NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Media Day roundup, Super Bowl XLVIII impressions

Episode Date: January 29, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling -- checks in live from Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day, reporting back on all of the biggest stars from the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.  The heroes also offer early reflections on the unique significance of this Super Bowl and reveal who they think might have an edge going into Sunday. Be sure to tune into Thursday's show, when the gang offers a full preview of Super Bowl XLVIII, and join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.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 starts now. Welcome back to another edition of the Around League podcast. My name is Dan Hans and I'm joined by a room filled with heroes, Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys. Hey, Dan. Actually, it's more a room full of trunks. We've been put in the back room of a Sheridan in Times Square,

and that's why it might sound like we're recording underwater. So, understand the production's going to be a little off here. But the energy, the love of the game, the love of the media day, the weird way that Dan's voice sounds in this strange room bouncing off, that's going to be on top of things. There are literally like 22 massive black boxes filled with potentially arms. more than 22 so

all right so today was media day I guess maybe that's where we should start there's so much to get to we have the four of us haven't been together in a while but media day was today so why don't we start there and Greg I throw it to you

the boss your big picture takeaway from the day at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey well i'd like the beginning of it we get off the bus and there's a band just making music upon our arrival made us feel like we were athletes and then after that it was just pretty much i don't know the same media day as always you know it's a lot of nonsense a couple good questions mixed in there i'm more interested in wrestling because he hasn't been to any of these just for the general impressions of the the spectacle of it all well it's not really my thing as you guys might I don't really get into like why who cares what Marshawn Lynch says and why does it matter that everyone has to be riveted by Richard

Sherman, you know, that's not really my thing. Nor do I get really into these precious, self-important media personalities that have to be shoving through everyone else with a notebook and a pen just to ask, you know, what's your favorite color? Something like that. So, yeah, I wasn't that impressed with it. I don't know if it's anyone's thing, though. I remember Dan said during it that this, it kind of freaks him out every year, stresses you out, Dan? A little bit.

I felt a little claustrophobic, especially this year, because this is now my third Super Bowl mark as well. And the first two at Indy and then New Orleans were in the stadiums, this one, because obviously it's 11 degrees out in New York right now. So they weren't going to have it at MetLife Stadium. They go down to Newark, and it's a smaller space, but the same amount of people. And, you know, that one thing, not to get too sidetrack, but the thing that really gets me a little weirded out is the, when you're so close to all these strangers trying to talk to this athlete,

and you could smell everyone. And you can smell the coffee on their breath, and you can smell their cheap aftershave. And it's just like, it's kind of gross, to be honest with you. And I don't know if I'm becoming a little OCD with my age, but I don't know. It just bothers me. a little anxiety. It has a subway feel to it in that sense where you really are, it's critical

that you're there the same way if you were riding a subway somewhere. You need to do it, but you are smashed up against people you would never touch otherwise. And yeah, all the sense. I think the thing that's good about it is avoiding all the cluster around Sherman and wandering off and talking to like, like we all had a chance to talk to some coaches today who you essentially never hear from all year, like coordinators. And they aren't surrounded by, 15 people and you can actually ask four or five questions in a row and have a conversation. That's the good part.

The craziness of it, I'm with Wes. It's sort of something, I'm not drawn to it. Well, there's no one that is. I don't know who is. I think some are. You know who is? There's people parading around. That dude that still dresses up as an unknown superhero.

Pickboy, I believe his name is. There's a guy, a Waldo character. It's like, bro, you're 37. You know, get a girlfriend. and stop going to this event. You have, who else? Waldo? The guy dressed up like a founding father,

somebody that looked like George Washington or John Adams. There was that guy. There's always a few women that sell out their dignity so they can have, like, lesser sports writers just taking photos of them. Oh, okay. I had no problem with the way she was dressed. Oh, you're one of those lectures sports writers.

But it is... Call it what you want. It does make you think for whose benefit is it. Because I think our reaction to it is probably... the normal reaction. Pretty much every writer that's there is thinking the same thing. No one really likes it. I don't know, there's not a ton of news that comes out of it. Like Dominique Rodgers Cromarty, you know, clarify that he's not really retiring. We get some good quotes. But the rest of the week we do that. Tomorrow and Thursday are great days if you want to talk to players and coaches.

