability, comes down to liability, the liability of playing for the season. It's not so much health and safety.

It's really amateurism, that idea that they're still amateurs, right? Pro sports, you can't compare college and pro. No. sports have unions. Players agree to it. They're adults. They're getting paid. All the things are different.

Dabo doesn't know that. Well, dabbo, yeah, he said a players association's not really a union. Okay, buddy. I was like,

yeah, five. Do you know of any players associations that are not effectively unions? No, zero of them. He's so against players getting paid. Not in,

in outer space. You know, like, I want to believe that there's some, yeah, I think we do this thing with college coaches where we all hate amateurism on a level, like we do feel like that certain people shouldn't be getting paid so much and that sort of thing.

And, you know, I hate to villainize Dabo. I thought he missed the mark, you know, in certain junctures when he could have used his voice or said the right thing. But maybe we shouldn't expect so much out of college football coaches. Maybe they should just coach football. Yes. And I think that that maybe should be the case for all coaches in all different sports. But nonetheless, you know, the power that these coaches have is going to be a little bit different after this. I mean, you know, we've seen the, the we, the we want to play movement,

the we are united movement that started, that movement started in the Pact 12 conference. Are they going to get compensation as far as a salary moving forward? Probably not. Name and like this happens next summer. But the players realize they have a voice now. And the coaches that don't, that don't understand the dynamic is changing, you know, when we played, there was like no questioning the coach. There was no publicly questioning the coach. There was no, you know, maybe we should do this coach or there was no health and safety. We had double days. We hit all the time.

You do what your coach told me to do and that was the end of it. And now a generation of players that don't have to do that anymore, they can go to Twitter and say, my coach sucks. He works us too hard. And people are like, okay, great, he does. And then, you know, the pile on the coach. So players have voices now. We've seen that voice, be demonstrated with, we are united.

We see it be demonstrated with social justice. And the coaches have got to realize things are changing. And they might change even more with name and your likeness. And so this is a watershed moment for the NCAA. In my opinion, and Kurt Herbstree said this too, and it's not like a crazy thing to say, but the structure of the NCAA is over. Like, it's going to be. Got to change.

Yeah, I didn't see what Kirk said, but I feel like they're just as much worried about, you know, at first glance, you're like, okay, March Madness, that's 80% of NCAA revenue. So you don't want the fall stepping on the spring. So they might be looking at the big 10, like, what the fuck, man? But actually, it's twofold. they're looking at the autonomy that these conferences are operating with. And like, what's next? Are they going to cut out the middleman when it comes to NCAA?

Are they going to do what they want? I mean, it's just like the NCAA, it's just when you dig, it makes no sense. 501C3. And all they really have to wield is the threat of punishments. Which, again, I'm not sure players are as worried about. And we saw a complete lack of organization of leadership of leaders. leadership of foresight when it came to what's happening right now. Not just, again, a lot of what I'm saying about college football applies to the rest of the

country, by the way. But the idea that, you know, that like the conference couldn't get together and figure out a unified plan. I get it. Oregon State, Rutgers, there are schools that don't have the budget to pay for testing. I get that. The conferences do. Other schools in the conference do as well.

If they wanted to play football, but could have found a way to pool things together, pool the resources together. Instead, the Big Ten's off announcing a conference-only schedule. The Big Ten's off announcing, obviously, they're counting the season. The Big Ten is just doing whatever they want. The Pac-12 is doing whatever they want. The ACC is doing whatever they want. They're doing whatever they want.

And this is why I think they're going to end up having some sort of group of five consortium together where they're just out of the NCAA. They're doing their own thing. They have a commissioner and they make it work all together. And maybe the idea is no more conferences, right? Just 65 teams. there's a pay-for-play structure. You get a salary.

You play to minor league football system. I don't know what it is, but it's never going back. And the lack of leadership has been so exposed to this entire process. The NCAA has wanted no part of it. And, you know, this health and safety thing is such a BS, right? Oh, we're going to play spring football and you're not a health and safety. Yeah, it's not going to be. It's also not going to be much.

I mean, things could be different in the spring. If you're optimistic, we might have more ways to treat the disease, that sort of thing. but the thing that scared them, the straw that broke the camel's back or what it feels like on the liability end was this myocardia thing, which they've uncovered a lot of players, which you could downplay and all that. And you can get myocardia from the flu and other viruses. But I talked to one of my old doctors in the NFL. And they're like, you know, one of our biggest fears was always myocardia when a guy played with the flu and that sort of thing. And it's happening more with COVID. And like, I think to this point, the NCAA was like, okay, if a guy gets COVID, there's a liability.

issue and going to the ER, it's expensive. And God forbid, somebody dies, which I think people forget about coaches. I mean, that part is glossed over a lot. I mean, what if a coach dies? These guys are out of shape. They're older, that sort of thing. I think that when it comes to liability, there's a greater fear of the unknown with the myocardia thing. It's not happening in real time. You don't know somebody's sick. You don't know, like, that this guy had COVID. You know, it's pretty clear when a guy's really sick and you're at risk to be sued. It's not clear when five, 10 years down the line, you start getting sued for a heart condition that popped up and was quiet. I mean, they just don't know enough.

But in the spring, the best thing we can hope for is a vaccine. Okay. But the distribution of a vaccine, you talk about concerts and that sort of thing. They're talking about 2022 in some circles, large crowd gatherings, because that vaccine is going to have to be distributed equitably. And it might be a bad look for college athletes to be getting to the front of the line on that thing in the spring. So I think there's a lot of unknowns.

