NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Hard Knocks Detroit Lions: Episode 4 Recap

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

On the NFL's Official Hard Knocks Podcast, Dan Hanzus and Colleen Wolfe recap the penultimate episode of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions. Dan and Colleen start by discussing the difficult and emotional side of football with roster cuts looming, focusing on key moments with Kalil Pimpleton and Craig Reynolds. Then, the hosts react to meeting a couple of characters we've been waiting for, quarterback Jared Goff (10:32) and offensive coordinator Ben Johnson (13:33). Next, the hosts share a few takeaways from the third preseason game (17:13) before deciding on the Liev Schreiber Quote of the Week (21:07). Finally, Dan and Colleen place their top three votes for Episode 4 MVP (24:48), and we wrap up the show with some final thoughts and tidbits from Colleen (38:48).Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. This is the hard, cold truth. We're sitting at 80 and we've got to get to 53. And it's a bitch, man. And it's the worst part of this fucking job. The blood, the sweat, the tears, the devotion. Everything that you've put into it, you've got my respect. You got all my respect.

I'd do anything I could for you, man. And I wish I could fucking keep you. We all do. But it's just not how it works. Chris Wessling podcast studio. It's the Hard Knocks podcast presented by Around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansis. I'm joined in the studio by the legendary, the tiny box to my tugboat.

I'm still not sure about that. Hello. What's up? You know, we have one more episode after today. Right. So I could pivot off that. Okay. Like it.

I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about episode four of Hard Knocks. but I also feel like we kind of went through, you feel that nervous energy pulsating through lions, their facility coming through your screen watching it. It's gotten tense now. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Exactly.

It's done getting better than this. My God. Well, I mean, Dan, I wouldn't say that that would be. That's a pivot from what you were just saying, Dan. Like, I mean, the anxiety, it's kind of palpable this time of year. It feels like a lot of the coaches are in their feelings. People are emotional, you know? It's a roller coaster, truly.

Yeah. See, people are emotional. I think that was the big takeaway of this episode to me that Dan Campbell and we've been talking about Campbell in a positive light, you know, just like so many other people throughout this series. I think he's great. Yeah.

Not fucking good enough. I think Dan Campbell is enough. Is enough. And I think you see how much he cares. And, you know, we, we parachute in through this show for training camp. But Dan Campbell has been, and his coaching staff have been with these players since the beginning of the offseason program in the spring. And you could tell, based on what we've seen, through these episodes, that they've gotten to know them on a personal level. And you could say that about past hard.

next hard-knock seasons. But I just feel like this season and this team in particular feels like a tight unit. So when it's time to say goodbye to players, it ain't easy. It's always hard to say goodbye. I mean, boys to men, they have a whole song about it. But I think that spending, yeah, did you know that I'm from there? I think the way that this coaching staff treats and teaches the players, it's a very warm, connected type group.

And you can tell that they get along. they joke, they spend so much time together that I imagine it would be difficult to say goodbye to them because of those connections and bonds that they form. And of course, all of these coaches are rooting for the players that they've spent all of this time with. So then for them to try and get every ounce out of these players and then have to cut them, that's got to be really difficult. That's not a conversation I would want to have. I've only fired one person, well, two people in my life.

And it's been terrible. Let's talk about it. But, yeah, so it's definitely an emotional time. Yeah, and you see it. There were moments when Dan Campbell is looking at the wall in his office, and it has all the, you know, the entire roster, and that's kind of what they use to evaluate and decide who stays and who goes. And knowing how amped up he is, knowing his personality,

knowing how much he cares, I kept waiting for him to ball his hand up in a fist and punch through the wall. Bloody knuckles. Because he's so upset and mad that he has to tell these kids, essentially, that their football dreams are over, at least with the Lions. And I thought there was really a moment that stood out for me was Khalil Pimpleton. Now, we know, as people that cover the league, that Cahill Pimpleton did not make the team. But in the show, they haven't gotten to that yet.

But what we did get was the third and final preseason game where Pimpleton, who's getting a good look, which means the team was still evaluating him. There's been hard-knock seasons where they cover an underdog, quote-unquote, and he doesn't get off the bench. And you know he's cooked because he's not even getting a chance to show that he can play. Pimbledon gets some run, drops a fourth in goal pass at the goal line that would have went for a touchdown from David Blow, and they cut to Dan Campbell on the sideline.

