NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Making the Leap; Win Wess’ Toaster returns!

Episode Date: June 10, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- begins its “Making the Leap” series ahead of the 2014 season, starting with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh McCown. Elsewhere, the gang plays a round of “Win Wess’ Toaster” that must be heard to be believed.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 League podcast features a former mailman. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes, Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosadol. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. Good to have you back. Thank you.

It's good to be back. How was Tejas? Goodish. Texas was great. It was hot. There was a baby shower that I had to partake in. Had to for your own child. You know, there are certain things, as you know, Mark.

There are things that you have to do. Most people don't have to do that, though. You've never been to your own baby shower, Mark, I assume. I have not. Well, as I mentioned, I have logged probably three or 400 life hours at birthday parties for children under the age of two. Yeah, that's bad, too. That's just as bad. I've done some time.

Yeah, usually the men are not involved. For those, I don't even know, our foreign listeners have any type of situation where there's a shower involved. Yeah, but I ended up having to be at mine. I had to wear a sombrero. It was all very humiliating. It's not really worth getting into. I am glad to be back in the studio where, you know, you guys did great. I listened to most of the two shows, and I thought, you know, it was pretty nice, pretty polished, mostly professional.

I liked it. I'd like, well, Greg did a fine job, right? Greg, in the chair. The open was all for you. The opening open, the one on, I guess, it was Wednesday, you know, when I didn't get mentioned, that hurt a little bit. And then, Greg, you made a point of it on Friday to mention me up top. And then I thought Chris got out of that too quickly, instead of maybe some more riffing on what's it like to be, you know, Dan, not to be here. I take the fall for this.

I know, I'm just being honest. This is a trust. My takeaway was, you know, having to miss the show two weeks ago for family issues, I dial in. to listen that night, and Dan is taking me to town for not being in the studio, and then promptly misses an entire week of shows. No, that's a fair point. I had a written excuse for my wife, though. Baby shower, as I said earlier.

How to do it? How to go. Sometimes you've got to do things. Shows. The gold standard behind the glass, one day, Wes, you will be at one as well. The amount of vitriol I have spewed on this subject during my late 20s could fill a Tolstoy. novel. Well, don't worry, because Dan's informed us that only America celebrates the birth of children.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to get a lot of tweets about this now, and maybe there is some type of custom. Gold Standard, you also had your soccer podcast. I did. Over on the Damashchuk show. I have not listened to that yet, but I've heard some good things. So congratulations on that.

On the other side of the glass, so check that out if you're a football fan. Mark, the World Cup is starting up this week. Well, listen, Wesleyan, we both listen to the podcast. and I don't branch out to a lot of other sports, but I watched some tennis yesterday, enjoyed it. I was tweeting. Cessler. Now I was going back and forth with Greg on the phone about that.

And then this podcast that Gold Standard did, informative. In fact, rivaling for that sport, what we do here on the football, the American football scene. The American grid on time. I mean, this is your last week here, Gold Standard. This is it.

This is the end. Feels really sad. We're going to celebrate it in style today. We will. And yes, and let's get to the show because we will, as we spoke about, we knew before Gold Standard left for good to begin his quest for world domination. We wanted to do one more game of win Wes's toaster, the famous game that Wes, the trivia game in which Wes is dominated for months now. We wanted to get one more game because the Gold Standard has his elimination chamber, which has been very active of late. and he feels like he's found some good contestants.

So Wes will be getting involved with these callers, and we'll see what happens. Yeah, there's some young pups, but, you know, I feel good about him. Okay, good. So we're going to, that will be at the end of the show. So you've got to stay tuned for that or skip ahead. But if you do that, that's, you know, that ain't cool. Listen to the show. Learn about football.

It's almost like got to earn the toaster in a way, just like the caller has to potentially earn the toaster. Because we're also going to talk about making the leap. We've teased that a little bit that this was going to be starting up where we have, the round of the league team chooses, we went into our lab and we chose 25 people. Yeah, they're humans, 25 players that will make the figurative leap in 2014. And we started it with number 25 that was put up today on the website. And we'll get to that, who that player is. But before that, once again, gold standard now for one of the final times.

We got three left now? Two left. Two left. Oh, my. Let's do some news, buddy. Let's do it, sir. All right, so the Oakland Raiders traded for Matt Schaub, as we know, and they touted it all during the offseason that he was the long-term solution for the franchise

and not a bridge of any kind, or they seem to view that Schaub's regression in Houston was something that was going to reverse. But now we're starting to learn that maybe the team isn't so high on Shab as the future there. Although Shab continues to take the bulk of first-team practice raps, for the Raiders. NFL media's Albert Breer reports there is now internal belief that the veteran will be pushed by Carr for the starting job according to Breer Carr already is convinced team brass that he won't need a red shirt season which means Shob is going to have to earn this job and Wes I'll let you start

here you wrote the post everything we've seen shows us that maybe he's not a guy that should have been handed anything and maybe he's not going to be now. Yeah, I don't know what's going on in Oakland. It raised my eyebrows when Dennis Allen said he was on par with Philip Rivers and Peyton Manning. And then two weeks ago, he called Matt Schaub a top 10 NFL quarterback. I don't know if they really believe this stuff or they're just saying it. Because anyone who's watched Shob, I mean, top 10 quarterbacks don't get benched for Case Keenham, do they? I wonder what's coming out of Oakland every offseason when it comes to quarterbacks.