I don't think you'll have fans in the stands. and Springs best case, best case scenario. It's just all it is to me, Jeff, and I think it's all you can do, even if it's disingenuous, is kick the can down the road, because they're not ready now. They're just not.

Well, they're not ready now. And, you know, there's a lot of things that get, I get back to like in the back of our country. I know this might piss people off, but like the idea that that I looked at playing football, and the NFL has done a good job, by the way, of making sure the players have done a good job.

It's like we've, overcome COVID, right? I mean, look, this happened in March when we shut down. I figured by now we'd be like, okay, we're getting up for football, we're ready to go. And just on the college level, it obviously didn't happen. There's many reasons for that. And I think that's okay to say this. I feel like you're saying BOTUS means, like, I'm not quite sure whether it was right to

shut down or not. I'm not an expert. I don't know. And you have to rely sometimes experts. And the problem with that, what we're seeing is that we have ACC doctors saying it's safe to play. SEC doctors are saying it's safe to play. And the PAC 12 with the Big Ten doctors are like, oh, it's not safe to play.

So like, what are you supposed to believe? What are you supposed to do? And you can't, you're right. You cannot wait for a vaccine. Who's going to take forever? It's going to, like the people you talk to that say best case scenario in the spring, we get a vaccine. Then you've got to distribute it.

Like, like, you know, and spring is early. This is like from everybody. And again, none of us are experts on this thing. Again, which is why it's hard when sports intersects with COVID. But everybody, listening who has a Twitter and an opinion is a medical doctor, by the way. So I do want to get back to, I want to get back to player mobilization, that sort of thing. But, but you, you mentioned the NCAA and the silence. So we went down that road. I do think the tiger's already out of the cage.

This big 10 move, the chaos that's ensued, the NCAA getting caught kind of with their pants down with no plan, just hoping for the best. These, these conferences are seeing that eventually, to your point, this arrangement as it stands now is going to no longer exist and this is only accelerating it. It can't exist and it can't exist because the idea of amateurism is it's over. Like that's the thing is yeah, it was over anyway. And I'm not sure that I am, that I agree that quote unquote paying players is the way to go. I'm not sure that paying them a scholarship plus a salary is something that should be. done. I think that we've lost the idea that a scholarship does to provide some value to a student athlete,

right? It's a free education, the branding opportunities, and everything that comes with your scholarship, right? So I'm not sure paying the players is the way to go, but name and you like this will change everything. And I'm really, I am 100% for NAMG. Yeah, that was a great step in, in certain places. And so that's going to change. Obviously, missing a season, man. Like, if you're the Pact 12 and Big Ten, how do you, if the other three conferences play, how do you recruit? Like, how How do you recruit a, where the conference that set out? How do you make the money up? Look, the PAC 12 has said internal memo leaked that they took out basically a billion dollars worth of loans, a billion dollars.

Every school gets about $85 million to get through this. Okay, sure. But again, how do you just rebuild yourself? Because to your point, if COVID is no better next fall, which it might not be. Yeah. What's the criteria for getting back to play? Now, I certainly hope it's back. I hope it's twindled.

I know you do as well, but there's no guarantee for any of this. Yeah, none of us are rooting again. Like, listen, I will be depressed, like low-key, even if, even if it's the right thing to do, I'll be depressed if there's no college football. I mean, because I love it. I love it more than pro football. It's the parody. It's the unpredictability.

It's the volume. And now it's so disjointed and we just don't know. And you talk about recruiting that sort of thing. I think if they do the spring thing, which it'll be interesting. If everything goes smoothly, I don't think anybody complained to have the Big Ten on TV in the spring. You know, like it'll compete with college basketball, which will be weird if college basketball goes on as scheduled. One thing with the recruiting, and this is the tradeoff of losing probably some transfers and that sort of thing. Has Jim Harbaugh ever been able to go down to like Northern Florida and watch a high school game and recruit?

I don't know how valuable that is while everybody else. is forcing this thing this fall. Maybe the Big Ten and the Pack 12 can get into some homes in the fall. And to boot, if they're right, and it's a weird spot to be in with the Big Ten, like, because clearly they want to be right, but do they want to root for a disaster this fall? Because we're talking about human lives and sickness. And so I think that there's a tradeoff there. They could get a leg up in some ways.

But overall, it's going to really hurt these conferences. I got to feel that way. It's going to hurt the time. By the way, as we're recording this, Jim, Harbaugh is making his kids practice today. Like, they're still practicing. This is chaos. In pads.

Like, like, they don't, coaches don't care. They just want to practice. I just want to play. They just want to, like, that's their entire life. And yeah, I mean,

and that's the thing about, like, what I'm most, like, kind of not anxious about. I don't really, I guess I'm anxious now, but I typically don't is that,

like, the, the future is unknown for college football. I mean, it's going to be, again, to make a point for the fifth thousand, it's just to be different from now on.

whether that's coming back in the spring again is just utterly ridiculous, right? You can't play two seasons in one calendar year. And that's the number one part. You're talking about 22 games. Now, I know the Ivy League and I had Bob Sarace on from Princeton a couple, how it feels like a couple months ago, right after they made the decision to push things to the spring. And I think that the Ivy League is they usually are,

or the Canary and the coal mine as far as like the fallout look and they were in basketball in the spring and that sort of thing. But they're going to do it right if they do in the spring. They're going to crunch the schedule down a little bit. It's going to be like kind of a little extended month or two of a season. And I wonder if they'll have to, instead of doing 22 games in the calendar year, we would never be able to handle that load. They have to do something.

