NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Lindsay Rhodes, Bob Glauber, & Linc Wesseling

Episode Date: May 28, 2020

And what a show it was! A bunker overflowing with heroes- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler are joined first by Lindsay Rhodes to go over the latest news in the NFL. including the status with the new proposed onside kick. As the wheel of teams decided, we did a deep dive on the New York Giants and NY Newsday writer Bob Glauber joins with some inside insight. Chris and Lakisha Wesseling stop by to introduce baby Linc!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. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ricky Hollywood here. Make sure to check out around the NFL on NFL network on Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern. If that time doesn't work for you, well, you're in luck. It's re-airing again on Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern and then again on Saturday at 2 a.m., 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern. No excuses, guys. Let's go. Let's get to the show. The Around the NFL podcast is building a mansion on Stidham Corner. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansus, and I'm coming to you from a city filled with heroes in bunkers.

Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, what is up, boys? What's happening? I think, hey, Dan, still has you beat by a little bit there, Greg, but. Just wait. I mean, the show is incomplete. And I'm waiting, you know, the introductions are incomplete. Of course, because also joining us, sitting in the Chris Wessling chair, Chris Wessling, who we will hear from later, is the great legend. One of the legends of the around the NFL podcast, friend of the show, the great Lindsay Rhodes of NFL Network.

What's up, Linz? Hey, way more well-rested than Chris wrestling these days. Yeah, that's good. But you are like us. You also, Lindsay, have two children. I do. So quarantine life. It seems to be treating you well in that you don't look like you've gone insane.

So that's good. Look like it. All right. That's important. Coming up on today's show, this is a good one. We got Lindsay in the building on the podcast. Buildings don't exist anymore, at least how we knew them to be. But we are going to continue our Wheel of Team series with a New York.

York Giants and Bob Glover of Newsday. Speaking of Friends of the show, we'll be joining us for that. Also, Greg, you've done much work on your projected starter series over on the dot com. And you have some takes, he said. I mean, I've done so much work. I can distill it down to one minute, not waste everyone's time looking through 16,000 words or something. It's all down to one minute that we can talk about.

It's efficient. Just throwing this out there. Is that maybe an indictment of the series? Well, that was a joke. Yeah, that was the joke. People should read it. People like, I think people still are interested in reading articles on websites, but not as many people as before, I think we found.

Yeah, well, that's fair. It's a nice series. I've dug into it. It's a good read. I do enjoy it. If Greg needs that. That was very nice. Mark.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. And yes, Wes and Lakeisha, who knows maybe even Baby Link will join us at the end of the show. But before we do that with Lindsay Rhodes in the virtual house, let's do some news. Hmm. All right. Speaking of virtual, the virtual owners meetings are going on. And all these rule proposals that we've talked about on this show and on our network program that, you know, really served us something to talk about the last couple of weeks.

Now we see if some of these rule proposals go into a. effect, one that is not going to going into effect, most likely in 2020. The NFL owners have tabled the measure that would have allowed teams a fourth and 15 conversion attempt in lieu of an onside kick. I guess they just didn't think it was all there so they didn't even bring it to vote because it would not have passed. So I guess it's still possible it could happen this year, but more than likely this is something that's going to take some tinkering.

I have takes on this that differ from the other boys on the show. but Lindsay, I was wondering what you thought about this idea of the onside kick alternative. It would certainly be exciting. Doesn't it feel a little bit arbitrary? Like, hey, here's just, instead of doing this thing that is a kick where you would normally kick, we're going to just give you the ball and a totally different. Like, here's a spot. Here's the, like, it just feels like, okay, this is fun, but like, it just feels weird to me.

But aren't our rules kind of arbitrage? If you think, I mean, at some point, you just have to, it's like, why is it 10 yards to gain a first down? It's like, you just got to make up some, why is an extra point? You know, why do they kick it at certain? You just got to make up some, make up the rules. You got to change them up every once in a while. But actually, no, you don't have to change them up every once in a while. And I'm definitely team roads on this one.

It did feel a little arbitrary and it felt like something that you would cook up in your backyard for a football game. And I just, I don't, I don't want the, the league to make. changes for the sake of changes. And I understand the onside kick has become an almost irrelevant play, almost, but not quite, because of the safety measures that went into effect with you can't get a running start anymore, which was all there for player safety. And I get that. But my feeling on it is maybe we could look into ways, alternatives to increase the percentage chance of recovering an onside kick while also not putting players in added danger. Maybe that's impossible. But I just, I never understood it. And Mark, to me, the one thing that also

jumped out to me, the more I thought about it, it just seems like too much of an advantage for a team that's losing, like this idea that you could be down multiple scores. And if you get hot and you go on a long march down the field, you have a chance to stay on the field and have a rip-roaring comeback without the other offense even touching, setting foot between the lines. I'm not in on that either. I like the rule more than you do. Because the until you fix the issues with the onsides kick. You can think of a billion times that the team you're rooting for

has been in a scenario where the onside kick is your last chance at life. And to reduce that play the way they have in terms of being able to successfully convert those, you're out of options. They have to come up with something. It's instructive that this was a pretty, I wouldn't say zany,

but it was a pretty deep-cutting rule change. And this Zoom call with, what, 32 billionaires on it, it was a little too rich for that. So they said no, so you're, you live, you should be happy to him. I mean, and if a team gives up like three straight touchdowns and three straight fourth and 15s, you deserve what you get? I don't get the argument that's like, oh, that makes it too easy to come from behind.

Well, what's wrong with that? Let's have some comebacks. It just doesn't feel like football. That's a risk attached to it. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to give the other team the ball right there, if you don't convert it, then at least, like, the risk reward seems balanced in that sense. It does.

Yeah. I mean, but I'm just saying, how about we try to fix the onsite. kick how though but that the problem is you can't peel back the safety that's not my job i know but but but you that's a nice solution with there's no solution you're on the side of the billionaires that's you know we're for the working people in this pandemic i think that's what comes out of this you know Greg you know Greg and mark are you know working class types and you're up there in your uh your little villa wherever that seems this seems a little sloppy but uh that that's fine in other rule change uh news one thing that did go through is that the owners voted to kill the end of game, quote, Belichick

penalty loophole. It was the one where you could run a clock and keep a clock running and kill time by committing multiple dead ball fouls. And we saw Belichick do it. And then we saw it get done to Belichick in the playoffs. And it was just ridiculous and was stupid and wasn't fun to watch. So common sense carries the day. This is no longer a thing, Mark Sessler. Yeah. And it should shouldn't be. So, you know, they achieved something of, you know, logic-based during this call that needed to go away. Makes me wonder, like, how many other rules are just have been sitting there for 40 years being ready to be exploited. I hope Belichick's been, you know, digging through that rulebook

and Nantucket this off-season. Come up with some new ones. He would have found him. Right. Tough year. It came up with that one out of, I mean, he's been in the league a long time. He hadn't thought of that one before. You know, he's going through an off-season now. where he doesn't have a quarterback anymore. And now he doesn't have one of his precious little rules that he could skirt to his benefit.

