Green Light with Chris Long - Green Light's NFL Season Awards & Mentions! Best Offensive & Defensive Performances, Best & Worst Flights & Game Ball!

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Enjoy our 2023 NFL Season Awards episode. Chris, Macon and 'Bad Back' Badke give out their season awards from the best offensive & defensive performances, best coordinators, favorite color commentators favorite special teamer, favorite elder statesmen, favorite backup QB and more! And then we summarize out best Miller Lite Mentions from the season - our best & Worst Flights, Best & Worst Seats, Game Ball & More! (00:00) - Green Light at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas presented by Toyota (5:30) - The Grammys (12:00) - Remembering Carl Weathers (21:15) - Green Light's Season Awards (48:45) - Green Light's Mentions of the Year Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Make sure to check out Fax and the King every Wednesday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FaxAndTheKing Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, let's go Joe Flack Award. This is for a 35 plus year old guy. In six days, it's his birthday. He turns 36. It's Matt Stafford. Yeah, I was thinking about going chalky too, because how could you not? I mean, like, the guy was incredible. The guy was incredible.

Again, when you talk to quarterbacks that have played a long time, if you ask him, how's Matt Stafford going to play? I asked Jay Cutler, and Jay was like, oh, he'll play for like another five years. He's got a jugs machine on his shoulder. Crazy. To have that ability, I guess it's like, being Darrell Green. You can play till you're 38 at corner or whatever or 40. Thanks to Toyota and the brand new Toyota Tacoma.

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Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Welcome to the Green Light podcast. As we start Super Bowl week, we have a little season recap show for you. Chris, Macon, and Bababacki, All Talk, 2023 season-long awards. We've made up a few of these awards, but we're going to talk best offensive and defensive performances. We're going to give out a few coordinator awards, some coaching awards, Best Color Commentator Award, a little Joe Flacco for the best player of the age of 35, and a few others that came to mind for us.

Then we also talk our mentions. We're going to give out season long mentions, our best flights, worst flights, Beville Conways, best and worst seats. We're going to give out all of them for a season. Have a little fun with it. To kick things off, Chris is going to break down the week. We are going to be in Vegas. So the upload schedule is going to be a little different. Make sure you check out the Greenlight YouTube channel for the most updated content release. Probably the end of every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We're going to have an audio upload for you. But we'll keep you updated. Stay tuned. We'll see you when we see you. Much love. All right, it's Sunday night. Not much to say, fellows. I figured we pop on. Set the show up and tell people what to expect this week. What do you think? A big wild week from us at the Super Bowl. Last year, I think we went out, Matt and I were just talking, we went out like midweek. And this week, five full days in Vegas, five wild and wonderful days of us at Radio Row hanging out with the Toyota folks. So you guys are getting there tomorrow, yeah? Scott and I are headed.

As in today for the people listening. But you and Scott are getting there tomorrow. Yeah. Which means you're going to be there Monday through Saturday. Yep. And then the rest of us are getting there Tuesday evening. Yep. Okay.

And do you think we're going to be hurting to the degree that we were last year or worse? Oh, way worse. You think worse? Well, Matt was saying that it's a two, two night rule right in Vegas. Generally, three night, like 36 hour. Yeah. We're doubling that.

72 hour. You guys are doubling it. I'm going to do four nights. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, the pod drops might just be at different times. That's the bottom line with the time change and the time that we're going to be on the Toyota set. There was just no way to get you guys pods in a timely, regular fashion. So these things are going to be coming out later in the afternoon on Wednesday and on Friday.

So just keep your eyes peeled. And we might have some stuff for you on Thursday, too. But also check out the Greenlight YouTube channel. We'll have plenty of guest interviews popping up there. And then we'll kind of throw out a recap at the end of each day. So keep an eye out. Go to the Greenlight YouTube channel first throughout the day, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And then you'll catch our audio drops later on each one of those days.

guys did you watch the gramis not much no i i caught like uh highlights on social media i'll fill you guys in real quick so fucking trevor noah was hosting it and i don't care for trevor noa like that but i was able to sit through the fucking grammies okay message all the alphas that can't watch taylor swift taylor did win a grammy her 13th she was quick to point out that taylor Swift, when she's in her element, you could tell she's that deal. And she runs the show. Like, it was crazy because I have no Taylor Swift experience outside of Travis Kelsey's suite. And like, immediately when she took the stage, I was like, oh, yeah, she's the head honcho here. And she was like,

Casey Musgraves just did a commercial. It looked like a campaign commercial mixed with a cologne ad. I was like, why is Casey Musgraves riding a horse barefoot on the beach? Is this, Aqua DeJoe. Nah, she's coming out with a new album. So drama ensues, I'm assuming, because it comes out of commercial and Casey Musgraves just announced her record, probably paid God knows how much. It was like a Super Bowl commercial, Casey Musgraves album. Comes out and Taylor Swift wins a Grammy and announces, she's like, I've been keeping a secret for y'all for two years, and I'm just like, I have no fucking clue what it is. People are like, oh my God, I know what it is. I'm like, no, I fairly just tell me. What is it? She got a new album coming out.

All for move. Yep. So it was a good watch. My kids viewing party, first time I think they saw Dula Lipa perform. I'm watching them over there. I'm sitting in the kitchen. And my father-in-law and them are sitting in there. And I'm like, who's the most locked in here?

I mean, my kids were just the necks were stiff. They were leaning in. they really liked the performance. And I had to stand in the kitchen with my wife and mother-in-law and act like I didn't want to steal look at the television. You know, the whole dilemma?

I saw you live tweeting the In Memorial. Oh, see, I was. Okay? I don't know how to talk about this, Matt, but I have to bring it up. I know some people are going to get mad that I'm even bringing it up, but I'm just going to pose the question.

We're critically thinking here. There was a geopolitical statement made during In Memorial. And I totally get it. These are serious issues. And, you know, I don't like the guy who's like, keep your politics out of sports. I just thought like funerals and in-memorium.

I'm not even saying I agree or disagree. Not making any statement either way. I'm just wondering, are we greenlighting political statements during in-memoriums? Because I'm trying to mourn the engineering coordinator at the jazz festival who passed away this year. And I got to think about serious shit. I got Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett doing a duet.

Stevie Wonder has no idea where that voice is coming from. Hey, do you guys know this? That there is a conspiracy. And I do prescribe to this conspiracy that Stevie Wonder is at least partially not blind. Shaq thinks right? Yeah, Shaq said he was on the elevator with him. And Stevie went and dapped him up and hit his hand, no problem. And walked on the elevator, I think, without knowing who it was and said, what up, Shaq.

Yeah, well, we missed our fucking chance here because this would have been the perfect opportunity. Stevie's just up there playing piano. Have somebody rush the stage naked. Does his head move? We could know once and for all, but we're afraid to find out. And if I were Stevie Wonder, honestly, I'm not coming at the man because he's a legend. When I was a kid, I used to be able to imitate him when I was a little kid. I used to watch him.

I used to be fixated on Stevie Wonder on TV. but you know it's a great caper if you can pull that off to pretend like you can't see because everybody knows life is easier in sunglasses honestly i want to pass the stevie wonder law in 2004 which is sunglasses are acceptable everywhere chad johnson's the type of guy who can walk into a room any room with sunglasses on nobody asks a fucking question some people have sunglass privilege where they can do it just makes it just works for them and i don't have that i would love to have that um hey last thing is this on the grammies you didn't ask for a grimmies breakdown um Luke combs was up there performing had a suit on and everything it was awesome just seems like

great guy i know Kyle's a huge fan of Luke combs kind of turned me on a Luke combs uh saw him when he was on a college game day and he seemed fucking awesome you know like like oh this guy isn't totally full of himself seems cool uh and talk about a room full of some people who seem to be in fantasy land the grammies but luke comes as a real motherfucker and he's talking about tracy chapman and fast car and how influential that song was to him as it was to anybody who grew up in or around the 90s. Talk about nostalgia. It's like 10 milligrams to the dome when you hear

Fast Car. They come out of his interview where he's kind of setting this thing up. And you know he's going to take the stage and presumably, I guess, sing Fast Car. And at some point, I'm pretty sure like 70% of America found out that Tracy Chapman was on stage with him.