Well, I think that if, in my opinion, a spring football, if you want to get it in, should be two scrimmages, essentially. So like, I went to Oregon. So you play Oregon State and Portland State. Or, you know, you know, you went to Virginia. you play Virginia Tech and whoever the nearest. Something, although everybody. Yeah, VMI, right?

Like, you play like someone, right? Like, you just play. So you just, you know, you kind of get it in a little bit. So you know, you practice your 15 practices. And therefore, your body can still play again in the fall because I think the last thing the country ball wants is then to delay the fall season start because you had a spring season that went too long. You know, also there's like, you know, those like simple stuff like injuries.

Imagine the guy gets hurt, week one of this spring season. they could be out two seasons now for one injury. Yeah, you could lose two years. And then you've got this big like backlog of guys petitioning for another year and that sort of thing. And then also pro guys, they're out. I mean, like if I'm if I'm a pro guy and you're talking about like, hey, just do this thing in the spring. And they may move the combine back and that sort of thing. It just puts you behind the eight ball to deal with that rookie load of practice and volume and games,

a 16 game schedule, which is a big, you know this. And I know this. Like your rookie year. you're like, holy shit, they talk about the rookie wall. I never quite hit it. I just wasn't quite ready. But like it's just it's a real thing. And if I'm a player that's a pro prospect in the big 10,

I'm probably not going to play in the spring. Now, I will say in a perfect world, if they were able to execute it, notwithstanding the volume and all that stuff, I think they could survive none of their big time pro guys because at the end of the day, people just want to gamble, enjoy the volume, enjoy sitting in front of the TV.

It's that college football is not that high quality of play anyways. It's not like if it gets worse, we're going to lose our minds. We already put up with kind of crappy play from all but 10 teams. Yeah, we would watch it. Of course, we would watch the fuck out of it. But I also think that we, because we play, we understand the ramifications on the body. If you kind of go at this in a way that's, you know, you can't preach health and safety again, which is what they're doing.

And again, I think it's kind of BS. And then obviously have the players do this in this fashion where you play, all these games all the once. You're right. The pro guys are not going to play. So you're going to have a weird hodgepodge of players that you don't know, but of course, we'll watch it. What I think should happen, this is obviously a pipe dream of mine. It's not going to happen this quickly is the Rock takes the XFL, goes to, goes to Las Vegas in a month and buys two hotels or rents two hotels and says, hey, look, we're putting eight teams together. We're going to take the top college players that want to play. We'll pay them 100 grand each. We'll play.

You know, at UNLV Stadium, we'll use the Raiders facility. We'll practice in two places. We'll bubble everyone up and we'll just play an eight-game season. It's not that clean. It's not going to work that clean. But there has to be some of that idea. I saw Major League Baseball talking about bubbling for the playoffs. I think the NFL is going to end up having to do that.

They want to make a new season. Jeff, I so agree with you on the NFL. The chances of the NFL starting and stopping are 100% in my opinion. Oh, yes. Because, and again, we're not rooting against football. we stand to make money if the football season happens. We love football. I mean, I'm speaking for Jeff too.

This is something I enjoy. I want football. But the NFL to me, and this is my hottest take, I'm not sure it's actually hot. And I want to qualify it by saying in a perfect world, if the college players were getting paid and they had this shit together, you know, by now mid-August, I think that college players would be easier to safely bubble and avoid an outbreak than a pro player. because college towns are not big cities. There's more oversight. There's less autonomy. And college players live with college players.

They don't live with roommates that we call family members that go to school and go out to dinner and meet with their friends. I think that college football could pull it off, but they missed the boat on getting it together. But again, your point is accurate, though. You can't bubble the players and call them amateurs. You just can't do it. And that's what this comes back. You know, this comes back to the, the NCAA has finally. had their day of reckoning with the amateurism idea because you're right.

They could have bubbled up. Look, the NFL is doing a good job in training camp so far bubbling. There's been very few positive tests. Did you see anybody outside of your teammates for a month? No. But they're letting them go home at night too. So like the spouses are doing a good job. Because the spouses, of course, want their husbands to play.

Hats off. Shout out to the spouses. They're doing a good job. But also, too, depends on the location. If you are in California, if you're in a certain state, you might not be able to do anything. anyways. And when we turn to the NFL season, like, I think a lot of success will happen based off of like your region. If you're in a city, a state that has everything open, you're going to be just,

players are going to get sick and you might have to forfeit two games. If you're in a region, if you're in California, we can't do anything right now. You're probably going to stay a little healthier than you would if you're in the South where you can just do whatever you want right now. You know, if you're a Falcons player, you can, you have liberties to go out and do more things than you do if you're a Rams player right now. There's also, there's also another angle to it along the same lines as Joey Bosa said this, and we talked about it on the last pot was, Joey Bosa said, hey, the most responsible team could win. And I tend to think there's something there. I think there will be certain teams who will be elevated because of their responsibility and geography,

New England Patriots who play in Foxborough. Now that I know they've led to league in opt-outs, but they still have the continuity, the responsibility, and that setting that they live in. Like, when you live in Foxborough, you live in Foxborough. And if Bill says you're not leaving Foxborough, you're not leaving Foxborough. If you play in Tampa, and this is the shame of this season is I would love to see Tampa make a run. It's going to be hard, not just in their division, but Ebor City, Tampa, Nightlife, you know, Florida, the way they've handled this. And you don't have the continuity. So I think that this is going to, like, from a pro standpoint, it's going to reveal so much.

