Green Light with Chris Long - Green Light Exclusive with Dave Dameshek

Episode Date: January 11, 2020

1:13 - Chris and Dave connection. 2:20 - Wild Card Uniforms. 15:07 - Vikings at 49ers predictions. 23:06 - Titans at Ravens. 34:43 - Texans at KC. 42:51 - Seahawks at Packers. 49:23 - Divisional Round Uniforms. 55:15 - Tom Brady predictions. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off limits at Chalk - hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to this really fun interview with Dave Damashak, who's somebody I've long admired the Twitter feed of and his uniform, I don't know, connoisseur status. We talked about uniforms. We talked about the divisional round each game. We talked about Tom Brady. We hit on a little bit of everything, and I really like talking to Dave. So hope you enjoy this as much I enjoyed doing it.

So this is an exciting one. Dave Damashak joining us. Somebody of one of my favorite follows on Twitter.com. a really toxic place in somebody who always brings the positive good football content. Dave's joining us. Dave Damashik football program. You see his Twitter handle there, follow him, all that stuff. Dave, how are we doing, man?

Well, I'm doing well better for your company on the, on the, whatever it is, the Skype thing here. Yeah, it's Skype. We got it working this week. That's what it's called. Yeah, that's what it's called. Listen, what a thrill to join the great Chris Long, your jersey, whether you know it or not, It does hang in Studio 66 where I do my podcast at the NFL. No shit.

The number 56 hangs for all of time. The white jersey, because we kibbitts about it in the moments after you completed the feat against Brady and company. We hung it for all of time. You were named our favorite football playing guest a couple of years ago. So what a thrill. And in fact, you are the reason. Another thing you don't know about is I anointed those.

Eagles, America's team. I think it should be a moving title. You and Malcolm Jenkins, you with your arm around him. And everybody said, oh, that kind of stuff can't happen on a football field. Well, you kind of took that one away when you went on to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, we kind of, that that hypothesis on the other end kind of fell flat on its face, didn't it? Yeah, and then the other thing that fell on its face was the curse of you can't wear a white jersey and win the Super Bowl because as you said to me down on the field, so much for that curse. I love that. Exactly. Exactly. And we talk uniforms all the time. Like I'm DMing you about like, hey, what do you think of this uniform?

Some people get tired of it. I haven't heard anybody say that outright. But we never get tired of the uniform thing. Me and my co-host, Macon, who's not here yet, we went through a whole thing on Wild Card weekend. We were going to have you on, but Skype was messed up. What did you think of last week's slate visually for your visual palette? You know, it is always weird as a side note. What kind of people, how can you be completely apathetic about the uniform?

I don't know. I don't know. What do I care about them? Because you're looking at them for three and a half hours. What do you mean you have no opinion on whether you like them or not? I don't get that either. I don't get either people that are, you know, they don't care about the stadium, you know, natural, natural grass, indoor, outdoor. Like, all that stuff to me matters.

If I watch two teams that are different shades of red playing each other indoor, I'd almost rather watch any other sport. You know, like, you name it. Arkansas, Texas A&M, indoor. I don't care if they're number one or number two in the country. It hurts my brain to watch that. Man, see, we park our cars in the same garage on this. I can't imagine how people just are ambivalent about it. It's akin to, I love to ask pro football players,

specifically, New England Patriots when it was Brady and Jimmy G. I love to ask Patriots who's more handsome between the two, including the both of them. And everybody said, it's just like, I don't know, bro, what do I know about how dudes look at? And I say, well, I think it's

Brady, and they're like, oh, really? You think he's better looking than Jimmy G. I'm not so sure about that. I had an opinion. I just didn't share with you. By the way, it's Brady. Brady, I mean, like, come on. Brady. I mean, he's like he's in his 40s. He's got the the Aaron Eckhart, you know, butt chin or whatever, I don't know if that's a butt chin going on.

I mean, the guy doesn't age. It's a lot like on the field, although this year, and we'll get to that a minute. We did see some signs of aging, but I think it might have been the context with which he was, under which he was operating up there in New England. But I'll start with my worst uniform matchup last week. I would say the Eagles Seahawks was, as you put it as well,

was dreary. I mean, like it matched the overcasts. sky in Philly, you know, that whole dusk thing. I could have used some different combinations there. How could they have fixed that? Well, I mean, you know, I think that the Eagles are constantly considering going back to the Kelly Green. Their get-ups, what's vexing with so many NFL teams is, and I judge the ones that have within

their closets in history better options that they could roll with. The Seahawks are one of those teams. Think about the Jim Zorn. If you don't know the era, I encourage you to Google. Oh, I like the Steve Largen's. Yeah, I like the Steve Largen's. With the black shoes. See, these little details are everything.

They are. The black shoes, the gray face mask, the gray hats, and so on. Those were great uniforms and definitely better than, like you say, the drab ones. I always look at Super Bowl 49 is one of the great superiors. Super Bowls ever, the Malcolm Butler game and all that. Yes. But the only thing that really hurts it, more than anything else, legitimately, every time it comes on or every time I see highlights, I'm always thinking, wow, what a great game this was.

Too bad the uniforms looked the way they did because it was a whole, it was too much Navy. Yeah, there was a lot of Navy. You can't have full Navy on one side and a Navy pant on the other, although I will say from playing in New England, that was one of my, maybe my second favorite uniform was the New England Road uniform. You might not like it because all those Heinzfield battles that you've watched. But it's a high sock excuse. For guys that want to wear high socks like myself and were incurring fines throughout my entire

career, I built into my contract. Hey, if we're playing a primetime game, I'm rolling my fucking socks up and I'm going to eat the check, whatever. But when I was in New England, you had an excuse. And I thought those were really sharp. And they looked good, especially tonight. I wasn't a fan of the home Navy tops. But yeah, I totally hear you.

Too much Navy can be a big problem. Yeah, and I also like them better. I like these Patriot Univores better without the satin finish. They've been improved by going with the flat finish on the Navy pants. But either way, the thing that they should do is, and then it fits into a nice, distinct era is pretty much those uniforms. People forget that there was like a weird variation of Royal Blue when Drew Bledsoe played Red Farve in the Super Bowl.

that was kind of that look, the Flying Elvis and all that. But as Brady arrives, they go to the darker blue but still Flying Elvis. When he's done there, they should immediately the next day, go back to Pat Patriot, and then let that error just stand on its own and go back to the old Patriots get-ups because those are the one thing that were better about the 20th century Patriots than the 21st century. And I agree with you, you're talking to Red Tops, White Helmet. You like those. I love those.

Those are about as good as it gets. They are great. Is there a single team as we digress on uniforms? Is there a single team that wouldn't be better off with their old school uniforms in the NFL? Because I think the same way in the NBA, not to go too far off on a tangent, but a lot of these 90s, Utah Jazz-ish, Denver Nuggets, even like some of these other ones I thought were ugly, they are so much better than what they have right now in the NBA.

Is there an NFL team that actually has improved in your eyes? Well, I mean, yeah, it's always they go back to what was good. It sounds like everybody dabbles with nonsense and then they revert back. They come to their senses, the Seahawks notwithstanding. The Broncos are another one. I'm not answering your question. I'm going the other way. No, I know.

