NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Patrick Mahomes’ new deal, Washington’s new name and new rules for training camp

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

A bunker filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler, Ricky Hollywood and Patrick Claybon break down all of the latest news in the NFL including Patrick Mahomes huge new contract and the Washington Redskins changing the football teams name. Covid has some new updates for training camp and Cam Newton is tired of being humble.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. The Big Bad Blocker Boy. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Greg Rosenthal, and I'm surrounded in a city filled with heroes in bunkers. Mark Sessler, Ricky Hollywood, and Patrick Claibon coming through for us.

What's up? What's up, Greg? Big day for Patrick's. I mean, the show got delayed because our Patrick, Patrick Claibon, had to jump back on television in his suit. He's wearing a tie right now, much better dressed than Mark or Ricky and I. And had to report the big Patrick Mahomes contract, which started right before we started taping, which I feel like is good luck. You know, great day for Patrick's.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, we've had a few, I guess, good ones since the last good one, which was when Patrick Mahom's won the Super Bowl. But, you know, like my daughter was born. I've taken over her room to do work stuff and talk to you guys, which is fun. But it's, it was an interesting few minutes there because we had talked about, you know, to open up the kimono a little bit, you know, trying to do this around noon. And then I look at my Twitter timeline and it's like, oh, well, I guess they're going to want to do this. And so we had to wait for Mike Silver to get on phone with somebody so we could do it.

And it's like, yeah, they're going to give them a lot of money. All right, cool. See you later. Watch Total Access tonight. I mean, it is assured that this show, we float a starting time out there, episode after episode, and it's something we'll get in the way, and this time it was real news. I mean, I would say also just to, on the celebration of Patrick, you have, not that this is something that everyone celebrates equally, but an annual holiday of an Irish-based platform celebrating Patrick's in March every year. So you're already winning, so. Yeah, I pay homage to, you know, my Irish heritage.

Didn't have a lot of stay in the matter, but yeah, you know, it's a, it's a fun, it's a fun shout out to, you know, look back. Yeah, our list, there's moments that made you. Or maybe wondering, you know, where's Dan, Dan at? You know, I believe he's either hanging out with his brother, our host, Dan Hansis, or he's, you know, in day three of a three-part interview with the Gatesville Messenger. and just couldn't do the show. He will be back on Wednesday. We're still doing two shows a week until training camp starts,

assuming it does start. And I feel like we're already into the news. Maybe let's do the chit-chat at the end. I do want to do a catch-up. I do want to do a catch-up because I want to see what people were doing. This was the closest thing we had to like an NFL-ish week off last week. But I feel like we're already into the, into the news. So Ricky, let's do some news. I think we finally arrived at the moment in time

where we're going to say goodbye to this nickname that clearly was racist and has been a blight on the league for a long, long time. Well said there by Mike Silver talking about the Washington team name change. That was on air just a few hours ago with Patrick Claibon. Again, what a day. And we'll get to that news in just a minute. But we've got to start with Mahomes. We already have. And Silver was the one who confirmed the story for us at NFL Network. But Adam Schaefter broke it.

And since he broke it, he's broken a few more terms. First of all, it's a 12-year contract. It's 10 New Year's tacked on to the two already left on his rookie deal. It is expected to total more than $400 million in total. But we don't really know any more details as we. we are taping this. First of all, I think Schefter, and I was going to, I honestly was going to tweet about this last week. I wonder if Schefter and Ian keep track of when the other one is on vacation, because I think

that they work harder in those weeks to try to get over on the other guy. I at least know our guy Ian would do something like that. That's not even, it's not even going after him. And I thought about that because the Cam Newton news broke. I did text with Ian a little bit last week. He was on vacation. And you know, Schaefter is loving dropping this bomb while Ian is wherever Ian is. I mean, it's a competition that I think is tracked heavily by about 0.3% of the country.

It's basically just- You are, definitely. But, you know, I think one of the privileges of just enjoying sports from a distance would be to not have to worry about when Ian is on vacation and Adam Schaefter is dropping A-bombs on a social media platform. But you are correct. I only mentioned it because it took a while to confirm. And that's just rare in today in this media landscape that someone actually has some exclusive news for that long. And it's ultimately news that, you know, we expected at some point, but we just didn't know when

it was going to happen, Patrick. And I think like in terms of the competition, it kind of plays into the way that we consumed it today, right? Because you mentioned how Schaefter has kind of part and parceled this out. And I think he would, if it were it not for the climate, right, of like, oh, what's he doing right now that he would probably, you know, kind of chill out and be like, oh, let's get total terms. So it's going to be 12 total years.

They're tacking it on. Oh, this is the up to number, but it was just like, hey, 10 years, 10 years back from homes. Hey, what's up? Everybody react to this, which is like, cool. Like, I'm not a reporter. Like, I'm not out of Shepard. I've seen that got grind all the time.

But, you know, when we're talking about contracts, that initial part of the conversation, like, dominates so much of the perception where the up to number gets out there. And everybody's like, oh, my God, they're going to give him $11 billion. But it's like, that's not what it's not what it's needed. Yeah, I've already seen a lot of takes. And when it comes to the money of it all, none of them makes sense. It's a boring, it's a boring repetitive take that we've had on this show that you just, you've got to wait and see. And even the takes that are like, why would Patrick Mahomes do this?

Like, why sign any 10-year contract? You got to, you got to see the deal. And Schefter did indicate it is believed that he'll have. the contract tied to a percentage of the salary cap number, which we've heard talked about forever as a possibility. And it makes a lot of sense for these really high-level players, especially quarterbacks. And it sounds like that's exactly what's going to happen here. I'm guessing, you know, we'll find out what that percentage is. Again, it could be the total deals, I think, $420-something million right now. But it could be more as the salary cap goes up.

