NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Super Bowl XLVIII recap

Episode Date: February 3, 2014

On the Super Bowl XLVIII edition of the ATL Podcast, the crew breaks down how the Seattle Seahawks dominated the Denver Broncos from start to finish, and whether a dynasty could be brewing in the Pacific Northwest. Did the blowout loss tarnish Peyton Manning's legacy? The gang hits on all that -- and more.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 the League podcast. My name is Dan Hedison. I'm joined by a room filled with heroes. Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys, from MetLife Stadium. Ah, hey, man.

Super Bowl 48. in the books. Dan and Greg are already out of their chairs in the podcast just started. Well, Dan was standing up to start the podcast and we're all seated and I'm looking out here at some confetti on the field and the Super Bowl

just happened and our season is over and we just pounded out 15 posts. I mean... I wish we were pounding out 15 beers because I'm exhausted. Let's set the scene. We are in the auxiliary box at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands from the Seahawks side to the end zone looking down with the

confetti on the field. The players are long gone. 43-8 Seahawks win over the Broncos in a lopsided Super Bowl that nobody predicted. Oh, wait. Hold on here.

Well, you said the Broncos would have 17 points. You weren't even close, man. Final score prediction, made by me last week, 42-17 Seahawks. Flamed on Twitter for that prediction. But let's take it back further. coincidentally December 2nd Greg yes oh this is good December 2nd 2013 exactly

two months ago I wrote get ready people the first Super Bowl blowout is coming and sometime it was the night that the Seahawks blew out the Saints at home and I predicted that and I got blamed and Greg Rosenthal had the most memorable reply which was saving this for future ridicule in New Jersey Greg? Well, I have to admit when you're right, you're right. And maybe the Cops have been building to this moment for four years,

and maybe they're one of the greatest defenses of all time, and maybe one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time just got served, the highest scoring offense scored eight points. But despite all that, it's all about Dan Hanses. That's really the big takeaway. That Dan Hans is, that's what we should start with. It's all about predictions and us. And here I am defending you on Twitter.

Someone said on a scale of 1 to 10, how smug will Dan Hansen be in the podcast tonight? I said Dan doesn't do smug. Oh, yes. Today I will, because this has been a big journey for me all the way through. This is really a night. No, not. It's not a big moment for you, Dan.

I will say this, though, if I could be honest, the reason I said that two months ago is because that was a night where they were playing at their apex, and I always thought that they were the most talented team by a long stretch, and if they were playing well, and I assume they would throughout the rest of the season. I just thought they were the best team in the league. Dan, I were you. Hold on here. I would cut off the avenue of trying to act as though you went through some deep analysis.

You threw something out there. You got a few beers in you. I was at the office working. Well, I don't think that changed. No, this is. You threw it out there, and just sit with it. and you don't need to back the truck up and analyze it we're all

I know nobody wants me to back up the truck but I will I will move on now we will move forward but listen I'm happy about it's all what else is there I think we should do the whole podcast on your prediction that's it let's just talk about that in which wing of your house are you going to

keep the Lombardi Trude well it depends it really depends because I figured there will be a big financial fallout for me I'm expecting a lot of phone calls, a lot of media requests. I haven't checked my phone yet, I assume it's going to be pretty wild. Now, Mark, you are dying. Is that a fact or not?

You sound like this week has taken a lot out of you. You're playing her here. My voice, obviously, sound like the middle Brady in that episode where he was attempted to sing at a choral event. I believe it was Bobby. Best if we just continue on. You were down in the Seahawks locker room after the game. Life's dreams culminated tonight.

What was it like? What was the scene like? You know, I was down there with Dan, so really all I could focus on was what Dan was doing. My pick. Yeah, and it was. But there were other things I witnessed. Percy Harvin had, you know, I think the guy, he said this week he's had a frustrating season. It's been trying.

