NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Deflate-gate & who to trust in Super Bowl XLIX

Episode Date: January 23, 2015

A room with some heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- react to the Patriots' comments on Deflate-gate and dive into more news from around the NFL. Plus, a Super Bowl XLIX edition of "Who do you trust?".Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Mutually parts ways with the haters. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal, alongside some heroes. Mark Sessler and Chris Wessling.

What's going on? Hey, Greg. How are you? I'm doing well. I think you just cranked up my headset there, Mike. By mistake, I'm sitting in... This is odd. I'm sitting in Dan's chair,

which I don't think I've done the entire time in this new Death Star-like setup. We are definitely missing our good friend and our talented, handsome host, Dan Hansis, who is out today just... It's a day off. He's taking care of his son Jack. They're spending some quality time before we all leave our families for more than a week in Phoenix.

And he'll be joining us there where we have a couple big shows, including our post Super Bowl show, our video show. It should be fun. Dan got invited to the Super Bowl you're telling us. Dan is coming. What, you guys have not? I didn't know that was the case. So you're saying you don't want Dan to be invited? No, I'm very happy to know, but I just had never, you know, I didn't know that to you?

The dam was going? Yeah. I figured all of us were going, but I never got confirmation on that. Connor Orr also going. They should. We're going to talk to Connor Orr a little bit later in this show. He's at the Senior Bowl this week in Mobile. We're going to play a little game of who do you trust.

It's been a while since we've played that. We'll do a little Super Bowl analysis, and we'll also talk about some news. I don't know if you guys have any little chit-chat. You know, in the beginning of the show, we usually have some chit-chat, some interpersonal stuff we usually start with. We got hammered for a little bit too much chit-chat in the last show, but I thought that was delightful to get our grievances out of the way. There was some heat in the group.

We got hammered for it? Not here and there. Wait, you were mentioning someone was upset about it. Yeah, we got some, you know, handsome Hank didn't like it. Thought we took too long to get to the show. There were some listeners, but I would say there's many more listeners who seem more interested in our interpersonal grievances and insecurities than any football. Oh, come on.

The only tweets I got about that show was that it was one of our funniest ever. Well, and you're right. That's what I got. I agree. It was like 35 positive tweets, but then Henry, handsome Hank, the program director, said he didn't like it, and so it ceased. He's just miffed about our Jim Tom Sola analysis. That could be true. TD Behind the Glass, our producer, of course.

Also, Zach Goldman's going to be stepping into this show, kind of like Drew Bledso in the 2001 AFC Championship game, is going to steer this thing home. TD, what do you feel about the ratio of, like, you know, conversation between us to football in general? Well, I'm always a fan of letting people know who the man is behind a football analysis. I do think it was a little bit long last episode, though. All right, that'll be fun.

We didn't ask you for your full take on it. All right, enough of that. All right, let's do some news, TD. We can still win this game. Now, stay in it. Four minutes, 50 seconds. Let's go. Main Man, Russell.

Mr. Olson, bringing it on home, down 12 points, four minutes to go. So positive, still believe it, and he still pulled it off. Great stuff by NFL films are inside the NFL. Yeah, he's so positive. He's such a leader. He actually somehow made Brandon Bostic drop a wide open onside kick. I'm just saying, isn't that, I think you're a little scared. Isn't that good?

I am. The Seahawks are frightening with their running game and their defense. I would have rather seen the Packers as a Patriots fan. but aren't all the things going, I'm always going to think next week when I'm there and the Seahawks are talking about all the things that are great about them and all the reasons they're there, and it's all true.

They've been, you know, the best team in the league the last few years. I'm also going to be thinking, yeah, but none of that would be true if Brandon Bostic caught that onside kick. Yeah, like the Doug Baldwin saying nobody respects their wide receivers. You mean the wide receivers that couldn't separate from coverage for 60 minutes in that game and then finally made a play? Well, sometimes things like the tuck rule happen, Greg. So, you know, sometimes to get to a Super Bowl,

strange, bizarre, historical football moments must occur. That's true. And it's all about what you do once you get those breaks. And speaking of wacky things involving the Patriots, I guess we've got to talk about the biggest story in the NFL right now, which is obviously the deflated balls controversy. I refuse to use the gate at the end of anything. So I'm not going to talk about that.

But today was a big day in the story because Tom Brady and Bill Belichick both spoke about the issue. Brady says, I did not alter the ball in any way and essentially pleaded ignorance. Bill Belichick had an eight and a half minute statement that I think was probably stronger than what Tom Brady said, really went through how he has nothing to do with the ball preparation. I'll start with you, Mark Sessler, since you wrote the Belichick piece. Are you buying what the Patriots are selling? First of all, let's call it what NFL.com editor David Ely calls it, which is Balgazi. I don't like that either.

I like Balgazi. What does that mean? It just means a fiasco involving the football, I think. I don't know. I didn't even realize the Belichick news conference was happening until about four minutes after I got a cup of coffee. I'm sitting down and bang, this thing explodes. And like Belichick, who you, outside of his Friday pressers,

when he'll wax poetic about something that happened in like 1971, he unleashed like a seven-minute statement. Yeah. And I thought that he did a good job unpacking everything he could have said about his take on what happened, and it was pretty complete. I struggled with some of it. I mean, I just don't know where I stand with this thing. It's like I know that it's like it's not a big deal.

It wouldn't have changed the second of that cults game. They hammered the cults. It has nothing to do with the game itself. But I don't know. The NFL's investigating it, and we'll have to see what they do. I'm not sure I buy things when Belichick says he's never touched a game. game ball in 40 years as a head coach. I wish you were a liar.

