NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Road to Houston & best coaching hires

Episode Date: January 27, 2017

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Gregg Rosenthal & Colleen Wolfe – discuss all the news from around the NFL including the latest from the Colts front office after firing GM Ryan Grigson, and the Bengals signing kicker Randy Bullock through 2018. Then, Conor Orr joins the show from for some early Pro Bowl takeaways before the heroes break down which new coaches will be the most successful in 2017. Finally, the guys get a hold of Marc Sessler and John Gonzalez from the road as they make their way from LA to Houston for Super Bowl LI.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Mostly believes in aliens. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Henses and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Colleen Wolf. Yeah, there's more. Chris Wessling and Greg Rosethal.

What's up, boys? And woman. Hey, Dan. Hello. Building it up. I don't know. Have you done two shows? In a row?

I think so. Yeah. It's been done. I think. Thanks for remembering. Dan might have been gone for it, I think. No one when you were gone for a few weeks. Yeah, I think you're right.

So, you know, this counts. It counts. The other ones counted too, but yes. Okay. No, they're all good. They're all beautiful little flowers. All the shows. This is the Thursday, and I apologize to Mr. Flame, who, you know,

he sends us one. one of the best whiskeys in the world. And what happens? The old Zuser forgets to let everyone know that the Around the NFL podcast is sponsored by Mr. Flames' economics class in the Hague by Netherlands. Mr. F. I think it would actually be funny,

even though it would be a problematic situation for us, if he sued us for Mr. Flame sued us for forgetting to mention it on the podcast on Tuesday. He's way too nice of a guy. I know, but that's what would make it even better. Right. It'd be a rare case. Dan always thinks about the show first. He would actually be happy that we get sued. He's like, that'd be a good storyline.

It would be a pretty good storyline. As long as we didn't get fired because of it, and, you know, if we didn't have to pay for lawyering up on it, it would be great. Yeah, you're getting a little too comfortable, I think, with the sponsorship. In what sense? You know, just taking gifts and forgetting to say thank you. Well, you know. The beautiful thing about Mr. F is he's the utter antithesis.

of like a gigantic corpo sponsor he is he's perfect hands on and you know he's just an ubermitch it's almost like we we should share him with the world like somebody else if we find somebody that deserves a sponsor the way we deserve the sponsor maybe one day we'll pass off mr flame with his how would you feel about sharing mr f i would never share him it would be more like i'd let him go and let him journey off to someone else that that needs a pick me up because that's he's given our show. Just let him spread his wings. By the way, this is the,

it's been a long time since the Falcons were in the Super Bowl. Just in a cartoon vision of Dan pushing Mr. F out of a nest. January 31st, 1999, the last time the Falcons were in the Super Bowl. Colleen, you were a three-year-old girl back then. Probably. Something like that. In that neighborhood.

Here's some fun facts. from what was going on in the world the last time that I love this you know this isn't the most original talking point but I love this great I love nostalgia Matt Ryan was a 13 year old boy how about that after the Super Bowl family guy premiered on Fox well a long time ago yeah hit me baby one more time Britney the number one were you a big Brittany girl yeah younger yeah it was like in college concerts no no concerts gas cost 98 $0.8 a gallon. I remember that. I grew up on the border of New York and New Jersey and the trick in the coal town because gas prices were more expensive in New York. You hopped over the border to Bergen County, New Jersey, and you got the gas in Montfail at a substantially cheaper rate.

And they pump the gas for you in New Jersey. So you don't have to get out of the car if it's raining or anything. Right. But that was always a little weird. That's a law. You can't pump your gas in Jersey. What's going on on the west side of Cincinnati was? in 1999. I think I had just decided that I was going to be an outsider, and it was like, it was the, that's a decision? It was the beginning of not carrying one damn about pop culture. That's about when it started for me that I was just going to be on the outside of society.

So on January 31st, 1999, Chris Wesleyan decided he was going to be an outsider. It was around when that girl was trying to engage yourself to me, so I had to necessarily get outside of society. Okay. Well, now you work for an $11 billion corporation. Well, I have to reconcile a few things, Dan. That was also the year of Summer Girls, LFO. That was.

Wow. That was. She's all that, number one moving America. It's a great one. Saw that. How about, you know, Atlanta's own, maybe their greatest export, Outcast touring at that moment off of their third and best album, Equimini.

All right, yep. Love Outcast. There you go. You know what was the, an off? She's All That. was the big hit it was kiss me by six pence none the richer oh god you know if if we had any rights to play music on the show um i would love to play it right now so instead and it's not really a situation of settling i'm going to throw it to la sid who's just a young goyle uh at that time but she

knows the song because who doesn't give me a little six pence said kiss me out of the bearded barley nightly oh beside the green green grass Swing, swing, very good. That's awesome. Mankind was the WWE champion. Who was that was? He was a wrestler. Didn't he write a book?

Yeah, he is. Cactus Jack. Donald Trump was a C-List celebrity. Bill Belichick was the defensive... Still a C-Less celebrity. Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the Jets. And Greg, this one's for you. Very literary mind.

Southern Cross by Patric. Trisha Cornwell topped in New York Times bestsellers list for nonfiction, or fiction, excuse me. Southern Cross, also the title of Crosby Stills and Nash's greatest song. I'm sure it is. I didn't know that. From 25 years before that, well, 30 years before that, probably. Wes, our resident historian. So there you go.

All right, today's show, we're going to do some news. We're going to get Connor or on the phone. How exciting is that because Connor is at. at the Pro Bowl in Orlando. He actually witnessed this, the skills showdown on Wednesday. He's going to tell us all about his adventures in the land of Mickey Mouse. Greg Rosenthal wrote a banger, ranking the NFL coaching hires. We need something less, you know, what's lower than a banger?

You know, it's a sub-banger. Respectable, but, you know. It's like a- I'll work on that. Yeah. Way to pump up your piece, though, for real. So a sub-banger, we'll use the term for now, ranking NFL coaching hires. and then we're going to try again to get Mark and Gonsu on the phone to get their update on their road trip.

What is that branded, by the way? Is it? Road to Houston. Hashtag Road to Houston. Hashtag Road to Houston. So that's the show. Let's start some news, Sid. I said, whoa, oh, pretty woman.

What was that? That was. That was my favorite new thing, which is Kurt Cousins singing in an a A cappella group in high school. Yes. Oh my God. If you haven't seen the video, it's amazing. He has all sorts of crazy outfits.

He is something else. Yeah. Is that, if you watch that, if you're a Redskins fan, does that make you want to invest more in the quarterback? Or is it assigned to run for the hills? I think more. I think I tweeted it out and lots of people were excited about it and excited about their quarterback. Does it with confidence. That's the key.

And Kirk Cousins, if you had to make a ranking of which, which. guy, what quarterbacks Sydney would be most into is like a potential mate. Number one is number one. That's your boy. What about Jimmy G? Oh, yeah. Can I call Jimmy G?

