Green Light with Chris Long - Howie Long! Mark Sanchez! Geoff Schwartz! Best Super Bowl Recap Ever!

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

(01:14) - Welcome and Chris' Super Bowl LV Take. (27:13) - Mark Sanchez on Super Bowl LV, Tom Brady vs Patrick Mahomes, Winners and Losers from the Super Bowl and Best Commercials. (1:08:21) - Geoff Schwartz on Chiefs Game-plan, Bucs Pass Rush and 2021 NFL Draft. (1:40:26) - Howie Long on Tom Brady's Greatness, Todd Bowles and Byron Leftwich Coaching Masterpieces and 2021 NFL Hall of Fame Inductees. Sign up for your DraftKings account at https://www.draftkings.com/sportsbook and use promo code : Greenlight Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And he wasn't a stream at you guy. He was a guy that when he walked in the room and he got up in front of the room, he had the attention of the room. And when it was time to jump somebody, you know, he did. And it wasn't often. That just wasn't Tom's DNA. Tom was, I think, the perfect coach for those teens. And it was a lot like escape from New York.

Trust me, it wasn't like your coaching. you know, St. Mary's prep here. It's the Oakland Raiders and the LA Raiders. It is officially the off season. I love it. I love it. It's Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. Happy Tuesday just sounds better. It rolls off my tongue. It's just happy Tuesday. Happy Monday is jarring. Get tired of saying that. I could use a rest. We have, We have been burning the candle at both ends, man. We have been doing three pods a week, been up late Sunday night. Shout out to Cowboy Reed, shout out to John, shout out to Brian, all those guys, Ralph.

This is my end of year. Shout out, shout out to Macon for showing up on Fridays, even though Sunday night, he's like a geriatric, so he had to be home before like eight o'clock and he couldn't do Sunday nights. We put together a hell of a fall and we busted our ass doing it. We churned out content. We also had Stanford Steve on a lot, doing Draft Kings, our gambling show. That was awesome. And found a way to squeeze into Amazon shows for a ton of weeks.

Throughout the middle into the end of the season, I was doing Thursday night for Amazon. And I was doing live watches every other weekend for Amazon as well on Twitch. it was a blur it's exhausting i'm happy to be done but the reason we do it is you so thank you very much for tuning in um and thank you for making me accountable getting up in the morning and talking when i don't feel like it because i will tell you i say this from time and time you might not believe it my producers might not believe it i do not fucking feel like talking some days in fact when i woke up this morning i didn't really feel like talking i just felt like okay the season's over i'm I kind of am in last day of school mode, but we have great guests today, man.

And that's what energizes me. We got Squatch, Mark Sanchez, Heisman trophy winner, asterix. He didn't win the Heisman. I say this every time because I think there's no conceivable way that Mark Sanchez didn't win the Heisman. I refuse to not call him a Heisman trophy winner. Squatch and I talk QBs. We talk winners and losers when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday. this year and we talk about the commercials for a few minutes.

Commercials were kind of weak, but there were a few good ones. And then Jeff Schwartz comes on. And, you know, a lot of what transpired yesterday had to do with the O line. Protection up front and lack thereof for Patrick Mahomes. You know, Jeff Schwartz has a really good understanding of offensive line protections. He has a great understanding of what's going on in Kansas City. He just gets the upfront stuff. So we're going to try to sift through what was wrong with the Chief's game plan

because we all agree Patrick Mahomes is this generational talent. And yeah, two tackles being down really sucks. But nine points, you've got to be able to come up with more than that, right? On the world's biggest stage, could they have done something different? Talk to Jeff Schwartz about that. And then my dad, Howie Long, pro football Hall of Famer, going to pop on to talk about the recent. Hall of Fame inductees for 2021, as well as who's coming up next.

And then also we'll talk a little bit about the game too. He'll be third in line, so stick around for that just because Hall of Fame just doesn't seem to fit in the front. We'll put it in the back. But it was great talking to dad. As always, I talk to my dad every day, so it just feels like we're just having a buttoned-up conversation. I think this game had some redeeming qualities, and I think it was not just for the fact that

Number one, I know we're all cynical and like, you know, the league generally, they don't do anything noble or right intentionally on purpose or from the bottom of their heart. Like, you know, we're all cynical. We're always looking for, and rightfully so in a lot of situations, what the NFL's hidden motives are, this, that, and the third. I got to call it when I see it. They did a good job this year with executing this season. you know the undertaking of all those games all those players ultimate team sport ultimate contact sport

during a pandemic pulling it all off i was very impressed and i was very impressed with the players um the players made this happen there's so much that was being asked to these guys and to whom a lot is given a lot is expected but this was no ordinary year this was above and beyond and I'm not trying to be dramatic. These guys, they make a fuck ton of money to do what they do, not all of them. They put their bodies on the line. They're out there shortening their lifespans to entertain and to make money in the marketable window that they have.

They went above and beyond this year. There was, and I'll admit this, when this whole thing started, I thought, man, if we don't get football this fall, a lot of people are going to be in dire straits mentally a little bit. I mean, like football just gave us so much normalcy during some really tough times this fall. And the tough times continue, right? We're in the middle of a tough time.

But I just felt like the normalcy of looking forward to something on the weekend for so many millions of Americans, even if we're going to chastise and complain about even considering the undertaking of playing a full season of NFL football in a pandemic, Again, cynicism is that has to be the way, you know, like considering the history of the league and the dollar coming first and almost any enterprise in the United States. There was something to this that I know the NFL didn't, the NFL cares about the dollar, right? The bottom line, but there was positive collateral here when it comes to what occurred as they played out this season. It's just what I said.

it's that people felt normal for a few hours a day every Sunday and we had things to talk about that consumed our week that had nothing to do with the rising death tolls um you know a presidential election that fraud of a of a leader we had um you know i don't care what your politics are not to get i don't give a fuck what your politics are that was a nightmare okay um and we got a lot of work still to do as a country but like you can take a day and watch football um i'm as plugged in as anybody to you know what's going on around the world and in the country and i don't know for me i'll admit it i would have struggled without football this fall without something to do and i know this is my profession so that's unique but without something to look forward to without something to talk to

my friends about without something to watch on tv on sunday and it sounds simple-minded some people might be rolling their eyes. Probably not though because it's a football podcast and you presumably like it and you know what I mean. But these guys did did a great thing man. They really did. And I'm not trying to make them into like Nobel Peace Prize winners. But I mean, fuck, dude, this has been a tough time in sports. You can make, you can look at this and say, well, this is, it's almost like bearing your head in the sand as a football fan to like just focus on football. But like me continuing to doom scroll or to just fixate on the news every day as if that's changing anything. Being aware, you can do that all week and still watch football on Sunday.

And I think, you know, football was the perfect distraction from the shit show that was 2020. So we were cynical. I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off. I was wrong. I thought it was going to be a disaster. I was wrong. And like I said at the beginning of the season, if I was wrong, I'd be damn glad I was wrong.

And I am damn glad I was wrong. because that was a lot of fun. And those players deserve, especially when you know what, kind of what it was like behind the scenes, they deserve a round of applause for what they just went through. Not just the teams that were in Tampa.

Talk about all the bad teams this year that had no shot to play in that game. Talked about it at times with the Jets. I respect the hell out of the guys that played this season. And I respect the hell of the guys that didn't play. You know, at the beginning of the season, talk about opt-outs, how crazy is going to be to see like a Dante High Tower play, like one of the great players in our game and we haven't seen them for a year.

It's like a bonus next year. So kudos to the guys that took control of their lives and sat out. And kudos to the guys that decided this was worth the risk, relative risk, whatever it is. And we're going to try to go make some money and make some fans happy. One happy fan here. You know, hats off to everybody. The Super Bowl, though, I mean, objectively, not an entertaining game if you look at the score. If you're a Bucks fan, you're probably the only person that was happy with it.

But if we're being honest, there's something to the underdog thump and the big boys. And it was a weird situation because, as I've said before, is Tom Brady in the underdog role. It doesn't make sense. They tried to force that at times in New England. It never stuck. But it's funny, dude. Tom's first Super Bowl. he's slaying the dragon the greatest show on turf

Kansas City is the greatest show on turf of this generation right they came damn close to doing what somebody hasn't done in years and decades and that's to repeat so that was no small feat

and it was almost like a spectacle like I can't believe this is happening you could not but you could believe that they were going to win I bet the bucks but I didn't believe that they could win like this Brady bowls, et cetera, the chief's just imploding.

There was a redeeming quality there. And Romo, with a couple minutes left, is like trying to sell the game. Hey, you know, if they cut this 19, this, that, and the third, and people are kind of rolling their eyes, but they know that there is a shredded truth to that. So even though the game was a blowout, that Golden State Warriors thing, I mean, six, seven minutes left in the game,

three-score game, and you're still watching thinking, if they put one drive together, you never know. But generally the chiefs don't take that long to show up. You know, when you're waiting for somebody to save the day, the chiefs are going to save the day by the third quarter. When they didn't cash in out of the half, it was over. And so that was the difference. This was not last year, and I said this all year,

like the chiefs scared me because they live dangerously. Last year, two of their three playoff games, you had double-digit leads deficits that they gave up to teams the Titans and Texans well you play Russian roulette eventually it's going to be the wrong one and the bucks were the wrong ones

I mean the bucks were the wrong ones to sleepwalk against so not a Mahomes loss per se I thought he threw a lot of good balls I mean guys dropped the ball left and right and he was under siege it's really hard and I'm going to keep it consistent I mean, I've cape for quarterbacks who are not the quarterback that Patrick Mahomes is.

I mean, any quarterback that sees that much pressure. In fact, that was a Super Bowl high is going to struggle statistically. He threw some nice balls, balls that would have kept them in the game had people made catches. And he did what he could. Also, not a Brady win alone per se. But the reason Tom is the goat is because of that body of work, And it's not a coincidence. I mean, like, it's his seventh ring,

and it adds to his legacy because of the other six. It sounds simple, but, you know, on an island, if Tom Brady, you know, descended from the sky and was born in a ball of lightning like The Terminator, and we didn't know who he was, and he's 43 years old, you'd say, really good player. On a great team, what a leader, but not a top five quarterback this year.

Nobody considered him to be in that echelon anymore. This was a team win, right? This was a team win, but it means a lot to Brady's legacy because he has found a way, even when he wasn't the show-stopping offensive juggernaut, the superstar on the field,

whose production matched his reputation, he has been able to will his teams to victory. even when he's not the guy putting up 500 yards of offense. He's lost Super Bowls where he put 500 yards of offense up. So for every Tom Brady lost where he looks like this, I mean, you also had the our Super Bowl where he torched us and lost the game. And this is why it's not a QB wins situation.

I mean, there's nuance to all these conversations, but when Brady keeps popping up and willing his team to win, and being that glue and being that leader that they so sorely needed on that field, that field general, which is a cliche for everybody else. But look at Tom Brady. He's got seven now, even when he wasn't the best player on the team,

which he is not the best player at this juncture on his team, but he is a field general at the most important position on the field, and he can still make a lot of the big throws. And in fact, even though last night his stats weren't off the chain, going into the half, look at his numbers. They flash his stats up right before they go into score and go up 21 to 6. He was dealing.

Even though the throws weren't like really tough throws, he was making the throws he had to make and he didn't make any big mistakes. The pick was a tip off Fournette's hands, off a DeLyman's hands, off Fournette's hands and into the Honey Badger's hands. And obviously you know how that ends. It's negated by a penalty.

But you see what I mean? Like Tom Brady didn't have to go out and throw for 500 yards to validate that this is his seventh ring and it's amazing. It's part of the lore. That's why he's the goat. And don't poke the bear, don't poke the goat. You know, somebody tweeted to me last night

and he was like, Honey Badger and Tom Brady, it's a chess match. We love that matchup coming in the game. You know, two electric players to watch, two smart players, two leaders on the respective sides of the ball. I'm not comparing my situation on the Eagles to, but I know there was a situation where I could have talked shit

to Tom Brady. I could have talked to shit to Tom Brady when he dropped that ball in that reverse and that wasn't my coverage. Somebody tweeted at me last night. They were like, remember after the game what you said about that when somebody asked, did you say anything to Brady?

And I said, I don't remember, quite frankly. I didn't remember who sang national anthem that night. He sent me the quote. and it was something the effect of, you know, I don't want to piss the goat off. Like, why would I just, why would I tempt fate there? Well, Honey Badger and I respect it because everybody's got he tempted fate last night.

When I remember this Super Bowl, I will remember Tom Brady in the Honey Badger's face. I will remember that. And this is not taking anything away from Tyron Matthew because he is an absolute dog. and part of his attitude is what makes him great, but I'll always remember him being on the receiving end of that exchange because a lot of people look at Tom Brady

and they see the clone commercials, they see the supermodel wife, they see the hair, the fucking, like, God, does he age, all this bullshit? I see a monster inside. Like when I see him, I see a really nicely packaged monster. You know what I mean?

I see a guy who's got some deep, dark place inside that he goes to. And then it comes out sometimes. And you see it when he's jumping down somebody's shit, when they're not doing the right thing. You see it last night. And when you see it because he's not scary, it's not unpleasant. He's not a scary looking guy. Like it doesn't make you feel unpleasant. But that motherfucker does not play around.

and to see him kind of after that score run up to the Honey Badger and say whatever he said and then Tyron Matthew said he called me something that I can't repeat I would assume maybe like the B word or something that's a lasting image that's going to be burned into my brain is going to be him in his face 43 years old

just I'm the fucking goat what do you have to say to me right now and I got you. right where I want you. That's also not something you usually see from him. And it just goes to show you that fire has not burned out and it doesn't look close to burning out. Additionally, after the game, supposedly he texted the Honey Badger and apologized. If I'm tired of Matthew, I don't want an apology. That almost makes you feel worse. You know, like he got after me on the field and then he took the time to text me and apologize afterwards. That's like, fuck. So Tom Brady, I mean,

definitely a big game for, I hate the L word, the legacy word. I'm going to try it out later when I talk to Jeff Schwartz, but a game for his legacy. And the Bucks, this formula, they built this really big pro-style team. Just look at them. Big tight end, big tackle, physical players, pro-style quarterback, like a dinosaur of a pro-style quarterback. And you've got a big possession-wide receiver.