I mean, the cream sickles are better. I cannot, I could not play well in the Buccaneers uniforms. I physically could not sign with them in free agency because of their uniforms. Well, I appreciate your state's tough but fair. The worst ones, or one of the ones that are the worst and they realized it is the Browns. It's so embarrassing that they are one of 32 professional football franchises, known the world over. Everybody knows the NFL. And yet they have such low self-esteem that they have to write the word browns on their pants.

Yes, I hate that. Dude. And you know what? For having brown and orange uniforms, you look perfectly fine when you go to the tried and true stuff. You know, I guess if I'm looking backwards, the bills now, like the Jim Kelly's are brilliant. And I don't like those ones so much. And I don't like the, I like the Josh Allen's and the Jim Kellys. Now, the ones that I can't stand are the Aaron Schobbles, you know.

Those are the Ross Tucker's or whatever else you want to call them. Like those weird aloecks kind of. Yes. They took the Seahawks dreary blue, you know, from like the Sean Alexander. And by the way, the Sean Alexander Seahawks, I wasn't a fan. There was a whole post-2000 period where we got kind of depressing with the Unis. I look back, I don't like the, I don't know what you think about the Steelers, the Bumblebee ones, but I'm not a fan of those. I love those.

I know people hate, I know people get crazy about those. I think they are definitely distinctive. Yeah. But I thought they looked really cool. And this is not me being a Steelers Homer. Yeah. Because I hated the gold hats with the black. jerseys and the white pants. I thought those looked atrocious. But I happen to like the bumblebee.

And I also like the color rush, the head to toe black that the steel is. No, I like the color rush a lot. And now I might have found the answer to my own question here is like Google. Now listen, you go down a list here. I mean, you've got the any chargers throwback is brilliant. I love the dolphins throwbacks. We've talked about those before that they wear, you know, more often now than not. It seems like I don't watch a lot of dolphins games. But the Packers, Acme, whatever you call those things, with the circle in the middle and the number,

not a fan of those. They try too hard, yes. They're a little precious. Now, I'm looking at a picture of DeAndre Hopkins, and I don't know if this is Photoshop, but he has the white top Oilers jersey on, and it looks just marvelous. I don't know why they can't go back to those.

I understand it's a different franchise and everything, but yeah, they could absolutely just embrace the Houston pro football tradition, go with the powder blue. I mean, that's the way, man. Those are about as good as it gets. I don't, to answer your question, so yes, I'm trying to think, everybody, I guess, pretty much does have had better uniforms than they currently do. I'm trying to think the Falcons, the Sparksowski era, the all reds, I mean, the red hats and red jerseys with the gray pants, man. the Dion Sanders era got them sideways and they haven't come back from it yet. I agree. And I'll throw this in there so people know I'm not a homer because everybody thinks of me as a big birds fan because I spent the last two years there.

But I don't know if that's the Swedish throwbacks there for the Swedish contingency up there. What nationality is that? Anyways, not a fan of those. And if I had to throw one more in the ring that I love, it was the bears that they played the Vikings. Kirk Cousins, Captain Kirk Rock Bottom this year. I think it was the uniforms. They were two elite. I loved them.

I thought those were dynamite. Those looked really, really good. I mean, the Broncos have almost never had a bad uniform until now. Yeah. They could go with almost any of their options. Their old AFL ones are super cool. And they wore them in 94 in whatever year that was of the league. It was whatever they did the throwbacks for.

when they had the like the blue shoulders with the with the orange jerseys and the orange hats. Like that Don Quixote kind of artwork on the side of that with the weird skeletal kind of horse. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Those are actually pretty tight. You dial me up, man. I'll go for seven and a half hours.

I know. I could talk all day. But like last weekend I thought the strongest game was Viking Saints. You know. Yes. Okay. We agree on that. I agree.

I mean, in my mind's eye, if you had to tell like they're going to go head to toe purple, it wouldn't look great. It was maybe a little bit much for me. Right. The thing with the, the thing that ails the Vikes get-ups, in my opinion, is, and it may be a small matter to most, but that black face mask makes no sense. Dig up Tommy Kramer. Look at the white face mask.

Look how, I mean, it looks so clean. All you have to do is look at the KC. Chiefs. The white face mask. is everything on those. It's the same thing with the Rams. The Rams need to get rid of the dark face mask and get and go with a gray one. This, these little details mean so much. Oh, my God. And what are that like when I used to play for the Rams, I used to hear rumblings like I'd hear in Philly that, hey, they're going back to Kelly Green with the Rams. You're going back to the Eric Dickerson's and I was excited because every time we were the Eric Dickerson's, we would run through a wall.

And looking at it when they moved, I thought at least that would be something they'd hang their hat on, but they would wear that white helmet with the ugliest gold. And like the St. Louis Rams uniforms were awful. They were just bad. The gold pants. Well, they look like it's, it's, I always say about like what they got into once they got back to L.A. Yes. Kind of started in St. Louis.

But then they were trying to morph them into something else with the white horns and everything. But they still had the metallic gold trim on the jersey, but nowhere else. It looked like if, if, uh, some kid said on Halloween, to his mom like, I want to go as a football man for Halloween and she went to T.J. Max and piece something together, like a bunch of disparate parts. Like, yeah, that's called. You look like a football man. Like, but I'm not on a team. I just look random and weird, mom. You know what it looks like to me is Kansas City when they went to play New England earlier this year and they almost didn't get their equipment. And I thought they were going to have to go to Dick's sporting goods. That's, that's kind of what it

looks like to me. But talking about real football, because some people don't love it as the uniform as much as you and me, let's go through the games this weekend. What do you see game by game? We'll start with the first one, Vikings Niners, which might be the game I'm most looking forward to. What are the keys to victory for both sides as you look at it? Well, I have, this is the pick that I have the least amount of confidence in. I'll go with the Niners to win it. 2321 and I think that I mean I was surprised last week I thought that the Dalvin cook injury was going to be as soon as the Vikings went out once the Saints beat them I thought that in the locker room afterwards we would start here and like yeah Dalvin was never 100% after the injury and that's like but he looked dynamite he was he was banging on that Saints D pretty good and he is the X factory always seems to be no matter whether Thielen's out there or otherwise. wise and the storyline becomes Kirk and all that kind of stuff. I think the thing that's similar on both sides is that both teams can really rush the QB. And I think that whichever one of

those two guys you buy is going to handle that a little bit better is going to win the game. Like I say, I'm going to take Jimmy G and company at home, but narrowly. I think both guys probably are going to really be under pressure all day long. I don't know how they are. They are. And I worry more so about that O line for Minnesota, obviously, as you saw when that run game isn't rolling and they can't get the play action going. And he does have a longer shot clock because a lot of his snapped release are skewed by play action pass. But, you know, you looked at week 17 against, I think it was against the Packers.

