KSR - NFL Cover Zero: Launching Season 2, Top Summer Stories

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

The boys are back! Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Billy Rutledge return for the 2nd season of NFL Cover Zero and to recap the biggest headlines from the offseason. The guys evaluate the Myles Garrett and AJ Borwn trades and debate the future of Caleb Williams. Will Russell Wilson succeed on TV? How many more years will Travis Kelce play football? And will the Bengals finally make the playoffs this year?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and IHeart podcast. It is. It is season two of NFL Cover Zero. Matt Jones, Drew Franklin, and the occasional guest of Billy R. Sports. We are back for a second year. That's right.

To the surprise of everyone. The NFL decided they wanted another year of us talking about the least. league. And so here we are with updated cameras. What do you think? Are we looking better? I don't know. Drew Franklin is with me. We haven't been with Drew in a while. He had a baby. It's been like crying and eating. And now you're here and we're back for season two. Yeah, actually not too much crying. I've been very lucky. Been, had a great run or having a great run as a dad. But I did have missed a few shows around the draft. And I don't think we've been sitting together since San Francisco. What has been the biggest change in your life post baby?

Besides, like, oh, the warmth in your heart. Oh, it's cute. I have things to live for. All that kind of stuff. Like, just as a practical impact. I have been surprised at just how much time it takes. Like, you're constantly changing a diaper or, you know, my wife will feed her. And then it's like time to feed her again.

And then after that you got to do the bed. How much do you feed? About every two hours. That's what it takes. Sometimes a little longer. Every two hours? But when she gets hungry, she'll start crying. And that's when you know.

but it's just nonstop all day long. About four ounces. If we're going to be specific. Yeah, I wonder if you really want to know how much. About four ounces? I'm more of a believer in six ounces. Okay.

And then maybe every three hours. She might get a little fool doing that. But it's just nonstop. How did you learn like how many ounces per hour? Like, because that's not something, you know, I can't even get my blinds to work. So I feel like you're like knowing what to do with like an entity, a being. Yeah, human.

How did you learn that? I will say that's not a lot out there. You got to seek it. We signed up for some classes, but I assume most people don't do that. Where are the classes? Lots of Googling. We did it through UK here in, like Snitcher. Is it online?

You take a class? We went to one in person. The other three were on Zoom. But we were proactive about learning things. But like if you don't seek stuff out, they just, here's the baby. Good luck. Like, there's not, you know, we don't grow up learning that you need four ounces every two hours. Yeah, it feels like there should be more to it.

I'm a big believer of. licensing the birth of night. You should have to get a license. I mean, we don't let people drive a car without a license, but we let them just have a life. That is the many babies as they want. Yeah. So you give the, you give the milk. What else? Are you eating anything else? No, just milk right now. When do you switch to? We're still a few months away. We'll work in. How do you know? Did you teach you that in the class? We're still, we're still researching. We're learning on the fly. So you might should do it now. No, no, no. It's too early now. But we Google a lot on the fly.

Things constantly pop up. You're like, well, I'm not really sure what's going on here. What did people do before Google? I don't know. I don't know. And we also, there's just so many contraptions. There's just things everywhere. Pumps and bottles and diapers and pee pads and blips.

That's just what Bally has in his room. Pumps. But it's been awesome. It's a lot more to it than I expected. I don't know why. I just thought they'd sit there. Yeah. Need constant attention.

But it's fun giving their constant attention. So I'm loving it. So I'm loving it. Throw teeth. Because I've heard of teething. Probably a little bit before they turn one is when they start to come in. I'm still a few months away from that. She's about two and a half months right now.

So we still got some time. But it's been awesome. I already took her on a flight. That was easy. They say it's actually easier to do that now than it will be in like a year, right? Yeah. She did not make a noise either direction, which I was pretty nervous. You don't want to be the guy with the crying baby.

No. But it was perfect. I would have stared at you. I will say if you've lost any faith in humanity, walk through an airport with a baby, everyone will come up to you and just talk and be so nice. And oh, she's so cute. Even the pilot came out of the cockpit, talked to us.

Like, if you walk around with a baby, you're going to see the best of all people. But it's mostly women. Like, I've never gone up to someone and said their baby was cute. Like, I actually think I would feel weird. I don't know.

We had all walks of life. Maybe he should more often. Objection of it's cute baby. You think I should just go up to people and say their baby's cute? Yeah, if you think it's cute. I don't want you to lie. I don't have an opinion. I think most babies look like Winston Churchill.

I can kind to see that. Not Avery Rose, of course. Yeah, she's beautiful. But other people's babies. Yeah. We won the baby lottery. Do you think if there were 100 babies on the floor and you had no identifying, you could pick yours out? Easily, easily.

She's objectively the cutest baby of all the time. Objectively. We do. You know, everybody would say it about their babies. But anytime we go to a doctor's appointment, they're like, hey, we don't usually say this, but this is a really cute baby. One doctor even told us to enter it in the Gerber modeling. Okay. No, no, the Gerber baby of the year.

I was like, we're not doing that. Here, look at her. Want me to be the guy that's showing off? What am I going to answer? Listen, I mean, I'm going to say it's cute. If we had had an ugly baby, I would have said, yeah, that's an ugly baby. But it is. She's really a cute baby.

Beautiful baby. But like, I don't know. I don't know that I have a standard. Plus, I just think doctors are not going to be like. Well, you can tell. No, nurses that delivered her have come to our across the other side of the hospital to like see her and check on her again. All the way across the other side of the hospital. A different building.

I doubt they do that for every baby they deliver. I like, yeah. Yeah. We got a popular baby. It must be a beautiful baby. I don't know. I mean, look at this thing. I only have 10,000 pictures of her in the last two months.

I'll tell you what. Well, I think you're being a great dad. Thank you. It's been a lot of fun. And I think the people at Cover Zero, this is officially the first NFL cover Zero baby that I'm aware of. I don't know what Mario does in his personal life. But it's the first one that I know of. She'll be listening, I'm sure.

Be our first NFL season watching football on the couch with me this upcoming year. So I'm looking forward to that. You're going to make your. You're going to make her a Titans fan? Actually, she has only thrown up on me three times, and all three times I've been wearing a Titans t-shirts. So I'm starting to think she's sending a sign. She throws up when she sees the Titans. My wife's a Cowboys fan.

I think she's leaning Dallas's direction, maybe Bill's Mafia, but she doesn't seem to like the Titans. You know, that's an interesting question. If you have parents where each parent is a fan of a different team, when you pick one, are you implicitly deciding which parent you love the most? That's tough. I've thought about this. Also, do I want her to be a Titans fan? You know, I want her to be happy, and I love my Titans, but if you're ranking the teams that make you the

happiest, they're towards the bottom of the NFL. By the time she's of age, who knows, maybe the Titans will be the best team in the league. That's true. I love the optimism. Cam Ward. She'll be a big Cam Ward fan. Nobody really wants to be a Titans fan. You're kind of born into it, right?

That's right. Mine was just proximity to Nashville. No one wants to be a Titans fan. Well, I feel like most fandoms are where you're born or where you grow up. Most are, yeah. And then the other time. You can say that, though, about any team. Like, you don't really want to be an Eagles fan.