And your point is terrific about geography, too. I mean, not just the size of where the facility is. I mean, some people don't realize that when you play certain places, you're 45 minutes outside the city. Oh, yeah. If you play in Philly in South Philly, and we'll see how Philly does. And one thing I loved about playing for the Eagles was the facilities right there in South Philly.

So that's going to be a test for teams like that. Yeah. And that's obviously what the issue with college football has become, is that there's just, there's too many variables you can't control or the NFL can control a lot of things. The NFL travel is not as much as the, as MLB. And look,

NFL players want to make their money. Like, in my opinion, it would be embarrassing if I was the player who got sick because I went to a bar and let my teammates down.

We saw us with Cleveland Indians where two pitchers went out to a bar. They got COVID and everyone has hammered them. Everyone's hammered them for that. As they should be. As they should be. Of course.

You can't stay out of a fucking bar. Like, everybody in the league is trying to make this work and collect a check. And compete for a chance. The Marlins went to Atlanta. of like the first week. Yeah.

And that's the thing about baseball players. I think they realize, dude, that they're like, damn, I really like being able to just be on the road 82 games a year or whatever it is and just go out and be hung over the next day. Like, they don't know how to play baseball without hanging out. They don't. I've had baseball friends tell me, like, the stories about them playing hungover are legendary. You play better hungover on us. Yeah, they do.

And the special coffee that they drank. And so I just, I just, it's, we're in a whole new territory. You know, there's, there's one thing that I, that's been brought up a bunch. I think it's a really silly thing. And I think that it's emblematic of our society right now. A lot of people have said with college ball being canceled, the players don't have the incentive now to follow the protocols, right? That only with the season ahead of the players, would they social distance, would they

quarantine, not quarantine, whether we wear a mask? Okay, that's why we are where we are in America. You can't do anything unless it's for you only. The point of wearing a mask and keep away from people is so that we collectively got over this. Right. And I think it's so disingenuous and so sad and so selfish that people around college football are saying, well, the kids aren't going to behave now because there's no incentive to behave. Yeah, and it's also paging holding every college football player is just moronic and being like

out. You know who's fucked this up? It ain't all college football players. It's mostly non-football players that have fucked this thing up. Okay. Like now football players represent a cross-section of America. So there's certain guys that are less responsible. But it's very paternal as a coach. I think this is one of the biggest problems about the college football culture is saying, hey, they're safer with me. That's how they're safest. Yeah. When we know it's just about for college football coach, I'm not saying for all, every college football coach is money first, but it's football first. you know, it's not, if you really wanted them safe, you wouldn't have them practicing. If you're moving this to the spring, you know, like Harbaugh, and I'm not questioning Harbaugh's

like character. Some guys, that's all they know is football and they want to play football, you know, and I get that, but just be honest about the fact that you want to play football. It's not about the kid's safety. It just all ties back to amateurism, my opinion, right? Like, again, you can't say it's unsafe for the kids to go to school, but safe for the players to play football together. Right. And so, yeah, the thing about these arguments is that it's, and it's very clear that there are people in the media that are afraid of losing their jobs. I'm afraid too.

Yeah. And they're kind of projecting that out into like making some of these arguments of like, we should play football no matter what. We should do this no matter what. I mean, it's not, I wish it was that simple. But it does look like there's a problem when we have three conferences still playing us of right now. The Big 12 might, the big 12 pulls the plug, which they're talking about just delaying the story. started their season, then we're in trouble. Then it's probably all going to end up collapsing.

Yeah. It's just. That's like the sketchiest guy at the bar not taking a shot like of something. You're like, maybe I shouldn't take a shot of that either. It's hard to justify again, the thought of the players, you know, you have two conferences saying it's not healthy to play. And then you have another conference saying, oh, it's fine to play. Like I just, it's so, um, disjointed.

disjointed and it does lead to the argument the players should make of like, hey, yeah, am I a pro then? Like, if they're playing, should I get paid for playing? Do they get hazard paid for this? What about players in their mobilization? Because we talk about scary time for the NCAA. Zoom calls and hashtags and the NCAA, which is reared its head before and trying to help Northwestern unionized in 2014.

I mean, one thing that I think people are missing the boat on is you can't technically unionize. Correct. You have to be a trade association, which I'm glad people have brought up on Twitter. You know, people have said that they think the big 10 and Pac-12 canceled their season for this reason. I don't think so.

I'll tell you why. I don't think so. One is that, you know, the Pac-12 met with their players and basically told them kick rocks and all the economic stuff. Like we're not talking about this. And they're not. They're not going to do it. Now, the COVID protocols, things like that, sure,

they were going to have those discussions with the players. But even in this moment, there has been. a lot of confusion in my minds. We have the PAC 12, the NCAA, and the Big Ten, and all the conferences, saying here's our COVID guidelines. Here they are. Also, you're not signing a liability waiver. We're not offering that to you.

Yes. And yet the players are still like no liability waivers and where are our protocols? And I'm like, well, the protocols are here. There's no liability waivers and the players have individually said at certain schools, we're doing a great job. Right. There's, again, like another communication disconnect between how the players feel, which is, or how the conference is approaching this to how individual schools are approaching this. There's just no leadership at all.

Now, the main point of the We Demand letter from the Pacti of was the economic stuff. And look, a lot of it is just, it's not going to happen. You're not getting 50% of revenues. You're not getting another year of scholarship. I mean, there's things in there that are just never going to happen. They shot for the moon. Yeah, pro players aren't getting, I mean, they've struggled to get 50. And I don't think you're going to see economic changes on the wholesale next season.