I tend to not believe anything. in this OTA mini-camp silly season, especially out of Oakland, especially if it's, you know, some people pumping up their players. At this time a year ago, we were hearing about how good Tyler Wilson looked with some first-team snaps. And Matt McGloin was having a great time and was going to be the future. So I don't know what to make of it. I think it's just a team and a fan base just looking for hope.

So they're going to look for it in Shob, and they're going to look for it in their boy car. And if you are, Dennis Allen and you're the Raiders situation, after all that's gone on with Reggie McKenzie, you can't wait around to put the better quarterback in. I don't think. Starting a rookie is nothing new. I'd be surprised that some of these guys don't start much sooner than they've been predicted to. But if Matt Schaub is who he was last year and even going into the end of the 2012 season,

he's not going to last for long. I'd like to congratulate Raiders fans because, you know, listening to their players, they already have the Lombardi Trophy locked up. Oh, boy. You know, you have a special relationship. relationship with Raiders fans at the moment it's been a while forever yeah i want to commend by the way oh go ahead now go ahead i want to commend mark sessler by the way no paperwork in front of him for today's podcast typically you have like an aged oak tree worth of paperwork in front of you preparation for the show

today nothing again i am you guys have you know high octane laptops oh whatever i've got nothing in front of me so i like it's good you're more in the moment you're more in the moment you're You're going to be simple. Not so analytical, more just from the gut, from the heart. So we're expecting some hot takes. Hashtag. Footloose and fancy free. Carry on.

Would you say you've blocked more Raiders fans than all other fan bases combined? That's a fair question. I've been blocking people for very small matters just because I don't care about how many followers I have anymore. I just want my Twitter dialogue to be good. I don't want. Which will probably never happen. Well, I mean, like, I tweeted some Andrew Luck stuff out the other night, and anybody who responded back with Andrew Luck criticism, I immediately blocked because I don't want anybody that's stupid following me. Like, if you're stupid enough to criticize Andrew Luck, you can go follow someone else, not me.

You do kind of sound like an Eastern European dictator, the way you say. But he disagreed with me, so now he's dead, essentially. Twitter is not a nation. Or is it? It's not a right. It's a privilege. Right. I'm starting to see things differently.

The way Wes is attacking, it's kind of like it's your living room. And he doesn't want anything stupid in his living room that doesn't like Andrew Luck. That's his room. Right. Who says on Twitter you have to allow people to follow you? That's fair. And speaking of Wes, who's always been very liberal in how he blocks people, you told us downstairs before the show that you have a new reason for blocking people, which really is almost, it blows my mind. Like, there's brain matter on the wall after you told me this.

If someone's going to tweet me about a player with a common surname like Brown or Smith or Anderson, and they don't include the first name, I'm going to block them. I mean, how am I supposed to read your mind? I'd be afraid. I'm never tweeting at you. I'm terrified. This does not sound enjoyable for the interactor. You would have blocked Sessler for his headline the other day.

Who, what Brown was doing push-ups on James Harrison's back? Didn't mention it. I'll take the bullet for having written that headline that appeared on mobile, sure. You are, by the way. I know you like, Wes, you like to reference Seinfeld. You're kind of like the soup Nazi of Twitter or the Twitter Nazi. I suffer for my tweets, and I want other people to suffer for them, too. All right, moving forward.

Hard knocks. It was about this time last year. It was certainly in June that they announced who the Hard Knocks team was. So that's going to be coming any day now, you would guess. But you could cross the Cleveland Browns off the list of potential hard-knock teams. Coach Mike Petten told reporters over the weekend that his team was approached by HBO before they even drafted Johnny Mansell but rejected and offered a star in the documentary series, which, by the way, is the greatest football program, the history of the television medium.

I stand by that. Greg, do you agree? I'd have to think, but I think that's a fair statement. Okay, this is the quote from Petten. it was for the same reason we didn't feel super comfortable having a camera in the draft room let's get through the first time

let's get through the first year that was per Tom Reid of the plane dealer Mark disappointed no I think I mean I think a lot of football fans would be relieved to find out that they're a team that they follow isn't doing Hard Knox I think it's a distraction

I hate that I think it's a distraction I hate that line of thinking because it's never been proven that Hard Knox has ever heard a team when you look at how the team did the following year all it is is a portal into your favorite team like when I was a Jets fan I'm a Jets fan and when I watched it in 2011

or 2010 it was so fun to see what those guys were like I can wish for nothing more upon an NFL fan than to have their team documented on that series unless you're a franchise that like needs to get off the Schneid a little bit I mean Cleveland whatever they do is gets massacred left and right I can understand forget the fans point of view because the fans have no saying this at all I understand why the league had to

put in a rule system where they can force a team to do it because most general managers and most coaches don't want this anywhere close to their organizational period. Also, it might be a little bit of a bin there, done that for Petten, who was the Jets' defensive coordinator in 2010. And he has the right to turn it down because he's a first-time head coach. All the first-time head coaches can turn it down.

But I agree with Dan that it would be nothing better as a fan to watch your team on that show. And if for some reason that show had any negative effects, I mean, your team's not going to do much in the first place. Well, you asked me if I'm disappointed, and my answer was no. I haven't seen hard knocks much because I can't afford these high-octane cable packages. Look at you, isolationist. You're not enjoying the human experience.

Okay, Mr. Amazon Prime. Yeah, come on. Get HBO on Amazon Prime. But I was going to say that I would put several episodes of Friday Night Lights up against any football show ever put on television. Well, that's a different. That's different. I mean kind of NFL, but Friday Night Lights is an incredible show. I agree with you on that.

