Green Light with Chris Long - Steve Keim! Behind the Cardinals' Curtain, Kyler Murray's Contract & D-Hop Trade. Around the Corn with Clinton Yates

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

(2:34) - Keith Richards Under the Influence Documentary Review (7:00) - Steve Keim on his time with the Arizona Cardinals, Kyler Murray's Contract, Kliff Kingsbury in Thailand, Trading for D-Hop and Favorite Draft Stories Presented by Miller Lite (1:06:19) - Talkin' Sports with ESPN's Clinton Yates: Behind 'Around the Horn,' Soccer Fandom and Baseball Futures Bets (1:38:12) - Around the Corn: Jill Biden Hands Out Multiple White House Invites, Cardinals Rocking New Uniforms, Hard Knocks Teams and More! Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b   Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42   Green Light Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   Green Light with Chris Long:   Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Gambling problem in Arizona, call 1-800. Next Step. In Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, call 1-800 gambler. And at Michigan, 1-800-270-1-1-7-1-7-1-7. Tennessee, y'all too, 1-800-8-9-9. Ooh, it's the Greenlight Podcast. We welcome you. We've got a good little episode number for you all today.

It's Steve Kahn, former Cardinals GM. He's doing great. He lets us behind the curtain of the Cardinals operation. He's going to talk Cliff, Kyler, a little Michael Bidwell, some of the free agents he signed and the contracts he negotiated. Steve will also go in-depth on the NFL draft for our Miller-Light draft segment. Talk some strategies, the furthest he had to go to see a prospect, and the story about deciding to draft the Honey Badger.

Calls into Studio J. He also goes in-depth on the NFL draft for our Miller-Light. Miller Light draft segment. Share some stories, the craziest places he had to go to see a prospect. Draft strategies and the story behind taking the Honey Badger. After Steve, we've got ESPN's Clinton Yates. He's all over the network. He writes were undefeated. He's always on Around the Horn. He can catch him on ESPN radio. Awesome guy. Stop by Studio J. Hars old baseball, a couple topical sports. And then we introduce a brand new segment. Unheard of, unthought of before now. It's called Around the Corn.

one and you all have a great weekend. They call me free blowing and low, we know, the green line, babe. All right, so PAC's show today, two guests, because we've had Steve Kime, you know, kind of on the hook to come on for a little bit, and we've had to reschedule, and my friend Clinton Yates is in town.

You know him from TV, from ESPN. He is one of my favorite people I've met in the industry, and he's just popping. just popping. He can't quit Charlottesville. He just keeps coming back. We're going to play a game with him and catch up about some baseball and some other stuff as well. I just want to say this before we start with Steve Kime. Matt, you have not seen the Keith Richards Netflix documentary? No. I can't wait. It's awesome. Okay. Last night I was watching and I realized that I was smiling for 20 minutes. It was like one of those things. And, you know, like I'm a big stone fan. Yeah, you got it.

But I'd never really like learn much about Keith Richards and his life. And, you know, I know some of the influences that Mick Jagger had like kind of overlap with some of my favorite music. Like, you know, I know he's a big Muddy Waters fan. And actually in the Keith Richards documentary, the way him and Mick, I don't know if it was when they met or what, but they ran into each other on a train. And Mick had these two records under his arm. one of them was Chuck Barry who you know Keith Richards was a huge fan of the other was muddy waters and so they kind of bonded over that appreciation of that music and you know like

Keith talking about going to Chicago meeting muddy waters at chess records or whatever was walking up the stairs and there's a guy painting the ceiling and it's muddy waters and he's this enormous fan of muddy and getting to know like Halen Wolfe who by the way is like a fucking unit that guy was six six it was huge legend um all these guys like it was like you learn about keith richards but like in any good music documentary there's so much crossover and i would highly suggest at least the first 35 minutes of it which i've watched one of my favorite categories of things music documentary dude it's amazing so anybody send in your favorite music documentaries under the uh the link to the tweet if you can because i need uh to continue down the rabbit

the whole um and i hope you enjoy the super mario brother's movie you're going to i cannot wait rotten tomatoes been shitting on a little bit it's kind of got me spooked but we'll see it'll be fine people those people they're too highbrow for that kind of entertainment so um all right steve kime coming up great interview with him and then clinton yates visiting in studio what a time to be alive guys you know i'm heading outside because the weather's starting to improve maybe going for a hike uh there's nothing that can beat an ice cold miller light miller light has an incredibly dependable flavor. It's light beer for people who love beer and having a cold one on the trail. Miller Light makes a conversation with friends easy and fun. Since 1975, Miller Light has been the

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Steve, what are you down right now? What are you down to? About 240. You look great, man. You feeling good? I feel unbelievable. That's what happens when you eliminate stress from your life. Yeah, yeah.

That's what I was going to ask. How stressful for people that don't realize it is the life of a GM? And at what point were you like, man, this is not sustainable for me? Well, I mean, I'll say it like this. It was a tremendous opportunity and obviously something that I dreamed about doing since childhood. But, you know, you look back and you consider the head coach as a guy that players go to, that, you know, they're looking for some direction, and they're usually in good spirits.

Same with the owner who's across the hallway because they write the checks. And when anybody showed up at my door, it was usually to pitch about something. So that makes it pretty difficult that you're usually seeing unhappy faces throughout the day. Yeah, and like you being a former player, like, by the way, teammates with Tori Holt,

my good buddy from St. Louis, one of my vets, at the state guys. So yeah, but you being a former player, it's like, I figure it's hard. It's even harder for you because you've been a player. You know what motivates guys and you know where that kind of like, hey, I got to bet on myself and I got to believe that I'm owed, you know, all this comes from. Right. Yeah, no doubt.

And it's, you know, it's an area of concern that, you know, you haven't had tough conversations with players, particularly when you have a soft spot in your heart because you sat across that desk as well. but at the same time, you know, it is a business. You have to separate yourself from, you know, the personal relationship. And, you know, it's just really tough to do. But the longer you do it, the more comfortable you get. But never is there any conversation, whether it's year one or year 10, that's a lot of fun to have.

Like, cut day really probably the hardest day of the year. I mean, do you have any memorable, like, damn, I didn't want to do this? I had to do it, I'm sure. It probably feels like a lot of them. I mean, there was quite a few. Usually the ones you had to get security involved were a little bit concerning. For you to get security involved, that's pretty scary. Yeah, guys, it didn't want to leave the facility.

But, you know, I would say this, you know, the harder conversations were when players, because my door was always open, Chris. I had a policy that guys could come talk to me at any time. I was going to be as honest as I could with them. It was the guys that came up and thought they were under pay. or wanted long-term contracts with a lot of guaranteed money. And, you know, when you had to tell them that they had to either work for it or it wasn't their time yet, that was a tough conversation

because guys were obviously very disgruntled at that point and as well as their agents. So you got caught between a rock and a hard place, but, you know, I just tried to be as open and honest as I could. And a lot of times guys didn't understand the salary cap or the fact that the cap is really a big pizza pie. And, you know, you can only have so many slats. for a certain amount of guys and they have to be your core guys in terms of philosophy. And again, it was very tough to have, especially when you admired certain guys and respected them as players.

How long does the security thing take? I mean, it's, you know, it's, they just make sure they escort them to the car in a proper manner. Yeah, dude. There's got to be the shittiest workplace to have to escort somebody out of him. It's like Hank, the office. You got to call down get Hank to come down. come up. Yeah, exactly. Who's your hang? That's a good question.

Well, I mean, like, how has your life improved since you've had some down time? Well, I don't know. I want to say it improved because I do love every moment of the 10 years that I had that opportunity to be in that chair. But, you know, just a lot of time down. And after 25 years of working for the same organization, you know, at starting off as an area scout and moving up to college director, you know, director of player personnel. vice president of player personnel. You know, it's a long process, not only the positions, but the stress of trying to move up the ladder and having goals and aspirations. But then when you get in that chair, things are a lot different. You know, there's no manual that you sit down to your desk to read that says,

here's how you become a GM. A lot of the stuff you have to learn on the fly, and you have to make some tough decisions and make some mistakes to learn your lessons the hard way. And I certainly went through that phase, you know, because I remember going up to my desk after I was introduced as a GM in our press conference. And I remember sitting down on my desk and putting my hands on my head, they're thinking, you know, what the fuck do I do now? And I truly felt that way.

I didn't know what I was supposed to do because I was in the moment. There was a lot of pressure and had to flip a, I guess, four and 11 team around. And quickly, you know, got my nerves together and had a higher head coach and find a quarterback, which were too difficult tasks at hand and was lucky enough to hire Bruce Ariens, who was known as a journeyman assistant coach throughout the years. And I feel like I hit gold on that one and traded a seventh round pick for Carson Palmer. Yeah. Those are some really good teams, man.

And Bruce, they had the swagger that Bruce brought to the table. What's been like watching him kind of have his success as a head coach? It's been fun. Yeah, it's been fun, man. He and I were extremely close, almost like brothers. I don't know if you know we grew up about 20 miles apart in Pennsylvania from each other. So we were from the same county, your county. And it's funny, he always gives me shit.

He said, you ain't from Harrisburg, man. You're your county dude. Like, you know, he'd always give me shit about that. Bruce is that kind of guy in general. And a fun guy to be around us. It's tough as things got. We always made it fun together and pushed each other. Really fun times for me is just working alongside a guy.

like Bruce. Dude, when I look at the players you drafted, there's some really, some really great names here. I mean, one of my favorite players to watch Honey Badger. You snagged him. What was the pre-draft process and the lead up when it came to Honey Badger? And what differentiated you, you know, him to you because he lasted until like the third round. Yeah. Man, it was, it was interesting.

I remember watched, I was getting ready to watch film of him. and in my head being my first draft as the GM, I thought to myself, you know what, this guy's going to be off my board. There's no way I can take a chance in my first draft as a GM to take a guy that's got that many off-field issues. And sure enough, I put in the tape and happened exactly what I didn't want to happen. I fell in love with a player.

I never evaluated a player at that point in time that the ball just seemed like it jumped in his hands. You know, it was just his instinct. his anticipation were completely off the charts. For a guy who was small, wasn't the fastest, he's probably a mid-four-five guy, but his ability to track and adjust, his ability to anticipate, his knowledge of the game was just exceptional. And I ended up liking the tape so much.

I flew him in to meet with us in Phoenix, and I took him out to a steakhouse that night, and my oldest son was with me, who at that time was about eight years old. and I'll never forget, halfway through the kid talking, my son was pulling on my shirt telling me, Dad, this guy's really cool. Because at the end of the day, man, he, for a guy that got in some trouble,

and a lot of that was, to me, the cultural background in the area of the country that he grew up in New Orleans, you know, you want to find out if a guy's a problem and he's a bad character, or did he make mistakes? And the NFL was a deterrent. You know, it's going to keep him. him in line. And at the end of the day, I felt

strongly that that was going to be a deterrent because he loved ball. And if guys love it enough, you know through your days of playing and being around it, that generally that can keep guys on the straight and narrow. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, you say off the field issues, and a lot of times like when you dig, it's like, these are

blown out of proportion or whatever, but we've got one guy right now in the top 10 in Jalen Carter, who some people think is the best guy in the draft. Now, he was out like racing, And there was a tragedy that transpired in that whole process, but he wasn't driving.

Wasn't driving. Now, I've heard certain teams have taken them off their board. I also heard Drew Rosenhouse say, hey, we only have taken visits in meetings with top 10 teams. And that leads me to believe that he thinks there's a backstop there. What do you make of Drew's comments and what do you? make of like people saying hey i'm out on jalen carter and how do you make that calculus as a you know i i think chris it's it's one of those areas where analytics don't don't really um

work in this situation you got to use instincts you have to use your sources which you know i know kirby's smart very very well and a lot of coaches on that staff that i've good relationships with which i would generally um you know base my my evaluation in terms of character with the coaches at Georgia, the guys who spent the most time with them, probably date back to even high school and dig a little bit with people there. You don't want to find out at the college level, does he treat people the right way? As much as talking to janitors and secretaries to find out if these guys are truly day in and day out, the kind of guy you want in your building.

So there's a lot of digging. At the same time, you know, once you talk to the player, you generally have a good instinct. I've made some poor decisions in the past, obviously, that you grew from. In terms of Drew, I have a lot of respect for Drew. I've worked with him a number of years here and had a good relationship. Drew's pretty direct in the business, which I respect, and isn't a guy that tells a lot of lies and things of that nature. But, you know, I probably would not have limited it to the top 10

because, as you know, you never can forecast where a guy is going to go, or if some teams have them off their board, particularly picking in the top 10, after a guy maybe made a mistake or gotten some trouble. So I would have cast my net quite a bit larger and probably at least went throughout the first round to at least give every team an opportunity to get to know them because it could hurt him more than it could help them, as you know.

So I would just say that, you know, your instincts really above anything and your time spent with the kid and your relationship with the coaches on that staff that you can trust them. are the ones that pay huge dividends for you, whether it's a success or not. Yeah, have you watched this tape a lot? I mean, you know, like some people are making them out to be the next, you know, big thing.