So I don't think the Pac-12 was worried about that. People say they canceled for that reason. I don't think so. I don't think they're worried about that. No players were going to boycott, okay? Maybe like three players. But the rest of them we're going to play. You think out of the 400 plus there would be like single digits that would actually fall through on that?

Yes. And I think that's even less for impact players. Here's my thing on that whole thing. I mean, like, I think that, I think that all this is positive. You had Cheval Hubbard with the OAN shirt, which, you know, to each his own, I think it's just, I'm glad he said something. You know, there's, there's Trevor Lawrence who is, you know, the all-American guy who comes out with that hashtag, which included demands.

And it's funny, just emblematic of players taking actions of their own hands. Like that shockboard thing that they wrote the graphic up was like, There was a guy who's a graphic design major who chipped in. And, you know, it's, it's Trevor. And there's guys from the, the, the Pact 12 talking on Zoom calls. It's like, it's a small world now. And honestly, ironically, the way a lot of people painted it immediately was these two groups are opposed. A lot of they wanted the same things.

It's just the Pact 12 guys that seem like we're trying to tackle the big thing right now. And there's, there's talk that and there's an opinion out there, which I think there's some validity to, although I admire guys standing up and saying, like, we need to have our voices heard and shoot for the moon, there's an argument for just focusing on the health and safety right now and getting a seat at the table and saying, we will be heard from when these things are addressed in the next few years because they will be.

And the mobilization part is, hey, if there's no fall for these players in the PAC 12 or the Big Ten, use this time to mobilize. Because when as a college athlete, even the brightest guys don't have enough time to do anything but study, bury their heads in books, you know, and play football. And you're only there.

The two impediments to mobilization for college athletes are the span of time. It's short and the turnover is great. You can't. And again, you can't technically unionize because what happened to Northwestern in 2014 was, and correct me if I'm wrong, I figured you the only guy I could have on that. I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about here. They went to the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB. They go to the board.

We want to unionize, okay? then they kick it to DC and DC's like, nah, we don't have jurisdiction because you're a private school and most of the schools you play are public and state to state things vary. And like, for instance, at Clemson, being a public employee in South Carolina, the Supreme Court has ruled that you can't unionize. So the problem is there, each player at Clemson would have to individually negotiate. Whereas like at different schools, the rules are different. And to our point, it's just it, now you could do the trade union thing. And I guess I'd have to ask you, because I assume you know more than me. What the hell is the difference?

If you go to at ruling sports, Alicia Jessup wrote a really good job, kind of a summary of what was basically what you said, which is the idea that, you know, that, you know, public, you can't form a union being like a public entity. Right. You could form it like as a private school, a union, but you can't form it as like, as entire NCAA players at public schools forming us together. And so a trade association,

is something that came down. I don't know how much, like, I don't know how much power a trade association has. But they can definitely get on the same page and try to achieve having a singular voice. It sounds like two things that are relatively the same, and I know, you know, but there are some key differences.

But it's like on a technicality, you can kind of circumvent all the bullshit that you couldn't overcome with the union. I'd just say this about, about, you know, the end goal, which is, or kind of the number one leverage. which is always the sitting out part. And we see this in the NFL side. It never happens in football.

I don't know why. We just don't do it. We never sit out. Baseball has sat out recently. Basketball has sat out. We haven't done it since, what, 89, I think? Is it like, or since the last time that we had a strike? And ironically, that's the precedent for people forming a trade association and

filing for antitrust and that sort of thing. Like after the union was decertified in, I guess it was late 80s, early 90s. Well, yeah. And they held all the whole thing with free agency, too, in 1993, which was part of that whole process. And so, like, we just don't sit out. And so the idea that a bunch of college players are going to form this trade association and then just sit out and hold out, unless the structure of, you know, preparing for the NFL changes, the players aren't going to sit out.

And then that's the thing, too, is like, I wish them well in forming this trade association. I wish them well in getting the leverage they have. But you have to sit out. And that's the biggest impact that will have on this. I just don't think players are. willing to sit out at that age and do that to make that decision. Well, I think one of the big deals in the NFL, and I'm not telling you anything, you don't know, but I mean, like, average career, it's over in a blink.

And if you're lucky, you play 10 years. I mean, you know, and so a missed year in the NFL really hamper your earning potential just from an age standpoint, like say you're a 30-year-old guy and you've got your best chance to win a Super Bowl or you got a big check coming. Like you sitting out and being on the wrong end of 30 is a big deal. That year loss is a big deal. So I also think it's just the culture too. There's more athletes. It's hard to get on the same page. 53 man rosters and in college even bigger. And some guys who play college football. And by the way, I'm all for them getting paid. Although I know it would be a shit show trying to figure out how. I'm all for the name and likeness thing.

Not every college football player cares that much. There are guys that came from means and are they going to stand by guys that are really fighting for, you know, supporting their family and the next guy, you know, so I guess the question for me before you go here, Jeff, would be, do you think that certain players, if we enter an opt-out situation, you know, if guys were vocally instrumental and forming that group out in the Pack 12, are going to come back the next year and have to deal with coaches who are saying, like, I don't trust that player. I have something against that player. of course. Yeah, in the NFL, I'm not worried about it.

I'm not worried about in the NFL because, you know, you're unionized. The coaches don't care. The coaches don't care. Like, yeah, like, the coaches don't really hold that against you the NFL because they want to win. Like, they get paid to win. And they, if you're back to help them win, they're all for that. Right.