You just become one. Yeah, and some people used to say, I used to watch the Cowboys, and they used to win a lot. And that's how I became a fan. Well, that is kind of, I became a fan of the Bears because they were winning when I was of the age that I noticed the NFL. But we live in a place where there's not an NFL team. Chances are, if there had been a Kentucky Jackrabbits, I would have been a Jackrabbit fan. But there was no team, so I picked the Bears.

But I have wondered what if I was born a few years before or a few years after? Because I might have ended up a Dolphins fan, a Giants fan, a then-now-Commanders fan. It's a different life. See, my bedroom was all Dallas Cowboys. And then out of nowhere, I'm from a little over an hour from Nashville, the Titans just pop up. And you just switched. Well, I had to because they're close to local. Well, I guess I switched because I wanted to be a route for the Reds.

Terrible choice to go from the Braves to the Reds. In baseball. That was a really dumb choice. But I did it and have paid for it ever since. Well, so we haven't been on in the last few months. There's been a lot of news. Billy has compiled the top 10 news tidbits in his mind since we've been gone. Before we get to them, there's an even newsier news before his news.

The news before the news? Or it's actually news since his news. Brandon Ayyuk. He just keeps going online. Actually, I was on the same. ESPN Radio yesterday and they asked me to play a clip and there were more beeps than there were words.

It was just beep, beep, beep. What do you think of the guy? I guess he's on the commanders now. But he seems very worked up and he seems to really not like John Lynch. If you were a commander's fan, would you be excited about his new team? I would love adding the talent.

They could use some talent. He's obviously very talented. But I would wonder maybe his headspace a little bit. Now, you think he's very very angry with the 49ers. I guess they took away his guaranteed money. He has a reason to be mad but it seems to be over the top frustrations coming from him. So explain to me, I don't tell you.

What is he mad about? I think that he's guaranteed money and they somehow got out of it if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if they found a loophole, but he didn't get what he thought. Well, then I guess it wasn't guaranteed. Yeah. It's only guaranteed. It's like it's only guaranteed if it's actually guaranteed. But he is outspoken

we can say about how he feels about the 49ers. What do you think about people who just, when they're upset, just go to Instagram and start talking? Good idea, bad idea. Well, when it's like to say that way, they're not out, they're not misquoted. It's not taken out of context. It is there. They control it. It's just unique because we never see it before.

It's used to just getting, you know, a reporter quoting him in a press conference. But now we have him in the NBA. We have Jalen Brown basically just making the case for himself to get paid this off season. So you don't see it that often. And so when you do, it's like, whoa, you know, really standing up for themselves here. And sometimes a little over the top. So if you're the commanders, when he shows up for the first day of training camp, you just act like it didn't happen. No, I think you lean into it.

I think you let them know you hate the 49ers too. Like, we're on your team. Oh, so you play up like we have someone who might be a little unstable. Yeah. Like, we don't like John Lynch either. Welcome to the family. And you lean into it. Wow.

It's a different. I mean, maybe. Yeah, keep them happy. That is kind of modern media strategy, though. Just lean into whatever mistake you make. I might be like, let's turn down the post. Does he score 10 touchdowns this year? No.

Ten's a little high. Yeah, 10's high. I'll give him 7 or 8. But you do think he's going to be like a regular player. You don't think this is going to end his career. As long as he's healthy, plays the full season. I mean, he's a talented guy, even though at the end of his San Francisco career died down. He is playing a game at the 49ers this year.

Oh, I didn't realize that. See, now you really got to lean into it. So it's like October, because he said something like, I will never walk into the city of San Francisco again. Like, he blames the whole city. He's mad at the bridge. I will never, except on October 17th and I said when I will beat their bleepity, bleep, bleep, boop. See, if I'm Washington, I have a calendar above his locker with that circled in San Francisco. I want to let him know we got you back.

He gets a good reaction when he goes back on October 17. No, not at all. He also said Kyle Shanahan has the temper of a toddler. It seems like he, though, glass houses? I'd say so. Maybe a little bit. I mean, no offense. I don't know the guy.

I'm not saying he's got a bad temper, but I don't know that he would say the most stable. But you're right. I mean, you go live on Instagram. It's like calling your own press conference. And that's a lot easier to do now. But with no questions. No question. And no one's happening and go, that's the end of the questions.

You should probably leave. You should probably go ahead. Well, good luck to Brandon Ayuk. And for what it's worth, I've always thought that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch seemed like good fellas. And we learned guaranteed money. Maybe not always guaranteed. There's like $25 million or something. I think he's going to talk to his agent about what guaranteed means.

Because I think he was told something was guaranteed. Maybe it wasn't quite guaranteed. Check that fine point. All right. So 10 news stories to get us ready here on season two. What's number one? We talk about one of the biggest trades, not only of the office. season, but in the NFL all time when it comes to defensive players, the Browns traded Miles

Garrett to the Rams for Jared Verse and three picks, a 2027 first to 2028 second and a 2029 third. Garrett, who is 30 years old, set the NFL's all-time single season sack record last year with 23 sacks, and he's under contract till 2030. So the Rams going all in this year. I mean, I think the two takeaways from this deal is A, the Rams like want to win the Super Bowl now. I think Sean McVeigh probably is not going to coach that much longer, which is odd because he's very young.

By the way, did you see the picture of him this week? I was going to say, first of all, he's ripped. Is he a linebacker? I don't know. I'm not married. Maybe at some point someone will check me on this. I just don't see like posting a picture of my wife in a bikini to the masses. But he did.

But he's ripped. They're both like they're way too good looking. How old are those people? He's, what, 30? Is he my age? Is he even 40? He's like my age. He's under 40?

I don't know. He'd be close. Man, he's had a lot of success for somebody under 40. 40. Wow. Okay, good. Kudos to him. He's got a great body for somewhere.

He's over to me. Great abs. Great abs. And how old is his wife? Because his wife, if she's 40, then the two of them, I would suspect she's not. she's not for me? 36, it looks. Cudos to both of them, man.

Like, that's... What a life. Living in L.A. They feel like they would be on some ad for like a pill. You know, you take this. No, I mean, not that kind of pill, but like, you know, like, here's a vitamin you take. Found a youth kind of thing. Yeah, because they both look amazing.

But clearly, like, they want to win now. I kind of, so I think that's a good deal for them. And I think it's actually, I feel like I'm in the minority on this, but I don't think it's a bad deal for the for the browns they're not going to win right now Jared versus still very good you get a first round pick you get a second and a third like I'm okay with it honestly because I don't if if they were close to winning I'd have a different opinion but they're not to a completely different situation I mean the browns are constantly rebuilding they've been rebuilding forever I was shocked Garrett even resigned with Cleveland I thought he'd go chasing a ring

just this past season. It gets that big deal and now it moves to L.A. I mean, they're a heavy favorite. The Super Bowl is in L.A. next year. I mean, it is almost like they have to get it done or be disappointing at this stage. I think they're 5 to 1 Super Bowl favorite. Rumors that Aaron Donald will come out of

retirement. That's crazy. They'll have two Hall of Famers on the defense alone. How long has he been retired? Just a couple years, it feels like. He's a superhuman. When you say just a couple years, I mean, it's not like he's like stopped doing radio for two years. You know, I mean, I got to assume he's not working out like he did when he played.