And my guess is, and we'll see, you know, whatever percentage of the salary cap he's taken up in the next few years, you know, well, that's the percentage he's going to want to be taking up in the future, too. And so if you're Patrick Mahomes, any deal is a no-brainer because why step on the field again until you just sign the contract that changes your life, your family's life, forever? The key is the next few years. After that, they'll figure it out. Things are going to change. Patrick Mahomes will change the NFL will change. but he's locked in, and I'm assuming he's getting paid a fair amount of money for the next few seasons. Yeah, I mean, it's a deal that harks back to not pre this CBA,

but kind of action that happened pre the previous CBA, when you had guys like Donovan McNabb signing 12-year extensions, Drew Bledso, people mentioned. But the 10-year commitment in the league, and, you know, we talked about it with John Gruden, that that stands out there as such an unusual deal between the Raiders and their coach. But just like from an NFL standpoint, 10 years ago, we were weeks away from Sam Bradford signing his rookie deal with the St. Louis Rams. So it's just such an incredible amount of time that I'm glad for both parties, why not lock Mahomes down for as long as you can? I simply don't concern myself with the numbers and the contract beyond, you know, a couple years from now, as you said, Greg, because none of those contracts that they mentioned that go on for 10 plus years live to see the life.

light of day. I mean, it's sort of just a, it's a huge commitment, and I think that matters a lot, and you've got a wiggle room there. But the idea that Mahomes is going to be there on these terms 10 years from now would be shocking to me. Yeah, and that's something that we even see with like three and four year deals where we're reporting a three and four year deal and then turns out two years after that somebody's on their way out. And it's like, well, that three year, $40 million contract turned out to be neither of neither one of those. And so, like, yeah, I'm happy for Patrick Mahomes. And, you know, once we find out more, you know, good.

But this is arguably the best player in the NFL. So, yeah, he should get a lot of money and we shouldn't pay any attention to people who've complained about it. They do seem to agree with Greg's. You know, Greg, you've floated out there that you think that Mahomes could go down as the greatest quarterback of all time, which, you know, you said that before even the Super Bowl, doesn't feel that much of a stretch at this point. But it's basically them saying, and they told us before Mahomes, in that combine before Mahomes, took the starting role that behind the scenes, they were just in love with him.

And they've been on board all along. And obviously, the other Twitter reaction is the high, like the spotlight that it points on every team, the Jaguars, the Bears, everyone else that passed on this guy, that he's not going away. He's going to haunt that narrative for a decade to come. Right. He has played better in his first two seasons as a starter than any football player, any quarterback I've ever seen. scene, and I don't think it's that close. And just what he can do as a player, you know, I would, we were saying that after eight games. I don't think we even need to see these full two years. I think this is a 10-year deal that he could get to the end of, in theory,

like I can still imagine him being on the Chiefs in 10 years, but I imagine it'll be more like Aaron Rogers, who has signed some contracts, which at the time were record-setting, market-setting deals. And then he's just, you know, signed a bunch of contracts since well before those deals ended. And you do think of, you know, if we're doing a winners and losers here, it's like, it is great to be a Chiefs fan. And it's great to be Andy Reid. And it's great to be Patrick Mahomes's teammates that are going to play with him too. It's great to be, you know, Patrick Mahomes' wife or fiance. I'm not just married. You know, it's great to be a lot of people. But especially Andy Reid, who you've followed around. I mean, I do think that is, it is such an important part of

the story is that I think Patrick Mahomes would have been a transcendent player no matter what, but he did happen to end up with like the one of, you know, the greatest play callers I've ever seen. The fact that those two guys are going to be together, probably about as long as Andy Reid wants to be together is something. You're going to have to deal with that for as long as Patrick Mahomes is healthy. It's symbiotic because certainly if you're Andy Reed and you were thinking about maybe a third stop as a coach at some point if Alex Smith were still your quarterback, this ties you to Kansas City for the long haul too. And you could have a Bill Belichickian career if Mahomes lives up to, you know, I also, I always think back to like the Aaron Rogers team that knocked out the

Steelers in the Super Bowl. And back when that happened 10 years ago, we were thinking, of course, Aaron Rogers and the Packers will win five more of those. And of course, you'd lock him down for 10 years, and they've not won one since. So it just doesn't always go quite as smoothly, but why this feels like a no-brainer other than that? Yeah, it's so fleeting, like, the idea of success. In fact, like so fleeting that you go back to a moment early on last season where Patrick Mahomes' knee is bent backwards. And that's true. A fraction of an inch could have determined whether or not they won the Super Bowl at all, or he even played football for the rest of the year. And you look at the way things have progressed since then. Here he's got this

mega contract, which could balance on a needle in terms of whether or not it happened. And here we are in a situation where the season could be balancing on a needle. And it's like people have to make decisions. And like the chiefs and Patrick Mahomes both bet on football existing in 10 years. And Patrick Mahomes still being good on it. So, yeah, it works out. That's the thing. And we're going to get to all the latest on what the NFL and the NFLPA are negotiating when it comes

to the pandemic, but I do think getting paid in the pandemic is tricky. Like only the most valuable people are getting new big money. And I mean that somewhat for NFL players. I mean that more just everywhere. I sort of made a half-joking tweet about Bomani Jones from ESPN getting a new contract during the pandemic. It's like, hey, if you're getting a new contract during the pandemic, that's for the, that's for like the upper shelf.

You know what I mean? That's for like everyone's great that, you know, works there and blah, blah, blah. But you're only getting it if you're the like near the cream of the crop. That's Patrick Mahomes. That's Boba. That has to be the most Greg-esque storyline of the entire offseason. I don't tracking people's contracts at different networks. I mean, I don't know anyone who would be more dipped in intrigue with that than Greg.

