Green Light with Chris Long - NFL New Coaching Hire Deep Dive. Staley/Chargers, Saleh/Jets, Campbell/Lions. Pink Floyd Mailbag Appearance.

Episode Date: January 27, 2021

(01:00) - Welcome and Birthdays. (06:39) - NFL's Rooney Rule. (40:51) - NFL New Coaching Hires. (45:25) - Brandon Staley and the Chargers. (1:15:28) - Robert Saleh and The New York Jets. (1:23:05) - Dan Campbell and The Lions. (1:43:33) - Mailbag. 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

Would you rather fight one bear size of Keem Hicks or 100 duck size of Keem Hicks? Ducks are terrifying. And geese and shit? This is a well-beaten path, but I could talk all day about how scary they are. I could talk all day about the Canadian goose that used to attack me in the parking lot in St. Louis. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is the Greenlight Pod. I'm your host Chris Long.

It is just me today. like I don't have anybody for you. I'm sorry. Some days you're like, I just, I don't, I don't know if I'm going to play well with others. I'd rather just take a day to myself. So it's a bit of a pod that is born out of,

hey listen, we've been talking about football nonstop for 24 weeks with the preseason. We've been talking about football a long time. So naturally, I wanted to talk about something completely different. I just run out of football stuff to talk about. So I landed on football hiring cycle. It's like nothing else.

I don't know, man. I just, I was going to do a big mailbag. Maybe I'll answer a question or two, but I thought I was going to get away from the NFL for a day and just kind of found myself watching three plus hours of, introductory press conferences. Dan Campbell, Robert Sala, and Brandon Staley.

I watched all three of those in their entireties. Yeah, I watched a lot of fucking coaches talking today. I feel like I was in the NFL again. And I enjoyed it for the first five minutes of each one, just like NFL meetings. Listen, I learned a lot about these coaches, though, today. I mean, it's, I watched the Dan Campbell

one actually last week. I think I watched it Saturday and spent some time finishing that one and the Brandon Staley and the solid one today. And that's, you know, two plus hours of listening coaches. So going to give you a rundown on what I picked up in those pressers again. Like, they got to go win on the field. They got to go make decisions, call plays, hire people. You know, That's the stuff that's going to win your game. So you win the press conference, big deal. But there's stuff you can learn about the coaches. And again, I'm going to say this later in the pod.

I don't think I know what I'm talking about, guessing at this stuff. I don't think y'all know what you're talking about, guessing at this stuff. I don't think anybody who's not, like, in the NFL really plugged in to all the situations knows how, you know, who the winners and losers are going to be coming out of a coaching cycle. it's it's an inexact science i'll hit that in a bit um listen i want to wish uh tory smith a happy

birthday how about that just felt like wishing him a happy birthday as me and macken talked about on the pot a couple weeks ago i don't know people's birthdays listen if you're if it flashes on face you know what i can't stand that's what i can't stand making legitimately he knows everybody's birthday like everybody a couple weeks i went down a little bit to seven people out of his family. He knew. I don't know anybody's birthday. If you're not my family,

I probably don't know your birthday. I love you. I'm all about making the most of our time together and being a good friend and calling to check in on you. But on your birthday, everybody's showing up. So if you don't get a text from me or a call for me, it just means like,

I just didn't want to clog the voicemail or, you know, I just figured like everybody else has got it today. I'm going to be there the days that everybody else isn't calling. I'm that type of friend. I'm not a birthday friend. You know what I mean? Did I just turn that negative into a positive or what?

I don't know anybody's birthday. I also fundamentally don't think birthdays are a big deal. Kill me. I don't. I think it's like literally the thing you did that took the least effort your entire life getting born. Okay, like call your mom, thank her, thank your dad, like, you know, throw a party. But you can't be offended because somebody wasn't like good job doing what every other person who was ever born did.

It's not a big birthday guy. But happy birthday, Tori Smith. Really? I hope you had a great day. It was yesterday as you're listening today. So you can't go do the thing where you wish him a happy birthday. You know, people crack me up with the birthday thing. They're like, I just can't believe you don't know birthdays.

I can't believe you don't keep track of that stuff. Like the only reason you know birthdays is because of Facebook. That's it. How many people's birthdays would you miss? I'm only impressed if you commit people's birthdays to memory. That is it. That's it. If you get a happy birthday for me, don't think you're special.

It's just that I was maybe bored. And I realized it was your birthday. or I wanted to text you at like 11.30 at night. Like I don't know. I love you whether or not I wish you a happy birthday. How about that? Can I wish people's birthdays in advance? That's what I'm gonna start doing.

That is what I'm gonna start doing. I'm gonna start on January 1st, just getting it all out of the way. Do the text at once. I wanted to wish you, I wanted to be the first wish you a happy birthday. I know your birthday's in July. I'm doing it in January.

That's what I'm going to do with those. All right, so as promised, let's get to the coaching conversation. All right, so there's been a lot of NFL hirings going on in the last two weeks. Sala, Campbell, Meyer,

Smith, Siriani, Staley, and possibly one more in Houston. whatever they decide to do down there. I said earlier it's like a bit what they're doing. It's like the longest bit. Well, it's not the longest bit in sports history. There's certainly franchises who have occupied their seat for decades,

but they're playing the fuck out of it. I mean, they're really going all in. GM hirings. We've had some GM hirings as well. Those spots are filling up. You know, and positions have been gone. You know, people have been intentional. The playoffs aren't even over,

and pretty much everything is, opportunity-wise, is gone by the wayside at the highest level. You had seven vacancies, one left. Brian Dable is a perfect example. Like Brian Dable, I mean, shoot, obviously Eric B. Enemy, who I'm going to talk about in a moment, but Brian Dable being one that, like, I know Sean McDermott wasn't allowing to,

or I heard Sean McDermott's, rule is generally like you go you go interview after the cycle so whether it's leslie fraser or it's brian dable you know the process is gone quick and maybe in some guys situations has passed them by seven vacancies only one has been filled by a candidate of color thus far and uh that is a big deal in a way and disappointing in a way. Number one, it's the one hiring of Robert Sala in New York, which I think is a great hire, and I'm going to get to that in a minute, is he's the first Muslim head coach in the NFL. It's pretty cool, man. I mean, this sport should be for everybody. and he just seems like a good dude.

It seems like it couldn't happen to a better dude and he's going to have his work cut out for him, but actually that's a pretty good situation with my man Joe Douglas up there. But that's a really cool thing. I'll talk about that in a bit, but at the end of day, we're talking about black coaches in the NFL, right?

I mean, we say minority coaches, we say coaches of color, like, you know, the road has been tough relative to representation on the field for black coaches in the NFL for forever, four forever ago. And it's got to get old. So I'm going to, you know, last year I did a,

probably a 90-minute pod on the Rooney rule. As a player, I didn't think about it as much. I wasn't aware of it early in my career. And I certainly observed more gradually the roadblocks there were for some of my favorite coaches who were black coaches in the NFL. I mean, some of them happened to be coaches that played. Some of them happened to be just, you know, lifetime coaches. But I did start to notice that there were impediments that existed for those guys

that didn't exist for my favorite white coaches. But after I retired, you know, last year in the news cycle, I was like, now this is my job. I have to talk about these things. Like, I'm, I'm kind of given a player's perspective. And I know the importance of being a former player in the media and being a white guy. Like, okay, you're up. Like, you got to talk about this stuff. You can't bear your head in the sand because you're afraid to talk about a tough subject.

When it's the story for two to three weeks last year. And again, this year, I mean, it's not. It's not been the story. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but if you pay close attention to the hiring process, this is a, this is a, an issue that's not gone unnoticed. And it shouldn't. So before I do a thing here in a bit where I did a novel concept, I watched the entire pressers that were all weighing in on having only seen 30 or 60 seconds

of each introductory, head coaching, press conferences. I've gotten through three of them really in detail. I'm going to talk about those today. Salah, Staley, and Campbell. But before I do that, just so I can kind of get this conversation out of the way because it's one that needs to we have. I'm going to talk about the shortcomings in the NFL hiring process briefly. And yes, we did it last year. I'm going to do it much more succinctly. But before I start talking about Dan Campbell and Robert Sala and Brandon Staley, like we got to address the elephant in the room and then we'll get to it. And I'll do this once so that, you know, because every day I could point out that there are inequities in the hiring process. You know, I've mentioned that in other

podcast this season, but to dedicate, you know, 10, 15 minutes to it. Let's do it. Um, again, if you, if you want to check out my pod last year, be my guess, but I'm a year smarter. So maybe try this one. First, uh, you know, I mentioned seven vacancies, one candidate of color thus far. And although it's a momentous occasion, first Muslim head coach, uh, no black coach is hired yet. And, you know, Eric B. Enemy, somebody that people throw the name around a lot as I'm following it. If he is truly part of the reason they're so successful in Kansas City, you'd think he'd be hired by now. And I do believe he contributes to their success in Kansas City. And you'd believe if an owner, like take the most racist owner in the NFL. Even if you're a

racist owner, you want to make money. Like, and when's your brand doing the best, when your team's winning? So you got this guy who's, we've been told, has a lot to do with what's going on in Kansas City. And nobody's hiring him. He's been in the hiring cycle for like the interview cycle for like three years now. You know, he's, he's probably taking interviews in the teens and it hasn't happened. So it's curious.

And if you are trying to make people aware of an issue like short. is in the hiring practice as minority coaches in the NFL. This seems like the easy example because it's simple on the surface. Everybody knows Kansas City. They're playing that game in a couple weeks there. He is the offensive coordinator, although we know who calls the plays. You know, and you've got counter examples of Doug, Frank Reich, Nagy, Obviously, Doug Peterson is what I'm talking about.

Matt Nagy is the other one. If Macon were here, he'd point out that we don't know how to pronounce his name. I say Nagy. So who cares if Eric's not involved in the passing game? Who cares if he doesn't call the plays? You know, we have a ton of other dudes who got jobs in the same situations from the same coaching tree. You know, like I just mentioned guys in two of the biggest markets that got jobs. Doug, Matt Nagy, and then Frank Reich, who was not calling the plays per se in Philly,

but he had a lot to do with our success. So when you lump Frank Reich in there with Matt and Aggie or Nick Siriani, who just got the job at like age 39 in Philly, who was not a coordinator, who was a coordinator, but not calling plays. I don't want to lump Frank Reich in there with those guys. but because Frank Frank had just so much to do with what we did that's a sidebar conversation but bottom line we're talking to Eric B. Enemy even if you're going to contend that he's not your guy

even if you don't like him in the interview process even if he's not involved in the past game all this stuff you you have to look around and say well that that's not stopping anybody else from getting hired and that I think that That's the issue. I mean, if you don't believe Eric's your guy, you're not buying what he's selling. Even if he's not secretly what he's made out to be, it doesn't discount the issue. And it's everywhere. I mean, look at who they're talking about hiring in Houston, where Eric's name has been floated a lot by, you know, Deshaun Watson bidding and then, or his desires. And then just the fact that there's no vacancies left. And people, People are trying to will him to get a job

because we've just been, it's been a couple years of this now. They're talking about hiring Josh McCown. Josh McCown was just on the field dude. Like Josh McCown is not a transcendent NFL quarterback, but that's not to say he can't be a great head coach. I think anybody that's played with him, anybody who's coached him probably,

anybody who knows Josh knows he is an outstanding human being, outstanding human being and a leader. I know a lot of hours. outstanding human beings and leaders. I mean, they're rare than you'd think, but I was lucky enough to play with a bunch of them in the NFL. I don't think they'd all automatically make great head coaches,

especially not right off the field. So, you know, I think that's the issue. This is a nuanced conversation about Eric and about Houston, but the entire conversation, while there is depth to it, it's pretty simple. Black coaches are not getting the same opportunities. And Josh McCown is the, status quo on steroids. And I love Josh. I feel like everybody has to qualify that.

