NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Remembering Wess as Super Bowl Week Begins

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all the latest news from around the league. The heroes take time to remember Chris Wesseling after the two-year anniversary of his passing (5:51). After that, we get into Super Bowl hot takes (13:16) before diving into the news: "80 for Brady" crushed its opening weekend box office predictions (24:47), Davante Adams is recruiting Aaron Rodgers (35:20), the Pro Bowl happened over the weekend (38:56), the Arizona Cardinals have narrowed down their head coaching candidates (40:25), A.J. Green announced his retirement (42:08), Brian Schottenheimer was named offensive coordinator of the Cowboys (43:47), the Panthers hired Ejiro Evero as defensive coordinator (45:39), CBS had an "intervention" with Tony Romo (47:48), Tom Brady won't begin his announcing career with FOX until 2024 (52:39), Joe Mixon had aggravated menacing charges dismissed but they could be re-filed (56:58), we have an early Super Bowl injury report (59:50), Geno is very confident about re-signing with the Seahawks (1:02:10), the Saints have hired Joe Woods as defensive coordinator (1:06:33), and Jerry Jones commented on the Cowboys' kicking situation (1:06:39). Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is subletting Mark's fantasy corner. From the Chris Wessling podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I'm Dan Hansis. Greg Rosenthal here. Mark Sessler. Mark's on retainer for his fantasy services. He pops in in August and pops back out.

So we can sublet the place. Yeah, this is not necessary. This is the off-season time to sublet that piece of real estate. It's a time to invest in the corner, I feel like. It's about to, what's the word? Gentrify. Gentrify, yeah. Appreciate value.

Mark, keep it real on your corner. Don't let the real estate fat cats come in and turn it into what it's not. I mean, people that typically live in that situation have no zero power over the fat cats. They come in and just change the neighborhood And you either get out And they try to force you out Or you stand your ground You never leave

Stand your ground You got weapons We work in a part of town like that right now Inglewood We do but also We could dig into that deeper If we'd like to do it. Yeah we can

That's Super Bowl week How about that? Super Bowl Give me a little horn grave digger All right I'll take that too It is Super Bowl week Super Bowl 57 will be played on Sunday

There it is Cheats Sheets, Eagles. And we got a huge, huge week coming up. This is where right now, yes, in Englewood at the NFL Network headquarters. One more show here. We hop on. We've got to catch a bird. Catch a bird to Phoenix.

Get Phoenix tomorrow. And then we have two great shows from Radio Row with a ton of great guests from across the pro football spectrum and beyond. then, of course, the flagship show Sunday night. And one other plug here, Gregie? Our 10th Super Bowl recap from, well, not always all from the stadium. I guess last year we were here in the Tampa Super Bowl we were not at because of code. But 10 is special. 10 either way.

It's a nice number. Like the Roman numerals X. As we saw toward our 20th, 10 years from now. And by the way, for people that want more of the heroes, we were on best. Bench with Beneta in her most recent episode did a whole like game show, a lot of fun. So check that out. And also we did a Q&A with the fans of the show via Twitter, Instagram, Reddit. We took a bunch of questions and our Q&A is available to watch now exclusively on NFL+.

Head to plus.NFL.com and sign up for a seven-day free trial. Check it out. you'll enjoy the Q&A people but you might enjoy the other stuff on NFL Plus maybe hang around beyond seven days but hey that's your call we enjoyed it as much as we thought we would and more but also I thought that Greg especially

he's shown bright during that NFL Plus. I don't even know what that means that would have been true about the Bench with Beneta performance NFL Plus I felt like I was just fitting in there but I think we're going to do more of these Q&As in the off season on NFL Plus.

Yes very fun looking forward to that we're going to get into the news we're going to get caught up on some things before we get on the bird there was a guy that we worked with at NFL media years ago really nice guy very nice

had been in the business a long time kind of a middle age dude and this is when we were all younger Mark not as young as Greg and I but he was younger as well and he would come to the newsroom just a terrific fella just a really super nice

guy but he also wanted to you know be hip to the kids of today so after he would come in for a week to work on whatever project he was working on and then a Greg I'll throw it to you on this one at the end it might have been the last time we ever saw him actually but maybe it wasn't but it doesn't really matter because that's not to me I flatten it out now and that's how I remember it Mark I'll throw it to you then as he packed up his his little briefcase and then pulled over his jacket and stood up to to get ready to leave the office for the final time he said what to us Said, fellas, I got to go catch a bird. He also would put on sunglasses.

Yeah, he had sunglasses on. He'd wear sunglasses. I didn't know if you were going for more details. He's like, fellas, got to catch a bird. He, yeah. Stuck with us for some reason. I think also that was part of his daily, that was his common lexicon.

I don't think he was just trying to be cool to us, but he was from Vegas. I think it was a little Steve Bouchemi with the skateboard meme. I think it came off that a little bit, but it doesn't change the fact that he was very nice, as you pointed out. Terrific, yeah. Probably a great dad.

Oh, yeah, so we're going to get caught up on news. We're going to talk a little bit big picture Super Bowl, but we're not really going to dive in until later in the week. We're going to do our like hardcore Gregy Super Bowl preview earlier this year. We're going to put that out on Wednesday, which is nice. Give people a nice little runway for that show. And then we'll have some guests in the last two shows from Radio Row in Arizona, somewhere in Arizona.

I assume it's at a convention center. Phoenix Convention Center. Yeah, right in the heart of downtown Phoenix. It is the Arizona Super Bowl. Yes, get that right. We've gotten a couple missives internally. Don't call it anything else, but the Arizona Super Bowl. I like personally, you'll like this one, Gravedigger,

because it's where you grew up, when we were told this is the North Texas Super Bowl. There's, of course, also the New York, New Jersey Super Bowl with the Slash, which is always a little bit clumsy, but civics, you know, there's some, everybody wants a piece of that Super Bowl. It's very inclusive. It's good that way. all right do i cover everything well we also talk a little about what we did over the week that's what i wanted to get to next greggie now that i've set the table before we catch the bird uh this past

weekend was uh crazy still tragically two years uh since we lost chris wessling um and uh lekeeshia came in on a bird herself from st louis and we had a really nice celebration uh of west this weekend getting together all the people that knew him well, still with the company. And even some people who were no longer with the company, but knew Chris and loved Chris. And we had a almost, it was almost like a Chris Wesleyan pub crawl on Friday,

which was nice. And then Saturday, I know you got together with Lakeisha Mark and Greg and your wife had a nice dinner. And then on Sunday. I actually transported Lakeisha to the Greg dinner. Oh, did you? feel welcome or necessarily that I would be I would have been surprising Greg Hyde

I think that would have been good well not I just showed up to a dinner where I wasn't like it was like I wanted that to stay as it was and then Sunday we had a nice brunch in Manhattan Beach with Gonzo and Connie and my boys and Emily was just a great way to celebrate the man with Lakeisha who all of us have an incredible amount of affection for yeah I mean I think that the thing for us because Corona got in the way of a lot of

time with Wes and then everything happened as it did. And I think whenever we try to get together as a group, it is always West-centric. But this obviously stands out and stood out as something completely different. I mean, we went, Dan did a great job of like coming up with a lineup of a schedule for Friday. Even with all the Rosenthal pushback?

