Green Light with Chris Long - Mike Mayock! Raiders Draft Stories & Maxx Crosby! NBA Playoffs, Green Light Voice Mails & Softball

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

(2:30) - NBA Playoffs (9:05) - Chris Long Foundation Golf Tournament & Macon no longer the Auction Host? (19:45) - Aaron Rodgers Press Conference & Potential NFL Draft Day Trades (26:34) - Green Light Voice Mails & Softball (35:00) - Mike Mayock on NFL Draft, Time with the Raiders, Courting Howie Long on his visit to Boston College & Cutting Will Compton With the NFL Draft coming up, we want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline on during Draft Weekend and give us your hottest takes, rate your teams pick's, favorite draft moments and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b   Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42   Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   Green Light with Chris Long:   Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, call 1-800 gambler. And at Michigan, 1-800-270-7-1-17. Tennessee, y'all too, 1-800-8-9. The Greenlight Podcast welcomes you. Thanks for jumping on today. We have a great NFL draft primer. It's Mike Mayock. He's going to run through some NFL draft stories from his time on TV and with the Raiders.

He's got a couple great Howie Long stories. Sheds a little lighter on the Raiders draft picks the last couple of years and tells a few Derek Carr, Max Crosby, Rich Besatius stories. Great interview, wonderful insight. But first you're going to hear from Chris. He's going to do a little NBA playoffery. cap and then it's chris and makin doing hello layup line all the favorites you all send in wonderful voicemails make sure to send in some more tonight during the NFL draft after your team makes a pick and you get fired up about it good or bad we want to hear from you we'll also be live streaming

the NFL draft so tune in both tonight Thursday and friday night with chris and macken we'll be hanging out talking and we have plenty of guests stopping by Stanford steve a couple other folks talk draft picks draft players and always having a little bit of fun giving away money via Cash app, so make sure you tune in and answer our tribute questions. Let's love. They call me free flowing now. All right, we've got a great show for you today. A friend of my, Mike Mayock, former GM of the Raiders, longtime NFL network, draft guru,

just a great guy. And I thought he had some really good moments in Vegas. They were obviously pixie missed on. I'm going to ask him about those things. but I think he got a little bit of a bad rap. I know for a fact he doesn't make all those picks. I mean, you know, coaching or being a GM with John Gruden is different than being a GM with the first year head coach.

I mean, I'm not absolving him of every pick, but I do think he had some really good moments in Vegas. You know, your Max Crosby's, Josh Jacobs, the Hunter Renfroes of the world. But things went the way they went, And now he's getting some downtime. Yeah, he's a hell of an interview, though. He's a great interview, man.

And you'll hear that in a couple minutes. The good thing was, since we had to interview him on Thursday morning, we got a little bit of an NBA update from last night. Exactly. That's the thing. Like, we recorded an open yesterday. You'll hear that in a minute with some softball and a bunch of other BS. But last night, okay, remember when Wilcompton said,

and he got hit over the head for it, rightfully so, that like college basketball sucks. Right. And it was for all these, I don't know, it was weird reasons. If you want to make that argument, if you want to, if you want to discredit March Madness

in college basketball, all you have to do is turn on TV the last week and a half in the NBA. Yeah. Like this is, this is why the NBA is better than college basketball. And stick around for another mention of Will Compton and the Mike Jackson.

Yes, exactly. And the NBA, like college basketball, to put it into, and many of you might agree, like you get drunk for a couple weeks and hang out with your buddies, a social event, it's a gambling event. Most of the teams, you don't know them. The quality of the play is like, eh.

And that was the argument Will could have made. It's like the quality of play is not great. When you watch these NBA guys, man, it's a month and a half of just, like, insanity. I could not believe I was sitting there watching Jimmy Butler catch a ball with less than a half, with a half second to go.

to tie the game, send an overtime. They're down 16 in the fourth quarter. Great play design. You got the runs like you got, you know, March Madness. You have the big shots. You have the shots are better. The defense is better. The athletes are better.

Not bad coaching, though. You still have bad coaching. Homeboy for the Bucks. Booneholt and Holzer, not using one of his two timeouts. And then the Hollow Man City on Grace and Allen. Fucking Duke guy. You got eight seconds ago. here I am thinking we're going to get like

Tyos Edney on steroids with Janus dribbling down the court with eight and a half seconds to go. But Grayson Allen doesn't know that. They stopped the ball. Great defense. Grace and Allen ends up but he was great defense. Stop the ball and ends up with the ball. This is something I would do. If you drop

me and just Euro step at the horn dude? Like what the fuck is that? And you went to Duke? Yeah. It's great to see Grayson Allen be not him though. But this is how disappointing Yeah, I agree. This is how disappointing a year it was for the bucks. And that's an all-time terrible eight-seed draw. I mean, like the heat, they turn it on. It's the argument about what we were talking about a while ago that the number one seed should get to choose when they play out of the play-in because they got by far a worse matchup than the Hawks, although the Hawks are still giving it to the self. Counter-argument here, that was fun. Yeah. You know? You love an eight beating a one. Like, I don't know many times this happened. I remember.

Mutumbo and the Nuggets, I think they upset one seed maybe. Believe Warriors in 2007, I believe. It's happened a couple times, but that was so fucking fun, and it wasn't just like a six game, seven game series where they let him hang around. Like, the heat kicked their ass. Like when they see Jimmy Butler, they see Jason with the hockey mask. Like, this guy won't go away. He might be the coolest player in the NBA.

He might have the most juice in the NBA right now. Yeah. If you had to redo the MVP discussion, like he'd be up there, right? Right. And that's the argument against the NBA regular season is that he's clearly been in second, third gear. And you're not seeing, yeah, you're not seeing the real value to a team is right now. Yeah. And so that was amazing.

And Grayson Allen being the hollow man was great. And coaching's been amplified in the two Eastern Conference series, like Boodenholzer got completely outcoached by Spolstra. and Tibido has been amazing. Like this is where Tibido is about. Is it time for Tibbado let it go up top? Yeah. Okay, so Tibbs, and I love him because I'm a Knicks fan, okay?

Like, yeah, I root for the Sixers and that's a weird thing, but I'm sorry, I played two years in Philly. It could be the conference final. I think it probably ends up being the conference final. I don't know. Jalen Brunson, you're the fucking man, dude. The Brunson Burner. That guy is a true star. He is.

When Julius Randall went out in that game, they definitely lost some steam and Cleveland picked it back up a little bit, but they won that series Fair and Square. Now they get to host a home game for game one. It's going to be awesome. Am I dreaming? It's awesome.

And you get Nick's Heat. So, you know, the ghosts of, yeah, Hardaway and Bimbo Coles. Was that his name? Bimbo Coles? I think so. Yeah. Fucking Zo and all those guys,

Mace, and just fucking all that fighting. who do you think is going to fight between the Knicks and the like Mitchell Robinson and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and fight? I hope we see a fight. I'd love to see a fight. I'd love to see a fight. Julius Randall and Jimmy Butler.

You know? Maybe uh, Cody Zeller and like, uh, I'd like to see Kevin Love and Isaiah Hartenstein. I want to see Zeller and and somebody. And good for Kevin Love like yeah. He's now starting again. after being completely benched in Cleveland.

It's funny because he's like our age. Yeah. And he runs like he's R age. And he kind of looks like me. So I'm kind of like, if they stretch me out and put me out on a basketball court, I kind of feel like minus the three point ability. That'd be what it would look like.

Yeah, NBA playoffs are awesome. They're great. Here's our open and enjoy Mike Mayock. Cowboy Reed, tell him about the golf tournament. Chris Long Foundation Golf Tournament, A bunch of celebs come down. It's Tuesday, May 9th. It was May 9th, yes.

Yep. And a big old party. Last year was great. I luckily got to play. Yeah. Our team did decent. But Birdwood golf course, 18 holes, shotgun start.

It took a little time with a benefiting a great cause. And Monday night... What is a shotgun start? What is the cause? The shotgun start. Start with the shotguns start. The shotgun start is So we have 22 teams, I think.

Everyone is designated a starting hole. Got it. Shotgun, Airhorn, goes off, everyone starts. Or is it because the golfers spray across the course? That's a good take. That could be it, too. That would be kind of the, you know, hipster take. Hipster take.