Like, who says like, I love Josh, but maybe this is a little fast. Understood. He's the best. But if you're looking down in Houston, they're looking at pulling him off the field. And by the way, a player told me this three months ago, could have sheftered this shit. I hate saying that. Like, I could have, it could have woulda shoulda. But I couldn't believe it when I heard it. And then when it came out a couple days ago, I was like, you're kidding me um you know and and josh mccown's getting looked at uh urban mire got one of the best jobs uh despite his health staley being four years removed from d3 football it just if you're a black coach you're kind of like dude really what i got to do if i was in houston i wouldn't i wouldn't

hire bianne me uh either i would hire uh jim callwell you want to talk about a coach a black coach has been absolutely fucked i mean Detroit has been perpetually the laughing stock except when he was there. And he's been away from the game. I think when it comes to crisis management, I think when it comes to experience and being able to be that calming presence and because what you got down there is a crisis. You got a quarterback that wants out.

You got Jack Easterby overreaching. You have you've shipped away some of your best players. You have contracts that, are gonna weigh you down. It's a tough job. You've got no draft picks really this coming year. So that's another thing is like, if a black coach ends up with the Houston job,

I mean, golly, it's the worst one, save for Deshawn Watson, who can only do so much to make that job attractive. But yeah, I would look at Jim Caldwell personally there. The McVeigh thing is becoming, It's becoming a bit, you know. But until that well runs dry, like, you know, coaches that have coached under him

or that mold of coach, that tree, you'll see people go to it. And so some of these coaches who run programs that are being deemed trendy need to do everything in their powers to bring minority coaches up through the ranks so that they can be considered. And then start their own, you know, coaching trees and their own wells that people can go to.

But until that happens, you talk about like people get tired of the McVeigh-looking dudes, the Shanahan-looking dudes, the dudes that were all in Washington in some capacity at one point and probably looked like they never played it down in football in their lives, who should all be commended for how hard they've worked and how competent they are. But we've always said it's about giving black coaches the opportunity to do the same. The lowest entry point of the NFL coaching trees are blocked one way or another. And so when these coaches who do have that privilege that they've been promoted at a rapid rate, they should probably, and there's nothing wrong with being mindful about their hiring process.

They should bring guys along when it's appropriate and make a point to do that because that's one way you can improve this. So I mean, I talked last year about draft compensation for teams getting minority coordinators hired, which of course means you'd have to hire minority coordinators in the first place to then get them hired. But I don't think that does it. When I did the pot on the Rooney Rule, I had conversations with multiple black coaches and front office guys. There was an air of hopelessness there. And I cannot imagine what that's got to be like because coaching is fucking hard. Like you sacrifice your family life for coaching.

That's the one reason I could never get into coach. Sometimes I fantasize about how cool it would be to be like a position coach in the NFL because I love being in the room. Like some of the most fun I ever had was being an older player, even though it's sucked because people treat you old. But the guys in your room don't treat you that way.

They treat you like gold because they've seen what you've accomplished and they respect you for what you've done individually and playing 11, 12 years in a league. That's dinosaur territory now. And so I love being in a room with younger players and taking a guy under my wing. Gosh, that would be cool to be able to do that for a room full of 12 guys. It's super cool. And I do like football.

But I could never imagine being away from my family and being at the mercy of all these hiring cycles and being fired and moved around. Like, fuck that shit. So some of these guys, better men than me. Marcus Higgins, one of my best friends in the world. He's a coach. He's a great coach at the University of Virginia. He coaches his ass off and it's sunup to sundown, dude. And it's after sundown.

And I couldn't imagine doing that. And I also couldn't imagine taking orders from some of these guys above you. But that's what black coaches do their entire careers. And the payoff, there's not the upward mobility. What's the point? You know, I know some guys like to be position coaches their whole lives, but a lot of coaches want to be the head coach. A lot of front office guys want to be the GM. So it's got to be hopeless.

It's got to be tough. And it's easy for me to sound encouraged by good news, but I do, I do believe there's like some very slow progress. You know, we're having this conversation. Okay, that's good. And we are crawling. Hopefully one day we jog. nine defensive coordinators of color in the NFC right now as we sit today. And, you know, on January 26th, we've got nine of them, four of those received positions in 2021 cycle.

Rahim Morris, D'Emeco Ryan's, Aaron Glenn, Sean Desai, Joe Woods and Leslie Frazier remain coordinators in the AFC. So there's, there's an uptick. That's good. That's a coordinator position. We know that although unfortunately, defense is not in vogue right now and it was for a period, but now it's gone away. Like coincidentally, as black coaches

have filled up more defensive coordinator positions, all the rage now is the next offensive mega mine. But even on the offensive side of the football, on the offense side of the football, you have issues. Bienaimi and Marcus Brady are the OCs and the AFC and L.C. and Leftwich and Lynn are the OCs and the NFC. That's four. You know, it's just not enough.

And we've covered the impediments last fall on this side of the ball in particular. You know, where do you place coaches so that they can be promoted? You know, running back coaches have a hard time. Receiver coaches have a hard time. You know who gets promoted? Quarterbacks, offensive line coaches. Like those are the hot positions to coach if you want to be upwardly mobile. Well, there's not a lot of black quarterback coaches.

or black offensive line coaches. So either that's a coincidence, or we have a major problem at the entry point of the job ladder. And on the defense side of the ball, I just mentioned defense. Yeah, there's more DCs, but it's tough because linebacker coaches are mostly white. And linebacker coaches get promoted,

and you've got issues in college ranks the same way, where are you placing college coaches? I've heard of stories of incentivizing coaches, black coaches, to take in college, no bullshit, to take jobs that aren't going to have as much upward mobility. Like, you know, hey, take something on the front end, long game, whether you know it or not,

it's not the place to be. So yeah, I mean, like O-line coaches on the offensive side of the ball, linebacker coaches on the defensive, or on the defensive side of the ball, you know, quarterback coach, the offensive side of the ball. There's just, like, it's pretty simple

for a nuanced discussion, fill those slots with minority coaches and something, good's going to happen. It won't be fast enough, but something good's going to happen. Black coaches could watch the Super Bowl this year and see the likes of Todd Bowles and Byron Lefwich and Keith Armstrong and Eric B. Enemy and say, hey, it's possible. If we got a head coach that fills his staff with diversity, you know, in general, it's a good Super Bowl for diversity. We have, you know, two weeks before the Super Bowl, we had

a word that Washington has promoted or hired the first African-American female coach in NFL history. And we will have a female official officiating the Super Bowl for the first time. Okay, it's a game for everybody, right? There's been an uptick in the hiring of GM, you know, minority GMs. Two GMs of color to start the year. Now we're at five. and there were six vacancies. So do the math.

I mean, like, that part kind of under the radar has been pretty good. And, you know, like I hope personal friends of mine, like Ian Yates Cunningham, where I played college ball with and is now Eagles front office, I hope one day he gets a chance to be a GM. You know, like, talk about competent. Like, there are going to be some great young black GMs in front office guys who are going to have more opportunities if we keep the heat on this thing.

and continue to make progress. Washington hired the first black president last year. That's a good thing. I mean, and maybe you see Dan Campbell, who took a lot of heat for looking like zombie Tanya Harding or sounding like that in a press conference clip. You know, Lions Brass said

they'd follow the guidelines of the Rooney Rule, not just on the surface, but in practice. And you know, then you see prototypical white football guy up there at the podium, and you're like, oh, fuck. And what did this guy that we were making out to be a Neanderthal turn around and do? Hired Deuce Daly,

Aaron Glenn as a D.C., Anthony Lynn as an offensive coordinator. Now that's encouraging. I mean, like, I think that's great. And more white coaches need to do this when they get opportunities. I'm not saying, you hire the best candidate, but that's the point.

The shame of it is that we have to convince people, to hire the best candidates. And to somebody listening to me being like, oh, you're saying that's a good thing that he hired. You know, you just mentioned three well-known black coaches, all of whom, by the way, used to play, which is cool. So Dan Campbell's got, and Dan Campbell's included in that conversation. He played a decade, a bunch of player coaches in that room.

If things go right there, that's going to be a fun place to play. But, you know, you could roll your eyes and be like, oh, so now we, we have to hire, you know, two black coordinators every time we get a head coaching job filled. No, that's not true. You don't seem to be complaining about perpetually like hiring two white coordinators. I mean, it's, it all evens out at some point. And I'm pretty sure that Dan Campbell saw the value in these coaches and it had nothing to do with their ethnicities, but he just didn't give a fuck about, you know, the status quo.

It's like, yeah, people might look at me, like, people might look at me sideways because like, oh, you're hiring two black coordinators. Okay. Yeah, what's the big deal? They're the most competent guys for the job. And I think if you're looking at that situation, you might say, hey, that's encouraging. That was part of his thinking. Just being mindful as you enter in the process to look at who the best candidates are.

and black players make up almost 70% of league so i don't think anybody expects a number of white coaches to dwindle to 30% to dwindle to 30 at one point it was 30 white coaches sounded about right i mean any given year now um i don't think anybody expects that to be a 70 30 split to you know last year i did the pod and i was like it just doesn't square with me that there's 70% of the league is black and we just don't have any black coaches. And people were like, well, that's not how it's supposed to work. It's not, just because there's 70% of players are, I get that. We get it.

We're not trying to replace the numbers with the numbers. We're just saying that it shouldn't be so lopsided. So I think what everybody wants is just a hiring process is fair and based on competency, track record, respect, and not, as Darius Butler put it who's got a great podcast by the way shout out to Darius Butler former player

former Colt great follow on Twitter if you want to learn DB stuff which I'm still always learning back end stuff coverage he's really good to learn from but he was revealing that a lot of times the thinking in front offices when it comes to

and he heard this from you know a prominent member of a front office, a lot of times that hire comes down to who you'd want to have a beer with. Like who an owner would want to have a beer with? I didn't even think owners drank beer, really. It's just amazing to me that some of these black coaches

who work their entire lives for owners as players and as assistant coaches get passed over because they don't run in the same social circles of billionaires who mostly are white and old as fuck or because of inherent bias

or pipeline issues or because of just plain racism I'm not calling every owner that doesn't hire Eric B. enemy a racist. I'm not doing that. But there's a ton of issues here that have manifested in the lopsided representation in front offices and at the head coaching level.

There is a huge barrier for former players in general. Even if you took race out of the equation, older coaches might seem, you know, they might see younger players as a threat. I mean, we speak each other's language, right? Like players and former players, we've made the plays you're trying to make.

You know, I'm really appreciative of the coaches, especially black coaches who used to play, who refused to take no for an answer and are coaching their asses. off knowing that it's not just, you know, owners that might not be hiring them, but older coaches in the NFL might look at them as a threat. I'm not saying they all do, but there is definitely a force in, you know, on the second floor of a building that's like, eh, you don't always feel like the former players get the same reception when they get into coaching. So,

I mean, the billionaires, that's a really damning statement that Darius Butler shared, you know, who you'd want to have a beer with is how one dude put it who's in on these decisions. These billionaires, I don't know many of them, but I figure it's pretty hard to get them to do something they don't want to do. I mean, I've talked to them, you know, but I've never had a beer with, I don't think I've ever had a beer with a billionaire. there unless you count like a parade or something where there was an owner on another float but like i would i would venture to guess they they don't like to change much and they also don't like to they might try to do the opposite uh of what they're being told to to resist being controlled like so the more you tell them what to do i don't know that they're going to change much and

they live in the ultimate echo chamber so i'm not really holding my breath hoping that they get on board and start hiring black coaches. I think the compensation, as I mentioned earlier, sounds good. We talked about it last year when it came out, but who's going to let a coach go for a third round pick? This was the rule that came up. Like, if you get a coordinator hired,

a coordinator of color hired, you get a compensatory third round pick. Well, I didn't spend much time remember in that rule because I don't think we're going to be hearing about it being fruitful much. like you're either going to let your coach go or you're not and if you're like a clan member that third round pick isn't a race in the sting of watching a black coach on the other sideline that you got hired and also some you know black coaches were kind of like

this feels demeaning you really have to bribe people to hire us like that's the problem like you're when you say it out loud it's it's wild the Rooney rule has not been a success and I think you know, one of the best ways we can improve this stuff is whether you're a former player, like a Dan Campbell, who I mentioned earlier, or a young phenom, like a Brandon Staley, you know, bring a buddy, you know, be mindful, be intentional in the hiring process, like remove all plausible deniability that it's anything related to who's got the OCDC sign on the door and who calls the plays. Like put coaches in positions to call plays.