He's saying a non-fiction show, I think. Wesleyan also doesn't use technology, by the way, so. Hey. Richard Sherman is the, Mark, Richard Sherman is the Matt and NFL 2015 cover boy. Woo! Yeah! Unmoved by this. He beat out Panthers quarterback Cam Newton

and I was on vacation, so I don't know. I'm a little hazy on this, but apparently they had a whole thing down in L.A. live where the Staple Center is, where they announced that Sherman had beaten out Newton, and Newton was there? Is that right? Not only Newt was Newton there.

Richard Sherman was there. ESPN covered it live. Wes and I were in the office. And I said it at the time. I said, this is really America in a nutshell. If we start struggling, there were hundreds and hundreds of fans pretending to cheer. I don't know if they were really fans or if they were just, you know,

paid people to be in the audience to cheer an announcement of who is going to be on the cover of a video game. It seems kind of mind-boggling. If America landing on the mood was kind of our apex in terms of television, this had to be the Nadir, I would think. Mark, here's more for your Luddite file. I have never played a game of Madden. Hmm, interesting. I did hear down in the newsroom that Cam Newton was genuinely sad to lose because...

Oh, I could totally see that. Well, he is a real... He is a gamer, unlike Wes, he goes on, which I am not either, so I'm not picking on West. Unlike me, he's also a preening schmo. You have this anti-CAM thing, although... Well, Cam is nice enough, though, right. Cam goes online and plays fans in Madden. You know how you can get on and you can, like, play anyone?

He is huge into that. He wanted to win this thing, and then bang, Richard Sherman comes in and pulls the rug out. And all you sports bloggers, by the way, one point I have on this, that went, oh, they named the Madden Cover Boy, let me go hammer out my 300-word post on the Madden Curse. Enough with the Madden Curse.

Let me just go over the last... Barry Sanders was on the cover last year, the 25th anniversary, alive. What did he do last year? He's alive. Calvin Johnson, the year before, set a receiving record. Peyton Hillis, the year before that, That was not a curse.

Peyton Hillis was a terrible football player, turned out. Mark, you agree? I don't know. It gets some sort of voodoo strep throat thing hit, and then it all went south from there. All right. And then before that... Throw any cockamamie conspiracy theory out there, and Mark is on board. And then you had Drew Brees before that, and then a shared cover of Troy Palomalo and Larry Fitzgerald.

So, you know, calm down. How do these people get college degrees if they believe in these superstitions? People are stupid. So that's it. So that's the news. folks. Let's move on. Making the leap. Big time, big time around the league series, written series.

We quite enjoy doing it, and then we get to look back and see how we did when the season's over on predicting the guys that made the leap. Number 25, a very interesting choice, and I will kind of show you how the sausage is made. We'll let the people know that Chris Wesleyan kind of strong-armed this one onto the list. Number 25, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, Josh McCown, 34 years old, going to make the leap. And Chris Wessling, explain to us why. Because typically making the leap, we like to highlight a player that's a little younger than McCown, who's 34, and also maybe not had that breakout year,

which he did seem to have when he played in the seven games last year. Chris Wessling, a little outside the box thinking here, explain to us why McCown kicks us off. number 25. He only started five games last year, and it's similar to Cordero Patterson, the last five games of last season, was in the top five in fantasy points. So there's some similarity there. They did it in small segments, but can McCown do it over a full season? NFL teams don't believe it because he got less of a contract than Matt Schaub. So he's not being paid as if NFL teams expect him to make the leap. But he did just have by far the best

moments of his career. Yes. So that is the argument against it, that how could you do better than you did with Mark Tressman in Chicago, where by some advanced metrics like QBR, which I think does have plenty of value, he was right there with the very top quarterbacks in the league. It's Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers. He was number one on that list. And there's McCown above them all.

Yeah. I did like Wes. I did like what you had to say. You kind of see him. And this is, I'm not, I'm on board because I'm a team player, but the thing that sold me where I couldn't, I wasn't going to fight it was you did mention Rich Gannon and what he was able to do early last decade with the Raiders where he went from a JAG, just another guy, to an actual star and even an MVP. And you compared him to potentially having that type of late career. I guess I'll throw it out there since I mentioned. He won the MVP in 2002, Gannon.

You don't think McCown could like really become that type of play. player, right, where it becomes a superstar quarterback this year? I think he could make a pro bowl if the Bucks rookies, Austin Safarian Jenkins, and Mike Evans don't have a huge learning curve. I went into this tape watching expecting to find weaknesses, plenty of them, and I saw not one. What did you learn from watching all of it that you didn't, you know, expect? Other than, you know, you're not making weaknesses, but what is it that you saw that impressed you so much that you were really fired up after you watched the tape.

I loved that he is so willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit. And he has great pocket awareness. I mean, Andrew Luck-like, it's crazy to compare him to a second-year quarterback or a third-year quarterback. Andrew Luck is one of the best I've ever seen, that climbing the pocket and avoiding pressure, and McCown was like that, and he's just as athletic as luck, maybe even more so. I thought this was a great way to open the series, and A, it was, controversial and there was a lot of

internally. But certainly externally too. I think it was something that people said, wait, what, McCown? But I agree with the premise because no matter what he did last season, most people don't think he'll come close to doing it again. They thought it was a fluke. It's like, oh, you know what? McCown got a nice contract off of that for him and go and be a 16 game starter? Uh-uh, it's not going to happen. This is going to

quickly see him be replaced by Glennon. I like it because I don't care what the stats were last season. If he goes and plays 16 games and leads, what is potentially a playoff-type Bucks team, then he has made the lead. I will play devil's advocate a little bit here. I wouldn't be stunned if by weeks... They have a very capable backup, young backup,

that did things last year, Mike Lennon. It would not stun me if by Halloween Mike Lennon's starting also. Because, yes, while McCowne played tremendously, well last year. There were still those 12 years or whatever or 10 years before that told us that maybe he's not that guy and maybe he was in a perfect system with perfect players around him. So I don't imagine despite getting a decent contract that his leash is going to be too long here. I would go against you and say that I would be absolutely shocked if he is pulled.