Hipster take. Wow. Okay, tell us about the cause. The cause. Chris Long Foundation, one of the best foundations in the world, benefiting the water, or helping to solve the water crisis in East Africa. Yeah. And in the United States.

Don't forget the educational. Unitiated. That's right. Maybe we need to help you. Yeah. Sheesh. What do you do when you have 22 groups and 18 holes? So you go to a par five.

One team usually either hits like right before the air horn or you've got two teams on the, on the next part part, the next hole. Oh. Because it would take, you know. Four? Yeah, pretty much. I think people would show up too. a golf tournament for any cause.

You know, that's a great cause you just mentioned. I want to learn more about it. But I do think people, and if I want to learn more about it, I go to Chris Long Foundation.org. That's right, or waterboys. Okay, dot org. You can also follow waterboys on

Instagram, Twitter, or at Joel 9-1. Go to waterboys.org and solve the world water crisis. So the golf tournament is going to be great. I don't golf. Last year I tried to dress up like golfer and I looked really fucking stupid and the worst thing is like that's the picture they're using on the invites this year. So now that I know that in a

calendar year, that picture is going to go out again in the form of an invite, I'm going to get a really nice outfit. Reed, do you want to pick my outfit? Do you want to? I can pick your outfit. We can go like the Payne Stewart track where you've got, you know, the three quarter knickers with the guy. No, I don't want to do that. No. Pitch me another golfer. All right. So how about 2008 Tiger Woods. You get the red Nike shirt up top, but really baggy pants down low. Or you can go like maybe a 2023 Justin Thomas, sorry, 22 Justin Thomas at the PGA on Sunday, bright pink pants. What about John Daly? We could do loudmouth clothing. Yeah. Can you find me some loud pants? I got it. That's not a problem. I got it. What? Chichi Rodriguez. Perfect.

Please pull up Chi Chi Rodriguez. There's a couple hats upstairs that already fit the mold. Yeah, you would love this. This is your vibe. already. Get a load of this. Oh yeah, look at that hat. Yeah. Yeah. Can I get a Chi-Chi Rodriguez fit?

Look at that. I think you'd also like Leetrovino wears trucker hats. He always wore trucker hats. Okay. A lot of options, Reed. A lot of options. Workshop me some options.

We'll send you stuff. And we should update that picture because I think it was taken at your son's tee ball game. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, there's that picture and then there's us going to shoot an invite picture at the tee ball game in the grass and the outfield.

But yeah, no, it's really exciting. This year, we got music. We had music last year. We're going to have music this year. Are you doing the auction again? So the auction, we are doing the auction this year. Now, Macon did the auction last year. Yeah, he was pretty funny.

I was the auctioneer. I was one of two. Yes. Yep. So this year I walked into a meeting and we were laying out the event and they said, and I am sorry that I forgot to mention this. Okay. that we found this killer auctioneer.

And they read me her long resume and showed me some video. And she's great, right? This is what she does for a living. They must have gone looking for her after you graciously bowed out, right? All right. Listen. All right. Listen to this.

Yeah. Are you saying I got fired? I'm not saying you got fired. Maybe just somebody who's actually an industry auctioneer was more with it. You know? Yeah, replaced. You've been replaced. Mutual parting of ways.

I got an email from Nancy, executive director of the Chris Long Foundation. In part, it reads, We promise we will let you off the hook for the auctioneering this year. Good spin. Wink face emoji. We were so lucky to have you do it last year, exclamation points. Yes.

That's a way to talk to somebody, you know? That's good. Very diplomatic. That's good. So I was fired. That's fine. Do you remember how nervous I was last year? Yes, dude.

I want you to be able to enjoy the night. Very nervous. I didn't really know what we were doing how it was gonna go. I had one joke prepared. It landed. It was a banger. Yeah, Skechers. It was a Skechers joke.

I think you told it more times on this show the last three months. You got a drug joke that. Drugs, I did? I don't know. You definitely made fun of me for some drug use thing. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I would like to get the final tally from last year and then see how,

this professional stacks up. So you're going to root against a charity. Well, here's one of the dirty little secrets of auctioneering. When you try to get people to raise their hands and donate money, you got to like start by getting it going. So it was a very costly 30 minutes for me and my family. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Hey, do I see, do I see it out? Do I see $2,500? Yeah. Yeah. You? I'll join you, huh? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, because you got to go out there. Yeah. Yeah, you do assume some rest. Usually you plant people in the crowd to raise their hand. I've been that person before. I've been that person where actually nobody else bidded. And I ended up with a fucking like a house in Normandy for a weekend. Yeah.

So at the Boys and Girls Club, like, you know, because my mom and dad do stuff with the Boys and Girls Club, I was a card holder. Just get it going. Yeah, I got it going to the tune of like, you know, a year of like college tuition. and not maybe, I don't know what kids are paying these days. There's a lot of fucking money. And so I've got this house in Normandy for like eight people. If anybody wants to go get haunted by a bunch of fucking ghosts and olive drab all soaking wet.

This is in the future? You still have. There's like a beach there. You know, people are hanging out on the beach. No bad juju at all, you know. But I'm going to go eventually. I think the IOU still stands. that's funny

we got music uh jamy johnson is coming and we like jami johnson um dan timinsky who uh who's like more bluegrass but we love jammy johnson i'm super excited about both these guys

uh making the trip you know there's a lot of artists that the way this works to take you behind the curtain you sign with a group to help run the golf tournament we work with empire and empire and has a bunch of artists and they hit them up and they say like it's basically a map these guys wake up in the morning and they look at the tour schedule and they're like where do I want to play golf in between and I'm really happy that these guys want to play golf with us so um you can you can do a layup line james johnson makin by jamie johnson head it back to mackin middle of the georgia pines

got to keep these big wheels of roe land to that's Sweet little thing of mine, I gotta get back to Macon. It's a great song. I gotta get back to Macon. Love all night. I got to get back to Macon. Love all night. I got to get back to Macon.

Love all night. Look out Macon. Here I come. Hell yeah. You tell me. That's a good one. Yeah. I love covers that he did.

I love Set him up, Joe. He covered that. That's an old Vern song. and then four walls are Rayford which I think is Leonard Skinnered but I'll go layup line today I'll go because it got me jumping

before we started the pod Roots train Junior Mervin Yeah You have a hello? College Alaska Hello! Because why not, right? Yeah, because why not?

Cowboy made some assertion that we had never shouted out Alaska before. I think we've shouted out Alaska. Don't know about that. Juno's. something we don't read. Okay. I think we've spent enough time on hello.

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There's a call-in button. We invite call-ins all the time. You can talk directly to us, ask us questions, ask us our favorite music. We might even play some. There's also a live chat during the show. If you have a question about a topic we're talking about, fired off in the chat, we'll answer. We're going to be doing what we've been doing all fall every Thursday at 430 on AMP. check us out

Reed we got some voicemails today I know you're going to play a couple of those a little NFL news speculation well one you know did you know Rogers well number one he looks great in in green

I mean he already did I guess he was wearing the Jets polo at the news conference dude he looked he looked like the guy went on his darkness retreat and saw God and now he's like good he had like a near death experience or something thing. He looks like sedated, like good. He looks like a suburban dad. Like a back to school here. The haircut's great. I love the haircut. I feel like a parent

whose kid goes through like a phase and they're like disapproving of the phase like the Peeky Blinders haircut. Like he just he just looks so unhappy the last couple years. He looks like he's gotten some sleep. You got his haircut. Yeah, he got some son. He's wearing a polo. Brett Far. skinny who he's who Aaron Rogers is going to always be linked to wear a gray shirt in a white Jets hat in his inner inner hat no hat no gray shirt for Aaron Rogers he signed on world immunization week oh wow it's very interesting stay woke I know what's going on here also today is the day John Wilkes booth died read nice be careful walking around yeah and then

it's hug a friend day oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I'd be happy too. Okay. How'd that feel? I don't want to be, I don't want to be weird or anything. He got the upper hand. No. Like I think I actually needed that. You don't get a lot of hugs, do you? No. I've been carrying a lot of stress and that actually felt good. Good, good, good. Like I'm buzzing a little bit. Yeah, hug a friend, dude. That was useful. Yeah, good. We can do it at, we can do it before a mailbag to it. Yeah. I like that holiday. It's not commercialized. No, no. Also, Niners speculated to have been kicking the tires, which could mean anything on Lamar Jackson. I thought there was a league-wide mandate not to kick the tires on Lamar Jackson, but the Niners have kicked tires on Lamar Jackson. I get it.