Empower coaches, man. I mean, empower black coaches. That doesn't mean you have to sacrifice winning, but when you have an opportunity, give guys opportunities at the lowest levels and bring them along. And I'm sure, you know,

younger coaches are more mindful of this than older coaches. So I think one of the most interesting things is that, you know, this has been an issue for eons in the NFL. Eons. Like black quarterbacks, you know, jumping to another topic for a second, just within my lifetime, stop going to Canada. You know what I mean?

War and moon and that sort of thing. And, you know, with coaching, it's something that we long ignored. But what's interesting to me is the thing that woke us up, like, or rattled us enough to talk about this. Was all these young paper boy looking white quarterbacks, these boy wonder types, they're not the ones that created this. The old NFL created this.

These young guys are taking a lot of shit for it. Like Kevin Stefanski, who, you know, looks young, looks like, you know, the kind of like, fringe paper boy. Fuck, he worked his ass off. He was in Minnesota as long as anybody. He was there longer than Zimmer.

I know that Shanahan, even with the nepotism factor, like his dad wouldn't let him get a coordinator job or something on his staff. He had to go earn it somewhere else. And Kyle Shanahan's worked his ass off. A lot of these guys, yes, they're putting in the work and they didn't create the problem, but it's their job now to act on the problem. So they inherited the problem. and I am hopeful that guys like, you know,

Brandon Staley who had to answer a question about it, as he should in his press conference. Or, you know, Dan Campbell, who is a former player, it's not going to surprise me that, you know, his idea of who to have a beer with, it kind of looks like whoever, dude, we're football players, bro. Like, I don't care what color you are. I don't care what religion you are.

I don't care where you come from. Like, I've been in a locker room for, for my entire life. These owners that don't spend a lot of time on the first floor, and if they did, they look kind of awkward doing it. They're in their bubbles.

Like, let's not wait for them. You know what I mean? So I think these young coaches who get shit on every time they get jobs because we're tired of it, they didn't create the problem. They have a chance to fix it.

and they should be thankful because they were allowed to enter the NFL and they went from there and a lot of them had a head start I hope they like coaches when they have a chance to hire thought about well how did I get my start who can I give a start?

You know that's from the outside looking in that's kind of the way I feel about it is you know you can wait on the owners all you want you can try to twist their arms but these these guys I mean, they don't, they kind of just do what they do, man. You see a lot of billionaires changing? Young coaches.

And they should be encouraged when they do it, even though, unfortunately, it should just be like fucking normal, hire the best dudes for the job. So we fix the pipeline as a league. Like that should be something we aim to do. And then the coaches who are evaluating that pipeline and creating that pipeline,

got to take the baton and run with it and undo all the shit that, you know, some of those older coaches did unknowingly or knowingly for a long time. Bruce Aaron's done a great job. Had him on the pod over the summer, asked him about it, had an interesting answer. Go back and check it out.

And I think people need to keep the heat on. I think that's really important because it keeps the ball in the air. like, you know, people's hiring practices are being evaluated and they should be. Until we get to a place, it's funny because people are like, when will we know if it's okay? I think we'll know when it's okay. I think we'll know. Like, I think maybe we don't like ask, are we there yet right now? We just put our heads down and try to try to keep the ball in the air, keep people talking about this and hold people accountable. But the, the,

people in positions have to make this right. It's not going to be like you just oh let me slap a Rooney rule on it like it's that fucking guy in the infomercials just slap the thing on the side of the leaking boat. Flex tape. Just slap some

the Rooney rules like some flex tape. You know like you could just get a new boat or something or like you know we're slapping flex tape on a big issue here. It's not to say you shouldn't slap the flex tape on the side of the leaking glass bottom boat

in the crisis situation, but the Rooney Rule has been around since the 90s, right? And it hasn't gotten the job done. So I think we just got to keep the pressure on. Before we get into the coaching conversation, though, I just want to say this. Like earlier, I did the coach, the coach little segment of this pod, a little peek behind the curtain here. Showbiz. Holy shit, dude, it's an emergency. I have a new favorite football team.

It's the Detroit Lions. I know you guys could feel it trending that way. I'm going to be so excited about these hires here. So excited in about 15, 20 minutes. So spoiler alert. I think they've done a good job there. Deuce. Former players, Anthony Lynn, Aaron Glenn,

a GM I know and Brad Holmes diverse staff they just did because wait I'm going to talk about this guy in a second now and just know that when I talk about the guy that I'm about to talk about I had no idea he just joined

the Lions as their special teams coach Dave Fipp my boy from Philly okay just I'm really psyched about this Detroit's gonna fuck around and be my side team I know I kind of said the Chargers were my side team,

but you need a cold weather side team and a warm weather side team. And it seems like I got a good thing going there. Jets are in play, you know? Play the field. You know, I play the field a little bit, guys. A couple side teams. So next few minutes, I'll go through three pressers that I saw through my eyes. And I'll do, you know, three or four next week.

I mentioned a few of these coaches but the ones that I've seen in no particular order Staley I've seen Sala and I've seen Campbell and I'm saying like I've watched three hours of their press conferences combined

which is not fun not fun it's like being in meetings again but like a meeting that you know you're not telling us everything at least a real meeting I'm like behind the scenes it was like being in a meeting. And let me just say this before I break each one down.

Firstly, oppressor does not guarantee anything. Winning, losing, you know, you can't win the press conference, lose the press conference, that's all well and good. We've had some coaches that have whiffed on the press conference and predictably things have played out poorly. Kitchens in Cleveland or Adam Gase's eye situation. Maybe he had a stigmatism. I don't even know what that is.

I have one. It says it on my contacts. Maybe he had two astigmatisms. I don't think that's what it was. But there's good coaches who have struggled. Like, good coaches have had bad press conferences. I don't have their names right now, but I know they have. Also, like, chicken or egg here, I think Bill Belichick would give the same bad press conferences with or, or,

without the winning. I think like if he stayed in Cleveland his whole life or New York and just became like a career 500 guy, which I don't think would have happened, I think he still would have given shitty press conferences. Like I don't think the press conferences matters as much as you guys think it does. And I think sometimes people miss on how to evaluate reading a coach as a person because that's kind of what we're doing. The plan sounds good. we can have great plans but when the bullets are flying and it's third and six

and you know the crowd's going nuts and you have people in your ear and you're looking over a play chart and you're trying to remember if you called this play before how many timeouts do I have like end a game

situations like try following that it's easy to fire off like a second a second guessing like hey you fucked up this coaching decision tweet it's really hard to do it in the moment that's why this is a tough job and that's why there's only so many good coaches and that sort of thing. But what I'll say is that's where it's won and lost. I mean, you can catch signs of it

looking at these pressers, but partially because we got two weeks of the Super Bowl, I just felt like watching these press conferences. And I will say, like I have information on all these guys from players. So, you know, I'm not guessing at the respect quotient that they have demanded within their respective locker rooms. I know that in the past. I think when it comes to Justin, number one, just observing and watching him from afar, I think you guys are probably all aware of the excitement about this guy

and what he earned in his first year. And I think that my vision for the offense really fit Justin and what he can do well and where we want to take it and how we want to play and feature in his style of play and not being able to impose a system on him is creating the system. for Justin, you know, and uniquely, um, shaping it to his skill set because he is unlike anybody in the NFL.

Number one. Brandon Staley, right? Talked about him. He was in, he was a D3 coach four years ago. He's got some fan geo to him. Um, he was just in L.A. I'll start with this. The press conference was, was entertaining after, before it got to be like 90 minutes long.

It was a long press conference. Tom, Tom Telesco was coughing the entire time. Somebody should check on him. I mean, I might be, and I hate coughing now. Like, when I cough on, on the pod, I'm like, God damn, dude. Like, nobody's going to believe me if I say I don't have COVID. And if I don't say anything, people are going to be like, you got COVID. And he kept trying to mute his Zoom.

And at one point, like, it took him five seconds to answer a question because he muted his Zoom because he was coughing. The worst was like Brandon Staley's talking and then there'd be a cough and it would switch back to Tom to Lesko and he's like fuck I don't have COVID the mood of the pressure was so different than New York I'm gonna say like I watched Sala I'll do Sala next the mood of that press conference was so just L.A also people's Zoom backgrounds were great you know one girl was sitting on the floor in a lawn chair which I really liked That was great. I mean, indoor lawn chair, I'm all about that.

Bring it back. And there's a reporter on there by the name of Joe Reed. I think it's funny because there's a real Joe Reed on the team. Wah-hoo-wah Joe Reed. It was like at one point in the press conference, the social media guy or the public relations guy who does those pressers in LA and just looks so LA. Like blazer, graphic T, cool haircut.

he was like and let's go to Joe Reed I was like oh the player nah turns out he's the next official beat writer of the Greenlight Pod I am I love everything this guy stands for

they flashed to Joe Reed fucking guy's got half his camera covered by like a sock I don't know what's going on but like his camera's completely obscured and he goes about asking the question and that can happen I thought Staley did a great job

pretty unflappable there. As soon as I posted a video of the Joe Reed thing with the camera, I get a text from somebody's like, is that Joe Reed? Like another NFL writer? And I go, yeah, it is. And he's like, dude, that guy's a legend. There was a Hennessy party at the Super Bowl and the guy

rolled up in a Valor jumpsuit. It's like, dude, I'm obsessed. Somebody sent me a clip then of him interviewing an offensive lineman. And, you know, Joe Reed asks a brilliant question. Oh, lineman before answering the question is like hey joe are you in a bed right now damien kind of

speaking about frustrating and same thing from last year how you're in a bed joe huh you're in a bed well yeah i'm sorry about that like the head boy man thanks yeah like he didn't know his camera's on he's laying in his brass bed he's laying down in his brass bed he's laying down in his brass bed asking questions. I got no issues with it. The player laughed his ass off. The players in LA must know that Joe Reed is a legend. Laying in a brass bed asking questions. The wild cards for Brandon Staley, number one, has a twin brother. Press conferences, tough day, multitasking. You want to do two things. Get that guy to the podium, right? There's a politician named Julian I heard a rumor that there was a rally and he was late and he had his brother go up there.

I don't know if that's total bullshit. I don't know if that's actual fake news. Also, another wild card, and this could be a positive, didn't even have time to move. Didn't even have to move. Guys probably living in the same exact house. So that's an NFL first. My read on him, okay? prepared, competent, you know, a type A guy, an intellectual guy.