Somewhere, I think it just got lost. I'm not sure whose benefit it's all for. I don't think fans are really that interested in it either it's we're not that interested in it the players certainly aren't that interested it's sort of just be it's one of the events that sort of shows how big the super bowl has become that it's just lost control and now it's its own thing but i don't i don't know if anyone really likes it we took a we took a police escort from manhattan into jersey on shuttles uh to get to the event and the guys sitting two rows behind Mark Wes and I on the way back had like a thick

German accent. I mean this is not this is a different type of event. I will say one thing that I do I do like it like I liked about the day because I don't want us to come up as like, you know, bitter sports writers. It's just this event is a little weird. It's different than the rest of the

Super Bowl week, obviously in a lot of ways. But I did like, I like Marshawn Lynch the way he kind of carried himself. I thought it was funny. He obviously had a hundred thousand dollars plus riding on the event if he didn't show up based on the terms of his appeal and then he he arrives and he's not on a podium they keep him in a pen with some other lesser known seahawks and he speaks for six minutes and 21 seconds and then just slips away into the ether

mid sentence yeah and i was there when he was there and i remember i was like 10 rows back and again i was starting to get a little antsy like rick riley was straining in front of me and was like what am i even why am i here and i walk to try to get some air and I see Randy Moss who works with Fox now and he's like I gotta talk to Beast Mode and I saw it's like oh maybe they'll

interact so I go to walk back this is like 15 seconds later Marshawn Lynch is gone he's nowhere to be seen but then he returns I went to go talk to Percy Harvin who had a podium close to where the pen was of lesser Seahawks and there was Beast mode like randomly

sunglasses on hoodie pulled over his head leaning up against like a temporary structure not saying a word looking like a boss and yeah looking like a boss and all the media like shouting to them and taking pictures it was just like it was kind of like what I

thought was a rock star move I was in for that Wes Wes Wes hasn't slept in four days none of us have eaten all day so you know but I know Wes by the way Wes didn't even have any clothes

until 4 a.m. this morning I had a very Griswold family vacation experience on Monday. They sent my luggage to Miami while I was here in the cold, wandering around the streets of Jersey City, which has all the charm of late 80s, Bulgaria. Yes, Sessler has been describing Jersey City as like a hellscape of sorts. Well, it's like piles of rubble on every corner, billowing smokestacks, gray, bleak landscape.

Yeah, it's like you got blasted out meadows on both side of you, and Wes and I took like a $125 taxi ride to New York City to escape this like Oswaldi in Russia. Well, let's clarify first of all. Let's set the stage. Wes is covering the Broncos all week. And Sessler's covering the Seahawks. And those teams are situated in a Jersey City hotels.

And then Greg and I are both in Manhattan covering more at the media center and Radio Row and doing other things. So we will not be united. until later in the week and then have. Yeah, and these guys are, you know, they're up here sipping martinis and having finger food. And Wes and I, you know, trying desperately to find a place

to eat. But you like being out there for that reason. You said it was good for the coverage. Yes, I do. But case and point, you know, Wes has no coat because he has no clothing. The airline decided he doesn't need luggage or toiletries. And so we're wandering through like an 80 mile per hour wind gust to what we find is a Chili's

that is no, it's like two hallways stacked on top of each other. A couple black out tables on the first floor, upstairs, some bar with no waitress, we get two beers, we don't even order food, and we're like, we literally can't tell other men that this is the first place we ate in New York. Well, we just, we wrote a visitor's guide that's up on the Iran League blog for people coming into Manhattan for the game, and I think Greg wrote it, and I certainly agree, is that you can, Greg, why don't you say it?