And you said, this team ain't doing anything in the playoffs. But the one difference between that team and the rest of the teams is they seem to have been getting healthier as they go into playoffs. They were getting Dalvin Cookwell. They were getting Thieling well, who, of course, is battling an anchor. ankle injury, he'll play. I mean, you know, whatever, you know, in an illness for, for, for Diggs. The funny thing about Kirk to me is everybody keeps moving the goalposts. You know, I understand the trend, and we have such a weird way of evaluating quarterbacks. We can't ignore history. It's like people were stubbornly not taking Tom out of their top five or ten this year. He wasn't a top

10 quarterback this year. That's okay. He's the goat. Kirk Cousins was the top 10 quarterback to me this year. His history becomes irrelevant when he, when he gets ready to go to Dallas to win in a prime time game, everybody says he's never won the big one, so yet he's not going to win this one. Then he beats them and they say, well, this isn't the big one. It's the Cowboys, which I might agree with, but you can't have it both ways. And when you go to New Orleans, that's as tough a place to play in the playoffs as you can get. So he passed that test. And this is just how we drew it up, right? Jimmy G. Kirk Cousins, battling it out, two games from the Super Bowl. Here's the key for me. Make the Niners drive

the length of the field. You know, Jimmy G's thrown 13 picks on the year. They're not that great in the red zone as a team. Their bottom third. The Vikings defensively are very good in the red zone. If you can make them drive the length of the field, no Debo Samuel bombs, no Sanders bombs. They're number one defending the tight end

in the league. So that's a big one with Kittal. If they can make them drive the length of the field, Jimmy G. will make mistakes. And he's thrown three picks in the red zone. He's done three picks on shots this year. That's the formula. And then on the other side of it, how Disrespected does Minnesota's defensive line feel? Because I think they're better than the defensive line in San Francisco.

And they're probably tired of hearing about them. Well, a few things. First of all, I can't believe that grown-ups who make the amount of money and have the physical ability of you and your peers can still actually find motivation in what random people say about like, we're disrespectful as a physician group and we'll show all of you. But I get that no team in 30 years has won a championship without being able to claim that no one outside our locker room believes in us, even though.

I love the Pats doing that because they're just perpetually good, which we'll get to it. It was so funny after we did the underdog thing, then they started to try to whisper about the underdog thing last year. It's like, dude, you guys are the Patriots. We were, we were favorite. Why are 70,000 people showing up to cheer for you because they're masochists? They don't believe in you. They do. But yes, you're right about the narratives, and it's why you shouldn't have preseason polls in college football.

It's because people like to sell valid. That's part of the human condition. So once you decide that Kirk Cousins isn't clutch, now you have to look for evidence that proves that point. And as far as that goes, I think Jimmy G also suffers a little bit from that. Everybody continues to look at him as the weak link. Everybody keeps saying that roster is loaded, but Jimmy G. will be there undoing. Perhaps he will be.

But in the meantime, let's just let it play out. He, well, I mean, he has, in the first half of the season, he was much more a path. on the dominant ride that the Niners were on. But in the second half of the season, including his last game, if you think back to the clink in the second half, when the world was caving in on those Niners and Russell Wilson was doing his usual Russell Wilson's up and they were pulling off a rally that you thought was impossible. Jimmy G was intermittently still making big throws in the second half.

I mean, really some nice throws there. The idea that this team hasn't been tested yet and we'll have to wait and see what they're going to they've played in so many big games this year high profile game starting with that one against the browns which in hindsight seems fraudulent but remember how they housed the the brown and that was supposed to be a big test game to the seattle game in santa claire in baltimore they gave the ravens as as good a run as any team did after september and i mean i don't know how much more evidence we need that with the division on the line they did go into the clink and beat the seahawks I don't know how much more evidence we need that this team is not going to be shaken by the circumstance.

Which is a real, which to your point, out of any team, if you're going to question, and along with Seattle, because Seattle, you can look at it one or two ways. And we'll get to them, they got a plus seven point differential in the year. You could look at that. A lot of times we do this, we say, oh, well, that team hadn't been tested. And then when they've been tested, they've been a lot of close games, you know, it's either Clemson. They haven't played anybody or it's, hey, the Seahawks have barely beaten anybody. Well, you can say the same about the 49ers.

They have dominated people. They've won close games. They won 9-0 at Washington in the rain. They won a tight game against the Ravens. Then they turn around and win a shootout in New Orleans. And then they lose to, you know, all their losses have been by one score. They lose and win in a ton of different way. So this team is battle testing.

You talk about intangibles. I believe in their leadership as much as any team in the playoffs right now. I mean, between like wild dudes like Kittle, you know, to Staley, who's been around, who thought probably, I missed my opportunity, that was it. Now we're back. Guys that understand it to Jimmy G. who came from New England to a whole host of guys on that, to Sherman,

who's reinvigorated that defense with his leadership. I mean, they're intangibles are as good as anybody in the playoff, if you believe in that stuff. So you predicted what was the score there that's going to happen? 2321 home team. I'll say the Niners survive that one. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm doing my prediction with Make when he gets here because

because making, he's really into this predicting the score thing. It's not like anybody ever cares unless you get it right. It's like a crapshoot. I love it. That's the point, but that's why you do it, man. See, that's the savvy move because if you hit just once, you brag on it for the next three and a half years. Exactly.

Exactly. And you don't bring up any of the stuff you missed. So that's why, yeah, you ignore. Yeah, that never gets brought up again. But yeah, I mean, I had, I was legitimately talk about self-validating. I'm sitting on the couch watching the overtime game in Houston last week. I had the bills winning at 2219, and so it was at 19. Come on, bills, make me look good.

I had the bills by three. And then my co-host had the Titans 1916. So when they started coming back, he was in my house, and he's like, well, I got to run, but they're going to prove me right. At 16-0, he said they're going to come back and win 1960, and they damn near dead. So let's go to Titans Ravens. What do you think the keys are here for you? I love, you know, as somebody who loves the fairly recent history, I love that in January of 2001, I think it was, the Ravens were the mighty kind of wild card coming in there and the Titans were the best team in the AFC.

And the play I always think about the iconic one is Eddie George of the ball kind of sitting up on his shoulder on a pass from Steve McNair and Ray Lewis taking it off and running it in. to clinch the game. So I wonder, I know that revenge 20 years later is meaning. Come on. No, these guys, that's all they're thinking about. To your point. Yeah, I know they don't care. Most of them were two if even born at that point. But I think the Ravens will win, but to completely contradict what I said, I think they win 2724. Okay. And I think that to completely go against, this is the thing I don't know if we'll ever see. see this. This is not diminishing the Ravens what they've done this season. It's the opposite of it because of their historic dominance in terms of point differential and all of that. I mean, it really is

crazy. It would be based on the last five years of evidence, it would be crazy if they didn't at least reach the title game for giving their point differential and otherwise. But we have not seen. The latest they've been down in a game since September is four points with seven and a half minutes left in the second quarter. They have not, they haven't gotten into the locker room. Was that Buffalo? Yeah. Yeah, no, they weren't down to Buffalo. Okay. Who were they down for two? I think they went down early to the Niners, but then they quickly, yeah, that was it. I think Seattle they were down at some point in that game in the early in the set in the first half. But I mean, it's it's pretty rare that they've even been in a close game.

