Green Light with Chris Long - Part 1 - NFL & College Football Talk with Chris Long & Nate Collins

Episode Date: November 30, 2019

NFL & College Football Talk with Chris Long and Nate Collins on Green Light Podcast (P1) | Chalk Media. On this two-part Episode 10 of the Green Light Podcast, Chris Long and Nate Collins talk college football rivalry games, Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens, NFL's ongoing battle with CTE, Gregg Williams and life of an NFL player. About Chalk Media: Following the unfiltered voice and vision of Chris Long, Chalk Media is the interactive online community for you, the intelligent and humorous sports fan. Driven by access, Chalk delivers a unique perspective that cuts through the canned talking points and provides a variety of content from your favorite sports and entertainment celebrities. Here at Chalk, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are rooted in challenging the perception of professional athletes. We embrace the “real” with a unique combination of humor and intelligence. Chalk is a community with a voice beyond 240 characters that brings a perspective and vibe to a traditionally brash and boastful sports media space. Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more. Nothing is off limits at Chalk - 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. 🌍🏀🏈SUBSCRIBE NOW ⚾🏒⛰️ http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're watching this, you survive Thanksgiving. And making looks a lot different today. Hey, guys. Welcome to Green Light. It is now Saturday morning, which means you've survived Thanksgiving, as we said. Full disclosure, we recorded this midweek because people have shit to do. Yeah. Thanksgiving.

Yeah, a lot of family stuff. Family stuff, et cetera. Like, I'm dedicated to the pod game. I'm not that dedicated. I don't think my wife was going to sign up for me coming to the office on Thanksgiving. I hate the traffic. You would think with a lot of the kids leaving that... We do live in a college town.

You thought the Exodus would have... But it's been rough. Nate Collins, who is a friend of the program, has come back to join me today. We also have a special guest in the back room that we have secured in a giant cage, and we'll let him out of the cage in the second half of this pod. That is my brother Kyle Long. Pro bowler. legend my little big brother Kyle Long who also was a teammate of Nate's as well so we've got a full show

today uh you know and again for background's sake we're actually recording this on Wednesday we want to take the rest of the week off by the time you hear it it is Thanksgiving morning I'll either be hungover and really happy or hungover and it'll be the end of my world because tech no no no We're going to speak positive about it, and the street ends. I don't even want to say what the streak is. The streak is 15 straight times Virginia Tech has beaten our Virginia Cavaliers. And, of course, full disclosure, the background here is that Nate Collins, who grew up in upstate Connecticut. Westchester, New York.

Is that a tough place? Westchester, New York. By the way, I did the... Don't be disrespectful. Well, I had Nate on his... What a PC? 10573. Exactly.

Whatever that means. I had Nate on the visit. You know, this is now, how many years ago? Oh, 5. Oh, 5. What do we do on the visit? Drank 40s and watched the Super Bowl? Was that Super Bowl Sunday?

Is that that weekend when the Steelers were playing the Seahawks? Maybe. We played Madden. I was pretty good. Remember because... I used to be the Eagles! Yes. And you know who else was there?

Shout out to him. I don't know where he's at right now. Asa Chapman. Asa Chapman. I'll never forget. He was a... Terrific players from Orange County, Virginia, not Orange County, California, much different place. We had a nice visit.

I introduced you to, you know, malt liquor. I'm not going to out you and say you had any in high school, but we had a lot of hurricanes. And that visit... You want to hear the real story about that? What? I dipped for the first time on that trip. I got you a pack of dip. Yep.

More peer pressure because AISA did it and... Well, Asa was a country dude. And to me, you just recruit. We're all recruits. Like, you know what I mean? And everyone's impressed. Oh, look at him. He had threw a fat lip in.

Everyone's playing. Yeah, just throw a lip in. So this is after chugging half a 40, put a lip in. Everything's cool. Everyone's playing Madden. And I remember just looking up and the entire room starts spinning. And I immediately asked where the bathroom was and I locked myself in the bathroom for the next probably 15 to 20 minutes. minutes. That's not that long. While I threw up, I was scared, I was about the shit on myself.

You know, this is a family podcast here. It's a family podcast. But you survived the trip and you loved it so much that you committed to Virginia. Can you believe that? And we had, we had a lot of good memories together at Virginia. None of them included beating tech. What's your worst loss to tech? It has to be the last one against Tyrae because I just feel like, it just, excuse me, He's getting choked up. It felt so close that we were going to beat them. Yeah, I know, right? That we were going to beat them.

I don't know. It's just a weird, it's a weird thing. It's a mental thing. It was never mental for you or I, but I feel like the last 15 years, there has been this growing mental edge. Because we've had so many opportunities in games where you're like. You're used to things going wrong.

You go to the game where in 08, my rookie year I watched, Vic Hall. We were down to our emergency quarterback. We damn near beat him in. Blacksburg should have. You know, there were games like last year that we lose 34, 31 and overtime. Senior year, my senior year, we lost 33, 21 to them and had an opportunity to secure 10 wins and go to the AC championship,

which is historic for us. Now, we've got the same type of opportunity this year. This Friday. Do you have a score prediction before? By the way, first things first, my man Nate here is the flag guy. How do you get that job, bro? You're right. What are you doing Saturday, bro?

I am the flag bearer. And I think I'm just running out with the guys. It's Friday. What are you doing Friday? Friday. Oh, yeah. So I believe, no, this is the day after. So yesterday.

So what did you do yesterday for the people listening? I did an awesome job running out of the time, leading the team, hopefully not too close to Cabman because the horse kind of scares me. Cabman has fallen before. And I know Cabman personally. He used to run horses on my farm. He fell and he almost impaled himself with that. with that hopefully fake saber.

But that's not the flag. For people watching on YouTube. He's got one of these car decal flags that you see Washington football. I'm getting ready. Like, you know, look, if you're running back. Who's the Washington football team? I don't say the name.

Oh, so you want me to say it? Well, no, I just, maybe you don't have a thing about it. The skins. Yeah, the skins. Skins fans and Cowboys fans have more, I, this is a study. I haven't studied it,

but this is my own observation is that Skins fans and Cowboys fans have more window decal flags than any franchises in pro sports. A hundred percent abnormal. And what cars do you usually see? Suburban. Caprice Classic. Is it not? Is it not one of the...

See, Caprice, I guess that is true. Definitely Cowboys. Definitely Cowboys. Cowboys. Like... Every car with a cowboy flag on the window that you have to roll up is to me as a white caprice classic. Didn't you used to have a caprice?

No, I had a 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis with suicide doors. Okay. Derell Scott. You remember him? Clemson DTackle. Came to St. Louis. So eventually sold that car to a dare officer, but we were going around. I gave Dorel

a ride to practice in camp one day, and it was a bit of a budget operation with that truck. I had a lot of money, but I didn't know it. So I was skimping on like, I was like, damn, I put like three grand into this old school here. First off, it's not an old school. It's a fucking sedan from the 80s.

Secondly, the suicide doors were just open sometimes and Dorel didn't have a seatbelt on. We're going around an on-ramp in our city, Missouri, and we're turning hard right. And as you can imagine, we're kind of leaning

because this thing had a little lean to it and the suicide doors whip open. No way. And Dorell at 40 miles an hour is hanging on to the seatbelt. So yeah, I had, I didn't have a caprice, I had, I had a grand marquis, but that was sold to a dare officer. I hope, uh, I hope it's keeping kids off drugs.