I think he runs a little too fast for you. Yeah, he seems like he's too edgy, maybe. You need a nice boy in an a cappella group. Listen, Kirk and I can sing show tunes for those to our lives. I'm fine with that. You'll go to Disney together. It'll be great. All right.

Let's start the news. And we kind of, we blew it. We forgot to talk about Ryan Grigson on Tuesday. So let's talk about it. because after weeks of speculation and radio silence and Indy, the Colts made the decision to part ways with their general manager firing Ryan Grigson following a second straight dark January for the Colts. Ursae confirmed this to or told reporters this over the weekend.

Erce also confirmed Chuck Pagano will be back as the Colts coach in 2017, which is always creates a slightly uncomfortable situation when you mix and match regimes like this. The move comes just one month after Ursaid told Rapshie that the franchise was not planning to make, quote, wholesale offseason changes. Greg, I guess you could still say he told the truth because maybe you could paint it as wholesale would mean you're getting rid of both your coach and GM, but that's still a huge part of the organization. What took so long and what's going on in Indy? I mean, who knows? This is a strange story, a strange situation.

and Grigson and Pagano had reportedly gone and, you know, seen a psychologist, I believe, together. Yeah, the Colts hired a psychologist to try to overcome their issues. And I wonder, I want to know what the story is behind the story because I don't think it happens two or three weeks into the off season unless something's going on. If someone went to the front office, you know, went to Ursa and made a say it's either me or him. I don't know. Why would it be happening now? because it's not like he had a plan. He didn't have a plan at all.

That would worry me. He's just interviewing GMs. At first there was a couple guys. Now it's expanded. It's like he didn't have a plan. He just did it. And that's probably why Pagano is still there because I can't imagine that he's prepared to go

and have a search for both positions. It just seems like this sort of came out of nowhere and now he's going to be stuck with hiring a GM and maybe he doesn't like the guys that are left out there as head coaching candidates. Wes, how about this? You can't give many credit really for, drafting Andrew Luck. That was a no-brainer of the century, even though R.G-3 was in that draft.

Whatever. Luck was the number one guy. Is Griggs in the worst GM in the league? Because he take that out. What has he done with that team other than hold back Andrew Luck from being in the middle of the playoffs every January? The rest of that 2012 draft was phenomenal as well. Okay. I don't think you can take that away from him. That was one of the best drafts of the past half-deck. Who came out of that one? T.Y. Hilton, Kobe Fleener, Duane Allen, Vic Ballard, whose career was ruined by a knee injury. I believe there was one other guy, too.

But Hilton and Luck, those are two A-plus guys right there. So he nailed that draft, and then 2013 starts the beginning of the end. The Trent Richardson Whiff, which is as bad of a trade whiff, as we've seen. And he drafts Burenne Werner in the first round, which is as bad of a first-round draft bust as we've seen, really. He didn't even make it through his rookie contract before they released him, which you don't see with first-round picks. And he had chances to overcome those errors, but he didn't.

He had cap room two years in a row with like top three or four in the league cap room. And he went out and signed guys like Goster Cherilus and Loran Landry and Eric Walden. And all these guys who were not impact players, even though he had tons of cap room to bring in guys, Arthur Jones, who was injured the whole time. So I think he had so many opportunities to keep surrounding Andrew Luck with talent. but every move seemed to backfire. And then that provided a schism with the coaching staff because Grigsden kept saying, I'm giving you guys talent and you can't develop it.

Well, I think Pagano really hurt this organization by being so good in the room and convincing Jim Erse a year ago for him to keep his job. Because I think Ersay was on the right track there of starting over. And somehow Pagano convinced Urse to give not only Pagano, But Grigsen, a three-year contract. Grickson's going to get paid through 2019 or something. What a life.

Like that. And I think it's set back this organization. Because whoever they hire here, it might be an internal guy, Jimmy Ray. I feel like they're just wasting another year with Chuck Pagano. There's going to be another story like this in a year or two where they're starting over. Which is ultimately wasting another year with Andrew Luck, too. I mean, you have to fix that offensive line. That hasn't been fixed in how long?

What are you laughing at? Well, next to me, Wes is just giggling. He's paying for. Grigsden, an extra couple of years. What does that mean? He can't buy Buddy Holly's guitar now or something. I mean, Jim Hersey's got plenty of money. He's always spending it on all these weird auction items.

I don't care if he's paying Grigsen for a couple more years. I get, you're right. Obviously, it's a bottomless pit of money, but it's still the principle of it that you gave him an extension last year, and now you're going to pay him to basically not be in your building for three years. It's just not a good look. Neither is the fact that so many ex-players went out of their way to celebrate Grigsons fire.

It's on his grave. Yeah, Pat McAfee, the punter, went after him, too. I've never seen as many players as vocal as they were minutes after the news came out. So awkward. How much do you think Grigson's hairstyle plays into people not liking? A lot. Kind of looks like a mid-tier wrestling heel. That's the way I look.

Huge guy. It's like, what, six, seven, 300 bills? Yeah, I once interviewed him at the Combine. I mean, at the Super Bowl, actually, right after he got hired in 2012. Well, it was, it was alarming. It was a little scary. He was an enormous person. I would say, though, that it's impressive the list of guys who are coming out for this job now.

Everybody wants to work with Andrew Luck. Makes sense. Well, it's interesting. Some guys around the league that rejected the 49ers interviews are interviewing with the Colts. There you go. It tells you a lot. Moving on, one position that won't be opening up, much to the chagrin of many Packers fans. The defensive coordinator post, Dom Kaper, Teflon, Dom, as he's known around these parts.

He's not going anywhere. Mike McCartley had this to say, this is no time for drama. Dom Kaper's is an outstanding football coach. That doesn't change. He had a tough challenge in front of him this year. And once again, that coaching staff dealt with a lot, blah, blah, blah, blah. Talking about injuries as being a major hurdle. Capers back, not back.

Colleen Wolf, also known as Connie Fox. Tom Clements. Yeah. Whose contract expires. he is the associate head coach offense. His deal expired. They're not bringing him back. He spent 11 seasons with the team starting his QB coach before being elevated to OC in 2012

and then associate head coach. And, you know, one thing that is interesting about Clements, McCarthy made a big deal before the 2015 season saying, I am going to now start elevating some of my coaches to more high-profile roles to help them get head coaching looks. So he made him the play caller, 25. Yanked that from him later that season, and now he's out of a job entirely. Yeah, he goes from play caller to totally out in a little over a year.