He's got some videos. I think he just started working out more when he retired. He didn't go to the beach and just get fat. See, I don't know how you do that. I don't know how people. He's not real. Well, he and Miles Garrett are freaks of nature. Listen.

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The championship game and the NFC championship? I'm going to probably pick them to the Super Bowl again, and maybe even pick them to win. Matthew Stafford's old, so he doesn't have that. I mean, like this really is an all-in year, right? Oh, definitely. Like I said, it's in their hometown. It's like they have to do it.

If you're going to do it, it's set up perfectly. And then to add Garrett, and I think Donald, if he does come back, would have enough life left to just absolutely terrify offenses. If you look up and see those two guys on the defensive line, and then everywhere else, they're probably the best all-around team anyway, even before adding Garrett, they have everything you could need. They just have to go out and finish the job. And for Cleveland, so what's the best?

the plan this year. Shador? I think it's Deshawn Watson. Why? Because he's under contract. Well, okay, but nothing's guaranteed. We learned that. Yeah, but I mean, look, you got a great quarterback draft coming. Deshawn Watson might be good enough to win you six games or five games. What's that do for you? Middle of the road. Nothing. Whereas you play Shadur,

one of two things would happen. Either he would bomb, at which point maybe you get the number one picture. or he might be all right. And I don't, but stop for shaking your head, barley. It ain't going to happen. But if he happened to be that, then you know, maybe I got a guy. I don't understand what Deshawn Watson does for you. Because Deshawn Watson is not your short-term or your long-term option, right?

No, and I feel like even though Shador, people were iffy on him, it's easier to root for Shador Sanders than Deshaun-Watson, especially when you factor in age. Well, those Shador should be happy he's on there. He's the good guy. Yeah. And if you said he doesn't work out There's a pretty good QB class, especially if you believe in Arch Manning.

You got Dante Moore at Oregon. I mean, if you did stink we should do or you know, I'm going to have a good pick and can go get someone I can build around. Do they still have Dylan Gabriel? Yeah, DG. I think he's still there. That's his boy, DG.

Everybody forgets about him. See if he's still there. And I feel like they still have someone else too, don't they? With the Browns, they could have eight people. They do have a lot of people usually. Eric Zaire. Don't know him. Brandon.

Is he back? Oh, good call. Well, yeah, good deal. You don't usually see players that good be traded. I was trying to think of how many players in history have been that good and at the peak of their power. You know, like Joe Montana got traded, but he was kind of at the end of his career. How many people at the peak of their power get traded? And it's very, very, I mean, Michael Parsons had it last year, but there aren't many that in that world and you are that good that get traded.

maybe like the best player in the entire league. Yeah, can you think of anyone else just off the top of your head that was Herschel Walker? But he was not great. I mean, he was good, but there was more, it was more like they thought he might be amazing. He was certainly not the best player in the league at his position. And if you just taking him last year, was he the defensive player of the year? And Matthew Stafford was the offensive player of the year and you're pairing them together?

That's just nuts. That is amazing. Well, that should be interesting to see. out happens and good for Miles Garrett gets to play for a winning team. What's next? Another big trade this offseason on the offensive side of the ball, AJ Brown traded from the Eagles to the Patriots for a 2028 first and a 2027 5th. AJ is a three-time pro bowler and last season he had just over a thousand yards and seven touchdowns down when it comes to his production.

This was like the most poorly kept secret kind of in the world. I mean, they've been talking, assuming this was going to happen forever. I sort of feel like it was more, I feel like this got more attention than his talent at the stage of his career deserves. I mean, this is not the A.J. Brown of the Titans. I love me some Arthur Juan Brown. That was my guy. But he's not like that anymore. Now, I mean, the analogies you say, okay, well, it'll be like when Randy Moss went to New England. But Randy Moss was still in his last year or two. He had had a bad final year in Minnesota. But at his peak, he was the best player in the league.

I just don't feel like it's quite the same. Plus, Belichick's not the coach. I mean, Bravel's good, but he's still a thousand-yard guy, but it seemed drama got to him a lot in Philadelphia. He and Hertz were best friends when he went from Nashville to Philly, and then at the end, the reports were the farthest thing from best friends. I mean, you see him reading books on the sideline. I'm good with that.

I like to read books to places too. As a huge AJ Brown fan, he certainly has some maturity issues, and I think he can get back to that level with a fresh start. Drake May gets a receiver he wants. Brown and Vrable were very close in Nashville. So I think it'll work out. I think you also, this year, we'll get to see whether or not Drake May is great or not.

I mean, he struggled in the playoffs last year. And so there are Drake May truthers like me who've always thought he wasn't good. But then, you know, you could say what for 17 games he was great. So which one is correct? I think if you have A.J. Brown, you got your receiver. They up their offensive line. You have the coach now. We'll find out in year three.

If you look historically at quarterbacks, year three is when you decide if they're good. The great ones take a step up and become great in year three. Year one, depends. Year two can be inconsistency. And then year three, so we'll find out with him and Bo Nix and Caleb Williams,

all those guys, kind of. I do have two fair or foul questions for the AJ Brown trade. He claims that while he was a Philadelphia Eagle, he had Patriots stuff in his house, including a Patriots rug in his house while he was an eagle. Is that fair game? But he never played for them. He claims to grow up loving them.

Is that okay? No, because that's foul because he never played for there. And where did he grow up? Mississippi. Not far from Nashville. Stop it. He's not. Well, the second one, he posted childhood photos of him in a Brady jersey,

and the internet found out he used AI to make them they weren't even original. Oh, then he's completely lying. So those are both fat. Now, if he had had a childhood picture of Brady, then I would have said, okay, maybe, maybe fair. but no. If that's AI, you're out. I'll admit I even fell for it. I was like, oh, this is sweet. And then the internet slewis discovered it was not real. That's bad. And it's even worse that you fake one.

It goes back to that maturity thing. People will believe you if you just say you like the Patriots. You don't have to Photoshop yourself in Jersey. Are you picking the Patriots for a regression team? You know, they had a stupid good record last year, but they were playing the worst schedule in the league. Then they got kind of exposed losing to a, uh, a, uh, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, Denver team that didn't even have their, or excuse me, they beat a Denver team that Nick's got hurt and then they got destroyed in the Super Bowl.

Are you picking them to maybe? Absolutely. Yeah, because they're going to have, I think, the third hardest schedule in the league. Like, their coach had a pretty busy offseason. I mean, if you're being objective, if you're looking for the regression team, they're the obvious choice because the losers of the Super Bowl always stink. Like, that's happened for 30 straight years. And I think in the NFC, my bears are your contenders.

Same thing. They had a lot of comeback fourth quarter magic that you can't repeat. They did. And first place schedule, you know, a lot. Like, if you were trying to pick the two teams most likely to regress, you would pick those two. Didn't they go like undefeated on the road last year? Mostly close, low-scoring games. It was cool to see them make that run, but I don't think they can do it again.