I hope so, too. Probably locked up a lot of people. Actually, you ever seen bait car? No, I've never seen bait car. Okay. I think I get the concept, though. Um, do you have a prediction that we can get made fun of or lauded for, for the listeners out there who are hearing it on Saturday? What happened in yesterday's game?

What's your prediction? as of right now recording time on Wednesday. Bronco's gonna run it up. We're gonna, we're not only gonna beat them. We're gonna embarrass them. Like they're gonna be upset. Like we're gonna run the score up. Our backup quarterback's gonna get in.

He's gonna do his thing. Like Bronco is gonna get an extension. He's gonna get anything he wants in Charlottesville. He beats, he beats, he beats, he beats, I have a new house I'm supposed to move into here soon. The rumor has it. If they beat tech, he can have a room in the new house. Like you have to.

He can come in any time he wants. You can have the code. You have to. You have to. And Bryce Perkins? Three to the neck. Three to the neck. If Bryce does this, he's my favorite UVA athlete of all time.

Yo, and I just- supplanting Anthony Point Exeter. Snowden, 14, Taylor, like, all these young, yo, I just want them to eat. Like, it's just, it's a weird feeling just seeing like, Just being around town and like seeing these kids and just like really just want to transfer energy to them to be like, if you only knew like how much some of the alumni, like we would just want you guys just to like enjoy the feeling. And it's for and not, yeah, and not have the feeling that we all had. Like for the last 15 years, anyone you speak to, like Biscuit is the only person I know.

Marcus Higgins, who's wide receiver coach at Virginia. Because you didn't beat them, did you? No, I never beat them. He's the only person I like associate with. that I can talk to that's beaten tech. And that is scary to think about from like the years of people you know, alumni and whatnot, and that's the closest that it gets to.

Dude, 2003, do you know who won the NBA finals? That's the last time we beat tech. I'll tell you, it was the spurs. Yeah. They beat the fucking Nets. I used to like J. Kidd. You like Jason Kidd, so you watched the Nets a lot. Well, that was cool of you.

Of North. So my prediction is 3328. We score a go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes. Instead of kicking a field goal after a long drive, we punched in to win outright, and we win 33-28. I'm thinking more along the lines of 42, like... Man, if we score 42 points, we're in this fucking game.

42, like 14. Like, I'm thinking it's a big defense a day. Well, good. So we're either going to be idiots or we'll be... We win. I don't care if the score is wrong. I don't care how this pod. If we win,

hopefully you like the pod if you don't. I'm predisposed celebrating. I want to get right into football today. We're going to have obviously a special guest joining us in a bit. I read a really interesting article this week on the athletic and not to plug the athletic, but this is what I'll do. Since I stopped playing,

I really enjoy reading about football. And they have a lot of good articles. It's faster than you can even catch up with how many articles they have. They have a number of podcasts. I'm not saying all of them are good. But this article, defining moments of the decade by Lindsay Jones. I think she got a lot of it.

I mean, a lot of these would have been exactly what I would have said. She goes through the decade. Obviously, it's coming to close soon in a month or two here. And talks about the most impactful, could be domino effect or standalone instances in the NFL. And as somebody who played the entire decade, essentially,

I remember where I was when a lot of these, happened. I mean, she, I'll run down a list. She said the Calvin Johnson catch rule. That's kind of how it started. We all know like now the internet meme is Des caught it, but it was Calvin Johnson first, right? But it's always going to be something now. And I, I still don't think we know what a catch is no, eight years later, which is, which is crazy. But even if we did, I feel like, I feel like it's always going to be something. It's DPI this year. Of course, rightfully so, fans are fed up with that shit already. I am too. Like, that's hard. That's too

hard to do it because what's next? Like, you're going to do that for, I don't know. Well, if you're going to do it, just administer it consistently and administer it the way you said you would. I mean, we have seen countless instances where you think even in the risky scenario that a coach throws his flag

because the overturn rate is so low, even in that scenario, like, it's still ballsy to throw the flag at this point. And I think that's the reason why they put it in there. It's for the viewers. It's another thing like, oh my God. But do they think people are stupid? Yeah. Yeah. I guess they do. Yeah. Here's my thing with the officials and we went through the replacement refth thing. You were in the league at that point yet? Yep. So we were both in the league when

that happened. You know, officiating has been under more and more scrutiny lately. And I think that the problem that you have now and it's not going away is that the vantage point and the access that fans have and the vehicle with which we can discuss it in real time, the speed with which that's advancing is well outpacing the leagues catching up to it on an officiating level. So I don't know if there's a solution ever. I feel like they try to do the best they can where they already have someone like in the booth. So when you know even something like controversial happens, it's like, oh, we're already in New York with someone so where they have 60 TVs looking at it.

we still yeah no i know well the problem is now is that fans literally have a better vantage point than officials on the field 100 and i wonder if at some point officials on the field go away i wonder if it becomes more of a thing where well well it's it's going to be just like they got mad about it's just going to be they're going to be on the field with an earpiece and or like some type of like i watch that's just feeding them what happened yeah Like just like the baseball, the baseball, when they did, they had the ump out there, but they had the, they did like a mock where they had a computer just called the balls and strike.

Right. And the ump is just there just to say it. Right. I feel like you can get there with technology and football. I think there'll always be a game manager on the field that has to, you know, signal certain things, you know, personal fouls, that sort of thing. But I always thought, like, I know that footballs are expensive and this would be expensive technology. you why are we still eyeballing a goal line in a pile of people? Why isn't there a chip in the ball, you know, that tells you that you're crossing a goal

line or what yard line? I know, you know, hey, shit. Nowadays, Bluetooth will give you fucking cancer. So like, I don't know about chips. Those same people were talking about earlier when you say if you think like they were stupid or not, if you do that and you just tell someone, oh, it's a touchdown because we're saying it in this computer. Well, people are going to think there's a fix in there.

So I don't know what the solution is. But I kind of wonder at the end of the day If all press is good press What do people spend half their time talking about When you engage with the NFL on Twitter It's complaining about the integrity of the game Yep Now I don't know that the NFL has survived

Depending on how you look at it Kaepernick or the owner's blackballing him They've survived the replacement refs They've survived the past interference rule They survive bro The NFL is like cockroaches bro The NFL is gonna be like here after they're surviving,

they've survived the. They survived concussion. The concussion thing. All of it. People can talk about youth numbers are declining. And the movie concussion, they talk about it.

Haven't seen the movie, no interest. Okay, don't. But you should, but they explain to it. They own like Sunday. They own the day of the week. They own a day of the week.

With everyone, Sunday's like God's Day. Yes. And they share, they share, God's Day. They share God's Day. They share. God's Day, like with everyone.

And everyone, and everyone's okay with it because it's like you go to church and then you watch football. So is the NFL going to hell in the afterlife? Stealing God's Day is not a light accusation. Let's move on to the CBA in 2011. And you came to league in 12? 2010.

2010. Okay, golly, you're old. So you barely saw an old camp. You saw one old camp. I saw one old camp. So this was why the CBA was such a big deal. to everybody here was in 2011 the new CBA the collective bargaining agreement that that Lindsey Jones notes in this article was a big deal because it changed a lot of

things for the NFL but for players one of the first things that was immediately satisfying although there were a lot of gripes with the new deal was training camps going away as we know it you used to be able to do two a days damn there as much as you wanted right I think so because I had three years of spaggs training camps, you know, two a day after two a day, after two a day. And I think you had to maybe vary one special teams practice in there on one of the two of days. This isn't as bad as the 80s when my dad plays is four to six weeks of two days straight. I don't think you can have two pads, two padded in one day. So you had an uppers? Yes. Which makes no difference.

