KSR - NFL Cover Zero: Super Bowl Recap!

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Matt Jones and Drew Franklin are back in Kentucky and watched the Seahawks become Super Bowl Champions!  Matt notes the rough night had by Will Campbell, but just how good are the Seahawks?  Matt looks ahead to next season and how Seatte's schedule will play out? Drew was impressed by the showing from Seahawks fans in San Francisco.   It was a tough. night for Drake Maye and most of the Patriots.  Matt wonders if this performance follows him into next season.  Recapping the music from the Super Bowl, Matt enjoyed the storytelling during the halftime show, but wished the cameos had more time.   Looking back at the season, Matt wonders if this was a changing of the guard or just an anomaly of a year that was wildly entertaining.  Does Seattle just run it back with this squad mostly intact?  The Patriots path gets much harder next season.  The Bears and Patriots were probably a year ahead of schedule, but when does Matt expect to see Chicago in the Super Bowl?  Plus, is there a QB that be a diamond in the rough next year like Sam Darnold did for the Seahawks? Look for more Radio Row interviews coming this week from NFL Cover Zero!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 I-Heart podcast. Super Bowl episode of NFL Cover Zero back in Kentucky. Matt Jones, Drew Franklin, to Billy R Sports on a flight all night last night, got to sit back, get to the airport in Atlanta, watch the Super Bowl and an airport bar and see the Seahawks win, 29 to 13.

It was an excellent week in San Francisco. The most fun I've had in forever. Enjoyed the city, enjoyed the environment, enjoyed Media Row, all that stuff. The game itself, but that's okay. You know what?

Not everything can be perfect. And congrats to the Seattle Seahawks, who are your champs. We are both wearing Super Bowl gear. Yeah, got a merch. I got my pale, my sort of Chapel Hill Blue. you got a little rainbow Super Bowl hat.

Yeah. Very, very, very, very, very, very fun weekend. When we started doing this cover zero, I thought like just recapping NFL games would be the fun, which it is fun. Never dreamed we would have a week like we just got back from in San Francisco. I mean, there's like 50 individual moments that could carry the trip by themselves, but things just kept happen one after another every day we were there.

I'm still really in disbelief that we got to do all of that. Yeah, I am too. I'm really surprised that we got to do it. And we had a blast. And then the game started. They played football. We're going to review the whole day. We're going to, you know, the whole enterprise.

But the game itself, you know, I mean, they can't all be the best Super Bowl of all time. Seahawks, I mean, Patriots did not score through the first three quarters. But Seahawks controlled the game. That game could have been 50 to nothing. I mean, it really could have. Like if if Donald hits that long pass to Shaheed, you know, if there's one or two, if the, on that Injigba play, if, if Donald just hit, gets him just a little bit closer. It could have been a route.

So in some ways it was fortunate that it was even that close. Yeah. If you just woke up and looked at the score, you might be like, oh, okay, not bad game. But no, it was over from the beginning. Seattle had four straight scoring drives all ended in Philadelphia. though. Just two of those have been a touchdown. We're talking about this being nasty. I mean, New England doesn't even have a point until the fourth quarter. I know people love a good defense and Seattle's

defense deserves all the accolades they're getting and the trophy. But for a exciting, entertaining product to the fans, great defense and shutting out a team in the Super Bowl isn't that fun to watch? I mean, Seattle was unbelievable on defense. Just absolutely destroying the offensive line of the Patriots. They basically rush for most of the game. Then occasionally would throw in a blow. Lits and New England almost never could pick it up. Poor Will Campbell.

Don't search his name on Twitter. So here's the thing about Will Campbell. Will Campbell, rookie, is he a rookie? Rookie offensive lineman, fourth pick in the draft, I don't know, man, kind of feel bad for it. Because if you're like my mom and you don't watch the NFL and you turn only that game on, which she always watches the Super Bowl, she might think he's the worst player to ever play sports. and I feel bad for him in that regard.

I mean, he's a rookie trying to play left tackle against Lawrence. Well, the best, you know, linemen in the league, but it didn't go well for Will Campbell. No, and the two things worked against him. You know, normally offensive line, especially a rookie, kind of anonymous, but he already had a reputation before the draft of having the little T-Rex arms that, you know, he was kind of mocked a little bit in the combine, still got drafted, got to a good team. But then also he has that comment about if you give up a sack, you're going to work for Amazon.

So if you search Will Campbell, Amazon. Oh, he said that. He said that it was something along the lines of, if you're a defensive player and you average one sack of game, you're a top pick. If you're for an offensive lineman and you give up one sack of game, you're going to Amazon. And that has been thrown at his face the last 24 hours.

He means, I think, I think to save his reputation, he's got to like do one day in Amazon. You might not have a choice. No, I mean, he's got to go. He's got to lean into it. You got to go for one day, handle the packages. like you're going to have to, you got to do Amazon stuff because you can't, you, that performance, I'm trying to think of when there's been a worse one.

Again, no offense, it's got to be hard. I'm not trying to like Bartman the guy. Well, it wasn't just him. I mean, the Patriots. He was all of them. He was at the core. Six sacks, though, by Seattle. I mean, they were unstoppable.

Yeah. So, I mean, I think a lot of the conversation is going to be about the Patriots, in part because, you know, they're a team that a lot of people like me, you like to hate. But the Seahawks dominate the game. So the question is like, where do we, how do we look at this team? They finished 14 and 3 in a regular season. They win three playoff games. They're 17 and 3.

I saw DVOA, which I don't know how you come up with that. A lot of math. I think it's Doug's very official analysis. Yeah. Doug's good at it. Doug's very official analysis. I don't know. Can you read to me how do you come up with DVO?

Our defense adjusted value over average breaks down every play and compares the team's performance to the league average. So I don't know how do they make it. Okay. So whatever that is, and then they call the, is the offensive version OVOA? I'm going to guess. So, but. Okay. So whatever it is, if you rank all the Super Bowl winners and there have been 60,

just take a guess where you think the Seahawks would rank on, or I may have already told you. Their defense? No, I don't know the answer. No, just no, it's an overall team. Where do you think they rank amongst the 60 Super Bowl winners overall when you combine offense, defense, etc? I will just give a random number and say fourth. What about you? I'll go fifth.