Here's why I get it. Now, they don't have any capital draft-wise, but they have great players. That's what the Niners are known to have, like a really stacked roster. They have a ton of great players. that they could move. And you might say, hey, like, moving a ward, moving an armstead, moving an IUC because, like, Baltimore would want a wide receiver would be a heavy cost to pay. But, like, what has it yielded having all these great players the last couple years? If I'm the Niners, now I know this is probably just a smokescreen of some sort or a rumor.

But, yeah, that sounds good to me. Like, in that offense, hell yeah. You could throw fucking Brock Purdy and Reid was saying, yeah, throwing a quarterback. But, yeah, like, if I'm the, you know, if I'm the, Niners, I look up after five, six years. This window has been wide open. It's time to do everything you can with a known commodity to try to cash in on this window. And they have some good players under contract till like 25. The window is still open. I would consider it. Two first round picks from them isn't as damaging as it would be to some other teams because they'd be later in the first

out. No question. Last thing, Chase Young, fifth year option, not going to happen in Washington. I know he's been hurt. He got off this high. start. I think he's probably on the block. You know, you know, trade him and then have somebody else do his deal. So that should raise some antennas as well. Because I do think the guy's a good player. I don't think he's what people necessarily thought he was, but the injuries haven't helped. That was the report that he might be a draft day trade. That's right. DeAndre Hopkins also might be a Wednesday today or. Yeah, so keep an eye out your today. Yeah, yeah. The bills and the chiefs were possible landing spots for him.

Even, oh, I'd love to see him in Kansas City. Oh, he would kill it in either places. And Von Miller was, Von Miller was saying, that would put us over the top.

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see y'all too 1-800-8-89-9789 hey i just want to thank everybody for calling in feels good to hear your voices you know usually we're just talking at a wall so this kind of colors in the the listenership so far you guys are pretty creative people with good takes keep calling what's the number cowboy 202 991-0723 calling give us your best 30-second take, especially after the draft. We have draft tonight, Friday, this weekend. We're going to be live streaming, but we want to hear from you after your favorite team makes a selection.

Maybe your favorite college player gets picked to a place you don't want them to go to. Maybe your wife leaves you. Call us. True. Talk about anything and everything. Hey, yeah. Should we give a couple prompts? Yeah.

Is your wife leaving you? Call us. Give us your best. Your wife is leaving you story. The tales of betrayal. What are you doing in this situation? Be honest. Okay, Reed.

Hit us with the voicemails. This is from our friend in Lafayette, Louisiana. I got the green light, baby. I'm not drunk, but I've been drinking. Middle of light, of course. What do you mean? Lifelong package. fan. I love

Rogers as a person, but not as a player anymore. That's interesting. And the fact that he didn't retire and we got assets for him and he will out, he's only going to play one more his season, and he

changed his number to number eight. Which is exactly how many games the Jets will win next year. Oh, that's a hot take. Oh, that's a hot take. Poetic justice. Poetic.

Got them. Find me at the Jesse LaSalle show on YouTube. Oh, he's a YouTuber. Hello. Hello. Lafayette, Louisiana. Okay, good. Well, that's good.

It's a hot take. Eight games. I'll take the over on that. What is the Vegas win total for the Jets in the wake of this whole thing? Do you want to set it? Yeah, 12 and a half. 12. No, you know what?

They'll probably, yeah, they will go lower. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11. I think I saw 11.

Yeah. So I would take the over on 8 or 11. A guy, the raging Cajun. Yeah. Yeah. With the hot takes. Drinking but not drunk. And we like him.

10. 10. 10. Toughest division in football. I just think they're going to be good. Well, should we talk about softball before? Jesus Christ. Okay.

We're 500. Jesus. We're pretty freaking good. We're good. Last night was the first night that I was like, yeah, we're good. I think the other team knew it. Yeah. They had a pitcher with a crazy wind-up.

The guy was, it was like a, I don't even know how to describe it. His name is Aaron. We met him after the game. Is he cool? Yeah, he was a good dude. Just has an uncool wind-up. Yeah. What do you mean he came over?

Well, myself, Rob, and a gentleman from the other team, same were having over, or we're having a couple of sodas after the game. this gentleman Aaron wandered over and said hi because same and Aaron playing the same Monday night team. Ah, okay. Wow. Okay. A little interleague play. Yeah.

So, yeah, no, we were good. And, you know, JP hit two dongs. I mean, this guy is, should have had three. He's like Mark McGuire. I mean, if there's an MVP for the league, he should be on the watch. He should be on the watch list. I mean, he has the front runner. He's batting like 750 with eight home runs.

Dude, it's incredible. It's incredible. The facts hit another bomb I don't know where this came from Because the first game I was like He's not going to be a great hitter He wasn't a baseball player growing up It is a different sport

He is a fucking good hitter dude He think he should bet Yeah If you guys want to bat him fifth I'm fifth I had him at six and I moved him down And he gave me props and putting him at seven Because you're five

Yeah It goes raw And you just hit singles and double singles and doubles. It's perfect. Rob does the exact same and facts hit bombs. So yeah,

he ducks on the pond for... But I'm fine. I would gladly relinquish the coveted five spot for Nate. You're not worth it with nobody on base to hit a home run.

Are you trying to hit the ball on the ground? No, I have a baseball swing. Yeah, I asked JP. I was sitting in the dugout last night and I was like, so what... You were like, how do you... So how do you...

How would you say it is? How would you do that? You know? And he'd just laugh. We all laugh. laughed and then our boy Anthony struck out right as we all laughed. Struck out. Yeah, he struck out.

That's too bad. Yeah, well, it's not, it happens. Do you start with like a one-one count? Yes, okay. Umpire smoking a heater between innings. Was he looking or swinging? Twan was swinging. Yeah.

So it's tough because the umpires is she. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's tough. He foul tipped the first one and took a big cut and missed it. Wookie, wookie batted last night.

first swing did the same thing big old cut and missed it but then he put one right over his second base yeah listen we're we're firing on all cylinders we should be proud after that so how do you hit dingers you got to slow your swing down and you got to kind of you got to kind of hit the ball down and up like it's like a fucking

it's you got to chop at it and I'm just not a chopper you know I'm not chopping brocala you're getting on base you were like hey I had a left hand cigarette so don't show and that's the thing yeah And I told Tucker, I was like, hey man, you know, like, I just wanted to tell you this just in case I play good. But if I don't play good, don't share this, but I broke my rule because I've been pretty good about not getting high before the sun goes down, you know. But I was a little stressed out yesterday going to the ballpark and, you know, got. Now, here's the thing about smoking a left hand cigarette when you get to the ballpark.

It does not make you better in the field. I didn't do the scouting on this team. They hit the ball to second base a lot. A lot. Okay. So you had your work cut out. I made several plays, but there was one ball that I definitely made a business decision on. That fucking thing was I could hear it.

And so I tried to backhand it, went right through my glove. Then there's a pop fly. Lighting's bad. So they needed to drag the infield a little bit. But you had one, you scooped it and underhand tosses. Yeah. Yeah. Listen.

It was good. Yeah. Yeah. It was smart. Okay. Matt scored from second. Sprinting around second. Oh, that was great.

That was great. We had some good base, running. Yeah, he looked fast. I barely saw him. So, okay, let's go Mike Mayock. Presented by Miller Light. Yep, that's our Miller Light, Light draft segment. That's going to be like a fucking hour long.

The NFL draft's coming up. Have you all been keeping up with the potential prospects? Did the results of the combine change your mind? Who are you pulling for to join your team? Where will our top picks go? It's anybody's guess. And we've seen some wild selections over the years. But there's one selection that every football

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Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. All right, so special guests this morning is draft week. One of my favorite dudes, somebody I've known a long time, somebody who me and my pops have a rich history. together. Mike Mayock joins me. Mike, how you doing, man? You know what, Chris? I was thinking this morning about this podcast, and I was thinking of kind of the history of our families. Yeah.

Right? And, you know, me and your dad go back when he was my recruit at Boston College. And then we were teammates in the blue-gray game. And I'll never forget, it was the night before your draft. New York City, you had a big party at a restaurant. And you guys invited me and I brought my daughter, who was like a 20, 21 year old college student. And I didn't know you were going to have like the whole Virginia football team there.