And I got to say, like, in my living room, in your living room, in anybody's living room, who was watching the Grammys last night. You probably got really charged up because Tracy Chapman was on the fucking screen. She looked great. She sounded great.

Who doesn't like Tracy Chapman? And it begs the question, who wouldn't take a long, hard look at Chapman Combs on a ticket? Honestly, I'm just saying, this is where my head went. I was like, fuck, dude, these two. They're a lot younger.

These two altruistic motherfuckers, they can run the country. You know? All right, cool. So, anyways, speaking of nostalgia and, like, things for my childhood, Carl Weathers did pass away. Everybody knows that this weekend. He's a type of famous dude that when he moves on to the upper room, everybody knows about it. He is somebody to everybody, right? Like, to Nate in the chat, he was like, I didn't know.

Apollo Creed was also Chubs. You know, so there's some aha moments for people that are like, and there's also people that just realized that Carl Weathers played for the Raiders, like professionally. There's some people that found out this weekend because he passed away that he was a great football player, too. He played for San Diego State. I was watching him talk to like a class or kind of doing a TED Talk at San Diego State

just like 10 months ago. I was just looking at YouTube interviews because I've always loved Carl Weathers, but, you know, when somebody dies, I like to give them a solid day of, you know, I like to listen to them talk and see what they're about, like, dig a little deeper. And the guy just struck me as such a humble person and such a smart jock. Like, and that's why I think it was a secret weapon getting into Hollywood was, you know, he had the athletic background. And if you know anything about the Rocky movies, I read that he got the, he got the role by being honest. by being an asshole to Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone, I guess, wrote the movie, right? Matt, stop me when I'm wrong, but Stallone wrote the movie? Yeah. Okay, Stallone wrote the movie. And Carl Weathers is like absolutely 100% believable as a boxer. And Apollo Creed is like an all-time incredible iconic role, especially in like Rocky 3, I of the Tiger. He might make the movie.

And Stallone said it today on Instagram. If there's no Apollo Creed, there's no Rocky. But honestly, the story of him. him getting that that role was Stallone was doing a read with him and at this point I don't think Carl knows that Stallone is presumably going to play Rocky and it's

just not going well and there's like an awkward silence when when they finished delivering the lines and Carl's like well if they get a real actor here you know like this fucking guy is and Stallone loved it Stallone like loved his presence but I think also like that he was

willing to challenge him and I don't know. My dad had been around him a little bit from time time. I always spoke really highly of him. But when you talk about a guy who, you know there's certain people you can just look in their eyes and you know they're good, honest people. One of the eyes being in the window of the soul or whatever it is.

But Carl Weathers, you just trust him. He just was a trustworthy looking motherfucker dude. And I mean that with the utmost reverence, I got to say, he just every time I saw him, do anything. He just conducted himself with the class. And he gave birth to maybe one of the most important memes or gifts of our century. I mean, of our generation. There's a bunch of kids that don't know Carl Weathers. There's people that don't know Carl Weathers from Rocky and they know him from Happy Gilmore that don't know him from The Predator. And then there's just people that know

them as the huge jacked arm in the meme with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Such an iconic movie. That's my favorite role of his. That and he had a deleted scene in close encounters of a third kind. Oh, I'd like to see that read. Can you recover it? Yeah, it's on it's on YouTube. He's a military police officer. He could play. Yeah, I mean, like he's just, Predator was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. You know, a lot of people watched certain age appropriate things in their childhood, but I don't think my parents subscribe to that sort of thing. So it was Howard the Duck. and Predator and Terminator. So you went, yeah, it's a good solid foundation. Predator. And rest in peace,

Carl Weathers, awesome dude. Just a man's man. And he excelled in Hollywood. Hey, also, I just wanted to mention Jim Harbaugh talking about living in an RV. I don't know, you guys know this. It's like a fantasy of mine, honestly. Starting a nuclear family is,

it's an awesome thing. But there are short. One of the shortcomings being that you can't go live in an RV. For me at least, that's something that I think about often. No bullshit when I was in St. Louis. Not that I resented my now wife, but I certainly recognized the fact that she was the thing keeping me from accomplishing that goal. I honestly thought it would be cool to live in an RV in the parking lot.

And that's Earth City. I mean, imagine Jim Harbaugh living in an RV in Los Angeles with palm trees in the parking lot and shit. I think it's super cool. Follow your dreams, Jim. Live in an RV. Do it for Dan Campbell. Do it for me.

Do it for all the other guys that all they would want for their 40th birthday if their wife is listening is a month in an RV. Don't get me anything. Don't take me anywhere. Just tell me I can leave in my RV for a month. This is me describing what my ideal 40th birthday would be. Honestly, it would. just tell the kids i'm in the the the national guard make up something heroic every time i

come back for like a day or two it'll be like the ice cream truck every guy should get for their 40th birthday a month in an RV oh my god march 28th march 29th of course because we'll celebrate as a family and then they'll load me up in my class B, Thor, four wins. You smash a bottle of champagne on the side as you drive away. No question, Reid. No question. But I think Jim Harbaugh is a renaissance man for that,

and I appreciate him. Talking about my wife today, guys, is the last thing. I swear, and then we'll get into the awards, which we did the other day. So her friends and her went on a spa day thing, you know, about these? You will. One day you will. They called it spa and order.

No shit. Why? I don't know. They're just being goofy as fuck. I'm imagining them getting pedicures with the dun dun that. She brought home slippers. They said spa and order. God, I hope they didn't have like CSI theme male strippers.

That just hit me. That's exactly what I was just thinking. Fuck me. Dude, I fell for the banana and the tailpipe. Just getting my nails done. All right. Here's your award show. And you'll catch us at some point in Vegas.

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Commercials during the big games have become a huge deal. Let me tell you, during the big game, we almost pay as much attention to the advertisers as we do to the game itself. Instead of running 1.30 second commercial during the big game this year, Miller Lite is running a thousand, literally. Friends, family

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And you can pick up some Miller light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It tastes like Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 cars for 12 ounces. Awards, okay, like these are going to be, I'll read you the awards. Okay, the greatest show on turf award. That's going to be the favorite offense that you watch this season. 85 Bears Award, Kev. Defense.

Favorite defense you watch this season. The Bill Walsh Award, that goes to the top offensive coordinator. The Belichick Award goes to, ironically, goes to the top defensive coordinator. And then your favorite color analyst or moment, that's the John Madden Award. The Randy Moss Award is a contract year player that bawled out. The Flacco Award is for an old guy that did work this year. The Slater Award is for a special team. team's player that excelled.

And then the Big Dick Nick Award goes to a backup quarterback that you really enjoyed watching this season. Okay, maybe I left that one out. Okay. You got time. Yeah, I got time. Okay. So first up, we got the greatest show on turf award.

Make what you got? The Miami Dolphins, when it was good. Specifically, they win 70 to 20 over the Denver Broncos. A. Chan went for 200 plus. The Cheetah went for 150 plus. They ran for 350. and through for 350. There was no waddle in that game,

but Robbie Chosen went one for 68 in a touchdown. Now, Robbie Chosen, 6'370 pounds. You don't often see that measurable in the national football league. It is. Only offense that averaged over 400 yards a game. I know it had its shortcomings. Yes.

When it was working, it was the best of San Francisco mixed with, well, Tyreek Hill. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Very exciting. Yeah.

When it did not matter, they were incredible. Like, I'm not even trying to pop on. No, that's fair. When in games that you didn't look at the opponent and say, hey, this is a big game or it's a good defense. Like they are, I still don't understand the delta between. Yeah. Their play in situations where it's stressful and in situations where it's not because no,

Not even the best offenses in history had games like they had against some of the mop-up duty type team. And Mostert was set in records and probably the number two back. I mean, when A-Chane was healthy, he was the guy. They were fighting Madden. Yeah. They really were. I went a different way.