Huge night tonight. And he was just beaming in the locker room. very happy. That team, I mean, the theme all week long was we are unified. We are, we're going to speak the same language, we're going to approach this game the same way. And I think, you know, Dan and I were both there for Carol lifting the trophy and giving one of the better speeches I've ever heard in there. That was Mark and I were both in the locker room for Carol's speech in which he came into the locker room, he brought his guys into the center of the room, pushed the media back a little bit, but we were still right in the mix, observing. at all. And he gave about a four-minute speech to his players in which, you know, he thanked them for what they were able to do. He went down like a laundry list of people that had stepped up in the game, gave a special shout out to Dan Quinn, to the 12th man in Seattle. And I thought it was a really interesting thing to see how close these guys were and how, and the bond between

this team and this coach. It was really, to me, Carol was the perfect guy in the perfect city for the perfect team and it was uh and it all culminated tonight flipping that a little bit like i talked to a couple seahawks players who were pretty open i thought they would be guarded on this this front but i asked like tony mcdaniel did Denver because they looked just lifeless from the minute percy harvey took that second half kickoff back he basically said they looked like dead man walking they looked like guys were given up out there i mean and they did to us it was obvious Richard Sherman said, too, on NFL Network, that the receivers, the linemen, they weren't blocking his heart on the bubble screens in the second half, that their will had been broken. And this is a historic offense that was used to pushing everyone around, and suddenly it's 21-0 right after halftime.

I know you picked the blowout. Four of the five ATL riders actually picked the Seahawks win. You were the only one that thought the Broncos were going to win, which was a... pretty popular pick. I'm talking to Chris Wesleyan, of course. You know, as someone who thought the Broncos were going to win, what were you thinking here and what were the takeaways for you, West? I was thinking that everybody was underrating the Broncos offense, which was, you know, we saw they could just throw an onslaught on anybody at any given time, and it just never happened today. They set the wrong tone with the botch snap safety and never recovered from that.

They have plenty of opportunities with the Seahawks blowing red zone chances, and they just couldn't rally back from that. And I think that kickoff return to start the second half was the nail on the call. I thought Bruno Mars' performance really took anything that was left to the Broncos. I think a lot of the Broncos thought, oh, this guy was going to do poorly and then we would get energy. But then he killed out there. Bruno did great? Did he? That's true. That was kind of a secret moment in the evening where not football related on any level, but pivotal for 10. If Dan actually left our little press box area, we're in a separate NFL dot com only room basically they built for us we're writing some first half takeaways we're

eating we're talking about the game dan leaves to make sure he gets better sound quality for the bruno mars that's where his head is at i like to let's admit i was obviously i was pretty on my game today but uh i like to consider myself well-rounded i wanted to hear what what mars sounded like and i'm a chili peppers fan but then it was too cold out and the weather obviously was not a big issue It was perfect for a Super Bowl, but it got a little chilly, and I had to come back in. That's the first attempt ever I've heard. Somebody tried to paint themselves as well-rounded because they like a pop star. Uncle Wes.

To get back to the game, the thing that struck me was the Broncos' offensive line in that first half, that we gave them so much credit all year. And I watched a lot of tape the last couple weeks, and Chris Clark, I thought, played great. And, you know, Orlando Franklin on the right side. and Mani Ramirez got a lot of love. No one got near Manning. They got worked. I mean, Chris Clemens and Cliff Averill, those are my MVP.

Those would be my two co-MvPs for the pressure that they got on Manning. You wrote posts all week, Mark, about how the Seattle defense wanted them to get Manning to move his feet, and they got that done. He was under pressure. Averill basically caused two turnovers. Give him the hardware. I agree on Averill and Clemens. I would split the MVP between the two.

with him and our boss, John Marble, a Broncos fan, got a hold of Elway after the game and Elway told him, he said they were just so relentless. So that was Elway's big takeaway. I think that speaks to what Seattle said all week when you kept trying to drill down with that. What are you going to do differently against Manning? And they said, we're not going to do anything differently. We're going to do what we do every game all season long. I spoke to Abil and I said, you know, up in our press box, we talked about you as a potential MVP candidate in this game. But what was it that you did in this game? He said, you know, yes, it was us rushing the pastor,

but with our secondary locking those receivers down for an extra second or two, that caused major issues for manning. That's true because a lot of it wasn't always immediate pressure and you're used to seeing it get out of his hand so quickly. And even when he held the ball and he did throw it and he didn't have a ton of pressure, we have great, you know, all 22 vision here at the game. So you can really see the covered. There weren't holes for him to throw it.