I don't think he's naturally like the, of course, I don't see him in a, again, it's a press conference. I don't see him in the, I don't see him in the locker room, but I don't know that he has the gravitas to make you go, oh shit, like I'll run through a brick wall for this guy. But again, it's all about the execution. I'd follow fucking Matt LaFleur through a brick wall if he could win me a, championship. You know what I mean? Like Mike Tice, who, you know, I've never been in one of his meetings, but he's a large imposing man, may have seen it, may have done it, might have a deep voice, might have gravitas. He did enough to get hired back in the day in Minnesota. But that won't mean guys don't tune him out. So leadership is not just like the vibe I'm getting, but he's not like

Arthur Smith has got the same thing going where you're just like I'm judging this guy in his competency his ace is not like the card he plays is not going to be just braveheart leadership skills like William Wallace shit he's going to move guys by being competent can we win can you give us that chance to win

are you competent do you put me in a good position to make plays that's what separates the ex and those guys when it comes to leadership, if they want a chance to be leaders and command a room, they have to produce. And that comes in different forms,

leadership, he'll get his opportunity because I do think he's schematically pretty sound. Here were words that were used, authenticity, honesty, communication. Okay, again, just words, but authenticity, you say that word,

you can just smell it when a guy walks in to a meeting room. You know, like, is this guy legit? Is he a salesman? Is he full of shit? Is he trying too hard?

Like, these are all questions. There's two scary places, I would imagine. The two scariest places to walk into and, you know, pitch an idea or commander room

has to be, you know, if I talk at the boys and girls club or talk in an elementary school, most judgmental people in the world, like teenagers, okay? Terrify me. Terrify me.

I would think that like my version of talking to teenagers is like a first time head coach walking into a room of grown men who are like a bullshit filter. Legitimately, you cannot fool NFL players. You can fool them with a contract, with scheme, with that sort of thing. You can't get up in front of a room and manufacture gravitone. you just have it or you don't and that scent will be confirmed or denied

either way pretty quickly because the NFL is like a hot lamp right they put the pizzas under that's what the NFL is like and you know the second couple words there was honesty and communication you're gonna have to

you're gonna have to earn that even if you come across as a real guy you know like the NFL's like two neighborhoods downstairs upstairs upstairs When you're upstairs as a head coach, you have to manage everybody downstairs and upstairs. You have to fire people. You have to promote people.

You have to change lineups. You have to hurt people's feelings. And the best way to go through all those things is with communication and honesty. And it sounds simple, but I think people have a really hard time, myself included sometimes. And I do try to pride myself on like being direct to a fault, like to the point where I can be awkwardly direct.

There's a line to walk, you know, like, how do you communicate? How do you be honest, hurt somebody's feelings, but then are able to recover and build them back up? His feelings get hurt in the NFL. You know, are you going to be straight with guys when it's not the easiest thing to say? You know, are you going to communicate with guys?

Are you going to string guys along? Like if a guy's getting cut or a guy doesn't have a chance to be on the team, are you going to tell him you might not have a chance to make this team but you're auditioning for a lot of other teams I don't like your chances making this team you know like that type of thing

or hey you sign with us you're going to be like a player coach that's just how it is or you know you can expect to occupy this role and do you follow through on that and if you don't why you know um it's two neighborhoods

you got to manage them both And that's hard because coaches, your assistant coaches, they're all over the place too. They got feelings. They're some of the most sensitive people in the world. Coaches spend their whole fucking lives in the upstairs neighborhood talking about the downstairs neighborhood. And they'll send spies downstairs to find out what the downstairs neighborhood's talking about upstairs. We don't even make any fucking decisions. Talk about sensitive.

They'll come downstairs like, I heard you guys were talking about us. I'm like, your job is literally to talk about it. us. Like literally, you spend all day in a room with a laser pointer on me being like, guys getting old. He's such a piece of shit. He annoys me. Like, downstairs though, we can't even, like, no, we do. We talk about them all day long, but if they find out, they get upset. But you've got to manage all that stuff. I had a coach named Greg Williams. I talked about honesty earlier. I'll never forget him being honest with me. I've talked about this on the pod before.

You know, when I was getting benched, not benched because I was rotating in, but I lost my starting job that I've been occupying for a long time in St. Louis, and I was one of the guys and got hurt. William Hayes, was a great friend of mine. Shout out to William Hayes. I actually checked my Twitter. He just opened up a sensory-friendly gym

in High Point, North Carolina, which is just like he's such a mensch, dude. He's the second time I've used that word today. his son's autistic Q and um he opened a gym you know for kids like Q in that area because if you think about it if kids dealing with something like that you know your kid doesn't want to there's certain settings that uh can be tough and I just think that's really cool I want to shout him out but William Hayes took my position for two years I was gimping around and he deserved it I wasn't as good as him at 70% and whatnot um Greg Williams pulled me in the office and

I've asked a ton of coaches direct questions before. Greg's thing was always, if you don't want the answer, don't ask me the question. So if you ask Greg Williams a question, you better be ready for the answer. And he shot me straight. He's like, I can't put you out there. I can't have you in the starting lineup. It's unfair to the other guys. You're not yourself right now.

Look at you. Like, you're just, you're not healthy. I appreciate the toughness. I appreciate the, you know, wanting to be there for your teammates, but you're not healthy. And that shit hurt, but it was true. And players will sit there and they'll fucking, we'll stew and we'll make things up in our heads to justify why something's happening or why it's not happening.

The best thing you can do for a player is be honest and consistent. But the second part is the most important part because if you're only honest sometimes, then I don't have good reason to listen to you like the time you are honest, like the boy cried wolf. And so like when I went up in that office, I'd rather get that answer from Greg Williams then a nice answer that's a half-truth.

I want the truth. And Bill Belichick was honest with me. You know, when he called and talked to me in free agency, he told me, I don't know what your role is. We don't have a role. Like, you're not going to have a defined role. I'm going to find you a role because I know you're a football player and, like, there's going to be a spot for you.

What that is, I can't lie to you and tell you that yet. And he was fucking dead honest because the role changed all. year. But I appreciate it. You know, he told me the truth. And communication and teaching kind of go hand in hand too. I mean, you talked about communication earlier, teaching. You know, Brennan Staley is is regarded as a great teacher that came up in the presser, right? What does it mean to be a great teacher? And, you know, like it's hard for these guys to talk about themselves. But I'll tell you what that means is being a great teacher isn't just being able to tell guys how to run plays or or how to accomplish a technique,

it's also telling them why and not being afraid to answer like toddler questions. If I'm in your meeting room, even at 34 years old, you'd better expect that I'm gonna ask you toddler questions. Like I'm gonna ask you why. Why are we doing it like that? Why do we have to, why are we forcing here? Why are we using this technique?

And you can't get mad at players when ask you why because if you don't have the answer that means you don't know and i don't believe you then and another thing is like as a coach you can't be pissed when players ask you questions i've had position coaches that sometimes would be like not now i don't want to fucking answer your question like stop asking questions just do it mm-mm can't raise kids that way i mean you can you can pick your spots being like that you can't raise kids that way and you can't coach players like that not when it comes to technique and teaching. If you want a player to be better,

show him how and then show him why you're doing it that way. And when he talked about players, he was quoted as saying, not tied to personnel groups, collaborate with players. These are good things. These are good things. Okay, he's malleable.

He's going to be multiple in every way. He's going to collaborate with players. This was his best quote of one that stuck out to me, of the whole press conference. I learned a lot more from Khalil Mack than he learned from me. Leveling with players, right? That's another thing these young coaches got, man. They get it.

They're only 10 years older than some of the players they're coaching. They're living the same social lives as some of the players they're coaching. They appreciate them. They're collaborating with them. He named the good players he talked about, AD, Jalen, Chubb, Vaughn, Mac. I mean, he's coached some good players. Now he gets Joey Bosa, but a concern of mine would be, all these great players

Aaron Donald at 70% in the first round of the playoffs this year defense didn't look the same of course that's a quick adjustment to make they're playing number one offense question is like we're going to find out did you know obviously

Brandon Staley didn't make these these players but did the players make Brandon Staley I mean the players he just named Hall of Famers I'm counting out of that group possibly four Hall of Famers

and he mentioned Nick Chubb who's just an absolute dog I mean that's a compliment he's a wolf you get Joey Bosa now I mean you're going to have another great player another guy who's got a Hall of Fame type career ahead of him if he stays healthy

you know so that continues but that's a concern of mine he mentioned also John Johnson and Leonard Floyd in that group like a few times. Those guys are free agents, right? So there's a reason he said what he said, but it just clues you in.

Coaches also should ask players what technique they prefer. We're not going to turn to the NBA. I know some people are clutching their pearls. This isn't going to turn in the NBA. I mean, it's never going to be an NBA type league, so don't worry about it. I know Deshawn Watson asking for a trade

and trying to pick his coach because he was promised to have a seat at the table. and now me saying you know coaches should act ask players what defenses they prefer what schemes they prefer you know like what technique do you like give me some feedback players want to execute

they want to win so ask the right players the right questions you'll get answers that aren't instructed by wanting to just get the ball so to speak you're going to get answers that can help you coach better you know

if there's a guy who's unselfish and knows the game really well has been around and he's a player and he's a technician ask that guy is there something wrong with technique? I'm like what's the why your guy's not getting it? It's funny. Coaches, a whole DB room will be fucking up all year long as I don't know why these assholes don't get it.

I don't know why they won't do what I'm asking them do. Maybe you're asking them to do something unrealistic. Have you ever asked them like how their job might be easier, a technique that might make their job easier, like what's wrong with your technique? Also, player development came up, Hicks, Fuller, Simmons, guys that he coached.

And Hicks is very interested to me because Akeem Hicks, of course, who's going to come up again at the end of this pod in the mailbag, a little teaser there. But Hicks came from New Orleans, and he was in New England, and nobody really liked him in those two places. Like, I actually heard one guy,

coach call Akeem Hicks soft at one point. I was like, really? Of course, at this point, you know, he's in Chicago. Like, I heard a coach say like, yeah, he was just kind of like he wasn't physical. I was like, dude, like now there's a picture of him next to the word physical in the football dictionary. He's a fucking bear, literally. But development, you know, like Jeff Fisher developed love me, dude. Like, Jeff Fisher didn't even, wasn't even in my position room, but, you know, through the culture there

and through, you know, our mindset, our attitude, and what he allowed me to do in that scheme, like, he put me in positions that I was better off in, whether it was playing in a nine, more than, you know, a six,

which I actually wasn't too bad at playing a six in Spag's defense, but it helped me be more aggressive vertically and be, think more rush, and my sack numbers went up and you know like or hey I didn't love playing in a four eye all the time under Jeff Fisher but he made it fun because you know he he sold it as an opportunity to to get vertical and to like create havoc and to play physical and like to take out some frustration on the Anthony Davises of the world I love getting in that four eye and fucking somebody up

but he sold it and he developed me like you know what I mean like that's sometimes not just the scheme, it's also like, how do you feed the monster inside a player? How do you develop that player? How do you put them in the right position to win? And so when you see a player like Akeem Hicks, who's one of the best in the league at what he does, it's hard to believe with two places within five years are like, nah, not for me. Coaching matters, development matters. He gave some football hints. You know, he's going to call plays. He said that. Put people in conflict, tempos, that's great. You hear that, you know, in most meetings,

vertical alignment in all three phases. He has coached special teams before. He's played offense as a player, not in the NFL, but, you know, and now he coaches defense. So, you know, he would prioritize complimentary football in all three phases. He now coaches defense, right? He talks about a connected team. Well, he's going to be involved in every side of,

of the ball, right? And, you know, he's also worked in special teams, as I said. Special Teams coaches are guys with special teams backgrounds are great. As an aside, Dave Fipp, you know, Bones in L.A. Well, now he's in Dallas and those guys are lifetime special teamers. But shout out to those guys, man. Like, you know, they were dudes, they were the guys you wanted to talk to on the plane or like, they just got people because they're in the, the room with everybody. They have to coach everybody. You know, you got to sell protecting a field goal to Jason Peters or running down on kickoff to, you know, your starting linebacker, or, you know, doing punk coverage. You know, like some veteran who doesn't want to do that shit might have to go

do punk coverage. How do you sell that? That's a hard job. Like if you're trying to get the best salesman in the world, because that's what coaches are, they're selling something. They're selling an idea they're trying to convince a player that we can do it. You know, you obviously have to call the right plays and you have to have the right outcomes and schemes and you have to evaluate players. But when it comes to motivating, you're a salesman. Are players buying what you're selling? And guys who have interacted with the entire room, you know, I'm talking about Dave Fipp

or bones here in particular, but, you know, consider what you have to convince somebody to do to play special teams. Like that's fucking nuts. Those guys are insane. That's why like the Nate Ebner's of the world, the Matt Slaters of the world, you know, the Brian Brayman's of the world.