And again, we never know is Campbell saying this into his headset? Is he speaking to himself, maybe a little bit of both? This is what he said after the Pimpleton drop. Listen, all you can do is give them a chance to make a play. And either they do or they don't, at least we know now. Oof. That's like a dad kind of when you get in trouble and is like, you know, I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

It's like we know, we know what you are and that's it. And one of the things that stood out to me, too, about Campbell looking at his wall of cuts was when I don't think he has any nails left because he was biting his nails so hard in one of those scenes. Like, I can't imagine the anguish that he goes through. And poor Pimpleton, he had a whole scene with a magician. It was fun. They were laughing. He was learning to maybe juggle knives.

We never got to that point, did we? No, I think it was clarified that it was a bit by, it was like juggler's bits. Oh. Like, that's juggler comedy. Gullible Colleen is here. Thought bid Pimpleton was going to be juggling knives. That's fine. But, you know, you can't drop a perfect throw like that in the end zone.

And so poor Pippleton. No, yeah, and then dies cast. When the coaches says all you can do is give him the chance. And if they don't get it done, that's it. And his evaluation is over at that point, unfortunately. And then you have someone like Craig Reynolds, the running back who is on his fourth team in four years. We've learned one thing we didn't talk about last week was the really sad and emotional story of his big brother. They obviously have a very close relationship.

The brother is in prison for a series of crime. they don't really get into exactly, but you see the conversation, the FaceTime conversation between them, and you see how close they are, and you see the father. Also, in this episode, so you start to get invested in the story.

The team loves Craig Reynolds. He's a gutsy type player, and there's a moment in a coach's meeting when, again, they're trying to evaluate, they've got to get from 80 to 53. And I think this is really interesting how this portion of the meeting went, Let's listen in.

Here's the thing. As it pertains to this game, too, by the way, do we not know what Craig is? Yes. That's why I don't know to see him. And we all love Craig. But it's, we're not going to find anything else out about Craig that we don't already know. Would we be sicked our stomach if we lost him? I wouldn't cut him.

Oh. Was that deuce or who said that? Who said that? I don't know if it was. Whoever it was. Might have been fraily. Right. I think you're right.

The offensive line coach. That pregnant pause. It was an offensive assistant. I'm not sure. Oh, okay. That's why I couldn't recognize the voice. Okay. So the pregnant pause was cringy.

Endless. Oh my God. It was so long. Thank God to the brave coach who finally stood up for Craig because then everyone was like, well, I don't know what it would do to this team. And you'd have a bunch of offensive linemen coming and knocking on your door if you cut him. I'm thinking about the team.

thinking about the team now to our offense what he brings with those linemen that i mean that relationship what are those guys up front think about him they just know rents like protection all that stuff they love them you get rid of craig if you want to now you might have some linemen coming out on a dog just to talk so he is one of the most well received well-liked guys on the team and those those glue guys are super important. And, you know, you were talking about Dan the last episode with Craig Reynolds and when he had the conversation with his brother. And that really stuck with me because his brother has been in prison since Craig was in sixth grade. So since he was 12 years old. He never saw him play. And the one line that hasn't left me was Craig saying that he's a role model still. He just shows me what not to do. And it was just seeing his dad I just, I'm rooting so hard and I'm so invested in Craig Reynolds. And also, he had some funny lines in this show as well. Like, there was the heartstring poles that I also got.

But then there was also a little bit of a mishap with something that shouldn't have gone somewhere. I put icy out of my nuts on accident. It's crazy. So he's been through a lot. Do you, I mean, do you have a lot of icy hot experience in your life? Um, no, not too many. I've actually never used icy hat. I just threw my, uh, myfi across the room.

But, oh, you've never used icy hot. It is not something, well, not only if you not used icy hot, you don't have that part of anatomy. These are things that say they stay separated at all costs. And once you have those football pants, we've heard the stories for years, like the offensive line was like, hey man, it was the third quarter and we were taking the field. I had to go to the bathroom. but you know what there was no going to a bathroom like there's no getting to the icy hot situation to clean it up and and remove the burn you got a power through burn tough sitch i would imagine like the second worst would be maybe your eye um that would also not be a great place for icy hot to go

but craig reynolds got to love him i hope he makes the team and it sounds like the the offensive line is going to uh attack dan campbell but i still got Dan Campbell, if that ever happened. I still, I think Campbell, even with one butt and three toes, could take out almost anyone that was coming for him. Well, he's sharpening his spear during every lunch hour. Exactly. So, of course.