He knew it was gone. He said it that night against the Jets. This was probably, well, but this rule will be changed. But in the meantime, I'm going to have some fun. One other. He's against him. I'm sure he's fine with it being changed.

Yeah. Yeah, that's very true. One final rule change. The NFL will now allow teams to designate three players to return from injured. reserve the old boomerang rule as it's known on the around the NFL podcast and that just makes sense too more common sense that's that's good Lindsay we like we like when uh because you know with the volatile nature of pro football this idea that you have to make these decisions when

early in the season on a player give the rosters more flexibility like this one i think this season too when you know we don't know what it's going to look like from a health standpoint and COVID and if somebody, you need as many players available to you as possible because if you have players getting sick in the middle of the season and all of a sudden they're not available, you can't just have people who are arbitrarily not available to come back. I think that that makes sense this year in particular, just get as many people on the field as you possibly can.

Yeah, I wondered like 10 years from now, when you look at IR boomerang, it started as one, then became two players, then now three. Would it be double, triple? Why not? Because it's great for football that you could say, you know, you have three star type players on the shelf for, you know, critical guys on your roster.

Bring them all back. Like make the end of the season meaningful and fun. In other news, Mark, your Cleveland Browns. Hot for Jadavian Clowny. We've heard Clowny connected to Cleveland, but ESPN's Adam Schaefter reported this week that the Browns have offered, quote, the most money to date to Clowny. And Schefter said on ESPN Cleveland, it's unclear exactly why he has not taken the offer.

This is from Schefter. Why is that? I don't know. Is that not wanting to be in that city? Is that a lack of belief in the organization? I don't know what it is, but there's no doubt Cleveland has offered the most money to date. 27 years old, still on the market. Mark, do you want them?

I do. And I was told about a month ago on this show that I was, you know, next to insane for suggesting that Clowny would be a good fit for the Browns roster. I mean, only by Dan. I also didn't say next to insane. No, it was actually our friend Steve Weish, who told me that it was a terrible idea also because that locker room is too on edge.

And, you know, by the way, it's okay if the Browns have more talent than people think is necessary for a Browns team. And I have no problem bringing Clowny in. You got Miles Garrett. They hung on to Olivier Vernon, which I thought if they went and got Clowny, Maybe you move Vernon at some point because there were a lot of whispers about that.

I like that they didn't because outside of Adrian Claiborne, you don't have much else at that position. And when they lost Miles Garrett last year, and that was a deserved removal from the roster, obviously, for the antics on Thursday night, that defense fell apart. So I have no problem adding pass rushers all over the place. It'd probably be a one-year deal. Do it. Are you taking it as a slight, though? He's not taking their money right now. Maybe that's easy. I don't know.

He doesn't seem as interested as I do in this deal. Idea what the most, the best offer is, like what kind of ballpark? Is it even close to what he was expecting? Or is he just in a stage now where he's like resetting all of his expectations? I think it's a lot less than he was expecting. It's a good question to ask. And it makes sense if none, even though it's the most money, it's not near what he wanted in terms of guarantees and multi years. So why not just skip all these Zoom calls?

and wait until August, you know, to be on a team. And I don't think it's a next to insane idea for Clowny to go to Cleveland. But talent is not really the problem on that roster, as we know. I know you just said, Mark, that it gets thinned out when you lose certain players. But you could say that for any roster. It's more, is he a personality fit in there? And I don't know. I don't think it's wrong to question what kind of fit they have in there,

what kind of personalities they have in place. Is this somewhere where this guy would thrive or he would become a headache? and he'd cost a ton of money. I think it would be a risky move by the team. I just still stand by that. I don't know how risky it is because they... Yeah, I mean, they have the more cap space than any team in the league right now,

and I don't know. To me, it just feels like these players are only allowed to go to four or five locker rooms. We only trust four or five teams to handle anyone with the personality. I just, I bump on that. So many different personalities. In Cleveland? Yeah, I mean... Yeah, at a certain point in to, I guess.

Like, just whatever, just bring in all the talent. Like, figure it out. What could go wrong? All right. Ain't other news. Well, I know what I'm going to go wrong as we saw last year. Yeah, Salaka. I mean, that's kind of what I'm saying.

I know they have new, hey, they have new leadership there too. So maybe everything's going to be different with the Freddie Kitchens regime, thankfully, one and done there. So we'll see what happens. But you'd maybe might not want to go there. So stay tuned. Jalen Ramsey, he will not hold out. of training camp, he says.

This comes from Steve Weisher, buddy, on Twitter. And it's coming off a year where, of course, Ramsey held the Jaguars hostage without a gun and forced them to trade the cornerback in the middle of last season. And now, with the Rams in an even trickier place, because Ramsey knows that he is going to get money from Los Angeles, he's throwing him a bone, it seems, at this time. Your thoughts, Greg? Well, he said this right when he got traded, that he wouldn't hold out the next year. And based on Les Sneed's comments, I think they've made some progress in doing a negotiation.

So he feels good. He wants to be there. I think he feels like he's going to get that money eventually. He knows people are kind of annoyed at him of how last year was handled, so he can't go back on his word. And as many questions as there are about the Rams, and they're all fair. The secondary is pretty intriguing with Jalen Ramsey. have a safety duo and a former around the NFL podcast guest, John Johnson, remember him, Dan? I mean, that was a big moment for the show.

And Taylor Rap, and you got Troy Hill. I kind of like at cornerback. It's a little thin at cornerback. But that's plenty of talent. You can do a lot with Jalen Ramsey being your number one corner. I was just disciplining my children. I'm sorry. Yeah, I was wondering what that was.

Don't be sorry. I mean, they deserve it, right? You know, leave that me alone. I told them when the podcast is recorded. They know this by now. It's been months, and I know it's a tricky situation. Don't come in here. I have a 100-foot wire, hardline wire, connecting my laptop to the router in the living room.

So when you run in here and you're three years old, you're five years old, there's like a 70% chance you're going to trip over the wire. That's exactly what happened. We're lucky I'm still involved in the conversation. And now I had to, I had to dole out some verbal punishment there. That's what that's got to do. I put it on mute because the audience didn't need to hear it. Right. you hit that mute button, but the three of us could tell that something was going on there.