So not for O line to deal. What we're talking about here is that they litigated back in the day that you had to mix your padded practices, which are thigh pads, knee pads, which I don't give a fuck about it. I never even played in a game with those and of course you get fine not to wear them and you'd wear your shoulder pads. That's a padded practice, obviously a helmet. A helmet, a shells practice as we called it was helmet and shoulder pads and for a D-Lyman, no difference. No difference. Nothing. In practice the only thing you can't do in shells is tackle to the ground and most places we're doing away with live contact drills every day. Just look at Michael Bennett, what he wears. Right, Michael Bennett barely wears anything. But so the coolest thing it did for us was all

all of a sudden you had one football practice a day and you had to have a break like every fourth day, training camp was cake and it still was, even late in my career at 33, 34, I was like, if I was 33, 34, like a lot of these vets that I came in a locker room with and I was doing these two days on the road in a dorm room, I wouldn't even be playing anymore.

So hats off of the guys who didn't see the new CBA, football got a lot easier. Now, people talk about the linemen, not getting as many reps, and there's people that say, oh, line plays decline, like hand fighting, that sort of thing. Like I don't necessarily buy that.

I think that's more of a product of college football. I think college football is the domino that has reduced the quality of line play on both sides of the ball because you're not developing players the same. Everybody's doing this spreadsheet. A lot of draft picks. Greg Robinson, I don't think,

when they drafted him out of Auburn, I think he was in a two-point stance, like, all the time, in St. Louis. So players are fresher as the flip side of the coin. I don't know how Lamar Jackson or some of these really, the game's gotten faster, undeniably. I don't know if all these fast guys

are playing as fast and is explosive, which is good for the league under the old CBA. So, no. Two sides to every coin. Change the rookie pay scale. That was another thing. So a dude like me who got broke off off the bat, I did.

Shout out to the Rams. You were the second to last one. Second the last one to get that last deal. Second pick and then Sam. Yep. And then Sam. He was the last one. So it's because of the Rams.

And then the Rams ran me up after that for the record. They paid me twice. And that's not a brag. I'm just telling you, the only big contract I didn't get just wasn't the rookie. Ow! I got the big one the second time. That's a humble brag.

No, it's not a humble brag because a lot of people are listening to this and be like, oh, it must be nice to get rich off the old. You worked for it. No, but it must be nice to get rich off the old CBA when actually it was I got rich off the old CBA and then I went out and bawled out. So you can't control that. You can't control that. So they changed the rookie pay scale.

What happens there? is it became a young man's league. When I came in a league, that's got more expensive. Rookies got less expensive in this new deal. And when I came in a league before the new CBA, I had four guys who were 33 in my D-Line room. By the time I left St. Louis my eighth year,

I had the closest parking spot to the door. So that meant I was the oldest guy at 30 years old. Yeah, because you guys kept getting the first. Yeah, exactly, because we got the fucking win. The first pick of the draft. But it's harder for older players staying in the league now. And I found that at the end of my career when, so I had job opportunities and shit.

You think it's harder? For older players to stay in the league. I don't know. It depends. Because they don't want to keep you there. One, new coaches, new coaches are afraid of the old NFL. They're afraid of players like vets that are a little bit onry, vets that actually have some, you know, you can't get rid of me.

It's not like you have tenure, but you're paying me. They don't want to pay guys. And they want the young guys. You can control the young guys. You can build your team that way. And it is largely a good model in building your team is build it through the draft. You know, you got a guy like Lamar Jackson.

You don't have to worry about paying him for a little bit now. Yeah, you can continue to build around him. Three more years. Speaking of quarterbacks, Tebow Mania was on the list. Tebow Mania for me was, it was interesting because the whole time you're like, this experiment is totally fucked up. This guy's not a quarterback. We're watching it.

I'm pulling for him because I love chaos. And this was chaos. That was chaos. It's still one of my biggest things. I tell people, I don't understand like how organizations, coaches, people, like how they don't take a chance, like on him. He's a winner.

Like I don't care what anyone says he's a winner. There's so many organizations with quarterbacks who haven't made it to a playoff game, let alone won a playoff game. I don't care how he did it, ran the whole time. It doesn't matter. He shot put at a ball to Demarius Thomas. 80 yards.

Listen, one of those things in sports, and this should not be in there, waited for actual importance, but you know how there's some games you remember where you were? I was in New Orleans with A.J. Feeley and Tom Sandy. We were at the Sugar Bowl on a guy's trip having a great time and of course

this is a level of hanging out. I can't do anymore from liver and my... Definitely all that stuff. But I'm waking up from one of those naps where you wake up and it's night time and I turn the TV on and I'm trying to get back on the horse. Like I got a hangover slash we've been day drinking slash, you know that whole deal.

I turn on the TV the first play I see, swear to you, Demaris Thomas for the touchdown against, I think it was the Steelers, right? I'm not sure. It was Bronco Steelers. Yeah. So as you look at all that, you're like, what the fuck just happened?

And it's relevant now because he prefigures Cap as a nationally divisive figure because as people talk about Cap, they're always calling back to Tebow. And it's true. I mean, if Tebow continue to get jobs after that, Cap should have a job now. agree on that. But another thing that

people have used it for is when everybody questioned Lamar playing quarterback, who is clearly, although you had some legitimate questions about how he might transition to the pros, you have it with every quarterback. But people were making it a thing like they justified working him out

as a wide receiver because they did it to Tebow. That's a disingenuous argument is all I'm saying. No, I think at the end of the day it's all media. They did that because they knew, hey, if we do it, someone's going to be mad. Like, best case scenario, he goes out there and he's just a guy that's like, you know

what, I'll do your stupid workout. And he does amazing. And everyone's like, yo, he can be a wide receiver. Right. Like, or worst case scenario is what this? Like, everyone's like, yo, you guys are idiots. This is why they pay you the big bucks, though, the conspiracy theory stuff. I mean, that's, that's how I see it.

There were enough people. And now, I do think there's a misconception with Lamar is that in a room full of 100 people, if 15 people say he needs to try out a wide receiver, we're gonna, Lamar fans, myself included, are gonna continue to go at these detractors, even years down the line. The biggest being... But I can say this.

I feel like the biggest factor in all this is that he landed in a system where the coaches and everyone around him said like we're gonna build off of him. And they did. And that's the biggest thing because I can see him being in a different system and then everyone being like,

Maybe he shouldn't be a quarterback. And that's what people don't understand. I talked about with Carson this week. We did a long thing on quarterbacks the last year. I'm not going to rehash the entire thing, but scheme and context and situation matters. And this isn't to take anything away with Lamar, and this is how quarterbacks are now like politics.

It's divisive. Lamar is a stud. We've never seen anything like it in the NFL. But you can't deny that he's better off with Greg Roman than he would be without him. Greg Roman has pulled the best out of four different quarterbacks now. Of course, Lamar, he didn't have a large sample size before for people to be like, hey, you know, there was some aggression before Roman came to the rescue like he did with Alex.

Shoot, Cap, never took a snap before Greg Roman. And he brought the best out in Tyrod Taylor. Greg Roman is a wizard. Lamar is an alien. So it's totally unfair. And I don't think anybody catches up by Super Bowl Sunday. By the way, I think they win at all. I mean, it's not a hot take at this point.

It's not a hot take, but, excuse me, like I had thought earlier, I had said to you, I think Billy let them get that game a few weeks back. I don't believe that. That's just me. You're going to need, okay, so. That's just me. Here's the point.

