Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Playoff Scenarios. Dwayne Haskins, The WFT & The Media. What's Next For Cam Newton.

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

(00:39) - Welcome, How NOT to Respond to Screw up 'Merry Christmas,' and Songs for a Campfire. (44:17) - Washington Football Team and Dwayne Haskins Talk. (1:29:50) - Chris on NFL Playoff Scenarios. 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

Wednesday. Why do I look like a hairless cat? What not to say to somebody when they wish you a Merry Christmas? Also, what is waking up early in the NFL really mean? Where's Cam Newton headed next year? Bougars take, Dwayne Haskins, Daniel Snyder. And finally, the reason football is king, week 17, full of drama. We'll get into all that in just a second. Today afternoon, everybody. This is the Greenlight Pod. I'm your host, Chris Long. I don't know. I guess there's a lot going on. It feels like the calm before the storm.

The Dwayne Haskins news kind of blew up this week. So that's something we're going to hit. Definitely going to hit sleep schedules for NFL players. You guys seem to enjoy that with the Cam Newton graphic 4.20 a.m. alarm clock every morning in Foxboro. That's got to be something. Spoiler alert. I don't wake up that early.

Never have. And that's okay. It's okay. The cam wakes up that early. It's okay that I don't like waking up early. Work ethic and attention in detail does not demand a super early wake up, contrary to a lot of people's beliefs. Listen, I'm not saying Cam's doing this, but one of the biggest trends on the Internet is telling people how early you wake up. I mean, like, listen, you guys are not David Goggins.

I know that like, it's just not healthy to sleep four hours a night. Okay. I'll get into that in a few. Also, as I mentioned, it's not just, it's not just Haskins. Bougar made some news this week, Bougar McFarland in the wake of the Dwayne Haskins release. And Dan Snyder, that cloud continues to loom large over the Washington football team. And as I said, it's all coming together here. So I want to go through the playoff outlook real quick and then we'll get out of here.

And then I'll be back Friday with Stanford Steve and Macon, Power Pot. We'll do some gambling. We'll dive into the playoffs a little bit more and we'll do a big fat mailbag and more. It should be a good pot. New Year's, New Year's Day pot, actually. So we'll probably do some resolutions and shit like that, you know, like every other show or podcast in America this week. We'll just do it better. First off, happy birthday, Marcus Higgins.

Yesterday, my man turned, what, 38? I don't know. He's getting older. I shouldn't say that. But a wide receiver coach of Virginia, one of my best buddies, play with him at Virginia. and he was, that's my quarterback, Q the T.O. GIF. Actually, I have two quarterback birthdays, two T.O. GIF quarterback birthdays this week. Carson Wentz is today. Happy birthday, Carson Wentz. Also, my dude, I know everybody's doing this.

You know, like, you do a birthday post for Carson Wentz, or Carson Wentz post a picture of his family, and I go through the comments, and it's just a bunch of idiots. Like, there's a time and a place to tell Carson, Wence that he's playing poorly. Also, I don't think he needs you to tell him in the comments under the picture of his beautiful family or a birthday post that the Eagles post. But that's neither here nor there. Happy birthday, Carson Wentz. And happy birthday, Marcus Hagan's. As I was saying, dude, Biscuit, as we called him at Virginia. And anybody that's a UVA fan knows him as such, was one of the most electric players I ever played with

and one of the, had one of the biggest hearts, still has one of the biggest hearts, that you'd ever see in a football player. I mean, he was just fucking tough as nails. And he's somebody that I count as one of my favorite teammates of all time. The Florida State game, if, you know,

I guess it was 2006, I was a sophomore. Florida State was like number four in the country, I want to say. And they came into Charlottesville. We were unranked. And Marcus is quarterback. You know, we've got Heath Miller, who that's who Heath caught all his college balls from, had a bunch of good tight ends. We had a really physical group, but we weren't Florida State.

And Marcus just torched these guys. Torched him. I remember before the game, Ernie Sims came over to the sideline. Ernie Sims was a hell of a, hell of a player. I mean, he was a missile. The backer for Florida State played in Detroit as well. Talk about that. You play college ball at Florida State and that day and then get drafted by the lions. Talk about a culture shock, like an atmosphere shock. You know, like perpetually 85, 90 degrees, humid, palm trees, that sort of thing.

Detroit, you know, like urban tumbleweeds and shit like that, vacant buildings, 32 on the regular. Canada's right up there. Big difference. Also, Andre Flewellyn, I think, made that jump as well. if you remember Andre Flewellyn. But anyways, Ernie Sims walks over to our sideline. This was in Charlottesville. This is one, a night game. This was a huge game. And it was, I believe it was the 10-year anniversary, which now seems like ancient history,

of work done being stopped short of the goal line in Scott Stadium by one Anthony Poindexter, who was another one of my favorite Virginia football players of all time. He is my favorite Virginia football player of all time. Anthony Poindexter had he not gotten hurt. And he came back for his senior year, he tore his ACL ended up with the Ravens and bounced around a little bit but he probably would have been still playing had he been able to stay healthy and the travesty of it was you know here's this guy who makes that famous tackle at the goal line stops work done short huge Virginia upset victory

I mean just this no pun intended a seminal moment for our program dude, Ricky Williams said when, you know, Ricky was at Texas, he's the best football player he played against. That's how good Anthony Pointexter was. But anyways, that game happened in the 90s. And so we had this 10-year anniversary and Biscuit just went out and torched these guys. But before the game, Ernie Sims came over the sideline. We got about 100 recruits there standing on the sideline. And Ernie Sims is walking up and down the sideline talking shit to our recruits. And he's telling our recruits, you guys are dummies. You should be in Tallahassee, etc. like that's kind of a rarity in college football,

a guy on the field recruiting for his own head coach who at the time was Bobby Bowden, I guess, and running up and down the opponent's sideline. I mean, and the house was packed. Marcus Higgins went off October 15th, 2005, Virginia 26, Florida State, 21, and Biscuit had a hell of a day. Had a hell of a day. Go watch his highlights.

Marcus Hagen's is shorter. Okay, sorry, Biscuit. If you do listen to POD, sometimes he's like five foot, 10 out, put him at six foot in shoes. The fucking guy can sling a football, like 100 yards. Like, he had like a mini Josh Allen thing going on. And his hands span, his hands are bigger than mine. I mean, this guy's got paws.

Like, he, you know, my kids absolutely love Biscuit. and Biscuit's kids are like best friends with my kids, so he's over, you know, as much as he can be, not so much in the pandemic, but you know how some people pick up your kid and you're nervous as fuck because you're like, don't drop the kid. I don't get nervous with Biscuit. I mean, he's got hands like catchers mitts. I remember when Al Groh, my college coach, as a very fitting aside before we move on, came over for the first time I met Waylon at my house in Charlottesville.

he was casually slinging my kid around. And I'm like, coach, here's the guy that told me to be, you know, be detail oriented and attentive and all this shit, you know, my entire career. And I love him for it at Virginia. And I'm sitting there in my living room 10 years later. And I want to be like, coach, you know, two hands on the football here. I mean, he's just swinging him around like nobody's business.

Biscuit on the other hands, safe hands. go look up his handspan. I don't know if they have that. I don't know if they recorded that at the pro day, but one of the best college football players I ever saw. And in addition to that, you think of all the shorter quarterbacks who didn't fit the mold, like shorter athletic quarterbacks who didn't fit the mold,

could really throw the ball, but could do all those things back in that day, which sounds like I'm old, I'm dating myself. And Biscuit did play in the pros for a couple years. He played in St. Louis and Baltimore and Kansas City. Actually, it's funny, we were really tight at Virginia. And then my first preseason in St. Louis, the plane ride back from Kansas City.

And this is when I realized the business is so fucked up, you know, they cut a bunch of guys on the plane. And one of my best buddies is one of them. So, you know, like planes in the air, you land and, you know, we take off. You think maybe you got a shot and they cut you on the plane. It's like Biscuit played a few years in the NFL. But I think had he come out now, he's. would be looked at a lot closer as possibly the type of quarterback that you can count on helping your franchise. So happy birthday biscuit. He was an unbelievable football player. I was watching

some biscuit highlights last night. I don't pump your head up too much, buddy, if you're listening. I do look like, I look kind of fucked up this week. I had an accident with the Clippers. if any of you out there over the pandemic or any other time to try to cut your own hair, it's difficult, right? I tried to get a little fancy. I tried to, like, taper my own sides, like, on impulse. I don't know what it is about sometimes.

You just need a haircut really bad, and you can't wait a day or two, let alone a couple months until, like, your favorite barber shops open. But, like, I just went upstairs, take a shower, and on impulse cut my hair and came down looking like Dr. Evil's cat. I came down looking like Mr. Bigglesworth or whatever the fuck he was called.

I mean, what happens is first you go too hard on the sides and then you think, ah, you know what? I just want to shave my head. That would be like really comfortable and probably it would feel light. It would feel like real airy to not have a bunch of hair on my head. That sounds cool. And then you shave your head and you really look stupid. Okay.

I look younger. I look like a kid. And here's the worst part. I was like, okay, if I have a, you know, a shaved head and I'm thinning and winning a little bit, right? I mean, the invisible barber, he's, he's on my tail, but not, it's not terrible. You know, it's just the short hair is not as forgiving. I'm going to be wearing hats a lot. And some of you're saying, like, well, I never see you when you're not in the hat. Well, nothing's going to change. The only thing that's changed is I thought, hey, you look kind of

dumb with the short haircut. What you need when you have a dumb short haircut is you need a nice beard, right? So I needed to taper my beard a little bit and like, you know, do the lines. and stuff. Well, I fucked that up too. I was just having an implosion-type day at the office and ended up with a like shaved face. And I haven't had a shaved face in a while. So look like a hairless cat. Certainly feel younger, but I feel kind of stupid. Boy, am I glad I don't have to like go out and see people right now. One of the most embarrassing things has happened to me. Actually, another thing that's really embarrassing that's happened to me lately, I wanted to share with you guys and I forgot to do it on Sunday night. I don't know about you guys, but Christmas text and

Christmas is over. So I'm by no means wishing you guys a Merry Christmas. This is far too late to do that. But Christmas texts come in, you know, in ways. And on Christmas, you're busy. You've got kids. You're watching football. You might be doing some work to get ahead if you want your content provider. I mean, content doesn't sleep, right? So, you know, Christmas, Thanksgiving, shit like that. I mean, I'm all about the text, but there's kind of a rule. If you don't get a text from somebody, they can't be mad. You didn't text them. So if you wake up stressed on Christmas because you're like, damn, all these people I got texts, just put the phone down. If you don't, and certainly, I'm not saying you shouldn't reach out to people, tell them how much you love them, and you're thankful

for them. But if you've got hundreds of contacts in your phone and there are like people that you care about all over the country and you might forget some people, maybe just put the phone down and respond to the people that hit you up, which is probably a bad policy because nobody would spread holiday cheer. But you're not culpable if you don't get a text. Like there's no case for you being an asshole if you don't get a text yourself. So, you know, late Christmas, late Thanksgiving a lot of times. Like I'll text some people. when it's on my mind or whatever, if we're talking about something else, happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, happy holidays.

