NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - ATN Mailbag + Broadcaster Talk with Andrew Marchand

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

A virtual room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal catch up on some NFL news: Elijah Moore was traded to the Browns (2:29), Foster Moreau has been diagnosed with cancer (12:52), and Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud had their Pro Days and met with some teams (15:09). Andrew Marchand joins the program to discuss NFL broadcast booths, including Troy Aikman and Monday Night Football (20:44), Al Michaels and Thursday Night Football (28:05), and the future of broadcasting deals under a new era of internet and public scrutiny (34:01). Finally, we open up the ATN Mailbag to answer your questions (42:25). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is ready for a lovely staycation. Hello and welcome to Around the NFL. My name is Dan Hansis. I got heroes from across Los Angeles, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. There it is, Gregie. I mean, I love your new remote backdrop in your new home. here in Los Angeles, the Namath book

with the greatest ever title. What is it? Life keeps getting better because I get better looking every day, something like that. That sounds better than what it really is. And then over the left shoulder and well deserved, the Locke's trophy sitting at top of a bunch of books.

I do plan to work on this at some point, this garage, but we've had other issues in the house to settle first. We got the parents visiting. Oh, yeah. I just mean the rest of this score, everything is still a mess, but I'm happy to be here and happy to just brag on that lock trophy for the next 12 months. I mean, Greg, you used to very prominently above your left shoulder have beautiful images

of your children. You've replaced it with a betting trophy that you won. Yeah. That's my priorities. I was going to say, it's a bit of a natural progression. Yeah, they're not as cute anymore. Yeah. Ooh, middle school.

I was going to say, our kids have aged out of, like, adorable little baby darlings stage. So, you know, the trophy at a certain point has to take center stage. How are you, Mark? I'm doing great. You know, we're taping a little bit early today, and then it triggers what is essentially like sort of a three-and-a-half-day weekend for us, barring any sort of news that should tumble down and cause massive disruption to my plans. Yes.

And I don't think the NFL would ever do that to us, even though there is an ongoing record of that happening, something happening immediately after we finish taping that dates our podcast ever so slightly for the past 703 weeks. Including Wednesday with your boy, Elijah Moore. Yes, and I just want to say we're about to hit the news. This is a trigger warning to some listeners that we're going to start the news by talking about an NFL topic

that involves the Jets. And if this bothers you at all, I suggest one of two things. Touch grass or kiss my ass. Let's hit the news. Jets at their own 38. Crowder in motion to stack behind Moore left. Back to throw his flack up.

throws one up the seam. It's caught. Elijah Moore in the open. Left sideline to the 40 to the 30 to the 20. 10, 5. Pylon. Touchdown. Elijah Moore.

streaks down the left side of the field. Joe Flacco found him in stride. And the Jets are a point after away from a time. Yes, Elijah Moore. And it was just yesterday when we were talking about the power rankings, and I was saying, I hope Elijah Moore gets another chance with the Jets playing with a real quarterback because I think there is obviously something there.

He flashed on a very high level. over, you know, about a, it was only about a five or six week stretch, but his draft stock combined with that stretch before he got hurt as a rookie. He was like, okay, this guy could be a star. Things went sideways this past season for Moore who was benched. He had an outburst with then offensive coordinator, Mike LaFleur, the Jets, and made a trade request that I think really did ruffle feathers at Flore and Park. So what happens?

The Jets, right after we learned that, Cole Hardman is heading to New York on a free agent deal. They send Elijah Moore, their former second overall pick and a third round pick in 2003 to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a 2023 second round pick. Mark, I'll start with you on this one. For the Jets, it adds another draft pick as they're trying to get this Aaron Rogers deal done. I wonder not to jinx us as we're taping early if this is the first, you know, step towards maybe a resolution there, but, you know, who knows? But the Browns get a player with a lot of upside that definitely disappointed in two years with the Jets, but maybe not all of his fault, probably not all of his fault. Yeah, I think

it's hard to evaluate Jets' receivers and tight ends in general with the chaos that they've faced a quarterback. I mean, from a Brown's angle, the one thing I think about Andrew Barry, I don't, I think he doesn't want to ever be outdone in a bid for a wide receiver. You look at what they gave away for Amari Cooper, which was, I think, a fifth rounder. And in this, you're flipping a second for a third. It was good value on a player that doesn't cost much money over the next couple of seasons. And they can try to find out what they have with Deshaun Watson at the helm versus Zach Wilson or Joe Flacco.

I like it for Cleveland because wide receiver was an absolute need. And I think where they are in the draft, like, you know, you don't know what's going to come your way. And so you pair him with Amari Cooper with Donovan Peoples-Jones. They liked David Bell a year ago, but he didn't really emerge as a rookie due to some injuries early and just sort of not getting his spot. So it helps a position of need for Cleveland. And I'm with you, Dan, because we text a little bit about it after that I just have to think that it's a wide receiver heavy room in New York right now.

You added me a call. There's interest in O'Dell Beckham. And that second round pick, I think, might have been the final piece, potentially, that Green Bay was saying, we need that. If you can't get that, this thing's on hold. And so if this made all that happen, then there's a greater context and reason for it. And a Jets fan can't be too unhappy about what it might lead to. I think Jets fans, including myself, are kind of unhappy about the deal where it stands right now. Yeah, but what if it leads to Rogers? What if it's the only way you get Rogers? Well, the whole thing is like Jets fans and so many other people are like, we're already

operating under the idea that we have Rogers. Now it's a matter of Joe D, the GM, finding a way to get it done. And I think the disappointment here is more in the, hey, if he fell out of favor internally and Greg, I'll tee you up on this, so be it. If you no longer thought maybe he was a good fit for the locker room or you have a new play caller in there now and they wanted to bring in Mikol Harman that brings something different to the room and you're going to add something else, that's cool. But what happens with Elijah Morris, it feels like, God, is he going to turn it to Chris Carter going from the Eagles to the Vikings? Probably not. But can he become a pro bowl player that's ripping the league up next year with Deshaun Watson, that is within the range of

outcomes. Wow. If that happens, it's a total disaster. I'm just thinking, like, can he be a younger Cole Beasley or something? 3.3 million over the next two years. We look at all these deals in the context of their contracts and like, oh, you have to give a pick away if you have a bad contract. What an asset, this contract is two years, 3.3 million. And I love this deal for the Browns. And And you're right. I think the Jets level of disappointment kind of depends on what happens with more and what happens with this Rogers trade. But for the Browns, it's amazing. I mean, they gave up nothing to get Amari Cooper, who's a borderline one, two. And they gave up basically nothing for Elijah Moore, who to me can be a great three, maybe a two. And Jets fans, they'll say, well,

to be amazing, though, Greg, for it to be amazing, not to interrupt, he does have to become like a more of a high level receiver, which I think he could be. If he's Cole Beasley, I mean, you did give up a second round pick. But you didn't. You gave up a pick swap. You got a very valuable pick back. All you did was trade down. And I think Andrew Barry is operating under the correct assumption that there's a very good

chance. Maybe that's the wrong way to say it. There's a much higher chance than people seem to like accept on the outside that the 74th player in the draft is better than the 42nd player in the draft. That 74th pick is very valuable. Like we saw the Cowboys. wouldn't give up anything close to that for Brandon Cooks or Stefan Gilmore. If you go look at the last two drafts, like, who's 72, who's 84, for instance?