Well, we have some personal like, hey, this is our industry. So I'm curious how it's going to be going on. Well, I'm not banking on a new contract. Well, me, too. I'm curious about how, look, all of the fallout and repercussions from this is going to be for everyone in every industry, but are selfishly. I'll absolve Greg on the meat-peeping situation of watching other people's media contracts because, you know, it kind of ties in to everything right now, to Greg's point. Like, there's so much uncertainty everywhere, and we've watched our industry kind of will, first of all, be undermined and undercut and destroyed by voluntary. culture capitalists, but aside from that, you know, just folks not wanting to pay for good

work. And so, like, if somebody's worth it now, if companies feel good about it, then, yeah, it's not, it's not necessarily Greg being like, oh, like those blogs that are like, oh, Katie Nolan got 63. No, I know, I know. It's a sweet spot for Greg. It was the feeling, it is, it is, but it also is the feeling, A, we're seeing some people getting treated cold during

this pandemic. We know about that. And that's the case maybe any year in this business, so it's not just now. 10 years is long, though. Right, especially now. And the second is, I like Bumani's podcast. So I was just, you know, that was giving him a shout out, a little compliment.

That's all. Ten years is long. 10 years? You're doubting it. You're one of those people that is like, because there is like the salary cap people that's like, well, how are they going to win? It's like, I'm not doubting it. You can figure it out how to win around Patrick Mahomes. But what if he, in 10 years, like, what if in four years he has, like, an Alex

Smith type injury and, like, 10 years, I mean, maybe it's just me being afraid of commitment in general, but 10 years is, like, a long time. Well, that's the thing. And it's probably a thing that you need to, you know, consider it's just, no, it's just writing contracts with people that are close and personal to you. Or something you can have an out, like, in two or three months, maybe. where it's like, hey, you know, if you have an opinion on Shawshank Redemption that doesn't necessarily jive with the way that I feel about it, you know, we won't talk to each other anymore. Well, I do that with my friends and my wife, you know, it's all about the guaranteed money.

It's like, you know, it's all about the guaranteed money of Fred because like maybe, maybe the friendship or, you know, the relationship, it ends after four or five years. But at that point, you can get out without as much. Are you an Emeka, okay? Right. I mean, how much guaranteed money have you offered your wife? I think you should know the figure you could break that news right now. It was, you know, it was a joke. It was not to be taken seriously. But to answer your question seriously, Erica, when we find out the details, you know, it'll be like any contract where the guarantees are not throughout the deal. It'll be complicated. But they'll, you know, if first, if something terrible happened, you can always get out of it.

And if not, then you're just, you know, going to have some salary cap hits for a couple years, like the Washington. team does with Alex Smith for the last few years, which I think provides our segue here. Let's get to it. I can't believe this is not the top story of the day that shows what a solid day and news it is that while we were gone last week, over the 4th of July holiday, the Washington football team released the statement after really interesting and intense pressure from corporations that they would stop working with their team

unless they change their team nickname. The Washington football team released a statement I never thought I'd see the day. Actually, I did think I'd see the day, but maybe not this soon and not under this ownership, that they are going under a review to change their team name. And our guy, Ian Rappaport, this was what he got called in on vacation about.

Reported, it is likely they are changing the team name. There's no way that they're going to go through this review. and stick with it. And I think the only question is how quickly does it happen? Is it happening before this season, which their coach, Ron Rivera, says he hopes, and I think is probably realistic and how that affects the uniform and everything. But, you know, a pretty, I would say, exciting day for the NFL.

I, you know, Roger Goodell said he was fully supporting it. And to me, this has been one of those third rail topics on this podcast and with the NFL in general for decades. And it's nice to know that that discussion is going away, Patrick. And it's been so freeing, right? Because you've called it the Washington football team a few times. There's been times where I've felt pressure, right? Because if you're on a show, I've maintained my entire career working for the NFL

that I don't want to say the name, just from a standpoint of it's a slur. And that's how I've always felt about it. But you know, you get emails, you get tweets. It's like, hey, you got to say the name, you know, why aren't you saying the name? And it's like, one, because I don't want to, I've felt like I need to because somebody who has power might tell me that, you know, this is something that we need to do. And so it's just, it's very relieving, it's very freeing to be able to have the conversation, like with Mike Silver, where I don't feel like I'm as bulletproof as Mike, but I can be on TV while Mike calls it racist. And, you know, I'm not going to push back on that because it's a slur. So, yeah, like considering the structure of America and, you know, what a lot of people have come to realize in the year 2020, it just doesn't really have a place.

If you're going to name the team now, nobody in their right mind would be like, oh, yeah, let's name it the slur. So then why would we still have it? And it sucks that it took, you know, multiple people being murdered. and millions of people to get in the streets for it to happen, but it's happened. So I'm glad that we can move on. And, you know, people who haven't been able to buy apparel, people who haven't been able to say the name of the team, they can embrace it now. And that's a good thing.

I'm thinking people are starting to realize that. Yeah. And I mean, let's, I think it's very evident to all that the Redskins did not lead the charge here. Our world and our society led the charge and put Daniel Snyder, who in 2013, really when this podcast started. And it's been a topic that we've touched on through the duration of this show,

basically said it would never change me. It was really hot at the beginning, I remember, in our newsroom. It was kind of the controversial topic for quite a long time. Yeah. And this is one of the few teams in sports that did not put out a statement after the George Floyd incident. And I think one of the reasons reading an athletic article, they said basically that the issue was,

is when they go and do that, then their name becomes the focal point of that tweet because it's hanging out there is something that is out of joint with where we're going. So, you know, I think plenty of players supported a change years ago, but there is certainly, even now, you look at some of the old school Washington stars who probably because that was just the team they were on were more open-minded, or I should say just open to the idea that that was their tradition, saying get of it now because we are in a polar shift as we should be and this should have happened a long time ago but this organization has struggled and we've studied with other things this offseason they've struggled with things that should have happened a long time ago it's a really fascinating story on

on a few levels but i do want to read the words of of the the national congress of american indians who who have been you know fighting this for a while and they they wrote in a statement this moment has been 87 years in the making and we have reached this moment, thanks to decades of tireless efforts by tribal leaders, advocates, citizens, and partners to educate America about the origins and meaning of the R-word. The NCIA looks forward to immediately commencing discussions with the league and team how they will change the team's name and mascot. Indian country deserves nothing less.