But look, the injuries did not help at all. When you look at what they were dealing with in the secondary and just their cornerbacks alone, when Sam Shields went down with a concussion in the season opener, they were playing with three second year corners. You have Demerius Randall, Quentin Rollins, and Ladarius Gunter. Now, Gunter, I thought that Bucky Brooks always calls him Waldo. like the guys on the team that you can sort of circle and those guys can be exploited

and in a lot of the games this year he was absolutely Waldo and that did not help also they had the pass rush was so inconsistent this entire season that it really exposed that secondary who was already hurting I think when you look at the Packers roster and I've been asked this a lot

what do they change next year to get better you got to get production out of Randall Cobb and Clay Matthews, who are two-year-highest-paid players on the team and are subpar regulars right now. That's a big problem that two guys, after Aaron Rogers, getting paid the most, are not assets anymore. Moving on. Cincinnati Bengals saw enough from Randy Bullock to bring back the kicker,

signed a deal that takes them through 2018. West, a little surprising. Some people call him Fat Randy. I call him Big Boned Randy. Husky Randy. Husky Randy. Rotund Randy See now it's edging back into mean territory again

Oh, sorry I was going for a little bit of us husky guys We don't like, you know, that kind of stuff Or it's like, it's like, hey big guy Well, you know, why'd just call me a fatty? All right? The waiters are like, hey, big guy, excuse me I can't wait to call you big guy

This is awesome A son of a bitch Big Bone Randy went five for six on field goals And six for six on extra points And three games with Sincey But that one miss was a doozy a 43-yarder on Christmas Eve night that gave the Texans the division.

One of the worst misses of the year. He stutter-stapped. I think he almost crapped himself and then missed the kick. Big Bone Randy, West, still in our lives. This is like the January version of a camp leg. Right. Teflon Randy. They're going to draft somebody or pick someone else up.

I don't think old Roton Randy's going to be handed a job. That's a better one. Moving on. Hey, guys, it happened. January 25th. 2017 oh man what what happened sell it so we need more of that around this place guys take after our colleague taking notes over here we achieved liftoff on the blake boardles redemption tour here's comments from gm dave caldwell this week at the super bowl on blake boardels i've said it

said this time and time again i think we could win a lot of games with blake i think we could win a Super Bowl with Blake, I think he needs to improve and I think we need to improve around him too in order for that to happen. Greg, Caldo better be right here. He survived the Axe. Gus Bradley got sent packing late last season, but they got Tom Copland in the building who easily, I would think, can make Caldell redundant if Jacksonville doesn't improve on 3 and 13. And the way he's talking, they're going to try to go it again with Blake Bordles. Do you agree? Well, I think that's the reason he kept his job, is that Caldwell and Marone somehow convinced owner Shad Khan to run it back with Bordals, that we can fix it.

Let's not really change. I mean, if you look at what the Jaguars did, they really didn't. They changed as little as possible. They promoted Marone. They kept Caldwell. They're keeping Bordals as their coach. And they kept the exact same defensive coordinator, which kind of went under the radar. Todd Wash is his name.

It's still the defensive coordinator. More like Todd Wash out. He was under Gus Brown. They're running the back, and it supports my theory that they got to win. This is a very short lifeline here for Morone. They got to win right away, or Coughlin's going to get Caldwell out of there, get Bordell out of there, and get Marone out of there, and start the whole thing over with his own guys. And this is, Bordles is a prime candidate. I wrote about this on the end around. Please check it out, NFL.com slash enderone.

one of the most popular tropes of the NFL offseason struggling quarterback X primed for bounce back season and now listen to all the factors all the other sub-tropes that connect to Bortles let's play a little Blake bingo here Bortles Bingo we have a choice there all right here we go

Player X showed flashes in seasons final weeks nice trip I oh yeah that did check Player X has semi recent track record of success Check Player X is still, you know, pretty young. Bing. Check. Player X will benefit from coaching change.

Bing. Not buying that one. But it will be. All right. There is a coaching change. We'll be posited. And finally, my personal favorite. Player X spent offseason undergoing complete mechanics rebuild with quarterback

guru Y. Well, he's already done that too. Bring it back. Bring it back. Wait until you see the shape he's in. Right. Well, that's a thing with Bortos. We'll hear how he's taking his craft more seriously.

Oh, that's another. But we never get the article before the year where they weren't taking it seriously. Like you never get the, uh, Blake Bortle's not really ready for training camp. He's kind of a, you always hear the whisper of the other direction in about, uh, week 12. Right. I think, you know, the Super Bowl and then compare that to Blake Bortles, it tells you everything you need to know that Tom Brady, while he was suspended, worked with Tom House, the biometrics guru, mechanical guru, for many times. during that suspension. Matt Ryan flew Tom House and Adam Daydo,

the other guy working for Tom House, into Atlanta throughout the season during the season to work on his mechanics. And Blake Bortles pretty much ignored his mechanics during the off season. Yikes. One of the worst wind-ups you'll see. It is a wind-up.

That throwing motion is so bad. I was trying to pick somebody off second base. They got to get someone in there. I mean, I was as high as Bortles as anyone after 2015. You were as high as Bortles? Kind of. Not that high. Even in his best season, he led the league in interceptions in sacks.

It's not like even in the season that he did all the great things. He was a flawed kind of middle-tier quarterback. He absolutely has all the physical tools you could want, but mentally he's not there yet, and it's an all-consuming job. Finally, a little Boston talk, Greg, your home region, New England. From Massachusetts. heard the news over the weekend that a east boston man had broken into or not broken into had got himself into the team hotel where the steelers were staying at near the airport

up there in boston logan and yanked a fire alarm allegedly on the second floor you know waking up some players and you know he was trying to upset the steelers on the eve of the aFC championship game harrison reportedly told the police this according to the boston globe upon his apprehension he was kind of stumbling away from the grounds i'm drunk i'm stupid i'm a pats fan uh now which that doesn't speak for all patriots i'm not bringing this up gregg as a way to like rip the patriots i admire his honesty i mean at least he was just saying it harrison was in court he's 25 years old uh he was in court this week where he pleaded not guilty the charges of disorderly conduct disturbing the peace and setting off a false fire alarm let me tell you first of all

Who hasn't done any of those before? I could save this for the law podcast. I'm just going to say something. I am not accredited. I have not been to law school. Do not plead not guilty on this Dennis Harrison. Not a good luck. The cops have you on record saying, I'm drunk, I'm stupid.

I'm a Pats fan. You were arrested on the grounds of the hotel where you weren't staying. It was 4 a.m. Plea out, bro. That's an alternative fact, Dan. Plea out. plea out and one last note with this hooters Colleen have you been to a hooters establishment?

I have one of my friends worked at one. They make a good chicken wing. Look at you. Hooters, the Saugus, Massachusetts location, put up a sign in front of their restaurant, free wings if your name is Dennis Harrison, which is funny and a nice little promotion to tie in with current events and sports fans.

But here's the kicker, and this is very mass hall. Dennis Harrison showed up and collected on that, had a meal there on Monday, to a manager that works at the facility. They ought to put this guy away for months. Why? Throw the book at it.

First of all, you don't mess with people's sleep. Well, how about emergency service workers who are racing to a fake alarm? Right. Second of all, what's your purpose in doing this? Oh, he's drunk and stupid. Right. It's somehow going to upset the Steelers and they're not going to play well. Give me a break.