I don't know which part of it. There's so many gems in there that I put. To never go to a chain restaurant when you're in the New York City area, you guys broke that. In fairness, though, they could have done a little research, taking a cab, done a little legwork. We were in a desperate situation, and had I slept in the past few days and had clothing suitable to the environment, I would have been a lot more ambitious. We went to Chili's because it was basically right next door. And when we got in there, we were so disappointed with the menu. I mean, there wasn't anything on there I would think about eating.

and then the thought of having to come back, hat in hand, and explained to Dan that we went to a chain restaurant. I mean, I just couldn't bring myself to eat there. I think what I like about this show so far is the current of positive energy running. We should point out, the Jersey people could not have been nicer at the Super Bowl.

Newark was awesome, by the way, for the media day. We get off this, again, police escorted shuttle bus, and the Elizabeth, New Jersey marching band is playing for us, and we're walking through into the... the Prudential Center and they have all these people saying hello they gave us a commemorative pin they fed us uh you know these are all things it was very nice in the 15 degree weather they're all sitting out there i would second that i think you know maybe this is a perfectly

fine place to live in the summer months yeah and uh in other parts of new jersey but uh the people have been exceptional they've been so welcoming you can tell they're trying really hard just to be great hosts and i totally appreciate that and let's Let's go a little further down the Cessler Wormhole. I guess it's probably... We're deep. Yeah, when Wes went to bed last night, Mark ended up at a bar alone,

and he starts sending me these texts. Sure, buddy. Sends me these texts, and he's saying music blasting, and then he's reading the lyrics of these songs. She Lies and Says She's in Love with Him. That's Better Man, Pearl Jam, 95. Father of Mind by Everclear, an old smashing pumpkin song.

Like, this sounds like the saddestest ball. experience of anyone's ever dealt with. It was a little morose. I cannot lie. And in fact, the drinks were twice as expensive as they are in Los Angeles, which baffles me. All right. So what else? What else do we want to talk about? Because obviously, we're now closing it on the game. One thing, because this is something that's been speculated upon for it feels like two years, it's probably not going to snow or there won't be a blizzard for Super Bowl 48. It's supposed to be in the high 30s, and overcast, they're partly sunny.

So all that hand-toisting and hand-wringing about how it was going to play out, we don't have to worry about that. And I'm thankful for that because I didn't want to have to hear that or have that be a major storyline throughout the week. I never thought that the weather was going to be some deciding factor, and whether the Broncos or Seahawks was more capable to play in that kind of conditions. I think it's a relief that we don't have to hear that storyline. I think it's harder to throw the ball if it's below freezing and there's some wind, which that stadium often has.

I don't think it's undeniable that games change a little bit in that sort of weather. Precipitation is another thing, and it's great that that's not going to happen. But yes, I'd rather these conditions, which it sounds like it's going to be about as ideal as possible, although the conditions this week here, I mean, I lived here 10 years, you do not see weather like this very often. And you see weather like this here every couple of years for a week at most. They got bad luck with that, but the game should be fine. Well, but if there is a win, because when Russell Wilson had to deal with the wind against the states a couple weeks ago, that did not go well for me.

Admitted that, messed him up big time. And I actually asked a few Seahawks players about that yesterday. And Zach Miller said, look, when it was that windy, we couldn't do what we wanted to do. It's always about the wind more than the temperature and the precipitation, really. It's always the wind, but that rarely gets talked about. You know, I just realized, by the way, and maybe the differences in the podcast, is we are in a room, no one knows we're here. We could be murdered in this room and not be found for seriously six to eight weeks. And right across the hall, Eisen just did a podcast with Jerry freaking Seinfeld in which Jerry was supposed to do 13 minutes, and then they were finishing up.

And then Jerry's like, oh, let's keep going. He did like 30 minutes. Rich did 30 minutes with the biggest sitcom star of all time. We are in a sad room where anything could happen in here. This room has been rented out by like Iranian militants. I mean, I don't know what are in these boxes. We actually tried to get Johnny cakes on the podcast. He was walking around downstairs if you're not a Sopranos fan, you know, a key character in the somewhat misunderstood second to last Sopranos season.