to and they were all contested passes. And think about it, it's kind of logical. They have a front forward push that can get to the quarterback, and they have the best secondary in the league. And if you don't establish a running game, which the Broncos never came close to doing, then you're not keeping them off balance. I mean, it's almost strange that so many people

picked against the Seahawks when you realize if they took the Broncos running game out of it, how vulnerable they were. I mean, it's not like the Broncos have a great backbeat. Well, I think people thought, Eric Decker, Demarius, Thomas, West Welker, Julia. Thomas, those guys could win more one-on-one battles. And they didn't. And that's why it was hard to give away

the MVP. They gave it to Malcolm Smith, a backup linebacker who basically was a trivia question basically because a lot of people won't remember that one. All he was was in the right spot at the right time, but it's kind of like in the season. The defensive player of the year boat got split because there's too many guys. Chancellor had a big game. The linebackers, K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner had a big game. You could have picked anyone you could have just picked the Seahawks defense would have been a lot of why don't we just start going outside the box with that why does it have to be a single guy

because if there was ever a MVP that deserved to be given out to an entire unit it was this game where no one really jumped out individually on the stat sheet but it was just a dominating effort from all phases of the defense it was pretty special to watch I think when we picture manning's happy feet we picture pressure but like you said if his first second and third reeds aren't open. Even if there's not pressure, he starts to dance back there. And I think that was noticeable tonight. They did bring a lot of heat, but he started the happy feet thing awfully early in the game. And I think you also have to give credit to Seahawks for how great they were tackling. The Broncos are a very good after-catch team, the best screen-pass team

in the NFL. The Seahawks are an even better screen-pass defense team. I felt like we knew that Denver was, well, they were in a lot of trouble right away, but if there was any team offensively that could climb out of a hole and get hot and get in a rhythm. But then we saw a couple plays where Seattle had Manning fleeing the pocket and running 15 yards laterally and throwing passes to nobody. It's like they have solved this offense. And why don't we talk about Manning a little bit? Because what, and I'll start with you, Mark, in your estimation.

Actually, we'll start with Wes because, Wes, you wrote the post up tonight about a page. Manning and what this loss means to, let's just say, his legacy, West. Well, I think he did have a chance today against a great defense to have his second Super Bowl title, and you would have to put him, a lot of people would put him as the consensus top quarterback of all time if he would have won this game. I think he would have been. That would have been the big story. There would still be a debate, but a lot more people, and I think now, okay, he's got more

championship losses than wins. He backed to a sub-500 playoff record. I don't think you can say he's the best quarterback of all time He had the chance to do that and he didn't Oh, they didn't just lose They scored eight points Remember I, you know, my score I think for the final It was 2413

You said, what, the greatest scoring offense in NFL history He's only going to score 13 They were in single digits They were the Jagger I know they put up over 300 yards And the yardage looks close But with the four turnovers With the final score They were like the Jaguars or the Raiders' offense tonight

That's how good The Seahawks defense is is that they made the best scoring offense in NFL history, basically the Jaguars. It seemed like an accomplishment when it took them eight minutes to get 50 yards on a drive and then ultimately ended an interception. But that's how hard it was.

Their longest drive, when the game was still in reach, ended up in a turnover and only went about 50 or 60 yards. I don't think it damages his legacy at all. I don't think they would have done anything close without him this season. At all? Well, look, I mean, this was not, I don't want to blame the game on Peyton Manning. He did not play well, but they ran into a buzz saw, and I think we'll look back and say the Seattle defense.

And right out of the shoot, I know Chris saying Raven's defense much better, and that's going to be an argument. But the conversation about who the greatest quarterback of all time is isn't over now because Peyton Manning lost the Super Bowl. I think it would be very unfair if people spin this into Manning choking because I agree with you. I'm saying. There's nothing he could have done. He could have played the best game of his life and they win the Seattle's win. I think what we'll now understand after this game is that this was the year that Manning had the greatest regular season ever and then just happened to go against one of the best defenses.