Wes wouldn't like to just stay at one point. That's more his style. That was one comment and we were already, let's say, a few hours into the day. And it's just a loose comment. It's like, oh, my God, he's being contrari. worrying about this? No, it's just like, well, like a West Day would have been lack of planning, but you need the Dan to get the planning done to get us from place to place,

or else we would have just been at the whaler for seven hours. Right, the planning, the planning gave it this great structure. And I think that West would have gotten a great kick out of you to getting into it about Greg trying to change. It was not getting it to deconstructed of it. I said sort of one off-handed comment meant to be nothing. It was like, oh. We went to one place, Tony P's, uh, Tony P's, uh, in Marina del Rey, where

Wes, I think often, not so much with us. There were events where we went on them, but that was sort of his place to go on his own a lot because it was close to where he was living at the time. And we walked in and like all the bartenders, one of them that we've known has been friends with Wes for a while. The minute they saw the Keisha, the minute they saw us, they just lined up car bombs.

It was like, they knew exactly what it was for. And like, I think it was that vibe. Everywhere we went, there was someone that seemed to remember Wes, knew why we were there. and like the day just was in a perfectly way infused with all these memories of him because it was we really like we didn't pick anything on the fringe these were deep died in the world west hangouts and that is like the best way i think you could possibly honor him because that was him at his peak west was bringing all sorts of people together

not like we aren't friends but he would be bringing different groups of friends together and putting them all in a stew and jumping around the town and drinking in the daytime, like there's nothing you could possibly do to channel the spirit of West and there's a lot of laughs and us just having fun, get a chance for us to be together.

There's some tears, certainly, at times, talking about stuff. It's all unfair, everything that happened, and it's like everything. And that was West. Like, there's deep conversations and there was like the dumbest conversation possible and that was West.

He navigated that sort of whole spectrum of like, what it was like to be a human. So I did feel like we, we did him justice, and it was beautiful. And it is heavy, too. There is something I would have never known because I've never lost someone like this close to us, that the anniversary of his death, his passing is a real, you know, it is something, there is something to it.

There's a heaviness, and just your thought goes to him. And I know that's especially true for Keisha, but it's true for all of us, too. That it really is a thing, and it's always going to be at the, this time in that week now between the Super Bowl. So it's going to be everything wrapped up together with West. And I was happy we could do that. It was great. And for those, because we have a lot of listeners that will come to Southern California

and then they'll ask, oh, you know, they'll snap a photo at a place we've mentioned. If you do come to Southern California and you're a big fan and you love West, if you want to do the Chris Wessling bar crawl, I'll tell you where to go. Oh, yeah. Hananos, which is a legendary kind of day drinking bar itself with some of the best burgers you'll have, just right on the griddle there, awesome place. That's in Venice.

There's a key there. That's the place to eat. Start there. You start because you can get food. It's a day bar. Let people go at night, but it's a day bar. You go there, you start your day with a nice burger, cheeseburger, whatever you want.

Gregi and I got some bacon on it, and they put the, they make the, I saw them do it on the grill, Gregie. Oh, yeah. They put it in a circular. form the bacon so that it sits on the paddy like the way it comes out i always get the bacon anyway hanano then he go across the street to the whaler and the whaler is great because they have a rooftop that is literally overlooking the pacific ocean and what a gorgeous body of water mark that is it it it shimmers and uh west would sit there by the overlooking window um with like a stack of books

on his own and beer and just outlining books with his outliner he was walking distance in his in his second, actually a few of his apartments to there, so he spent a lot of time. So this goes west to east, so that's in Venice. And then you go to Marina del Rey and you hit up Tony P's and that's like the West Norm Bar. And that's a really cool place with a lot of really nice people. Good place to watch sports.

Good sports bar. Very good. And then he keep going east to Culver City where we all really got to know each other where the old NFL network offices were and you go to Rockos where they got the two-for-one special and that's where you start to get banged up. although the Irish car bomb that we did at Tony P's was untoward, whoever greenlit that.

I think it was Gonzalez. That was a point of departure. That was when the button was hit. It was like, all right, someone else is taken over. You hit Rockos, then, of course, there's only one place to close it. The Cozy, also in Culver City, where we had so many, so many great days and nights, let's face it,

The Cozy. I have to thank Jet Erica's significant other for rescuing Eric and I at the Cozy in getting, because we were doing group photos at all these spots. You know, the first couple were great. Everyone's got their arms running each other.

They look fresh and sunlit. And as the day goes on, you know, people start to have disappeared from group photos. Like, they just started, you know, I just noticed the next day. The eyes are starting to droop and glaze over. Anyway. And we saw, like, I love,

it's such a make you feel local thing is we saw the bartender, our bartender friend from Tony Peasack, the cozy. Yep. Just like that's, yeah, he rolled on over. This is awesome.

all right long live chris wessling um a great man all right let's get into hey it is super bowl week let's share as we get into things what's an unpopular super bowl hot take that you have i'm going to start here um i love tradition i love i love the idea of uh you know the super and, you know, being able to know, for instance, oh, what hurts Greg more than anything? 42 and 46, like we know. That's the Giants wins over the Patriots. Tough to swallow mountaintops.

You know, won one of the greatest. Always feels good to hurt your friends. One of the greatest losses of all time 18 and 0 those Patriots were. And then, of course, the Giselle, Tom can't throw the ball and catch a two game with Wes Welker. That one hurt way more. You never believe me on that.

So did the Broncos conference championship. 11, 12, 13. That was actually the most pain was right there. Must be hard. But I want to say it's time to move away for the Roman numerals. It's time. Obviously keep the, I don't want it to be Super Bowl 2024 or whatever. But at a certain point, the Roman numerals have gotten clunky.

Right now we are at 57, so it's LV-1-1. Yeah, you lose me entirely. What are we doing at this point? It's like, oh, maybe things will get. get better when we get to 60, then it's LX, LX1, LX, it's just maybe we did, it's I, not one. I'm sorry, I. And it's like at a certain point, like when they did Super Bowl 50, they were like, oh, it's the 50th anniversary.

We went with the number. Let's just transition at this point. Well, so when they went 50, it was the perfect. Oh, that's your take. Yeah, that's a perfect take. Be the change that you want. We're now thought leaders so we can leave this charge. That's an unpopular Super Bowl take.

So I think most people will be like, oh, no, shut up. I'm with you. I don't think most people. Disruptor. You're so innovative, but, you know, we're not going to go along with you on this. Roman numerals have faded from, like, common out, things we use commonly. I mean, even as kids, also the Super Bowl was like, it was kind of cool. It was like Super Bowl 23, 24, 25. It's like, I can roll with that because we were sort of taught that in school to some degree.

I'm not even sure it's taught in school. It was like in fifth grade in 1988 people were taught that. I don't even know if that's happening anymore. Well, I was like better at, if you were a football fan and you were young, you were better than your friends at Roman numerals because you had some experience. What is the point now? And when it got to 50, it was this perfect transition point. So when we were creeping towards 51, I was thinking, I hope we just, I hope. They wouldn't possibly do.

Right. Some common sense would drip in here. And then we're back to these. L.I. Right. What do we care about Rome, by the way? Let's start there. But that's a whole different subject.

So for the, what do we care about Rome podcast? Yeah. It just made it seem like grandiose or whatever the word. It did. But now here we are like six decades later and maybe it's time for the transition. Yeah, I'm with you. I could not agree. How about you, Greg?

Well, mine would be to just ban all legacy talk before the game with maybe a few exceptions for like a 35-year-old quarterback or older, maybe 33. Just like don't need to talk about legacy. It's very important that you set that age. Yeah. Before we move forward. Is it 33 or 35? I'll give the legacy people a little bone here and make it 33.

Oh, that's good. That's it. No. We're talking about these two quarterbacks. It's like 27. Even like if I saw this whole thing is like, well, if Patrick Mahomes retired today, where does he stand or is he already a holiday? We don't need to do that. Who cares?