You know, I try to get my happy Hanukas out to folks that I know are Jewish. And, you know, you get a bunch of texts on Christmas, but in a panic, you text everybody back. That doesn't mean you don't wish everybody that's texted you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of your heart. It's just that the kids are running around. You've been on your phone. Your wife thinks you're gambling.

Your wife thinks you're on Twitter. No, I'm just answering 40 text messages. Well, I got one from a friend who is Jewish. And if you've ever been in an airport, and I've talked about this before, everybody knows the feeling. Most people know the feeling if they'll admit it, you walk up to the gate agent, you get your ticket. Gate agent says, have a nice flight. well if you're a moron like me at least three times in your life you've said you too which is natural right i mean it's just like it's like a it's like a response that's ingrained in your brain but

obviously the gate agent isn't hopping on the plane and going anywhere with you gate agents staying there all day so i like to think of this situation as you know around christmas when you get a text from a friend who is Jewish, hey, Merry Christmas, man. This is like that have a nice flight, you two at the gate, with higher stakes, okay? Depending on the friend, it's not going to go over so well. I assume if you get a Merry Christmas text from a buddy who just wrapped up Hanukkah

and you didn't text because you forgot and you say, you too, okay? I did that over Christmas. I did it to one, Dave Damashek. It was probably the best person to do it to because Dave Damashek is the man and he's got a great sense of humor and he knows I'm an idiot. But Dave texted me Merry Christmas and I did the U-2. I did the gate agent thing with higher stakes. And I wasn't even thinking about it because I was in one of these speed reply situations. But of course, immediately after I want Dave's best pick Sunday because me and Dave talk gambling every week probably.

him and Jeff Schwartz, Jeff, me, Dave, we're always sending each other, I feel like, our favorite picks for the week. So I'm asking him, you know, who he likes this weekend. The guy, he's probably thinking, has the audacity to wish me a Merry Christmas and then ask me for my favorite game of the week. And so he replies, my gold star,

which my Jewish gold star pick of the week, is I think how he put it, is redacted because I don't remember what the pick was because I was just, I sat there in horror as I looked down on my phone like, oh, he's reminding me, hey, idiot, I'm actually Jewish. And then the worst part is I was like, oh, my God, dude, I'm so sorry. I'm just in a rampage answering text, blah, blah, blah. I didn't get a text back.

I asked him another question. I didn't get a text back for like 48 hours. So I'm panicking. Well, then I get a random text from Dave and he's like, oh, dude, I totally forgot to text you back blah blah blah like x y and z and i'm like oh whew but that shit is scary if you've never done the u2 thing uh with a holiday wish cross denomination it's not a good feeling last non football shout out uh i had a you know it's it's not too cold to to build a fire at night and i love sitting by the fire. So, you know, get my kids into sitting by the fire and that sort of thing

has been great, except for the time when I tried to explain to Whalen, the immense responsibility of sitting by a bonfire, you know, entails knowing how dangerous fire is. Trying to explain it to him, trying to explain it to him. So he gets up to go do some. It's dark out. And he runs by the fire pit. And I'm like, yo, dude, we just talked about this. Come back here, sit down and show me how you walk carefully around the fire pit. He doesn't get it, Meg. You know, I'm talking to Meg. I'm trying to instill wisdom into my son without being overbearing. But if there's a place to be overbearing, it's by the fire. Well, mom takes Waylon and Luke in to start getting ready for bed, and I get to sit out by the fire for a few minutes and do dad stuff by the fire.

I come back inside. And at this point, I just have been doing dad stuff by the fire. And the first thing Whalen greets me at the door with is, Mama showed me pictures of people who have been burnt by fire. Meg, wife alert. Not sure. You pulled out the big guns, huh? Like, it wasn't enough to just convey to him

that but she's probably right you know like that is not a place you pull punches so that was that was a little bit jarring for me walking in from uh from the porch so to speak uh but it's pretty effective i think he he understands what's at stake down there mom doesn't fuck her out wife alert um secondly sitting by the fire one of my favorite campfire and i've you know i think we did this once in the pod before. My favorite campfire albums is a redheaded stranger. It's a Willie Nelson album. It's a concept album.

It's made up a lot of his stuff and covers and that sort of thing. And it's threaded together to kind of tell a story. It's one of the best albums of all time. Okay. I'm in love with the album. Two weeks ago, I drove around on a sunny day for 34 minutes about because that's how long the album is. And I listened to it front to back.

listening to an album front to back is very good for your ADD. It's also kind of how it's supposed to be done. And the minute you get a record player, you realize that even more, that you are totally capable of listening to albums front to back. It's something you don't do enough in this day and age. So I'm sitting by the fire and I'm listening to Redhead Stranger. And I love it.

And I just put it on my story and I say, this is 33 minutes, 41 seconds of perfection because it is. Most people don't know what the album, you know, some Willie fans know exactly who it is and what it is. And then a few people pointed out that, dude, the album's 33 minutes, 41 seconds, 41 33. That was the score of the Super Bowl. So shout out to Byrds fans pointing out that the score of our Super Bowl is essentially the same is the times, you know, the time stamp on Redheaded Stranger, one of my favorite albums of all time. just flip it 41 33 would have been a little bit better we'd get like seven minutes more of willie and all his brilliance but uh i'm good with 33 41 the significance is still there it's a pretty

cool realization um that was monday night and what what else happened monday night is the patriot's officially closed shop i mean you know they were it was over a week ago we talked about um kind of of that changing of the guard a little bit. There was like a changing of the guard last year with Kansas City and the power struggle. And you talk about Kevin Harlan's big moment. That was a year ago today, actually. I saw that where he called two games at once. He called the Kansas City game. And I think the Miami game at once, Miami, New England, because they were, they were important as it, as it pertain to home field advantage. If you know New England, home field advantage is so important to them up there. And so they lost it the same day Kansas City won it. And

it all happened in like a couple minutes. And it was just this surreal moment that you were like, this feels like a changing of the guard. Okay, like Kansas City is finally getting over the hump. They just won in New England for the first time. Like there's a power shift in the AFC. Well, we had another one of those moments that was more ironic than anything. I don't know if ironic's the word.

Let me not be the one to butcher the word ironic. It would be the millionth person today. It was funny when you look at it, but not funny like I'm laughing. So don't take this the wrong way, Patriots fans, but, you know, New England gets eliminated, you know, right as Tom Brady completes a comeback and one that Patriots fans should be familiar with because it was against the Falcons, but he was wearing a different uniform. So they clinched. But anyway, so, you know, the Patriots lose the dolphins. You know, I think that Sunday a week or two ago, it was to get, I think it was J.C. Jackson off his feet down by the goal line, runs in for a touchdown.

And down in Tampa, like moments later or earlier, Tom's completing that comeback. So here's the guy you saw leave. Here's what he's capable of. Here's what maybe we'd be capable of had he stayed. all that's happening at once. So they were cooked last week, but this ass kicking that they got on Monday from the bills who are right now playing as good as any team in the league, to be honest. I mean, we'll get to Kansas City a little bit.

I mean, this wasn't even close. And this was one of those funny things where he looked at the gamblers were leaning. All the money and all the bets were on the bills. So you're thinking, hmm, maybe it's the Pats. Well, I like the Bills, but maybe I got talked into taking the Pats for just a little bit. That was a bad move. Trust your fucking eyes. These guys right now are really good in Buffalo.

And they are a far cry from the team that, you know, was a Camp Newton fumble away from losing those guys earlier in the year. So the changing of the guard is complete. When's the last time? New England, I remember when it was a big deal that New England was even a dog in a football game and a regular season football game. That, of course, you know, had a lot to do with the departure of Tom Brady. But to be a touchdown plus dog in division, man, that's a different look. And then for people to be like, oh, Vegas was right.

Actually, Vegas was wrong. It's the same thing Will Brinson said. I'll echo this a couple weeks in a row. you know, when the Rams and the Pats were playing, I think it was fair to ask the question, how much, how big a dog do you think this Patriots team would be if you change the logo on the helmet? And, you know, you didn't know Bill was on the sideline.

They are no longer the Patriots, okay? It is a new football team. Yes, the bones are there. They've got tremendous leadership guys like Devin McCordy. They have a way of doing things. Lelichick is the goat, but you need players to win. And they don't have that right now, especially the quarterback position and the wide receiver position, too, to be fair to Cam.

But I think, you know, Cam, as I suspected earlier this year, his body's just not there. And I don't know if it comes back. I made a comment Monday night on Twitter. I said, hitting Cam is different. Okay, you just have to understand. I know you see Cam, you think big guy that must be tough, tough to sack him, tough to get him down. It's also just like it feels different than hitting a big back. Okay, I've hit, if tackle Brandon Jacobs, not as bad as you would think.

Stephen Jackson, I'm glad I didn't have to tie. I tackled him once in my career. Actually, I was going through some old film the other day, just being nostalgic. I'm not, I'm not sad football's done going through old film. But I found the one tackle I had on my longtime buddy, Stephen Jackson, the guy who ran by me every day in practice because we don't tackle in practice. But every time Stephen Jackson ran by you, you would feel the wind. And you were supposed to just like, you know when you hear like a deer running through the woods? That's how it sounded without the leaves when Stephen Jackson will run by.

But it was like more like a pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat. You know, like, and then you felt a whoosh, like, and you felt a mass, like, as if you were standing on the highway. Okay, I never, I tackled him once in Atlanta, but it was a TFL. He didn't get a big head of steam and I had help. And, you know, I still fell kind of backwards. You know, Marshawn Lynch, I've tackled him a bunch, probably as much as any, like, big back that I've tackled because he was in division.