Yeah, I brought some friends. And I walk here with my college age daughter. I'm like, oh, really? I felt like I walked my. daughter in the Lions then yeah don't worry none of those guys have game well one of them kept like I thought that between me and your dad yeah we would kind of intimidate everybody yeah uh-huh and your dad was I mean your dad was great yeah a couple guys were coming up to the table and your dad was pushing them away and this one dude kept coming back I wonder who was and then he

kind of got my daughter away when Howie and I were talking about something else and he invites her on the bus. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Was he a skill guy or a big guy? He was cocky. He was a skill guy. He was probably a skill guy.

I think I know who it is, but I don't want to docks anybody. And my daughter's like, Dad, you know, they just, they seem like really nice guys. Can I go on the bus? And I was like, hell no. I was, you shit? I was kicked off that bus too that night. I was telling, I told this story of somebody. recently dad called me at like you know one in the morning it was like time for you to go home

he's like you know you're about to make more money than you know what to do with in about 12 hours or whatever it was could you just get off the fucking bus and go home uh you know like don't mess this up uh so that that's a precarious night yeah that that bus was on a trip to nowhere good So we're good. And my daughter didn't need to be on it. And at a certain point, you didn't need that. I didn't need to be on it. Yeah.

So, so Mike, tell me, tell me what my dad was like when he was younger. Oh, man. I could tell you some stories. But my introduction to your dad was he was a 16-year-old high school senior. So think about that. Most of the high school seniors today are 18 or 19. Your dad was 16. I was a freshman at Boston College,

and was I 17 or 18, I guess I had just turned 18. And every weekend we got recruits, you know. And my roommate Danny Conway and I, we just kind of, I think you got 20 bucks for the recruit. You know, and we used to pull our 20 bucks, so we had 40 and a couple other guys in the dorm and buy as many beers as you could buy for that amount of money. And then the recruits would come rolling in.

And I had your dad. And we used to play these drinking games, Cardinal Puff and all these different games. And your dad was not a big drinker. Never has been a big drinker, no. Right. And here's this, like, great-looking Adonis. He was skinny. Like, you know, the perception you have now is Arnold Schwarzenegger, right?

He was skinny, but you could tell he was going to fill out the big. hands, the shoulders like this wide. He was going to fill out. And we loved him. And it's hard. You get so many recruits, it's hard to remember any of them, you know, but your dad was not a drinker and he tried to hang in and play a drinking game. And he ended up puking. And I'll never forget it. He looked around the table, and with the poise that he shows today on Fox, he looked around the table, he said, gentlemen, I'm going to have to puke. I'll be right back.

Eddie stood up, and he basically ran to the communal shower in our dorm, puked his duts out, came back in, and started to play the game again. And at that point, he became a cold hero. Okay, good. So, so this is, this is, because he had told me, listen, I didn't go to BC because they wanted me to be a guard, but maybe it was alcohol poisoning. After all. It could have been that. And the other story I heard, which maybe you can fill in with the family, it's kind of, I don't think, I don't know if they want them to play guard or not.

But, you know, you know where you're dead. Dad grew up, and it was in the midst of all the busing crisis for racism in Boston. And I think his grandma took him out in the burns his last year or two in high school, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, got him out of Charlestown. Yeah, and I think, and again, you got to confirm it with Pops, but part of what I remember is that, the family didn't want him in the Boston area for college because there was too much going on from Charlestown and all that kind of shit and I think initially he verbally agreed to go to BC but obviously

ended up at Villanova and I always understood it was because the family was trying to get him to a quote safe place yeah yeah yeah I think I think that definitely had something to do with it you know Charlestown was rough and you know him getting out of the city was like it was almost like an emergency with his family situation and with everything going on so yeah he could have been a bc eagle you guys could have been teammates but you've remained close to this day and i know when i texted him last night that you were coming on the show he was hyped uh and and he told me to prompt you for a couple stories but uh how you miss it are you missing things man like this is your first draft when we talked the other day you were like i was like i want you to come on you were like i'd love

to come on. I'm not really keeping up with the draft right now, so I'm not going to be able to be my normal Mike Mayock, you know, telling me who's got the bubble butts and who's got the ankle flexion. But like in general, are you missing the process of TV or being a GM and being in the war room this time of year? Yeah, you know, Chris, it's a great question. When I got fired, it was January after the 21 season. We had just lost to the Bengals and the playoffs. So we're a playoff team and I think me and Basatia

who to me it's criminal that he's not a head coach in the NFL. It's friggin' criminal. That's a different topic. But he and I were kind of excited. We're coming off at 10 and 7 season.

We had the ball on 9-yard line going in against the Bengals with four shots in 35 seconds to tie the game and getting overtime. Obviously, we didn't get it done. They went to the Super Bowl, and Rich and I get fired. So we were coming off a situation, Chris,

and you've been through good teams and bad teams, because I remember who drafted you. Yeah, I do, too. We inherited a four-win team, and we three years later were 10 in the playoffs. So I think Rich and I felt like we had a good young nucleus to build from, we were a playoff team and we felt like we were positioned

with Derek Carr and a veteran quarterback to kind of take the next step. So there was some energy and excitement around that team and that program and in that building. Guys like Max Crosby who, I think Max Crosby is one of the best people I've ever met my life.

So that's my headspace when I got fired. It was kind of fired up about where this thing could. could go. And then when I got fired, it was kind of like, wow, what's next? What was I? Sixty three years old. This is a job that takes no prisons. It's like seven days a week. It's 15 hours a day. You don't get a day off. Even when you do have a day off, you don't have a day off. I looked like shit. I felt like shit. I wasn't working out enough. And so what was hard for me and I'll tell you where

my wife was really good is she was just like, hey, we're out in Vegas, we've got a lease on a house. We're East Coast people. Here we are out in the West Coast. Let's take advantage of her before we go home. So we flew to Hawaii, right? We went to the Napa Valley. We did some shit

that I've never done that kind of just have some downtime and spend some time with my wife. That was kind of cool, Chris. You know, I'm not really used to that or good at that. And then when we came back to Philly,

a lot of my, you know, we're down the Jersey Shore, which is my favorite place in the world. What's the beach? What's the beach for Mike Mayock? Yeah, we're in Ocean City, New Jersey. Yep, I just wanted people to know. Yeah, that's the best beach town. It's a dry town.

But it's a dry town, but you can bring your own beer. It's a dry town because you can't buy alcohol in the town, but people bring so much liquor across the bridge, you could almost sink the island. Yeah, exactly. I love the place. I love the place, just for the record. Well, you married the Jersey girl, right?

And an Ocean City gal. So, yeah. So, I don't know. So, Chris, that's already too long an answer, but for the last year, I did some games for Westwood One radio, which I had a blast. I'm a coach's son. I think I'm always going to have to kind of be involved in football somehow. And it's probably not back in a building, but if I'm doing television or radio games

and I get a chance to be around it, watch film, more than anything, Chris, and I think you get it, more than anything, I miss the people. Yeah. The people in the friggin' building are the glue and what brings you back every morning. Yeah. So this time of year as a GM, when you wore that hat, what's today like? I mean, what's the thing about today that people don't realize? And I, for me, it was kind of like the Hayes and the barn.

You stack the board probably finalized the board last weekend. And you got your top coaches and scouts with you over the weekend, stacking the board, getting yourself where you want to be. And for me, yesterday and today was about trying to clear headspace. Right. And try and get a couple workouts in. Try and get a couple good night's sleep in. Because mentally, you've got to be on top of your game. Moving up, moving down.

You know, what are you doing on your draft board? and I think ironically what helped me a little bit with the draft board was my time at NFL network. Because you kind of had to wear the hat of all 32 GMs. And I did it for 18 years. And different GMs had different roadmaps to what they like to do. So I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what type player typically goes in certain spots. and which GMs are open to moving up and back and which aren't. So I had a lot of fun.