A sense of sandwich bet. Yeah. After watching Glennon and watching McCown, McCown is way better than Mike Glennon. Not just that basketball, right? Because I feel like Glennon would struggle. Even though he's got the height, he would also struggle as a dancer. The link that you threw up there on McCown did make me think, all right.

Well, he's super athletic. He's the guy you're taking on five-on-five basketball. That can't be bad. But speaking of height, they went out and got Mike Evans. You've got Sperian Jenkins, a tight end, another six-six guy, I think he is, Vincent Jackson, and you've got a great crop of running backs. That offense isn't that different than what the Bears did with. him last year in terms of the weapons he's got to deal with, I like his chances to succeed.

Easy sell for Sessler, who predicted big things for the bucks last year. One year later, it's happening, isn't it, Mark? When I make a correct prediction, sometimes, you know, when you see into the future, you see something for sure. It's like a mountain. You don't know how many miles away that is, but it is there. Ah, okay. Well, and I also will say we did an organic email chain today, which award-winning organic email chain. Yeah. I will not specify the awards. But I will say we are a Stitcher award-winning podcast and an iTunes best of 2013 and Gold Standard,

they can never take that away from us. That goes on your ledger. You were running the ship at that point, right? No, I think, you know, I'm going to give that one to K. Rich. You guys can share it. She laid the foundation there. Hey, you take the iTunes,

she gets the Stitcher. I like that. And while we're here, if we talked about this, the guys, don't put us on your resume. You're there. Just, I don't know. Maybe keep Mark on or something, but I don't know, I just, I don't want to be getting calls from various suitors across the soccer landscape of the universe.

Yeah, I wouldn't want the NFL to have to deal with that. Yeah, that's fair. We did the organic email chain, and we asked us, there are seven teams, this is a bit convoluted, but stick with us. There are seven teams that are starting mandatory minicamp this week, and of those seven teams, three teams, the Bucks, the lines and the Browns have new head coaches. So we did an email chain saying which of those three teams had the best chance of making. the playoffs and I think for the most part the majority won on the bucks there that the bucks are the team that are best set up here yes I said that basically because the Browns are the fourth worst team in their division and the Lions are clearly the third the third best team in in

their division I don't think the opportunity is really there I I took the Lions because I like their roster top to bottom I don't think they have many weaknesses overall just a little Because they're not really competing just with their division. They're competing with the Bucks. They're competing for wild card spots. And I don't think the Bears are necessarily some great team that's just going to stay ahead of Detroit. But the Bucks are going to be that team. They're going to be one of those teams that a lot of people pick trendy to the playoffs, trying to be cute.

Final question for you guys before we move on. Tom Brady finished 7th in the NFL last season with a 87.7 pass-a rating. I will throw it to you, gentlemen. And Josh McCown in 2014, will he be above or below 87.9? Pass a rating. And I start with Greg Rosenthal, who's groaning or making some type of hard place. Kind of like Wes has a policy to not write about Brandon Spikes or Joe Namath. He's got a whole list of people he does not write about.

I have a policy to not talk about quarterback rating or even entertain it with anything because I hate quarterback. All right, Greg, what is the statistic if you had to choose one for quarterback? You set it up. You set it up. I'm exhausted already. I need to go back on vacation. All right. I'm going under anyways.

Mark. I will play along with your question. Thank you. And I will go over. Wow, you are in. I feel like you really set the ball right where it should be on this question. That's what I did. I went to host.

I'm back. I'm rejuvenated. I will take the over. So this is a pro ball quarterback according to Wes and Mark. No, I said he could make the pro bowl. but it depends on the receivers. You don't have to have, there are plenty of guys who had quarterback ratings over 87.9

who did not make the Pro Bowl. Sure, but if McCown has that type of season, we will totally admit, not only should he have made the leap, made the list, he should have been even higher than 25, and you will be a proven right. So we'll see. Yeah, I'll say, for the record,

I'm also saying under, but we'll see in the gold standard, over under 87. Under. Bang. I think this is a good idea for another segment. Over under? I like that. Over under.

I feel like we've done that before, haven't we? I feel like that goes astray of what the league would want us to use as terminology for segments. We're just talking about stats, but that's fair. We're just wasting time, though, because that's it. This is time. It is a historic moment. It is the Gold Center's last go-round as the facilitator. Let's call them that.

The facilitator of Win West's Toaster. We're going to play the game now. This is, for people that have not played Win West's or heard Win West's Toaster before, It is a game of skill and valor in which we have contestants and listeners of the show that call in and try to take Wes down in trivia, six trivia questions. Wes is in ownership of a official NFL now defunct. It's a collector's item, NFL toaster, that somehow, almost by magic, can imprint logos of all 32 NFL teams upon your white bread.

Any type of bread. It's a one-of-a-kind toaster. You can find on eBay a toaster which will imprint your team's logo, but not all 32 teams. That's a different ballgame altogether. You might wake up and you're feeling it's a little titans this morning, you know? I don't think anyone's ever... Feeling like a little titans. Now, there's someone that's thinking loophole right now.