Caldula is a little different in that. I mean, they want to win, obviously. But of course, it'd hold it against you. We already saw Nick Rolovich. He didn't dismiss the player for that reason. The player opted out. But he's like, why are you join this thing? like tell me about this. What are you doing?

Like, of course, not all coaches are going to like this. College coaches, we went to start with this. They have a power the NFL coaches do not have over the players. Right. You know, and that power gets challenged when players use their voice and use their platform. And some coaches can't handle. If Dabba wasn't winning so much at Clemson, he'd be a great example of a coach that can't handle. Now, obviously they win.

So players, I think, forgive him for doing that. But there's a lot of coaches that just don't get it yet. and they're going to get it after this season's over. There's no season, but after this whole ordeal is over, the players have more power now. Yeah, and we'll see. It'll be interesting. We saw in the NFL, Jack Del Rio,

he said something along the lines of, well, I can't share my views or an opt-out player. So even in the NFL ranks, you have to be worried, you know, deep down, how you're thought of if you stand up for yourself and college players are really, I applaud the guys that are speaking out. It might be a little overly ambitious,

but they're doing a good job. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you podcast. Thank you for coming on. It's always great having you, buddy. All right. Take care of, but have a good one. All right.

So that was Jeff Schwartz. As always, and I say as always, this is what we do. I say things like as always, and we've only had Jeff Schwartz on twice now, but as always, he is a terrific,

terrific guest with a wealth of knowledge, not just on the O line, but on college football, and a plethora of, of other things that my brain just can't get wrapped around. Very smart guy. Five stars. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you podcast. I'll plug it again. Listen, I just turned on the TV. It's late at night. I want to do a mailbag. I turn on the TV and I'm watching Pelicans Kings. At first, I was like, what kind of jokes can I tell about being in a bubble at Disney World

and being eliminated from the playoffs. But I am not going to be disrespectful towards dudes who have really taken something seriously and showed up with no guarantees, played their asses off. Wow, Yannis got ejected. That's a little headbutt. Headbutt trainers are like,

you just can't do that in the age of COVID. You can't headbutt somebody. Yeah. Entertaining. Thank you, MBA. That's the point. The NBA has really busted their ass on this thing. And I know me and Ryan talked about it last week, like they deserve, the players deserve to be commended.

Know they get paid a lot of money. Know that sometimes we dehumanize athletes because they have less problems than regular people, I suppose. And, you know, it seems like a fantasy world. But these guys are doing something in the middle of a pandemic that's kind of helping hold people together. So I appreciate that. And the people that show up to this bubble and know that they might not go to the playoffs or, you know, statistically are all but eliminated, although the NBA was quite accommodating with some of these teams. You know, the guys that show up and play their asses off, a lot of them are like, they just got signed. And that sort of thing.

It's pretty cool as a pro athlete. And shout out to Kyle Guy who's been in the bubble for the Sacramento Kings. UVA's own, UVA's finest. One of the keys to us becoming now two years running national champions. These guys are away from their families. You know, I saw the Sun's intro tonight. If anybody I saw it, it was like a surprise starting lineup announcement from, you know, if you're on the Suns, whoever calls your name is going to be.

probably somebody in your family, whether it's like your daughter or, you know, a brother, a sister, you know, your dad. And the guys weren't expecting it. And it was pretty cool. And it just reminded me that like, yeah, God, I know these guys have a lot of money and we're not supposed to feel bad for anybody, but like it's pretty cool. They're able to pull this thing off for everybody if you like the NBA. Now, one thing that I appreciate the most about the NBA, though, when it comes to pulling this thing off is that they managed not to bring my New York Knicks. It's quite the rest of it. I really appreciate that. It's the icing on the cake for me.

But I don't want to dwell on my main team, you know. As if you're a Greenlight Pod listener, you know I have a side team, and that is the Portland Trailblazers. Playoff Portland Trailblazers, or at least they're in the driver's seat when it comes of a playing game. 61 tonight for Dame. I saw a tweet, and I agree that everybody in the league should be pissed off at Paul George and Pat Beverly for what they.

have done. This man is possessed, man. He's fucking mad. He's really mad. He was mad. He was mad in the post came interview. Like, Damian Lillard, you just got in the playoffs.

How do you feel about that? Like, just not happy. Just still mad. I'm not over it. I want to do this to the playoffs. And I hope he does. Also, a guy had 73 saves tonight. in a hockey game.

That was cool. I mean, like stuff like, yes, it's so bleak right now. You know, sports are threatened in the fall. But like,

if you're a sports fan, there's still good stuff going on out there. And like these athletes are really persevering. And it's pretty cool. I am stoned. Okay. I'm not sitting on the couch with my mouth open, like,

um, trying to identify what the ringing noise is, stoned. I'm just laying the driveway looking up at the trees and listening to the cicadas stoned. If you live in Virginia, you know what a cicada sounds like. It's like my favorite sound in the world. They're loud as hell. Not to be confused with the bugs we used to call heat bugs eloquently at football practice

in NFL training camps in St. Louis. You knew it was hot when those bugs started making a bunch of. a noise in the morning. That was like a strictly a training camp thing. Those bugs didn't say a fucking word. January to July. August 1st. First day in pads, bugs are like,

it's like the bugs wake up to watch football. And guys overheat and be uncomfortable and hit each other. Not to be confused with those bugs. That is the worst sound on the planet. Ciccadas, though? Beautiful sound. Along with a passing

train in the night. Okay, guys, yeah, I'm stone. I get both of those things with regularity in the great state of Virginia. And this time of year is awesome for that. You know, I was saying I did lay in the driveway tonight and, and I'm trying to tell you I'm not that stone. Here's how you know. Really stone guy forgets the code to the side door. I did not forget the code to the side door. and I also made it in time to say good night to the kids. So, you know, you go out and take the trash out, you come back in 20 minutes. Your wife kind of knows what time it is. My lovely wife, Meg.