They're physical, a physical back. The third possession of the game, Leonard Fournett did not get touched for like three yards. The entire line moved. I think it was the first play, P-10, first play of possession. They move Kansas City's front about three yards. Fournette doesn't get touched for three yards. It is no coincidence. Then after that Ronald Jones chunk run and that run, you get three straight PAPs.

You get three straight play action pass. You get a flag. You remember that flag? It was the first flag of the game. You thought Brady was maybe throwing a pick. He was burning it. Flag. Then you get Antonio Brown on a deep comeback

and then you get the Brate screen, which was play action screen. And they're rolling. Because now they've got the run game going and play action. They're going to play action you to death. And Kansas City is aggressive and that was that. And Romo and Nance jinxed the first quarter

Super Bowl touchdown in Tom Brady history. They jinxed that thing and it was off to the races. And if the Chiefs wanted to win this game, falling behind was not the way. I mean, three playoff games I mentioned, this was the wrong team to pick out of those three games to fall behind. I didn't like Kansas City's game plan

and they did not adjust. That was not their best game coaching. Honestly, I think it was the lemonade guy. Look back and tell me when the lemonade guy came on the scene, which I didn't know who the cardboard box sign guy was. My brother had to explain it to me, fucking millennial. I guess I'm a millennial, but he's, like a little bit younger than me.

Ever since the Lemonade guy showed up, Chiefs were in a tailspin. The window to win for them was like nine minutes left to go in the second quarter into the beginning of the third quarter. I'll take you through the sequence, okay? You get the goal line stand, you're feeling good, you've got to go 99 yards,

and by the way, Romo tried to jinx that. You're coming out of your own end zone. You get some space, and if you remember this sequence, they eventually have to punt. The punter drops a snap, bibles it, finds a way to get it off,

you're like, whew. But then the dirtiest word in special teams, they say, is a re-kick. You get a re-kick, and he shanks it. 40-yard difference. This is nine minutes to go.

And fast forward, the bucks have the ball. They're already up seven-three. You get a third and four, and that's when the pick happens, right? That gets negated. So Honey Badger's mad

That's where the tailspin starts for him He thinks he's got a bucket He doesn't have a bucket You got a hold on ward And then on fourth and five You're thinking okay stop the bleeding here It's 10 to 3 if we can just get him to kick You line up in the neutral zone

And what is it about The Chiefs Giving Brady's second chances lined up in the neutral zone D Ford negated a pick off a tip, coincidentally. A couple plays early, you had a tip pick that was negated on a hold, and then now you get in special teams lining up in the neutral zone.

That's the difference between 10-3 and 14-3, because a couple of plays later you get to play action to Gronk. And that's the moment. I think the Gronk catching that second touchdown is like the holy shit moment. This could get ugly. But it's not over yet, because you know the Chiefs, right? Well, Kansas City's got the ball with six minutes to go. They're in the red zone.

they got I think it was a third and six Shaq Barrett huge rush forces a field goal now it's 146 okay you're still in it you still got a shot here finish the half strong you get the ball out of the half if you're the chiefs

you're giving the ball back to the bucks with a minute left to go you know you get the ball back coming out of the half this was the worst sequence okay you give up a Godwin screen on second down and long and you end up third and two So you help them out there

You get to third and two Oh and now you want to call a timeout And play to get the ball back And that's when you give up the shot to Evans So you save them time You get in single high And you give up a shot to Evans Whatever you think of the call, that's what happened

You don't put yourself in that position Twice in three weeks, twice in two games The Bucks get a big shot play before the half And then they use that timeout At 10 seconds left and they go to Tyron Matthew twice. And that's when the goat poked back. So it's really not over at that point,

even down 216, because you're the Chiefs, right? Come out of the half, and if you can get six and two, it's a one possession ballgame, right? 2114. You don't even need to go for two. Just get to 2113. It feels like a totally different ballgame, right?

Wrong, dude. wrong because you come out of the second half you get this great drive going 13 and a half minutes left you're in the red zone damn near and this is the big big sequence that nobody's talking about big sequence here 21-9 first drive of the third quarter you're in the red zone second down you throw like a bubble to hardman hardman slips he's got eight yards on that play maybe hardman slips he's got eight yards on that play, maybe. Hardman slips cutting inside. So now you're third and long, which they were in way too much. Well, what happens then? Travis Kelsey slips. Same spot in the field, basically. A little bit different, but same area. We talked about seven stud cleats with Jimmy Lake. You guys were

like, why the fuck are you having your equipment manager on? That sequence, two guys falling down, is quite possibly the difference between this game being deep into the fourth quarter competitive and just not at all. Because at 21-9, that was your chance. It was going to be hard from there on out. And I think from a morale standpoint, 21 to 13, from a score standpoint, 21 to 13, 21 to 14 is just so much different. You kick the field goal, you get points.

But for the chiefs, you turn into this team that last week, we said it's not good enough for the bills just to get field goals against the Chiefs, this was not a situation where three was good. And from that point on, the bucks, the way they were built to play football with a lead, it was not going to be close. And it ended up 31-9.

I will say this. I feel much worse for Joe Hague than I do for the Chiefs. Like, in all seriousness, I like the Chiefs. I mean, I have a listener here that constantly peppering me about, you hate the Chiefs. I don't hate the Chiefs at all. I do feel bad for Joe Hague, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Had a chance to get a big man touchdown, hit him right in the face. He will never forget that. He won the Super Bowl, but he will never forget that moment. I sit up in night and I'm like low-key sad about not stripping the football off Tom Brady and Super Bowl. We won the game, but I will always be low-key sad about that. Joe Hague is going to be low-key sad about not having scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl. for big men everywhere. A bunch of sweaty dudes on the couch last night.

Felt let down. For like a second or two, they were like, we can do anything. Hit him in the face mask. I feel bad for Joe Hake. But my man got a ring, so only so bad. Let's get Mark Sanchez on and talk quarterbacks and more. Here comes Mahomes.

Trying to find the end zone. And no, how about that? One last in dignity. intercepted by White. Mark Sanchez is with us. And it's been too long, Squanch. Where have you been? I've been avoiding that name is where I've been.

But we keep pulling you back in, dude. We keep pulling you back in. You love being a part of the family. You love being a part of the family. I do. Maybe you could move to Charlottesville. Probably unlikely. You live in like Lagoon.

Not get crazy here. Let's not get crazy. So you were asking me about my ensemble off the air, Just hold that thought. Is this a, are you sponsored? Clearly. So I'm wearing a jumpsuit with cold cuts all over it for free. This is a goodwill thing.

You know, like this is not something where they need to cut the check for me to come correct, if you know what I mean? Oh. I come correct and then they cut the check. That was like a G'd up from the feet up, believe that. It rhymes. You're on to something here. So I come correct. hopefully one day they cut the check i think i'm the perfect arby's pitch man haven't you seen was it the

simpsons where he's like arby's taste like grandma it's terrible that's such bullshit have you but i love arby's thank you i love arby sauce is money arby sauce money i used to mix those suckers yeah look at him maybe you could be in the ad too we could do an ad together i'm in let's go i'll jot something down on pen and paper and send it to Arby's and see if they're all but yeah no I'm rocking the jumpsuit this is my it's my official offseason jumpsuit I'm so psyched that the season's over I don't know about you I guess so I just wanted a little more from yesterday's game you know I wanted a little more offensive juice but it's right it kind of sucked it kind of objectively it was a shitty game the commercials were also a little bit down I mean the commercials had a major

replacement rep slide. I think, you know, a lot of the production, like people were slow to kind of get back into that kind of stuff. And then I'm sure I did something with Verizon recently. And the two directors are on FaceTime on like a Zoom while we're shooting in the house. And they can't even be there to like correct certain things. They're kind of like looking at different cameras, trying to talk to the people that are part of the commercial. So there's a little disjoining. It's very hard for them, I think, to communicate because you can only have so many people on a set. So I think all that, there's some sort of trickle down effect. Yeah. What's that like for the talent? You?

I mean, you know, I just powered right through it. I was me. You know, I came with all my energy, all my juice. Listen, Chris, when you get into those situations, it's attitude and effort. Okay? Yeah. I need a great attitude. Always great effort. But you also need a cell phone tower, which is why you, you, you, you, you, Verizon. Straight up. I also need five bars.

Did you have a favorite commercial yesterday? I really liked the Shaggy one. Oh, Shaggy was in my top three. I thought it was really good. I thought it just lagged like a little bit. Like it could have been a little, they could have just tightened the whole thing up a little less Ashton Kutcher, a little less Malakounis, a little more Shaggy. Yeah, just so it flowed a little bit.

But I loved his reaction at the end. Like, that's the first time that's ever happened. I thought it was great. You know what it was great about Shaggy. Shaggy is the ultimate value piece in free. agency if you're if you're booking a commercial because shaggy's not fetching what he did in 03 right right so like shaggy stole the show so they were smart because they tapped into the intense nostalgia for people in our age range a lot of younger people aren't buying cheetos evidently because shaggy is not like a

23 year old uh icon at this point cheetos are growing up with us they are growing up with us there was like more like Wayne's world Wayne and Garth came back how many kids know who Wayne and Garth are see that was a tough contrast I felt like it was just it was tough it was tough because anytime you you go Wayne's world like I'm happy

but they found a way to make me like I don't know because like I'm not even sure Cardi B had heard of Wayne and Garth before they cut her the check what are the odds on Cardi B knowing the movie Wayne's World before they her agent contacted her I want the audio recording of her getting the call, getting the ass. Yeah, you're damn right.

Who's Wayne? You're damn right. You're damn right. Oh, Mike Myers? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I thought that was, it was good to see those guys. The concept was a little of us.

Michael B. Jordan, Alexa commercial was hilarious to me. That was good. That was good. There had to be a lot of tension on couches across the nation. When he went to pull his shirt off, dudes were like, They stopped chewing their chips and salsa and looking over at their wives. Like, why are you looking up on your phone? You've been looking at your phone for every fucking second of this game and now you're looking up with it.

A dudes were like Googling Michael B. Jordan's height. Just, is he short? He's got to be short. He's tiny. He's got to be short. It's listed at six foot so you know. And there's always, you know the rule. They're always listed a little taller than they actually are.

So for any females listening, Michael B. Jordan's not. that tall. Also the Sam Adams commercial with the horses. Did you see that one? Yeah. So so basically Sam Adams basically did a Clydesdale thing. They let Clydesdale's loose in Boston. I guess it was kind of a shot at Budweiser. Yeah, I was just going to say because that's a very Budweiser thing. Very Budweiser. Wow. Horses with the fur by the hooves. That's that's yeah, yeah, yeah. That's only Budweiser. Yeah, you know what Clydesdale is. Little Nazex is still getting the bag. Did you see him? I missed that one.

You might have seen it, but you didn't recognize him without the cowboy hat. He was doing like some sort of tech commercial, and he stepped out of the cowboy rapper niche. What was a, I was running back from the barbecue with steaks and chicken, but what was, wasn't there like a Hummer commercial, like the electric hummer or something with Will Ferrell or? I did. I caught like 30 seconds of that. It was so quick. I miss it like. It was early on too, so I missed that one.

All I know is. I love the Hummer car. I want that car really bad. Oh, you're a big Hummer guy, huh? Well, I just, I like that new Hummer truck, the electric truck. I think electric cars are cool and I just never pulled the trigger on the Tesla. So I'm thinking about it. The good thing about the Hummer electric one is everybody sees you initially and they're like, oh, that guy's got a small dick.

And then they're like, oh, it's electric. It's like understating. It's really small. No, it's like this guy's not overcompensating. Micro. Okay, so it turns out, no, it's quite the opposite. This guy pulls around the corner, you're like, these people are, they're still driving fucking hummers and they're like,

oh, I don't hear anything. Maybe he's not your typical meathead overcompensating. So I actually, I'm actually all about an electric hummer. And then Tony Romo joining the sketchers mafia. That was a lot. Was it?

Come on. He's joining the family. You know my dad does Skechers. I know. I know. So you're in on it. But, you know, the bunch of mattresses,

everything, the big truck. I get it. I get the idea. It was all right. Yeah, it was like Tony Romo overload, though. there's a lot worse at amy schumer selling mayo

fuck mayonnaise that was rough fuck mannaise that was rough and just I'm just yeah I'm over just the dialogue was kind of weak

I don't know that wasn't my favorite one how about this they could the Jason Alexander commercial the hoodie the Seinfeld callback George Costanza

but they couldn't say Costanza in the tide commercial I wonder if that was because of licensing they kept saying Jason Alexander and if I was in the other room like this was another like you're marketing to 45 year olds right right right I mean 45 year olds wash a lot of clothes so interesting it was just interesting to me that there wasn't as much money on

the table and it was palpable there was a lot of some of those some of those had like a ensemble cast yeah I mean that couldn't have been cheap the Travolta one no everybody in it no but the trivolta one was I mean those people are making probably I mean they got to be close to half a mill for everybody. What do you think? I mean, what do you think somebody makes for a half time? I mean, I know Travolta's making more like, yeah, but I'm saying like each talent member, whether it's Don Chito or whatever that unsolver cast was. I think I'm confusing commercials, but. Yeah, one was Scott commercial. One was like a Seltsor commercial that Don Chittal did. Okay. So whoever else was in the Travolta commercial, I mean, those people get cashed out. They got to be at least a quarter million

just to book them for the commercial. They're not taking less than that. Depending on who you are. But like, again, going back to Ashton and Mila, you know, you get your shaggy bang for your buck. And it's like a multiplier. It was the same thing with the Travolta commercial, which was very pedestrian until Leslie David Baker from the office rolled in at the end and was like, stop TikTok on my lawn, Travolta. That guy made the commercial, but he didn't fetch probably as much money. He was the Shaggy, although I don't want to disrespect Leslie David Baker. I mean, by comparing him to Shaggy's relevancy.

And I'm not disrespecting Shaggy now. There's a time and a place for Shaggy. Yeah, no doubt. But those two guys were not your franchise free agents. No doubt. I agree with that. I agree with that assessment. But for the, okay, so for the Cheetos commercial, what do you go?