Stuff just stands out to me, but I... You're saying you don't know where you stand, but off the mic, you seem like you were, you felt a little more strongly. What I don't like, it's not that I know where this, what's happening in this case. Who am I, I'm not investigating it. What I don't like in general is, and this has, this is not exclusive to this. This is widespread over a decade. It's just sometimes what I feel is hubris coming from Belichick and the Patriots,

that it's like, and some of their fans, that it's just laugh it off, you know, we'll roll right past this. And it's like, okay, you probably will. But sometimes it's not the easiest team to root for on that front. Well, no, they play the villain role. I mean, they always have. Even if the spy gate controversy, of course, and then now this, and there's been other things, they've always been the villain because of Belichick, essentially. But that's, I love Belichick, though. I mean, I respect Belichick. It's not a, it's different than me also saying that I think it's a huge deal. I just think the response to it at times gets out of my skin. Well, let's go to West. And I know West disagrees. He's going to, I can see it

in his face. He's burning red. He can't stand any of it. I don't care for this story at all. I mean, we're asked to care about the integrity of the game two weeks after the best catch in the postseason was rolled in non-catch because nobody knows what a catch is in the NFL. So forgive me if I don't really care about the integrity of the game. When you're still throwing a pigskin, a prolate spheroid, whether it's 12.5 or 10.5 PSI, I don't think, has that much of an outcome on the game. And their Super Bowl opponent has the most PED suspension since 2010. So if we're talking about the integrity of the game, I mean, I guess there's a lot of things that you can get into with integrity again. I mean, the Cowboys and the Redskins, though.

Right. But the Cowboys and the Redskins get fined and they lose draft picks for taking advantage of the salary cap system for a while. And, like, you know, the Browns are being investigated right now. No one's comparing the Browns thing to this, and that just seemed like it was a meddlesome owner, perhaps, or someone on the franchise, you know, doing something that isn't allowed. Mike Patton talked about it today.

No one's putting any attention to that. But because it's the Super Bowl team and because there's just some sort of appeal to it, this story has crossed over into its leading the nightly news and, like, CNN is talking about it. And it's in the more... Right. Belichick didn't happen in a complete...

vacuum here, it's because, wait a minute, to the average fan. Oh, wait, this is Belichick again. Well, I think that's a big part of it. And I guess the way I look at that is, soccer and football both started with a pig's bladder. I like where this is going. Well, since the middle half of the 19th century, the evolution of soccer has been to make it every generation an easier ball to kick. The evolution of football has to make it every generation an easier ball to throw. So at this point in time, we're supposed they have the easiest ball to throw possible. So it doesn't bother me that Tom Brady wants the easiest possible ball to throw.

It just doesn't bother me. I mean, I can see why it bothers other people. Yeah, and that's totally fair. But, I mean, I guess the reason that the NFL is investigating it, that there is a boundary for the how much it can be inflated and it was drastically below it. So that doesn't bother you either. It doesn't bother me one bit. But you do understand that they're breaking.

We don't even know if they. Let's just say it happened by nature, right? they haven't been no it's not attach any person to it but it was outside of the rules the way the balls were prepared if i was tom brady i would try to get the ball the easiest one to throw possible and whatever the equipment team does that i don't know about that's fine with me and i think andy dalton likes a warm ball some quarterbacks like protruding laces and aaron rogers likes it pumped up as much as possible everybody has their preferences and if you if i can wash my hands of it and just get the easiest ball to throw possible that's what i do you

do as a quarterback and in tom brady actually right now we have a our per our old producer the gold standard zach behind the mic i just have to say welcome since since chris brought up this uh soccer issue i just thought you know you could chime in with your expertise thank you so much well no i think chris chris hit the nail on the head right there that was fantastic um thank you i'm enjoying this don't let me dilute the conversation jents keep going well one of the things that stuck out to me with the brady press conference was just that how uncomfortably he was that was one of the things I took from it. The fact that he said the NFL had not contacted him on Thursday was surprising to me. And to me, it indicated that this issue isn't going to be wrapped up

anytime soon in case you thought it was. I didn't particularly think it was, but it's going to be an issue. I think that's obviously talked about a ton all Super Bowl week. And I don't know if we're going to get a lot of clarity from the league. I think we'll hear something from the league this week. But that stuck out to me. And the fact that he was, he looked a little. little rattled. I don't feel like... He looked rattle. I mean, considering how he normally looks extremely composed and cried it one time. I'm not saying that he cried tears, but you know when you're about to cry? Yeah. And like his eyes got red and his face started to get flushed and his voice cracked a little, which we've seen with Brady before. That happened a couple

times. I don't know why. Maybe he's just nerve 10 times more pressing there too. Well, because they're... Why? Because it's Deflate Gate Ghazi. Deflate Gate Ghazi. This is a real thing, gentlemen. Wow, a sneak attack. We got hands on the line. I've listened to you guys. The last ten minutes to talk about this. I'm specifically Greg and West. I haven't said anything yet. I have been waiting to chime in. This is a real thing right now that we're dealing with, and it's an enormous distraction, and there could be some very real consequences, and I think the Patriots really kicked the Hornets

nest here, and it could lead to the Patriots losing this game. This is a real things that can't be ignored. I think it's a huge issue when they've got a hundred, even Tom Brady went out of his way to say this is very serious, is a very serious issue. And the way that they're addressing it indicates it's serious. The people in the room and how much he was rattled indicates his serious.

I look at it the other way, though, as a Patriots fan who's not getting too caught up in the particulars of it, just because it doesn't get me fired up too much one way or another. That's just, I don't know, Craig. You like to say, like, oh, when you're downstairs, you weren't a, certain way like you are not making a big deal of it downstairs. This is why Greg, this is how you feel that way and I totally understand it and I'm putting myself in your shoes as a Patriots

in and all Patriots fan. You want this to go away. You don't want this chasing your team all week. You don't want it to be hanging over the legacy of the team. I don't care about the legacy it's going to hang over them next week. My immediate reaction and it was to Dave Damashek yesterday when we were sitting around and I said it Monday to my friends who

most of the Patriots fans are freaking out. They don't want this. They hate this. Was that I think they'll react well to it. If you're going to take anything from thinking it might affect the game or not, I just think back to how they came out after SpyGate and played the best six weeks of football they've ever played in their entire lives. And not that you need extra motivation for the Super Bowl, but as a guy that's been a fan of this team for a long time,

it wouldn't surprise me if they come out and they play great after all this. That's more how I would expect it. I mean, they're playing, I don't remember, I'm sure there were a lot of tomato cans when they, started destroying everyone. This is a totally different situation. Right. I mean, I have worries that they, even on their best day, if the Seahawks play their best, maybe the Seahawks are just a better team. But I think the way that this team has responded to issues in the past, I think just from a football fan and a Patriots fan perspective,

I was thinking I kind of like this. I didn't like the fact that they were, that they're now favored in some places in the game. A lot of people, I think, are going to be taking the Patriots in this game. So I do kind of like the fact that they've got this little extra. I don't quite know how you like it. What? Is TD behind the glass, by the way? It is Zach the gold standard behind the glass right now. Hey, Dan.