That's just me. If Bill Belichick, the conspiracy theory, Nate, if Bill Belichick thought enough of the Ravens to throw that game because he knew he'd see them again, they're worried about it, then you would also know that you're going to be in the running for home field advantage and you beating the ravens is totally dependent upon being at home in foxborough i'm just saying they don't they don't care about being home fox baltimore and foxborough

same weather oh is it basically bro i'm just telling you bro i was up there for a year i know my sister lives out there oh see i've got to say i had to practice and play on that and also i know the way they think they think that weather is there it's more schemes though with bellichick bellichick's gonna it's about having his guys in the right spot. Belichick's not going to, he's not going to lose without putting his, his players in the right spot. And that's the hardest thing to do with Lamar because he's just that extra guy that you never. There's always an extra guy in the run game with him.

And then another thing is, and this is why I think that the problems New England have against Lamar are issues that are fundamental. The thing that they create so many problems for other teams up front with is the size and range of their backers. but if you pick backers who are 250, 260, and these guys are big fucking guys, you can't do the run lateral thing with Lamar. You can, but not the entire game.

You can't. So here's what happens. I'm telling you, they move them sideways, guys get tentative. It's like it happens with anybody else, but it's an especially bad matchup with the Patriots relative to other teams they play. They get guys, these big backers moving sideways,

and then you take away their biggest strength, which is their ability to come downhill with no conscience. and it's not like New England is great as far as past rushers concerned. I know they have the sack numbers, but those are manufactured. So one thing you can do with them is you man up, right, and you bring pressure. What's the one thing you don't want to do? Man up against Lamar Jackson, turn your back. When we were rushers and you play some athletic, they always told you,

what they tell you, when we're in man, fucking pay attention to your rush lanes. Yep. Because if he gets out, it's like, and I mean, you guys, going to have to like, and that's what I think Belichick is good at with the defense. He's going to have to do like the muddle rush and it's going to be guys not really looking for sacks. It's like, hey, we're going to make them seem like we're coming after him and we're just going to have him. And you say, hey, if they're going to beat us, it's going to be because our cornerbacks or their wide receivers are making amazing catches every single play. And if we lose that way,

then it is what it is. And listen, Lamar threw five touchdowns the other night. I think a lot of people have a misconception that, you know, he, I mean, bro, he's amazing, bro. And listen, the thing about the other night was six touchdowns on six first possessions. That's the first time since it happened to the Saints in O.A. And it felt like 10, 12 possessions because they were all just like seven yards, eight yards, 12 yards. There was no 60-yard play that I remember.

Do you remember in your box when we thought that we were going to be him at UVA and that last drive? Oh, yeah. Like, we were about to jump to rush the field. Yeah. And we were, like, it was that close. And I watched him do that last 90-something drive, 80 yards. And it was just like, this kid is going to be amazing.

Yeah, whatever he does. Whatever. Yeah, because that's the funny thing. Because somebody's going to build around him. Here's a funny thing. I think he probably is top five receivers if he's a receiver. Just because he can doesn't mean he has to. No.

That's the biggest thing. And that's the funny thing, too. Like, I can't wait into the offensive coordinators when they do put RG3 in there and they do that triple, triple option. and then they do something where they throw him a pass when he's going to burn a top receiver and it's just going to be like, hey, everyone. That's going to be a very, very viral moment.

I can do this also. Lindsay also talked about Peyton, and of course we're talking about, for those of you listening, the biggest moments of the decade. This is an athletic article by Lindsey Jones. Terrific piece. I agree with most of it, but we just wanted to continue to riff on some of the things

she brought up and we'll add our own at the end. Peyton Free Agency in 2012, $96 million he makes on the market with Denver. And this is right after he got cut in Indianapolis, of course. He's got two Super Bowl appearances after he ends up in Denver, obviously, getting shellacked against my division rival. In New York. Yeah, in New York. Bad. Shout out to Potros.

Shout out to Potros. Terence Knight, who's a great coach now, former teammate of both of us. They only had one win out of those two Super Bowls. They beat the Panthers as everybody remembers in 2015. He visited the cards, the Niners, and the Titans. I don't know if this lines up. I'd have to go back and look, but I believe this is right before the Super Bowl run

that was half Alex Smith, half Cap. Of course, yeah. So I wonder, butterfly effect-wise, because I'm into that, if he ends up in San Francisco, what does today look like? Because maybe Cap never happens. It's kind of crazy to think about,

also think about... You know, I played in that game. Caps coming out party. Bears versus San Francisco. Are you sure you played him in the coming out party? Because I got, I'll do you one better. The Sunday night game, Alex Smith had just got, he had got the concussion. Who did he get a concussion against?

I forget. The Rams. I was right there. Oh, yeah. So they played us and then you the next week. And then they played them. And that's when Alex Smith and the Smith, they had five sacks. Yeah, Smith brothers.

They beat legends. I remember, I was one of tough. Because, man, he was running through. He was running through that right tackle, Creamy, like, you know, a knife through hot butter. No, the dude, there was a dude, Kyle knows his name.

One of our old linemen, he got beat so bad, like they took him off the depth chart, they put him under the depth chart, he retired. He called himself retiring the next day. They both had, like, combined seven times. No, it was one of the most.

It was Justin. It was one of the most amazing, and Justin probably made a lot of people quit. Kudos to that guy for actually fucking quitting and not quitting. No, no, no, no. But he tried to come and sit in the meeting room in the locker room like a day later, like after they-

I decided that I'm not gonna retire or just to hang out? Like, yeah, like, I'm not really retired. Like, he came back in. When I retired, when I retired, my dad explained to me that once you cross the Rubicon, you can't come back. And that's not necessarily true, but it's certainly true for that guy. If he doesn't leave Indy, though,

and of course we're talking about Peyton getting cut by Indy. And he had a neck injury, and there was, a money issue, there's a good reason to get rid of him. But if he doesn't leave, I don't think he, I think if he stays in Indy, I don't think he wins a Super Bowl. That Denver team was perfect for him to orchestrate that year with the defense they had,

him being more of a game manager. I guess you wonder if Brady has one more if he stays in Indy because Brady lost to Denver, I think twice in that span that he was in Denver. And of course, there's the cap effect that if maybe he ends up in San Francisco, maybe cap doesn't happen. but most importantly, here's the deal.

Andrew Luck retired earlier this year in August. I don't think Andrew Luck career is ever derailed by injuries if Grigsden doesn't wreck it. So if he stays in Indy, they don't go 2 and 14. They don't have a shot or a need to draft. Andrew Luck in 2013. That was, of course, the RG3 draft. I think what happens is that,

well, I think what happens is that Grigsson never gets an opportunity to just murder this guy's career with bad protection and personnel around him and no plan. And I think, imagine Andrew Luck in Washington with a left tackle like Trent. Why would you do that to Washington fans? With a running back like Alfred Morris and a coach like Shanahan,

who of course infamously didn't take great care of RG3, but you wouldn't have had Andrew running the option in Washington. Or maybe it'd be the same thing. Or maybe it be the same thing, but I doubt it. I think Indy was deservedly getting a lot of flack for the better part of a decade for not building enough. You talk about building around Lamar. they didn't even try to build around

Andrew and Indy So 2012 we got the bounty gate punishments another thing I know a lot about Because Greg Williams is my guy Did you win any money for bounties? No I never did a bounty And we never had any bounties But we had the one year suspension

For I think Loomis, Peyton Greg Williams, Joe Vit Vilmo which is overturned Greg came to St. Louis at the time With the Jeff Fisher hire And had to miss his first year Blake Williams took over for him When we actually played pretty well on defense,

that was a damn good defense we had there. Yeah, I was getting extra money for hits. Yeah, whatever, motherfucker. I didn't need any extra money back then. These are my double-digit years. You were the only one. Yeah, no, we had Quinn, we had William Hayes, we had Brockers, we had eventually Aaron Donald.

