NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - A-Z NFL Offseason Glossary

Episode Date: May 18, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you the most in depth, strange NFL glossary ever created by going through the entire alphabet A to Z with stuff you MUST know about the NFL (and UFOs, baseball and fried squirrels)Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. We're too old for this shit. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name's Dan Hansis. It comes to you from a virtual room filled with heroes. Mark Settler, Greg Rosenthal. You know what I'm getting too old for?

And welcome to audience. I hope you're a weekend. Excellent. What's today, Tuesday? Well, you're in the middle of the week. By the time you hear this, it might be damn Wednesday. There's a long sketch between shows. We did a Wednesday night show.

It's pretty rare we go this long between shows. But I'm getting, I got to say, I'm getting sick of this remote life enough. I feel like at a certain point you have to ask questions in our own company. Because I think everybody else is back in the office now. It feels like the around the NFL podcast is the only one that's being kept now. in containment, and I believe we're all vaccinated. I feel like we're agreeable fellows, and Ricky is, she's a nice girl. I mean, what am I missing here?

Well, I think some factual accuracy is what you're missing. I don't think the offices are crowded at all. They did start the process of saying, if you are vaccinated, fill out these forms, you can start coming in on a voluntary basis. But when you watch the shows, there's literally. literally no one in the newsroom. And now they're actually pulling back from the studio shows, I think, because they're preparing to move to the next way.

I don't think almost anyone is there. And I think very few people filled that out. Colleen back in the studio last March for a St. Patrick's Day show. I'm just saying, let's keep an eye on this because we might be being quietly phased out of the company using COVID as a kind of a shield. The shield using a shield to shield us from the reality that we're soon to be unemployed. complex plan that you're suggesting, but those types of plans do exist in our society. And you're sort of saying that we created, not we, but the powers that be created an

incredible distraction by putting the world into a pandemic scenario simply to close offices globally, but the target being to remove our small group from the NFL media office. Now, I didn't look at it that way, but I really like that. You took it to the Sessler. Yeah, that was a Sessler level here. I could imagine a scenario where, like, we just keep taping these shows remotely and we think we're putting them up. But actually, yeah, like, the checks stop coming and they stop going out. I don't know. And we're not even aware of it.

And they're paying Erika, like, $75 extra a month not to tell us. And we find out that, like, Mr. F is a bot. Like, anyone responding to our shows on Twitter and through various platforms are simply, you know, computer creations for that. they were real people but they've all been they were actors so what do they call it when there's like an alternate reality that's created and you're not aware that you're a part of it an alternate reality we're in a simulation a simulation yeah marks marks fantasy basically what mark it assumes we're in at all times and lately you know the last year's kind of like proved him like he might be on to something and then my secondary point is um and yes

it's very important to be vaccinated. I hope everyone's doing that. It's good for the world and good for our country and being safe. But I came very close today to starting the show without pants on. And I noticed that right before we started, and I ran and I put on some shorts. And when we're at a point where, first of all, I guess it shows that I'm comfortable with you guys, and that's cool.

But when we get to the point where I'm sitting in front of two laptops, lights, microphones, and I'm in boxer shorts, it's time. It's time. And I'll end it right there. I agree with you. Well, I know you, I know how YouTube feel. And so I know what will happen to me. Mark will just be tugged to the next phase with no say at all. So it's like what, this is basically the last 11 years, just agree, just go along with it.

Because I have no say. I actually am wearing a bathing suit with a blue and white flower printed all over it. Feel great. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it, prove it, prove it, prove it. Speedo, speedo. Wait, oh.

He is, he's telling the truth. Yeah, wow. And it is a speedo, and there's not a lot left. It is not a speedo. That we don't need. What's up with all you Europeans out there, the listenership, still doing the speedo thing. Let's get it a little more baggy.

Let's leave more to the imagination when you're at the beaches. That's a course correction that's needed. You're right about that. Why is that, how did that come out of the 70s? I don't know. Still intact. Okay, so good stuff, good conversation, good bruise. No bruise.

Brews soon when we have some time off. That's not here yet. Today's show is glossary of terms. And I was going to say the off-season edition, but it's not quite the off-season anymore. Greg, you're good at this. You always hop in all the internal conference calls to show your face and make quiet connections with a shadowy league figures what what do you call this portion of the league calendar right now like how do we define it this is absolutely the off season it is the off season even when workouts it's a new league year i mean

you could call it o tas you know o'tas in mini camps but yeah this is the off season this is like the heart of it okay made a may to july they're going to get rid of that though they're going to figure out a way they're working on it already um all right so this is the off season so it's the off season glossary of terms So we're going to go A through Z, just touching on everything in the NFL galaxy. And we'll take turns with the letters. And anybody have any questions? I feel like we're all on the same page with this, right? Yeah.

I always assume that I probably didn't entirely wrong. Right, we didn't totally talk it out ahead of time. So I'm looking forward to seeing how we all interpreted it. Should be fun. Should be fun. All right. We'll start with Greg Rosenthal, the letter A. NFL glossary of terms.

All right. My term for the letter A is apoplectic, which is a word that will describe Mark Sessler on the night of September 12th in our new podcast studio as we watch Andy Dalton start at quarterback for the Bears against the Rams. Oh, so you think it's happening. What's out there?

What are the Sparrows slash aggregated report slash beat reporters telling you right now, Greg, when you read it? Well, that, you know, that word also, It means like extremely angry and furious, which is definitely, as we already heard, maybe it's going to be Mark's feeling about going back to the studio in general. It's not Sparrow's. It's Matt Nagy. It's saying Andy Dalton will be our starter.

It was my instinct from the beginning. And I don't think what he said last weekend was that important. But I still believe they're going to give Dalton a chance because they'll look at the two of them and they'll see if they can just get by with Dalton for. a few weeks. It almost feel like they owe it to them. Except that we're ignoring like so many pre-season blow these mid-May

comments to bits. I mean, if Andy Dalton is Andy Dalton, functional, low ceiling, but certainly the capable starter. And Justin Fields is like getting the crowd going and doing electric things. Like, okay, we can say whatever we want, but he's going to start way sooner than later.

Hopefully. The only way, yeah, the only way Fields doesn't start week one because it's not just about energizing the fan base and giving her a better chance to win, giving your team a better chance to win. Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace are trying to save their jobs. And I feel like anything that has Andy Dalton behind quarterback, that's a sign to me that Justin Fields' summer didn't go so well,

which is something we can't predict right now. Honestly, Greg, you're telling me that if Justin Fields holds his own throughout training camp does really positive things in the two preseason games. They're going to say Andy Dalton is on the field. It happens all the time. This is the guy that, you know, they did trade up for him, but he was ultimately the fourth quarterback taken.

It happens all the time for a week or two, you know, a couple of weeks. I just can imagine this week one scenario, you know, we will be taping the pod maybe during that time, but like of all of America being annoyed by the bears yet. Yeah. here's the Matt Nagy logic at play, which would be terrible,

but we love this kid. We don't want to put him in a too tough of spot in his NFL debut. So primetime Sunday night, week one. Let's get him out of there. Even as soon as you got week two, home against Cincinnati.

But then it's like, if you're going to start a week two, just start him week one. I don't know. I think he's on the field. That might be a sandwich route. I would like to see Andy Dalton have at least a dry, in that Cincinnati game

if they're up where he just rips down the field and shreds the Bengals to pieces. It is interesting too because Cincinnati is filled with Justin Fields fans, you know, so either they're going to be rooting on,

you know, like our friend Phil Wesseling who joined the podcast to his brother, Nick's dismay. You know, they're either going to be like rooting for Andy Dalton to die or they could possibly be rooting

against like, you know, seen Justin Fields slash their team, which would also be painful, very Bengals. I'm looking at the schedule again here, at L.A., home-sincey, at Cleveland. So maybe if you want to ease them in, week four, home against the Lions, week five, on the road against the terrible Raiders defense. Maybe that's, I don't know. Week one.

All right. Up next, the letter B, Mark Sessler. All right, B is for Baker and the Browns. will they live up to the hype or do they only operate when pandemic spreads was it all a hoax now that we all have microchips in our arms will someone flip a switch that turns us all into nuclear winder zombies

in week 10 and none of this will matter game pass becomes a memory uh oh it's an interesting glossary here because it's you know usually it defines words and here it's sort of like it's a question asking glossary like questions

questioning the meaning of these words. You mentioned that any of us, yeah, put that together. I certainly didn't. I just said, letter, thing to talk about, didn't go any deeper than that. You know, Mark, your Baker, I understand where you're coming from. We did a show a couple weeks back where it was around the AFC, and Patrick Claibon had the Browns when we hit the AFC North, and he kind of put a question out there about essentially not calling Baker out,

but basically putting it out there. Is Baker, is he the guy here? Is he still the right guy here? And some, I don't want to put words in his mouth. But that is a conversation that's still being had. The only, I think, blemished to me on his 2020 season, which was otherwise great, I really wish you would have taken him down the field

against that beat up Chiefs team and won that game. The three and out and the punt was a bit of a bummer because it was all there, all the momentum was there for the Browns to pull off that upset and be in the AFC championship. game but that's just one drive and i'm not going to apply in in a drive in this in what i thought was maybe his finest moment i mean he played great that week i mean he played great that game he you know it is a little loss that he was going toe to toe with patrick mahomes and yeah he came in and

that obviously helped and they were it was an uphill battle but he made a lot of special throws down the stretch and especially in the two playoff games uh so i think it for baker fans it was nice for him to play his best when it mattered the most. I think though if you if if that 2019 season had been replaced by you know one that built on his rookie year and I think we forget his numbers in his rookie year where he didn't even start the season were pretty remarkable. He shattered the touchdown record which you know happened again with Justin Herbert probably will happen every year but I mean the 2019 season things went so south and I think it was the off the field everything right now he's like at home in Austin doing puzzles. I'm watching his wife's Instagram stories and he's like home puzzling.