And, like, I went and looked last year, and it was, I think it was Andrew Booth was for Minnesota and Desmond Ritter for the Falcons was 74. And then back in 2021, 42 is Liam Eichenberg. And 74 is Benjamin St. Juist for Washington, who's been a much better player than Eichenberg. And it's just like these picks are kind of crapshoots and you're still getting a pretty good one on day one. And more importantly, you're getting a guy who I think has a lot of upside. And that's why I got into such an argument on techs with our friend Andrew Siciliano, one of the most prominent brown fans in the building. And my thing is I just really like Elijah more.

I think he can be a really good receiver. What was Andrew saying? He was saying, look, that's a premium pick at 42. and like he's excited about that pick and he wasn't even that excited about getting Elijah Moore and thinking like, oh, this guy might not be that excited. And I just, I would give up a third round pick straight up for Elijah Moore, much less just that pick swap.

Well, Dan, I'd ask you a question, like, when you're the Jets and you ship out Elijah Moore to get the second, but then you offer the third, which to Greg's point, like, who, that's sort of, you know, we'll see how either one of those picks land up, but it's not that stark of a difference. Like, it just tells me the Jets had to obtain the second rounder for something because I don't know why you do it. I don't know why you move him in this deal for what you got back. There is not, it doesn't scream value. And so it screams to me part A of a A, B, step plan here. Agreed. I'm not, yeah, I'm, my feeling is that we're going to see, we're going to need to see

the dust clear on this one. But, and you know, I really do think people that don't follow the team as closely, there is context in terms of like where he started. When he came in, he seemed like a total steal. And last year was not great. I mean, he literally, I think he told LaFleur, he said, you know, go after yourself in the middle of practice and then walked off. And then he demanded a trade when they were in the midst of that run where they're on a winning streak. And I really think it's one of those things where he probably soured inside that organization in terms of how they view him. I think it's a mistake.

I think they should have held on to him. But sometimes, like, we don't know what's internally, what their conversations are about what they think about the player beyond just his ability level. I think there's some of that. I think there's some Beckham in here, which I'm also, you know, lukewarm on at best. But also, I'm like, like other Jets fans,

it's, Jesus take the wheel time right now. Just like, let's see where everything lands. And maybe it ends in an exciting, fun place. But this is not, this is a very, this is a very, this is a white knuckle off season for if you're a fan of that team. And, you know, we should just quickly, like, you know, Deshaun Watson is, it's a huge story now as he enters his first full season after all the issues, issues of his own creating, of course, his own creation.

He does now, he has Cooper, he has more, he has Nick Chubb. He is going to have an opportunity here to move the ball and score points. So I think it's a good trade for the Browns, but there is still that huge. mystery around Cleveland about what Deshawn Watson shows up in August. Who knows? Maybe Elijah Moore is complaining in October because Watson can't move the football at the end of last year. He won't be the only one complaining if Watson's not delivering in October. Right. Donovan People's Jones is a nice little receiver for them too. He's into a rotation guy in in Joke who's a good tight end. They have a okay group around Watson now. And part of this

is just I could be wrong about Elijah Moore. He's a type of receiver I tend to like guys who can get open who can really run routes. And I don't know if the Jets and Browns consider this, but we have a subscription to PFF Ultimate. And I'm really basing most of my excitement on about 40 minutes, I would say, of homework. I really grinded the tape last off season of watching Elijah Moore's routes for about 40, you know, 40 minutes. It was a lot.

And I was so impressed by that 40 minutes. I'm convinced he's going to be a great receiver. So they should maybe check out PFF ultimate. One, that's a good plug. One slight pushback. to that. With all of the quarterback dysfunction with the Jets, a guy like Garrett Wilson was still a monster. And Elijah Moore went five games where he had one catch as a regular part of the offense. He really disappeared last year. That's fair. That's fair. He really disappeared. But

again, great trade for Cleveland. The Jets, let's see. It's a wait and see. In other news, sad news. Foster Moreau, the tight end, free agent tight end, formerly of the Raiders, and he had been taking visits and had visited with the Saints. And during a physical, he learned that he has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He will be stepping away from football to fight that battle. And obviously, anything connected to the world of cancer is very sad and scary. and our podcast knows that all too well. All we could say is he's going to get the best treatment available,

and we hope for the best. And yeah, for a speedy recovery from Foster Morrow. Yeah, the timing is brutal, but maybe it was good timing that he found out on this free agency tour. It's also something, though, as like a mid-round pick, like he was about to get a chance maybe to start for the first time, very well respected with the Raiders. But yeah, it's going to happen, I guess, for the rest of our life.

Every cancer news hits harder because of weather. So hope in the best for him and hope he can recover quick. I mean, he visited a couple teams. And so it tells you that, you know, the tests they put you through, medical-wise, are going to be different. But it's almost like, yeah, he may not play for the Saints, but how fortunate that he had that visit that it was found, hopefully early. He already put out a message saying,

I'm going to kick this thing's ass and get back to doing what I love, which is we know that's possible too. So I don't know, it just changes everything you think about it. I mean, it was just sort of a reserve tight end in my mind before, and now it's completely different. And, you know, just to tag this sad story with something optimistic and hopeful, you know, John Menci, the third, a draft pick of the Texans last year shortly after he's drafted, he was diagnosed with leukemia over the summer, missed all of his rookie campaign. And Nick Casario, the Texans GM, said earlier this year that he's had an amazing recovery

and they believe he could be back for the offseason program. So let's hope it's a similar path for Foster Moreau. Might play with his old teammate, Bryce Young. If he ends up there second, they could reunite John Matchy and Bryce Young. There you go. Speaking of Bryce Young, we're having teams meeting with the top quarterbacks in the draft. The draft is coming up, boys. The draft is about five weeks away now.

The Carolina Panthers met with both CJ Stroud and Bryce Young, a huge contingent at his pro day, 12 Panthers officials, including the owner, front office, members of the staff. They also, as I said, met and spoke with Bryce Young, whose pro day, I believe, is today. The Raiders also met with Bryce Young, and yeah, that's interesting, Mark. Of course, we have the Raiders who just signed Jimmy Garapolo,

and we know where they are in the draft board relative to these QB-starved QBs teams. I wonder where the... but Raiders are going to come down draft day at that position. Yeah, I mean, I've always viewed. I think we all did. Jimmy Gropolo is a, you know, a stopgap, a bridge to something else. I think that if you're Josh McDaniels, you want to almost give yourself some runway to say,

I've drafted this rookie quarterback, and it's me. It's why you hired me to groom them, to grow them, and it's not that Jimmy G's a finish line. I do, I always look at that where the Cardinals are sitting up there, high in the draft, they've got Kyler Murray, they're a rebuilding team. That is a target for someone like. the Raiders or someone else to say, we're going to hop-scotch the rest of these guys, get up there and get someone we like very early on.