What I found, Chris, and I didn't know heading into it. I had a lot of fun draft weekend just because there's so much pressure. And you get a phone call or you make a phone call and you're on the clock. And that deal is going to get done or not get done in the next two minutes. It's the ultimate poker game. right it's it's it's it's it's it's a charge and if you're a personnel guy not a coach if you're on the personnel side draft weekend is kind of your super bowl and you know i've taken a lot of heat about some of the first round picks and that's cool i i get it but i love draft weekend

every yeah how much i mean you you definitely had some really good picks and then you know obviously every gm has ones that they're like yeah i want that one back what's the what's the what's the division of labor with you and say John when he was there as far as making certain picks? Like, you know, do you guys split it? Do you guys negotiate? Is there like, you know, a Trump card that John can put down because he's the head coach and just the nature of how he was? Or how does that work? Well, every team's different. Yeah.

And the dynamic in the building is different. Most teams, the GM will have, quote, final set. And the main reason for that, Chris, is a head coach, most head coaches can't see past Sunday. And I'm talking about next Sunday, right? I mean, they have to win. It's not, they have to win now where they get fired. And justifiably, that's their attitude. That's what it should be.

I want a friggin' win now. GM's job is a little bit more of a big picture situation, especially when you filter in salary cap and the best use of your money. Every team's owner has a different cash position in the world, and that affects how you manage your cap. And like to give you an example, one of the things John and I fought on the most is, that we had a certain way we had to handle our salary cap because Mark Davis, prior to getting to Vegas, didn't have a whole lot of ready available cash. Right. So if you're the Rams, you know, and you want to go out and trade draft picks and go get a bunch of free agents,

the way you can do that to oversimplify is you can give a guy, you know, you can give Chris Long $30 million. was guaranteed. Oh, that would have been a pay cut for you. Yeah, yeah. I didn't want to hear that. When I was young. Yeah, I remember those days. But my point is, you can make the $30 million and spread it out over five years if you call it a signing bonus.

So it only hits your cap, six million a year. We couldn't do that. We didn't have signing bonus money like that. So we had to do our guarantee dollars in the money. dollars in the beef the how should it our guaranteed money was in the

annual contract for the player not bonus and because of that we couldn't go out and spend and pro rate like other T and John used to go crazy like the Rams would pick up a player or somebody how the fuck could they do that

weekend like he would go friggin nuts and it was every week of every And I'd be like, John, you know, that's what it is. It's a different structure. And to his credit, you know, he just wanted good players like every other head coach. So, you know, the dynamic with John and I, I mean, most buildings, it's GM has last say. Our building was John had last say.

And that's okay. We butted heads, which I think is healthy. You know, I think it's a good dynamic when you're arguing for the betterment of your team. But at the end of the day, it's, you know, I could lose some of those battles. Yeah, you know, looking back at some of the players that you draft, I mean, like, you know, Max Crosby, especially where you got him, incredible Hunter Renfro, Josh Jacobs, guys like that. I know Leatherwood was probably more of a Gruden guy, you know, but I think there's an interesting question I wanted to ask you is, because I don't hear GMs do it a lot, is like, hey, listen, when you miss on a guy, it happens.

it's fucking hard it's like you know look at everybody's mock draft every year if you think you can do it uh try that on for size but like you know a feral or something when you look back at that and i don't want to necessarily single him out but i'm it do you know pretty quickly that you're like damn you know what he's not the player i was hoping he was like at what point in camp because you know as players we can tell kind of quickly um you know we we see the ceiling we see some of the deficiencies maybe some of the incompatibilities that it would have been hard to project coming from college to the pros.

How quickly do you know that? And then when you go back and look at the process, are you able to pinpoint where you may be were a little bit off? Yeah. I mean, a couple days after I get fired, I talked to Bill Pollian, who's a Hall of Fame GM,

and he got fired in his career. Everybody gets fired in football. Pretty much. I just wanted to ask him some advice how to deal with him. And I filled up a notebook with his advice. And one of the things he said is you need to take a step back and write down everything you did for three years. Everything you did well, everything you did poorly, and you need to learn from that. And you've got to be honest with yourself, which is kind of where you're coming from here.

The whole Clee thing, Clee was my guy. The coaching staff really wanted a defensive lineman. We were picking number four that year in 2019. And I knew the first three picks. We're going to be Kyler Murray won, Bosa 2 to San Francisco, and Quinn and Williams three to the Jets. And then four, Chris, I'm telling you, the morning of the first round I called John Lynch

and tried to move up to two. Yeah, that would have made it a lot easier. Well, I mean, Bosa, it's funny because you probably saw Steve Kime. Yeah. The other day was on a show and was talking about Bosa being chirping in the building. Bosa was great. We all loved him. And he told me a variation of what he told Kime. He was leaving our building after the 30 visit. And I said, Nick, we're picking four. I don't, you're not going to be there. He said, well, then you need to move the fuck up, don't you? I like that.

And I love him. He was a little bit chirpy and a little bit cocky and but in a good way, you know, and we did. We tried to move up to two and didn't get them. We tried to move up to three to get Quinn and Williams, and Jets said no. I tried to trade down. You know, people, fans always say, well, just move down. Well, you know, you need a friggin partner. Yeah.

And so we tried to trade down with everybody. And nobody wanted to come up to four. And I kind of told John the day before the draft, that was what was going to happen. We're going to be sitting at four, not being able to move. Here was my take on Clee, Chris, and obviously I was wrong. I was hoping, I think I told you this once, but I'm not sure. I was hoping that Clee Farrow could become Chris Lowe. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, you did mention that, yeah. I even, after his first or second year, I even put together a, Chris Long clip, I went back in the tape and I found you your first two years. And I want to say your first two years, you probably had a total of seven, eight, nine, seven. Yeah, it was like nine or ten. Yeah. Okay.

Clee had, I think, four and a half the first year and two the second year. And I put a Chris Long reel together. And I brought Clee in my office. And I was just like, Clay, you know, this was my comp for you. And I want you to see a couple things here. I want you to see number one that this is a guy that didn't come in the league and have 14 sacks year one. Yeah. You had like four year one.

Okay, you had four year one. Okay. I think Chris's third year, you had eight or nine. And then you popped. Like your fourth and fifth year, you were double digits. Yep. So my point to Clay was, here's a guy that outwork people, his hand use was off the charts. Every year, you could see a different guy on tape, which is a testament to you.

Okay. And what I was trying to show Clay, because I think he was getting frustrated with the weight of being the number four. It's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah. Right? So I wanted him to see that there was a clear path to 70 or 80 sacks, two Super Bowls, Pro Bowl. I wanted him to see, even though he was the fourth overall pick, here's the second overall pick,

who didn't jump out of the gate killing it as far as numbers, yeah, which is ultimately what the people at home are going to weigh you on. Right. And I think he was feeling that shit heavy. Yeah, no question. Really heavy. And so my message to him was luck. And he was a hard worker, tough kids, smart. My thought process on the way in, Chris, flawed as it is,

was that if we're, quote, if we're kind of stuck at four, and we won a defensive lineman, and we had looked real hard at Josh Allen, who we liked a lot, who's become a good player, good player for Jacksonville. The defensive tackle from Buffalo, Corsel, not Marcel, Oliver. Oliver. Yeah, a little quick guy.

Oliver. Yeah, I got my, Ed Oliver. Oliver, yeah. Yeah, they were the other two guys that were in the conversation. And I think they went seven and nine to Jacksonville and Buffalo. So they were kind of the three guys in the conversation. And I kind of said to John the night before, look, if we get stuck tomorrow, my gut tells me that Clay is the kind of kid, tough,

physical work ethic that we want to show who our type of guy is. If we're going to make any mistakes, let's make it with culture. Yeah. Okay. And let's hit a solid double and not worry about a whole one. And we're going to take a ton of shit because you probably could have gotten him at 24 instead of four. Okay. But let's understand that going in and let's agree that he's our kind of guy and we're going to build him.

and obviously you know i love clee and i'll defend clee the person until i die um but obviously to this point in his career he hasn't been that guy yeah well it's it's a hard thing i mean like um so much so many little physical uh evaluations that you know seem like uh these are little things but then when you get up to the next level whether it's like arm length or like a little bit of ankle flexion or a little bit of hip mobility or leverage, like it just doesn't project the same. And I think defensive ends one of the toughest positions. Pass rush is a really tough position to, and then you have the issue like this year. I know you're not paying attention, but the kid from Texas Tech is like this avatar of a guy, right?