Dude. Hey, run full speed for 40 yards at another human being. Like how about before they got rid of the wedge, bro? Think about what you have to, like what kind of a salesman you have to be to sell somebody on doing that. Special teams guys got and you you've coached the whole room and you have to rip people's asses who aren't special teams guys.

So as an aside, when people held it against Joe Judge last year, I was like, dude, actually, if I'm an owner right now, depending on the situation, I'm looking hard at special teams guys. Offensive and defensive coordinators, they want to do it all, right? Special teams guy, they major in managing people. and selling something. And they're fun dudes. They're fun dudes. Justin Herbert. That was like,

what are you going to say about Justin Herbert, right? What I really liked was that he said he's not going to push anything on Justin. They're going to collaborate, you know, and obviously that's going to be a huge question because you're sitting on a gold mine. Absolute gold mine. So you don't want to mess that up, right? You don't want to like overcoach a player.

When you overcoach players, they shut down. And when players have had enough coaches, they shut down too. There was a point early in my career where I was like, man, how many more coaches? Like, am I going to meet, dude? I've got, I've had so many first meetings with coaches. Like, after a while, you just stop believing, like, okay, the next guy is going to be the guy.

So that's what I said about Carson Wentz. Like, people say stubborn and that sort of thing. And yeah, he's, it sounds like he needs to be a little less stubborn. You know, again, I love Carson personally. I never saw it. But if people are saying he's stubborn, well, Yeah, I'd be pretty stubborn too on my sixth coach or whatever. So that's one of my biggest concerns about Justin Herbert and Brandon Staley is,

all right, you pick the defensive head coach. Justin Herbert's going to make some guys rich now. Justin Herbert is going to be the rainmaker because you see where this OC pipeline is trending. I mean, there are going to be guys out the door every two years to get ahead. job. So how many coaches are you thrown at this kid? He'll be fine, but are you leaving some continuity on the table? And I think, you know, he's got the right idea considering the circumstance and just knowing players that like we should collaborate. The most interesting question to me was a guy directly asked him to talk about, you know, like maybe something that Justin Herbert has to

work on and whatnot, something he's good at. Of course, very carefully. crafted answer but I gleaned something there he said he he shirked the question about things he has to work on but said end of half end of game that's where he's really good and so talented and we're going to continue to work there because that's where football games are won and lost right so look at who he's replacing and I don't think this was a shot at Anthony Lynn because everybody loves Anthony Lynn but one thing he didn't do well at and a half, end of game, clock, situational stuff. So you talk about end to half, end a game,

you bring it up and talking about Justin Herbert. That's a way of saying like we're gonna do better at this than we did last year without saying like that coach didn't do well at it. So I thought that was a good way of saying it. But I'll say it. You know, Atlanta this year, eight seconds to go before the half, they run the football and can't get out there

to kick a field goal. like Lynn's piss because Stichin, sorry Philly fans, who by all accounts is a really good coach. You know, I texted, you know, some guys and they were really buying what he was selling. Also said that he worked with Justin Herbert a lot. So if you're hearing that he didn't, he did. Stichin, for whatever reason, sorry, I just said all that

and then tell you this. Anthony Lynn was mad, but that falls on the head coach. I mean, you got to. times like you have to you have to play the head coach card what are we doing running the anthony lin was motioning the stich and throw the fucking ball basically but then it happened again buffalo okay this one going to win him win him the game but it was going to save me some money i had i had i had the bill or i had uh i had the chargers when they played uh i guess it was end of November in Buffalo.

They were two scores down. I'm just looking for a backdoor cover. Hail Mary, like beautiful Hail Mary. Like, awesome Hail Mary. Problem was, just short of the goal line. So there's a mad dash to get down there, I think. Or was a timeout. I don't remember.

But bottom line, they're under five seconds. They're under like 10 seconds, and they run the ball twice. They don't have a time out. They run the ball twice. And the culmination of that sequence was just something awful. It was like pass set sneak. It was like Herbert checked to a sneak.

And the guys were in pass pro. And he just gets leveled. And that's the end of the game. Triple zeros. Triple zeros in my bank account. Triple zeros on the shot clock there. And it's over. And you're like, dude, you just complete this gorgeous Hail Mary.

And you run the ball twice. And the clock runs out. And then the worst one was, Vegas, let me paint the picture. Did not have money on this game, thankfully, but 55 seconds ago, three timeouts, down 31 26, you've got two minutes on the clock, right? Okay, so if you're gonna lose this game, you're not gonna lose it running out of time, right?

That's an eternity to get half a field, especially with a quarterback like that. seven of their eight plays, including the first one, which they lost 28 seconds on before calling a timeout, they were tackled inbound. They got down inside the five and couldn't even run four plays.

The game ended on third down. So like, that's the type of stuff that L.A. was into last year. That phase hopefully is over. And that was his way of saying that. We're going to be really good. before the half, and at the end of game. I thought overall it was a good presser.

I thought he pleasantly surprised me. I'm skeptical, I am, but nobody can deny the success that they had, and he has a lot of really good ideas. The thing that's gonna save and cover up any deficiencies he has early is Justin Herbert. So we'll see what happens there. I believe that the investment that coaches putting the players has to be the equivalent of the investment you put in your children.

I mean, you've got to invest everything you have in your heart and in your soul into those players because they're relying on you to help them be their absolute best so they can showcase their skills on Sunday. I think when players fill that investment and they feel that you're giving them everything you have, I think they can't help but reciprocate that investment and invest back in you as an individual. And so when you get that investment reciprocated and you've got investments on both sides, it becomes personal and when it becomes personal it becomes a very very very special

Robert Sala okay they won the presser because it was 30 minutes long right I mean 30 minutes long you know the one I just talked about there was 95 minutes long um terrific look at these two look like street fighter characters like nobody's going to be like hey time for one more It's like, nah. We're big and we're bald. One of us is really big and bald. I love Joe Douglas, man. I just, that's my dude.

And I trust him. So I've been excited about this higher. I think the two of them working together is great. And again, I said the contrast, L.A. media to the New York press conference was insane. Like, it was just no, you couldn't see the people on Zoom. The questions were different. They were more guarded answers. them. It had the New York vibe.

You could hear a pin drop. It felt like it was all business. And they're not in a bad spot either. This is an attractive job. Love the marriage of Joe and Robert. The facility definitely smells like Barbosol. For sure. I mean, like, Sala shaves before every game, they said.

It's got to feel good to just like electricity coming off the dome. As you can tell, I don't have a lot to talk about with the press conference. I didn't say a lot. I will tell you, Woody is back, and Joe will answer to Christopher Johnson. Christopher Johnson also is not a big press conference guy. There was a segment where I had no idea what he was doing with his hands. Like truly, no idea what he was doing with his hands. It was so great.

I learned about a saying, all gas, no break. We used to say all gas, no brakes. in St. Louis. That was what our secondary said. I know a lot of people have claimed that saying. I don't think we started it. I think somebody in the secondary heard it somewhere else and it gets passed down the line. I don't love sayings, but I get you, you sometimes need them. So I'm not going to go, like, as long as he doesn't have 15 banners with like acronyms and all types of college shit, I'm good with it. All gas, no break. All gas, no breaks but it probably is like break is probably the proper way to say because there's only one

break in your car but you do hit the brakes so I don't know he was non-committal on darnald they were non-committal on darnal invest in your players that was something that came up a lot connect on a personal level and you can see the fruits of his labor there because the guy is basically like a player out there on game day I mean they they really fuck with this guy in San Francisco. And anywhere he's been, I mean, like, the word is, like, real guy. And you can just tell, like, I'm, I don't know what kind of a coach he's going to be, but he is a solid human being.

Like, solid human being. Like, babysitter status? I would, like, I'm very untrusting of babysitters in general, but, especially right now, like, there's no such thing as a babysitter. I judge players character on like would I leave my teammates character would I leave my kids around him I mean like I might let

Robert Sala watch my kids man he's like just a solid human being the other time I said the word used the word Mench earlier to describe somebody Robert Sala's a Mench dude you can just tell see he's got the Mench vibes Mench vibes

humility that's what I'm getting from him and the story about 9-11 his brother was was in one of the towers and survived but kind of a moment for him in his life where he points to where his brother was like follow your dreams basically like live your life

you know the way you want to live it and you know he credits that tragedy and that horrific experience is something and gave him some clarity and then like you know he's going to be coaching during the 20 year anniversary of that awful horrific day in New York.

It's pretty wild. And, you know, to be, I just got to say this. Like, there's so much Islamophobia and people that are, you know, especially after that whole thing, I know it's probably not easy to be, you know, Muslim in America. I just never thought about Muslim head coaches in the NFL. It was an afterthought. I never thought about somebody with a Lebanese background coaching the New York Jets.

It was just an afterthought because there's not a lot of candidates that way. But for somebody to be, I mean, it's got to be cool. If you're Muslim and you like football, here's a guy who's coaching in New York on the biggest stage. It's just great. It's a heartwarming kind of deal. But certainly tragedy kind of plays a role in this whole story because with the ties with his brother in New York and the elephant in the room is there was a lot of Islamophobia that came out of that. And it's just like you can't make this stuff up.

I mean, good for him and good for fans who are Muslim and watching the NFL. He hired Michael Flore as the O.C., Jeff Ulbrick, as the D.C. giving up play calling duties. That was one thing that came up, as opposed to Staley, who's keeping him. I think he probably feels like they have a long way to go. You've got to focus on the team building, the culture building, head coach stuff, right? Especially in this first year. Plus, a little easier to put DC on autopilot, I think, especially with the guy you trust, you coach wasn't in Seattle. Like Kevin Savancy when he was hurt, you were really worried about quarters two through for why because you're off script I think you can script a little bit more your

defensive play calls I'm not I'm not saying script but there's just less there's less and I've coached on some defenses with a ton of verbiage and plays but most of them are things are gonna be crunched out it's gonna be more of like an art form right and and you know a lot of it is gonna be dictated by personnel the calls you make time of game that sort of thing and that's he can probably he can probably consult and step in and veto, but to have a guy calling most of the plays, that lightens his load a little bit.

So I think that's good. Again, I think that press conference, short and to the point, and they didn't tell us everything. So this team's going to be built on, we're going to kick you in the teeth, all right,

and when you punch us back, we're going to smile at you, and when you knock us down, we're going to get up. And on the way up, we're going to bite a kneecap off, all right, and we're going to stand up. And then it's going to take two more shots to knock us down. All right, and on the way up, we're going to take your other kneecap, and we're going to get up, and then it's going to take three shots to get us down.

And when we do, we're going to take another hunk out of you. Before long, we're going to be the last one standing. All right, that's going to be the mentality. Dan Campbell. Okay, the rant. Let's start with the rant. I touched on this the other day, late night with Wilkins. I don't know if he'll succeed. I'm not good at this. Neither are you listening at all. So funny

to me. You know, seven coaches in a cycle. If I asked every fucking blue check to guess which ones were going to be great and which ones weren't, most of them aren't going to get it right. You know, and most of them, if they do get it right, they're not going to know why they got it right. You know, like they don't know why. Maybe they handicapped it based on how good a team is, the weapons and that sort of thing. But we don't really know. We're not in the interview We have no idea. We don't want young wimpy guys, right? We don't want the pencil neck paper boy looking guys.