They're saying, I can buy all 32 toasters for each team, and then I could have it all. But that's not cost effective. This toaster has everything you need all in one. Wes has it. If you beat him in trivia. in Win West's toaster, you get that toaster, not a toaster that has that ability, the toaster. We'll send out a picture with the... Right.

And actually, Wes tweeted a photo out of the box. It's never come out of the box yet. And that's the game. So the Gold Standard, that's where he comes in. He screened players, contestants on his workday. He was calling people at his desk. And we have a good crowd here? Yeah.

You know, I'm feeling, I'm feeling relatively confident. As confident as one can feel against this wizard of a man. He's not selling it anymore. If I was a contest. Look at this man. There's football seeming out of his ears. I've heard you sell them before. Basically, if you're listening somehow, you are a contestant if they're on the line and you're hearing this,

you should take it as motivation that no one, that Zach didn't believe in you. This is bulletin board material. It's like what people were taunting LeBron when he got the cramps and had to sit out the end of game. He used that as fuel. So this is your fuel. Goldsander, who do we have? Let's start the game. First up, we've got a gentleman named Ryan.

He's actually, his handle is Iron Lung Ryan. And I'm not sure what to make out of that, but it does sound like. Is he deeply ill? Well, he sounds like a man who made it through the elimination chamber, relatively scathed. Definitely scathed situation. Iron Lung Ryan, is he an Eagles fan? Ooh, I don't know. I'll have to ask him.

I think I'm familiar with his Twitter stylings. Yeah, I am too. see it. Oh, some apprehension in those voices. Let's get them on the line. Let's do it. You only get one chance to pick up the phone for this game as well. So if Ryan's smart, he will answer the phone.

Hello. Ryan. Hey, what's up? What's up, man? This is Dan Hansis and the rest of the heroes of the ATL podcast. How are you, buddy? What up, boys. Very good.

Very good. So you are taking on Chris Wessling for the last year. the right to steal his toaster's beloved toaster and the game. My son-rider loves toast. I've got to win this. We should point out, if you win it, and I really hope you do, especially

today, then the game is over. There's no more Win West's toaster. For listeners that aren't aware, Greg dislikes the game. At least he says he does. I think he secretly adores it, but he's playing a character. It's a bit.

It's grown on him. And he's, yeah, he's really playing it up. But yeah, the game does end. if Ryan can take down West. Hey, Ryan, have you? So you know the game, you know the rules of the game? Is it anything like when Fred's money or when Ben Stein's money? It's similar. I will give you the rules.

Here you go. So you get, we'll start with you. You'll get six questions and you have a one-minute time limit. And Mark Sessler is our timeistician, we call it. Is that accurate? Is that a real word? It is now. Yeah.

You have 60 seconds, six questions. you can pass and come back to questions when you're done, you'll stop and the tiebreaker will be used for the amount of time that you took to get the questions right. So after that we'll bring in Wes, and Wes will get the same six questions.

Sounds good. All right, so let's do it. So Chris Wessling, be gone. How confident are you, by the way, Ryan? Well, I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve that hopefully I'm going to be able to use to get this done right hopefully not a smartphone

Ryan this I'm like no no no not like that not cheating it's just a tactical when West comes back I'm going to talk a little smack to him try it oh I like that okay that's good that's good all right so Mark Sessel you are on the clock so you tell us when to begin

and we'll go through the questions all right three two one and go who is the last starting quarterback to lead the Browns to a winning record Derek Anderson this city was recently awarded the Super Bowl in the year 2018. Minnesota.

More specific? I'm sorry, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Eric Dickerson set the NFL single-season rushing record in 1984. What record did he break? Whose record did he break? O.J. Simpson. Adrian Peterson won the NFL MVP award in 2012. Who was the last

non-quarterback to win MVP? Michael Shrayhan. Who is the head coach of the Detroit Lions. Jim Coltwell. Josh McCown has played for five NFL teams before signing with the Buccaneers. Name four of them. Ten seconds.

Arizona, Chicago, New York Jets, San Diego Chargers. All right. Stop the clock. Comes in under 60 seconds, too, at 57.4. 57.44. And you got four questions. Correct, it looks like. That was solid.

Solid. So now we will bring back Chris Wessling. And I'll let you know, Ryan, when he sits down because I don't want him to miss any of this. Wesleyan, come back. He's got an evil beard working. And confidence. There's swagger.

It's undeniable. The swagger in play right now. Chris Wessling. All right. Wesleying is sitting down. Ryan, we will not say. We never say, Chris. I know you always want to know how many.

I will not say how Ryan did, but Ryan, you have the floor. Well, I'll say it. Chris, I bombed. I don't believe you. It's going to be an easy game for you. How many brothers do you have? I have six brothers. How many of them are married or have kids?

Three. Do you enjoy making your mother sad? I don't want her to have a young Chris Jr. That she could cuddle in her arms. I actually had this conversation with my mom on Mother's Day, and she is not sad. She seemed pretty happy with the way things have worked out for me. That was a pretty nice judo maneuver. I'll give you that.

Use my momentum against me. Either way, give Erin another chance. Give her a call. Ah, Aaron gets brought into the mix. Whoa. I like that Ryan is trying Jedi Mind tricks to get me off. Ryan will have to cut you off there, but I'll tell you what. Gold standard's head is exploding by the glass.

I'm gone. I'm off my chair. Yeah, so if it got to the gold standard, Wes is a little red, but he did handle the attack well. Make no bones about it. That was an attack. All right, here we go. Here we go, and let us know, Mark. All right, two, one, and go. Who is the last starting quarterback to lead the Browns to a winning record?