I went with like a single performance, but like I can give you three nominees and then I'll give you the winner. Flacco against Houston. Yep. That was a wow. Like him and, and, uh, Cooper played the most beautiful game of catch ever. Regular season.

Regular season game of catch. And it was. It was a game of catch. Like, it was like, I'm just going to throw you the ball again. They didn't have a kicker in that game. So they kept going for it on like fourth and eight. It was like, whoops, fuck, I'm not trying to run the score up. I just don't have a kicker.

What do you want me to do? CJ Stroud against the Bengals. That was his coming out party for me. It felt like one of those moments where you were like, okay, this guy's him. And the fact that it was Joe Burrow, and I've said this before, He reminds me of Joe Burrow, and Joe Burrow reminded me of Brady. Now people at home who are simpletons don't understand the nuance in this conversation.

I'm not saying that he's going to be Tom Brady. I'm not saying that I think he's going to be Joe Burrow. I'm not saying he's going to win six, seven championships. What I am saying is they have some pocket traits that are winning characteristics, like big time winning characteristics. Like we just heard Shane talking about CJ Stroud. thing that he said that kind of perked my ears up, his eyes are downfield. He's always, he's always able to fix his gaze on the secondary, on the routes that are breaking in front of him

without looking down at the rush and the pocket mobility, the stuff he does in the pocket's incredible. And that game was like a master class from a rookie quarterback in a stressful situation. That was a good defense and on the road. The Rams and the Ravens, watching the Rams, Some of the Rams touchdown drives this year were, the Rams best touchdown drives were the prettiest drives. I saw any team execute all season because of just the balls that Matt Stafford through, you know, the revelation that was Puka Nakua, you know, reviving that run game. The balance.

When McVeigh has that run game, it's as pretty an offense as there is to watch in the NFL. And basically you were watching that historic offense that he had with Jared Gough with no shots at golf, I count Matthew Stafford as a top five, six quarterback. Even at this age, he still got it. And that was so fun to watch.

I'm going to give it to C.J. Stroud. I don't know that I had more fun watching a single player this year than I did that day and watching C.J. Stroud. Yeah. It's in talking to Shane Stike, and it's almost like a topic you should bring up, but you're kind of scared to because it's, uh-oh.

It's a real, oh, shit thing. Yeah. It's like, oh, fuck, I took the job. The conference looks a certain way, and nah, if I'm going to be successful here, I'm going to have to butt heads with this guy in perpetuity. Yeah. I mean, so. He's the guy.

Let's go 85 bears. I went Browns week one against Sensi, and I know Joe might not have been 100%, but the Browns held that offense to 142 yards. Joe only threw for 82, had those receivers out there. The Bengals were two of three. 15 on third down. They had six first downs and 2.6 yards per play.

And it was Miles Garrett, it was Big Z, it was J.O.K. That secondary, Denzel Ward, Greg Newsome, Grant Delpit, Juan Thornhill, Rodney McLeod, just flying around and being mean out there. Me. Led by Jim Schwartz.

And that's when it was like, well, yeah, I'd like to have Deshaun out there, but it might not matter. We're going to be in every single game. And maybe they're historically good. Yeah. before we caught on the whole road home split thing. And, you know, before they got thumped in the playoffs,

this is a long time ago, but they did look incredible in that spot. And I had Browns at home noted here because when they're at home, they were incredible. But I want to go with the Montez Sweat Bears, okay? Because when they made the trade for Montez Sweat, a lot of people laughed at them. I think the guy's a really good player.

You could question trading for him without getting the deal done for a couple days because you were worried about that. And there was that moment where like are the bears huge idiots like did they not think about you know next year and beyond and gave up capital for this guy But when he showed up they were 28th in EPA and then the back half of the season they were six I can't attribute it purely to one player But it also goes to show why that position is so valuable because if you have an elite guy out there That's the difference that he can make and it it bared out in the numbers and it bared out watching them it was like unlocking all

the positives that they had that you really couldn't see because they couldn't get pressure. Hit us with Favorite O.C. The Bill Walsh Award. Okay. I mean, this is kind of chalky, but it's O'Connell, Stefansky, Sloic. And really, it comes down to for me, O'Connell and Stefansky. I don't know what's more impressive, right? Because they both, they both did such a good job cycling through quarterbacks. And I want to say Stephansky because of the sheer number of guys that he had success with and won games with, I also know that he has that dynamic offensive line. And, you know, there's so much you can do to cover up weaknesses in your offense if you're a great scheme guy and you have an offensive line

like that. I think what Kevin O'Connell did was incredible. And I know that Cleveland doesn't have a Justin Jefferson. I get that. But I'm just a huge fan of this guy. I think he's got it all. And watching the Josh Dobbs thing, you know, watching him make switches to Nick Mullins and, you know, Jaron Hall, even though that was a little bit curious. And they sputtered down the stretch. But I feel like with Kevin O'Connell at the helm, they're going to be dangerous next year and beyond. And I want to give him a nod. He won't win coach of the year. Kevin Sivansky might win coach to the year.

But I think watching Kevin O'Connell work, I really enjoy that offense. the big chunks that they it's kind of like what do you enjoy watching more and there are similarities in the offenses but the big chunks that they would break off in play action even with like a nick mullins like it was just so impressed by watching them go toe to toe with Detroit and all these teams late in the season with less than perfect quarterbacks yeah i went joe brady yeah when he took over in mid-november bills were five and five they went six and one after he did scoring 27 points a game with wins over Kansas City playing in the Super Bowl

Dallas, the New England defense and Miami and maybe it is easier to be the guy after the guy to tell Josh Allen just to go run but they were a 500 team he changed that. I would also, and you might want to circle back

to Joe, shout out Ben Johnson who a lot of people laughed at the Jemir Gibbs pick at 12 or whatever it was. Brad Holmes making that. pick. Yeah, and some people thought Sam Leporto was not the tight end to take, and he integrated those two rookies into the offense seamlessly, and Amunrah got his, David Montgomery was just

solid as a day as long, and Jared looked like a top 10 quarterback. Speaking of that, I don't know if we call it the Ozzie Newsom Award or something, but I would give it to Nick Nicario. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, it's so interesting to me that somebody comes from New England where you think, like, well, they haven't screamed high-level personnel moves over the past five to seven years and you wonder how much of it was him and how much it was Bill. The caper that they pulled off was incredible. I mean, just incredible. So want to shout out, Nick. Let's go, let's go defensive coordinator. For me, it's easy. It's spags. Okay. It really is easy for me. I said all year, I thought that you could argue they were the best

defense in the league and one of those situations where I know the raw numbers don't support it. And I know there's a shiny object over here with Baltimore and there's Cleveland, but I know for sure Cleveland's not because I see the things that manifested late in the year. I got more pushback on the Baltimore thing. I totally understand. But in the biggest stage with the most on the line, this guy has repeatedly proven himself. And I just love their style of play. I love watching him be resourceful. And I said this to Spags when he was in the show. Like you probably had two plans for the season when Chris Jones was holding out, sitting up there with his agents. You had one plan and then you thank God you got Chris Jones back. But when you've got two great cover guys outside and you've got Chris Jones in the middle

and you've got that linebacking court, it's a lot of fun to watch. They also had to replace a talented young safety. They had to play for stretches without Nick Bolton. They had to win the, if you had told me they were going to win the AFC championship with Willie, gay down. I don't even know if I'd have believed it. You know, I put the bed in and then Willie with the neck, he's not up and I'm worried about spying Lamar and the whole thing. His pressures, his playing zone behind it, his giving you different looks, the disguises. And I interviewed Eric Reed on Inside the NFL this week with Ryan. Eric, you know, Eric pointed something out that I

think should not get lost. Like, coordinators are not just great because they have great schemes. they're great because they're great teachers. And that's the word that keeps getting used when you hear Spags talked about. You know, like you have to be able to teach the scheme. He obviously does it at a high level. I went Joe Barry because the cat refused to get fired.