See, I would have said like 28th. It's third. That feels crazy. No, but I mean for the season. Oh, for the season. I'm sorry. For the season. I mean, that defense all year was shutting down teams.

But that's crazy to me to think about all the history of the NFL. And by stats, the only two teams better are the 91 Washington Redskin and the 85 Bears. It didn't feel like that this year. It doesn't feel like it. By defense only, the only two teams better are the 2000 Ravens and the 85 Bears. I don't feel like this is the third best team of all time. But when you look at their numbers versus the league, how much better than they were the rest of the league.

Numbers say what they say. Should I just accept it or can I fight this? Because it doesn't feel like they're the third best team. I think you just got to accept it. I mean, they played the Rams and the 49ers three times each. I think they were like, what, five and one in those games? It's held the 49ers to like three in a game, six in another. Remember they completely shut out the Vikings.

Well, nobody really scored against them except the Rams. The Rams were the only team really all year that scored on. So yeah, that's why I'm not that surprised. They feel like an anonymous team outside of Jackson Smith and Jigba because the defense, like everyone's good. It's just a great defense. And then Darnold's Darnold, so it doesn't feel like when you have a great team when there's just stars across the board. Obviously, they're great players. But I think they're more of a balanced team too that makes them just a little bit boring.

Yeah, and the running backs name is Kenneth Walker Jr. He sounds like a realtor. The third. Yeah. Third. Oh, Kenneth Walker, the third. Well, then he sounds like a lacrosse player. But even that, it's, it's, there's three Kenneth Walker.

I mean, they're just... Yeah, it's not even the biggest Kenneth Walker. But I do what they... Part of it is, it's all the way, you know, if you look at a map, I don't know if you've seen one recently, Billy. Seattle's all the way at the top left. So it's not even like, you got to want to go up there. We've been.

Got to want it. You got to want it. So all that makes it, but they were dominant. And, you know, they'll open the season next year at home. Have you seen like the teams that it could be? No, no. It's amazing. They play at home next.

year, Rams of 49ers, Patriots, Chiefs, Bears. Oh, wow. So it could be any of them. What a run. If you were the NFL, who you open. You're not going to pick the Rams of 49ers. You're going to pick a team on this side of the country. Would you send the Patriots for a Super Bowl rematch?

The Bears, Caleb Williams, or the Chiefs, Mahomes. Stuff. Most years, I'd think Super Bowl rematch, but we all agree that wasn't the best Super Bowl ever. Yeah, you'd hate to do that again. If the chiefs have that excitement going and I think they will I lean chiefs. I think it makes a lot of sense to send the chiefs.

Kind of a new era versus does this one still have some life? I could talk myself into the Bears though. I mean, a whole season of Caleb Williams hype versus that defense. I mean, there's a decent argument that going into next year, if you're ranking like stars in the NFL,

I think Mahomes is one, Allen's two, but you could make maybe Burroughs three, but you could make an argument, Caleb's next, right? Yeah, and just the whole offense there being so young and how fun they are. I agree that would be an exciting option too. Kind of looking at, we got used to the same teams over and over. Now we're looking at Seahawks, Bears, and some new areas that are starting to open a door

and look like they could be doing something for a long time. The coach, McDonald, I mean, do you think anyone in the United States knew what he looked like until last night? Not unless you. Like, I saw him, a lot of people know, I saw him walking down the street and San Francisco. Okay. Yeah, he's just walking down the street.

And he was like, he had a sign that says who wants to talk. Nobody wants to. He walked around Radio Row. Yeah. He walked around the media thing and no one stopped him. They thought he was there like hawking orange juice. And no one stopped him the whole time. Third youngest coach ever to win the Super Bowl.

That's what's weird for me. I'm not, it comes for everybody, but I'm not used to this life of being a sports fan where champions are younger than me. I turned 40 recently. I'm just now accepting that there are people that are younger than me that are winning Lombardi trophies and all that. Yeah. And he, I mean, the Ravens had him. So if they were going to lose Harbaugh a year or two later, part of the goes, like, why didn't you?

Oh, yeah. Or they knew what they had in the moment. They knew what they had. And then they let him go, you know. Yeah. It's a SEC guy, Georgia. I thought it was pretty neat. He and Maria Taylor on the stage, having gone to the same high school.

You know, I don't know where they, their ages aren't. too far apart. I wonder how much they really knew each other in high school. But imagine someone you grew up with playing kickball at recess with the next time. They grew up together? I don't know how close they were, but based on age and going to the same high school, they hadn't known each other a little bit. So I wonder, regardless, just the odds of two people from the same high school making it to that stage. If my friend Bobb ends up becoming the NFL coach, I mean, right now he doesn't coach

and never has. But like that'd make it even crazier if you would be even imagine in five years if he wins the Super Bowl and I'm interviewing. We got the photo of Mike holding up his son. Remember there was talk all season? Does he even know his son? Yeah. He like bragged about hanging out with his son for 15 minutes a week. That was, by the way, that was the 15 minutes his kid got last night.

Last night's the only 15 minutes he's going to spend with his son all year. He had that assistant with the stopwatch right at the bottom of the 50s soon. I throw him down. Pick up the other kid. The Seattle had the most fans there. You know, Patriots are always concerned. Now, granted, it's not as far away, but Patriot Nation, not really out there like the Seattle fans were.

We heard that from our new friend, Sean Alexander. He said that the first Seattle Super Bowl, they admitted they didn't travel very well. The 12s didn't bring their best stuff, and they said they won't ever happen again. He spoke, he knew what he was talking about, because as we got closer and closer to Sunday, you just saw more and more Seattle taking over San Francisco.

We had four Seattle fans on our flight from, from, well, we had two on our flight from Atlanta to Louisville. And there were four on our flight from San Francisco to Atlanta. So, and two of them were, like, one of them was wearing a jersey. In a jersey. So here's my question for it. I understand why we left before the game was on. But if you were a Seattle fan, how do you fly during the Super Bowl when you're in the city where the Super Bowl is?