And as I said earlier, the best player in the draft, have you seen him play a lot? I have not. I've seen him play a little bit. You know, in terms of just the type of player he is, you know, there's, I saw some similarities that maybe like a Clayas Campbell, not quite as tall. You know, a guy that can play that three, the five, can do some different things. he was really good at getting on the edge and using his quickness to win. I would just say this.

You know, as far as his character goes, you know, you just got to make sure he loves the game. And if you can make sure he loves it and he's that kind of talent, I would take an opportunity to take that pick. Now, you know, in Arizona, I drafted Robert Kimdici with a 26 pick overall, who we thought, yeah, we thought was a top 10 talent. And there were some concerns and questions about him coming out. And at the end of the day, really, the guy just, in my opinion, didn't love football enough. He didn't succeed or play at a high level because he was in love with the, you know, the process of going through the draft, being the top pick, getting money. But when it was time to grind, that wasn't his focus. So we talked about, you know, some agents.

You just mentioned we were talking about Rosenhaus and how you like working with him. Who are some GMs that, like, when they pick up the phone and call you, you're like, I don't know if I should do a deal with this guy. he's pretty damn slick. Like, I have a lot of respect for this guy. And maybe there's something up his sleeve or it can't be a good deal because he's calling me. Well, I'll tell you the story. I was looking for a pass rush or years ago.

And I never forget. I called Bill Belichick. And sometimes, you know, you just have to call out of the blue and just give it a shot. And Bill handled a lot of the operations there. So I called Bill. And I remember saying, Bill, I'm just taking a flyer here.

Any chance you'd be considered moving Chandler Jones. and, you know, I don't fucking know. I don't know. You know, like how he does. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, they's like, you know, maybe, like, what are you thinking? And I'm thinking, holy shit, this guy's way smarter than me. He knows more about football than I'll ever know.

What does he know that I don't know? Now I'm starting to rethink this trade. So we pull the trigger. I give a second round pick for him, which since that time, Chandler Jones was the number one sackman in the NFL from the time I traded for him till, you know, until, till now. And all I could think about until he got on the field for us is what didn't I know and how did I screw this up?

Yeah. Because his, obviously, Bill's track record, would lend to tell you that he's done a pretty damn good job. You're the reason I have a ring, or at least my first ring, because if Chandler didn't get traded, they weren't going to go with the like, you know, the, let's roll three role play and edge guys out there. I mean, like, if Chandler was still up there, I wouldn't have gone up there. So I appreciate you snagging Chan from up in New England. And as you said, the guy was unbelievable for y'all.

And he's just such an unorthodox rusher. I know he was probably hard to evaluate coming out. I don't know if you remember evaluating him at all. Yeah, yeah, I do. I didn't know what to make of him. Which I like them at Syracuse. That was the question. Is he a 4-3-N?

Is he a 3-4 backer? You know, we played him as a 3-4 backer, which, you know, as you know, you don't have to do a lot of dropping. And when we did drop him, I always thought to myself, why in the hell is this guy not rushing the passer? But he was exactly what you said. He was so unorthodox. He was really gangly, and he had this move where he caught his,

I don't know if you remember that move. I think he called it the Buffalo, where like he almost would take four steps and he could sort of propel himself and club and jump around a tackle without losing any leverage. or angle on the quarterback, which was just phenomenal. And, you know, it made me really think when I went and saw his brother in the UFC one-time fight, he was really like Chandler.

He's just so gangly, but you can't get him off his feet. Yeah. Yeah, great balance. Really, like, hyper-mobile. Yeah. That kind of jump, chop club. I think, you know, we're talking about the same thing. It's hard to imitate that.

I mean, you can show guys that on tape, but he's kind of one-of-a-kind physically. Yeah. You also, over the last couple of years that you were in Arizona, I thought it was interesting. Y'all drafted guys with, like, unique body types. Yeah. You know, Isaiah was one of them where I was like, man, this guys, I mean, I was down at the fucking Orange Bowl to watch Clemson. I don't beat up on Virginia, but it wasn't great. It was a squeaker.

It was a squeaker. They squeaked it out. And I was on the field hanging out with my buddy, Coach Higgins, Marcus Higgins, who's now at Penn State. and I remember Isaiah Simmons running by me. I hadn't really watched Clemson play a whole lot, admittedly, and I said, who the fuck is that? And it was just one of those things. And then you know, you guys bringing him in,

and Zaven Collins, who's a really big guy, I mean, can really run, but he's not shaped like today's linebackers. What do you believe led you, were those decisions kind of made out of a philosophy that you have, which is like there's no prototypical player at this position or how do you think about, hey, that's the prototype, but there might be a London Fletcher out there. Yeah, I mean, I think that over time I, excuse me,

I felt like we valued guys who were hybrid players who could do multiple things, you know, whether they were safe, at every level, whether you can rush the pass or hold a point, player three, a five, a seven, guys that can play all over, inside linebackers, guys that can really run, can match up in coverage, who aren't going to get isolated as a Mike linebacker and get exposed. Yeah. You know, the secondary, guys like Tyron Matthew,

who can drop down and play nickel in the slot as well as a deep half. You know, guys that had the ability to play multiple positions, you probably remember the year we played Philadelphia and went to beat him and went to the NFC championship. We had a guy named Dionne Buchanan, who was an inside linebacker, who could run and cover, had a big interception in that game, and it would return for a touchdown. So a number of players across the board that we just felt could play inside and outside,

which, again, at every level I think it adds to value and different things that you can do with them, especially if they can learn and process. Two guys that you drafted and have had a lot of success, not just for you, but, you know, then thereafter. Hassan Reddick and Christian Kirk.

What's it like seeing players that you drafted, go get that second contract, even if it's somewhere else or a shot at a ring and being the defensive player of the year conversation? I mean, Reddick put a diamond in the rough he was just to draft him. and then also for Howie to pick him up this year. Yeah, and Howie and I had some conversations about him.

I just said, just rush him, you know, because that's what we did. We drafted him, I think it was 14th overall. And he went to the senior bowl that year as a stacked linebacker, which I thought made no sense. You know, he was a guy at Temple that was not only a walk on a Temple, but he was a guy that played anywhere from a five, a seven, rushed the passer extremely well, was active. Obviously, a tremendous skill set with his speed and explosiveness.

So we tried to play him in Mike Linebacker, or I should say we played him at Sam and Will and thought he'd be a good cover guy that could run and cover and those sort of things. And obviously he could not, the one thing he didn't do great is he didn't play a lot of stackbacker, which, as you know, was really hard to process and see things if you're not used to it. So over time, we found out that he couldn't really adapt to that position. So we ended up, I told our coaches, I said, you know, we got to put him back at outside linebacker and give him a try. And I know that some of our coaches thought he was too small, which, To me, you know, when you look at the sort of the nature of that position over the years,

you know, whether it's Dwight Freeney or other guys, there's been guys who are five-foot-10 that have rushed the passer. If they have a unique skill set and they can compensate with their ability to rush, whether it's, you know, as you know, angles, leverage, hand speed, movement, creative ability in the box with their tools, you know, you can overcome it. And Hassan just had such explosiveness. So when we moved him back that year to outside linebacker, it was last year he was on contract.

I think he had like 11 sacks. And the rest is history. You know, he went out and went to Carolina, had some success and obviously he played extremely well in Philadelphia. Yeah. How hard is it to have the clock run out on you in a war room on draft day or now draft night? 2003. I know it feels in fantasy football.

Minnesota, seventh overall pick. They run out of time. Yeah. It was Jacksonville jumped up and got Leftwich. Carolina jumped up and got gross. Minnesota could have jumped in at any point and taken their players who ended up being Kevin Williams. In the year before, they tried to pick a guy who had already been picked, I think, at six. How intense is draft night?

How intense are those war rooms? Is the clock just eight feet tall so you know how much time you have as is counting down? Yeah, I mean, it's extremely stressful. And I would say it's more stressful when you're on the clock and you're trying to make a trade. You know, generally, almost every pick you have, you have a number of calls that, you know, most fans don't know about. I mean, it's constant with different teams calling you for that pick. And a lot of times it materializes into nothing because, quite frankly, they didn't give you enough value for that pick. So you have to make a quick decision.

You've got to make sure you're understanding where the clock is. I had a number of different guys in my draft room that did different, had different responsibilities. know, one guy was looking at the trade chart, one guy was taking the calls. Where I'm watching the board, I'm looking at the guy that I would like to pick. You always have to be ready to take the pick, make the trade, one or the other. And I just, you know, I never allowed it to get probably below a minute without putting it in. And, you know, who knows? Maybe they tried to let people jump them because it was slotted and they wanted to spend less money.

But I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And I certainly think it would be extremely embarrassing if that did happen. Have you ever felt bad for a guy as you watch him plummet in the draft? Like a guy that you kind of were like, I like this kid. He's interviewed for me. And I'm watching him sit there in his suit for three hours. He's not our guy.

But man, I wish somebody would just pick this kid already. Yeah, I mean, you know, whether it's generally the quarterbacks, whether it was Aaron Rogers having to sit as long as he did, which I'm sure would be much differently if they knew the outcome. Yeah. Or, you know, even Brady Quinn sat there forever and he kept showing. them. It just feel, you feel bad because these kids have worked their whole life to, to, you know, achieve these goals and these dreams. And now they're on national TV and it's not a, not a positive

spotlight. Yeah, but at least everybody looks good, you know, and at the end of the day, you don't have to wait very long, did you? No, I didn't, but I didn't look good. The thing is, you know, those suits were like fucking 40s mafia suits back there in 2008. There was a picture I saw the other day of me, Jake Long, Matt Ryan, Vernon Goldston, Darren McFadden, and Glenn Dorsey,

waving to people. And we looked like fucking clowns, man. I want those pictures off the internet, but the guys look better now. You know, you had a lot of great veterans over the years,

over the years, and I know it's like probably an art, an art form to try to hit on veterans and figure out how much, you know, they have left in the tank. Is there one that you're like, I'm very proud of that.

And maybe it's not like a Chandler Jones, but somebody who played a bigger role than people realized and you had to make that kind of calculation in your head. Wow, there's a number of them. I would say mostly trades. I would say that I did a lot better with trades than I did anything else, maybe.

You know, again, whether it was Carson or Chandler Jones, you know, a number of those guys that I felt like worked out really well for us. James Connor? James Connor. you had a Jay james Connor was a free agent oh he's free agent but jay was a veteran signing as well um jay was yeah i mean d hop was a trade yeah yeah that was a pretty that was a pretty good trade here here is what i was wondering about that whole thing was it just when you guys made that trade were you

just in disbelief that that you got him for the hall you know the hall and how it went down he he was he was the problem is i made that deal with bill o'brien um right before before COVID hit. So it was like the start of free agency. Yeah. So we consummated that deal over the phone. And I'll never forget, because of COVID, the NFL came out with a rule that you couldn't fly players in for visits. So until the players came in for visits, which David Johnson had to go to Houston, D.Hop had to come out of here to get physicals.

The trade still wasn't able to go through, right? and Bill and I, as well as our owners, had done a good job of keeping a quiet. So there was days throughout that COVID period. Number one, it was awkward as hell that I wasn't going to work. Two, I was waking up every day and saying, did I really get DeAndre Hopkins? Because until you see it on Sports Center, it's pretty hard to believe. Yeah, exactly. I would call Bill from time to time.

I'd be like, Bill, we're good, right? They'd be like, no, man, I told you. I'm a man of my word. I'm like, shit. This is taking forever. I hope the hell they get us, you know, we get an answer for this COVID deal. But luckily enough, we got it done finally.

And, you know, wow, what a talent he is. He's amazing. And he just, like, one of the teams that was thrown out there, and I don't know if, you know, none of this is real. We're all just fans watching, like, reports of, hey, this team might be interested or whatever. But I would love to see him in New England if he is on the move. I just feel like Bill would covet a guy like that.

respect level he has for him. And it'd just be fun to see him, you know, kind of experience that, that spotlight. You know, the market's a little bit different. Is there a destination that you would like for DeAndre Hopkins now, now that you're not, like, controlling that process? But where could you see that? And what would the hall be? Let's play GM.

You can be a GM. You be the other GM. Well, here's the problem. The problem is his current contract. Yeah. And, you know, with I think it's $30 million. in cap, I think it's 20 million in cash. So those pose some serious problems to teams, particularly teams that probably have a

quarterback and has taken up a large number of the cap itself. So, you know, teams are going to have to be, number one, they're going to have to be creative. And I'm guessing the Cardinals are going to have to figure it out from the standpoint that a player of that magnitude, number one, I think he's 33 years old, to the contract. And you think to yourself, he's been hurt the last couple of times. years. Yeah. So they're probably going to have to come to,

um, they're going to have to come to understand that they're probably not going to get as much as they, they would if he was a younger player or his contract was, was considerably lower. Yeah. You know, where you could get him for a second round pick or you can maybe get a third round.