What else did we take away from this episode, Colleen? I thought there were a couple, two debuts that we've been waiting for. We have been, we've been sharpening our blades, waiting for the moment when Jared Goff finally arrived. to announce his presence as QB1 of the Detroit Lions and at long last it happened. Here's a little bit

of what we heard from Jared Gough. Who needs fucking coaches, you know? No one. No one. Sorry for swearing. Just holding you back. They're sitting up there in the air conditioning, you know. What's that quote? The man in the arena? Sederer of the deeds. That's right. The credit belongs

to the man who is in the arena. That's right. His face is marred by Dustin's sweating blood. Not the coaches who are drinking coffee and the air conditioning right now. Blau coming in hot with the quote. That was good. Actually, it made me think of our late-grade friend who this podcast studio is named after Chris Wessling.

That's the type of stuff you'd be in casual conversation with Wes and that he'd either quote scripture or some book that he had read in sixth grade. But yes, it is the men in the arena who deserve the credit. And Goff then, you know, Leav Schreiber, who we're going to hear from kind of a little bit later, then went into the subplots that we have been talking about on this show that there is, there's meat on the narrative boat around Goff and how how important this season is for his career. So we didn't get much more behind, beyond that, except for, of course,

a visit to meet some of the Detroit youth who are working on Jared Goff's clothing line. He has a clothing line. That's incredible. Who knew? Not me. And this is great news, I think, because he was wearing a hat from his clothing line, which was just a J.G. And two things, the Gravedigger, our producer, that's merch you need to have. And even Connie Fox's husband, John Gonzalez. Hey, we got an anniversary coming up and I don't have a gift yet. So he's getting some JG merch. And it's like, and when he goes, what is this?

Did you get this, is this made for me? He's like, no, it's from Jared Goff's clothing line. Yeah. I can't get enough of this reality that we live in. I also thought that the logos were interesting that they had. I didn't, I kind of like this. I mean, no, I like the Detroit one. The Detroit logo was nice with the city skyline and it was sort of like a sunset.

I could get down with that. I like that one. I also really enjoyed the one kid who asked if he could be his best man and his wedding because Jared Golf's engaged something else I didn't know. So it's like when this season started, I wasn't totally sure if Jared Golf was even on the team because he just wasn't featured at all. And now I've learned so much in one episode. We still don't have proof that Dan Campbell has ever spoken with him.

We don't have any clarity on that. Right. You know what's interesting, the first time we did hear from golf was in a player's only practice. So connect the dots. Interesting. I like that. And then we also, of course, and this was immortalized in a quote as we watched this episode together here at NFL Network headquarters. Colleen, in a very excited state goes, this is the Ben Johnson episode.

Tell me it's not Because it is He's the one guy That also we have been waiting to see And we've seen a lot of Duce Daly Because a lot of people don't know, Colleen He is the offensive coordinator Of the Detroit Lions

It is not Duce Daly We've seen a lot of Aaron Glenn Duce Daly would like you to think That he's the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions But he is the assistant coach slash running backs coach The O.C

The man behind the magic that Jared Goff produces on the field is Benny Johnson. BJ. Yeah. And there was some high praise for BJ from a few of the players, right? Graver?

Where's Ben? He's a genius. A genius. Ben, you're a genius. A genius. They love him. We've followed this Ben Johnson journey since episode one.

This feels like a really nice level of payoff. To see Ben, not only get the, we see what he's, He looks like. We hear his voice. We heard his voice. We heard someone compliment him on his job ability. Yeah.

And we got to keep it on schedule. Way too many third and longs, guys. We don't have enough calls on this sheet to convert every third and long. Likeable guy who I guess is popular with the team feels like a kind of a disservice to Ben Johnson at this point? Do I have to ask it? Is it presumptuous to wonder if maybe we played a role in Ben getting this moment? Don't give me that power. What?