I've talked about how difficult he was to bring down, but it was a thing where you just felt his balance. People just kind of fell off him. It didn't hurt so much. It just was that he didn't move a lot when you ran into him, right? He was just strong and he had amazing balance, amazing balance. People would just fall off him, including big people. Like I remember one time I jumped on Marshaun Lynch's back.

at home. And I hit him for like a one-yard gain. But because I was running up behind him, I jumped on his back. He wore me like a Jansport for like six yards. And so as I'm riding him like a cape, I'm thinking to myself, holy shit, this is going to look bad on film.

Can somebody at the second level like stop this guy's force because all I'm doing is carrying his momentum forward? Man, that was the longest six yards my life. But Marshawn Lynch, as hard as he is to tackle, it doesn't hurt to tackle Marshawn Lynch. Adrian Peterson, big collisions, right? Like, that's a shoulder pop. I feel like, you know, like he's somebody that you hit him. It's going to really, it's going to hurt your shoulder. When you hit Cam Newton, it's a different kind of thud. It's like it's not forgiving at all and he's made of concrete.

Like he's made a fucking concrete dude. He is a 250 pound dude that is made of concrete. And he's also probably, I've decided, and this might piss some, quote-unquote, football purists off, the toughest quarterback I ever faced. Toughest. I'm looking at him now. I'm seeing what he's been through. I'm seeing the beating that he's been through.

you know, what he's what he's subjected himself to this year. And then throughout his career behind battle lines, running the football fearlessly to be a real part of your quarterback run, you know, quarterback run being a real part of what you do and scaring the shit out of people. Like that dude's tough, man. Like, and just watching his face on the field. Like my favorite thing about watching Cam is like that Cam smirk. Like you didn't hurt me.

You can't hurt me. get out of here. I'm not worried about you. He's just got that he's got some shit to him that I really like about him. And of course it happened because I think it was Poir came down and laid a lick on him on the sideline. And Porter hit the deck and left the game. I mean, he's one of those guys that you're not really going to hurt him. Like how many times do you see Cam get up like really slow in the open field. I'm talking about running the football. Cam doesn't get hurt in the moment he hits you because that's what's happening. The attrition catches up to him. And I really believe the attrition has caught up to him. And I think the hard thing, you know, going forward is going to be

for him because I don't think he's going back in New England unless he wants to stay and be a package guy. He has to do next year. And I know this is, I'm, you know, like, listen, he doesn't have a lot of weapons around him. Yeah, that's true. But taking his age into account, do you really think it'd be in the physical condition and what you see of him throwing the football, which I believe is because of his foot? And you might be laughing. And you'd be like, well, he throws with his arm. Well, if you're not a moron, you know, that like the entire chain is involved. And I'm not saying he was ever like pinpoint accurate. But what you've seen this year, is different. We talked about this a couple months ago. Cam has to probably consider what he wants

how to football going forward, which kind of like it sucks, but it happens to everybody, right? You know, late in your career, you take roles that you don't love. And when you're a position player, you know, at a position of depth, you can go be on a contender and be a quote unquote depth guy guy that doesn't run out of tunnel. Like when I was in Philly, yeah, I didn't start, but, you know, I was the third end and I played a ton. And a defensive line, you know, like I was probably just as well, I was as well being a starter because I was out there for every third down. And, and that's what I got some decent amount, I got a decent amount of snaps. But like when you're a D-Lyman, you can take those lesser roles on a good team. And it makes sense because you want to win.

for him to be on a really good team next year because I'm sure he still wants to ring. I'm sure he still wants to rectify his career. You got to make a decision maybe between the two. And I don't know if he's going to have a choice, honestly, because I'm having a hard time picturing a team that's going to be like, yeah, that guy's my starting quarterback. Not just because of what we're seeing,

but because of factoring in that what we're seeing has to do with his health and the attrition of all those hits over the years. and acute injury is like like the foot. Do you think another year is going to get it right? Do you think he's going to get any healthier? And if you have to start, you know, big betting him, and I'm not comparing the two players, but if you have to start putting him in situations

where he's not getting hit as much, that takes away like his right hook, dude. Like his power punch is being able to tuck it and run somebody over the quarterback run game. So if you're going to take care of him to get him healthier, what's his game look like at this point? I think he's looking at a situation where he's probably going to have to spend a year as a backup, or possibly he might be able to find a prove it type deal, but I don't see that happening. I think honestly, Cam might be one of these people that he's so important to a team.

he is not like it's almost a disservice to him to have him just be a backup quarterback and I'm treading carefully because I'm not saying he can't play quarterback fucking guy's been an MVP at this point physically I don't know if he can play quarterback if I'm somebody evaluating talent because of what he's incurred from playing as physical as he's played all these years like I said every collision I've had one there's only been a couple I told I told a story on on Monday on Twitter where Cam Newton, I had a clean shot on him in Carolina in 17. I beat Khalil with a chop club,

just dropped him. I have a free run at Cam Newton. It's on the right side. I'm like, I don't even rush well on the right side. I'm like miserable when I'm over there. And it's like playing left handed for me. And I got this clean run at Cam.

And so like usually I would go for the ball. right but I don't want to miss the sack not getting the ball in retrospect that should have just gone for the ball so I go to wrap him up and hit him right in his back and try to drive him into the ground but he's so big it doesn't quite go that well and I kind of like gator tackle him where you know I'm kind of rolling him onto the ground I know some people are going to say gator tackle I heard that's dirty well it's dirty if you do what the kid in Dallas did earlier this year to Chris Carson or something but like the rolling of somebody to get them on the ground is not a dirty act inherently. So I'm rolling Cam. And what happens when you roll Cam is Cam lands on you. And I'll never

forget the thought of hearing, like, he landed on me. And in that, like, he cracked my rib. He fractured my rib. I had a fractured rib because of Cam Newton landed on me. Hit him later in the game on the sideline on a QB run. It's not just the physicality of you hitting Cam. And the fact that he's made of cinder blocks. It just trust me, it feels different when you hit him. It's like an unforgiving thing. It's like a thud. It's like hitting a tree is the way I put it.

But it's also all the other people on defense that know that they're coming downhill to hit that tree. So it's this convergence of everybody taking their best shot. Not to mention he's a quarterback. So you get him out of the game because you hit him too hard. You know, it's not going to hurt your team's chances anymore. And I'm not talking about bounty gate shit. I'm just talking about when a quarterback tucks.

and run it, you try to, you try to light him up, right? That's what everybody on the field is doing. And everybody's doing that out of, you know, fundamentals and football, but also, like, I got to bring my A game. So everybody's bringing the wood. And so all those collisions hurt. And all this time, like, if they hurt us, imagine over time how they hurt Cam Newton. And so I just fear that his body as a thrower,

because it is such a technical thing that he did well for so many years, obviously that skill is dissipating a bit. Could he be like one of these guys that, you know, is it in New Orleans? Is it, hey, we're going to have 20 plays a game for you. Like your Taysam Hill, but a different Taysam Hill. Is it a team that's using him in packages where he's not as much a quarterback? I don't know, man.

I'm certainly not saying Cam Cam. play quarterback anymore. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying, though, is that talent evaluators see that the physical is affecting, you know, his abilities as a thrower. He's not the same, he's not the same bursty guy anymore. I described this yesterday as somebody as he's more lumbering, but that motherfucker's lumbering still. So I think it's just going to be interesting to see what his future is in a league. I've said it before. Coming out of the season, I've got more respect for Cam than I ever did. I think he's been amazingly accountable.

I think he's never pointed the finger at anybody in New England. And he, and nor should he, because his play hasn't been great either. But there's, there's a lot to, to come away from this year and be proud of yourself on if you're Camden. Because when you talk to guys in that locker room, they love him. And yeah, the struggles are real. But wherever he's going to be next year, I think he's proven. and one of the big things this year is he's proven. You can't say he's not, he doesn't handle adversity well.

Okay? Can't say it. Not enough for this year. So he's not going to be, he's going to be good for your team. He can help a football team win in a multitude of ways in an age of playing quarterback or being a backup or being your bridge guy. He just might have to,

I think it's going to come down to what Cam wants with football from here on now. Because I'm just, telling you, 2015 is not happening again. And I know that I'd love to be wrong and I'd love to be old takes exposed and that sort of thing. But like, that's not a slight on Cam. If he can control it, he would, but you can't control your health. Not at this stage. So pulling for Cam, I think actually, New England, I would look at drafting a guy if they can't get, you know, their guy in a stafford. I think it's all going to come down to who Bill loves in the evaluation process, who love in the evaluation process is Trey Lance there, you know, where they pick something like that.

They're going to play that close to the vest. We won't know anything until draft day. By the way, the thing about Cam Newton while it's in my head, the 420 in the morning wake up call, holy shit, dude. There is no need to wake up that early. There's no need to wake up that early. You need sleep. Get the same things. You can get the same things done at the building at night. I got pulled in the office once by Steve Spagnolo, who again was trying to get more out of me and didn't love me right off the bat in St. Louis, I have always been a last guy in the building guy. That's my admission. But you better believe I'm the last fucking car to leave the building. Okay. There's this concept in the NFL that you can't be a worker and you can't be attentive to detail.

if you're not an early riser. That's the dumbest shit ever. NFL players need sleep more than anyone, anyone. Since I retired, I do not need sleep. That's because my body was under siege for 11 years. And beyond that, as a college player, I used to sleep like 10 hours if I could. So with this 11 o'clock to 420 in the morning,

if that works for Cam Newton, great. So I'm not, I'm not dogging Dwayne Haskins for being the last guy in the building, but when you are the quarterback, there is a little bit of an image thing, right? Fair or not fair? And it'd be the same thing if it were Carson Wentz. You know, if Carson's stroll in the building at 758 or 755 like I am, nobody's going to care that he's there until 738 o'clock at night like I am, four hours after we leave the building.