So this is not some guy, some malcontent that's an issue. He was a hard worker. And if he can build off last year, then like maybe some of the questioners will stop questioning. You buy into what someone posts on the Instagram is the exact thing they're actually doing in their private life. Yes, I do with no questions asked. What are you talking about? I don't know. I need some backstory here. I don't know what you're talking about. Speaking of Instagram, we are at 19.9,000 people on the gram. We're just shy of 20K. So please, the ATN podcast.

What was your confusion, Greg? I misunderstood your bit, your joke. I got it now. I got it now. It was a question. Greg also doesn't look at people's Instagram stories because he finds that to be invasive, according to past comments he's made. So I do.

You. I don't look at them because I think. they're invasive. You made some sort of comment about along those lines in the past, which I long. I think it was more. Yeah, I'm just, I don't desire to, but it's not because I found invasive. It's just like a lot of, you know, for the most part, it's people you don't want to know about their lives. You know, there are some exceptions, but. Good thing is you get to choose so you click in with that particular app. Get us to 20K, everybody. We love you. And also get us to London if you can. Hashtag get ATN to London. All right. C for C-YA, which also means

cover your ass which is Teddy Bridgewater are we jamming him into another show you know it's funny Greg I'm tired of it I thought you were going to avoid this you looked at the week of shows and you said okay Teddy bad mouth

his old coaching staff on the way out the door and it fell after our podcast on Wednesday and then we had a network show Friday and then a weekend and we did talk about it on the network show yeah maybe this will sneak through but no this is something we should talk about with our podcast audience.

Here's what Teddy said on Patrick Peterson's podcast. One thing we didn't do much of when I was there, we didn't practice two minute, really. We didn't practice Red Zone. You walk through the Red Zone stuff and that's Saturday you come out and practice Red Zone, but you'd only get like 15 live reps. Guys' reps would be limited. Matt Rule responded. He was disappointed.

I love this because Mark Sessler loves Matt Rule as much as his own son. Greg has lost any ability to properly analyze Teddy Bridgewater because he's so deeply in love and now these two men hate each other. Wait, you're the one that was so fired up about this sending like give me a, I'll over text like,

give me a break with this guy. Who does he think he is? Well, that's what I totally think that. I think it's a terrible job by Teddy for to say anything on the way out the door just because he's doing a podcast with another player to be negative and not having the savviness to understand that that was going

to blow up as a story. I was disappointed that Teddy, who otherwise has a sterling reputation, made those comments public because ultimately all it does is cover up for the fact that he was an absolute disaster in the red zone and in close when the game was on the line. And now he's giving interviews a couple months after the seasons and saying, oh, by the way, the coaching stunk in those situations. Yeah, but we're doing like the sports radio thing where you take out a minute of a 40 minute conversation. I listen to it because I love Teddy. It's one of the reasons I'm a fan, like, of him as a person. Wait, you're a fan? Yeah, he's smart and I like his perspective. I think first of all, he prefaced that with about two minutes of saying all the things that he did

wrong, that he told them he was a big boy. He kind of knew he was going to get dumped after that season, and he totally understood it. And then I think also like, what do we want out of our athletes? Do we want them to just be honest and have real honest conversations like they would have with each other because the reaction they had in the, you know, immediate thing to him saying this. And basically every other player's reaction that's heard this is like, what? And I think about the Panthers offseason last year where they talked about how they wanted to practice a little differently and on different days than other NFL teams. And different teams have done this too. The Rams are certainly one of them. I don't know what they do with Red Zone. And he was just being

real. And it was in a 40-minute like free-flowing conversation where he was extremely. complimentary of the Panthers in many spots and took a lot of ownership, but he noted something that reporters or that players maybe wouldn't, you know, feel comfortable to say, but that is absolutely interesting. Like if they're deemphasizing, if they're deemphasizing red zone and situational play, which is something that basically the Patriots and different teams spend multiple days on with their live reps and is the only thing that they truly practice. Like, I want to know that. And I do think that's interesting. And I wouldn't be surprised if coaches all the time, you know, tweak and figure out things when they come to the NFL from the college game of what they need to do better. So it feels like a little bit of a cheap thing to just like take these little. Well, hold on. Hold on. Wait a minute. Back the bus up just a few feet, please. Because number one, no matter what, like if we just cut the conversation there, it's Teddy Bridgewater's great. He's interesting. He's intellectually stimulating. Those are all nice things. But like, why if you're the quarterback,

of the team. And if all these other players, if you're saying all these other players, understandably would be like, why are we not practicing this? Did Teddy Bridgewater take it to the live racks? Hold on. Did Teddy Bridgewater take it to the coaching staff? Or did he did he stay silent when he would love to, you know, it's a first time NFL coordinator? What if he did? You wouldn't know. Are they going to listen to him? What's to say they wouldn't listen to him? I mean, like when we talk with Matt Rule, he had nothing but ultra respect for Teddy Bridgewater, you know and there was clear admiration it's not just some foot soldier you're not going to listen to on any level like why not raise that complaint um when you come out a week two or three realizing the red zone offense is half broken

my my point is like we're all adults here like can't we be big boys and like speak honestly about things he wasn't being personal he was talking about something and everyone in a sports media who's not there gets their right why not be an adult with the coaching staff what do you because somebody says something on a podcast doesn't mean that it's truth. It's his side of the story. And you're just taking what he says and just running with it and saying everyone else is a child for having anything critical to say about your boy. That's not it at all. I'm saying perspective.

Like, I don't think he thought it was like the biggest deal in the world. I don't think Matt Ruhle did either. They're like grown men who are just talking about their profession in ways that we do too. I'm sure Matt Ruhl was it rolled right off his back. Like, do we go to our producers with every complaint that we have when we're talking amongst ourselves or whatever. and take full responsibility. I do think the context of how he said it

with the preface and everything else really does make a difference because he was just being real and like having a conversation. And what he made a mistake doing was assuming that like it wouldn't become a story and that he was just having a conversation and that you should always kind of pussyfoot around

and not really speak honestly in the media settings. The way you're wording at, I see what you're doing. But it's like you brought up our show and our producers. We do have issues sometimes with our producers. Right. And if they're actual issues, it's never something we say into a microphone we talk about it privately like i don't i don't know it's it just well i would go on another podcast flaming our producers and then gregg's like well we're all

just being adults and out in the open it's like actually that would be a terrible thing to do to the people that you work with but the point is i'm i'm saying it wasn't flaming if i honestly believe if matt rule like listened to it and maybe he did he wouldn't like they're gonna be like annoyed by this but like of all the things i'm sure they did have many conversations that were much more like he it's like like if you're a grown like you're putting your the way you look at things onto mat rule right so we're not grown adults but you are no i'm not saying that i'm saying like i don't think it's like i don't think it's something that mat rule is up at night worrying that we're slamming him i think the sports media probably was a lot more upset about it than what letter

we're we're on we're on letter d Greg all right donuts um donuts uh are one of the many food stuff the eagles would trade zach ertz for right now I think you're right. Mark, you lost a sandwich prop, so not a donut, but a sandwich. You led our sandwich prop segment with the draft on a Zach Ertz trade bomb. Still hasn't happened. I guess nobody wants him, Greg. Yeah, I mean, he had a tough season.

I think they're hoping that something happens. He is holding out, or quote, it's not holding out. I shouldn't use that term. It's all voluntary. He is not going to the voluntary workouts with the Eagles. which is not a surprise. But about 80, 90% of most of the teams that started them did show up. So the whole like voluntarily opting out of the offseason thing is not working for the NFLPA.

But Ertz is an exception. I think they're hoping something happens in camp where someone like gives up a fifth round trade swap. But between his his production and his salary, I can't see there being much interest. You know, maybe Jacksonville like, you know, pre Tim Tebow, they were burning for. Indy for nothing. Like Indy has plenty of cab space. I would think maybe he'll end up there. I kind of doubt it.

Well, and someone like Reich knows Ertz and you knew him at a better time. And I think Ertz was banged up last year in ways that we just, you know, oh, he's got this injury. He just did not look healthy to me in a bad offense. All right. The letter E, Mark. All right. The letter E is for Erica, aka Ricky Hollywood, who will file our E entry by proxy if she hasn't drifted off to sleep. Oh, there she is.