I know, I know, you know, hard knocks people listen to the show. Maybe they were like, you know, we hadn't thought about it. But then Dan and Colleen were talking about it. Or Ben Johnson was like, I demand a spot on the show. I'm the offensive coordinator. And while we're on that subject, that meeting, I think it was the opening scene of the show. It was just dripping with coaches that we had not seen yet. Like, that place was filled.

And we got some Brad Holmes for the first time. He has amazing eyelashes. I didn't know that, yeah. Yeah, that you were really taken by Brad Holmes's eyelashes in a way that I couldn't imagine anyone being taken. I'm not like a guy that notices the eyelashes. Oh, no. Okay, you were just talking about the coach's jeans or dad tants the whole time.

Dan needs to go shopping, apparently. And we don't know if it's athleisure. We don't know if it's denim. We don't know if it was slacks of some sort. but whatever the coaching staff was wearing on the sidelines. If you've already watched the episode, go re-watch the preseason finale. If you haven't seen the episode yet,

thank you for listening without having seen the episode yet. When you get a chance to see it, then make sure you focus in on the cut of the pants that the coaching staff is wearing against the Steelers. It's a really nice masculine cut. Yeah, it's a fine cut. I didn't focus as much on the jeans as I did the eyelashes.

But one thing that I did, It is. That's why we're doing the show together. It's great. We're the ying and the yang. During the meeting, I noticed that all of the coaches, they had like spiral notebooks or marble notebooks. It was all hard copies. Nobody was on a computer. Everyone had a pen and a paper or a pencil. That I thought was kind of an anomaly. I don't ever see. I don't even know if we have pens and pencils in this building. Do we want to talk about the preseason game? It was a, you know, NFL film's got a lot of run out of the week to win. It closed, obviously, episode three. It opens episode four. They're really basking in that glory. We talked about it on episode three recap that this team, it's in spite of all the failures that are on the wall in giant font,

they're trying to shake out the pants and get. get that out of the bill. Again, they're trying to get that out of the pants. But they're shaking it in the building too. In the building and then it's on the wall. Listen, maybe with some things with Campbell, there's some mixed metaphors that get thrown out. I think what they need is just some sage.

Let's sage the whole place. Right. So the preseason game against the Steelers, again, the results to most people don't really matter. But the Steelers had a big lead at halftime. They won. We did see a nice David Blau touchdown. pass on a Farvian

kind of flip. So that was nice. And we also learned again in real world but not necessarily in Hard Knocks world that Tim Boyle was cut. So David Blow, Blow Hard Nation rise up. It was looking a little bleak back in episode too. So this is nice that David Blow has a moment on this episode.

He's now had a few different moments in the preseason, which is great because he got trashed in that game from the offensive line. Nobody was protecting him. He was getting hit left and right. It was a real tough stitch for Tim Boyle. And right away, Dan Campbell was like,

I've kind of seen enough at this point. So maybe we should try out some other options. What do you think about putting Blow in with the ones? Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, I like the idea of Blow playing with the ones, but late in the game when, and we love the guy. Obina Eze is a turnstile out there.

And he's a project, and we talked about this in episode three, that obviously he's a developmental player but I made you think like if you've decided and you have because we learned that Boyle's cut after this that blouse your number two quarterback. He is your guy that's leading your offense

if something happens to Jared Gop. Do you really want them playing in the game at that point? And they were down by quite a few points. The NFL films crew did such a good job of the drama, building it up and watching the lions do good, do bad, but like, mostly score points, but then we realized that it was like maybe just a bunch of different angles

of like the same, the same good place. Because when they flash the score, I was like, oh, right, that's right. I didn't remember this was such a blowout at one point. But yeah, I don't know why they kept Blow in for so long, especially at the end. You see him hobbling out of the stadium with a huge ice bag around his knee. He's kind of limping. He said to the trainer at one point, I felt something. funny in my knee.

But you never want to hear. Never in your knee especially. So, you know, that's, that was questionable to me for sure. All right. Let's take a break and then we'll get to the Lieve Schreiber. I mean, how do you pronounce it? Because I say it different every time. How would you pronounce it?