And I do wonder when all of a sudden the situation changes something that you've never been in. And the thing I talk about all the time is the curse is supposed to. I think that's a legitimate plague, the Madden curse and all of that. I think when you're the Ravens, you are now supposed to win. And everybody in that joint is going to feel that energy. And it'll be feel good as long as they have the lead. If you get to the second half, especially against Derek Henry, and he starts and they start trying to spin the clock on you with that guy banging away,

three yards in a cloud of dust. I legitimately feel that that nervous anxiety starts in the stands and permeates its way. And I've talked to a lot of guys who are on both sides of it when their team is getting upset or when they're a part of a team that's rallying and Cinderella and on the road and all that. And they say, you can feel the negative energy start to come in and you start to see the clock ticking down on you. And you realize the season's over. We don't have 18 minutes left in this game. We have 18 minutes left in the season if we don't come back.

So I would be curious to see if they could get into that situation. Meantime, the Titans are freed of any expectation. They have a devil-may-care attitude. They're not supposed to do anything. So advantage them in this one. And I do, the thing that, I think the recency bias that is getting in the way for a lot of people with the Titans right now is people say, yeah, they did beat the Patriots, but they only put up 14 points. So they can't hang with the Ravens. Look at the points they put up since Ryan Tannenhill took over.

Yes, they were playing the back to the wall defending world champion dynasty Patriots in Foxborough. They weren't going to go out easy, the Patriots. In the rain. Right. I mean, so, I mean, that's not something to point to like, well, the Titans can't score points because they didn't do it against the number one ranked defense fighting for their lives. You know, that I can see that the different. The thing is though, Jimmy Smith is another one of my dumb theories is the Jenga theory. And that's that in the 21st century, every football team is going to lose some pieces. The key is to not lose the wrong piece because then the whole thing implodes. And Jimmy Smith, for whatever reason, when he's, out there versus not. That defense is completely different. It's kind of on the level of D4 with the nine. Yeah. And his return makes a big difference in the previous game. But Jimmy Smith is going to be in this game. And that defense really does. It was mediocre. And that's why I thought, I thought the Lamar Jackson thing would work this year. I kept saying it all through the preseason. This is going to

dominate the NFL for one year. But I don't know if the defense is good enough to support that. They can't let other teams just grind them out going the other way. But as soon as, Jimmy Smith got back, that defense really tightened up. They're hard to run in with a run on with Brandon Williams and the rest of them. I do think the Ravens win, but I bet you they do get a little scared. Oh, it's going to be tight. And you make some great points. And on the Jimmy Smith thing, we had Ed Reed on.

We do the Amazon show on Thursday nights, and he joined us. And by the way, Ed Reed is as cool. And you've probably been around him as you could imagine a Hall of Famer being. That's no guarantee that Hall of Famers are cooler down to earth. This guy's a guy you'd want to play with. You'd want to, you know, if he was a coach, you want to play for. We talked about that because, you know, it was one of those things when they get the guy from L.A. in Peters, you know, they have this statistical ascension defensively.

And a lot of people mistook it for just Marcus Peters. And Jimmy was, to your point, a huge piece, the veteran leadership, his size, some different things they can do in that defense because of him. And, yeah, they got Humphrey and all that stuff. But I think that's a great point. Also with Vrable coming in, and to your point, when you, first off, Vrable reminds me of Tomlin when he came in. It infused a swagger and an attitude on that team. When you see Vrable talking shit to players, I love that because that means that players drawing at him, but he's a player at heart. He's not a coach.

And it's that same kind of energy that Tomlin, I thought, brought to Pittsburgh. Vrable's bringing that same confidence. We don't give a fuck. We're not supposed to be here. We're going to go win this thing. And I thought last week, everything from them pounding the ball, relentlessly at New England to running time off the clock. Everything's like a, hey, buddy, I'm poking you.

I'm brable. I used to play for you. And now, oh, you want me to set the edge? Like when I played for you, you set the edge. Derek Henry is going to get the ball 35 times. The most carries the guys had in the playoffs since Sean Alexander in like 04. And by the way, one thing to watch there is anybody that's carried the ball 30 more times in wild card round, the next week, none have had 100 plus yards or 25 carries the next

week. So that's my biggest worry. Wow. That's my biggest worry with Henry. But if they can get Henry in space and make those guys tackle, I'm looking at Marcus Peters in the secondary, in Baltimore, that is a win for them and get the ball off tackle. Another thing for the Titans, they gave up a ton of sacks this year, okay? They shored that up last week. Now, I don't think much of New England's pass rush, but they create pressure. Only one sack last week. So that's a good thing. Since Llewan got back, things have been better. If they can keep him clean against a team that blitz is a ton with a quarterback who's like number one against the blitz quietly, they're going to be all right. And to your point, when you're on the road as a dog even, you never relax. Every play, every

first down, guys are getting off the bench, like yeah, like it's different than when you're at home and you're supposed to win. When you were on the road, like when we went to New Orleans last year in the playoffs and we quite possibly could have won that game, I know coulda would have shoulda, but I felt kicked their ass for a long time and they won. A drop, a fake punt, those type of things. The entire game, you're just so charged up. You can't stop fist pumping,

pushing each other, yelling at each other's faces. When you're at home and you're favored it, to your point, you get a lead, you're kind of like, oh, let's just get out of here. That's not how the Titans are going to play this game. And, you know, the 12-game winning streak, the Ravens, you talked about not getting tested,

you almost wish if you're a Ravens fan, injuries notwithstanding that you just had gone right into the playoffs because it's one of those things that you've been hot this long it's almost like let's fade this thing they do a bad game tight ends a big deal though Tennessee has not been good defending tight ends keep an eye on the Hearst injury and keep an eye on ingram but it's going to be a tight game and I can't wait to see this one

it's going to be physical and Baltimore's allowed 21 points or less in the last 11 games Titans are one and six when scoring 21 or less that was last week keep an eye on that magic number I do think it's going to be tight in the 20s for both of them. I listen, yeah, I think it's interesting to hear all that stuff. The thing with Tanyhill, too, is as good as he's been throwing the ball, the factor that he brings it, it's funny that people kind of ignore is with that RPO stuff, the way he legitimately puts it into Henry's belly and then goes the other way.

I mean, it is interesting to see. I mean, obviously the Ravens are seeing that. practice a lot, but that is an extra layer that people are kind of sleeping on. The Tandahill is making plays running the ball a little bit. But the other thing is too, Derek Henry's a big story. And people have come around and become aware of A.J. Brown. But those young big receivers, man, they may meet the best secondary in the NFL is the Ravens. But man, those receivers with Tennessee specifically, obviously, A.J. Brown.

How did he slip that far? I'm like, I don't know. This guy, he looks like he's going to be a generationally good player. I mean, that stretch in December, he's got a 50-yard play every week. I mean, even when he didn't get a catch against Houston in the game, they lost the first game. He had a reverse for like 50 yards. I mean, the guy is just a stud. And another thing is the Ravens play a ton of man coverage.