when I was in St. Louis, if my meetings were at 8, had a 20-minute drive, my alarm went off at 7.13. 7.13, I was that obsessed with my sleep that I couldn't, you know, I need those extra three minutes. 7.10 just seemed too harsh. Seven definitely seemed way too harsh. I wasn't going to wake up before 7 a.m. And because the only reason you wake up before 7 a.m. is you got treatment. And they have you come in for treatment to actually get well at like 5.30 in the morning. dumbest shit ever. That's like an NFL staple. You get hurt, you get punished by coming in at like 5.30 in the morning. So you sleep less and sleep aids healing and recovery and you show up and you're half asleep and you ask them what they want to do to your strained calf or your bruise ribs or

your neck, which is really what would help your neck, which is which has been, I can't even turn my head my last year in Philly. The thing that would help your neck would be a a vet day. Of course, I never got hang of those motherfuckers. Some other people got vet days. I never got vet days in Philly. But like the thing that would help you would not be getting up at five in the morning or sleeping worse because you're stressed out and you know you got to get up in five hours. It would be having the day off, right? But that's not the way it goes in the NFL. So when I was in St. Louis, 20-minute drive to the facility out in North City and I lived in Clayton, I had it down to a science. 20-minute drive and you'd be out the door.

at six in six minutes, right? So that time would be allotted to getting my clothes that were like laid out like an elementary school kid, getting into the fridge, getting my cup of ground chicken, dude. No bullshit. I'd be driving down the highway eating a cup of ground chicken to save time and, you know, drinking a shake out the door. So I actually could sleep a little bit longer and get my meal in an efficient fashion. Cruise control, down I-70, slugging a protein shake.

eating a banana. I know it's dangerous, but that's the way it was. And I get to the building seven minutes before meeting started. Ask any of my teammates if I was a worker. I work hard and I'd stay late. But there's this thing in the NFL that if you stay late, the work doesn't count as much as if you show up early. It's the dumbest thing in the world. And I hope they're not making Cam Newton wake up that early because he's probably in treatment every week. Anyways, Patriots end their season against the Jets in one of the games. that have no playoff implications, but actually I'm going to be quite interested in that game

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But, you know, so that nobody. Oh, you bitched about Haskins, but you didn't bitch about Dan Snyder. I've been bitching about Dan Snyder for my entire life, like most Americans. Okay. Including over the summer, we covered it on the pod. When that, when the plethora of evidence came out to signal that it's totally broken. and has been in Washington. And also, before the year, one of my bold predictions,

which maybe ends up being bold after all, is that Dan Satter doesn't survive the year as the owner of the Washington football team. I should have known. Get them out of there, man. Like, I'm all about due process and all that stuff, like innocent until proven guilty as an individual, but what we're talking about here is institutional control. And I'm also not stupid.

There's a bunch of smoke here. I mean, we're talking about what surfaced last week, the million-plus dollar payoff of an employee who also got a recommendation letter and was fired after levying accusations against Dan Snyder on a private plan. Sexual misconduct. Sounds like a lot of things going on in Washington. If you're a player, you get cut for bad performance. If you're a coach, if enough players perform bad, it's your ass. Okay, Dan Snyder's team is the front office, not just who's on the field. It's the front office.

Everything under him, especially the front office. And everything that came out over the summer alone, the NFL should be looking hard because that's institutional control. That's his team. Everybody else in the NFL gets fired when shit like that happens. Now, I also don't want to make headlines, honestly, because this. rich people's goons kind of scare me. Not even going to front. Rich people's goons kind of scare me.

I don't, I'm calling for dance dinners job. Motherfuckers two hours north. You know, they got people with earpieces and stuff and black GMC, Yukons and stuff that pull up to your house. It's hard being a podcaster.

You know, between me taking shots at the, you know, Boston Dynamics and all the bullshit they're doing up there. You see the fucking robot they got going up there, dancing? Nothing cute about that. And honestly, I think people from the future are going to look back and say,

these people saw the signs for a solid three, four years of what was going on up there. And all they did was some clever tweets, jokingly forecasting the robot apocalypse. I'm not fucking joking. So I got Dan Snyder's goons coming after me. I got, you know, robot goons coming after me. I've got people with the earpieces from Boston Dynamics coming after me. Fuck robots and Dan Snyder should not be an NFL owner at this point. I mean, we talk about the shield.

We handle players independent of the rule of law all the time. You know, we nip things in the bud, all that stuff. So don't tell me we're waiting for due process on Dan Snyder. Don't tell me it's not enough. The institutional control is not enough. to for Roger to put this to a vote. I mean, like, come on, dude. We don't take, we don't take this shit from anybody else in the NFL but owners.

Talk about the shield. We handle players independent of the rule all the time. We nip things in the bud, just like I said. That's why when I hear Shield, sometimes it sounds like state TV to me. Protect the Shield, you know? it's a little hunger game games ish if you don't protect the shield in reality because this is a bad look for the league um and you know i bet the owners in giddell see this too and want him gone but for the fact that it's a funny precedent to set if you're an owner say yeah we need to get this fucking guy out here

because you know rich dudes with a lot of money i'm not saying all of them are bad people I'm just saying imagine the things you have to do to get that much money to own an NFL team. And then imagine the kind of the power complex you probably have. I'm not generalizing. I'm just saying that if you're in a room full of old rich dudes, you know, there's one thing old rich dudes do is they protect each other. And old rich dudes do not want to set a precedent that like, we're going to get rid of a guy out of our little circle because he has skeletons.

in his closet, glass houses, right? I'm not saying every owner has skeletons in their closet, but you know what I'm saying. Also, you know, now that I've prefaced this entire conversation, this week was about Haskins. So don't play like you don't see people talking about Dan Snyder, okay? I know that one of the popular things for people that don't want to criticize Dwayne Haskins because they're grasping straws to justify, you know, their support for the kid at different junctures. Well, where are people talking about Dan Snyder? There was like a week plus of this stuff in the summer.

It could never be talked about enough. We know that. Okay. Also, I don't think there's any novelty with knowing that Dan Snyder is being depicted as an asshole or that the Washington football team organizationally at the top is a, disaster. There's no novelty there. There was novelty to a video of Dwayne Haskins, you know, with a stripper on his lap, hours after his first start in months,

you know, in the middle of a playoff race with a coach, you know, who just finished chemo a while back or cancer treatment. So there was novelty there. There was video. It's the player on the team that you're rooting for. Like people are going to talk about that shit. Like, act like you haven't been here before. It's the same reason why, like, I don't know, owner of like Universal Studios fucks up. We don't hear about it as much as when the lead role in the movie fucks up, okay?

It doesn't make it right. You know, it's sports and it's sports business. Things that are in the weeds, things that involve legislation, you know, lawyers, things that involve, like, if you read about this Dan Snyder thing, it's cumbersome and that's by design. so you can't get to the truth. But like there's a lot of details.

People short attention spans on the internet are not going to be going through an affidavit, bro. Like yes, Dwayne Haskins is going to be fucking trending on a Wednesday, no matter how much of an asshole his owner is. So like, the Snyder thing's ongoing. I can only hope we get another week of coverage at some point

because that'll mean maybe he's gone. And I mean, they're so close to being America's team. Dave Damashik's talked about this. Dallas Cowboys. It should be unseated. It's been too long. What have you done for me lately? You know, America is hopefully improving.

We need a better team. We need a team that aligns with some of our values, right? Or what our values we hope will eventually be. You've got Washington who dropped the nickname. You hired Jason Wright, first black president in league history. You got Alex Smith, success story, redemption. You have guys like Thomas Davis, Ron Rivera. just battling cancer, you know, an upstart team, an underdog at this point.

Yeah, there's one problem with them being America's team. It's holding them back. But Haskins was released this week, and there are two takes I absolutely won't hear real quick. Bougars take. And listen, I'm not some bugger hater, dude. And I don't mean that, like, I don't, I do hate boogers. boogers gross me out like if my kid walks up to me with a booger sometimes i feel bad because i'm like yo you take care of that yourself dude do not put a bugger on me like don't come near me i'm not

i'm a bugger hater but booger mcfarland i do not hate booger mcfarland he seems like a good dude i'm not this isn't some but he said something i i vehemently disagree with and you might have saw the ramp by now but he somehow tied you know dwayne haskins actions to a trend among, namely black players in the league. That's where he went with it because 70% of the players in the league is something I see, especially with black players, he says. And I was just like watching Adam Schafter as he's going through this diatribe. And I'm wondering if he told the producer he was going to say this or, you know,

like if why I prefaces it, I think Bougar is a reasonable person. I don't want to put his name in there with Jason Whitlock. Because when Jason Whitlock says something, like, come on, you, like, you're not serious. Like, you definitely sold your soul and you're doing this for a check. Like, we know. Like, I don't even pay, like, try not to pay attention. I do. When Booker says something, it's just in a totally different lane.

Like, his job is analyzing football. I don't think he meant to antagonize people. I just don't understand where he was coming from now. I'm sure he's talked about it since. And it's my responsibility to gather those facts. But I got to say, like, once you say something, I'm the first time I say something, I'm usually held to that. So branding, okay?

He said especially young African-American players, branding. They're so obsessed with their branding that they don't pay attention to how I can help my football team, how I can be better, you know, all that, mumbo-jumbo. So I found that was not only wrong. It was interesting. The quote was, they don't say how can I be better. They say how can I build my brand. How can I work out on IG and show everyone I'm ready to go?

and then they're not ready to get going. You know, uh, galley, dude, I know a lot of white players that do that too. I mean, it's just the way of the NFL right now.

Like, okay, I, I know you're, you're talking about players who don't have it down yet, but when you look up at the best players in the NFL, okay, you mentioned working out.

JJ Watt invented box jump videos, dude. invented them. Okay, Tom Brady and Julian Edelman at Yellowstone, like we've all seen the videos. Like, hey, look at us. We're working out with this beautiful backdrop.

Jules has a shirt off. Jules, you're not that jacked. I know you listen to the pod. She always give me shit about it when you call me. But you're not that jack, dude. If I go out and work out with Brady at Yellowstone with my shirt off, I won't even be close.

I might go, I might work out with Brady at Yellowstone this year just to make you jealous. It's not happening. but I'm on the other side of the state, you know, I could be down there pretty easily. I mean, all the way down to the bottom of the roster, you know, what percentage of the NFL you think has Instagram, have their own YouTube channels, have their own fucking logos, bro. I am not a have your own logo guy. I think if you have your own logo, you better be like a goat.

Now, there's some dudes I love to have their own logos who I think having their own logo. Having your own logo is just like, what? And do I think branding is fucking lame a lot of times? Yes, dude. Here's the thing I think about branding. And some people think I have a brand. I think anybody, depending on how you define branding, has a brand. Like a brand, like when you say, you know, in a sense of like, hey, if you ever heard somebody say, like, that's not my brand.