Oh, and by the way, like, you know, John Elway looked steamed when he walked by Dan and I downstairs. He looked absolutely furious. But what quarterback knows better about taking your team to a Super Bowl? Will you run into a dynasty like the 89-9ers? And there's just nothing you could have. done tonight to change the narrative? I have never seen Peyton Manning as rattled and about to be emotional as he was in the post-game press conference tonight when someone brought up a question and I believe they used the word embarrassed in the question. I'm not sure if they used West

Welker's quote to get into it. West Welker said it was an embarrassing performance. Wes is 0 for 3 now. Yeah, 0 for 3. Very quiet game. Your boy Walter Thurman had a nice book. And Manning started stuttering a little bit. And he said, I wouldn't call it embarrassment. And he said, there's a lot of pros in this locker room that worked really hard. And he started, you could see him getting angry. And you can see him kind of stuttering and kind of spitting out words, just waiting to get to his point.

And then finally he just said, you know, embarrassment, frankly, that's an insulting word. You know, that is not a word that I would use. And he moved on. And it was just, it was weird to see who Manning always, I mean, wrestling always calls Manning this robot. And for a second there, you just saw it all building up inside of him, kind of like you saw during the game when you saw the shots of Eli Manning, how frustrated he was. Manning said another record, by the way, but this is by far the worst record Manning owns. He finished 3449 for 280 yards, one touchdown, two picks, 73.5 rating. But the 34 completions are the most by any quarterback in Super Bowl history. So that's another record for Payton. This one is not one. And Demarius Thomas has the most receptions now.

Well, I think he has the two longest pick sixes in Super Bowl history. We found out that's erroneous. We remember that James Harrison had a hundred-yard pick six up turn water. Where did that stand under us? It came via Twitter and it was just... The way these things were... Two good ones, though. I mean, two ones I was there for and they were exciting plays. Well, the way that NFL works is Peyton Manning has a chance again next year to change the narrative, rewrite history,

change what we talk about of his legacy, but you also have to think, No Sean Marino might not be back, Decker, the Broncos fear losing him, according to our NFL media insider Ian Rappaport. So this office... Corporate man, why I like that. That might be

the last time we say that in the 2014 season. This offense might not come back as high flying as they were this year. Can I just say with all of us standing around a room right now in suits, It's like I'm with Greg Gumbull, Kurt Gowdy, and, I don't know, Dan Deirdar. I'll be Troy Eichman, maybe.

I also want to just point out that it's past 1 o'clock in the morning, and we're standing up here delivering the podcast goods, and this is the first podcast we've had since Stitcher gave us their best podcast of the year award, or best sports podcast, so thank you for voting. Everybody wants to get caught up with, oh, the Seahawks, put a stamp on an amazing year. But, no, that's not what this is about. It's about us, and it's about the Stitcher coming back to Culver City champs.

So we want to thank all of our listeners who voted for it. That was great. Thank you very much. So it's our legacy, and it's the Seahawks legacy. I mean, let's talk about where this defense stacks up. Because we talked about it during the week. One of these two sides has a chance to kind of be one of those historical teams that you remember, especially if they put together a dominant performance,

and it doesn't get much more dominant than this. I think in the ultimate pass-first league against the ultimate pass-first team, I mean, they have the big Hamer, they have the weapon. They can stop any passing attack. And I think they're there. I think they're there in that conversation with the 85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens

and the 2002 Buccaneers. Why not? I think we tend to diminish what came a long time ago, and that 85 Bears defense, and especially that 2000 Ravens defense. The second one is forgotten. Against the bunch of Cup games. Well, they did not face this offense in the Super Bowl.

Let's put it that way. What Seattle did against what we've seen Denver do all here is about as impressive as a performance as you can ask for. I don't know, but that 2000 Ravens defense may be still. They're not better than the 2,000 Ravens. That defense is the best I've ever seen. It's better than what everyone thinks the 85 Bears were. The 85 bears were dominant, but the Ravens were the best I've ever seen.

What the Seahawks have an advantage on all these guys is even in the salary cap era, the free agency era, they've got a chance to keep this going for a few years. Russell Wilson's contract is so low. They've got most of these guys on defense are young and coming back and don't have a lot of major contract issues. So I think this has a chance to be Dynasty. Oh, stop it. Well, a little early. Well, by the way, we saw tonight what happens when you have a Percy Harvard that's healthy, too. Difference makers.

Well, that's assuming that he'll ever really be healthy, but when he is, obviously, he proved it. Mark Sessler, Mark, you know, you don't like taking the spotlight a lot, but let's give it to you. Mark Sessler picked MVP, Percy Harvin. Yeah, but then whoever votes for this picked a lineback of the No one. Right, never mind. I completely forgot about that. We got fed erroneous information in this box at one point that Percy was the MVP. Right, and that was when I was texting Dan saying, this is a big part of tonight's podcast.

