NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Personal Growth

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

Patrick Claybon wanted to title this episode "personnel growth" but it was denied. A room filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Patrick Claybon bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including a recap of the Chiefs parade, (5:35) Sammy Watkins wanting to stay in Kansas City (8:40) and Kyle Shanahan not wanting to change anything with his play calls in the Super bowl (12:43). The heroes get into some Hall of Fame talk (32:48) before going into what the think NFL teams should do to grow in the offseason, as well as themselves (39:20)Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

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. Looks better than Grong in a turtleneck. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Greg Rose. Rosenthal, and I am here in a room overstuffed with heroes.

Mark Sessler, Chris Wesseling, and back in the studio, Patrick Claibon. Yes. It must be the all season, baby. We're here. I didn't want to say it. I didn't want to say it because it's not really, it's not right. It's not fair that infers things that aren't true Patrick Claybond. But Dan Hansis, our great host is with his family.

near the coal mines right now. And who would we ask first, you know, for the first, you know, to kick off the off-season and then Patrick Claybott? Well, I mean, the joke would be that you would ask several people. No. But we didn't.

We didn't. We haven't had you in the studio since you've been, you know, rocking a very thick, dark beard. There's a lot of going on with you. It's going very well for you. Thank you. People seeing you on television can't help a comment

when they observe. Yeah, I think it's because I was so boring probably before, and that's why, and that was the inspiration. It was like, wow, I'm nearly invisible. And so I didn't shave out of sheer laziness and just a, I was in a dark place. Wow. And you feel seen. Yeah, I feel seen. I see why people like do things and wear fancy clothes and everything because people.

Greg did not grow a beard because he thought he was boring. That I can promise you. That reminds me of a theory. I heard someone say about a relatively prominent person. I'm not going to say who, that wears a mustache. And someone basically just said, like, if they wear a mustache, it's kind of like a giveaway. Like people that have mustaches, they don't have anything else going on,

that they just kind of have this mustache because it's like, hey, there's something different about me. Like, they're ultimately hiding an empty vessel. In 2020, we're not talking like 1968 or something. It feels like a lot to read in. To a mustache, but okay. Sweeping generalization to some degree. These are the types of things you can think about in the off season,

like that we can just take a little breath and contemplate what facial hair means. Don't you guys feel better, Mark and Wes? No. Right now, then, like, last week? I mean, in what sense? Or just, then Monday even, yeah. Oh, yes. It's night and day.

I thought you were asking a deeper question. No, I mean, feel better like, not like a weights off our shoulders, but it's just like suddenly you're just, just in this other lane of human existence and mental thinking that it wasn't the case a week ago. We've talked about this a few times, and it weighs on... He's underselling it. He is underselling. The sun shines a little bit brighter because it's like, oh, we don't have 18 game previews to take, you know, dense notes for this week.

There's nothing to preview. There's nothing to talk about it. I don't even know what we're doing here. No, we have a lot. Come on. I am a better human being. I'm a better husband. I'm a better friend.

I'm a better brother. Right. I'm a better person when it's the offseat. Yeah. I think I might be the exact same. I don't know. Well, you're good all the time. We go up and down more.

You're good all the time. Well, there's less people in the parking lot. Right. That's good. You get better. No, that's true. You get better parking. That's tangible.

When you have a position like I do here, and it's based on what happens to the important people above me. So the offseason happens, and they're gone. And so I'm working more. And so it's like I, this is it. Like I'm a shark and I'm swimming and this is my time. This is when I can get in here and move around. We're shorts to work, do some things.

Nice. No, I feel you. Dan and I, for the first time, ever, we did an NFL now hit on Tuesday where, and you were the host, Patrick. So you were in one chair, Dan was in another and I was in another, all in three different buildings, which is a ridiculous thing to begin. But they would never be asking for our takes on like Hall of, fame if anyone else was willing to show up to work that day.

You know, like if it was the regular season. That would never be the case. There were a rangey multiple humble brags within that last paragraph or two by Greg, but nothing's changed. Yeah, there's only so many things that can change in the off season. We've got a good show. We've got a segment cooked up by Mark Sessler, which I think is important. And it's going to...

To some degree. It's going to show what our goals are for our... personal growth. Like how we can grow as humans and as people in this off season. And maybe, and somehow some NFL figures can grow as well. You know, they always like,

Michael Jordan, he would come back from the break and he'd have a whole new fall away. It's like he's always... That's not a choke. That actually happened. Right. But this is, we're going to try to create our own little fall. There will be an NFL angle to it for people thinking they can jump on the episode 22 minutes from now. Which with the Jordan comp, we would need to be obsessive.

about something we were already really good at. Right, right. And then, like, be mean to people. Yeah, we got to add something to the arsenal and maybe some NFL figures add something to the arsenal. And we got a decent amount of news because there's some catching up to do from last week. There's some post-Super Bowl fallout.

We got some awards in Hall of Fame talk. We never really got into that. We might as well just do it. Ricky, a little bit of news. You ready? I talked to El Presente Mark Donovan. He made sure he was. was okay with the run, I mean, the Clark family, everybody involved because of this season,

because of y'all. That was Travis Kelsey, the Chief's tight end. And Erica, you got to have something ready. I don't know if you remember that, by the way, you got to have something that you want to grow personally this off-season. Yeah, I'm ready. Okay, so think about that. Travis Kelsey, he might want to think about working on that speech a little bit more.

Like, he had a lot of pressure on him because his brother had probably the greatest victory parade speech of all time, and there was a lot of talk going into it, and you could feel him working for something at the parade that didn't quite happen. It was too much pressure, right? It was a lot to live up to. It was Philadelphia. He was wearing a wacky Shriners. You were working this event somewhat, right? So you were on top of it. Well, just from a spectator standpoint, I was watching it on my way out of the door, and it was so much.

because Patrick, he was honest, you know, his voice was shot after all of his availability after the Super Bowl. And so it's like, well, here's this tight end. He's going to finish up. He's batting clean up on the speeches. And you can hear his voice. He's labored. Like, here's a guy we've seen run over people that jump over guys.

He's struggling to get words out. And he landed the plane ultimately at the end. He was going for like a big WWE theme. He had a whole thing. It reminds me a lot of the first best band speech I gave. at my friend Dave's wedding. And I got up there and I thought I was going to be great. And suddenly it was like, humana, humana.

You're like eight seconds in. Yeah, this is one of the worst experiences of my life. I did a terrible job. There were a lot of people complaining about one element, beer. I think that there was an element of drunkenness to the chiefs that some people in the Midwest that I just noticed on Twitter. Wes, I noticed that you were live tweeting this event too. This is one of your favorite days of the year next to the visiting the

White House celebration. But the one, it does remind me also, there was a time in college when like there was some event that was late to unfold and they're like, hey man, can you just get up on stage and like kind of light up the crowd for 15, 20 minutes? And like something from deep within me was like, don't say yes to this. And then they found some other total group to get up on stage. And he failed utterly. And I was like, that would have been neat. This job, you don't go up and do that unless you know you're going to nail it. And Kelsey seemed like, he thought he was going to nail it, but then realized halfway through it was not going to happen. He was also, did he seem slightly hammered, or is it just me?