Tanna Hill's been good against man. So how are they going to, it's a hidden chess match here that Tannahill is forcing people to. And it feels like I'm drunk. saying this in 2020. Tannahill is keeping coordinators up in eight. I mean, I never would have thought that when I was playing him in Miami, but it just goes to show you how important scheme, a fresh start, and surroundings are. So kudos to Vrable for making that change this year. I mean, this guy, four years in the league, till he got his first head job, a lot of people would say with everything we're talking about, and it's very, it's very, it's very poignant to talk about it.

But this guy has had a rapid ascension into a really good coach. And he fits. And by the way, you're giving him kudos. How about the Titans organization? They win a playoff game in Arrowhead. Wonky, remember of Mario da ball off somebody and he caught and ran it in and all that stuff. But still, they win a playoff game. They make the playoffs. And then they punt their head coach to bring in for Abel.

That's a pretty bold move. It's akin to whatever it was, eight, ten years ago when the Niners are in the midst. They lose on Kyle Williams fumbling a couple of punts. that's how far they are from the Super Bowl midway through the next season. They're like, yeah, look Smith is good. Let's go with the other kid. Let's go. Let's roll with Kaepernick. It's that kind of bold decision. And it

made sense and it works. I mean, so, I mean, yeah, kudos to all those guys. I mean, I used to hate the Titans. I don't know what it was, but I just didn't like them. I didn't care to watch him. And since Tannhill got there, my favorite team. So Texas, Texas,

Texas, Kansas City, everybody talks about me and Stanford Steve talks about talk about this. There's always going to be one blowout and divisional round. I'm not going to out think this one. I think it's going to be a blowout. What do you think? Yeah, aside from the devil may care attitude, we shouldn't even be here because we fluked our way past the bills last week kind of factor. And also legitimately, Deshaun Watson is kind of sort of in broad strokes. I guess you could make, you could say he's a little bit of the Russell Wilson of the AFC and that he can just steal. eel a game in the fourth quarter that they have no business winning. But yeah, I'm with you,

man. Mahomes and company, 3120, they should, they should whip this team. My concern for them, the reason that they'll win this week, but what concerns me the following week is that watching that Colts game when the Colts went in their midseason in the Arrowhead and just banged on them all night long and the Chiefs had no answer to it. And I just kept saying for the next six weeks after that. Well, I mean, Patrick Mahomes, notwithstanding, this team is not going to win three or four playoff games with the inability to stop the rush. Somebody's going to run on them, and that'll be the end of their season, and that'll be that. But now it's the other way around. Now they're better defensively. They're doing a better job against the run. But do they have,

it's kind of, I think, you know, Alshon Jeffrey catches that pass from Nick Foles in Nola. I would love to know how the, how the, how the rest of the season works out for the Eagles and beyond how the, I think I might have another one. Well, yeah, exactly. And then that creates another can of worms of what would they have done with Wends versus Fools and all that. But anyhow, the difference between the 2017 Eagles and last year, as far as I'm concerned, is you lack the guy who could just end the game for, for you. You had, you had, you're, you had blunt and a and you didn't have anybody equivalent to that last year, and that was the difference. Who are the Chiefs? What are they going to do when they're trying to put a game away?

Damien Williams or who's – I mean, like, are they going to throw Shady out there to try and finish a game? You don't put Shady in the game because Shady carries the ball like a loaf of bread. And every time he does, I'm so nervous. Now, Williams has been a big play guy, but a, you know, four yards in cloud of dust guy. you know, and that was what we've missed, and the Eagles have missed LaGarrett since, even with the addition of Miles Sanders who's been spectacular, you need a downhill guy,

and Jordan Howard was supposed to be that guy, couldn't stay healthy. I do worry about that. They are going to get a lead at some point in this game because the Texans, to me, are one of the two teams in the playoffs that I just absolutely don't trust. As a little look ahead to the next game, I don't trust the Packers.

The Texans, if they start slow, like they started at home against the bills, it is going to be a blood back. in Arrowhead. Steve Spagnola has done as good a job as he's done anywhere. And that includes the Giants Super Bowl teams because they are not that talented

save for Chris Jones and Frank Clark like on defense. I do worry about Juan Thornhill. He's out UVA alum. We're safety you right now with Anthony Harris and Thornehill. But I worry about the big plays that way. But if you're going to bet on Kansas City

getting beat by Deshawn doing Deshawn things like he did at the end of the game, or a Duke Williams third and 18, or, you know, Josh Allen being Josh Allen, like, that's not going to happen this week. I mean, this week, it's all about the Chiefs, and it's all about the Chiefs just taking care of business. So I could talk about Deshaun all day. I'm not going to waste much time.

JJ Watt, you know, really heroic comeback, very quick from his injury, and he had one big rush last week. He saved it up. He's going to need a lot if they're going to want to, and he's got to, and he has beaten Fisher in the past, but he can't single-handedly beat them. They get Fuller back. That's good news. I think, first of all, two weeks for Andy Reid, the history suggests that he does a great job when you give him an extra week to prepare.

Oh, coaching is a big. You talk about JJ Watt. That should be enough for everybody. If you're on the fence about who to root for in this game, if you need a rooting interest, you want the Chiefs to win because I can't take another week's worth of cutaways to T.J. Watt in the owner's box. I just can't. It's enough already. It's too much. What's what's worse for you?

Okay, it's nice, but it's okay already. Is it Russell? What's worse? The Russell miced up and post game or the cutaways in Houston for you? I mean, no winners in that one. And by the way, when Chris Long was winning a Super Bowl, why not all the cutaways to Kyle Long in the box? I'm glad they don't.

There's nothing that made me more uncomfortable than doing, like, you know, my dad, when we were getting ready for New England, I was angry at the fact I had to do a segment with him, and he knows it. is I'm like, I don't, all this family shit, I've been dealing with the family stuff my whole life. You really think I want everybody and my family involved in everything I do on the field. And it's unfair to the other players. Like, they have families too. Why is my family cooler?

So yeah, the cutaways, I'm with you. Well, listen, as a side note, I just want to plant the seed and we can revisit this at a later date. Yeah. Okay, I hear your concerns. I would like to do at your leisure. Yeah. I'd like to get your old man. Yeah.

like to get your brother and I'd like to do we don't have to shoot the entire picture but I'd like to do a few choice scenes a remake of broken era oh I'd love to we should we should hire a production company and just get on with it because here's what I want to do you talk about broken arrow I want to kick Christian Slater's son out of a moving train because that's what Christian Slater did to my dad in the movie and I've been holding on to that for 20 plus years I thought it was fucked up on They had my dad do the, you know, that scream that they use in every movie when he's falling into the gorge a couple hundred feet. I mean, it was just unrealistic. I didn't like him playing second fiddle to Travolta. You know, like, let's do it again, Dave. I'm with that. All right, let's do it. You can be your old man.

Your old man can be Travolta. We'll figure it all out. And Kyle can be a villain. Kyle be a perfect villain. All right. All right. I love it all. Let's, yeah, put a pin in that as they,

say in show business. Okay. Sweet. I'll read that. I like that one of my. I'll talk to one of my Hollywood context. By the way, one other thing I was going to say is too, the other thing that's phenomenal to me, J.J.