Oh, honestly, this is one of those names that I try and never say. And I'm so glad that you have to say it because I always say Liev. Leibreiber. But I don't know if that is actually true. After the break. I think you just have to say it as fast as you, like, it's two syllables. It's kind of a hard thing to say fast. Right.

Coming back to Liam Schreiber, quoted the week. Also, MVP, it's coming down to it now. Only one episode left now. Vector voting style. Who is the 2022 Hard Knocks MVP? We'll get into that after the break. All right. Here we go.

Welcome back. It's time. Now, this is a special, a very special edition of the Leop Schreiber, quote of the week. because there were two, and again, this is not just all Liebbs' brilliance. It's the writers, the producers of NFL films. Amazing writing. They give him this script, and it's gold.

It's gold. So there were two great lines that Shriver knocked out of the park. So why don't we play them both, and then we'll kind of decide which one we think should be the quote of the week. And, of course, Leav couldn't be here today. Right. But our great friend, Jason Zumwold, could. So here is Jason.

Asliev. We have two choices. What is the quote of the week? We're about to find out. If anyone needs the AC, it's Jared Goff. He's been hot all camp. He's so good at this. And he's still reading these cold, right?

Cold, he does not hear the actual intonation. So that is impressive. Also, I just like anything with like, play that again just because I love anything. The smokiness to his voice? Well, Jason obviously is killing it. but also just in general that it's about Jared Goff just kind of makes it even better. The guy has a clothing line.

If anyone needs the AC, it's Jared Goff. He's been hot all camp. You know why I like it? Because I remember we've been covering this league long enough, Connie. I remember being at a Thursday night game at the old Coliseum against the Vikings. That was a Thursday night game. We were all there.

Yes, you were there too. And like Jared Goff was lighting up. the Vikings and it was like this dude is he in the MVP conversation and ever since then it's been a little bit of a afterthought sometimes the the object of jokes or derision so the idea that that leif schreiber is saying that it's just a nice little you know nice moment for jarred it is and and maybe maybe that you know i think the NFL films crew definitely did him a solid there because we haven't seen how hot he has been all summer long so i like that they are are giving us that information.

They kept Jared under lock and key for most of the season. All right, but that's just one. So that one was so good on many levels. Here is the other contender for Leif Shriver. Quote of the week. All summer, Dan Campbell has preached the gospel of grit. Tonight, he'll see, fuck all summer. Hold on.

I'm sorry. Can we please keep that in? Please, I beg you. I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to listen to the reeds. By the way, like the fact that Leif Schreiber does that too, we've just never heard it. But Jason Zumwalt, like the rest of us, not perfect. Chef's Kiss, so good. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

All summer. All summer, Dan Campbell has preached the gospel. of grit. Tonight, he'll discover who sees the light and who is a true believer. I'm sweating. I'm sweating now. I have to take on this funny. Okay.

Be professional. Let's go. And that was good, too. Oh, my God. Hold on. All right. What is your pick for the quarter of the week? It's not even close.

It's the second one. I don't even know what take, but all of them. Please. More. Awesome. Thank you, Jason. All right. I don't even know where we were. That was wonderful.

We have one more Leav Schreiber quote of the week coming up. That makes me a little sad, actually, because there's only one episode left with Hard Knocks next Tuesday. Let's move on to MVP voting. Okay. Now, we need to, like we said, it's vector voting.

So it's weighted for a second and third place vote. and at the end of the season, we're going to learn who is the Hard Docks MVP. So what we're going to do here is we're going to share our votes and then, Colleen, because you and I want to be kind of,

we don't want to be affected on any level by what the standings are going into episode five, but that doesn't mean the listeners need to be treated at the same standard. So we're going to take our headsets off

and let Justin Graver, our producer, let everyone else know where the standings will be going into episode five. So that's what we're All right. Okay.

Third place, I'll get going this time. Yeah, you start. Third place, I'll go with Dan Campbell. Okay. I thought Dan Campbell was not the star outright of this episode. But once again, I just think that in addition to having some great lines, do we have another Campbell line we could share here? Because I had three what the fucks and two bullshunds in the first drive alone.

Like, I don't know what he was doing. It was bullshit, man. In addition to that, like we said at the top of the episode, I just, the passion he has for the job, for the sport, for these men that are his players, and you see it on his face and the struggle, how emotionally is, knowing that he needs to do a job that is very clearly the worst aspect of the gig to him.