I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there, but... I think it's safe to say. Yeah, they were selling. He was influenced by something. There's been a decent amount of news kind of coming out. I guess this happens after every Super Bowl. But some relatively interesting stuff.

Tom Pelliserro said that the chiefs are going to try to figure out how to keep Sammy Watkins, which maybe this wouldn't have, you know, made it to our news portion of the program. But I felt like we sold Sammy Watkins short on the recap show. It's like Sammy Watkins just completed an incredible postseason, almost 100 yards in the Super Bowl,

almost 100 yards per game. He's now had about five games for the Chiefs in the playoffs and he's averaging about 100 yards per game. Sammy Watkins, I put this out in Twitter and I'm getting ratioed, is the new Eli Manning, you know? It's like he's just kind of there

and a little overpaid, a little overrated during the regular season. and then he's clutch, and he wins Super Bowls for you. If we're going to give Eli Manning some love, give it to Sammy. It sounds like you have Sammy Watkins figured out, and I believe he's one of the hardest guys to figure out in the NFL. I feel like he should be a great player every year, every game, and he's a great player about 25% of the time,

and the other 75% of the time I'm wondering where he is. He's not retiring. That was the other item of the news. He had mentioned maybe retiring, and he will not be retiring. and he will not be retiring. To his benefit, when you're in the Super Bowl and you're one-on-one with Richard Sherman, you get a nice inside release.

People are going to remember that. You get 38 yards. I don't know if they win the game without that play. 114 yards in the AFC championship last year, 114 yards in the AFC championship this year. Well, hold on it. So he's made essentially $54 million. And the key memorable moments are infrequent

for that amount of money. And he is someone that weeks ago was talking about leaving football altogether. So I find it to be an intriguing task on what you pay them and how much you commit to him. Isn't Eli the highest-paid quarterback in NFL history? Right. I guess it's just funny how it.

If you're not a quarterback, it's like usually it's just if you do it in the playoffs, people love you. Yeah. Mike Lennon's got $26 million career-wise. He didn't do anything in the regular season. They would probably have to cut Watkins' salary. I don't know if he would want to do that. I think he is due $21 million is his cap hit next year.

And no slight against Sammy. DeMarcus Robinson is a really good football player, and I think more volume, more opportunity for him would help out. I think he's up against it, too, contract-wise. I've been interested to see the 49ers fallout. Kyle Shanahan had a press conference Thursday. That's today as we're taping this. said he would not change any of his play calls

said it's different than the Falcons one where he went back and looked and thought there was a lot of things he would do different said there's really no play call he would do different and that he wouldn't have handled the end of the first half any differently either thought that not taking a time out there was a no-brainer in his words.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy. You're raising your eyebrows, Wes. I don't believe him for a second. He looks a little haunted. He said he's watched the game like a thousand times, which just has to be a hundred. So he's trying to convince himself he did the right thing. And maybe he's succeeded in convincing himself for now.

But it's going to keep him up late at night this off season. The play calls, I believe him. The timeouts, that's right. The timeouts, I mean, we've seen, we saw that Chiefs' offense score seven consecutive touchdowns. We saw what they did in the fourth quarter. They had three timeouts. If you, it's how Kyle Shanahan feels about his quarterback.

Yeah, I don't. I'm picking that out from his comments. It's like, yeah, I called good plays. Well, that's what he said about Jimmy Grapolo is interesting, too. He said, I feel the same about Jimmy Grapolo after the Super Bowl as they did before. It's kind of an interesting way to say the truth, but I don't know. Well, I view that as sticking up for Jimmy G. Where everyone's down on Jimmy G.

Not that differently than they were, you know, a year ago with Jared Gough, where Jimmy G's stock has shot through the floor because it's the most analyzed game of the year in any sport. and that's going to happen. But I don't have a problem with him not wanting to give the ball back to the Chiefs at the end of that half. I just don't. But do I think that he would have done everything the same? No, but part of his thing was he game planned for this for two weeks

and he wouldn't have changed anything that he prepared before the game at all. There was no crazy play calls. I get it on that. There were a place to be made and, you know, no one's bringing up the defense. There's no rule that the defense has to give up 21 points. It was unusually conservative for Kyle Chanahan. It went against his character. I mean they threw eight passes in the game before I'm just I'm not convinced it was super conservative when when they initially got the ball and the drive they scored on before that I'm thinking to myself do they have enough time to score right here's the thing though with the way he even explained it saying take it taking not taking timeout was no brain I'll buy that because you but then you had the ball with 58 seconds and three timeouts your offense at that point had been gaining 7.6 yards per play I mean that's dominant and you

you are handling the chief's defense. There's no reason to get the ball and expect your team to go have a three and out when you're playing great on offense. It's just like a, it's a scare. It's sort of like a cautious way of thinking. There's no reason to expect you to start failing when the evidence is showing you

that your offense has an advantage. And okay, it's 58 seconds left. That's plenty of time for them to go score. But the thing that bothered me is he ran the ball up the middle two plays in row was just hoping to get the half time. He was not trying to school. It stopped all of us in the press box.

He wasn't doing what was coming naturally to him. He was doing what he was thinking extra hard about, which made him cautious. Mahomes. That's the Mahomes effect on people. They make people do crazy things. Well, I mean, you saw it on 3rd and 15, which is a play that is central to the game, along with those Chris Jones' tip passes. But those things don't happen.

And as much as we notice it in the time, we're just not talking about the end of the first half. In the grand scheme of the game, it just wouldn't matter because the 49ers would have the trophy. But the Chiefs made plays at the end of the game and the 49ers didn't make. You're the team with all the what-ifs, so we're digging back through the game and then that sticks out. It's true. I do think the coaches, and especially in this case, tend to take a little too much of the criticism. And I've been guilty of doing that compared to just like these are, it's ultimately about the players. And the players mostly win and lose the game.

and the Chiefs made. If he can get your sign off, Craig, on a situational, you know, I think it was the wrong choice, but I think the reaction to it is maybe just, and I was part of that in our recap show, was just a little outsized compared to all the other things.

Well, that's what this game does, and we've talked about this. It's the reason that Andy Reid was criticized unfairly for 15 years. We take this. Well, you got to, I get it. Maybe that's the players too, but you've got to be able to do a two-minute drive

in less than seven minutes. Well, next year, when we do the Thursday pot after the Super Bowl. Instead of doing all this, what did the losing coach and players do wrong, let's just do 10 minutes on randomness. Or what the winning team did right. I'm not saying random, man.

I mean that. I mean, we could. We could have a good, smart conversation about vicissitudes and rain. I think one of the things would be that Jimmy Garapolo, you mentioned Chris Jones. Now, some of those are just good plays by Chris Jones. Some of them is just, you play that game a bunch of times,

and it's never going to happen again. Four passes batted down. at the line of scrimmage. Jimmy G. had six the entire season, the lowest of any quarterback who had thrown as many as he did. So he had almost as many in that game as the entire rest of the season. And you're right, that did change the game. It did.

Emmanuel Sanders said he's watched the game five times, too. That just seems unhelp. That's four more than I. Looking for, he said he was looking for a different ending, like watching the Titanic sinking, which, you know. It's got to be tough. That's not how recorded events work. Right.