Hey, what's up, Gold, Tim? What is going on? TD sets this whole thing up with me. He doesn't tell me he's not going to be there. It doesn't provide any pop. He's supposed to be like my wrestling manager there. Yeah. You just got Paul Heyman, man.

Paul Heyman. What are your other hot takes since we have you on? Did you watch the Brady and Belichick pressers? Yeah, I watched. I watched all that I've been tracking this because this is, a major story. And I don't know. I think, and I got the same feeling watching Brady that he was, it seemed like he was on the verge of getting emotional, which to me, like, reminded me of Johnny Lawrence and Karate Kid being told by the Evil Sensei what to do, and then he kind of

realizes it and realizes he's done wrong, and now he's caught in the middle of something that's bigger than him. I think Tommy's tied into this, and I think it's going to hurt him if the story gets any bigger. And I really do. I know you say you don't think the, you don't think this is something that's going to be taken care of quickly, I wonder, I don't know, because again, this is now poor Roger Goodell. It has just been a bad year for him. I don't think we have to say poor Roger Goodell. Yeah, right. Even though he's, he's our boss's boss's boss's boss, I mean, I'm not crying any tears.

All right, here we go. Roger Goodell has been a bad year for him, and I don't know, he's going to be buried by this as well. He has a press conference every year before the Super Bowl, and you know, how that's going to turn out at media day and then this is going to be this story the longer that it gets dragged out without any resolution i guess i'm the only one who thinks it's just an incredibly silly story and that the best tweet of the day was from jimmy kimmel who just noted that 50 college educated adults are asking a grown man if if he took air out of a ball well that is i think you can believe that it's a story worth um attention which i do and still

feel like that is totally true there is an element of comedy and farce to it all it's like it's a topic that's taken very very seriously by a lot of people and i understand why right right and it's about deflated balls and it's about a very minor or relatively like arcane rules that no one ever knew about but it's a it's a big national story and it did feel like uh like at times right afterwards you know they go to cnn they're talking to rick santorum on one news channel for his comments on the balls and at one point a question or ask, like, what about all the kids that see you as a hero, Tom Brady? And there is an element to it that feels like it's an onion sports article.

Am I wrong? I mean, it feels like so surreal. I think at its heart, it's a silly matter in terms of what it meant to that game. But I do think that all of us, everyone on the around NFL team, the New England Patriots, other people in the media underestimated this story's ability to take off the way it has. And maybe we shouldn't have been surprised because. because it was the week heading into the Super Bowl, and it had like this weird kind of quirky angle to it,

and it had all this Patriots or Cheetah's backstory to it. So, you know, it's kind of annoying because it is going to be a major storyline throughout up until Sunday's games. The major storyline. There's no way to hide from it anymore. This is just a major story as crazy as it is. This is why Greg attached me to the Patriots I'm learning today.

Greg actually organized this controversy like two weeks ago. It's an outrage. I do. I like it because Mark is fired. up about this issue. West clearly doesn't care at all. So I'm glad that Mark, I'm going to release the hounds. He's going to get to the bottom of this. By the end of this, the world's going to know Mark Sessler as the Woodward and the Bernstein of the flight gate. Here's what I told. Go ahead, Dan. I was hoping that Sessler was going to be spitting fire

about this. I know. I thought you were going to be. He was downstairs. I said the thing that bothers me the most. I'm not sitting here thinking that that ball changed the way that the cults game went out. What bothers me and what's bothered me? me for some time is the hubris of the Patriots organization, which I sense at various times. And it's like, your reaction can be, and I actually like Belichick, but there's times where it's like, oh, he's so smart. But there's other times as, wait, he's just kind of a jerk to people, bottom line. I just feel that he is. And like, I think it's... I don't think you're alone in that sentiment. Well, and I think that there's something about the Patriots that they put themselves in this

spotlight because of their past actions. This didn't just happen now. People already felt that New England was always looking for an edge, like any football team, but they got nailed for it before. Right, and they were dumb enough for all this to happen, and it's not about the crime sometimes, it's about who gets noticed. Like, what is a big deal when you mess up at work? It's not really the level of something that you messed up. It's just who above you happens to notice it that gets fired up about it.

Dan, you know who's not going to get noticed? Who? The ball boy found along the mass turnpike. Oh, yeah. He's Sally on the Mass Pike will never be seen again. But, by the way, what, and I know you guys got to move on and I'm going to jump off, but I'm just curious, the other thing is, like, the mechanics of how the balls got deflated, it just, to me, it's like, if they actually, like, switch balls out,

and they actually snuck away with them and deflated them two pounds and then replaced them, it's like, what the hell is Bill Belich doing in thinking? To me, that's the biggest thing that this guy, it seems like that's how he's going to be remembered as this Bud Kilmer will do anything to win guy when he necessarily didn't have to be that guy to be smarter than everyone in the first place. Well, Belichick came out so strong with his statement and other coaches that have come out.