That bothers us. We also don't want the Neanderthals that, you know, look like, you know, the vintage football guy, because we don't like that either. But I think we have a hard time outside of locker rooms reading coaches as dudes. And same with players too, to that point. Like fans, like you don't know who's actually cool or not.

because for the most part if a guy's a douchebag nobody's gonna say that publicly right you judge people more on the praise they get than the hate they get right if a guy gets praise

enough he's probably well liked same with the coach and maybe I'm doing the beer thing I mentioned earlier subconsciously but I also know that's not true because if I could get fucked up with any NFL coach

would be B-Flow actually you know like you like the coach that you probably most want to get a with. That might be true because I love B-Flo. And we never got drunk in New England, actually. We went, the parade, but I don't really remember that. And I don't think he was on my float. But a week before, like, this whole thing started, I was doing a pod with Ryan and Dan. And we talked about, like, Frankenstein of coaches. I said, my perfect coach would be a mixture,

like a Frankenstein of B-Flow and Dan Campbell. This was a week before he was even in the cycle. So, yeah. Am I biased? Do I love this? the guy from a distance yeah i think he's just got he's got it going on man and the hard o thing like people don't know it's another hard o coach you don't know what a hard o is like you don't know what that means like you know what it means like in football you don't know what it means like in football you don't know you don't know who players are rolling their eyes at and who they're not okay um you guys eat up all types of shit that players in meetings are like that is so cringy and lame like yeah, you just don't know. I'll leave it at that. I'll leave it at that. I mean, you, you don't,

you don't think like, and a hardo is not always bad. It's, are you, are you an every man hardo? Are you a hardo that I believe that I'm buying what you're selling? Like, are you a meatball? Like, there's a difference between a meatball and a hardo. I think about a hardo. I think about somebody who's like, who's fronting. He's like, fucking, you know, go, Hardo's got to puff his chest out because he's not tough and he's got to piss on every bush and he's got to make stands that or inconsequential. That's not what I saw when I, like, you want to say meatball, like, yeah, I'm sure Dan's got some meatball tendencies,

but so do a lot of really successful coaches and players and leaders and people. Like, these coaches come in all, in all shapes and sizes and personalities. I mean, like being a hardo, an actual hardo, like, because I think, I think Jim Harbaugh is a hardo. That didn't stop him from winning a lot of games. He was a really great coach.

Hardo. Great coach. I mean, the face mask rant, it's not meant to be realistic. Was it awkward? Was it like, where are you going with this? Yeah.

But I think he was just freestyle it off the dome. And I think it's, I think people were manufacturing outrage on that one. How about the coaches that say, I wanted to be like a fist fight? Wouldn't even bat an eye. The biting kneecaps thing

It's not even a real thing, dude. That's not even you physically couldn't do it. Try to bite somebody's kneecap through a face mask. It was dumb, but it wasn't like that big of a deal. What's the difference between the, we're going to, I want this thing to be a fist fight. 60 minute bar room brawl.

Coach says that, you know, but it was like, Dan, Dan just plays by roadhouse rules. And he should. And if you play in the NFL, You should think like you like roadhouse mindset. It's a fucking metaphor, okay? One that people were not ready for. But I just couldn't believe the outrage on behalf of people who never played or on behalf

of people who played by people that never played. I don't do the you never played thing a lot, but I'll do it like when you're judging, you're speaking for players. When you're telling me players will never buy this guy, you're telling me something because I literally know players who buy this guy now, dude. So if he doesn't change, and that's one thing, like, you know, coaches change sometimes when they become head coaches. Ego, pressure, that type of thing.

But all I hear is good things right now. So unless he wakes up, you know, tomorrow morning and turns into a douchebag, like that's not what's going to make him suck if he does. And I've watched the whole presser, which helps. the reviews, okay? He's batting pretty much a thousand on the guys I talked to in New Orleans. I even talked to guys

that were in Miami with him. Guys in Miami loved him. New Orleans, okay, one guy said he was our assistant head coach so he would fill in for Sean some days and ran great practices. I personally felt like he was a great coach. He and AG, Aaron Glenn,

are tough coaches who know what it takes. They're going to turn it around. That's like a pretty glowing, But I thought players aren't going to buy him, right? Because you saw 35 seconds of a press conference, right? I got it. Yep. You know.

And listen, play this back to me if he gets fired in three years. I'll tell you that's not why he got fired. So you don't really like, you know, you guys are bad at arguing. And it's not a straw man because I saw this all week. All week. Okay. Another guy. Didn't know him as well because he coached offense, but he is respected.

Okay. Another guy. Great dude. former player gets it ran a few meetings and full days and it was great okay so two guys have told you he's basically like had practice of being a head coach he learned from sean payton another guy told me old school understands the importance of of line play uh and then if you don't believe guys in miami or new orleans it's like look no further than calvin johnson he was on the pod recently talking about before he got hired calvin johnson played with him and coach

coach or played for him so you know like let's let's get over the if let's evaluate him on let's evaluate him on how he actually calls well coordinates calling games i mean coordinates the coordinators manages in-game situations how him and the GM strategize together if he fails it won't be because players don't buy him one of the most important quotes i heard i'm not going to ask these guys do anything that I've never had to do, been asked to do. Same with coaches. Thank you. That, like, that, that mindset will take you a long way with players and with coaches, right? Treat them as equals.

You're not the fucking man with the big office now. Don't forget how you got here. He also talked about unrealistic, unfeasible plays. Thank you. Michael Scott.jif. Thank you. I just learned to say the word. I've been saying gift for eight years.

Thank you, dude. He talked about like specific examples Like if I ask a guy to cut somebody off on the backside If it's unrealistic I'm not gonna ask him do that Because I know because I played And that's the plus of having a player coaches Like they've been in that seat being asked to do unrealistic shit Like I had coaches that were like

Jam the tight end And then I need you to get into your pass rush And pass rush well Okay No And it's not Bill Because I mentioned yesterday that like Bill S jam tight ends all the time

Like Bill didn't care how the pass rush looked, it was, hey, I need you to just disrupt Travis Kelsey or whoever the tight end is. And if you win a rush, great, you know, like some coaches will tell you you got to do all those things at once. Some coaches will tell you you got to take on a double team exactly the way they want you to do it and it's unrealistic. Sometimes coaches will tell you you got reverse and a play away. Like you got to make the play in the A gap on, you know, stretch away when it cuts back, but you also have the reverse. No, coach. make any sense. He's not

going to be that type of coach. He said that. So that goes a long way. And the background on him is great. Spirano, tight ends coach in Dallas. You know, Spirano took him to Miami to be the tight ends coach as an interim. You know, also when

Sparano was out for a few games, I think it was, or when he got fired. It was at the end of the tenure maybe. It was the end of Sparano's tenure in Miami. And he had a really nice run as an interim coach and Saints assistant head coach, tight ends coach. Listen, if he was the assistant head coach last year in New York, big fucking who are you

learning from? I'm talking about the Jets. Being the assistant head coach in New Orleans under Sean Payton, it's a big deal, man. It really is. And you could tell me, well, there's other assistant head coaches that haven't gotten the job. Okay, I totally did that segment just a second ago. Allow me to just talk about Dan Campbell and the merits of hiring him. You know, like why I think he's, the guys I just mentioned said he's, he's, he's, he's, he's,

run entire days. He's shadowed, he shadowed Sean unencumbered by the distraction of having to call plays, which I do think again, I'm partial to special teams, coaches, walk around coaches, guys that can delegate well. And he seems like the humble enough guy that he's going to know what he doesn't know

and compatibility being more important than coachability. Dovetails nicely into what I'm talking about. Everybody in the room can't be an alpha in the coaching room because that's how a lot of coaching situations are. Everybody's fucking yelling at each other.

Everybody's, you know, trying to, trying to posture and be like, and be the guy and my importance is the most, my idea is the most important. You can't be like that. And I think what I took from that is like,

I'm not going to be like that. I'm the boss, but we're going to collaborate. We're going to, we're going to be compatible. And when I said coachability, that's two words, I think is what he meant.

Like coachability. The infighting between NFL coach is horrible, the backstabbing and it starts at the top. So, you know, like, that's not a culture he's going to set there. And he brought guys that were good teammates. They're all players, man. Don't be up and down. Consistency's key.

That's the hardest thing in football, man. You talk about not being up and down, being a consistent guy that you can count on. Like, it is such a grind in the NFL to be the same guy every day. Retirement is fucking easy. Okay, podcasting is really hard. like you know I'm working my butt off

and it's definitely challenged me in a lot of ways but the emotional stress of being a football player the physical stress and then like tell a guy to come out and you know if a guy's a six out of ten on a scale of one and ten every day it's really hard not to dip to a three depending on the scheme depending on injuries depending on who you're playing maybe you had a bad day

maybe your kid's sick maybe you're sick you know, maybe your wife and you are fighting. You know, it's really hard not to dip below a four some days. If you're a six, you might have an eight day. But the point is, be as close to whatever your value is to that team every day. And that's a really hard thing to do. Andrew Hawkins, who I work with, a former player, we do Amazon. You know, he was laughs at me when I bet the NFL,

I think it's the truest thing in the world people say the NFL is hard to bet the NFL is not just hard to bet because it's unpredictable it's hard to bet because consistency is unpredictable it is such a demanding job it takes such consistency and there's so many players on a team out of 53 guys

somebody's having a bad day five guys are hurt well everybody's hurt after a certain a certain point in this season. Seven guys shouldn't be practicing. You know, two guys are sick. Some guys were up until three in the morning, you know, arguing with their significant other.

Some guys were, you know, they've got a family issue. You know, some guys, I play with guys whose kids had cancer. Like, it's hard to be consistent, man. It is really hard to be consistent. And Andrew Hawkins put it best. He was like, that's why I don't bet in the NFL, I don't bet on NFL football. Because I've been in locker rooms and I know that like somebody went out Saturday night.

Somebody went out Friday night. Somebody didn't get enough sleep. Somebody's under the weather. This is a big game for somebody. Somebody's sleepwalking. Like you need consistency. And it sounds simple. But he knows what that's about because he's been a player and he was part of a program

where I know they put a big premium on consistency. Finding weaknesses. He talked about that. Bill Belichick, okay? Finding weaknesses is huge. You don't know how brutal it is when somebody starts getting picked on. And that's what Sean Payton. Sean Payton does a really good job of that.

Look any Sunday. You know, there's a fish. We called him a fish on the O line. How do you exploit that weakness? You know, it's not just about how you get your best player of the ball. It's not just about how you set a game plan to accentuate your strengths. It's also about like, who's the fish over there? And how are we going to exploit that?

Selling winning to individuals. You talked about that. if the team wins you will win you have to be able to sell again like like it's just and stress and managing people he talked about that that ties into consistency he's acknowledged as a former player

guys are stressed you got to manage people you got to know what's going on and the way you do that is to personally connect and to actually know that like hey that player trusts me enough to tell me that you know I'm embarrassed to say it but this is what I have going on

and I'm having a rough week you could watch that 30 second clip and be like that guy doesn't get it but I'm telling you that guy's going to have a lot of ends in that locker room because guys believe him I'm just telling you I'm not guessing it's in guesswork I talked to guys so I thought I thought this was interesting he made a point to say players who win with the game on the line players who win in big situations there are a lot of guys who are great in practice right a lot of us old motherfuckers we lose our jobs because of those guys in certain programs.

Every day you could have a guy catch a million balls in practice. You could have a guy winning pass rushes in practice. You could have a guy, but who are the gamers on your team? Like who are the guys in a big moment? They rise to the occasion. They don't clam up. They don't just not clam up.