Maybe that's the only way you move. past it but I just man that he's a he's a stronger man than I think I could ever be uh let's move on past the Super Bowl let's talk a little uh Tom Brady we did not speak about the report and Ian Rappaport our guy has followed it up a few times that the Patriots are willing to pay Tom Brady 30 million dollars or more which I think is very significant also reported um by Ian was that the charges would show some interest and then reported by ESPN is that Tom Brady made it to the free agent market that the Raiders would be expected to show a ton of interest and all that's fine but once I heard Ian rap Ian say the Patriots are willing to pay him 30 million dollars I kind of was like that that's a

rap like he's he's coming back to the Patriots if that's true oh not on purpose well it never made sense to me that this was for all of it the prime of a career the last decade he didn't care about money he took pay cuts so the team could be stronger all of a sudden at age 43 he's greedy and he only wants to be about money and you better pay me and mike giardi's report makes a lot more sense to me that he cares much more about them upgrading the weapons around him yeah than breaking the bank on this contract yeah i'm with you this i mean the idea of a money grab when you're within the marriage family structure that he's in money is not the first there's that you know the lights are being kept on in the brady house of this

My question with him, as these reports and weeks have gone on, is what is the level of interest in the Patriots, especially Bill Belichick, in bringing Tom Brady back? So the idea that they would pay them $30 million would indicate to me, it's high. It's high and they're going to bring them back. I didn't know that. And I feel like Ian, you know, I thought there was like a chance they would go Stidham and Teddy, Bridgewater or something like that. I really did. I think it's, I think it has to do with what else is out there. and like Andy Dalton is not is that's nice that people like to connect the dots

and put Andy Dalton in New England and all this stuff but no it's it's flat it's out there people have little mentions of maybe Andy Dalton would be a fit for the pen there is immense exhaustion around this entire topic it cannot be sealed up quickly enough either figure it out just figure it out we're going to go I don't want to hear another report about it Claybon wants to jump in I know he's well he's not into the whole like taking less money for the team uh narrative with with Brady well what else? What is he taking it for? I mean, I don't want to get too far in the conspiracy theories, but I think Tom Brady is being compensated to the amount that he needs to be to play for the New England Patriots.

I mean, he owns a company that is running and is operational, and you can go to today at Patriot Place. Patriot Place. So that's not a conspiracy. That is, I don't, you know, I don't know how that plays into your conspiracy. But I do think in terms of what Tom Brady wants, Tom Brady wants to be wanted by the New England Patriots, I think he's a guy that's obsessed with the way he's perceived by the people that he works with. And if they are willing to give him $30 million, then that says, Tom, we want you. We don't want Jared Stenham.

We don't want Andy Dalton. We don't want, hypothetically, Cam Newton. We want you. We love you, Tom. And by we will work out with your doctor. We will sell your wares feet away from the stadium. We love you. You are everything to us.

It's Bill. It's Bill Belichick. He knows Robert Kraft wants him. He knows New England wants him. He knows Josh McDaniels wants him. It's the whole thing of, does Bill Belichick still want me? Does he still want him? I mean, this is a guy, Bill Belichick, who was ready to move forward with Jimmy Garoppolo, of everything that came out of the whole deflate gate in that whole drama with Jimmy Gene after that.

The one, I think, salient point to me as a Patriots fan, was Belichick was very ready to just move forward with Jimmy Garoppel. And so that's in Tom Brady's mind a couple years later. I would imagine that this guy might not want me. I still am not really sure, but it might not be Bill Belichick's decision. It might be Robert Kraft's decision. Let's move on. Todd Gurley was like waiting for Dan to come in. Todd Gurley is going to meet with the Los Angeles Rams, according to Ian and Tom Pelocero.

They reported this on NFL now to discuss all options about his future. Mark, what options do you think that could mean? Well, I mean, there were reports out there, not a report. Someone speculated that the team wanted to find a way to trade him. I'm sure they'd love to trade them. You're not going to find a trade partner for the amount of money he's making. And he has a guaranteed $8 million, $7.55 million roster bonus landing on March 20th. And I would imagine with the immense money tied up with him over, it's not just a year or two,

down the road, deep down the road, do you restructure? Are you angling to try to convince Gurley that this, are you going to cut them? You cut them and it's, it is a wild cap hit. It doesn't seem like it would make any sense to cut him, because you would just be paying as much money to cut him, if not more, I think more. So it's not status quo, though. You don't talk to him about that. But it's this whole thing of like they, he is a, you know, a superstar.

He's been important to them. And there's the health aspect. the usage, which he wasn't thrilled about it. There's a lot going on there, but I don't know what options they really have. I feel like they don't have any options. Well, what do they talk into about... Right. That's what I'm asking. It could be anything, right? Well, they could be discussing it's about money

lowering his cost. They said his future and his status with the team. So that would indicate that his status with the team is not guaranteed. Which is weird. No one's going to trade. Considering where we came from, where we were in that run to the Super Bowl where he was hurt. I mean, we could see clearly he was hurt

and he was still playing through it, and it doesn't seem like he's recovered from that sense. I think someone could talk to Les Need about some of the contracts being handed out by the Rams in general. There are some numbers around certain players that are hamstrath... I know I get it if the cap is bigger than the planet Jupiter at this point, just pay everyone everything,

but this contract stands out as extremely messy. Gurley's does. I have no problem really with the Goff one. And so that's the only one that I think the Gurley one's... Well, there was a time when they extended Tavon Austin for doing literally nothing other than underperforming and being overdrafted. They were just like they needed a little juice for that season of Hard Knocks, which was kind of a snoozer. That was before things were going great.

Exactly. I'm just saying there is a history of overpaying like you have a nice year and then bang, you get overpaid. I know we're not supposed to say anything about the Rams on this show, so I will curtail my thought. That is like in your head. No, it's not. We've said whatever you want. You can say whatever you want.

So after a bunch of running backs got paid, are we right back to where we were that running backs shouldn't get paid anymore? I think Derek Henry is going to find out the hard way. Yeah. Not that they shouldn't, but that it might be tough for him to, I don't think he's getting a Todd Gurley type of contract,

which is what he indicated he would want. Well, if you read into his interview with Rich Eisen, he misunderstood what Eisen was saying about Zeke Elliott being the floor. He thought Eisen meant Zeke Elliott has the floor right now. like he has the floor he's the running back who has all the money um but i don't think derrick henry's going to get near what zeke eliot got there's just there's got to be a carve out in the cb a or something specifically for running backs in in terms of the way that they're paid uh you come in as a rookie you can get run into the ground and you will never get another

opportunity i i'm just different than any other position it is it is sort of unfair that the best parts of their career are while they're not getting paid you know that much and uh i i i think they went too far with the rookie wage scale last time. I mean, everyone was saying how it's been, it's like great for the NFL. And rookies kind of got, I mean, rookies, though, like, there's so many players that are so underpaid. And the teams actually aren't spending that cap space anyways. They're just saving it or they're giving it to mid-level veterans. And a lot of these rookies, especially if they're a first rounder, they only, you know, it's like Patrick Mahomes, in theory, I mean, he's a different case. But in theory, he's like under contract for $2 million

$1 next year. Well, it's great because it wiped out us having to track super tedious hold-out. That part was good, but I think they went a little too far where the rookies are underpaid. You mentioned mid-level veterans, but they're right there beside running back as the other group that got hurt by this CBA. Yeah, why pay six, seven, eight-year guys when you can take a shot, draft some guys that you don't have to pay for four years? I agree that that should be something that the NFLPA should be actively working to fix, helping the mid-level veterans. You know who is getting paid, at least for another extra couple years. Anthony Lynn, the Chargers head coach, contract extension kind of slipped out there.