So I decided tonight as I was walking back in the door, thinking about what I would explain to Meg, what I was doing outside laying on the ground in case she saw me outside. Like, is he not well? No. he's just taking a break. I decided that, hey, I got to do this mailbag tonight. Let's brand this motherfucker, man.

Stone mailbag. I'll work on the name. That's the first thing off top of my head tonight for obvious reasons. And don't clutch your pearls, okay? I'm not that bad. This is destigmatization, okay? Stop being all dramatic. Some of y'all are drunk listening.

to this podcast. Drunk. And I've never thought about that before. I don't know if people actually like drink and listen to podcasts. I think that's a bad sign. I think if you're drunk, you shouldn't be listening to a podcast. And if, if you're listening to a podcast drunk, you should maybe not be drinking as much. So I think doing a mailbag stoned, like whatever, not a big deal in the grand scheme

of things, guys. Okay. And I'm not here to shame on the drinking and podcasting thing. That's how you like to listen to the podcast. I guess that's what it takes to stomach me for an hour and a half. First one, young Eli, long time listener, first time mailbagger. Why the hate for the Terps? Okay, so I make mention of this all the time.

I do not like the Maryland Terrapins. Tori Smith, great guy. Aaron Henderson, great guy. I haven't talked to him in a while. You know, Stefan Diggs really like his game. It's not like I hate the players, okay? I just don't like anything about the school or the football program. And here's why.

Just hear me out. When you play football for Virginia in the era I played football in, you know, in Virginia, you were on the front end of what turned into being a 15-year streak of not beating Virginia Tech. That's not good. So you effectively don't really have a rival. Like for those years, now we're back on top and we're busting that ass every year from here on out. I may not have beat him, but my guys got him, okay? Charles Snowden's got him.

Fucking Bryce Perkins got him. Bryce Perkins got him in a big way last year, okay? and you hook, he's listening. You had your 15 years. But when you lose to him four years in my case, and then when you continue to lose to him as a program for so long, in fairness, I don't do the, that's our big rival thing. You also selfishly don't want to have a rival that's beaten you 15 years in a row.

So I kind of, I kind of picked the team that I hated the next most, and that was the Maryland Terrapins. but the difference between tech and Maryland to me is that I do not respect Maryland. I respected tech. Okay, like tech, those guys played hard. A lot of those guys I was cool with off the field and continue to know some of them off the field

and played against some of them in the pros. And, you know, used to sack Tyrod Taylor and rush Dwayne Brown. I like both those guys a lot. In fact, I got to know Dwayne pretty well. Vince Hall, if you guys remember of Vince Hall from the Commonwealth listeners was one of my best friends in St. Louis. We were

rookies together. Me, second pick, you know, Vince undrafted, but we just gravitated, not like guys don't hang out depending on where they're driving, but, you know, like he wasn't there as long and we got tight, man. And, you know, I always

respected tech players. I just, I don't respect Maryland so much. No slander of Roy Smith, no slander of Stefan Diggs or Aaron Henderson, or even Scott Van Pelt, okay? Love the guy. He knows I hate the Terps. And part of that is because, you know, tech used to, used to get after us, not anymore, though. Also, like for a while, until I was introduced to the eastern shore, which I really like the eastern shore, okay, all you know about Maryland is traffic, like those weird brown brick walls that are 40 feet high to try to shield the noise of like I-495

from the people that decided to live right on the side of that highway to have a job in D.C. And then the rest areas. But Baltimore, terrific, terrific seafood. Could eat until I just keeled over and died. like in Baltimore and then um eastern shore shout out to eastern shore i like it there um somebody said give lane johnson a wrestling name i was going to bite but honestly i got to think of a good one i'll get back to you on that but lane joneson absolutely i just have a vision of him in uh in a post-retirement haze just aimlessly walking around a double-yne

WF ring. Is that even a thing anymore? WWF? It's something else, isn't it? But he's just, he's a fucking throwback. He's a 90s wrestler. He'd see him with fucking black, stretchy pants, and for some reason, I see an eye patch. Just for some reason. First thing it came to mind was Dead End Lane. And he would just mumble it in his promos.

Dead End Lane. But I can do better. I'll think about it. I know he's, he's, he's tight with those guys. So I think he's aligning himself for a second career. And I do not blame him. I hope, like, I've never gotten tickets from a wrestler before. I hope Lane looks out for me and gives me, like, good tickets.

I don't want to, like, drive to Tulsa in 20, 26. And, like, show up, stand in Will Call, fucking basically, like, it's like, a monster truck rally will call, but it's just rassling. And I've been to a monster truck rally. I've never been to a rassal match. And fucking get there, get my tickets,

and, you know, strut to the front row. And they're like, no, dude, you're up in the top. So, Lane, when you're a, when you're a wrestler, give me good tickets. That end lane. You use that. You got to pay me. On record. Copyright trademark.

Franimal, you ever worry that Bob Seeger isn't getting the love he deserves? Dude. Yeah. The guy says, dude only made fire. Bob Seeger. Fuck yeah, dude. All right. I had a shirt on the other day and passed somebody at the gas station.

