NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Friday Fun Show! Bengals-Dolphins TNF Recap + Final Thoughts for Week 4

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

A table at the Wilton Arms pub in Knightsbridge filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal share their final thoughts before a weekend of football action. First, we recap the Bengals-Dolphins Thursday night matchup, and Marc shares some life advice in his "The Floor is Yours" segment. Gregg gives us the Gregg Rosenthal Injury Minute, John Gonzalez makes a surprise appearance, and we finish off the show with Heroes of Week 4 Predictions. The Friday Fun Show airs live on YouTube at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST (almost) every Friday, just not this one.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Whiz, yeah. Ah! Ah! What a rush. It's the Friday fun show. Working title. the Wilton Arms and Knightsbridge section of London there it is voice crack number one

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler Greg Rosenthal brave digger on the ones and twos Yoko Yessica taking photos looking wonderful John Gonzalez sitting in from Sports Illustrated fame and Colleen fame and here we are boys I like that you started the actual show with what Mark and I are treated to before you know most shows consistently if you really wanted to get the experience going you would also give them a little like uh the winning the throw clearing next week's show will be I'll give you some tiger blood Charlie yes here we are the wilton arms um our pub of choice so far this week and it's quite a day

and you'll hear it in our voices and the way we speak in general a little bit loopy after our Thursday night live show at the O2 Forum and Kentishdown, huge hit boys and thank you to everybody who came out and turned it into a special night and

of course Rachel Benetta and Neil Reynolds are a very special guests even Jessica herself made an appearance at the end of the show so this was it was quite a night. We even saw Justin Graver danced to the Bongo song

and that was something I will never forget because you could see the way Justin danced that inner theater kid came out the kid who went to like theater camp in summer in high school. Did you? He was on stage 11th.

Wow! No, I took theater in eighth grade for a semester but I was a theater child like as a six-year-old I was in like the Plano Children's Theater production. In Texas. But I saw that boy in you dancing with a big smile on your face and it was very nice.

It was my favorite, it was one of my favorite moments because it had come right after we did our tribute for Wes, which is emotional and it was great. And then to cap that with some bongos and then graver dancing, I feel like encapsulated our podcast perfectly. But the fact that. But then me walking off the stage with his girl. Right. Well, the fact, and I want to get to that. Topical. And there are some pictures.

pictures out there of that. I think maybe Graver will post them because we had a photographer there. The fact that the final shots of the night are like the crowds, you know, clapping and and it's Dan and Yessica just waving goodbye to the crowd. Like it's like the president and the first lady was a bizarre way to it. I do have a question for you, Justin. Yes. You were a child despian, a child actor. Were you in this theater company, were you a child playing a child?

or were you like in a child like you would be doing Serpico as a child kind of scenario? More like I played Hercules and Hercules. I played Harry Potter and Harry Potter. I was the lead. The lead. That's a lot of lot.

So the only play I wasn't the lead in the beauty and the beach. Jessica, were you aware of this? The lead. He played Harry Potter. He didn't even know. He wasn't in Harry Potter. And thank you to Jessica. Sincerely, she was of great help to us

and all the people at the O2 Forum. Very cool vibe. We had like close to 1,000 people at the show. It was pretty special. So we are kind of in the afterglow of that. Might have hit it a little bit hard after the show, a little bit of a celebration. Hung out with the Good Morning Football Crew.

I thought that was a rewarding experience. Me and Jason McCordy realized that we're both from the same area of New York, and we had some good conversations about Rockland County and some Cold Town talk, and we're going to have him on the show in the offseason to break that down. He did sort of slightly dispel the concept of the Cold Town, which I don't think that you were aiming to. No, you were very drunk.

Well, I've done that many times, too. Town and country's like a vivid memory of that conversation. Their best city to raise, like, you know, polo players. It was slightly confused by your memory of the town in general. You think you guys are stupid. Well. I think that's what the problem is here. Anyway, so that was great.

