NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Julio Jones Trade Talk with Steve Wyche

Episode Date: May 25, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, and Gregg Rosenthal are joined by Steve Wyche to talk all things Julio and the Falcons. After appearing on Undisputed and saying he is "out of there", Julio Jones talk is everywhere (3:01). Steve comments on the latest with the situation. Dan puts a challenge out to the listeners (22:45) before the heroes discuss Aaron Rodgers and what his interview on Sports Center could possibly mean (33:22). Drew Lock is too busy to hear about any drama (40:02) and these jersey number switches are burning some holes in player's pockets (49:00).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Can't afford the number switch. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansus. Come to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. Man, this number of changing business.

Wild. We're going to get to that in a little bit. But first, listen. It is May 25th, boys. We have been doing this long enough that when a real news story pops up this time of year, we need to take advantage of it. Milk it.

Milk it, because I don't want to talk about Tim Tevo. I don't want to fight with Greg about Teddy Bridgewater. I just want to talk about it when you have the chance to talk a legitimate football news involving a future Hall of Fame wide receiver who is going to be on the move. We're going to die right in, baby. And we're going to do it with help. That was your opening mark, but we're still working on the chemistry 10 years in.

You know, sometimes like I'm watching us on screen here, I forget that I'm even in the show. I'm just watching the screen. So you're right. I completely dropped the ball there. So to dive in on this juicy saga between Julio Jones and the Falcons, we need to bring in the man, the myth, the legend, the guiding compass of NFL network. and also with that little side hustle with the Atlanta Falcons. He won't tell me his salary with the team. That's fine.

We moved past that. Steve Weish, what's up, buddy? Welcome back to the podcast. I told you it is more than what you're getting paid for doing the Around the NFL podcast. More than what the big range. Right. And more than what Jim Trott and are getting paid for the on hiatus huddle and flow podcast. Well, people, you're giving people time to catch up.

on the old episodes. Yeah, that's what it is. I'd say your timing, though, was impeccable. I mean, the Falcons tend to be kind of hushed in silence sometimes for years in a row. You land there, and the major NFL story is bubbling up out of there like a volcano. Good timing. Yeah, how about that for cover for Aaron Rogers? Yeah, absolutely.

And we'll get into Aaron Rogers in a little bit. But Steve is going to talk Falcons with us here. And let's just set it up real quickly. It's been percolating Julio Jones maybe on the move. Falcons are cash-strapped. Julio might not be happy. Steve Weish has been reporting this, letting people know that this is something of that can be happening any moment now.

And now, Shannon Sharp is the co-host of a program called Undisputed on FS1. And this is what happened on their Tuesday morning or Monday morning show. You're watching, Julio? I really hope he answers here. I got you. This is your favorite. uncle. What's going on, bro? Man, that's a much.

I'm about to go meet up with my brother. What happened with you? Man, look, you want to go to the Cowboys, Julio? Or you want to stay in Atlanta? Oh, man. No, I'm out of that, man. He's out of there. There's a version of hell for me, by the way, where it's me having to watch a Skip Bayless talk news program that's about Cowboys' speculation at all times.

But that's beside the point. Steve, as a capital J. J. Jerno, first of all, let's just say, But where do you stand as a journalist, how that all played out? I don't even know if Julio Jones knew he was on television. He was in a car and he's giving information up to Shannon Sharp. Where did that land for you? Well, first of up, guys, I mean, you know, we've dealt with pro athletes long enough to know that that is a very kindred fraternity. There's no way that was a blind phone call.

There's no way. I mean, I'm just thinking about, I mean, just think about all the guys we deal with. There is no way that they would do that on live TV. I mean, that is very Jerry Springer stick. Right, but let me just say this. I'll play devil's advocate. He's, Julio's in the car. He said he's driving to meet his brother.

Shannon calls him, dives right in, does not announce that he's on television. And you could hear the producer, well, you don't hear the producer, but you hear the other talent on the program, basically saying like, hey, hey, this might not be what we're looking for because he might not know he's on TV. But you're saying there was a. That was some WWE stuff. Here's why I knew it was, you know, obviously a setup. You know, at some level he knew that at some point.

Because they didn't show the whole clip. As they're going to him, as it's ringing, Skip Bayless is like, I hope he's got, you know, like five seconds before we heard, he's like, I hope he's got the guts to pick up. And that was the moment where I was like, this is WWE. He's a partner helping his partner get over in that moment. And he went like a little too far. Because the alternative here is that something organic happened on one of those live TV studio shows, which, by the way, almost never happens.

As we know, everything's pre-planned. And what were they going to do? Risk it going to four rings and hearing Julio Jones's voicemail. No, on some level, he knew the call was coming. I believe that. I mean, I would agree. I mean, look, suppose Julio started cursing or something on live TV. I mean, you know, you never know how these phone calls go.

Look, and Shannon, I know Shannon. He's got incredible cachet with, you know, former players and current players. He is not going to set somebody up. So I'm sure Julio knew the call was coming and what was going to be asked. And, you know, Julio wanted to clarify it because part of it was stemmed from the Cowboys part. He was taking a picture with a fan wearing a Dallas Cowboys hoodie. And to that point, today I was in a conference call with Arthur Smith, the Falcons head coach, who was just like, hey, we want our players to express themselves.

We want them to be who they are. I didn't see the picture, so it's no big deal to me. I mean, I don't think you want your Falcons players dancing around town in Cowboys' Gear. It wouldn't be the first thing you're hoping they do, but that's not the biggest issue surrounding Julio Jones anyways. No, no, it's not. That's not the biggest issue. This didn't surprise you, though, Steve. This did not surprise you because I feel like you had a inkling that it was more than just cap space.

saying that the contract wasn't a factor here. But the fact that I know Ian reported it, I think you had some idea here too, that Julio Jones requested a trade months ago. Yeah, look, you know, I have heard for a while that Julio Jones was disgruntled. I did not know that he had requested a trade, but I mean, again, that didn't surprise me. And the fact, you know, going back to the draft, when the news first broke, the teams were calling the Falcons about a move for Julio Jones. And the Falcons were saying, saying, look, we've got to fix our cap. We've got to do a market correction.

Julio's the guy people want, right? He's the one with value. They're not calling about other people. He's got a big contract. We have to listen. There was always the caveat of, we've got to be careful how we handle this because Julio is a popular player.

He's been a lot to the city and a lot to this franchise. So we've got to be delicate here, which led me to believe, again, this is experience saying, Julio's probably not happy. They don't want to paint him as a jaded or disgruntled player because then that could diminish his value when people know that he wants out. So when they continue to say that we want to protect the image,

they'll take the PR hit for moving a popular player for a salary cap reasons. Again, the whole time I was thinking there's more to this. Julio probably wants out. We've heard some of the disenchantment before. So again, this is no surprise. And as I reported on Total Access last night, this is no longer a matter of this possibly being a trade. This is likely or definitely going to be a trade.