It may end up being a, you know, a second or third day draft pick. Yeah. To really get it done. And that, because that team is going to have to take it on and understand how they're going to be able to probably get a new deal done.

and I negotiated with hop was his own agent I can tell you that's not the easiest thing in the world yeah that's come up in the news cycle lately between him and larry Fitzgerald that's the guys that put all this gray on my beard yeah Larry uh Larry's a nice guy in the world but I bet he can be a motherfucker if you if you go to negotiate with him Larry loves football but Larry loves cash too and he is smart he is so brilliant

he is smart yeah hey Steve at what point in your career Did you understand, learn, grasp the salary cap? Is the salary cap real? Because if you tell me I... The pizza, bro. He already told you as a pizza. If you tell me I have 200 bucks to spend on 10 players, all right, I can understand that.

But there's several years involved. Sometimes the money is guaranteed. Sometimes it's not. Do you have a team of people weighing in on this capologist? Or do you have this programmed into you at this point? I mean, I obviously knew enough to be dangerous, but our cap guy really did the heavy lifting. And, you know, we had some analytics people who did some comp, you know, work basically on what the good comps were for that position, that age, that, you know, type of player, which really helped. So I can't say that it was all instinct.

But at some point in time, your instinct does have to kick in. And you have to love the player to be able to, you know, spend. a lot of money and go hard at a guy, particularly with a lot of guaranteed money involved, because you can't generally get out of those contracts for at least two to three years. Yeah, there's a guaranteed contract that's being talked about right. And, you know, the real, the real, really, probably misconception is that the salary cap is apples to apples for all teams in the NFL, and that's incorrect. The salary cap might have been 198.6 last year.

Whatever it was, you know, there were teams that could maneuver around the cap if they wanted to spend the cash. So there's a cash spending report that comes out every year. And you could have a team like the Rams who spent $80 million more than we did, cash. Now, that catches up to you at some point. You have to pay the Piper because of your ability to spend that kind of money has to come with in pushing things forward. And you're just hoping the cap goes up enough that you can sort of hide some of that.

or the dead money that comes incurred with a lot of those deals. You know, you can have a team that can have $50, $60 million in dead money, which is really hard to work around. Yeah. I just learned what dead money is for the first time. The Rams are a Ponzi scheme. This makes sense now. The Rams have a Super Bowl, man.

Yeah, it's worth it. I mean, when you, and you also got to know when to hit the reset button, too. That's right. You know, I feel like this year is a good time. I mean, Demoff came out with like a, he wrote the fans a letter. And in 300 words, basically saying, like, hey, this year is going to be rough. And, you know, we got, but eventually you got to say, hey, listen, like, we can recoup assets for Jalen Ramsey, although they didn't, because of what you just talked about with

D. Hop, a little bit of what happened with Ramsey. I mean, his age, the, the salary. You know, I even said earlier this offseason, and I got kind of shit on for it. But, like, if I was less neat, I'd look at, hey, what do you, what do you want for Aaron Donald? You know, like, I don't want to. Aaron Donald's sweat through a rebuild. I love the guy, you know, if I'm less than you.

There's just, yeah, it's that time for them. I think, you know, the hard part about that, Chris, is it's the sort of the difference between being self-aware and hopeful, you know, that the bottom line is, is to me, if you wake up and you're all out of bed and you think you have a quarterback that

can win it all for you, you've got a chance and there's probably only seven or eight of those in the NFL. Then, then, obviously, you have to have a strong makeup of the rest of your team. Now, I have a lot of respect. I think Kevin Demoff was an extremely smart guy. And the fact that he had to write something like that,

if that's in case I didn't see it, what he wrote, you know, the hard part about that is, even though he's being extremely honest, to me the hard part is, you know, you're telling a fan base that's, number one, already sort of picky in terms of, you know, have to be a winner for people in L.A. to want to go to the games. Yeah.

do, you know, for a four-person family to go spend tickets for four people for a game or get season tickets. And then you talk about a couple hot dogs and a beer. You know, you're talking about some serious money for the average Joe. Yeah. Yeah. And for players, too. I mean, like, I played for bad teams, as you know, you played against them twice a year. But, like, for a long time, you know, training camp was just that.

It was like, how can we get our hopes up? you know whether you knew it or not it was like you just said it there's eight quarterbacks that you think you win the whole thing with and we yeah we just didn't have those situations um and it's hard as a player to go into a season and kind of know the writing's on the wall um yeah you know what do you think of you were talking about cash cash um available organizations how much does that factor into joe burrow and justin herbert's uh looming contracts because when I think of people who are a little bit tight with the money, I think about those groups.

I think about, you know, Spanos. I think about, you know, Cincinnati. What do you think about that? Well, I think the biggest obstacles for, you know, the family-owned teams that maybe aren't as cash-riches some of the other teams. Number one, you've got to worry a little bit about upfront money, number one. Number two, you've got to worry about guaranteed money. And you've got to remember three in these quarterback contracts, depending on the size and the value, you have to, you have to, I'm losing my mind on, what do you call it,

when you put the money into an account. Escro. Escro, yes. You know, it's a hot word I've been reading. I've been on vacation too long. I've been on vacation. Well, it's not quite, it's not your money, so you fuck the turn around. No, no, but what owner wants to put $100 to $180 million in cash in an account just to

sit to prove that you can play that player. Right. Yeah. That's tough. Yeah. Yeah. And did, go ahead. Most importantly here, did you have the authority to change the uniforms of the Arizona Cardinals?

And if so, why did you not? Because the piping and the paneling were done with that. That's like... I feel like this is a good change that's happening with the uni's there. That's the Mid-American Conference there. We're in the NFL. That was above my paygring for sure. Good, good, good.

Would you like to see the Cardinals go back to, like, you know, the Pat Tillman's with the state flag on the shoulder? Like, if maybe you don't have a knife for design, you can't actually do it at all. But, like, is there some uniform in the Cardinals history that you're like, that would be the one? I mean, I will tell you, I love the black unies, all black. Yeah, they're cool. Now, if we threw a black helmet on top of the all black, to me, that'd be pretty sweet. Yeah, it's slimming, too. I need that.

Spoken like a guy that played up front. Like we definitely, yeah, the black was slimming. Hey, who's a guy we talked about, because I want to ask you about Rogers and the guaranteed money with Lamar, but one more thing on Cardinals history. Like, was there a guy that was almost a Cardinal that, you know, people don't know.

You were this close to acquiring this player in a trade or in the draft that you're like, damn, that would have been nice. Oh, I can't even tell you how many times that I couldn't even remember the names of the players, all of them, that you got to our pick, you got to the pick before us and literally get the player on the phone. And another team calls in that's in front of you and takes the player right out from under your feet. Damn. Like, it's happened so many times. And that's, I would say that's probably the most I get pissed off in a draft room is when you feel like you got that guy.

It's one pick away. You got them on the phone. And then all of a sudden a phone call interrupts. you know the the the guy that that happened to us last two that i can remember was um assante samuel junior that guy's pretty good and we were really needy a corner i just you know a kid was phenomenal on tape even though he didn't have the off the charts weight and speed i mean he's a exceptional in the slot i mean he was just a real player you know um you know the kiler thing it's been talked about a lot.

I do feel like you just, I mean, ask the question. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, well, I'm sure there were times where he looked like one of those guys. Yeah, that you thought he was one of the seven or eight best. When you say you wake up in the morning, you have one of the top eight guys and you have a chance. I mean, throughout his time when you were there, did you think he was one of those top eight? Yeah, I mean, you know, when you draft a guy number one, so you put all your eggs in that basket. and in the first year he is a offensive rookie of the year.

Then the second year, he's a pro bowler, and the third year he's a pro bowler. So you've got to think that he's heading in the right direction. And, you know, I just thought he kept getting better and better and better. You know, there's just some times of inconsistency with him. And obviously the height hurts him at times, seeing over the line and processing and seeing the field. But at the same time, I mean, he's just a tremendous talent. He really is the stuff he does, he's see in practice and some games, I mean, he's just off the charts.

I think it's just putting it together and playing consistent football for four quarters. What do you think causes that, I mean, like, do you think it's because there's been a lot of, a lot made of off the field and not like the traditional, like bad off the field stuff? Like he's supposedly a good kid. He just, you know, people were talking about him like he'd get distracted. The video game thing became a pop culture thing, like the contract thing. the whole deal. Is that overblown? Or is that the root of some of the inconsistency, just some of the study habits? I remember Calvin Beecham, who I really respect, didn't call him out as a bad guy or lazy or anything like that, but he had to mature a little bit.

And that's not. Yeah. And that's the thing. You see that way. I had to mature as a player of my rookie year, like, but I wasn't a quarterback. And, you know, that's the heavy as the head that wears the crown thing. And there's a lot expected of those guys. Was it overblown or did he really need to grow?

You know, I think he still needs to grow. And it's not a, again, it's not slanting towards his character. He is not a bad guy. He's a really good kid, has a good smile, and has a nice way about him. I think it's like anything. Guys have to continue to learn what it's going to take to be great. You know, does he know what Peyton Manning and Tom Brady know knows what it takes to be great? No.

Does he work? he does work. I think it's just that side of the game, the film study, the attention to detail part that he can continue to approve upon, and I think he will. Because Kyler's a proud guy, man. He doesn't want to lose, and he doesn't want to let people down. So, you know, I think his best balls ahead of him. I think they need to be creative and do the right things with them offensively.

But, you know, I think the best ball is ahead of him, and I think he'll get it right. But like I said, it's just to me in that area of watching film, studying the game, attention to detail. I think that's the area where he can vastly improve. When you picked him at one, were there any concerns over his playing baseball? No. No, there weren't. It felt like just talking to him and the amount of time we spent with him that he's committed to football, which I feel strongly still he is. Matter of fact, his new contract.

I said this at the press conference when we resigned him. they asked if he's going to play baseball. And I remember him looking at me saying, what did he say? I said, he asked if you're going to play baseball. And he just laughed, and I responded to the reporter by saying that his new contract is averaging 46.1 million a year to play for the Cardinals. And the whole entire roster of the Oakland A's payroll is 48 million. You tell me.

Yeah, and that's crazy. The A's, man. I mean, the poor A's, man. Do you have a story of your best smokescreen ever? You were just totally bluffing, and it worked. Man, I don't know. I'll tell you, I mean, side in JJ Watt, you know, that shocked the world because JJ was quiet, his agent, Michael Bidwar owner was quiet, I was quiet, and truly showed

that, you know, he goes on and post a picture of himself squatting with a cardinal shirt on. Yeah. And he's like, source me. I think it broke the internet for a few hours. Yeah. Yeah, the scupage. He got the scoge. But the cool thing about like that in today's day and age, with everything getting out.

I think something like that was really cool to show, number one, the type of organization we were in terms of keeping things quiet, his ability to keep things quiet. And the agent as well. And the way it played out just to shock everybody. To go to a team that was listed, John Clayton, God rest his soul at the time put out three teams that were the final. finalists and we weren't one of them. And then, you know, like, obviously Cliff gets let go. Everybody I know that knows Cliff loves him, like, whether there's Danny Amandola or I don't know if he would, Ryan Rosillo counts him as a friend.

My big question about Cliff is, is the house really that fucking nice? Have you been to his house? Is it? It's unbelievable. Hell no. My ex-wife house might be. nice. That's good.

And then, of course, you know, you can only imagine probably what, you know, I've only been there a couple times. And I do love the guy. Man, he's an amazing person. Great, great human being. Yeah. I can only imagine the stuff he's got walking around there on a daily basis. Yeah, I can only imagine as well.

And then the trip to Thailand were you, were you surprised or were you like, go cliff? like cheering him on because I knew he was checking out and living his best life yes I will tell you this though I've worked with a number of head coaches there's nobody that worked harder than him

yeah like I'm telling you right now there were mornings I got in there at 430 I never beat him to the office yeah he needs to sleep I'm like is this dude sleep no you can see it I mean he's a great looking guy but I'm like man I can see it in your fucking eyes cliff you need to go to sleep you need to get like six hours

there's six hours a night would do it you need some of that good product your dad wears yeah i don't know what my dad's doing evidently sleeping a lot and you know this deal with my dad all the time like he's not a drinker so you want to have a drink but my dad no he's going to be drinking water or something no maybe a glass of wine one time yeah sip a wine dude you know one time at my wedding i got him to a shot and he was not a big fan so uh that's why he looks so damn good um but yeah no i i everything i heard about cliff is great and I hope he lands back on his feet somewhere it just uh you know like it's a tough deal being a young coach and everything I feel like he was definitely in the um in the crosshairs a lot because you know there is

this and I think that's that's that's that's one like you've had to hire coaches um when it comes to the NFL and like the pipeline to get coaches of diverse backgrounds and and guys you know given guys opportunities do you what are the ways do you think that that process could be improved upon I think they've made some really good strides the NFL has, and I think that, you know, having different things where they put different meetings that they have, you know, minority coaches get in front of owners prior to being an head coach. Just getting a chance to know the guy individually, which they've done. I know they've done last year. I think that's a great opportunity for these guys. You know, and there's some guys that just don't get talked about enough, you know, like obviously our defense struggled last year, but Van Gogh.