And today's show, we will short and sweet because we really do need to enjoy ourselves in London because it's fast approaching an end. It's already now maybe Friday, today's Friday? It is, and if you do hear this early and you're in town, we'll be on stage near the London Eye at the NFL event around 12.30 on Saturday. Yep, with Neil Reynolds on stage with us. We'll do probably 20 minutes or so with Neil. 15.

If you want to come through, we'll do 20, Mark, we'll do 15. Speaking of which, Mark, some weird vibes from you, as usual, but it's ramping up as the week is going along out here. What now? You texted us about 90 minutes ago. and we're all still at the hotel. Will we be cleared by 5.30, y'all think, have some crazy stuff tonight?

And then there was a follow-up text. Hey, can you take my backpack with whatever is in it back to the hotel for me? And then when we got to the bar and we're like, all right, Mark, stop with the P.S. Like, what are you doing after the show? You're like, nothing. I am doing nothing as of this moment.

I have friends, business partners, associates scattered. What business are these? Scattered throughout many states and countries. You lie. Tell us the truth right now. You can tell the truth. First of all, you two, the backpack is in my room.

I handled that. That was more my concern because I left my backpack, my passport, all my possessions in the UK office and had to go on a side mission. We just were delighted. I think you used different words last night, but you did give Dan at one point the line that you had a heart out.

And Dan was like, We got a heart out in London? Where are you going? We can't do it. I also got a call for Mark after the taping yesterday, after Mark overslept, and then we all got together at the hotel or at the NFL office. Hey, can you go back to the office for me and get my plug? Well, no, you said you were hanging around that area to get a haircut.

And I'm like, what's going on with this guy? I can't go back there. I acknowledge that I acknowledge that yesterday, the morning portion of yesterday was a disheveled scenario. But I think I recovered well. did the live show. You were excellent as well. And it was very nice, Mark, I must say. There will be no more roughing of the Cessler here.

It was very nice to do the show yesterday with you. We weren't able to do it last year because of some unfortunate things that were going on with you physically, but you were able to come here, survive the flight over, do the show with us. And it's great to have us all together and share that moment with Justin. I had a great time, and it reminded me that one's life on stage is too brief.

There should be more opportunities where you're just up on stage exuding. And I want to be in a play. I want to do what Justin did when he was six. I don't know why you bailed on that career. I'm not sure why you did. Here's what happened. When I was about 10, there was an audition for Barney, the show Barney. And my mom told me about it afterwards.

And I was like, why didn't you take me to that audition? I would have crushed it. And then I was so just sad by that, by missing that, that I gave it. Wow, way to go, Mom. Well, I would be a worry. I agree with you. You've not spoken to your mom since. It would be fun to do that more and more often.

And some people are on stage a lot. They're musicians, their stand-up comics, or they do more live shows. Maybe we can. But I would be a little worried about Mark. Because it is one of my favorite nights of the year, too, when we come and do this. It's just like a guaranteed good time.

But I'd be worried because at one point, Mark started just gesturing towards the crowd to make them all chant, what's more likely. But he just was doing it. even when it wasn't time to do it. And he's like, I just like the power of it. I love to control that power. I like to control them.

That was nice. I feel power. It was a great, great night. Coming up today, we'll have Mark, this is your chance to have even more power because the floor is yours segment of the Friday Fun Show. It is your turn, sir. So that's coming up. I have a point, too.

I know that, and that's what we're hoping for. We hope that you plan for it, and we're going to listen into it. We have our week four hero predictions And by the way, we hit on a couple in week three. So we're getting hot. Well, some of us did. Also... I mean, you positioned your Matt Rule thing

as it doesn't matter if he wins or loses. So I don't know if I totally accept that. Okay. Well, that doesn't matter because Justin did and he is the arbiter on this one. We will do our injury minute. The Greg Rosenthal injury minute. He's all over that shit.