Be better, Dennis Harrison. I think, I mean. This you choose to take serious. Yes, I don't like it at all. Could I talk you into Antonio Brown? the other day got you on this one it's a second rate prank it's not even good but well if if the if the idea it's like stealing somebody's mascot in 2017 it's been it's been done 78 times every year it's it's not it's not creative but for we got your cockatoo for someone that's not related to

the two teams he absolutely annoyed the crap out of the entire organization and disrupted their sleep as he said and you know sleep science and people say that that stuff's some And maybe it's, you know, it helps them one or two percent there. He's helping his team out. You're celebrating this criminal? No, he's an idiot. But I'm not saying that it had no impact. Who was he raised by?

This criminal. He's raised by wolves. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. So is I. That's what's happening in the news. All right. Pro Bowl's coming up on Sunday from Orlando. We have had an around the NFL employee, uh, writer.

on the site. And it is time to welcome on the phone. And because Connor, we love Connor, and we're happy to hear from him. Unfortunately, we're not going to see him at the Super Bowl this year, which we're all bummed out about. But because he's coming on the phone,

worked with Sidney, to welcome him on the show in a special way. A man's man, got a mortgage, drinks the brown stuff and ranks up his foliage, An ex-beat, Manhattan, Monaut State Ballet. Got Super Bowl snub, so it's Connor Orlando today. He got Super Bowl snub, so it's Connor Orlando today.

Oh, good. All right. Are you kidding me? It's like Fats Domino. I love it. Again, with the weight, Colleen. You know, enough. Wait, what?

Connor, are you there? Hello, everyone. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. That song was really good. I enjoyed that. Well, you sound a little somber right now. What's going on, pal?

Take us through it. I got massively sunburned on day one. So I went down to, there's like a pro shop attached to my hotel. It's the largest Marriott in the continental United States. You're plugged down on the Marriott. too. Word. Yeah, for sure. I've had conversations with Connor. He can break down in detail each of the tiers to the Marriots and knows them on a regional basis as well. So this one is the largest in the country. Does that make it a good Marriott or just a big Marriott? Oh, I would say every Marriott's

a good Marriott. It's like a little slice of home even when you're away. Wow. That needs to be our sponsor. You're gunning for that side promotion, avatorial work. So, Where do we start? How is Orlando? And what is the vibe with around the players? I know you've had good access with working on behalf of the Shield. What's the sense down there as the Pro Bowl continues to explore ways to keep it relevant, now sending it out of Hawaii and into Florida? I got to say that bringing back the skills competition was actually probably the best idea that they've had to try to regenerate interest. I was able to go to like, I went to a walkthrough where they brought some of the players in early before yesterday's taping, Wednesday's taping. And, you know, people were into it, especially the quarterbacks and they were doing kind of the accuracy channels and stuff. So I thought that was definitely definitely something. But the other interesting thing about Orlando is there's no restaurants here.

which I thought was interesting. A lot of strip malls, right? Excuse me? A lot of strip malls, right? A lot of concrete. Yeah, I don't know. I was driving around, like, one stretch of land for, like, three hours, and there's just no restaurant.

That's my memory of Orlando as well. Can you reveal who won the skills challenges, little breaking news that we announced on the podcast? Well, we could. This is how we can before you answer, Connor, because it is embargoed until Thursday. night but we could hold the show a couple extra hours and that will allow us to talk all the results of the skills showdown is it worth it i don't think that's worth it see i i would say yes

but there's an armed guard uh right that follows me around until after the uh until after the taping air so i'm not sure i want to all right well i want to upset him without without i can talk i can talk pro bowl you know skills challenge just i i can't reveal all right one without revealing the winners? What were some of the more interesting happenings at the Skills Challenge? Who should we look for that might have made a fool of themselves or really thrived? Take us through it. I would say

during the dodge ball, I saw one of the greatest individual athletic performances by any human that I've ever seen in my entire life. Oh my goodness. And it was sort of like, it made me as a person who was picked on

in Dodgeball feel like really connected. And And, you know, it was, it was an emotional moment for me. I know Jason Garrett really got into it. We were standing near each other, saw him kind of rooting on this person, even though, you know, it wasn't his player. And, you know, so I thought, I think that's something. What division was that player in? This is fun.

One of, well, one of the two big ones, one of the two big divisions. Okay. Man, they really have you clamped down on, huh? It's also just fun not to mess around. And have you had any, because Kevin Patcher once upon a time covered a Pro Bowl, we had him on this very podcast, and he ended up talking books, I believe, with Alex Mack, then the center for the Browns. Have you had any nice one-on-one conversations that have been enlightening on some level?

I talked to Joe Thomas today, and I will say that, like... Our show only talks to Browns' Offensive linemen. Yep. I liked how he knew exactly what, like, he had worked out in his own mind a probability percentage that them drafting a quarterback number one overall would actually work out, which I thought was pretty interesting and, like, speaks to the new brain trust in Cleveland because they've definitely got him numerically focused more so than he was already. And he says it's about 25%.

So I think he's encouraging him to go in a lot. a different direction. Wow. How about this? How about this? Again, you don't want to give away any faces, but I remember talking Pro Bowl. We had some interesting stories about players last year. Can you give us a blind item about a player that perhaps, you know, maybe got a little carried away at the bar,

or you saw something, saw them do something disturbing, not revealing the player, but maybe sharing their behavior? Ooh. Putting you on the spot here. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. It's so early in the week. It's very early in the week.

I will say that I've seen a lot of crimes of fashion. I've seen players, a lot of cowboy boots in warm weather, you know, and that was kind of bothersome to me. A couple guys getting a little out of shape, you know, which is funny coming for me. And, you know, just. Oh, yeah, I won't say who it is. But you shared a Hall of Famer on our instant messaging. client had now

he had devolved from kind of athlete heavy set to heavy set heavy set yeah a hall of famer okay I almost wanted to go over and be like I know like exactly what's happening to you and

you know it's going to be okay you know not Antoine Walker who was featured on NFL network rather large Twan yeah for some reason Antoine that's surprising all right and Connor you have any other takeaways from, I know it is early.

Is there a sense that the players are excited? There was one interesting quote that, who was it? Who said it? Oh, it was Mike Evans, had just found out when he was in Orlando that the winner's share is 64K and the loser shares is $32,000, and that made him decide he's going to play hard. Any of that sentiment going on? Does it seem like people care about the game?

It's good that that's getting out now because, like, I remember I was on the sidelines for the Pro Bowl in 2014 when the game was in Houston, and one of the players found out, like, in the fourth quarter, and they were down by a touchdown, and he begged his coach to put him back in. He's like, I was an undrafted free agent. I'm still on my first contract. He's like, I need this money. It's not like, you know, I'm not just messing around. And a lot of these guys, you know, they go ham at the bar, they got all their friends down here. you know the difference between 32 and 64 is is breaking even for the weekend so you know this is uh this is uh this is big i'm i'm looking i'm looking forward to some trickeration you know

there was a little uh michael bennett uh sell it baby tailback today so you know i mean there's it's a world of mystery down here it's not just mouses and roller coasters it's everything oh not restaurants but everything else no restaurant there's no there's no restaurants here It's unbelievable. Are you going to get into a little trouble at any point this weekend? Yeah, I mean, I think so. I like to tell people that I've got proble fever. So, you know, wherever that takes me, I mean, there's miles of open road here.