Yeah. So I think both teams, you know, I mean, historically the Super Bowl loser has like, I think a couple years ago, I remember I looked at the stat and like they missed the playoffs, something like 15, the 18 years. I don't know if that's still the case, but... Have the Bengals been back to the playoffs since they were the Super Bowl? Who was the Super Bowl leaser the year before? It was the Eagles lost to who?

The Eagles won the year before, right? The Eagles won the year. And they beat the Chiefs who didn't make the playoffs. So, I mean, it tends to be, that tends to be a thing. That's correct. Yeah. All right. What's next?

Speaking of your Bears, Caleb Williams was named the Madden 27 cover athlete. Good call. the first Bears player to receive the honor. And the United States patent and trademark office refused Caleb's request to trademark his nickname Iceman. So a big setback. Well, first of all, is that who you would have picked as Madden? I don't feel like that's a bad pick. I mean, the Madden player on the cover, first of all, I think you have to pick someone who's never done it before.

Isn't that right? I don't think they've had a repeat. And it's less about who's the best than who's the combination of best and cool. It feels like Caleb Williams is young. Young. It would be a fun team on badden with that offense. He's doing the jump pass and the pictures. Are you worried about the curse?

I think, though, that curse has kind of gone down in the last few years, hasn't it? I mean, there was a time that was a big curse. Every year there for well. I think the last few years it hasn't been as bad, if I remember correctly. Well, I asked somebody at the Super Bowl about it. Was it Sean Alexander or Christian McCaffrey, one of the two? They said, eh, we don't think about that. McCaffrey was on it.

I'm sure they don't think about it and go. I'm cursed. Well, Peyton Hillis might. He was on it? That was the most random Madden cover of all time. Yeah. Antonio Brown was on it just a few years ago. I feel like Caleb Williams is a perfect one.

Because you also, again, back to the third year thing, if for some reason Caleb Williams ends up stinking, this was the year to use it. Like if you put Jay and Daniels on that for that first year, do you think he'll bounce back, by the way? always got Brennan Oak now who's laser focused and ready for San Francisco. This will be a fascinating year for all those guys. Like all those third year quarterbacks, you know, the rankings have been,

after the first year you would have thought, well, Jane Daniels, by far number one, and then maybe Drake May, Caleb Williams, maybe last. After year two, I don't think you would have that ranking. What do you think it's going to be after year three? I think Daniels bounces back. That's a pretty big sophomore slump.

I think Kay Williams will be about the same. I mean, as I said, you can't expect them to have those crazy finishes. Like four or five of those games last year. So do you think you're going to end up with four-star quarterback? That's very rare. I really believe your bears have arrived. They might go back just a little bit. But that offense with a new head coach was so fun last year.

I don't think they're going away anytime soon. This is the fifth. It's Nick's, Drake May, Daniels, Williams, and who's the other one? There's one more that was part of that group. J.J. McCarthy. Oh, nine. That's your boy. That's the one you can eliminate from the conversation.

But you could end up with four franchise quarterbacks in a draft. That's very, very rare. You know? I was surprised on the Iceman trademark that you brought up. Isn't it like a boot company? It wasn't George Gervin or Chuck Liddell. I thought that was his biggest competition. It's some old sheep company from 80s.

When I heard that story, I thought if he's trying to get the Iceman thing from George Gervin, that's kind of lame. He shouldn't do that. But then when I heard it was a book, company, I was like, I think I'm okay with him trying to get it. Now, they ended up not giving it to him because the boot company got it first and there are rules about how they picked that. So I'm not commenting on that decision. But when I thought he was trying to steal it from George Gervin, I thought that was poor form, but I'm fine. Go after the boot company. Who cares?

I know it's a boot company. I can't tell you the name of the boot company. Don't know why they're the Iceman. Like said, Chuck Liddell also had that nickname. I'd understand one of those two. But does this boot company still exist? Yeah, I saw someone go, I saw, I think it was somebody on ESPN say, you know, they should give it to Caleb Williams. He's more known than the boot company, which may or may not be true. But you got to be careful with that precedent because I can't like start calling myself Coca-Cola so that I can take their trademark. Yeah, I guess we have rules around trademarks and they got it in decades ago. Call me Mercedes.

It's mine now. And then by the way, now it's mine. I don't think you could do that. So I sort of understood the rule. Did you ever play Madden? Were you a Madden guy? I kind of quit at Super Techmo, both. Oh, that's a good one.

I've really peaked at John Elway's quarterback. I was more of a Troy Ackman quarterback guy on Super. Oh, there was a Troy Aitman quarterback? But I've bought Madden every year since the beginning of time, but I've never played it. Like, I've already pre-ordered. You don't play it all? I pre-ordered this year's, I doubt I play a single game. But it's like I have to do it.

Every July, I have to get my pre-order in. So during COVID, I was like, all right, I'm going to get back into video again. I hadn't played them since Super Mario Kart in college, right? In Golden Eye. And I bought a PlayStation. I was going to be in New York for a few months living with my girlfriend there. So I bought a PlayStation, hooked it up at her house. I bought the NASCAR game and what was it, Red Dead Red Dead Redemption.

hooked it up, decided to play. She would go to bed early because she had to get up early. So I went and I was like, here we go. Time to start playing Red Dead Red Dead Redemption. I started the game and I couldn't get on my horse. It's a big part of Red Dead Red Dead Redemption. The very beginning. I know.

Also, you ride the horse a lot. You spent a couple minutes just riding the horse across the wind. I literally could not get on my horse. And I kept trying to get on it and I couldn't get on it. And I just turned the game off and then never played PlayStation again. It is still at my ex-girlfriend's house. Never turned it on again. She told me once later that her next boyfriend played it,

and he wanted to take it with her on the breakup, and she was like, I just couldn't. He hopped right on the horse, and she's like, there's my man. She was like, look at this cowboy. Damn. She said, though, she fell out of loyalty to me. She could not give him my PlayStation. I understand.

Which I appreciate that for. But so I think that was when I knew my video game career was over. There's a new 007 game, and I thought it looked awesome. I bought it about three weeks ago. I haven't turned it on. Probably never will play it. I don't think there's any game that'll ever be better than Super Mario Kart. I mean, whatever the best version of that is, what was better than racing your friends and then throwing turtles at them?

And banana peels. How's there a better game than that? You guys sound so old. But Grant the Fado 6. What do you sound so old? What do you play, young whippersnapper? The turtle shells and the banana peels. First of all, I don't sound like Uncle Remus.

Madden, dude. I mean, new college football games. John Madden is, like, dead. He's, I mean, like, I love John, like, John Madden was awesome. His legacy lives on through the video game. I keep giving them money. I just don't play it. He has a state still get, I mean, they have to, right?

They have to still get money from that. Yeah. It's pretty amazing if you think about it, because he kind of lucked out and getting his name on it. Yeah. I mean, we don't call the NBA game, I don't know, Steve Snapper Jones. That's what you went with? Maude Rashad 64. And we don't, I'm just saying like Tim McCarver baseball, madness hung on.

Yeah. For a long time. You end up with weekend gold tickets to Lassau Montreal. Thomas Rhett. Mumford and Sons. Well, here's my pride and here's my share. John Party. Old Dominion.