Yep. And then they go and win sixth of their last eight, get into the playoffs, and you look up in Dallas has seven points at halftime of the wild card game. I mean, that unit... You just gave it to a guy who got fired. That unit got it into gear.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it just, it, uh, he was everybody's favorite punching bag for the majority of the year. He's a good guy. People like Joe. I like Joe. I hope he winds up on his feet somewhere and they hired the guy from BC. Jeff Halfley. Yeah. Other guy they probably got tired of N.I.L. Um, but Joe's a guy who's well liked. And it was tough for me to say the things I said this year, which are like, I just don't trust his defense at times, like some of the, the structures that they played in some of these big spots. Well, it was, it was bad. And then.

and then they turn it around. They turn it around and kept that offense in games. Favorite color analyst or favorite color analyst moment, the John Madden Award. I'm going to give it to Tom Pelliserro who said to, mistakenly to Mike Garifolo, he was talking about Justin Tucker kicking a 60-yard field goal, and he meant to say banging a 60-yard field goal,

and he said banging 60-year-olds. Yeah, banging a 60-year-old. Do you see Justin Tucker banging a 60-year-old? Do you see Justin Tucker banging a 60-year-old? The other one for me was, I forget who it was, but he said to Maurice Jones Drew, he's like, he's like, can they ride the D? Yeah, yeah.

We had a, we had like a, whoa, moment on air. I don't have a particular favorite call. But the best is, the best is, whoever was talking to him goes, defense. Defense. Like, MJD gave him the pause luck in the defense. I can fix the problem. Yeah.

I want to say this. Greg Olson just got supplanted by Tom Brady, which is like, you know, it's not even getting Wally Pipped. It's just that Tom decides he wants to do something. He's going to any job Tom Brady wants pretty much, he's going to get it. You know, like if he wants to be Meg's husband, that probably could happen.

Oh, no way. You know what I mean. He's good looking. He's talented. I don't know how it goes when he's in the booth, but I will say this. Greg Olson is one of my favorite. favorites, period. And I know some people don't like Greg. I've read that online. Surprise you can find

negativity on almost any subject online. There's, I think, far more people that crave the real football intel when you're watching a game. And, you know, some people prefer somebody cartoonish or somebody who's not going to give you that stuff and dumb it down, but I prefer the guy who tells me the truth and is not sensational calling the game. And I think Greg is terrific. And I don't know what he's going to do next year. Maybe you can work for green light. But he was awesome. I think you can do a lot worse than being the number two guy, ask for a raise, and just wait for the next big job to open up. Yeah, take a year off like Bill. Well, no, just go back to the number two crew. Yeah, go back to the two crew and then. Viewer eyes, more reps, more money. Be a coordinator. Yeah. You know,

I also want to mention Al Michaels. Okay? Because Al Michaels was so relatable. I mean, even the great Al Michaels could not stomach some of these games. It's just, it took, it's, it was just one too many Thursday night rock fights for this guy. And at a certain point, Al Michaels, much like Joe Barry, everybody wanted his head. I thought he finished extremely strong once the news came out that he wasn't going to get the, what was it, the Super Bowl or something. They were like, Al Michaels, you're not on the call. And I think NBC said no for the playoffs.

For the playoffs. And I think once that, that, that bit of news got to, Al Michaels. He really tried to turn it around down the stretch. He's coachable. He took the message and he finished strong. I still cannot believe that Al Michaels doesn't have somebody in his life who wouldn't tell him. To eat a vegetable? Guy, you're saying the word, meanwhile, every fifth word. It drove me crazy. Really? I would have to mute it. I haven't heard it once. Everything was meanwhile. You're OCD. Meanwhile, it's third down and six. Yeah, I've never, meanwhile quarterback never even registered. It's wild.

The thing that registers for me is the guys is never, never eating a vegetable. Yeah, that also is something. How is he alive? Yeah. Um, okay. I like to be able to rely on things and we're big fans of the Garrett family. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I took great offense to being told that I sound exactly like Jason Garrett. I know I heard that. And therefore I give my little award here to,

to Chris Collinsworth. Because the Sunday night, when Garrett unannounced was in the booth I was like ah scurip yeah this is not what I was anticipating and then the it kind of work no not the greatest list oh really yeah and then everybody said hey that's you that's pretty bad you on deep yeah when I saw that in the mentions I wanted to retweet it but I was like uh yeah um the Randy Moss award let's give that to a a free agent the cashed in I'm giving it to Baker Mayfield okay talk about the ultimate bargain in the game where everybody spends the most money, I would liken it to like Costa Rica winning a world war.

You know, like Costa Rica has no military. The name of the game around the world is like how big and bad can your military be? How many nuclear weapons do you have? What's the budget? Well, Costa Rica doesn't even have a military. They're like, we're not going to spend any money on that. It's kind of like what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did. They spent $4 million on Baker Mayfield.

There are plenty of other choices they could have made. and for Baker to stick the landing on that thing and get a year like he got, even though Dave Canales is leaving, and it might never be the same, or maybe he revised his career. It was a lot of fun to watch, and I'm a big fan of Baker Mayfield,

so glad he's going to get paid again. He can move out of the stadium or wherever he lives now and get himself a flat. I'm going to go Mike Evans. Yeah. I might go two cats here if I may. Mike Evans, 1,255 yards, 13 TDs. And Jacobi Berset, can I read you this line?

Yeah. In a contract year for age 31 Jacobi Per set, 18 of 23, 224 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, big old ass. That's a hell of a year for Jacobi's set. Yeah. Like you don't get seen a whole lot. And when you are out there, the ball done to the ground. He looks pretty good when he's out there.

Yeah. He looks like a guy that can run the show. Yeah. You know what I mean? So he's going to be a popular. backup pick and free agency. He's snuck in that cycle for forever. I thought you would have said Legerius Sneed.

He's going to get paid. Yeah, Legerius Sneed. I mean, obviously, if I gave out an award to my favorite player of the 2020 season, it'd be him. Every time he was around the ball, he made something big happen. And you know what? I just like his attitude. He's kind of got that D-line attitude where he's jamming the shit out of Tyree Kill.

He's bullying Jalen Waddle. He's punking guys on the Ravens. Like he is that dude, man. And I hope he gets paid and I hope it's Philly. I hope Kansas. I hope Brett Beach doesn't like the guy. All right, let's go Joe Flack Award. This is for a 35 plus year old guy.

In six days, it's his birthday. He turns 36. It's Matt Stafford. Yeah, I was thinking about going chalky too, because how could you not? I mean, like the guy was incredible. The guy was incredible. Yeah.

And when you talk, again, when you talk to quarterbacks that have played a long time, if you ask him, how's mad staffer gonna play i was jay cutler and jay was like oh he'll play for like another five years he's got a jugs machine on his shoulder crazy to have that ability i guess it's like being darrell green you can play till you're 38 at corner or whatever 40 um i'm gonna give it to jason peters because i think there's a big segment of the population even in the cities that he played and his beloved that did not know he was still playing football like had no idea every once in a while you turn on a Seattle Seahawks game and you're like, where's Abe Lucas?

Here's 41-year-old Jason Peters playing a position that nobody in their right mind is going to play into their 40s. Jackie Slater did it. Okay, but Jackie Slater was like a gazelle. Okay. Fucking Jason Peters is a rhinoceros. And he played into his 40s. He continues to play another hand at the blackjack table.

He's now 42. 42 years old. 64, 32, 38. 42 years old, dude. Crazy. Basically Nolan Ryan out there. He's like an F650 with a million miles on it.

The Matt Slater Award. Astanding special teamer. This is easy for me. This is chalky for me. It's Brandon Aubrey. You love that Brandon Aubrey. The guy with the smoothest leg swing and the history of ball.