Like if you rip, rip ass or something, your farts floating around a room and you want to deny it. So it doesn't smell like me. Your brand is, if you defined your brand as who you are, yeah, everybody has a brand. And depending on how much you show of it, that's how open you are. That's how prominent your brand is going to be. That's not how I define brand. And I don't think that's what Bougar means at all either. That branding is this pursuit of force feeding people, this brand, this idea of yourself.

Like, who are you? Why are you profitable? You know, why should people follow you on social media, that sort of thing? And doing it intentionally with that in mind. I've always thought that like the best brand to have is you because you never have to change. But I understand that not is that a lot of guys are boring as fuck, right? And a lot of guys aren't. So their brand is actually, you know, like it aligns organically with some of the interesting things they do.

But I think I'm a pretty interesting guy. And I'm also not a guy that holds back. So my brand's just kind of become me. I've never done anything intentionally like this is the right thing for my brand. I do everything impulsively and spontaneously because I want to do it. So I've never branded myself. Some people will be like, oh, you, yes, you have, because I know what you're into and you talk about things.

Like, that's what I'm interested in. That's not necessarily my brand. It can become my brand, but it wasn't some intentional pursuit of a brand. So I think branding on its head, although they're like literally branding agents and people that, you know, marketing agents and that sort of thing. My marketing agent, shout out to Brian Nelson. And, you know, like what I want to do is make money on the side. Okay.

I want to make some money on the side. I want to sign some cards. You want me to be in a digital ad that, you know, we can donate some of it to charity. You know, I can make a profit because I still got to pay the bills and that sort of thing. Fuck yeah, dude. Like, yeah. I want to be a brand that's attracted to people, but not at the cost of being myself. So that's the way I look at branding.

If the, if the opportunity is fall into place, great. but a lot of people are branding themselves, like, very intentionally, and there's an entire industry for this. Okay, let me name some white players with brands. Tom Brady, biggest brand in football, okay? Julian Edelman, I just mentioned him. Okay. Fuck, we were talking about having Chase Winovich on recently. I went to do a little research on, you know, kind of who he is as a guy.

I go to his YouTube channel. He's got clothing line, all this shit. Second year in the league, I see no problem with his brand. Zach Ertz got a logo. Zach Ertz fucking couldn't say, couldn't say a bad word about Zach Hertz. Got a logo. JJ Watt got a logo.

Synonymous with grit and all that stuff. And obviously a Hall of Famer and, you know, a leader and all that. that stuff. He's the face of football. He's got a brand. Gronk's got a brand. Gromx brand is like half partying. I mean like half or gronks brand is 51% like strobe light. And you're talking about Dwayne Haskins brand or like black players brands like Dwayne haskins. I don't even know he had a fucking brand. Never seen the kid off a football field other than draft night with the with the phone. like his social i just went to twitter is pretty vanilla does he have a logo that i don't know about

Carson wince has a logo Carson wince is on like hunting shows Carson wence i've said this before is a great dude who works his ass off so like what what does that have to do with how you approach your job i mean fucking nick nurse has a had a logo like his first year there's a basketball coach we'll cross sports here and he had a logo before he won a championship. Okay, so for every Andrew Luck with a flip phone and a Honda Accord, there are two dudes with their own YouTube channels.

So that's the way it is. At the very least, branding does not prohibit success or greatness. And sure, you could say that a lot of these players I'm naming a ride before they brand themselves. But like, for instance, Tom Brady, who's got the biggest brand of football, Tampa Bay, TB12, highlight videos, IG comics. I mean, like, this guy's got a fucking, he could have a holiday party full of people that are managing his brand. It's the strongest in football. Some of that, the reason he probably didn't have a brand until he arrived is because there wasn't really branding the way it is now when he got into the league. And when did Tom Brady get in the league?

I'm pretty sure Bougar spent a lot of time in the league early in Tom's career. like Booger is an older dude. I don't want to say he's too old, but he's an older dude. And before like the 2010s, there really wasn't branding like this. There wasn't a vehicle for people to brand themselves. Like there wasn't social media. There wasn't a big opportunity for you to sculpt your image how you want to and put out your own highlight video and guide people to who you are, whether that's a YouTube channel

where you're dancing or fuck, I sound old like a TikTok channel. or whether you have a baking show on the side or you're or you like shoes like I don't know or you're a fashion guy like Jalen Mills okay for Eagles fans listening defensive back for the Eagles he's not a star like the guys I just mentioned okay and this is the first black player I'm mentioning because I'm going to illustrate something super brand conscious if I did not know Jalen Mills I'd be like yo this guy's brand bro I mean he's got a YouTube channel he's posted IG all the time. He's got cool clothes. Always got cool clothes. I used to give him shit about it.

I wear sweatpants to the facility and not cool sweatpants. Sneakers, you know, cool hair, green hair, green goblin, all that stuff. Okay. And you can call Jalen Mills a lot of stuff and you can criticize his game at different terms or whatever, but Jalen Mills is a fucking dog and works his ass off. And he's a guy that you want as a teammate on a football level, works his ass off, competes, tough, willing to do all the things that you need to do to be successful. And if there are deficiencies in Jalen Mills game that doesn't allow him to be a superstar like these guys, it's not the brand.

So from superstars to the stars or to the regular guys, you know, all the way down to the bottom of the roster, you know, and there's a ton of Jailen Mills out there who are good players and, you know, contribute to a team and have brands and they don't have to be superstars to be it. Brands, there's not a correlation. me. Okay. Does it affect the likeability of a guy? Sure. Like, depending on the brand, I might think a guy's corny as hell. There are some guys brands who I think are absolutely corny. I could do a whole show on like corny as people in the NFL. But I'm not going to do it because

I'm not negative like that. I don't want to like, I don't want to tear people down. Here's where the brand gets you in trouble. Okay. The juju thing or your YouTube channel goes a rye. The juju thing because, then again, love juju, I'm not against branding. This was a giant moving of the goalpost thing by a lot of people. How can you be mad at juju? He's not hurting anybody. He's not affecting anybody. Why? Because I've decided that the logo doesn't piss the opposing team off. Tell that to the Cincinnati Bengals who literally talked about how much it pissed them off. These people on the internet that want to litigate NFL discussions.

I am all for non-football people being in football, but when it has to do with something like, you know, Juju's TikTok dances on the logo, is that okay? Should that be okay? Should it not be okay? Is it stupid to get mad about a logo? You don't know, dude.

You don't know. You're not in a locker room. And the very players that you're trying to advocate for having a right to have a brand would also be mad at the guy opposite sideline dancing on their logo. So like maybe just step out of it for a second. Juju's branding got him in trouble because it involved other people. Juju's brand for a moment there started to involve his teammates and people on the other side. Because like, and you could say like, because I know everybody, anything anti, anything a player does,

everybody gets all up in arms. I am pro-Juju. I'm pro TikTok. Don't know how to use it. Don't give a fuck about TikTok. TikTok, your heart's desire. Just avoid the logo. Is it stupid?

Yeah, you got a bunch of valid points. Is it stupid that most people that get offended by the logo being stomped on won't be with that franchise in a year or two. And that franchise would easily cut your throat for profit. Yeah. But what that logo means is really it's a reflection on like what you think of me. in that uniform. Like you, what you're saying is like, you don't respect me,

whether that's stupid or not. A lot of football players will tell you. Bengals will tell you. So that's where branding becomes a problem when it starts to affect the people around. And that's a rule for being outspoken in the media. You know, if you're going to be an outspoken player, you uh you got to deal with the responsibilities of that and one of them is don't involve your

teammates don't if if what i say has reporters crowded around brandon graham's locker then i'm doing brand and graham a disservice and then being outspoken is a problem it's it's just like the branding thing being outspoken working on your brand it's all good until it affects everybody else, okay? And I've made those mistakes probably in my life before with being outspoken. I'm way more outspoken than I am a branding person. So, like, it's not just that. It's also you could have a YouTube channel and you can post highlight. I've seen guys post practice highlight videos before or, you know, on your YouTube channel, you might be talking in depth about a game. well you might give give the give uh give uh give information up you might give you might throw somebody

on the bus that you're not thinking you're not thinking you know i mean like so that's the only time branding gets into being a problem um and the most important thing is and i understand where booger don't don't understand where booger's coming from on the racial component to it because the only time this was ever racial in any form or fashion was in how we consumed it in the media And as people on the internet, when people accuse Ron Rivera of being racist without saying the words explicitly in a lot of cases. That was the only time that this had anything to do with race was how it was consumed. There is no trend that black players are more brand conscious than white players. There is no trend that black players are less hardworking than white players.

There is no trend that black players are not more dependable than white players. dependability has no ethnicity. Competency on a football field has no ethnicity, unless you're a white defense fed. Like none of these none of these things that Bougar was insinuating, I agree with at all. The one thing where Bougar, I think,

on a branding level, doesn't understand it is that in his experience, when he played, as I said, people didn't have brands. Only the top 5% of a locker room had brands, even less probably. Because branding was top dollar shit. You're in a commercial or you're not, right? And who's ever turned down money? If in the 90s, you know, those car dealership appearances turned into, hey, live stream this game, YouTube this game.

You know, I want your YouTube accounts worth X. You know how much money some of these YouTube accounts are worth? Guys are trying to take care of their pockets, man. Man, you know, like, teams don't guarantee money. You know who does guarantee money? I don't know if it's true. A successful YouTube channel. That's just like printing money from what I hear.

I know that because we don't have one yet. So go check out our YouTube channel. I mean, we have a YouTube channel. It's just not quite successful yet. We do have a YouTube channel. So you check that out as chalk, chalk media YouTube channel. Greenlight. Post clips from the good clips from the pod.

Megan doesn't like being on camera the entire pod. So we kind of cut down on the long form video. Eventually, I'd like to kick that back up. But, you know, that's the whole thing. I think Bougar's a little bit blinded by the era in which he played, but also I don't know where the race thing's coming from. And certainly, I know that there's been this visceral reaction from a lot of black players that you talk to that were like, because of the very true,

battles that quarterbacks who are African-American and black quarterbacks have to deal with the minute they walk in a building historically, I mean, somebody said this week, I forget who it was. Like, yes, we've come a long way

with black quarterbacks in the NFL. They don't have to go to Canada anymore. But it's still a problem. It still sucks. And that's why I think so many, like when you talk to black players around the league, or you hear from them in the wake of this, there was so much disappointment

because this stereotype is so, it can be so pervasive and persistent in some circles with black quarterbacks. And, you know, also, if you think that that's, that's, I mean, the only quarterbacks that fuck things up,

like, you know, Johnny Mansell, the most recent iteration of Dwayne Haskins was Johnny Manzell. And Johnny Manzell was more, was more unhinged, like in his personal life. Now, Johnny Mansell had he possibly encountered a novel coronavirus situation and was given the responsibility that Dwayne Haskins was, I'm sure he'd fuck it up just the same way in his worst moments. So he kind of got off the hook there.