Half a million to Shaggy, $2.50 to Shaggy, and then a million each for Kutcher and Koonie? I think Shaggy might have done that for like a bar mitz. dude. I think Shaggy did that for like 150K or something's funny. You knew the bar mitzvah. Bar Mitzvah booking fee. You knew it. We were kind of in this. I've never done a bar mitzvah. I thought commercials, there were a lot of big losers. How about some winners and losers for the game? How about Rob Grancowski? I mean, two touchdowns right away. That just like fired me up. And I wasn't rooting for either team. But that like gave me something to get excited about because he's such an. excitable guy and big personality. That was fun. And he was, you know, a couple years ago, his body was just killing him. You know, and he took the year off, got a chance to get down.

Took some CBD? Yeah, exactly. That's what it was. He got back on his grind and his body was feeling better. And it paid off. I mean, he worked his butt off all year other than that story I heard before the game, how he was faking the coaches out with the condition. Yeah, like that was the ultimate. And if that was anybody but Gronk, I mean, exactly. The Super Bowl week, you were like openly bragging about cutting workouts and shit. But you know what, though, when you're that old, like, you don't do everything. I don't know.

You don't do everything. I don't know if that's the one. I will say this about Gronk, though. Right off the bat, it was funny. People were like, oh, Gronk, like, you could tell he was a big part of that game plan. I took a prop, Gronk 100 yards of paid out eight to one. I didn't get that. Oh, wow.

But I had a few. feeling he'd have a nice day because number one Tom trusts him. Biggest stage, who do you trust? Number two, two weeks off. That two week period you get off a lot of times for older players having been in it twice is the freshest you you felt all year long. Like when Grunk came on the scene this year and everybody's like it looks like his feet are stuck in concrete. He can't move. He's obviously looking old. He's not the same guy. He's also working himself out of that summer where he wasn't doing the workouts and he's working himself out of being out of the game for a year or two like when I had an inactive period and then thought

about coming back and started working out I felt totally terrible like the first five days and probably that would have extended weeks had I followed through with it but after you get into the swing of things in your workouts and that sort of thing after you've been inactive you start feeling good again then what happens as soon as he starts feeling good again, the grind and the attrition of the season. So this was his first chance to get two weeks rejuvenate his body, plus Tom trust him. And what was funny is you had, you had a big, you had a big like, hey, look who showed up. All these kind of lost and found characters that were stars elsewhere. You had A.B. making plays. You had Grunk making plays. Leonard Fernette had a big,

day as well. So for sure, big winner, gronk. That was huge. And the other thing, too, we talked about this earlier in the year. But they finally stopped putting him on routes where he had to make decisions while he's running. They stopped putting him on option routes underneath and running four verticals behind him and letting him be this like option checkdown. That's not his game. His game is run straight as fast as you can and he's a really big target and he can out leverage people and Brady's going to put it on him up the seams, deep crossers, one cut routes like a corner route that he stopped on and caught that second touchdown because he knows what to do with that route. He's run a million of them.

So it just makes sense to him. Hey, this play's getting strung out. The DB beat me to my spot. I'm going to slam on the brakes and see if Tom needs my help. Bam, balls right in his fit. Like, that was just. But they were using him like Kelsey. They were using him like Kelsey in the season.

That's not who he is. And to me, he's the greatest tight end of all time. I saw some people tweeting this week leading up because it is two of the games best ever. playing in this game last night. You know, some people said, hey, listen, Kelsey's only X years old. Gronk's, you know, X amount of years older. He's still got more time. He's going to pass him in so many categories if he hasn't already.

Right. But Gronk played 90s tight end in the blocking game, and he played 2,000s receiving tight end in the passing game. So that's why to me he's the greatest of all time. And I know the Anthony Gonzalez thing, Anthony Gonzalez was the rare 90s tight end who was blocking more like a 2000s tight end. That's no shade.

You know, like he was a converted basketball player and one of the goats of all goats. But to me, Gronk, and this solidifies as part of his legacy, this big game. Those two guys again going to commercial out of he. He was the first or second touchdown with the bad boys, the Black Robb song from back in like circa 2000, that Tom and Ed Gronk put on their little story.

So really cool callback to some older years and those guys still doing it. Yeah, I agree. I was going to say the first touchdown was play action. He was a crosser, like a shallow crosser, yeah. Yes, it was wide pin with a crack. So you run the, it looks like split zone to the defense. And it looked like split zone to Sorensen.

Sorensen's trying to follow him across and then he stops to see what the hell is going on. And then Mike Evans is in traffic and bumps him off. Yeah. So, I mean. We ran this. We had this setup to run in the Hula Bowl a couple weeks ago. Oh, yeah. And we ran it in Philly with Chip Kelly.

I was running out with G.J. Kinney and Jordan Matthews out at the Hulibul Bowl. And we just never got the right coverage for it. You want man for it. And you want that Z to come in and your strong side receiver the flanker to come in and pick for him, essentially, and look like he's cracking on the run. and then you just release your tight end, make it look like split zone flow for the backers, and everybody pauses. All you need is a one second pause.

And, I mean, it was a laffer. It was a great concept. That's why, to me, I mean, one of the biggest winners of the game was Byron Lefwich. I mean, now I know that, you know, Tom Brady has a lot to do with the development there, and for 12 weeks they didn't look great, and everybody was looking at Bruce Ariens and Byron Lefwich

and saying cater to his needs, but it was a two-way street. They had to meet in the middle somewhere. Yeah. And, you know, I know he's the goat, but I think we got carried away and making it seem so easy to just change your entire offense to suit him. That was a process. They completed that process.

And Byron, not to mention Todd Bowles. I mean, the two coordinators there in Tampa had amazing days. So a big winner for me, Byron Lefich, who hopefully is going to be in that head coaching cycle soon. He probably got tired of hearing about it. Eric B. enemy. I mean, you know, there's two coordinators in that game. You just, all you heard about was Eric and, and if we're praising Byron on the other end of it,

I mean, Andy and Eric came up short. Yeah. And I thought, if you watched that, I watched it the day of the game. So yesterday. Yeah. Their game from Thanksgiving weekend, Chris, they were not in bad spots. Right. Okay.

On defense. They were not in bad spots. They weren't like, they weren't out-schemed. Okay. They were, Kansas City was. beating a man in the coverage, not beating the coverage, like out-scheming the coverage. Like, man,

we're in three-deep, we got, you know, speed running up the seams and your safety's in a bind. It wasn't like that. Yeah. I mean, the corner's back and deep third on the Tyreek double move. Yeah. I mean, he's deep. He barely bites on the fake, and Tyreek just runs by him. Right. He just ran, just flat out,

ran by him. So this game, they're like, well, maybe back off a couple more yards, because he's really fast. Yeah. And on that same touchdown, Mahomes under threw him. He under threw the ball a damn mile and under threw him still. So he just got behind the coverage. Some of these plays, like their first five to seven plays were almost all RPO's. They tried to start the game off with it with a quick little flash fake and everybody runs hitches.

It's the old school, you know, like quick action with the fullback and you do like a quick three step drop flash fake and throw. Now you just do it out of the gun and flash fake and throw. But they tried to run all hitches. Dude, they were all over them. They were all over all their RPO's. And it was, okay, we'll keep everything in front of you. We're going to do the same shit from last game because we should have beat them. We just got down 17 to nothing before we could blink.

And the game got out of control. And that second half of the game, they put the clamps on them. It's not like Kansas City was running away with that game on Thanksgiving weekend. They got up early and just held on, barely held on. Tampa Bay came back. Yes. So, I mean, if I'm watching that film, once I watched it after yesterday, I thought the Chiefs were going to kick their ass.

After watching that tape again, I was like, I don't know, brother. This could get real close. And Tampa Bay might have the answers already. So if I was showing them that film, I'm like, guys, we're okay. I would be happy if I was Todd Bowles. Yeah, you almost found a way to get back in it and win it. And you spotted them like half a mile of offense to one guy in the first quarter.

And they took him away. I don't know if it was that simple in your eyes. I mean, bracketing him, doubling him, taking it. ran a lot of that like 33 double cloud where the corner stays down in the flat instead of having the you know strong safety or free safety buzz to the flat both of them are on the same level they leave the corner in the flat boom that safety takes off or the corner goes super deep you know what I mean but they did it a couple different ways rolling to and from the field yeah and it it made them just hold up for just a second on some of those r pos because they look good when you're making

the flash. One of the very early ones, one of the very early ones when he gets pressured right off the bat, he looks left and the look that they gave him, you don't see Patrick Mahomes, like, really not sure of where he's going with the football in a situation like that. And I thought, hmm, I mean, they're doing something a little bit different. And then his eyes go back to the back out of the backfield and they've got that handle too, because here's the deal. Talk about the worst game to have to run screens and underneath stuff. I mean, Devin White and Levanti David, it was like every screen they ran. These guys are running through mazes at 100 miles an hour, sifting through bodies. Yep, they're there. They're there. You might as well not catch the ball.

In a lot of situations, they didn't because they're three yards behind a line of scrimmage, and Devin White's bearing down on you. Yeah, it's almost like they took those guys in the defensive team meeting and said, basically, we're going to keep everything in front of us, guys. We're not getting beat by Tyreek Hill, all right? Safeties, you've got to hold up your end of the bargain. And then they took those linebackers in another room and we're like, everything's for you guys. Go make plays.

Like literally wreak havoc on these underneath routes because we need you to make the plays. And like they're not going to beat us over the top. You all go make it happen. And I mean, it was awesome. That's why those two guys, I mean, to me, big winner, Levanté David, probably a buck for life. He should be.

Yeah. Talk about a guy that's had a fantastic career. and has been, you know, criminally underrated in a lot of situations because he's played in Tampa. And Tampa has not been a hallmark team for the better part of the last decade. And he's only 30, which blew my mind. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's only 30 or 31. So he's got some good years left in him.

He still looks great. Him and Devin White, who's in his second year, who's going to be a long time disruptive, side line to sideline missile in this league. Those guys were big winners there yesterday. LaShawn McCoy, big winner. Two rings. Two in a row. You know, like, you know, he just got in, got out,

got his two rings, Kansas City and then the bucks. And you know what was cool about it for LaShawn McCoy. And LaShawn McCoy had a fantastic career. And I say had because obviously those days of him being that feature back or past this. He was in those two situations. I know what it's like when you've been on losing teams or you end up on a contender. You want to show the old you.

And you're like, I finally got the spotlight on me. I'm playing in big games left and right. Like I want to be shown as the old me. And that can be hard for a guy who's older because you got to make concessions. And he barely, he didn't play in those two Super Bowls. You know, there were times where you forgot he was on the team. and I don't mean this disrespectfully, he had a role to play, and it wasn't to have the ball a lot,

and he never complained. And he was truly happy to be a part of two Super Bowl championship teams, which is, it seems simple, but it can be also tantalizing to want to show who you've been your entire career, but you have to sacrifice that for being on those teams. Yeah, no doubt. And it's, like you said, it's a decision that you got to make. And, you know, when you move from a start,

or any kind of success, like you said, to a backup role. Yeah. It's hard. Like when I was in Dallas with DAC, I was competing before that in Denver. And then I get shipped off to Dallas. And like every day I walk in the facility and have to just remind myself, take a deep breath. Like, hey, this isn't about you, but this young rookie quarterback needs you. Take a deep breath, right?

Yeah. Like, I literally had to do that. And that was my routine going into the building each day because it was almost like, check your shit at the door. this isn't about me. I remember all the guys, Mark Brunel, Kellenkleman, Kevin O'Connell. The guys who were me, yeah,

when I was a rookie, they had to give some of themselves for me to have any of that success that I want to show here, but that's not the time and the place. This kid needs my help. I have a lot of knowledge in this league. I got a lot of mileage.

I can help them. And that's kind of the agreement we had. So it was, it's not easy to do, but, you know, Hats off to those guys who can do it. Absolutely. Hats off to him. Big, big winners.

Women who watch football. You had your first female official. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Sarah Thomas. She's been in for a minute now. Sarah Thomas, your first female official to officiate a Super Bowl.

A Super Bowl. Very important. She's been around for a few years. Yeah, and by all accounts, she's a great official. I mean, she made that call down on the goal line, that big hit that would have made it 14 to three, I believe it was, or seven to three, or 14-3, I believe. The goal line stand for the Chiefs. She made that call right on the spot, and they shouted her out during the game.

But also, two female coaches, first female coaches to win a Super Bowl on the buck side. So shout out to Moral, Java Defar, and Lori Locus. So, I mean, definitely a big day for females watching the sport and women who want to be a part of it, whether it's officiating or coaching. And good for for Bruce Ariens. I think we get so caught up in talking about, well, the diversity of staff's awesome. Like good job to those coaches.

Also good job to Bruce Ariens for doing the right things and hiring qualified people. That's all that anybody's asking for. Yeah. You know, that's the distinction that's important because he says like, we're not just hiring him because he's black or because he's Mexican or because she's Chinese or something.

It's just, hey, that was the best person for the job. they happen to be this race. Great. I think that's a very important distinction because you don't, it's not just like a free-for-all, like, okay, if you're a minority, you get a job.

This isn't charity. It's not charity. Some people think like, you know, and some people say, look at this staff. You know, it is, there's so few white guys on this staff. That's how staff should look. That's not to say that. It's just to say that like maybe the next staff going through a process in earnest,

picking the best people to fill vacancies will look 60, 40 white or 70, 30 white. It's just going to vary from team to team based on what happens year to year. And based on who's available. And based on who's available. And Bruce Ariens has done a great job

his whole career of fostering diversity through just simply, and he said this. I think he said it on my pod over the summer. Just going through the process and picking the right people, picking the best people for the job. And I think that, you know, I've made this point a few times.

but, you know, Dan Campbell gets a job this year. And, you know, a lot of people are looking at him and they're scrutinizing him because he's probably, you know, he's prototypical football guy. He's not a hot name. And it looks like more of the same, white guy who doesn't give a shit about anything else.