He's been plugging something. You can tell the level of stars based on the day they show up at the same. Super Bowl because the big hitters come on Friday. That's when, you know, they don't want to spend the whole weekend. They'll do the media rounds then. That's when Sandler shows up. You know, if you're one rung below that, maybe you're Thursday because that's when you can get the time on the Dan Patrick show or Rich Isle, whatever. Johnny Cakes, Radio Row. By the way, are you calling Jaynefeld a D-List? That's different. He's not going around Radio Row making the rounds. Johnny Cakes is doing everything. He's doing West Virginia. You said that we

we tried to get Johnny Cakes on. Literally, this is how we could have gotten Johnny Cakes on. Hey, Johnny Cakes, then he would have been, I'll do it. Yeah, I was going to say. I mean, nothing against. No, he could have. Here's the weirdest thing about this Johnny Cakes guy, and I know probably 98% of our listeners probably don't know who we're talking about.

I don't even know if that was the character's name. That's what he's known for. He was a squat man from that soprano season, but he was walking around with a giant jug, like one of those pole and spring jugs that are in like an office setting, and it had a big, massive New York Giants Cousy on it, and he's carrying it around Radio Row, and it's just very strange. It was like one of the stranger things,

and that was on Monday. Tuesday, I walked around Radio Row today, bumped into Matt Money-Smith, who does our intros, of course. We need to get him more content, by the way, guys. We got to get going on that. Well, you guys talked to Dan Quinn. You said that was one of your moments today that you enjoyed some of the coaches.

Do you have any feel, I mean, from talking, like, what were your takeaways from him? Why was he such a surprising fellow? Well, I asked him, he was a fellow, and we'll West talk to him too. I think we came away with the sense that, you know, some of these assistants, they're buried underneath the head coach. You never hear from them all year, but he has such a major role in the way that that team operates. And it's very clear that he's extremely creative. He went on and on about what he had seen from Peyton Manning on tape this week. But every guy I talked to, including him, when you ask about Manning, it's like, look, we've got, what, since 1998, we have tape on this guy, he's untouchable.

There's no new quirk we can find that suggests how to beat him. It'll be interesting to see if they change things up, though, because they're not a defense that... He said they weren't going to. That mixes things up. They're not a defense that confuses the opposing quarterbacks. I think if you do that against Peyton Manning, you usually get in trouble. that you want to throw in some extra stuff to get, not to confuse him, but just so he doesn't know exactly what you're doing each play,

no matter how good your players are, they might not be that good enough to take these receivers one-on-one. Yeah, he basically said, we're just going to do what we do, we put our cleats in the grass, as he said, and we just attack. It's like, we're not going to change who we've been. Well, why should they? They've detonated everyone. Who gets the Peyton Manning anyway?

Cleats and grass. That's like, save that for your interview, buddy. That's the good stuff. By the way, the supremac character is Vito. Oh, yeah, of course. Thanks, because there was a breathless pocket of listeners waiting for that correction. Well, how about, so, Wes, you are embedded right now with the Broncos. Maybe we'll go West, then Mark.

What have you taken from your meetings with them so far? You know, a lot of people are kind of asking, this is what I got out of media day. Your coach listens to Fleetwood Mac. What do you think about it? This is the kind of questions that are being asked. I've been trying to figure out how the Broncos defense got good has playing their best ball all season without Von Miller. So that's kind of like what I've been concentrating on.

And they took that week 15 loss to the Chargers and just decided they weren't going to play. They were going to play as a cohesive unit and not rely on Von Miller. Everybody's doing their part. I think Danny Trevathan has really picked up his game and has become one of the best all-around linebackers in football. Pot roast has been playing great. They point to Sean Phillips leadership a lot.

And I think you can throw in Paris Lennon and Nate Irving playing on early downs has really helped the run defense. Lennon's one of those guys that you never think twice about. But it's cool when he makes the Super Bowl and you start reading the features that he was in two different leagues that are now defunct. The XFL, he's the last player that's still in the NFL that once played in the XFL. I can't imagine that was a long list anyways. Some of these guys. He hate me was in there. Rod Smart.