Carly Pierce and more. And the prize gets even sweeter. With flights from Porter Airlines, three nights at Residence Inn, downtown Montreal and $1,000 cash. Download the free IHeart Radio app, listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes, and enter to win. Lassau, Montreal. Every day you listen is another chance to win. All right, what's next, Bill?

All right, let's go over to Colts mini camp, where two-time All-Pro corner, Sauce Gardner. He was the fourth overall pick for the Jets, traded to the Colts for two first-round picks. He clarified to reporters just a couple weeks ago that he's, in fact, 24 years. I like that. Not 25 as widely listed online. ESPN.com, pro football reference, even the 2025 NFL record and fact book all had Sauce Gardner with his birthday as August 31st, 2000. It is actually August 31st, 2001.

I mean, do we know that? What? What you just said? Like what sauce said? Do we know that sauce is right? Or could sauce be doing a little Matt Jones' Facebook age thing? Well, we are taking sauce at his word. Well, why would we do that?

If we can't take the... Whose word am I supposed to take? Well, to that point. And I need a birth certificate. An NFL spokesperson came out and said, all players do self-verify birthdays when they enter the league. Oh, well, that seems like, I mean, not to talk about the mothership league, but it seems like maybe we should require a birth certificate.

Because if that's what you get to do, well, then I'm going to come in as a younger... I mean, if that's the case, I should be on Rye as 39. Joe Flacco is going to change his to 23, try to get him more life. Yeah, Joe Flacco, he's going to come in. Is it there? So why would he do that, though? Like, I mean, 25 and 24 is such a little difference. Like, let's just assume it's wrong.

Why would he wait so long to correct it? What do you think? Well, I just, I know they say they self-verify, but at some point you have to fill out, like, tax forms and give over your ID. You would think. I would, I kind of believe sauce a little bit, but I would wonder. I don't know how you wouldn't. wreck the internet if it just kept been reported over and over and over at some point he'd notice

and be like, hey guys, I guess that's what he's doing now, but it went on for so long. His government stuff is all intact with the correct date. NFL.com. How do you know that? Just because he says it? Yeah. This has been, there was a discrepancy

that was found out through the athletic through this because the Colts website had his birthday correctly labeled and so did the NFL.com website. But the record book didn't. ESPN didn't. So some The other entities did have it correct. Correct.

Yes. Okay. Well, I was going to say, I feel like it should have been caught to go back to Raya. They told me I had accidentally filled the form out one year wrong. And they, when I got accepted, had it correct, which means they had on their own. So you're trying to go a little younger on the age. No, I accidentally went older. Oh, really?

I didn't do it on purpose. But, you know, you have this, like, thing, and I think I scrolled one, too many. And then I realized it, but you had already submitted it. And I wanted to be like, no, don't do that to me. And then they actually, when they put it up, they actually had it correct. So my point is, like, they had a verification. They knew they were just waiting for you to confirm, it sounds like. Yeah. I believe Saul's one year at his age, what would be the motive? It seems like it just got misreported at first and just kept going and kept going. He does not want to be responsible for renting cars. It's true. Being on his own health insurance.

He wants to be on his parents' health insurance. He doesn't like the Colts plan for him. That's exactly right. He wants to be on his own health insurance, which is good. I understand he likes to the bottom of this. You just hit it. Everywhere they would go on team trips, they would go, all right, man, you've got to rent the car.

All these NFL players rent cars on trips. You all don't know what it's like to be in the league. I'm glad I got corrected. though. Yeah, me too. Well, good for Sauce. And shame on everyone that called him 25 when he's 24. Or the other way around. You think he'll be good for Indianapolis?

I was very intrigued when they made that move last year. Was it two first first picks? That's a lot. Yeah, that was pretty surprising, especially when they had Philip Rivers as a quarterback. But I mean, Sauce, yeah, I think he's really good. He only played half the season in Indy. They were better than people expected, but I was

shocked that they made that move. Do you know that song? My Baby's Got sauce, your baby ain't sweet like mine. No, can you sing it? I'm not going to go into the verses. It was by G. Love and the special sauce. And their number one song was my baby got sauce. And I went and saw them in concert.

Big fan. Where they, where Casey and the Sunshine Band opened up for them in Baltimore, Maryland. My college roommate, Tall, and my mother and I went when we were 19. That sounds exciting. Actually, knowing tall, that sounds like a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. My mom wanted to take us to the Orioles game, and we saw that G. Love was playing, and so we did both. Mom left after Casey and the Sunshine Band.

She was not interested in G. Love and the special sauce. I'll have to look up. And we met G. Love when it was over, and he said he was coming to Lexington in a few months, and he said, I'd love to, do you all know where I can get a pickup basketball game? This is a true story. So we said, well, you could play with us. We'll get a group together at Trancy. And he said, well, give me your number.

We will set it up. He never called. Oh, man. And it was before text, right? So he had to call us. He just waited on that. And he never called. Tall was a big G-Love fan.

So he was like excited. Like, oh, we're going to play basketball with G-love. He never called. So G-love, if you're out there, we're still hurting. Still have this moment. This was like 1998. Maybe you can get redemption. Maybe he's listening.

So he can fix this problem. All right. What's next? After 14 seasons, 37-year-old Russell Wilson announced his retirement over the off-season. He retires as the fifth highest-paid player in league history with the total career earnings of $315 million. Ten Pro Bowls, won Super Bowl, turned down a job with the Jets this offseason, and will be joining CBS Sports as an analyst on their pregame show, the NFL today. Do we think he'll be good at that?

He should, but he's already been labeled as this cornball. He should lean into it. Like he could be the cornball. Broncos country, let's ride. Let's ride. Let's ride. Mr. Unlimited. Yeah.

It's the subway commercial for me. I mean, I think there's a good chance he's not going to be liked. But I also think he's got the talent to do it. Is his career underrated or overrated? I mean, they just said 10 pro bows. Now, Shedur made the pro bowl last year. So maybe that's not the best. But the Super Bowl.

It's unfair to him. I feel like if he retired three or four years ago, he's probably a hall of favor and everybody talks about how great he is, but it's just been such a rough few years. I mean, he got benched in like two or three games for Jackson Dart just this past year. The Jets were looking at him to be a backup to Gino Smith this upcoming year. I mean, he fell off a cliff at the end and probably regrets not retiring a little earlier

when he was on top. His teammates didn't really like him. That's tough. He's always like the reports he'd be off by himself and had his own staffers and didn't really. he jell well with his teammates in the locker room anywhere he's been. Yeah. Yeah, he seems like a complete cornball.

But I still think he could do well in TV if he does it right. His football resume is enough that he should be good at it. Because I think if he does, if he comes in like Mr. Expert, he's going to be Kendrick Perkins without the cool accent. He's got to loosen up. Try to have fun with it. But I don't think he will. I don't think it's going to work out. We'll find that.

out. But, you know, let's ride. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio. Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada, your favorite hits and must have party bangers, plus personalized and curated playlists like back in the day pride. Come together, celebrate love. Take pride with you anytime, anywhere. Just ask your smart speaker to play IHart Pride Canada. Stream us on your phone. Listen now at iHeartRadio.ca. That's we're halfway through.