Bernie Cozor. This city was recently awarded the Super Bowl in 2018. Minneapolis? Eric Dickerson set the NFL single season rushing. record in 1984. Whose record did he break? O.J. Simpson? Adrian Peterson won the NFL MVP award in 2012. Who was the last

non-QB to win MVP? Barry Sanders. Who is the head coach of the Detroit Lions? Jim Colbo. Josh McCown has played for five NFL teams before signing with the Buccaneers. Named four of them. Raiders, Cardinals, bears, Panthers.

Stop the clock. 3791. Wes gets it with the tie Wes got it Yeah he got four He needed the four And he got it And the tie breaker

Because he did it in 37 seconds Chris Wesleyan keeps his toaster Wow And that was one of the most dramatic ones For multiple reasons But it came down to A difficult number six That Wesleying came through

Wes you look like a man Vindicated I don't feel vindicated What did I get wrong The MVP question All right These are the wrong responses

actually Ryan had the number one right is Derek Anderson was the Browns quarterback in 2007. Ah, good call. Ladani and Tomlinson was the last non-quarterback before Adrian Peterson and that's it. You guys all had the rest of the answers. Jim Caldwell is the coach of the lions.

The five teams that McCown has played for before the bucks Bears, Panthers, Raiders, Lions and Cardinals. That one tripped up Ryan and ultimately cost him the toaster. Ryan, now that you've been vanquished by the great Chris Wessling, final words. I love you guys, especially Wes and Rosenthal from the Roto World Days.

Wes also is dear to my heart as someone who is a football agnostic. I'm a former Cincinnati Bengals fan as well. I'm really a lot from him, selling his wisdom on Twitter. I feel like I recognize your Twitter handle from over the years, and you're definitely the best contestant we've ever had on this. I feel like you got robbed a little bit, but I'll hold back on my thoughts there. Greg Barry's all former contestants.

I know. All right, well, Ryan, thank you very much for calling in. Thanks, Ryan. Maybe that would have gone better for Ryan had he spent all weekend writing a making a leap on Josh McCown. That's where I held my tongue there. You were thinking the same. And by the way, I would have known that.

Very interesting, the way the committee all puts it together in an effort to keep Wes's toaster and keep the game going. I would have known Josh McCown's four teams before I did that making the league piece. A couple of thoughts. Number one, if Ryan would have gotten that answer correct, he would have won. That would have been over and it matter what Wes would have done. You just proved my point. Not really.

And he had a disadvantage at that. Why is that disadvantage? Because he didn't know it. He didn't write 700 words on Josh McCown this week. Oh, stop. And by the way, Shom who once beat and then was beaten by Wes. Never beat me. Never beaten.

technically he does own a toaster he would like to say that maybe he was the greatest contestant. No, I disagree. But Ryan certainly put up a great fight and he tried to get under Wes's skin. That was skillful. That's what I'm saying. He added the entertainment value. Right, cold standard. That was a nice one.

That was good. Great battle. Ryan put up a great effort. Who else do we have? Well, right now we've got a gentleman by the name of Clint Ward up and, you know, he's got the cover of Born to Run as his Twitter avatar, so I'm sure he's a willing challenger here. Yes, as someone that's spent a lot of time of the Jersey Shore myself and a big boss fan. I'm excited about this.

He's a easy guy to root for it for me. One of my favorite album covers of all time. Yes, Wes and I have drank Lager while listening to Bruce and playing cornhole in our past together. That's a true story. Clint, how are you, buddy? Good, how are you? You're familiar with Win West's Toaster, the Game of Skill and Valor?

Absolutely. I know you are. You're a regular listener, and we appreciate you. and Chris Wesley is coming off a very big victory and he actually was even talking a little he was talking some trash what was the exact wording mark I believe he said he was going to put a cigarette or a cigar

out on the next opponent's head forehead it was very close though Wes just won in a tiebreaker Clint so that should give you some confidence he's on the ropes right now but what Wes is now saying now is after that scare he's now going to assert his dominance to remind everyone Clint you're in a difficult spot

I think there's no way around it right now Well, I'll try my best. I'll give it 110%. All right. Wes, be gone. Behind the glass. Wes heads off. All right, Clint, best of luck. We will start when Mr. Cessler, the timeistician tells us. Three, two, one, and go. Both the Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles following what season? 1994. Who led the NFL in Sacks last season?

Robert Quinn. Oh, no, Robert Mathis, sorry. Name the Saints special teams player who had a key block punt and the teams returned to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. Ooh, pass. Okay, who was the NFL commissioner prior to Roger Goodell? Paul Tackley of him. The Redskins had a different quarterback in each of their three Super Bowl wins. Name them.

Mark Griffin, Joe Seisman, and Doug Williams. Name the home of the 49ers new stadium opening this season. Santa Clara All right Do you want to go back? Yeah Name the Saints special teams player Who had a key blocked punt

And the teams are turned to the Superdome after Katrina Roman Harper Okay stop the clock We logged in at 57 seconds 57.25 seconds I'm going to go to the judges Greg Rosenthal Who led the NFL's in Sacks last season

He said Robert Quinn first And then corrected himself and said Robert Mathis Good. You corrected himself. That's definitely good. Okay. Then we'll take it. So that gives Clint four out of six. A very nice showing. Again, the Gold Standard really brought the contestants. Good job, Clint. Let's bring Chris Wessling back in now. Chris Wessling walking back in after a great challenge.

His first game. Now, Clint has showed up. Wes, I don't often do this, but just this one time, do you want to know how many Clint got right? No. Okay, I wasn't going to tell you anyway. So at the clock, Mark, we'll begin. Two, one, and go. Well, actually, before we start, Clint, do you have anything you want to say to West? Do you have any, some withering insults or anything?