He was also in the Arena League. He's been in the league for 13 years, and yet most people would have no idea who he is, and here he is sort of on the big stage, and he's suddenly playing a ton over guys that were supposed stars, Wesley Woodyard or whoever. They've made some changes to the defense, too. Some of these guys, when you see them without their pads on,

they kind of look underwhelming. You think they're going to be bigger than they are? Paris Lennon looks huge. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know where you're going. His viscents are bulging, his neck muscles are coming out of the air. All right, that's the perfect early down thumper to play linebacker. Who's somebody that you have spoken to that's been surprising either in how he approached the interview or just said things you weren't expecting?

Well, I think Greg touched on this, too. Dominique Rogers Cromarty is a very, kind of a charming guy in the same kind of way that Brandon Marshall is charming. Like, you know, he's very easy going, easy to talk to, handles himself well, isn't really worried about clichés too much, so you're going to get better answers from him? felt the same way about Percy Harvin. You've heard some things about him, and I got an audience with him where we basically almost one-on-one at the end of Media Day, and he was, like, very open and had a good attitude about things, and I guess sometimes, maybe he doesn't have the best

reputation back in Minnesota, but he was pretty cool for me. Mark, you with the Seahawks, what have you seen? First thing about them in general is they are so confident and so loose. Like, they really reflect Pete Carroll from the top down, and they're having fun with this week. I don't sense a team that, you know, what we talk about outside of one practice squad or no one's been here before, they seem very organized, and they're doing this part of this media part of the whole week, and they're enjoying it. And I talked to a couple of the guys about what kind of game do you want against Denver? What's the kind of game? We all know they love to run the ball and stuff, but a couple of the guys said,

listen, if it turns into a shootout like Denver would want it to, we are completely confident that we have the receivers, and we certainly have the quarterback to play that kind of game and win, which surprised me because, I mean, not that they're not going to sound confident about anything they say, but they really do believe that whatever happens, Seattle has the type of team from top to bottom to beat Denver. Outside, they didn't care one iota about the cold. And I think it's been driven into their head.

You can play football in any weather. And they really, there wasn't a sense of wind, temperature, anything. There's very little botherment on that. They couldn't care less. Well, they did it last year. They were in shootouts. People forget how on fire Russell Wilson and that offense was as a passing game at the end of last year. In terms of the two playoff games, maybe now you get Harvin back.

We haven't talked a lot about his impact in the game. but if he could actually stay on the field for an entire game, which does not happen once, wouldn't it be amazing if it was the Super Bowl? And wouldn't that change the entire Seahawks offense? He said to me that he's never felt better, and he thinks that he's going to be more explosive than he's ever been on Sunday. Obviously, he's going to be some hyperbole involved.

But he's also, he's going to be pumped up just like all these guys are. And he said his legs are feeling good, and he's got the drive back in his legs, and his head is fine after that concussion. and we saw how he looked in the divisional game against the Saints before he got hurt. I would not be surprised at all if he made big plays, impact plays on Sunday. We're talking about a guy who, last season, 2012 season, when I was watching all these games for my Roto World job,

every week I'm watching it and thinking Percy Harvin is one of the five best players in the NFL. He was the best receiver in the NFL in the first half of last season. I think it was an MVP candidate. Yeah, MVP can. I mean, this is not a minor player. This is a major, major, significant difference maker that the Seahawks are getting for this game. And I think the coaches are overjoyed he's back, that he's here, that even obviously this has been a kind of a disaster of a season and an acquisition. But in the end, you'd much rather have Percy Harvin in your pocket going into this game than the opposite.

Maybe it's just because they're so positive. I mean, you mentioned Quinn. This team sort of takes on the personality of Pete Carroll. He seemed like a mini Pete Carroll. Gus Bradley kind of seems like a mini Pete Carroll all the players are just it's like he brought a bunch of guys that are just like happy to be there and positive and that's the Pete Carroll sort of thing and also Quinn mentioned that he's never been with a team or in a system where the head coach coaches the coaches the way he's been coached up by Carol the Carol behind closed doors with his staff is doing all he can to prepare each of them to be head coaches and so I think there's more attention given one quick thing on Harvin, though. That's what I try to do with you guys. Yeah, well, and that bleeds through on a daily basis. But with Percy Harvin, I think we asked last week,