He's 27 years old. He's younger than Peyton Manning was when before Peyton Manning won a playoff game. He's younger than Tom Brady was before Tom Brady even was a first team all pro. Like all this stuff where Jalen Hertz fits. What's it going to mean for Travis Kelsey's legacy? Like legacy maybe a little bit after the game if you want to talk about things and put into context. Okay, fine. I hope no one's talking about Jalen Hurts.

It's his legacy right now. Right. I just mean like all this stuff of like, well, will they ever be back here? Will, like ahead of the game especially talking about what it means. Just let their careers play out. It's such a team sport too. I know that's a boring thing to point out. But it's like Patrick Mahomes had his defense stand up for him in this AFC championship to give him one more chance. If they didn't stand up, it took nothing away from what he did.

The fact that they stunk in that game where Tom Brady walked the ball down the field with Rob Grankowski to get to the Super Bowl in 2018. That didn't change Patrick Mahomes being the best quarterback in the league that year. It just, that's Tom Brady outduled him on that day. All this legacy stuff is stupid. We can be smarter. Just stop it. I think the three of us can choose to be.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's essentially you are trying to stop an asteroid from screaming to Earth because there's such a, there's still this two-week gap between the conference championships and the Super Bowl that this talk just invariably bleeds up, especially when it's like stuff like CBS News or whatever where it's like there. not covering football nonstop, you know. Well, I'll never forget the, the CP, to use a word, on our website. Yeah.

The center position was. Is that what it was? I don't know what it was. It was called the CP. I thought it was like the coordinated position. I don't know. It's so acronym that we know one even knows what it means. The morning of the Bronco Seahawks Super Bowl, which just said, if Peyton Manning wins this

game, he's the greatest quarterback ever, the debate's over. He is officially, there's no way Brady is going to pass him in the end. because that was like a conversation there at that point that like his individual plus if he beats the Seahawks in this spot when they got blown out that would like make him impregnable. It was like now you look back on it. What a waste of time. Yeah.

Well, we like to get caught in the moment. Again, not the three of us. That's one of the fun things of sports. I don't think it's fun. You know, I think I agree with your point largely. I think when you have a true generational great like Patrick Mahomes, it is worth almost in real time just for me anyway it's like okay so he's 27 this is his third Super Bowl he could win his second here yeah and then you like we talk about could he be

the greatest ever are we watching that guy in the very like at the peak of his powers but i think there are limits like you could i think you talk about Travis kelsey at this point these guys that are really established like where does he stack up but the idea the young guys the idea that like sunday necessarily whether they win or lose is what but also things flip on. I also struggle with that. Yeah, I hear you. Because you can play your best and lose.

Tom Brady's best Super Bowl, I will always believe, was the game they lost to the Eagles. That's the best favorite. It's a pretty good at that one. It's still lost. All right. How about you, Mark?

Well, mine is a little more micro about this week. And one thing I find happens every year is there's this deep, because it's like, oh, you poor media figures have to go to Super Bowl cities, and figure out how to enjoy yourself and get around the burg of that year's choice. And I just was like, maybe let's not judge Super Bowl cities after having spent, like, 36 hours in said city, 12 or 14 or 20 of them in a hotel where you're like basically in a good mood or not based on who you've seen from your workplace.

Like, I would say particularly Phoenix, I can I can already tell what probably get a little bit knocked because the stadium itself is really far away. But I would like... Give it to yourself, you're saying. Well, just like give it a chance because it's like anything else because Phoenix last time I was trying to, they all blend together and that also feels like a from on high viewpoint. But when I was really thinking about our last Phoenix Super Bowl, yeah, it's not New Orleans, which I mean you really, how can you compare with New Orleans? Like, you know, Wes and I were out in the middle of Hoboken for the New York one. So that tinged my viewpoint of that Super Bowl week. You might be surprised how close Hoboken actually is to that stadium. It's close to the like Midtown. No, but we were taking a $190 cabs each day to get up to do our podcast in Manhattan. So that kind of had Wes and I in a mood, and Wes's coat never got shipped to him. But anyways, like, I was thinking about Phoenix in general.

Like, since we were last there, they've completely redone the downtown. And for instance, where a lot of people are staying. There is a ton of things going on. No, there's a ton of stuff going on. I think, like, I have bad memories of Phoenix from when I live there. I'm not trying to be that. But this was the same Super Bowl, Dan, where you and I, I think, had one of the things. had one of the greatest times with your dad and your brother at the Up for Anything

Budlight party. We were painting a unicorn with like different colored paints and all the beer was free. It was like this was a great Super Bowl city. We were, Wes and I would like have beers with Greg Gosell in the hotel lobby each night. Like I just remembering when I really think about it, Phoenix was a better experience than I recall. And it's just like if you're going to go in and if you get sent to work on a business vacation to go watch the greatest sporting event,

Shut your hole. Yeah, chill on your like, I'm going to tell. Or if Travis Kelsey said, you know, paraphrasing, Dwayne Johnson, know your role and shut your mouth, you gibbonny. Yeah, you don't want to be called out by, you know, Travis Kelsey this Sunday. Hail, hail Phoenix. Well, I'm not even saying going the other direction either. Just give it a chance.

And it's had incredible luck, at least, with this stadium. It had the Giants win in 07. The helmet catch. 42. And then it had the Patriots win over the Seahawks last time. To Malcolm Butler. Maybe the greatest game of all that. I will stay, because that came off of deflategate and stuff.

And I'll never forget, Greg and I were staying next to show. But when they showed, and they were so dramatically done, Bill Belichick coming out of the tunnel from total darkness into the light of the stadium with the hood over, and he did that for effect. The place was going absolutely nuts, destroying him, booing him. But then even though, because the Seahawks fans had drowned out the Patriots and the general fans were booing Belichick, then the figure of Tom Brady appeared. And it's like, we, even though Brady's at the heart of it,

this we can't really boom the same way we do belichick and that crowd went in completely the other direction and i've never really been in a stadium that felt as loud as those couple of moments before that game very cool actually that is kind of that was a great atmosphere that that um that felt like a bit of a a turning point where you're at the super ball and it went from being because we've been now to 10 or whatever more um that crowd was great it was a really loud active crowd i feel like every Super Bowl feels like it's a great scene with the fans now where it doesn't feel like you're at a corporate event. Think of Eagles Chiefs.

Yeah, it's going to be great. And by the way, when we get to Super Bowl 88, I'm trying to get ahead of this for our league. Again, these suggestions, they seem to just go into the ether, but it's going to be L-X-X-X-V-I-I-I-I, 50 plus 10, plus 10, plus 5, plus 1, plus 1, plus 1. I mean, you got to get a, you got to bite the bullet at some point. We can't get to 88. That's not how it works. You put them in front when you're going in reverse. Yeah, I agree with your larger points.

There is a way where it's a count backwards to make it simpler. Which is even more confusing, actually. But then you're doing the math backwards. It would be LXXX. That's what I said. That is what it would be, Graver. It wouldn't go backwards there. Sometimes it does, I think.

Sometimes it does. It would be if you're subtracting. I'm too the R&NURA. If it's, um, Six and up towards the next whole number, you go backwards. Right. Did they teach this in North Texas? Absolutely not.

We didn't learn Roman numerals. We learned Texas numerals. They did in the cold town, all right? And I was correct on that. This is another one where, like, Rome's like, we know we're not going to be around for long because our numerical system literally makes no difference or makes no sense if you get past a certain number. Let's take a break and do some news. All right, welcome back.