You looked deeply involved in a parenting issue, which we all respect. Are you the disciplinarian, Dan? Between you and Emily, is there a disciplinarian between you two, or is it shared equally? I mean, it's not good cop, bad cop by any stretch. But I would say it's traditional, at least how I was raised, that mom is obviously a figure of respect and don't mess with her. but you know if I come into the room when things are they're not listening to reason from mom it kind of things have stepped up a notch it's that type of vibe it's how I was raised anyway what about you guys stern face yeah I don't know Lindsay was that was that what's going on in your

house are you the one with the iron hammer ultimately a whipcracker I think I'm probably tougher than my husband in that regard yeah I don't think that I think it yeah it depends on the house. I think it depends on the kid, too. Like, I would say, you know, like, depending on the, of our kid, they're more afraid of me or, or Emeka. But I feel like their ultimate fear is they're more afraid of their mom than they are of me.

You and Emica don't strike me as like a totally intimidating duo. Just to be fair there. But, I mean, our house has just slipped into total lawlessness. So I don't, there is no authority figure here. The kids are in control. Finally, in the news. Interesting piece from Richard Deich over at The Athletic, an interview with Booger McFarland, who, of course, has just been relieved of his duties on Monday Night Football.

He started in the Bugger Mobile in year one there, year two, they moved Witten out, or he moved to back to the Cowboys, and McFarland moved back to the booth with Tessator, his old buddy from the SEC network. And it was an enlightening conversation between, and Booger. And Greg, what did you kind of take out of the interview? There was a lot. I have a few things. But the part where he said he read all the criticism and that anyone who doesn't say they see that is lying stuck with me. So he knew what was out there in terms of all the heat he was taking. And the thing I found interesting just in terms

of how the firing was handled was like he got at the point where in TV they never tell you why. He was like, I didn't even ask. Like I would like, I would like. like to have known, but they don't tell you. You know, they, like, I heard this was coming. By the time they tell me, it's already over, they made up their minds, and I'm never going to really find out. And he said that was frustrating. But he also said he understood it because he mentioned the speed of the game being so fast.

And he meant, yeah, that was interesting. He talked about the Witten, he didn't even mention the Witten Year until Dijt brought it up. It was like the Witten Year never happened. He talked about his first year as last year. And he also mentioned how he's so comfortable. in the studio, that he's done that forever, that he has all these reps and the speed of the game is slow there. And then you put it back on ESPN. Well, why are you putting a guy in a booth that's never been in a booth? You know, not only are you putting him in a bugger mobile the first year with

Jason Witten, who was struggling and he tried to defend Witten, but he was just saying who's going to be their best the first year. He basically said the speed of the game was too fast for him at points, which makes sense because he'd never broadcast the game before, basically. He was a studio guy. And like that, that's ESPN's fault. That's not really Booger McFarland's fault. Lindsay, you've had a great career starting out at USC and doing all the business there and that you've been all over the country as a broadcaster. Have you ever done, have you ever done anything in the booth? Have you ever done any calling games or anything like that? No. No, I mean, I've done sideline. I have no interest in calling games because I just know that wouldn't be anything

I'd be good at, frankly. And so I can relate. I always kind of felt a little bit badly for Booger because I think what he realized and what people at home don't know is it. I think the state of the game is a very important point. It's easy to sit on your couch and jump in when you have a thought, but to have to have a thought all the time and you're constantly talking. And when you're the third person like he was in your one, the pace is different.

You know, he could jump in and add a point. Whereas when you're the person in the boot, booth, you have to have a point about all of it. And so when you say speed of the game, the game's moving fast, but you're like checking your notes, you're looking at, like, there's no time to do that if you're in a booth where you are expected to be the primary voice and you've just never done it before. You haven't had a chance to figure out the flow of broadcasting a game. It's so different than being in a studio or anything else. It's just, it feels like you're playing catch up the whole time. You just can't be in that position. I don't know why.

he read the criticism, though. Like, you know that it exists if you're him because he's like the number one trending topic every Monday night for crying out loud. So, like, I'm sure he's hearing it. But if he's reading his mentions or anything like that, I think, oh, my gosh, like, protect your sanity. You have to avoid that. You have to learn how to avoid that.

Well, I thought it was he talked about the fact that he had a real thick skin and that it didn't bother him the way it might someone else because as a player, you're so used to just absorbing fan abuse that you may be become more practice at not having to hit you. But I mean, it was a, it humanized the whole Monday Night Football thing for me a little bit. We've been tough on that broadcast, I think fairly. But also that, you know, if you're, if you're those guys, you're announcing Monday Night Football in a pretty terrible era with Twitter existing during games. This just was not the case, you know, back in the day where they might have a good show or not,

but you're not hearing it from 6,000 gibronies tweeting 4 billion times during the game. And I mean, even for us, we dip a varying levels of what impacts us. I remember one of the first articles I ever wrote at NFL.com, the first comment was, you are dumb and your children are dumb. I didn't even have children at that point.

So I don't know if that was a prediction or what. But I still remember little things like that. Or when someone really hits you with an area, that is truly mean. Like, some people can just not care. I care about that stuff. I mean, you don't want to cling to it forever. But if you're booering those guys,

you've got to have a thick skin to get through those seasons. And doing this show as long as we have and working with the NFL, it definitely gives you a little more perspective on getting criticism. I definitely handle criticism better now than I did seven or eight years ago, for sure, when it comes online. But I think my takeaway, and I didn't really need to read this article to have this takeaway, but it is a good reminder. If you care to

have a more nuanced take on something like this other than, oh, Bougar sucks, you have to understand that these decisions and his performance, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. And the fact that he struggled on that show on Monday Night Football was not just on him. Everyone would put

it all on the personality. Jason Witton, I'll even include here, as much as he struggled on his own right. But it's the position they put him in, putting him in the Bougar Mobile where he's in a seatbelt going 15 miles an hour up and down the sideline, then jump pumping them upstairs and giving them no refs to learn how to do that job. I totally see where he's coming from.

And sometimes the network, and I'm not just single out ESPN, it could be NFL network, it could be anyone. They deserve more blame than the actual individual does when things go sideways. It's like an NFL team that always struggles because of bad ownership. And I don't think Monday Night Football has had that sort of consistent struggles. But this is 100% on the decision makers, the fact that they put Witten in that scenario. and then that it didn't quite work out with Bougar. I did want to mention one other thing he talked about,

which was not related to money and football, but he was so cogent on it. I think it was important to put out there, which is he was really against college football coming back in the fall. And he said it's one thing if you're a pro and you're making money and you're making that decision that it's like, I'm a corporation. I'm going out there.