But before that, let us hit. And I watch us kind of in a boozy haines. second that so I have I have my takes might be a little maybe amazing or horrible but I did watch the game last night at like four in the morning Thursday night football borough is eight of 15 barely over 50 percent goes deep down the left sideline and that's caught that's T. Higgins to the end zone so the crowd was growing impatient the next thing you know you got a 59 yard touchdown over Examian Howard's head. Al Michaels with the call, Amazon Prime.

Cincinnati is back on track. Two more touchdown passes for Joe Burrow, who threw for 287, averaged over nine yards at a temp. No interceptions, pass rating 116. Bang, that's Joe Burrow right there. Running game's still stuck in mud, but T. Higgins is the other star-wide receiver of the Bengals,

and he goes off, 7 for 1,24, and a touch. And a 27-15 win over the... Miami Dolphins fall for the first time they are three and one get to the Bengal side of this but Greg let's start with what was the biggest news out of this game and really it was tough to watch it was scary to a Tungo by Loa who suffered a quote-unquote back injury in week three gets thrown down to the turf around midfield in this game and suffers a very scary head and neck injury taken to the hospital fortunately released travel back home with the team

and seems to be in a good place But at the same time, when he goes down and he's in the fencing posture and it brings up a whole bunch of questions about how this was handled. Yeah. I think we just have to clarify what the time of all this was. When he had that injury last week, which, you know, to most people, including people. Actually, this week. Right. That's true.

It was just Sunday. It was just four days before this game. When he suffered that injury, which to people who know a lot more about concussions, doctors, and stuff certainly looked like a concussion just to the naked eye four days ago. He was tested for a concussion during last week's game. The doctors there cleared him

to return to the field in that game, which to me was where this all started. It wasn't that he started last night. It was that they let him return to the game last week. He was not in the concussion protocol during the week, where they took additional tests.

And I think that's where the dolphins will come under some criticism. Before this game even happened, the NFLPA had started an investigation into whether they followed the protocol correctly a week ago. But that investigation takes a week or two and then he played this game on Thursday night. So that's all to say going into the game

there was a lot to be concerned about with Tua. And then when he suffered that, it was just one of those moments that you feel like we've covered the NFL a long time and the way they've handled concussions is going to be an inflection point because there's a lot of, people understandably upset.

It was upsetting to watch it. And I thought Andrew Whitworth on the post-game show on Amazon gave some good context of how he's passed those concussion tests as a player, that he can do it, that they can figure out a way to answer those questions. And he mentioned a time that it took... By that you mean passes the test but still has a head injury. Right. He was totally, he said woozy and not feeling right at all.

but he was able to get past the independent neurologist and get back on the field and that it took a teammate of his to take him off the field and says that's what it is, that's what happens a lot, that it takes a player or someone else to pull you aside because you're going to just lie and try to be a warrior to get back out on the field. You hope that's not what happened with Tua a week ago, but there's obvious questions whether that was what happened. There's so much going on over the past five or six days with this,

and a lot of blame has sort of, I guess, suspicion, has been thrown at Mike McDaniel, at the Dolphins, at Tua himself. I mean, Tua who said it was a back injury verbally after Sunday's game, was that something that he was using verbally to curve around what was really going on? I don't know. But the thing is, to me, what's the broke down part of the process is the concussion protocol to begin with. I don't really know if I'm willing to blame the dolphins

or suspect that some larger, some sort of conspiracy is going on here. But the other part of it is find me a player who thinks that Thursday night games make any sense. I know it's good for the fans. It's good for the league to have Thursday night football. I mean, I know there's college football but if it were Saturday night football, you're talking about two extra days for players to recover. Why was Tua out on the field to begin

with if there was a head injury? If the dolphins knew that at all, they're very culpable. Right, and I don't think it's almost like you don't want to know it. I mean, he played in the same game. It's not that even four days later. He played that day. And I think there's questions of why doesn't the protocol include further testing after

after Sunday? Right. Right. Everyone, you could, did not pass the smell test from the start what happened on Sunday in the win over Buffalo, the way he reacted. And then for it then to be turned into, it was a back injury and then for not to be more testing. And of course the dolphins could come back and say, well, yeah, that wasn't a concussion. And this was a separate injury suffered. And it just looks bad. And this was a concussion. They announced.