The last guy tried to really insult me and get me throwing off my game. Clint seems like a nice guy, but... I can. I'm kind of a Chris Wesleyan fanboy, I guess. Yeah, we all are. As we all are. I think Ryan was, too, which made it even more twisted. I love you. All right, here we go, at the time.

And go. Both the Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles following what season? 1989. Who led the NFL in Sacks last season? Robert Mathis. Name the Saints special teams player who had the key block punt and the teams are turned to the Superdome after Katrina. Pass.

Who was the NFL commissioner prior to Roger Goodell? Paul Tag Libby. The Redskins had a different quarterback in each of their three Super Bowl wins. Name them. Doug Williams, Joe Thysman, Mark Ripon. Name the home of the 49ers new stadium opening this season.

Dating. All right, going back. Pass. Okay, stop the clock. 32 seconds. Oh, that's four again, right? That is another tie and another tie break win for West. Wow.

Another tiebreaker win the second of the day. I don't waste time trying to guess that same special team or because I don't know. Okay. Yeah, I have no idea. The name of the special teams player is Steve Gleeson. Oh, I should have guessed him. Yes. That was the clock, I think, getting to you there.

If you really thought, if you listened to the question. But yeah. The Rams and Raiders left L.A. following the 94 season. Robert Mathis, you gentlemen, both got. Paul Tagliabu you both got. You both got all three quarterbacks. Greg, you were right downstairs to say they need to get all three. And Levi's Stadium West, by the way, wins.

I know. It's the stadiums. How ironic. I thought it was the location. That's my bad. So the stadium answer got you through. Clint got that one, Ronald. You got it right.

I wouldn't have got Levi anyway. I think I could name 25 or 30 stadiums. stadiums now because of Dan's influence. Oh, my gosh. Wow. So, Wes, you will forever have that to thank your ability to name stadiums. Clint, an excellent challenge you put up. Thank you.

And thank you for listening, buddy. He came in humble, and then he knocked out with the year that the Raiders in Oakland left. When he got that right, I thought he could have an upset. Oh, that's also, I thought I was impressive because I'm born in 1986. Wow. That is pretty good. Clint, thank you. And what's your favorite Springsteen album?

Darkness on the edge. Me too, man. We got to hang out. Let's get a beer sometime. All right, man. Good job, Clint. Thanks, Clint. Gold standard, you want to talk about, first of all, two points.

There are different ways to go about this game, and we just showed Ryan and Clint went two different ways. Both put up a nice challenge, so it just goes to show. You can go with a hard edge. You could be humble and, you know, Tom Brady-like, and they work both ways. Goldsand, a great job with the elimination team. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

You know, special. occasion because, Wes, you did such a great job keeping your toaster, but since it is gold standards last week, why don't we just take it up one more notch? We've got to. We wanted to give one last challenge to Chris Wessling and we wanted to do with a special guest,

a special guest challenger. And Mark Sessler, what did we decide? Well, what is the best possible matchup with the highest stakes that would involve the listener? It is a matchup of Chris Wessling versus his boss. Oh. Greg Rosenz.

Scientist battle! It's like the... Scientist heat! It's like facing the M-Boss in a video game. I told you I didn't love this idea downstairs at all. I'm not coming into it with confidence. I would not put a sandwich on this. Wes is the trivia guy.

Greg barely agreed to do this. And while Mark and I were coming up with the questions, Greg was nervously overhearing what we were saying. He kept on saying, oh, you're going to screw me. You're trying to screw me. They're trying to set me up here. That's not true. He's like a ruler.

that is now facing peril at the end of a long war and he starts to worry that his own troops are against him there's a lot of paranoia involved can we can we topple the statue of Greg Rosenthal in the newsroom

I've played along with our contestants and I almost never beat Wes I think there's only one time that I would take care of him and he's very quick so I come in this with my eyes wide open but I'm going to clear my mind

you're going to give it a shot and Wes is on a long winning streak we've had one other in-house challenger Damashek, who did not even come close to competing because he was unable to be quick enough with his responses, as I recall. Greg Rosenthal knows the rules better than anyone. Sheck took the whole minute to answer two questions. Well, it is a little different because, you know, it's different that it's not someone calling in,

but the same rule applies. This game is over if I win. That's true. Because if Greg wins, he gets the toaster, and you know the toaster will be incinerated immediately. Win Greg's toaster. Yeah. So let's do this thing. So, I mean, how exciting is this?

You could feel it here. We had such a great time coming up with the questions. And what a gift to you on your way off the door. No, I appreciate it. Thank you guys. It means a lot. All right. Wes, would you like to, yep, he's going to head out.

Look at Wes. A champion. Proud champion walks out. Greg. All right. I don't know what I should do here. Mentally prepared. Make sure of Greg's TV.

Yeah, let's start by shutting down your computer in the internet. I did. I just turned it down. All right. We're going to be fair. We thought these questions were fair for you. And Wes equally. And now we will go, and the scientist's showdown has begun. Mark, it's time.

You have one job, Mark. Hey, listen. One job. Here we go. Three, two, one, go. Who started a quarterback for the Patriots against Jim McMahon's Bears in Super Bowl 20? Tony Easton. Who coached the Chargers to their last Super Bowl appearance?

Bobby Ross. In the book, Collision Low Crossers, Jets' coaches are stunned when Rex Ryan chose this Mark Sanchez bow with the team's seventh round pick. Scottie McNight. Who intercepted Richard Sherman's past deflection to clinch the Seahawks' NFC championship game win over the Niners? Malcolm Smith. Who coached the Jets in 2000 after Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick split town? Um, man, I know this. Pass.