E is for Etienne, the Jaguar's second pick in the NFL draft. He did all his work at wide receiver in his first mini-camp this week. And did you know that he was used heavily as a receiver at Clemson with who? Which quarterback? Trevor Lawrence, the now QB for the Jags, letter E. And also, E for England, which is in the UK. And I need to apologize to many of the Irish listeners who are very, very upset that I included it when I said the UK. I misspoke. I said when we were over there because it's so easy and quick. It's the same thing of going from New England, you know, into New York. While we're right over there, I want to go to

Ireland as well. So I apologize. I know that Ireland is not part of the UK. A lot of history there. We can shove anything we want into these entries. The history is flexible. History is indeed rich, Ricky. But thank you for coming clean on that. And also, yes, I don't know, do you guys, do you guys put anything into Etienne, the team of ATN, playing wide receiver at all? Or is this just Urban Meyer and people getting excited about a new era of Jaguars football? I thought Meyer was basically saying, let's use this extra time that we have with these rookies to get him, you know, practice at a position that he typically wouldn't always be at. I mean, look, they, or he's, Urban Meyer is already on the radar of so many fantasy people because the first comment was,

we've drafted this guy in the high up in the first round and we're going to be a committee backfield with a bunch of gibronies and Travis ETN and then now he's playing wide receiver I think you've got these people trying to draft for dynasty scenarios

with their hair on fire and probably avoiding them all together but you know if he can play he's going to play a little bit of everything and like I like a running back they can use versatility I mean I don't have a I'm not sitting up at night worrying about it

are you Greg? It's also like what are they what running are they practicing at rookie minicams But what anything are you practicing? The people that actually go to these things that I trust and read about, almost all uniformly said they learn their lessons over 10 years, that there is virtually nothing you can take from these mini camps.

Like Jamarcus Larkis will look like the best player ever. Other guys have looked terrible. And other than like injuries and just little positional things like this, I don't think there's anything you can take that has too much meaning. You bring up Jamarcus Russell. and, you know, we're coming off a year where Isaiah Wilson, first-round pick of the Titans, out of football now, one of the great bus ever.

But to me, Russell's still the biggest one ever, and still the best story is when they gave him a CD and said, this is the playbook. And then he came back to the campus or to camp, and they asked him about the playbook. And he said, oh, yeah, yeah, it looks good, I'm ready. And they had nothing on the CD. Because they were just testing him,

because I guess they had some concerns about whether he was doing his homework. His diligence. That does come up on our podcast once a year. I like that one. It reminds me something similar just made me think that there was a story this weekend how Jed York, even the owner of the 49ers, thought that John Lynch, if he had to guess, he thought they were taking Mac Jones. And it got me thinking, I think they pulled like a Jamarcus Russell thing on Jed York.

It's like, there's a little bit of a reason here. Like, there was no leaks and no one knew what was going on. Like, they kept that close. That was my reading between the lines of like, let's make sure this not gets out. Let's doesn't get out. Let's not tell ownership. The letter F is for fried squirrel. Raven's rookie guard, Ben Cleveland at the Combine, a reporter asked him, he looked a little tremor than the last time he was seen in public.

and he called it part of his squirrel diet. And, of course, people go crazy about that because, you know, first of all, eating squirrel. That's pretty hardcore. He's an avid hunter. He hunts all type of game and eats all different things. But he said, he clarified his comments and said that, you know, I don't eat squirrel exclusively. But if I'm hungry and I have to dig around in the deep freeze, if I find a squirrel in there, I'll, you know, defrost it and chow down on it. I have a couple thoughts, but first, if you've ever been curious, because I certainly was.

And you know, I have a relationship with squirrels now after what happened to the pandemic at my previous residence. What does squirrel taste like? Here's what Cleveland had to say. I mean, it tastes like squirrel. I mean, I don't know how to explain it to you. I would imagine a nutty flavor? No, not really. What?

Now, some squirrels like down south, they'll take, like in South Georgia, they'll taste a little bit more nutty. But I mean, up here they are like acres and stuff like that. They're not really as strong as the ones down south. So, you know, most of them up here, they, I mean, it tastes like squirrel. I mean, you put enough seasoning on it. You can make it taste like whatever you want it to taste like. I should say that was from the Baltimore Ravens, The Lounge Podcast. You know, I guess, I don't know, man.

I don't think any of us, I actually know none of us are hunters, but I know there's a whole cross-section of our country that is. But it just reminds me when you hear a guy like that, you see a guy like that and you see what he's talking about. An NFL locker room is an interesting place. It's got a whole lot of things going on in it. Yeah, I mean, there are actually different levels of men that you would probably find on like an NFL podcast for the most part.

And I would just say, you know, your city squirrels, Dan, are probably safe. I don't think those are the squirrels that you hunt and eat. They probably would taste like, you know, zinc and like car pieces. But like if you're in the deep woods, I would imagine you, and I don't even, I wouldn't even choose to eat it, but you could cook up a squirrel with some spices and some side foods and make it taste survivable. He's a survivalist.

Do you guys ever eat anything? Offensive line definitely gets a different type of guy than, let's say, like the edge rushers. You know, it's a different, it's, It's often a very different group. I do, like it is, I do think about when it comes to eating animals, like the more, because everyone sounds, you know, sounds grossed out by eating a squirrel. And, you know, that's probably my first reaction, too. But it's like, once you get past the, like, the moral part of eating any animal,

it's almost saying, like, one animal is better than the other as, as like a being. If you would, like, eat one, but not the other, which I always seemed like a moral quandary, I think people step into. Well, you've certainly opened up. conversation piece it's like once I'm going to eat one animal it's like I guess what's the weirdest thing you ever ate

eating any meat wise well the most regular thing I've been ordering this yak chili from Tara's Himalayan cuisine about once every three weeks during the pandemic it is delicious and that's pretty that's pretty weird gamey a little bit

yeah it's tasty really that's a gamey why would gamey and tasty don't sound like That's usually what people say when you hear that. It's kind of like, have you ever had a buffalo meat or whatever? It's kind of like that. Yeah. I had some alligator down in Nalans.

That was pretty hardcore. Alligator. Chewy, yeah. Yeah, not something I would do again. How about you, Mark? And then your past, maybe. No, I don't know. I couldn't.

I'm not going to, like, dazzle you on this front. I mean, I still find it odd that, like, people put on top of pieces of oats, you know, like the breast milk from a 2,000 pound cow and find that to be something that's normal. That's where I'm getting at. Everything is sort of psychotic. Everything seems a little crazy. Yeah.

Right. I do like when Mark starts talking food, it sounds like an alien talking about how humans act. All right. The letter G, Greg. Oh, yeah. You got to go with the G man. Thank you.

You know, that's a nickname. Wait, can I do it? That is a nickname created originally by Chris Berman and popularized by someone called the New Old Daddy Zusser that helps to make one of the most annually boring NFL teams sound more entertaining. What about this year? They got a little juice this year. Yeah, they see like a little more fun.

I was hopeful going into last year it didn't pan out. It's been a long stretch where the giant. have been pretty important. I would say New York needs something. I mean, the last four years in New York football is wildly terrible. Another Gettleman, who I think, you know, at least changed some of the, you know, easy jokes around him at the draft by doing what no one thought he could do. And, like, their offense is interesting.

I would be the most concerned about their offensive line. They didn't really add anyone. They had issues last year. And, you know, if you put Daniel Jones behind a line that's not protected, them. Goodbye. I think I think it'll be fun to watch you. How are you, Dan, thinking about the nickname the new old daddy Zuster? Because you might have a branding problem. You've got all these different nicknames and it's like you need one to stick above the rest. But this sort of well, you're you're contributing to trying to muddle my brand, which I don't appreciate. But

the new old blue eyes is something that's really taken off and that's kind of grabbed the imagination of people. And that's cool with me. I, you know, this is not really my call. The old Zuster, I think, is the standby. That's the one that's, you know, people know the most. And, um, you know, Big Daddy Rich is also just in the mix and that's out there. And some people like it. Some people don't. But, uh, it's really three. Three in counting. Big Daddy Rich. I didn't even know that had a big in there. I don't think so. Maybe I had it big, but it's Daddy Rich. It's Daddy Rich. In honor of Chuck Daly. That was a Chris Wessling. He threw that one out there as an option. I always liked it. It just didn't take. Um, I'm sure Chuck Daly is.

He's honored to find out that you've gone in that direction. Chuck Daly's not honored about anything anymore, unfortunately. So a little bit awkward, but we're going to keep moving. Maybe his estate. His estate. The letter H, Mark Sessler. All right, H is for Harris, Kamanaji, who was living in a dorm room in Alabama six months ago,

cooking top ramen noodle in a one-man hot pot, but now must save a Steelers attack. that was essentially stuck in carbonite for most of last season. I mean, I don't actually think he was eating out of a hot pot in a dorm room, but I do think he's extremely important to this Steelers offense. And there's definitely a controversy among Pittsburgh fans who wanted them to go offensive line, not running back because running backs apparently don't have any more value than like a bag of salt right now to draft next. But I love that they picked him up.