I'm feeding my family. It's another. totally hypocritical thing to say, we're going to social distance the crowd at a college football game, but we're going to make the players play for us. And that they're, you know, they're playing for free, obviously, and it's a totally different, that they're going to be tackling each other and there's going to be 100 people on the sidelines. And if you send your kids to school there, we'll try to keep them safe in the crowd or if you want to go to the game. But we don't really care about these kids that are out there. And if it's like an 18, 19 year old kid, he was thinking about

his kids he had a big problem with that i thought that was a really interesting point on the difference of thinking about this fall in terms of college versus the pros there was so many college kids though because then what do you what do you do if you're trying to like you don't want to lose that year of eligibility you don't want to or obviously they figure out something about eligibility but like you don't want to use that lose that year of athletic uh activity if you're trying to make it to the league if you're one of those guys that is trying to do this professionally you can just sit on the sideline for a year and expect that then you're still going to be fine

trying to get to the league. I feel bad for those kids too that would be put in that position. Not to say, like, yes, you should play college. Right, they pulled a bunch of... I can see how this would be a complicated thing. They pulled a bunch of college players and I've seen like two or three these articles

where the vast majority want to play. But I think, Greg, what Booger mentioned is the ethical dilemma in this. And sorry, but it applies to the NFL too. I don't care about the money. or not. I get that it's pro and you want to shove them everyone out there in time for training camp, but the ethical questions are draped over every one of these sports. All right. That's what's happening in the news. Good convo, guys. Before we get to our deep dive

on the Gemman, Greg, it is time now for you to distill everything that you've taken out of your projected starter series. And just for the people that maybe aren't properly educated, What is the projected starters series exactly? I guess it's self-evident, but just let people know what you do. NFL.com slash projected starters. We got all 22 players, I think, are going to get the most snaps for each team. But then with a bunch of notes for each team, too, which is the part, you know, that I enjoy. It's one of my favorite things to do every year.

Mark Sessler liked it. So that's a big. It's a good read. It's the little bullet point nuggets that you offer. Yeah, the nuggets. It's one of my favorite little things we do. do every year. So I'm going to try to boil that article that jumps out by the way. Is there one piece, maybe non-Browns related that jumps out to you? I thought, for instance, he did a

really nice job on the Giants who we're going to dig into today and talked about some of the, you know, the Giants have a lot of issues. And Greg is skillful at, you know, exposing some of those issues, but not dropping a bomb on the G-Men at the same time. What would be an issue that you read in that article that Greg kind of pointed out? He's trying to say he doesn't believe you that you actually read it. You know what? Mark sent me a text like three weeks ago. At least he was reading one of them and made some comments. I did. I read the one. Yeah, Dan, that is, it's talking about ethical issues. I mean, you are, you are dipped in them all day long. All right. Okay. Get to it. Greg. You're going to give a 60 seconds of hot time? I don't know.

Yeah, we'll do 60 seconds of just some takeaways. That's enough. And who's going to, are you going to do a clock, Erica? Who's doing it? Because I need to be cut off or else it'll just go on forever. All right. Ricky, put them on a clock for 60 seconds. and Greg, whenever you're ready, let it rip. Okay, here we go. The Cowboys defensive line has one player returning that had over 150 snaps on the team last year. That seems like a problem.

I'd be a little worried about the Cowboys defense. The Raiders are the team that doing this exercise, I think I liked more after doing it. I think they're the second best team in the NFC West. No quarterback in the league. I think if you look at the whole situation, offensive line, coach, receivers, everything. I don't know if anyone has a worse situation than Dwayne Haskins.

I mean, he is set up to fail. Teddy Bridgewater, love him in fantasy leagues this year. Their secondary is so bad after Dante Jackson. They're going to give up a ton of points. I like the weapons around them. They're going to have to score a ton. Steelers, take their top five on the defensive line in their front seven. That's the best top five in the league.

Hayward, Tuit, Watt, Dupree, whom am I forgetting? Bush. That's a good little great. Billup Rivers, best offensive line he's ever played with. And I like the Colts defensive line, too. So if you win in the trenches, I love the Colts this year. And then if we're running out of time here, how about the Colt, the Rams secondary, and the Texans offensive line?

They both stunk last year, and they brought back all the same players. That's not a good thing. That is that. That feels good. Time's up. I edited out my Patriots Homer take, just for you guys. Do you feel educated, Lindsay, after that? relax like i'm at a spa or something with that music very nice

it's not like help during the 60 seconds it felt very stressful and then so this is nice it's a come down well i would say if you want if you're looking for any uh constructive criticism there never when you started naming people on the steelers defensive line uh and front seven that really hurt you that cost just seven or eight seconds easily that's that's fair I think it's good, though. Then people know who, you know, who I'm talking about. But you're right. What was your Patriots Homer take?

I'm just curious. No. You know, they've got, I think you could argue pretty strong. They've got a top five offensive line, a top five secondary, and the greatest, you know, coach in history. So let's stop talking about them as they're crazy talent for. Those are important parts of your team offensive line and secondary. It's fair.

Ten and six? I don't, no, that's a little optimistic. but we'll see. Why not? I've got to see what Stidim looks like. All right. It's time. It's time to continue the wheel of teams.

The New York Giants is where it landed on Monday. So a little background of the team. Established 1925, 8 NFL championships, five Super Bowl appearances for victories. The last appearance 2012 will win over the Patriots. Super Bowl 46. They went 4 and 12 in 2019. And they're coached by Joe Judge, who's in his first season with the team. Yes, the Giants are starting over.

And to join us in this conversation, we welcome in a man who serves as an NFL columnist for Newsday. He's the author of Guts and Genius. a great deep dive into pro football during the Reagan era, as I call it. Some people just say 80s, but I like to give it that little extra flair. And let us not forget, I know Sessler hasn't. This man is also the president of the pro football writers of America. Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Glauber. What's up? Heroes?

I mean, we bring you on, Glauber, and your phone is ringing. I mean, this isn't, this isn't helping your case that, you know, that your demographic, it's a little older than ours, maybe. He had his wife do that to give him like a rap sheet thing there. No, I'm like, who is that? I mean, come on. It's, you know, what was another old-timer, Neil Best? Okay.

Okay. I know Neil Best. Great, uh, great TV columnist from Newsday. I mean, what, is he just because of a hot take on Mike and the Mad Dog? Come on. Oh, he's answering the phone and Cloudbers. This is just pathetic. Just sad.

He's a newsmaker. I've got to go, Neil. Okay. This is special. You respect Neil more than us? What is going on, Bob? Well, I had to take his call because he would have kept calling. You want to keep getting interrupted?