I am really buying the whole C.J. Stroud to Carolina thing, and I know they're meeting with the other quarterbacks, too. But it was starting at his pro day, and it's starting with, like, the owner going there. And our old friend Josh Norris from Underdog Fantasy, we've had on the show a few times. It is part of it to me,

because he had Josh McCown working for Underdog during the season before he got this job, and he did a 40-minute segment on C.J. Stroud Where he just gushes. He compares him to Joe Burrow, thinks he's really similar to Joe Burrow. There's this clip going around of him at the ProDai, which another old friend of ours, Andrew Hawkins pointed out, and he's friends with Josh McCown, just like, Josh needs to work on his poker face because in his, like, saying goodbye to C.J. Stroud, he, like, hugs him and touches him about 14 different times, just like he loves this dude.

he's talked about this dude and weirdly i don't know why stroud's like upside's gotten maybe a little undersold compared to bryce young but the little what i've watched it's like it's pretty exciting and sure a lot of people like bryce young better but i see j stod profiles as a guy who would go in the top two or three in most every draft and it just seems like they are in love with this dude and at this point i'd be surprised if he's not the guy and of course we've been covering free agency and the fallout of that for the past week or so but we will start pivoting back to dig it in on the draft next week. In fact, we have Daniel Jeremiah.

Jeremiah? Germia. Germia. Germia. Soft J. Haramaya? Yeah, I'm looking forward to learning more about him next week, who he is, what he does. That's what's happening in the news. All right, let's take a break and then get Andrew Marchand of the New York Post on this,

their show. Welcome back. Our next guest is a favorite. I mean, he's a dominant presence in sports media coverage right now. There's no way around it. He also is the co-host of the Marchand and O'Rand, Sports Media podcast. It's Andrew Marchand. very nice introduction i appreciate it hey um i want to tell you something andrew and i i was listening

to your show about a week or so ago and and it's a very good podcast by the way everybody should check it out and i think it's getting a little juice because uh your partner john says something like oh you you made a comment like you know people are starting to give me some issues for things i say on this show and they you know i don't know if you're getting aggregated or it's just people in the media reaching out to you privately. And then John says, and this is a great spot for Marchand, by the way. John goes, yeah, people are coming up to me

and being like, why do you let him say that? And then John's like, I can't control him, which is just like it paints Marchand in such a great spot. It's like Howard Stern and 91 or something. It's like, listen, man, he's in his own stratosphere and he's untethered, but he's also magnetic. And I just want to say, that's a good sign for you

and the whole team. Thank you. That's very nice. That's very nice of you. Yeah, I mean, when we started the podcast, we kind of knew I was and get myself in trouble, which I don't mind because I only say things that I know to be true and try to be fair. So, but, uh, but yeah, it feels like it's getting weekly that we have a little issue of some sort, but it's fine. What is that? Yeah, as the bad boy of NFL media, I can say it's a lot of responsibility to put on your shoulder, but I'm not trying to be fair all the time and not even accurate all the time. So you're on a different. That makes it easier. That's self-proclaimed by Greg, by the way. That's not a unanimous decision that he owns that title. Although you probably could have guessed.

Let's start here, because we have a few things. We ran into you at Radio Row there. Minutes before you did your sit-down with Brian Rowlap, you know, a big deal dude with our company. And we said we wanted to have you on again to talk about a few things. And one thing that you reported recently that we found interesting, thing was the Troy Aikman Monday night football situation, if you will. They just finished their first year, Aikman and Buck in the booth. Obviously, after years of tinkering, trying to find something that worked. There was a Bougar Mobile involved at one point. And obviously, there

were big gains having two of the best in the business in the booth. And yet, Andrew, in your reporting, you point out that it wasn't quite a smooth ride behind the scenes. And, and the Those, some changes are coming ahead of year two of Aikman and Buck on ESPN. Yeah, number one, I think it's, it's, you know, fair and the right thing to do to point out. The broadcast was good last year. I mean, I think everyone agreed. I don't really think I read anybody, you know, you can have opinions on if you like, Aikman or Chris Collins or Arthur, whomever.

But I don't think I really heard anybody say, you know, Monday in football wasn't really improved and it felt bigger with Buck and Akeman. behind the scenes listen Troy can be tough you know we remember him as a cowboy yelling at his offense alignment uh his last you know years at Fox there are some issues behind the scenes he's been very public going after Fox's CEO Eric Shanks after he left even though you know he got a 18 million dollar a year contract from ESPN uh and you know they were they were paying him 13 million so Troy can be difficult um know the way they do the games is different they've been doing it together for two decades

and you know they come in on the private jet which is what all the basically the number one teams do for the most part burkhart and olson maybe not but the others who have been doing it for a long time uh do uh and so something they come in day of game so that creates a dynamic of these are the stars and the production people are the help uh and so again i'm not saying that's a good thing or bad thing but when there's a change there's going to be blamed because you're Because what happens now, they've made the move with Phil Dean and Jimmy Platt. Phil Dean was the producer. And that's where longtime producer, three decades, been at the Monday Night Football,

three decades, I should say at ESPN, well respected, been the number one producer for college football. And then moved over to Monday Night Football for the last four years. And so you come in, the dynamic is those two are making $33 million, bucking. Akeman. They're flying in. And so that creates a problem. So then they make it. So they knew Akeman didn't like Dean's a little laid back, which you would think he would like, but he's a little laid back. Him and Aikman didn't think that was great. ESPN makes the move. And the impact it has, it affects everyone down the crew because now Steve Ackles, Derek Mobley, who's going to be the new director, Ackles, a new producer. They're going to bring in their own people.

I mean, when you mentioned that Akeman is difficult, and I get that, you know, probably from the age of 15 on, he's been told, you're the center of our town, you're the center of UCLA, you're the center of X, Y, and Z. Do you think that there's, you know, is there self-awareness? Because you pointed out a great example that in week one in that Broncos, Seahawks game, that he publicly lashed the telestrator operator for a mistake. And it's like, that's not where we're used to back in the day in Fox. And like, so that kind of stuff obviously rungs entire crews wrong way. Is Aikman self-aware at this point after a report like this? comes out and these changes, like, does he change his MO or does Akeman just stay Akeman no matter

what and continue to be, in your words, difficult. I think when these things become public, there's a chance for someone to change a little bit and kind of understand that, you know, here, and there's a chance for you to change. Now, like, do I know if Troy Aikman's going to change? I don't know. I don't know if he knows he's going to change for certain. But look, this is what you get into. Like, you guys are big stars.