Until Kevin Burkhart jinxed him. He did jinxed the fuck out of him. Almost cost us the cover. Book ended his season with Mrs. it was just it was a it was a beautiful season for brandon abry so i i guess i guess i'll give it to javier gibson uh the punt returner for the jets and it was a long time ago but week one returning that that that one against the the buffalo bills i could argue that since rex ryan that was the most hope that jets fans had in a single moment ever since russ since ryan and

Squanch. Okay. Squantch is of course Mark Sanchez. When he returned that punt, it was like, wait, we were supposed to lose this game. Like, this is what happens. And if you consider your most hopeful moment comes within four hours of the thing that made you infinitely hopeful going up in flames in Aaron Rogers, it is the sickest joke that was ever played on the Jets to win that opener and for Xavier Gibson to run that ball back. I mean, What a moment. It only lasted one night, but to be a Jets fan that night had to be pretty cool. No doubt.

And we're going to give an award out to a backup quarterback, yeah? Dick Nick Award. BDN. For me, I'm not quick to give a compliment to a Virginia Tech hockey. But it's the year Tommy DeVito, and this Tyrod Taylor comes in, and he just wins games, scores points. Calls audibles at the one-yard line. So reliable. That wasn't so hot.

25 points. By the way, scoring 25 points. Can he throw a pick late in one of those games late too? In consecutive weeks. I had very little time to prepare for this particular. Good. Give Joe Barry the coordinator of the year. And I stand behind that one.

He scored, Tyrod scored 25 points in consecutive weeks. That's hard to do. Eagles in the Rams and then beat the Eagles in week 18. If I was going to make up an award for Tyrod, it would be like the I am equally empathetic and admiring of you. Yeah. Because I really do admire the guy. I think he's an incredible presence in a locker room.

You can tell like people trust him, people love him. He's a good football player. He's not the best quarterback, but he's a guy, can give you a chance to win. And on the other side of the coin, I just feel bad for him because, you know, like from getting a shot in the lungs to, to, you know, the scene at the end of the Buffalo game,

the Philly game late in the year. That's the one I think I was remembering where he made a big mistake. I can't remember which game it was, but you were like, here we are again. This guy's got bad luck. He just has bad luck. I'll give it to there's one of- Aaron Hall.

Come on. No, there's a couple guys here. There's Flacco, right? But I almost feel like you knew the guys like a Hall of Famer, borderline Hall of Famer. And if he'd have been in that offense's whole career, he probably already been in the Hall of Fame. What about the Josh Dobbs experience?

So Josh Dobbs is on my list. I'm going to give it to Josh Dobbs. That Atlanta game, although I was on the wrong side of that bet, and you were on the right side of it with the locks, and I felt it was so unfair because if Jaron Hall had played that full game, I'd have money in my pocket. But Josh Dobbs... There was...

Oh, money, right. Josh Dobbs was incredible for a run. It was, you know, the astronaut thing, you'll never forget that. These little chapters in NFL history where you're like, yeah, I remember that. I remember the Josh Dobbs year. And then he just disappeared. He disappeared like some, like an asteroid or some sort of spacebound projectile. He was just gone, dude.

A shooting star. He was a shooting star. He really was. But I would like to give a separate award called the Jeremy Lynn Award for a guy who had a great run in New York. that was fleeting, and that's Tommy Cutlitz. Yeah. I think he owned the heart of the nation just because of the size of the market for a period. And coincidentally, and kind of fortunately, he happened to be Italian.

And there's a lot of Italian, you know. Quite marketable. Yeah. How quickly we forget Tyson Bejant. It really was the year of the backup quarterback. It was, dude. I mean, from Zach Wilson and Trevor Simian, we had some baseball. Bailey Zappy this year.

Don't forget Jake Browning. That guy's a baller. Jake Browning was a baller. You mentioned Joe, who was in Pittsburgh. We had, we had Mitch. Mason. And we had Mason. I mean, almost. It was incredible. It was a violent sport. It speaks to the quality of the product on the field. So those are our awards. Congratulations to the award winners. And now we get into the moments.

Thanks to Toyota and the brand new Toyota Tacoma next week, we'll be broadcast. from the NFL media center in Las Vegas, from the most badass set in all of Radio Row. That's right. The all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma, with its trail-dominating power, legendary capability and captivating style, is arriving in dealerships.

And it's arriving at the 2004 Super Bowl in Las Vegas as we are helping Toyota launch the all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma. That's right. It's going to be right next to me. You'll be able to see the all-new best-selling mid-sized pickup in America featured on the Greenlight podcast set recorded from the Tacoma Content Studio. The all-new Toyota Tacoma dares you to come out and play. The all-new 2024 Toyota Tacoma, the most powerful Tacoma ever,

is your chance to experience trail-dominating power, legendary capability, and captivating style. It's time to make your off-rooting dreams come true. With the 2004 Toyota Tacoma, a truck that's tough on the trail and easy on the eyes, electrifying power, maximum torque, the all-new Toyota Tacoma is the most powerful Tacoma ever. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. The moments and the themes that define the NFL season of 2023, and just like on Mondays, we will follow our script. so we'll go best and worse flight first.

Okay, best flight for me, Detroit Lions Week 1. You go on the road against the defending champs, you're down six in the fourth quarter, you win the game on a drive, nine plays, 75 yards, five minutes, and you build off of the season before's finish. You finish eight and two, you don't know what's coming next year, and you have to go on the road in the tough spot on a Thursday, So you had a little bit of a little bit of a mini buy. The Rooks account for 100 yards of offense and Leporta and Jemir Gibbs.

And it propels you to a division title, a playoff run. You're up 17 in the NFC championship game. I think they gained a lot from that week one win in Kansas City. I'm going to double back to when I gave Jason Kelsey the worst flight after I figured he was probably hung over as fuck after the Buffalo game. He was having so much fun. He was like a kid in a candy store. He was grabbing people's kids.

He was, he wanted to. to Kylie said he wanted to jump through tables. Like he was he was unhinged. And I just figured the next day was really rough, but I didn't think about the fact that he was probably hopping on Taylor Swift's PJ. And it was a short flight. And in his mind, he's kind of in that,

that if I had to guess, or he hasn't announced anything, he's kind of in that mode where he's like, I'm retired. You know, when you know you're probably gonna retire, that's like the best couple months of your life. You're like, this thing that I've been wondering about what it's like not to be a football player, You talk about taking a piss before the Super Bowl and being like, what's this like?

Is this my last piss as a loser? You take a leak your last day in the NFL and you're like, it's never gonna be the same. I'm never gonna put a helmet on again. Like I've been putting a helmet on my entire life as uncomfortable as everything I do on a day-to-day basis is, I can't do it anymore. And it's just a big life event and you think like,

when you play, you wonder what it's like for everybody else. And the first couple months, you're like, I'm going to live my life. And I'll never forget, Rob Nankovic said this. I was like six months out. And I was like, hey, Rob, I don't know what people were talking about, this retirement thing, this whole CTE thing. Like, I'm great. I'm having the best time in my life. Dude, this is like, I'm in the prime my life.

And he was like, wait till three years from now when that's worn off and you're sitting at home and you can't play football. And all your friends have jobs that they've been, they've been working at for 10 to 15 years. you got to start over and the buzz the buzz is gone and you're not the hot commodity you were the first guy i'm like jesus christ i'm like i'm just saying i'm doing good but it's true you know like three years later life is good but it's you look back at your career and you're like it's never going to be the same i can't replace that and so i think jason being in that position the honeymoon phase of maybe retirement, I'm giving him best flight. Okay, I like it.

Worst flight, I'll go. Detroit Lions, Week 21. Yeah, that's a bad one. I mean, what else need be said? You're up 17. It looks like it's going very well at halftime, and it doesn't end so hot. It does not end hot now.

I don't have a worse flight. I have here written down Alaska Airlines flight with the door, but that was a football player, and they just found out that it was bolts. Just somebody didn't put the bolts on. Is that fucking crazy or what? Okay, let's go Bevel Conway and anti-Bevel Conway. All right.