It's one of those vague ones where it says at least 2021. So it might have been just getting one year tacked on to his previous deal. We don't know the details of it. But either way, they're moving into the stadium, giving Anthony Lynn a little vote of confidence, which I think was important because you weren't totally sure. where his status was. And I think you're seen with rivers gone in Florida and likely gone for good

and Anthony Lynn Stain like that was a pretty clear message I think from their ownership. I know you're an Anthony Lynn fan claimant. Yeah, I think Coach Lynn is honest with us and that's what I enjoy when you have a coach that will answer questions. It doesn't feel like he has to mind trick you or run through platitudes exclusively.

And I'm excited for what the Lynn vision of the Colt of the Chargers is because I don't I'm not sure we've seen it here It might be Tyrod starting week one, but I really hope now that I've gotten this totally Speculative irresponsible idea at the end of my head I'm really going to run it into the ground as much as I can I'm totally into the Cam Newton Chargers week one and forget trying to get Tom Brady you're going to have a 43 year old for one year or whatever like they are the team that should just give up a little too much for Cam Newton and take a huge risk.

Quarterbacks are impossible to get. You're not going to get one without taking a huge risk. I would rather take one on Cam Newton than take one on whoever you're going to get with number six or figuring out, you know, let's make tie rod work or whatever. I'll do respect to tie rod. Cam Newton as a Los Angeles charger open in that stadium. There's some juice. Yeah, I think one thing happening here reading like what Tom Telesco had to say is that the

GM likes the coach. They get along really well. And so you don't just blow that up. And also, this is a team in a particularly unusual situation compared to any other team in the league. You're going to need buy-in from your coach to go into a stadium where you're probably going to have 25,000 fans and maybe 25,000 empty seats and 40,000 visiting fans or whatever. I don't know. That adds up to more seats that are in that stadium. But, I mean, if Lynn wants in and he's bought into this project, you don't jump ship right now.

It's good stability. Telesco's been there since 2013 for a team that is kind of all over the place. in terms of where they're playing and everything like that, they actually have a lot of stability. They're on a collision course with apathy. So they need to do something. They have a talented team, though. Right, but who cares if they win or lose?

Literally. We do. What percentage of NFL fans care whether the Chargers win or lose? Right. They shipwrecked their fan base, and this is the result. By far less than any other fan base. This bomb that Greg has planted in my brain, and I guess everybody that's listening now.

The Cammon? Yeah. It's unstoppable. in there and it's I think the panthers should keep Cam and my guess is they will if I had to guess because he sort of fits

what they would you would think would want to do but what they had the Panthers have made it they have not made any statement whatsoever that like Cam's our guy and until they do it kind of makes you think that they would listen at least and I you would think that they would listen to an aggressive offer

they punted on Greg Olson so fast that's right well this would be the time of year we're like a new coaching staff is looking at the Panthers tape for the first time. So they may not have a decision. Right. That's fair. Keakley's gone.

Olson's gone. Thomas Davis has been gone for a little while. It's a different Panthers organization. Let's, before we move on to a little afternoon delay, quickly go over just the awards. Maybe this is unnecessary. West, what do you think? Am I doing a good job putting together the show, even throwing awards talk into it? I just feel like we talk awards a lot during the season.

And then the MVP was given out. Lamar Jackson unanimous Coach of the year was given out John Harbaugh had about double the votes of Kyle Shanahan

I think they made the right call that would have been my one two in that order as well And then we Question when you like me to I'm getting to it And then we get to

Greg's looking for a mid-show grade Yeah we get to You know it actually happening We don't have anything to say about it Or should we talk about it

That's my question You lost me somewhere along the way Are you asking me how you're doing or whether the award? I'm asking if we needed to put this into the show or not, the award stock. Kyler Murray, offensive rookie of the year, for instance. That might be the only one that I would quibble with. While I'm very happy for the Arizona Cardinals that Kyler Murray is their quarterback

and he was exciting to watch, he was not one of the top half of quarterbacks in the league. And Josh Jacobs, for a long time, was one of the top six or seven running backs in the NFL. he was a difference maker as far as wins and losses and carrying that team for a while, I would have given it to him. I looked at the rest of the list, and I mean,

not that this stuff would keep me up at night to begin with, but I didn't have a single complaint because I feel like talking about... What day did you look at this list? Oh, it was today. No, but I heard little whispers, you know, like as we were traveling around...

Sources were reporting that Lava won the MVP. But no, I don't know. I think they did a good job with Ryan Tannehill's comeback because I think we always agreed that that award is so murky. But his story to me is a comeback story because he's completely changed his earning ability and what we think about. I would have like Darren Waller, but I'll accept Ryan Tannen. It seems to me because like Manny Sanders tore his Achilles at the end of the season. And then he comes back, plays more regular season games than anybody because of the midseason trade, makes his way to the Super Bowl. I get that Tannehill had a comeback.

And change an entire organization. I just... Well, how about we do a comeback player of the year roster and we just get one for every position because it seems like this one position where or one award where there are a lot of candidates. Yeah, there were a lot this year. Waller got some...

Sanders did, I think, get a few votes, but he was pretty far below. I was a little surprised about Stefan Gilmore wouldn't go in a way defense player of the year. I like the methodology there because to me it seemed like a few. it was almost like a defensive heisman in that he was the most outstanding

defensive player at his position and the other guys, all the defensive linemen, they were kind of in a log jam. Chandler Jones came in second in the voting. That surprised me that he finished with more votes than T.J. Watt. And then Watt was about a vote or two behind Jones. It was relatively close.

Are people not watching T.J. Watt? I mean, how does... That's what I think people are looking at SACTotals. And I hate that because SACTotals just don't tell us enough. I think maybe people had made the decision early too because Devante Parker torched Stefan Gilmore at the end of the season.

Well, I thought he was maybe got to lose the award just because of that one game, but it did not happen that way. So shout out to Stefan Gilmore. Good job by him. Big winner of the Ravens getting both coordinators back next year. It seemed like one of them, if not both, might be gone. Yep. That's true.

I mean, they're like, I wouldn't want to mess with anything with that team. I'm looking forward to watching them. Also on Saturday night, while they were giving out the awards, They did announce the new Hall of Fame class, headlined by Troy Palomalo. What do we think about this class? Edron James gets in. Isaac Bruce gets in.

Who am I forgetting? Steve Hutchinson gets in. And then who's the last one? The fifth. Well, you named them. Steve Atwater, you named him. Steve Atwater. You hit all the final one.

Any hot takes on? of this, Claibon? It's not super hot. I mean, you made a good point about Tori Holt being the guy that you thought about on that Rams team. And I think he gets in, and when you look back, like, all of these multiple Super Bowl playing teams, not that they won multiple Super Bowls, but it seems like eventually most of the good players on the roster get in.