You know, I've talked to David Singer. I know you treat, you know, he's your producer, you don't treat them well. You know, you guys are, we're the stars and singer, you know, just you do the legwork. We're going to take all the money and credit and you do all the hard work. We'll know where big stars when Marshaun starts, you know, covering our next contract negotiations. And just we treat singer well. It's just in our audio producer we treat poorly. Just I don't think that on record, yeah.

But honestly, in all seriousness, we look at money on football. Yes, on a personal level, does it matter how you treat people? Of course. But you go to the top of what we said. the broadcast was better so if they're showing up for some games day of game and still sounds good still looks good um is there an issue i don't know i mean so does troy changed i i tend to doubt he will i mean it's worked out pretty well for him three times super bowl champion hall of famer 18 million dollar a year contract as an analyst so uh in terms of those things

subjective i mean objective of facts uh he's doing pretty well so i say probably to answer your question i I don't know what he'll do, but I doubt he'll change that much. Yeah, it's like a classic TV, not debate, but just question. Like, who's the boss here? Is it the producer? Is the executive producer? Is it the talent? When the talent's making $18 million a year and flying on a private jet, it's like no longer a question.

100%. Doesn't those guys are the stars and they're going to do it the way they want to do it. It's like the NBA. It's like who's the boss? LeBron or LeBron's coach? Like, you just look at the salaries. Well, I always do like for bosses I've had. You know, people always want someone like their lockstep with their bosses.

And if you remember Casey Jones, the old Celtic coach was kind of known for just throwing the ball out into the court and letting Larry Bird and Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson do their thing. I think most people you actually prefer that. Like you want, if you're locked step with every little thing, but you don't really want it to someone micromanaging. You want them to, if you're going to work hard and do your job, you want them to just kind of let you do it. From your lips to God's ears, my friend. You know, I found one other thing about the Monday Night Football Telecast, which I agree. I think everyone agrees. It was a step up as a football fan because I really did enjoy the Manningcast.

And for me, it was a strange year because I previously when the main booth wasn't really my cup of tea, it was like, oh, it's great to have the Manningcast. With Aikman and Buck, I think, and this is maybe gets to a greater point when people talk about should there be this much money invested in these booths when the game. game is really the main attraction and that will decide how many people tune in it tune in. Well, I didn't really watch the Manichast this year because I enjoyed Buck and Aikman and it felt when you're listening to them and watching a game that they're covering that it's a real deal. So it was a bit of a strange thing because I missed most of the Manicast because I was I was into

the Akeman of Buck for real. Yeah, I mean, like I have two TVs in the office so I can watch both at the same time, but like you can go back and forth, which we have the sound on. But yeah, I mean, I think there is something to that. I think where, you know, the Mannycast really helps is on the games that aren't as good, right? You know, there's a blowout. And they had a lot of them. And they had a lot of bad games. You could kind of hear fucking Aikman grumble about it a little bit.

Like they were maybe missing those great Sunday afternoon games. Yeah, they weren't Al talking about selling 20-year-old Mazda's, but they were. How about your conversation with Al, Andrew, after the wild card game where he, you know, he took some fire on this show as well. just for low energy. I think we talked about how it just felt like he was putting a tough situation energy-wise with, what was it, Dungy, I believe? In the booth with him.

We've talked about, like, where does Al stand now as he's entering the twilight of his career? I think he's kind of in a Jimmy Key, 95, 94, where maybe he's thrown 88 that fastball now, but he can still hit the corners. Like, where did you get, where did you come down? on Michaels in year 7,000 of an amazing career. Yeah, look, he's a legend.

He might be the best play-by-play TV NFL guy ever, probably is. Look, if I'm Amazon, I'm paying the guy close to a million bucks a game. I don't want them to crap on the level, right? Because it did become a thing that Amazon's games stink and they're the offense. You know, there's no offense. And that's kind of tough when, again, you're the lead voice. Now, his thing would be like, I'm not going to lie to the fans. Yeah, and he'll say he didn't do it that much.

But your job's not to critique the game. It's the call of you. And to me, you can be honest with the audience. I'm not saying to be dishonest with the audience, but a couple of times, I don't know. It's a little much like to me, because I think the audience that's watching, we're choosing to watch.

We want to watch. And so, yeah, sometimes there's bad games and you can kind of point that out. But I thought it was a little bit too much, in my opinion. I want to spring off that because I wonder in reverse, because when Al Michaels had that performance, And, you know, we, the four of us have watched Al Michaels for a really long time. But if you're 25 years old or 22, you're getting the later end of Al Michael's career.

You're getting the later end, the latter stages of Bob Costas. You're getting the very latter stages of Greg Gumbull. And these guys don't seem at times, like, completely in tune. And I think the second layer to this that is different than when you and I went to Ithaca back in the mid-90s is that, well, no, because it's like that. Talk more about that. Well, we went to Broadcasting School because what we were. were watching was so different than today, and there were so many limited channels to get on the air in any way. And these guys were icons. But now on Twitter, if you're Al Michaels or you're the

producers or the production company, the corporation behind this, and people are getting filleted on Twitter by actual other analysts and fans in general, and it becomes this grounds from, or suddenly Tony Romo's no longer competent at what he's doing, he's not special. Like, how annoying is this to everyone else that 20 years ago didn't have to deal with this layer of critique. You got guys killing people for Al Michaels not knowing clock management in the final. It's just like it's so micro and like the guy can't get out of a broadcast without getting slandered left and right. That's Greg that's killing Al Michaels, by the way.

Yes, it is. Well, it's different. I always say if Vin Scully was broadcasting baseball today, Twitter would there be people crushing Vin Scully goes too long. These stories are too much. to work alone, which Vince Culley did for a large part of his career. And so I think when you, so everyone's going to get it. And if I were, I think you know, like when you get to Nance and Roma, like, CBS has an issue.

Like that's a problem. That booth is not that good right now and they have a Super Bowl coming up this year. I mean, you got to find a way to improve that. But you know, you can't just go by social media, you can't make decisions based on social media and you're right though i think it's a very good point you make about these guys at the latter end of their career i think they should go as long as they want like i don't think it's anybody's their legacy like you know willy maize as a met nobody thinks of willy maize as a met right if i said willy maize that's you don't think oh you fell in the outfield as a met you know we're all too young

they remember actually seeing that but like that's like the kind of one of the serge you know name it those a ram like those things i i don't think those matter but i will say with the younger you're saying like the people who don't have that history as much with these legendary announcers when they're not as enthusiastic and i think that was the big thing that was an incredible comeback and all and tony were doing the game as if it was like a you know sunday afternoon at one o'clock and just like oh whatever and you could feel it like you could feel the comeback i think as a fan like you didn't know they're going to do it but you could feel it happening and they were just late to it you know dunjie's low energy and and al's also you know he's not high energy he needs the you need that ying and yang and yank

with Al at this point. And he's never been a huge high energy guy. But he's an economy of words as well, which is great in large degree. But on that game, yeah, that wasn't good. But it's not great when Tony Dungey's your partner or Kirk Herbstree for that matter. Who's like fine, but I don't know if he's picking up out because the NFL is not his number one sport. And I think that comes across a little bit too. So it's putting him in a tough spot. I tend to think, look, I think people would love Vin Scully because Vin Scully's great. And I think people love Al Michaels and so recently and it's just because he's not as good anymore. And so I, it feels, it feels fair to me.