Yeah. Well. You deserve it, big guy. Thanks, Colleen. You know what? Colleen is fat-shaming right now because I told her 20 minutes ago that I didn't enjoy when waiters and other type of people refer to me as big guy, so she's actually shaming you.

One of the pretties are going after you. It's not the first time, and we're going to be better because of the damn work to be stronger. Yeah, you're right, Connor. All right, Connor or, Mynott State's favorite son, adopted son, and I will get you that box of goodies when you get back to your haunted mansion in New Jersey, bud.

Okay, I'll see you when I see it, people. All right, there goes. See you, Connor. Bye. A man's man got him mortgage. Drinks the brown stuff and ranks up his foliage.

You're at the top of my register there. Atenman State Ballet. Sit on backing box. It's awesome. Got Super Bowl snub, so it's Connor or Lando today. You got Super Bowl snub so it's Connor Orlando today.

Wow. Are you kidding? me. Conner, I ran that by him yesterday. I said, hey, I was thinking, you know, maybe working up a song for you. He said, my only request is that you work in that they're not sending me to the Super Bowl. Nicely done.

Nicely done. We will miss Connor. Connor should be at the Super Bowl. He is a Pro Bowl selection, though, so that's good. That's true. That's true. All right. So there you go.

That's Connor or Greg, let's talk. Your sub-banger, you wrote. You're not particularly proud of it. I'm not unproud, but if everything's a banger, you know, it sort of cheapens what's a banger. Hey, when you're right, you're right. So you wrote a, you know, a piece of shit on the site. And it's the headline, ranking NFL coaching hires Anthony Lynn at number one. That's the exact headline.

By the way, check out Conner stuff at NFL.com slash or OR. A lot of good Pro Bowl content talking to the players, making news. And follow him on Twitter where he's posting. fun videos and things for that nature. But back to Greg. Greg, you have Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers, the number one coaching hire. Now, can you break this now?

Is this from perspective for Anthony Lynn? What kind of job he's taking or the team's decision making bringing the person on? Well, I think the content, the information in here is good. The ranking itself is kind of is a little silly. If I was power ranking, the most meaningless rankings that we make throughout the year, you know, this might be number one in the power rankings because I'm just, you know, they haven't even.

Very meta. They haven't coached yet. Now, Anthony Lynn ends up being number one here because I'm picking who I think's going to have some success. Who has surrounded himself, first of all, with a good staff. He's got Gus Bradley as his defensive coordinator. He's got Mike McCoy as his off, I mean, sorry, Ken Wisenhunt as his offensive coordinator. nice he's got philip rivers he's got a nice roster and listening to anthony lynn you know what what can you go off of you list i listened to his press conference i've listened to him in a couple interviews in terms of with matt money i like i like the cut of his jib i like the messages that he was sending i like that he was saying i'm not worried about the running game anymore i'm the coach of the whole team and he was talking about it and he's been preparing for this day since he started coaching i liked your point in there that the two coordinates

There are former head coaches, too. So it shows that he's not, he has a lot of self-confidence in that. Right. He wants to hire head coaches shows to me that you have some self-confidence. Wes is laughing over here. I mean, with the caveat that it's sort of a ridiculous exercise anyway and none of us can really know anything ahead of time, you picked two of the biggest punching bags and tomato cans from this podcast over the last three years as guys that you have faith in

and Ken Wisenhunt and Gus Bradley. Well, but I think they can, I think Ken Wisen and. that's a good coordinator. I like having continuity for Sandy. You don't think he did a good job with the Chargers the last two years? I think I like the continuity that you don't have to create a whole new offense. You have Philip Rivers in a familiar system. And Gus Bradley, I'm not worried about him as a coordinator.

I think he did a good job in Seattle. He wasn't ready to run a team necessarily. I look at it more like this. I think Kyle Shanahan's brilliant. He has a brilliant football mind. I would take him over all three of those guys combined. I had him fourth because I think that situation is so toxic that he's not going to, who's he going to hire as his defensive coordinator?

I agree with that. That's a disaster. There's, you know, there's whispers about Kyle Shanahan. The editors, you know, kind of wanted to, this part. You've had a lot of whispers lately. This part wanted to be taken out. But doesn't Kyle Shanahan kind of fit the mold of the guy who does not necessarily rub everyone the right, you know, rub some people the wrong way?

I think you just rubbed 53 people into the Super Bowl. That's fair. What are we talking about now? Kyle Shanahan. No, I remember reading all of those narratives about, oh, like, how's Hulio? I can't wait to see how Julio and Matt Ryan deal with Kyle Shanahan. Right. I think we found out.

I mean, he walked out essentially on the Browns. I would walk out of Browns, too. It was smart. It was a career move. He thought that was going to hurt his career, and it did. But at different spots, he's had certain controversies behind the scene. Now he has to run an entire organization, and it's just a tough situation. in San Francisco.

Number two on the list. I'm going to take you, take exception to it. Okay. Just a little strong. It's not like I'm hurt or anything about it. That would be weird. He got Sean McVeigh, 30 years old, took the job of the Los Angeles Rams. Youngest coach in the league.

You have him number two on this list, and this is based on their likelihood for success and their respective. Relative success, but yeah. Okay. Well, you should have put relative to the top. Yeah. Well, success. Okay.

I'm just saying. I'm reading your writing. Yeah. He's judged on a different scale than, you know, of Vance Joseph, for instance. Based on their likelihood for relative success and their respective tenures, he seems to me to be behind the eight ball

because he might be stuck with a Ryan Leaf level bust. Well, part of this was everything is uncertain with all these new coaches. Five of them are first-time head coaches. The other one's DeG Maron. What's certain is that Wade Phillips is one of the greatest defensive coordinators of all time. That's fair.

And that's enough for me that that's something I know. And, you know, this guy will see if he's as impressive as, you know, he, he makes a good press conference. I don't know if that makes for a good coach. He certainly was a good interviewer. He learned from Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, and John Gruden, three of the best offensive minds of the 21st century. So he's got that going for him, and he seems like an exceptionally bright guy.

His players love him and the guys he's worked with love him. Those are all positive marks. Wait, Phil. I'd be careful with the Ryan Leaf thing. Come on. Well, I mean, Ryan Lee didn't make. Now we're going to say we shouldn't be thrown dirt on you. I've been leading the charge to bury Jared Gough.

I buried Jared Gough because he wasn't ready to play. Okay. That's what I've said consistently all along. But Ryan Leif didn't make it because he was Ryan Leif. Because he didn't want to play football. I mean, football was not a priority for him. From what we hear, Jared Gough. He was the number two overall pick.