I think it gives them some spice. and they are going to have to be run heavy if Big Ben looks like he did down the stretch of last season. Maybe is it a little bit underplayed to that point? It's a little bit underplayed that when they ran into their struggles, and remember they started 11 and O

and then just went in the tank and got wiped out by the Browns in the playoffs. But like when that offense was sputtering, the fact that the running game was just stuck in mud all year, there was nothing explosive back there. maybe they've diagnosed this and this is going to be a huge lift. If this guy is a big time player,

he could have a huge transformational effect on the offense potentially. It's more about the line though. James Connor, you know, according to PFF's numbers, actually was pretty good in terms of yards after contact. But I think he, among all running backs in the NFL, he was like hit behind the line of scrimmage more often. And almost every offensive line metric they had was a disaster. Now, they do, there is a way you could squint and their offensive line could work out.

It's very hard to predict. I'm, I hate doing, you know, you guys always, you're like, tell me I'm a contrarian, which I didn't realize until you guys told me that or, you know, and I don't like that. Wait, no one else ever said that to you before we started this podcast? So you just surrounded yourself with yes men, essentially? No, because I don't think of it that way. I do get anxious, though, when there's too much of a consensus. And the fact that the Steelers are like almost a touchdown underdog in week one

and they're plus 800 to win the division. So put it this way. People think that the Eagles and Giants have about twice as good a chance to win their division as the Steelers do to possibly win. Like they are kind of being treated like a below 500 team. And that makes me a little, I do push back against that just because I'm just going to give Mike Tomlin and the organization the benefit of the doubt. that that's not that likely to happen.

It could happen, but it's not that likely. I'm with you on that because I would say this. Like, I had my fun with the Steelers coming out of the, out of last year, just because it ended in spectacular disastrous fashion. But there are those odds you mentioned are because the division they're in. If you put the Steelers in the NFC East, we're not having that conversation. Right, the public is so out on them. I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth because ultimately do I think the Ravens

and the Browns are better teams? Yeah, I do. But I'm just not, I'm not giving up on the Steelers mattering. I think they got a shot. Couldn't the Steelers finish one game behind Cleveland or one game ahead of Cleveland? We wouldn't be that surprised. I mean, realistically, I think that's what the real environment is. Their schedule, first four weeks at Buffalo, home Raiders, home bangles, at Green Bay.

That's a nice, we're going to get a nice little temperature check on where they are. Right, depending on who Green Bay is, right. Well, assuming Aaron Rogers is there, the letter I. Is that where we are? Yes. We got a ways to go here. Irvin, Michael.

Speaking of Aaron Rogers, I could not let this get off our radar either. Let's just listen to Irvin talking about Aaron Rogers during the schedule release show last week. And I'm amazed this was on TV. Go ahead, Ricky. And I'm going to tell you something, one of the measuring sticks that I place upon people that I meet.

When I'm engaging in any kind of conversation or business relationship, personal relationship, I measure this. If you can fall out with your mama, with your mama, your mother, your mother, the woman that had to figure out what you wanted just from the noise that emanated from your body. Ah, he's crying. Oh, you hungry, baby, there you go. Oh, you got a wet bike type of?

If you can cut off your mama, you definitely will cut off GMs on a football team. I'm just telling you right now. Hey Ricky We don't need to hear the Aaron Rogers part again Where he goes into the mama I just want to hear that setup again I just want to try to process that Before he goes into it

Play it one more time And I'm gonna tell you something One of the measuring sticks That I place upon people that I meet That's the most fascinating part of this For everything else is like Peak vintage Michael Irvin

Is an awesome crazy person But I just like the idea that he prefaced it by saying that any relationship in his life, the measuring stick he uses about that person is, I guess he does some deep research and he finds out what the relationship between this person and their mother is, and then he's able to then proceed forward or repel against any type of relationship. That's fascinating for me. How does he do this research? How does he learn about the family structure? These are all questions I have about Michael It's a different way to go about your business matters, personal matters.

A measuring stick. You didn't say the measuring stick. It's one of many, one of many factors. Yeah, that was one example of why Michael Irvin is great television, in my opinion. And another example of why, and I wouldn't, you know, throw Irvin as the only one here, that the conversation around this entire Aaron Rogers trade request. is getting problematic. You know, it's just, no one knows what's inside this guy's head.

And a lot of people are assuming a lot that they really don't know about who he is as a person. It's a tough thing to talk about because no one knows anything. Like, he's not the only one. I've noticed some other bad coverage of this where it's just like people are just like assuming they know what he's thinking. You don't know. I want to correct that by speaking. Like, could he clear that up? Not saying it's not his bad.

It's just like it's a tough spot for to talk about. I want an oral history on the pre-production meeting before that show. So Michael Irvin said, guys, this is one I want to talk about Aaron Rogers' relationship with his mom and why it says a lot about his relationship with the Packers. And nobody was like, hey, Mike, I don't know, man. I don't know. That feels really personal. We don't really know the situation there.

Do we, Mike? Maybe we don't go on TV with that one. Well, he probably dropped that like an A-bomb from the sky. I'm sure they knew that was coming. Well, if you look at Kurt Warner's face in the background. Right. It might have been. Gee, I mean, Jay, from G.

Oh, yeah. Going to go Jugs machine. This is a football throwing machine that helps athletes improve their ball skills. It is also notable for having better chemistry with O'Dell Beckham than his actual quarterback Baker Mayfield. Look at that. I'd not see that sniper fire. Oh, Gregie. So what is your, what is the thrust of your point, Greg?

It's just a glossary. I just, you look at the end of the book about football, and here's the glossary and you learn. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I, on one hand, I don't understand why they've had bad chemistry. And I don't fully, I tend to think the numbers that are better without O'Dell and with them are partially attributed to other factors and luck and just randomness.

On the other hand, they don't have great chemistry. have not maxed out Odell Beckham there. And that's really important. I think like both things can be true. It hasn't, they haven't maxed out the best Odell Beckham or the best, uh, Brown's offense with Baker and Odell. And that's important. Maybe it'll be not a non-story, but it's something to watch. I would argue that it's another topic where we're killing the Rogers topic, understandably, that the, are the Browns better without O'Dell Beckham has run its, um, cycle as well. I wouldn't go that far, but they do need to have Betty, better. I would never say they were better without him, but can't they be better together?

But they were. And the other thing is, I think when O'Dell Beckham is in there, it's O'Dell Beckham's offense from a, what's the focal point? And when he's not in there, it becomes Baker-Mayfield's offense. I mean, I could argue it's like Schell's offense. But something about, the only thing I clung to a little bit, and it's hard to put numbers onto, just that I think when your quarterback becomes the alpha, things take on a different, uh, look than when your alpha is a wide receiver. I don't know. I've heard a theory that like Baker's height is part of it.

I've heard a theory that Baker's height like that Eli, you know, served up these little slants over the middle, these short passes that Odell, kind of these short passes that O'Dell can take a long way and it's been a little tougher to generate those in the Brown's offense and does that have to do with Baker's height? I don't know. Who the heck knows? That's the thing is I have no idea why this is the case, but it's still something to watch. It's nebulous, but there's something about it that feels.

tangible. That's the closest we've ever come to an Eli Manning compliment from Greg on this podcast. He was tall enough to throw slants to Odell Beck. Go watch Eli Manning in the 2011 season down the stretch into the Super Bowl. He was performing like a top five quarterback who reminded, you know who he reminded me a little of is how Justin Herbert played last year. Obviously not the athleticism, but he was, I want to just give some Eli compliments, incredible under pressure and hitting low percentage throws that you just could not believe where he had the Cajones of a superstar. So there you go, 2011. And that 2011 playoff, the throw to Mario Manningham was a 99 percentile level throw in terms of skill level and difficulty. I wonder

if Odell, if they just had a disappointing season and maybe had another hamstring, whether he would have been a more attractive trade option for Cleveland if they decided to go in another direction. But when you're coming off reconstructive knee surgery, that doesn't help in terms of evaluating whether he's a part of the team. But we're going to get another season of them together, so we'll see what happens. All right.

Next up is, is a K with Mark Sessler? Yes, K is for Kyle Pitts, the hot Lanna fascination. I can't wait to see him, you know, burning down the sideline on a 98-yard, catch-and-run, touchdown against the bucks while he's pointing the entire time at a bemused gronk on Tampa's sideline.

And, you know, while I say this to you, a little man named Barnsie Tops is already in his studio working on a commissioned bust of pits for Canton. It's all happening. He's already been put in the Hall of Fame. Greg, I've been very hot, Greg. What was the name again?

Barney Tops. The sculptor works with bronze, metals, clays. Barney Tops. Greg, you've been very hot on various platforms about the Falcons should not be in a rush to trade Julio Jones. Let's see this offense working together. I've got more coming in the dictionary, too. But I doing the projected starters series, they're out this week.