But to Mark's point, like, there's like a level of scrutiny that exists now. And especially at these prime time games, it's, and the advent of Twitter and social media, it's like, people have to have takes. And it's a part of like the, I call them the Booth Wars, right? Andrew, so it's like, what has happened in the last few years with all this money? It's put such a spotlight on these booths and the way that it's never been on before that now it feels like it's open season. and for everything these guys say, it's got to be pretty difficult.

Do you think this is kind of a, we'll remember, like, this is a pretty good idea. Andrew writes a book down the line called Booth Wars. I get a 7% cut of it. And it tells like a crazy story about here is the story of when, and the media world when Boots turned into the most valuable entity and blah, blah, blah, best sell. Wow, that's pretty good.

Is that going to, is this going to continue in perpetuity? Or do you think we'll remember this as like eventually, the networks are going to kind of pull the reins back on this and and or do you think guys you're just going to keep on getting paid like superstar quarterbacks yeah i think the nfl is different right because you got tom brady in theory coming into the booth not next year but the year after at 37 and a half million dollars which i reported uh per year so if you think about it if patrick mahomes 15 years from now um you know or joe burrow you know goes into a booth like what are they going to they're not going to they're going to need to make a lot of money so

i don't think that's changing to get these these ex players um and i think that you know joe buck is a young guy i mean he's in his 50s so he could do it for another you know 15 20 years are you look at like al you know they could go who knows how long he could go so i don't think he's getting many pay cuts of any uh so i think the money is going to be there you know cry me a river for these guys you know yes they have the scrutiny but uh you get that direct deposit every week. It's not bad. And it's a weird job because, you know, this all happened basically because ESPN was incompetent in trying to put together a booth. You know, they lost Toreko to NBC. That kind of started everything because Toreko's a good play-by-player. He's the

most important person in that, in any of these boots to make the analysts better. I mean, that's the most important person. And so they lost Toreko. And then they had trouble, McDonough and Gruden didn't work out fully. And so then they spiraled into ridiculousness and like really some of the worst decisions in TV history with the Tessitore Bougar and Witten. I mean, that's just like, it was hard to believe when it happened. And then like, yeah, okay, let's give it a chance. And it was like, oh, this isn't good. And so you look at it. So then eventually it gets to the point where Romo is a free agent. He's the hottest thing three years out. And he goes from three to four million to 18 million a year because ESPN is breathing down CBS's throat and there's NFL deals

on the horizon, which is the most important thing to these companies sport-wise and maybe even overall. So CBS wants to keep Romo. So they go into negotiations with the top guy at that point. ESPN wanted to steal them. And this is another little point. And I can go on and on about this. But before the pandemic, there was a feeling. I wrote something about this that ESPN and ABC and Disney was going to, we're going to go after CBS's Sunday package. And so the deal Romo had, he is the best luck effort, was right before the pandemic hit, really, you know, it's like known. And so he got in there right before.

And then you go forward, ESPN, in their negotiations with the NFL, they were going to, we want a couple of super rolls. They get a couple super rolls. They tell the NFL, we're going to improve the booth. So they're super bowl worthy. And, you know, last year we had just total tremendous major. him. Andrew, you, you're a media insider, of course, you're one of the top ones. Dan for a long time, you know, considered himself a self-styled media. Why are you putting it in the past tense?

Okay. AT&TN, media, inside, inside, inside, Dan, hands, hand, for the truth, go to the suits. Okay. But he sometimes faces some competition in-house. You know, I try to do some work myself. He doesn't like it. I ask around. And the biggest issue. We've just subjected Andrew to that, by the way. He's a professional. I was so looking forward to that. I liked it. I thought it was good. I'm ready for like the morning zoo. Well, there's a dolphin in there at some point just to let you know.

Yeah. And Greg, from the zooser in the morning, just sometimes if you have to go into underground garages in a trench coat and a cigarette to ask the questions, you just might have to change your path. And it's not just text messaging. It's getting your, your, your, you're, you're, you're, rolling up the sleeves and get your fingernails dirty. That's going to get you the answers you're looking for. Andrew, do you see what I'm dealing with show-to-show on this vehicle that we operate here? Yeah, look, I mean, we can talk offline, but I think like Zeus in the morning, your own thing, you might want to just take off.

And if you do, you know, let me know and we'll get a big story out there, a little breakup, you know. Let me hit you up after the show. Andrew, incredible as always. And yes, like I said, it's, it's a really good podcast if this stuff is as interesting to you as it is to us, Marchand and Orand, sports media podcasts. Get that wherever you get your podcast. And of course, New York Post for all the latest scubage on the game. Thank you, buddy. Thank you.

All right. There he goes. Andrew Marchand. And how about this? Like, get Burkehart and Olson on a damn private jet. I mean, that's where they draw the line on their carbon footprint. Fox, like, if all these other dudes are flying in style, you got to have your number one team.

However short that stay may be before Brady decides to get involved, put him on a jet or don't. Or put no one on a jet. How about this? Either put nobody on a jet. I mean, you don't have to put everybody on a jet. Right. The greatest story of all was John Madden traversing the country to and throwing a bus.

And now, you know. The greatest who ever did it. And that seemed to work for him. On a goddamn bus. And nobody was better. I mean, it was a luxury bus. There was a lot going on in there. There was a lot of fun to be had.

There's no question about that. It was a broken down greyhound that he found at a chop shop that he did just enough to get it rolling. And he crisscrossed that country for 30 years. A real man. All right. This is what we're going to do. We're going to take a break.

We're going to hit the mailbag. And then we're going to say goodbye. All right. Welcome back. Good show so far. We got some news in, got some media talk in. You know, one more thing about Romo. You know, he is getting paid gobs of money to do this. He's the criticism is mounting. He's been under the microscope for the last 25 years of his life, right? 20 years of his life, whatever, dating back to his, you know, college days or even high school,

whatever. And now he's a very rich man. And it's a guaranteed contract, more or less, I'm assuming. I wonder, like, we talk about, oh, there was this coming to Jesus meeting. And, you know, he's being asked to step it up. Like, there's no guarantee Romo is taking anything out of that. So the idea that Romo comes back and is different, that could happen. But there's also a chance. It's just like, he's like, whatever. And he's like, I don't even agree with what you're saying. I think it's just interesting, like, the level of give a fuck Tony Romo might have to any criticism, either outside or inside his own, you know, employer. It is funny to kind of think about that compared to, like, being an NFL player.