Y. Okay, he made a play in that game. How about the fact that Terrell Suggs? All the stuff about Frank Gore and deservedly being celebrated for being relevant at his age. Terrell Suggs is two years older than Frank Gore. He's taking big snaps. Oh, yeah. For a Super Bowl contender right now.

I know. I mean, it's the Cam Wake thing when Cam Wake had been rolling the past few years and it kind of went away this year. Cam Wake was just one of those ageless wonders on that Frank Gore level. And I think Suggs might make a big play this week. I mean, how about Suggs if things line up next week getting a shot to ruin Baltimore's year? And by the way, all due respect, Titans. I'm a fan of what you've been doing.

Texans. You're a lot of fun to watch on the right weekend breaks. But please. in the spirit under take this in the spirit's intended you must lose we must get raven's chiefs that's it what if the super bowl that's the one don't deprive us of this what if we get tannahill gropolo or tannahill cousins what will happen in the super bowl i mean you know i don't even what i was like i was like as a side note when fans random fans ring their hands about like oh that's bad for the league the ratings aren't going to be what do you care about what the ratings are yeah stop i like when people

when people bring that stuff up like, if you get that, we're real bad for the last. Yeah, stop, you're going to watch anyways. You're going to watch anyways. So finishing out. That would be bad.

But yeah, come on. Please let us have Lamar Jackson versus Patrick. We've been waiting. We've been waiting. Seahawks Packers, eight and one on the road in the playoffs for the Hawks. Packers is 7 and 1 at home this year.

I don't believe in the Packers. I make no, if I pick the Seahawks this week, which I have, it's personal against the Packers. because I'm just, I'm tired of it. As a seed that high, I don't know if there's ever been one that was this bad.

And they have some well-hid issues this year. Their front as a whole doesn't play physical, although I think Zadariah Smith should have been in the DPOI and should be in the DPOI conversation. Didn't even make a Pro Bowl. You know, I like Preston and all that, but Zadarius is the guy. He might be the best non-courtec on the field on Sunday or on, yeah, Sunday night.

So it's going to be, I think it's going to be low scoring. I think it's, you know, the rematch, if you're into rematches, the dropped onside kick, that whole thing. My big worry is, we mentioned it, the Smith brothers, you know, Russ gets sacked as much as anybody in the league. And he's going to need deep shots to win. They're going to need to not put the ball on the ground. And we got to hope if we're rooting for the Seahawks, and by the way, the Seahawks put the ball in the ground consistently. Chris Carson being gone is not the end. to that. They have

in their biggest four games this year at a point they had given up a touchdown on special teams or on defense in all those games. It went two and two in those games. It gets really good teams. So this is a team that's like prone to implosion. I think if they can control the clock and Marshawn and Homer can finish their little pre-season because that's what this has been.

And pound the rock, you never know what could happen. The Seahawks are 57 and O with a four-point lead at halftime since 2012. That's crazy. The Packers start slow, like they're against Detroit or Washington. If they sleep through this with the buy, it's going to be, it's going to be ugly for them. Interesting points. But you like the Packers. And by the way, I hate taking all the home teams in the divisional round.

Yeah, something's got to give. The best weekend in all the sports, wildcard weekend is good. But for the record, NFL, divisional round weekend is the best. But I so I hate to take all the home teams because that's lame. But that's what I'm going to do. 26, 21, the Packers win this. I'm with you completely on what ails that Packers defense, but I don't think,

I don't think Homer and, and what, six touch, Marshawn Lynch or whatever, how many catches is he going to get to really impact things? I'm going to say he gets 12 touches. I think he's going to get north of 10. I,

what, and I'm with you too about Russell Wilson is going to have to, it throws the sexiest deep ball in pro football, but, the NFC's best secondary is Green Bayes. Also, if you buy that kind of stuff, it should be about 10 degrees at game time.

Aaron Rogers, over the course of his career, is much better in cold games. So as much as that matters, which is why I thought Breeze going up to Lambo would be interesting this week. But this is a pretty good one too, because these two teams, like you mentioned, between Bostic in the most...

I think that's the most painful loss. I've ever seen for a single team. They had nine chances. Any play, in the second half and overtime, any one of nine plays goes the other way, they survived that game. That is the worst game I've ever. They almost went into Seattle

and knocked them off and interrupted the would-be dynasty. Yeah, and they completely could have won that game. And as a side note, and I had no idea, Russ has never won at Lambo. He's got more interceptions at 10 and a lower rating versus the Packers

than any team. So if I'm picking the Seahawks, I'm just fading all this. And another thing is, Marshawn never had a touchdown in Green Bay. So we'll see. I mean, it's kind of like you're, I forget what you were doing earlier, but you were like, I'm going to break the streak here. I'm breaking the streak on Seattle. I think it's ugly, but they get a win.

And Clowny's got, clowny. The other thing I'll say is talk about narratives and everything else. Here's the 20, everybody like the ones that were forged a decade ago and people continue to ride those, like you said, about Brady, get people refuse to not name him the number one quarterback in the NFL. Is like, are you watching the games? Because he's obviously not the best quarterback right now. The story of 2019 that people have now taken a hard right turn,

it would get armed with the evidence of the last couple of few seasons with Aaron Rogers because people had put him into, including me, in the conversation for the best quarterback we'd ever seen. And I still kind of stand by that. physically. If, right, if, if what is wrong with your football team, if it's wrong with the, with the Green Bay Packers is that Aaron Rogers is the issue, then I'll take that going into the playoff.

Yeah. It's not like he's, he's not, he's not, he's not 42. It's not like his physical skills are so diminished that that's the issue. If it's like, well, our weak link has been Aaron Rogers so far, I'll take my chance with that and him turning it around in, uh, in January. Yeah. And listen, I don't think. of him as the weak link. I think for them it's

all about Aaron Jones and he's been a machine and I bet Mike McCarthy is sitting there watching and going damn I wish we'd have had an Aaron Jones or if they win this game it's going to be because of him now if you're the Seahawks I'm going to tell you what you got to do clownie's got to wreak havoc like

you did last week and you know whatever you think of the head I thought it was dirty but he's got to wreak havoc Aaron has not thrown a pick under pressure since week 15, 2017. So fade that and also he takes a long time to throw. Long shot clock guy. Moves well in the pocket.

Here's what you do if you rush Aaron Rogers. On the left side, on Balaga, you rush with power, you rush with balance. Don't even try to win. Just put the right tackle in Arod's lap. And then, you know, because Clowney's more comfortable on the defensive right. He goes over there, rush him, however

the fuck you want to rush him, and make Aaron move off the spot. Aaron wants to roll to Aaron's left. Make him roll to his left. But do not let Aaron buy time and roll to the right. Because you're going to get burned on big plays. Just don't do it. Clowny's got to wreck the game.

And all the people complaining about sack numbers through the year for Frank Clark, for Clowny, those are two guys. I'm looking at you guys. And I love both of them as football players, especially Frank Clark as a rusher. I think he took a lot of shit. The sack numbers become irrelevant. If you can get in the playoffs and wreck games,

and that's what these two guys got to do. They make their money now. So rehashing it, uniform-wise. What are the combos you want to see for Vikings, Niners, Titans, Ravens, Texans, Kansas City, and Seahawks Packers? I like the Niners to me. I always hear stuff about them maybe changing those.