The time to change is now. And that leads us to what they will do with the name. And supposedly there's two names that have, you know, come to the forefront and the statement by Ron Rivera was the one quoted in it, not ownership, did mention native history, but also mentioned military history and supposedly, and we don't know that these are the two names, but these are the two that keep getting floated out there. So I'm guessing these are the two names that Ron Rivera mentioned that he likes two names

that are being talked about, are the Red Tales, which, which, you know, has a World War II, you know, black air fighting background, and then the Warriors, which would be more of like a native background. And those are the two, those are the two that they're thinking about. I don't know if I have a take on like which, which they should do or whatever, but it's really, it's really interesting to see Ron Rivera be so front and center. There's reporting that Dan Snyder, that the owner has been out of the country. And look, Rivera, just like he did with kind of representing the team after the murder of George Floyd, is doing the same now, you know, is the one kind of representing them.

And so when you sign up for that coaching job, especially right now because there's no executives there like Bruce Allen, that's part of what you're signing up for. It's a little different than other teams. And it's unfortunate that, you know, over the course of the franchise's history, once they started allowing minorities to play on the team, that minority players, fans have kind of bore the brunt of this conversation. And it's unfortunate that Ron Rivera, one of four minority coaches in the NFL,

is kind of tasked with handling this. But you feel better, I guess, with him in that position, than the person who has maintained over the course of the time, is that he is not changing the name. And so it took a lot to get, Dan Snyder, where he is now, I don't know what role other people will play in making a name change. I know personally, my father's from Tuskegee. I've tried to meet every Tuskegee Airman that I could. Well, for our listeners, especially overseas, but anywhere, what can you give us

a little background that might not be familiar with? Red Tails is a reference to a fighter squadron flew P-51 Mustangs, the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. They were mainly a bomber escort group. at a time where, you know, the power structure of the American military didn't necessarily allow black men or women to be in leadership roles or even be in the same platoons or divisions as white soldiers. And they had a sterling record as far as escorting bombers, never losing one over the course of their years in Germany. And, you know, they came home, you know, should have been heroes, but were to not access to a lot of the programs that made, You know, that era of America, quote unquote, great. You know, your access to the GI Bill wasn't the same as a black American. And so there's, there's so much American history tied into that.

And, you know, for me personally, any name is an upgrade over a slur. Right. But for me personally, you know, the small handful of those men that we have left, I'd want to hear from them. Because I, if we can honor their legacy and history with the name and they feel good with it, I'm all for it, but I would hate to see those men and the sacrifices and what they did and what they had to deal with when they returned home. I would hate to see them reduced to a mascot. But if they're okay with it, I'm okay with it.

Yeah, if they're okay with it, that would be my preference, too, because if the other option, and there probably will be others out there. But Warriors, to me, obviously, I think of the NBA team, and I think of like 850 high schools scattered across the country with the same very well-tread nickname. So I would prefer the previous, and to me, it feels original. It works, and it would be quite a spectrum shift from what the team was named previously. Well, and I don't want to spend the whole show on this, but it really is worth going back and looking how this happened.

Because last week there was a report of the 87 investment firms, at least this was the first that I saw of it. and if either of you want to correct me. 87 investment firm sent letters to FedEx and Pepsi, some of the biggest sponsors of the football team and said if they don't change the name, like we're going to stop supporting you. And then pretty quickly, Pepsi, FedEx and Nike, you know, within days all threatened to remove their sponsorship from the team.

Now, FedEx's owner is a minority owner of the team, and their name is on the field. And Nike right now took all the Washington apparel offline, and they did that even before, you know, they announced that they're going to look into changing the name, and it's still offline. And on top of that, there's been reports that these minority owners, including, you know, the owner of FedEx, all want to sell their shares of the team. too, which is another part of it. I think even it remains to be seen whether that changes based on the name change or not, but that's been the reporting that that's going to be part of this story too.

So I can't help but think back. We were just talking about this. I think it was the last time you were on the show, Patrick. It's very similar to how the government threatened this team with finances, basically, unless they allowed black players onto the team that they would have problems with their stadium in Washington. And again, here it wasn't the government, it was corporations saying basically,

we're going to take away your money. And the decision was almost made for them. It's just sort of fascinating how, what is it, almost 60 years later, it repeats itself. And it's kind of free Dan Snyder from having to say that he made the decision himself because he's maintained it the entire time that he's owned the football team,

that he's not changing the name. And I'd like to think that, well, it's not that I'd like to think. It's what I think. In terms of like, you know, we're going to sell our shares in the team, that might be something to, you know, give Dan Snyder a little more freedom because I would hesitate to believe that these men who have made a lot of money would short the value of the thing that they're trying to sell before they sell it. Right, right.

And it's 40% of the team. So it's not like it's not like, like, you know, Venus and Serena Williams and Gloria Estephan selling their shares of the dolphin. This is like, this is like 40% is like, you know, NFL ownership is going to have to approve all that. Like that is a big chunk. Well, and behind the scenes, I mean, the FedEx CEO, Fred Smith is Dan Snyder, you're reporting that looks up to him and thinks very highly of him. So I think that this created a tectonic shift. And, you know, but it's not not so long ago that corporate interests were one of the reasons and money attached to that and lost money

were the reasons that Colin Kaepernick was not getting jobs with all sorts of teams. I mean, so now look how much has changed. Now he's signing production deals with Disney, which is not part of our news rundown, but it is fascinating. You're right. It is a changing world, and part of that is the pandemic. And so let's get into like this week in COVID news, which is to, which is to, It's tough. It's been a while since we've talked, and I feel like there's been a lot that's happened on this front. And Mark and I were talking about this. And you could almost, you like, put the lot, you know, part of the last 20, 25 minutes of the show, not with an asterisk, but I just feel like everything almost right now, and the Washington team name is a great, is a great, you know, reason that disproves this rule. But like almost anything we talk about,

football-wise feels beside the point to talking about like how is the coronavirus going to impact this season. As we get closer to the season, it just feels like that's the conversation. And that's what part, and it might not be fun. And of course, we're going to be previewing the season and talking about other stuff too. But it's like, that's the conversation because that's the world that's the world we're living in in terms of this football league. And it kind of reminds me a little bit of the lockout where it's like the only thing you could talk about until the lockout was over it was the lockout it's like almost everything we're going to be able to talk about on this show it's going to have to be related to how the NFL is moving forward and so there's a lot to