Like, God forbid, you guarantee an NFL player's contract. But you got to get that private jet for Tony Romo to show up day of, like, and not have done any homework and make more than, you know, about 96% of the NFL. I mean, I also, like, I had assumed, number one, that he is working hard and not just, totally mailing it in. That's a massive assumption. But like if someone's, well, I don't know, someone says go get three times better at calling a football game. Like, what's the roadmap for that? I mean, you were lauded as the greatest thing that's ever happened. And now suddenly, I just think it's a lot of it has to do with just public perception and like he's the next

guy we gang up on. I've been hard on him in the past. But I never liked him as much as you guys did, I think, out of the gate. But the idea that he suddenly became a disaster. I don't find that to be entirely valid either. I think when Nance and Romo reunite whenever that is later this year, I think the first thing that should say is like, usually it's kind of like a trite conversation filler, but I think he should say it in a pointed way.

Hey, Tony, working hard or hardly working? Stupid. I like that Nance has taken some heat in all this too from our buddy Marshond. I think there's something to that. Yeah, he does, he catches stray some certain figures, including Marshaun. All right, let's get to the mailbag. We put out a prompt, and I want to say, I've always been very upfront about this with this show. We ask the listeners

to get involved and tee us up, and then we have conversations. And sometimes it's not so hot. Sometimes I feel like I'm really digging through and struggling. But this is not one of those times. I think the, I think the listeners really nailed it this time. We have a nice, a nice collection of questions, so let's dig in. The Grave Digger is going to T us up. Go ahead, bud. All righty. First question comes from Ross Johnson Comedy.

Tell me more about your comedy, Ross. No, okay, go ahead. Does Baker have what it takes to take Tampa to playoffs? I personally haven't seen loads of him having only followed from 2019, but I think he could truly surprise a few. I guess that's the joke right there.

I don't think that Baker may feel as someone you could project as taking anyone anywhere right now. I mean, I think he's probably adequate with a lot of issues that we've seen as a quarterback that date back years outside of a couple really hot streaks. And I don't know if Tampa is set up to be the fertile ground. And like, you know, to me, it's like you're following Tom Brady's footsteps. This feels like a couple years of let's kind of find our quarterback who's not named Bigger's. or Mayfield down the road. I'm not even entirely convinced he is going to be the quarterback. He got basically Drew Locke's contract.

I understand there's kind of no one else there, but the money is usually instructive. He does have Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Justin Gage. Like, at first, when you had the, you know, maybe fifth to last in the power ring. Russell. Russell Gage.

Russell Gage. I always say Justin Gage. It's just never going to change. Former Titans great. I was like, is that too high for the Bucks? but then I realized, no, they still have some, like, legitimate NFL players. Yeah, my two thoughts on this are I think this is a good year to follow Tom Brady. This is the first time it's okay to follow Tom Brady because Tom Brady wasn't very good last year.

And I think everybody was kind of ready to turn the page. And I also think Baker is one of the big winners of the offseason. Like, I've never been a big fan of him as a player. And I don't think other than a couple, you know, flashes last year, really one quarter of a prime time game and then one blowout of a hideous Denver team. I didn't think he showed that much even with Los Angeles. And yet I think he is going to be a starting quarterback come September in week one. And that is a pretty big victory for a guy that an otherwise market with guys of his production level settling for backup jobs. I think he has a real chance to be a starter in week one, which I think some of that we talk about some of the Baker juice and Odell has the same thing going on.

It just elevates him. I think even within the cognizente internally, I think. gives him a little leg up on other guys, even if maybe the production isn't there. I think you're right. I'd say, again, the Bruce Ariens was very high on Baker-Mayfield and probably thinks I can do what another team didn't. And whenever you're drafted in the top, we see it with Sam Darnold, too, top one, two, three, there's always going to be a team until you truly fail that's going to think we can make

this work. But Baker especially, because he had, he's had very high-profile moments, including that playoff win over Pittsburgh, that stick with people's. psychies, I guess. I mean, starting week one's great, but you can still turn into Sam Donald and Carolina or Mitchell Trabisky in Pittsburgh if you're not in a position to play well. Right. But just the opportunity could be there as a week one starter. That's pretty good. All right. Let's move on. From J.R.K. Ray. The NFL as a whole feels more and more like it's adopted the attitude that if you don't win a Super Bowl, your season was a failure.

Where does the line begin where it's okay to have consistent success, like the Steelers or Ravens without frequent Super Bowl wins. What's better as a fan? I want to push back just a little bit on that because I don't, I don't know if I see a, I know the parody makes it feel like more teams have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year, which is the goal of the whole parody idea. But I was going to, I, what I took out of this question, guys, was like, what are the teams that you do feel heading into 23 are in Super Bowl or bust mode. And, you know, I would just look at the top of my power rankings.

Chiefs, Eagles, Bengals, Bills, Niners. I kind of stop it at that, those five teams. Like anything less than a championship would be considered failure. Is there, do you guys agree with that? Do you think there's other teams that are kind of in that boat? I would agree with that because when we did the power rankings exercise yesterday, I think it really falls off a cliff into a middle world after that. Where I think, you know, to answer the other part of his question, like, look at the Seahawks or Jaguars from a year ago.

I mean, I think if there's progress and you see as a fan like, wait a minute, these guys have a plan, there's a vision, and you have a quarterback, like whether it's Gino Smith, who becomes a big story, or Trevor Lawrence, who takes a leap, then it's like, let's hang on for the next. We want this to be a next four or five or six year window where we could make the Super Bowl, where if you're the bills, it's just bitter disappointment if you didn't get there. Yeah, I want to think that the journey is the exciting part as a fan because if it's title or bust, and there is a bit more of that I think in today's sports, just media talk that like everything but a title is a disappointment. That's a silly way to be a fan because you're just going to be disappointed 31 out of 32 years if you're like an average year. And like I think about I'm a fan of the Celtics.

I'm enjoying the journey of the regular season, the ups and the down. Like that, like, if they don't get there in the end, it's going to hurt a lot for sure. But if you're not going to have fun along the way, you just want your team to have a little fun along the way or else what are we really doing here as sports fans? But you do say you got to like it. Using the Celtics as an example, you know,

they've won one title in, you know, 30 years or whatever. But if you were asking, if Greg Rosenthal was a 43-year-old man in 1988, and they had won't, that's absolutely how you would view the prism of their season, wouldn't you? Absolutely. I just mean like you need to find more out of being a sports fan than just like wanting the title. Like that's going to like change everything that you've ever known of being a sports game because it won't. Like you'll still just be a sports fan after it.

Like you got to like the process. You got to I think as a fan, I want that consistent success. Like the Ravens are a good example. Like yes, it's been frustrating how these seasons have ended. But I would much prefer a team that is consistently good. then one that just pops up for one title and then goes dark like the Bucks for 20 years. I think also with, and this isn't a shot, Greg, but as a Patriots fan, it puts you in a different mindset with that. And I think with the, in some way, because you got to experience the Super Bowls and know what it felt like after the fact.