Josh Joseph's one of the best coaches I've been around. He's phenomenal. He's great working with the guys. He was a head coach in Denver, which to me didn't have a great opportunity because he didn't have a quarterback at the time. But he is a very, very good coach, and I think deserves another opportunity. Yeah, that'd be cool to see. Again, another guy, everything I've heard about him has been great. Is the reason you look so fucking good right now that the Cardinals' weight room was greater than an F-minus? Like, did you just need to get to another weight room to look like Mr. Olympia. Oh,

is those grading systems a little bit jacked up? Or can we confirm that the weight room in the cafeteria might need some updates? No, man. Our stuff was functional. Functional, that's good. Listen, when Rocky beat Drago, how did he train? You're right. It's hard to argue with that.

And our strength coach is a complete lunatic. He's an A-plus. Yeah, yeah. Have you ever seen him? What's his name? Buddy Morris, Google him. Buddy Morris. He's 64 years old.

Is he the guy that ran the weight, the bench pressing at my draft? Would he have been there since 0-8? No, no, no, no. Oh, this guy looks like a biker. Oh, yeah, he is a biker. 64, and all he does is ride is Harley and lift weights. He's definitely, I love this guy. He's jacked up tats everywhere.

He's right up your alley. This guy's awesome. Oh, man. Yeah, no, how could you, how could you grate that weight room down? I don't care if you're training with Rocky gear. It doesn't matter. That guy's in there. All right.

So the Aaron Rogers thing, man. What do you think is holding this thing up? I know it's probably compensation. Who do you think actually has the leverage? And then my question for my friend Joe Douglas is like, how does Joe ensure that he's just not there for a year? Get Aaron Rogers. No, but I mean, not Joe, but Aaron Rogers is not there for a year.

You know, like, because he's a chance you got to take. He's the chance, right? To me, to me, when you have an opportunity to upgrade your team to a position that is all a sudden super bowl caliber, what's too much, you know? To me, I'm about taking shots. Because if you don't take the shots and you take the layups, it's the old, what's that movie with Kevin Costner? He never laid it up.

Ten cup. King Cup. Give me another ball. I thought you were saying shots, verticals, like our guy, Gannon. No, I mean, I just think that, you know, in that situation, obviously the Packers hold his rights. Yeah. So they hold all the cards. So they either have Aaron Rogers retire.

And I'm sure some of that money is probably, he'd probably get, they'd probably be able to get some of that money back if they wanted it. Yeah. Because I'm sure there'd be some issues with the contract not sticking with it. so if he retired that's one thing he's not going to play for Greenblate it doesn't sound like no so the Packers are sitting there

saying this is a hot commodity why would we give him away yeah and so you think it's just they have the leverage right now and we're just going to string this thing out a while yeah I mean and if if they string it out and he doesn't play

so be it but we're not going to take a second or third round pick for Aaron Rogers I mean I'm sure they're going to want multiple picks at a high level which I don't blame them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this is where it becomes a business,

and it's not about making Aaron Rogers happy. Yeah. Well, I would take the shot in a heartbeat, and if I was the Packers, I'd also trade him. Yeah. That's the question for Joe Douglas, who I love. You know, it's a great guy. Yeah.

You know, whatever it takes, go get him. Yeah, no question. You may change the fortune as that organization. Yeah, no, I mean, and those people will jump out of the gym for a little bit of success. there. With Lamar, what do you make of this situation? Do you think he's a, do you think he's, that bridge is burnt the way it looks to be burnt? I mean, is there any way out of this for the

Ravens? And do you believe teams when they say they're out on him? Because I don't believe everything a team says publicly in March. Yeah, I think number one, there's 32 teams and I don't think he fits every style. Two, I think the amount of money that he's asking for and the guarantee that he's asking for is absurd, quite frankly. I think that when you look at these players, the Deshaun Watson deal is not a comp. It's not. It's not realistic. You know, a guaranteed deal for a player. The reason it's a guaranteed deal and the reason they went so high on the salary is because they had to pay them to say yes. He wasn't going to Cleveland. He went to Cleveland after they said yes to everything that he wanted. You know, that's the hard part, is some organizations are so desperate

that they have to do that. Some organizations stay strong and they're like, we don't have to go there. And I'm sure Eric DeCost is thinking to himself, you know what, I don't have to do that. You know, I'm going to stay tight. I'm going to stay to what I've done. I feel in my heart that I've made him a strong offer. He either takes it or he's going to be sitting at home. And why would you pass up that much money from an organization that you've had success with?

And my other question would be, I mean, I guess if you're trading and giving up all those assets for for Lamar and paying him, you know, and he has the success that he had in Baltimore. And I love Lamar, dude. Like, you know, I might even be apt to throw capital out the window and pay somebody like Lamar if the fit was right. But the success that they had in Baltimore has still been one playoff when I believe. Yeah. You know, so you're giving all that up, you know, even if you get the MVP version of Lamar,

there's just no guarantee that, you know, you're going to win the whole thing, which there's no guarantees with anybody. But that's a lot to part ways with. I understand that side of it with Lamar for sure. And I kind of wonder what the reaction was last year when the Browns, when the Browns did that, because I feel like y'all realize what we realize as fans, as this is all played out,

is this going to have a big effect on the way things are done here going forward. Or at least some people are going to try to make it into, okay, well, Deshawn set the market. But as you're saying, I mean, that's such an anomaly. Yeah. No, it really is. And to me, you're taking a great chance. Number one, you're taking a great chance by turning down a lot of money. And I'm sure the, I don't know what the Ravens have done in terms of offers. But I'm sure they've been dealing with him a lot since Kyler. I'm sure that they've had to go above Kyler on their offer, which would be an unbelievable contract for them. So you're turning down that kind of life-changing money. And then on top of it, you won't sign your franchise tag. So by not signing a franchise tag, which if he signs it, once he signs it, as you know, it becomes guaranteed. Right. Well, he hasn't guaranteed now.

So if he goes out and throws tomorrow and tears his Achilles, he's screwed. Yeah. That's wild. I mean, I can't remember an offseason like that where you had Aaron Roger, you does Aaron Rogers situation with one elite quarterback, and we've never had somebody asking for so much guaranteed money as Lamar is. how about how about uh the weirdest place that you've had to go to visit a player and then like some of the this is for our miller light draft segment here uh what what what's like the place that you're like damn i got to that juco or that kind of is there's a anywhere in mississippi anywhere

that's a weird place no man there were a couple places in tennessee like uh there was a corner coming out years ago in Tusculum College, Tennessee. Tusculum, it's baseball school. Yeah, and then I'll never forget, we drafted, I think it was the 15th or 16th pick overall. I'll never forget going to Tennessee State's practice. And the grass was about as high as my calf. And I'm out there watching this Gumby doll named Dominique Rogers Carmardi, man.

He was 6'1. He didn't have a stiff bone in his body. I'm talking about his quickness and turnover and his transition was freakish. But obviously he didn't know what he was doing at that point. Didn't have great mechanics. You know, wasn't a great technician. But learned to be and became an all-pro. And I had a good career.

But he was one that was, you know, you're out there and these kids are washing her in uniforms. Mm-hmm. That's crazy. And then how about a place that you're like, I get to go visit Tuscaloosa or somewhere like that where you're just in awe of the resources and the coaching and maybe it is Bama, but is there a place that you have great respect for that maybe people don't think about and you get excited to go? No, no, I think the same for everybody.

You know what's interesting about facilities? I think about this all the time. You know, back when I was for 13 years of my career, I spent about 220 days on the road, which just wears you down. But back in the 90s, arguably two of the most successful companies, college teams and teams that put out pro-level players had to be Miami and USC. Yeah. And I'm telling you right now, UVA's facility blew both of those away.

That's right. Miami and USC had, Miami and USC had terrible facilities. Yeah. Like I'm talking about Furman was nicer. Yeah. That's bad. Yeah. I mean, we said you were getting Sean Taylor, Clinton Portis, you know, Frank Gore.

I mean, they were getting everybody. Yeah. And so it just goes to show you, these kids didn't go to those schools because of the facilities, the tradition, which has changed. Now I feel like it has changed. I'm going to Clemson because there's a bowling alley or something like that. Clemson's unbelievable. You are. You are. You're Nensis-Stay Wolfpack. Your first draft, it looks like you got a tar heel and Jonathan Cooper. Did you ever catch heat for that? Your first ever pick. A little bit. I think I got caught more heat from the fans when he didn't turn out to be a great player. Yeah, I think it was more about it.

the flare than the school but but if I was a GM I mean that no hokey's that shows how damn committed to the process he was that he was like I'm not I'm going to ignore that he's a tar hill and I'm gonna take this guy cooops a good dude man I play with him in in uh in uh well let me remember new england uh and he was he was super cool but it just didn't pan it yeah yeah so when we when we had it when we had him in right away during training camp it was like this guy looks like the second coming of rando McDaniel i'm telling you he's a pulled pulling, he's knocking people out. And then he has this horrific leg injury. I think he's like broke his fibula or something like that. Almost a compound fracture. It was really bad.

Yeah. And ever since then, he wasn't the same guy. And he was a tremendous talent. Is there, is there one thing with the draft coming up? You talk about guys that just completely bust or whatever the word is. I don't love the word. People are trying to change that word, but whatever. You know, are there, is there one thing that you look for is like, hey, that's a potential. a bunch of different red flags, but that people don't think about. Outside of, like, love for football or behavior, is it, hey, you know, people don't, ankle flexion with defensive ends is one I talk about all the time on this show. Yep.

It's a small thing, but it can make the difference between being an elite player and a pretty good player or not a contributing player at all. Like, what are the things that you looked for that you were like, these are red flags? Like, I can't draft a guy with this physical deficiency. Well, I mean, usually, and I, and I, I say this with great respect for the position. Usually, there are very few corners that have been successful that can't run. I'm talking about really run.

You know, there's guys like Dre Bly that were the fastest guy in the world, see, I'm picking on the tar heel. There wasn't the fastest guy in the world, but we're really good anticipators and understood leverage and angles and coverage. So corners that just can't run, it's really hard. Yeah. Even if they're good college players. other than that, you know, obviously the defensive line

it's changed immensely over the years. I mean, these guys are freaks in nature. And that's the biggest concern is finding the freak of nature versus the good football player. Obviously, Aaron Donald's kind of both, but we didn't know that at the time. He was a 6-foot-1 short, undersized defensive lineman. Yeah.

And, you know, I'm sitting there during the draft watching, you know, him fall out of the first couple picks. And I'm thinking, this guy doesn't have the highway and speed, but he's probably the best football player in the draft. And just like me and your dad talked, your dad asked me one day, who's the best football player in the NFL? I said, it's not even close.

Aaron Donald's the best player in the NFL. I think he was. No, I think there's some people challenging him maybe, but I think there's going to be a late push for him, you know, in his 30s, and he's got a lot of goals he still wants to accomplish. Last question for you, Steve, what's the future look like for you?

Do you want to get back into it? You want to do some TV? you want to just keep living the life. Do you want to keep coming on the podcast? Like, what are you going to do, man? I'm doing the draft with Fox Sports and your uncle Jay Glazer. So excited about that. And we'll see.

You know, I've had some things talk to me about being a consultant and that sort of thing. But, you know, right now I'm just trying to just relax, spend time with the kids, live the life, you know, travel a little bit. For 25 years, I didn't get to do a lot of things. So I'm trying to challenge myself to get out there and do some different things and see if I can have some fun. But football is still in my blood. And certainly have aspirations of being on the Greenlight podcast again. Let's go, man. We'd love to have you back. This has been awesome. I couldn't wait to get you on. So it's great talk ball with you for a while. Steve, appreciate you. And keep enjoying living the life.

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then Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athletic greens.com slash greenlight. That's athletic greens.com slash greenlight. Check it out. All right, so this is cool. We don't get a lot of visitors, although they really do come through in bunches because we had Nate Ebner last week,

Olympian Super Bowl champ and then I get one of my newer friends in the industry dude I really have enjoyed watching on TV but then I find out

has an affinity for Charlottesville Clinton Yates What's up gang? Great to be here I have a lot of friends who are for whatever reason in or around Charlottesville and I get down here whenever I can

so you know kind of a different reason to be down here now but we can talk about that part later yeah dude it's good to have you and I guess I'll just start pepper and TV I'm down.

We do, we like, I feel like people at home, myself included, wonder about the mechanics of some of these shows. Yep. I had me on here. I've had me on here a bunch. And I've, I've asked her before, like how Tony, Realli, you know, uh, calculates his point system. She was like, I can't answer that question.