Well, Neil's been on the show out of nowhere. So it's a big event for him, too. You can silence the phone. You turn it off. You can do all sorts of things. How many years, Bob, you've been covering New York sports and the pro football scene. Where are we up to now? New York sports I've been covering since 1979. Wow. It's 41. I started in 79, covered them in the Stanley Cup years and then

football started in 1985. Wow. So you've seen a lot. Twinkle in your daddy's eye. I wouldn't go that far well actually yes when you started bob you that was exactly the era was a twinkle yeah so mark was in middle school then so it was no i i was i was born but um i will say that you hit the new york football scene at the exact right time i mean 85 please oh my goodness i'm mark i'm telling you i am grateful to have started then because it could have been 84 83 that you know but but they were starting to get good the giants were starting to get good the jets were good at that time and the Bill Parcells era was spectacular and it was incredibly memorable not only for fans and for football enthusiasts but for journalists no better training than to be in a Bill

Parcells press conference and get leaked on relentlessly and continuously but to the point where I can now call this man and say, hey, how are you doing? You know, he was quite a character. And it was very, it was tough. It was very challenging as a journalist, believe it or not, because he was like, you know, he was into it. He would challenge you big time, but it was great. He's my, I would say he's my favorite football personality ever.

And I'm biased because of my New York ties and his run with the Jets. In general, no matter where he's been, to me, he was always such a compelling figure. And his personality, he's such a Jersey guy. It was all, it was all like what you see is what you get with Parcells. Maybe we'll have a, oh, and you could read more about it, as Bob points out, with a shameless plug, on guts and genius. And guts and genius, Bob's book you released last year. All right, let's get into it, Bob. Let's get into the president.

The Giants are starting over mostly. You have the same GM, Dave Gettleman, but a new head coach. and a new franchise quarterback in Daniel Jones entering his first full season as starter. What are your kind of, what's your general feel around this team right now? Does it feel like almost a weight's been lifted off them now that Eli's out out of the building and they're able to kind of move forward as an organization, as good as Eli was to that team? Yeah. No, I think that's a fair point, Dan.

And I think there is something to that. You know, that had to be a logical conclusion to the end of his career. I think it happened much sooner last year than anybody could have expected. It made it a little bit awkward after just two games. They go to Daniel Jones. Certainly made it awkward for Eli Manning. And as Daniel Jones admitted a couple of weeks ago, he made it awkward. It made it awkward for him too.

I found, you know, Daniel Jones is extremely guarded. I mean, he makes Eli look like Jerry Seinfeld. Oh, no. Because Daniels was very careful. Eli loves Seinfeld, so he'd appreciate that. But Daniel's very, very careful. But for him to admit that it was awkward, I thought was pretty striking. Now, of course, Eli himself said, yeah, it was kind of awkward.

So I think Daniel agreed with it. But, you know, you have to look at this now as, okay, this is Daniel Jones' team. There's no question. And that's a good thing for moving forward. You have a new coach. You have a coach who's now calling Daniel Jones by his name. so that's progress and I think that they didn't move on. I was listen, the judge refused to call players by their first name for quite a while.

And I think that might have continued had we not had this interruption because that was part of his deal, just earn your spot. And you talk about playing it close to the vest. Judge seems pretty tight, you know, tightly wound Daniel Jones is. Jason Garrett, you don't really think. of as like a guy who's too loose. It's the New York media. And it's asking Garrett to integrate, you know, this new, he's going to be installing a new offense, an offensive line where everyone's changing. I guess Nate Solders maybe going to play right tackle. They have a rookie at left tackle.

We'll see, you know, it's not a bad looking group, actually. The line looks pretty good, decent on paper. But any concern about the way this offense is going to be able to ramp up with, like, all these new pieces all kind of getting together and not being able to be on the field right now. Any concern? I would say, you know, DefCon 3. Right. Because, you know, start with the fact that everyone's new.

Add in, they have not been together ever as a team. So, you know, Joe Judge, I think, has one of the hardest jobs in the NFL this year, you know, competing in a market that's really intense. I've been impressed with the way he's handled himself, if you can be impressed from a distance, because I think he gets it. I think he's not, you know, he's tightly wound, but I don't think he's tight.

You know, I think he is, he's got composure about him. Now, he's going to get intense during games. He got intense during games with the Patriots as an assistant. So he's going to get intense and appear tight, but I think he has good vision for what he wants from his team. And I think, you know, he'll handle it. But it's going to be an incredible work in progress. Second year quarterback, first year, full year as a starter, new offensive line, similar weapons.

You do have Saquan Barclay, so there's continuation there. But, man, for the most part, this is going to be, this is going to take a while. When you look at Dave Gettleman in the team building, you know, experience, like there's a belief. out there by some that if you don't see a front office really flipping the switch by year three that you've got issues. And the Giants have won, what, 12 games and they'll pass three seasons. That said, to me, Gettleman feels a little bit like too easy of a whipping boy at times. And I get that, you know, he's a bit countercultural and, you know, doesn't seem to know how to turn on a laptop at times, things like that, and people have their fun with that.

But you look at their draft. And I think that Andrew Thomas, I mean, forget what the media things. A lot of people that Andrew Thomas was a perfect pick for them right there. Xavier McKinney, the safety they got is being compared to Minka Fitzpatrick. So I think they had one of the better drafts in the NFC. But do you trust from where you sit, Dave Gettleman as a team builder in 2020 versus, you know, 2000 or something? Is he building a team for modern football? Yeah, that's a fair question, Mark. And I think the answer is I'm not sure.

I think there are pieces with this team. I think there is some semblance of cohesion. Now, the DeAndre Baker, we haven't talked about that. You know, that situation is going to impact potentially extremely negatively on Dave Gettelman because, you know, let's face it, he traded up three picks to get a player who might not be with the team. And there were there questions about Baker going into the draft. I mean, that's kind of why he was there at number 30, people thought. Yes, yes, there were questions.

I don't know that there were any questions to the level of something that allegedly happened, right? So in fairness, I don't know that the concerns rose to that level. But that said, you know, that's on him. And this is a bottom line business. And he's got to take the hit for that if we find out that this is a player that's not going to be with the team. So I think there are elements of the team that have come together, Mark. And I think that, you know, building the offensive line, like he said at the draft, You know, we've finally got to get this right, all right.

And I think they've gone a long way toward getting it right. You may see Solver at right tackle. Right now, it's Thomas at right tackle on the depth chart and then Soler at left tackle. And he's coming off an admittedly bad year. He had some personal issues with his child that were happening at the same time. So, you know, there are some pieces here and there are some building blocks. But I think there's genuine concern that, you know, is Gettleman a modern-day general manager who can kind of adapt to today's world with a little bit of a you know stegosaurus burger type

look at you know how football is built from the lines out you know the big men and that that's all well and good but it's a different game now and it's a totally different game we'll it's a big year for him here's an optimistic spin on this bob and you tell me if if it's a little too pie in the sky so daniel jones certainly flashed last year as a rookie and I know you could definitely get on him for lack of ball security, but you know, you imagine that in year two, he could button up some of those issues.