And it's a Bob Seeger shirt that I got at a concert. And I got a compliment on it. Just the other day. Look at you talking about Bob Seeger. I said to her, yeah, I got it to a real concert. She was like, yeah, I know. Like, good for you. That's where you're supposed to get shirts of bands and people like Bob Seeger.

Yeah, I saw Bob Seeger in St. Louis. Took my dad. Bob Seeger reminded me of my dad. Always reminds me of my dad. You know, the whole fucking Chevy commercials kind of ruined it. Even though they were awesome commercials in the 90s, it kind of corporatized the song they reminded me of my dad and then my dad went and pitched Chevy so go figure but my dad

is like a rock you know the most dependable dude the toughest dude I know you know and Bob Seeger summed up perfect so he always reminded me of my pops and we went to see Bob in St. Louis and then you know my dad he's not a drinker not a party or so after the show he's like all right man I'm I'm going to go back to the hotel. And so we got passes to the back, me and my buddy Aaron, and we're waiting down there and we meet Alto fucking Reed.

And for those of y'all who don't know Alto Reed, just Google Alto Reed. And then listen to the song, Turn the Page by Bob Seeger. If you haven't heard that, you're in for a fucking treat. And when you do listen to it, if you know it, the part with the saxophone, that would be Alto Reed. And for that reason, I was kind of starstruck when I met Alto Reed. But then next thing you know, Alto Reed invites me and my buddy Aaron to his post party. And we're partying with Alto fucking Reed. I don't like to name drop on this podcast, but I am name dropping Alto Reed. And I'm not talking about like a, we went back to the Bud Light Lounge for an hour and a half. We were burning it

down with Alto Reed till 3 a.m. I don't remember. the last hour and a half, two hours of hanging out with Alto Reed. Reed, Cowboy Reed, my read, can you put the little Alto Reed saxophone in there to end this question?

Yeah, that's so soothing. That's such a badass fucking sound and you know just who's playing it and we hung out with him. Alto Reed, shout out to Alto Reed. Jesse Fallon asks, will you adopt me? buddy getting the line everybody wants me to be their dad okay i get the question a lot did a little research on

you jesse phallon found out that you have a private profile a little sketchy for you to solicit i don't know if that's solicitation but asking to be adopted on my first stone mailbag with a private profile. Dude, if you want to get adopted, make your profile public, please. Okay? Also says your location is Boston and Philadelphia. Who do you think you are, huh?

You can't do both? Or can you? You look college-aged. You look college-aged. That, that to me is a little alarming. Are you not doing much? You know, why do you need to be adopted? What's the purpose of this arrangement?

You know, after college, I don't loan money to my kids. So just consider that. And sink or swim, Jesse. Consider yourself not adopted. I'm sorry. Let's end on a high note. Okay? Laura Casera asks,

if you could only live in one stage for the rest of your life, which one would it be? That's a great question. Right now, Laura, because I'm working on something. Okay, I'm glad you asked me this. I'm working and I am not trying to be one of these influencer people that gets on, you know, their podcast, their fucking Instagram is like life coaching. I am pretty damn average at life, okay? But I am working at trying to live in the present, okay? And I've never been, you know, I've probably never been happier post football.

So I got great memories behind me and I got a lot of great memories in front of me. It's not a bad place to be. I know you might think, like I'd say, Super Bowl year or the beginning of my career, my childhood or something. But like, honestly, this is pretty fucking cool. I got two young kids that are healthy and, you know, happy and they're starting to play with each other. It's fucking cool. When you see your kids start raising hell together, it's a problem. By the way, my oldest son's name is Waylon, and I was just telling my producers watching this Ken Burns, country music documentary.

Quick plug for what's going on later in the week. We have Ken Burns. Ken fucking Burns. Okay. Ken Burns. coming on the pod. Okay? Just let that sink in for a second

to talk about his country music documentary series that came out recently. If you hadn't seen it, it is magnificent. And you don't just have to be a country fan. I mean, like I definitely like country. I know a lot of old country songs. There are a ton of songs and figures that come up in the documentary that I'm excited about. You don't have to be a historian to like this thing. like there's going to be so many aha moments for you.

But I say that, say this. I mean, I knew Merle Haggard raised hell as a kid. But they were like talking about him like, hey, Merle Haggard used to run away from home. I was like,

oh, cool. I did too. I ran to this tree house like down the street. And like I stayed there for an hour. And then my mom was like, I thought, I like waited my parents out and won like they came down in the driveway. Merle Haggard ran away to fucking Texas.

Okay. He hitchhiked at like 10 to Texas and then like would hop on trains and just ride them around the country at 14 and then just come home and got in trouble so much. He ended up in San Quentin and actually did two and a half years there. So this is extreme. But I said I'd start to call my youngest son Luke Merle because he, if my older son's Waylon. My son Luke is a terror, the cutest kid in the world, but just the total terror. And it might be Whalen and Merle now. He might just have to be Luke Merle long, although he's

Luke Redding long right now. And I don't want to kick Otis Redding's namesake out of the picture. A lot of music, man. I'm like willing these kids to be cool as shit. Come on, just follow through guys. one of these names whalen the other one's middle name is is redding you guys got no excuse um but it's the best time you know i've had in my life post football no stress the only thing i got to wake up an answer to outside of my family is uh delivering on the podcast and i hope you enjoyed this one and i hope that you'll tune in friday um when it comes to kem burns don't let the country thing for you. It won't just be about this documentary. It'll be about his whole career, but we will focus on what you should definitely check out in the country music series you just

did. So Ken Burns Friday, appreciate you listening, and y'all take care.