But he, look at the coordinator positions he fills. I mean, Anthony Lynn, he's got Deuce Staley as his assistant head coach. You've got, you know, a black GM. you've got a black coordinator and Aaron Glenn and Brad Holmes at GM so like it's on these coaches that get hired

to just do the right things because the Rooney rule as a major aside has not worked so it's on the people in position good people to do things the right women to get opportunities and Bruce Ariens is a blueprint for that

so winner there's a lot of winners there because of him Indomicon Sue is a winner one of the forgotten stars who's still contributing big time to a team of the last decade

decade, right? I mean, when you and I were in our primes, and Dominicu was in his prime. Oh, yeah. And he may not be anymore, but he's still a big time presence there. We talked about it all year, what that kind of nasty energy does for a defense. Great career, cap it off with the Super Bowl. Good for him. He's a winner. And then Charlottesville, Virginia. You probably never heard of the place, even though you might be moving here to do more content with me. I went to a Dave Matthews concert there. Of course you did. How was it? That's awesome.

What year? Unbelievable. Two years ago when I was in D.C. So you came down here and you didn't call me. I didn't really know you like that. I had just left your brother. You suck, dude. You fucking suck.

You had just won a Super Bowl. You were kind of, you were real aloof. Hanging out with your trophies in your man cave. They called you like a good locker room quarterback too. Like you were a good friend and a good locker room quarterback. You come to Charlottesville. You don't even call me. You go to a DMB.

concert. Don't even call your boy. Best DMB song, go. Ooh. Have you heard Cortez from live at Central Park? Yeah, I mean, that's not his song, but sure. I still like his performance of it. Well, you touched a nerve there. Jimmy thing, ants marching, it's great. Um, listen. Chipp and Billy's great. Yeah, it is. The, the best DMB album, and I'm not like a head, but like is, uh, the Red Rocks live album. Oh, live at Red Rocks. That shit is fire.

That's the, what does he say? Tim Reynolds on the guitar. Tim Reynolds, oh, hey. Hey, dude, how about this? Tim Reynolds is a legend. I got to go to, I got a buddy here who's, who's doing well for himself, okay?

And he booked a private concert with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at his farm. Like 300 people check the cell phones at the door and you just look. to Tim. This was like a year or two ago, but, you know, if you had called me, I might invite you. I would have invited you had you called me and I knew you like Dave Matthews. I can't go anywhere with you looking like that. Look at you. I wouldn't wear my arby's get up to the Dave Matthews to get yelled at to get out of the building by Tim Reynolds or something and feel really small.

Charlottesville, Virginia. Most Super Bowl winners per capita. I don't know. Maybe Aaron Stenney stepped in at guard down the stretch for the bucks. Jam U. Duke. Shout out to Cowboy Reed's alma mater. Also, we're Dar Davis, he was on the Eagles, JMU, Charlottesville native, and then moderately successful podcaster and Super Bowl champion, Chris Long. There's like 50,000 people in this town, man, in Charlottesville proper. We got three Super Bowl champs. What's going on here? That's pretty good. Yeah, what's going on?

That's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, it's in the water. I don't know. Back-to-back teams are winners. Tom Brady, winner in a lot of ways. 2003, 2004, Brady and the Pats repeated. Chiefs prove why it's so hard to do. That's tough.

Everybody's gunning for you. I mean, that's everybody's Super Bowl during the year, and you just get beat up the whole year. And that's hard, man. But look at the road that the Bucks took in the playoffs, man. I mean, Washington wasn't everything, but those next two games were legit. I mean, they had to beat good football teams on the road,

and then they finally get rewarded with a home game in the Super Bowl. That was incredible. You know what's crazy about the Bucks is, as the road went on, not just the fact that Brady is used to being the favorite and he's facing an Eli Manning, a Giants team that's a wildcard team, like, that's building confidence as the playoffs

and the season goes and they become this bully by Super Bowl Sunday. That was the Bucks this year. You know, it wasn't about Tom necessarily. Tom was the glue, but they have so many good players and they had to get things right. And even throughout the playoffs,

the situation's got less and less hairy as things went. there was a hairy moment or two. If it was anybody but the Washington football team in that wildcar game, that game felt really hairy. It was closer than it should have been. It was closer than it should have been. And we just thought it's Taylor Heineke.

He's not losing this game. If it was somebody else over there on the other sideline, we'd be sweating through that entire game. Then the New Orleans game, you know, is very competitive. But as the playoffs went, they just dominated more and more. Yeah. They got stronger. They definitely did.

And their defense went off. Yeah. Sacks, turnovers. I mean, they just gave the ball back to the best quarterback ever. It's like, I mean, what are you going to do, man? They were clicking. Let's do losers real quick. You know what? It was a little strange.

And I mean, listen, I get it. It's the biggest game of the year. Your emotions are running hot. I just thought when Tyron Matthew kind of lost his cool there before halftime, it just And part of it just because the TV caught it. I'm not sure how bad the ripple effect was on the team. Everybody knows he's an emotional guy. You know, that's like one of their guys, like one of their solid, you know,

involved in the community. He's like one of the Chris Longs of their team. Well, he's a lot better than me, but he's a glue guy. He's a glue guy. I mean, he's not only one of their best players, but he's also a glue guy. And so, you know, like for him. Yeah, he just lost it for a second. It kind of like shook everything.

up, you know, and they had to kind of calm them down, then they got to go in at half time, and they're in there for about an hour and a half. It was like, dang, it just, that one threw me a little bit. I didn't see that one coming. And obviously he was frustrated. I understand. It's, you know, tensions run

high, but that one, that one just surprised me a little bit. And the sequence that sank them, and I talked about it earlier, was this kind of mid-second quarter to early third quarter, including their first chance at getting out of the half and getting points and getting it to a one score

game. Like that sequence with the penalties and really I can see why he's so frustrated. He's thinking I got a pick in the Super Bowl, you know, deflection off Four Nett into his hands. Well, that goes away because of the hold and then you get the penalty neutral zone. And then you get them going at him in the end zone with A.B. But before that, they went in and with Mike Evans and drew the the flag so that that sequence had to be one of the most frustrating sequences for him as a player in his entire career and him and brady got after it for a second like brady went and tracked his ass down it was like i got no problem with him getting after brady but you got to be ready to get it back no doubt that's that's the whole thing you know like people

i felt the same way about uh about Winfield's peace signed to tyreek i thought that was i thought that was weak, dude. Like, why, why are we penalizing that? I get it. It was a little much in his face, whatever. Maybe Winfield went over the top a little bit. But Tyreek does that to every DB that he's burned, right? Like, man, listen. Like, if you could dish it, you got to take it. That's just the way, and it always comes around. It's Tyreek. So I was, I was fine with him getting taunted. And I love Winfield. Yeah, I'm down. I was down with the tawny. I thought that was fine. No, Romo doesn't like Tony. He's the flag in your pocket. Yeah, that was kind of weak, too. He went. Maybe you could, yeah, Maybe you maybe you got to hate taunting to get the CBS job.

You know, you just, hey, it's like the first thing they ask you. Yeah, that's, yeah. We can't encourage that. I don't like that. I don't like that job. Listen, I don't condone that. I don't condone that. I don't condone that.

Like, all right. Donnie got parental. Come on. Come on. He got parental. Blue blazer. The blue blazer. I'll go, I go Levi-on is, is, that's a loser situation because you think you're in like,

this great situation you escaped, you win, right? Everybody was like, Levion really won. Well, you get all the way everybody else has been off for a month now. You're in a pandemic, sweating and grind and wearing a mask to work every day. And you come up short and you don't get the ball and you kind of phase out of the offense. So I would say Levion would be one. The Jags, Fournette had a great run. And I know that he couldn't have had that run in Jacksonville.

And that's part of the reason. It's like when a bad team lets a player go and then that player has success elsewhere, there is some of they handcuffed that player, but there's also like now he's in the perfect situation. So the Jags probably are watching like damn. Remmers. He ran angry too.

Oh, he ran angry. And that's another chance to shout out my guy Aaron Stenny from Charlottesville, Virginia. Great block to spring him on that first touchdown drive in the red zone. Road greater. Road greater. And then also that first Ronald Jones run that put me well on the way to my Ronald Jones over rushing total 37 and a half yards. He busts off like 17. That was Aaron Steny as well, second level. Remmers on the other side would be a loser. And I say this respectfully because

I respect Mike Remmers, but Mike Remmers has ended up by sheer bad luck lined up against Vaughn Miller and Shaq Barrett in Super Bowls Yeah, that's not easy. You know, it's like, golly, man. You work your whole life to get there and that's the card you dealt. Yeah, that's tough.

Also, Rob Ninkovitch, our guy is a huge loser after last night. One of the biggest fucking losers in America. He found a way to get called out by Bruce Ariens after the game and he had nothing to do with the game. Because halfway through the year,

Niko, our boy, said that Brady needs a new coach. You know, that's the problem. He needs a new coach. Oh, he said it on get up. You're right. Yeah, on your show then. Oh, my God. And Bruce has the memory of an elephant, evidently, and called him out after the game.

So Niko, how did you find a way to fucking lose last night? You were getting ready to tuck the kids in. You had a couple of whiskeys. you're going to bed you're like and all of a sudden Bruce Airy is just unsolicited brings you up

just airs you out yeah bulletin board material you don't think coaches he was just he was sticking up for Tom yes I don't think it was anything against Bruce no I think it was something against

I think he was oh I think yeah I think Niko was sticking up for Tom but the funniest thing to me was these coaches they're all like zone it all out guys I don't want you hear any outside noise yeah they're the main ones

like did you hear hear that this guy said this. He pulled out, he pulled out the old headlines. Hey, remember this article? Like a real newspaper. Like a real fucking newspaper from like 2000. Like it's all like yellowed and you're like Oh my God. I don't always supposed to tune

everything out. But yeah, so before I let you go, I just wanted to ask you. Talked about the penalties on the back end. Two weeks ago we were saying they let them play too much. What did you think of the other extreme? It was, you know, you don't want to see a bunch of flags. You really don't in a game like that.

I think that the tripping one down the field of Mike Evans, I don't know if that ball, if he's going to get to that ball. That's the one. That's catchable. That was a, ah, that's tough. But it just looks so blatant, right? Until you slow-mo it. And then we're not going to do the review pass interference anymore like we did the year before, right?

So I'd like to let the guys play. especially in a situation like that. Yeah, so remember, because then people were bitching about, oh, it's taken away from the game, and then we're taking it out of the ref's hands. Now the reps are scared to throw the flag. I mean, either way, you're going to have issues with calls. I don't know, maybe find something.

It's kind of like, I caught myself sitting here and being like, oh, two weeks ago they liked it this way, and then this week they're complaining about it. You know, like, how about just something in the middle, you know? And real quick, just like the green. Bay game, the one thing that can get them points before the half is a shot. And they let Scottie Miller go for a touchdown in Green Bay. And then you think the NFL's rigged.

We'll ask why Steve Spagnola was in single high on third and two. After calling a time out, what are we doing? So definitely some tough calls there. That one was probably the biggest dagger. Mark Sanchez, my dude, thank you for joining me. and I saved you in office here at the studio for whenever you move out here. Well, I don't know about move.

What about just like an extended stay? Come visit. I should. I got the meet. We have the means. You go shoot some stuff? Can we shoot? We shoot some stuff?

I got Arby's. Dude. You teach me how to throw football? Oh. Shoulders kind of shot, though. Did you play basketball at all? Were you a hooper? Yeah, six man.

See? I couldn't really tell based on your athletic. No, I did. I could dunk. I could dunk 360 two hands. I'm just kidding. You could throw a ball. Maybe. We'll see. Mark Sanchez, thank you very much. You got it, buddy. Let's catch up soon. Later. So it's always good to have Squanch. We'll get him back more in the offseason. I think Squatch is part of the core group here. He's definitely, he's part of our plans in the future. You know, like exit meeting at the end of the year. Well, Squantz, you had some good spots. I've got to say, something. Sometimes it was hard to get a hold of you, hard to find you, some weeks you disappear.

But when we get squantched locked in, what a guest. He's part of our plans in the future. Another guy who I love having on, Jeff Schwartz. Second and seven, Sammy Watkins is active and boy, did my homes have no time to throw as Shaq Barrett got to him quickly. Jeff Schwartz has joined us and he has. smarter than me and that's why he's here and his podcast is called Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you you still haven't found anybody that's smarter than you that's come on your podcast no I supposed to have Mina on but she she

couldn't make it so I think that she's not defeated I think she would I had Bill Barnwell on unfortunately so there you go yeah I'm kind of I'm kind of screwed but until Mina comes on I think I think I'm good I just had a couple of former office alignment so well and you so yeah you're in the clear until Barnwell came out. Barnwell is just intellectually big dick and everybody. I love Bill. He's fantastic.

I got a funny Bill story. So I cannot search for things very well in pro football reference. I just can't, I can't do it. I have a hard time too. So here's what I do. I text Bill. I'm like, Bill, can you look this up for me and he just does it? Really?

Yes. He knows how to do it all. What is the compensation? I don't know. Just being a friend. I mean, it happens like four times a year. Yeah, but that adds up. You know how many people are?

hitting Bill Barnwell up for, you know, pro football reference navigation? A lot, that adds up. That's pretty cool. Probably a lot, probably a lot, but I'm very thankful that Bill does that for me. Do you call them at like nine o'clock and you're like, hey, find me out like the player average,

the career average of this guard from 1970s. By the way, I don't understand that player average thing. Oh, on profile war, I have no idea either. It's, I've looked one up before. It's not very good. I didn't have a good career. I don't mind, but you know, And here's the deal.

You'll see somebody else and be like, oh, his player average was higher than me. Like, fuck this scale. I did see that the other day with the Chief's Offensive line and I was looking up and I was like, I don't know about that one.

How are you coming about these numbers? So Chiefs Offensive Line, you brought it up. That's the story today. I mean, what else can you do? Damashek tweeted this early. It was funny.

I guess he was taking a shot at you, but I wasn't taking a shot at you. When I retweeted, I was taking a shot at everybody taking a victory lap on. knew this would happen when they picked the chiefs anyways. Did you think it could be this bad? Yes.