They're starting to come out. I look at this Atlanta offense, you've got to have some things go right. I think there's a chance they're a top five offense. So what are we doing here? You know, what are we doing? I'm with you on Bronzy or Topsy what's he doing?

Barney Thomas. Put him in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. Put Julio in the Hall of Fame. And oh, by the way, Calvin Ridley is one of the top 15 receivers in the league and is going to shred single coverage that he sees. And oh, by the way, Hayden Hurst is the best backup tight end now in the league.

I like Hayden Nurse a lot. Justin Gage is a pretty good player. Like Arthur Smith, if he's as good as we think, man, this is a fun team. It's a fun team. I think you can't learn everything just by, looking at numbers, but go look at Calvin Ridley's numbers since he came into the league. That dude, balls, and he's just entering his prime.

The letter L, logos. All right, here, I have two things here. First, I'm going to just do a quick top five, best logos. This is my list. Don't get mad at me. It's my opinion. You can't take it from me. Five, the chargers, like the bolt.

Four, the Saints. Just feel, that's, I mean, that's New Orleans. What is it called, Greg, the Saints thing? Florida Lee. What is it? Florida Lee. Ford Lee. Flourne Vikings.

Flord duly. It was created before the Saints, but yes. Right, but that's what it is. Three, Vikings. Love the Viking. Love that dude. Two, the Cowboys, just classic. It's America.

And won the Raiders. But, so that's my list. Now I want to seg from logos to mascots. Kind of cheating, but whatever. On Reddit, there is a poster called L hashtag Machilero. So I want to give him credit. Let's go through it 14 animals for mascots

Five birds, three are carnivorous One omnivore, one vegetarian Nine mammals There are four cats, two horses, one sheep One aquatic mammal, one bear Twelve humans Five occupations, chief cowboy Packing Plant employee, which is awesome

Steel worker, gold miner One geographic Texan One religious, Greg Saints Two historic Patriot Viking, two pirates, of course, bucks and raiders. There are two fictional creatures, a giant and a Titan, two machines, a jet and a charger, three abstract concepts, and isn't a fitting, Mark, that the color brown, you're an abstract concept of a man, Mark.

A football team, the Washington football team, abstract concept. The identity of a person named Bill, the Buffalo Bill, smallest by weight, Cardinals, largest by weight, Titan, Greek God, or the moon of Saturn. Edible, 28, non-edible, four. Can a single adult human kill it with bare hands alone? Yes, 16, no 16. Wait, wait. Non-edible four? Only four.

Does that mean the humans are edible? Sure. Because there were more humans. I mean, a giant can eat a human, though. That happened all the time. Humans, it's human history. And there is cannibalism. That's a real thing.

Go eat a Viking for breakfast. Can it kill an adult human? Yes, 25. assuming a very high voltage charger, most expensive, a jet, least expensive a charger, AA battery charger under $10 bucks on Amazon, and it goes on and on and on. But just good knowledge. The heaviest was awarded to Titan? The largest, by the way, is a Titan.

I mean, more than a jet. Yeah, I mean, he's a giant, giant-ass-door. All right. Well, I don't know how what's where he's getting his Titan. measurables front. But I will say, I believe, I always thought that the Browns were named after Joe Lewis, the Brown bomber. I was a contest. Others say Paul Brown, so I don't know about nebulous or whatever they said vague concept, but I love the list. It is, though, because there was a lot of mystery to it. I really think it was Paul Brown naming it after himself, and then he was just always

super coy about it. And then at the end of his life, he was kind of like, yeah, maybe there was a contest, but maybe he's steered it in a certain direction, yeah. I mean, all right. All right, let's move on. That was good info. Thank you. The letter M, great. I don't think the chargers are going for, like, phone charger, but I understand that concept, too.

Like the Los Angeles phone chargers? I mean, that is contemporary. Hey, listen, bro, take it up with L. underscore Machilero. Okay. Well, we're on the topic, by the way, here. We just talked a little talk, and so M is for Maddie Ice, aka Matt Ryan, a.k.a. the vanilla assassin.

This Falcons quarterback is my favorite pick as the best sneaky long shot to win the 2021 MVP. So if you were looking at those long shot list. Well, 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions is going to do it. No, that's not going to do it. But that was where I was getting at with these weapons here. Pitts, Julio, Ridley, Hurst. I like gauge.

They actually have some high draft picks on their offensive line. They've been average. but I think Arthur Smith is their biggest addition for the offensive line. If everything goes right, they could be a top three or four offense. That's all I'm saying. So sneaky MVP-KIN. Because I know you're excited about these Falcons. Another reason why we should go over to London and see Jets v. Falcons at the Big Totty, the hot toddy.

I'm going to set the over-under at nine and a half wins. I'll go. I mean, if I was actually putting money down, I don't know if I would do this. but I'm going to predict they go 10 and 7. I just like their offense, and that's what I want to root for. I mean, don't you have to go 10 and 7, Greg, for him to win MVP? Right. That's a good call.

So I'll go over, and their defense looks like a mess. I'm not saying that. But if you can somehow find your way to a top five offense, you'll, you know, the Falcons fans know this. Sometimes it's not all about, you know, winning the Super Bowl. I really do think people are too. Oh, Greg. That's not what I meant.

Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg. By the way, you are, be very careful here. Greg, you are a Patriot fan. Are you sure you want to be making this point right now? I think being a sports fan is more than just if your team won the Super Bowl at the end of the season. I think Falcons fans would tell you when they look back at the Dion Sanders era, when they look back at the Michael Vick era, that those were like special teams that were entertaining and fun to watch. And they didn't end up getting anywhere. And it's like that still brings a lot of value.

if you're telling me I got to go pay tickets I want to go see 35 points a game and see a fun team and it's not like you're closer to a Super Bowl by trading Julio Jones maybe you'll take some mediocre second round quarterback with that pick tricky great especially you're the

283 team and there needs to be in my opinion as a sports fan look at your Knicks this year like you can have value and having some fun and watching a fun team perfect example the Knicks have not won an NBA title since 1973, I believe. And at some point, because I went through that in the 90s with the Nixon into the 2000s, a lot of great teams, a lot of fun seasons, a lot of great memories of

watching the games with my friends and families, you know, Alan Houston's roller against Miami, Larry Johnson's four point play. Patrick Ewing's put back to put them in the finals in 94. But at some point, you got to get over the hump and you got to win one. And the falcons. But what does that to do in the meantime let's be entertaining i'm just saying falcons they're obviously not going to win it this year regardless that winning a super bowl is not that important that's that was all i'm not i mean so greg you're making the point that entertaining sports teams are more enjoyable than those that don't entertain okay i'll i'll accept that i'm saying there's a lot of value in sports of teams that don't win the super bowl you're telling me the psa what are we doing here then we're all

miserable 31 out of 32 fan bases like thought that whole exercise was pointless every year no but But the PSA is coming from someone whose team has won like a billion Super Bowls. If it was coming from someone that had never experienced that and was saying, look, I'm telling you, it's still so much fun, even though we've never, we're a Jets fan, we've never won the Super Bowl in my lifetime. I'm having a ball. It's all that matters is the fact that they're, you know, they're entertaining me every Sunday vaguely.

I mean, you have to win a Super Bowl at some point. If you're going to follow a team for 45 years. There's value to. I get what you're saying. Or else, what are we doing? You've just, if the whole point is Super Bowl or nothing, you've just wasted like 30 years, you know. It's a little bit rugged of a point to make about Falcons fans, that's all, of them specifically that they, you know, just enjoy it, just sit back and enjoy it. But Falcons fans are loyal, like, they've been through it all.

And I think, I think they would, I think they would agree with this on some level because they have had these really entertaining teams that have made impact. I would throw the 283 team, unfortunately, in there, like the Dion teams and Vic teams. But, you know, they had their moment. It was fun even if they didn't win it all. Listen, you didn't get that Super Bowl victory, but you had the too legit to quit era Falcon fans. So everything is funny birds. You know, that was a fun dance.

All right. The letter O for Otani. Hit it, Ricky. Oh, my goodness. Shohei Otani. What can't he do? Show hay. Showtime all the time.

That's a 94 mile. try to sneak it inside don't try to sneak a fastball in against show hey otani well while while we as a sports culture right now obsess about Aaron Rogers's future uh even though there's nothing really to talk about and you know whether the charlotte hornets or the Celtics make it out of the play in or whatever the hell's going on with the NBA right now like there is a honest to goodness amazing sports story going on in baseball right now. And I know baseball is not the national pastime that it used to be. But people should plug in if you're actually looking for a real sports story.

Shohei Otani for the Anahe or Los Angeles Angels is a pitcher and a hitter. And a pitcher who's pitching to an ERA near 2.10. And he leads the majors and home runs after that one that he hit last night. This is an incredible story. people should pay attention to it because it's a Babe Ruth and 1927 type phenomenon going on. It's never happened. If you don't know baseball, you either hit or you pitch, you don't do both. You certainly don't do them at the highest levels of the sport.