I wouldn't do it. I don't care. what's on the other side of that flight. If my team is in the Super Bowl and I'm in the city, I'm not going anywhere. Maybe I can't afford a ticket, but I'm at least going to be around for that game. But do you think it was just a coincidence they were in San Francisco? Or do you think they went to San Francisco for the Super Bowl?

Well, then why would they fly back to Atlanta? I don't know. But I did find it weird that they were flying away from San Francisco while their team is about to kick off. And luckily, I mean, it was pretty clear the game was over in the first half. but imagine that flight we had where you know we missed the last two minutes imagine your team is like tied or something

I wouldn't get on the flight I have to figure it out wherever I'm going that's a tomorrow problem this is the Super Bowl on my team so it's pretty surprising to see people on the flight it wouldn't do it brutal to uh to to not know so so that's Seattle now we got to talk about

Patriots Drake May was awful I mean his offensive line deserves a lot of criticism too um but he was awful. Even though his offensive line wasn't good, there were four or five plays that if he makes the throw, they have

maybe not a chance to win, but the game would have been much more competitive. And he missed, and a few times, I mean, NBC and Chris Collins worked did an amazing job of showing it was kind of like a parade of horribles. By the way, when I was a kid, I would hear the phrase parade of horribles, and I would literally try to think about what a

parade of horribles would be like. Like you're sitting on the sidewalk and they're just coming by one by one. Imagine if you went in a parade, or there's Gingus Kahn. Never looked at it that way. There's Brussels sprouts. It's a wide range of horribles. Oh, look, here comes traffic at five o'clock.

Here's Hagar. Like, there would be all of these parade of horribles. He, his, his, his, his, uh, throws look like a parade of horribles. And they were awful. And, you know, Collinsworth was like, look, he could have made that one. He could have made that one. Were you surprised he was,

bad as he was. I mean, I can think seeing some of my mind right now. There's the one late. I mean, it was probably over, but when they're backed up against the goal line and he had a guy to break wide open towards the sideline, just completely overthrew him. I mean, it would probably have been too late, but that would at least give you a little bit of hope and some life. And, you know, that's late in the game, just to miss something that bad show how off he was all day. And even his interception at the end. I mean, they were still in it, 197, momentum's all on their side and it was like he was trying to score all 14 points on that throw. Yeah, he had seven fumbles in the entire postseason, which tied a record.

Set a record for most fumbles in the postseason and most sacks. 21 times he was sacked. Yeah. I mean, some of those are not his fault, but the fumbles are his fault. And early they were running Witherspoon on that blitz got to him a couple times, think on Will Campbell's side. Will Campbell, most pressure allowed ever in a postseason game. So maybe he might not even get like Amazon.

It was like number 29. He set a record. He might have to go to Timo. Mm-hmm. All the postseason games ever played. Think about this beautiful league and all the postseason football. Oh, wow. So not over the whole postseason, the worst in one game?

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. So he had the worst game of any offensive lineman of all time. Let me pull up the exact. I want to say it was like 29 pressures allowed or something. Let me be clear. In the history of playoff. football.

Drew is saying that Will Campbell was the worst player to ever play on the offensive line. Will Campbell just allowed the most pressures in a playoff game since 2018. Oh, in a single postseason is the most ever. So the postseason can be. Yeah. So he's the worst postseason before and the worst of any kind since 2018. Correct.

Wow. That is per. So you're not saying it to me. What do you will, Camel? Underdog. Get back to work. Get back to work. You're the number four pick.

I mean, you can't, you can't cry about. I didn't ask me to quit. I assumed he was going to try to play some more. Big investment. He's a likable guy. Good heart. What makes him likable? He's a good sound bite.

Yeah, he's got a personality. He's tough. Oh, I haven't heard. You know, he put up with the T-Rex arm stuff a lot. And he had, you know, he's better than he was on Sunday. But maybe there was something to the fact that he was a T-wexer. That was his worst game of the year And it happened at the worst moment

But Billy's right When he was talking about just that whole line was getting wrecked Well It's the first team ever to have two rookies Start on the offensive line in the Super Bowl Well, they shouldn't happen again And how about on the Seattle side Walker and Jigba were drafted together

Same both first rounders Think about Seahawks, you're looking back on that draft That worked out all right John Schneider I mean another victory lap for him built the Legion of Boom and now he got from Papa Johns? No, it's John Schneider. John Snyder is from the Duke's of Hazard.

I didn't realize that. So the guy that was in the Duke's of Hazard ended up owning the Seahawks? I don't know if that's the same one. What's Tom Wopat do now? Does Tom Wopat have a team? But yeah, Drake Bay was awful. Does this change? I mean, everybody was ready to crown him.

I mean, first of all, it's goodie long. the MVP. If he had won the MVP and then played like that, they might have just gotten rid of the award. We messed up. Have they ever taken it back? You know what? We were a little ahead of ourselves. I think you would have had to take it back if that had happened, right? Yeah. I mean, that was a terrible game for him. And Pat's fans, I'm sure, very disappointed this morning. I would still like Drake May as my quarterback. He had a good year. I think there's more than what he showed last night. I really, a lot of it is on him. But he was just getting wrecked all night. long. I don't think he ever really stood a chance.

Yeah. No, he didn't, but I'm still saying it's on him, a lot of it. I mean, he had a horrible game. He had a horrible game. I wouldn't, I wouldn't throw away Drake May because of Sunday. I mean, I would say just sitting there and thinking, he now is competing with Jake Delome for the worst performance in a Super Bowl of all time. Jake Deloam, I think, fumbled like, would he throw four interceptions? or five interceptions in his game. I remember him playing in it. I don't remember what he did in the game.

I may have just made that out. Let's see what kind of game. Yeah, I mean, this could be completely made up. But I feel like Jake Delome did something like terrible in the Super Bowl. 16 of 33 for 323 yards and three touchdowns. How many interceptions? Let's see. If you say none, then we're going to hit it.

16 and 33. Yeah, but what about the other 17? That's under 50%. Okay, so it was a different guy. Matt's talking about when he played on Madden. Yeah, not the real one. It was Jake Plummer. Jake the snake.