How much time you got? Because this was a sensational year in the Bevel universe. I give the gold medal to the Tennessee Titans as the Houston Oilers. Yeah. Against the Houston Texans. Okay. I think those are the best throwbacks. Oh, they're beautiful.

The Oilers. We also got Tampa. Silver medal. to the cream sickles. Yeah. Bronze medal to the Kelly Greens. Totally asinine. And I think Pat Patriot and the Reds,

white red, white. That Dolphins game was gorgeous. It's terrific. In New England. So was the Miami game in Philly. When Miami wears their correct uniforms, they're hard to beat. And everybody went nuts for the Seahawks uniforms,

and I think rightfully so, but they did screw up that collar, where the collar stopped right at your, right at your chest bone here and you had the shield, which is mandated, of course. But for me, it's seeing those Houston Oiler unies. Bebble Conway, I'm going to go off the board into college, and I'm going to go the Pop-Tart Bowl.

Seeing that Pop-Tart pop out of that toaster was incredible. And I had just gotten done talking about how I hate these commercialized bowl games, just give us a silver trophy, nothing corporate, it let's let's soak in the moment not make it about the people who are cutting the checks now counterpoint the pot-tart bowl yeah this guy climbed out of a toaster and they ate him yep by they just they just they it was like the movie um alive which they're remaking where the people crashed in the plane down in the andy's mountains they got to eat each other that was kind of that scene reminded me of so i don't know why it's getting a

Beville Conway, but I loved what the Pop-Tart Bowl did. Now, do you recall who participated in the Pop-Tart Bowl? Air Force, possibly? Is that Pittsburgh? It's harder to find than you think on the internet. It's K-State and NC State. Okay. Not even close.

Yeah. So. Those bowl games, they all run together. It's just one big minus three units, plus two units, minus one unit, plus three units. Like, you're just firing for a month straight and you come out, like, at zero. I mean, they obviously got a,

another bowl has to one up that next year. I don't know what it's going to be. I don't know what's going to be. Coming down the pipeline. The Lockheed Martin Bowl could do some incredible stuff. Pugh, just blow up the losing team. You know?

You want to talk about how to incentivize players to play well in bowl games. Just make them all the Lockheed Martin Bowl. Lockheed Martin's got more money in God. They got more money in Pop-Tarts. You want to talk about, you know, Costa Rica and all these other countries. Lockheed Martin, they got more money than Taylor Swift.

Okay, they could do whatever they wanted. Drone Strike. F.U. Money. Anti-beville Conway. Who's the ACC Commissioner? It's not John Swafford anymore. Well, imagine John Swofford out there. I want to present this trophy to the winning team, the NC State Wolfpack.

Drone Strike. Lockheed Martin. Jim Phillips. Okay. And now we reintroduced John Swofford. Just got sued, by the way. Did he? John Swofford, yeah.

ACC versus Florida State. Anti-Bevel for me. This Super Bowl, in part because we saw it within the last few years, and there's so much red. Now, it was posited by one Dave Damashek, the uniformant, that, that Kansas City who has the choice of the jersey would stick with the white jersey because they've been going on the road. White's been winning lately.

Well, they picked red. They wanna be in their big reds. So the only way to save this, I think, is for San Fran to wear the throwbacks. The gold helmet, the white with the drop shadow, and the white pants. Then it's pleasing. If they go with the normal, we've just seen it.

It's too much red. We almost had some really gorgeous Super Bowl. I know. I mean, you were close to Bill's and I don't know who else, but Bill's Packers or something would have been electric. Chiefs Packers, Lions Chiefs. Why did the Chiefs get the pick? It switches every year.

AFC. NFC. NFC. This year. All right. So anti-Bevil Conway, I've got a couple written down here, Bradley Chubbs knee. That was disgusting. The Jets fan whose tooth fell out on TV.

That was gross. and embarrassing, and the Broncos defense against the Miami Dolphins. I'm gonna give it to the Jets fan whose tooth fell out. Okay. I mean, that was tough. That was really gross. I don't know if you found the tooth.

I don't know if he put the tooth back in his mouth. You're now a fellow tooth guy though. I got a toothache. Yeah. Yeah, so I kind of understand what that guy's dealing with. Last houses. I do want to shout out at the New Orleans Saints for just having everything right there

and falling over your feet. every single time. The, the mismatched gold helmet with the gold pant, it'll match. Yeah, just wear the throwbacks.

That trash black helmet with a flirt with a leave all over the place? Awful. Hot garbage. Panthers went all black this year didn't work. A lot of,

a lot of no good. Okay. So we go fly on the wall. Okay, yeah, just show you that for fuck sake. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't match. Fly on the wall.

I would, I would love to. have been a fly inside the headset of Dan Campbell. Everybody's talking on those headsets. The only thing you can't do is call that timeout against the 49ers in the NFC championship. Thank you. You had run the ball, okay, not a great call.

Either run the field goal team out to kick it or have another play ready to go. If you said burn the ships into the headset, I don't know how I feel about that. Right. Right. So I would just... Usually I love that saying, but in that situation, no. And I have a feeling for whatever reason that it wasn't Dan going rogue on a timeout. It's probably somebody upstairs being like, time out, time out, time out. Stupid.

You just can't do it. I would love to have heard the hierarchy of communications. Is that a worst timeout than C-Web? No. No. C-Web's time-out. I think it's probably the worst-ever. Yeah. Right?

And C-Web's time-out. You're actually the guy calling the time-out, so there's a visual of you calling the time-out. out incredulously, like everybody else looking on, like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Yeah. Yeah, I'll go, what happened with the Eagles? You know, what happened with the Eagles? Like, I have friends on that team. I don't know.

I don't really know because I don't pry. You know, like, in six months or maybe I'll see some of them at the Super Bowl, I'll be like, what the fuck happened? You know? And maybe they'll tell me, I kind of know what happened, but I don't know the whole story. And I'd just really be interested because, yeah, teams office. Super Bowl year, oftentimes struggle, but they don't usually start that hot out of the gate and then the whole thing fall out from from under them. So there's that and I think more than anything, TV

executives when Aaron Rogers got hurt. Okay. And I'm talking about the people that were supposed to have him in five to seven prime time games. So you got Zach Wilson and all these people. You get the simian primetime spots. It was bad for business. And then for ESPN, you're Pat McAfee. You're walking into their office and you're like, hey, I want to have Aaron Rogers on again and want to have them on on ESPN. It's going to be great. They're like, well, you know, like, how much vaccine do you think you're going to talk? Because like that, that thing's getting, that's old hat. Um, that probably like 2% might come up every now and again. Not going to talk about it much. Guys, Achilles explodes. And then we get like Alex Jones three days a week.

Mm-hmm. So I, you know, like, what did the, ESPN people think. What did Pat? Because it's just a hard job anyways. Pat's job is hard. And those spots are tough, even if the guy's playing. If he's not playing, like, you realize week one, I've got to fill all this airtime. And we've got to talk about stuff that has nothing to do with football.

And eventually that's where I think, you know, that whole thing wore on some people. You know what that's like? It's like a long-distance relationship. Yeah? If you talk on the phone enough, eventually it just turns. bad. And they were talking on the phone too much. They didn't have the thing that they were going to talk

about to talk about. Right, exactly. There's nothing to talk about. Nothing like, hey, what do we do last night? We're going to see Godzilla minus one. Instead, they delved into human trafficking. Is that what they did? Well, the Epstein list. The Epstein list. What was the thing with that? That he was getting paid

and people didn't like that to be on the show that McAvey was. What was all that? He got paid a lot. Well, and McAfee broke off Aaron Rogers a bunch and broke off Aaron a bunch of money. And then there's people at ESPN that are like, what the fuck? Like people got fired for this segment, you know. I got no problem with Pat or Aaron.