It did get me thinking as I transitioned away from baseball to football. Like what would the equivalent be in the NFL? And the only thing I could come up with is an ace pitcher is as equivalent to me, the same or similar value to a quarterback and then a feared middle of the order slugger lefty slugger like Otani who hits the living daylights out of the ball is like a star cornerback so a star quarterback and cornerback that plays two-way football that's Otani and baseball plug in America and maybe the world thoughts it's badass I mean it'd be like Chuck Benerick is sort of famous as the last true two-way NFL player.

You know, back in the day, most of the players were two-way players, and he did it at the highest level. He's a Hall of Famer. But that was, what was that? 60 years ago. It would be wild. I do wonder, maybe we could find an athlete that would be good enough to even play offense and defense both at a high enough level.

Like, is football that specialized where it's that impossible? It doesn't seem that impossible to me. I guess it's just wear and tear on your body with the way how strong people are now. Yeah, I mean, football has just become so specialized because you do have that at the high school level. You have versions little or versions at the college level, but that's just preparing certain players for the pros. I mean, I guess if you're looking for like the most versatile type weapon, we just talked about it. I would look at someone like Dion Sanders, but it's not the same as playing quarterback and cornerback. Like, it's, they just don't allow it in the NFL.

I think that's one of the coolest things that's happened in baseball. Yeah, it is amazing. The closest thing we have in, like, the last 15 years is, like, Troy Brown taking playoff snaps at cornerback for the Patriots, and Julian Edelman took some. They didn't try to keep their long. Troy Brown did for, like, a long stretch of a season for a playoff team. But that's, you know, nothing like the Otani thing is just like another.

I wonder, you wouldn't do it, obviously, also for health conditions. concerned you never if you had a start quarterback you're not putting and playing them you know 80 snaps on the other side of the ball so we're never going to see it happen it's totally it's an apple and orange situation but it just did get me thinking uh the letter p gregg oh how about the uh the point after touchdown that's um you know the play where they snap the ball and they kick it through the up there it's a worthless play that should be abolished that's that's the definition in the glossary So lose it entirely. I did not like the idea of pushing it back

and making it harder because it's like, oh, let's make the kicker more important. Like, I don't need that. So if this is the way it is forever now where you're losing games because the place kicker can't hit a 32 yard or whatever it is, like, yeah, all right. Don't need it.

You get seven points for the touchdown. And if you want, you can go for an extra point that either adds one and makes it eight, you know, from the two yard line, what we call the two point conversion or subtracts one if you don't get it and you end up with six that's the way to do it just stop wasting our time i'm hooked on the fact that we skip the letter n you know the glossaries you know maybe we don't maybe it's maybe it's not traditional letter end but that's okay all right the letter n mark sessler well then i'm stuck going twice in a row

which is concerning but go it's just go i will go n is for nelson comma quintuinal The thick bully man who operates as the key to a cult's offense, sorry, offense determined to keep Carson Wentz from walking into sacks and flicking absurd lobs to the opposite team. Carson's man crush on Quinton will grow weakly as the 330-pound ruddy-faced manchild blows up defenders and offers to crush Greg Rosenthal like a minuscule grape when said blogger fires shots at Wentz inside his week three debrief. Ooh, the debrief getting in the mix Nelson is He is not He's one of many NFL people I would not want to be on the wrong side of

I feel like he'd be high on that list You're right You would not want to upset There's a very short list of players That are in their 20s right now In our Hall of Famers Like they have to maybe put together a few more years But you just feel like it all they have to do

Stay healthy Aaron Donald's there Patrick Mahomes is there. I think we're getting to the point of Quentin Nelson on the offensive line is there too. So keep that mind as you bury the Colts, America. I just want to fast forward of the season. Like, we're going to bury the Colts so much by mid-August.

I'll actually flip around and then be high on the Colts. Oh, of course. We will absolutely start loving them. I don't know. There's something. All right, Mark, since we're already out of order and we're on the Colts, let me do R, and then we're going to circle back to Q, all right?

Okay. Are in cheating. Reich, we trust. Let's hear from Frank Reich, Ricky. Yeah, I just cringe when I hear stuff like that. Not that a player shouldn't be accountable for poor play on the field. And, you know, Carson has to answer to that. And he has answered to it.

And until you get out there and prove otherwise, that's what you live with. But, you know, I just know that playing the position of quarterback. There's so many factors that go into it. We've talked a lot about why. the poor play last year. I'm just very confident that he has a team around him and it's just I think the culture fit.

You know what? I've been on this dancing around this but I'm officially going to be the guy in the show that I believe in Frank Reich and Reich we trust. He sees something in Carson Wentz. He's succeeded with Wentz in the past and I think Wentz is going to work in Indianapolis

and a big part of it is Frank Wright. In Reich, we trust. Well, hold on. So, I mean, there's no doubt in Frank Reich. I think he's a great coach. And I think they've got one of the better coach general manager combinations in the AFC, if not the NFL.

I mean, and you can jump on the Carson Wenz thing. That's cool. But, like, we all liked Carson Wenz for a stretch of time, too. And last year, it's not entirely on him. But I thought he lost his way. It's not just the line and just he had. I'm not arguing that. Right.

Can he rebound? sure but i mean like i also feel like i'm cool just waiting to see it i'm not i'm not gonna you know trumpet that it's going to happen because i think there are fair questions about him and i this is maybe a little to talk radioe too but there were whispers tracking cars and wince that he just did not fit in with NFL locker room types that there were some problems there and so you know it's a matter of play and a matter of maturity and like he would be he's he's a comeback player of the year candidate if he does what you say he's going to do that's all i'm saying i mean there's you're right we have we can't say anything definitively until we see it but this is what we do

for a living and i'm saying that i think that you're on the wenswagon still there uh i'm on the wenswagon given the talent is there i don't think there were theories that the injuries have sapped all of his physical ability to me that's all hogwash i think he was a guy that lost his way mentally and things snowballed and the coaching there wasn't able to get him back on track in addition to his own personal struggles, fresh start, reboot behind a really good offensive line and a coach he can trust that knows what he's doing. I just think it happens. But Dan, but Dan, like the one thing that we battled on during the season last year towards the end was that you were not very excited about blaming Doug Peterson either. So, I mean, maybe it was just a total

breakdown. Maybe it's unfair to blame one person or even two people. I'm not necessarily blaming Doug Peterson because that's a tricky situation when your quarterback goes in the tank. I think he just needs a fresh start. I think it was just very messy the way things ended there. And maybe, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe everyone's right that this is not going to work and he's going to believe it. I'm going to wait to see. It's a great landing spot. It's one of the better landing spots

you could imagine for Carson Wentz. A lot of pessimism around him, I guess. I think that's the best. But I guess my question would be what is working? I never was fully in on Wentz. I remember having this argument and being on the losing side of it when he was on his way to maybe winning the

MVP because he was not that accurate. He's just not an accurate quarterback. He relies on his athleticism and physicality and it's tough because I don't think he's quite there where he's like, you know, Lamar or Cam Newton in his prime and you can win with just that. And like to me, winning would be he has to be better, like significantly better than Philip Rivers was last year. And to me, that's a high bar. If he slots in like a little, you know, around where Rivers was or maybe a little worse. Like, okay, it wasn't like a disastrous move for the Colts, but is that like a huge win?

I don't know. I can't imagine that because I believe in Frank Reich so much that if I had to guess, I would put him like where he'd be a little worse than Philip Rivers was last year. But if that's your best case scenario, I'm sure the Colts believe that there is a much better scenario on that, and that's what I doubt. Okay.

I think he'll be on the right side of the Dalton line this season, a guy you could still build around. All right, Mark, let's go back to you, Q. Back to Q. Q is for Kish. You guys might be a little bit too young to remember the 1982 smash hit book that swept the nation. Real men don't eat Kish. It was a bit of a satire, but it kind of painted satirical essays about what masculinity really means, especially in America.

But when I think of masculinity, I think of Ron Rivera, obviously. I mean, A, former football player, big burly man, overcame cancer, is a someone that they brought to an organization that could not have been more troubled, that Greg disliked for roughly 30 years with reason to, and he has turned it around rather quickly. And when I think of masculinity, I think of their defensive line. And really, after shoring up their left tackle spot with Charles Leno, solid enough, their offensive line has become strong. And so they're a team that really is in the image of Ron Rivera where you're going to be tough up front on both sides of the ball. And, you know, it's easy to look at Washington and say they didn't get a quarterback in the draft. But Ryan Fitzpatrick might be kind of perfect for this for a year and they can get one down the road. And I look at them as the team in the NFC East, if the Cowboys aren't healed on defense as a total juggernaut in terms of their toughness.

I don't mean that they're a 12-13 win team. I just think that last year was the first step. It's not the end. It wasn't an aberration. I think they're going to grow more and more into what Ron Rivera wants. And they're not going to be the team that gets beat up on Sundays. They're going to be throwing the punches. They weren't last year either.