It suddenly seems like next year, though, is really loaded, and it starts getting more loaded after that, where it's got to, it's like Megatron and Peyton Manning, a couple other guys that were, like, every year now, it seems like there's some big names jumping in. And it's people we covered and grew up with and lived with. Isaac Bruce, it's more of a sign of our increasing march towards death. I hate to, you know, you don't like to discount a guy who just made the Hall of Fame, but I don't know. People watching Isaac Bruce during his career, I don't know.

Like at no point was he considered the better receiver compared to Tori Holt, and I wouldn't have thought he was a top five receiver. I think Richard Seymour and Tony Buselli, who have been in the top 10 now, which means they got close to getting in. We'll get in eventually, and I think they deserve it. Seymour was easily the best defensive player that played for those Patriots teams. And I think Besselli, I'd rather have that, like,

dominant guy that has a little shorter shelf life. My one question is, I love Palo Mottal getting in right away. As he deserved, there's just no drama around that. We knew that would happen. But Steve Atwater, I feel like I've seen, like, 35 NFL films about Steve Atwater, and, like, the hardest hitting safety and Broncos anchor. and he retired before the turn of the century.

It's like, why does it take so long for some of these guys to get it? Why now? Why now is there a push for? I'm glad he's in. I already thought would have thought this could have happened a decade ago. I think it's like politics and timing.

It sometimes is who's fighting for you. I think they knew Atwater was going to be off the list pretty soon. He was reaching the point where he would not even have been considered. And like the PR hit, like the Jaguars did a great job. I think really the Bessels. The Selly train was getting really loud this year, and I think it probably was effective. And then it's like, there's politics. I don't know.

You hate it. There's three contributors, along with two coaches, and a laundry list of seniors getting voted in. This ceremony is already seven or eight hours long. Like, how do you keep this from being like a music festival, like three days of just endless speeches? We're talking about the modern era inductees, which is the normal five that get in. But yes, this was the expanded class of 100. you know, NFL 100 expand the class where an extra, what, 20 people got in?

So I would start this ceremony in mid-July and just let it run until August 10th. There's no presenters this year, so that helps. That's only like a couple minutes, so, yeah. But I mean, it adds up if they had 20 presenters. Yeah. Would you like to hear about my serendipitous encounter at the airport bar? Yes.

With an inner circle Hall of Fame member. Who we got? We've got an 80-year-old handsome, tall man. Sitting next to me, I'm eating my chicken salad sandwich, reading a book, mind of my own business. He pulls out this little baggy full of vitamins and drugs. And he's like, I got to eat. I got to take all of these today. Legal drugs.

Right after he had finished like a sweet, very encouraging 10-minute conversation with his wife of 47 years. And I was just like, what a nice, nice old handsome man. And we talk about the bag of drugs. I was like, oh yeah, a couple years ago. I had to, like, create a spreadsheet for all my drugs. I get it. And he's like, yeah, Marlon Olson told me this. And I'm like, who am I talking to?

So about halfway through this hour and a half long conversation about life and football, I find out I'm talking to Bob Lilly, Mr. Cowboy, arguably the greatest defensive tackle of all time before Aaron Donald arrived on the scene. And he was the nicest man, the nicest most down-to-earth guy. That's awesome. What an encounter. He says a lot about you, that you would have, like, a half-hour conversation with this guy it's just very it was a very west story like it was the three of us we're all me you and

dan were all in the same flight we all you know went to go try to look for stuff in the gift shop or whatever we went our own ways and dad and i aren't having that hour and a half conversation with bob looley if you had to like put in dan takes a total stray bullet out of nowhere all right i would never have that conversation i don't want i mean i would but i just if i had to guess which one of the three of us uh that would have happened to It was got to be you. A very Wesleyan item. I think it happened because I didn't push him to talk about football.

And he didn't really, you know, I think he appreciated that I knew who he was, but I wasn't like, oh, Bob Lilly, will you please sign this or something, you know? He's someone that I don't know much about other than what you say that I think a seven or eight first time, first team all pro, that if they had a special like Hall of Fame for just the top, you know, 30 guys. He would be in that hall of thing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And here's what was cool. So he's 80 years old, and he's got all these vitamins and pills.

One rolls off the table, and he snatches it like karate kid with the chopsticks. And he's like, I never did lose my reflex. See, that's like back when Claibon supported the Cowboys, little known fact. Well, Claybone might not have been alive yet. A classic Cowboys. Yeah, but at least you like respect their history and stuff. What do you mean? You know, you were a Cowboys fan and you tried to hide it.

You try to hide it. Yeah, I'm doing a great job behind it. Let me tell you. You wanted to hide it very well when J.J. Wilcox was playing for it. Well, that was just as somebody who appreciated defensive back play. Apologies to JJ. All right. You're out there not going.

Erlin Olson's sneaky good on Little House on the Prairie, by the way. We talked about that. Yeah. Wow. Good actor. So maybe that's something for me to improve upon this offseason. We should switch to our segment. Like I could be the type of person like Wes that's curious enough

about other people and has a gentle enough nature that I could just start up conversations with random, handsome men and see what happens. I would do exactly that, right down to, right down to... Let the record show that he struck up the conversation. Not I. I'm skipping past afternoon delight. We've gotten like 40 minutes on this news.

I want to go right to the segment, which is our great idea because I think we all are flawed, flawed people. I mean, everyone is, but especially us. You know, and there's a lot of areas for improvement. We can look to this offseason. Let's start with Mark Sessler, I think, talking about one area of growth. I guess you could throw it out for yourself or an NFL. I'll start with an NFL one. We'll mix it all up, sure. I'm going to start with an NFL one. I had a number of these, but this one actually, I don't want to fabricate something that I don't

really care about if it happens or not. This is one that I absolutely care about a lot, and it bothers me, and it's a league item, and it's something that would improve in my world football immediately. And that is the rules around uniforms. And I would say use this off-season and before the league meetings to lift this obnoxious five-year holding pattern for, we can each right now in our head visually. And if you're listening, think of a team or two whose uniforms got changed in the last five, six, seven years, and were awful. And they're stuck with them for half a decade under league rules. I would blow that up and say, if you get involved with a uniform that you realize two or three weeks into the season is just an eyesore, and it looks awful under the early autumn sun, and it looks bad in the snow, and it looks bad under dome lights, and it looks bad in the daytime and bad at night, you have the ability and the opportunity because you are dealing with a multimillion-dollar marketing empire, if you're one of these NFL teams, to pull the switch, have multiple uniforms, and get rid of past mistakes as quickly as possible. These decisions are typically made.

This is coming from a personal place. Well, it is personal, but beyond what Cleveland did, and they're changing theirs, and they better get it right because it's another five-year and contract you're stuck in. But think about, for this is just personal and no offense to the teams, but the bucks have had hard uniforms to look at. The Jaguars here and there, they improve theirs to some degree. I mean, there's no end to it. There are some teams out there that the matchups between these two are, you cannot fathom it

on television, and Greg at times is lucky to deal with a version of colorblindness. Let's work on this immediately. This is not that hard to do, because more uniforms, more options, more jerseys. Tell me anyone who loses here. You're right. I know that the hoops that you have to go through to do new uniforms are crazy. Like the Rams are trying to come out with some new uniforms as they move into the new state. It's like, why not just let teams make as many uniforms as they want and change it all

the time is it is it for the fans that buy them right they don't want you know little timmy to get stuck with this is it with this richard well you're not going up color schemes you can even like keep the old like how about just have as many extras as you want like the NBA like what's the what's the downside chaos let's have it right I'm off for chaos let's do it don't take me as well I have so many rules all right Wes an area of personal growth or you know an NFL player well I have a theme that cares across both my own personal growth. The goal that I have for the future, plus what someone in the NFL needs to do,

and it's chopwood, carry water. Baker Mayfield, chopwood, carry water. Make the main thing, the main thing, live in the moment. This is a guy who did not make the main thing, the main thing last year. You need to make football the main thing in your life again, and I heard some disturbing stories at the Super Bowl that I think he kind of lost his way late. year, and it went beyond football.