Like, you know, there's things about Aaron I don't love. But I just think more than anything it was a challenging job. Like it's a challenging job for Pat. It's a tough position for the ESPN people. And it's also like, you know, they're trying. The reason, if I understand it correctly, like first take was, there first take no longer there trying to fill that spot trying to trying to fill sports center spots like it was going to be hard to to equal that even if aaron was healthy and then it was just like

it's like your best player gets hurt the first game it's basically like the ESPN was the jets yeah what i mean you can only ask them how rehab's going so many times so many times right exactly by the way it was going really well yeah exactly exactly um so best seat did you give your fly on the wall you did But best seat, I'm going to go Lovey Smith. The ultimate, look what I did. You know, like, he's watching football all season, and he's like, look what I did. Look what I did for the Texans. And they hated me, but I'm right.

And it worked out for them. And look what I did for the Bears. Like, he gave this lasting gift for the Bears franchise, and people in Chicago love him. A lot of people are like, why isn't Lovey still here coaching? You know, like, Lovey was a good coach. Well, he's helping the bears from the grave, and he's helping Houston from the grave. Now, he's not dead, but he's watching TV somewhere,

and I just love to know what Lovie Smith is thinking. Like, this is me, you know? When do I get my due? Wonder if he's still bearded. I don't know. Bessie, for me, the gal on the plane with the bad pulse, she happened to be a couple rows behind Mark Andrews. Diabetic Mark Andrews has his kit with him.

What good luck. Yeah, it's really good luck. If sure-handed guy with a kit. Yeah. A lot of the guys might drop the ball. Like Zay Flowers trying to run her back, the kit drops it and it falls into the toilet. Yeah. Out of the airplane.

Yeah. By the way, what, what, I don't know if we can do this here. Your reaction to the Zay taunting. Fucking Josh Reynolds dropping the, you know, the defibrillator. That's good. That's good. My reaction is the Zay-taunting thing? Yeah, yeah.

Don't do it. It's 100%. He did like the three things that are the taunting check marks. He can't stand over the guy. You can't stand over the guy. We can't make eye contact while you're flex. Spin the ball. They could have gave three penalties.

It was unbelievable. But the Chiefs won because of the refs. Okay, so I'll go worst seat running backs. Watching this all unfold this year. You had tags for Pollard, Jacobs, Barkley, you know, even. The deal that Jonathan Taylor got was not like a deal that's going to advance the ball for them. And Austin Echler, who spent the whole offseason talking about the running back position, it was like, okay, you're up, like prove it.

That didn't work out. And I'm not saying this is his fault all altogether. But, you know, this was a big year for running backs, and I don't feel like it got proved out anymore. Look at Baltimore. Okay. Baltimore, no star running backs. okay Kansas City I don't mean I don't mean like they found

they found production from Justice Hill Keaton Mitchell Gus Brad They're not the guy Gus Bradley Gus Edwards Gus Bradley out there It's supposed to be a defensive court He's a between the tackle sort of guy At running back

And of course their best running back gets hurt Or like a major part of their operation early in the season and they're still able to run the ball at a high cliff The Kansas City Chiefs found Pacheco late in the draft look at the other side You know, Detroit probably is the best case for paying running backs. And, and, you know, Christian McCaffrey is maybe a great case for giving up a lot for running backs.

But I would still argue that the Niners are the only team that could have benefited to the degree that we'd be saying, hey, that was a winning move. Like, I think it's the last piece. And, you know, it's great if you get a running back on a rookie deal or if it's the last piece and you want to pay one or trade for one. one, but it's pretty tough for most teams to justify opening up the checkbook for running backs. And that's just the state of the game. Yeah, I saw it was an older running back. I forget who it was. It's off the top of my head, but he was talking about how the running backs now and even a few

years ago have kind of caused this as far as they are the ones that are degrading the position. You're victim blaming. They're saying, hey, come get me, you know, asking for too many plays out instead of saying, I'm in here, I'm staying. I'm not doing this third downback thing. Trying to be, if you could be an every down back and you had some control over your development or you could say, I'm going to be persistent about being on the field every down, it's catch 22, right? Because your career might shorten. but if you do it and you prove your value that way, you are more valuable. But the truth is, most offenses now are looking for a change of pace. Yeah.

So you got to pay the whole room, you know? They were saying how they almost allowed this running back by committee thing. Yeah, and they have. They've been willing participants in it. But I also don't think at times they have a lot of choice because this is the way people are going, is you've got to have with the advent of the modern passing NFL and the fact that you need past catching running backs, and pass catching running backs aren't always the guys

that you can just give the ball to between the tackles 25 times a game. Yeah, I mean, the pass out of the backfield is way more than it ever has been. Yeah, not just out of the backfield, but splitting gives out wide and making guys positionless. You know, the positionless nature of, you know, look at San Francisco, you can play those guys all over the place. And so I think that's of bigger value to guys, you know, than playing running back is saying not just, you know,

if you're a third downback or a first and second down back, that's fine. But if you can find a way to be the guy that they can split out in the slot, get matchups on, you know, do more than just play running back, then you are really invaluable. Or if you can block the hell out of people, like a guy, I'd like to give the running back of the year award to Kyron Williams. Yes. Who was a revelation fifth round pick.

And in four years, LA probably tries to find another guy in the fifth round. That's the way this is going. You don't need to pay the stud back. But Kyron, especially for a quarterback who isn't mobile, was a godsend for those guys. No question. Look at the AFC championship like Justice Hill. I said he was really good for him.

and that was a mismatch that they could have taken advantage up in the passing game because of Willie Gay being down a little bit of a speed deficit but Spags turned it into a mismatch for them because of protection. Yep, yep. Worst seat. Yeah, who you got?

The empty chair that should have been occupied by Jonathan Kraft at the Gerard Mayo Presser. Now this is a Bill Simmons take but a little bit successiony is their discord with Robert Kraft and owner in waiting, Jonathan. It was a strange absence.

And the answer was, well, something else was going on with the company. I didn't even pick up on that. What else could be going on? I don't know. The singles, the American cheese singles, they were coming out double.

Bill's a real fucking sleuth. Or, you know, like he's on to something maybe here. I think he might be. Okay, I'll go SD on. Memorial Award. This is this is going to go to Tom Moore. Tom Moore he could have maybe won the

35 and over award. He's 85 and he's going to be back again for year 46 on the Tampa Bay Buccaneer staff. This guy was born in 1938. Before Godzilla attacked Kinza. And you know, his first job when you look back at it, it's wild. The guy's first job was Iowa. 1961. Geez. Wow. Had the color barrier been broken? Tom Moore didn't have to worry about that.

No, he didn't. He was coaching at Iowa. Speaking of the players on the Iowa team at that point, and by the way, he lost a lot of to the Vietnam War, I'm pretty sure. Like, you know, it's like, it's hard to retain players when there's a war going on and everybody's eligible, right? That's something coaches today. They don't have to deal with.

You think NIL's tough for, you know, for the Vietnam War? Put Tom Moore in there. Yeah, because guys were getting drafted. If you were in college, you didn't get drafted. You didn't have to go if you got, so never mind, he doesn't have that. My dad got drafted in the CFL and he couldn't go because he would lose his citizenship. No way. Yeah, so he never ended up playing dark enough.

No way. Yeah. So fuck all that. Tom Moore really didn't do anything special. I thought he had to deal with the recruiting and re-recruiting. But no, honestly, if you look back at that roster that had a stud guard named Sherwin Arthur Dorson, I think went on to playing elite. he was 6-1-2-25.

SET. Monster back then. So like Tom Moore has been around a long time, and don't let anybody forget that he's 85 years old, and he is willingly continuing to live this lifestyle. I don't know if he has a family or if he has grandkids. Maybe the hollow man is like his kids. I don't know. All the team issue gear over the years.

Yeah, you're right. But also like you can't grandpa can't babysit because he's 85, and he wants to he wants to do an eight to eight at an NFL facility the rest of his life. He is institutionalized. You know in Shawshank where the guys at the grocery store and he's just like, I can't do this. That's like Tom Moore if he tries to go to a Publix and he's not at the dining hall. He's like, kill himself like Brooke. I didn't say he could kill himself.