Let's do some news. Sing it, Tommy. Every kiss begins with Kay. I mean, Jim Gray could do bits with Tommy on the podcast. Let's go. But when it's time to get the biggest scoop of his career, Gray wasn't able to get it. You know, it's still hard to believe.

That had to have created a fisher in their relationship. Oh, there's the Hollywood music. Hollywood were dreams. are made, but also crushed. It's a tough town. High risk, high reward. All right. Hey, Mark Sessler, you did it, buddy.

And so too did the producers of 84 Brady, which include Tom Brady, who you heard there on the Let's Go podcast, because Brady, the film, starring all those grand dames of the silver screen. Tomlin Moreno Fonda

Field Fills So big Thank you Forrest comes mom For cripe's sake The mom from Mrs. Doubtfire

She was also that Field had a nice career Still does Obviously because 80 for Brady made 12 and a half million at the box office Which exceeded estimates Not by a ton

But exceeded our estimates. Let's see. Let's go through it. Grave-Digger. You had it as a Titanic, not the film Titanic, bomb at 4.6 million. Greg, even less bullish. In retrospect, this is surprising to me. Three million, but you were going for the lowest thing. I thought it'd be lower than all you and I stupidly played it before Graver even went. So it didn't make any sense. I said nine and I was like, I'll be a little surprised if it gets there. But I knew Mark had 11.8, which I didn't think it had it in it. And they made $12.5 million.

Besting the, you know, that goofy movie, Avatar. Dopey movie with all the blue people. And it's eighth weekend. This week. Yeah. This week. But still. I mean, it knocked Avatar that in another movie knocked Avatar out of the number one spot after, you know, a couple of months.

Yeah. I mean, I like, like, victory. If people to go back to listen to the other episode, I came out of that, um, guessing game thinking like, why probably I'm getting housed here? Because like I try, Greg, Greg has long played this Hollywood box office. And we used to do this in our cubicles. And I was like, Greg seems super plugged in this. And he went with three million. I thought, well, I've overshot this, but we'll see what happens. But then you just, you never know, like when you have a star producer attached to this and he timely, in a timely fashion, announces his retirement in the days and hours

leading up to it. And it just brought everyone's mind back to Tom Brady. then this product this picture is tied to him you know you know and you know what also it was written by the people who did book smart which was a great movie this started tired the week this movie came out yeah yeah he retired the day after the premiere right day before the day before the premiere right the middle of the premiere yeah it's fine it's fine he could do whatever you wants he's tom brady but like sitting on the beach getting choked up announcing his retirement five days before the movie that he has a financial stake and came out maybe it wasn't as organic is perhaps received. I think a lot of people have questioned at the time.

Not maybe questioned like how dare you. It's his choice. Maybe he's still very much, you know, about the brand. The buzz is solid though. Like Rachel really liked it. If you hadn't listened to Rachel's pod, you should, but she really liked it. That's what I knew I might have been in trouble. And yeah, there was, there's been good feedback. The reviews are actually like way funnier than, than you would expect. Also, no. It's way funnier. I haven't seen a lot of places.

I've seen some say it was like funnier than, you know, it had any right to be. Right. Not just the trailer bits. The bits. But what I didn't really take into account with my thing was the unique strategy, Paramount Pictures Act. By the way, one of the top live action comedy debuts in a while. It's been a bad market.

Live action comedy has been hurting for about 15 years. Many films try to go through the higher ticket prices, do some 3D, do some surge pricing. They went the other way. They did discount pricing for matinees for seniors, half the time. ticket buyers over the age of 55. That's very smart. Very smart. And on Sunday, without even getting a pop from me, my mom texted me and said,

Deb? Guess where I'm going. 80 for Brady with a friend. I love it. And she said she heard our little conversation on the podcast. And that's great marketing. Because when is your mom going to want to go? The 11 p.m.

show you know she's going to go with a friend probably around 2 p.m. Have some lunch. Have a glass of wine. It was like a 3 p.m. This is a win for the Hollywood Fat Cats who you would think our connection. Our level of connection to NFL and the culture would have led us to nail this. But other than Mark, nobody really saw this coming.

It's a credit to you, Mark. I think you're pumping me up and I'll just... It could be the offseason of Mark coming. I got to admit the whole helmet catch versus what's the Eagles play called? No, I forget. The Philly Special. That's a good sign.

I got to say, as time is going on, and more things keep happening, Philly Special. I'm starting to one, at least in terms of my opinion, I might be moved to believe that Mark should win these sandwiches. Like I'm just saying it's been coming. This is a massive segment on this show right now. Yeah, it's, and I think what you need, like the Helmet Catch just passed. I think it's the word Philly Special is actually just still so hard in the culture that I got to admit.

The Helmich just had its 15th anniversary. Yeah. I would like to see where the Philly Special. is in the national consciousness in 15 after 15. Feels like it's only been growing. That's where I have to give it to Mark. This is your, you know, gradual decline part two, Dan. I don't think so.

I will, this is a hill that I will literally die on. Like, I would climb the hill. I know you'll, but in the middle of the night, you'll wake up realizing it's not only that I am wrong on that. It's that everyone realizes I'm wrong. If you understand pro football, you understand now, because I'm an old head and we have a whole new

culture of people that don't even know what Super Bowl 42 was. They don't even know about Randy Moss. They don't know about 18 and 0. And yes, that hurts it right now

because Philly Special was much more recent. What's going to happen is it's going to become just a total Philly regional thing in about five years. And it was just a silly trick play at the end of the first half.

And it was cute. It was cute. But the helmet catch for people who actually know pro football, understand. That was one of the seismic moments in the history of the sport. I have one idea for how it could become literally eternal.

And I'll just say it quickly. Whether it's the Eagles that do this come Sunday. But even better if the Chiefs, let's say it's overtime and the Chiefs mine down to the Eagles' four-yard line with eight seconds to go. And, you know, listen, are we going to go field goal for field goal? And they say, forget that. We're running.

We're going to literally call it the Philly Special and beat the Eagles with the Philly Special years later. That's part of that's a great point, Mark. That's part of the issue with me is like anytime someone runs a play anywhere similar, even if it's not the Philly Special in terms of how they use it, they're just like, oh, here comes another Philly Special. So it's in the mix. But here's the other thing.

You can't run the helmet catch play. No, right. That was a once in a lifetime play that if you were a fan of football and you understand the history of the game, there was so much on the line at stake when that play happened to me it is the most important play in the history of that game

it's so there's clearly different schools of thoughts but let's say it's like saying oh because this guy invented a car that the invention of the car is diminished because other people invented better cars as time went on or their own variations of cars like cars don't matter because it's been recreated and redone because they're so

eternally essential. The Philly Special is essential and needed by human beings. How about this? The helmet catch is a flying car. Like there's never been one before. There hasn't been one since. No, I don't really agree with that. So you could just update the model of your car and say that makes the initial model better.

I think that that's not where we're going with the car argument. It's a flying car moonshot of the helmet catch. It's also like crash into the ground. To recap for the significant portion of our audience who may have no idea what we're talking about because this was a sandwich bet or prop from five years ago. Five. Was it five now? Six?

2017 season Yeah, six seats It's still so recent That factors in Big time That a play in that game Would end up overwhelming The helmet catch

As like the most famous Nicknamed play in the history of the Super Bowl I mean talk about getting If you don't want to accept it Dan I'm fine with that But it's like It's getting pretty close

To what happened This is why And I'm willing to be the villain on this But this is the old horseshoes And hand grenades thing Like you absolutely Almost nailed it because it is unquestionably one of the more famous plays in Super Bowl history.