I think the Eagles are a good example of that and their fan base, getting close to the mountain top, waiting 50 years, winning that title. I think being the fan, and it colors my fan fandom as well. Like, I feel like fans deserve and kind of need catharsis at some point. They need like that true moment of true celebration to get to the mountaintop. And then you could really properly contextualize what it means to be a fan. When you're just waiting and waiting and waiting forever, like literally your whole life, it does kind of put you in a different, you know, mind space. I guess I'm saying, though, like, you're looking for Rogers to give you some enjoyment over the next few years as a Jets fan

or at least just give you something. Like, that's what, you know, give you something. I totally disagree with that, though, because in that specific case, not to go down this wormhole again, if they go nine and eight next year with Rogers, that is a vast disappointment compared to what it's all being done. Have some moments for sure. I wonder, I wonder you could like, I'm sorry, everybody. See like a human study on what percentage of human fans never experience a championship across all sports? Because if you think about there's a lot of crappy teams that never win a championship, it's got to be like 70 something percent, if not more, never have that mountaintop moment. So when you've had it, it's a lot easier.

And Greg, I'm not pointing just to you, but it's a lot easier to be philosophical about the journey and have a nice time when you've had that moment. If you haven't and you start to get into your 40s and 50s and 60s, it becomes a desperate chase that you have no control over. Uh, Mets Jets Knicks fans born after 1973, raise your hand. Um, all right, what else? It also depends on how many sports you root for, you know, the more sports, the more chances of your team. Most people, most people get something if they root for three or four. All right. Ben Lynn wants to know if Desmond Ritter isn't the answer for the Falcons, has Art Smith made it inevitable he will be fired by the end of the year?

This kind of gets to my point about what are the Falcons trying to do right now. And if, Greg, if Ritter isn't the guy, I just feel for Arthur Smith because I will feel like he never got a chance. He went from Matt Ryan over the hill to rightly getting rid of Matt Ryan and trying to figure out a transition year with Marietta to taking a risk on a third round pick with Heineke as the backup. If he ends up getting canned because they don't go to the playoffs in their first three years

under this leadership, which happens all the time in the NFL, I'll feel like if I'm Arthur, if I'm Arthur Smith, I got cheated. I agree with that. I think he could be the rare guy that would have a chance to keep his job after missing the playoffs three straight years. Because I think they really took a long-term view when Terry Fontno and Arthur Smith took over. Last year was the ultimate, like, we're just going to take it on the chin dead cap year. Like they had the most dead cap in the league and maybe it was the most in NFL history. I think if they had like a promising season this season in any way that they would give them another chance.

But Ritter is the key, and yet I still am not totally convinced he's going to be the guy. I don't know why. Well, we don't have enough evidence, but it was two months ago or a month ago at Super Bowl Week that Arthur Blank was spinning sea poems about Desmond Ritter. So I think from the owner on down, there seems to be some buy-in. So if you're Arthur Smith and you get fired and they show progress, totally unfurial. fair. I mean, he's got it. He's not making this decision unilaterally. What else? All right. I think this one is for. Good question so far, right? They're doing well.

Like him. Like him. This one's for Greg from after. Your daughter comes to you and says that she has started dating an NFL coach, not necessarily a head coach. She's 11. She's 11. I'm reporting them to the authorities and ending it there. Okay. Imagine this is 10 years in the future, Greg. She's 21. She's 21. She's 21 in dating. an NFL head coach. I'm going to the authorities. This is 20 years in the future. Have they aged?

She's still too young. No. No. In this scenario, your daughter's in her early 30s and the coaches are exactly as they are now. And go. Which coach are you hoping she isn't dating? All of them. Terrible.

Or isn't terrible. All of them. They'd be bad husbands. I mean, I'm not saying like their bad husbands in the context of like, like whether they're good parents or what they do. But ultimately, I'm hoping for my daughter, someone that can be there more often than an NFL hodge coach. That's a great answer from Greg and a man that loves his family.

I love it. Yeah, let's just clean up. They're not bad husbands. They are terrible work workflow scenarios. And I remember a few years back, there was an excellent NFL films documentary that kind of told the life of scouts, not even guys that necessarily the bottom of the ladder,

are guys that were just ingrained in organizations. And you've got to look at what their schedule is and how rarely they saw their families. And like that, that doesn't, the workflow doesn't get lesser. The higher you move up the chain, it's a very difficult gig. And shout out, really, to the wives and the families that are able to make it work. I'll never forget. I think I've told this once before years ago, but at a Super Bowl where Dan and I were tasked with writing, I'm not kidding, about 24 blogs a day, seven days in a row.

I tracked down the wife of Marv Levy. And Marv Levy was with her, and he was unavailable, but she was. And so I decided I'm just going to ask her what it's been like to be married to an NFL coach. And I thought I'd get a lot of, you know, it's been a successful run that go on all these Super Bowls, like he's the toast of the town. It was the opposite to Greg's point. And it was, this is someone that was not available for three or four decades in a row. And then suddenly he was, it threw our entire household out of order

because suddenly he's hanging around all the time. And the report was negative enough where it did not make NFL.com. I remember you telling me about that. I might have even seen the raw copy of the article that never saw the light of day. Yeah. Yeah. Marve Levy buried in a big spot.

Yeah, that was like the story of, the Michael Bennett story after the Malcolm Butler game where I asked him about what happened on the sideline after the Wilson pick. And he made a derogatory comment about my manhood and mentioned my wife. And it was just like, what is going on? So it was like, you know, it was crazy. Wes used to love this story. It was crazy.

Like I remember being like stunned when it happened. Like he was, he was being a jerk like, but I understood in the moment he was A next level jerk. I mean, that's next level. He was, um, so I went, I went back to the, um, I went back to the press box and I, and I was blogging, like live blogging or whatever all week and I wrote a blog post about it. And, um, you know, I, maybe, uh, maybe there was some return fire in it and, uh, and then that was very quickly stricken from the record as well and eliminated from the website.

I don't know if it ever made it up. It might have been up for a little bit. But that was a memory. The Wild West of NFL.com. What else we got? The best part of the mailbag is when you guys get into these stories about your lives. Okay, next question. From Ewan Thomas.

Is it possible to have the same team of ATN in consecutive seasons? I can't see any other team to be more deserving to be it again than the Lions. I'm in. I want it to happen. I think they've broken the boundaries of what it means to be the team of ATN. I want to stay on this ride. They lost me a little bit with the Jamal Williams non bring back scenario. It's one guy. It's one guy. I know. Like, no, we make our own rules. We also don't do it for years in a row. So I mean, there's clearly no control system. It's a feel thing. I'll just say like, you know, in the interest of trying to keep things. fresh as we enter our second decade of this show. Running back the team of AT&As the Lions, I don't know, man. I see where you're coming from, Gregie.

But that's, that is what would be keeping it fresh, doing something we've never done unprecedented. You sound like, you sound like a movie producer that's being criticized for, there are too many sequels. Why do you keep on doing superhero sequels? Like, no, the plot's different in this one. I just mean, it's like making more of a commitment than, than we ever have before.