During his rookie season, Big Ben replaced who, is Pittsburgh starting QB. Tommy Maddox. And Pete Carroll? Stop the clock. I choked on the jet. 56.19 seconds. Five out of six.

Well done. Well done. Tremendous. I thought you delivered under pressure. Wow. You're going to kick yourself. No, I know. I know.

All right. Bring them in. Nice showing. I thought you were going to sweep it there. I did too. All right. Wes comes back in the room. Take a look at Greg's face.

I want to see if you could tell if he did well or not. Uh-oh. He's doing the Antoine Walker shimmy. Greg is like a multicolored aura beaming off his body right now. The Antoine Walker shimming. That's not good news for me. I'll say this, and I never say what Wes is up against. But I'll say if Wes wins again, it will be his greatest defense ever.

Has to be called that. Wow. All right. Do you want to know how many got right? Nope. You're not going to tell me. Okay. Shall we proceed?

Yes. Three, two, one, and go. Who started a quarterback for the Patriots against Jim McMahon's Bears in Super Bowl 20? Who coached the charges to their last Super Bowl appearance? Bobby Roth. In the book, Collision Low Crossers, Jets' coaches are stunned when Rex Ryan chose this Mark Sanchez, pal with a team's seventh-round pick. Scotty McKnight. Who intercepted Richard Sherman's past deflection to clinch the Seahawks' NFC championship game win over the Niners?

Pass. Who coached the Jets in 2000 after Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick? Split Town. During his rookie season, Big Ben replaced who is Pittsburgh starting quarterback. You want to go back? Pass. Greg Rosenthal won the toaster!

Did I? Greg Rosenthal got five out of six. Chris Wessling, who coached the Jets in 2000 after Bill Barsall's and Bill Belichick split town, Al Groh. Oh. And Malcolm Smith had the interception in the NFC title game. That's what I'm talking about. For West, five for Rosenthal.

Greg wins the toaster. It's over. Oh, my God. Go to England. Gold Standard. End on this. Oh, no. The great tragedy has occurred in the worst possible situation.

I think it's safe to say this product, this game show, will never appear on this podcast ever again now that Greg is in control. Everyone on Twitter, Greg wants to just. destroy win West's toaster game. You have to tell Greg not to let it happen. The gold standard behind the glass. Hashtag. Hashtag save WWT. Boom.

But let's not linger on that for now. Greg, the floor is yours. Well, I was so confused. I thought you had it wrong. I thought Wes beat me. But the Al Groh questions tripped us both up. I sat there just trying to think about that for a while. Very confusing.

And it all came back to strategy for Wesleying, who instead of guessing who had that interception Malcolm Smith in the NFC title game You decided to pass I wasn't going to guess Malcolm Smith anyway Would have probably been Cam Chancellor or Byron Maxwell A wise move by Wesleyan to Lose to his boss

A wise career move Devastating move Devastating loss for Wesleying Scotty McKnight With the Malcolm Smith one That felt good Wow yes Tony Easton started Super Bowl 20 for the Patriots

Bobby Ross was the coach of the Chargers Scotty McNight was the jet player from collision low crossers Malcolm Smith had the interception Al Groh and Tommy Maddox was replaced I would imagine there are already tweets out there

about a rematch Oh wow You can't just go This is billed for a re- Have you noticed that Dan manages to work a Jets question in there on every edition of Mark There's two Jets questions Mark would you like to say what really happened

Dan isn't responsible for the Al-Gro question That was a great I did Collision Low Crossers And then he came up with the other question And I said two Jets question He said yeah stick it to him Because they don't like the Jets Wow

Well that was a great question Because it stumped me for 20 seconds I wasted and you get it wrong Wow So that's it The Toaster will change hands And we will Post video or photo

Of the toaster changing hands Wes I will say this You have been a proud champion And you have nothing to be ashamed of Well even Ali He lost once in a while. Yes, and if Greg feels that maybe you deserve a rematch one of these days

and the scientists can square off again, it will be bigger than the rematch of Ali versus, was it, Norton? That's my boxing knowledge on display. It will be the biggest rematch in the history. We need our version of the Rumble in the jungle. Exactly. The thriller in Manila. This is good for the sport. West was a very humble champion.

Everyone loved playing with him. I will be the opposite. You will be tired of me. He would rather hold this over my head than do a rematch. All right, Gold Center. I'll give you the last word on this. Yeah. Well, I feel sort of empty right now inside,

kind of like when the Undertaker lost. Wes, you were a phenomenal champion. You embodied all that is great in the sport. Thank you for your service. Yeah, it's, you know, we're abiding, to my knowledge, by WBO rules, similar to boxing. So, Greg, you have six months with the toaster until you actually have to put it up for a fight.

Interesting. It's fair. I like the gold standard's last gift to us. He tells everyone what the rules are of this game. I definitely am going to use Buster Douglas after he won the title as my model. Get really fat. Eat yourself into a diabetic coma.

Low-level video game made about you. Let's Sega Genesis. All right, that's it. We're out of here. Everyone, you know, before. If you're listening to this in the car, pull over and take some deep breaths because this was a stunner. We'll be back on Wednesday for the Goldstander's final show with the Around League podcast. Until then, this is Dan Henses, signing up for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, or the champion.

And the gold standard behind the glass. Until that. I almost called him black swan gold standard My mind is no my mind is a mess today I don't know what's going to happen.