So for you to predict that before the game was excellent. But just because it is one of the most famous players ever, doesn't mean it gets to be the most famous just because it was so close to being. It's going to be hard to ever overcome the NFL network, NFL films, releasing the top 10 plays in NFL history. And I think Philly Special was like four and helmet catch was one. And you could never catch up. They just had a thing that released, like, days ago,

calling it the biggest play in the Super Bowl. So they're all over the map, too, with what they're doing. I'd like to see that. I don't like that either, because there's so much game after that. The Patriots had the lead after that. I think the bigger argument against it is that it happened to close the first half. I hear that, but I simply will not move off my point. You have the hand in a shoe.

I have the handgunned. We've now done an hour on 80 for Brady and the sandwich property. We've got to keep moving. Let's get to it quickly. Let's just roll through the news. okay we got we got a big week coming up yeah going on the fucking super bowl like we got to watch it yeah we got to watch it yeah we got to watch it um all right devante adams he was the pro bowl happened this weekend that's the thing that's a reimagine thing anyway uh devante adams was

there and uharon rogers the big name out there at quarterback uh Adams built his incredible career in green bay with rogers before having a big year in his first year with the raiders that was supposed to be a long-term marriage between Devante Adams and Derek Carr. Derrick Carr, obviously, on the way out with the Raiders. Could Aaron Rogers end up following Devante Adams to the desert? And our own Cameron Wolf, our buddy, NFL Network's own Cameron Wolf, talk to Devante Adams about that very thing. Can't help to notice you had some fun on social media.

Talking about Aaron Rogers can move into your neighborhood. Have you started recruiting Aaron Rogers to be the new Raiders? quarterback. Duh. Why would anybody not do that? I mean, 100%. That's my guy, obviously, and wish we're thinking, but we'll see what happens. What's your best recruiting pitch?

That I'm here. I like that. By the way, much like the Hill for you, Mark, is getting the Philly special to be the biggest Super Bowl play ever. You know that I said 2003 is going to be a big year for, duh, winning back in the culture. I think that was last year. I think that's that, no, it was building towards this year. All right.

Well, I think you, did you catch that from Adams? Yeah, you could know, you could point to that is winning. Could point to that. Like, the way he hit, duh, was very sheen. You could point to that. That's as far as I'll go. He also, like, retweeted this guy who was verified, and it wasn't like verified blue, but I'm not sure why he was verified.

He's not a football reporter who is essentially saying, like, Aaron Rogers to Green Bay is happening. I mean, to Las Vegas is happening. And then. Who said this, watching the post? I'm trying to find he's not a reporter but he's verified he's not a football reporter

and Adams retweeted it and then people went crazy with that and I kind of wanted to throw this in just because there was a pretty significant report from ESPN that we didn't talk about here which just said that at this point the Packers are essentially leaning towards moving on from Aaron Rogers

and it's like that's significant I don't know if that means they are moving on but the fact that someone okayed the lead reporter at ESPN, Adam Schaefter, putting that out there, is noteworthy, and makes me think, okay, this maybe really is happening. I think it's very possible, too. I could just sort of, if I'm Matt LaFleuror, I don't want this to happen because I don't want

to suddenly have to deal with the fact that potentially Jordan Love, who looked pretty good when he played here and there this season, isn't that guy? You're left in a total wilderness, an abyss at quarterback. You can get a lot for him, but you're in a rebuild note at that point. but it's feasible. I guess I just don't see... I have questions around Aaron Rogers and specifically Josh McDaniels

working together in a Josh McDaniels system. Just the idea of Josh McDaniels and Aaron Rogers. I've heard little things here and there that temperamentally that's just not a match. Aaron Rogers having at this point go learn an entirely new offense versus say like the hand you'll hack at New York where it's like at least you know the playbook going in.

There are some reasons to go do it. The owner really wants it. You don't love the owner's industry if you're Aaron Rogers, but you can get over that. But like Nathaniel Hackett offers you your playbook. And is it easy just to start completely over in Las Vegas with Josh McDaniels, who is about as stubborn as they come when it comes to the offense he runs? Do anybody have any takes on the Pro Bowl? The NFC beat the AFC 3533.

There were a skills competition, three flag football games. Tyler Huntley doubled the amount of touchdown passes he threw in the regular season with four scores in one of the games, I guess? Yeah, they had a couple. So I see this game and these events through my children. They were super into it. They were into the skills competition,

which still had like on Thursday night. They did, so they basically broke it into two parts. They did a couple skills stuff, like target practice and like water, literally water bowling throwing and like longest drive and stuff on Thursday night. And like still a couple million people watch that. And then they did the flag football games

and some kick, you know, kicker tick-tac-toe stuff. I don't know, my kids were super into it. The players seemed to like it, and I suspect people still watch that, so they're never going back. It didn't, the flag football did not seem like overly competitive, and I was a little surprised they have a full stadium there of people watching.

I don't know how much they're paying to go into that stadium, but the kids could not have been more into the whole thing. I think it's an event for kids, which is okay. The NFC players made for winning the game, each. Do you know the answer? I do. 60,000, no, 35,000? I'd say 75,000.

Mark, you're locked in right now. 84 grand, which probably covers their room service. Jeff butt, baby! NFL players are doing nothing for $35,000. No, they're not. Let's see. The Arizona Cardinals still have not hired a head coach, but according to Bert Breer of SI,

the team has narrowed the field to three finalists. they would be Steelers senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach and former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores Captain Lou Anarumo, the Bengals D.C. And Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka are the remaining candidates in the old mark, the seesaw of how you handle head coach hirings. You usually do the laid-back offensive innovator. And then when that doesn't work, you go with the hard-nosed defensive guy.

feels like it should be Brian Flores' job. We will see if it is. I think Anirumo is a real chance. Kafka, I mean, I just feel like I know less about what Mike Kafka's done just through him versus being like Brian Dable's guy this year. And Reid's guy last year. That's a nice two guys to learn from. I guess it's like, is this an organization that says everything's based around Kyler Murray and growing him?

No, not if you hire a defensive guy because I think the thing that worries me about a little bit is like they're a bounce back team candidate just by being maybe less. drama magnitude next season. And if the offense thrives and Kyla Murray thrives, then that coach, that offense coordinator goes somewhere else as a head coach and you're starting over with Kylea Murray again. They're not in a hurry.

Anirumo is interviewing Friday. So that makes me think they might be waiting for an assistant from one of the teams. I'm not the only one that speculated that, that they might be waiting because they can't talk to the Eagles and Chiefs guys. But I like the three they picked. We got some breaking

news connected to the Cardinals. Do it. A.J. Green is retiring. Finished up his career with the Cardinals. I would have liked to see him tack on a few more memorable moments there because I think he has a legitimate Hall of Fame case. People don't think of him that way. But if you look at the All-Pro's, you look at the numbers.

He certainly is better than some wide receivers in the Hall of Fame. That's for another time. He was a really great receiver for a long time and made Andy Dalton, I think, a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah, Green was definitely on a Hall of Fame trajectory, and then he just totally kind of fell off a cliff. Really after he suffered the ankle injury and missed the 2019 season,

he was banged up the year before in 2018. And after that, he had one year, more year in Cincinnati, where he appeared disinterested at times, two years in Arizona that were utterly forgettable. So, yeah, I think he'll fall short of the Hall of Fame for that reason. But when he was in his heyday in his 20s, He was absolutely like a top five guy, I thought, at that position. I think of these wide receivers, they're compiled stats.