get to but basically the NFL and the NFLPA are going back and forth and trying to figure out the rules in which they are going to do so the NFL sent out some rules and we'll talk about those, but I'll start it with just to talk about the preseason that the NFLPA reportedly doesn't want to play a preseason. And the NFL, you know, was expected to announce that it was going to be reduced to two games. They never did announce that. You know, a lot of reporters said, this is going to be announced Thursday last week. And it never happened. So the NFLPA is pushing back against that. And I think Devin and Jason McCorder, you have a podcast, said it pretty well. They're not even worried about four games, two games of preseason. They're worried

about the on-roading, on-ramp process to the start of training camp. And like, we'll worry about preseason when we get there because we have to worry about all these rules and how we're going to even start getting back safely because it's pretty soon. The initial proposal from the NFL, not to keep honking, but is for the rookies, some rookies to show up July 19th. So that's 13 days from when we're taping this. That is pretty soon. And the rules of how they're going to figure that all out are changeable, but the NFL did put some things out there.

Mark, I don't know what stood out to you from what's been out there. Well, I think it's the, to me, the players need to be taken very seriously. And if you look at the letter that the NFLPA president, J.C. Treader, the Brown Center wrote, I think it's, and this is, I've never really seen the NFL and all the sports linked together this way ever in our lifetime where you're monitoring how athletes and other leagues are taking charge and taking stands and a stance on the seasons to come. And the NFL, the players seem to favor the idea of a 48-day run-up minus games that would get them better prepared for week one. But, you know, as Mike Garifolo tweeted last week about comments from

some of the players, it's sort of more like, if there's so much concern nationally about this virus and it's rising the way it is. Why are, and this is the question, they're asking, why are we returning to work to begin with? And where I think about a month ago, we felt in a place where we were thinking, hey, you know what? The ramp up is happening. And you can, you can kind of see society shifting and opening up again. And there were issues with that, but you could, you could, you could see a way for sports to happen if things continued on that path well the path has been utterly imploded the path doesn't exist right now we're the lone country in the world that decided in various pockets to treat this politically and completely different and

I just you know the some of the whispers now and some of the issues coming out of some sources and some of this is on the athletics reported elsewhere is that people inside teams are saying we have not been given detailed detailed enough ideas on how we get from today to a couple weeks from now when we have people here all the time, that in other sports, testing is not happening as quickly as it should. Teams are having in baseball to take it out on their own to get stuff done. I just think that you're talking about an immense labyrinth. And by the other thing, they would talk about that this is not a bubble situation like the NFL. They've used the word ecosystem. But ecosystem has not worked anywhere else in this country outside of the ecosystem being in your own home for the most

part. Yeah, there's so many questions to answer. And Alan Sills, as always, has maintained throughout this, that, you know, we're going to change this process as new information becomes available. There's this constant flow of new information about a virus that we don't know, something that didn't exist this time a year ago. And if it did, nobody knew about it. And, you know, you have to wonder, well, if players are going to report, if rookies are going to report, how are they going to get there? How are they going to travel to the team? Are we going to test them, before or after they get there. And are they going to be quarantined after they get there?

And at what point does everybody get on the field? It's like a situation in a locker room where you're only going to be as safe as the least safe person in your entire franchise. And how do you run up to that? And I think like when Greg was starting the segment in terms of, you know, COVID-19 tying into everything, it just does. You know, I'm not sure that we would be, that we would have talked about Washington changing their name, if not for COVID-19, if not for the circumstances that led to millions of people

getting into the street because they realized the inequities that they've experienced. A lot of other people in this country have been experiencing for a long time, a long time before the disease. And so it's just, it's made for this situation of heightened awareness about everything, where a league that is so firm in its decisions that, you know, it's basically the word of God every time that they have some edict is now in a situation where there's pushback, and they're reacting to it like, oh, yeah, that pushback is probably right. Right.

They're negotiating. They're negotiating with the NFLPA, to their credit. You know, they don't, in theory, they don't have to, according to the terms of the CBA. They could make their own terms and just say it. But I actually almost push back a little bit against all the criticism of all the leagues in the states that are coming back. Okay, so MLS has been trying to come back. They've already had some games canceled.

They've had outbreaks. They've had troubles in different pockets. The NBA's trying to come back. Some of the players don't want to come back. So that's one thing. That'll happen in the NFL too, you would think. But more importantly, like flights are getting delayed and some people are getting tested positive.

Like you mentioned, Patrick, before you get on the flight, and they're trying to figure that out with the bubble. Baseball is having similar issues. And these are the leagues that are just starting to even start the process to coming back. And I see a lot of fan reaction that's like, how can they not handle, you know, the MLS? And people are just like really upset. And I just think like they're not built for this. And like, and we've said it.

If the country is a mess, if the citizens and the government of this country can't handle it, why do you expect a league that is basically? built to put on the field an incredible product that I love professional football and print money. Those are the two things that the NFL does incredibly well. There's no reason for me to think that the NFL or all these other leagues are going to be able to handle much less college football. That's another conversation are going to be able to handle the myriad of issues that come up. J.C. Tretter, who you mentioned, Mark, you know, said kind of like when you solve one little thing. It's like three other things pop up that you think of. Right. I think if you look at college

football where it's not as, you know, you've got completely separate conferences, acting and operating their own way, that what happens and people will know by the time they listen to this to some degree, the Ivy League is talking about maybe being the conference that says we're out of this. We're either you delay it or we play in the spring, but we're not jumping into this two weeks from now. And they were the first group way back when to say we're shutting down sports when a bunch of other conferences refused to do that and they were prophetic and correct in that choice and so if that happens I wonder if because you have to look at how college football operates a little bit and if that became a way for other maybe more conferences

that didn't want to mention hey we'll do it first to follow suit that if college football decided to make this choice because the problem is the spread of the virus would be the same for both and even worse for college because you're on college campuses and stuff. But the NFL has a long list of players that fall under the category of being susceptible to symptoms from coronavirus, body mass index issues, players with blood clot issues, players with all sorts of stuff where I just wonder if you're an NFL player, there's a lot of pressure probably universally to jump back in and we want to play. Everyone wants the games.