All right, so this is the worst game. Just crying. I'm going to look up worst QV performances in a Super Bowl. Okay. But this, I would think Drake's in the conversation. Well, all right. I think he's it. Now, here's the five worst Super Bowl.

I'll tell you if they're worse. Of the 21st century. Go for it. Number five, Ben Rothlessberger against the Seahawks. I remember that, didn't play great. This was worse. Four.

Rex Grossman for the Bears. He was bad in that game. I think I saw Drake May had a lower, so they had the lowest quarterback ratings in all of the playoffs for any player that had played, I think, four games.

Rex Grossman was the second worst and Drake May was the worst for the whole player. Ouch. Who's third? Someone we saw on every street corner, Rich Gannon. I think Rich Gannon was just everywhere in San Francisco. Against the bucks.

Against the bucks. Okay. What's second? Second. Peyton Manning against the Panthers. I remember he had a bad pick six. The Panthers? I mean, the Seahawks.

Talk about the one he won, though? With, uh, you're talking about the one he won with Denver. Right. No, against the Panthers. The Panthers? This is what this is. didn't Denver? Who did Denver?

He won a Super Bowl. This is the one where I mean we could look at it up. Oh yeah, it was Von Miller's MVP. Yeah. Peyton was bad that game. Yeah, he had a pick six, two fumbles.

So he can't be the worst. Yeah, he can't be the worst if he won. And who's the number one? Man, and he only completed 13 passes. These Peyton Manning stats are crazy. He was bad his last year in Denver, but they won the Super Bowl. Yeah.

Number one, Kerry Collins. Okay, so that's who I was thinking about. Mary Collins. 15 of 39. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah. This is easily the one. He was 15 of 39 for 112 yards, no touchdowns, and four interceptions.

Okay. That's a pretty bad game. And that was with the Panthers, right? No. Giants. Giants Ravens. You got me confused, Billy. Giants Ravens.

Super Bowl 35, four interceptions. Against a great defense. Correct. So Kerry Collins, I think Drake May joins Carrie Collins. Now, that list of guys you read with the bad ones, you have some dudes. you have some dudes who are known for not being good. Rex Grossman. Kerry Collins had a great year with the Titans.

Kerry Collins. Then you also have Peyton Manning and Rich Gannon was very good. So is Drake May more Carrie Collins? Yes. And Rex Grossman or is he more Peyton Manning and Rich Gantan? Peyton gets bonus points for get it done. I'm with you. I think you're removed from the conversation.

I don't think he should be on the ring on. I mean, the Patriots had zero points until the fourth quarter. So, but I'm saying do you think he, which ones his career going towards? Now, Peyton and Gannon, Manning and Gannon were at the end of their careers. Grossman and Collins were towards the beginning of their careers. So history would say if you play this bad, you are headed for infamy. But he also had a great season. Yeah, we were talking about him being the MVP.

I just don't know how you rate this Patriots team. They didn't play anybody in the regular season. Right. In the AFC championship game, they had to play a dude who'd been like selling cars a few weeks before. So are they good? You think about having to play Jared Sidham, they did go,

it's the run of like the toughest defenses you could possibly face. But it was Jared Stidham, C.J. Stroud, and Justin Herbert, with it freezing. at home. Yeah, I'm just saying on the May conversation, he did face pretty much all elite defenses to get to the Super Bowl. I would, I still think May, I mean, I'm not going to say Peyton Manning or Ben Rothersberger from that list. Oh yeah, he was on the list. But way ahead of Kerry Collins and Rex Grossman. Yeah. I would, I would think that the Patriots are set up to be good for the next 10 years though. Like, I don't think they're going to go anywhere. New coach,

rookie running back. Based on what? Like, I've rebele. All right, so give me the receiver that they're going to have for the future that gets you excited. Well, that can be replaced. more than the offensive line that you're going to be excited. Well, Will Campbell will never let this. We're going to stretch those arms out. He'll be just fine. I'm just saying to you, what made them good this year was their record was excellent, and it seemed like Drake May was great.

Again, maybe it's just a, but it's not a one-off game. He was terrible. The whole playoffs. They won, but he was awful the entire playoffs. It's at least plausible that he's not as good as every year. has acted like. Isn't that at least plausible? It is from the second youngest quarterback in the Super Bowl of all time. Okay. But there were people ready to say like he's passing Joe Burrow are all right. Yeah, you got to pump the brakes on that. Yeah, no, I have him in the he will be a long time starter

into England and they will love him. I don't know if that will lead to one ring or any rings. I'm just going to remind you that over the last couple years, C.J. Stroud and Jane Daniels have both been crowned. and have both at least taken a step back off the throne. Is it possible that that happened with Drake May too? Oh, yeah, he very much could. As cousin Sal would say, could he be Drake, maybe? And if that's what Will Campbell is really going to be, I don't mean to put it on him,

but that's your fourth round pick at left tackle. I mean, fourth pick. You pay that and pick him to protect Drake May, and if he's not going to pan out of that spot, that's going to have an impact on what May does. There's no way it won't. I'm just saying you could make, you can, of course, make the case that, oh, this was a bad game. But you could also make the case that this Patriots team beat no one good except the bills once, lost to the Raiders, and we're not a good team that Fortune shown its bright light on.

Another nickname for Drake May was the schedule. I mean. That's what they're calling them, the schedule? The schedule. Not a great name, but it makes sense. It could be one of the worst teams ever playing a Super Bowl. It could be, all right, we already, again, not trying to be mean, but let me be mean. We have definitively the worst offensive line performance in the history of the Super Bowl,

in the history of the playoffs. We have definitively the worst playoff run in terms of turnovers and sacks in the history of the playoffs. and we have one of the more uncompetitive Super Bowls in many years. Your Honor, I rest my case. It's all lining up. And that's why it will be one of the Super Bowls that I won't bring up again in years from now. Like we have the ones we remember,

this one will not get talked about again a few weeks from now. All right, let's talk about some of the others. All right, let's start with the music. Green Day. They started. Played well, right? I didn't see them. I didn't either.