I would just ask you this, Steve, because like, let's say, so the bedrock, the foundation is we understand that Julio Jones has, you know, maybe just the marriage is over. It's they've run their course. And there's maybe it's not, you know, massive issues, but it's an end point. And the Falcons, you know, some stuff that I read that they wanted to do right by him also that he's done so much for the team that there is a level of respect. But let's be honest, there aren't 25 teams lining up with first round picks. There's a gaggle of teams that fit cap space-wise and fit in terms of what they'd offer, and they'd just go for it. But you kind of, the Falcons are in a tough spot without really essentially a bidding war,

not really seeming to happen here. So what is this business about, like, Julio Jones wants to play for the Patriots, or he'd be comfortable going X, Y, Z? Why do the Falcons have to cater to Julio Jones on any level? I mean, is that what they're trying to do? Just so that there's a nice final chapter here? No, but let me tell you something. And Jimmy Jones, or Jimmy Johnson, I'm sorry, talking this years ago,

told me this years ago when he took over covering the dolphins. I said, look, if you've got a good player who's been good in the community, he has a good image, you don't want to crap on the guy if you move him, right? You don't want to trade him to the Siberian Huskies, you know, if you can avoid it. And you want to trade him to a contender. I mean, Julio is 32. He's got value, but if possible, maybe you do trade him. them to a contender, because in that way, you might get more of a value pick.

Okay, let's just say it is the Packers, right? The Packers might be willing to give up a first rounder because of Julio Jones, that pick is going to be probably 29, 30, 31, or 32. So they may say, okay, we might be able to forsake a back-in one, right, which I don't think is going to happen. I think it's going to be a two or below, but even if it's a back-end two, that's fine. but if all you're getting is a team like, let's say the Raiders, you don't know if they're going to be middle of the pack, bad, or good,

you might be saying, okay, Raiders might be willing to give up a second rounder that could be 15 or lower or 15 or higher. But, you know, it just all depends on where you think it's going to be. Just like when the Raiders dealt Khalil Mack, they're like, hey, there are teams that came with better offers than the Bears, but they felt the Bears weren't going to be very good, and they were going to get a higher pick out of it. So there's all kinds of things.

that go into it, but a lot of it is if you're a new regime and you're trying to establish credibility and, you know, look, you just, you don't know all of a sudden, okay, guys disgruntled, let's send him to a franchise that's had his issues like the Jaguars or someplace like that. Let's try to send him to a contender. And then everyone would be like, okay, that was okay.

That really helps out in the agent world, the player world about the perception of your club and the perception of your leadership. So you cannot overlook that element. Yeah, this Todd France guy sounds like you, I'm a serious fellow, so I hear you on that front. I also think that the timing of the trade is where the cap makes a huge difference. So in the world that, okay, some teams had an idea Julio might be out there before the draft

and the Falcons clearly didn't get an offer that they thought was worth it. Well, that was partly because whatever that offer had to be, it had to be worth the fact that they weren't saving any money against the cap to trade Julio Jones before June 1st. they are trading them after June 1st, then you're saving $15 million in cap space and that helps out with, you know, the rookies and everything else you want to do. So if no one was blowing them away in April, which I think it's safe to say, it sounds like no one was coming with a first round pick, then it's like, well, let's wait until June 1st. Let's let it sit a little bit. And we trade them then and we saved the cap space then. And I think what Julio Jones was doing with this phone call

was that he saw this, all the story popping up last week. And I think at some level, either Shannon Sharp saw an in, and I think people aren't giving him enough credit to think that he just sprung it on and saw an in to make some news with a friend of his or someone he knows. Or Julio Jones or someone in his camp said, like, let's start taking control of this story a little bit. Like, let's make it clear what we want, that we do want out so teams know. And that's how that call happens. And Julio deserves like, you know, a best supporting.

actor nom because you just get to feel like he's so cool in all situations that he's just got to be who he is and that's why it just sounded like just sounded so natural but it makes total sense now why they're trading him i i still don't love it as a football fan because i wanted to see that team together and score 35 points a game but the fact that he wanted out makes all of the reasonings from the last couple of weeks make a lot more sense because it's really about that they both won out of this marriage not just the balkins do you think steve that Julio Jones is on this team a week from now? Yeah, yeah, look, and guys, I've been reporting this for months now.

I'll pay attention to what Steve White's reports on every one of your NFL media platforms. The Falcons are willing to take this up to training camp, right? Because we have this June 1st trigger date, but what's going to happen now is teams are in mini-camps and things like this. So they want to see all these young guys go or guys they've acquired fit in to see before they make a move like this, right? Julio Jones is maybe a special case because he's such a great player and he's such a physical specimen. But, you know, there's a lot of things we talk about, but the Falcons are willing to take this up to training camp to see what type of offers they can get. Now, they may find themselves by waiting so long getting an offer they really didn't want, but at some point, this is going to happen. You know, and we're also saying, well, there's only a couple teams with the cap space to take this on.

Does anybody remember when the Los Angeles Rams had no cap space, but then they traded away Marcus Peter's and Akeeped to L. even found the cap space to acquire Jalen Ramsey. Guys, let's give these general managers and cap guys credit. Right, right. Let's not discount teams from making moves. Teams can be creative on how they want to do this stuff. So, again, there's going to be a wide net cast. There's going to be multiple teams coming after Julio Jones.

Again, I don't know what the compensation is going to be, but if you feel he's the guy who's going to get you over the top, teams are going to come and get him. Here's my one thing. If I was a Falcons fan, it's like I understand, like, you want to do the right thing, as you mentioned before. But if they don't, if they're just, if teams are saying, look, we know the Falcons are in a tough spot here, we're going to lowball them. None of us are giving a first round pick.

If most, it's going to be something that would never look the equal of Julio Jones. Is there a world where they get tough and say, we're not trading him for a bag of peanuts and a spoon? We want more. And if no one's giving it to us, Julio Jones is not being traded. Would he just simply not play, do you think? Would he, would, is there ever a world where maybe the trade doesn't happen? I mean, it could get ugly. If everyone's saying we're not going to give up, you know, a good deal for a 32-year-old guy

who's probably going into the Hall of Fame, I don't know. But when's the last time you've seen 31 NFL teams try to collude and do something like it? There are owners out there who want Julio Jones to come put their team over the top. I mean, if a second can get it done, that seems like not that much to me. Right, we've covered this league long enough. some team is going to do this and it's probably going to come down to a bidding war to get it done. Look, if nothing else, Julio's got a very powerful agent, Jimmy Sexton. He's calling these teams saying, if you want him, put this on the table and get it done.