And I think this happens to a lot of athletes. You have to find a way to have the motivation to make football the main thing. Do you want to be great? Because I believe Baker-Mayfield can be great. I think we saw it as rookie year. Is that what you want foremost in your life is greatness in football? And maybe it will make you an imbalanced human being. But for your career, what you're meant to do with the next 10 years of your life, make football the main thing, make being great.

rate the main thing. Make sharpening your skills, honing your skills to raise your level to the other quarterbacks above you, make that the main thing. I couldn't agree more, and I think that some of the stuff we were hearing made a lot of sense because it did seem like Baker Mayfield's it wasn't just confidence. It was just sort of the way he presents himself and sort of what fuels him got thrown in a blender last season. And there were some interesting comments from Jarvis Landry that I tweeted yesterday that came through a different interview and a different source where he basically said that team was in such disarray

that on a weekly basis when they ran through their first 15 scripted plays that no one on the offensive side of the ball had any concept of what would come next that there was a lack of a plan and I can't think of a worse environment for a second year quarterback to be in. So there's that part of it, but what did he do to get himself out of that?

I don't know the answer to that, but we need to see more. When your whole game is built around slights and chips on your shoulder, it's easy to get caught up in creating those for yourself, adding more fuel to the fire that needs to be there. And it's hard for us to figure out what it is, right? From a perception standpoint, it's like, well, is this because of mindset? Is this because of Freddie Kitchens? Is this because of Odell Beckham Jr.?

And there's no way to know when they're losing and they look bad, you know, on the other 55 plays of the game after the first 15. And so it's tough. It's tough for Baker. It's tough for us to understand. And I think, like, for me, looking from the outside at a certain point, what if he's just not good? I'm not there yet, but that's where you eventually get to.

Yeah, it was an erratic season that was hard to diagnose. To West's point, I think it's one of the great challenges of being a professional athlete, to your point, West, and these are what your next 10 years are about. It's a very common thing to not, like, have. have all your, you know, ducks in a row in terms of I want to be the greatest professional that I can be at the age of 23 or 24. None of us were like that. You know what I mean?

Like, it forces you to mature a lot faster. Like, that was not what was the most important thing in my life when I was 24 is to, like, do the best job I possibly could for my employers. That's all true, but he has. I was like, I was pretty okay with being mediocre at the time. That's fine, but you're missing a very important thing. Right. Baker Mayfield found his calling.

He is driven to be a great football player. You didn't know at 23, 24, that this is the one thing in life. This is my prime directive to do this. That's true. He does, and that counts for a ton. That's true. Once Roder World tapped the shoulder. Motivation.

I really did. I suddenly was like, okay, this is it. This is it. Now I need to try hard before they take this away. Claibon. I'm looking at a league that obviously I can. care about. I've worked here for a while now. But I think the message that they send, and it's random, and I think it's small, but it expands out to me is how teams can avoid

mandatory inclusion for hard knocks. And the message sent there is if media has access, if you have exposure, then that hurts you in some way. It's bad. It's a distraction. And so what we end up with is right before the season starts we promote a team that is bad right the rules state that you have to be bad uh to be on hard knocks and it comes at a time where we're trying to gin up excitement for the season and yeah it gives us exposure to teams that we might not have been talking about but it lays this foundation that well you know if cameras are there if people are talking about you if people know your rookies better if they see them sing uh if they see your GM in meetings if They see your coach in meetings that that hinders your ability to win football games.

And it just, it doesn't. The reason teams lose on hard knocks is because they're not any good. Yeah. If they were better, I think the Antonio Brown thing set Hard Knocks back a bit. Like that was just a bad road to go down. I mean, they couldn't have guessed everything that would have happened. None of us could have guessed.

But they leaned into it and it was, it was unfortunate. I'm looking at, you know, the Eagles did all or nothing. They're obviously a successful organization. That's going to, I don't know if that's out already, but it's coming out soon that that could be interesting. It would be nice to see a better team on Hard Knocks. Do it, Patriots. I think it goes to the point of like the NFL in most major sports

are like reducing access. They're always reducing it. They're not adding to it. It's like there's a lot more access in the NFL than there is in the Premier League and a lot overseas. They think, wow, you guys have crazy good access. Like at some point you might have just about nothing. I mean, there are 31 teams.

that might be strong-armed into it and a different set of rules, then you travel down another 10,000 feet and there's the Patriots. So you are wishing against wish. The thing is, like, the Patriots have all kinds of access. Like, we've seen do your job 60 billion times.

Yeah. There's those practice clips of Belichick we see run into the ground. The two Patriots docks on Belichick, where they followed them for a whole season, the 2009 season. But Hard Knocks is chaos, though. Like Hard Knocks can, you're not quite, Although teams can control what they let out. I'm going to go, I'll throw out an NFL one next,

but I'm going to go personal growth here. You know, every family, ultimately, or every marriage, it needs like somewhat of a type A person that can make some plans. And the problem in my family is like me and my wife, we're both very chill, and that's good. It leads to like a house without a lot of drama. but sometimes it leads to a house where nothing happens. No plans are made.

You never go anywhere. You never do anything. You never create some good moments for your children to have. And you do. You know, sometimes those moments are just walking to the park and walking home from school and doing all sorts of stuff. But someone needs to step up to the plate and make some plans and go on some trips this off season.

And that, you know, someone is going to be me. We're going to SeaWorld on Saturday. There it is. I like that. And just generally, I need to start taking the reins here because these kids are just getting older and nothing's happening. It's like I'm in awe of like these parents and even thinking back to my parents of like they schedule all these vacations and they do these things. And I look at our and it's like nothing ever scheduled because we don't really like think ahead.

We're always just like there and it's like, oh, what are we going to do today or this weekend? It's hard to fly by the seat of your pants if the object at rest stays at rest. Right, exactly. And when when children get involved, someone needs to start making some plans. That's just my personal, my person. I like that one. I like that. Let's go, Mark.

All right. I will give you, because I'm sure the show is getting beefy, I'll give you a couple quick hit personal ones. Number one, outside, this happened this morning, and this driving me absolutely nuts in my house. Our fire detector, our smoke detector, is located right outside the shower, the bathroom. And it does not tell the difference between smoke

because there's never smoke in my house. And the mist that comes from when I, like, I like my shower is really hot. and like the smoke in the mist or the mist is coming out of the bathroom and setting off the fire alarm all the time. And so I've got to figure out how to fix this. And I don't even know how to take the thing off the wall. I'm not good at that stuff.

I'm not, Greg doesn't have a toolbox. I have one. I have no idea where it is. So it's not that different. Got to fix that thing. Number two, at some point in this offseason, I'm not going to tweet for 40 straight days. Yes.