Yeah. I don't think it was like a, you know, uh, it's a secret and I can't give it out. It was like, I really don't know. I'll say it this way. I've hosted the show. And I give people points. for things that make me laugh. That's pretty much it.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I mean, sure, there's requisite things you do to sort of keep the timing. But, like, if you got me laughing and you'd say something I like, sorry, you're winning. I mean, or you're getting more points. So it's not more complicated than that. And I think that a lot of people, it's funny how people are still very obsessed with that. You know what I mean? But I think for me, it's about the characters on the show, like winning, losing.

It's fun. But, like, I never like very often, very, not very often. or I go home like oh damn I wish I won that day you know what I'm saying it's not really actually that serious and I got a little lucky too where I won my hundredth show on my birthday and so like after that I was like that's pretty much

about as good as that's going to get for whatever and you don't think there's any there's any somebody from on high saying hey it's Clinton's birthday we got to give me no there's nobody from on high there's me saying hey it's my birthday how about we do this yeah there's no hierarchy

of humans that are not otherwise available to communicate with. We're the ones they're talking, so we'd be talking. Who's your nemesis on the show? Probably Kalashaw, but that's also because, like, we're genuinely friends. So on the show, we mess with each other. A lot of people on the show are my friends, for real. That's, I didn't mean to say that as if he's the only one, but like, he's sort of the older white guy. I'm a younger black dude. But the reason why we can mess with each other is because we had one of the greater moments, in my opinion of sports television history in my career, which was, was the day after the Washington Nationals won the World Series in 2019, it was Halloween.

And, you know, Halloween is a big television holiday. Like, it's arguably the biggest television holiday in terms of one day offs. And so, you know, the costumes are, it's a whole thing. Like, all year, trust me, we take it seriously. We had a two-person thing set up. Like, it was going to be me and him in the same studio, which if you've ever been inside a one-person shot, this is very difficult. I was going to be Lil Nas X and he was Billy Ray Cyrus.

And mind you, this is a while ago. This is like pre, you know, Little Nas X turning into, you know, the sex symbol of the world. This is me wearing a cowboy hat and a plaid shirt. This is the Old Town Road day. Correct. Literally, you know. And so that remix that came out. So he's sitting behind me and we're like trying to, it was, you know, in retrospect to look back on it.

I'm like, that was ridiculous. Billy Ray Cyrus was really good on that song. Yeah. I mean, Lil Nas X is the fucking man. but Billy Ray Cyrus brought the heat on that. It was a perfect combo of things. And we had other ideas and I had to convince Tim. Tim was like, I don't know, man.

And I'm like, bro. So I sent him all the stories and like the songs and stuff. And I'll never forget that before we went in, they were like the Dallas Morning News was trying to do like a behind the scenes thing. And I might be talking out of school here. So sorry, DMN, but this is what really happened. And actually wasn't that bad. And they had all these ideas.

for like some sort of skit that they wanted us to do in costume. And I remember looking at Tim, I was just like, bro, I'm not doing that. You know what I'm saying? And it wasn't like it was a bad idea. I mean, whatever, but it was a reference to a movie that I kind of didn't even know. And the guy was like, how could you not know that? I'm like, bro. What movie?

I think it was spinal tap. He said a joke from spinal tap. And I was like, that's not like fucking. I'm like, bro. It's not mainstream. And it's also ancient. You know what I'm saying? And so I was just sort of like, how about we just turn on the cameras and let us act?

You know what I mean? We'll figure it out. You know, and they were like, okay. And it was like, so where do you want to go? They're like, oh, there's a photo booth upstairs. I'm like, why didn't you say that? We're definitely going to do that. And so we sort of did this whole bit where we were walking around and Tim being a hilarious

person of comic timing. He says, oh, it's Halloween. You know, like when people are like, because he's got this big thing on. It was a great dad joke. And so like, that's why I really like him. Yeah, he seems awesome, man. I thought you're going to say what he. Drew Wilson Page.

he is a good guy. I am, I'm friends with Woody because I've actually been to Denver to hang out with Woody, which is always a fun time. And he's one of those dudes that's been in the same town forever

and it's kind of run the town so when you're out with him, it's, oh, he's like the mayor. Oh, Woody? Yeah. Bro, Woody is beyond the mayor. Woody's Woody, you know what I mean?

And so everybody knows him. Who do you think is the most, like, who do you think occupies the toughest desk at ESPN? Like, what do you think the hardest job at he is? Pia is it could be an anchor. That's a good question. It could be Stanford Steve Coughlin. Yeah, Steve's fucking legend. That's a really good question. I think my my natural tendency in

this is toward sort of anybody involved with the game day setup because there's just so much football and there's so many things happening and they're going to so many places. Like I think when I think of like, wow, that's a big production. Every single time I watch it, I think of game. Day. You know, I've been on a bunch of different shows, and don't get me wrong, around the horn is not that easy to do. There's six voices in your ear. You know, you've got to know what you're saying.

It's, it's, you know, it takes skill. But when I think of like, yo, that's the big one. I think of, I think of game day because there's just so many characters. You know, there's a lot going on all the time. And that's, that's tough to wrangle. Never mind, actually know the football. And you have to know the football. And there's a million teams.

And like, again, Sanford Steve will come on our show. every Friday during the fall, and it could be a small school out West, and he's seen them play. Like, it could be, you know, U-TEP. He knows every player on U-TEP. The Bears great on that show as well. And now NIL is making it harder to keep track of- Not NIL, the transfer port is harder to keep track of rosters.

So, like, you think you know a team, and then you've got to restudy the next year. And restudy, mechanically, you got a guy like Reese Davis, who in his ear is like, we're panning over for eight seconds, a shot of the campus. Don't be going in on their six and two record. We got to talk about, okay, and now you're out.

Now we're back in. Now we've got a four wide. It's just a lot. TV's hard, man. Like I did a little bit of it, and it's just not for me. I mean, like, you know, the time is tough. I mean, for sure. Yeah.

It made me better here because it taught me to be a little more concise. Right. But it was challenging. I've got to say, it's not something I started out wanting to do. You know, I had a, I was very self-conscious about like, if I become a TV person, that's going to turn my personality. It's going to change your TV. Yeah. You know, and so I eventually got to it, but that was well after I had done radio for a long time.

And that was after I'd been a writer for a long time, too. So I was far more confident in my voice in terms of being able to just, yeah, I'll chop it down. You know what I mean? That's not that hard. You know what I mean? In terms of some things. It's difficult when you're trying to be, you know, funny or whatever. But, you know, if it's just, you know, using your natural personality, it's a much easier thing.

to do for radio's become TV yeah I mean you know like exactly no the first day when he came in here and the the backstory of how he came in here is one of my best friends known him for forever and he was came in to watch the podcast he used to do sID for for uh you know like you're spotter spotter big s ID energy here by the way that explains none taken yeah but but so he knows sports as well as I do and came in and was like watching me do the show alone. Right. And he was like, I think you need somebody to come in here and just laugh at your jokes. Sure.

Ironically, he's not a lapper. I can't laugh out loud. Oh, really? Yeah. It's one of those. It's, okay. It's, okay. It's, okay.

It fucks with your ego as a host of a show. Right. You know, like, I don't know if you watch Tom Segorra at all, but like, Tom's, you know, he's got this guy on his show with an epic laugh. I'd pay that guy $200,000. Yeah. Sorry, I don't mean it like that. The producers are like, well, fuck you.

I'll make a laugh. But, but, you know, it just kind of evolved into a thing where we sat next to each other long enough that he became the co-host. Nice. But, you know, like, it's definitely his third day, I think he was like, can we talk about the cameras? He was like, I didn't know we were doing a fucking TV show in here. Did it make you uncomfortable? Yeah. Yeah.

Makes me uncomfortable too. Self-conscious. Right. Well, you've got the seat. See, I know you're comfortable now, though, because you've got the, I mean, you're seated. Like, you're not just in a chair. And he's seated like comfortably. Right.

That's what I mean. That's a watching a movie at home pose. That's not a snuggy. I like that. What were the blankets? And it's been about four years at this point. Usually we're on the monitor where you're just seeing yourself down. That takes a little bit of the pressure off.

Oh, sure. I'm really locked into you guys, being a better to listener. I'm not thinking about what I'm about to say. On that front. Yeah. What time a day do you get a rundown for topics on around the horn and how much are you writing your stuff? outline. Are you just trying to have a conversation? I mean, your conference call first thing in the

morning, six a. Or five hours later, I mean on the West Coast, it's early. Four or five hours later, you shoot the show. I'm shrugging my shoulders because this is a well-oiled machine that I walked into that I was able to be a part of and learn from. This is not because I'm so cool. That has nothing to do with that. Right. Well-run machine, Aaron Solomon, coordinating producer, and Josh Bard, two guys that just do a great fucking job, along with Carolina Rel. There's a lot of people I can know. They make it so that if you're ready to work and ready to learn and ready to, you know, be creative and be yourself, you can step into that.

It was a very natural fit for me. And that's not to say I haven't grown a lot because I have, but it was, you know, there were nerves at first, but I've watched the show my whole life. And I also, this is sort of a side story that some people know. Like, I knew them when I was in college because I bumrush Tony Cornerhizer's studio. And he was like, all, kid, whatever. You can come here. I wasn't.

I was on, I was on Coroner's radio show on ESPN when I was in college. Really? And he just introduced me to everybody and we sort of stayed in touch. Reality used to come on my college radio show. And then lo and behold, 20 odd years later, like legit, I'm on the show. So it was like, that's still kind of surreal. You know what I mean? It feels like if there was ever going to be a chance to be like a person who does that job for a lot,

it would definitely be for that show because that's half the reason I do this job anyway, you know. So rank, because you really are on everything. I mean, like, I don't mean shows, but like you're all, you know. Like I was going to send you some topics today. I'm like, you know, he knows about you're really wide ranging and what we even talked about at the bar when we met. Yeah, no, thank you. With sports and I kind of wonder like for you rank your knowledge and passion

for sports based on each individual sport. It's baseball at the top for sure. In terms of interest, in terms of what I cover. I would say soccer and basketball are probably tied at second, but sort of specific Specifically, I probably, how do I explain this? I definitely am more connected to the basketball world through like humans who do basketball as much as watching as a fan.

If that makes sense, you know what I'm from DC. So I know a lot of guys that were players and coaches and people around programs, SIDs, you know what I'm saying? And sort of like, I'm being funny, but you know, and like, so the world of basketball is very much, you know, first world to me. But soccer is a game that I came to because I went to, international school. And so like I was one of the few like actual Americans like, you know,

that had American parents and grandparents that went there. So everybody was well in the soccer. And I didn't even play until I was in high school because I wasn't good enough and I wasn't even trying to be good, you know, but after a while, you know, they were like, bro, like, you're pretty quick. Like, let's figure this out. And so, you know, that's where we have lifelong friends. But at this stage of my life, I'm, and I always have been much more of a world soccer guy. So it's World Cups, it's Continental tournaments. I was a huge club fan, prem, all that for years. but like, I don't know, there's something that happened to the presentation of club soccer that got like, you know, it got big time blown up. When NBC got the contract and all of a sudden every single game was on every single week, it turned being a fan of that league into something that I don't know that I either wanted or needed the bandwidth for it.

When Liverpool fan, I was, you know, I mean, that was who I was too. My best friend, one of my best friends was a diehard Liverpool fan since we were kids. So that's what we would watch. You know, I mean, this is in the days when you had to go to a pub, you know what I mean, somewhere in the burbs that was playing this thing on a satellite. Sitanta for all of you who know what that is. Soccer's been gentrified. Well, I mean, you know, that's kind of where it went to.

And so when I turn on the TV and they'd be cutting the clips of like, I don't know, like the lead super fan club in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm like, whoa. I don't, I don't, okay, I don't know this. And it's not that pretty much, but it's also like my connection to that game was very much through people sort of from the old countries that they rooted for. And so growing with the American fan base for me has actually been kind of difficult, you know. And, you know, I was a DCU fan because we went, that's what we did in high school.

You'd go get hammered in lot eight and then go in with the Barrava. So anyway, my point is is that soccer and basketball are tied, but for different reasons. Football is probably after that. But, you know, and hockey was there for a while too. And, but I also like, like, a lot of things. I really like softball. I watch a fair amount on the cross. You know what I'm saying?

I really like volleyball. But like there's no world in which I would say that like that's even on the level of what I'm, I pay attention to those things because I like watching them. And you know, you know about them. And so that's just, that's just what it is. When Chris plays on an 0 and 3 softball team. Well, hold on.

Is that right? Yeah. We'll get there. I had one soccer question before I segueed into baseball because, you know, uh, it's bad. Soccer question. If you could be on any international team that's having success, like making a World Cup run,

all the things considered, fame, you know, if you're a single guy, no, but I'm saying if you're a single guy, if you, the money, the indoor, like what country do you want to play? Oh, that would have to be France. I speak French.