Well, just to that point, though, if this is something that's been out there for a while, who Julio wanted out, if a market for, let's say, a first round pick didn't develop before the draft, why should we assume it's going to develop sometime during the summer? What in your mind changes? Because next year is picks their left. Yeah, it's their futures. It's futures. You don't know where you're going to pick.

I mean, if you think you're going to be really good, again, let's say you're a team like the Colts, right? Your roster's pretty well stacked. And then you say, okay, we'll give up a first rounder next year, even a second rounder plus a third. Those are probably going to be back in two. They're going to be back-end picks, whatever round. They're going to be, and you do it. You're thinking differently before your current draft or your current season as opposed to future years. Plus, you know what?

A guy may pop an Achilles while he's training. A guy may pop a hammy or something, you know, during off-season workouts. So, again, that's why I don't think this is going to be a slow burn. I don't think this is going to happen anytime soon. And frankly, you know, when it comes to veterans and things like this, things do tend to play out once we kind of get near that Hall of Fame game training camp trigger date. So I wouldn't think anything happens to the end of June, early July. Man, there's so many teams that he'd make sense.

There's a great article by Mike Sando and the Athletic a couple weeks ago, kind of breaking down the analytics of whether a late first round pick basically is worth more. more than a veteran and looking at some of these veteran trades and, you know, trying to prove statistically that more than half of these late first round picks don't get their fifth year option even picked up, which would indicate they're not even an average starter. And that some teams, the Rams and the chiefs, but especially the Rams being the most notable example, it's kind of like these late round first round picks, like I'm going to take one in the hand and trade them for veterans. And when I read that article, I immediately thought about the chiefs.

How about the chiefs go at Julio Jones? I mean, you got to be feeling good. You're picking at the end of the first round. You just traded one for Orlando Brown. Trade next year's one for Julio Jones and fly. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to do. No. Again, and again, this is why I'm not counting any team out. Even though we look at the Rams, like, they

don't have cap space, they don't have this, they don't have first round draft picks. They do have like 55 wide receivers. So they can, right, I mean, but I mean, I'm never counting a team out. Now, a team like the Niners, I would kind of count, well, I mean, I don't know if I can count them out, but

But, you know, they just gave up a whole lot to give Zach Wilson. This is not a team that probably wants to get into a situation like the Rams that are constantly forsaking first-round traffic just kind of based on their history. But again, look at a team like the Colts. Even if Julio's a one-year ringer, the folks with the Toronto Raptors love the fact that they only had Kawhi Leonard for half the season. They got a trophy on the case, right? So, I mean, these are all things that these teams have to take into account.

I mean, he's got to tie, you know, everything I hear, he's pretty close. to Cam Newton. I mean, if Cam's going to be the starter in New England and Julio's got the, you know, the Alabama connection with Sabin, who's got the connection with Belichick, I mean, you just never know. Dan's just like, oh, Jesus Christ, let's not talk about the Patriots. No, we, listen, that makes a lot of sense. I think the 49ers, you mention them, they make so much sense. You get the Kyle Shanahan connection. You look at that, that room, if he was ever added, Brandon I. You, Debo Samuel, and Julio Jones is the alpha. That, that, that, That sounds awesome for a team that's looking to get over the hump.

They're exactly the type of team that should be forsaking the future because they have a win now window potentially. The Chargers, Greg, your team is another team that jumped out to me. They have the cap space. I think he represents a big upgrade over Mike Williams, who's in the final year of his rookie deal. Just two teams that jumped out to me. Because I looked at, of course, over the cap to see who could even facilitate it.

But Steve also makes the good point. Don't just rule out teams based on cap space right now because they can wheel and deal to make it happen, like the Rams did once upon the time. Ravens, I mean, they don't have a lot of cap for them, but to your point, Steve, like, you know, you just shift some stuff around. I look at teams that are aggressive.

I could see the Ravens doing something aggressive. The cults fit aggressively. Chris Ballard has, you know, wield and deal before, and they, it's all about lifting up Carson Wentz. The Patriots have been, you know, extraordinarily aggressive this offseason that if you looked at their roster, you wouldn't love what they have at wide receiver. This would change everything.

Even though Belichick once told the Falcons not to draft Julio Jones, I think his opinion has probably shifted on that front. That was from a Michael Holly book. I was trying to like connect the sources here because that was from a Michael Holly book back in the day that he did about the Falcons front office and a little bit about the Patriots front office. And yeah, Belichick said, is there really that much big of a difference between Jonathan Baldwin who's going to go at the end of the first round and Julio Jones,

which is not a take. I knew there was something there, great. Yeah, that held up too well. But Holly was the one who was breaking this story that Julio on camera close. I'm trying to, I'm like putting it. Yeah, no, they are. I mean, there's definitely something there. But also, if you're the Tennessee Titans.

Oh, yeah. I mean, why wouldn't you make a move like this? They've got all their players coming at, like, Julio Jones, too. There seems to be a lot of heat there. I guess I can totally ignore the cap thing, but they have about half a million dollars in cap space. So you just have to get creative. Yeah, I mean, they'd have to be creative. Maybe say Julio will extend you two years, right?

And they rework the deal. I mean, all of these things can be done to facilitate NFL trades. Seahawks have been known to get real aggressive for veterans. That's what I thought, too, like Mark, which team, which front offices are not afraid to just. But haven't they traded away like 97 picks for Jamal? That's a good point. Yeah, they only had like two picks this year. So now maybe they can start trading.

We're talking a second rounder, like, pretend it could be a second and a third or something less. They don't need to draft. That never backfires on teams. Michael Holly, by the way, also reported that Jones believes that Matt Ryan has lost a little zing on his deep ball. You hear anything about that embedded within the Falcon, Steve Weiss? That's not what I've necessarily heard is the rub, is the velocity on Matt Ryan's passing. Look, last time I checked, Matt Ryan was the. It's a fact.

His deep ball is not as good as it was, I think. He's only thrown for like 5,000 yards a year for like the past, however many years. He's still playing great, I think, but I think his arm strength is not what it was. I think that's weird. I mean, probably not, but, you know, look, if you got guys, you can catch it and go. And that's the other thing about the Falcons. I mean, you know, they've got Calvin Ridley. And this dude, Russell Gage, I was back watching some of their phone from last year.

Russell Gage is a pretty darn good player. Yeah, he's a pretty darn good player. So it's not like the cupboard is bare if they decide to move him. Plus, guys, look, if they get a future, even a future mid-round second and a future mid-round third or mid-round fourth, now they've got ammo, even if they finish around 500 to start moving up, if they're back in the quarterback market or two. So, I mean, all of these things are coming into play with this whole conversation.