Doesn't matter. That's for Nick Fairley. Look, look, let's keep it real. Bountygate is for special teams. If you want to get special teams guys riled up for some extra bread. That's a great point. Maybe that's why I never. heard it but to Greg's credit I thought a lot of that stuff was listen Greg's whole thing was live on

the edge play on the edge never hurt the team does that sound like a guy who wants to get the team caught up in the bounty gate thing I could see it changes the way that we've talked about football though the way it was acceptable to talk about I'm gonna knock that motherfucker out cut the head off the steak the body will die you can't say things like that anymore because of bounty gate right or wrong. Another thing was New Orleans had more bad luck over this decade than any team in the NFL, right?

I think I can agree with that. I still can't believe how they the Super Bowl. Yeah, I mean, the championship. And what happened to him a year before? Minnesota Miracle. That, I mean, that's not that's bad tackling. That's not

bad luck. It's also just like you've just for everybody the guy that ducked his head and thought he was breaking up, I mean, that was in and of itself a whole different thing. But I think what happened with Bountygate is actually in the end, it accelerated Sean Payton taking ownership of institutional control in New Orleans. You had the prescription drug thing. You had Bountygate.

You also had bad coordinators for a little bit. You had Rob Ryan who struggled down there. You had Spags who really struggled down there. It seems like now in 2019, if you look back back then, bad defense, bad institutional control. You'd never imagine that at this point, they're one of the most balanced discipline teams in football with a good defense.

So Sean Payton, not just a great play caller. He's grown into being at least one of the best coach in the league. Hernandez murder, 2013. That's taking a dark turn there. I talk about this with everyone that, like, it's a scary thing like that, for people who don't know about being in the locker room and being next to someone, I always say, like, I wonder who was sitting to the left and right of him.

You don't know. The left and the right of him, because from when the timeline of some of these murders happen, it's like this happened and like in a day or two later, he's back to normal in the locker room. Doing normal things. Like doing normal things. Like hanging out with, you know, hanging out with coaches kids and like. Doing normal things. Smiling.

Whatever it is. You have teammates, sons, kids like, locker. Hey, this, like, just forget it. You and me, like, bro, like, there's a difference between being a tough guy that plays in the NFL and not being moved by murder and violence. And this is something that, you know, for me, I think, I think people talk about that sort of things.

We see it in movies. We see you hear in music. But to think you're sitting at work with somebody who's taking a couple lives, and somebody that you're in the huddle, with you don't know who you're but I think mentally for me it's just like a crazier thing that depending on his demeanor and like how he is like nothing to give off like hey there's something up there's something up with this guy so there were

two things from what I heard there people that knew him from Florida were not surprised oh yeah because there was an entire history that is of course come out here and then there were people on the team that were oblivious because he did it was like this you know people that there's a lot of people that but it's just like work. I try to make people get it like easier to understand it. It's just that like if you know everybody at work. If you work in the office building, you might know someone, your, your best office friend, you might know them there. But it's something where when you go home or they go home, you don't really, you don't, depending on how close you are, you don't really know what.

And guess what? In an NFL locker room, there's a huge range of people with family backgrounds, people with kids, people without kids. You're working like 12 hours a day. So the last thing you want to do, It's not like college where we used to go back to, you know, the Fred or the Meat Mansion and hang out and drink 40s. Like, I got a wife. I got kids. I'm not going to be hanging out with the young single guys and vice versa. It just goes to show you. I think people are shocked.

They're like, how do you not know that about something? You just don't. Think about the dirty secrets people keep. You think you're going to be broadcasting the fact that they have a couple bodies. Like, no. So another thing that bothered me about that was the whole, and I know we have, we've talked about this before. But, you know, terrible situation. And the first thing that's terrible for is the victim's families.

So, I mean, to even sit here and muse about Aaron Hernandez, it's borderline to me if I even want to talk about him. But there is the issue of him being incarcerated, ending his life. And the CTE thing, which he had more tau protein than anybody or the most CTE out of anybody that they'd ever, that they'd ever encountered. Yeah, so far. guess who else probably has some tau protein in their head me you definitely my dad played 13 years old cb a countless people i believe are walking around with cte and it doesn't manifest so don't blame

every time somebody has like erratic behavior or god forbid there's domestic violence or murder a guy goes broke after football this is a cross section of society just because you're good at football doesn't mean there's zero chance you could be a bad person or you know just because you're good at football doesn't mean that you don't suffer from some sort of mental health condition that has nothing to do with football you could have these factors that exist but personality doesn't necessarily actions don't necessarily manifest because of the fact that you ran into people for a living god willing we're both going to be normal for a long time we agree cTE is bad it's prevalent football's not good for you but what we can't start doing is you know because you cut errant

Hernandez open and he had more CTE than anybody. I definitely don't think that's the reason why, like, they're pushing and saying that, I don't know. Like, I just feel like I definitely think that the, for the longer that it's going to be that we, it's this.

We'll be the last generation not to know what we're getting ourselves into. And that's the biggest thing. Like, until we know more about it and I'm like, just with the conspiracies, I don't believe that, the only time you can tell or we can figure this out is when we die. I just feel like that's very convenient. I think it's probably possible, but I do believe that why would the NFL not want this to go away?

Or do you worry that, no, I don't think there's a way for it to go away. And I think the fact that you think it would be heightened if you can actually test it in real time and people will realize that. Bro, like who wouldn't want to, like who wouldn't, who in the right mind if you're making money and you know this is an issue? I don't know if I'd want to know that I have CT. Once I'm done, I wouldn't. Because what's going to change now, unless there's a way that you can reverse, and I do believe within the next generation we're going to have that way? Because if you do start having complications, there'll be more stuff set up.

There's more lawsuits and litigation. But to me, I mean, like, I don't believe that the NFL holds the cards in, I mean, there's an entire medical community that has no stake in the NFL that wants to cure this. So I don't think the NFL can stop the scientific community from curing this. I think scientific community would love to get this. and addressed. My whole thing is in a sound bite, because if you're listening to this

and you weren't listening 30 seconds ago, CT is bad, it exists, tau protein is probably building in my brain, it's probably built up. I hit people with the crown of my helmet for a long time. You know, there's DBs who tell. Tile protein Tuesday.

Tau protein Tuesday. A.k.a.a.2. Tuesday. Yeah, we used to run into each other. That was a drill. Just run into each other. Listen, this stuff is bad for you. The NFL needs to continue

to try to make the game. game safer, but what I don't like is when all of a sudden these Twitter doctors start, you know, assigning diagnoses to guys that are falling on hard times or have an underlying mental health condition that would happen if they were a truck driver or a janitor. Like schizophrenia doesn't present itself until you're 30, you know, or in that range. Like, so a guy has schizophrenia and starts acting bad shit crazy. It's almost like now we've got to start acting everybody who acts crazy. asking everybody who acts crazy in society,

hey, did you play in the NFL by chance? Because you must have CTE, right? Because that's how they're assigning behavioral outcomes within football. You might hear this rant, and you might say, well, Chris definitely has CT the way he's talking about this, because it is so obvious to me that any time anybody does something bad to play in the NFL,

it has to be the head trauma. Do you know what the murder rate? Do you know what the murder rate is in America? It's really fucking high. Do you know what Aaron Hernandez did? Yeah. Murdered some people. Yeah.