Did you get them on the pool? Okay. but I'm just like but we like them so we're going to see I agree well yeah I like Green Day uh what's your favorite Green Day uh Boulevard of Broken Dreams oh look at you Mr. Emotional well that was a young billy R sports would you just sit and cry listening to Green Day the CD uh time of my life basket case everybody would say like time of my life is the one that like you say to be like you know I'm a thinker yeah I mean it's a sign failed thing you can play it in front of your mom uh what was the basket case that is that come from duky

is on ducky that's the one that had the hot air balloon i think i believe i had that album yeah and then there's i don't want to be an american idiot uh my favorite is actually one of their lesser hits minority you know that one yeah i want to be a minority i don't need your authority I like that one. They should have played that. Why are you looking at? Maybe they did. Mario, have you ever heard of Green Day?

Wait a minute. Hang on. You've never heard of Green Day? What? They were just playing the Super Bowl. You never heard a Green Day. You never had a hope you had the time of your life. My goodness.

These kids today with a rock and roll, apparently not the rock and roll, with a rap and roll. Look up, Mario. I thought they were good. Then you had, what was the name of the guy that sing the National Anthem, Corey. Charlie, Charlie Puth. He seemed fine, right?

Yeah. I saw people debating his pitch. Was it Autotune or not? I wasn't getting auto tuned jobs. Not from him. He's like, he's a really good saying. It doesn't, don't they say he has like the perfect pitch. Isn't that like a thing?

Yeah. Yeah, it is. Like he can. My middle school band teacher said I had perfect thing. Why didn't you do the Super Bowl? because I can't sing. But like my middle school band teacher said to me that I was one of the few people he knew

who could tell immediately if something was on key or not. Which always made me wonder, how's he know? Can he get in my brain? You don't know me. You don't know me. Mr. Simpson.

I like Charlie though. Puth. Or Charlie Simpson. I was good. Then you got to halftime. There was all this controversy around halftime. What's going to happen? It was bad bunny going to come out in a dress on Tim Walls' shoulders. I lost that bet. What were the odds you got on that way?

60 to 1. It was like plus 5,000. I thought he was good. I mean, I don't speak Spanish, so I didn't really know what he was saying. But I thought it was, I thought the visuals were good. He told like a story. right it was like the story of Hispanic people in america you know the sugar cane fields and like they had the uh the dominoes boxing salsa dancing and like people got married there's just a lot going on and uh he seemed like a nice fellow he's wearing shoulder pads in case he needed to check in and help block for drake may yep i read that honored maybe i think an uncle that played football and that 64 was his uncle's number like everything everything had a little bit i thought is how many Teams used to be in the tournament.

I just thought you want to wear some shoulder pads. They look good. Yeah. There was like, there's things we'll never even know there was a nod to, but so many little Easter eggs there. Well, there was the woman. I liked that. I looked her up.

Yeah, I looked her up. She like owns the, the last, one of the last social clubs. So they have in New York, they used to have social clubs back when, you know, some places wouldn't allow black people or Hispanic people or Jewish people and things. So they would create social clubs for themselves. And over time, those have kind of gone away. and this woman like owns one of the last Puerto Rican social clubs in America

and he flew her out to be there to when he bought the little drink or whatever from the little bodega thing. La Marquetta, I think it said, had the name of it. That's kind of neat, isn't it? Yeah, and you know, they were people playing dominoes at one point. Drew's boxer was in the background.

I know I said both those things. Yeah, they were both in there. I didn't hear the dominoes. There was a nod to like an L.A. Some kind of food truck. They pretty much remade that and put it there. I went back and looked at all these things, which is the point to open your mind and learn a few things. Free your, I think it was in vogue that said free your mind and the rest will follow.

Be colorblind, Billy. Don't be so shallow. Oh. That's what they used to. That's a Mario Instagram caption. He's writing it down. I can see that. I enjoyed it, though.

I'm with you. I mean, I took Spanish. He talks. I've lost that. If I knew Spanish, he was going to need to speak a lot slower. But I, yeah, and I also... Me pregunta, don't deista la Biblioteca. He goes so fast, I couldn't really understand.

Well, that's the thing. Sometimes the music, it doesn't matter. I grew up listening to Bone Thugs and Harmony. Two of my favorite songs, I still don't know what they say, and I love them. When people say it shouldn't be in, it needed to be in English, I know that my parents love the three-tenths. dinners. And they sing in Italian. Like, if you go to an opera, you don't know anything they're saying. Right? Like, people like it. That was my opera. Did you enjoy that?

Did you get the camera on them for that part, Mario? Okay, good. Thank you. So I don't need you. There's a lot of Pearl Jam songs. I don't know what they're saying. My mom texted me during the, during the other radio show the day and said, music is the universal. Exactly. Right? Music's a universal language. And so, so there you go.

Now, the stage had all these famous people. They bring all these famous people, but then they get like a millisecond of camera time. Right? So it was like Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, Ronald Acuna,

Jessica Alba. Jessica Alba. I saw her real quick. Jessica Alba was on there for like a half a second. These are like A listers are like, yeah, I would love to be a background extra for a split. second in your concert.

For a millisecond. And then shows how important it is to be a part of that. That's right. And then Alex Earl. Stuck right in. Don't know how she got in there. I like her. She seems like a nice person.

I don't think she's of Hispanic heritage. I thought the theme was Latin America. And I also don't know that she's quite on the level of the rest of those people. But she was there. And I was like, I hated the fact that I was like, hey, there's Alex Earl. Like, I didn't notice Pedro Pascar. That's why she was there. Or Jessica Alba.

The first time I didn't see, but I did notice Alex Earle. So maybe that's exactly right. Maybe that's why she was there. I guess when you're, what do you, are they socialites when they're famous just for like existing and going to things? She's influenced. Well, you know, she just goes everywhere. Maybe they thought they needed a social influencer on that little set there. But it did seem, it was like as you're going across left to right and like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's cool.

Why is Alex there? I did like this. I want to see if I can play this for a second. not that um Alex Earl you know she she she goes places and her thing like the whole reason she exists is to like uh show what she's doing she'll be like come with me as I go to blah blah blah oh she's big on the get ready with me get ready with me as I go to the blah blah and uh I saw her first one and I enjoyed this all right so I want you to listen Ashton came over to all of us packing and like rushing out the door.