some of the players, are they in an awkward spot with him maybe coming back into the fold now? Every single guy said, we expect him to be out there and contribute. They're thrilled, and they talked about him specifically as the reason they could succeed in the passing game against Denver. one uh i this isn't going to be a smooth transition but i wanted to mention it when we were talking about the broncos and and their media availability uh west welker is over this by the way oh yeah i you know before you guys got in i went to the first media availability which which by the way was in jersey city uh on a boat and i think is that where these the cornucopia yeah the cornetopia yeah that's where the broncos are which is actually a good

fantasy team name for anybody that's looking for one and when west welker was sitting in his little podium i mean he could not be more disinterested and and the media at media day today i from what i heard i didn't get too much up close action with him but he had a similar attitude i'm if if there's one guy that cannot wait till sunday and could use a teleporter device to get to sunday it's poor Wesley Walker, who lost two of these already. He played a prominent role in the last loss. I think he just wants to get to this game, win this game, go home, do some Old Spice commercials. You're giving me flashbacks to my first Super Bowl, though. It was an eye-opener at one of the first media availability in 2008 after the 07 season to be in front of Welker, and there's

only two or three people there at the time, and realize that he wasn't there, that his eyes were totally glazed over and he was like speaking sentences that almost had no connection with his body it was like it was just an automaton program and he he just couldn't have made it more obvious that he didn't want to be there and it sounds like you know he's just that was just a warm I guess he's never changed them it sounds like a real dynamic personality well this is a totally manufactured week yeah it's not them it's not natural and these people are trained to play football. And I think as every year goes by, this two weeks of events becomes less about football and more about entertainment. I think that's like probably the biggest takeaway for me.

I think you start to feel for the players on some level because they're wheeled out to such an excess this week. And the problem is you put them out there for 20 minutes that a guy that rolls in a minute 15 is invariably asking a question that the guys, the players been asked three or four times already. And they're very patient and they've been to a man done a great job with it, but I kind of get Welker's driftiness. One guy also I want to give a little credit to because it seemed to be shaping up to go in a different direction, but Richard Sherman, the fact that his name hasn't come up yet and we're at Super Bowl Week after what happened after the NFC title game, he has not

used this stage, and Media Day is another good example, to make it all about him. I think it seems like he was sincere that maybe his comments got away from him after that game because he has not it doesn't appear like he's trying to bring more attention to himself this week and make it the richard sherman show well the players handled themselves well today the media did not i got pushed and shoved and big-tons by out lighter a few times oh yeah out lighter former yankees miss yeah what a creep that guy was to do what happened because i have a beef with somebody also so it takes you know all these guys are around and if you want to talk to like no sean marino i mean not the biggest name, but it might take 15 minutes to kind of nudge your way up there,

wait patiently for everyone else to ask their questions. You're there with a notebook and a pen in front of you, obviously ready, first in line to ask a question. Lighter comes by, elbows you in the side, and says, hey, I got a question, I really need, oh, well, I'm not sitting here like, I got a pen in a notebook, obviously ready to ask my own question. He takes over, pushes me out of the way, you know, because the Noshon recognizes him as an athlete. He obviously goes to him. Lighter proceeds to ask like six or seven questions about being from New Jersey while I'm trying to ask like football questions.

Yeah, Al's from Tom's River, New Jersey. Punk. But, wait, is it weird to me that Noshan Murano would have an active knowledge of Al Leiter in his career? It's a little strange. He said he recognized his face. Oh, well, he does yes. There were two guys, like Mitch Berger came in and pulled the same routine, the former punter.

He came in and pulled the same routine. Well, he played with Noshan at one point. Oh, okay, that's right. So he recognized him. And then he looked at out lighter. I like that you were like, oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it'll check that. Mitch Berger played with, you know, except for you.

No one knows that. I don't even know who Mitch Berger is. Here's my beef. Matt Prater, kicker for the Broncos, set the NFL record 64-yarder. You know, I tried to get some time with him. Matt Prater's been ill, or he was ill last week, missed three practices. John Fox quelled any doubts about his play, whether he'd play on Sunday saying he'll be fine. you know, we kind of quarantined them, they joked them, and they kept them in a bubble.