But, you know, my brother's on the chiefs. So it's hard for you. But I'm not going to like just go out and say, hey, the Bucks are kicked the chief's ass. Like I can't do that. But I mean, I hinted it all week. I told everyone. And Dave knows I was, you know, I do a podcast with Dave too about this.

Like, guys, if this was any other game, any other week, any other quarterback, we'd say huge. If this was Tom Brady, we'd give Tom Brady, we'd give Tom Brady, no chance to win the game. Right. Because Pamela Holmes has been so special. We just say he can fix it. He can do right.

And they tried their best in the first half, man. I mean, they ran a ton of plankship pass. They helped their offensive line. They tried to run screens. They tried to do new. And just none of it worked. They got,

as much as they got out physical, and they got a little out coach, too. They prepared for man coverage, got a ton of too high and just never really got anything going. And in the second half of the game, there's no protecting your offensive line when it's third and eight. ain't going to happen right those those third downs were too long in fact from the beginning in my opinion and then you know to to set the table here i woke up to you correcting a statistic this morning

which i thought was very pertinent to what we're talking about you want to go ahead yeah so um you know ESPN stats and info said that there was that pat home's was an empty protection 92% of the game and I literally charted the first half of the game. It's right here. It's just false. The first half of the game, I think there were 29 offensive plays, and there's at least 12 plays where they helped the offensive line in the first half,

plus the two screens that they didn't complete, and the RPO's that they didn't complete. So like, they help them the entire game. But here's the thing, guys, is that, and this is counterintuitive, but when you go empty,

it actually helps against a good pass. Yes. Because thank you. I knew you were on here for a fucking reason, dude. I'm watching the game, I'm thinking to myself, when they were productive, they just got as many people out in the route as possible and dumped it down.

And this is what people to understand is it's everyone thinks that when there's a good pass rush that all you do is pack everyone in and go two-man routes and no, no, no, no. You spread everyone out. So the defense has to declare what they're doing, right? There's no disguising what they're doing. Typically, you're just going to rush four. But the idea is then you have five passing options right now instead of three. It was a great example early in the game.

The Chiefs kept a running back. in and a tight inning. They ran three-man route, right? They had three guys out. Bucks had seven guys on defense. They doubled three of the guys. Yeah. Like, that's what happens.

Yeah. So, and Tom Brady's done this for years. Whenever Tom Brady had faced, you know, the Broncos defense line, the Ravens, the Steelers, they go empty, man. Empty, the Jets back in the day with Rex Ryan, empty, empty, empty, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. Yeah. But look, the Bucks did a good job, too, because they, they pressed the shit out of the chiefs-wide receivers.

So they couldn't get the ball out quickly, too. but the idea that you have to pack everything in is not the way you should operate when you have a good pass rush. Not at all. And to me, you know, the narrative coming in was, okay,

here's a deal. This is not a Patrick Mahomes lost solely. And Patrick Mahomes threw some balls that should have been caught. Okay, the game is different. There's a couple of situations that I highlighted earlier in that second quarter that if balls are caught, the game probably is more competitive longer.

I still think the bucks win. I pick the bucks to win, but it's, you know, ball game. This is not a Patrick Mahomes legacy loss. He was put in a tough spot. We all agree that he's one of, possibly has a chance to be one of the greatest to play the game in NFL history. Is that early? I don't know. We'll find out. Having said that, since we all agree there, and we all agree that he's better than Tom Brady right now, because we love to state that

obvious fact, then the Chiefs had a bad game plan. You cannot convince him. You cannot convince me that two tackles, although I did winners and losers with Sanchez earlier, I feel like tackles won big because this reinforced the value of tackles so much. You have the fastest wide receiver in the game. You have the best receiving tight end in the game. You have the best quarterback in the game and you can't distribute the football because you can't protect. But I still feel like the game plan had to be better. And what we just talked about should have been something they came up with earlier. Look, I've tried to find ways when I watch the game back to know. Obviously there's no the film is not out, but just watching the game

of the TV copy of like other things they could have done. The only thing they could have done, in my opinion, is rush the football, right? We saw that the bills ran the same exact game plan, just play too high and don't get beat deep in week six. And the chiefs ran the ball for 245 yards, but that's not what Andy Reid is. Like he's just, that's not what he's going to do in the biggest game of the year. And here's also why I don't think he ran the ball very much. So think about him from the mindset of how he's going to this game. And I thought the chiefs were, had a more passive game plan than usual because they were terrified of their offensive line. Right.

So if you're Andy reading, you think to yourself, hey, I could do one or two things, throw the ball quickly or run the ball with a bad offensive line. What if we're now second and eight and now we're third and eight and now we're in a bad situation? I'd rather just have Pat throw the ball. That's probably what he thought. And there was not much adjustment throughout the game. You know, I think sometimes okay to say, but you just got your ass beat.

Like, it just, they got their ass beat. I don't know if it was a coach. I just think they got their ass beat. They did get their ass kick. They did get their ass kick, but every week we go, you know, Andy Reid, Eric Bianami, wizards, you know, this whole thing they have going on there. It's amazing. And it is.

But with two weeks to prepare, you just said it. They did not, they didn't account for the amount of zone that was played. They didn't account for the amount of too hot. You know, like there had to be a contingency plan for if Todd Bowles goes like the opposite of Todd Bowles. and to your point there wasn't a lot of adjustment when you saw early that

hey when we do run the ball like the third quarter they came out and ran the ball first play it was like 17 yards listen if they if they catch now there's a bunch of ifs here but if they actually do what they're supposed to do

before the half they don't give up a fucking touchdown they're down eight points coming out of the half and they've got the ball in the high red in like three plays in a minute and a half they're in the high red like they looked like them again they had to find it in a different

different way and they waited too long to do that. So that's my point as like, we got to give them, we've given them credit when credit's been due, but the game plan was kind of pissed poor. Because somebody, listen, it happens. You do get your ass kicked. But when you get your ass kicked, you do the post-mortem and you figure out whose fault it was. I'm not going to put this game on Patrick Mahomes. And quite honestly, I don't expect much out of the chief's defense. I expect them to be better, but they're not the hallmark of that team. They got hot last year in the playoffs. I'm looking at the offensive juggernaut,

Megamine, Galaxy brains there with Andy Reid and Eric Bienemy and I'm saying, I was expecting better. Yeah, I mean, look, I think there was a screenplay that I highlight on my Twitter at Jeff Schwartz. It kind of, I think, sums up the game for them, right? They called screening it's man coverage,

which is a great way to run a screen, right? Man coverage means you just have to block the linebacker who's on the running back. Emotion, I across. Pat Mahomes even yells out, man, man, to let everyone know is man coverage. And the offensive line in the center goes to block Devin White. And Sammy Watkins is running a drag route across the field.

And I don't know if he's supposed to interfere with White, but he said he hits his own offensive lineman. Right. So he can't get off on to block White. And then Mahomes throws the ball late. And like, what do you do if you're Andy Reid? You called the right play. Yeah.

You had the look you wanted. And a bunch of people screwed up. It's like, I don't know what to do. So I think that was. part of it as well. In the second half, look, you know this as balls I do. As a coach, when things aren't going well, you revert back to what you go best. And it's passing the, it's passing the ball. That's it. And I think that out of all this, the guy we haven't mentioned as Todd Bulls. He was fan-tastic. So he broke tendencies. The only blitzed, I think,

under 10% of the game. And most of those were in the first quarter. Like, he did the exact opposite of what he's done all year. And it's really hard as a coach to take your ego out of it and say, man, I'm just not going to do what I've done. So rare. And we talk about this, probably on my podcast, everyone else, the coordinated rushes they did. It was a great, great game plan. That's something I want to talk about because we talked about this who said,

you know, like the bottom line is they have to win their one-on-one matchups, but also run games. I mean, because that will muddy the middle up. And, you know, Patrick, who drops deep anyways, we have people this morning like, well, there's nowhere for him to step up. Let's not act like Patrick Mahomes has ever stepped up in the pocket. That's not to say he's afraid to. He just likes to set at 12 yards.

But they ran a ton of games. And early on, you noticed on those third downs, it was three down, and it was the two fast bullet packers wrapping. Double ETs, wrap somebody. So when Patrick Mahomes bails out into the left or the right and gives ground, you have somebody that runs him right down

as he's trying to find a throwing window. That's the smartest thing they did was they made sure they had speed guys showing up late. You highlighted it with that three-man game, which we called it a different thing everywhere. We went, like the five technique and the three technique to one side. Yeah, the three technique got to contain. The end came around and looped.

It's like a three-man game. And then Patrick for a second is going to think, oh, this B-gap opposite the three is open. No, the fast looper comes around the last second. In that case, it was Shaq Barrett, right? Yeah, it was Shaq coming around, kind of like reading, like a spy almost. Like he was kind of reading where Pat was and boom came around the corner. Dude, they put Vita Vaya out at over the left tackle one time that grabs the pocketback.

Like they were just doing every play with something different. So if you're that young offensive line, they're not really young, but you have all these guys in different spots. They're like, oh, fuck, okay, I got to block this look in the next play. Yes. Like, if Eric Fisher are my brother in the game, they're like, whatever, fine. We've seen all these looks a thousand times. We'll be fine. But every single play, they do something different.

You know, JPP was here, then there, then there, then there. Vita Vaya was here, there, and there. And then they're running this game and that game. And you mentioned early in the game, they started wrapping those linebackers. And then, like, the middle second quarter, they're like, yeah, we're not going to do that anymore. We're going to play two-man and let our defensive line get after it. And they did, I mean, they should have had. My favorite bet of the weekend was total sacks over.

I mean, it didn't hit because of Batman drew my homes. But, I mean, they just. What did you get it at? I got four and a half. Oh, I got a three and a half. That last one, I was like, yes. No, I mean, like, you're right, though. It's very hard for a backup tackle to block, you know, an elite defensive lineman anyways.

But when you start mixing the looks up and you're like, okay, I got to block him this play. And then I got a Vita Vaya. I saw the same play you saw where he's just lined up, like obnoxious lined up out there over the left tackle. Left tackle's like, can you go somewhere else? And like within a second, Patrick Mahomes's arm is getting hit as he's throwing with the back of the tackle's jersey. So it's just like there was there wasn't one look. they couldn't get comfortable, and they were outmatched physically. All I'm saying is I would have preferred, in hindsight is 2020,

that's why I'm not a coordinator and all that. But I would have thought in looking at it, let's get the ball out quick, and let's just flood zones, and let's just get as many people out in routes as we can. I think they tried, dude, and the Tampa's defense just, and I just actually, the all 22 just got sent to me as we're talking. So maybe I can take a look afterwards. I just, yeah, I don't know how, by the way, I don't know how, like, Like, do you get access to the film besides the Game Pass?

So I had some All-22 this year because, you know, I do, I work for Amazon on the side. And so they send down a little machine. But honestly, I like, I prefer getting the All-22 on my computer. Because if it ain't Exos and I don't have a clicker, I don't want it on some special laptop. Like I want, you know, like. Wait, so they don't give you the clicker? They give you a clicker, but it's, there's always something wrong with computers, man. I like my MacBook.

I can sit there on my NFPA. rewind like everybody else and wait for a day to get the all 22. I just don't know how media members get the all 22 tend to them. I cannot get it. I've asked everyone possible. I need to give me, I want a clicker. I will pay for exos.

I'll buy the whole system. I would buy it. If I just get, if you can, someone can just push me the film every week. I would buy it. I would set up a whole thing. Maybe XOs is listening.

Xos. Focus up. We'll do like, Thunder cloud, whatever it is. Whatever it is. Like, whatever you want to do.

huddle whoever wants to give us that i will buy your system on my computer in this beautiful office if you just push me it is a beautiful office you know what's funny is people that played are such creatures a habit that i think they have a harder time watching film after they play relative to like the rest of the media who just learned on one thing you know like we're just so used to having our setup that it's jarring your first year out you're like fuck i i can't watch film like this yeah it sucks i mean i got used to it now i think it's more about the top I just would rather have it earlier. But then all the time I say I'm gonna watch a ton of film

and I have a life where I can't watch film all days. Like it doesn't even matter. It's just specific things that I wanna like find that I have time trouble finding. And it's just nice to have- Sorting. Yeah, I have- Sorting.

Like, Yeah, I wanna see all the second and mediums or whatever. Yeah. Not to move on for the game, but I mean it wasn't a competitive game. It's that simple. Your two tackles get hurt.

Everybody, not just the two tackles get hurt. Everybody gets reshuffle, kind of what we alluded to earlier. It's not just blocking people who are better than you. It's blocking people that are better than you and like mixing up looks and sorting games. It kind of sucked. Tom Brady, what does this mean for, I hate this, but everybody's asking, what's it mean for his legacy? How do you put this into context? Who cares? I mean, like, greatest team athlete ever, fine. He's the greatest in the NFL, fine.

Like, I don't know. Like, who cares? I played ball and did the Jordan thing earlier. Did you see him? There was a video last night from a Tampa Bay player in the locker And they're all celebrating Tom Just like in his locker Just like taking his shit off Like another game

He doesn't just just like machine Yeah I'm thinking about it Like they asked him Jim Nantos Like he comes back next to he goes Of course I'm coming back next to What kind of question is that? I can still I mean as long as play action pass works

Like I can light this league on fire dude Like so I don't It's just yeah he's amazing Here's what I think And you play with Tom's I you'd be able tell me this better than I. It just feels like when he is on the team, everyone feels like you can always win. And when you feel like you can always win, you just play better. Like, individually, you don't worry about doing anyone else's job. You just do your own job,

which I know it's the mantra in New England, but it's very simple. Like, I know his offense alignment that if I just do my job, no one else's his job, Tomlin do his job, he'll do his job, and we'll win. And that's what feels like happened this year. Once it kind of clicked on offense, everything took off. It's a powerful thing to have somebody on your team, and there's a qualification here, I'll get to in a second, but it's a powerful thing having somebody on your team that does what you just described

because you can focus on your job, but also the contrast to not having somebody on that team is being on a team that your coaches are asking you to sacrifice some of your individual successes in a production business for the team, and you know that's a hollow promise that they can win. So I mean like I've been on the other side You've been on the other side where you show up to camp

But you did that New England though You won a championship Yes I mean like yeah I mean you do you do what you have to do But they asked me to do things there That I would never have done for a team that you know I trotted out to and that's to say I wasn't gonna It's don't mistake this as you know people talk about like

Toughness and work ethic You don't have to work any harder or be any tougher to play in New England You have to be malleable You have to be you have to be like willing to do different things and sacrifice individual productivity for the team. Now the interesting thing is up there and welcome to the rest of the NFL, there's not that player. You might have the greatest coach of all time, but good luck getting free agents to buy in, good luck getting people to sacrifice their earning potential and do things that are sideways without Tom. Tom allowed a bunch of guys

to do exactly what you just described. It took a while. But once everybody bought in, the reviews on Tom Brady as a teammate at the end of the season, if you went around and asked Tampa Bay what he meant to them, he was not the best player on their team. No. He's not, Mike Evans, you know,

Devin White, uh, we're talking about right now, taking the quarterback value out of it. Where do you think he ranks on that team? It's not in the top. It might not be in the top three. As far as it's like physical talents.