I'm done with Twitter and it's just basically a look at me show most of the time. And I'm going to go on a huge, like, 40-day Twitter fast. And then last year I went 10 days into this. and then faltered, but I'm going to do this experiment again, and this is not for everyone, but it is for me, where you eat nothing but watermelon for 21 days. And what happened to me after 10 days was the great, I felt younger and happier than I have since, like, middle high school.

And so I'm going to try the full 20-day experiment and see what happens to me, I will live. These are random things. You felt great, but the people around you. No, I knew. You know what? You were here. Greg is going to talk about your moods.

You weren't even around me. It was when I was on being, it was a staycation, and I honestly could not have been any happier. And every time I bring up a diet experiment, Greg's like, but your mood, it's like, I'm going to be moody no matter what. So you're totally wrong about that one. I'm just saying like, I knew that was coming. You're happy on the inside and you're just like, hey, hey, hey, it's honestly, can we watch? Shut off. No, it's not like that.

That's probably happening. No, that's probably happening all the time as it is. And so I want to work on my overall moodiness, too, because I am very moody. around the house at times. So that's a side bet to that. Do you have a bathroom fan? I just opened the window to our yard. Because the bathroom fan is to expel moisture from the bathroom,

whether it be flatulence or shower mist. So if you have one... I mean, it sounds a good idea for many reasons, but I've got to feel I'll take this smoke alarm thing off. Give me a break. Just let the house burn down. Let's go behind the glass. We forgot Erica Tamposi, our producer,

is going to contribute here. What are you looking for in terms? For personal growth. Yeah, I really want to put, I know this sounds crazy, but like a lot more research and really get to the bottom of all the football stuff. I was really, really lucky to get to do a fantasy football show this year. And I feel like I've learned so much just by producing you guys every week and all the stuff that you guys take. And, you know, Greg, I know you were joking, but even yesterday on the street, you're like, I'll ask you about personal, but nobody cares about your football opinion. And it is true, but like, I don't, I don't want to just be.

I mean, that was a joke. Of course, but it has truth. I mean, it has legs because it is true in a sense where I want to be taken seriously. I don't want to just be the funny, you know, wild, loose cannon girl that you guys can do for comedic relief. Like, I do, I do know my shit. And I want to. Now you're going to have to beep yourself. That's the first.

No, it's probably not, actually. I can tell you it's hard to be on a show where your football opinion is not taken seriously ever. It can be, it can be a struggle. Yeah. Well, I just, I want to study more and I want to prove that. that I do know what I'm talking about. And I want to get better. That's a good...

You're going to do it. That's great. Going to do it, A plus. I felt like that was my first couple of years doing Roto World and stuff. The off-season were super valuable for that, like reading books and like trying to... Because it's the hardest sport... I mean, we say this all the time.

It's the hardest sport to cover. There's the biggest gap between what the people on the field and the coaches know and the fans of any sport. It takes a long time to realize you don't even know anything. Like it takes five years to know how little you truly know. I've come to that, sure. Well, there's also fits and starts where it's like fog and you shine your bright lights on it. And it's more opaque.

It's harder to see. So you have to kind of reach a point where you're like, oh, I don't really know that much. I got to know more. And then you know more and you're like, I still don't know that much. But that makes it exciting too, I think makes it more like, I don't know. I think it makes it a better sport to cover. And that's the ideal spot to be in, is to know, but know that you don't know everything. And I think a lot of the bad stuff about covering football comes from people trying to pretend like they know.

Right, exactly. Very ponderous. There's so many people. Saying things as if they're certain and they're just not. What do you think the easiest sport is to cover? Baseball. Really? I couldn't write.

I don't know that much about baseball at all. Someone threw me in to suddenly call a baseball game. I mean, it would be an absolute nuclear design. Out of baseball, basketball, football, baseball is the easiest. That's what I'm saying. Of the four, I'm talking about bowling. Four major sports. Well, yeah.

Cover bowling with my eyes post. How is that harder than baseball? How many? He's still calling hockey a major sport? How, I don't know. All right, let's throw tennis and golf in there. Whatever. No, who is covering bowling full-time?

I'm just saying. How many of those gigs are out there? Baseball has like... Is there one? Is there one person covering bowling full-time? There's got to be, like, for who? Because people are making money bowling. People are making... ESPN covers it.

They do, but it's not a full-time, I don't know if that's a full-time job. If you're out there covering bowling, it's like, oh, you knock down nine. Well, that means, guys, in this next shot, he's got to get one more down. Let me know. I think probably to call all of them to an excellent level is equally difficult. I'll say that. Sports are fun. Go sports.

Go sports. Wes, how about you? I have to make my lieutenant Dan-like piece with my creator and my creator and my, mortality and it's been hanging over my head for a couple of years and that's why i mentioned chop wood carry water the old zen cohen about enlightenment and being in the moment and not being afraid to go back down to the basics and tap into that and it also for me has another meeting all that i have to figure that out but also what i've become after cancer is i really like cooking and grilling i've always liked it but for whatever reason i'm more driven to do it now

and I have this vision in the future of a barbecue and blues joint where I can surround myself with family and friends, the people I want to be around because I don't want to be around a lot of people. But to me, the key to life is be around the people you do want to be around. And if I can open that up, if I can create one new signature dish every year, last year I created about four or five. So I got a head start. So this year I created another one.

Keisha wants a YouTube project called It's Over for the Westlings, because everyone keeps telling us you can't have fun once your parents. that's not yeah oh yeah you guys are so naive you think it'd still be the fun cool people well it's over for us so that's kind of like our ironic take on it but she wants me to have a grilling station on our YouTube channel so I'm going to chop wood carry water the wood is I mean that's that's what barbecue is indirect heat with wood fire and water from the suavid that I've been into so something to do with that so I got to figure out how all that works together and then weave fatherhood into it for the first time So I've got a lot of changing to do this off season. You guys are going to crush it. Yeah. Thank you. I don't think it's a lot going on.

Fatherhood, yeah, we'll be coming to you, you know. You just are going to be reacting to that. That's a beautiful thing. And I mean, it kind of goes, I hear what you're saying. Like, it's very wise words what you're saying. And life is about creating, like, those moments. That's partly why I'm trying to force myself to make plans. because like sometimes that sometimes those moments happen when you do some when you get out of your comfort zone which is you know your own house but to your point like having having different passions outside of this job is is important i also think the west of 2020 is going to have an easier time shifting into the rigors and delights of parenthood then if i the west that i met in like 2013 if suddenly you had a child like the next morning you would have had some jarring scenarios to work on that person was a bad decision-making machine

machine. Yeah, we've scared you too much about, like, it's more that, like, Keisha has, like, a very specific agenda of a lot of these things. It's like, well, Tuesday nights, we're going to be doing this. And, like, Friday nights, you know, and who knows, you know. She's a scheduler. She is that person, like, you don't have that worry in your household in terms of, in terms of schedule.

I'm going to throw out my neck because now I realize saving the football one was a bad move because, like, we should have just closed on that or close on whatever Claibon's got. That's what we're going to. That's what we're going to do. My area, just quickly, of an NFL figure that can grow personally is for Ryan Pace and for Matt and Aggie to just admit mistakes and move on from prior mistakes. Don't hold on. You know, we all make so many mistakes. But a lot more pain happens from holding on to those mistakes.