I was just not ready. Ashton wasn't feeling good. But we got in the car and headed to the airport. We were going to San Francisco, which I'm really excited about because I've never been there before. And we're going with Raising Keynes this weekend. And we're flying a bunch of people from L.A. straight there. So she was going to the Super Bowl with Raising Cates. And if you look at her video, everywhere she went, there were just buckets of chicken fingers.

Sounds amazing. I didn't know this was an option. If you look at her hotel room, full of chicken fingers. Every party she'd go to, she'd walk the red carpet, but first to get a big old hand of chicken fingers. Did she get the cane sauce too? She'd get the cane sauce. Cains followed her around and just gave her chicken fingers everywhere she'd go.

What a life. I feel like that's a pretty good gig, right? Can I tell them to leave the slaw? Can I get extra bread also as they follow me around? Two breads, no slaw, please. Extra cane sauce. of all people that seems like a weird

like if you had said what company sent Alex Errol followed around we had a long time before I got to the chicken fingers but she did not have canes on stage with bad buddy I think it would have been funny

if all the people on stage were also eating cane so we needed a few more ads in there it could be the case she was a shrub and just snuck out to join the stage the shrub thing is my favorite part

of all of it sugar cane Sugar cane, excuse me. That was my favorite part of all of it. Because in the moment, we didn't know they were humans until they all ran off. I just loved the idea of people getting so excited, hey, I'm in the Super Bowl halftime. Yeah. Mario thought they had planted the shrubs into the field.

But it was actually people. It's kind of genius. You're on a quick clock there to set that up, get it away. Did you see the video of everybody running out? Spritting out, uh-huh. And they got paid. Did you see what they made? Oh, no.

What did they make? I think that it was roughly, there was. I won't get it to the exact cent, but it was roughly $18 an hour. And after all the auditions and everything, it was a little... Had the audition to be a shrub? No, rehearsals. They had to rehearse the whole bit. It ended up being a little over $1,000 for the week.

I'd do that. I would have done it for free. Did you see the party in the parking lot when it was over? Everybody that was in it, you know, they didn't have tickets for these people. They're like, get out. Got to go. Give me the sugar cane back. No, literally.

They made them leave. Get out of here. So they were all in the parking lot and they all had a dance party, including Pedro Pascal and Jeskow, but like everyone that was part of that went outside and had a dance party. Alex Earl was just throwing canes in her mouth. Bad Bunny spoke to all of them. Yeah, bad bunny spoke to all of them.

Yeah. As Alex Earl took another bite of toast. And then. As Alex Earl said chicken, chicken, chicken. What combo are you picking? It looks like fun to me. And you tell me I get a thousand.

for that, Billy, I'm in. I'm 100% in. You've got a story that you were in the Super Bowl halftime show. I mean, that would be pretty awesome. Ain't got all the canes you wanted. This woman kept feeding me gains, Alex Earle. If Saturday night, someone had come up to us, you know, we had the early flight on Sunday, if someone had said, look, guys, we had four dropouts. Yeah, I'm in.

Can you all please, when we've moved our flight and changed everything? Of course you would have. Good, because I would have done it. I think it would be one of the great experiences of all time to run out there as a sugar cane. and like were they told not to peek out? Because I would have one person I saw that. There's one girl who I don't know if her thing broke.

Her head is just sitting out of it. I would have had a hard time not to take my head out looking around. They didn't just be completely hidden behind there. I wouldn't be able to do that. You would have known I was a part of it. So I enjoyed the half-time performance. I thought it was good. Billy put on the other one

because he's not a company man. Oh, please. I am a company man. I need to see how you get mad watching the other apptime. You know, people think I'm making this up, but the airport bar broke into applause at the end of it, which I thought, I've never been a, I don't think I've ever been that excited about anything

to applaud in the middle of an airport bar. Have you? No, there were some people that were really excited. They were really excited. Yeah. And there was one girl who then during the game kept that excitement. She was cheering hard for the Patriots. and then halfway the third quarter,

I heard her, I asked the woman next to him, who are they playing? That's a fan right there. You don't even care who they're playing. Or no. Yelling at the screen. Doesn't know who they're playing. It's all right.

She was excited about Bad Bunny. You see who's the most watched halftime show of all time? Well, I don't know. Is that true? Well, I saw a graphic. I don't want to be. I don't want to be those people that's just falling for random ones. I mean, it might be true, but I think it came out.

I think we were putting, I think we were putting graphics out saying, it was the most watched and the least watched just to get. I saw one that had actual numbers, and they could have been made up numbers, but it just edged out Kendrick Lamar last year. Let me check my source. Well, you may be right. I hope it would, I have no idea.

And by the time people listen to this, it probably will be out. Well, we're reporting that it is. Yeah, we're in NFL cover zero's reporting. It's the highest in the history of humankind. That's why they did it, right? International outreach, another audience makes sense for the NFL. reason they did it was because the halftime show is not for the football thing. Where are people going to get that?

They're already watching the game. The point is to get the woman at the airport. That's the whole point. And then secondarily to grow the game in other places. They're playing what? They're playing what nine international games last year or next year. You know, so that's what they're doing. So having Brantley gives.

Gilbert doesn't do anything but get his family to watch. The point is to get new people, so I totally understand. They've already won America. You're going to watch the NFL. We've proven that. They win everything. You cannot go against the NFL because America's already watching. What's America?

What do you want? You got Alex Earl. Eating chicken. She had all the chicken. So overall, an entertaining Super Bowl, and, you know, we're going to, we are going to have, another show later this week. But overall, kind of what's your view of the season now that it's wrapped up?

Did you enjoy this NFL season? I did. It's hard to compare to past years because obviously this is very unique coming to meet you guys at midnight every Sunday and paying attention to other games more than I normally would. But overall, I thought it was a fun year. It was weird just looking at it aside from our own experiences watching it. Just to be at the beginning of the year and we had that Bill's Ravens game that was so crazy. And even though the Chiefs lost week one, we still expected them to be in the conversation.