Saquan Barkley, when healthy, is arguably the best running back in the league. Their wide receiver group, while it doesn't like jump out in conversations of the best triplets in the league, I like Golden Tate as a player. Sterling Shepherd, we've always loved if he could stay on the field.

And Darius Slayton kind of broke out last year as a nice draft pick there when given opportunities. And then Evan Ingram, him another guy that, yes, he's had injury issues, but an explosive playmaker went on the field. How hard do you really have to squint, honestly? And the offensive line, obviously, we were talking about that question marks there, but they did address that with three draft picks and including the big man and four overall. I mean, how hard do you have to squint to see this as a potentially not just like proficient offense, but a very good offense? I think it's

potentially in play here. Crazy? Very good offense. I mean, I guess you could see flashes. I need to see more consistency from Daniel Jones. You mentioned ball security. Fumbling was a problem. He's working on that in the offseason. You know, Bartley was stopped how good you're running back is. Teams can stop that. And the receivers, I'd say, are, you know, good, not great. I love Shepard. And Slayton was a nice surprise. And Golden Tate is a good possession receiver you don't have a true home run hitter okay you can live without that and engram and slayton embarking that big time explosiveness right but i don't know you put that all together and you have a new system a new offense a new offensive coordinator and a new offensive

line that that's an awful lot i think talent yes on paper it's there but i mean i don't know i'm not looking at a playoff offense in my mind just yet i'm with you dan though i don't think you have to I don't think you have to squint that hard. My bigger concern is Garrett, is whether they have the coach to take advantage of being explosive or whether he's just going to want to run the ball like crazy like he talks about and whether they're going to take advantage of all these guys, whether he's the guy to develop Daniel Jones.

And maybe he'll prove me wrong there, but they just sound like they want to play it close to the vest, where I'm with you, Dan, that they have enough weapons that actually, I think they should take advantage of that because they're going to have to. Their defense, I'm rambling a little bit here, but the defense looks terrible on paper, and they have a coordinator who's never done anything. Patrick Graham, who's coming from Miami.

So that, to be, is the bigger concern that if Baker's gone, that maybe is the worst secondary in the entire NFL, and you don't really have many natural pass rushers, and you have a coach that's never done anything. So you're going to have to score some points, I think, to keep up with his defense. Yeah, welcome to Giants in 2019, 2018, right? No, seriously, I mean, that's a huge problem. I remember Tom Coughlin, you know, toward the end of his run, just before they were consistently bad and you felt it was time for a change, but he had to coach differently.

He had to take far more chances on offense, and he went for fourth downs more than he usually did, but because he had a defense that couldn't stop anybody. And remember the last year that after he left, they went on a spending binge and free agency, got in Olivier Vernon, snacks Harrison. and so they got, they built their defense, but you have to coach differently when you can't stop anybody. And that's what hurt last year. Pat Schumer had to be much more aggressive and it burned him. Let me ask you this real quick. I mean, Giants ownership, you know, and Dan mentioned he grew up in Giants, you know, towns. I grew up watching the Giants. It's the first team I remember. and they just had this undeniable identity with Parcells and with Belichick and their defensive staff. And right up through Cofflin, I mean, they just were the Giants and they were a different type of football team than anything else out there.

They seem to have zero identity at the moment on defense at least. And this ownership group, I mean, I know they've been annoyed, obviously, with what's happened in the last couple years. How patient will they be with Joe Judge if it's going to take, you know, this season's going to be rough potentially with no real training camp? if that's how it plays out. But let's say they struggle, you know, for a year or two, is Joe Judge going to get the one, two-year deal and you're done? Are they committed to really, like, seeing this through for once? There's been so much turnover there.

Yeah, that's a fair question. And I think the answer is Joe Judge gets at least two or three years of, you know, like there's going to be no problem with that because they really truly believe that they have a good young coach who can last a long time. I think Gettleman is the guy who, would be on the hot seat if they go south record-wise I think they would be no problem making a change there that they would they would do that and hope that someone else coming in as a general because they do like that structure of general manager they don't want to make Joe judge into

bill Belichick in terms of giving him all the authority with personnel so I think they will be patient with him they're aware of it John Mara is aware of it you know he grew up John Mara I've known him, you know, since 85 and before he was like the lead executive of this team, and it was good to kind of see him just as an everyman type person. And he lived with heartache growing up because when he grew up, his father's teams were terrible. John Marry did not want to go to school. Like Wellington had to force him to go to school on Monday mornings after a terrible loss. And John was afraid, his classmates would make fun of him.

So, I mean, that's ingrained in him. He's impatient and he's driven. But I think that he will give Joe Judge the benefit of time because he feels like he found somebody that he can win with over a long period of time. And I think he's willing to go through the inevitable ups and downs that you have with a first-year coach. The trick is, though, you know, Gettleman, if he's on the hot seat, Then you're just falling into this cycle again where it's like the coach and the GM didn't come in at the same time and they're not a line.

And the Giants used to say they were sort of above that. You know, we keep, you know, coaches for a long time, we keep GMs. All the GMs at this point still have like a Giants lineage. But then you're falling into some of the troubles that some really bad franchises get into. So it's like you almost have to keep Gettleman at this point if judge is there and see it out, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense. You only get to have coaches that hang around for a long time if you hire the right coach in the first place.

Exactly. I haven't been nailing that lately. I think you'll be able to see what, you know, what judge is, even this year. Maybe you'll see it even more because of the challenges. But I see what you're saying, Greg. The coach GM thing is really important. It's really hard. And I think the Giants had a long run where they just had George Young,

didn't have to worry about it. George Hires Ernie, of course. trains him up the way he, you know, sees fit. Ernie builds a Super Bowl roster that Jerry Reese inherits. And Jerry Reese was the last scout hired by George Young. So there was this uninterrupted line of succession from 1979 through the end of the Jerry Reese era a couple of years ago. That was, and then, you know, you could say that Gettleman was part of it. Yes, but he wasn't hired by George, this George Young,

direct legacy. And yet Gettleman is part of that franchise earlier on. He was more of a Kaufflin guy. So, yeah, they don't, they don't, they love the structure of GM and coach and probably lost them Bill Parcells in 90 because of that, because he and George Young didn't get along. But they like that structure. And if it doesn't work, you're right. They will have to make some adjustments. But I don't think there is the kind of loyalty to Dave Gettelman in the Giants front office that there was with George Young, certainly, and Ernie a Corsi, and to a lesser

degree, Jerry Reese. I just don't think, I think they would make a move sooner. Bob, pivoting before we say goodbye. I'd like just to see where we're at, where we're at right now. You are, of course, the president of the pro football writers of America. It's been a, it's been a

sore spot for a certain member of this podcast. I'll point out it's Mark Sessler, that we are not members of this esteemed group. Is there any movement on this front from the Prez to get us involved with your great organization? First of all, I wanted to talk to Mark. I said, Mark, can we talk at the Combine?