I do put more stock into what Belichick said today that to me it does seem like it's probably a quarterback and the equipment managers working together on the balls in general. And every head coach that's talked about it was pretty incredulous that any coach could be involved in that process. And every quarterback says the same thing. And they said, we're intimately involved in it. So to me, it probably, it does seem like in the end, it's going to fall more on Brady. And that's going to be the conversation more than, more than Belichick. It's going to

fall on some, you know, some person we've never heard of. Who did SpyGate fall on? Some videographer that essentially now is working at a CVS in Central Oklahoma. Well, Belichick did pay the biggest fine in NFL history. I'm going to hang up and listen. All right. See you, Dan. did pay, what, $500,000 and they gave up a first round pick? I think that was the biggest fine in NFL history, and we'll see the point I was making about which people notice it, notice it from above. In this case, the American public is the above, and the NFL has to be so disappointed

and furious or whatever, no matter what they think of this particular issue, that this is the national story now going into the Super Bowl, especially that the year they've had. All right, let's move on. uh let's talk a little football and let's talk about a guy we spoke about during our coaching awards adam gase he has been hired as the bears offensive coordinator chris wesseling what do you think of this hire it's interesting in that gays is rejoining fox but i guess what i've taken out of the last two weeks from the bears they won't answer the question but i i looked at it in week 16 that j cutler was gone and now i feel like they have no choice but to keep him with a new regime

and see what Adam Gaze can do with him, there's just not enough quarterbacks available that you can move on from a guy of Jay Cutler's talent. I mean, if the Bengals have come to the conclusion, which is not surprising because they're refused to move on from what is mediocre, essentially. They're going to stick with Andy Dalton, basically because they don't know where else to go.

This offseason especially, there's no free agents. The draft looks like an absolute black hole for quarterbacks. So, yeah, you're stuck with Cutler, I guess. When they remove the entire coaching staff and GM, that helped Cutler's chances of staying enormously because of the way that his contract is structured, you're essentially paying money, huge money to get rid of him, which you're only going to do if you've made this evaluation that this is not our guy. If it's more of a pain to get rid of them than it is to keep them and you're a new head coach and you're a new coordinator and a new GM, you'll probably think, well, let's give him one year and then move on after

that. But I like this entire bear staff. We gave Fandio the best coaching higher. I was just going to say, I find it interesting that John Fox already has a better coaching staff in Chicago than he did in Denver when he went to the Super Bowl. I think Fongio is a considerably better defensive coordinator than Jack Del Rio. It's a big upgrade. I mean,

the talent is obviously a huge downgrade, and that's going to be hard for Chicago, I think, in one off season to I don't know, you know, I say that, but then I think about the Cowboys, because we looked at the Cowboys five months ago and thought, I thought they were a total train wreck and with a lot of no names, frankly, they pulled off a big season.

But they did it with a top three offense. So I think you need another side of the ball that can carry you. We don't know if they have it, but they do have talent. The Bears have the offense, the talent on offense that has that potential. I don't know about the, I think they do outside of the quarterback. I just don't trust Cutler. I just think he's a depressed. If you're a Bears fan, that's a depressing situation because of him.

I give John Fox over the year some grief in terms of his. game management, and that he doesn't feel like a coach that makes a huge difference. But this is one reason why you hire John Fox is that he has been around the league so long. He's good at all the organizational parts of the job. He's not trying to call the plays on the defense. And like Wesleyan said, I don't know if any other head coach could put together a staff this good immediately as a new coach. And John Fox just kind of lines him up, boom, boom, boom.

And that's why you hire a guy like John Fox to settle things down. All right, let's move on to announcement, the NFL, made this morning about some early morning games in London in the coming year. All three London games this year will start at 9.30 a.m. Eastern time. That means 6.30 a.m. Pacific time. Chris Wessling, thank you for volunteering to cover all three of those games. Well, I think it depends on what I did the night before. I loved covering the one this year. I thought it was, it was fun coming in at 6.30 in the morning. and like six people in the whole room.

I forgot there was a game that day. Wes, now that you're over when you guys came in. Now that you're biking to work, the 6.30 a.m. shifts are a little trickier, too. They are a little. It's harder to motivate yourself for a half an hour bike ride into work when you're just waking up at 5 o'clock. Well, the London expert, Zach, I feel like we've got to get your hot take on this. Well, more as an American fan who's, you know, relatively casual but joining,

do you like the quadruple header? Oh, I love it. You like the morning games? Yeah, well, I think back fondly, and maybe this is just fueled by nostalgia, but I think back to the NBA on NBC, for instance, growing up, when they used to play four basketball games in a day, you'd wake up, have your morning cereal. By the time you were having dinner, you're still watching basketball.

I thought that was great. Hell me out. 9.30 Eastern is 4.30 Eastern London time? Be 2.30. Way off. That's all right. A couple hours. It was close. Way off. No, if I showed up at the time, it'd be middle of the third quarter, I get to the game. Let yourself off the hook here.

You were like three years old when you lived in England. I'm an adult. I should know more about time zones. I love this because I love that game too. Anything that's different, I like. That was a great game too. Yeah, that was the end. I woke up early.

I didn't come in. I watched the first half at home and then I came in. But I think the NFL hit on something here because it gives these London games an identity too, that it's just something a little different. The NFL is always trying to create new properties. And now the new property is, hey, we've got a quadruple header. got a really early game and now people remember and watch the London games

compared to some, you know, Patriots, Raiders, bloodbath that only 10% of the country is watching. Well, they've got that, you know, nice little tag that the marketing department can use too, wake up with Wembley or whatever. He's right. I'm looking forward to that. Before we get to that, we have to

play, of course, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl. But the Pro Bowl draft happened this week. I know you guys were excited about it. The Pro Bowl is coming up. Andrew Luck was the number one overall pick. When did they start drafting for a proble? Last year. Come on, Wes.