So like, yeah, you know, and like, and take a look at the French national team right now, you know, that outsources well to a lot of places. So that, that's a lead pipe lock for me, because I, you know, spent time in France. I speak French. Like, that's easy. As a matter of fact, my buddy who is in France right now,

he texted me all sorts of pictures about, like, all this stuff he's getting coming back. You know what I mean? And France has a lot of players from the African continent that, like, there's been some talk about, like, well, you know, how about some of these players stay home and represent countries? You know, it's an interesting thing, the topic,

because FIFA was the first sort of large governing body that decided to open up like, look, you know what I mean? If you've got a plausible reason that you have any link to this country, you can play. And I actually find that rather refreshing. I wrote about this because in the euros, the last euros, there was a lot of super nationalistic sort of stuff where people were like, that's what Poland looks like. And it's like, bro, have you been to Poland recently? Like there's a lot of people from around the world who are forced to go to different places.

And honestly, like, if you want to go move to a country to play soccer there, I got a no effing problem with that. Money might be a lot better there. Yeah. Like, and I just, I actually think that's, that's an open global market. God forbid that citizenship is like our big hurdle. Like, who actually cares? You know what I'm saying?

Like, and it's, it's a different way to think about it. But when you consider how people are allowed to move around the world anyway, the globalization of the game from a cultural standpoint, to say that a Brazilian can't move to Ukraine. Right. And just live there for three years and decide to play is ridiculous. There's no real reason against that. It drew people for a loop in the world baseball classic.

Yeah. guy with I was like at first I was like yo there's a white guy on Japan and then I was like oh wait no there's a Dutch guy in Japan. Yeah. What's the last name? And then and then he was speaking fluent Japanese and I found out you know his mother's Japanese and the whole thing and he always dreamed of representing that country and I do think that's cool.

It is very cool to me. And like I said, because of my upbringing like that's kind of the whole that's kind of the whole thing. That's kind of why I like world soccer more. It's a little bit more about some level of connectivity to whatever soil it may be, even if it's not, oh my God, my great-grandfather lived here. You know, it's just kind of a cool thing in terms of how the world moves about. So on to the softball because people are, people.

I hear there's a lot of demand for this news. Yeah, so people do like, we started talking about, last year I was on a team. And, you know, we were okay, not great. And I was okay. I was pretty good. Yeah, I was. Okay, hold on. I have some questions.

I have some questions about your roster construction there. Is this like a former who's athlete? fleets league or is this just dudes up the farm it was an unfortunate mixture yeah I was on I was on a bar team last okay and then at the end of the year I was like man I want to fucking win like you know I want to I want to I want to like you're there for all the wrong reasons to be yeah well I want to pluck some players that I know can play and those guys are good but some of my friends we wanted to have a green light softball team for content and because we could we have access to a couple of former pro athletes Kyle long my brother was this has

His big football players in open gym energy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, guys with the hard foul. We're playing the team that you were on last year next week. Oh, boy. 9 p.m.

That's good. Under the lights. Hold on. You hit the portal in your softball. Yeah. Is that a code break? I mean, yeah. Not anybody else doing that.

He hit the portal and then created his new, his own university. Wow. Think of me like the AFL. Okay. You know, all right. He approached his favorite players. from that team too. We haven't had our jets or Colts moment

yet, but like think of me as the AFL. We're 0 and 3 right now. There's some growing pains and to tell people at home what happened last night, I mean, I felt good. We started out up to nothing. We were great in the field

and all of a sudden these guys had a 10 run inning and found ourselves down 10-2. We came back. It was we were down 12-10. first we down 1110 and the right fielder who I'm not going to say his name never played baseball before I did not know that how do you never play Buz and Anthony what do we how do you get a guy that's never played before I don't get that well he did

he came back and launched the deepest ball hit all night and hit the fence he just swung you guys got a scouting department together the scouting department is the problem because this guy it was a ground ball that's crazy first and second this guy's charging in there to pick it up and hit the cutoff man. It's behind him. There's an inside the park home run. There's some weird bumps in the field. Okay.

Okay. So it wasn't the craziest thing of the world. Strangely, a 10 run inning? That can't happen though. A 10 run inning is not really a crooked number because you got the one. And then the zero is a, is a sphere.

That's right. Is that supposed to make me feel better? Yeah. No. There were, there were a number of errors in that inning that we could have kept it to like four or five. Anyways.

What position are you playing? Hand up. I'm playing second base. You're playing second base. The thought process there is my right shoulders shredded. Last year, I'm out there in the out. You throw right. You're a right throw.

Yeah. And I'm throwing the ball. And by the second game, it's just my shoulder's gone. So this year I'm like, what's the one position that I can't get hitting the balls too hard? Okay, third base is out. Obviously, pitchers out. How are you not playing first base? Because you can get hitting the balls there.

Bro. No, you guys are. We've got an all league first base in high school. we have a really good first basement. I feel like if your first basement is that good, though, and you aren't, maybe you should put your first basement somewhere else. No, well, like, you know what the first baseman? John, in the outfield.

What we're going to do moving forward, John stays at third because he was exceptional at third. John Phillips, former NFL player, he was a first baseman. Kyle's going to move to first because Kyle doesn't want to run. NFL guys in the end field. Okay. I mean, you know. And I've been good at second base. You've been great.

Here's the most important question that I used to coach high school baseball. This is the kind of stuff that I care about. Do you guys get it around after outs on the infield? We should. We should do it more. Sorry. Come on a couple of times. You know he's a baseball guy.

You're not running. You have to get it around after outs on the infield. That's the mark of a team that's paying attention. I also feel like that's, that's, there's time limits in the game. Does anybody in the league do it? I haven't seen anybody. I haven't seen it. No, it's right back to the pitcher.

People might think we're being hardos though, too. I mean, you're the one with break away leagues. You are being hardos. Last that check. And I want to hand up here in the last inning, we went two, three, four. And so we felt like we could close that gap, no problem. Me and John Phillips popped out. And so, you know, like we ended up loading the bases to finish the game.

The five or six hitter got the bases loaded two outs. And he popped out as well. So we had ducks on the pond. After some chirpiness, there was a little bit. A big thing about the, we needed a pinch runner for the guy that was up at bat. The guy runs off to get his bat. We exchange the pinch runner.

We're going aluminum to me? Are we going to grow metal? No, okay, it would. Okay, thank God. No,

the guy pitching, who's a fine gentleman. I mean, I've run into him a couple of times on the diamond, but he was chirping and he's just yelling about, you guys lost, is technicality.

You're not supposed to, you know, come off. And the best part, Kevin back, he has two bats. He's warming up. He's like this.

And he's like, oh, is that how you want to win? Oh, really? Yeah. No, That's the question. He's doing the parkman deal.

Yeah. So it got a little bit heated, but we lost. We're 0 and 3. We'll be back next week. We have the least point differential in the league. We've lost. Probably in the history of the headline. Four runs.

We're one of those teams to share, we're like the Lions before they figured out to win. Yeah, yeah. We're the Lions through week four or five last season. Now, last question about this league. What level of Hardo are the umpires on? That's always an interesting element. Okay.

Not on 10. You never know. Some places, you know, people are just, you get Olmstead just really. They're pretty chill. Ain't about it. Okay. This one last night, let us play through the technicality. Okay.

That's what I was wondering. Like, how did you actually interface? Yeah, no. He was like, keep going. No problem. He actually runs out from home plate to check the outs and stuff. Okay. Also, Dr. Fax, who's been hitting the cover off the baseball,

brought it into a double play. And he was not happy about stuff. He wasn't happy. He was, though. We'll give him some props because the pitcher, like in the middle, the balls in the air coming to the batter. He always say, oh, got him. Got him. Yeah, yeah. He does that to facts. Balls and midair, fax, bombs one. Yeah, no, no, it was great. He's throwing up before our eyes. He really is.

Okay, so the baseball fan, you are. Let's talk about the time I ran into you, by the way. In Philly. In Philly. That was nuts. Right after we ran into Charlottesville. I got my hood on. He's looking, like, he looks, yeah, I was like, it was weird, too, because I don't, because since you've been, since you've been, since you're, since you're Chris Long. I sort of like, I know what it's like to be in a ballpark. And not, listen, I'm not Chris Long, but like, you know, you're probably more recognizable.

People come up to you in a ballparks and say stuff. And sometimes you just don't have the space to do it. Like if you're working, you're going one place or another. I was like, there's no way that's not Chris. And I like, you know what I mean? I turned around. I was just like, Chris. And he turns and looks.

Yeah. I was like, it just like comes out of his whole thing. And I was like, wow. Yeah. I was incognito, man. Because in Philly, I'm, I'm light, I guess. And I do run into a lot of people. So I wanted to enjoy the game, but it was good to see you.

You're like the only person I ran into that. You actually wanted to see? Let me tell you my baseball futures real quick before I got a little game to play with you to finish this bad boy off. And you tell me if I'm going to lose my money or not. Okay, I don't know. Okay, so here's another thing about me. So we were talking, let's let me, if we have some time, right?

So I'm not going anywhere for a while. So there are some things that at this stage of my life as a sports writer and as a sports fan, they're not I'm not adding a ton of new stuff I don't gamble and never have gambled so like the parlance of that stuff to me is it's I don't want to I'm not dissing it I will answer your questions but you just tell me if these teams are going to be good okay the difference between futures like I don't know

yeah you know what I'm saying I can read them I can understand them relative to one another on a chart yeah like for the most parts they don't really mean anything to me in the abstract so I took the Cardinals win total over it's like 88 and a half it's not so you know having played in St. Louis and avoided becoming a Cardinals fanboy, but still appreciating the product. I think I'll enjoy that one.

The fun story I'll tell you about the Cardinals is this kid named Jordan Walker, who is a hoss of a kid. They just called him up, and he's D-Hing as a rookie. So, like, he's, I mean, he's a larger human being than you are, like, easily, you know what I'm saying? And that's, that's saying a lot, you know, because he's, I mean, and he's, I mean, easy pop,

he's the person to watch for on that team. Okay. He's been in their system. I remember when he got picked, you know, we got picked and he's been in our system for a while and dude i remember so here's the thing about baseball is that it is the most multi-sized sport any that's interesting by a lot you know what i'm saying and so when you see somebody that's genuinely huge it's like whoa and then you see l too vei you know you're like wow this guy's big like how did he get through the door kind of thing you know he's he's

that big and he's got pop judge too big ass yeah absolutely okay so i took the mariners for smaller under or the over 87 and a half, but they started slow. Yeah, the Mariners are a fun story. I don't know how easy it's going to be for them to repeat last year. Let's not forget that they got to the playoffs on a miracle of a play. If you have not seen that, Cal Raleigh, the Cal clincher.

That was beautiful. Jobs to my man Dave Sims on that broadcast. Hey now, hey now, hey now. We love Dave. So they were a fun story last year. I think they've got the stuff to hang around, but they also lost to the Stroes in the playoffs last year. You never really know when you're a young team

and you lose the eventual World Series champion like where you are. So it's not a terrible thing. Okay, not terrible. Mets, I got the over. I have no faith in the Mets at any time in my life forever. Sorry.

I mean, what are you doing? And right after I placed the future, corporate Scott, one of our producers was like, well, he's a CEO, we told us last week.

But he's a big baseball guy and he's like, if the pitchers stay healthy, you know, that's the name of the game. And I drive home and get an ESPN fucking alert that Verlander's already got a sore arm.

Again, I mean, you know, like, I just, and it's, I don't really believe in hocus pocus, but I do believe in roster construction and smart, smart signings, and the matches haven't done it for a really long time. Okay, so I got the Red Sox under. Okay, yeah. That number 78 and a half.

Where do you have my West Coast teams, bro? Okay, so I got, I got your Mariners, okay? And I threw in a little Canada as well with the Js over. The Js are a nice little squad. That's his favorite thing. They've got, they've got all the legacy kids and,

you know, Simeons don't what. They've, they've, that team needs to take a step this year. If the Js do not get farther than sort of they did last year or just in general, don't have a quasi deep run, something has gone wrong.

You know, not necessarily in terms of putting the team together, but somebody will have to gotten hurt because their talent and their, sort of core base is good enough that they should be a team in contention for sure in the AL, in my opinion. Best ballpark to visit. In the,

in the big leagues, you know, I'm a little biased here because I was just kind of, there and I was there for a long time, but as a T-Mobile now in Seattle, that park is glorious. Yeah, it's beautiful. Like, and people sort of forget that

I don't know, there's this sort of mythical love of like the kind of old crappy nature of certain things. Like, sorry guys, I hate Fenway Park. I have it in football. I have that. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's the weirdest part. I don't like this, you know, and like, I get it. It's a cathedral

and all this kind of stuff, but like, that's not how I sort of like to watch baseball where I've I've got quasi-constructed seats and I got a shimmy past what feels like a, you know, a subway car in the 1900. It's like, no. Seattle is, it's a palace, you know what I'm saying? In many ways, they got great food. Yeah.

You know, you got the outdoor option. It's, it's great. You know, it's a good one. I've been to the San Francisco ballpark. I thought that was beautiful. I've not been there yet, which is crazy. But I need to be going. I need to go.