I think they're going to, I feel like they could be a nine and eight type team. And that might be enough to win the division. I think it's going to be a tightly packed division. And I think you can make a case for any of the teams, honestly, in the NFC East. I guess I have a bit of a. concern that that fits in this type of situation i don't know why it's nothing more than a hunch that that he could struggle but who knows maybe he'll just keep playing like he did the last couple of years i have no reason to think that he wouldn't and and they'll and they'll make

plays on offense but uh there'll be an interesting thing team to track for sure raster's great i mean ron rivera chose well not only did he get all this power and he's not the first coach to try to do this in Washington so we'll see but he inherited all those defensive linemen you know there's a lot of talent on this roster that's not like they brought in since ron Rivera got there there there were players there and they've done a really good job adding doing the projected starters thing if if fitzpatrick stays being a like a mid-level starting quarterback that's like a they have a upside i think that's even higher than you said i think they have like a 12 win type

upside. I think it's good. I like the Rivera, the way you used him as like a man's man. He is kind of the equivalent to Mike Tomlin to me. A leader. Everyone wants to play for him. And I think brings stability and maybe

really raises their floor, which we saw last year. I would say they did bring in one person in Chase Young who is like the loved child of like Beyonce and Coney and the Barbarian. I mean, he's like a tipping point guy for that defense. Good point.

Yeah. Good point. S.G. Oh, that's me again? Yeah. Oh, wait. I don't know. The whole alphabet.

Every time. Every time you're confused and so fast. I'm going to go Seahawks defense, a once historic group that has now been mediocre for almost as long as it was historic. Under the radar. I mean, they made his reputation on defense, Pete Carroll. I went back and looked at the DVOA. They have not topped 14th in four seasons.

They were below average and three out of the four. So it's like, let's see it. It's been a while now. They're always like, oh, this isn't the Legion of Boom anymore. It's like, it's been like five years since that was the case. I guess, yeah, the case here, and they didn't have a first round pick this year or next year, is they've had now a long enough time, gestation period,

to build the next quality defense since the Legion of Boom, and they just didn't do it, which makes a bit of a liability. And it puts more pressure on the offense to fire on all cylinders, which it doesn't always do. At least it didn't last season, and that cost them. Football's hard. It's almost impossible to keep a defense.

I'm not even totally blaming it. I mean, Belichick had a very similar career path where that was a historic Patriots defense for four or five years. And they've popped up here and there over the last 15, but it's like, there's a reason why it's historic. Like, usually it's not, it's everything coming together. It's not just good coaching. I think he's a good coach, but it has not come together.

And that's the reason, that's the biggest reason. I think Russell Wilson hasn't, you know, advanced further in the playoffs the last few years. I did find it interesting last week that Richard Sherman, or maybe it was two weeks ago, said that he would go back to Seattle. I mean, I get, he's looking for work, so there's that part of it. But it was this whole like, hey, these players just don't believe in Pete Carroll's culture anymore. more and well what happens to that if you go back but um the culture thing i bought into he needs a job and he would fit in well they could use that that's a shot give him a shot and also

you know didn't they go 12 and 4 last year the culture can't be too rough no the culture i think is good it just uh if they could one of these years suddenly spike up they do have some talent this year and suddenly spike up and get a top five or six defense then that's the year i think you know they they can make it to the super bowl All right, Mark, as we start to bring it in for a landing, the letter T. All right, T. T is for Trafalgar Square in the city of Westminster and central London. All I want to know is if I and we are stepping foot in Trafalgar Square in the next calendar year, it confirms our wishes to be in London.

We will be watching probably the Jets and Falcons if we have our way. I just, you know, we're going to spice a little, few pitches in here in the middle of this show. I want it to happen. I want to be having cocktails with Handsome Hank and Neil Reynolds and talking to British fanatics. And if they don't send us, I will alert the company that I'm going to go anyways. I'll take a seafaring boat and, you know, super dull week eight on my own and live in like Kate Winslet's flat with her drinking rich wines and eating meats. What's her husband? I'll change everything.

What's her husband going to say about that? Not a factor. And Mark's wife. You know, I got a call from a shadowy league figure on Saturday morning. I was in the middle of my son's little league game, for which I'm an assistant coach for the team. And he said, hashtag, I answered the phone. He said, hashtag get ATN to Culver City. Hashtag get ATN to Englewood.

because that's the only places you're going referring to our former office and our future office Wait, a very high-ranking official? I will say this. We could beep this out, but it was a yes.

Okay. To which I say hogwash, we will not be denied. Shadowly League figures will listen to us because we will continue to the fight

to get back to London. We will charm the pants off these people if necessary. they might not even have pants on because they're working remotely but we will work and do everything in our power on this side to get back to that side and by the way hashtag back to culver city you will have to kidnap me in the middle of the night in like a sack and take me off and punch me out to get me to culver city i'll never step foot in that office ever again the letter you for well rickie play it so what you're telling me is that

UFOs unidentified flying objects are real. Bill, I think we're beyond that already. The government has already stated for the record that they're real. I'm not telling you that. The United States government is telling you that. 60 Minutes is one of the most respected news programs and journalistic beacons on television and American. It's been that way for decades.

That gentleman is Luis Elizando. who spent 20 years running military intelligence operations worldwide. And then he eventually moved on to covering unidentified aerial phenomenon, UAPs, which is another kind of like the updated way of saying UFOs. And when this man, who's now a civilian, so he's out of it, but this stuff is declassified. And Mark, I'm talking to you, buddy. This stuff is declassified. when this high-ranking former military personnel figure

is on national television in prime time, on Sunday night, on CBS, on 60 minutes, telling the American public there are UFOs out there. We don't know where they're coming from, if they're from this planet or another, but there is absolutely spacecraft that we cannot explain and we don't know what to do with when we do see it. That is kind of under the radar. I think it's because, first of all, this is, this report, this interview mimics so many other reports that have been going on, a, for years and years and years. But if you want to talk about, like, government reports and pilots, military pilots coming forward with stuff, this is not new, except there has not been the tipping point, I think, where it's still seen as something other than an oddity.

Even in that interview, if you listen to the whole thing, the 60 Minutes guy does the very normal things, like, this just sounds absolutely crazy to comprehend it's like but it's not like i'm kind of surprised you're a newsman try if you're open-minded and tracking like the swell of a story this has been going on for a really long time um and it it's just that we i think live in such um a period of mental frazzle and the last year's been so crazy that it barely breaks headline stacks but it's real i i don't think it's you're not a loony bin to to to suggest that anymore because it's not coming from you know people on crack websites it's coming from military and ex-military and it has been for decades there's another navy pilot um a navy crew uh not

excuse me air force pilot uh where they saw a uh a vehicle or a unidentified object that looked like a tick tack that was moving almost at the speed of sound and had no propulsion mechanisms they're locked radar on it. It went right up to him, disappeared. These things are saying, Craig, these things are being said matter-of-factly. What's going on? Now, it could be military intelligence from other countries in the world, China, Russia, whomever, that are spying on us off the coasts of our country. But what if it's not, Greg? I want your take. It's been a strong five years. I agree with everything Mark was saying that it's sort of been underplayed in terms of like the news developments in this area.

So I'm looking forward to doing our UFO podcast when we're in our 70s. What rich material we might have by then. If it's pop this much is popping up now, you know. I seriously, I recommend look it up on YouTube, the whole segment of the 60 Minutes on UAPs is up. Check it out. V, Greg.

V. All right. Victory formation, this alignment once a game's outcome. is in doubt, which should be executed by Tom Brady, no less than 12 times before the end of the 2021. There's no excuses. I really think this team, other than injury catastrophe, there's no reason for them not to do great.

Let me play Greggles Advocate here. Is it perhaps too pat to Greggle's advocate? That's pretty good. But is it a little too pat for us to just pencil in this team coming off a Super Bowl win? A lot of teams have struggled in the aftermath of that. I'm not even going to throw in that the quarterback's turning 44 this summer because that just seems absurd to bang on that at this point. But it's true. And say they're not going to encounter any of the turbulence that so often hits defending champs.

I agree with you on the surface, but maybe we're going to like jinx this into existence some type of bizarre. nine and eight breakdown for them you're right we've watched the NFL enough to like know how possible that is that that said like the good teams lately have stayed pretty chalk like the ones at the you know at the beginning of the season that you thought were the very very best are usually there uh at the end i just other than injuries and they were pretty lucky with injuries last year so if they got hurt in the secondary of the offensive line or certainly brady things that then all bets are off, but I don't know. I just don't see it.

It's not just like they bring all the starters back, but it's like, okay, you've got, like, O.J. Howard and Gronk and Cameron Brayt to choose from. You know, you've just got depth at all these positions. There's just no logical reason. I thought they were unlucky in the regular season last year to only win 11 games. It's not like they snuck into the playoffs in my mind. They were a pretty good team.