We've written many. Dan takes offense because he wrote a live blog. One of the best things ever written on the Around the League page. Really? Yes. It was very entertaining. Last year and you could find it. This was last year's draft. This year he just had some takeaways but I

suggest all of our listeners go check it out. Well his takeaways were so precise and cutting last year and they were hilarious that, let's be honest, Dan was asked to tone it down a little this year because we're trying to promote this event as some sort of heat-seeking football game. Well, I would take Andrew Luck with the number one overall pick, so I do think that that was a smart choice. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think the Pro Bowl is about fun, and who's more fun to watch than Andrew? Look at Wes Selling now. He doesn't even buy this stuff. Well, I mean, honestly, we kind of rip on the

Pro Bowl a little bit, but it's not geared for us. It's geared for 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds. Well, and I don't think Andrew Luck would have gone first overall if a lot of the players that said they were going to play would have because you had Chris Carter. Luck would be my number one overall pick. I think he'd be ours necessarily, potentially. But Beckham went very early too. He went in fifth.

But you had Irvin, I think, who wanted Des Bryant. I mean, they talked about this for a month. It's like they had their guys, and half their guys didn't show up. I like that what they're trying to do with the Pro Bowl, and people do watch the Pro Bowl. I mean, more people watch the Pro Bowl than baseball postseason games. games, and certainly any All-Star game. I wasn't making fun of it.

I remember when I was 10 or 12 and I was excited to watch it, and I think, same here. 10 or 12-year-olds now are excited to watch it. But, I mean, for people like us who follow real football all year, it's not like high on our radar. The one thing they need to change, though, is calling the team by the name of the Captain Carter and Irvin, Chris Carter, and Michael Irvin, because when you hit the score button on NFL.com or ESPN.com, suddenly an image comes up that goes, that's Irvin, versus Carter as like this that's this week's scoreboard and that's I don't know what was

something wrong with that what would you like I don't know like East versus where I don't know you got to come up with something something that makes more sense than that you can't do that every year let's keep moving if Dan was here the news would be over 25 minutes ago all right roll on the Saints ownership situation came up in the news this week and it was a surprise and we won't linger on this one but Tom Benson the Saints owner announced that he will not be leaving the team as expected to his granddaughter, Rita, LaBlank Benson, and her family, and instead is now going to leave it to his wife, who's been married to for 10 years. And I'm telling you in New Orleans, this is a massive story.

When you saw this, what were your thoughts? I thought of Midnight in a Garden of Good and Evil. It's like a John Brent novel, some kind of Southern Gothic drama, where it's all playing out. In Savannah, right? That was in Savannah, but New Orleans. I mean, same type of atmosphere as New Orleans. It is great stuff to read.

Even though you wouldn't want to be part of that family right now, it sounds like a 10-part mini-series on HBO or Showtime. Like the drama of it all, we're not going to get into all the details here, but if you go to nola.com or some of the other local papers, it is really... There's some wacky side details. Well, it's just, it's a fascinating story. I mean, if you're into family and power and owning teams,

and it's, you almost couldn't write it. And I don't know, deflategate is really interesting. I get it for most people. But isn't this, like, this isn't going to get nearly the attention, and it shouldn't. I understand why it's not a national story. But isn't this, like, a more compelling, like, novel-worthy type of story? Yeah, I mean, especially if we could give the listeners details as to what it was about.

All right. Lastly, we'll wrap up with the Browns. John D. Filippo hired this week, offensive coordinator. He mentioned in his opening press conference at the starting quarterback for the Browns next year might not be in the building yet. Do you like this hire, Mr. Sessler?

Well, I mean, you know, what do we know? I like him out at the gate. I mean, I'm allowed a touch of optimism every now and again, and I think that he's... Here's the thing. The flip side would have been if you're a Browns fan watching them go get

Matt Kavanaugh, who is an absolute beyond the pale guy that is not going to generate an excitement. They're going with a young guy that a lot of – you know, Adam Kaplan tweeted from the Senior Bowl that everyone was raving about him saying it was a home run higher. Well, it's only a home run higher starting in September. We don't know anything until then. So I'm going to hold judgment, but I wish them luck. And I think – I'm just glad to hear them say that the quarterback situation is not being handed to anyone because it shouldn't.

They don't have a starting quarterback right now. It is grim. I think what's going to be real hard for him and Petten is that they got out to a nice start and a nice story this past season. I think they could have a flipped record. That's six and three could be three and six. You play the NFC West. A lot of the schedule is tougher. And you just don't have – Kyle Shanahan is not an easy guy to make up for.

And a lot of things went right for Cleveland. That's not going to happen two years in a row necessarily. Have you been able to develop a sense of whether DePhilippo or Greg, Olson deserved more of the credit for developing Derek Carr? I mean, Olson really, really gushed on, both him and Greg Knapp, the former coordinator, just said he's such a hard worker. And Patton said that when there was that rift between the Jets, Jets' defense and offense, we read about that in collision low crossers, that he said he was the only defensive coach,

or offensive coach to Filippo that's light would be on when the defense huddled and went home. That everyone else, so I like him in his press conference. Yeah, he's articulated, he's a hard worker. They said he pushes, he pushed Carr very hard, and he pushes his quarterbacks and keeps them accountable. I think that Shanahan probably did the same thing, but what I'm hearing from various coaches that are in the stories out there seem good. But this is the time of year where every assistant hire looks like absolute spun gold. So let's wait and see. He also said he was going to talk to Brian Hoyer this week, which I found interesting.

I know he's under contract, but I do get the feeling there's more of a chance of Hoyer being back there than we probably would have thought in the middle of December. Maybe from Hoyer's angle, too, where you realize you're not going to be a starter for another team. Okay, so that's the news. Got a good talk about Patriot, I mean, or whatever we're calling it now. I'm glad Dan called in there. That was fun, but let's move on to something even more fun,

talking a little football and breaking out a game that we like to call. Who do you trust? All right, so the game's pretty obvious. Does it really need any explanation? No, it's self-explanately. What was the thing, last show that really didn't need explanation? Dan telling people about, I forget. This is great podcast stuff.

I'm glad I brought it up. All right, who do you trust? Gold standard, you know what to trim out of this show. Absolutely. This won't be in. So if it's in, I've made a mistake. You try to make us look good. TD, I feel like sometimes he's, you know,

he tries to make us look like the ogres and idiots that we truly are. No, get out of here. You guys are sweethearts. Play the game. Who do you trust? Dan Quinn or Josh McDaniels cooking up a championship-winning game plan? I trust Dan Quinn because of what he did to the Broncos last year. He unfurled a masterpiece.