So how do you make the leap other than like we cut them open their CTE? Well guess who else you cut open? It's just convenient, bro. But guess who else you cut open? A hundred plus dudes and they all had CT. How many of them had a murder on their, on their, on their resume? We don't know. It might have got away.

So that's my point. It's just like, let's just realize that we don't quite get it. On to the next topic. No, no. Yeah, we definitely don't get it. We still like. We don't get it yet. We know it's bad.

We don't get it yet. Next topic that Lindsay wrote about. that I wanted to riff on was oh, concussion settlement 2013, 765 million paid out to 4,500 players but not a win for the players. It was

the league, you know, for a league that takes home annual revenue in the billions, it's not an admission of guilt and it was a remarkable... Are they still a non-profit? Fuck, I think so. I don't know. I think so. It's crazy. Remarkable limiting of liability for sure. And in

2016 they they apologize they acknowledge that there is a link between TBI traumatic brain injury and football you think I think we have to my point earlier I think that I think that's the biggest thing I think the fact that like it's more just like we're talking you're talking early do you think

do they think that we're dumb talking like I guess that's the problem that's the problem for like being a player being a past player is just like guys like listen like everything's not caused by CT, but at the same token, knowing what's going on, how some of us get hit and how some of these guys are getting their bell rung and they're not okay, like in the moment for a few weeks, like, cut it out and like, let's do more to push, to make it seem like you guys are actually trying to figure it out. But at the same thing, I empathize and understand from

a business standpoint, it's like, hey, what if we dig deeper and we do know? Because I feel like at one point, there was, like, there was a scare where, I guess, the majority, a lot of soccer moms in the U.S. were like, hey, we're not letting our kids play football young. Youth football is on the decline, and it should be. I'm not going to let my son play football until high school. And I think that's the scary part. But here's not. I have no issue with the gripe with the NFL. The NFL is not to be trusted, especially on this one, but I have a gripe with people just thinking they understand something 100% and they don't quite. And let's just stop acting like we can just, from our cell phones, die.

something that's going on because of a behavioral thing that could possibly be TBI and how it's manifested and a guy acting erratically. PTSD. It could be a number, there could be a number, a number. The same irresponsible people who are mad at the NFL because they're corrupt, guess what? We know the NFL's corrupt.

And these same people are all about banging the drum about mental health awareness in America and redefining masculinity and being more open about what's going on with ourselves mentally are the ones banging the ones banging the thing. one's banging the drum for that guy at CT. I saw he robbed a gas station. He's got to have CT.

Like nobody else has ever robbed a gas station before or, you know, there's no domestic violence outside the NFL, right? I mean, we'll get to all that in a bit. But yeah, like the way we treat women in the United States is not a problem. It only exists in football. And it's got to be because these guys get run into and they're just, they're just violent by nature. But we've overcorrected and that's my problem.

So, listen. When I was in the middle of my career and this whole thing started coming out, the lawsuit, et cetera, you know, I'm somebody who has anxiety anyways. Like on a serious note, so shout out to Brandon Brooks. I think, you know, he's got it more serious.

He had to miss a game because of it this Sunday. But I have just baselines some anxiety. I have, you know, and it manifests in different ways. And when I was in the middle of my career and that CTE shit started coming out, I was more anxious. Because I started to wonder

if I had CTE. And no, what you got is anxiety, bud. Like, like. But who's to say that it's not as bad or it's not the same thing? Well, then why has it improved since I started to make changes in my life that had nothing to do with football? And maybe it's the fact that, like, once you realize, but I think that's the hardest thing for anyone, like, it's just to realize, hey, like, maybe it's not this.

Like, maybe I'm in my own. But that's the problem we got to be careful with is it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy for guys that we totally discount the existential crisis that guys have when they leave the game. But what I can say is saying that other people can't say, I know for us, we have good family and friends like circle around us where there's a lot. And that, just thinking about that, just thinking about not having anything or not having people around you, that thought for whatever reason, I've never had a reason to feel like that, but I used to. And that would give me anxiety. So the thought of knowing like, hey, like some guys really just going home to maybe they have a pet or maybe whatever. That's terrifying.

It's terrifying. So that's why I say, like, I can empathize in a sense that you don't know what's going on with guys. Someone, someone, anyone's saying. Yeah, I mean, you've got guys that, and I didn't even get to this early, existential crisis of, you're a god for 10 years or 11 years or even if you played three, four years. Like, you are the rarest of the rare athlete in the biggest gladiator sport on the planet that's played on a big stage. You know, like this is an alpha male sport and you are exalted for playing it. And even if you're not an ego guy, like, it's intoxicating.

So when you walk away, you better walk away correct. And you better walk away with a value system that includes a family or a home base. I've been very lucky, man. And you're lucky as well. But like you said, some guys, they're doing bad financially. They don't have a wife, a girlfriend, kids, a home, friends. Like, people distance themselves from the places they came up from naturally because you're sequestered in some new city.

you're making a bunch of money. You know, your relationships are strained because you have money. It's a lot. It's a lot for normal people, have no idea. And just like we have no idea what it's like to live check to check or work a nine to five, they have no idea the pressure that comes with the NFL. And then the cliff you fall off when you leave. And this fall, I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I love my life,

but I think a lot of it has to do with how I left. I retired. Nobody cut me. I knew I could get another job. I'm healthy. I got my money. Speak for yourself. Well, I mean, I'm just saying, but like, God,

Guys leave and there's, was it hard after you left for a little bit? 100%. It's like you got to think about it. Like, dude, like whenever you don't leave on your own terms, like injury, whatever it is, this is what, like, for most guys, like, when you're a kid or whatever, you want to make it to the pros. You want to do that. You want to do this. So I feel like it all depends on for you if you've had a goal or what you want to accomplish.

Yeah. If you haven't really quite made it. I feel like that can affect you, but at the same token, it's something where- I think it's also how much you tie your identity to it. So for some guys like me, I never tied my identity completely to football. And part of that might have helped because my dad was so fucking good. My brother's really good. I'm not going to be-

And you cherish it. Like, the biggest thing for me is, of course, like, I feel like I left like too early my injuries. But the time I was there, I know like when I was on the field, practice, whatever. It was fun. It was fun. I played hard. played hard and like I feel like I still have good memories so I feel like if you're not doing that

and and maybe that's something but at the same token if you're really not on your game for a long time NFL you're not going to be on the team I think it's really hard to leave the game it's hard if you have animosity it's hard if you're in a tough situation it's hard if you've tied your ego completely the game and you throw in the mental health side that has to do a CT it is a big complicated bag of shit you just got to realize early that it's a business Like forget your childhood Nobody likes you Nobody really likes you

I try to tell everyone now They're like You know like playing in the NFL Ruin the NFL for me Like it's hard to watch the same way It's hard to like appreciate things the same way Because you see stuff happen Even if they don't directly happen to you

Like your teammates guys And you see how like everything is really All about the bottom line Yeah it's hard to be a fan Because you see you've seen what's behind the curtain It's hard You've seen the sausage get made as they say So let's go to the next thing

And we got to rapid fire through these so we can let the T-Rex out of the cage back there. You like Churizo? We've got Kyle Long coming up. Deflate Gate in 2015. 45 to 7 win over the Colts. The Colts, you know, are complaining about the balls. Tom Brady, obviously, has been taking the air out of the balls, allegedly.

I believe he did, but I don't think it's a big deal. And here's why it's not a big deal. Because Belichet, find a way to win. Like, I just feel like if other coaches knew or other people in their head thought, like, hey, like, yo, if we deflate these balls a little bit, like when it's colder, it's going to be easy. for our guys to catch it. Everyone does it.