I know we're going to have the hands us block up front for 20, 25 minutes, but then if we could squeeze it in 45 seconds about the Harvard prediction, but I was wrong. Can I let go ahead? No, go ahead. You know what's an also cool prediction about Percy Harvin. This worked out exactly how he thought it would in August when he underwent hip surgery, that they wouldn't need him all year, that he wouldn't, because hip-trial surgery is so major, he probably wouldn't contribute until the playoffs, and then I think I wrote exactly this.

His biggest contribution will come in the Super Bowl. how that was a good point. You got two of us to go, hmm. That's like the verbal cue. If you're listening at home and you're just kind of tuning out, you're in your car, someone just, you know, path to you're not paying a fit, but you hear the, hmm, listen up, back it up 10 seconds. You got some gold right there. How rare is he that he can play 40 snaps all year and look as absolutely lightning fast as he did tonight? That's not every guy. The Broncos had no chance of stopping those handoffs. He came through so quickly. And you have to credit Wilson for handing it off so smoothly too there's there's such a fast team that it strikes you being in

person harvin and then especially the defense wagner and right are covering some ground thomas is covering some ground i mean they have such a fast defense cliff adriel is probably one of the fastest defensive end in them and like you said they're all staying together rap report says bennett will be back they're going to try to work out a you know a long-term deal for earl thomas you know pretty much they don't have many big free agents this year golden tate is probably the biggest and they can certainly live without him. One thing on Harvin, I asked him a couple days ago, do you, listen, do you have a play that they're working on for you?

You don't have to tell me what it is, but something special. And he laughed and he's like, no, I can't talk to you about it. But he kind of had a look in his eye. And then we saw that reverse right out of the gate, and they used it again. And I asked Zach Miller in the locker room, like, listen, was that from the start? Did you know that was going to come when it did early on? He said, yep, we've been practicing that all week. And they used it, he said, more in the game to deceive it.

and throw them off. So even when he didn't get the ball, he completely threw Denver's deep at Southwrax. Who are these people down on the field in front of us? I don't look gray-coated. There's a bunch of, it's almost like there's some type of meeting that, and they don't know we're here watching it, and they're preparing for something, because it's pretty cold down there now, and nobody that seems to be in a rush. They're sponsors, or they're related to the league, or they work the game, and they're on the game. They're taking pictures. They're shadowy league figures. all gathered in one spot

You think they don't know that we're watching them Of course they know, they're watching us I'm afraid that one of them is all of a sudden we're going to look and he's going to have a pair of binoculars pointed right at us We should get down there and take our 17th group photo of the week

on the field. We're going to have like a touching family album by the coming to get back to California. I just want to rewind back to the, where the Seahawks defense it comes in in terms of ranks and thank you mark it's very important so you struggling there a little bit literally

it is the next day now it is now Super Bowl Monday when you look at all right if this is going to be a big talk NFL AM is going to give about 90 minutes every day from now until the end of July for this topic 85 bears beat the Patriots led by Greg Helmey out Tony Easton yes yeah the 2000 Ravens in the Super Bowl beat the Kerry Collins-led

New York Giants and not a great New York Giants team with that. This Seahawks team beat the greatest offense of all time, led by arguably the greatest quarterback of all time, to a pulp that to me, bonus points for the stage that I was on and who they beat. I'm just saying that they deserve to be in the

conversation as number one all time. Well, what's a different conversation? That's just one game. It's a different conversation. In terms of best Super Bowl performance, number one defense all year. In terms of best Super Bowl performance, there's some great ones, especially early on, but it's right up there. If you're basing on the whole season, it's a little tougher, but I at least think they're in the games. It's not like they were a dudd defense all year underachieving and then showed up tonight. No, they weren't, but the Ravens had Trent Dilfer.

They had the rescue week after week. I mean, there's a, you know, Seattle is a more balanced team. For sure. And they have no, you can't look at any part of Seattle's, you know, roster and say, weak spot. because there is a one. But Greg's just said it. If you want to talk about best Super Bowl performance by a defense, that's tonight.