He was that level of a first rounder. I don't mean, Ryan Leif, he kind of stands in his own. I shouldn't have used that example because people know him more as not just a bad player, but a total nightmare as a guy in the locker. He was the ultimate bad thing. Cade McNound's good. Jamarcus Russell, but he's also, he comes with baggage too. Keely Smith.

We haven't heard anything. How about Blaine Gabbard? Okay. There's some warning signs that he could be that type of bus. But it's early. Yeah, it's early. All right, let's get back on track here. Number three, Greg, you have Vance Joseph.

I like this job. I put him all the way up at number one. How about that? Well, he certainly takes over the easiest job. And his coordinators, I think, are a plus overall. Mike McCoy, who's been there in Denver before. Joe Woods, we don't know anything about him. Hey, Joey Wood.

But he had a strong enough reputation. People wanted to hire maybe elsewhere. And he's been in that system coaching up the best secondary in the NFL. They know him. So I kind of trust John O.A. implicitly that, you know, this guy knows what he's doing. But he's never really run, you know, he's never run an offense. Or I mean, he's never run a team or a defense. So he's just getting the job because of all of the.

these recommendations? Well, he had a reputation as kind of the right-hand man, even though he was a position coach for Gary Kubiak, for Marvin Lewis, for Adam Gase, when he was a coordinator, all of those guys reportedly gave him really strong recommendations that, look, this was kind of my guy that I went to that was an important asset to me. He must interview well. Elway liked him a couple years ago when he interviewed. I think the trickiest thing for him is that, and there's no, we're not going to pass judgment

on Paxton Lynch either yet because it's so early. But he's a first round pick, and they're going to probably want to see him at some point. Trevor Simeon did a nice job last year, but he didn't do a nice enough job where you table any discussion about anybody else a quarterback. He enters kind of a difficult situation with two young quarterbacks and trying to figure out who's the guy. I think you're seeing, and I think Mike McCoy is ultimately going to have a huge part in that, and we'll see how he handles it.

I think you're seeing more teams look to these guys. as kind of the CEO type, rather looking for some sort of offensive genius or defensive genius. I mean, Vance Joseph ran one defense, and it wasn't very good. And they hired him because they thought he was going to be a leader. And that was kind of what Gary Kubiak got hired for, too. Number four, we spoke about him, Kyle Shanahan, who's not technically the coach of the 49ers yet, but everything points to him becoming the Niners coach once the Falcon season is over. Is this a situation, Greg, where you like Shanahan and his potential, but the job is just so bad that he's in a tough spot?

Right. And we'll see how he handles running an organization. I think giving a guy that's never been a head coach like that, all the power that he's going to have, he's expected to hire the GM. That's why his dad got fired. Mike Shanahan, the GM got Mike Shanahan, the coach fired. And if Kyle Shanahan has as much power, let's say as a Bill Belichick type, he's hiring the GM, that's a lot to ask taking over what I would say is the worst. That's fair.

The worst roster, maybe the worst organization in the NFL. Oof. Number five, Marron. You got Doug Marone of the Jags. You know, he had the strange departure from Buffalo two years ago, kind of went underground, became the O-Line coach, worked his way back up and surprised people by holding out to the job after having the interim label ripped off. Mike Malarkey, we had some fun at his expense going into last year,

and that worked out. Maybe Doug Maron is another campaign. Well, I think I did this exercise last year in Malarkey, I'm sure, was at or near the bottom. So I'm an idiot. Well, a lot of us thought the same thing. Right. I'm just saying he has a chance. I mean, I kind of pointed out how they haven't really changed much.

I don't know. You don't know what you're getting in Doug Maron. Like, what was he in Buffalo? How would you like to be known as the new Malarkey? Ooh. Well, here's a question about the Jags just in general. They went 3 and 13 last year with Gus Bradley there most of the way. with a better coach

I'm not going to say Belichick but who's like a tier below belt let's say Andy Reid Andy Reid is the head coach of the Jags last year is that a winning team I would I would trust in Andy Reid

to do something Is that a 9-10 win team instead of a three-win team Does a coach make that much a difference Last year for the Jags It all depends I mean no Nobody nobody was fixing

Blake Bortles If he came to camp with his mechanics that bad It doesn't you could have Bill Belichick And you're not going to win But Andy Reid comes with probably a better plan on defense than keeping this guy.

Better staff, probably. Yeah, that's interesting because what Jalen Ramsey said, how they needed a total change. Right. That's a little bit of an eye-opener. I mean, you know, it's just one player. But literally after the season, they asked, you know, Jalen Ramsey. And he says, we need to completely change our coaching staff and completely change our scheme. How would you like to be Todd Wash showing back up into the room being like, hey, thanks for,

thanks for campaigning to fire me. Jailen's like, wash out. See yourself out of here. It's my defensive room now. And people give Doug Maron a little too much credit for going nine and seven in Buffalo. That was. Doug Marone's getting too much credit from someone? Wow.

That was Jim Schwartz's defense. Bruce Ariens had nice things to say about him this week. Force me because I'm close to the edge. I'm trying not to move my head. You know what I'm saying? Hey, can I? Well, we know he can relate to young players, so that's good. I mean, now we heard it.

Can I also hear, because I always love to hear Doug's take on hip-hop culture and what it's all about. What are the roots of it? The source. Yeah, let's hear the source again. The rap is a New York City thing. It ain't nothing about race and culture. It's New York City.

Good old Doug. So he left Buffalo and now, you know what, Bill's fans. They deserve a medal that they wear around, a medal of honor. for sticking with his team because Greg has Sean McDermott as the worst head coaching hire in his sub-banger. And why is he at the bottom of the six-pack, Greg? Well, someone has to be last. You know, Bill's fans have been. You know, the bills are sick of hearing that.

They've been blowing up my mentions. And you know what? I've been blowing up your mentions too. Keep doing it. Hey, someone's got to be last. They can eat it. Here's why. Sean McDermott and his staff have proven, I would say,

less than any other staff and the situation is difficult and the expectations I think are too high from ownership. They think this is some sort of playoff, you know, championship contending roster. Sean McDermott has made his name under Ron Rivera, a defensive coach. He's had two top 10 defenses in eight years as a defensive coordinator. So it's not like the Panthers have been lighting it up as a defense. Rick Denison is well respected. He's always been under Gary Kubiak, basically Kubiak being the guy that runs the office. We don't, you know, we don't know much about this guy. I don't know if it's going to quiet the mob.

If you were still running Rhodo World, you would have written this article with bullet points instead of numbers that would not have called it ranking the new coaches. You would have just provided analysis. I think that puts you in a bit of a pickle. Your thoughts on that, Craig? I don't mind. I mean, it's all the same information in there anyways. The information is good.

I'm just like, how do we know if Sean McDermott's number six or number one? Well, that's fair. We don't need to argue who's. I think he's got a very tough job, though. Greg, after. Doesn't he have among the toughest jobs of any of these guys? Yes. Greg, now that we've analyzed your article, do you have any regrets?