Steve, you've been very generous with your time today. I know you're a hot commodity on the network side with all this going on. and you're always a great friend of the show. So great, a friend of the show, Steve, that it's time to introduce another challenge to the listeners. You did not let us down a couple of years ago when we asked for a Colleen Wolf theme song. Now we come to you, the audience again,

all the musicians out there, to come up with a Steve Weish theme song for the Around the NFL podcast. Spice. And two nuggets here. First of all, you're going to send your submission. It's 30 seconds or less. Do not go a second over 30 or you're done.

The ATN podcast at Gmail and Ricky will parse through all the submissions. Now, Steve, I want you to have some create. First of all, how you feel about this? Oh, and I'm loving it because I know here's the great part because you have such a great English audience. I know they're going to hit like some banger reggae music. I was going to say. That's what I'm hoping for. That's what I was going to say.

I want you to have some creative control over this. And is that a direction? We don't want to tell people necessarily what type of music to send in. But at the same time, I want it to be a nice match for Steve and his personality. So maybe a reggae groove. Okay, anything else you want to drop there? Definitely the genre along the Mr. Vegas kind of, you know, I don't want any of the culture reggae.

Well, you're from St. Louis. So maybe something Nelly like or where? Where's your wife from? No, I haven't. She, my wife is from Jamaica. I'm much more, again, I'm much more in that lane. Yes, much more in that line. I haven't been to St. Louis since 1989, even though that's my shit.

It's been a minute. All right. So something in the reggae groove, Steve Weish theme song. That genre, the ATN podcast at Gmail, send in your submissions. And the next time we have Steve on the podcast, maybe we'll play some and figure out what the Steve Weish ATN theme song is. A bunch of pasty guys from the, the UK making reggae. What could go wrong?

I mean, we do have a few listeners from the States. Do not sleep on the UK reggae. Hey, that's a knowledgeable, knowledgeable stuff. Greg, you know your favorite fan back in the day with Squeeze. Sure. Love a little, Steve. No, we call on all of our listeners across the globe. Maybe you have some Jamaican listeners.

So let's do this thing. All right. Steve, you've said it all. Thank you so much. And best of luck with everything. Appreciate you guys. Thanks, Steve. There he goes.

The iconic, Steve. Why? Yeah, I just thought the audience did not let us down. No. And with Colleen's submission. Now, Steve, I think he's earned this. I think this is something that is going to really pop. Well, it might get on, could get on Patrick Claibon's radar.

You know, other friends of the show might. Definitely had more appearances. That's tough. Well, maybe he'll get one eventually. I think if listeners need any direction, like, is there any other personal things about Steve? I do think of Steve, as you called them, did you call them the conscience of NFL Network? That was good. He does seem sort of like the president, like the, like if there was a class president of NFL network on air people.

I feel like Steve would be the pick. Like he's sort of, he's sort of the guy, right? Well, yeah, and I think it's good. I like that you're giving some Cliff's notes here for the audience. but I also like the idea of whoever is putting together this composition, you have to be a listener and you have to understand Steve and his sensibilities and his background and everything. And that will take that into account.

I mean, I really want to see when people think creatively about this, what comes out. I also don't think you necessarily now want, you know, it's going to be Erica's chore to listen to them all, but 400 reggae-based songs. I mean, if you're coming from somewhere else as a musician or a creative type, win them over. or maybe you win them over with something from left field.

Absolutely. And that's what happened with Colleen. I think we went with more of a hip-hop theme, which is one of Colleen's favorite genres of music, but we were all over the map and that was fun. All right. And it's not a chore. Ricky, do you see this as a chore or an honor in a way, really,

to collaborate with the listeners in this way? Yeah, I can't wait to go through it all. Right. It's like, Erica's like, I can't wait to listen to the first eight entries and just tell you those, those were the best. that's not true what if there's 700 of them will you listen to all 700 absolutely what if 500 of them are by people who really shouldn't have ever considered music as a hobby i might not listen to all 30 seconds at that point but 37 of them are marked just sending voice memos to you at like three in the morning perfect it might get picked um honestly yeah and if if you know anything from the colline submission this is the big leagues. We have a lot of talented

listeners. Do not send in some chintzy voicemail memo. I want real musicianship here. That's all I ask. All right. Let's do some more news and then we'll say goodbye. Hit it, Ricky.

Former NFL star Philip Rivers returned to the gridiron tonight this time calling the shots on the sideline. The retired quarterback, now head coach of the St. Michael Catholic High School Cardinals led his team onto the field

for a spring day matchup at the Alma Bryant Hurricanes. It's got to be, it's got to be a mind trip for these kids. Because I looked it up. Philip Rivers, this year,

was playing for the Super Bowl in the tournament of the NFL. known as the playoffs for the cults. Played pretty well, too, in the game. And he walked away at age 39. I looked up over on spotrack.com, his career earnings. He earned a quarter of a billion dollars in salary as a football player over 20 seasons.

And now he's the head coach of your high school team. That's wild. I'd be freaking out. I mean, you know, Brett Farv did the same thing. And, I mean, these are legends. And, you know, maybe the high school players. of today who's 15 years old he didn't watch 15 years of philip rivers but there's it's not lost on anyone playing football at that age like the incredible concept that an NFL quarterback is now like

in your face at meetings and telling you to take laps quicker and you know i i would find it highly unusual to reconcile plus his son is coming up and is going to be on the team shortly i think if he's not yet and there there's there's many more to follow which is why he parked himself there And he's ready. It's awesome, though. That video made me really happy. I just, I love Philip Rivers. I love that he said this was his lifelong dream.

He said that, too, when he signed the contract, like, with a year, you know, he still had that Colts year to go. I believe it. His dad was his high school coach. He said it was his lifelong dream and he, like, stuck to it and is doing it amazing. I just want Philip Rivers to be happy. See, it's not all about the championship. Think of all the good times we had along the way.

All the joy that Philip Rivers brought me. You know, Greg just keeps going with the point. and we were like in eight minutes into what Philip Rivers appreciates. I love it too. I don't have to love it as much as everyone else, but I'm happy for him. I just, you know. Like I love, I don't know if he's taking a dime from the school. Probably not.

He signed a $25 million contract for one season with a cult, which was an overpay, by the way. He was okay last season. But if Greg's going to get in his tired points, I'll do the same. I also want to hear Philip Rivers just talking to the news reporter because think about it from this perspective because I've been in the shoes of this guy covering high school sports like you're usually talking to these just like regular Joe guys that are in the community and they're the head coach of the football team now you're interviewing Philip Rivers here's Rivers just talking

casually about high school football I'm just looking forward to seeing the boys compete this is another checkpoint as we head into the summer workouts I'm not worried about the scoreboard so much as this again seeing us compete seeing if we transfer what we've been working on in practice to the game setting I just like that What did they get up to like a... I've given that exact, done that exact same interview for the journal news in Westchester a million times

and had that same answer. Only it's Philip Rivers talking back to you. Yeah, like I worked for the Ridgefield Press covering the team and I'd call up the coach, Coach Guido Miolo on the phone. And one week, one week I planted, not planted, but I talked to a, the team was really struggling.