Yeah, okay. There's a lot. There's just a lot of smoke around this. And I think it's so important, especially for players on the short. week because Thursday night football mark is not going anywhere no I know that it's on Thursday because that's the biggest rated TV night that on television much more than Saturday which is the college football domain so there's business interests involved and that's just the way it is with the or with this

corporation and the NFL but it's just tough that was a tough that was a tough site it was a tough site and I'm sure it's not the last we hear this story on the other side of this with the Bengals yeah I feel like they've really gotten a little bit their swagger back here. This is a nice win. I think, Mark, the Dolphins, you could say whether or not you buy into the Dolphins, and if Teddy Bridgewater has to play multiple games, or

even Ah game, we'll see how they do. They've got the, I have to check their schedule, but you have now the Cincinnati. They've got the Jets, Vikings, and Steelers up next. Okay, that's not too bad. As far as Cincinnati, they now have a big matchup against Baltimore in Baltimore, and to be able to get back to

500, they've steadyed the ship here. The last two weeks, If you're a Bengals fan, you're back in a good place. It was just so critical. And do I think that there was an advantage to the fact that Teddy who's worked really well in this offense went out and was, or Teddy came in for Tua? I do.

I think that it's not a huge drop-off for the Dolphins, but for the Bengals side of it, I don't come out of watching what I watched. And it was mostly the 40-minute condensed version today because I was with you, Dan, last night, on a bit of a cloud during the actual airtime. I don't come out convinced that they've fixed their issues because I still see a really mysteriously defunct ground game.

They're struggling to get their big plays. They got enough of them last night with T. Higgins for it to work. I just think that there's issues here, and what's systemically is the problem with the Bengals and they're lying and their running game and everything, it's not last year's offense. And the way that they dominated the Ravens in two matchups a year ago, I don't see that offense right now.

But they're getting better. We do know that it's... This is also the time of year to work out of that funk, so that's cool. A season is like an evolution, and I thought their offense probably looked the best it looked. Burrow said that he believed that was the best pass protection he has ever received as a pro. And I would agree. Their run blocking is terrible. You mentioned the key points leading into the game, Dan, but like they gave up on running.

They tried a third and one. They tried a fourth in one. They tried two short yardage on the goal lines. And then Jack Taylor just waved the white flag, and everyone was killing him on Twitter. Like, oh, I can't believe you kicked the field. And I was like, I don't know, man. And they are admitting that they can't get a yard, but I'm kind of with them. They just went like 0 for five trying to get one yard.

It's not that crazy to take the three points in that scenario. But they protected him really well. It should be pointing out that the Cowboy, the Dolphins defense played 92 snaps on Sunday in a crazy weather game. And their defense maybe didn't have as much use. But to your point, Mark, of like, you're not sure that they have issues. It's a good point, I think. Yeah, I think you're right. Offensively, absolutely.

They're not there. Points, Mark. Defensively, I think this is one of the most consistent sound defenses in the NFL, and they're very hard to, like, score big points off of. I think it's a really good defense. We're not worried about them the way we were a fortnight ago. We'll see. We'll see what the doctor's stayed here.

By the way, there was no, Teddy played pretty well. I think that last interception was probably on Mike Gassicki, not reading the coverage. And I think he did play quite well. He had a crazy deep throw. I think they can survive with him as my point. Wait, look at this guy. This guy, we're in a league right now where Greg every week is getting a big helping of Gino. A big helping of Teddy Bridgewater.

And now he's getting Andy Dalton for the Saints likely on Sunday. I don't know why Andy Dalton is becoming my guy. Well, you've been talking about Adults as a year. I want the Daltonissance with the Saints. Although the way the Saints have looked, I'm a little worried. This endless striving for quarterback mediocrity is a bizarre quest, but Greg is winning it at the moment. I know the Tula thing is a little bit cloudy. Clouds the situation a little bit.