They're not just where they're supposed to be, but they make a play. You know what I mean? They're not just trustworthy, but they're clutch. If you can get a guy who's trustworthy and clutch and identifying who are the guys that are just making plays when nobody's watching and who are the guys that shine in the biggest moments.

You know, I don't hear coaches say that a lot in press conferences, but I thought that was a really on the money thing to say. And my favorite part, he's in lockstep with his GM, Brad Holmes, who I talked about recently. You know, I talked about the Rooney earlier, How about the diversity on this staff?

That's a good, I mean, it's good. It's good for football, man. It's good. And Brad Holmes is a great dude. And I knew him in St. Louis and he's been crushing it ever since. And, you know, I haven't talked to him a lot over the years, but I'm certainly rooting for him. And you understand that Brad and Dan are in lockstep. And I'm just like, listen, look what just happened in Philly, okay?

how ugly was all that GM coach not in lockstep you know in Philly not all the coaches were in lockstep you know like so

I think it's really important whether it was Dan Campbell talking about compatibility over coachability or you know Brandon Staley talking about a connected locker room with everybody in the same page

and even some of the hirings that we look at and we're like yeah these aren't great hirings like trying to get guys that all work together and trying to get the GM and the head coach to work together to be married like working towards the same goal it's it's a good thing and uh he's hiring well so uh to capital off the meatball said he he made it a point to say he's he's all about working hard but believing in sports science and recovery music to my ears baby

especially on that turf up there. It's the toughest turf in pro football. I'm sure somebody would say there was a worse one, but that shit, you lay in bed for like two days after you played in Detroit. And Stafford will give you another first round pick, so that's a good thing. I'm just telling you, man.

I'm just telling you, if they get these coordinator hires right, there's a lot of Fs here, Detroit, so I'm sorry if I'm selling you a dream, but get the coordinator, If you get the coordinator thing right and you nail this draft pick, you get Trey Lance. I saw on a mock draft today so you know that's exactly what's going to happen, right? Trey Lance at seven, you get a one from Stafford.

You're on your way. Making no bones about it. I'm rooting for the lions. I know people there. I know Deuce. I know Brad Holmes. My Frankenstein coach was Dan Campbell. And all these guys, man, I want everybody to succeed.

I like when people succeed, right? But as I talked about earlier, as long as everybody has an opportunity, and that's, you know, to put a ribbon on this thing. We talk about those three pressures. I'll talk about the rest next week in some capacity, but there's reasons to be excited if you're any of those three fan bases. And these coaches are going to play a big part, hopefully in helping fix the problem that I talked about earlier. Or they should. All right, that's enough serious football now. We got a mailbag and some other housekeeping.

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Terms, conditions, and eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com for details. A couple of things that popped up in my personal life. I finally cleaned my laptop screen, thanks to the guys on Twitter who pointed that out that my laptop screen looked awful. People were accusing me of sneezing into my laptop continuously. They were like sneeze the other way. I was like, dude, I don't sneeze a lot.

It's really not sneeze. It's literally just fingerprints. It's fingerprints and it's dust. And I haven't cleaned my screen in over a year, dude. It's disturbing. I know. Might be judging me. But now that I clean my screen, my laptop's like eight years old.

I was thinking about getting a new MacBook. Not getting one now. Things like brand new. So thank you for that. Life hack. Cowboy Reed gave me a, people online said that wasn't the right way to clean your screen, Reid.

You handed me like a wet wipe essentially. But my screen looks awesome. Also, people were hating, like hating on the Arby's call a couple weeks ago. Was that a couple weeks ago or last week? I said there's one of the most, yeah,

last week it was one of the most underrated restaurant chains. It was in the mailbag. I said Arby's. And of course it said Burger King, which I might go to in about 20 minutes because it's 9.30 at night. and a lot of my favorite restaurants are closed. People said Arby's is terrible.

People were absolutely hating on Arby's and I saw my buddy Dragonfly Jones tweeting about that today that he's part of the Arby's hive. Arby's hive. There's like two people in the hive, me and Dragonfly Jones. Dragonfly Jones, he lives in Richmond. It's an hour down the way.

So maybe it's just something about Central Virginia Arby's. Reed, did you ever tell me how you were on Arby's? Are you good on Arby's? Not a fan of Arby's at all. At all. Jesus Christ. Nah, I kind of hate it. Definitely hate it.

Unbelievable, actually. I've never heard you hate anything. Food just, it doesn't look good. None of it looks good. It doesn't look good. Have you ever tasted it? Yeah, I've tasted it. And that's why I know it's,

sucks. The roast beef, none of that's good. The curly fries from there, iffy. Do you like corn iffy? Curly fries are iffy? For sure. Iffy, for sure. Confirmed. No, their curly fries are iffy?

We've been looking for some help around the office. It's like, if you want to talk about the roast beef, that's one thing, Reed, but unbelievable. Arby's curly fries are iffy. I'm so glad I brought this up. Because if we can agree on anything as a country.

There's a few things we can all agree on. Steve Irwin, great guy. I'm not even sure we can agree on that. I'm sure somebody's got a problem with Steve Irwin. Curly fries are awesome at Arby's. Listen, must be a Central Virginia thing, evidently. Evidently not with Reed, but like, I saw this picture today

under his tweet about Arbys was at Dragonfly Jones's Arbys. These motherfuckers had a tree inside the Arby's. Real shit. There was a tree that they built the Arby's around. Like it was a tree of life. Like they constructed it.

Like, you know, when they have indoor trees, cut a little hole in the ground. There's mulch in there. It's like a great. I don't know how the trees stay alive. It can't be healthy for the trees to grow up in an Arby's. Well, I presume the tree was healthy enough to build the Arbyes around when they did. Look this thing up.

There was a tree inside the Arby's. I have no idea why they thought. that going through the trouble to build that Arby's around that tree would like pump up sales. If you're going to eat fast food roast beef, I prefer doing it under a tree. You can't get that anywhere else. It's like a green space. I'm serious now. Google this shit. It's unbelievable. If the food weren't enough in Richmond, there's a tree inside. Also, another food related thing that came to light this week. I went on the Raw Room,

which is a, it's a podcast, one of my former teammates, Darren Bates, who's been on here before. You might know him as the guy that, that always finds himself right next to when Derek Henry snatches a soul on the sideline. And he was the guy that was right there

when Derek Henry spun Earl Thomas around in a circle or made Josh Norman do karate, like in midair. He was there. He was like his biggest hype man. He was my teammate in St. Louis, special teams guy. Absolute dog. One of my favorite teammates of all time. Got a great pub.

It's called the Rar Room. But I will say, I'm a little uncomfortable saying, I'm going on in the Rer Room. You know? Going to go hang out with those dudes on the Rer Room. It just doesn't sound. And to make matters worse,

their social media guy who's terrific, they have this like running joke where their set is a black couch, which if you've watched any TV late at night on the internet, a black couch is not a good couch you want to sit on. And so while I think some of their marketing strategies are questionable, It's a tremendous pod. I went on the pod this week. And Batesy had this story that he had saved up.

He wanted me to tell, and I forgot about this stuff. And he saved the video from 2012. He had the video and everything. I didn't know he had still had the video. What happened was when I was in St. Louis, we used to have, like, sometimes they bring crawfish. Long story short, I like to fuck with people. I also like to make the younger players think I was crazy, you know?

Because like when the younger players think you're crazy, just like, what's this guy going to do next? I'm not going to fuck with this guy. I'll tell you what I did. I really, I don't know if it's like a party trick, but I got no issues eating a crawfish hole. No issues. To me, I'm like,

I'm like a predatory ocean fish. I'm like the apex predator in the ocean. That's how I could spin that party trick. You know, if you want to be a shark, you got to think like a shark, that whole whatever spiel. That's the spiel I gave on the raw room. When he asked me about it, I was like, ha, ha, yeah, you know, that's me being crazy. It's no different. Sharks don't filet their fish before they eat them.

You know, eat the crawfish as it is. like that. You say you're going to eat that bitch like the APEC predators or the oceans. If you want to be like the Apex Predator, you got to eat like the Apex Predator, whatever. I was laughing when I said this because I was just

fucking with guys in the cafeteria and dudes would just sit there and be like, it was like a party trick. Hey, Chris is going to eat a crawfish. I didn't do it a lot. Like I had like one or two every time they one or two every time every time there were crawfish

and that wasn't a lot. Well, he pulls out. the video and the video is hilarious. I'm like looking at at this guy. I'm like I don't even know this person. 2012 was a crazy time dude and he posted it on Twitter today and I had a bunch of people judging me and I had a bunch of people from Louisiana that I played with that like damn near took offense to it and I was like listen man uh 2012 was a hell of he here it was just like it was a crazy time. One of my teammates in Philly was like, what the fuck were you doing? And I was like, hey, Dylan, when we played together, 2018, Chris was not 2012, Chris. Just not the same

dudes. And besides, it's not that bad. If anybody out there listening has ever eaten an entire crawfish, it's just, it's crunchy, just trying to, it's like, it's like eating Captain crunch but without the good flavor. You know, you might be able, you might cut your mouth a little bit if you're not careful. But the rookies are like, fuck, this guy's crazy. You know? The rookies, it's like going to prison and killing a guy the first day. It's like, it's like walking in.

If you're like Edward Norton in 25th hour, you thought I was going somewhere else. because he doesn't go to prison in the movie but that's where he's going that's the whole concept of the movie the first day and you just fucking you just knock out the biggest baddest dude like a dude's offering you protection

he's like yo you're gonna have to join this gang but we can protect you you just kill him that's what eating an entire crawfish is to a rookie it's like damn dude this place is insane I don't know I don't think it's that bad I have a steel trap, dude. I explained it to Darren Bates.

I got a steel trap, dude. Like malt liquor, talked about airport sushi before. You name it. It's like very rarely do I eat something that upsets my stomach. Okay, so mailbag, as promised. I mean, I don't have a lot. I'll save some for Friday when I have a guess with me. you know

somebody asked me to rank Dark Side of the Moon Wish You Were Here Animals Metal and the Wall Yeah It's exactly how I just read it Because that's how I've

written down there Dark Side of the Moon is one of the greatest albums of all time And what's so impressive to me Is that it's longer As far as tracks or concern and they were able to pull off such a high batting percentage on that

album. It's like flawless. And then there's like the flawless, wish you were here, more condensed. Animals, three for me. Metal, four for me. You know, they were like, when they asked, they were like,

hey, where would you rank metal? Well, really, we're talking about echoes. Dude, fucking fearless is on that album. Never disrespect fearless like that again. Metal is more than just echoes. In fact, some people think Echoes is the greatest Pink Floyd song of all time. I'm not going there, but I'll just say fearless ain't far off.

Fearless might be, I like, might like fearless more than Echoes and Echoes is a banger. Yeah, metal is four for me. Only slightly behind animals. Did you know that metal, and this took me a long time, like my entire adult life until a month or two ago, to realize that the cover of metal is an ear. Rita, are you familiar with that cover at all? Yeah. Did you know it was an ear? Are you sure there?

Positive. Is it really? I'm looking at it now. Yeah. Funky-looking ear, though. Sideways. It's an ear, dude. Yeah, it's an ear.

Yeah. It's a fucking ear on the cover of metal. That's right. Everybody's got their phone out like, huh, like read. That's why you're here. Okay? We talked about the Rooney Rule earlier, and now we're talking about there being an ear on the cover of metal.

Okay? Jack of all trades master, none right here. The wall, I mean, I'm not that into it. I'm not going to lie. Somebody asked me, Most Memorable Saved by the Bell episode.

Gee, let me think, none of them, because I've never, I can't remember a single, one because I never watched it. I never watched Save by the Bell. Macon was pretty upset about that.