I talked to like six of the kids were just in my science class and like dropped this A bomb and the Ridgefield Press like tearing the team and like a new one. And it came in. into the lunch for me. It's like never operate that way again. I must read every article that you before you print this. That's not how this works. But what happens is suddenly Philip Rivers' team

is one in five and that cub reporters can have to deal with that. I learned a similar thing early on in my time covering high school sports is because you grow up a fan of sports and sports writing and for me like reading the sports section in the New York Post or whatever. And it's like sports are covered a certain way. And I remember I covered a, high school game where the tight end had like a Jackie Smith type moment where he dropped a wide open pass in the end zone and I believe it cost the Nanuac Golden Knights or whomever it was the game. And I, in my dispatch on the game, I noted that the tight end dropped a wide open touchdown pass. That was kind of the difference in the game. And the editor of the paper

got a very angry phone call from the parent of the player and the head coach also called. They're like, what are you doing? Yeah. This kid's 16. Yeah. But it's a fair point. On the other hand, you know, in your defense, that kid went his career went nowhere. Yeah, he sucked. You saw that. Yeah, you saw the kernel of the destruction plane. Maybe like he read that and he's like, I need to focus on being an engineer or something.

And maybe he went on to do great things. Yeah, helped him. Maybe a thank you note is an honor. Sure. Nanuette Golden Knight, Jackie Smith. All right. Let's get into it. Aaron Rogers.

Hey, how about that? He's still on the Packers. He was also on sports. Center on Monday, Kenny Maine, a stalwart there at ESPN, recently got laid off by the company. It was his last time on Sports Center. I was always a big Kenny Maine fan back in the day. He's a pro's and great at his job. So Rogers did him a solid and appeared on the final Kenny Maine Sports Center talking about the

situation. He stressed my issue is not with the kid in that quarterback room, Jordan Love. It's with the overall vibe of the Packers organization. with Brian Guttecunst in charge. Yeah, with my situation, look, it's never been about, you know, never been about the draft pick and Jordan. I love Jordan. He's a great kid.

You know, he's a lot of fun to work together. I love coaching staff. Love my teammates. You know, love the fan base in Green Bay. It's incredible 16 years. It's just kind of about a philosophy, you know, and maybe forgetting that it is about the people that make. the thing go. It's about

character. It's about culture. It's about doing things the right way. You found this a bit strange, Greg. Well, I think he was trying to somewhat answer these questions without saying much of anything. I mean, it went on for a while, and parts of the interview were

great. Kenny Main was great, and Rogers was great, too. But the part about the Packers is like, I don't know what he was saying. He basically was saying, yeah, he loves everyone except for the front office, I guess. Yeah, but But if you're going to be so indirect but obvious about it, I don't know. Why not just be direct?

Why is he just like talking around this whole issue and went into this whole long thing about culture and the people and philosophy? And it's like, well, all those people you mentioned, they're all still there. If it's about the people, like the coaches and the teammates, they're there if it's about those people. I agree with you. I mean, I think he's trying to, there's a bit of a, you know, hearts and minds aspect to this where.

if you're Aaron Rogers, you're in a town that bleeds football more than other football towns. And like they at some point are going to, those fans are going to lose their patience with the concept of Aaron Rogers wanting out, appearing to be difficult, appearing to be a diva, all that business that I don't really necessarily think he is that. But he's trying to, you know, not so subtly, but in a cryptic way, point the arrow back. Look, it's our front office. It's our general manager that created an aura of mistrust between me and the organization. It wasn't the previous GM, and it doesn't chart back to then, I don't think, but it's very much about the current GM.

And like that is enough to create a divorce scenario. I mean, it's just, to me, the longer this drags on, I just find the more petty, it seems. And he even said it in the main interview that he believes his MVP season in 2020 through a wrench and everything for the Packers. And that's true. I thought that was the key quote. And it's like, you know, it's interesting to me that I think it's a little bit of a window into Rogers' personality that there is nothing he could have done more to stick it to the Packers for this betrayal in his mind on some level than to do what he did on the field and be the best player in football and win the MVP. So everything else that's followed now, it just feels like a little bit of a twisting of the knife to make it even more uncomfortable for Goudicunst and the people that were behind.

the decision to bring Jordan Love. And my last point on this, because I don't want us to dwell on this, but I also want to hear, Greg, your thoughts on it, too, is like, he could say it's not about Jordan Love. It's not his fault. But it's like, it's not that different what he's doing to what Brett Farb did to him once upon a time where you just put the young guy in a really tough situation. And it's a strange, awkward way to start his NFL career. And it didn't have to be that way.

And yet here we are. I mean, I totally agree with you on that. That he can, he can say that. but it was about the pick. It was probably about not communicating and not feeling like he was, you know, valued enough to communicate the pick ahead of time. But what I think is if the reporting is correct

and if you piece together some of what Ian Rappaport has said in Schefter, and then a little more directly what Charles Robinson of Yahoo said was that after this MVP season, Roger said, give me a contract extension. And when they said no at that point or that they didn't like the terms of what they wanted, that they just wanted to renegotiate or they just would guarantee this year,

but not move in into the future. That's where it went DefCon 5. And if he's so worried about the PR angle of it all, I would just say that because that to me makes sense. Like, I just won the MVP and then I asked for a contract extension. Okay, you wanted to move to love. But at this point now, it's clear I'm not going anywhere in terms of my level of play.

Now I want you to commit to me. And if it's true that the Packers, At that point, this February, or whenever it was, said, no, not really, you know, you don't blame him so much. Just put that out there if that's true. Yeah, I wish he would clarify that and elucidate that for the people, because it is still sort of this thing where it's elongated, it's kind of mysterious, because we don't have all the reporting on it.

But I'm completely with you because I think you've got a schism here where the other parts of the front office probably are saying, what are we doing here? Why would we ever part ways with Aaron Roger? But there's other figures saying we drafted Jordan Love and what do you do? Not playing them for three years. And then you have to decide on a fifth year option. It's like you just have to shock it up. It's a completely missed draft pick essentially.

Or do we fire our general manager who we like just to keep the franchise star happy? That's keep Jordan Love on ice. It's not the end of the world. You say yeah, but I think the problem is that like that's a weird organization that doesn't have like a powerful owner that would just come in and clear all this up. I think it's a little bit of a trickier type organization with the Mark Murphy angle. And your general manager who has power went and picked this quarterback. So I don't know if it's quite as simple as I think you keep Rogers above all.