So the fact that you could tell, even though we haven't had that and it's iconic within the realm of these type of shows like the hard knocks camera shot in the office with Brad Holmes or Dan Campbell and the player

that's getting let go we'll probably see some of those next week. You know Dan Campbell's a guy that's going to have a much softer touch than let's say John Gruden a couple of years ago

or another coach that doesn't have that same level of empathy for his players. So not the Campbell like quote machine but again a guy it's so easy to root for

Dan Campbell's my third place vote I would disagree about him not being in the quote machine because that quote that we just played almost put him into my third place standings alone because I loved it so much I would love to hear him break down more film like that

it really was something that I could relate to so I did love that but I went with someone who I don't believe I've given a vote to yet so my third place MVP was actually a defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn, because his impassioned speech to the defense about being so terrible was so good. Here's what I want to understand about practice yesterday.

But we cannot let our offense go out and complete 16 of 18 passes. That is fucking bullshit. That is fucking bullshit for that to happen. I'm giving them what nobody else thinks, or how you use the practice, but we're not going to end up to practice like that. And if you're not with that, you get the f*** up. I'm just telling you. Because we're not pressing like that.

And honestly, listening to that, I am worried about the defense a lot because he was talking about how the defense made the offense look so good. And is this offense really that good? That's a big question. So Aaron Glenn, he gets my vote here for third place. I have Aaron Glenn as well. You do? My second place vote.

Love it. Yeah. I think that's a long time coming. I had not had a vote for Glenn yet either. But at the same time, I've just had a, I've respected the way he's gotten about his business. And you can play, you can tell the players respect Aaron Glenn. And I think he's a guy that has the potential to be a head coach in this league. I think this is a very big year for him.

But he does have, like you're saying, a big challenge ahead of him to get this defense in a place where they could hang with the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. I think it's an uphill climb but at the same time his steady hand and his experience in the league and his ability to communicate I like the guy and not just because he was a jet

because you could just tell he is a real dude my god you took the words right out of my mouth I love how real he is and I feel like in past episodes where he and Deuce are jawing at each other during practices or in the facility deuce joeing at him and Glenn being like Get out of here, man.

But he's, oh, yeah, he's kind of like shewing him away, almost like a gnat. But I think that Deuce has really, like, chewed up a lot of that scenery and stolen the spotlight from him a few times. And this is almost for me a little bit of a makeup call, too, from past, you know, Josh Adams got a lot of pop from me last week. A lot, including you tagging the wrong Josh Adams on Instagram. Guys, I'm so good at social. I don't know if you know this. How did that go? Well, I thought I was really nailing it that post.

really felt good about it. I was like, Colleen is doing Instagram, and here we go. So I tagged the wrong Josh Adams. Which Josh Adams was it? As it turns out, it was a Josh Adams that played in the league and played for not only the Philadelphia Eagles, but the New York Jets. So in a way, it kind of felt like the universe made me do it. And he definitely messaged me and was like, yeah, wrong person.

So close. Yeah. So that was cool. That was really great. I kept it up there, though, so I wasn't taking it down. The post was the post. So that's what you get with me. Okay. So my second place MVP was Blow. He was a warrior. Oh, that's good. Machine. I like that. In this episode, he knew the quote that Jared Gough was referencing. Just that alone that he just, he did that Wesism, sneaking into the combo and just dropping bombs there. Shakespearean of him, too? Like, the way that he said the quote, you could just see that, I don't know. I just loved it. Again, you forget, even at David Blow,

you say, oh, he's kind of like a guy hanging on. He's a backup quarterback. This guy's an elite athlete. Yeah. He's one of the best football players, like, in the world. Like, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true. And then he's dropping that quote. And she's like, oh, this man has layers.

He's an onion. Respect that. Blow is an onion. in and he was in that game until the very end and wanted to be in that game until the very end and for that like second place for me absolutely got his ass kicked in a preseason game that didn't matter got his knee rolled up on got a late hit where he got just crushed and he got up every time and through that perfect ball that should have been a touchdown but it looks like it'll worked out for blab because I think the things that the qualities that we're um

expressing here are also the lion's see it. So Blow has another year in the league it looks like unless something crazy happens in the next couple of weeks. My first place, I think we're going to have the same first place this week and Vector voting. That's huge for this individual.