But just it's on my radar a little bit that the Dolphins have scored on offense 13 points, 19 points, 15 points, and then that random insane fourth quarter against the Ravens. Right, and they were struggling. They were struggling before Tua left that game. And what Teddy did was similar, which was like they moved the ball, but they weren't finishing drives. All right. Hit it Graver. See, Graver's out late too. So it's ready for this drop. Hit what exactly?

See, you didn't know. He doesn't know that there is a drop for the floor is yours. It's a horn. It's a celebratory. I know it. I know it. No, no, I knew it. No, you got it.

You're with us. Give me just a second, though, because I wasn't ready to play it. Behind the curtain. He was feeling the pain. Drake was with us. You know what, Drake is. Until now, we were maybe edit free, and now you're probably editing. I thought you said shit.

Any coughed. You keep this in here. Well, cough, that's on my fault. All right. Here it is. It's time for Mark. The floor is yours. Ah, you know the sound.

Last week, he pushed it off to Greg Rosenthal because he wanted to watch the Browns at a bar. But now that you can no longer, you can no longer fight off your responsibility, Mark, because the floor is yours. You know, I'm glad I did that. last week, because that has a lot to do with what I'm about to mention to the two of you, to Justin, to Gonso, to Yessica, to a bar full of patrons who can't hear me because they're in a separate room, to the listener. I mean, Gonso and Yessica are both, like, faced first into their phones right now. I don't think they can hear you.

I hope to raise their interest, but I have no hopes. Last night at our live show, I thought one of the most, you know, I missed it last year, and there was a lot of honor and tribute given to Wes in that show. But last night we closed our show with a tribute to Wes that brought the house down. It created a standing ovation as it should. And I think it really, to me, was a reemphasis of the glue of what our show was. And Greg has tattooed on his body, Heed the Call. We end every show with Heed the Call.

And I want to talk about a little bit what I think that means to me. because with Wes's heed the call I think about the fact that all four of us when I think how we got to the fact that we were doing a live show in London it's pretty crazy Dan is someone who took a somewhat atypical route to get there

there was some journalism school but it was a man who was writing for the patch in various counties and cities covering Hollywood patch and the Garden City Patch in Long Island that's too uh... also the Rockland County Times and the journal news by coastal by coastal I like to

that. Greg was the brick-by-brick guy, but he also had a for a where he just went to Hollywood to try to learn the Hollywood business, so he's been in and out of things. West of all people was a freaking mailman. There was no schooling to do what he did. Very literally, he was a postal worker. He was a freaking mailman. Like I did a thing where I went and got obsessed with in college, went to work for baseball weekly, and moved like eight miles away from my college to live in a bizarre apartment, because I had in a car across from baseball weekly, and then realized I don't like baseball. But then I got out of the whole industry for 15 years then came back into it.

So it's like there's so many different ways to do this. But how we got to last night, the one thing that I felt great honor about was that our lives have changed a ton during this. We've gone through so much. And all the time we get the question, like, how did you guys get here? What is it you do?

And I think for me, heed the call, is there are these inflection points, these moments in your life where you either make the choice to do the uncomfortable thing where you take a chance. Maybe it's when you're 15 years old And it's like, I either, like, tell this girl I like her, I don't.

If you're 15 years old and you're sitting in your room and you're scared to call her, call her up. If you are applying for a job and you're thinking, you know what, I'm going to take the safe job because I don't really want to leave the thing I'm doing right now. I want to just continue along this boring career path that doesn't help me at all. Ditch it. Change. If you're in a relationship that doesn't work, change, make change. He'd the call to me is you just find that thing in your life. You know what it is if you're listening.

There's this thing you're avoiding doing. Go do it. And I never want to forget what the message that Wes sent to us with the way he lived, what he did. And I thought lastly, it came through so loud and clear. And it really, you can see the effect that Wes had on everyone in that audience. And that's really all I have to say. No, that was well said, Mr. Sessler. We spoke about Wes, all three of us.