But getting there is tricky. It's just like they're stuck in it. On a different path connected to Aaron Rogers up there in Denver, OTAs have begun. And you know that Drew Locke and Teddy Bridgewater are involved because they're trying to win a starting quarterback. job. In fact, Vig Vagio plans a 50-50 split of reps all through the summer and preseason before he decides which one of these guys is his quarterback. Of course, Aaron Rogers has been connected to the Broncos during this process, during his fallout, Rogers' fallout with Green Bay. Locke was asked about it this week. And he said he spent so much time, some interesting lock quotes. He's a bit

of an interesting guy here. He makes for good copy. Locke said he spent so much time this offseason working to improve, including consultations of Peyton Manning, look out, that it led to him, quote, being able to do, being able to do that gave me zero time to listen to all this stuff. Maybe one day I'll go back and read and laugh about all the things that were being said that ended up being completely wrong. And then, and then before I thought to you guys, this last part.

which was interesting to me as well. Here's another quote from Locke. I'd like to think the reason no one has said anything to me is because those are probably the really close people in my life. And they understand it's not worth their time either. Whatever happens, happens. And if anyone did say anything to me, it was zero text back or no callback

because they are probably not even in my tight, really tight circle. And he added that his father, Andy, Andy Locke, good name, will tell him if he has seen a Broncos player on social media offering support for Locke. All right. A lot of information there. I know why Locke's been icing me on my text this summer. I've just been sending him all these gifts of Aaron Rogers doing the, you know, the state farm belt or whatever.

You know, I just, he never responds. He has his dad on social media watch to make sure his teammates are saying nice things about him. That's interesting. I don't know. Well, I think it's too. Pretty funky. Is he, is he making, he's like forcing those plays? players to say nice things?

Or he's like, if you happen to see a player supporting me, ping me dead. Don Miller kind of supported Teddy Bridgewater, I noticed. I wonder if that got on his radar. He was kind of, he was like, you know, Teddy came in here. I just said, don't worry about everything else. Just play. Like, we got you to play. And he said some things about Locke, too.

But I bet in the defensive huddle, there might be some of that going on. Like, hey, let's have a quarterback that if nothing else just doesn't turn the ball over and lets us go win the game. And so it's an interesting dynamic. Right, except every single player on the team would be like absolute green light yes to Aaron Rogers if that became a thing. I mean, but I think between the two, Teddy offers you more like there's, he's got these players, you know, look at each other differently and he's got way more street credit. I mean, Locke is just locked in a athlete speak mode right there with all the arms. I never believe someone when they're like, I didn't, I haven't had time to hear any of these.

Nonsense. Things people are saying. It was like, well, how long would it really take you to hear that? It would take you like 20 seconds. You don't have like 20 seconds? I'm so locked in on my sports career. Right, I'm going to go back and then I'm going to read all the things people said to you. That was the moment where I was like, oh, okay, he knows exactly who's been saying what about him.

And that was like, that was his little. He said a little too much there. I mean, maybe the Broncos are like, we already have an overly complex, mentally confusing quarterback and Drew Locke. This is how he processes, you know, his daily life, you know, getting overly beguiling Aaron Rogers in there. probably just a little bit too much. But this kind of feels like a slightly more pumped up and just slightly more pumped up version of Mike Shanahan back in 2011.

I stake my reputation on John Beck and Rex Grossman. It's like a little bit higher than that. Big Ponzo is in a tough spot here. Yeah. One of those guys is going to be a starting quarterback most likely. The whole 50-50 reps, we're going to do it all through pre-suited. That's never once worked. It's like, that is the official kiss of death.

I would respect it more if he was just like, we're going to ride with Locke or we're going to ride with Teddy. But it's just like, you know, that's one is going to start eight games and one's going to start nine. And we're going to spend like eight months, you know, breaking down what happens between now and August. But they're both going to play. It's one of the great Parcellisms of which there are dozens and dozens. If you're a young football fan read about Bill Parcells, the big tuna. If you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any. Mm-hmm.

And other news. So, yes, OTAs are kicking off. And some good injury recovery news at the game's most important position. In Dallas, Dak Prescott returned to practice on Monday. It was the first time he's seen this type of action since he suffered that nasty compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle against the Giants back in week five. So Prescott is all systems go barring some type of setback. for a 20-21 return. And speaking of

comeback player of the year candidate, Joe Burrow, this is a good one. Also back on the field, he was throwing at the Bengals first OTA. He's got a big Carson Palmer-like brace on his knee, but he was planting on that, surgically repaired knee, making throws.

This comes a week after it was reported that he is also all systems go for week one barring setbacks. Yeah, he said, though, that he's three months away, he thought, from being fully cleared. So doing the math, that is late into the preseason. And so being on the field, I think Dak was similar, but he doesn't have the same timeline.

It's like the rules that they have to keep players away. They're not even doing 11-on-11s now. They're making sure people are at least 10 feet away from Joe Burrow. But they're throwing passes, and it's all a good sign, and it's another sign. Football is back. Football is back. I mean, you know, he's throwing short passes, too.

I mean, it's just like a starting point, but I mean, you know, we go back 20 years, and if you tear your knee up in November, who knows when we see you again? It's just all of it's been, you know, sped up. And he looked really, I thought he looked nimble in the video that I saw. Hey, Mark, the miracle of modern science. Am I right? You are right. It's miraculous.

It's a great time to be alive. I know this isn't on our news rundown, but, you know, the OTAs were started. I did find it interesting that the Bucks are the only team. that are basically going with this whole MLPA thing. Like, because Tom Brady's got some juice. He basically says, I'm going to have my own practice. They're apparently all practicing down in Florida or something. And not one of the starters on either side of the ball showed up.

Every other team, everyone just was like, forget it. See, I initially had this like theory that maybe Tom Brady gets on that call. And in another world where everyone listened to what Tom Brady had to say about not practice during the off season, that everyone didn't practice because they respect Tom Brady so much, and then just the Bucks did. It would have been like, that's next level planning,

but it's completely reversed where everyone is practicing. The Bucks didn't show up to work. All right, you're coasting through your off season. Have a nice time with that. Let's see how that goes. You know, you need fire takes this time of year on football podcast. My fire take is the Bucks are done. Very clear.

Champions fatigue has set in. They won the ring, and they're just using this as a way to skip this very easy amount of a small amount of work they have to do before summer vacation yeah we're crew we are hurtling towards

eight and nine Brady would respond that whatever I'm gonna cut that as like a quote board so they can't hear the tone of your voice and tweet it out from like around the NFL you want to say Dan Hansen says this is Steve Bayless's show

every single show that's some out of context stuff yeah but Brady would say probably respond to you being like we're practicing harder down here You're not allowed to do all the stuff. Like, I've got, you know, Garero, Alex Guerrero running, you know, having these guys do wild stuff down here. We don't need the bucks.