At this point in his career. Oh, probably not even top 10. I mean, top seven on the team. You look at like the top. physical talented players on their team. Look at Mike Evans and you look at even Tristan Worf's, the right, the rookie right tackle.

Might be a top five tackle right now. Yeah. And JPP and Vita Vaya and Shaqbert and Devin White and Winfield Jr. And like Dean, like all those guys are probably more physically gifted. Well, we're also talking about where they sit ranked at their position right now in 2020. Oh, yeah. Okay. So like, yeah, I mean, what do you think Brady is?

If there was a draft for next year, where are people right? where people draft Brady six or seven? Yeah, bottom half of the top five as a player. But when you have people that can make plays, the key is that he is the multiplier. He is the amplifier. He is, I can't think of anything else that rhymes. I'm doing a rhyming thing.

But he literally is that guy that can unlock the potential of everybody on that team. And the team as a whole, that's what makes him the goat. You know, like he got, he beat a. quarterback who right now is better than him. But he beat that quarterback not just because of those tackle injuries, but also because of everything they did to get here and the shaping and molding of that team that he did as a leader and as a quarterback. And then just to know where to go with the football, to not make big mistakes. Like, that's kind of his, his hallmark. Yeah, there wasn't, I mean, he threw the interception that was called back, but that was like tip three times. I mean,

he didn't even throw a pass that was, I mean, close to be intercepted outside of that one, which again, wasn't even interceptable, just got tipped around. The first flag. He took a, it was a hold, he free play, he just kind of burn it. And at first it was like terrible throw. Like listen, he didn't make great throws all night last night. Like he missed Godwin on the first third down and you were like, I hope this isn't a long game. But he didn't make that big mistake. And nobody, he didn't need to play lights out.

He just need to play really good and be the fucking the multiplier, the amplifier, the leader that he is. And I think, I think that's what's so cool about Tom. And that's why to me, he's, the goat. That's why there's a different discussion for, hey, the guy that does the most wow shit is Aaron Rogers. You know, like the guy that that's the goat is Tom Brady. That throw last night when Mahomes was parallel to the line of scrimmage, cool picture too. And he hit the dude in the face mask from 30 yards away. Cool picture. Yeah, that's a pretty incredible throw.

I mean, look, here's about Mahomes. And I know Chiefs aren't going to hate this, but it is, it is what it is. As good as he is, there's so many things he can work on. And, and, and part of that is mechanics. Like he's got to have better mechanics. When he, when he drops back in the pocket, steps at nine, hitches one,

and fires the ball, the offense is unstoppable. It's unstoppable. There was that scatter, plot, that chart, whatever you want to call it, going around the show,

you know, this season where he threw the ball from. It's like all over the place. Tom Brady's like this little circle in the middle of the field. That's what you want to be. You want to be the circle. You don't want to be the guy running everywhere

because your offense eventually can't do things like this. And as you get older too, you cannot make, the same throws you make when you're 25. So the chiefs have got to work this off season on getting Mahomes to be more comfortable. And includes the offense aligned, right, blocking well and the passes and guys being open. But getting him just more comfortable kind of reintroducing the quick game back into what they do and making sure he stays in the pocket and just trust his protection.

I feel like this happens with all quarterbacks, not just him. But when mobile guys feel like they're not going to be protected, especially from early part in the game, they just start running. Yeah. And nobody can blame him. yesterday, but he has, as we've said, like he, you talk to tackles that have quarterbacks that drift or, and the risk reward, it's worth it with him, but it's about like picking your spots and, you know, like to your point, getting that quick game back into their repertoire,

so it's not something you haven't done in eight weeks when it's time to go quick game, you know, and when it's time to just be on a timing tip. So the question is, because you just mentioned it, like he's 25. Now, you don't think about quarterback as you're watching, Tom Brady on the other side, he could play another two, three years. I think he can play another three, four years, honestly, if he wants to, depending on the situation. With Patrick Mahomes coming off this toe, like this offseason is going to be a big off season for him to rehab

and get that thing right and do it exactly right. Because I think a lot of people assume that once you get a surgery, it's fixed in the NFL. That's not the case. And for somebody like him, okay, he doesn't throw with his toe. But I had a high ankle one year. and you know I'm a rusher of course I didn't have surgery on it but I played through it the entire year not advisable my ankle flexion was never the same so that changed the way I rushed the rest of my

career it's not as drastic for a quarterback of maybe his toe flexion changes the angle with which he bends his ankle and that we're getting kind of technical here but it does change the mechanics the very thing you're talking about of throwing the football and where you release it and how you release So with that in mind, how important is this offseason to them as a team, too? Because they, I don't know, you're probably more familiar with me. Free agents, an exodus and players. Do we have any of that going on there? I don't think so.

Look, you're absolutely right about what surgery can do to someone. I mean, I was older when I busted my ankle, but I had three ankle surgeries in a year. It was never the same. Like, it's never the same guy. He's young. He'll be fine. I dislocated my toe. I tore my planter plate.

I know what that feels like what he's going through. It's sucky, especially when you have to run like he does. But he's young enough. I think he'll be fine. So when it's the offseason, look, my brother's under contract for next year, Fischer under contract for next year. Larry, who took LDT, the right guard, who took a sabbatical this year to go help in Montreal as a doctor.

He's under contract still. The chiefs have two positions that really need to hit, in my opinion, in the draft. They need to get a mulling guard at the end of the first round. And then you get faster at linebacker. That's kind of where I think they're lacking a little bit, maybe even faster at safety at some point. You know, the Dan Sorensen player, not, it's kind of like a hybrid safety nickel type player. But they basically have pretty much everyone under contract for next year.

The cap obviously is going to go down. So that's, you know, we'll see what happens. How many restructures have to be made there. But every team's going to have to restructure guys because the cap's going to go down by about $20 million. This should be fine. So you expect them to be right back where they left off. I just think it's a big deal that he, that they get him right. And they, you know, like if, if there's a complication with a surgery, you don't push guys through OTAs, you don't do, it's just like handle with care, man.

I was going to ask you this, and this factors into the Brady thing. Of all the finalist teams that almost got to look at him this year, he made the right decision. We knew that from probably the beginning. This was the best team he could have joined, which, of course, like, factoring into this debate about like where he, ranks and, you know, it was automatic. He goes to the next team and they went a Super Bowl. There were other teams that he would have joined that. I don't think they would have won the Super Bowl, not even close. Well, the team everyone reported last night was the Niners. If they had stayed healthy, they could have won the Super Bowl, right? Yep, yep, yep. But then there

was the Titans. Titans weren't winning the Super Bowl with Brady. It didn't fit what they did. He chose the right place, man. And credit to him for doing that. But also, look, they drafted two great players this year and Tristan Worf's and Winfield Jr. I mean, that's part of it. Those guys were really big and influential to make in this happen this year. So Jason, like deserves credit for getting him there, plus also adding those pieces.

And yeah, I'm another team like, if he goes to the Chargers, they have a chance you think? No, I don't think so because I don't think their defense was what we expected them to be. Well, they're healthy.

Yeah. Yeah, well, if they were healthy, maybe, I thought L.A. was like, at first,

I was like, oh, L.A. is the place. But then Tampa, I mean, like, Tampa had basically,

the bones of a top five defense. Oh, agreed. And all the weapons. And so the tie would go to Tampa there. Yeah, to me, it was Tampa or L.A. But anywhere else that people had, you know, you know, Niners would have been interesting. The Raiders, if you remember all the way back to March,

were in conversations. Their defense wasn't good enough. He picked the right team, dude. He totally did. And, um, yeah, this is what he gets. And look, Gronk coming back, obviously it was, look, Gronk, man. He just, these all-time greats,

they just find a way to play great in big games. Like, he just was great last night. Yeah, it was, it was pretty, this is one of the most impressive feats, I think, in team sports, honestly. Like, think about, he came to a new team as a 43-year-old in a COVID year with no off-season, with a limited training camp,

with kind of everything, you know, there's no meetings in facilities are different this year. Everything's different this year. Right. Went on the road and beat two, of Fame quarterbacks and then beat a future Hall of Famer who people say is better than Tom or will be better than Tom in the Super Bowl. It's pretty impressive. And he beat Taylor Heineke.

Well, that's, yes. That was a good one too. Impressive, man. Hey, have you been looking at the draft? It's while I have you with tackles at all? So there's two at the top. Rashon Slater from Northwestern. He opted out this year.

He didn't play this year. But his film against Chase Young is. incredible. Really? Go watch him from, it'll be 2019 now. And then there's Panasua from Oregon who won the Outland two years ago. He set out this year too. He's only 20 years old.

He is 20. He's a baby, dude. He's got a baby's body, like he has so much room for growth. I was hoping he would go back just to kind of continue to build. He's only started 18 games, I think, now in his college career. But I would love to see him go back. But he didn't.

I get why he opted out. The Patov had a weird. season. Alex Leatherwood from Alabama. That's a big joker, huh? He's a big dude. He's good. There's a kid from Texas, Kossami, who's going to be up there too.

This now official, I guess, today starts like looking at draft prospects. So who's the next Tristan Worf's then, if you had a very early look? It would be, it would be, it would be Penae, man. Like if you get Penae in the right spot, he's not dropping a 13. But think about this. a 19 year old won the Outland trophy, right? The best offensive line can actually be a defensive lineman award two, but best linemen essentially, college football at 19 years old.

At 19. It's actually, you think about like where you and me were? Like 19 mentally physically. Big fat lug. It was like 375 pounds my sophomore year. It was my first summer getting ready for Virginia and I was not ready to win any Outland trophy. Like mentally or physically.

It's just crazy to me. that these cats are so good, so early now. Also, I would figure Pena Sewell's probably my big competition for the Arby's money and getting in an Arby's ad. Well, he's your competition. You think he's going to beat you to an Arby's ad? Oh, for sure. Look at him.

Do you think he eats Arby's? Do you have Arby's in Eugene? They probably don't. That doesn't seem like a very rich. No, I don't think we have Arby's there. Not at least I've been there. You wouldn't. Eugene has some chain restaurants and a lot of Hawaiian food,

which is fantastic. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We got tons of Hawaiian food. Yeah, it's really good. All right. I like going back for that reason. So check out the Hawaiian food in Eugene and also Penae Sewell is maybe the next Tristan Wirffs. Jeff Schwartz. Thank you so much, man. Yes. It's the off season. Yeah, we get to sleep a little bit. I like going, like I said, I like to sleep. I'm like a little kid still. I need my eight and a half hours of sleep. So you go get it, buddy. We get to sleep at night now. I love it. Please run me on, buddy. Check it out. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you.

It's a podcast and it's a truism except for when Bill Barnwell's on. Jeff, appreciate you. See you. Have a good one. All right. Always great to talk to Jeff. Listen, yes, Jeff Schwartz is smarter than me. For sure he is.

For sure he is. I know it's off putting to some people, but he's just fucking smarter than you. Check out his podcast. Literally a dude that you can take him. ticket to the bank when he's talking about O-line play and protections and that sort of thing. So shout out to him in his podcast. Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you. Now for a guy who's better at football than me, let's have Howie Long on.

I want to take a minute to thank Draft Kings, our great partner for the 2020 football season. And we also want to shout out Stanford Steve for being a big part of that. We had some laughs, made some buckets, and had a lot of fun along the way. But while the football season may have ended, the 2021 sports calendar has just gotten underway. Had a terrific Super Bowl, might I add. So if you haven't already, head over to Draft Kings, America's top-rated sportsbook app, and enter the code green light and start firing away. You know what the problem is?

Well, you haven't complimented me on my outfit. That's a fucking classic outfit. You like Arby's? What kind of hat is that? It's like, what do they call that? They don't call it. It's typically called like a Farrell hat, but this is like an Arby's hat. Arby sent me this stuff.

Does Arby's send you anything? You're talking about the place that sells sandwiches? If you want to oversimplify it, sure. I mean, there's a lot of stuff. How would you describe Arby's? Sell sandwiches and more. I didn't want to go that deep. I know you get sketchers.

I technically am not, they don't pay me. They just sent me some free gear, so essentially I'm free advertising for Arby's. What's their best sandwich? A big Montana probably. Is this the most popular? Yeah, you'd like the Big Montana.

Well, if they have a Big Montana, I have to go there. You're a big Montana guy, so, yeah, I just like their, I like their standard, just regular roast beef sandwich. They had a turkey sandwich that was very good. You should try it sometime. I'm going to go now. You've got my, you've piqued my curiosity. You know Howie.

I have a lot of dead time right now. I know you do. So do I. You know Howie, my youngest brother for the people that didn't hear this segment a week or two ago. We're going to do this new segment called Howie's Just Saying. Oh, boy. Yeah. But Howie texted in because we were talking about Arby's because it's,

because it's just kind of been, long story short, we've been talking about Arby's, and Howie has a theory that it's a front because he's actually never seen anybody go in there. You know they're the number two sandwich chain behind Subway. Stop it. Yeah, dude.