But Dwayne Haskins, Johnny Mansell, I mean, like, go back to Ryan Leaf, okay, like, who's turned his life around, awesome dude, all that stuff. but, you know, like he was wildly irresponsible and had demons and issues. And so, like, players of all ethnicities have Brahens, quarterbacks of all ethnicities fuck up. And quarterbacks of all ethnicities need to grow up at times. And, you know, if you're somebody sitting there and you're saying, well, you know, Dwayne Haskins reinforces this stereotype, therefore it must be true.

which is stereotype's wrong anyways. I would ask you when Lamar Jackson is about to fuck it up off the field. I would ask you when Kyler Murray is going to fuck it up off the field. I would ask you when Teddy Bridgewater is going to fuck it up off the field. Teddy Bridgewater, I mean, like the guys I'm just naming, like they just seem like guys you want to be in the huddle with, man. I mean, shit, dude. So let's get over the stereotype, huh?

I mean, I know it's not going to be easy, but there's nothing true about it. let's not create a new stereotype where we say that all young black players are more worried about their brand than their, than they're playing on the field. It's just not true. I mean, it's just not true. And I don't, I don't even, again, like I said, I don't associate Haskins with a brand. So the problem was just that he was, he's been a fuck up. I mean, the first take I'm not willing to hear as Booger, saying, you know, this is something that's about black athletes. And I know as a white guy, sometimes I need to stay out of black conversations, but I think in this situation, it just doesn't make sense. And the second take, I don't,

the second take I don't really want to hear is that this has anything to do with anybody but Dwayne Haskins. Okay. I heard one former player tweet this. I saw one former player tweet this quote the NFL is ruthless in the wake of the haskins thing well yes and no uh not so much here how many jobs could you do this shit at and not get fired like the equivalent i mean how many jobs dude and we're just talking about the things that came to surface okay the NFL is not being ruthless in this situation it's a fucking production business and the kid let everybody down can he grow up absolutely so the second take I don't want to hear is this is anyone's fault, but Dwayne Haskins. Holy shit. I've seen people

doing mental gymnastics to accuse Ron Rivera of some culpability here. If you mess this up in October, maybe sit this one out because, you know, in October, you levied heavy accusations against Ron that weren't true. And you don't know about the preparation that happens in the building or lack thereof. You scoffed at sources, which we should always take with a grain of salt. But, you know, those sources weren't, players didn't come out and defend Dwayne Haskins with intensity in the media when these sources came out. You didn't know Rivera was actually going to lose the locker room if he didn't make the switch. That's what I heard. So the whole, the whole mind fuck of this thing is everybody out there who doesn't know shit about what's going on inside a building, which can be like a vault.

You are on behalf of players in the league lobbying for Dwayne Haskins because you think you're doing the right thing. But you have no idea that Ron Rivera, if he doesn't make this switch, is going to lose his locker room. Like, what good is a culture if you cut him with Alex Smith hurt and you don't even give your team a chance to win? I mean, like, the owner drafted, he should have cut him the first time maybe. I don't know. The owner drafted the kid. People were puking in the draft room, I heard. They were like nauseous because they knew it was just so the wrong pick.

do you really think that like ron river just comes in and has carte blanche over decision making with when to just impulse release a guy he doesn't like i mean he never tossed him under the bus the first time he he never told us about the details when it came to his preparation is terrible that's why i'm benching him etc you want to know why i'm benching it's xyz he kept it he kept a professional and kept it moving um we all hate daniel snider right However Rivera got the okay to do this, if you like Washington's culture, if you want Washington's culture to be improved, it's improving by getting rid of guys who aren't serious about winning. Okay. I saw articles from people saying that Washington was a terrible place for him because it was clear that from the get-go that he needed to be developed.

I saw an interesting article like that. That was kind of the point was to place blame on Ron Rivera. So then I just Google search the writer and their draft commentary. And according to this guy, he's a can't miss and a perfect fit for Washington. And it's a travesty that he fell, depending on who you talk to. I saw a Nick Wright video where he's like, if he's falling, the only reason he's falling, it can be one of three things. And the third was, you know, discrimination.

I was like, all right, man. So like maybe the lesson is we just don't assume. in every situation that we know the player that we're discussing. Let's stop acting like he's the first draft pick that the head coach wasn't happy about drafting or that he's the first draft pick that was highly drafted. The new coach didn't like him in the second year. Okay, I'm not even comparing my situation, but my first two years in the league,

if you look at games started in St. Louis for me, the only seasons I didn't start 16 games were two years I was on IR before they cut me. And my second year, I started four games because the coach came in. And I don't blame him, but he necessarily, but he didn't like me. Steve Spagnola didn't like me right off the bat. I played a lot of snaps, but took me out of the starting lineup. You know, and obviously at quarterback, it's a different situation because there's only one of those guys.

But nobody made excuses for me. Nobody fucking said, oh, man, the new coach doesn't like him. Let's give this guy another chance. you know, don't tell me his getting cut has to do anything with his situation, with anything other than his situation. Like, why are we bending over backwards for a kid who isn't a star in the league? Don't we only usually cape for good players? And now we're throwing Ron Rivera under the bus to try to reward a bunch of guys

who've been playing in a pandemic for the Washington football team, trying to get a playoff berth? You know, what if his hands were tied? What if something else happened after that, ordeal. We didn't know all the fucking details the first time, did we, in October. Now we know all the details, and we're mad at Ron Rivera 30%. 70% Dwayne Haskins, but we need that 30%, right? Because we were wrong in October. So we got to be right now, grasping for straws. Ron Rivera didn't handle this poorly. Dwayne Haskins handled this poorly. It's that simple. It's that fucking simple.

A lot of things need a lot of nuance in the NFL. This one's pretty simple. The kid, as I said in October when he got benched, I feel bad for him because kids, you know, you know, kids that are in their second year, they have a new head coach and their high draft picks. They don't, now I was there. It's, it's not fun when the new coach comes in and doesn't love you. It's definitely not fun when your first coach didn't love you. But this is the NFL. Would you rather be picking the fifth round? If he was a fifth round pick, you think he'd still be in a league? So that's my point. Like, yes, he got picked. He didn't get picked in the perfect place. Yes, it was kind of

fucked up, but he was also top 15 pick. So, media at large didn't know Dick the first time. Why would they know? You know, you didn't know Ron was losing the locker room early in the because of it. You didn't know the work ethic was a laughing stock

in the building. You yelled at people when they said, hmm, isn't that weird that he missed the kneel down? Like, you didn't even say like, man, that's a fucking bad look. I think this kid's immature. Like, I saw people that were like, damn, he He was taking pictures, with selfies with fans when they were doing the kneel down. I saw people yelling at people for even, like, pointing out that it was kind of funny.

The signs were there, dude. Signs were there. Ask Case Keenom who had to run out there and was probably like, Jesus Christ, I'm better than this kid. I know this is the way it goes, but I got to jog out there and take his victory formation snaps because he's taking selfies. NFL players are not like Twitter people, dude. So Twitter people have to stop assigning temperatures within a locker room because they think something's unfair. Listen, Daniel Snyder being by all accounts,

not the best guy would be a euphemism, has nothing to do with, you know, can Dwayne Haskins handle his business? And can Dwayne Haskins just, not put his teammates in peril. And I think that's, and I'm not talking about peril as far as them getting sick and dying or something, but like game checks, bro. Game gets canceled.

Position group gets obliterated like we saw in Cleveland or we saw in Denver. That's a wrap for them. And guys miss checks if a game gets canceled. So you know what? I read an article in the Washington Post by guy named Tom. Thomas Boswell. And I thought it was an informative article. It was interesting because it talked about his upbringing is a factor. Informative, but I disagree with what's being insinuated. Again, the theme of these articles are largely that, you know, he was failed by the organization

or he was failed because he had like a baseball dad. This article is about, you know, the way he grew up. And if by baseball dad, you know exactly what I'm saying. It's that AAU dad, kind of like that dad that's a little big gung-ho about their kid being the best athlete of all time is going to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Since second grade, his dad has driven him to be great in the NFL. Okay, that's what I learned from this article. Number two ranked fourth grader in America. That's what his dad walked around bragging about. Had no idea they were ranking fourth graders. Got love and accolades all throughout his camps, youth leagues, worked really hard by his dad, worked with Muhammad Sanoo when he was at Rutgers and Haskins was in elementary school

toward Ohio State by fifth grade. Yeah, it's fucking weird. Yeah, I'm not, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't raise my kid the same way. Definitely. That's a lot of pressure, sure, but I don't feel, I really don't feel sorry for people that had pressure on them. Sorry. Here's a quote from the article at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, and Ohio State where he had 50 touchdown passes in one season as, as the starter. His dead. dedication attitude were praised as much as his rocket arm, even by Stern-Buckeye coach Urban Meyer. When Washington made him his first choice in 2019 draft and gave him 14.4 million and guaranteed money, including an $8.5 million in signing bonus, it seemed the goal of a 15-year family

project had been realized. What I think is if what's being insinuated is that he got failed because he was coddled or he was built up and told he was great, like get in line. Every football player in the NFL is told how great they are since they were four years old because they're bigger than everybody and better than everybody. Okay. I mean, I had the opposite problem. Put a personal twist on it. My dad, when I was getting ready to go UVA, I've told this story before. He's like, maybe you should look at the Ivy League schools or get your guard sets, start working on your guard set.