You're right. He's not going to kill himself like Brooks. But in this version of the shining, he just goes back to the yard, you know. So Tom Moore, congratulations on year 46 here. Interestingly, mine was also Tom Moore. No fucking one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love your answer.

Kyle's not here. Mine was Dexter Lawrence, okay? Yeah. On a 6 and 11 team, I know we know his name, but he was often the best player on the field. Jumped off the screen, weekend and week out, 17th overall pick in 2019, 6-4-3-42, anchoring the interior of that New York Giants defensive. line. Unfortunately, this year, falling in obscurity on a team that didn't want a whole lot of you know, I want to mention Jeff Ulbrick. I want to mention Jeff Albrick, somebody who mentioned

earlier. I mean, like, I talked to Hannah Gordon the other night was a very interesting conversation about like the coaching hiring process and all that stuff. And you heard Shane say that. When I asked him the question, I kind of wondered if you'd mention the summertime prep because that's a lot of it. But Jeff is the rare guy that I think teams could take a look at because if you look at his side of the ball, and I know he's not going to get a head coaching job this year, but they were terrific, and that's really hard to be that good

with the compounding factors going on on offense that make complimentary football tough that puts your defense in tough positions. Jeff had a really nice year with that group, and so I would tip my cap to the entire group. It is so hard to deal with that. I've been there to be a good defense, playing with an offense that is actually not even,

they're not even like vanilla. They're not even average. They are hurting every side of the ball. And to watch that happen every week, and for him to get his guys ready to play, right? To get his guys into a headspace where they're like, hey, fuck it, it does not matter what happens or how many times we have to get off the bench

when you hear sudden change or watch Zach Wilson or Simeon stink it up. We're going to play with a lot of passion. And so I want to give him an STL Memorial as well. I like that guy on Hard Knocks, which feels like about three and a half years ago at this point. Who are the worst? Yeah, he was cool. Yeah.

He played. Yeah. He was a dog. All right. So who are the worst teams in the NFL this year? Obviously, number one, Carolina Panthers. The Pats? The Pats.

You've mentioned a couple people in this vein on the Pats. I mean, they had a couple high performers on defense. But I guess I would say Brian Burns, man. But also a Hollow Man situation for Brian Burns because he could have been worth like three first rounders last year. and been in LA this year. And who knows how much better they would have been with the Ryan Burns. So actually, maybe we're all stupid because we laughed at the Rams. But I don't think we are because you'd be up Shits Creek if you gave up that many draft picks.

You're just starting to get your draft picks back. Okay, Hollow Man. Jock, Cadarius Tony. Isn't it? Yep. Cadarius Tony is going to be synonymous with the Hollow Man Award years to come. That was one of the most embarrassing. moments in regular season NFL history. We have awards named after people. And he's,

he's also not stopping, as you may have heard. He's contending that he's not injured at the moment. It's so interesting. And Andy Reid's having to say he's plenty injured. Well, he's in the entertainment business, which, you know, he's a rapper. Uh-huh. Maybe he needs to go rap. You drafted Jalen Hyatt. I fuck ho's at the Hyatt. Yeah, that's good, isn't it? Yeah. bars. Brandon Staley gets a hollow man. Oh, yeah. Just an ultimate meltdown, man.

And again, I have said he's going to be a good coach again. But somebody probably called him that night after that press conference. It was like, buddy, as your friend, you cannot sound that way in that situation. I don't think you're ever going to be in this situation again. But golly, man. You know, like, you take your. medicine. You don't you don't try to argue your way out of a loss. Yeah. After a loss, after a loss, after a loss. The very thing that made him attracted to people, I think in the hiring cycle,

was his steadfast belief in his self and his system. And that's the very thing that I think hurt him. And it's like with so many coaches. But the attitude on top of it was just, now, I don't think he's a bad guy. I've heard good things about him. My brother really likes him. I know Khalil Mack likes him. I know guys like the guy. So I will say this. I think he's going to be fine. I think he's going to be a good defensive coordinator again in the league. But that was a tough year. Lastly, Zay Flowers. Nobody catching the bouquet. Yeah. That was a tough scene on Monday night in LA and a little foreshadowing because he dropped the football at the goal line and none of his teammates picked it up. Which was great for the under if we're being honest. Sure was.

that? Yeah. The key to four for four for me, because that was good for the chiefs and the under. Yeah. Yeah. I think he got to give him a little bit. I think he's going to be great. No, no. Hey, the taunting, that's terrible and very, but that's a play where he's being aggressive, trying to get the ball over. That's just a tough one. It's just the perfect storm. You had terrible taunting penalty on the same drive. You dropped the ball at the goal line. You know, like, I'm not saying drop. You fumble the ball at the goal line. I just want to say this. I got nothing against say Flowers. I think he's going to be a hell of a player.

And it seems like an awesome dude. Players fuck up too. And he'll be back. I don't think he's the only reason they don't win that game. I've said it before. I think Kansas City plays them. And some people reacted so viscerally to this. But I said Kansas City wins seven out of ten times.

What evidence do you have from Baltimore's recent playoff resume says otherwise? Yeah. And it's not like seven's nine. Six is more than half the. the time. Seven is just one more than that. They also... Don't bet against eggs. Don't bet against Chiefs. They also went and slice his finger open on the sideline. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Being angry at the mistakes.

Okay, and lastly, the game ball. It's Chris Jones for me. Yeah. Before the year, we didn't know what was up. Now the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl after a 10 and a half sack year. Yeah. Guys fucking important. No question. Season long game ball to Chris Jones. I'm going to give it to the game of football.

Because it is incredible to me that this product is so fucking viable when I have heard that half the country isn't watching it because of Taylor Swift because she's a government siop and she works for the Obamas or something like that and she hangs out of like pizza shops. This is the type of things I'm hearing now. So half the population doesn't like Taylor Swift because she's going to endorse Joe Biden. with Travis Kelsey at the half of the Super Bowl. I read that too. There is a Fox News clip that I played at the beginning of the pod the other day that is insane. It's like an S&L skit. Okay. So they overcome

that. They overcome the Taylor Swift thing. Well, the NFL is popular because it's quarterback-driven league. There's never been more great quarterbacks than right now. Well, half of them fell apart. Like, you know, they all got injured this year. We had all this bad quarterback play. NFL overcomes that. because ultimately it's a drama it's it's a tv show it's not the NFL's not just about the quality of play on the field the quality of play is incredible some people prefer college football just don't tell me it's because of the quality of play it's like being an nca basketball player nCA fan over NBA fan it the quality of play was markedly worse but people still love to watch the NFL because it is like a soap opera and a reality tv show roll

up into one and quarterback injuries while they're terrible for the game and scoring and watchability there is a draw to like what the fuck is going to happen when this guy takes the field when a backup shooting guard takes the court in the NBA it's like all right well like somebody's going to get a lot more touches and you know like what but when when the guy that has been sitting there cold the entire year cj bethirt has to touch the ball every play that's fucking crazy You know, like in baseball, pitcher's struggling. They got a bunch of them in the bullpen. There is one guy and the NFL was able to overcome that week after week.

And also the gambling stuff, the gambling stuff. The NFL overcame that. They have quietly hold on to your hats. We're sticking the landing on integrating gambling into the NFL. It is a lot of the reason why it's so viable. It is a safety net. It could also damage the enjoyment that people have for watching the game, but they're not going to stop watching the game,

especially when you're hooked into the gambling. And then on top of that, the refereeing. There was a lot of refereeing issues this year. I mean, it was like the refs are center stage every fucking year it feels like, and the NFL is bulletproof. All these factors did not hurt the NFL. So I'll give the game ball to the game of football,

which is the most perfectly crafted sport of all time in the world, maybe next to High Lye. Wasn't a lie for those real bloodthirsty high, LI games back in the Inca days. But those motherfuckers down there were, I mean, they were playing for keeps. Now, the NFL is right there with my life. Yeah, yeah. Here's to you football.

Yep.