Well, Twitter, we've gotten this far. We haven't mentioned the second year quarterback who just won his first Super Bowl, who has helped represent this sort of new wave of quarterbacks that we've been talking about for two years nonstop, Wilson, Love, Cabern. And here he is. He's the first one to get a Super Bowl.

And yet, it feels a little bit like an afterthought to all this. Not that he didn't do his job and play great, and I thought he had big moments early with the third down, but he didn't seem that high on the list of reasons they want. It's crazy that he would be an after. Well, and maybe we gave a little short trip to West dropping the dynasty word because because of his low salary and the fact that they have so many great players around him, this guy, because he was not the star tonight. I mean, this was a game or the defense at the load but he's he's a guy that I think he played a great game yeah he sailed two passes on the first two drives and then really settled in and made some

outstanding throws and made plays with his feet from the beginning of the game I think he has Brady DNA and I think if you if you look at the Seahawks you laugh great but really I was just thinking the roster Giselle's got that you know any second off the rails if you we are off the rails and on route three I'm just saying that's expensive DNA, you know what I'm saying? It is. But Russell's DNA is also excellent. And no, I think when you have a roster this talented, barring injury, I don't see any way this team is in right back in the mix next year.

I think this is a team that will have another chance and another chance after that to continue to pile up Lombardis. There's a shot here for this team to be the next Patriots. Sorry, Greg, the window's closed. There's a lot of great teams. That's a window closed sound effect. Part of the reason I think we won't give that much credit to Wilson is because the game was so weird. It couldn't have been a bigger beatdown in the first quarter, 161 yards to 11 for Seattle. But it was only 8-0 and only 6 points from the offense.

Second quarter, the Broncos outgained the Seahawks 112 to 18, and yet the score was 14 points for the Seahawks. Then Harvin gets the kick return. So it's basically 29-0. And Seattle's offense had more or less scored six points. They had another touchdown that was on a short field. But they had done very little to get to 29-0. Yeah, those turnovers were back breakers. And then the Percy Harmon, we need to get into John Fox's coaching a little bit.

Matt Preger could kick it out of the end zone whenever he wants to. So they do a pooch kickoff attempt to start the third quarter with the most dangerous kickoff returner of the last 10 years. Fair? That's a great point. Not to mention the pun when it was 29-0-0. You could argue was the most nonsensical

punt in the history of football. The challenge early in the game, not that it made the difference, but it was like, why did he challenge that play? Even little things like first down in 20 and they run a play-action fake. Who's falling for that on first and board? You know what? This is a team that has

zero experienced the season, playing from behind like that, playing in a situation where they've been throttled early with their own mistakes. And just from a coaching angle, whatever their game plan was, was thrown out a loop within 10 minutes of this thing starting. It was the weirdest first six minutes of a Super Bowl we've ever seen. But Fox, I mean, players all the way up to the coaching staff, they've been dominating teams all year long. Suddenly they're getting their butt kick. We like to pretend that like coaches and GMs, they construct these teams and they're these

mastermind. So I kind of like that Carol and Schneider get the Super Bowl. not Fox and Elway, because they've been building to this moment for four years, whereas it's hard for me still to buy Fox as a particularly great person. I like Fox. I think he seems like a really nice guy. He'd be cool to drink a beer with. But I feel like I fell for the banana in the tailpipe. I mean, he turned back into John Fox.

I'll probably never be able to forgive him for that punt. It was one of the most stupid things I've ever seen. Can we get a banana in a tailpipe drop? Do we have clearance for that? That would be awesome. How do you punt the ball, 29 and nine? nothing, you're on the Seahook's 39-yard line, and there's still two full quarters to play. I just don't get it.

I can't root for a guy like that. I also didn't like, maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I believe they were down 22-0 facing a fourth in two or a fourth in a long one, and he opted to go for it instead of kicking a field goal that maybe would have got him on the board, would have, you know, maybe got him to momentum. Got him so momentum. Instead they call like an out pattern to Demarius Thomas. that had no chance of working.