Yeah. Where are you getting these stats from? Wikipedia. Did they make stuff up on Wikipedia? No, definitely not. You can't get away with making stuff up on Wikipedia. Yeah, you can't. But it checks out.

It's the number two sandwich place. What did you think about Tony Romo getting some, some, some, some Skechers swag last night. Welcome to the family, huh? Yeah, he's been, he's been with Skechers for a while.

Oh, so you were welcome to the family. No. I think it was before Tony. How did you think of his commercial? It was a cute commercial. No, it was. It was a funny commercial.

I mean, you know. Yeah, that was cute. It was just cute. Yeah. So we're both off now. Well, you're totally off. Oh, I am. I am done, done, done.

Yeah, you got to feel good. I was talking about it last week. Like, when you came home from the NFC championship, you just had that look on your face, like, the season's over. Oh. I'm, I'm, pretty psyched. That was a long run. I can imagine with these players.

Yeah. You know, and to get there, to get to the Super Bowl, just short, it's like, it's like you going down and climbing Kilimanjaro and failing 100 yards from the top. Oh, yeah. It's awful. It's like, you've done that. So this year for these teams has been light climbing a mountain. Yeah.

It really has been. I mean, all the sacrifice, all the testing, all the, you know, contact trace families, you've got to isolate. You're tested every day constantly. You're under the gun. And I just think getting there, it's one, it's elation for one team. And for the other, it's just total despair. Show me the guy that's Tom. and not just

from an ability standpoint. All that is Tom I mean everyone I've said this everyone does the prerequisite amount of work the meetings the weight room

the training room going home watching extra film doing whatever he walks in the building and what you thought was sufficient is now doubled and

and the way he he gets everyone for example you walk in a locker room and he walks up to you and says what nice to meet you I'm Tom I'm Tom like no shit dude hey thanks thanks I'm gonna try not to

here here's what I'm gonna do my name's Chris but don't worry about that I'm just gonna try not to fuck this up for you this year you know what I mean I'm gonna try not to be that guy in any capacity and he's got six of them but you just feel like because there's this guy in the building that's been there and knows the way you just follow him. And that's what that team did. Been there nine times.

Right, I know. Been there nine times. And you and I talked about it. They had to find a happy medium with their offense. Yeah. And they also had to be more disciplined. They were one of the most penalized teams in football last year. And you go back to the Chicago game where they, you know,

they just had like a meltdown. Right. And, you know, since the buy, they've got it figured out, six, seven in protection on play action passes, their defense. This kid, White. Yeah, he's fun. I mean, Levanté David, I feel bad because Levanti David's been that and then some

for like a decade, but nobody was watching. So now when it's his turn, and like, listen, he has gotten his flowers because people are talking about him, but Devin White bursts on the scene. You're like, who's this? I'm like, well, you've really got two heat-seeking missiles at the second level, and it was the worst possible matchup for a team that was trying to check down and get the screen game going and hit the underneath stuff, because they're there before the ball's there.

But what they, to me, it's easier said than done, but the formula is play coverage, take away sidelines, take away the deep shot, don't give up the explosive play. force them want to run the ball, take the check down, take the short to intermediate pass. And they just can't do that. Right. The only game they did that was Buffalo after losing to the Raiders. Right.

They lost to the Raiders. Raiders played coverage and they accommodated them. They threw, through, through, through. Andy said, I didn't give my players an opportunity to be successful. The next week they ran for 240 yards. Right. Now the only way you get them out of cover too and do all that is to run them out of it and that's it. Yeah.

Yeah. It was like the first game of the year with Ossemile, remember that game? We sat there and watched it together actually. It's one of the few football games we could watch together. Yep. And we said, damn, he gives them another element and like they're going to run the football this year. And it just they eventually, not for a lack of trying to put the pieces in place, but Andy's not It's not in his DNA.

It's not in his DNA. Me and Jeff Schwartz were just talking about this, not in his DNA. And, you know, in a game like that, I would have liked to see them go more quick game. It's funny. Actually, where they struggle was when they tried to get two, three guys out in the route and seven-man protect or chip out,

it screwed up their timing. Guys weren't open, and Tampa and too deep was keeping everything in front of them. The way they could have moved the ball was sprinkling some run and go quick game, but because they don't practice that. out what they do, you know, getting empty, spread it out and say, fuck it, like, we're not going to be able to block for more than two and a half seconds. Let's get the ball out quick. That would

have been the way to go. Let's not put the onus on our makeshift, revamped offensive line. Right. You know, they didn't help them enough. Right. They didn't help them enough to play calling. They didn't help them enough with protection. So Tampa Bay's defense, it was a dominant performance. They beat them up front on both sides of the ball. That's really it. Yeah, the Worf's drafting was huge. I mean, they might not win that Super Bowl if it's not for Tristan Wurfs. I mean, that's an incredibly valuable 13 pick in a draft. I mean, this kid coming out was Combined Freak Show,

but you just didn't know if he'd be ready-made. What they really built was this pro-style, they built this pro-style juggernaut kind of that just grew into like, hey, we're going to run the ball. Leonard Fournett's going to look like a powerback. You've got your guy with another gear in Ronald Jones. you've got a big possession wide receiver. You've got Godwin, who's like a great slot guy plus.

Like a patriot. Yeah, and you've got, you've got Scotty Miller, who's another patriot. You got A.B. who showed up, and you got this pro-style tight end who blocked his ass off the whole time, and you got a tackle that looks like he's straight out of the 1990s on one side. You're mauling guards. By the way, Aaron Stinney, our guy stepped up really nicely. They were like a pro team. He really did, you know, and I think they were smart.

what they came to realize was Bruce won, you know, Tom, take shots, take shots, take shots, take shots. That's Bruce's thing. Bruce wants you to take shots. What wasn't happening earlier in the year was they weren't protecting him the same way they were after the buy. They started to run the football. They went play action pass. It was six, seven in protection. You look at the Washington game. Grunk is blocking the defensive end by himself. Yeah. In pass protection. Yeah. So then Tom could take the shots down the field. And the difference in the two, I'll tell you what, Fournette, Fournett was a healthy scratch one week. Yeah.

Yeah. It speaks to what they willed that team and the chemistry of that team and their identity. It was a work in progress the entire year. We didn't have OTAs. We didn't have training camp. And we literally saw in motion, usually that maturation process, May, June, July. but they did all the shit you do throughout the summer and through preseason on the fly during the year. And they grew up as a team and they became more disciplined.

You mentioned the defense. It's funny. There are people clamoring to get. They were so good as a group. It was hard to pick one guy. And I think that's the only reason you'd have a defensive MVP. You just picked Tom, which spoke to how good of a team they are. Like the Giants front fork.

So that's the question. Last 20 years, I look at it. You think about defensive football teams that have kind of spurt. spurred a championship, at least in the big game. You know, you had the Patriots won 13 to 3. You had the Broncos, no fly zone. You had the Giants front

taking over Super Bowls. You had the Patriots in the beginning of Tom Brady's career, shutting down the greatest show on turf, and obviously the gold standards is the Ravens. Where did the bucks fit 20 years from now as you look at that? Because quiet is kept. They're in that group. Well, I think the game

has changed significantly. I think the challenges that that defenses are presented with because you're in the difference between 12 years from ago until now is what percentage of the plays are you in a sub package offensively all what percentage of the plays are you in nickel and dime right you're in it all the time the game has changed that's why wide receiver numbers you know pass rush numbers you're you're throwing the ball more than ever and it's usually out of three four wide receivers You're trying to get four or five wide receivers off.

Yeah, I know. So it's interesting to me like where they would fit because I think some people would say, yeah, it's ludicrous to compare them to the 2000 Ravens. Of course they're not that group. But you know, some of these other historically good defenses, I feel like the best version of the Bucks as far as Super Bowl winners are concerned, they had their stinkers this year. But all like the Ravens, I'm sure in 2000 had some shitty games.

nobody's going to remember the game that the Giants were moving the ball on them the entire game in primetime. You get judged on your last game and they shut down a historically good offense, albeit two backup tackles. But man, Todd Bowles, you know, performance of a lifetime. And at all three levels, they have playmakers. Yeah, and again, it speaks to the issue of holding off on, interviewing head coaching candidates until the postseason's over. Yeah. You know, just think, okay, let's talk charges.

And I'm not knocking the chargers selection of the coach they picked. Yeah. But if you're going to go in that direction, you're going to go defense. You're going to turn the offense over to somebody that the quarterback who is you and I both, you know, it's a fascinating team, I think, moving forward. Yeah. But you decided to go defense. If you're going to go defense, why wouldn't you go Todd Bowles, who has some head coaching experience, even in New York,

where it was as dysfunctional as it possibly could be, and he really didn't get a great opportunity there. If waiting until the end of this and you're looking at this Tampa Bay group and you're looking for a head coach, and maybe you're open to hiring a defensive coach and not a kind of a wonder kind, you know, 34-year-old offensive guru. Hot Bulls got to be at the top of the list.

Yes, he is. And, you know, we don't even have to talk. We're not going to talk about Philly, but like shit, Brian Dable, whether he wanted to go coach in Philly or not, here's a guy who didn't get to interview, you know, and that was McDermott's call up there. But here's another coach that if he were in the mix, in a perfect world probably gets a job.

I mean, I think with the job he's done up there on the offensive side of the football, you make a great point. Todd Bowles, you look at it right now, if you're hiring today, and of course, like hindsight is, we're very reactive, right, the day after a Super Bowl,

but you got to love a guy with head coaching experience, a guy who won 10 games in New York, and despite all of the dysfunction up there, I think he'll get another shot, and I look forward to, to seeing what that next opportunity is. We will because if they can keep this group together, you know, there's been a lot of speculation

where Bruce Ariens come back, he wins a championship at his age, does he ride off to the sunset? And we know how, listen, Bowles the guy who played for him at Temple. Right. So they go way back. He left to go with the Jets,

and he brings him back. And I know he wants him to have, a head coaching opportunity again. Now, you know, am I saying this is going to happen? No, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but it's certainly a possibility. And if he were to walk away, I'm sure he would walk away making sure that Todd was the logical choice to be his successor. That being said, as long as the quarterback who cuts a big hole in the water and his expectations, for preparation and performance are I second to none. And he holds everyone accountable.

When you're talking about, and we talk about the defense, where do you rank defense? They rank extremely high. And I think given where we are today, how the game is played, that's great. Now, if they come back next year and win back-to-back Super Bowls, a totally different class.

As a head coach, as a team, as a defense. And you talk about Ariens possibly leaving. Part of the, like as a player or a coach, okay, like after the first, the Philly Super Bowl as a player, I was like, man, the only reason I don't walk away right now in some ways because I'm just like over it is I don't want to watch this team repeat without me. You know what I mean? It would just be, and I don't know if Bruce Ariens in his head, to your point, you know,

we did winners and losers earlier. One of the biggest winners of last night was the 2003-2004 Patriots and Tom Brady, because that's the last team to repeat. It would be so special to have an opportunity to do that. And as a defense, that would put you in another stratosphere entirely if they play like that. Don't you know these quarterbacks are out there just eating on town? Oh, yeah. What's that Indiana Jones scene in the movie?

With the cup? Choose wisely. Yeah, with the cup when he walks across the Invisible Bridge. He chose wisely. Yeah, he chose wisely. The other dude turned to, like, dust. Yeah. The other guy aged, like, the opposite of Tom Brady.

So Bruce Ariens, his legacy. Like, what is that? Because he's... Two-time coach of the year. Yeah. Head coach of the year took other team, what was part of other teams going to the Super Bowl as an assistant. one one in Pittsburgh, yes.

Yeah, yeah. You know, I thought about that. What really juices it up quite a bit is he was a two-time coach of the year. And now he's got a championship in short order in Tampa Bay and did it his way. And, you know, the staff is kind of a reflection of him. and whether they get the credit or don't get the credit, I think Todd will get the credit. I think Byron Lough, which is maybe a year or two away

from being in that conversation. Yeah. But I think Todd Bowles is... I hire Todd Bowles in a minute. You know, yeah, I look at the job he's done. You know, you talk about diversity on his staff, the two-time coach of the year thing. Now he's got a Super Bowl as a head coach.

He's popped up different places that things were great from an offensive standpoint. He's got kind of his own personality, his own kind of hallmark for the way he played. Like, what do we say at the beginning of the year? Man, Tom Brady standing upright for a year. That's going to be tough because everybody gets hit. It's kind of what they do. You'll always remember that about him no matter when he walks away. you got to figure you know what he was he's like an afl coordinator they threw the ball all over the

place and that's that's kind of what he is yeah yeah even in today's passing game which which which is saying something he's he he threatens every bit of the field right you know with a lot of passing games today it's it's quick stuff i mean it's one thing to just throw it up the tire you kill and Yes. He's one of the fastest human beings on the planet. Yeah. And that's kind of a cheat code. And Kelsey is a great tight end.

That receiving core, and I've come to appreciate Mike Evans a lot more. Yeah. I think he's just tough as can be competitive, physical, all the things you want. There were times when I thought, thought he was, he lost his composure a few times over the last couple of years, just being ultra competitive.

You remember that play on the sideline where, you know. Yeah, listen, he's been in some fights and whatnot. And I just always think if you have a wide receiver like that who's one of your best players who's got some dog in him, like that's like our football player, football player, not a diva wide receiver, I'll take that passion any day of the week, especially when he backs it up with production and work habits and now he's even talked about you know give you know spreading some of his money around try to keep this band together which uh defined well you you and I both know there's a lot of ways there's a lot of ways you can do that but I'm a lot of ways you can do that and and I think

I'm sure he's receptive to you know spreading some money out over years yeah yeah and and and also I think you look at it is it just goes to show you the perception of somebody on a winning team and a losing team, like Mike Evans, same guy last year, as he was this year. The perception of all those attributes and traits that he brings the game looks so much better in a winning light. And so I was very happy for him. And quite frankly, a lot of guys, like, Indomacan Sue getting a ring. You know, like Sue played his ass off this year. He looked really good. Towards the end of the year in LA, he really brought it on as the playoffs approached. But I think in that group, and I think it's somewhat contagious that they just play at a different speed. Yeah. You know, when they say rally to the football, they did. They really rallied to football.