Well, I agree with that. Other people deflate it, but on record, I've heard of Aaron Rogers liking to inflate his ball. So it's just a point of preference. I know it's better in cold weather, but Aaron plays in coal.

Why does he inflate it? They were better in the second half with the regulation balls. They beat one of the best defensive all time with the regulation balls. It mainly, it was more about SpyGate to me. Excuse me, it was more about SpyGate to me.

It was more about, hey this has already happened i thought spy gate was more egregious this wasn't much it was more about the cover up than the uh than the actual crime i feel like it's more than like no one really knew about that rule or like that was like an issue i don't know less you're less you're a ball like the equipment guy like that like that knows like all the metrics of stuff like how do you know that yeah like and there's the brady cell phone thing after and then the nickname thing so i do think the cover up was worse than the the crime luxe retirement and this is an interesting one and this coincides with the point we made earlier about Peyton Manning killed Andrew Luck's career and also gave birth to it by leaving because he made him a viable option in Indy and Grigsin and company just rode him into the ground.

He retired in August at 29 years old, lacerated kidney torn labrum, calf, ankle, all that stuff. We all know about the injuries. And that's pretty run-of-the-mill for the NFL. It's a lot for a quarterback. But the pressure, the treatment, you know, every year you're going out there and you're a franchise quarterback. quarterback who can't control, you can't control your health. And no one wants to be in a training room when everyone's practicing. It's miserable. It's the worst place in the world. And depending on if you have females in there

and not, not saying that that matters, but just being around testosterone and dude sometime when you're hurt, you're miserable, like, and you're doing rehab and stuff, it's just like, oh. Yeah, you don't want to do it. It's a lot. You don't want to do it. And I feel like when he got hurt that last time and in their head, they're like, yeah, this is going to be another, three to four months. Like, I think him thinking about that is like, I'm done.

He also knew that, you know, had he gotten hurt and stayed in, all the same people that called him a coward for retiring would have been called him like Mr. Glass for playing another year and being hurt.

So it makes no sense. But he joins the ranks of like Calvin Johnson, you know, Patrick Willis, who retired at 30, Chris Borland, who was a baller, played one year in San Francisco.

A guy was a fucking stud. Before any of these guys, though, there was Jim Brown who left to do Hollywood movies. and also there was the domestic violence stuff coming out and I think he kind of skated before that stuff could bus wide open and Barry Sanders was obviously the best running back of all time in my opinion left the game early

what this is is a bigger issue of players taking back their autonomy a little bit and being more in tune with the mental health stuff with the we own our bodies thing and yeah I mean we get paid a lot for sure but this is a struggle that players have in being in our league more than any, that we can take ownership of ourselves. This is not a player's league yet.

And these guys making decisions like this, they're not only doing the right thing for them in their heart, but they're doing the right thing for future generations because we have some leverage now. Malcolm Butler was one. Now those are all Lindsay's, you know, biggest things of the decade. Of course, she wrote that article in the athletics.

Great article. Check it out. Malcolm Butler added in. She added it as an extra. Malcolm Butler, I think, his pick in the Super Bowl. If that doesn't happen, New England is going from 2005 to possibly 2017, and there's no guarantee you get there without a Super Bowl. Oh, for that, I thought you were talking about.

The benching? Yeah. That was ugly. So that's another thing is like, in New England, you can go from the most important play in the history. I think it's one of the most- Tom Brady gave him his MVP card. Here's the reason it's the most important play,

because 2005 was their last win. They had gone the entire decade almost. they come up with the win. If they don't, you wonder how the paths come back from that. You know, losing three Super Bowls, you know, you're entering a territory where... The bills never came back from it. Well, the bills never came back from, of course,

they didn't have the Super Bowls before that fall. But even a Tom Brady and a Bill Belichick, it's hard to keep people together. When you talked to Rob Nankovic when I was there, said the hardest thing in the world is losing a Super Bowl. You'd rather not even be there. If they lose that one, adding to all those failures, I don't know if they ever get back there.

I'm just not sure. You know, Legion of Boom, that kind of gave the Russell Wilson detractors fuel. It probably accelerated the, you know, the time bomb that was that locker room offensively and defensively. And, you know, the L.O.B was going to break up eventually, but it certainly didn't help. But one thing, that whole thing, Belichick didn't call a timeout. They get down there. He's like, fuck it.

Seattle, you figure out what you want to run. I know what we want to run, and I know exactly what's going to happen, and so do my players. And that's pretty damn cool. And that's why I say you can't underestimate Belichet. You can't, but I think Lamar's different. Here's an underrated one, Fox, and my dad works at Fox,

but Fox, and this is a bigger broadcasting at large thing. I mean, like, it's no secret that it's a Netflix world now. No, Netflix is about to die. well whatever the fuck you're on the trends more than i am so disney has their own platform now well okay so it's a disney world let's call it yeah disney plus yes i can't wait to get that shit bro all the cartoons for when i was a kid yeah that's why netflix is man marvel okay so let's say disney plus world it's a netflix world but fox um they bet big on something that was unorthodox i'll explain why the big money right now is is still in in ads and broadcasting but viewership has declined

in one place that broadcast is doing well still is live events like the NFL. So when Fox bought Thursday Night Football and they bet on these live events and they said, we're going to strip down all our stuff that's not live. That was a winning move because they've been able to stay in the game. And even with Rupert Murdoch's giant presence and Fox's giant presence, they weren't ready to keep up with, you know, the Disney pluses of the world. I mean, that's a model. They just couldn't.

So as you look at how we're going to be consuming football in the next, like think about all the things that happened, probably in the last decade. I mean, now you can watch Sunday tickets been around for a while. I don't know when Red Zone came along, but people are watching football on their phones. I'm on, you know, I think it's the first streaming pregame show ever on Amazon with K. Adams and James Co. Like, the game is changing. Humble brag. Yeah, well, the game is changing.

We've dropped that nice, nice. Dipset adlib there. Yeah. Jules. Shout out to him. Free Jewel. Shout out to Diff's. Is he actually? Yeah, he's in jail. Jesus.

Cold weather Super Bowl. That's another one for me. NFL experimenting, sending that Super Bowl up to New York. They did Dallas and there was that big storm. That was a shit show. It was just because Dallas doesn't know how to handle cold weather, but evidently they get it all the time. They missed that five-inch snowstorm by a day

when it came to that Super Bowl up at the Meadowlands, there's not going to be another one back there. Never. That was so great. And that stadium's very, it's sterile. It's got a sterile vibe to it. What you mean? That's a good stadium. There's no atmosphere. That's my thing.

There's no atmosphere in that stadium. It was 49 degrees. The next day it snowed five inches. I think Peyton still would have struggled in an indoor game against that team. Washington is maybe the next, I could see if Washington down the line gets a new stadium at some point.

I could see a D.C. Super Bowl being pretty cool, although good luck with the fucking roads there. No. Talking about outdoor cold weather stadiums, though, I mean, that would be up there in the list. Like, where could you see an outdoor stadium that's a colder climate getting a Super Bowl?

Chicago, it's too cold. I mean, it would have to be Baltimore if Lamar keep doing what he's doing. I don't think, I don't want to see a Super Bowl out. I don't want to see a Super Bowl outside on turf. I want to see it on grass. I'd like to see it in Washington's new stadium, whatever that is.