Oh, Malcolm Rodriguez. Nope. Oh, I got Rodrigo as my first place. I really like this guy. I like, I just like, I like the cut of his jib. And he's not your average sixth round pick hard knocks underdog story where it's like you're biting your nails is he going to make the team rodrigo's making the team in fact rodrigo might be starting at linebacker for the

lions they just cut jared davis a former first round pick of the team who had went and then come back and the idea was that he was kind of come back and start they cut them loose and people are speculating it's because rodrigo might actually start for the lion so it's a very rare thing as someone who's covered every season of the show since the dawn of time, it feels like for a guy to be this story that you follow from the beginning of camp and then we could turn on week one against the Eagles and he might be in the starting lineup. It's a great story. His family, you could tell his family is like a really close, nice, relatable group of people.

And also he loves him some 80s and 70s rock. And when he was trying, when he was playing in practice and he asked some teammates. about who is this artist playing. It was one of my favorite, like, laugh lines of the show. Who sees this? What band? What are you going?

ABCB. You got to get that. That man did ABCD. What is it? A B-A-B? A-C-D-C-D. Football season went too long. That's, I ain't going to say it on camera.

That's what happened. That's his Liam C-B-C-D. If you say it really fast, it kind of sounds like ACD. I don't know who the poor guy was who was but then he tried to be like oh what is it ABAB oh no anyway Rodrigo gets my first place vote I like the kid I'm excited to see what he does assuming he does have a role on this defense and I like his family so there it is okay the scene with his family going to Pittsburgh

in the hotel to watch him play this game it was absolutely adorable I love the whole thing and when Rodrigo was talking about playing in the game his entire your face lit up when he said, you know, I get to play Najee Harris. Like, yeah, bro. Like, you're going to, you're going to play a lot of dudes like this. This is, this is probably going to be your life, which is so amazing. And I also even liked his logo. He had like a, his mom was wearing a shirt that said, I don't know if it said Rodrigo or Rodriguez, but I had the mustache. I think it was a great. I think it was a great. Yes. So they know how to market themselves well. And he just has such a nice open face, if that makes sense.

like inviting. A sweet boy. Yes. And yet he couldn't even place on your metal stand. No, he didn't because my guy, who you should be able to guess this, Dan, I have such a strong connection at this point to this guy. And maybe it's because I think he's from Abington, Pennsylvania, but I could be wrong there.

He is from nearby outside of Philadelphia. We've already talked about him a bunch on this area episode. Oh, you're from Philadelphia, Colleen. I don't think I've ever mentioned that before. It's Craig Reynolds. We got to like really get to know his dad too. He talked about his journey to Cutsdown and how he was taking job interviews

with insurance brokers and undrafted, cut multiple times. His journey and the fact that he has all of these things with his family going on, his brother who he's so close with, he can't even hang out with. his brother can't come to these games because he's in prison. And, you know, he's faced so much adversity with, like, just having to have the patience that he has and the confidence in himself. Those are two very difficult things.

If that was me, I would probably have given up at this point. I've been like, you know, I don't know if this is for me. Four seasons, four NFL teams, the rejection alone, you would think, you know, as a pro athlete, as I could speak as one because I'm pretty good at cornhole. Like the rejection could lead to doubting your. yourself, but once you do that, it's kind of over. I mean, you need to play with confidence to excel in sports. And I think that he clearly is made of the real stuff.

I like Craig. Yeah, Dan, would we be sick to our stomachs if we lost Craig? Yes, Dan Campbell, we would be sick. We would be with the offensive line going after Dan Campbell and losing that door. Then losing the battle. Right. Punching through the wall, but then we would get punched right back. All right.

Now we have given you our votes, MVP votes. We're going to take off the headsets, and Graver, are you ready to share with the audience where we're at standings-wise? Yes, I have done math. Okay. Simple addition. All right. Well, that was not always an easy thing for some other people. Not for me either.

Not naming names. All right, here we go. Head sets are off. All right. Taking off the headset. All right. Testing. Can you hear me?