And I remember writing an article on this with an interview with Hall of Famer Mike Ains outlining exactly what the Seahawks did. And Josh McDaniels, I think you never know how much of it is him or how much of it is Belichick. I didn't like watching Indianapolis let the, the, Patriots do their eligible play and just roll right into the end zone with it. They saw that happen before and didn't find a way to log it, figure out how to stop and be ready for it. That was bad coaching in my book.

The Seahawks are not that team, and they have much more talent on a defense that's going to give you a plus secondary if everyone's healthy, and they're healthy. I mean, we've seen down the stretch. They're the best defense in football. And yeah, I think with Wes, too, when you give them two weeks to prepare, everyone says that about Belichick. but Quinn all last year during the Super Bowl said I am going to find a way to get to Peyton Manning

rattle them early they laid it right on the table and said this is what we're going to do and they did it the quarterback must go down they must go down hard right and the weaknesses of Brady and Manning aren't aren't so different Brady is not doing well throwing the ball down the field Brady can get rattled especially a fully inflated one Greg let's be honest that's going to cause tremendous problem

imagine how well he'll do yeah how poorly he'll do with that and McDaniels I think deserves a little more credit probably than people give them just because their offenses have been much better when he's been the coordinator and they get a lot of credit for changing up what they do week to week. I do think that's more McDaniels than anyone else. But he also can get almost inside his own head a little bit sometimes and he'll try to cook up something almost trying to be too smart and they'll get away from just shocking. I think he's an upgrade over Gase. I think he's going to give Seattle more

trouble than Gase did. I guess my point here is that everyone assumes the coaching advantage is to New England and Bill Belichick, but Seattle's got great coaching with Pete Carroll and Dan Quinn for coaching defense. I mean, they're better coaches, at least by their track record over the last five years, certainly, than Bill Belichick. All right, who do you trust? Marshawn Lynch having a legend defining game or Rob Grankowski having a legend defining game. Ooh, that's a good question. You know, if this was in a vacuum, I would go with Grunkowski, because he's the best ever at his position. Marshaun Lynch is not.

But Gronkowski has to face a generationally great defense. Marshaun Lynch has to face a defense that can be run on in times. So I think I'll go with I trust Lynch to have a defining game. Yeah, in this game, I mean, Lynch really, they've used them well down the stretch. I think that starting with that Oakland Giants back-to-back tilt there that Seattle had where he had six touchdowns in two games, He just has been hot and making difference-making plays every week. He looked fantastic.

I loved last week when they were down 16-0-0. They were just getting their way back in the game. He refused to stop running. He was plowing through Green Bay guys. Took seven guys to get him down. A couple of big first downs. That's, you know, listen, New England's defense has some strong points. I like their secondary.

But run-stopping is not going to do it. Let me predict Greg's answer here. Lynch, because he will touch the ball 20 times, Grunkowski is reliant upon someone to get him the ball. That's a Rosenthal answer. I love it when Chris Wesleyan is wrong because I'm putting on my homer hat. Of course I'm going Grankowski. One of the greatest players in Patriots history, one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.

He's had a lot of great moments in his NFL career. But he hasn't really had a defining playoff moment because he's been hurt in those playoffs. And he's the X factor. I think he's the best player on the entire. field. So I would just love to see Rob Gronkowski kind of maybe doing like the James Harrison play, except he's dragging

four different Seattle Seahawks defenders with him for 40 straight yards for the winner. Incorrect to say he has not had a defining playoff. He has been out dancing moments after the Super Bowl. Oh my gosh. That is fair. One of the worst moments

as a fan slash media member in my life was trying to go to sleep after the 2011 season Super Bowl, and my hotel was right next to the Patriots team party. I mean, you walk from the stadium and the hotel, you guys remember it in Indianapolis, or you do, Mark. The hotel was just, you know, a 10-minute walk from the stadium,

and right next to it is that minor league baseball field, and that's where the Patriots had their party. And you don't think that the losing team has a party, but they still do. They still have the party. A lot of players don't necessarily show up. I'm guessing Belichick wasn't there. Right, exactly. I mean, it's for Robert Kraft.

It's wherever. I remember being the locker room, telling people, we're still having the party. I mean, I was in the silent losers' locker room, and that's what he was doing. Now, I could not hear Rob Grunkowski breaking it down, you know, right next to me, but I couldn't go to sleep because the walls were very thin.

It was right next to it, and they're cranking music until 3.30. I wasn't done writing until about 1.30-2-30, and they're still cranking music and having a good old time, And I'm thinking, you guys are never going to win another Super Bowl, are you? I would love, in our situation, let's say Wes or I goes out, writes a story, totally blows. It gets the reporting all wrong. And, you know, we're an embarrassment on a national scene. Just throw a giant party for us after work.

That's the equivalent. Why are you throwing a party if you lost the Super Bowl? Marvel would come around and say, yeah, we're still having the party. Yeah, we're going to throw a giant party for you down a cozy in because this is how it works. Wes getting bold mentioning a shadowy league figure by name there. I like it. Right, who do you trust the Seattle Seahawks fan base to show up after their poor performance in the NFC championship, or the Patriots fan base? This is a pretty easy answer, right?

I mean, the Seahawks are, as much as you ripped on them earlier in the week as just another average fan base. I didn't say that. I just said, I don't want to hear that they're so special when, you know, there's many great NFL fan bases. I don't think the Patriots are one of those great NFL fan bases, as you yourself have said. I agree with you. One economic factor, Seattle's smaller city, and if their dominance hasn't breeded as many bandwagon followers as New England has at this point, there may be a lot of people that dished out cash to go to last year's Super Bowl, and they just can't do it again. That's too, that's very logical.