There was a gentleman in the crowd during the Q&A portion that was wearing a Cincinnati Bengals jersey, number one, with Wes on the back. And he was a Cardinals fan. but it was his love of Chris and what he meant to the show meant to us that shine through and then I think we'll post it on social but the video that we played as part of the show that was really special so yes West is with us still to this day and that message really does resonate yeah that was really well I did notice that Jessica left during what I was saying so that what is that

it didn't resonate with everyone I am I got a comment on on the pictures I put on Instagram today about the West tribute and saying like I felt bad for you guys up there but I'm really glad that you shared it and I responded and I was like well don't feel bad that is a moment where we felt or that speaking for myself

I think it's true for you guys I felt West closer to me than I ever do these days like that that was where we felt him as close as possible and to see all these people and for us to be involved celebrating him is a joy like it's it has sadness to it but it's a total joy so don't don't feel bad for us like that is a great thing to be able to feel close to him David shopland was there taking photos for us last night and he got an incredible shot of the

three of you guys standing on the stage holding your mics and Wes above you on the projector screen holding his mic and it was like he's watching over you and podcasting with you and it It was like, it gave me chills. I saw that, and I agree with what you just said. And this is more on a personal note and just the timing of how everything went down with Chris. He got sick, and then eventually we lost him in the middle of COVID. And so we didn't really get to be with him and around him when he was sick. Didn't even get to see him in the hospital.

There was no funeral service or anything like that. So that was just on top of everything else for him to just be gone the way he was difficult. So a moment like yesterday, yeah, it felt like he was with us. And that's cool. That's cool. All right, Mark, good job there. I don't know how we transition. But we will with the Greg Rosenthal injury minute presented by AccraShore,

a premium decomposition agent for luxury crematoriums. That's just a guess. That's right. On the Injury Minute this week, the Daltonissance is here. Andy Dalton's starting. They didn't announce that, but James Winston's doubtful. Yes, in practice. Yeah, he's doubtful.

He's listening to that. And as it was reminded to me today, Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins played against each other in London before as members of Washington and Cincinnati, and I think it was like a 35 to 35 overtime tie where they had 742 yards. So James is probably missing the game. Andrews Pete, their tackle is out, our guard.

Marcus May, their safety's out, and Michael Thomas is out. So they are quite banged up. Christian McCaffrey looks like he's, genuinely questionable. Maybe on the wrong side of questionable. What are we doing here? Dalvin Cook will play.

Hunter Renfro, who started his career with a concussion, looks like he's going to miss his second straight game with a concussion. Cadarius, Tony, and Wondale Robinson don't appear any close to being back. Your guys for the Lions, Dan, Amon Rae, St. Brown, and DeAndre Swift are out. I'm moving off my lock. Okay. Do you want to move off with me? Or do you want to stay where you are?

No, I do want to move off, but I'm not prepared. to announce where I'm going with that yet. Nor am I, but we must make a actual Twitter announcement before... All right, well, let's combat verbally before we make that announcement. I think that makes sense, and that was the end of the minute. Yet I can't see them winning this. I think they're going to win this game anyways, and Dan Campbell's going to have, like, a great thing of, like, we were down this guy, we were down five starters, and we found a way to win,

and it'll be ugly, and they'll find a way. Or are we going to the game with 42 injuries, by the way? Well, there's injuries everywhere, as Greg just illustrated. I mean, the headline to that minute was... The judge just lost another starting left tackle. Harry Witherspoon just ended up on... The Vikings seem relatively healthy, but the Saints are quite... I did not like the way the...

I don't like the Lions' defense at this stage, really, although there have been some bright spots. Jeff Acuta's taking that leap. Hutchinson, you know, well, he had one good half in terms of stats. But anyway, I don't trust the defense yet, and I didn't like what I saw from the offense last week, so I've got to move off that pick. All right, let's see.