I'm just not sure. And he still disagrees with the. account of this story to this day. But basically told me like, yeah, I was a grinder and that sort thing. But he told me maybe you should be, you work on your guard sets. I'm not sure you got the, what it takes to be a true edge rusher. But like most kids in the NFL are just told how great they are because there's no frame of reference. There's nobody else in their hometown as good as them. There's nobody else in their football team as good as them. Nobody in their family is as good as them. So if the kid had a humility problem or was built up his entire life, like, get in line,

dude. I mean, it doesn't fail him any more than any other kid who came in the NFL thinking he was special. But what is illuminating to me is that you get the sense that draft day was the end of the road, like from reading that, not what came after. He's literally, you know, on the team still if he's just bad at football. That's the point. The other interesting thing from the Boswell article to me was all that hard work that you talked about. It's like the guy you're hearing about in the NFL is totally different than the guy you're hearing at Ohio State. What I think is very interesting is that with some people, and even myself, like when I first got in the league, you know, it is a shock for guys who have, who have always worked really hard and hard work has

always worked that the minute hard work doesn't work the same way you're like what the fuck and for some people some people when that praise stops and it flips you know you say i don't want to look stupid and be the hardworking failure like i got to be cool i got this shit's not that important you don't want to look dumb i'm not saying that's the way dway dwayne has been acting but you know um by all accounts he's a really hardworking kid before he got in the nfl i do think as much as I've given it to this kid, I do think there's another opportunity for him out there. It's going to be hard. He can resurrect his career. People are right. It's not like he killed somebody. It's not like he beat a woman up. I mean, we cheer for those guys every week.

But if you want to be a leader, guys have to trust you. If you want to be the guy in that in that huddle, guys have to trust you. The thing about somebody with upside who's a high draft because of a quarterback. It's the same reason why I think it's kind of pointless if Philly wants Carson to be a backup quarterback. Like, and the reason they want him to back Jalen Hertz up is because he's turnover prone. Like, why would you want that out of your backup quarterback, right?

You know, you want the backup quarterback come in there and manage the game. If you're looking to develop Dwayne Haskins, you know, backup quarterback in the league is thought of as a very stable position where guys have experience, they're not going to fuck things up. They're not spectacular. Some people think they're not even good. The biggest wildcard backup quarterback is Brian Fitzpatrick. That's because he's a backup plus.

And I wouldn't even consider him a backup quarterback. He was just never, he could never convince anybody for a long, long period of time that he was a franchise quarterback or starting quarterback. In the situation he's in right now, he's the hot hand guy, right? Backup quarterbacks are supposed to be like reliable, mature. how many of those adjectives apply to Dwayne Haskins right now? So he's definitely not going to get a starting quarterback opportunity. To be a backup, you know, he's going to have to assume that learning role.

And a team has to have the luxury to bring him into a situation where the culture is right and you can kind of mentor this kid. And I want to say this one more time. I've been out drunk after games plenty of times. I've been out at a strip club after losses, plenty of times. He wasn't even in a strip club. But I've never been to one in a viral pandemic or whatever you want to call this thing. Okay.

I've never been to one in Dwayne Haskin's situation. And I'm pretty confident that I wouldn't be in one. So that, the bad play on the field, the being in the building lasts, all that stuff. It doesn't, it doesn't scare me as much as that one action. put guys in peril and his coach in peril. Not everybody has to see it that way, but if I'm a teammate, I'm like, I can't trust that guy until he proves otherwise. So a new locker room that he works in, that works into, everybody saw that.

And that's the tough part about it. You got to prove otherwise. So the teams that maybe he can resurrect his career with. And one more time, Dwayne Haskins, I've fucked up. I've done stupid things in my life, incredibly stupid things in my life. But, you know, there's also something to if you get caught doing stupid things in your life, selfish things in your life. The general rule is you get skewered for it.

And that's what's going on. You've got to take your medicine and move on. And he's going to get another job, man. I really do think that. You're hearing Carolina may be interested now, but the teams that people are talking about were the Rams, Pittsburgh, teams like that. Okay.

The Rams, the coordinator from last year is there that he enjoyed some real success down the stretch with. And in Pittsburgh, got Mike Tomlin as a life coach. He's undefeated as a fucking life coach, dude. You get your shit together real quick. Like I said, I have not stood on the table for Twain Haskins in the past. I've leaned on the table. Just put my hand on the table and just kind of leaned into it. Did it with Stanford Steve two weekends ago? I say he's not the worst quarterback that was starting, but I didn't know about all this stuff. And, you know, my take on it when he got

demoted was, you know, maybe we should trust Ron Rivera that there's more to it than we know. because to me it seems like there's a situation where the kid had no leverage, like a lot of high picks do when a new coach comes in, and they just didn't like him as much, and he's probably just not the best worker or something. I talked about the Rams. Listen, this weekend's going to be interesting, really interesting because Kyler Murray, as far as what I heard yesterday,

I'm not sure if it's changed was like his status was up in the air. And the Rams, obviously, are going to be without Jared golf. they like this kid Walford i'm hearing they like the kid Walford i mean i am i'm hearing they really like his work ethic he sounds like he plays pretty damn well in practice um and could be a little spark for them it's just one of the situations where it could have get any worse i mean like it's like interim head coaches right interim head coach always does really well right off the bat maybe this kid comes out and gives them a spark jalen hurts gave the eagles a spark um obviously Jaylen Hertz has more talent than this kid. He's an AAF star. They also got Blake Bortles

on a bird ASAP to get out there to L.A. and get back home. Come home to McVeigh. Because you might be needing to make a heroic playoff run doing the Kurt Warner saying Kurt Warner prayers in L.A. hoping this kid is just as good. I want to see Bryce Perkins get some packages. Just trust me. The kid's a fucking electric football player. I don't know how they would use him, but I think it would be pretty fun to see him with a football in his hand on on Sunday. So it'll be an interesting game. Listen, the NFL is king because of all there is to play for this weekend. This is the reason why, right? Three games with nothing on the line. Minnesota, Detroit is basically your VRBO.com bowl. I mean, that's it. You know, guys might as well be booking

their vacations at halftime. But also, I had this conversation with people. Um, you know, recently, there's a lot to play for. So I don't want to, I don't want to, I mean, guys got bonuses. Guys have pride. Guys have in no particular order because pride comes first. It should. Guys are free agents, that sort of thing. Um, but that's going to be a lonely ass game with nobody in the stands. Maybe the loneliest football game of all time. Maybe the loneliest football game of all time. Uh, and, you know, when I was late in my cross, career, I got accustomed to these late season, hey, where are we going to be seated for eight years in playoffs?

Playoffs. But I can remember sitting in the locker room in Washington in 2018. We had just beaten the Washington football team. And I was sitting there with Doug Peterson, Howard Roseman, Fletcher Cox, Dom, shout out to my guy. And a couple guys. And we were just watching, I think, Minnesota, Chicago. because the outcome of that game still in our pads in that tiny little office in the back of the locker room with TV on, the only TV back there, older stadium now, and just like glued to the TV and we could not believe it, what was happening.

Because I think Chicago had to win, I believe. And they did. Suffice to say, we were all glued to the TV. and that's the fun stuff. Like trying to get in the dance. It's like it's not just what you do on Sunday, but it's also what's going on around you. And there's also the like coaches being like, don't pay attention to what's going on somewhere else.

Good luck, Frank Reich, telling the Colts not to look at the score in the Tennessee Houston game, okay, in the 425 slot. Because the other couple games that they need to take a look at, they're going to be getting ready for the game, taping up their wrists and their ankles and that sort of thing, trying to peer at Buffalo, Miami or Baltimore, Sincay, because, of course, those teams are all in lockstep. But let's say that neither of those teams,

they need to lose, lose in the 1 o'clock, and the Colts are sitting there at 425 trying to play a football game against the Jags, and I know it's the Jags, but they're going to want to be peeking it, you'll be walking up to a trainer, hey, let me see that score. because now, as I've talked about before, in stadiums, there's no big Jumbotrons to show all the fans. Now, maybe I think they did it last week in one of the games where the home team is approving of whatever's going to be on the Jumbotron.

Then it goes on the Jumbotron and the guys cheer, especially if they're games in hand. And, you know, after the game, there's no claiming. Well, once you saw the Team X win and you knew you were in, you stopped trying. Okay. A lot of coaches will tell you, just pay attention to what we're doing. It's going to be hard to do for the Colts because they're going to be playing at the same time as Tennessee for the division, but they don't control their own destiny. So what's the policy there? Usually you walk up to a trainer and you see the phone and their khakis and you're like, yo, let me see that phone.

You know, what time is it? And what's the score of that game? I can remember before the NFC championship. championship game in Philly, sitting in the back office, getting taped, watching New England and Jacksonville and thinking, man, it'd be nice if Jacksonville won. So we say in the media, we don't care who wins, who doesn't win, there's going to be some people this weekend rooting for other teams and rooting for matchups that they want to see. Okay, there's five AFC teams right now, 10 and 5, Colts, Titans, Dolphins, Ravens, Browns. You got one,

one AFC South winner out of that group. That's going to be the Colts or it's going to be the Titans. Titans control their destiny. They went against Houston. They're in. Colts need help. Obviously, they need a Titans loss and it went against the Jags to win the division. All bets are off

Titans lose. But the big question to me is the Browns is going to be the same bridesmaids every year. I mean, never the bride. Not in this generation. Brown's going to take a big steaming diary in the middle of the

street like the lady and bridesmaids. It's one of the best movies of all the time. My Rudolph, I think, which is interesting because I'm about to talk about Mason Rudolph. They have to beat Mason Rudolph. And people may not remember the wide receiver thing. So imagine remembering they lose the Jets and Mason Rudolph week 16 and 17. This would go down in Brown's folklore, if you want to call it that, nightmares. Because I think what has, happened to them a week ago is really fucked up. The Browns got crushed the first time these two teams played this year, but they split the matchup last year.

And last year, the quarterback situation was different. And honestly, I would argue that defense in Pittsburgh was better last year. It's not a hard argument to make. I actually like the under, by the way, hop on that. I think I got it at 44, that total. Titans beat Houston again. They win the division. This will happen, I believe.

somebody it was Diana Rossini was like hey kind of was like hey I think after that JJ Watt speech maybe the Titans are in trouble and I told her I said listen there's tons of reasons to be motivated anyways in week 17 I talked to you about that but if J.J. Watt made that speech publicly I assume he's probably made it privately to his teammates because it would be unfair to do that publicly but not give that same speech privately. And privately, then publicly, that's the sequence there. And I trust that he did. So if they've gotten a speech now twice,

why the fuck would these players change now and wake up like Ray Lewis just chewing glass and running through a brick wall to beat the Titans? You know, like the guys are going to play, if they're going to play and guys are going to quit. If they're going to quit, quitters don't change their hearts. This isn't like, you know, it's not like a movie where I'm not saying Diana knows this.