Don't think so. Okay, here we go. The current standings for episode MVP based on the vector voting system. I'm going to go top to bottom. Dan Campbell comes in first right now with 65 points behind him. Deuce Staley, 30 points. So pretty big gap there. I don't think Deuce can actually.

I think Dan Campbell is just going to win this, but they don't need to know that yet. Malcolm Rodriguez, third place, with 28 points. Then we got Josh Adams, the comedian at 21 points. John Brown, former Mr. Universe, Amun Ross, St. Brown. Justin, are you doing your Titans podcast right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going through the roster cuts. John Brown, 18 points.

Jamal Williams, 16 points. Tied with Aaron Glenn, also 16 points. Next, Craig Reynolds and Aidan Hutchinson. I think we just wanted you to give, like, who was in the running, not a complete voting breakdown. I gave the whole breakdown. Oh, you did. Can we put our headsets back on?

Yeah, well, I didn't get to the bottom, but that's it. All right, that's fun. I think people will survive. Thank you, Justin. You're a very thorough producer. That he is. Okay. All right.

Is it close? the top of the standings? Don't tell us. We don't want to know. Yeah. I can't wait to see where Josh Adams nets out. You gave him a first place vote last week. Sure did.

Deserved it. I threw him a third place vote because it's like he deserved it. And then you came off the top turnbuckle. Yep. I was like, uh-oh, that could cause some issues with a vector voting system. I like chaos. Here we are. You're the Joker sticking his head out the police cruiser.

It's true. It's true. All right. Good stuff. Yeah. I wait. I have a couple. A couple other, like, quick little observation.

Sign us off with a couple of bangers. Okay, so I would have liked some more description on the Gatorade that Deuce Daly had before that third preseason game. He asked if there was any water added. Yeah, it makes me think that it was very tart. Yes. Too much Gatorade powder, not enough water from the hose. Yeah, so that's what they call it. So they use, at the pros, do they just hose, like in high school football, just use a hose to fill up the cooler?

Or are they using purified water? Not sure they do that in high school either. anymore. I'm 76 years old. The music was really good in this episode. There was Motown. There was a German cold play type artist that almost made me cry at the end of the show. And a lot of piano loved that.

Also, food truck day. I was very intrigued by that. I miss Food Truck Day. We used to have a lot of their old office. And then when we moved here to Hollywood Park next to the stadium, big upgrade in the facility. but we lost the food truck days, which I struggle with emotionally. I love a food truck.

It reminded me of when I was in Philly. I don't know if you know this. Are you from Philly? I did it again. I didn't even mean to do that. By the hold on. This is a good story, though. Can I just make a statement?

If next year, if the Eagles are the Hard Knocks team, I'm not doing the show with Cali. Can we cut one of the Eagles, Philly references out, please. People need to know what we go through every day with Colleen. I hate that it is my personality. Like, it is just my full personality. Like, what's Colleen like? Like, you know the real Colleen.

She's from Philadelphia. That's what my closet is mostly Philadelphia merch. Anyway, so, Carson Wentz, when he was with the Eagles, had his own food truck, and he sent it over to the practice facility after one of the practices. And it was a free lunch. Like he worked in the truck? He just sent it over. So, like, all the beat writers and all the reporters could have a free lunch on hand.

He didn't pull up in it because he was on the practice field. But it wasn't his product either. He literally just said, I'm going to get this food truck and send it over. No, it was his. Like, this was his company, his whole situation. He took command of that food. He did. That's right.

So it was a free lunch for everyone. It was a really nice thing. And he ran his ass out of town. And one of the beat writers actually had the audacity to complain about the options, even though it was free lunch. That's Philly. I love a food truck. Good Philly.

anecdote. Anything else? Get me out of here. That's it. We got to go. All right. Thank you to everybody for listening. Listeners in the UK, Australia. It will land later in the week.

So make sure you look out for that wherever you get your Hard Knocks content. And yes, we'll be back for one more episode next Tuesday. The finale. I believe Detroit Pizza is on the menu. Ooh, I forgot. Yes. And of course, we will learn who the Hard Knocks MVP is. at the end of next Tuesday's episode.

Thank you to everybody for listening. Until that. Give me a screen. Fuck. Even better. Until next week. Yes. Later.

Later. This is an I-heart podcast.