So I wanted to check in with Matt Prater, the kicker, just like, how are you feeling that, you know, blah, blah, blah. So at first, there's too many people around it because I think one thing, the reporters, when they have a big group of guys, they navigate to the kickers and punters. You could take that how you will, but they had a lot of people talking to him, and Brock Osweiler also. Oh, he got a crowded time. So then finally, I kind of worked my way back, and there's only like three or four. people trying to get to Matt Prater. First of all, Matt Prater's got a huge diamond stud in his ear. And it's okay.

Kickers can be how they are, but that was surprising to me, you know, that he had that. And then I'm trying to talk to the guy, and I notice that there are people just kind of staring, and then I look up, and Matt Prater's talking on his phone. And there's this one hour of media availability. All you have to do is stand there. You have people clearly three feet away from you, separated by a barrier that I want to ask you questions. Get off your phone, bro.

What if it was his doctor? I wrote that, actually, in what we learned, our post, wrapping up the day. I said, I hope it wasn't an emergency, because then I'd feel bad about this. But, you know, get a phone. By the way, there's no shadowy league figure this time looming. They've actually just locked the door and they're going to not let us out and explode the room. A blue gas is going to start to appear below the door. A note slid under the door just said goodbye.

It's over. Curtains for you. No, and I can't stress this enough. We are literally in a small room in a large hotel filled with black trunks. Across the hall, Jerry Seinfeld, the greatest sitcom star of all time, just interviewed by a proper podcast. It's a bold state girl show. I like it. I like being the underdog. You know, you can, you know, take all your downloads and whatnot.

We're the scrappy guys. Those are the teams that end up on top in the end. before they just get full of themselves on success. Do you watch, Hoosiers, to prepare yourself for the show? We continue to make friends in this episode. Anything else? After staying with the teams a little bit, I mean, are you feeling any different about this game?

Not based on that, but I guess as we're getting closer to Sunday, we've now had nine days to marinate on these two teams. Has your feelings on who might win this game, changed in any way. I would say as much as the Seahawks are feeling confident, they haven't played their best football of the year entering the Super Bowl. The Broncos

have, and they know it. And I feel like they're the team to beat now. I do feel like that has solidified my opinion. Do you remember what I, you know, what I said back in November? I know that you have guaranteed a Seahawks victory. A Seahawks blowout victory over the Broncos, this was guaranteed in November.

And I don't like to kind of put this out there a lot. because that takes a lot of fun out of the game for people. But it must be said, that's what's going to happen. I disagree with Dan. I disagree with half of it. I think it's going to be a very close game. I think it's going to be a Seahawks win, though.

When you're with the Broncos and you're hearing all this positivity, there's reason to think Denver will win the thing outright. But I guess I'm getting that from the Seattle side. They seem to me unified from top to bottom. They're all just so close together. this thing. And I really feel that, A, they've got the one defense in the league that Manning has going to have real problems with, I think, potentially. There's not a weak spot on that defense, and we haven't seen them play anyone of that level. And that, to me, is the difference

more than anything Seattle will have to do on offense. I think it's going to be like a 23 to 21 type Seahawks win. We'll get into the game a little deeper Thursday. Mark just gave his prediction. Well, that's a good. That's fluid, and that will change. I think the takeaway here is that Mark and I have both been snowed by the same week. I don't care what they say all week. Nothing possibly mattered that anyone said this week will possibly have an effect on the outcome of the game. The only thing it'll affect is Dominique Rogers, Cromarty's agent, because he cost himself a little bit of money by kind of making it clear he's not that in love with football and all that.