But Seattle in general, this is still new to them. Shorter flight, too. This is the same romance they were in last year. This is still fresh and new. This is me throwing a bone to the Seattle fan base after they just slaughtered me all week. Look, relax. I mean, all I was saying, there's other. You guys have issues with this.

Other great fan-based other. But Seattle showed up last year for sure. They seemed like they were everywhere in the New York area. I mean, also in the game, Denver had from one 18 seconds in and nothing to cheer about some. The Patriots fans are a mixed group, I would say. They did not show up for the last one in Phoenix. And I'm guessing that was because of travel. They showed up much better for the next Super Bowl after that.

And they know that if they don't go to this one, there'll be another one two years from now. Wiltsons will go to that one. And Patriots fans hate to hear it, but growing up as a big-time sports fan, Red Sox fans really took pride in how, you know, oh, we know when to cheer. And Fenway is rocking compared to other baseball parks. And it absolutely is. And almost like look down on most other baseball fan bases. Well, for football, the Patriots are kind of like those other fan bases. The football tradition hasn't been in New England as long for 50 years in high school football and college football, not nearly as much as other places. They were one of the worst franchises in the league until Parcells came there.

And sometimes that stadium's a little too quiet, you know, for my liking in big spots. But that's just me. All right. Who do you trust? Derell Revis or Richard Sherman? I've been to say Revis just because I don't know what Sherman's arm is going to be like. If they were both healthy, I don't think anybody's played at Sherman's level over the last three years. But if he's dragging his arm around out there, I would have to say Revis.

Yeah, I mean, you know, a week from now, the answer could be Sherman if we find out that he's absolutely fine. He's practicing, right, Sherman? He's practicing fully. He's going to be ready to go. The only reason I would... With both arms? He's practicing fully.

He says no limitations. Earl Thomas sat out practice this week, so that might be a bigger issue. That concerns me because Sherman, if Earl Thomas isn't healthy, that's going to impact Sherman. So I'm going to go with Wes here with Revis. I hope you're right. I think I trust Sherman a little better. I think the fact they're both great, but I think Sherman's been a better player this year, Revis isn't quite as good as he was at his peak.

But I do hope it's a case like Grancowski, where Revis, this is an all-time great player who's going to get his first and who knows, maybe the only chance to play in a Super Bowl. Against a B-minus receiving crew. He'll be back next year with the pay. That's a good point. It's like, what are you going to do, shut down Luke Wilson all day? I guess that... I mean, don't tell Doug Baldwin I called a B-minus, but that's not their...

They've got a lot of strengths in that team. That's not their number one strength, right? This isn't a creative question at all, but who do you trust Russell Wilson or Tom Brady? I think it's a fair one. I don't know if I have an answer. That's tough. That's a good answer. I don't not trust either.

I mean, I trust both of them. I know, but you've got to trust one more. That's the whole game. I'll give you my answer. I'll trust Tom Brady more. Even though in the Super Bowls lately, I don't think they've been his best games necessarily. Or even, for instance, the playoffs.

He's been a little up and down. He didn't have a great first half against Baltimore or Indianapolis. I'm still going to trust Tom Brady. More because I think that. that Russell Wilson will face a tougher matchup in terms of the coaching, and that it wouldn't surprise me if he starts seeing some ghosts and start seeing some things that confuse him like he did in the NFC championship. Russell Wilson's first six playoff games, I believe,

are more impressive than Tom Brady's first six playoff games, even though Brady had the three Super Bowl titles. But I guess I'm going to say Brady because one of these quarterbacks is in the discussion for the best quarterback of all time, and the other one is not, so I'll go with the one who is. I mean, I think if we're talking about this game, we're talking about who do you trust to win. Just this game, yeah. And who to win?

I trust Brady's going to have a nice game, but they're going to lose. It's who's going to win. And I think that Russell Wilson, like last year. We know where you're leaning. Well, I think he has more around them. I think they have the better defense and they've got a running game. I don't think Russell Wilson is going to have to do as much. I'm not going to have to trust him to do as much as Brady will in this game.

So I'm going Russell Wilson. It's interesting because I think Brady has made an art out of the one-minute drill. I think he's the best one-minute drill and quarterback ever. But Wilson's skill set, the Roger Stalback-like Big Ben-like skill set to extend plays, lends itself to close games and playoff games more than any other skill set. Finally, let's wrap up. We'll bring it back. Tom Brady's comments on deflated football or everyone else in the world's comments on Deflated Football.

Well, hold on. Everyone else includes some wild stuff. Okay. And I don't even know what everyone is everyone in the world, so I can't account for more than what I've heard four or five people say. So I'll go Brady. Okay. But Brady has a lot to lose if he's found out to not be trustworthy here.

I believe I want to hope he is. I like Tom Brady. I'll say Brady. I saw a tweet from Jim Miller, former Bears quarterback, who says he's been in the room before when Tom Brady has chosen football. And he says there's no way I believe that Brady would purposely have them deflated below what they were supposed to be. Well, and they were checked, right?

I mean, not to get back into it, but whatever Tom Brady did the night before is not the issue. Right, they checked before the game. That's not the issue. Something happened. I think there is plausible denial. I think it's plausible that the equipment people just know how Brady likes the footballs and maybe they're acting on their own.

And Greg went Brady versus the Earth, and the Earth has a lot of nonsense going on, so I'm not going with that. There's a lot of conspiracy theories on Earth. All right. Let's wrap up with a thought and a conversation. with a man who's usually in a haunted house. But this week, he's in a haunted city.

And that is Mobile, Alabama. And that's where the senior bowl is happening. Connor, is it true that other things are happening in the NFL world other than discussions about deflations of football? It's very true, although I don't know how haunted Mobile is. I haven't really gotten a chance to explore the dark side of Alabama yet. I guess I'm thinking really more Savannah. or New Orleans, those kind of towns

they seem kind of haunted. I've never actually been to Mobile. Maybe since I'm here with Chase Goodbread, the ghosts don't come after because he's an Alabama native. So maybe that's what, you know. They know not to mess with Chase. From what I know of him. Best name in the NFL media news group, Chase Goodbread. Love that guy.