I mean, it just... It had no chance of working because Chris, I think was it Clemens or Averill. I forget which one. I think it was Clemens that time. Got around the edge in a second. I mean, that was just... Get the ball out quick or run the ball

or kick the field goal and feel good about yourself a little bit. I just think it was one of those games. Yes, that's easily second guess, but it's one of those games were almost everything he did went wrong. He was just... He wasn't the reason they lost,

but everybody kind of had a bad day. It was such a dominant play by Seattle that had they converted that and scored, I don't think it would have mattered. I'm not sure there's one play we can look at or two plays. They got filmed. Let's give a little love to the 12th man. Not only did Seattle just win its first pro championship in any sport in more than 30 years. They're an incredible fan base.

They came out strong here. They're obviously great in Seattle. And they had an impact on the game. That first play of the game, sound was a factor. Manny Ramirez told you that, right? Yeah, Manny Ramirez said it. the game he said we were backed up against the end zone and we could not hear the staff have you and that was a huge that happened in a super bowl right that was a huge play in the game just to start it that

way like there must have been a lot of pat yourself on the back 12th man a lot of sphincters getting tightened over there on the bronco sideline and to cessler's point that he's made for months and months now it was definitely we were a little hermetically sealed in this in this auxiliary box but When I stepped outside in the beginning of the game just to get a vibe of the place, the stadium was on fire. It was loud. It was a nice in the outdoor venue. It just fell right. They'd chill in the air.

It was a great spot for a Super Bowl. And as long as you weren't in the Sakakis train station trying to get here, this was like a place that handled the Super Bowl very well. Can I before, because I think we need to go to sleep at some point. Because, Greg, you want us up in the morning cranking out more high-level content. Yeah. I think we need some posts in like five hours for now. I just want a couple of tidbits when Mark and I were downstairs, I need to impart. Chris Christie walked by us, that was interesting.

Yes. A more slender version of that. Yeah, not as rotund as I thought it would be. Bill Murray walked by us. And it was funny because first Peyton Manning walked by us. And you said Elway looked angry. When Manning walked by, it was almost like, you look like a truck at him. It was like, I can't believe this is what's going.

And then Bill Murray comes like bounding. comes like bounding past us with like a goofy grin on his face and like a silly jacket on. That was really funny. And then inside the locker room, Tavares Jackson, I can't remember who the player was, an offensive line, and goes, hey, T.J., what ring size you got? And Jackson holds up his pinky, and he goes, I want it for this. So T.J, Tavis Jackson wants a pinky Super Bowl ring. Maybe he thinks he's had four more cups? And you didn't write that up immediately when you came up as our top story date?

That went on a hold for the front page of the website tomorrow morning. Oh, let's hear about Marshawn Lynch. Oh, yeah, Marshawn Lynch. We're in the locker room. And this guy in a all red, he was wearing a, I couldn't even tell who it was. He was all red, red sweatshirt, hood pulled over his head, red sweatpants, hat, and then gold, like, beats by Dre headphones, goes up to the speakers in the locker room and plugs in his iPhone and then turns it all the way up. it was an Oakland rap artist and then when he turns around

I see it's as Beast mode across the front of the sweatshirt it's Marshawn Lynch and he just starts dancing alone to this song he turns the volume all the way up to to the point where you had Seahawks' staffers like nervous and looking around can you do the dance while you're explaining it was kind of like it was like this it was like arms are just waving

and I think that's Heifie isn't it? I don't know I couldn't tell you Heifie what's that That's like the Oakland rap scene Hype Wow, Wes. Ow! Wes has never heard of Bruno Mars or Myel's Cyrus. That was a pop star!

But he knows that. You kids and your pop stars? And then he's like, hyphy. It's like really big on the West Coast scene. No, but he's dancing, and he's not making eye contact with anybody. He's not calling over any teammates. After dancing for a couple minutes, the song ends, and he like calmly and quietly, he never says a word.

Goes back to his iPod, hits play again, this starts the same song over again. and dances some more and then quietly slips away. We're going to do that right after this podcast is over. Oh, yeah. Boom. Any final thoughts from MetLife Stadium before we get on the shuttle back to Medette? I think we're going to have to wheelmark out of here like weekend at Bernice.

He's had a rough week. That'd be funny. And if it played it out that way, we'd like get in some zany adventures together. Do you some lady friends for us? Yeah, sure. Speaking of lady friends, at the bar, there's a woman named Beverly. who every time we sauntered by the bar, stops us, and she's like, where's Wes at? I like him.