And I know I even saw you talking about you like the 94 throwbacks that they wore with the NFC West, the old NFC Westman, Carolina, their old division foes that people forget about. I'm immune to the charm of those get-ups. I don't get the gold hat with all white underneath. I didn't like the Saints that much, actually, last week either. They looked like they had on their practice unit. uniforms. Too much white. You got to have some stripes. You're not in college, fellas. You're in the NFL. Strike up them pants a little bit, would you? Yeah. I wish the Vikings would

wear their, you know, when they had the road uniforms with the gold stripes on the shoulders and the white face masks. But that's a pretty good one. Titans at Ravens is meh. Again, you know, Navy helmet against black. That's not going to look that good. I guess the purple will throw the electric blue pants on. Electric blue pants, white top. all black and it's salvageable. Okay, that'll be okay. Yeah, that's right. The Chiefs have good uniforms,

but they're better on the road. The best uniform matchup possible is when the Chiefs go to Oakland or suit the Vegas. They wear the red pants with the white jerseys. The Raiders have the best uniforms of them all. Won't look as cool. Won't look as cool indoor in front of a bunch of hungover businessmen. No, you're exactly right.

That's right. But, yeah, what would you take away? The Black Hole. California gold hour light. It's not going to be as grand with Snake Stable or with the locks out of the back of the hat. Anyway, yeah. So the Chiefs one should be okay. I mean, the Texans talk about a team that needs new get-ups. So those are basically their same ones that they've worn all along. And in fact, they made them worse by getting rid of the Red Sox. They couldn't be more utilitarian and forget what they wear. And then the last game, I guess that'll be fine. The Packers at home always look good. The key there is, like you say, the grass field, the Lambo, maybe there'll be some snow on it.

Yeah, beautiful. The smoke coming out and all that. You know, you mentioned one thing I want to ask you about. You mentioned Z. Smith and company, or I'm sorry, you say clowny should line up to get in Roger's face. You know Daniel Jeremiah. You and I were talking years ago, and it is a fascinating thing. I would rather as a quarterback, I would much rather be blind to the guy, and down, oh, you got to have a left tackle because you can't let the QB get lit up from his blindside.

But what impacts things more is the quarterback looking at the guy running at him is much more damage. That's an interesting conversation because what you don't see can't hurt you. From a ball security standpoint, you know, that's what you worry about. But other than that, I think you make a great point. In the NFL now, there's been a movement away from like, you know, in the 90s and early 2000s, it was a stable of left tackles who were dominant and you knew who they were. and that's what they did. And right tackles were mallers.

But nowadays, as you move away from that, you know, tackles are generally less physical, and the right tackles are just as good at the top. I mean, to me, Lane Johnson, Mitchell Schwartz, you know, Ramcheck, those are elite tackles. And the left tackles,

we've got this crop that's kind of turning over. You know, it makes a big difference to not see Trent Williams in the game this year. I mean, he's still playing at a high level. When he comes back, he's still well, I'm sure. Stanley did a great job in Baltimore this year. There's names I'm forgetting, but that far as far as right tackles and left tackles

has changed completely. Now, different guys don't necessarily. Clowny can rush anywhere. Clowny can float. He can rush on the guard. He can line up at right end. He can line up at the left end. Most guys like myself,

you know, we're really good on one side. On one side, I feel left-handed. And so it was hard for me to ever know are left tackles even that much better because I'm basically left-handed over here? You know, it'd be like facing better pitching, you know, left-handed. It's, it's, so I think you might be on to something there. And I think in general we need to stop, you know,

talking shit about right tackles because they're not yesterday's right tackles. No, yeah, that's right. And I defer always to you and your kin, who are at the line of scrimmage. One of the most pretentious or the most pretentious things as football America has turned into cosplayers pretending that they really understand

the nuance of technique and everything. I don't want to be that guy. I love what guys, I love when Rando 23-year-olds tell me like, well, Anthony Munoz, he's the best left tackle of all time. Like, based on what? Somebody told you that? Exactly.

Could you evaluate that? You have no chance of a value. Neither do I. And that's why I know you can't do it either. And that's why it's impossible to evaluate because matchups make win fight. And, you know, you're basically, you could ask 10 different defensive linemen who's the best tackle is. You get four different answers.

And fans, certainly, we love hearing what they have to say. But when it comes to proving somebody out as being the best of all time, it's really hard to measure certain positions. You know, it's very subjective. It is fun, though. Here's a conspiracy theory that the dolphins, they knew that they were going to tank the season. And they assumed that they wouldn't be challenged on that. And they would wind up with the number one overall. pick that they were going to use on Tua, and that's why they could trade Laramie Tunsell because

he doesn't need a left tackle because he's left hand that he needs a right tackle. That's how they could get rid of Laramie. That's really interesting, but I know Tom Brady's not going to appreciate that when he's down in Miami. Oh, look at the transition. Look who's a pro broadcaster now. That was that was neatly done. You want to talk Tom Brady?

Why do you think he would go to the dolphins? So I'm going to tell you why I think you go to the dolphins. I have my entire list here. And I'm going to ask you for your wildcard. That's my wild card. Me and my co-host Macon are going to get into the rest of them point by point. But we talked about this off the air. If they blow up New England, that's a big if.

Everything we're talking about right now is if you assume we're playing the field. But I think Miami is the wildcar. People talk about the Chargers, Indies, Chicago, Vegas, Dallas, Tennessee. I've heard all those names. Miami for me because you got B-Flow. B-flow always loved and respected Tom. And if there is bad blood between Tom and Bill, which I don't know anything about, let's play this game.

How much would that stick it to Bill if you go down and you beat Bill twice a year with Brian Flores, the guy that, you know, was 14 years in New England, went up there week 17, beat the Patriots. Brady's always lost down there. If you can't beat him, join him. You know, it's a, it's a mini Kevin Durant thing. And I love Kevin Durant, by the way. I never want to get caught in the crossfire.

misunderstanding there as who figured that out the hard way this week, Kendrick Perkins. But you think that anything changes for the pet. Like people say if he goes down there, you know, you got to deal with the pads. Well, if he goes down there, you don't have to deal with the pads. They're going to be in some semblance of a transition. You talk about the chargers. You'd have to chase Pat Mahomes. Would you rather chase the pats with no Brady and the bills?

Or would you rather chase Mahomes also TB12? I think they open up a super centered out. down there. Who's working out a lot up in New England? No offense to New Englanders, it's not a fitness area. It might be a crossfit in some cold-ass garage gym, but in Miami, everybody works out.