All you mascoals. All you mascoals out there. We're doing the real work. Well, I tell him that my job is to see things through a certain point of view and maybe not include all the facts. So he's not going to get away with that. Cycling back to Denver real quick. Bradley Chubb.

He had an ankle issue last season. They hope to avoid surgery. But he did get surgery to remove a bone spur in his ankle, which has always sounds kind of gross, because that's a floating particle of bone. They got to take that thing out. It sounds slightly, you know, agitating. Pop it in a little jar and give it to you when you're done. It's gross.

Anyway, so he'll be in a walking boot for a couple of weeks. Nothing to be too concerned about. He should be ready for training camp. What's that sound to you? Ricky, I hear a sound. I smell smoke. What is that? Like an alarm or something?

Oh, I know what that is. That's the sound of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jalen Smith, burning. One of his deep, deep people down the line of his family tree, when he's long gone. At some point, the money's going to run out in the Jalen Smith family from this lucrative pro career. One generation just lost their college money

because he's changing to number nine, and he has to pay a six-month-old. figure sum for the switch sources told Todd Archer of ESPN. So Jalen Smith goes... Mid six figures. Mids six. So he goes from these lighten money on fire. Number 54 is now number nine.

A mid six figure cost. So what does that mean? That's like 500 grand. Is that what that means? 600. And as we talked out on this show, and this all just seems insane. To make the move to number nine, Smith had to buy out the current inventory of number 54 jerseys and t-shirts and t-shirts, which follows NFL rules.

This is all from Archer at ESPN. Had he said now that he would change his number in 2022, it would not have cost him any money. So if he just would have stayed number 54 this year, he could have then switched to this number nine and not paid a dime. I'm telling you, the money's going to run out in the Jalen Smith family. Someone's getting banged here in the biggest of all spots. They're not born yet. They'll never even know.

And it's all because he wanted to be number nine for three months. He's got a great financial planner. They're going to be fine. They're going to be fine. I'm bummed out. I'm legit bummed out by this story because I don't think Jalen Smith's going to be on the Cowboys next year. I think there's a chance. And I know he's not thinking this.

But I mean this year. I mean next year. So that like it's going to be a short-lived number change anyways. I think there's a chance he's not on the Cowboys this year, which I know he's not thinking about. He, you know, he's had a good. career but there's a legit chance because of um you know the the draft that they had and vanderesh and everything like that he could be on the trade block or that he could even get cut so i i after the couple of years that he said so that would be like an extra bummer if he paid for all this

and then he doesn't even make the team i would assume that he's not um prancing around with that mental state though thinking no of course i probably won't be here you know my career is on the downside, but different defensive coordinator could work. Dan Quinn, we'll see. Bander actually may not be on that team. He might be great. It might be great. That's fair. Mark, you got a lot tied up in this Dan Quinn hiring. Well, I mean, I also think like how many Cowboys fans are like, okay, Jalen Smith, but I have like a Tony Romo jersey and now your number nine. Like, what are we doing here? Like, I just, you're jumping into like the rail, the one player outside of like Ezekiel Elliott that of this current team probably has like

10 billion jerseys that people own around town. This is kind of like, you know, more like a big picture thing. But Dan Quinn got hired by the Falcons because he was the D.C. of the Legion of Boom, Seahawks, went to Atlanta. Defense in those last couple of years couldn't stop a nosebleed. Now he goes to Dallas where the talent, listen, tell me if you disagree, but is it that much better

than it was in Atlanta? now we're going to say he's going to be a defensive wizard like he was in Seattle when he had the best defensive roster of the last 10 years. Sometimes this assumption that the head coach that gets fired and then becomes a DC again, gets back the DC magic. I don't know. It feels like an assumption at the highest level. It's also an assumption to assume he's going to fail.

So it's like we're just two men with assumptions battling against each other, which tells you it's the middle of May. But that's my logic behind why. I'm not saying he's going to fail. I just sometimes we just say, okay, now he's going to be fine. And he's going to make them a lot better. But I would say this. He's under a fair amount of pressure in terms of like, if he fails here, like he'll

never be a coordinator again probably. But like they put their entire draft towards the defense. If those players work out and it's a bit last year's scheme, it was the wrong scheme under Mike Nolan for coronavirus time. It was too complex. They were arguing. They were mentioning that all season long. And Dan Quinn's scheme is completely different.

And a bunch of players are already saying they love it. So, yeah, they drafted a guy who was exactly like Jalen Smith at number 12. And they signed Keanu Neal from Quinn's team and gave him $5 million to play that position too. That's a bad. That's unfortunate. And I think the disrespect for Tony Romo is unfortunate. I guess maybe you can't retire every number and everything, especially the Cowboys. But it does just give me one chance to bring up one of my favorite takes, which is somehow,

despite being like one of the most famous football players of the last two, decades and on TV every week and incredibly, you know, well-respected as a broadcast. Somehow Tony Romo is like incredibly underrated as a player. I, the disrespect I hear of, yeah, like Tony Romo had a Hall of Fame chunk of his career. He didn't go long enough, but it's like people, I really don't think people respect how good Tony Romo was. You know what? He was, it was almost like the negative side of being, uh, the quarterback of America's

team. Right. And you had, uh, the high profile fail. failures, the injuries, of course, the playoff game with the botched snap. And I think that clouds how good he was. Like, I thought, not to, who cares? But, like, I thought Tony Romo at his peak was better than Philip Rivers. Like, or they were in the same ballpark.

They were in the same ballpark. And I think Rivers is a hallfamber. He had about four top five seasons that, like Matt Ryan, for instance, never had. Like, he, he, there were, him at his peak was just an incredible player. That's, I just think there's a bunch of these quarterbacks because, you know, I know it's like, you can't talk about if a quarterback wins or loses. Like, we love Matthew Stafford's tool set, even though they win six games a year. It's like, bottom line, I mean, the popular thinking around a quarterback is if Romo had had like two Super Bowl runs, even if he had just done what Eli Manning had done, he would be thought about completely differently.

Stafford's a good example. It's like don't bring up, and not you didn't Mark, but I've seen it. Don't bring up like Stafford's name when you're talking about Tony Romo. It's like those guys are in a thousand differently. But Romo doesn't have like, Romo just, and it's a Cowboys issue, it's not a Tony Romo thing. but he doesn't have those playoff runs. And I just think your average sports fan, like, and I don't even look down on their take, to be honest.