Let's see, let's see. Hero of the Week prediction as we bring this thing in for a landing and again, we'll be back to Sunday night flagship show. If you are in London, come see us tomorrow at the Riverbank.

Is that what it is? River Edge. It's by the eye. The South Bank. Thank you, Justin. It doesn't even, it's just a region. We're just describing land at this point. Did you say the river hedge? Yeah, I don't know.

The river hedge. Those are just two words. The hedges by the river. They're trimmed back nicely. All right, your hero of the week prediction, Greg. I'm going to stick with my lock and sink it all up. Before we do that, let's go over last week's predictions. Greg, I'm sorry, this is part of what we do.

You had Tom Brady, some type of prediction of greatness from Tom. Then you find a way. And he did not find a way. If you would have completed that pass, and tied the game, the two-point conversion, and then one, you would have had it, but you didn't. Mark Sessler, you had. Mark, you had, jump in any time.

I'm attempting to recall. I don't even remember last night at this point. Marka Drake London. I remember this. He had about 49 yards or something like that, a touchdown. He scored a critical touchdown. He had the last score of the game, which came with 35 seconds left in the third quarter,

that put the Falcons ahead. Nailed it. So basically the game-winning touchdowns. Is he, you know, giving you $100 now, too? That's heroic. Did we start on the payroll? You're on the payroll? Wait, wait, time out.

That's hero. I have to raise something on this one. Quarter L. Patterson had like 100-something, 60 total yards on a touchdown. Drake London wasn't even the MVP of his own team. If he scored the final touchdown, that said he had fewer yards, I think, last week. What are we asking a football player to do?

I mean, he scored the final touchdown. The go-ahead, touchdown, and you're coming out of it with the logic. That doesn't matter. Considering you're going to make the case for your... I don't have to make a case. Matt Rule, I spoke to Matt Rule with great respect and integrity and said, see him as a human.

And guess what happened? Not only the Panthers get their first win, the Panthers team gave Matt Rule the game ball, which was showing to them, showing from them to Matt that we know you've been going through a lot. We respect you. We're going to fight hard for you. That's a dumb.

That's a big old. I get it, but I just want to point out, as you were saying that last week, you were like, this isn't even about him winning or losing. Just respect him as a human. Right, total gray area. So that was great. I'm waiting for, like, Bridget to chime in here. I didn't know how that works.

And they literally gave him the game ball to show they respected and loved him. I'll give it to you. That's a good argument. All right, now it's time, Greg. Your hero of the week prediction. Okay, like I said, I'm staying on the Titans train. They were my lock. And I've appreciated the maturation of Ryan Tannahill over the years.

And this year, I think is- the Steelers, your log? Okay, I totally forgot about that. We're a little bit rough shape. But he also said, you did also say that the texture. You know what? I put the Rainmaker on the Titans to cover the three and a half, so that's where I'm getting confused. I think if you watch Ryan Tannahill

play after play, you can understand he's now a quarterback that makes the people around him better, and that even though things aren't great around him, I think he is doing like a really credible job. He is like in that top 12 quarterback rank. You say incredible or incredible? Credible. Okay. Not incredible. But like,

I think he's, like, above the Kurt Cousins line. Like, I think he's, like, very solid. He's now developed into a guy who I think makes people better around him. Is credible the word of incredible? Is that what it is? Also, why would in hyper, hyper credible? John's really smart. John, credible and incredible. Are they connected?

He was educated in Drexel, I believe. I went to LaSalle. That's a different school. Big five, though, right? Is credible the same word as incredible? Is credible the root word of incredible? I would imagine the root word, but... But Gonzo, why would in...

If you add, if the root is credible, which means you have validation, we believe in you, and you add in to the beginning of it. So, like, sane, insane. So credible, incredible, incredible. I just want to say that I flew all the way from Los Angeles, and I came to see you guys, and this is what you have me on the pod for.

I have no idea what this conversation is about. We're wrapping up. That's my gift to you. We're almost done. I did enjoy, though, the West Tribute, so I'm honestly done by you. Let's get loose right after this. John Ronald Gonzalez, born March 12, 1977, is an American sports writer who's married to NFL media broadcaster calling Wolf.