TB12, you got cap space, you get paid finally, geography, family pictures on the beach, linen outfits closer to Brazil. I mean, come on. That all makes sense, the lifestyle stay inside

of it, except it is only going to be four months of his life. Willie McGinnis, I brought my theory to him that the Chargers make sense a couple few months ago. And he just abused me of it. And his key piece of information was, well, I happen to know that Jazele doesn't love L.A. I know that. And I know that too. Fair. Okay, that's fair. And then I thought it through after the fact. I was like, wait a second. All right. So he'll be gone for, he'll be gone for one season. It'll be gone for autumn 2020, if that's the case. That's it. So the Chargers make sense. The Dolphins, I hear you. And I know from, it's funny, when Levy and Bell a year ago was doing his stuff and going through where he's going to wind up, Maurice Jones drew and Bell have the same agent. And so Maurice and I were talking consistently week for week about what's Levy and Bell saying. I'm saying, he's going to go to the Ravens, isn't he? That's where he's going to wind up. Things are tracking in that direction. At some point, it felt like that was a legitimate possibility. And he said, I, I told Levy in that.

He should go there. And I said, why would you tell him to do that? And he said, because when I knew I wasn't going back to the Jags, I told my agent, get me to the Colts. I want to play that team twice a year. That weird chip on the shoulder thing that from Michael Jordan to Tom Brady, that professional athletes want and need to motivate themselves is fascinating stuff to me. I just don't think that they're not going to be good. The goal has to be for Brady. wait, I could maybe win nine games and that would make me a transformational guy for the Dolman.

Well, what's the goal if you stay in New England? Because it got 20 free agents. You know, you saw what they were this year. You really think they get that much better next year. It's going to be hard to keep that defense together. It's going to be hard to keep the core together that team. If McDaniels leaves, it's not really like what's there. I agree.

I'm surprised Belichick is still there as we speak. I thought, I really thought, and I guess this now makes me, in hindsight, uh, uh, look like a, uh, kooky, uh, conspiracy theory, but I don't know if you've heard that, uh, our society's been taken over by those. Yeah, well, I can be one of them. I'm just getting on board. Talk about can't beat them. Join them. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, I thought Belichick would go to the Giants because two years ago,

I mean, you know, it, it is all but fact, people who would know have told me, um, that that was a legitimate thing that Brady and Belichick were at odds about the Garoppolo thing. I guess you were there around that time. And I was told that Brady would have retired had you beaten the Eagles in that Super Bowl. But then he had a new fire lit underneath them. And now they went another Lombardi last year as a result. But okay, craft sides with Brady on that one. Now two years later, Belichick, who wanted to keep Jimmy G to be the successor to Brady now is looking at Jimmy G and saying, oh, yeah, he's the number one seed across the country right now. That's got to make him kind of raw as he now has to deal with the uncertainty of what's he

going to do. And, you know, there's that thing. So maybe you go play for the Rams. Maybe you go play for the Rams and play for nothing because you're going to make 100 plus million off the field and say, fuck it. We'll eat the Jared Gough cap hit. He's the most expensive backup in history. or we figure something out, and you've got this offensive guru.

And that's another thing is when you talk about older quarterbacks, whether it was Fav or, you know, or whether it was Peyton, the system matters. He's going to want a system that's kind of like what he ran. And depending on these spots, you go down a list, there's a lot. Like people talk about Chicago, Andy Reid's system. That's what Nagy wants to run.

And by the way, you know, do you really want to, you've been outside for three hours, you know, in an ice bath, essentially a 20-year ice bath. You want a hot shower. There's no hot shower in Chicago. That's Miami. It's L.A. I just don't see him going somewhere else cold as hell. Well, I'm with you.

The idea that you can't do stuff, like there's certain rules that, well, of course you would never take a quarterback in the first round the year after you took a quarterback in the first round. And then Cliff Kingsbury comes along and blows that all up. And it's like, oh, I guess we could do that if we want to do that. It's the same thing like, well, they already paid Jared Gough or they're already paying Jimmy G. If Jimmy G, and I just

picked them to win the game, but let's say I'm wrong. What if he has a Jake Dallone level, not, I don't mean a bad game. I mean a disaster. Five, five kids. Yeah. And people are saying, man, this team was good enough to win the Super Bowl and that guy threw it away. Is Tom Brady competitive enough? Is he sort of soulless enough on some level that he would say to the guy who he had traded away and they share an agent and all that stuff? Would Tom Brady say like, yeah, I want to go to San Francisco. Jimmy G will play backup again for another year. So you talk about proving yourself right

and real quick because I got to run, but you talk about proving yourself right, Dave. I would be the happiest person on the planet if Tom Brady went, I would feel bad for Jimmy G. If Tom Brady went to San Francisco, I wrote an article this summer for SI when I was throwing shit on the wall. That was my summer, Miami.

This is my winter San Francisco. I said that Tom was going to end up in San Francisco because San Francisco was going to be really good, but at some point, they were going to bang their head on Jimmy G's ceiling, which is higher than I thought. But still, say he has that implosion of a game. Tom to San Francisco, boyhood favorite team, Jimmy G, back to New England, Super Bowl. What happens? That just, I feel like, yeah, Tom says he's not nostalgic and all that, but I did say to him at that Super Bowl, again,

at the media night, I ask him, you have one game to win, Tom. You have one game to win, Tom. You you were Joe Montana, who's the better starting quarterback to have? And of course, he was selfless and modest. And he said, oh, got to go with Joe in that one. But I do think that as he looks for meaning in his final day, he's a NFL quarterback. Right. I think he would, I mean, yeah, of course, you would love to put that on. I bet he would feel gross like it had to feel weird for any of those guys for Joe Namath to pull on a Rams jersey. I got to think Tom Brady would be grossed out by the idea like just pull on a rando jersey a colt's jersey how bad does he want to stick at the bellichick that's the that's the thing about free agents and i did it like late in my career you know i could

have kept playing but for me i was like i need i'm not going to go play somewhere random to go try to get 10 sacks 10 more sacks or like make a million or two more dollars if you if you've done what you want to do and nobody's done more of what they want to do than tom brady and i'm just a regular cat but i can identify with if you're going to keep going you have a choice and it's a crossroads a lot of well, it's a binary money discussion or it's winning or it's a combination of everything. You have to find a pro in each place. And it might not be the same pro that you're evaluating in each place. It's a sliding scale.

It's pluses and minuses. And in San Francisco, it would be winning and it would be meaning. In Miami it would be more business and possibly comfort and family. I mean, each place could be different. So we'll see how it unfolds. It's fun. The best spots. Chargers or Niners and,

unless they wind up in the Super Bowl, then the Niners would have no incentive to do that. But Keenan Allen, Hunter Henry, Mike Williams, they just fix that offensive line. They're ready to roll with a good defense. He could go out as a Super Bowl champion. I really think that that could happen. Boom.

I love it. Well, we'll see what happens, Dave. And I appreciate you taking all this time, man. This is fun. You got to come back on. We'll do a home and home. I'll get with you. You get with me again.

So I appreciate you. This is been a- As I've said many times, you know, you're not a great football guy. You're one of the great human beings that walks the face of the earth. Society is better for having you. And you got to hook up with those equies. Yeah. Because they need to do a thing, the most interesting man in the football universe, because you'd be on my short list. You'd be in the top five or six. We'll hash out.

You Brian Baldinger. We figured out who'd make it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Baldy would be up there. Let's make a big list and do it again sometime. I appreciate it, Dave. Thanks for joining us. Anytime, pal. Okay, brother. Enjoy the game. See you.