See, the thing is, too, I get to a lot of college games. It gets a lot of minor league games. So Big League ballparks aren't even necessarily. all on the top. Right. Exactly. Good news. The Thursday show we do with Amp will continue 4.30 every Thursday, the Greenlight Team, Cowboy Reed, Facts, Kingston, I'll pop through there sometimes. On Amp, you can interact with us really easily. There's a call-in button. We invite call-ins all the time. You can talk directly to us, ask us questions, ask us our favorite music. We might even play some. There's also

a live chat during the show. If you have a question about a topic we're talking about, off in the chat, we'll answer. We're going to be doing what we've been doing all fall every Thursday of 430 on amp. Check us out. Kick off the new year with new gear built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered from the sun to the slopes with premium polarized shades, customizable snow goggles and much more. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company that offers a world-class product that's

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Go to Shadyrays.com and use code greenlight for 50% off, two plus pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try it for yourself. These shades have been rated five stars by over 200,000 people. Okay, so we're going to try something here. Okay. We knew you were coming in. This is a game?

We've studied your work. Okay. Oh, God. And so we were going to try this. You know how early you were. I am a game show contestant. by trade. Okay. So you know how earlier you were saying around the horn's tough to put on? Yeah. Well, let's try around the corn on for size. Wow. Okay. Today's contestants.

First, we have noted water aficionado, Chris Long. I am honored to be a part of this. Okay. The rules are a little different. Storyteller, Clinton Yates. Thank you. Glad to be here. Real estate agent to the stars, Macon Gunter. Thank you. I appreciate that. Stars. Several. Okay. Yeah. All right. This is great. We're going to play an original game that we came up with. The corn reveal. That was fantastic.

Like, please cut me a gift of that. Yeah, you got it. You got it. We workshopped a lot of words that rhyme with horns. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We were going to do. Who was tasked with getting the corn?

These guys. Yeah. So, you know, I was going to do, hey, there were all different types of ways of saying, buy or sell. Yeah, no, this is great. Bush or blight or whatever it was. Yeah. Yeah.

We're definitely in Virginia kids. You know, so we're gonna stick with buy or sell. Okay. But the rules are? They're gonna be a little bit loose, but we're gonna all direct. I'm not gonna deal the game any further. Yep. And then just buy or sell.

We'll give you about 30 seconds on the clock. Wow, you want actual takes? Okay. All right. All right. So first up, this year's NCAA title game was the least watched on record. This prompted internet, personality, Will Compton to call men's college basketball, quote, the most overrated sport.

Are you buying Will Compton's claim that men's college hoops is overrated? Macon. No, I'm not. I'm selling. Will Compton is an idiot. And the NCAA tournament never disappoints. If you want to see four blue bloods, all right, we just saw three teams that had never made a final four. And who is now being crowned of a blue blood in Yukon.

And three teams had a shot to knock them. off the block and they couldn't do it. And Yukon's dominance in that tournament. That's not a bad team. That's not a bad thing. We saw that club roll through some dudes. So no go. So no go, et cetera.

But NCAA tournament is the best sporting event we have. All right? In this world, period. First of all, Yukon has been a blue blood in my personal opinion. I would also say that no, it's not like, not because of this year is it overrated. Men's College basketball has long been correctly rated as. Not that great in my household. Like, I mean, that's just kind of where I am on that.

And I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. It's just that, I mean, the regular season, the tournament is all it is. And I don't actually think that that's very good for what the sport is overall. And so, yeah, I mean, you get to the tournament. I actually think that there are certain things about it this year because of how the teams are stratified, stratified that if's improved. Transfer Portal, NIL means that the lower-seated teams, these are not your father's number ones. And that kind of makes it a little bit more interesting.

but yeah, it's moving upward slowly. It's not like it's dropped. I mean, the precipitous drop from me happened years ago. Yeah, I mean, for me, Will Compton is right in some ways and that it's overrated, but as a spectacle, it is not overrated. And that's what makes it great.

I think he cited FAU as a team that got, you know, lucky and backed into the tournament, which shows you he's not watching a lot of times because they had four losses this year. They had less than a handful of losses. Yeah, they were great. Now, now, the ratings are down. over the last couple years,

you can chalk that up to a lot of different stuff. You definitely would like some more blue bloods mixed in there. I want most of my upsets to happen the first weekend or two. And then you clear the dance floor for maybe one Loyola and some blue bloods. Where he's right is that it's not a high quality game being played out there. And I think that's the thing that for a basketball junkie,

Will Compton's take might appeal. But I think he's dead wrong. And I, somewhere short of an idiot, but he's dead wrong. Yeah. I think, is there a conversation allowed on around the corn? Go ahead. We call this a spin in the business. This is not even joking.

The quality of play not being a 10 out of 10, I think, is part of the appeal. It's the spectacle. Yeah. I agree. I mean, we had a guard throw the ball as high as he could. This is a side feeling. So as somebody that likes better basketball, better than I like better football, this is why I don't like college basketball,

but it is why I like college football. Like the chaos in college football of it not being as predictable. Michigan, Michigan State block pun. You know, kickers. That's why I like college football because I actually like football less. But for basketball, just because I like that sport more. Did you see all the Virginia Furman game in? Yeah.

I mean, that's that's our team. But I can acknowledge the greatness in that chaos. And, you know, kicking game in college football is, is akin to the free throws. Pretty much. Yeah. In college basketball. I mean, the chaos out there is great. FDU tried parking the bus in front of Zach Eadie, and it worked.

40 minutes. How many different ways can you play football? Not too many different ways. You can play basketball, a ton of different ways. And when you look at teams in, say, the Big Ten, like Purdue, that we made this point a couple shows ago, they're not seeing Big East variability in styles of play, and they're not seeing the defenses that they're seeing in the Big East

and that sort of thing. And that's why you get this awesome combustible, product come March that you don't get in college football. Yeah. And this is the last thing because I know we got to move on. I still think at this point, at this point, the women's college basketball game is just a more exciting product, top to bottom of the men's.

And relatively speaking, it showed out in the ratings. I mean, that's real. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not some big diss to anybody, but like I know who's playing in the college basketball ranks in the women's side. I can name these people if they walk down the street. I know who they were. That's not the case in the college basketball.

Let's stick with that and start with Clinton. Clinton, are you buying or selling? Jill Biden's invitation to the Iowa women's basketball team to the White House. So for those of you who don't know, I'm from the capital of the United States of America, Washington, D.C. I've been to the White House on many occasions. I've also been there for these trophy ceremonies. Massive sell on this. I mean, Jill, this is just a mistake.

I could get into all the meanings of what happens when we get into the concept of white tears and this, that, and the third. I think everybody understands that, though. Jill, it's just, it's not a smart way to go about something. And I think what Angel had to say is it wouldn't happen the other way around. We know enough about race relations in this country and how we deal with each other, understand what that is. You know what I'm saying? Oh, you want to change the rules because Caitlin isn't going to come there?

Come on, man. You know what I mean? That's not even cool even if you're Caitlin. I saw a great tweet, by the way, that said, what would you rather do? Show up to the White House with the opponent of the property you lost the championship to or show up to the White House if you won and be forced to eat McDonald's. Probably eat McDonald's.

Because there's nothing more uncomfortable with them being somewhere and knowing you're not supposed to be there. That's true. And most people resenting you and hating it for it. So I think that Jill did step in it. And she stepped in it to win Iowa. Okay? And that's, we talked about this a little bit the other day. You know, Iowa's a swing state.

She wants to step in it at the cost of, you know, alienated. Well, she might have alienated everybody because in Iowa they don't like participation trophies. They've made that very clear. So she might have stepped in it and alienated the entire base. She alienated everybody that was pro Angel Reese. And she alienated. Kind of embarrassed everybody in Iowa. Yeah.

So I think she, she stepped in it in multiple ways. Makes. I don't like that Kim Mulkey. Yeah. I'm not one where you, that might be a 10-pointer if I was hosting it. Yeah. I don't, I don't care for her at all. Dr. Jill Biden, by the way, respectfully.

You too. No, my bad. Yeah. She, did she step in it? Yeah, she stepped in it. Do you ever get nervous on around the horn when somebody says the thing you're going to say? You're getting points for that. Because you're exactly right.

Angel reset it. It wouldn't have happened the other way around. That's the end of the story. So I'll tell you this. Quick sidebar, another spin, but this is unrelated. Anything that is ATS related does not count to my points. So I have a very strict rule when I host, which is if you say somebody else made a great point, that other person is getting the point.

Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I mean, like, you know, if you're in. Award my points to Clinton. Because it happens all the time and we sort of act like it's just like, oh, yeah, I'm agree with like, all right, well, that's the case. They get it. I like what he got banged for that a bunch last time he was on.

He was throwing out assists all over the place. So yeah, that's funny. They are big fans of around the corn in Iowa. That's, yes. We are killing it in that demo. Yeah. They didn't like my take on Angel Reese's, quote unquote, taunting, but hey, here's an all there it is.

There it is. Makin. The Cardinal is. announced today that they will be changing their uniform design and will display the new uniforms at the end of the month. Are you buying the Cardinals as the NFL team most in need of a Jersey redesign? First and foremost, I'm unprepared for this question. And therefore my answer is yes. There's piping. There's paneling. Those two things belong as we'll talk to with Steve Kahn in the mid-American conference. This is the NFL. It's the biggest stage. piping, paneling, especially when your quarterback ain't so high. You're not doing them any favors. Yes,

the Cardinals needed a refresh in the worst of ways. Who else needs one? I'll go. I think the Cardinals have been in between a couple looks for a little too long years. So whatever you do, give me, okay, so here we go. Oh, shit, I should have mentioned Rod Tidwell.

I hate that movie. Anyway, I don't mind the car. They've gone through a couple different iterations of this. So, for example, the black, go back, hold on, scroll over to the picture of Kyler and the all black, that's their best look. And maybe not the helmet combo, but that jersey and the piping versus paneling ratio is the actual best there.

If they did that with the other color combos, they'd have a cool look. I don't think they need a whole rebrand. They just need to tweak what's already on the palette, which is like the case for a lot of NFL teams, but I do like the black helmet. I think there's a lot of teams that could, I'm trying to think who could use a rebrand right now. I'm actually going to answer the question guys. Chris? So it's been 17 years.

It's time for them to grow up. I mean, it's been a long time with this one uniform. And I'm asking them to step out onto a ledge here because the feast or famine nature of incorporating gray is hard to overstate. But when it's, when the right balance is struck and there is gray in the cardinal, the bird, you can hit it out of the ballpark. I would ask them to incorporate a little bit of gray, maybe the state flag a la Pat Tillman. It's a cool-looking state flag.

The Atlanta Falcons are in the most need of a rebrand. They look like court jesters. Matt Ryan looked ridiculous at the rollout. When you look bad at the rollout, it's a bad sign when it comes to the viability of a uniform. I think the Cardinals are in need of an upgrade, but so are the Atlanta Falcons. Okay.

Stick with the NFL. Hey, hold on. Hey, hold them, player. The Miami Dolphins need to go back to the Marinos. Oh, come on. The font doesn't work. I don't understand this. Their look now is not that different from, like, you know, it's, it's, I get it.

Like, it's not big and boxy. Devils in the details. The dolphins look great. Like, they look slick. I don't know how you can have a problem with that. The logo. It's a bad logo. They screwed up the logo.

What, you want the Ace Ventura? Absolutely. Oh, no. Give me, give me built for speed, not for power. Whatever that new. Dolphins name is that thing is slick. That thing looks like it gets great mileage. You know what if you bought that car, the thing, it's very fun.

Dan Marino here. Big Sacks. This is so, oh my goodness. You want Drop Shadows next to? Anyway, starting with Chris. The four eligible teams for Hard Knocks next season are the Jets, the commanders, the Saints, and the Bears. Are you buying the Jets as the most interesting option? Listen, the commanders is a highly combustible situation.

the saints, you're going to get a lot of dishing on maybe Vegas via Derek Carr, so that could be interesting. The Bears, it doesn't do it for me. I'm rooting for the Bears. I don't want them to have hard knocks. The Jets, it's a slam dunk. Just make the layup. Close the deal on Aaron Rogers and start the show with him fumbling for his light in the dorm room

and Liv Schreiber talking about, you know, it's not a darkness retreat this time. It is Jets training camp. that is the that's the gold standard do that why aren't you writing television shows what are we doing yeah a lot of prep time that's great it's uh who's up making uh no thanks aaron rogers fatigue should that happen okay give me the commanders the worst run organization for a for a long while i'd like to see uh behind the scenes there oh one day we're in we're in we're in ashburn the next day we're in we're in raljohn maryland or also called hyatesville maryland sometimes called Landover.

Yeah. It's, uh, yeah. Oh, look at this groundskeeper. Clean up shit that just came out of the. Only does it part time. That's why the field is so bad. Like, give me a peek behind that curtain. Okay, this is a, talk about slam dunks.