And then she slipped me her number to give to Wes last night. Oh, my gosh. And apparently I've heard, through sources, informed of the situation that maybe Wes will call her. Very sordid. I don't know about that. Very sordid. I'm looking forward to packing up here. We're almost done.

It's one of my favorite moments every year is kind of walking out of the Super Bowl. and you just feel like the season's over. You're happy that the week is over because it's a grind of a week. You're kind of happy that this is our job. We get to watch football for a living. And now it's like, I think now my new favorite moment is 1 o'clock in the morning.

The Super Bowl's over. We've just crowned the champion. And we've, you know, put an exclamation point on it with the Around the League podcast. What's special about... This Super Bowl is set up. We walk out of the stadium into, a darkened abyss

parking lot in the middle again here we are in the middle of New Jersey Highway walking will be the way we get home on foot I'd be remissed if I didn't say how much I loved my first experience not only at the Super Bowl but New York City what a great city

I can see why Greg and Dan like it so much but I don't know I love huge cities you know I lived on an island it was great bring the Super Bowl back to New York it can be the one cold weather place do it in New Orleans a couple other nice places that's enough

they can leave Jersey City out of it there they earned another chance I wrote earlier today this is like 14 hours ago I think by now but that this was a different like barra

John Mara said the Giants co-owner that this event this week shows that other cold weather non-dome stadiums you know it's a good it's a good vouch for them but at the same time you can't but he also said there's no mother New York. Right. Yeah, that's a bad idea. There's no way. The New York is such an outlier. The event was handled so well and everything went well. It was a safe. Everyone was safe. It was well attended, all the different events. But at the same time, New York's the only city where it could have been, it was on fire in Times Square at the Super Bowl Boulevard, and then you went four blocks away, and you wouldn't even know Super Bowl's in town. New York is the only city in this country that's bigger than the Super Bowl. So if you're... That's a good thing.

I like that because the rest of the cities. I guarantee you John Mara wasn't walking a mile to the Broncos press conference in the airy weather. I think Mara's been to Iowa City, Iowa, which is a promising location for a future Super Bowl. Gossily, large. I like when a city is on fire, and the Super Bowl is the only thing about the city.

That wasn't the case in New York, but at the same time I love New York. So, yeah, bring it back. They did a good job. Hopefully they get lucky with the weather again. Seriously, though, this is it for us. but we're not going anywhere. We'll be back with another podcast later this week, late in the week.

We'll let this one. I thought we were taking off until August. We're going to marinate, but, you know. Are we going to be back to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? Next week, not tomorrow. We'll be back to Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're going to let this one sit here because we've got the award in our pocket. We want the spotlight to be on Dan for as long as possible.

We're going to. Well, you've also got a factor in the parade that I'm sure is coming, and I'm going to have to take some time off to do the media tour and also possibly go to the White House. There's some things in play right now that I assume is going to make my life a little busy. We need to recharge. We need to let you kind of lose your head for a while,

learn what it's like to be a celebrity. But I mean, how much the season was much. Imagine if we didn't have this podcast, it would be great, but it wouldn't be, I don't, it's added so much to our work. So we're thankful to everyone listening. It's been really cool. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, download it multiple times.

I feel like we can't ask too much more from our listeners, though. I mean, we don't even know what a Stitcher is, and we just won the Stitcher Award. We're on the iTunes Best in 2013. It was a wildly successful 2013 season for the podcast, but we want more, and we will continue to work hard to give you high-end product. Right. Next year, next year is like we just won the Super Bowl.

We're the 2002 bucks. Next year, we're just all going to want more money. problems are going to happen acrimony you guys are going to hate me the management style and we're going to go down well my agent has already advised me to hold out is your agent bet i've got like six people on time but it's more like a cabal i've already demanded a trade to the eyes and podcast you know he i want to be around a franchise quarterback all right guys let's get out of here let's uh let's go home uh again thanks for listening this season and uh we will be back later in the week from the studio with high quality sound thank you especially to

Kave our producer in New Jersey who is amazingly still here with us he's been trapped in New Jersey because we are still here and he has to still be here so thank you Kave a Dan Quinn like performance we didn't know much about him and suddenly he's the star of the show integral get a head coached up somewhere that's it signing off this is Dan Henson signing off the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, killer cave, until Thursday.