You've got to hit them, like, with an inflation-type scale the way you do with movie tickets. Because, like, him getting the same amount of yardage as someone way back when in 1991 is not the same thing. He's had four seasons where he's done very little. But then you, like, look at the players that got in. It's like, okay, Isaac Bruce got in. I mean, at no point in Isaac Bruce's career was he as good as E.J. Green was when E. Green was at his best. And no point in Heinz Award's career.

As much as I like Heinz Award, was he that good? So it's like, I don't know, seven straight Pro Bowls, essentially to start his career and then nothing else. It's like a nice peak. Let's pause right here. Take a break. We'll be right back. All right, we're back.

The Cowboys have filled their offensive coordinator post after Kellynne Moore was let go and quickly moved on to the Chargers. It is Brian Schottenheimer, the well-traveled Brian Schottenheimer, who is promoted to offensive coordinator. He was signed to the team last March as an offensive consultant and now he gets an in-house promotion. He will not be calling plays, as we understand it.

The idea is that it will be Mike McCarthy. I'll just say this where nobody's underdog. Calling plays, but Shottie is once again in an O.C. chair. Man, I mean, they're just setting themselves up to be a punchline a little bit. I mean, it's not his fault. I forget who sends it out every time. Is it Ben Solac of Schottenheimer's resume?

And like every spot he's been at, essentially, like, did poorly. Just not what you want. And then did better, like, the second he left, including Jacksonville. You know, he was running that offense under Urban Meyer. It just tells me, Mike McCarthy, you're the play caller. Kellen Moore, there were reports they were sparring at the end a little bit, and Kellen Moore was calling plays. you've just gotten someone that I think will, you know,

not bristle at the idea that they have less power. Zaddy's in charge. Absolutely. Zaddy's in charge. He's either going to make it happen or he's going to do it. He's going to go down doing it his way. Which is the way to do it, I think. If you want to look at it pessimistically,

if the Cowboys are three and seven in November and Mike McCarthy gets canned, you have Dan Quinn as your new interim coach and Brian Schottnheimer call him plays for you. So, you know, does that get you excited? I don't know. Does anything get you decided about the Cowboys? I think that we're at that point of the year

after another sad January exit where you're just kind of like a little bit like, oh my God, another receiver would. That would get me. Maybe Amari Cooper. The Panthers hired their D.C. Ogero Evaro, the coach,

he was in Denver and he had head coaching interviews and he lands on his feet with the Panthers. Feels like a good hire, Greg. I like it for the Panthers, especially when they, like, whenever a team gets the guy that everyone wanted. It's like, I don't know if they paid him more. Maybe that's David Tepper's money. Ajiro. Maybe he just likes the idea of working with Frank Wright because he had a lot of head coaching interviews.

I would say he was probably the top defensive coordinator candidate for a number of teams. Minnesota really wanted him. Denver really pushed to not let him out of his contract. And I think he stood his ground and said he just did. want to be there. And Frank Reich, that's, I like that combo Frank Reich.

I mean, it could be a head coach year from now too, so it could be a one-year thing, but they've got, there's a bunch of players on Carolina's defense. Yeah,

it's a good-looking defense. Yeah, it's a good-looking defense. If they get a quarterback that people can get excited about, whether it's through the draft or get a nice veteran, they will be talked about as a bounce-back team. They're flat-out win that division

because look what's happened to the bucks. It's like whoever gets Derek Carr in that, division i just feel like that's probably the division he goes to will probably be the favorite that coaching staff um with all due respect to steve wilkes who did a nice job when he was there but i think you you get excited about this new staff get a better quarterback in there you have the defensive pieces they have playmakers on offense yes they could absolutely take that division um hey remember we had bridget on the show a couple weeks ago yes and you know bridget she is a polarizing figure in this room anyway, very popular with the audience.

I think internationally she's polarizing too. Well, I just want to point something out that sometimes it comes back on me. It's like, why does Bridget only agree with her maker's predictions about the league, the maker being me? But then something happens what happened late last week. The one prediction of the old Zeus or threw out there was that Tony Romo, who's in slump if you want to call that as a color man for CBS despite that huge contract he signed his struggles are going to lead to CBS sitting him down and I believe I called today come to Jesus conversation about what he needs to do to get better and sure enough our great friend

Andrew Marchand of the New York Post headlines CBS execs tried intervention to address Tony Romo's slippage in booth and they will attempt to do so again this off season. Right, so the intervention was even before this season. It was before it and they're going to do it again this off season.

So this was a thing. Oh, we plugged her in? I think we decided this is dangerous. But Bridget, thank you. That's a Dan Hanses shout out. Oh, thank you, Bridget. Romo, indeed, according to Marchand,

who is plugged in. Is anybody in sports media is facing some pushback internally with CBS that want him to kind of get back to what made him a sensation, beginning in 2017, and led to the 10-year, $180 million deal he signed a couple years later.

I learned more about this Romo thing through this Marchan article, where he linked to other stories that I didn't even know happen, including Dick Ebersol speaking on an HBO show, how Romo is just lazy. Straight up said that Romo lost his passion. It's obvious. And I do kind of get that feel that it's almost like he gets so excited. in the games almost to make up for the fact that he's not doing like a lot of the homework

and you can kind of see maybe he's not as passionate. So some of the squealing and things during the game and just the hero worship of certain quarter. It's almost overcompensating. And it's also just like you can hit a button and do that. You don't need to practice to do that. So good job by Dan.

Oh, thank you. I guess good job. Great call on that one master. You nailed it. Thank you. Good job, I guess, by Eversol. I call it him out. Although then I kind of.

Ebersol, is he in a legacy role, basically? Not some months ago. We talked about this guy. I didn't remember that. Although this is the same guy that hired Tony Dungy and has kept him on for a decade. By the way, Dick, Dick is 75. Andrew Breeze. Ebersol is 75 and has lived 10 lives within the media sphere of professional sports and beyond.

He's definitely in DGAF mode about like what opinions he shares at this point. It's similar to what we were saying. Yeah. I don't. I think we can... I will not return to my primary objective. Planning the revolution. Good luck to you.

See, that's a problem. I don't... This is absurd to me. This is absurd because I think... I mean, I'm probably one of the lesser robo supporters around. I know you love him because of his enthusiasm. And that marries with your reaction to football, I think, in sort of the way that you respond to football. But for me, the idea, the first thing, you don't have an intervention with someone unless they're valuable.

They're not sitting around huddling two off-seasons a row with their ninth booths color analyst guy. He's just going to go do what he does. Like, Romo is still better than 95% of the people doing this. I can't... Whoa. What? I can't comment on whether he's...

95%? Well, I mean, we're... Of a color analyst? Yeah, I wouldn't put... Well, he has a guaranteed contract. So they are invested in him and want him to do his best. I mean, they also take these guys, and I think he's a victim of his early success. They take these guys and they have zero.

practice and they throw them in and I just want to make sure that some producer because if you really believe in what you're doing the last people you should take notes from are executives and producers on how to be yourself on air I think for the most part and I wonder if someone got to

Romo and said like chill on the predictions if they're not getting them all right or this or that but I mean Romo like is outside of Greg Olson I think he's a Greg Olson thing too if you took Greg Olson away people would be higher on Romo like the idea that they're meeting with him that he's lazy and all this stuff i don't know well even this the stories themselves are

enough that he knows they're all out there so next season's like a big you know he knows he knows now can i just i'm gonna write out because you said 95% i'm looking at i got olson ahead of romo now and this isn't how i felt a couple years ago years ago collinsworth i have ahead of him achman i have ahead of him charles davis i have ahead of him i have mark sancho's now ahead of him um i'm sure i'm missing a couple others that guys that you could tell i don't know i don't have all those people head of him. But like I think Olson, I would if all at first of all

the Olson lost two years from now lost his role to Tom Brady like they're making a major mistake. You have something that perfect pivot. Pivot. Tom Brady was on the Colin Cowherd show today in fact and he revealed that the plan now

that he has that he's retired from football he's got a hit movie but he also has this massive contract that he signed with Fox to be in their booth. He said he expects to begin his Fox broadcasting career in the fall of 2024. So not this season. Next season, he'll, he's calling it a gap year.