No, no regrets. Okay. There you go. Check it out. Greg wrote a sub-banger on the rankings of the coach. check all his stuff out at nfl.com slash rosethol make sure you print that out and read it because i i sit in but i sit right in between greg and uh ali bonpore who's in charge of the features greg i mean making a blazing a trail back and forth wearing out the carpet

planning all different features for super bowl week so make sure you uh bookmark that author page a lot of super bowl content i mean we got marks road to houston long form west has a banger about how Tom Brady stuck it to Hanzas this year by reversing the aging process. A lot of good Super Bowl content coming up. That's going to be the vanity URL. I'm just going to rerun my August column every year, by the way. Brady till he dies.

NFL.com slash Brady sticks at the Hanzas. Go ahead. Go ahead, Tom. Please do that. Good luck next Sunday. All right. Before we go. It's time to try again.

Get them on the phone. No song for them because we don't know if we're going to talk to them because who knows where they are in America right now. Yeah. Could be anywhere. Hopefully the reception is better. Mark Sessler, John Gonzalez. Are you on the line?

Well, we are, and we're in a very elegant hotel room with absolutely pristine Wi-Fi. Excellent. Excellent. Yes, it sounds Naria crackle behind you. Where are you right now? What's going on with your journey as you drive from Southern California to Houston, Texas?

Hashtag Road to Houston. Hi guys I wanted to say how exciting this is because after years of writing countless stories about the NFL and also years of being married to Colleen I finally made the pot as Mark's valet this is great something he had to keep him out of accidents and Gonzo I believe you're aware that your wife and you can tell by her lap is with us right now So this gives her a chance to catch up with you and perhaps, you know, castize you.

I don't know, go after you a little bit. She has some issues right now related to the house. I do. I do. I do, John. I believe that. There's a lot of things to maintain at Shay Gonzalez. We're having a grand time right now, now that we're on the road. I mean, for the listeners and also for you guys,

this is not, today we spent the day in the desert looking for an alien crash site, which is like not probably the weirdest thing I've ever done with Mark Sessler. One time he dragged me to a house in Venice that apparently was a murder house where many grisly homicides had happened, so it's just on the way. He loves that. Just another thing which we had a fascinating day because we woke up. You asked where we were in Lubbock, Texas at the moment, started the day in Santa Fe,

which I'd never been there. It's a beautiful town in New Mexico, as you know, took about a three-hour drive south to Roswell and had to circle up and down the highway to find this little tiny dirt road where if you continue up that road for an hour, which we chose not to do, you would be at where apparently this alien craft spiraled to Earth. Right, I believe in 1947 in that realm. Is there any reason to go there now? Well, that's what we were looking into.

And there is a stone pillar there with, you know, someone had carved out an inscription about what happened. And the much better site that we found was the museum, which is another 15 minutes up the road. And I didn't know if Gonzo was going to be a fan or not, but he was having more of a good time than I was. You were bopping around you and enjoyed yourself. Prior to this trip, was sort of alien agnostic, and now I'm all in. So I'm coming back with all kinds of alien gear for the house. That was actually going to be one of my questions, whether Gonzo would be made a believer.

I have a question for you, Mark, and this is an honest question. Sure. Why are you doing this? It's a good question. I came up with the idea about a month or so ago and just thought it would be fun to get in the car and see what's in between Los Angeles and the Super Bowl versus just, for me, this time, just flying there. And I really went in thinking I was going to go alone and have to drive and, you know, record whatever. ever happened at night on a laptop in a lonely room. The best decision, and what made this, I think, quite fun so far, is going with someone else. And maybe next time it could be all

of us, you know, there were budgetary concerns and there were other concerns from our employer. But John, he's a free agent, literally, and he was able to go, and he's been an absolutely perfect traveling partner. All right, let's stop there. I'm going to bring in Chris Wessling now. How about the idea that Chris is a little hurt that he's not on this carouac-ish journey to Houston? Let's talk about that a little bit. Sure. I mean, as I mentioned to Chris,

Dan immediately covered his face, Mark. I want you to know. Embarrassed after he asked this ridiculous question. But go on. Sorry. I hope Chris has not heard. I think Chris knows that we would love to number one. Chris should speak for himself, Chris.

Speak for yourself, Chris. I can explain the reason after this. I am not hurt at all. I am happy for Mark because I know that this is something he wanted to do and he's the perfect person to do it. Am I a little bit jealous doing? I wish I was with him? Sure. Sure. I wish this is exactly the kind of thing

I would love to do. Where does that leave you with Gonzo? I love Gonzo. He's great and I can, I will say this. This is 100% genuine. I cannot wait to read the finished product. Yeah, that's a, Mark, so when you write this up and we heard it's going to land early

next week, it's going, is it going to be about football? What is what is this going to be about? Do you know it is about yet? Well, I decided not to actually write anything. I'm just going to enjoy myself. We're having a great time. I don't know if that part of it's relevant. They're just on the run right now. We're just on the run. I'm not even sure. We may pass through Houston and keep going right through that wall to Mexico.

But I would say that what was the question again? Why am I writing? And what am I writing? No, just in general, like what are in your plan when you sit down to write about your adventure, is it about football? Is it about just the journey to Houston? Do you have a general idea about the direction of the piece that we're all excited to read? Well, I hope it will masterfully, you know, interweave both because we've talked to a lot of people along the way about football. Like, for instance, when we were at the Alien Museum, we got an interview with the executive director of the museum, an old fellow and a really nice guy, but we also talked to talk a little football, so excuse me? You got him?

You were able to book the Executive Director of the Alien Museum? It was a big get. There were about 10 people at the museum, and so he was busy, but I got in that office, and I got the quote. He's like, oh, give you. you three minutes. But that sounds cool. We talked to upwards of, what, three or four Denny's waitressers.

It's really been amazing. Well, we are now, here's the thing. I think it's going to pick up steam from the football because we're going to be in Fort Worth in Dallas over the next few days. Tonight we're in Lubbock, which is a big college town. The guy at our hotel said you've got to get out. Tonight's a huge night for the college kids,

which are roughly about 20 years younger than us. So we'll see how that goes. But we'll continue to talk to people. People have opinions. I think one thing I'm talking to fans is they just, they don't, they're not trying to save face or, you know, build bridges with anyone. When they have a football opinion, they don't cut any corners. That's cool. And you brought up Gonzo Denny's. Now, Mark, we're always fascinated by Mark's eating habits. And Colleen had told us on Tuesday that when she first started dating gonzow she noted uh internally that that gonzow kind of ate like a serial killer have you guys noticed each other's kind of idiosyncrasities when it comes to uh eating stuff

so we've been kind of uh feeding off each other's rhythms on that front today uh for example we got up early had a cup of coffee uh and then went looking for alien crash sites and haven't eaten yet so we're going to do that next but uh this is being taped at three in the afternoon you haven't eaten yet. Well, it's actually at central time. It's 526. Wow. And I also think it's not just the eating rhythms. We are starting to, as you would, adopt each other's phrases and the way that anything would be described. You know, Gonzo is starting a revolution with his, I think Colleen knows why it's his GC terminology. Oh, no. Oh, no. All or great call depending on, so we just, you know, we're starting to speak the same way. John, it's not going to be a thing. G.C. is not happening.