To have the teams we did at the end of the year compared to what we thought we would, I thought it was a very unique year of maybe even a changing of guard in a lot of places. I do wonder if we'll look back at this as a changing of guard or is like a temporary weird blip because of injuries and just people kind of not. I mean, be interesting to see. Like next year are these same teams good or even newer teams? Or do we kind of go back and the Chiefs are good again and the Ravens are good again? and, you know, I don't know.

I mean, who knows. But you could have a change in the guard. You could have this new generation of Caleb Williams, Bo Nicks, Drake May, Seahawks, pick, pick your team. So I don't know. I thought it was a wildly entertaining season. I mean, part of it is, because of this podcast, to be quite frank with you, I paid a lot more attention than I did.

And so we had to, yeah. We had to. So now, like, I know the intricacies of it. Sort of the minute details became more. And then there were just so many good games. I mean, I went to, you mentioned in Bill's Ravens. I went to Bears, uh, Bengals, which was an insane game this year. Uh, we went to, to Buffalo was awesome.

Tampa Bay, which was an insane game. Some of these playoff games were insane. I mean, think about the Bears Packers games. Well, your own team, it felt like every week the Bears were in a comeback. The Bears were in an insane game like every single game like every single. single week of the season. So overall, Billy, I think, like, as entertaining of a season as they've had in a long time. And not just the football. I mean, we had Brown Spider and the First Lady on one of our first episodes. I mean, there was a whole thing about Meow Mix, the podcast, and then we sang to

bright. We serenated Bryce Young at the Super Bowl Radio Row. Like, I had a ton of fun with you guys. And this season was definitely memorable, not just for the football. And see, this is where you would play. I hope you had the time. of your life. Mario wouldn't get that. Yeah. So you don't have perfect pitch. I'm not Charlie Pith.

Yeah. So now you go into next year. Are you going to the draft? It's in Pittsburgh, right? Easy drive. Easy drive. Of the teams that played in the Super Bowl, you can probably bring this Seattle team basically back in total, right?

Don't you just run it back if you're. them? Yeah. I think you would, right? I think they're very excited about it too. I think everybody importance under contract. I mean, they basically get to run the whole thing back. Yeah, you're going to have to pay Jackson Smith and Gigba. Is it this year? I don't know. But I don't think it's this year. I think he's got maybe one more on his rookie deal. And eventually you're going to have to pay him and then you'll lose other guys. But I think they basically get to run this back next year. Well, you bet on Sam Donald and it worked, right? He was thrown away by another team. This was this fifth NFL team. And now you have the head coach and the quarterback. And now you, you, you can, you,

could set up a run for multiple years. Now, if you're the Patriots, I think it's much more of an unsure. Did you see their schedule? Pull up, Billy, pull up 2026 Patriot schedule. I think you want to see, pull up their, just read their road games when you see it. They go from the hardest, the easiest schedule in history to listen to the teams they have to go to this year. All right, let's see. Patriot schedule.

they have the Bills, Dolphins, Jets, Broncos, Raiders, Packers, Vikings, Steelers, Bills, Dolphins again. Jets, Bears, Lions, Chiefs, Chargers, Seahawks, Jacks. That's a lot harder. Heck, yeah. I mean, you take out the two games against the Jets and Dolphins, those four games. Everybody's good because they end up getting, they get the AFC West, which is arguably the best division, and they get the NFC North, which is arguably the best of it. So they get, and then they have the bills,

and because they have the number one schedule, they also end up getting, or the number one team, they end up playing the Chiefs. You know, they get the hardest teams, so like it's going to be a tough road for them. It will. And even though they had one of the top offenses, I think, in points per game this season,

they're still going to have to get May some help. I mean, Diggs will be, like, year 11 next year. Well, I mean, so you have the Diggs issue. offensive line got to be a huge I mean got to develop though they have a pretty young line they got to just think about that though you got to keep this dude healthy drank may I mean if you really believe in him you can't have him getting beat up again for another year right I think they got to go put money in their offensive line that's their number one priority based on the 2025 records the Patriots have the sixth tough it's schedule next year he's got the toughest the bears you didn't

have to tell me that tough schedule next year that's okay we had a tough schedule this year that I looking at the schedule this year. This was, if you look at who they ended up having to play. But your expectations weren't this high. I think the Bears, and I think this is true of the Patriots too, I think they both were a year ahead of schedule. I agree with that. Like, I think the Bears wanted to be good next year. And I think definitely the Patriots is not think they were going to be in the Super Bowl. So even though I've been down in the Patriots, they're a year ahead of schedule. So are the Bears. So next year is my Super Bowl year for the Bears is two years from it.

that's two years two years from now and probably that was what the patriots were thinking drew before they went on this run and had the had the season they did yeah i'm i'm watching a free agency move or we'll see how it looks but there's a clip when brayble was the titans when they let a j brown go it's a kind of famous brable's like visibly mad that they would trade a j brown we know a j brown's situation in in philadelphia and we know the patriots need help what Watch that there. Now, I don't know what you would get. You don't want the headcase, AJ Brown.

Yeah. But that could be someone that could really help that offense with his head on straight, motivated, because they are going to have to get more targets for May. He's got a good rookie running back that looks like he'll be the future there. But he still needs help, even though they had a pretty good year statistically. Let me ask you a question.

What team do you think, if you were a fan, you would say, I'd like to have this team for the next decade over any of them? the same roster for the next 10 years you're saying? The situation they're in now. And what it looks to be in the future. Because can I make a case for the bears? I was about to say your bears might be my number one. I mean, I think you can, all their offensive weapons are very young.

Their defense. I think you can make a case for the bears. You know, I don't know. I mean, New England's up there as well, to be fair. but I don't have any stars I feel good about except the quarterback for the future, maybe the running back. But that's important.

That's the one you need. It is. So, I mean, they're definitely in the top 10, but they're going to have to rebuild everything else. There'll always be a free agent receiver you can go get like a Stefan Diggs. That's probably true.

I mean, yes, top 10. But is there any you would take over the Bears? I mean, maybe, maybe you say, look,

I've got Patrick Mahomes. So give me him for the next decade and I'll just, and we'll put somebody around him. Because he has some young targets. And they get a top 10 pick this year. And the receivers they got in the drafts the last couple of years, wasn't fair that they got those guys in those spots. They're not, it's not up there with the Bears, but the Giants could find something with Jackson Dart.