What's next, Bill? In March earlier this year, three-time Super Bowl champion, Travis Kelsey, signed a three-year, $57 million deal with the Chiefs. The Chiefs missed the playoffs last season for the first time in a decade, but they will bring back the 36-year-old tight end. Kelsey will also be married by the end of this week, as TMZ has reported, to an up-and-coming country music singer, Taylor Swift. They will have the wedding at Madison Square Garden

with a guest list of over 1,000 people. Okay, so we do believe that's happening, right? Yeah, I think so. At this point, it's happening. Okay. He's not going to play three years, but I'm kind of surprised he's playing this year. I guess he just doesn't want to go out with a bad team, you think?

I think if they win that Super Bowl two years ago, he walks off, we don't see him again. But now that he's been so bad as numbers have dropped the last year or two, I think he feels like he has to go back and finish stronger. It isn't terrible, though, last year. I think people just act like he's like a decrepit old man. He's all right. Well, remember he had some huge drops in, like, key moments.

There were just things he didn't normally do where you're like, oh, has he lost a little bit? And then, of course, even though it's probably unfair to him, people are, you know, blaming that, oh, he's about to get married to her now. He's not focused. If I were any of him, I wouldn't play. Like, what's the point? You're now, I mean, is he the most famous player in the league? Good question. Well, when you, yeah, when you.

lump in the Swifties. Okay, well, is he more famous or is Mahomes more famous? Definitely, Kelsey, because I bet the Swifties, a lot of them can only name him and no one else. And there's trillions of them. And I would think Mahomes isn't number two. For that reason, he plays with Tram. They're kind of a. So, I mean, the two most famous people in the NFL, which is the most famous sport in America, play in Kansas City.

Yep. So does anybody disagree that he's the most famous player in the league? Not at all. I don't because everybody, all the guys that know Mahomes know Kelsey as well. That's what I was going to say. Everyone who watches the NFL, let's say you're not a Taylor Swift fan. There's no NFL fan who doesn't know who Travis Kelsey is. And then you have this whole other universe of people who also know who he is.

And he might be the only one they know. And he is, he did a reality show where he picked women that if you go back and watch, you think how in the world? but you know what good for him he seems like a good guy you know yeah i mean i don't know if he is but don't you think he seems like one yeah and like it's i guess funny sweet whatever we call it he like said i'm going to this taylor swift concerts and i hope to meet her and then they end up getting married i mean that's pretty wild in itself he was like showing off his bracelets i hope i get to go backstage all right so who would i do that for i'm going to this concert

to meet this woman Mm-hmm. All right, so who are my choices? Are you an L-A-Fella? No, she's too young. And I also don't like her music, so that would be... I mean, I don't dislike her music, but it's just not my thing. What if Madonna's in town?

How old is Duolipa? I'd put her little shy of 30s. Yeah. But I think she just got married. I saw their honeymoon pictures. People were saying her husband had a dad bod. Go look. She's 30.

For husband has a dad bodd. If that guy, then we're all in trouble. Does you see him? No, I haven't seen him. To me, he looked completely ripped. And people are like, oh, she married a dad bod guy. That's not good for us. Yeah.

So I don't know. Have you seen the guy, you know, Lena Del Rey? Have you seen who she married? Who'd she marry? He, like, ran one of those fan boats in Louisiana. He's, like, older than her. She just married a dude. He, like, gives boat tours.

Oh. Like, if it looks nothing like what you, you think. Does she look like one of those, the guys down there that got famous with the beards? I need. What are their names? Who are you talking about? The reality show guys.

Oh, Duck Dynasty? Doug Dynasty. Is he one of the Duck Dynasty guys? I don't know if you can see this, but she married just a guy that does boat tours in Louisiana. That is just a guy. A lucky dude. Yeah. Yeah, that is definitely.

That's not even a tad bod. That's like a drunk uncle bod. Well, good for him. Yeah, I can't think of who I would. Cheryl Crowe's maybe a little old. I don't think I want Alonis Morris. I was thinking that weird.

You said that. What about Shakira? She available? So I heard the World Cup. Now, she looks like she's 20. There you go. If you could get me tickets to Shakira, is she married?

She was a soccer star for a while. I think she would like a podcast host of the NFL. Shakira. I went to type in Shakira, married and accidentally typed. Shakira Matt. Like there's already going to be results. Not married. Not married. Currently single. How old is she? She went viral this week for not looking her age. I want to say it's close to 50. It's a little older than me. So she's kind of robbing the cradle with me. I'm in.

I bet you are. Yeah. Billy gets Shakira's number. I'll, uh, I'll talk to our people. We'll see if you do as well at that as you did getting our guests last year. So we need G-love and Shakira to be listening to us to for Matt Streams come true. I think yes. And I'll invite G. Love to play the reception. Oh, what a wedding. What color are we going to wear? Brown.

No, she's Colombian. I'll wear yellow. Gold, right? Isn't she Colombian? Yes, she is. Okay, so then I'll wear gold. I like this. It's going to be the beginning of a beautiful love story.

I'm in. We'll invite Brown Spider to the wedding. How about that? Yeah. Or we could go get married in the Cleveland parking lot like this. Yes, yes. All right, what's next? Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow told reporters at Middicamp just recently that the vibes around the team resemble those of the 2019 LSU team.

Who said this? Joe Burrow. Okay. And I quote, you go back and watch what I said before the 2019 season at LSU. I feel very similarly about this team. I'm so excited to get started and get moving. I feel like there's so much greatness will be able to achieve this year that I'm just excited to get going. He's going to regret that quote.

Burrow led that team to a 15-0 mark and the national championship in 2019. Jamar Chase being on the team also helps with those vibes. But he's been on the team for a long time. He has, but Cincinnati's all in. They traded the 10th overall pick to the New York Giants for Dexter Lawrence. Sexy Dexy Dexie. Cincinnati is favored in 15 of their 17 games this year. They do have a good schedule to do it.

They only won six games last year. Six and 11. They got the 30s. So let's look. The problem for them is always they lose their first three or four games. so let's see who they start with because that'll be their season. Start with the bucks.

So they start with the bucks, the Texans, the Steelers, and the Jaguars. You could see them winning all those. You could see them losing all those, right? So, I mean, that's, then the schedule actually gets much easier after that. But if they start 0 and 4 or 1 and 3 again, they'll be in trouble again, right? I don't know, I'm not going to get behind the LSU comparisons. That's like one of the best college teams of all. Tom, but I am a Bengals believer this year if he can stay healthy.

Schedule is a big part of it. Schedule is a big part of it. They said because they were so bad last year, they got the third easiest, well, 30s in the whole league, but also in their division, they were the third team. They are preloaded. In the years he has played a full season, he's been one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And they're in Cincinnati for the first week. Correct, yeah.

He also mentioned for several years they've had contract disputes behind the scenes, locker room drama. He's like, all that's gone. Everybody's on the same page. Are we going? We should go, right? we could probably get credentialed. Yeah.

We should go. It's your team. Cincinnati. We're an hour away. Yeah, that'd be fun. You get us credentials. Set it up. Okay.