I mean, my, I'm going to be rooting for him. Think about week. You can't control me. We think about late December, Gregi, of a lion's like, you know, 28, 24 win that keeps them in the playoff picture. And we're singing that song on a Sunday night again for like the third month in a row after doing it for four months the previous year. Imagining Mark's annoyance to it, which I can see in his face right now.

No, I mean, it's, we want to do it even more. I think we have to. Now you know your way into my heart, Greg. Now it's getting a little more interesting. We have to agree that with every team of ATL, it used to just be West's team, and that was, it was his way or the highway. But there are varying levels of buy-in. And I attempted to be, you know, cooperative. And then they kind of did win me over. Well, that's part of the reason I like the Lions. I'm annoyed now. Is that I felt like they were, they were a team we could all truly get behind. Maybe not Mark quite as much. But, you know, they were agreed upon quite easily.

Also, the stars aligned with that team on the rise and Campbell and they were on hard knocks. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. Hey, listen, the future is a mystery. That's fair. We got to wait. We got to wait until the training camp how we feel. All right. What else? A couple more.

A couple more. All right. From TK. How much does the Giants being relevant again hurt Greg Rosenthal? You know, Greg, I want to tee you up on this one. I want you to be honest, okay? Because a couple shows ago, and I took no umbrage with it. Like you pointed out when I took some shots at Jalen Rams, you're like, you know,

you know how Dan is, you know, you have certain teams he hates and he's just going to do that. And it's like, you know what? Yeah, I don't like the dollar. Don't like the Patriots. I also try to look at both sides, but I will admit it that I do not like those teams because of my fan leaning. Maybe this is an opportunity for you finally and 42 and 46 obviously is a driving reason behind it all. Just admit it. Don't hide behind. Oh, I'm a media guy. You don't like the Giants and you didn't like that they had a bounce back season in 22. That's not true. I didn't like the Eli Manning era. Oh, I wouldn't either if I was a Patriots fan. He was puffed up and they were sort of like this weird team that, you know, was probably like the 12th best team of that decade, just like in aggregate. And yet they snuck away two Super Bowls didn't feel right.

But once that was all gone and flushed away, I'm fine. I'm loyal to football. I do not believe anything you just said, by the way. I just want to be honest with you. It's true. The only teams that I, like, it depends on the year. and who's the coach and who's the vibe and what's going on, whether I kind of like a team or not.

The commanders under this ownership has been the consistent team I am open that I root against. Yeah, but that's easy. Yeah, but it's true. But what I'm looking for is the real stuff, like the reason why you're even sitting where you are right now because you love football, you were a fan, you grew up, and you did suffer those Super Bowl losses,

and it is New York, and there's a Boston, New York rivalry. you know, that all factors. And just acknowledge it. Nobody's going to think any less of you. That's all I'm saying. The Peyton Manning Colts and Broncos were like so much more hateable. Like the Giants were just these teams that popped up and the Patriots blew it. By then they had banked some Super Bowls.

I'm not admitted. All right. That's great. What else? One more. One more. Jeff Drake. From Jeff Drake.

Why do you act as O'Dell Beckham's publicists? Wait a minute. First of all, I don't... Can you bring that up again? I just want to see the spelling of O-D-Bekham here. It's O-apostrophe, capital D, E-L-L. Okay. Took the time to apostrophe that, but didn't apostrophe Beckham's plural S at the end.

Yeah, we usually don't, yeah, grammar shame around here, but that one was pretty special. I think he's referring to an Irish O'Dell Beckham that we don't even know about, potentially, but like, I think it's... Right, it's so absurd to suggest that we're as publicists. I think if anything, we've been like, if I were to tilt us in one direction, it would be almost like overly critical, like not even willing to see the player sometimes

and like look at the Odell Beckham experience through a negative lens. I certainly did as a Browns fan. I think that he annoyed Dan both of us during parts of his Giants run. I mean, we can see his talent. I'm annoyed by... Critical of Odell Beckham on this podcast.

for eight years, basically. Now, but, oh, apostrophe, Del Beckham. Yeah, maybe it's a different guy. Maybe we have been too charitable to him. I don't know. Yeah, you and West would war on O'Dell a little bit because, you know, Chris, Chris would say how, look, I've never seen a receiver coming to the league this good.

I think that's the answer. Maybe I'm the publicist because I ranked him so high in my top 101, and he's still sitting out there. Maybe I'm rating him a little too highly in terms of what he can offer now. But the reason is because the first three years in the league were as impressive, all over 1,300 yards a season, a total sensation literally led the league in yards per game as a rookie as any receiver we seen come into the league in a long, long time. And that just put him on a place where his influence, his attention is outsized.

And by the way, it's worth pointing out literally the last time we saw him on the field, he was sort of the difference in a team winning the Super Bowl. And that's part of it. You're right. Go ahead, Mark. Well, no, I would say if we are doing a Odell Beckham to the Jets emergency show five hours from now, let's see how charitable I am on that front. Yeah, this is the Jeff Darlington.

He was on one of the ESPN shows this morning. Get up. Get up. That's edgy. should very much consider O'Dell Beckham Jr. still on the table as an option for the New York Jets. In fact, we can go even further to say that both sides would still like to see this done. That sounds pretty strong. That's pretty strong reporting from Darlington. And if O'Dell Beckham does end up on the Jets, all I could say is, what a wonderful player. But let's save that for the emergency podcast. I mean, he is a great player. It would be a sexy wide receiver room if he ended up in there. But, but he's, let's save that for the emergency podcast. I mean, he is a great player. It would be a sexy wide receiver room if he ended up in there. But yes, the idea of pairing those two guys, Rogers and Beckham, it would be rather annoying potential. Well, I would, there is, this will never happen,

but I think it's been, you know, fairly thought up by some that what if they get O'Dell Beckham, they've shipped Elijah Moore out the door, but then O'Dell Beckham is your star here along with Garrett. And like suddenly there's no, Rogers retires in the 11th hour, and you've got Zach Wilson and, Odell Beckham. I am signing up to watch that unfold on public television. Wait, what was this? What did you just lay out? In a world, they get Odell Beckham, they get Alan Lazzard, they get O'Dell Beckham, and then O'Dell Beckham is like, you know,

stunned to discover that Aaron Rogers out, and his good friend apparently, out of nowhere retires and it's Zach Wilson and dealing with O'Dell Beckham all next year. That would be tasty. It's like week six. It sounds like you have some unresolved Odell Beckham issues yourself, Mark. I might. It's like week. Six and Goody is like, no, I am insisting on the first round pick. I don't know why he's talking about that because he's German. All right. Thank you to everybody that sent in questions.

That's it for today's show. Good week. We'll be back on Tuesday. Don't be alarmed when you don't see us on Monday, especially after the Marchand conversation. We'll be back on Tuesday with another episode. Until then, this is the old Zeuser signing off for. White Storm and the old boss and the grave digger, Gregi, I think we made a little progress on the Giants thing today.

I know you didn't say anything, but I think it's just a little bit of progress. I don't even know what progress means in this context. Heatha Call. This is a lot of Heart Podcasts.