Could, but you got to see him actually win. I mean, if you think Jaden Daniels is good, you just say, well, you get him back from injury. Mm-hmm. You know, we'll see. If the Bengals had half a deal. How about the Broncos with Bo Nix? Well, yeah, I mean, they're a good answer. It depends on if you believe in Bo Nix.

And there's been some drama with Sean Peyton and Bo Nix. Bo called his own press conference to correct something that Sean Peyton said about his injury. ankle. Yeah, I mean, maybe the Titans. We're going to have a lot of first picks for a while. Yeah, a lot of draft cap. I'm going to say the bears have the best future.

Who has the worst future? Titans at least have Cam Ward excited. So it's not us. Jets. Browns. Jets. Jets. I mean, the Raiders are going to be excited about Mendoza, but who knows how they have no quarterback.

They at least, I mean, Aaron Glenn hasn't shown he can be a great coach. The Browns. New coach, though. Yeah, but that jersey with all the names, the 43 names, it's just going to keep adding more names for a while. The problem is the problem with the Browns of Jets is we could have had this conversation any time over the last decade and that would still have been the choice. Yes. Which is.

And Miles Garrett. He won't be there forever. Well, you at least have Miles Garrett and you have Denzel Ward. So you have two stars in Cleveland. You actually have a really good defense in Cleveland. Look where that's gotten you to date. I know. But you have some.

I mean, what are you having with the Jets? They're the worst. Yeah. There's nothing to be excited about if you're a Jets. It's even, I mean, it's cold. Breeze Hall probably won't even be there. Yeah. I think that's the worst one.

So I'd say the Bears have the best. You mean the team with the longest playoff drought in any major sport? I know, I'm going out of Lillam. Those poor jets. You're right, though. I mean, it just shows how bad that organization is that that could just be the answer almost any year. Yeah.

All right. Last thing. Sam Darnold gets picked, you know, out of nowhere, they win the Super Bowl. Is there any quarterback out there that you think they could be turned into Sam Darnold during this offseason? Kyler Murray? I'm watching the Jaguars to keep getting better.

So you're taking a guy that's already there and he gets better. What they did. with Cohen already. Now, that might be an answer for a franchise you're excited about for the next few years. Yeah, they might be top five. They didn't even contribute. They didn't even contribute. Josh Allen's still young.

Their defensive line is good. Yeah, they're probably top five. So I'd watch another jump with Trevor Lawrence. What about I got switching a team? I was switching teams. I mean, I think the answer would be if you believe in Tua and you were to send him to Minnesota, right? Because they got a lot, they have the core of a good team.

And he were to play well. If you got the two of three years ago in Minnesota. Because Minnesota, to me, is the team that has the best chance to make that move. The question is, can they find the right guy to do it? I love that we're playing the who can find the next Sam Darnold and the answer is Minnesota. I mean, what, it's just a slap to Minnesota here. I bet they're the answer. You know, if you're Minnesota, you have to sit there and go,

That could have been us. Yeah. And don't overlook Davis Mills as somebody that could be somewhere else. I mean, I like it. Well, they're best quarterback in St. in Stanford history. But I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to go to the Davis Mills statue at Stanford while we were in the area.

Yeah. It was cool seeing Cal Berkeley. I will say, though, in that Sports Illustrated picture, Billy, your neck looked like Davis Mills in that picture. How did it get so long? Did you just, were you? Well, you just saw more of the neck because the shirt was open. Yeah.

It was just much more visible than you're used to. Only button in the one above the. the belly button as well as neck looks so long. Also, a quarterback to watch, just because he sounds motivated, we ran into Will Levis, and he seems pumped up to whatever's next for him. Cover Zero can report. Will Levis, healthy. Yeah, and motivated.

Cleared this week, he said. Cleared this week to throw up. We'll find out what's next steps for him, but he's a guy eager to get another opportunity to show that he can hang in a pod. Yeah, shout out to Will. All right. So, so this is for all intents of purposes, the final show of the regular season. We're going to have a special of other interviews we did on press row, including Denzel Ward.

And who else was there? I liked Oliver Brown with the Bengals. Talking about Orlando Brown, Jr. Not Oliver. Talking about Burrow off the field was the highlight. They're really good. So we'll have that episode. And then we're going to take a little time off.

We're going to see our families. I may try to find the family. My family doesn't know that Sunday nights are the thing. We kind of haven't had any of those in a while. And then we're going to come back a couple weeks before the draft and start our draft preview. I've been I've been crunching tape. Yeah, I'm getting caught up.

Have you had any luck finding tape on the tight ends? Like I got plenty of linemen tape. I've seen more running backs than I can. I really had a hard time because there's this defensive tackle out of South Carolina State. and I'm going to the pro day. Yeah. I got to stop watch.

Problem with this, the other schools he played, it's hard to get in touch with them and get their tape, but we're doing our best. We're doing our best. But then we're going to hopefully go to the draft in Pittsburgh. Now, Drew may have had a child, or at least we hope. And so then, so Billy, you and I will probably get our inner Mel Kuiper

along with Mario and do a little drafting. Well, I like how these drafts are at the different cities. I mean, it's just chaos. Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh. I mean, you've got to think the terrible towels will be out. So that'd be a good time. It's pickle juice.

And it'll be great. Yeah. Mighty brothers. So I want to thank everybody that was involved in the show this year. Billy, done a great job producing. Mario, great job with social media and just overall swag. And Drew, it's been a lot of fun with you. We've done various things over the 18 years.

We've almost covered every sport. All we need is now skiing. And then we can retire. but had a great time. Yeah, of all the things we've done, as I'm looking at the shield behind you on the wall, the NFL is just, it doesn't get bigger than the NFL. So it really was, hey, I'm still kind of in shock that we did that. We're able to do this to work with them.

But to cover the NFL is a dream and it was a fun first season. Yes, it was. So thank you all very much for listening. Enjoy the extra episode. And then we will see you on the road to the draft. This has been NFL Cover Zero. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL. and IHeart podcast.

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