And maybe don't let the chargers go get Cam Newton. and maybe you be the team that it's a short life. It's a short career in the NFL. Make the most of it. You want to create some moments. Get cam or get someone else. There's a lot of quarterbacks that could be out there. It doesn't matter what you said publicly in December 31st.

No one's going to mind when you deliver a real quarterback and they don't have one. I think we all agree that that's what the bear should do. But just as a thought exercise, how does that pain measure? the pain of making a bad decision and standing by it measure against the pain of Mitch Trubisky, and I don't know what the odds are, going to another franchise and succeeding wildly after you cut him and didn't give him another year. Just as a thought. I can't live life that way worrying about.

But it is going to be pain if you see him in another uniform doing great things. Well, I don't know why you couldn't bench him, too, if he lost a competition to a veteran in the summer. I mean, then you're protecting against that. I'd almost roll the dice on Mitch Trubisky not going somewhere else. and turning into Aaron Rogers also. Yes. I just don't see it. I don't see it or I'm not seen it for two seasons.

Crazy things have happened. They have. Take that chance. For me, just professionally and also personally, I've got to, I have no problem being honest with people that I like. Like with you guys, honestly, with people on Twitter, I can do it easy. But when it comes to professionally people that I want to like me, um i i'll fall back and say less i'll cut my sentences short i'll leave thoughts to myself

uh because i don't want to hurt feelings i don't want to create awkward circumstances and it really sets me back uh because i look at the way and not that i want to take things to the extreme and not to name names about anybody that that works here but do though please if something if something happens and it puts somebody in a bad position those people will say something um me i i i i i i I tend to keep that to myself and I'll burn myself. Say, oh, you know, I should have been better prepared for that. But everything isn't my fault. You know, I am, you know, I'm role-playing the protagonist of existence.

Like, I get that. But there are certain obstacles to get put in my way that I need to be a little more vocal about and quit taking the easy way out. Because I do it in a lot of capacities. And sometimes I don't do it at all. And I always feel better when I don't. don't do it. But I've just got to quit short-changing myself because, you know, it's, it's been a long year. I lost my mom right before the Super Bowl last year. I was doing Super Bowl live. I did two blocks of the show after I found out it happened. And I'm still working in that chair all the time.

And I'm thinking about, you know, all the, all the times where I just get run over, you know, And I'm constantly, you know, playing dumb to make somebody else seem smart or, you know, just going through the motions. And I've got to quit doing that because it's a disservice to me. It's a disservice to the people that are watching. So no more. You feel like you can be yourself with people you're comfortable around, but you want to be yourself with everyone. Yeah. And a lot of the times that's me just listening and not saying anything.

Well, we all kind of do that a little bit. Like, you change how much of yourself you give to another person depending on how well you know that person and how comfortable you are. Standing up for yourself, too, and for other people. But letting them know in that situation. And it's always easier for me to stand up for other people than it is for myself. And so I've just got to figure out a way. Not that I'm like, oh, you know, poor little Patrick.

But like... But you don't want to have those, like, a minute after the comment. conversation ended and the other person walked out of the room, oh, I should have said this. Yeah. Yeah, I should, yeah. I like that. I feel that way a lot, too.

This has been a deep... I like all your goals. Very cathartic. We did it. Mine seemed pretty basic after you guys. Patrick, I don't care. I got some of... Mine is on detaching a smoke alarm.

I was like, I want to go to Sea World. I was at a job before this at another TV show I was at. And it was nothing compared to what other people have gone through. But there was a guy that I worked with who would be... be joking with me and would say a lot of things that were really sort of inappropriate. And I'm talking crossing the line. But it was someone I worked with, someone that was like, it was always a joke. It wasn't outright. And I would go home and talk to my roommate or talk to people about it and be like, it's really upsetting me. But I don't want things to be weird at work. And I know it's like not

compared to like what you're saying now. But you just said something that reminded me. When I told that, they were like, what if I came home and said what this guy said to you? You would be so defensive. be like, hey, that's not cool. You can't talk to her like that or you can't do this. So someone taught me something that I've been, I still am not good at doing it. But if you start looking at yourself as you're defending someone else, because when it's me, I'm not going to speak up. And I find myself really boisterous, really strongheaded and all this. But as soon as it comes to me where I'm worried about upsetting someone or don't want to make the mood weird, it's like, but wait, if someone was talking to Greg like that or Mark or Wes or like, I would be, hey, this is not cool.

and I'm not going to let it be cool. So it's like if you try to put yourself in that situation where you're defending someone else, because it's crazy. We all would stand up for someone else, but when it comes to ourself, it's completely different. Because you're never worried about how the other person is perceived based on your response.

But when you do it for yourself, it's like I see, you know, go full disclosure, comeono open, like money and Siciliano have segments on the show that I started. You know, with player. NFL now. Yeah. Used to be up to the minute.

And I think about it, and I've never said anything. I've never said anything publicly. I've never said anything in a meeting. It's like, you know, I want to have something that I do. Well, sometimes they don't know what you want to. Yeah. And that's because I don't say anything. So it's like very healthy.

You have to say something. Otherwise, nothing's going to happen. Maybe these shadow league figures are listening to this episode right now, but I sort of doubt it. If they see my name in the description, I care. Oh, stop. There's another aspect of this. is like you if you're good you think well I shouldn't have to ask they should recognize it and come up with the idea hey I want to feature this person here but we've learned that is not how

how this world works for the most part or the business not how NFL network that's not how the business works on some level unfortunately that you do need to be your own advocate yeah and that's the thing like I wouldn't be here we all wouldn't be here if you guys hadn't carved out this thing for yourself and just made it happen so got to make it happen large without oversight, which is one way to go. I would say that's a... That was a factor. The fact that nobody really cared what we were doing

and the studio wasn't occupied, so let's go do it. Nobody cares anyway. Yes, sneak around. It is great sometimes being under the radar for a while. And then you do not want to be under the radar. And we've gotten to that point. And that's why we can have these types of conversations.

This is a very off-season show to me. It was a good way to kick off the off-season. We had some real football talk, but we had some talk, as Dave Damashik would say, about the little game of life, right? That's what he does. I don't know. He had had me on the show in three years, so I don't know. Oh.

Now, you're talking up. I like this. I'm not going to give you a grade. And Dan, to me, is the perfect host. But it is healthy once in a while to hear a different voice and to take the show in a different direction and then come back to the stasis of the whole. what you always do the next show. Sure.

Well, that is, it's part of the fun of the off season. And we'll have lots of different combinations, lots of different types of shows. We can stretch our legs a little bit. We will be plenty busy with the Combine we're going to in a couple weeks and owners meetings and free agency. We will be back next week for two shows, Tuesday and Thursday, before cranking it back up to three shows a week after that for a while. I know, Erica, you're excited about that.

In the meantime, though, I think it's time. Let's get out of here. For Mark Sessler, the Sizzler, the chef, Chris Wessling, Patrick Claibon, and Erica Sam Posse. I'm Greg Rosenthal. See you Tuesday. Hey, Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here.

And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6, we take you inside the game. game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sundays. Don't miss it.

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