You did. You did. And that felt like about 22 years ago. But I do, you made a point of wanting to have a discussion. He did as usual. He's like, we'll do it on the podcast. I'm not doing this unless it's content. I'm sorry.

That's just how Mark. First of all, and I'm imagining, what am I going to tell Mark? And here's part of it. And I was going to hope to save this for a private conversation, but let's be out in the open. We met at the Combine several years ago. I said, you truckleheads have a good chemistry. All right. Is that correct, Rosie?

Yes, it is. That's right. Factual. In the back of the press room at the Lucas Oil Stadium, I said, there's something about you. You guys are big in London. for God's sake. You attract crowds at London pubs. At least that's what your Twitter says, right?

You're internationally famous. Why do you give anything, you know, why do you care about this? It's a, I mean, I see myself, you know, I have a little bit of shared DNA with Michael Jordan where I'm just looking for that, that one thing that can get me motivated. And sometimes it's got to be something that, you know, positive motive, positive, reinforcement doesn't do it with me. It's got to be something that gets me riled up. And, you know, this didn't start with you.

You've at least attempted to address the topic. It was some previous presidents. Yeah, Trotter blew us off with a letter. Well, you know, and I, and it's nice to get to know him since. And I see that that probably was just the machinations of how it all works. I'm sure he didn't sit down and type that letter. Backpedaling like Dionne's standard here. Let's just say, you know, you know, I give Glover,

a lot of credit for reaching out and addressing the issue. Here's the answer, Bob, I think. It's because you know, Capital J. Journows in your ivory towers, you're looking at, you're looking at, ooh, these podcast bozos and oh, they work for the NFL. They must

be just biased. They're not They don't spend time in locker rooms. They don't pound the pavement. They haven't paid their dues. So they can get all the London fans they want. Doesn't mean they have integrity. I think that's what you're, you know, covertly saying to us put it out in the open no buddy hey what's up um no that's Craig if

if if I if I didn't think you had integrity shame on me come on man it's not integrity there is there is a there's a bit of there's a line there's a line of demarcation and that line is still it's it's it's it's a pretty strong line So, Mark, we're just going to have to exist on the outside, the fringes of the establishment. That's what it sounds like. Yeah. See, this is good, though. You guys are like the outsiders, right?

We operate in the shadows and we will continue to do so. Hey, we're the outsiders, man. We're going to come in there and kick some butt. Yeah, the bad boys. That's what we are. Bob, you've said it all. Thank you for giving us the insight. and I hope your family and friends all staying healthy

during these trying times. And it was just great to see you and great to hear you. Great. Shout out to my mother. My mother beat it, man. She beat COVID. She did. Wow.

That's awesome, Bob. That's good. Well, that's great to hear. There you go. Mama Glober. Thank you. Mama Globes. Got it done.

All right. Well, best wishes to Mom as well. Thank you, Bob. for talking some Giants football there. And let's, let's end our little Giants chat guys with a little over under. I'm going to start here. Giants, seven and a half wins. Greg.

Under. Strong under. I'm going over. I think there'll be eight and eight. Wow. Giants. See, I'm kind of with you. I'm taking the over here.

I don't, I don't see the NFC East as this. like incredible division that's going to have teams that are going to be soaring. I think it's going to be a dogfight, and I think the Giants going to be able to hang in this division. I really do. That's our East Coast bias, but we're sticking with it. All right. What about, let's go, Sequin Barkley over under 2,000 yards, total yards.

It's the right number. I'm going to just say under because it's so awesome that trying to expect that out of a Jason Garrett back. But it's certainly possible, but I'll go under. I'll go under, but I wonder what Bob thinks. I'll go under on everything. I mean, you are the guys who say, hey, they don't have to squint to see greatness there. Rosie, all of a sudden, ah, no, I take the under. Well, yeah. I just think it's an awful lot to ask of a first year coach with no work with his players in the entire off season. The first time he gets together

might be training camp to come in cold. Seven and a half, man. That's a pretty big number given those circumstances and given that defense, which we talked about. They haven't been together.

It's tough to do things you've never done before. Like having a Zoom call with a guest like Bob Glover where Dan tries to say like buy to the guest mid-convo, but then he's still on the video and then we bring him back in.

Like we don't know what we're doing. You can sign off at any time, Bob. We thought, we were signing off but I want Bob the whole show let's keep them you guys can kick me off just just get the look well we can't we can't do it with you just sitting there

watch you know if you're just watching us really it's you know I'll go off that you guys I'm grateful to be with the heroes my best to Wes and Link and yeah great stuff there all right there Bob bye Bob thank you I love that man

thank you to Bob Bob Glabber. And before we say goodbye, let's welcome back Lindsay Rhodes. And also welcome in some people that we love. All right. So thank you to Bob Glabber. That was awesome.

But now as we tease something that we've been waiting all week for, we want to see what the updated Wessling Clan looks like. So here they are for the first time on the podcast. There is Lakeisha, Chris Wessling, and baby Link. You let's be a little funny. What a cutie. Lincoln just is a, he's got an eye for the camera. He's lighting it up.

This is a onesie courtesy of his Nando Rota. What does it say? Pass the podcast headphones, Dad, I got your back. And also, I have to say, is someone that's known for his hair on this podcast, Lincoln looks like he might be coming for the throne. Look at that full head of hair. This guy's six days old. He didn't get it from me.

How is everybody doing? Yeah, what's going on over there? Exhausted. That's the key word. I feel like a zombie. I don't know how people with two kids do it because one, it's like, Chris, I feel like I can change like 50 diapers a day. And I'm either feeding.

But it's all worth it. Well, we had that whole, it's over for the Westlings thing where everybody told us we wouldn't have a social life. And we, you know, and we were like, no, we'll be different. And everybody kind of patted us on the head. Like, that's cute. That's cute. You think you're going to be different. And now it's like, when do you come up for air?