But also, your safety, your family's safety. We could be in a situation where everyone's kids are home again next fall. And who is assessing the mental health of what all people have been through over the past four or five months? Just because you're a 23-year-old athlete, you need to run into the fray and play this season. We're seeing empowered athletes for other sports saying, no, not so fast. Or you can, but I'm not going to, and I'm not going to be penalized for it. And will there be NFL players of note who make the same choice? Because their risk is higher than going out there and playing 18 holes of golf.

And we've already seen. I saw, you know, Adam Schein had an article on NFL.com of the players under the most pressure. And I saw Von Miller on there. And I'm like, Von Miller is A, an asthmatic, B is going to play a majority of his games at altitude, and C is recovering from a respiratory disease that's killed 120,000 plus thousand people. So when we're talking about pressure, like the pressure should be, first of all, as Greg was saying, on a federal government that should be passed with doing these things, because preparing for a pandemic, you can't do that.

Business isn't built to prepare for something that they don't know what's happened. Businesses are built to make money. And so, as Greg was saying, like the NFL, Major League Baseball, all of these organizations, how are they supposed to handle something that specifically should be tasked by a competent federal government? Unfortunately, you know, we had a movement in this country for about 30 years to dismantle. and undermine every action that a federal government might take because supposedly it's bad. But here we are with, you know, we're going to come up on a half a million people dying and people might finally start to realize that that's probably not the way to go.

And it's, it's frustrating to see, you know, players, players, families, and just general Americans being put in this situation when we could have taken an example from almost every other country in the world. right i know i'm thinking of our our listeners overseas who are listening to us and and they're just no uh and they want to get their football too but they have to be just thinking you guys are a mess you we're in the middle of it right now we're we're all in california everyone on this show right now and like we're we're in the middle of it you know it's it the cases are as high as they've ever been and and just information is coming out knowledge about the virus is coming out

about how it's more of a blood vessel disease you mentioned blood clots and mark and just it's like There's just so much that you don't know, but the things like we're trying to figure out that we do know, it's like everything needs to have an a, have an asterisk of like, if this happened. So I am going to go through some of the proposals and like what's out there. Like players, players want to show up with 80 players instead of 90. That sounds like that could happen. So it's like 10 less players. Players want, and this is a really interesting.

no more than 20 players in a given facility at one time during the initial period, training, conditioning, covering the first three weeks of camp. So I had talked to some people that work for teams, and they had said they thought the first couple of weeks were going to be like OTAs. And that's why they never expected the preseason to really happen. In a best case scenario, they're going to do OTAs mini camps the first couple weeks. So the players are saying they just, they only want virtual meetings. they want sort of a maybe it's like multiple squads of the team that show up a maximum of 40 players at a time even later in training camp again these rules are all going to be negotiated and changed but it does just get you thinking a little bit about how even in a best case scenario for this going really well look the Premier League just tested almost 2,000 players. No one tested positive. I mean, no one would expect anything close to that

happening here right now because of what's going on in our country. But like people are, they are playing professional sports elsewhere. But it is worth thinking with these rule changes. Mark Murphy mentioned he thinks practice squads are going to get expanded a lot and maybe include veteran players. So it doesn't just have to be young, young players. These are some of the rules they're talking about. And even in a best case scenario, it's worth thinking about, okay, August is going to be very different of how the teams are ramping up. Even in like the NFL's dream scenario that everything stays on track to week one, it's going to be very different.

Well, and the other guidelines talk about symptomatic players would be sideline for a minimum of 10 days. Asymptomatic would be as little as five days. If you pass two positive tests and Philip Rivers on a call, ask the question, you know, what if someone gets? gets it and has zero symptoms and feels fine days before the Super Bowl, they would be out. And like, that's fine. That's the Super Bowl. And who knows if we'll even experience the Super Bowl this year. But let's say you get into these early season games because they seem determined to have this week one.

I mean, that to see, you've literally never heard anything else. We'll see if that happens too. But like the concept of being someone who plays fantasy football, the least of my concerns at this point. But, like, you could have people, like, major brand name stars in and out of the lineup, left and right. And you could lose half your offensive line. And you could face a fully healthy defensive line. It just seems that I don't hear a lot about that. What happens in mid-October when rosters are reduced and in shambles?

There just doesn't seem to be much of that we're hearing. And we're kept in the dark as to what the continuity plan is when this stuff actually gets Well, the hope is that they, the hope all along, and it's just been a hope, not a plan, is that this country gets the virus under control. You know, as the governor of South Carolina said it. Good luck with that. Right. The governor of South Carolina, of all places, said it.

He said, you know, if you want to see football, Clemson and South Carolina, you know, put on your masks because right now there's no chance they're playing football. He used those words. And I think that it's a larger thing that if you go back even reading the pro football talk articles from March, like the thought was daily testing was going to be simple by the time we get the training camp and that the virus would be under control, but it's not. So obviously the league is going to have to adjust. And there's still a chance that we can have a better test with a more quick turnaround. I know that Tom Pelliserra was hoping that there was saying

that the league's thought was that they could turn a test around in less than a day. And so once we lose that window where there's three to four days, there's a hope, right, that we could get better at this. And they want daily testing. The league said every other day, but the union would like daily testing. And I mean, honestly, because the spread of this virus happens before symptoms start. That's one thing that has been consistent. I think the CDC said 40% of the virus spread comes from people who have the virus,

but they're not showing symptoms yet, but they're still shedding virus. And so it's, of course, like, people and players should protect themselves, but it's, it's, I, I hate to keep coming back to it. It, as much as I would like to just shame everybody that's not wearing a mask, this, this is something that requires, it requires competent government. You would be the guy to do it, don't you think, like, you know, like if, if, if, um, the federal government was like, we've been reading some of your tweets, Claibon, you've been pretty tough on us, but you, we actually think you're the guy to shame. everyone into wearing masks. I feel like you would be a strong guy. Ricky would be pretty good too. Greg, you know if this rendition of the federal government asked me to do anything, I would promptly, you know, send something back that would likely cost me my job. All right. How about maybe the next one? Just do it for California. You know, just do it for

California. We're our own little stuff. Ricky would be good at that. She would get after people. I think she would too, but I have to say that things went south after on our NFL network show, right around Memorial Day that Ricky suggested that everyone got outside. Go outside and enjoy yourselves and, you know. That's not what I said. I said wear a mask, but get some fresh air because everyone's mental health is deteriorating at a rapid pace. Sure, there's a way to live. There's a way to live.