And they did last night back in, too. We were talking about Ariens. Okay. Hall of Fame this week. Your old coach, Tom Flores, Hall of Fame or now. We've talked about in the past. Yeah. What took it so long to happen?

Why was he underappreciated? What do you think when you see his name flashed across the screen? My guess would be, and I haven't had this direct conversation. I mean, Tom is not someone who's looking for credit. He's not look at me. I'm great. I won two Super Bowls. I think one, the teams were very good teams.

And that game last night, I had just turned to mom and said, this looks a lot like our 83 Super Bowl team, where we had played Washington earlier in the year. They had set a scoring record that stood until Chris Carter, Randy Moss's Minnesota Vikings team. That stayed for quite a while. They were dominant. When you looked at them on film, we lost up there in Washington,

and came back and we're just dominant on Super Bowl Sunday. The thing that makes our game so great is it's not settled in a best of seven or best of five series. It's one day. If you're great that one day and Tampa was great and Kansas City was off, I think Tom probably because of the talent and also the Al factor, you know, the Al Davis factor. where, and I can tell you this, I mean, Al was omnipresent in our organization. And he knew football as well as just about any coach in the league. And he coached the team at one point two early in his career.

I think it's kind of like Phil Jackson with the kind of talented teams he had. Managing those two teams, the two teams that won the Super Bowl, is no small task. And also managing being the head coach under Al Davis is no small task. And I think he did it with, he's one of those guys that just, with each year, subsequent year he was passed over for the Hall of Fame, he handled it with the same grace in class that he always handled everything. And he wasn't a stream at you guy.

He was a guy that when he walked in the room and he got up in front of the room, he had the attention of the room. And when it was time to jump somebody, you know, he did. And it wasn't often. That just wasn't Tom's DNA. Tom was, I think, the perfect coach for those teens. And it was a lot like escape from New York. Trust me, it wasn't like your coaching.

you know, St. Mary's prep here. It's the Oakland Raiders and the LA Raiders just fresh from Oakland. Yeah, it almost strikes me as a situation where if it were a coach with a different demeanor, you know, more... Or a different team. Well, I'm saying if a hard ass kind of like always yelling type coach walked into that locker room in 1983, going to chew you up and spit you out. I mean, you have to pick your spots with a locker room like that it was a tough room the tough room really dominant personalities smart football players ted hendricks i've always said this smartest he's like a genius smartest guy ever played with you know and i was like whatever he's doing i need to do more of it and you know on top of that you know he was he was

also out quite a bit enjoying himself and being ted hendricks the stork yeah uh what's your best Flores story where the team needed something from him and he delivered or it was always kind of that that quiet confidence that demeanor that calming kind of sense to the room did he ever calm you down one-on-one yeah no he he jumped me one time i've gotten in a bad fight at work and you know it was bad uh i didn't start it uh but it was bad and oxnard no it was at practice it in uh in El Salvador. And I had just had a spinal done on like Monday or Tuesday and here we were and team period and you know guys pulling me from behind and I said something, he said something and now you're kind of at an impasse and everyone's looking and you know, you've you've got to drop

them. And I was just, I was too good at it. You know, one thing I could always do, was that. And he was so mad. It's the angriest I've ever seen. So two Super Bowls for Tom Flores. Super Bowl 15, he's the first coach to take a wildcard team all the way and win it. So that stood until Denver in 1997, interestingly enough. I mean, a long time between a team going the distance and winning it all. If I read that correctly, that's insane. What was that? wildcard team winning the Super Bowl They were the first wildcard team To win a Super Bowl

The 80 team and that team was Crazy Really crazy in your team Well I got there the next year So the party The party from 80 Continued into 81 You had the hangover year as your rookie year

Yes into 82 And as a matter of fact That was Terry Robisky's first job. His first job was to keep guys, you know, out of jail, get them in practice. Maybe Terry deserves being the Hall of Fame for that. No, Terry. Terry, Terry, he's a legend. Terry's a really, you know, he's the perfect guy for that kind of position.

Yep, he sure is. And also, first minority coach won the Super Bowl. Only three two-time winning coaches left not in. So. He won as a player? Yeah. One is an assistant coach, and he won twice as a head coach. Real quick, looking at the other guys I made this year, you have Alan Fanica.

Have you seen pictures of him lately? Yeah, he's slimmed down. He's running marathons, dude. Why don't you run any marathons? You know? I'm joking. It's a total joke. No, the funny part is my legs are great.

Yeah. It's just the upper body. It's the shoulder, neck, back. Alan's great. Alan Fanica, you know, paved away for Fast Willie Parker, Jerome Bettis. Even Thomas Jones had a couple thousand yard years tail end in New York under him. So, I mean, anybody you talk. It's arguably that and safety are the two most overlooked positions.

Yeah. And you know what's funny is when it comes to safety, I mean, you got John Lynch getting in. and I know you think a lot of John, he's kind of the last of the modern era guys who are like the last dinosaur, I mean this endearingly, like the way you played that position. It's almost like he couldn't play today.

He'd be too rough. The games change. Yeah, he'd be a backer. But the other guy on his very same team, Ronde Barber, who were both waiting to get in, is the guy who was like ahead of his time at the position. And the position has morphed into what he was,

rather than John, it's gone away from what he was. Yeah, I agree. And Ronde was such a complete player. John Lynch was, you talk about heat-seeking missiles. He was that. And that cover two,

that Tampa two defense that they had down there, and they had the one great player at all three levels. Right. And I think John going in is is, you know, is appropriate. And I have a lot of respect for him as a player, as a person.

But like said, I think backers have shrunk since that time to a certain degree. I think he might be a backer in today's game or a box safety. Right. You know, kind of that's what he would be now. But Ronde, to me, was, you know, Tampa 2, you know, you understand you're not playing a lot of one-on-one man, but just a great, great player and a great understanding as a blitzer. You know, I don't know any sacks he has, but he has quite a few.

Oh, he has a ton. I mean, he's, he was just that first Swiss Army knife. Yep. And, you know, it's funny I had a, I commented under a post of him the other day. this Instagram account. It's NFL throwback, which I sent to you before. Like follow NFL throwback. It's like some great old film.

They've had yours up there. Had some guys I played with up there and played against. And it's a lot of nostalgia, but they rolled the Ronde tape. And the question was, should he be in the hall of fame? I'm like, yeah, he paved the way for a lot of players. And all these 20-something-year-olds are like, what do you mean?

Yeah. I'm like, well, the game you wake up and see. on Sunday, you know, at that time, it was like a negative to be a nickel corner. It was a negative to be able to do more. And now that's the guy that every defense wants. And that's the reason guys like Buda Baker and Tyron Matthew have been paid handsomely and appreciated accordingly. Guys like Well, it's interesting because I was when I was watching the Al versus Pete Roselle 30 for 30, the other night, there's an entire generation of young people

who have no clue what that was all about or the impact that Al had on the league. Also, to be fair, Pete Roselle had on the league. Both the AFL and the NFL. And the kind of organization, it was kind of like just a barricaded, off, you know, island on to itself.

When you played for the Raiders, it was us against everybody. Yeah. I mean, you definitely got that idea. Calvin Johnson, speaking of him against everybody. I mean, it was literally him against everybody for a long time. Yeah. He got in fast, and I think I got no issue with that. No.

You know, I was talking to Tony Gondon. Gonzalez at work about this and Tony's said to me it was it was interesting I never really looked at it that way but he said if you're going to be a Hall of Famer you have you have to have been the best player your position at some point in your career right period and and which is tough he certainly fills that he Calvin Johnson fills that role pretty well yeah it's tough though it's a tough bar because there's going to be a lot of guys guys that are going to be fringy and were beacons of consistency in the top three to five range in their position and have numbers in totality that scream Hall of Fame. So it's tough. It depends

on how you look at it. The numbers now are so, it's so hard to figure out who's who's who, what's what. It's like Drew Pearson's a wide receiver in the 70s. You know, it's like the game is just different. So, Terry threw the ball 22 times in one Super Bowl. Yeah. But here's the thing with Terry. Terry made big throws and big situations. When they counted. In big games. Yeah, when they counted.

So you look at Charles Woodson, first thought pops in your mind. What uniform is he wearing? It's almost a rhetorical question. But I think a lot of people, again, era depends on when you grew up. I think for a lot of kids my age or dudes my age, you remember him in a Green Bay uniform first, but he was a raider. Yeah. Well, I think the Raiders look at him as a raider. And of course, when anyone gets in the Hall of Fame, if the player played him, you know, Dion played in a number of places. You know, I view Dion more as an Atlanta Falcon, a Dallas Cowboy or San Francisco 49.

It's funny, the first picture I have of Dion is a Falcon. Yeah. Yeah. And he kind of, you know, that old stadium that was kind of the place that, you know, he kind of built. And the culture. So who's up next, man? Like, let me run you down a list of players here. Just missed the cut. They were on the big list. We've got two rushers we talked about coming up. Jared Allen, Demarcus Ware, who are going to be on the list, Ronde Barber, Tony Bisselli, Lerle, Butler, Tori Holt guy I played with, Clay Matthews Jr. A lot of people think that's Clay Matthews the third, but that's Clay Matthews Jr. Sam Mills, Richard Seymour, Zach Thomas, Reggie Wayne. Who's one guy you think out of that list needs some pumping because people just don't get it? Two guys I would say would be Tony Bezelli falls in the category of Davis from Denver. and Dwight Stevenson, and like a Gail Sayers,

he was that dominant in a short span of time and totally debilitating injury to his shoulder and just couldn't play. Richard Seymour, and you played in New England, you understand the scheme and how restricting it can be, and it's a selfless scheme. It's not about numbers.

Richard Seymour to me is a Hall of Famer. I think Jared Allen, you and I both like Jared Allen a lot. He's a guy that I think belongs in the Hall of Fame. Really, when we're talking about Richard Seymour or Jared Allen in particular, it's not a question of if, it's a question of when, whether it's your two or you're three. And DeMarcus, where's headed there too? I mean, the only guy I've ever seen, I mean, well, Robert Mathis was great on the inside outspin, but just for the inside outspin, I have this burn in my brain.

A guy who can run the edge like him. Remember when he fake spin on Joe Staley? I'm like, you literally can't do that unless you're a Hall of Famer. Just to have the gall to do it and then to land it. I mean, DeMarcus where? He's an all-decade player. He went to nine Pro Bowls. Really a great player.

And how about Sam Mills, God rest of soul? That made me think about that statue outside. that building when I was a kid. Yeah. And when Kevin Green died recently. Yeah. I mean, they were too, because I was a big Panthers fan.

You brought me down there. Do you remember bringing me down there to do a piece? I was doing a, I was doing an interview and, you know, Kevin was really nice. Oh, he was so nice to me, man. And then he was so cool to me when I was, when I was a player and he was coaching with the Packers

and like walked up and spent time. And it was just like, that team was easy. to root for and Sam Mills was like the heartbeat defensively. Yep. And he was one of those players that because the Panthers weren't a big market team, he spent most of his career in New Orleans, right? And then he ends up in Carolina. It was like he was kind of an under the radar Hall of Fame type guy.

Yeah, I think, you know, you're kind of another guy that people will talk about and that kind of vein would be, you know, Zach Thomas. Zach Thomas. Yeah, for sure. Jack had a great career. I know Jimmy thinks the world of Jack and, you know, and Jimmy drafting out of the box, you know, he had a certain kind of guy who wanted an offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, and he wanted speed and he wanted toughness and smarts and leadership

and Zach had all those things. Last thing, man, what do you think when, like, when a new class gets inducted, what's your emotion now that you're a part of it and you've been a part of it? for a while but it probably never gets old. It's a long time. Yeah, but it's still crazy to me. I mean, like, it's just, it has to be such a cool honor and then year after year to welcome guys into the circle.

Yeah, it's having gone through it, it's, you know, because you're left there with, you can't do anything. You know, you're five years out. and you know you're eligible for the Hall of Fame and you know you can't go back and you know do anything over again you know you're you have to let your career speak for itself and it's it's a very difficult room there are writers and voters from all across the country and I'd say it's probably as challenging a thing to do because more often than not I look at all these guys and I say, golly, he's, you know, Steve Smith, next year, Andre Johnson, and Quam Bolden,

Vince Wolfer, you know, great players. And I think because in today's game, there are so many different media outlets that promote players. And we know them more. They're doing more interviews. Back in the day, it was you had your three networks and that's it. And ESPN was like working, they were working out of a garage in Bristol, you know, when he started out. There was no, there were no talk radio, nothing like that. So these guys are stars, you know, in part because of, you know, the period that they've played in, but also because they're great players. So every year, I don't think about it a lot.

I reflect on it when it pops up and, you know, they've whittled it down to 15 and, you know, I know what a stressful time that is and you're waiting on that phone call and to get the final phone call. And then really you don't really get it until you walk to the podium to give your induction speech. You know, then it just, it hits you, you know, like the humidity in Delis Airport. July. Yeah, I know. Actually, I know that one. And it was, it was really a stressful 15 minutes to, you know, try to thank all the people you want to thank and, you know, you miss some and you, you know, within a 15 minute speech and, you know, you're, you try to be as detailed as you possibly can be. But to look around that room and you're looking at, you know, when I first got there was, you know, Nitchke and, you know, Deacon Jones and, you know, all those guys who really

ran the room. Right. So many great players from the history of the game. The guys that really built the game, they're the foundation of our league. When I look down the list, it says Lombardi, Long, Lot. Yeah, that's pretty cool. There's a pretty cool spot in the alphabet to be, too. I looked at that last night and I said, you know, that's pretty cool. That is pretty damn cool, actually. Good for you. Good for you, buddy. Hey, keep up to good work.

You might get an Arby sweatsuit. You know, I'm going to try Arby's out. I had no idea. Yeah, you can hit. There's probably one right there near where you live because it's number two sandwich. Yeah, they make that hat you had on in my size? Definitely. That hat is made for you, dude.

That's a big old hat. It's a big old hat. It's a big old hat. Made for you, big boy. All right, buddy. I'll heart you later. Love you. Love you, man.