Green Bay would be an interesting one, but you can't support it up there. It's too cold. And as Kyle joked, like, what are you going to say at the Paper Valley Sheridan? Like, there's nothing there. Appleton's in. But they did get something right with the drafts. Nashville was a huge one. A monster weekend for that city.

600,000 visitors drove to that place. 133 million in direct spending. They did 74 million in Dallas, 56 million in Philly, 43 in Chicago. This is something, the NFL can get green. This is something I think they do well. The draft is going to change all the time now. I loved Radio City. Shout out to you.

We went to yours. Yeah, you went to my draft. You were part of the group that hung a banner that said what? I forget. There's something about my penis, and that wasn't cool. You almost got kicked out of... You guys were on the second... It was the white guy humor.

It wasn't the black dudes in the group. It was the white guy humor. So literally, like, I was so passed out. I was so passed out. Oh, you missed the draft almost? You were number two, bro. So when we heard your name, It was sleep.

I didn't even hear, I didn't even hear B.A.'s name, which was about 11 picks later. And I just remember just being, like, knocked out. Well, the dudes had a damn giant sign that had some long play on words that was phallic in nature. And I think it was the white guy. Santi and big country. Yeah. So those guys, those guys acting like children. You guys also almost set a hotel on fire.

Yeah, good times. We're not going to talk about that. No, we're not. And that wasn't you. It was somebody else in the group. Allegedly. Allegedly. My Philly draft story is right after I sign with Philly, they're going to have the draft.

I think this is the weekend. And I go to Germany against STEM cell, and I'm really excited about signing with Philly. Probably not going to draft anybody. It's you and Brandon Graham. Great. This is awesome. Man, I woke up at 3 in the morning, Germany time until, like, my phone just off the hook. Like, sorry, bro, sorry, bro.

They drafted Derek Barnett. Woke me up. I couldn't sleep. I was like, fuck this. I literally hate football. Turns out, me and Derek turned out to be great friends and it all worked out. You see what type of anxiety football gives you?

It does. Like the weird thing that no one really... Yeah, nobody thinks about it. Like, why would he care about that? I care about that. But why would everyone text you sorry, too? It's just like, why would you do that? Yeah, well, they also know, I mean,

your true friends know what time it is, and it was a miracle. I think when they drafted Derek... Do they, though? Listen, here's what happened. Eagles get a lot of credit for bringing me and other vets in and maybe they should, but they didn't fucking think I was going to be any good.

They really didn't. I called the Eagles. They didn't think much of me in the beginning. They picked Barnett. Probably would have done it either way. And I think Derek is a really good player. And I love Derek. He's one of my buddies.

And we ended up making some plays together. But I think that was like, hey, well, we got this old guy that's more of a locker room guy. That's how my career ended there too. So I got a ring. I did get a ring. Best thing ever. So for them, it did work. Yes.

Tapper as an owner. big one. David Tepper, I believe is his name, in Carolina. He's got more money than, I don't know about God, but anybody. He's got a lot of money. He's got a lot about him. And a league wants more people like him. It creates competition off the field. Like more than the other owners? He's got a lot of money. Okay. And what he's doing is he's bringing fresh blood in this ownership group. He's also been on what seems like the right side of some of the social justice stuff. But the real reason is the big deal is because there's no salary cap on stadiums or coaches.

You know, the NFL wants more owners like this who are not, you know, the Browns or the Adams in Cleveland and Tennessee, respectively, these family-owned groups that are kind of been there a while that might be comfortable. Like these new guys are going to push for the latest, the greatest, and the best. And it creates like this arms race. It's almost like a recruiting thing. You know, teams like Green Bay, they have to get kind of creative in the way to do things, obviously.

But a lot of teams are going to rely on these new. owners to kind of push the next generation of their football operations the next level and you want all the nicest stuff what was the nicest organization you played for as far as taking care of the players had to be the giants good good food good facilities i got there right when it was new the time x like it was unbelievable it was like a five-star restaurant i used to get to breakfast early so i don't have to wait behind any vets and get a dope-ass omelet but just everything in there it's just you kind of walking around with your asshole tight like you don't want to piss anyone off in there because everyone seemed like they were like all business but the same token everything around you was like yo this is

nice yeah like this is really really nice new england was really nice for me i mean they're there's their facility of the art i wasn't a fan of the fact they had no window windows in the in the facility but as far as like shout out to ted the nutritionist you know stuff like that their entire staff was really committed to you know providing everything for the players uh Philly, my last year, they kicked it up a notch with the food, really nice facility, but New England's was very state-of-the-art. Two owners that really care about football in Lurie and Kraft. But with New England, they've been at it for longer.

You know, new plane and stuff. I missed the plane, but, you know, they just, everything was kind of, you know, no expense spared. And they do the same thing with Philly, but it was just New England had a lot to work with up there. London, that's the last thing. you know this decade when we look back if there's ever a team in london i don't think it would be advisable i don't think it would be a good idea even if the hub is in Atlanta or jacksonville or somewhere in the

Midwest they talk about doing these if a team moves you do a longer home stand at home you go over abroad for a month uh i think Canada or Mexico would be better um you used to do that with the bills yeah right yeah and i think that's cool but like i i just don't know how that really works it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't like you won't get it like i mean i don't know how like just being over here. Like, I don't know in London, like, I guess, like, when we play, like, it maybe it's that much more amplified and it, like, it equals out. But, like, even business-wise for me, I'm just like, obviously, it's something. Yeah. That they keep, they keep punching at it to try to get it to work. They're punching at it

for two reasons. One, they have this, they're hell bent on getting a team over there. You heard the- Don't guys always get in trouble and get sent home? In London? Yeah. There's some stuff you can get in trouble on over there, but I'm always so tired from the time change. It's not healthy. Here's the thing. Football's not healthy anyways. Your adrenaline's, you know, on the entire time. I can't tell you how chill I feel just from being under no stress. Imagine throwing in that every month you have to adjust to, you know, it's hard enough for businessmen who go over and sit in meetings. Like, then you got to go be violent and pay attention to be mentally under game. I tell people like my entire time playing football, if I ever woke up and the sun was out, I was late to sleep to

something. Yeah. And not in and and having that feeling is is like it's crazy to think about. Now I wake up and I'm like shit I can't get my son to school but like we can we can fix that. You know preschool. It's not such a big deal. Okay. So I think in summation the NFL is not just doing it to fulfill this pipe dream which I don't think is going to happen nor would it work of moving a team over there. But they're also growing a fan base which I get that and it is fun to go over there and play. One of my favorite games of my career was going to beat the Jags. I played well in that game as one of my last games and the feeling of getting back to one of those cool old hotels and hanging out with your parents and like, you know, just everybody who made the trip over there after a win, it's hard to beat.

But after a loss, it is awful. I've also been on that side of it. Ironically, they're huge. Gator Bowl. They're ironically huge Jacksonville Jaguar fans. Yeah, we lost the Gator Bowl to Graham Harrell. In Jacksonville Jaguar Stadium. Yep. So, you know, full circle here. Jags are the favorite team in the UK, which is hilarious to me. But by virtue of the fact that they're the only team that was willing to like,

they don't care enough about Jacksonville as a league. They're just going to dump this team over on the UK and the UK is eating it up. They love the fucking Jags, man. Don't talk about my old team. Okay, so let's take quick break. Let's let the giant T-Rex out of his cage. My little big brother, Kyle Long.

But we're not going to do it on this YouTube. You've got to click one more time to get to the second half of this Thanksgiving extravaganza for your Saturday morning. Hopefully you're bloated and full of turkey and you can keep watching. So stick around. Click one more and go to part two.