You gave that guy your digital business card from Tampa. You get us credentials and then get us five, the four of us, and then we'll save a seat for Shakir. Orgy love, first one to respond. Well, Mario, we're always. We've tailgated in the jungle before. We can run that back. Oh, that was a wild day with all those people dancing and all that stuff. 2019 LSU was, you said, it's probably one of the three greatest college teams of my lifetime.

So I think he needs to slow down. But he was just talking vibes, though. He wasn't saying talent. He said, everybody should be talking about the Bengals this off season. He's filling himself. A confident borough could be scary if he stays healthy. We're talking about him right now. I think Joe Flaggow was my favorite story last year, honestly.

Just the old man getting another shot. Yeah. You like those like Disney movies where they find some old dude and he, you know, it was a good story. It's not the bad, I mean, the best story that's ever happened was the guy who they just got out of the stands to play goalie that one time. Do you remember that story? It was for the Carolina Hurricanes. They were playing in Toronto. All their goalies got hurt and the obscure NHL rule that no one knew, which is in every game, there's just a dude sitting in the stands. It's not the weirdest thing in the world? There's just a guy sitting in the stands who will play for either team. That's what's so crazy about that to me. Every game, for people who don't know, every NHL game, the home team just brings a guy to the arena whose job it is to have either team loses both their goalies, he gets to play.

It's on standby. So this guy was a Toronto Maple Leaf. Leaves fan, comes to the game, probably has done this many times just like eating his food, like, here we go again. And then they're like, hey man, it's time. Need you. And then he plays and they win. He saves like 10 things.

They give him a parade in Raleigh, North Carolina. Man never plays again. That's the Disney movie. That's a movie, is it not? That's an all-time sports movie. Yeah. That's one of the wild. And that sounds like a story you would hear in 1953.

and it's now. Imagine that in other sports. The Warriors are down to four players. There's just some guy comes out of the crowd. This is me. Or a quarterback. Instead of having a third emergency quarterback, a guy just sitting in the stands.

Get loose. The fact that you could be required to play for either team. Especially if you have allegiance to one of the teams. Just go out there and throw the game. Just miss a couple. And you literally have to not be good because the whole. whole premises if you were good, you'd be playing somewhere. So it's a person who doesn't even play hockey.

I think instead of having the designated goalie, it should be a random draw of the crowd. Everyone in the building is eligible. But it also made me kind of think, maybe being a goalie's not that hard. They can get Daryl out of the crowd. Put your popcorn down and get in there. And then they come in and they win. That is still the weirdest sports story I've ever heard. All right, who's next?

Go bingles, though. Let's talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars. Liam Cohen, 13 and 4 in his first season in Jacksonville. They did have that wild card loss to the Buffalo Bills. But remember how much fun we had with Cam Little, the kicker, who made a 68 and a 67-yard field goal, made a 70-yarder in the preseason that did not count officially. Well, the Jags are signing their long snapper, Ross Matissick, to a two-year extension worth $3.8 million. He is now the highest-paid long snapper in the NFL. He's made three straight Pro Bowls, two first-team all-pros, and is raking in the money now with after his extension.

I'm surprised you think this is one of the ten biggest stories of the offseason. I think the special teams unit for Jacksonville is a game changer. And now they've locked up their long snapper. What makes one be such a, like, what makes him so, like, what makes him so great? Yeah, go ahead. He's like, because it's not just snapping, he makes a lot of tackles. So he'll snap it and he'll get up and get involved. So it's not just the he snaps really well.

He snaps really well too. Because it feels like that's something that they all do pretty well. He's made a bunch of big tackles for him. All right, fair enough. Undrafted free agent in 2020. Doesn't miss a snap. Guy's an Iron Man. And then tied for third in the league and tackles from long snappers.

Isn't it illegal to hit him? Yeah, he can't jump over him with his head down. I don't think you can even hit him until he gets up, right? Well, you got to protect the long snapper. I mean, they're important. Well, good for him. I'm going to. in year two, continue my rant about

we got to make kicking harder. It's too easy. So you don't like the Brown Aubrey's just bombing it in the Cam Little? Okay, so this guy, I don't know if you saw this story, this guy went back and he watched one random college football game from 1990 to 1999. He basically watched whatever was the biggest regular season game every year. And he wrote, it was for the athletic,

and then he wrote about the differences he notices in football from then until now. It's a really interesting story. And he talked about how, especially in the early 90s, they didn't have the score and the clock. Oh, that was so maddening. If you go back and watch those games. The score and the game clock, they would have the clock, but the play clock and the score wasn't up.

And he was like, you know, you just might forget what the score is during the game. There's like a video of the clock. It's like shaky. It wouldn't even like they had the way to put it on the. And then they didn't have the first downline. Right? He said they would just go to break sometimes. during the drives,

which if you might think about now, people would go, because they had the Colorado, Missouri fifth down game. Do you remember that when they accidentally gave Colorado fifth down? They said he missed second and third down. So when you watch the game,

a lot of people didn't know it was a fifth down because they had missed two downs. We'd go crazy if we missed any of the games now. That's right. But one of the things he was talked about was kickers. He said that in college, back then, he counted 74% of the kicks were made.

And in last year in college football, the average was 89. And he was like, so that's a huge difference. And in the pros, that's got to be even more of a difference. Well, we learned they're using a separate ball just to kick, which I think we have to eliminate this year. I don't know how we get that done. I don't like that. That would be my rules change.

Adding to that, if I could change one thing about special teams, they got to bring back the, what was the name, Scott player, that would wear the one bar. The bar would go under their chin. Their full face would be exposed. Because they needed to see, right? Yeah, but how do they not worry they'd get hit if someone's returning a punt or, you know, coming to block a kick? Yeah, there was a couple of guys.

Some would be under their chin. They would be fully exposed. I think we need to bring that back. Add a little pressure to them. Can't keep your head on a swivel if you're wearing that face mask. I feel like, though, the fact you can do long kicks hurts scoring because you can, I mean, you probably get objectively more. points, but like if I'm at the 45, I'm much more likely to kick than if I was...

Well, he also said one of the things they noticed is that people go for it so much more now than they used to. Back then, if it was fourth and two, they were always punning. And now, you know, oftentimes they'll go for it. You might also be in range sooner, so you might play more conservative if you can pick a little ball now. Some of it's probably the ball, but also it seems there's just like so much more training and people working to be a kicker than maybe there was back then. Or a long snapper, too. Yeah. All right. What's next? All right, two more. Our hearts go out to former Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinal running back Chris Johnson,

who revealed just this morning on Good Morning America that he has been diagnosed with ALS. Johnson is 39 years old and has no history of ALS and his family, but used a speech-generating device based off recordings of his own voice. You worked with his eyes to be able to speak with Michael Strayhan. CJ 2K, I know Drew remembers fondly, played 10 seasons in the league. his 2006 yards in 2009 ranked 7th all time in a single season. Went to several of those games in 2009, have his jersey. I almost wore it today, but it would take me a while to find it. I didn't want to be running late.