He's got all this ability. And then you've got Anderson at Bama, who's more polished. And you kind of have to make that decision. do you take the upside or you take the quote unquote safe pick and um that's a tough deal i and then you know that that that that year in the draft what probably made it even harder for clee was that was max crosbie's year wasn't it you know chrisons it's interesting because had clee played like max everybody's happy and max played max played like yeah that you basically got your your guy if you pick Max Crosby at four, everybody's like great pick, you know, and if you pick Clee in the fourth

round, you know, so you ended up netting out with the, with the top five pick in a fourth rounder, you know? It's, it's kind of, I sit back and kind of giggle because we had five pro bowlers come out of that draft, the 2019 draft. People are killing us because of the first round picks, and I get it, right? But if Josh Jacobs, if you had to. Josh and and Clee played like Max. People would be going on. What a great thing. They got Hunter Redfro and A.J.

Cole's a pro bowl punter and, you know, anyway. No, but Max. I mean, Max is one of my favorites. And I always saw Jared Allen because of his length and the way he can kind of post people and get, you know, three quarter horizontal and just, you know, the hand activity, the whole thing. Like, do you beam with pride watching that guy? And do you see Jared or what makes him so good and what did you see in your evaluation that made you take him? Yeah.

You know, we were at Max's wedding about three weeks ago, a month ago. And we had a blast. And I danced my ass. What I heard? I heard you did some dancing. I went off. I was having some fun. Are you a solo dancer?

Or do you clear the dance floor for yourself or do you play well with others? my era you know you used to have a line you know from that old the old dance show and they would play some kind of funk and you had to go down the line by yourself like that that's my that's where I thrive I kill it there just kill it so you're not going to have to do dance solo dancers all right so you're at max's wedding you got a couple pops in you you're dancing we had a blast there and it's just I know it's a bad look for like a 64 year old one. No, it's not. I get that. Everybody loves it. So Max, to me, is one of the most special people I've ever met to the point where that's why I reached out to your dad when Max was a rookie.

And I wanted Max and Howie to start a conversation because I thought Max was so. damn special that hearing from a Hall of Fame guy that was a defensive lineman and could kind of I don't want to say mentor because that that you know that puts responsibilities on your dad but the point is they kind of connected and clint um and I think that if he can like he you know what is off the field stuff was even coming out of college we knew we had a there was a potential for a drinking problem we knew there was some stuff we were going to have to probably face and manage. And to Max's credit, he went to rehab.

I can say all this because he went public. Yeah, he's talking about it. Yeah. And I can't tell you how many times a guy walked in my office and closed the door. We just talked about life, you know, not football. He's got some incredible goals in his football life. I mean, he knows where he wants to go. And the shit he's,

does as far as a leader. I mean, that's his team. I mean, Mac, I remember his second or third year, you know, we're in Vegas, and you know how hot it is in Vegas. So you've got to practice at like 7.30 in the morning and training camp. You're off the field around 930 or 10 because it's 100 degrees. Yeah, you've got to get out. And we'd get done, and John will call everybody up and release everybody.

And Max would jog down to the end zone and start running gases. And you're going, holy, really? He's not saying a word to anybody. He's just jogging down the underfield, and he's running gassers. And then the next thing you know, Yonik and Gokwe's down there with him. You know, and then the whole defensive lines down there. And he hasn't said a word to anybody. And it's just leadership.

He's innately a leader. He doesn't care for your black, white, male, female. He just wants you all in. Right? And Chris, you had some of that. I used to watch you at practice with the Eagles. And you were a unifier. You brought people together.

And I thought that was, I loved watching you around your teammates. And Max is the same way. Yeah, I love the kid, man. The sky is the limit for him. And then, you know, Hunter Renfro is one of my favorite guys to watch outside. Because his footwork, it's just, I mean, as a pass rusher, there's some parallel between what they do and what we do sometimes. and I really appreciate the way this guy plays.

What was the process like in identifying him as a guy you wanted in the building? And what do you think makes him so good? John and I had some interesting conversations about Renfro. And to John's credit, when we got him into camp as a fifth round pick, and the way we got Hunter was we traded down two or three times in the fourth round. We picked up an extra couple picks, which included, I think it was a pick that we got us Foster Moreau in the fourth. And then the extra five allowed us to trade back up and get Hunter Renfro.

And the first day of training camp, his first man-to-man, you know, put your say, as a defensive end, you couldn't wait for your first one-on-one drill with a tackle, right? As a rookie, you had to win that, right? So Hunter gets into his first 101, first day of three. first day of training camp and our starting nickel, Lamarcus Joyner. Yeah, I play with him.

Seven years in the league. Lamarcus jumps in, right, as soon as he saw Hunter jumped up in the slot. He went and found him. Right? And Hunter couldn't get off the line of scrimmage. And John looks at me like, really?

Mm-hmm. Next day. Same shit. Every time Hunter got up for 101, Lamarcus jump. in his face and and shit. With a long ass arms. Shut up.

He got his hands on him and just kind of throw him down. And everybody's hooting and hollering. And John's looking at me like, what are we doing? Like really? Do we just waste a draft pick on a guy that can catch the ball but can't separate? I said, give him time, John.

This is a guy that's going to learn shit nuances that his capacity to learn and change his game based on the way he's being covered is was unbelievable to me at Clemson. So we get about a week in and I'm starting to panic a little bit too because he's getting his ass handed to him. And all of a sudden he gets out there against Lamarcus and shreds him. Just, just different kind of move, different kind of hand usage, shreds them.

So you know what happens. The whole group starts hooting at Lamarcus, giving him shit. and he's pissed off and he can't wait to get in and cover the next time. So the whole team is now watching the next one. And they're hooting and hollering and screaming.

And everybody's watching this way. And John and I are standing next to each other. Hunter shreds them again. Different move. Same result. And the place went nuts. And John kind of hits me and goes, maybe we got something.

Yeah, you had some. And, you know, and Hunter's the guy, Chris, that after every practice grabbed dirt car. And I think Hunter invented some red zone moves that everybody else is trying to replicate. You know, everybody had a little pivot. He did the fake pivot wheel. That was shit that he was just working on. And he's talking to the defensive backs. Like if I do this, what's your thought process?

What happens if I do this and then that? Yeah. And he scored several touchdowns in the 21 season running red zone man-to-man routes that just were shit he made up on the practice field with Derek Carr and worked on it every freaking day. He looks good doing it. You mentioned Derek. How do you feel about the handling of his situation there towards the end? I know he wasn't real happy with it.

He's in New Orleans now. Do you think he's going to have success there? And what was it like kind of being in the building with him? Yeah, that's a really intriguing question. So I thought John Bruden and our offense coordinator, Greg Olson, did an amazing job with Derrick Carr. And every year that I was there, the three years, I thought Derek got better and better and better,

which is a testament both to Derek and to the coaching staff. Because part of being a great coach is, number one, being a teacher, individually. Can I make Chris Long better? Number two is to be a great coach is what's the fit? Okay, how do I fit Chris into my defense or how do I fit Derek into my? Let's take advantage of what they do well, right? So I thought John and Oly did an amazing job. And by the end of the third year, by the end of the 21 season,

I felt like whether you like Darikar or not, he was a top 12 quarterback in the lake. And if you loved him, maybe he was 7, 8, 9, and if you hated him, maybe he was 11, 12, 13, whatever. But I thought that Dark Car was a top 12 quarterback. I took the phone calls for people trying to trade for Derek Car. And he was worth more than a first round draft. Anybody interesting try to trade for him that we don't know about? Well, you don't know about any of them because I don't talk.

He's the mafia. He's the mafia. Yeah, nice try. That's good. But I took the phone call so I knew what his value was at the end of the 21 season. Okay? So we get fired. going to 22.