We've been doing it for a couple months. We've been going out, been wearing a mask since this all started and been doing things. There's a way to be safe. Like many countries around the world have been doing it. But back to that ecosystem part of it because it's not a bubble in Disney World. And I could even see players sneaking out of that bubble. give me a break, but you're asking, like, vast amounts of people within every organization, many of them, you know, I'm not just saying every player is young and thinks they're invincible

nonsense. Plenty want to stay safe, but you're going to have to culturally get everyone on that team to say, we will not take a risk. And no one in our family will. They want to test all their family members. It's just a spider web. I mean, you're asking for 100% complete and clear, you know, following those rules. And that's, that is, goes completely, against the blueprint of what we're seeing in all 50 states in various places. Right. I mean, there was talk of maybe even, you know, finding players who act irresponsibly, which people got on, you know, I took that to men.

They're reserving the right to, you know, just as, almost as a threat. But it all gets, it all gets really murky. It's complicated. It's going to be part of the discussion. Sorry to all our listeners, you know, but we appreciate you sticking out. You know, it's like if we, you know, it is what it is. But the last thing I want to mention on this was just the change in the proposal of how the media is going to cover it. Because a lot of people probably don't know this.

They were away from their computer. And I know it caught your eye, Mark, that four, I think it's going to be like four reporters will have access to the team in their daily practices. But they can't, it'll be very limited. They can't tweet out during practice. it's almost going to be like a pool report situation like at the Super Bowl where one person gets to kind of provide a somewhat generic report for the rest of the football world to know what happened there that day.

Yeah, I mean, in sort of instant cynical analysis and reply from a lot of old school beat writers is that the NFL has wanted to do this for a long time or get closer to this. The Premier League, like for instance, I mean, all European soccer, they are so much more restrictive on the media than the NFL or any American sport is. Right. And we've been arcing towards that for a long time, long gone on the days of, you know, a general manager hanging out with one reporter and having like a four-hour dinner. It's like all those media times are now so stripped down and bare bones that you just wonder when we get back to normal, if and when, what will the easy, go back to full media, sweaty piles of like 18 guys surrounding one player, or is that a thing

of the past? Because, I mean, it affects coverage. I mean, exactly. The part of me is like, do I need media day at the Super Bowl? Well, I don't, but the league would like that to happen. So, you know, it's going to affect this season in ways that it'll be the freakyest campaign, whatever part of it exists ever. And if you're a media person, a lot of them are going to be shut out from doing their jobs the way that they have been in. And can you, can they travel? I mean, it's very, it's hard to think about. We do something at NFL Network called Inside Training Camp, which I'm sure they're trying to plan.

But that involves, you know, reporters flying all around the country to 15 different places. We're in these shirts left and right. No, marks, yeah, wearing the shirt. That's, that can't happen the same way. I can't anticipate, though, if NFL Network keeps getting like one of those four spots. Like, are they exempt from that rule? It's all, you know, or is TV. I don't even, like, the details are a little murky right now, but I can already imagine

the pushback of like, how come Garifolo gets every day at Eagles camp, you know, from the Philadelphia Inquirer reporters and everything. Yeah, I just, the, the provisions of the media policy that don't have anything to do with a virus, you know, those kind of jump out to me in terms of what, what was that? What are we looking for? Like, tweeting during practice and like the specifics of Like, does specific plays include whether or not a quarterback is getting second team reps? Because that's, like, basically the only story that we have, right? You're not supposed to.

I thought they said you're not supposed to mention where teams or players are tuned with. Some teams already were pretty restrictive, you know. So 390C, different teams have different rules. Like, I can think of some teams have adopted those rules already. And then some teams, like the Cowboys, are like, please, give away as much as you can. We want you to talk to us, please. Like, we love it. We're going to trot out, we're going to trot out, uh, Sean Lee, you know, to come talk to you guys.

Right after Des Bryant called him like a name on Twitter. Like, come back over here, Sean. You know, we love it. I just love the idea that like, you know, Bill Belichick is sitting there taking notes watching an NFL network like, oh, more it's mowringer, you know, took six reps, you know, with a third team. It's just like, no, like it doesn't matter. I can't believe Mobo got brought up with on a show. Without, Dan, we do have a, before we go, we have a couple very quick, just footbally items, and one involves your team, Mark.

So I was curious what your thought was when you heard David Injoku, the Brown's tight end, asked for a trade. Well, I'm not that surprised. I kind of think what I looked at that tight end group, they went out and signed Austin Hooper. And then they used a fourth round pick on Harris and Bryant. And, you know, we aren't college heads. And so around draft time, people will tweet. us and say, you're going to love this player. I did not, I got like 25 people reaching out saying Harrison Bryant is going to be the dude like a year or two from now. So if you're, Dave and a

joker, you're thinking, how do I fit into this? It's gotten my, I was the lead guy here. Last year was injury ridden, thumb injury out for 12 weeks. But I would say this, that they, they seem committed to him. And I don't think that they're bouncing off of this just to move them for, what are you going to get for him right now? Not enough value. Right, nothing. So, and I would say this, Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota last year. No team in the league. 50% of the time they ran two tight end sets. No other team in the league came close. So there is a chance here for David Nogoku who is going to start over Harrison Bryant this year to say, you want to trade me, trade me after a great season. Or like if you're Cleveland, like there's a space for you.