But it's easy for anybody to see JJ give that speech. And an old person on the couch is in passion for their team. It's like, how could you not get up after what I just heard? Well, there's a reason the speech is being given. And a paycheck, embarrassment on national TV, a shot at the playoffs earlier in the season, pride, fear of injury, all those things that haven't moved players that are being talked about. So while a sudden would they wake up and be world beaters?

they're not going to beat them unless Deshaun Watson cooks them. And if they do beat them, it won't be because players woke up inspired because of JJ's speech. I mean, I take that as venting. You know what I mean? So Brandon Allen just cooked those guys. And shout out to Sam Hubbard with the walkoff. Sam Hubbard. My guy, WDE there.

Now, that's the Colts and Titans. You know, again, they win with the Titans loss. Colts are going to win Sunday, but don't count on Tennessee laying an egg, as I said. Kansas City probably doesn't want the Colts in, to be honest. And I don't know, it's kind of a pick your poison thing. I think if Kansas City wanted any of those AFC teams in or the field preferred any of them in, it might be the dolphins. I don't know. There's really out of those five teams, I hate it because if I had to choose and kick one out, you know, I think the dolphins have more time.

I also think that, you know, like Tua, Fitsy, that thing, maybe Tua is not quite ready yet. Defense is great. These guys are deserving. And my favorite coach in the league is going to be the coach of the year, unless there's some travesty that occurs, is B-Flo. So I don't want to see them out. But I think that maybe because of Tua and his development, they're not quite ready. The Titans defense is an abomination. But to have the most exciting running back in football in that game outside of Alvin's

Camara is good for the league. And it's scary for other teams, as bad as that defense is. The Colts are complete football team, right? Totally their other team that's just going to be around. Maybe they're not going to be around because they're the only of this group that doesn't control their destiny. The Ravens are totally different. You know, if they played Kansas City in the playoffs right now,

the way Kansas City's protection has been, you've got two of five guys from that Super Bowl run who are actually on that line. And Pat Mahomes hasn't been itself, and a lot of that has been pressure. The Ravens are different now, and they can give, they can give some, some trouble to the chiefs and protection. That game would go differently. And then the Browns, like, you got to be heartless or a Steelers fan to want to see the Browns fall in their faces. So as much as I love Beefflow and the Dolphins, an entire city of people who are probably mildly depressed in a pandemic just because this thing has been fucking depressing are also Cleveland Browns fans. and their hearts can't take this, dude.

You hear about people dying of a broken heart. It's going to be a bunch of broken hearts in Cleveland if they don't get in. So you've got five, 10 and 5 teams. Looks like the Colts could be the odd team out. But the dolphins also are a little bit in trouble as well because the dolphins play Buffalo. And I don't know how much they're going to rest. I don't know how much that's going to matter. Titans are going to get the win.

The Ravens have probably beat Sinci, although Sincis nobody to laugh at at this point. And the Browns, Listen, I'm not going to feel sorry for them if they don't beat Mason Rudolph, but I sure, I sure think they will. Like I said, I got on that line when I got the news before Vegas could change the lines and I got it at like six and a half or seven. I think it was seven. And now it's up to nine and a half or ten. I don't know.

It depends on the book you're looking at. But yeah, I like the Browns to take care of business, right? They got to win. So to wrap up the AFC, again, Indy, Kansas City would be a. scary one for Kansas City, Buckner and Company, run game, physical team, beating you last year with Percept. And the dolphins, as I said,

who don't scare me as much as everybody else as far as making a deep, deep run, just because of the quarterback position, I think two in needs a little more time. Although it would be fun to just root for Ryan Fitzpatrick every weekend. Dolphins are in if they win or one of Baltimore, Cleveland,

and Indy loses. So any of those, and or a Dolphins win and they're in. Colts are probably the odd team out, but this shit's going to be crazy this weekend. Baltimore, they just need to win. They will. They could also have Cleveland Indie lose

if they get Pittsburghed by the upstart bangles. The most interesting slow development I've kind of touched on this is Kansas City being human. We were so enamored with the Fitchner issue in Pittsburgh, their offense, which isn't necessarily over, that we've ignored Ken City playing sloppy and sometimes seeming on focus and doing shit like fourth and one

on the 26 tied early in a game against the Falcons in a game where things are, you're having trouble getting things going. You try a fake toss throwback to Mahomes like on a wheel route. And, you know, are they bored sometimes? My home's getting hit a lot.

You know, drop targets or a discussion. This is a long run for any team, dude. There's a reason that's hard to repeat. Okay, so you don't lose ball games and X amount of time. That's all well and good. But from here on out, all it's going to take is one, and it's been a long run for these guys. Again, the line is a shell of its former self,

and that's why teams like Baltimore and India are maybe thinking they have a puncher's chance. So chiefs are beatable. The NFC right now, as much it pains me to say, because I've had trouble with that defense for a long time, wrapping my head around the way they play at times. I said it. If they beat up on the Titans,

I really believe in these guys. So right now, I think they're the best football team in the league. Green Bay, if they win, they get a buy, simple. Hammer the pack. They could also do it with the Seattle loss. The Saints are number one with a win and a Packers loss. So, you know, Drew Breeze, they always pan up to his kids and they're like, oh, you know, like Drew Breeze's kids, they said they wanted, you know,

some player on another team's jersey for Christmas. And I feel like Drew Breeze's kids are always getting in. somebody else's jersey. And I'm sure his dad doesn't care because he's one of the goats. But like this would be a weekend to pull out the, the, I mean, shit, anything short of Grady Jared. I think they have it in their closet. This week, it's Mitch Trubesky kids. Drew Breezes kids, go get a Mitch Trubesky jerseys. Get on NFL shop.com. If the Bears fans haven't jumped out of the gym and bought them up in the second wave, get them up there in the suite and in the Trubisky jerseys. and if the bears somehow pull this off,

dad's got a week off, and that's good for the entire family, and it's good for the Saints. And kids, don't forget the D.K. MacCaf jersey because you need Seattle win, too, to get that by. So the most interesting thing from a matchup standpoint, this is the matchup I'm salivating overseeing,

you know, besides the Bucks and the Packers rematch, which would be great. You know, if the Bucks beat the Falcons or the Rams lose the Cardinals, the Bucks get the five. seat. The Bucks lose and the Rams win, Tampa Bay's the 6th. So they're kind of between a rock and a hard place, if you assume the Washington football team wins. And I'm saying that because

I think Washington football is a sneaky tough matchup for Brady and the Bucks. Why pressure on Brady, right? I mean, it's not that hard to figure out. That group is a bunch of wild dogs, dude. And Brady, don't blame him. No quarterback is, especially one that's not mobile, has trouble with pressure. And so the guy you saw in Detroit would be presumably a lot different than the guy you'd see with that ferocious front rushing him.

So again, Brady's kids, they're putting away the Tampa Bay gear and they're getting some Andy Dalton, Danny Dimes gear, because they sure would love one of those two teams to get in. But really what Tom needs to outfit his kids in is some Eagles gear because I guarantee you Tom would rather not see Washington.

I know he's a, I know, I know Tom is a competitor and he would never say it doesn't matter who I play and that sort of thing, but like Tom does not want to get hit all game. Okay. Even if the rest of the Washington football team is a decent matchup for these guys and you don't know how Smith scores and that sort of thing, I'm just telling you, Tom don't want to get hit like that and I don't blame him. So Tom better get like bust out the Eagles gear for his kids. Because if the Eagles beat Washington, you don't have to worry about it.

And then you get the Andy Dalton and the Danny Dimes matchup, depending on who wins that game. That'd be a lot better matchup for Tampa Bay, even though the Giants took him to the wire in, I believe it was October or November. it's all running together. Another reason to watch finally this weekend is players that might retire. I mean, there's going to be a few of them. I'll get into this with Makin and Steve,

but I'll give you one or two, for instance. Larry Fitzgerald, I would not retire if I were him, but I've never been good enough to play football at 37. I mean, maybe I can get a fucking job next year, but this guy's a Hall of Famer. he's still the, you know, third option type guy there. Sunshine golf.

I bet he doesn't practice a lot. You got a coach with sunglasses. That seems like a pretty chill setup. And on top of all, you got to feel for Larry Fitzgerald, he's caught balls from so many just unremarkable quarterbacks to his career.

I got a producer named Jason at NFL Films when I do the Amazon stuff. And he's like, one time we quizzed, you know, Larry Fitzgerald on the, plethora of quarterbacks he's caught NFL passes from and there were like 20 something and he got all but one and the guy he forgot was like his roommate um but he's caught a lot of balls from guys like john skeleton and i'm sorry that's just the name that came to top of my head because we played against him in division and it was like a carousel now you got collar murray and all these weapons around

you i'd love to see him stick around a little bit longer um and another guy we just talked about Washington, maybe not the superstar that everybody is going to be fixated on and maybe their last game. But if Washington doesn't win this game, this is Thomas Davis's last Sunday. And Thomas Davis has been a football machine, man, for about 15 years. I've loved watching him play, truly one of the most well-respected guys in the league. And, you know, it's another reason to root for America's team this weekend. There's a ton of them from guys like Jason Peters, Frank Gore. I'd love for him to just keep playing and win a ring.

I mean, somebody like Whitworth, you never know unless you're sure about it. I didn't know when I walked off in New Orleans that was my last game. I did not know that. And when I walked off the field in San Francisco with James Laronitis, we didn't plan on it,

but we did walk off together. And that was my last game in St. Louis. And there's this picture of us, and it looks like we're just exiting stage, right? Like we were just walking into a room where they cut you, walking right through the tunnel into the room where they cut you. They're putting us out to pasture. There's going to be a bunch of those situations too this week where, you know, hey, Ryan Kerrigan, he's the franchise leader in Sacks in Washington.

Could he be playing in his last game, you know, in that uniform? You know, guys that have been fixtures for eight, ten years places could be on the move. There's always a reason to watch these games. and to the NFL's credit, only three that really don't matter from a playoff standpoint, but something always matters. So we'll be back Friday with Stanford Steve and Macon, and I'm wishing everybody a very happy New Year's Eve.

Wake up Friday, and it should be a fun show if you're nursing a hangover, which you should be. We've got to drink this thing off. We've got to cleanse our systems and get 2020 out. It's like an ayahuasca thing, but with alcohol. That's what we're going to be doing in a couple nights. And I hope you wake up Friday, feeling refreshed,

and can listen to the podcast because it should be a lot of fun making and Stanford Steve. Anyways, y'all take care.