I just think, you know, forget the conversation. How about Richard Sherman? Richard Sherman's performance this year and what he's doing as a cornerback. And then put next to him, Byron Maxwell, who might be a top five cornerback in his own right. And then Earl Thomas, who's one of the best safeties that we've ever seen. And Cam Chancellor, who's so versatile, and that this secondary and this defense overall is such a force of nature that I think in this clash where we'll talk about kind of these two teams class. I think they're even greater than the highest scoring offense. in NFL history. I think that'll be our takeaway at the end of Sunday night that people are

writing. I think the opposite. I think it's great as the Seahawks defensive backs are, possibly the best we've seen, definitely the best since the 2002 bucks. They haven't seen anybody like the Broncos, and nobody in my lifetime, nobody in the history of the NFL has in sync in pre-snap reads right now like Peyton Manning is. I mean, he's doing things before the snap where you can tell he's identifying and he's got so many weapons that he is he's in so smooth an area right now and i think no quarterback's ever done that before i'd have to say with this super bowl it is has more strong matchups and i can i can remember because it's all these chess pieces and it is like it's an offense that hasn't seen anything like this on defense and you flip it over and west is right they haven't dealt

with anything like what the broncos produced well it there was a great post on a psychologist football perspective about the matchup in name dropper historical significance that there has never been a greater difference in matchups of a great defense and a great offense and you can slice it up a lot of different ways but in terms of the point differential of the two teams that are playing in terms of what one defense gave up and what one offense gave up and that's any game it's not the greatest super bowl ever it was the greatest NFL matchup ever I like that from 1950 that there's never been a defense this good in terms of being better than the rest of the league in that year against an offense being better than the rest of the league in that year

and we get to see them just smash against each other like those helmets at the beginning of Monday night football's all start you know what the close is going yeah Greg is off the trunk the closest other Super Bowl in terms of point differential was what the 49ers did in 89 with the number one offense against my Bengals? No, against the, I'm talking to the 99 season against the number one defense in Denver. And you look at that game, that tilted off. 5510, Mark.

I was in a, that was the final school. I was in the backseat of a car driving home from a Vermont ski trip, watching that on a watchman television. That's awesome. You're old, I love that. I was 15 wondering what a ski trip was. Wow. Must be nice.

This is where the generational difference comes in. We were talking about this. downstairs just that you guys chris and mark it sometimes there's a division between the four of us we all try to we try to be like a group but you guys you're the older guys dan and i are kind of the young cool guys we're like we're like the cool cats and you're like the old men and that's how i see it we're above cool we don't have time for cool that's exactly right we're fine going to chilies and eating at chilies the night we get to new jesus this is all i got to say you know this is fun chat and we're going to come back on Thursday and do more podcasting

maybe from a room where people haven't been murdered but I'm getting text now from Damashek tonight's the big media party on Chelsea here in Manhattan I told Damashek we'd meet up with him he texted me earlier during the podcast food who's in from your gang and then he followed out of it where are you you GD prima prima prima donna and then I said rapping pod stop being a bad person. We got to get, we got to get in contact with damage. We got to get out of here. We got to go to this party. When we come back Thursday,

we will have our official Super Bowl predictions, other than Cessler here, and he gave his very professional. Damasek won Media Day, by the way, by asking players if Sunday was a must win. That was great. I love that. He had this question to me

today. So good and shows how humorless this business can be. It got picked up in several out that it was, oh, someone just asked the new worst Super Bowl question ever. And it's like, are you kidding me? You don't understand that that was a joke? Society. He previewed his material with us before.

He went out there and asked the questions, and we were rolling on almost all of his questions. And he also got Peyton Manning to be a real human and hilarious. We should tease that. We shouldn't take that. That should be for Dave's show. You should listen to Dave's show. Hopefully it'll be on that, and the audio all works out with his. interaction with Peyton Manny at the end.

All right, let's get out of here. We literally have to get out of this room. I think the oxygen is starting to leave the room. We'll be back Thursday, like we said, with our Super Bowl predictions and also really dig into the game and also, of course, let you know what's going on from New York. And by that time, Mark and West will be in the big city and out of Jersey City, and you'll be happy about that. I love New Jersey, but, you know, that's just me.

That's great. You are wearing a hat that says, I, I love New York. Literally, that is your hat. That's your hat. I know, that's true. Anyway, all right, so let's get out of here. This is Dan Hansa, signing off for the sizzler, the mailman, the boss, and all these trunks.

And, of course, our producer, our film producer, Covey? Cave. Thank you, Covee for helping us out. We're cheating on the gold standard. And K. Rich. Until Thursday. This is an IHeart podcast.