Sorry, Colleen. It's a thing. So if somebody makes a point that you're plugged in on, John, and you agree with, you just go G.C. You could be, that's a good one, or you say, hey, have you guys listened to the around the NFL podcast this weekend? Oh, nice, G.C. It's very, it's very. I kind of like it. No, you don't. No, it's not a thing.

It's good. It's versatile. I'm staying in my ground on this one. Are you in or out? I'm out. You're out. You're out. You're out.

You know, randomly, Gonzo, we have a lot of, like, connective tissue because I just found out that you have. have a blue pen phobia as do I I threw one out before the show and back in college I tried to start something my senior year that I tried to catch on with my friends in the dorms which was LBS which meant let's be serious

oh I like the this is going to be great we'll have we'll buy a back of class pens I'm going to say not to be confused with IBS irritable bowel syndrome or essentially pounds different letters print LBS would struggle but it works verbally can I tell you I'm on board

with it. We can do this. There'll be a free exchange of acronym. Can I tell you why G.C. won't work? Why? It's the same number of syllables is good call. Exactly. This is one of my points. All the cool kids are abbreviating these days while. Okay. John also likes to

throw this G's up for Gonzalez. Oh. Yeah. Oh, well in that case. Yeah. I like some of these things. We're in Lubbock. They throw their guns up for the Red Raiders, so we'll do the cheese instead of the guns. One of my favorite things about this trip is FaceTiming with the both of them to say good night as they share a hotel room.

And last night, I guess Mark had broken into the mini bar. Well, I mean, I had a key. I don't know if broken into it. Shock. They shared some delicious white wine. Mark has a master key to every mini bar in the market. Watch some HBO and then fellas. sleep.

You got the skeleton key from minibers. The whole thing is cute. We are very into the young pope and we were trying to watch the latest episode. A disaster occurred, though I lost my glasses, which means I fundamentally will not be able to see what's happening during the Super Bowl. So Gonzo informed me that I can buy something called

Readers at Walmart. Oh, that's going to look at it. So are you not driving then without the glasses? Oh, I think we've made the right choice about who should be doing the majority, if not all of the driving from the minute. started and it's not the person speaking. Did you drive at all, Sessler?

Well, here's the thing. Honestly, this is what has been so great because I'm writing on my phone or on the laptop while John does the driving. And like we've had pretty short, it's not majorly long segments. It's, you know, a couple hours here, a couple hours there. First day was a little rough. But that's okay

because the division of labor has been wonderful. Like we said, we're really getting into each other's He's writing, I'm driving, neither of us are eating, and then there'll be beer. And what are you getting paid for this by Mark, John? Friendship. Well, he's not paying for much at all.

Let's put it that way. It's a paid for vacation and, you know, vacation. I'm flying him home. They're on a buddy moon right now. This is, honestly, this is what Mark has always wanted is to have a friend that doesn't need to eat like him. I know.

And we've been letting him down in this department for years. On the open road. What could be better? Imagine how much time you get to make up. And part of the whole serial killer eating habits isn't just the fact that he doesn't eat, but also, like, John will take, if he's eating a stack, if he has a couple cookies or something, chocolate chip cookies, he will put them on top of each other based on size and then eat the smallest one to the largest one. He also has certain rules for eating Reese's cups, for eating, like, pizza, for eating various items.

This all makes sense to me. Of course you eat the smaller one. Hold on here. That feels extremely accusatory. Having spent a couple days with gone, so I think his eating habits are really beyond critique. All right. So there you go.

There's the update. The next time the listeners will hear from Mark, he'll be with us in Houston next Tuesday. Maybe. Maybe. Oh, God. It's true. Nothing is problems.

That's the schedule. That's the plan anyway. So, gentlemen, thank you for the update. Good luck with the rest. of the journey and it sounds like you're having a good time and it just in general it's really cute the whole thing's very cute to me it's adorable but definitely come back i'm having a great time and i look forward to being on the pot again the next time one of you needs the show far there we go john gonzalez with of course mark sessler follow their journeys mark

at mark sessler NFL uh gonzo at underscore john gons so you can follow along with them mark also on Instagram. I'm sure Gonzo is on Instagram as well, right? No. No. Okay. So. That's Twitter. And then Mark's land, long formal land we're hearing early next week. So there you go. All right. That's it. That, by the way, our schedule, people are going around

the schedule and, you know, going to get a lot of, we'll probably get a lot of tweets Sunday, asking when the show is going up. No show this upcoming Sunday. It's a travel day for some of us to Houston. So the next time you hear from us will be Tuesday from Houston. We're going to be doing the show

from a radio station downtown so we're excited about that and that we'll be able to talk about you know really start to now turn our attention to the game and talk about media night which will happen the day before Colleen I mean what can we say what I mean you came on the show thanks for having me on again this is great big guy you're like to you said yeah I'm gonna get you for this I'm gonna get you for this

I'm going to find out what annoys you. A real meaty show this was. You'll never be on the show. I can. This is it. The last one. That's my big guy, promise of the day.

All right. So, yes, you'll hear from us on Tuesday. Thank you for everyone for listening. Thank you to Connie for joining us. Thank you to the first lady, Sydney, for double boxwork, both in backing vocals on the Conoror song. And also, you're six pence none of the richer, which was really.

That was great. Thanks. Never thought this is where my career would lead me, but I'm glad we're here. Yes. And Kirk Cousins, I don't know, is he married? Yeah, he's got kids. Oh. See, this is the conundrum, is that.

He also has an autobiography that came out two years ago. Okay, let's calm down with that, everybody. Jeez, you know an awful lot about Kirk Cousins, Rosie. Just shrugs. He just gives me a shrugs. It's my job. All right. Whatever.

The problem is that Sydney, we wanted to get, we want her to settle down with a rich quarterback, but those goody-to-shoe guys, they usually get married by the time they're like 22 to the college or high school sweetheart. Right. We've got to find somebody, a flawed quarterback, West, but also very pure in mind and spirit. Yeah. If you feel like you're like her cousins, you can tweet at around the NFL. Do you mind that we're matchmaking for you?

I'll allow it. Okay. awfully hard to find an unmarried quarterback, period. West knows. I'm just saying, look at them. They're all married. All right. Wes, you cut to the core of the conversation.

Unless you want Colin Kaepernick. No, thanks. Not her speed, not her speed. All right. We will be back Tuesday. Thank you to everyone. Until then. This is Dan Hansen signing off for Connie Fox, the mailman,

the old boss and new money. Here we go. Off to Houston until Tuesday. This is an IHeart podcast.