Yeah. About 15 years from now. It's the lasted like four days before giving up on all that. Oh, man. Yeah. Well, this, in terms of sleep, you know, you're recovering from birth and a surgery. Kisha, it'll get better. And disclaimer, if I cry,

I'm sorry, I cried everything now. I don't know how long that will last. I would like to be my normal self again one day, but right now, everything makes me cry. We were watching a show last night on the Smithsonian Channel about the Mississippi River, and they were talking about beavers. The parents work up

to 20 hours a day, and Kichie's like, I hear you. I feel like a damn beaver. Oh, man. Oh, this is amazing. Amazing. Look at that guy. So well behaved, too. He's just totally chilling right now. You're not even asking the right questions, Dan. Like, is he sleep? Are you guys sleeping? Chris, are you getting up? Are you being a good husband? I know the answers, Erica. I've been there. They told us. I just want to hear them. I just talk to me. Erica, it is hard as F. Um, me, maybe Lindsay can give me some tips. I can't sleep when he sleeps because I'm constantly getting up to make sure like he's breathing. So I can hardly ever sleep.

And I'm constantly telling, waking him up to, you know, you know, freak, not feed him, but change his diaper because they don't give him to me to feed. But it's just like, I can't get any sleep. I'm guessing you guys all went through this, but it's hard to get excited during the pregnancy. At least it was for me because he's not in my body. And then you meet him and then you're excited, you know, I can't. The phrase over the moon has been in my vocabulary and it seems like everyone else's vocabulary. Everybody's over the moon.

In Australia, they're chuffed. Chuffed for you, mate. that's not so cute like seeing Chris super excited I'm just like what is wrong with you yeah that's super cute

yeah so cute it's stupid you look tired you look tired I'll say that yeah yeah Wes I just wanted to pass on

that I'm having flashbacks that aren't necessarily great if you got tips I would appreciate them I used a little sully wrap yesterday and that was a game changer

because usually I'm just stuck on the couch. Like we moved our whole operation into the living room. He's on one end of the couch. I'm another in the couch. We've got the bass net in there. And that's where our setup is. And I'm just stuck in the couch all the time with him. I'm a boob.

But yesterday I got to use a solely wrap and actually get up in like... West or Link? Man. I walked into the bedroom and saw the bed. And I was like, oh, I got emotional. Like, I remember that thing. I used to sleep there. Yeah. It's over, West.

Yeah. And he poops all the time, poops and peas all the time. Well, how has it been getting back home? Because you were at the hospital for five days and West was there without being able to leave, which is a unique experience, I think, for the dad because of COVID. So how has it been getting back to your house? I know you guys, you know, in another world, maybe your mom, Keisha, would be there. So you're not getting some of the help that some other.

mom again. But like, how has it been since you got back home? It's been, sorry, I told you all I cry out at everything. It's been our neighbors helped out a lot. It really sucks and having my mom here to help. She's going to be flying out at some point soon because the Longs, J.B. Longs, they have a little guest house in their backyard and they're going to let her quarantine out there so she can be out of her to help us and stuff. But I can't say enough about our neighbors. They've been dropping off food. Yesterday, our direct next to our neighbor, the Palmer, as they dropped off appetizer.

I think of what, six o'clock, dinner at seven. It's a third at eight. Like, it's just, they've all just been so wonderful because they know the situation that we're in right now. So it's kind of like having a little extended family that you didn't know that you had. It's kind of weird for me because I have five younger brothers. So I did all this stuff, but it was in the 1980s. and the technology and baby care is like so different compared to what we grew up with.

And during the process, the last nine months, I'm like, oh, you don't need all that stuff. Like, you know, all these newfangled parents with their gadgets. We need all of it. Yeah. strollers, the bouncy toys, everything's so much different than it was. He's finally napping, took a nap in his bouncy today. That was a life changer. I got to get so much stuff done during that time.

But then I also have to keep, again, checking on him because if he's predicted him out of time, I freak out. Like, I'm always constantly putting my hand on his nearest face, being like, do I feel anything? Okay, he's still breathing. We're good. We're good. Six days.

We're doing good. Very normal young parents stuff. I remember doing all that. And just kind of put a button on it. You said when do you come up for air? Yeah. That's really hard to say. I don't know.

I mean, from this phase, this newborn phase, maybe it will take, you know, a few weeks, few months, whatever. But in another way, I feel like we still haven't in our house come up for air since the first baby landed. It's just, it's a game changer. I guess you're living underwater in some ways at that point. Two and a half years, maybe. Three. Yeah.

Yeah. That's when you come up for here. 2030 says. for free. He's a beautiful boy, and we are so happy for you guys. We'll let you get back to your parenting and your poop cleaning and you're checking for breathing and all that great fun young parent stuff. Congratulations and enjoy this special time. All right.

Thanks, guys. See you. Love you, guys. Love you, Lincoln. Love you. We have another boy in the family. Unbelievable. Yep, a young tape dog.

Two, four, five boys and one girl. Yeah, poor Ellis, my daughter, you know, she needs another, another pal. You know, another girl pal. Maybe Wesleyan kid number two. The problem with them coming up for air for three years, well, we don't even want to, we don't want to get it. We don't know. We don't even get into Dan's predictions of June, June, June. when this next one might be coming, right?

Oh, it's coming. Now it's not the time. Now it's not the time. Lindsay, your final thoughts on motherhood. Well, I was saying that quarantine might actually be kind of an added bonus for them because while her mom, like, you want those types of people around. One of the things that I remember as a new parent is when people would come visit, I was like, I will never do this to someone again because they just come visit and they want to see the baby.

Like, if you want to go visit, a brand new baby, bring either food or do something when you're there, because it's just time that the mother or father don't have to just sit and visit. I remember always being like, I really want to see you, but like the fact that there's downtime right now, I have to sleep. And this is stressing me out that we're not, I'm not sleeping during this time. So they cut out all of the people who just want to come by and see the baby that they don't have time for. So that's a win. And, and, uh, Lakeisha's mom coming a little later is not the worst. One thing I thought about was, you know, moms and help and friends.

They're always there for, it's always there the first two, three, four weeks, whatever it is. But you're in the exact same situation in month, two, three, four, five. So it's fine. If the mom comes out a little later for a month, like you need the help just as much in month three pretty much as month once. It's okay. Spread it out.

All right. Lindsay, you've come in and you've done it again. You've done it again, Lindsay. You've said it all. Thanks. You've done it all. And every time you're on the show, we love it. And it's a lot of fun.

So thank you again for joining the Around the NFL podcast. One of the great friends of the show. Absolutely. Technological disadvantages and all. Yes. But we survived it. And we will be back on Friday with the Around the NFL broadcast on NFL Network. Make sure you check that out 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific with some re-airings throughout the weekend.

Set your DVRs. Support the show if you can. on this podcast. How about over on iTunes, leave five stars in a review. That always helps us as well. And check out the around the NFL subreddit. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm.

The mailman, well, not the mailman. Well, yes, the mailman was here. Lakeisha, Lincoln, the old boss, Lindsay Rhodes. And of course, Ricky Hollywood in West Hollywood. Until Friday. Thank you. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks.

On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.