He quizzed me on the people, right? That one day. Do you remember that? I didn't know any of them. My new screech. That was it. Hey, get well screech, man. Jeez.

2021 just picking up. We're 2020 left off. 2021 hasn't been, if we're going off of like celebrities getting sick and celebrities like dying and people we love dying, it's like, again,

My theory that a calendar is just literally, we were just hoping for a change in leadership. That was it. Nothing really changes with 2021 as far as like, you know, the pandemic's still outside and Hank Aaron died and Larry King died. The Larry King thing sucked. Even though he's like 87, you're like,

why couldn't that guy live forever? He could have, his mind was so sharp. He could have like kept working until, 180 with technological advances. And I really want to watch more of his interviews. I always enjoyed watching his interviews, but now it's like something as I'm interviewing people, and there's a lot I have to work on.

It's one of the hardest things in the world. It's just somebody that you want to study now, right? And you're probably like, yeah, we'll get your questions shorter. Yeah, I get that. He has short questions. I get that, dude. But it doesn't really, you saw the Seinfeld thing that like famously Seinfeld got pissed because he did his like unassuming thing and was like, hey, so you walked away from Seinfeld or whatever. And Jerry got mad. And Jerry was like, what do you mean? How do you not know this? I'm one of the most successful. Do you know who I am? It was kind of a bit. But also like I think Jerry was kind of pissed. You can't do that. You can't do that thing if you're me. Like when I have Matthew McConaughey on, if I'm just asking him questions. like I've never seen one of his movies or like what do you do for a living it doesn't work the same when you're sitting in the chair like he is the guy dude you can do that and I think I think it's brilliant and it's great lesson it's one of those things like when when some I think it's about picking your spots with with with shorter questions as I'm thinking out loud and taking you behind the curtain of a moderately decent interviewer who's trying to be good at it

it. I think it's probably pick your spots, try to maximize the short questions. But it's one of those things where people are like, Julius Pepper is the best rusher, like, I don't know, I'm just using a name or Lawrence Taylor. No, I'll give you one. Von Miller, best pass rusher of our generation. You should watch some Von Miller tape. I'm like, yeah, let me just do that thing where I just duck under the tackle's arms and touch the ground. Like, it's just, you know, you can take things from people's game, but it's hard to replicate. And Larry King, golly, just so likable.

I mean, everybody sat down and seemed like they really, really liked him and felt comfortable. I watched the CNN thing on it the other night. Yeah, it's just a shame. He actually dropped into our interview with George R.R. Martin, like a year ago, one of my first interviews. Actually, it was my, holy shit. So we went up to New York the first time. when we were trying to do the fishbowl series,

which we have some great interviews there on fishbowl, but we just didn't know what the hell had to like, you know, push them out or whatever. You know, I had Aaron Donald on for an hour. I don't even know if I want to direct you to this stuff because I was such a bad interviewer. You're probably like, yeah, you're not great now. But like a year ago, all the difference in the world

just doing this for a year, I'm almost afraid to direct you to old content. but Larry King dropped into one of the interviews like on Skype to address something that George R. Martin was talking about with his favorite baseball team and they were talking about the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Hey Chris and George 195 one of the best years of my life a lifelong Dodger fan and you know what I went through before 1955 we kept getting beat by the Yankees And then came 1955. I was 21 and a half years old, followed the Dodgers thoroughly,

and then that wonderful day when they won the World Series. Johnny Padres, who I came to know pretty well later in life, pitched a magnificent game, shut them out two to nothing, Sandy Amros makes that crazy catch in left field, turns it into a double play, and in the bottom of the ninth inning, when the Yankees came to bat,

All of us Dodger fans said, they're going to win, they're going to do something. The Yankees always did something. And wacko. Two minutes, the inning was over. And we won two nothing. There was the parade. I went to the parade. It was just a great moment in my life.

195. Two years later, I would move to Florida to break into broadcasting and the Dodgers would move to L.A. And a whole new chapter in their existence. but there was nothing like Brooklyn and nothing like the Dodgers. I mean, that's just cool. I mean, I'm really thankful he did that.

I mean, it took him two seconds, but still, the guy's the man. And yeah, that was the first interview, so that's cool. I'll show that to my kids one day when they know what to make of it. Somebody asked me, would you rather fight one bare size

to Keem Hicks or 100 ducks, size Akeem Hicks. I mentioned that earlier, that Akeem Hicks was going to come up again. See, this is a funny one because Akeem Hicks is the size of a bear now. So you're just asking,

ducks are terrifying. And geese and shit? This is a well-beaten path, but I could talk all day about how scary they are. I could talk all day about the Canadian goose that used to attack me in the parking lot in St. Louis.

They're my guys. path was right through the Rams parking lot in our city. Like if you go to National Geographic, they draw a red line when they fly south. I don't know. I think that's what the geese do, like normal birds. They fly right over St. Louis. Have to.

I know that's probably not how it is. I'm just fucking around. But every morning, like literally you'd park a certain time of year and there would be a goose between you and that door. And it was like that that curb episode with the

with the black swan. And Larry David kills the country club guys swan. Like that was how aggressive these things were. So I don't know. Are we talking about

Canadian geese or like small ducks? If we're talking about small ducks, I don't know because like you know, if they're duck size of Kim Hicks, Akeem Hicks's, they got opposable thumbs and stuff and they can scale you and they can, you know, strategize. Like they're not ducks. Like these are Akeem Hicks.

I guess I'm understanding the question. I guess I'm, fuck no, dude. I'm taking my chances with, I fear no man. Even though Akeem Hicks is a large individual, I know him and my brother have gotten in real fights. Akeem Hicks and Kyle Long That's a That's a dust up

That's a little scuffle there That's one that people are I mean you're You're risking your Your livelihood trying to break that one up I um Yeah I'll take my chances with the real Akeem Hicks over a hundred

Just math It's simple math really I'd have one duck size the Keem Hicks on my shoulder. I'd have another one on the back of my neck. I'd have a duck size of Keem Hicks scaling my calf and you let them get you on the ground. Yeah, nah. Be a slow death. You know what that'd be like? That'd be like the scene when redacted almost dies in Walking Dead, but he actually doesn't die. You remember that? If you've seen the thing got bad after a little while. But one of the last episodes I saw, one of the main characters,

got pinned between a fence and like a trailer, and they just overran him. Like most of them die in that show. But that's what it would be like. And the shot would be of you just lifeless on the ground and 100 duck size, Akeem Hicks would just be, like just fucking you up, dude.

Yeah. Let me get the 360 pound. I googled today what he weighs. He's not slick. Keem Higgs is not slick. That dude weighs 360 pounds. He plays with no gloves, dude. No gloves.

No gloves. Absolute beast. How much water is too much water? I don't know. I've said this before in the pod. I knew somebody growing up a kid at school, one of their relatives died from drinking too much water. We don't talk about it a lot.

I don't like to bring that up a lot because I am the hydration king I'm a hydrated king Tom Segura he says he's a water guy I'm not moved by that at all I don't feel threatened at all I'm holding so much piss in right now

Tom Segura if this gets back to you I've had to piss all day I have a camelback I got one of those things I'm a side sleeper a whole night nozzle right there

you're sleeping I'm hydrating how much water's too much water I don't know go find out this is going to be fucked up somebody's going to drink too much water I'm going to be hit with a wrongful death lawsuit

we got to read something like a draft king's ad read at the end of this fucking thing 18 and older I can't even do it but you know like some sort of you got to sign a release I don't know

but yeah there's no such thing as too much water somebody asked me how much water I drink while I get asked that a lot about 175 ounces a day if I'm not working out

not gonna lie I haven't had enough water today 30 minutes on the bike 40 minutes of of lifting weights I'm probably sitting at about 100 right now it's not good in all seriousness

this 175 ounces is probably the goal. And about weightlifting, man, I got some mean-spirited comments on my Draft King's post the other night. Here I am breaking my back, trying to feed my family recording a Draft King selfie video. Okay? Do you know what the hardest thing in sports media is? Selfie videos.

The hardest thing in the world. Okay, 26 takes. And that was an easy one, okay? 26 takes. So I propped the phone up on a lamp, against the lamp. And the angle's not great, makes me look a little skinny, I guess. You know, whatever. My next little skinny, I don't do a lot of neck work.

I kind of couldn't turn my head the entire last year of my career. You know, like, so fuck off. I haven't lived in like, I've lived a very unsafe life. So take that into account Next kind of skinny I'm looking a little skinny I got people in my Now I've lost a little weight since I played

I got people in my fucking mentions Like just tearing me to pieces Being really mean spirit One guy said I looked like Jared Leto My eyes were sunken And in his profile It's his actor And I was like

What do you think Slimmer Me or your IMDB but I'm bummed. But we were just having fun, right? Actually, he says he's a day one listener, so I appreciate you. I'm just busting balls like you were. But some of the women on there talking to me about,

I look too skinny, you look too skinny, like with a period at the end. Like the social media team whose team just lost, you look too skinny, period. you look unhealthy period oh my gosh is it open season can i ask too i didn't know i was allowed to can i ask that's some that's some pretty hypocritical shit now okay making me like objectifying me like that telling me you know that i i got to weigh a certain way like a like body is that body shaming I try

Jolly I'm 250 pounds okay because you know why because I was like I do look kind of skinny let me go hop on my little scale in the bathroom okay got home from doing the pod Sunday night two three in the morning I read these comments

I'm like these motherfuckers I get on a scale I'm 252 now okay you know what I played at my last year in Philly maybe like 255 some days I was in the low 250s so your boy hadn't lost that much weight

you just didn't realize how skinny I was out there just catching bodies built like David Gagins out here what does he say what's his thing stay hard I'm just staying hard dude you guys want to body shaming I'm just staying hard all right did 30 minutes on the bike today

get on my level get on my level threw some weights around but I don't like that body shame and shit it's just the audacity of somebody to come to an ex-player's page and just driven strictly out of compulsion

you need to look the way I'm used to you looking like kind of bitch at him in the comments I mean I'm I'm a little fucking yeah I'm worked up up over this now. I told my wife about it. You know I'm worked up about something when I tell my wife about it. Like, you know, like when you're like, hey, these people said a mean thing to me. I'm not that

skinny. I've always had a problem keeping on weight guys. So maybe it's just 15 plus years, including college football. In college, bro, I was two, like I'm 250 pounds just walking around. You're calling me Jared Leto and I weigh 250 pounds. How heavy are my bones? You know what I my dad looks tiny now because he can't lift weights his body's too fucked up like you know the thing I was saying about my neck well you know my dad like he has 18 different things that he's like yeah it's just not going to be real jacked because I don't lift weights because I you know can't move my right arm or my shoulder you know like my dad's walking around at 255 dude it's like skullway is probably 75 pounds.

You know, my brother carries his weight well. We're just, we're big bone, man. But the audacity is say, you used to be 270. I need you to look 270 all the time for me, even in retirement, even though it increases your chances like sleep apnea, high blood

pressure, all these things. You look kind of skinny, dude. You look kind of skinny, dude. Somebody asked me, Andy Reed, in a fight, at 50 or Big Cat. Mike asked me this. Yeah, dude, it's Andy Reed at 50. Andy Reid right now would give Big Cat to business.

Big Cat's not even Big Cat anymore. Big Cat's like Slim Cat. He's not slim, thick cat. He's not Big Cat. He's just regular-sized cat. Andy Reed in a phone booth? You can't get away? Andy Reid is kicking.

Yeah, Dan's. fans going down. Yeah, that's, listen, hopefully you enjoyed the pod, a lot of serious, a lot of mailbag, but something for midweek

for you guys. Friday, we'll be back. We're going to do a lot more football, a lot more, you know, X's and O's

and looking forward to the game. So you'll get that, and we'll see you then.