There's just not any logical reason. There's a lot of illogical reasons. I think the idea that they'd win twice. 12 games out of a 17 game slate is not I have no problem with that at all 13 14 even but you just look at last year's chiefs that if one thing goes wrong I mean their goal is to go back to back which hasn't happened for anyone but Brady since 2003-2004 I mean it's just nearly it's a tall order but I don't think they're going to fall off a cliff especially if the saints are the team that falls off a cliff in that division all right up next w mark

W is for what? What do you charge Houston Texans fans for season tickets? 5 cents, 12 cents, 66 cents, maybe 71, 82, 93 cents, $1.4 cents. $1.29. It's getting up there. Find your price point, Easterby. It's a buyer's market. It's a tough sit.

They're such good fans, too. I mean, I know there's a lot of great fan bases. But I don't think Houston gets mentioned early in that. The second they came back as an expansion team, they filled that place up. It is a loud stadium. I was there for the playoff win. It was like deafening.

And like they have loved their football, whether they're bad or good. And yeah, this this offseason is testing them. I would be, like, it wouldn't be surprising if they struggled to sell out and all that. I mean, I've said it before on the show. The Houston Astros, what a disgrace, that franchise, what they did.

They cheated outright and shouldn't have been given the right to call themselves a World Series champion. But take that out of it. Otherwise, the teams, the sports town, you go across the spectrum, whether it's baseball, basketball, football.

It's a great sports town. And no matter what city it is, like when a team really goes this deep into the darkness, you just feel for the fans. That just made me realize that the rockets are the worst even the NBA. They didn't end up winning with that entire Darry-Harden era, which was, they got so close and were heartbreaking. And this Texans at the same time, and the shame of

the Astros. It's a tough spot right now for Houston. It's tough. Well, and I mean, just like the older fans remember the Houston Oilers. And Chris Wrestling wrote The Incredible Love You Blue. I mean, that fan base in the old house of pain, there was nothing like that in the NFL. That stadium was insane. And there is a lot of carryover to Texans fans today. And I just find it, Dan, you mentioned the fact that like the Texans fans, how can you take a stand? It's hard to because it's like your team at the same time. But it is one of the more complex anxiety-ridden encounters between ownership and fans in the NFL today. There's nothing quite as going at the moment. And the Deshaun Watson thing, which is not on the team. It's this whole separate thing. And it hangs over everything with that

organization. It hangs over the league. It's been on my mind, too, that like we're just assuming that Deshaun Watson won't play in the NFL this year. But we got to, we don't know what's going to happen with that. The letter X, thrown up the X. Des Bryant, just one former star, still without work is offseason workouts approach across the league.

Here's some other named Rands. Todd Gurley, Levyon Bell, Melvin Ingram, Malie Cooker. Maybe I missed one of these. Let me know if I did. Danny Amandola maybe not a star but Ricky loves him Gino Atkins

Alshon Jeffrey Justin Houston Earl Thomas the aforementioned Richard Sherman a lot of name brands out there and a lot of them

that I just mentioned they're going to find a home but some of them won't and I just thought that was worthy mentioning there you go X yeah Des wasn't pleased

that Tim Tebow got a contract before him Des is got to make a play in the last five years before he complains about about anything. I mean, you know, there's Tebow for that record, but what's that? You know that Des Bryant was agitated? Yeah, he tweeted about it. Really? Or was quoted about it. Yeah, he was like, come on. Well, I got on a lot of people's radars for a lot of, um, a lot of reasons.

Des made me not the best example of that because it was surprising when he was getting thrown pretty, you know, key passes and important spots, um, during the Ravens late playoff run or to the playoffs and even, even got some snaps in the playoffs. That was a, a bit of a surprise. No wonder the Ravens redid their wide receiver group. The letter why, we throw it to Ricky Hollywood. The letter why? Why are we still in this show?

And it's been like an hour and a half. How do you do it, Ricky? How are you able to be the producer of this show? It must be so hard for you to do what you do. It is really, really hard. I'll throw one out here. How about Isaac Yadam? Yadom? Yadam, Yadam, Yadam comma Isaac. On Sunday morning, Station 29 of a local New York firefighting department, responded to a request from Yidam to rescue a kitten who had gotten stuck in the rear differential of his Maserati.

They took apart the Maserati and got the kitten out of the thing and the kitten was fine. I yadam didn't look too thrilled that they took apart his car he was trying to smile okay the kitten's fine I'm not sure he was like pumped up about oh I hope they didn't put the car back together I hope they I mean I'm sure they I'm sure they went to an auto place and did it but I don't know I just like hearing Greg say yadam yadam I don't know how to pronounce it I hope that's how you pronounce I just like Greg like throwing in a you know slice of life type story to the podcast that Mark told me right before the pod that I have to cover why and so that was what I got Initially, we had it scheduled for Ricky.

Yeah, that was news to me. That's why I said, why. You had Pravdwell. Those are the proff classes paid off. Let's bring it in for a landing. Mark Sessler, the letter Z. Well, let's bring it in for a landing with the Zach Wilson, the Jets quarterback. I know he looks 16 years old.

His little pink cheeks and blonde hair looks like a little boy that starred on. That's so Raven. But he is a man. He is a man who zips the later. through in-time, lost patriots, defenders, this audium. And I think he's a man from the age of cancel culture. And that's what the Jets must do at this point. Just employ good old-fashioned cancel culture.

Ignore what's happened over the last 50 years of Jets' territories and worlds. Kill it. Data wipe it. Everything's starting out new. Memory holding. Then you go cancel the rest of the AFC East. And you got Zach Wilson dancing around with a burrito in his right hand. knocking out the Patriots, the dolphins, and the bills.

It all starts now laying that jet. What are we doing? The jets are, I love this, Mark. The jets are canceling the jets, but only the past, all the ugliness. All the culture of the past. Yes. Okay, so there, how about we cancel the phrase cancel culture? Can we just cancel that?

No one ever used it anymore? This will be the last time we apply it to our society. Like it. That would be nice. I'm very excited to, as much as I, I struggled with the Sam Darnold thing. There is no, there is no, there is no, there is no arguing that Jets have a more exciting outlook on their season with this kid in the building.

So we'll see if you can play the guitar. So we canceled cancel culture. And we canceled the Jets culture. Maybe in the bathwater. Yeah, anyone using the phrase, you know, you're on, it's on the radar. It's on the radar at this point. All right, Mark, Greg, great work. Ricky, I hope you're okay.

Anything else before we say goodbye? I'd be scared to. Ricky is so anxious to end the episode. It was a joke. Take a joke. You're so tight, Mark, in your bathing suit. Damn. It is a tight bathing suit.

Yeah, the little... Give them what they want, you know? It's surprising. I'll send a shout out and some love to the Wesleyan family who who celebrated Chris's life over the weekend in Cincinnati and I got to be there. It was like it just got me thinking like what a complex guy, Chris is, that there was so much like to learn about him, you know, still to go. And so that was, you know, what hurt being there.

It was like a day that you would have wanted to have with him because just like seeing this place that, you know, his ashes were spread, which was this really special family house that owned by his uncle, but like they spend every Christmas Eve there. And it's like tens and, you know, there's so many of them. And it's these two sides of the family. And they're all like getting along. And they're just like fascinating people. Chris was a fascinating person and complex. And he came from such, such great stock. And they, they did a great tribute to. them in that everyone had, you know, sad but also had a great time together and like spent that time together. And a lot of them I wanted to mention to you guys did mention to me like cousins

and stuff how how much they like listening to our shows when they talked about them. Some that are regular listening, some that, you know, weren't, but were like told, hey, listen to this and like how that really meant a ton to them. And they wanted me to like pass that on too, just like that like i don't know that it helped them and and they and they i think we all just want to be like closer to them still and that that's a way to do that that's great that's awesome and that's a beautiful place we're happy uh kind of represented the podcast there and we um are really looking forward we're all getting together um all chris's family and friends getting together again in a few weeks and that's going to be awesome and uh yeah it's it's just the ongoing

remembrance of a great man and uh that's awesome that's awesome yeah and nick uh shout out to nick who i know set up a lot he's he's still not thrilled that we had phil on um before him there's some family heat um but i like that that's that's what the wessling family's all about little interbrother heat we'll have to we'll have him on but he did a great job but also helps to come on second you you let um the brother one go first and you know you scout his performance and then you come in um attempting to top it, only adding to more controversy. So I have to look at least. He's ready.

He's going to come out firing. He's halfway between no, no, forget you guys. I'm never coming on and I'm going to wipe the floor with him, which is like the exact reaction, Chris, I feel like would have. He is the most like Chris of all the brothers. It's amazing. I was going to say, like, the simmering pot of anger and potential resentment, like this could turn into a spice rack appearance.

I mean, so spicy watch your back here. You might have a replacement. coming from your very same town on the west side of Cincinnati. All right, good. That's great. Love it. Love West. Miss them every day.

We missed you during this little break from Wednesday to Tuesday. But we'll be back Thursday with a very special guest, the great Mina Kimes, who is on literally every show on ESPN. So somehow she's going to carve out a little time for us here on the ATN podcast. And we look forward to that. This is Dan Hansa, signing up. Boy, the quiet store. The Melman. Ricky, Hollywood.

Everybody, pray for Ricky. Hashtag. For Ricky. Until Thursday, he's a call. Thank you. This is an IHeart podcast.