And this is what he had to say. I want to be great at what I do. I was talking even last week with the people at Fox Sports and the leadership there, allowing me to start my opportunity in the fall of 2024 is something that's great for me. Now, I know there's some speculation. in this room that he'll never take this job. I totally disagree. And hearing this quote from Brady makes me think even more.

He's serious about it. He's looking for a new challenge. He wants to be great at it. And I buy it that he's going to put in that work, that legendary work ethic. I don't know if he'll be good when 20, 24 rolls around. But I buy that he doesn't want to dive right in it. And also supplant Greg Olson without any experience at all.

I disagree because, look, I said a few weeks. ago he's never taking that job the next actual piece of information about this job is he's not taking it for another year that's not no that's your way of processing if he wanted the job he could do the job right now he could do it but he wants to have time off and see how this is all going to go and this is just BS that you say in the meantime and maybe he'll do the job maybe he'll do the studio job maybe he'll think that's really easy which it is easier than i think being the game analyst and that's a way Do you think they would pay him 10 years and $375 million to be a studio analyst?

No, but I think that can all change. Well, they've also got the meet and greets. Well, you got those. I agree. I've got plenty of those. The Murdox. I think it has to be considered TBD on whether he'll not, he'll ultimately do this.

Why? Because I, so I believe that he wants to be prepared and not just four or five months from now be doing stuff like this necessarily. But I also think everything else I know about Tom Brady. He never, he always ran towards. towards every challenge, whether it's what you're down 28 to 3, whether it's, I'm going to come back or not and play. It's like, and bang, this is this thing. When I hear I'm going to wait a

year to do it, I'm not convinced it because he's going to spend the whole year trying to become the best at it necessarily at all. I think you just dive into it. I think I also think he knows enough to know. You guys are funny with this. I don't understand. What am I missing here? Here's why, because I think he's smart enough to know, he doesn't know how he's going to feel in July or August. He really doesn't know how he's going to feel in the spring or fall of 2024. He knows this is all totally different. And so this is a way for him to buy some time

and see how he actually feels and if he wants to do this. Because right now he's not ready to do it. Counterpoint, he was so excited about the idea of doing this that he signed the deal years ago at this point. They came at him in part because like Aikman's leaving and they wanted to have this big splash

and he said he was retired. You know, it was a whole thing. Nothing wrong with jumping at the deal. but like he's... Do you want to do a sandwich prop on this one? This feels like a... Sure. Absolutely, he is calling...

I don't know whether he'll be the number one or two team. They might even go as far as installing him at the two... Probably at the three spot, but the number two spot in 2024. But he's absolutely calling games for Fox in 2024. Okay. This is a long-term one, obviously? It's a good one. I'll take you up on that.

How about you, Gravedigger? I'll take sandwiches anywhere I can get him on this one. No, I agree with you. So I will not take you. I'm sorry. That's good. Well, no, you agreed with me, though, so that's good. Yeah.

They could try to shove him into Olson three-man booth, too. I don't love that. No, they couldn't do that. That would be unfair to Olson. It's also weird. It's also weird to pay him this money and have the number two team. That's a weird look. I don't know if that's the ultimate plan.

I think if you pay him that money, you want him to really good and be their number one guy. But they have this, like, good problem now that Greg Olson has really risen up and become, You know, we got to get Marshawn on the podcast. Let's stick a pin in this and talk about this post-Super Bowl. We'll get him in maybe in March or later in the month. Finally, not finally, we got a few more things. Joe Mixon was in the news with some issues involving the law. The misdemeanor aggravated menacing charge filed against Bengals running back

Joe Mixon was officially dismissed on Friday, but the charge could be refiled. The court document filed Friday stated that the charge against Mixon was dismissed. At the request of the city prosecutor's office, the dismissal came one day after a complaint was filed that alleged Mixon knowingly pointed a firearm at a woman and said, well, you don't need even to know what he said, but it's not a very good look for Joe Mixon. We'll see if this goes forward. But Greg, I know you have thoughts about where Nixon is as a player at this stage and where the Bengals see him in their. future or not in the future. Yeah, I think he was a strong candidate to be

released before this happened because of his salary, because they need to get the Joe Burrow contract done. There's been rumors. Are they going to trade T. Higgins? That seems stupid. But either way, it doesn't seem when you're playing half the snaps of Somaget P. Ryan in the biggest game of the year,

that's a pretty big sign that Joe Mixon was not the mixing of old. And I see his agent and some other supporters in the media say, well, this was quickly dismissed, so no harm, no foul. But it's like the level of whether someone goes to jail or not or faces official charges is not the same level of consideration your employers might take into account when wanting to keep you employed at $10 million a year.

And so I think this probably spells the end of his time in Cincinnati. Yeah, I mean, it kind of gets forgotten now. But the Bengals, when they took him, when they drafted them, there's a lot of controversy around that. They went out and took a chance on them. and it's like I think it came probably with the concept of like never again are you going to be doing stuff downtown or anywhere else and like we don't know exactly what happened here

but you factor in all the other stuff it could be check you later they have a lot of crazy decisions to me I think Lyle Collins might be a cut they have a lot of free agents they could lose both their coordinators they're one of the teams to watch this week so the offseason the T Higgins thing I'm piecing this together because Jamar Chase is going to get a second contract that's huge and Higgins has the value and both both on the team and outside the team of being potentially a number one in his own right.

You do the old, and the Titans will tell you, it's dangerous business. You trade your stud, go maybe draft a guy and get him under team control more friendly. That's dangerous. I would keep those guys together as long as I humanly good. The thing is Higgins is not a free agent. He's under contract at a very reasonable rate one of it, I guess. Yeah, I would be like, let's keep it together while we can. Yes, that's what I feel about our show as well.

real quick. Early Super Bowl injury report. Nicole Hardman has that pelvis issue with a wide receiver. Chiefs are banged up a wide receiver ahead of this game. Keep an eye on that. Anyway, he was moved to IR this morning. So he is done in terms of this game. You won't see him.

Juju Smith's shoest through. He's got a knee. Cadarius Tony. He has an ankle. Two more wide receivers for the Chiefs. Those guys are questionable for the game. Legerius Sneed, they're covering. man very good very important guy for them has a concussion uh and we'll see if he's going to be

available for the game also questionable mark that was kind of an underrated and um bald he talked about that when we had him on last week and the chiefs deserved a ton of credit they were all sorts of banged up in their secondary and handled t higgins and handled jemar chase and didn't let that game spin out of control so it it trends positively that they can handle the eagles but still they want sneed back yeah i mean that sort of like the showed who they were and how resilient they were and they came up with different guys and guys like Isaiah Pacheco played a huge role in that game and I think Will in the Super Bowl

but it is one dynamic of this two-week break where you kind of forget about this first week the injury reports and the fact that like Juju Smith-Schuster still is swelling in his knee and going in against this Eagles defense it's a different situation. I don't love the idea of them having to craft and

create with them two or three key guys potentially not themselves. I think they'll play but not themselves. Right and we just don't know they didn't practice at all last there was Chief's practices. Willie Gay sounds like he will be back, and I think Tony feels like they're more optimistic about him, but it's the Eagles who have no injury worries at all.