I don't think that he's necessarily the odd man out as some would think. And a lot of people close to the team think that the Joku, like, they believe in the potential because he looks like, he looks the part and he's had he's not reached it yet so do you go and like it's sort of like jamal adams do you go and trade him for um something less than you'd want to just because he's got a new agent and he's making demands i don't think that's a good look for um a struggling organization trying to become something better i think it like in terms of injoku he just wants to see the potential come to fruition with how the browns could utilize him and he's looking at a situation where he's going into a contract and he's

he would like to show, you know, he would like to be somewhere where a team is going to utilize him. And I just don't think that they've done enough to show him that, hey, we're going to feature you, you're going to be a big part of our offense. And so he also, I mean, last year he was hurt for, he was out for like three quarters of the season. And I think that affected their offense. Their plan changes every year. I mean, their coach, their offensive staff changes literally every single season. I think that was a great, it's a great point in Stefanski's offense. I mean, that should be their base offense. That's their four best for receivers. They don't really have a third wide receiver. So they're pretty thin actually at

wide out. Everyone thinks that's a huge strength for them, but they're an injury away, you know, from Landry or Odell to being like really thin there. So yeah, have Hooper and Injoko on the field most of the time. Why not? That's going to create a lot of problems. Another player that we're not 100% sure is going to be on the field is Chris Jones. I did want to just mention that, you know, he tweeted out some doubt that he would, play at all this year. Maybe people were reading into the tweets a little too much, but the threat is out there. He's one of the players that is a franchise tag and has until July 15th to sign a new contract. There are no contract expected maybe really for any of those guys. And Jones seems to be

very far away. And you wouldn't think that the Patrick Mahomes contract would make the chiefs any closer to signing Jones. So that's just a situation to watch for a really, really good player. I mean, one of the best five interior rush guys in the entire NFL, I would say. That's it. Just want to mention Christians. Let's wrap up with Cam Newton. Cam Newton had a quote this last weekend where he expressed that no longer time to be humble. I'm tired of being humble.

Because if you're humble, they're just going to, if you're humble and you're staying quiet, They're just going to dog you like they have been anyways. Ricky, as someone who probably doesn't get called Humble too often and a Patriots fan, what was your reaction here? Let me just process that. You have to throw a dig at me before I get to say my thought. You and Pam might be more alike than you think. Great Instagram game, you know, big personality, flashy.

Like, you know, I think this is, you guys are sympathica. yeah i i've been called humble a lot FYI um but yeah no i i think that he has sort of like as much as i i do dislike him a little bit from some some past previous stuff i do think that like he was completely you know ripped around this this off season and and i i think he deserves to be able to say hey look i'm freaking cam newan like it's i'm not going to just sit back and just be grateful that all of a sudden a team wants me like he's going to turn that into into something

good and I and I hope he goes out there and kicks ass for the Patriots yeah I do Greg good there's an edge to that I like the I mean I love the idea of I mean Cam Newton's never going to be you know a boring starting quarterback like that was never going to happen so I don't know I love I love the like Cam Newton logo of the Patriots I don't know if you've seen that where he's the flying Elvis with the hit it's the whole thing I'm looking forward to this experience I don't know if I quite expressed that as much on the episode that we had of them I mean no matter what all of it I'm just with it that this cam Newton Patriots thing is going to be even if it doesn't go well it's going to be fascinating well no go ahead go ahead well I was just going to say to Erica and

Greg and everybody else who likes the Patriots I hope you can come to terms with accepting a quarterback who routinely puts himself as him against the world who has his own logo who has his own brand, who makes cryptic Instagram posts. And it's kind of weird. I hope you can adjust to having a quarterback that meets all of those things. It'll be a change for sure. Yeah. It'll be an adjustment for sure. And I, you know, there are a lot of people wondering, oh, does this mean we'll never hear from Cam Newton again, that he'll become, you know, another sort of synthetic robot that you seem to just plug into a wall for six days. Then he goes out and destroys people on Sunday. No, I think they're going to let him. This is,

Even though everyone's going to say it's Belichick and nothing will change there, there might be a little bit of a culture shift to some degree when you have Cam Newton a quarterback. I mean, is he going to be allowed to, whether I like it or not, is going to be allowed to dress as, you know, the grandma on the run during post-game press conferences. I hope he is. Like, let him be him. Of course. Of course. All right.

Patrick's battery is at 3%. I don't know if that's like rhetorical or like literal. Because you've been, when did you start taping NFL now this morning? I know they start pre-taping it very early. Good time for follow-up questions. It says it now veers towards 2%. But, okay. No, it's been about a couple hours because I had this thing out.

This is my wife's laptop. And I don't really know a lot about it. Apparently, I don't know how to plug it in. So I just look up and I'm just saying that the time, the day last week I did it, like, Andrew, and we started taping that thing at 720 in the morning. So you've been doing this now. It's now two in the afternoon. We should let you go.

We should go. This show's long. We had a whole segment planned. But, you know, we're scrapping it because we're going to save it. And the news was just beautiful today. It was not beautiful, actually. But it was newsy. I'm just laughing real quick.

Mark, you said sweaty reporters or whatever. When I was home back visiting, my brothers, my two younger brothers, they call people, like instead of saying loser or like making fun someone, they call people sweaty nerds. I love it. So I think that you could use it in your vocabulary for sure. And I've got some breaking news too. We are going to, for the first time ever, spin the wheel of teams on our Instagram

handle. And we'll be, you're going to have to go there and find that out. That was, uh, it's news to me. Okay. We're just breaking news all over the place. You can check it out there and we will, uh, we'll find out what team, uh, that is, talk about them on Wednesday. Who knows? That's it. Thank you, Patrick, for jumping on on a day you were busy. No, thank you guys. Always fun. And for Patrick

Claibon, for Dan Hanses, you know, in the Gatesville Messenger out there in Texas for West and Keisha. Why not? Mark Sessler, Ricky Hollywood. I'm Greg. We will see you Wednesday. Sweaty nerd. nerds. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies

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