Best hair, too. Sounds like a third string quarterback. Of Alabama. Yeah, Chase Good. All right, Connor. We haven't really been focused on the Senior Bowl this week. We only have a couple minutes to talk to you. Give us one, or maybe we'll get into three, but give us your first big takeaway from the week. Well, you know, I think, and it's kind of what I wrote today is, I think that all these general managers, especially the ones that have the top 10 ticks

are scared to death to draft one of these two quarterbacks. And, you know, neither of them were here working out, and it didn't make it better that, you know, Hunley from UCLA might be your next best option. You know, he wasn't here, and then you're left with kind of the Bryce Petty's of the world, the Blake Sims, and they didn't blow anybody away down here. So I think it's just a really scary time if you're a first-time GM or you're a GM on the way out that's looking for a quarterback right now. All right, well, by the way, just to give you an update, Greg had to step away a Shattelieve

league figure just pulled them out of the room. Not sure what that's about. There's some wild gesticulation going on. There is. Well, question for you, Connor, you know, you're down there, you're seeing a lot of general managers, scouts, coaches. Come on, give us some, what's a whisper? Give us something juicy that's going on that you're hearing at the bars out at night.

Good question. I would say probably, you know, the juiciest thing, again, is that, you know, it all centers right now. I mean, all the conversation really is focused around James. And the funniest thing is if you listen to scouts or coaches that are even preparing to even to dig into this, I mean, a lot of them are feeling like it's not a one-man job. I mean, you can't just have one scout, two scouts in this. This is going to be, this is going to take an entire department of an organization to figure this guy out. I mean,

that's how worried everybody is about something coming out after the draft, something coming out, you know, in the months after the draft, something happening after you pick them. So I think that that's what a lot of the big focus is right now. And it's really interesting. I mean, plus you have the saints kind of, you know, just hearing a lot of interesting. things about them just restructuring their organization on the fly in sort of a crazy way. Well, let's not just leave that one on the board. You're not talking about ownership there. You're talking about, what, the front office and the coaches? Well, everything. I mean, yeah. I mean, you know, from, I mean, you know, word, we got word

kind of down here about what was going on with the Benson's. But, you know, yeah, I mean, the first day here, you know, Mickey Loomis fires the head of college scouting and the guy sitting in the stand watching a game. And, you know, if you've, you can, you know, if you talk to anybody, you know, this is not the best time to sort of switch directions in your college scathing department because a lot of your legwork is already done. And then all you really have is the combine left after this. And now all of a sudden they're going to plug in a new guy and, you know, talk to just a few people around, around the situation. And, I mean, they're just like, this is crazy. I mean, you know, what's going to happen? So. Well, you're saying Jeff

Ireland's not going to bring an era of calm, um, optimism and competence to the Saints? I mean, even if he was John Schneider at this point, you know, it's just a different way of doing things. It's a totally different perspective. And, you know, it's like hiring a new professor halfway through the course and being like, yeah, you know what, we don't need to do it in this stuff. We're going to do it my way now. And so I think it's going to be really interesting, fascinating to see what direction they're going in the draft because that's such a crazy kind of, you know, 180 from the direction

that they were going in before. All right, Connor Orr, from Mobile, Senior Bowl. Actually, let's put you on the spot really quick before I say goodbye to you. Give us one name that you've seen from the colleges. You're going to put on your little Drafnik hat. It's a dorky-looking hat. And you're going to give us one name from that you've seen in Mobile that's going to be a name to watch. One day, it's going to rise up some draft boards and then have a nice little NFL career.

And we'll put it all on you, Connor, or. All right. I got two for you. And they're both small school guys. Can you not listen to the questions? I said one, Connor. All right, all right. No, no, go to.

All right. The first guy, Jaquinsky Tart. Oh. Safety out of Sanford, Fantatins X-6-2. I think one of our college football 24-7 guys wrote an article about how some of the scouts were saying that he really had SEC potential, just totally got overlooked in school. And then another guy, Lyndon Trail from Norfolk State was a Florida guy. Are these real people?

Are these real names? What was the first guy, Jaquisky? What's that? What was the first guy's name again? Jaquisky. I like that. Jaquisky tarts with two T's and then Linden Trail. And then if you can't find them online, don't worry about it.

That just means that I haven't really been at Mobile. I made the whole thing up. All right, that's it. I was hoping you were going to go with Shaquille, Elyzuan Mason, which is one of my favorite names I've heard in a long time. and Mike Mayock has been talking them up this week. I mean, that is a name, Shaquille Elijah on Mason. Mike Mayock might like him, but Gil Brandt is a big Tart fan.

He's all about Tart. The first player from Sanford ever invited to the senior bowl, even more than in Cortland Finnegan went to Sanford. There you go. Well, we're all about Tart too. We're all about Conoror. Thanks for calling in, buddy. See you.

No problem. See you on Phoenix. Yeah, see you. See you in Phoenix. Connor O'er will be there. We'll be there. And I guess that's it. Next time we talk to all of our loyal listeners,

and we thank you for downloading the show. And if you can, tell your friends and, you know, put comments. We appreciate it all. I also wanted to send out a thank you to Indy Sarah, who was nice enough to send my son Walker a little onesie with the word Delaware on it in honor of the greatest rock band of all time. And she'll be happy to know that we just told the crowd that you had been whisked out of here by a shadow league figure potentially into, you know,

eternal doom, but you came back suddenly, so she's happy to know that, I'm sure. That was really a test. I was seeing if you guys would just handle it, and I would be back before the interview, and the listener never would have known. I'd like to think it was, yeah. You guys, you guys. That doesn't sound convincing. It was nice.

It was nice. We'll see how it plays back to our listeners. I feel good here. Zach is back behind the mic. You're not going to Phoenix, though, are you? I'm not. That's too bad. But we'll see you on the other.

side. It'll be the off season by the time we see you again. For Dan Hansis, who called in and Connor Orr, Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We'll see you next time. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Lef, Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crunch.

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