Like literally their entire team is available for this game. That makes such a big difference. It's not a coincidence these two teams were both relatively healthy, Eagles quite healthy during the season. They also had two of the easiest schedules in the entire league, and that's no slight to them, but like these things matter. And Tony, at the time of his trade from the Giants, we and others made a big thing.

What a great trade this is for Kansas City. Huge upside. The Giants are going to really regret this potentially. Right now the Chiefs are feeling a lot of like the Giants. Like, this guy is really good. He can be a difference maker, but he can't stay on the field. So hopefully we see the best version of Tony. Makes for a better game.

Hey, Gregi, Gino Smith, your boy, is a comeback player of the year finalist. I will find out about that on Thursday. The NFL Honors Awards, hosted by Kelly Clarkson. Nice. Best Kelly Clarkson song, Mark. The one where don't let me dance or please let me dance. What? I don't know.

The correct answer is since you've been gone. Oh, since you've been gone. Yeah, I know that's one. Let's see. Because of you would be, you know, another great one. That's okay. She's got some bangers, but is she performing? Not my fate.

No, I don't think so. Yeah, she's a. So probably do some songs. songs. Do a couple. Have you got Clarks in there? Let's have her sing a little bit. A little bit's where she sings.

You know what I mean? Like some comedy. It's comedy songs. Singing comedy bits. All right. Well, you'll be there in your talk, Greg. So, um, anyway, do you want to hear from Gino? He was at the Pro Bowl.

Of course, because he was a Pro Bowl quarterback this year. Oh, he lit up that flag football game. That was the only one I got a chance to watch before I headed out to the NASCAR clash at the Coliseum with my son. I never expected that my eight-year-old son would be dragging me. to NASCAR events where Cypress Hill and Wiz Khalifa both are there as musical entertainment.

It was fun though. Let's hear Gino. Wait, wait, wait. Did Cypress Hill do illusions? No. They just did. Insane in the membrane and what's their other big song?

Did they do since you've been gone? Would pay to watch Be Real, do this. All right, let's hear Cam Wolf again, by the way. Get in the interview. We love Ken Wolf. He's been absolutely on fire all autumn into winter. All right now. All right.

Let's hear Gino. You know, all signs are positive, and so we just got to continue to work at it and, you know, find, you know, figure out what we can do to make sure it happens? So if you could put a one to ten grade on it, what would you say your confidence is that you'll be back in Seattle running the back? I'm very confident. I'm not going to put a number on it, but I'm very confident and, you know, I think things will work out. A number, you know, tenants of journalism, don't ask yes or no questions. And when you could really put him on the spot there, give me the one to ten number. Now, Gino, he's been around the block. He was in the New York media. He wasn't going to give you that number because that would have been the headline across the blogosphere.

Yeah, but he still gave you very confident. That's a headline. He said very confident that he will be in Seattle. That does seem like where it's going, Gregie. Yeah, this is one where I think you can trust from the player and the team perspective that they're being forthright. It really feels like that's one spot that we know on some. I don't know what the numbers are going to be, but I think Gino Smith will be there. Now, whether they had a rookie or not, I tend to think they wouldn't that high in the draft.

But I think that's like one place. I feel like we kind of know what's going to happen at quarterback. Very little else we know what's going to happen. I think we should have a come-down player of the year because this is a great story of Regina. And if he goes and does it again in a second year, it's like we just simply believe that is who Gino Smith is. But he's a candidate to suddenly be like,

uh-oh, wait a minute. Why would you have a negative award like that? I know we wouldn't because it's the NFL, but it's just like, let's note the fact that things don't. It's not even just the NFL. Like in general, that'd be a really weird awards. Things don't always trend upwards for everyone all the time. There are other, there is ebb and flow.

Absolutely. It'd be like, you know, Sam Darnold in his third season gets the come-down player of the year award. I'm trying to think of who even. Baker Mayfield? Sure. Yeah, I guess quarterbacks. All right. That was another edition of.

Oh, yeah. Sure. Sipping on Vino, checking on Gino. Boots on the ground. I heard some good, just word that Gino, an affable fellow there in Vegas, just people that ran into him. It's good to be Gino right now. It's good to be Gino. Just, you know.

some great accuracy in that flag football game if you if you agree to do a go to a charity event or you know a kid's football camp with a teammate do it wow and if if if you don't do it you got to pay him back for the airfare that's all that was a long time ago 24 years old he was a kid i think it can grow from it but you're right that's two sides two That's all. I hope that's matured past that. Right. But also, if someone doesn't do that, don't, don't assault them. You know, don't assault them.

Don't be an idiot. Right. That's a bigger thing. That's very important to point that out as well. Do not break someone's jaw over a plane ticket. Saints hire Joe Woods is their D.C. Cool. And Jerry Jones says.

They are a mess. They are back to the drawing board at kicker with Brett Mahar, a free agent. Thanks for the hot tip on that one. I just want to say, like, that whole thing struck me is so odd how Dallas played the Mahir after the meltdown on Monday night against the bucks in the wildcard round. There is no way he should ever been on that roster for a divisional round playoff game. And the fact that you carried him and used him in that game, and by the way, he didn't miss another extra point to start that game.

It was blocked, but it would have been 30 yards to the left. It was blocked because it was a horrendous kick. So you stuck with him for the biggest game that your franchises had in quite some time. And then you're going to just cut them loose as a free agent. Like what was the point of keeping them for that game then? Like they should have just brought someone off the street that didn't have their head in a blender at that point. The Cowboys, man. What is going on with these guys?

We love our quarterback. For that reason. So Jerry Jones can probably produce a quote on a. a week where, you know, 25 plus years ago, we'd be talking about the Cowboys this week. But unless Jerry Jones opens his mouth, there's nothing to say about Dallas, a team that's a drift. Oh. I mean, they did make back-to-back divisional rounds. It's just something.

Yon. Not in the way they talk about themselves, that's a yawn. Oh, sure. All right, that's it. Again, NFL Plus, we are on NFL Plus, and it won't be the first time. That's the other thing. We've got to make clear. Greg, you mentioned it.

It's not a one and done thing. We're doing Q&As on NFL Plus. How can people access it again, Justin? Plus. Dot NFL.com. Your game on the go. Sign up now. Learn more at plus.nifl.com.

We're on it. Q&A ahead of the Super Bowl. Check that out and stick around. And yeah, it's time for us to catch a bird, boys. I like how you brought that all back together. Thanks to the listeners, too, that reach out during this last weekend and stuff with their West's thoughts.

We love that. I think we've said it before, but we figured out what the hell we're doing, doing this show at all without Wes. Like, to me, this show is sort of about that. Like, how did we figure out how to we lose our friend and how do we do it? And that the listeners being part of it the whole time

is how we did it, I think. Yes, well said, Gregi. I mean, you could have made it case that we should have taken a year off after that and just figured out what was going on, but we kept going, and the listeners, I've said every time we do a live show, and I've said it on the show on the podcast,

like, thank you for sticking around. Yeah, I think it's fair to acknowledge the show. We'll literally never have any chance to be the same as it was, but it's okay. It can be something that it is now. Well said, Mark. All right. I don't know.

I mean, you guys are just nail it all. Everything you say is just perfect to me. Yes, Super Bowl week. Catching a bird. See you in Phoenix. Love you, Chris. Heed the call. This is an I-heart podcast.