This is the commanders by 30 nautical miles to me. See? Um, again, I'm from that town. I stopped rooting for that team. And when I stopped rooting for that team, I kind of stopped liking football as much. When Sean Taylor passed, it was one of those things that changed sort of my life about what I thought football meant to me. And then there was no, after that, there was no real avoiding like, this guy's the

worst owner in the history, you know, in sports, you know what I mean? And like between the racist name and between everything having to do with how they abused fan bases, like there's actually something interesting here beyond just total succotitude because the team might get sold. You know what I'm saying? It'd be a very different look at the locker room in terms of what's actually happening. I mean, do I think it can handle it responsibly? Probably not.

But who produces Hard Knocks? HBO. There's no affiliation with the NFL. The NFL might say, hey, this ownership stuff's messy. Okay. That's fair. But at the same time, again, Ashburnistan disaster. You know what I'm saying?

It would still be a relatively good show. I mean, and there's no way that you could avoid the conversation around that. Because Rivera is also in kind of a weird spot. You know, coach on the hot seat is always, the enemy. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? And it's, it's, it actually would be in. Interesting. Jake Fromm is in the building.

Okay. All right. The NBA and the Players Association agreed on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement. Among the changes is a new rule requiring players to play 65 games to be eligible for MBA awards, starting with Clinton. Are you buying this change? This is a no-brainer to me outside of shorting the season, which is another thing that's obviously never going to happen,

but actually probably could use some thought because of long story short, by the time guys get to the NBA now, they've played so much basketball that by the time they're playing as pros, it's just not possible for them to make it through an 82 game season. But that said, yeah, if you're going to be handing out awards and guys are playing half the games, it just doesn't really make sense to me. I don't even know that it has to be for the sake of incentivizing the awards

as much as just like the basic math of the competition. You know what I mean? Like if you didn't play that many games, I'm not voting for you. You know, like it just that could, that seems sort of self-regulate, that should self-regulate on its own. But the reason why making it a limit matters is because guys then won't, if they're not eligible for awards and they can't get to their escalator contracts. So there is like a reasonable.

Yeah, there's a reasonable incentivization there. But I mean, to me, that's how I look at those awards anyway, just sort of in my mind. Not that I vote, but where I'd be voting, I mean, as I vote with my mind, you know, it's like, well, you only played two-thirds of the game versus a guy that played four-fits. Like, sorry, he's getting the nod. Yep. Oh, I'm up.

I think it's an insanely dumb rule. In 2020, LeBron would have won the MVP if this was in place. This alters his legacy. How are we going to stack legacies against each other? Only five players have ever played less than 65 games and won the MVP, sure. But Bill Russell, one of his earliest MVP runs, he played in the 50s or the low 60s. Okay? Q the JJ Reddick.

We got Carpenters and Fisher at that point in the league. But I do think when you start tying it to people's escalators and their incentives, there's a negative side to that too. And from a standpoint of you could have a very clear NBA MVP that might have dealt with an injury and he's not load managing. And that could throw a wrench into the integrity of that award. Yeah. Makes sir.

I thought they both made excellent points. I have no opinion on this matter. This is where the points go down to the basement. Why don't you just do the Draymond thing and say, and just call everybody that makes the all-N-B-A team bum going forward? Yeah. Hey, if you want to play 17 games and try to win yourself an award, go for it. Leave it up to the voters.

I think you came out even there. I think you came out even there. Rumors of Travis Kelsey dating Megan the Stallion have the internet a flutter. Are you buying or selling them as a couple? Hmm. What do you, Googling. Megan DeStalian.

You don't know what she looks like. You don't watch baseball then. What world are you living in, buddy? You don't watch baseball. I thought she did great. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I'm kind of like a love is love guy, Matt.

Who am I to judge anybody else? Let me, let me offer you the backstory on this, which is that, let's just say that Travis has had cookout invites for a long time. For a long time. And they are not given out by dudes. Okay? This is what I'm saying. So this is completely within his wheelhouse.

I don't know what that means. It means that. The black women enjoy his company. Got it. Got it. And so this was not like some wacky combo of people by any stretch of the imagination. No, it actually plays. You know, it plays.

And that's not a knock on anybody. That was just like, oh, okay. And one of my buddies texting me, he said, listen, bro, I don't care what you got going on. if you are in the best physical shape of your life as a Super Bowl champion and you can't even take a swing at that and you can't even take a swing, what are you doing it for?

You know what I'm saying? Which is an interesting point, but yeah, man, you know, Travis is a cool dude. You know, I met him a couple times. Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, I am buying. Maybe if it were Jason Kelsey for the reasons that Clinton outlined, it would be a sell.

Also an interesting study on how those two became so different. Yeah. But I'm absolutely buying. I'm glad that somebody's taking a swing at Megan the Stallion. She's the best. She's just a little bit outside on opening night, but I thought she did a great job.

And the home whites, it was a great look. Great look. Excellent. Excellent look. I'm not prepared to give an answer. Her real name is cooler than Megan the Stallion. Her government name?

What are we doing here? Megan Javan Ruth Pete. Oh, that's kind of tight. You got four names? Yeah, she got four names. Yeah. Why are two E's on the VIII? the. I don't understand the name.

Like the she's differentiating herself. How long do you think the segment's going to be? I get the feeling that you've not gotten as many cookout invites as Travis Kelsey has from from the sisters. There was one night and Fort Lauderdale though. Okay, you know I need to know about that. I'll tell you another time.

All right, starting with Clinton. Yes. An image of a patron at a baseball game enjoying a shrimp platter has gone viral. Are you buying eating shrimp at the ballpark? Let's see. You want to hide the shrimp up? I need to see the setup. Yeah. It depends on, there's a lot of factors here.

Depends on where in the ballpark they're sitting. Depends on what city in America and they're in. If I'm in a luxury box in Seattle, sure. I'll enjoy some shrimp. Absolutely. Probably even in L.A. or San Diego as well. Now, if I'm down in Texas and I'm sitting in Roe B, you know what I'm saying? And the roof is closed.

No, probably not. You know what I mean? I am a proponent of all. seafood being, you know, eating anywhere. I'm not, I'll eat airport sushi. Yeah. You know, me neither. At an airport, it just came off the sushi plane.

It came off the plane. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be as fresh. Yeah, it's got to get to the five-star, you know, like in St. Louis, there was a place where, you know, in Clayton, Missouri, where all the ball players ate, but that's got to get off the plane and then go to play. All the way there, yeah. And I feel the same way about shrimp.

Shrimp is one of those seafood dishes that you feel the safest about. I don't know if other people share. that sentiment, but I do, and I think a ballpark is a great place. You don't want to stink up your glove. That's the only thing. So if you bring a glove to the ballpark, you want to wash your hands before you put your hands back in the mat. So this is, okay, presumably this is a regular degler seat. This is kind of dicey just on the carry back to the chair alone. You know what I mean? You got to cover that bad boy with another plate because you could lose those things. It gets a little dicey. Next thing, you know, you lose three of the cocktails from him. You know, at that point,

It's just a snack. You make a good point. I don't know what Megan's gonna say. At some point in the show, a person gets eliminated, yeah? Yeah, this is that moment for you. I think we've reached that point. Yeah. Happy trails.

Hell yeah, yeah. Wow. The PTI shadowed, shifting down shows. That was good. How many points did I receive? You had 11 points. Okay, and the other two? Currently, I believe Chris has 19.

Wow. And Clinton has 19. Wow. And only a couple questions left that you get to miss if you so choose. Yeah, you guys are doing great. No, we can, we can cut it out. We can go to Showdown as this now. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. Next. Do you agree

that Charlottesville is an elite college campus? First of all, oof, this is tough because I'm here and I want to actually come back. Let's just say, yes, but there's a lot of, there's a lot,

it's an acquired taste. Yeah. Is it probably the easiest way I put it. First of all, the whole ground sting is very annoying. Like, Nothing personal, but like, none taken. Being corrected about it is like, oh my goodness. Are you serious with this? Correct me too. You know, it's like, it's the campus.

I get it, but I don't go here. So I'm sorry, I'd rather not go through that every single time. But it's beautiful. You know what I'm saying? But also there's the element of, hello, this is the University of Virginia. There were statues to people that didn't like my people here for a long time. Still statues. It's awkward.

Yes, this is what I'm saying. And so like, that is a very real element to what Charlotte'sville is about. But if you can throw all that out, which you can't, you know what I'm saying? There is a vibrancy of what the community can be that is easy to like. And that's really what it's about in my opinion. Okay. The best campus? No.

I don't know. What is the best campus? I don't know that I have an answer to that, though, but I know that I find myself on this college campus more than I do most. I know. So it's probably the sneaky good. Yeah, you know. My answer is no, because it's not a campus.

It's the grounds. Wow. Wow. I just did it for the sake of the show. That's right. You know what I'm saying? That's good. That's one where on the show, it's like,

no matter how long I talk to saying something funny, you get the point. All right. Recently, hockey player, Matt G. Shane lost a finger while playing hockey. Buy or sell. Hockey is the toughest sport, starting with Chris. I'm selling it, okay? I'm selling it because I'm laughing in Ronnie Lott right now. Ronnie Lott cut his finger off.

He did it himself for all I know with paracutical scissors. That's the kind of guy he wants. was, this guy didn't even know his finger was severed until he took his glove off. How much could it actually hurt? You know, and every time a hockey player gets hurt, loses a tooth, you don't need a tooth for anything, really. You know, they make a big deal about it.

It's not a fucking big deal, it's a small deal. Hockey players probably play the hardest game with the highest rate of potential, how do I say this? I don't say non-contact injury, but like dudes get their throat slit sometimes by skates. And that's disgusting. It's definitely the most sharp object. Yeah, you know, there's the randomness factor.

But also sometimes guys don't get up off of football fields too. So no, it's definitely not a tough set. They also wear the most pads, okay, on the low. I know they want to be these big tough guys, but they wear the most pads, their head to toe, skate to helmet, pads, you know? Hockey guys are tough guys. They should live with hockey guys in college. NBA players wear more pads on their legs than the NFL DB now.

Right. All right. So in the final round right now, it's one to one. Clinton won the UVA take. Chris won the hockey take. Okay. All right. I don't like the UVA terminology.

That's fine. Okay. Thanks. Last question here to decide. I did not realize we were keeping score of the entire game until right now. Yeah. I was not to turn it on. We're actually playing.

Time to turn it on. After a successful regular season game in Germany this year, there's a lot of speculation about the NFL possibly expanding and possibly expanding overseas. Do you think the NFL should expand or expand overseas? I think the NFL expanding is a better idea than the NFL expanding overseas. The players' bodies are already too taxed. The seasons are too long. Using transatlantic flights as a way to gain popularity for something is not sensible to me.

If you want to build a league in Europe, build a league in Europe. In the meantime, stick to the continental whatever because it just makes more sense from a quality of play and a player safety standpoint. Chris. So I think it's a bad idea. I'm selling it for a number of reasons. Number one, what makes an NFL game viable to the consumer? It is quarterbacks.

And right now we can't fill enough chairs to make every NFL game exciting. And so you add another eight, four, six teams in Europe. Where are these quarterbacks coming from? That's number one. Number two, it's going to hurt you in free agency. Because I can tell you guys aren't going to want to move to Munich to play football. if the Jacksonville Jaguars offer more money. Now the Jaguars could be in Munich.

You don't want to show up in Nice, France? You know, that's not that's not you. Well, I mean like maybe France, the way you're describing France. But, and lastly, I think it hasn't been proven out that European fan bases have the stamina to do it every week. They really do show out. They host great games. I've played in these games. And they're rabid fans.

But can they do that when teams are four and 12? And they do that when teams are 4 and 13. You wouldn't know that, so. I don't think it's logistically. Oh, whoa. I would know that. Yeah, it's true. I wouldn't know 2 and 14.

Oh, no, 1 in 15. I don't think it's logistically possible to play overseas. I think you have to be playing over green grass. Oh, my God. Sorry. Get out. You're not getting out. Okay.

I couldn't do it. That's good. Well, he's technically eliminated. So it's like it didn't know. Bitton Gates. Congratulations. Oh, my God. Appreciate it. Yeah.

Congrats, man. First ever winner. Congratulations. You came down to the preschool and beat up on a bunch of preschoolers. You're the guy trying to play softball against farmers. I know. You know electricians. Oh, pardon me.

It's been great to be here, man. 30 seconds to say whatever you want. Okay. It's been a good time to be here. Like I said, Chris, you're one of the best guys that does it. And I like the fact that you're actually a very real human being. I'm serious. You know, when we met in a parking lot drinking at homecoming, you never know.

You know what I mean? You see somebody on the internet. And he asked me, gave me his number, asked me to hang out. I was like, sure, whatever. No chance he longs. We got fucked up. Sure enough, we did. So you know what I mean?

It's been a good time. Back at you, bro. And you owe me an interview. So that's what that's the trade off home. That's the trade off all take. Around the corn. You can use that. I will.

Yes. Thanks a lot everybody. We're on 95 and a half hour break. Wow. Oh, played. Nice. Wow. Y'all really did this.

Okay.