John, who is a Pisces resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs. All right. That's why Gonzo and I get along. We're both Pisces, you know. West too. Me too. You might, you know, reject each other. Absolutely.

I don't think that's happening. Graver and I and Gonzo and West, just the Pisces gang. All right. Here we go. Mark your turn. I'm going to go. Zach Wilson. You're always on the Jets in one way or the other. This is a positive thing.

I know, but it's interesting. You're always plugged in on the Jets. It's because of me. I do care about you, but I also think that the Zach Wilson journey, it has this variance where it's going to get really, really dark and lead the Jets and the Jets fan base to a really dark place. Or after all this hullabaloo, he comes onto the field and perform. not just credibly.

Incredibly? Maybe so. I mean, what? You're going to bring the I-N? You're a top two pick in the draft. At some point, you've got to stop toying around with your mom's friends, put on some football equipment, and start doing football things. You don't have to stop that.

You can keep doing that. You do that when you're actually performing on the field, though. Otherwise, it's sort of a sad story. Am I wrong? But, I mean, even for Jets fans, what would be think about where you're going to be come Sunday night if he goes out there and he totally lays an egg? Versus, he goes out and plays really admirably, and you're thinking, you know what?

This whole thing might finally work. He's definitely hit the way room. It looks beefy. All right. It's almost like I'm so nervous about the possibility of 4 and 13 right now that I don't want to think about it. But it will be very helpful to the offense and an offensive line that's been dealing with injuries

to have a mobile quarterback. back. It's got the playmakers. Let's see what happens. I like it. You got me back. I'm optimistic. I will go with the app or mentioned Andy Dalton. This is it. This is his last chance. Oh, I should have done that. I know. Gotcha. Yes. But I even let you go first because I wanted you to have the chance. You set the table. That was that was it. He comes to London and he's the hero. But then again, let's remember the history of this podcast that I am the Dalton defender. Like you're a Johnny come lately in the Dalton world. Accurate. I've always liked Andy Dahl

And he's in London And he's taking over for James Winston Who has a back injury And has not been playing very well And he, like Zach Wilson Has some pieces around him That he could run this offense He did some things with Dallas

When Dak went down a couple years ago I really think This is his chance to take this job And run with it And it starts with absolutely lighting up the Vikings On Sunday What a story I would love it.

That to me is a perfect London story. Andy Dalton comes in and saves the banged-up safe. It is a little bit of a bummer because last time we watched the game at the Hot Tad or two years ago, we saw James Winston throw six interceptions. We don't get that this time. But how about Dalton throws six touchdowns? That would just be credible.

Right. That would be incredible. We started the show with some questions about the Dolphins medical staff. Well, James Winston broke four bones in his back, then played the next two games. There's no new injury, and now he can't practice in his out. So I don't know what happened there. I find that suspicious.

All right, there you go. That's the Friday Fun Show. We will now, you know, we're going to have a couple of, we're going to have a couple of pops. We're going to get some dinner with Johnny. Mark, where are you going, though? Are you hanging out with this or are you leaving? No, I'm hanging out with you guys. You are.

I don't understand the... Did something fall through? What's the true story? It is only 6.30 p.m.er at this point. or something. I can do anything I want to do. But I will be spending time again. I've got some information. Oh, you do? Let's talk about it out there.

Jessica, you hanging out with this tonight? Do not. You hanging out with this tonight? It's unfortunate, but I do. If Jessica's there, of course. It's a good point. All right. People are asking, Dan, will the live show last night be uploaded as a podcast?

We might upload elements of it on the gram and other social platforms. But at this time, we weren't planning on it, but. We're going to listen. I think that's the right. We're going to see if there's something we can put into the show. We'll see. And again, thank you to everybody who came out last night. That was one of the more special nights in the history of around the NFL,

and you made it happen till Sunday. Heat the call. This is an IHeart podcast.