But, man, I love Chris Johnson. I tuned in this morning for that interview because it was kind of rumored. That's what he was going to announce. I was shocked by how far it already progressed. I thought he would be talking and explaining what he's going through. To see him having to use that machine, I mean, that was heartbreaking. That's the guy he talked about just a year ago. He's playing with his kids at a birthday party.

and now I mean he can't you can't even talk so I couldn't believe how far off it's gotten him just terrible story for Titans legend very sad very sad I mean that dude was so I remember him going all the way back to East Carolina Kentucky played him in a bowl game and he talked and they would

interview him during the game I don't remember what he said but I remember him like talking trash in the middle of the game because they had taken the lead I think we won the game but you know he he had those electric few years sad to see that Seems like a good dude.

And 39 years old, I mean, very young. But, you know, that disease, man, that's such a sad disease. And there's a broadcaster in Louisville who just got diagnosed with it recently. And, you know, prayers to everybody involved, including Chris Johnson. And he was, he was for a handful of years, he was a dog. Derek Henry kind of stole his shine, doing it over the more longevity. but Derek Henry's CJ 2K year

there's not been a more fun running back year to watch than that. And then he was smashing dash with Lindell White, even though it was still mostly Chris Johnson. It was just a fun backfield for the Titans. We've had several running back legends. He was my favorite to watch when he was at his peak. I didn't remember it was called CJ2K.

That's a cool nickname. He was unbelievable. Yeah. In the East Carolina Pirate, where I think he still holds a record for most yardage. He picked East Carolina over Eastern Kentucky. University out of high school. Wow. That ended up as good as he was.

All right, what's next? And finally, you know, week one on the schedule, Wednesday, September 9th will be a Super Bowl rematch as the Patriots would take on the Seahawks. But the second game of week one is on Thursday, September 10th. That's in Melbourne, Australia. The 49ers will take on the Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In fact, 2026, the NFL season will see a record-breaking nine international fixtures, three games in London.

Did you say fixtures? What are you? You've been watching the World Cup? Well, you go overseas. It becomes a fixture. It becomes a match. It's a fixed shot. What chuts are they going to wear?

Yes. Penal day. Going to play on the pitch. They'll be first ever games in Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, and Paris this year. Also, some more fixtures in Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City. Well, good day. Yeah, good. That's very cool.

I mean, it's a long way away. But, you know, it's not as far from the West Coast. So that's good. It's hard to fly. Oh, true. San Francisco and LA. I mean, those two, their players are complaining about it. They don't want to go that far.

But I tell them, shut up. We're trying to grow the game. And it feels like Australia is the market where there's a real chance to grow it because they have a lot of players here. Are the kickers for L.A. and San Francisco, Australian? Because if not, they should be. I don't know, but maybe they'll come back with one if they don't have one. If their punters are not Australian, they should fire those people

and make them have Australians for that game. I wouldn't even take them. You stay back. We're going to pick some up while we're over there. We're taking the Australian guys. As a fan, I love these games, because we get games and time slots, we don't know what have them. I love waking up and there's already a game on.

What's the time slot for this one? Australia is a weird, it's like 14 or 16 hours at difference than us. Yeah, I'd have to look it up here. When we will be watching is something I might be able to look up here a little bit sooner on the fly. 8.35 p.m. on Thursday, September 10th, we will be able to start watching. No, well, that's a normal, that's a normal Thursday night. Yeah, I think they, though, that'll be, if I'm right, that might be like 10 a.m. or noon.

That's a morning game for them. Yeah, because I know Max, who's our Australian friend, he will text me in the morning and it's late at night for me. It's a 14-hour difference. Is that what it is? So, yeah, well, I'm glad. So is that going to be the Thursday night? Is that the, see, that goes against what I like, because that's just a normal game. I like to let the Super Bowl champion.

They're playing Wednesday. Okay. September 9th. Pat's at Seahawks. And then it's Thursday, next day, 49ers' Rams. Is that the game? Is the one on Wednesday, the NBC, and then the other one's the YouTube game or something? I think one of these games is on YouTube.

I don't know. I know that there's something like 13 days in a row where either the NFL or college football has a game. I love that. To start in September. I love it. I just keep taking over new games. New holidays. Fridays.

We'll take Fridays. Saturdays will take those two. He thinks there's ever a risk of there being too much, like eating too much pasta? That's a good analogy. Or like bowl games? I don't know. But you know, these keep, the bowl games, like people can't get enough. But with bowl games, you can skip them and nobody cares.

But with the NFL, people will kind of want to see everything. I don't know. We don't have to channel surf, just one game on, spread them all out. Well, like this year, Thanksgiving, there's a game on Wednesday, three on Thursday, a game on Friday, and then the normal slate on Sunday. I love it. But that's how it's been for a while, hasn't it?

Has there always been a Black Friday? There may not have been a Wednesday. Black Friday was new last year. And then they added Wednesday. I think they've added Wednesday. Black Friday has gone for a little while because I have done my ESPN show on Black Friday a couple times and had to talk about. I remember one time having one of the 16 Ochoes as my co-host and we had to talk about it the whole time.

Well, I support it. More NFL games at random times. better. And not just saying this is a run NFL podcast, the other sports can't compare. If the NBA or NFL picks a time, they own that time. I mean, you just get it. Well, the Jags, you know, they're playing two games in a row in London. One of them they're going to be a home team for.

There's rumors that they might move to London one day. They have embraced the Jaguars. They should. I mean, have you been to Jacksonville? No. I'm just kidding. That's mean. I've got a great longshaper.

Remember we had like three years where you and I were in Jacksonville like every few days? Kentucky had a couple of ball games there. Kentucky Head Games, football, basketball. It was like I was just always in Jacksonville walking across that bridge. We should go back. I've walked that bridge so much.

Let's do cover zero does Jacksonville. Billy can interview as a long snapper. We talked to Liam Cohen. We looked up hot tub prices, the tickets. You got to buy a whole cabanas to even get in the hot tub. Well, you ask them how they keep gnats out of their hot tub. Can they give me some advice? Even gnats don't want to get that hot tub.

Well, I don't. I feel like we captured the offseason. Well, we're going to be doing this show once a week until we start doing our season previews. And then we might do it. We'll go back to twice a week. Billy will be in charge of the news. We're going to have some guests. So the NFL does this thing where they take 25 former players and they go through a broadcasting school.

And we're going to have some of those guys on here for interviews over the course of the thing, which I'm excited about. Some of these people I know, some of them I don't. but we might become friends. Like I've become friends with the World Cup commentators on ESPN. We had a guy from Trinidad and Tobago. And I said, Tobago, Tobago, let's call the whole thing off. And I didn't know that. That's good.

I like that a lot. Thank you. We're going to have some of those guys on over the next few weeks. And some of the people that have gone through this past are now some of the biggest personalities on TV. We can be part of their training as they begin their careers. Well, they'll probably thank us. Yeah, I mean, we are a stepping stone to what's next for them. No, no, we are the stuff.

Step right over. We're not, don't step. It won't be fun to have some guests on. Yes, it will. So I'd be looking for that. Thank you all very much. Hope you are glad to have us back. Thank you to Drew's baby.

Thank you to Russell Wilson and everyone else. We'll see you. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and IHeart podcast. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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