Like, Romo was attached to, like, Dan sent some high concept buffoonery early in his career and, like, teams that went south in big games. Man, I don't know, man. I don't know, Greg. I think we're on a little different page on Stafford. I think if you put Stafford on those Cowboys teams with those offenses back in the day, I think he would have shredded there.

I mean, if, you know, if you put Tom Brady on the Lions, you know, would have, coulda, shoulda. But he hasn't had, he just hasn't had remotely a career like, like Tony Romo did. I mean, Tony, Tony Romo had his best as a top, you know, three or four quarterback, four or five times. And, you know, a lot of fun to watch, too. Yeah. I don't take a look at their numbers, too. Interesting comparison there.

All right. Finally, in the news, little transaction wire tidbit here, the Washington football team released long time starting right tackle Morgan Moses on Thursday. and the move saves nearly 8 million in salary cap space. And Moses is a guy who's going to get work because he's a guy that has started every game for this team since 2015. He just turned 30.

Maybe not the best right tackle in football, Greg, but a guy that is sturdy that is good, not great. And there are plenty of bad right tackle. tackles in football, so he's going to get a job pretty quickly, you'd think. I was very surprised. I mean, if you trust PFF's numbers, and I don't think Washington agrees with him, he's one of the better right tackles in the league for the last handful of years. I mean, the Jets, there's a lot of teams that could use a right tackle right now.

Whoa, whoa. George Fan's fine. I think the Ravens probably regret giving Alejandro Villanueva $8 million. That was a shocking contract to me that he got that much late into free agency, because if Villan Wave against $8 million, Moses is a better player. And some team is probably going to, he's a rare free agent getting cut now

that'll still get some good money because I think there'll be multiple teams that want them. Well, Washington also released Garen Christian, their other tackle. So you've got two tackles that weren't there a year ago. Charles Leno and a second rounder, Sam Cosmy is essentially your right tackle right now. So, you know,

Cosmonauts. I remember, it was like a week ago I was saying, oh, Washington's two lines are just so rock solid and this is the Ron Rivera identity and suddenly you've got at least questions at one of the tackle spots. Well, they must feel good about the in-house options

here to make this move. Cosmy. I think they must really be high on Cosmy. Speaking of... I love that Cosmy. Sam Cosmy. Cosmy. I'm not going near it. Speaking of wish I had it back,

when I was doing my brief, deep dive into teams that made sense for Julio Jones, I feel like the Chargers, if they just didn't pick up Mike Williams, $15 million, $50, your option last spring, the Julio Jones thing would be just like perfect for them. Keenan Allen and Julio Jones together and you'd have a ton of cap space. They have a lot still, though. I was surprised when you said that. They have a lot of them. That would make sense.

I thought that the Moses story was going to get the old Hanses edit. The old hands is cut. It's like, we've gone an hour. Do we want to finish on Moses? I think we've brought some good energy, some good analysis to it. So it didn't end up as kind of the air coming out of the balloon like I fear. But I thought it was getting the hands as cut. You thought it was.

It got cutting room floor vibes there for a bit. Had a lot of potential. Had a lot of potential. But then when I did my due diligence ahead of the show, which I always do, I saw that this was an accomplished starting right tackle. And he is going to be a value add to another team. And that just feels like something we should talk about. on this program.

We're information. We're entertainment and we're giving you information now that you can go back to bars if you're vaccinated in the United States for the most part. You can drop some major Morgan Moses takes and impress all your friends. Absolutely. Finally in the news, this one via Ricky Hollywood, who I just, I asked her to just scour the web all through the show and that's exactly what she does. She's so plugged in looking for news items.

the Food Network is paying Guy Fieri $80 million over three years in the latest deal for the food guy. What would you call him? I guess he's a celebrity chef type. At 26.6 million annually. This is from Joe Popliano on Twitter. Fieri would be the 15th highest paid player in the NFL, making more than people like Tom Brady,

Khalil Mack, Aaron Donald, and Julio Jones. And let me tell you some before you say, oh, what a disgrace. That guy's terrible. His food is bad. He's cheesy. My brother, Kevin Danger Hansis, sees Guy Fierry as a hero. Like, he loves that dude. He loves his shows. He loves his energy. Guy Fieri passes the Kevin Danger Hansis test, and I put a lot of faith into that. That's all I need to know. I mean, Danger Hanses has, you know, a burgeoning singing career based on some of his social media, but I don't, I think it's Guy Fierry's an easy target. I like his little diners, drive-ins and dives show. One of Wes's favorite. I mean, West, he's fine. West love to,

you know, get a little loose maybe, eat and edible and watch some diners, drive-ins and whatever for about hours on end. Guy Ferry, I mean, they'll play them 20 times in a row, yeah. Right. Isn't he worth more than Jimmy Garapolo to the populace at large? That's like the same price essentially. I mean, he's underpaid compared to, compared to like some of these left-handed relievers, you know, in the Major League Baseball. I'm saying Guy Fieri's earned it. Right. So we are pro-Gai Fieri. It has been... Connor Orr is a huge Fieri fan. Another, I mean, that's another great endorsement. Yep. And by the way, go over all the listeners. Since Mark mentioned it, Kevin Danger

Hans has put out a coronavirus ballot called Patient Zero over on YouTube. Check it out. leave a comment. Well, it's a banger. It's actually very well done. I kind of wish it had come out like a year earlier, right at that wave of people's paranoia about the lock-in thing. But he just knocked it out of the park. But I could tell you this. That's when I heard the original demo version very early in the pandemic.

And he worked on this thing like Freddie Mercury worked on Bohemian Rhapsody. He wanted it to be the right sound and the right look for the video. So check it out on YouTube. and leave a comment if you can. All right, good, good show. Thanks to Steve Weish. Again, VATN Podcast at Gmail, send in your 30-second or less submission for a Steve Weish jingle. He said he was kind of into the Jamaican vibes.

So keep that in mind because I'm sure that will wait potentially heavily in the competition. But if you go a different path, if you believe the, you believe in the quality of your work. Don't be afraid to be different. I mean, look at Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody. That that song should not have worked on any level. It was an absurd piece of music. And now it's the classic of the genre. So just keep that in mind. You know, be your version of blues traveler. That's what I'd say. I don't know what that means. I don't either. I don't quite know what it means either. Does that mean you have to wear a vest with like 50 harmonicas in the pockets? If that's true to your nature. I mean, I just, these singers and performers out there just better be, you know, authentic as we can sniff right through anything that's a little phony.

Exactly. Nothing manufactured will be permitted. All right. We'll be back on Thursday with another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. Thank you to everyone for your support. Until then, this is Dan Hansa signing off. We're Quiet Storm. The old boss, Steve Weish and Ricky Hollywood, behind the virtual glass. Until Thursday, heed the call. I'm going to be able to be. This is an I-heart podcast.