And I have no idea what went on or didn't go on in that building. All I know is that he was no longer a consensus top 12 quarterback, and they benched. And then they moved on from him because they gave him a no trade clause. So, Dark kind of had the, at that point, he had the upper hand there. I thought Dark played it big time. And he played it the right way. and so the Raiders ended up with nothing and again

I'm not I'm not giving shit to the Raiders people and I'm not giving shit to dark because I wasn't in the building I can only tell you what I saw my three years in the building and I thought John and Oly did a great job they put him in a position to win

and I thought he got better every year yeah he was I think he was underappreciated in his tenure there I think a lot of people you know so polarizing sometimes a franchise quarterback what the fan base thinks of them especially if they're not like bonafide top five i thought quarterbacks don't grow on trees that guy's pretty good um and then the other guy uh that you've mentioned already in this pod and i think uh you had mentioned this separately was rich bassaccia who you loved and and i could tell and as a player

i thought you know if it ain't broke don't fix it but they always do uh with these interim head coaches because they got a big idea um you wanted to do you want to do you want to him back and that maybe factored into, you know, kind of the way things ended there? I think Richie, after Gruden got let go, I think Richie had 12 games left in the season and we went seven and five and we won the last four games. We were six and seven and we won four in a row, Chris, to get into the, and we were the number five seed in the AFC, okay? I thought he did an amazing job galvanizing.

team and he and I kind of believe in the same things. So there was unification between front office and coaching staff. But the beauty, and I think you will get this, when the players truly believe in a coach, it's freaking awesome. And the thing about Rich is it's genuine. Whether he was the special teams coach or the head coach, he could, motherfucker you for two and a half hours on the practice field. Like very few people can.

He looks like he can. Richie can get after your ass. Okay? After every practice, like I would go down to see him about something. Again, special teams coach or head coach. I'd run down because I had to talk to him about something. There would always be eight or ten guys players in his office. And they weren't talking about football.

They were talking about their girlfriends. their wives, you know, how to be a better man, a better parent, husband, all the women around. I love my wife.

I mean, there aren't that many guys. And I'm sure there were some in your lifetime that could influence you and whose opinions you respected and trusted, right? These guys went to the wall for that motherfucker. They went to the wall for rich. And they believe,

did them. And to me, GM had on, personal feelings aside, I felt like he should have been the head coach. I felt like he had a 12-week tryout under the most duress anybody could ever have coming in and stepping in like he had to. And I thought he showed us who he was.

I thought the players bought in, and I thought that he should have been the next coach of the Raiders. And to take it a step further, the fact that he's not a head coach, where in the NFL after what he's done. And there's a whole thing about special teams coaches. You know, they're not, owners don't want to hire special teams.

Yeah, it's weird. Even though they touch every corner of the locker room, like they're used to coaching every man on the roster, which is a real positive to me. You get it. You've been in the locker room a lot of years. And, you know, Richie's coaching offensive players, defensive players.

The other thing people don't understand is special teams coaches are typically great situational coaches. Right. Because everything pivotes around the kick game. What are we doing on fourth down? Are we kicking a field goal? Are we punting? Are we going forward?

If we don't. So Richie was tremendous, I thought, in situational football. Yeah. And we practiced it hard and he got after it. So I have, I'm frustrated for Rich Passaccia that here's a guy that's 60 or 61, whatever, who's more than owned, earned the opportunity and hasn't gotten it. So take me through this before I want to ask you a couple draft questions about, you know, just the processes. But like take me through this with Rich and that experience at the end of that Chargers game.

Where are you watching that game? You're up in the box, whatever. And with the game and the balance, you don't know what the hell is going on. Who's playing for a tie? who's playing for a win. How did that unfold in real time for you? You got to understand, like, outside of plane, which is the best. The next best is to be in the building as part of a team.

And every freaking game, I'm a little bit of a control freak. You can ask my wife, you can ask my kids. Sitting up in a box is hard for me. because I can't control anything. And I will sit there, I'm taking notes for three hours because I can't do anything about it. But you're so nervous

that you basically puke in your mouth about 10 times a game. Yeah. Yeah. You do. Right? I mean, and that's the beauty of it is you can't replicate that selling commercial real estate, which I did for 18 years.

I heard that. I didn't even know that. Right? So that, charger game, I've never felt anything like that in my friggin' life. So if we tie or win, we're in. Right? But different ramifications as to who we would play.

If we tied, I think we're going to Kansas City. If we win, we're probably going to Cincinnati. Right? So in the back of my mind is, number one, obviously, I just want to be in. Number two, I'd rather go to Cincinnati. Yeah. Because that was the whole, was that the year that y'all stopped on, I blame it on Will Compton, when y'all stomped on the fucking logo there?

I know was it Will. I think it was unique. But was that the year that y'all stopped on the logo at Arrowhead? That was really. Oh, it was after. Okay, it was the year after, I think. Well, either way, I'm not trying to go to Arrowhead after that whole thing. The year before, we did a lap around Arrowhead after we beat the,

in Arrowhead. We did a lap in the buses. Yeah, and the buses. Beeping the horn. And I'm like, oh, really? Yeah, you, you, you, you, you, cooler heads here. They didn't. I'm, I'm going, really? How does that directive get put, like,

is it John being like, hey, bus drivers, take them for a lap? Like, is that what it is? Because he's the guy who can control the fleet of Quicks buses. Yeah, John's sitting right up there in that Percy, don't take a laugh. It's not you.

And you got to love John Ford because if John's going to, John's going to do it, he's going to do it loud. He wasn't sneaking around the stadium. The hogging the horns. It was telling the guy to beep the horn and screaming and yelling. So we left there making noise. And I'm sitting there going, this is really going to come back. Oh, shit, they're in our division. I forgot.

God. So that's pretty funny. I forgot about that. Will Compton is another funny story just because... Tell me a Will Coffin. I had to cut Will like three times in two weeks. Was he cool about it each time? He was so awesome.

And he and Basatia love him. each other and like the we're getting ready to play Cincinnati in the playoff game I think it was and I had to cut him again I needed a spot right I'm not laughing he comes into my office he's like really we're going to do this again and he's like and I'm I'm trying to tell him why in my heart I've been cut so many times my heart goes out to him and I'm trying to I'm bleeding telling him why and he's like Mike you know I was just like if we beat the Bengals

I think we're going to play in Nashville next week you know my hometown that's what I really want to go back and play and I'm like oh shit oh well oh that's so funny yeah it's true he was he was

he was he was pushing for a hometown deal that's good no I don't blame him shit I am so he's a hustling I apologize to 100 times no well will's the man

well's the man but uh but the tie thing you guys were like looking at Kansas City and uh Sinci right well

so anyway that that was the year before yeah I'm sorry the 21 thing the tie yeah so I'm up in the booth shit myself

yeah and we're we should win this game going away we're up by about three touchdowns. I remember. I remember.

And Justin Herbert just starts to go off. They converted, I want to say, a fourth and 21, and they throw a 23-yard touchdown. Like,

how do you let that happen? I'm going nuts. To Richie and the player, so everything's going the Chargers way. Yeah. You know, and to their credit,

Richie and the players, we could have played for a tie, right? And I think we had a third in, I want to say, seven or eight. Yeah. And right around midfield somewhere. And that was the point where they called a timeout, I think, which I still don't understand. And gave us some extra time to think about how and what to do. But anyway, Josh Jacobs, who is a bad motherfucker,

Yeah, he's awesome. Ripped off about a 10 or 12-yard run. And now we're thinking 100% let's kick a field goal. We got Daniel Carlson, who's as good as there is in the game. And sure enough, Daniel Carlson was money, and we win the game. Pittsburgh's in, because I got Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert texted the after the game. Yeah, big thank you. I think Tomlin even sent us like a chocolate thing or something.

He didn't said you Black Air Force ones. Like he gave his whole team. No, but I did find out that his son's playing at Boston College, which I didn't know. Yeah. But anyway, so to Richie's credit and Greg Olson's credit and that staff's credit, they played for the win. And it knocked out a couple. You know, it got Pittsburgh in and it sent us to Cincinnati. Yeah, yeah, that was a wild game.

I wanted to ask you, I asked Steve, this recently. I said, was there a team or a GM that when they called you around the draft, you were like, hold on a minute. This can't be good for me because this guy's really good. Well, Howie Roseman's got the rep of needing or wanting to win every trade. Right. Now, I've gotten, I live in Philly. I know Howie pretty damn well. And I have a ton of respect. This is a guy that grew up not on the football side of the building, but more on the financial side. He's smart. He's smart as hell.

He's smart. I know he's way smarter than me. Like Chris Long's smarter than me. Howie Long's. They're all everybody's smarter than me. I got to outwork people to have half a chance. I know that. And then you look at Howie Roseman and he's brilliant.

And to how he's credit, I think he's, I think he's, I think he's, I think he's, he had a little chip on his shoulder where he had to win every deal to show he was a football guy. I think how he's grown into the role and he's really good. And, you know, right at my last year at the trading deadline, we went back and forth on a couple things with some eagle players. And he's really good. And you have to be careful. But I think he's at a point where, yeah, everybody wants to win a deal. But if he can get a deal that helps himself and maybe the other side's happy too, it's okay.

How's his bedside manner? Does he call and does he butter you up and, hey, how's your family? Or is he cut right to? And then how's Bill? Like, has Bill ever called you for a trade? And his Bill just, is it like five words and then off the phone? Well, I played for Bill. So I've known Bill since 1982 when I was a rookie with the Giants and he was the special teams coach.

really the reason I made the team was because he liked me. So we've been friends for a lot of years. So we could talk. But Bill's tough, man. Bill's Bill's tough. Bill's always looking for an edge. And over the years, he's gotten it and he's earned it. You know, I'm not going to lie to you.

If Bill, if you answer the phone and Bill wants to talk a trade, you want to talk about puking in your mouth. There were some of that, there were some of that for me too. I bet. Because this is like the all-time guy and guy I always looked up to and I'm like, holy shit. He wants to play one-on-one. He wants to play one-on-one. Yeah.

Yeah, that's scary. But the way Howie comes at you is how he's smart. He's always touching base like during training. Hey, man, how you doing, man? Listen, I just want to do a deal with you this year, man. I just want to do a deal with you. What are you going to do, man? Yeah, let's do a deal.

Like somehow we got to figure out a way to make a deal, man. And then we'll call back, you know, so that's in training. And all, GMs all talk prior to the 53-man cuts and stuff. Like, you're trying to get something for nothing. You know, you're going to cut a guy. You're trying to get a seventh round pick or something. So you're always talking. And then during the, hey, man, I'm just checking in.

How you doing, man? Yeah. You know, trade deadline coming up in a few weeks, man. You got it. You want to talk. You know, that's how we, and I love him. a different flavor for sure than bill that's so fucking funny i mean it's actually a pretty good impression i mean it's pretty damn good it's like you've been on the phone with them a bunch uh

i'm not good at i'm not good at that's pretty good though uh what do you think about the way the media gets involved here like you know you've been on the media side of things you've been a gm you know like c j stroud's going through right now where people are kind of like not to give you all the context. I know you're not paying that close attention, but, you know, there's some negative, yeah, you missed the Manning passing camp, there's questions about this. You see it every year, and I know that there's play behind the scenes with teams and certain media members. Do you think it's right that they should be able to do this? And then, you know, like, how does that usually go down? Yeah, I mean, the way it goes down is that the media, the information guys,

Shepter, Rappaport, there's a whole bunch of them now. Their stock and trade is the trade information. Hey, I heard this, what do you got? Right? And because as a GM, you have two choices. You can either play the game or not. And I knew the game inside out because of coming from the media, and I chose not to play.

And so I didn't use those guys to get information out. I barely even talk to those guys. A lot of GMs and head coaches, and I'm not saying it's wrong. As a matter of fact, it's probably smart to use somebody else to get a message out, right, especially with trades and guys moving up or down or whatever.

So, yeah, there's a lot of people that are putting information out there for their own vested interest. I texted Daniel Jeremiah yesterday, who I'm really good friends with. He worked for three NFL teams, and I think he's the best draft analyst out. He's terrific. Okay. I think he's terrific.

I agree. And I just texted him yesterday, good luck and whatever. And I was like, you know, get a workout in, blah, blah, blah. And I said, and listen, you know, just don't listen to anybody because they're all lying. Don't worry about chasing ghosts. It's too late. You've already done all the work. Everybody's lying.

Get a workout. Get a sleep. and just be fresh because everybody's bullshit in you right now anyway and and they are it's all it's all bullshit right now and uh you know cj strowell will probably end up going two or three anyway yeah i figure that's how it probably shakes out uh my last thing here you know that every year there's these combined questions that come out that they're like they're really asking these people this stuff uh there's one i need an answer to though when you guys are asking guys are asking guys guys if they're a dog or a cat.

Can we talk this out here, Mike? What are you looking for? Do you're looking for the dog or the cat and why? First of all, I never asked that. I think it's a fricking question. I thought it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I don't know, because there's an answer. I think there's a right answer.

Well, if I can go back to my 1981 draft when I went to the 10th, round. And if somebody asked me that when I was 21 or 22 years old, I probably would have just said, I'm a dog because I want to go after the people. I don't want to be a passive cat sitting in the corner. Well, I know, but that's a misconception about cats. They're aggressive as fuck. They also don't answer to anybody, which is scary for a coach and a GM if a guy says

he's a cat. But I feel like a cat guy, he's more of a, I don't know, a dog, a dog ultimately is following marching orders, you know, he's going. good soldier. Maybe it depends on the position. So are you telling me that you're a cat guy? I don't like cats, but I might be more of a cat than a dog. Sounds like you do. Yeah, well, I don't see. There we go. See, we're in the meeting. This is good.

Tell me this. Okay, tell me this. I've never got to, my wife hates cats. I've never gotten a GM to tell me this. But when I, when I visited the chiefs in Indianapolis, you know they had those train cars and those fucking hotel rooms down there and i remember going in the chiefs meeting and herm edwards was the coach and you know like in the back there was a bathroom and it was just a room and they had like a projector and i was going through all the stuff you know answering the questions watching film the whole time herm edwards is in the bathroom and this is your guy right herm he seems cool as shit but he's sitting in a chair just facing the wall like not me not the he's just He's kind of listening, but he's not in the meeting.

I don't know if it was to mind fuck me or what, or if he just didn't think I was going to be there at six. But like, what was he doing, do you think? Wait a minute. He was in the bathroom. He was in the bathroom. And the door was open. He's in khakis and a polo.

He's sitting in his fucking chair like he's in detention. And he's just kind of like looking off. You know, like he might look in the room every now and again. I've just never got a chance to ask him. I'm going to ask him one day. But do you think he was just like, yeah, he's not going to be here at six? Or was it just like to see how I would react to him, not paying attention to what I was saying? Is that a tactic you guys do?

I'm not smart enough to think up tactics. I'm going in a room. And I want to look you in your eye. I want to see how you respond to foot. some tape. I want to see if I challenge you about some shit that happened to you at UVA or, you know, but. So you didn't have a general litmus test question, you know, like, you know, dog or cat, something outside the box.

Was there, if you had one question you had to ask a kid to figure out what he was about, had nothing about to do with football. What are you asking him? I did. For the most part, Chris, you're in a time-constrained situation, unless it's a 30-vis. Yeah. where you spend the whole day, right? So if you're at the combine,

basically you got 15 minutes with the guy, you know, plus or my, depending on the situation. And if we had outstanding questions that needed to be answered from a scouting side. I'm not going to skip those for the... I would start it.

I would start the meeting with every guy. And sometimes I didn't have any questions. Sometimes I had two or three questions from background stuff that I wanted to answer. Like, this is what we heard. You got arrested. You did this.

you did that. I'll put them on the spot for behavior that we're aware of, and I want cleaned up, right? And then I'd give it to John and the coaches. Because we already knew the scouts already were 95% down the road. But at the combine, it's the first time the coaches are getting involved with players. So it was kind of like I wanted to clean up any shit that needed to be cleaned up or highlight something I wanted the coaches to hear.

And then I throw it to John and he took. over. I didn't, you know, everybody hears about all that shit. Again, I probably just wasn't smart enough to put you on the spot. Or goofy enough. There's just some goofy questions I was hearing every year. I'm glad you weren't asking them. So I'll leave you with this. This is the question that we

would ask you if you were interviewing to work at Greenlight. Mike Mayock is a very important question. We've debated it a lot over the years here. You know, lemon lime gatorade? What color is that gatorade? Yeah.

What color is a lemon lime gatorade, Mike? It's like urine yellow. Fuck. I don't know. He's off our board. It's green. It's green, Mike. It's green.

Not the original lemon lime gatorade that came out in 1970 something. All right. I got certain producers say yellow, certain to say green. We had this whole debate that it's still raging right now. But you know what? You failed that part of the interview. But the rest of the interview was great. I appreciate it.

you it's good to catch up with you man you look well and uh and hopefully we get a beer soon dude i would love that and and you need to say hi to all the long i will okay everybody you know how much i love your mom and dad and please make sure they know yeah i sure will see in ocean city buddy