NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Should we take Big Ben seriously?

Episode Date: January 25, 2017

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling, Gregg Rosenthal & Colleen Wolfe – discuss all the latest news from around the NFL, and debate whether or not fans should take Ben Roethlisberger seriously when he says he’s evaluating if she should return or not in 2017. Then, the heroes check in with Marc Sessler from the road as he and Colleen’s husband make their way 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 has no timetable for recovery. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hanses and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Colleen Wolfe. Yeah. Back from the Women's March in Washington, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosethol. What's up, boys, and woman.

I wasn't in Washington. I thought you were. Okay. Really? I thought you said you were going to go. Yeah. Oh, but you didn't go. I went in L.A.

I did go. Where were you, Dan? Do you care about women's rights? I was holding down the Ford at home, taking care of my children. Mark was there too. Taken down. Mark came with us. Yeah, Mark went to the women's march as well.

Yep. I felt like it was his kind of scene. It was one of those Mark weekends where he could be literally anywhere. And you would believe it. Yep. Did he share the story about the old age home? Maybe that's for the off season. That's one of my favorites.

That's a great story. I still don't know if that's true. Oh, it's true. Okay. So Colleen's here. And the reason why she's sitting in Mark's chair is because Mark is actually on the road right now. He is on a road trip to Houston for the Super Bowl. He actually is company.

And it all ties together. Gonzo Yeah Colleen's husband With Mark And a little later today We're going to get them on the phone And see how they're doing

If they're doing okay What they're doing What this whole thing is I'm a little worried Why is this even happening We're going to get all the answers Company sanctioned Trip

I think they have a sponsor Don't they? They might have a sponsor It's a sponsored road trip By Bud Light Which is curious Because it's a road trip Brought to you by Bud Light

And a do Yeah well I think the end result is sponsored by the actual writing is sponsored by Budlake. Okay, not the travel. I was hoping they were in a car that was wrapped with the Bud Light. Like Rex Ryan's old bill. I can't begin to tell you how jealous I am of this assignment. Yeah, we can get into that as well.

But we will, yeah, we'll get Mark and Gonzo on the phone a little bit later. We will, a lot of news to get to. We have, obviously, there is no football this week unless you cut the Pro Bowl. I know people. Yeah, big game. Big game coming up, huge stars. Excited about the Pro Bowl in Orlando. But we will talk about some other things in the NFL, including the big news from or the big hint from Big Ben.

It decides it's up to you how serious you want to take it. But we'll talk about his recent statements. We'll break out the QB believability scale. We'll see what's going on on that. Dust it off. That's a new thing. What does that even? I don't know.

I don't know. We'll see. It's your thing. You better know. Yeah, we'll see. And, yeah, and we'll get Sessler and Gonson on the phone. And it's a nice show. We got, there she is, the first lady of the around the NFL podcast, behind the glass, new money.

How you doing, Sid? Good. I feel so honored. Yeah. We invited Sid out to the now traditional post-NFC, AFC title game drinks. Oh, it's weird. I didn't get the invitation or the scotch that you guys got from. There's plenty of scotch.

But that's okay. Plenty of scotch left. Continue. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't either. This is more kind of like, this is like the third or fourth year.

The foursum after a long year of the Sunday, do not take it personally, Connie. We go to the local watering hall and we did invite Sydney. She uncomfortably gave us like a will see at the end of the show. And then she did not join us. But we didn't take it first. Well, the foursum wasn't there. Right.

I wasn't there. Yeah, but you chose not to go. You put your career ahead of the show. I didn't choose. Why did you put your career ahead of four drinks at the cozy? Yeah. What are you doing? You made that decision to go to New England.

Well, it wasn't. Feels like that was a bad choice. It wasn't my decision. So, yeah, so we had a nice little time at the cozy, but there is still football to get to. And let's start by doing some news. Let's go, Sid. Boys, I got the knee.

The knee falls for me. A little preview of Mark Souther. on the road. Mark, by the way, who's a terrible driver. I hope he's not driving. I didn't even know that. He has an accident like once every two months. Oh, I think right before the woman's march, he had another accident.

Not even joking. Oh, my God, you're right. He's not a good. We'll get to that. All right, all right. Can Gonz is a guy? Is he really a terrible driver? Yeah.

A woeful driver. He will even admit to that. John hates to be in the car if somebody is a bad driver. Oh, we'll dig into that. But let's start with some news out of Pittsburgh. And if you're a Steelers fan, You don't like to hear this. Ben Ralthusberger was on 93.7, the fans of the Cook and Pony Show.

Ooh. It sounds a little bit saucy. Talking about his future, and to the surprise of many, it was a little bit of a hazy future. Let's hear what he had to say on the old Cook and Pony Show. I'm going to take this off season to evaluate, to consider health and family and things like that, and just kind of take some time away to evaluate next season, if there's going to be the next season. Yeah, Ben Rouseberger is 34.

He'll be 35 this spring just came off another very good season, a great season, played well in the AFC title game, even if his supporting cast didn't help him out too much. Wes, a lot of people across the Internet scoffed at this because Ben's known to play up injuries, but this is a little bit of a different thing, right? He's talking about his career, and he is not a young guy anymore. I dated a girl like this.

Like Ben. Like Ben? He's not going to retire. He just wants to be asked back. He wants people to miss him for a little bit. He wants you to know. Please, Ben, we need you so much. We'll promise our young receivers will take it more seriously.

But we really need you. I mean, the guy's going to owe them $18 million if he doesn't come back next year. I hope she was better looking than Big Ben. Everybody's better looking than big. Oh. You know what, Wes, you took that too far. What do you think, Colleen? Yeah, no, I kind of agree with that, that he sort of wants the, oh, yes, you are going to come back.

You're going to come back and save the team. We have all the pieces in place that we need. And you are the only piece that really needs to happen here for us to have success. Slaughterfest. You know, he is going to be 35 years old. That is not a crazy age for players to be considering retirement, basically at any other position. and that's what they all say in the immediate aftermath of an emotional loss. I'm going to evaluate it and then they get a couple weeks out and then they come back.

So I don't know if he's that different than most players. Obviously, they have to plan for him to be retiring sooner than later. I don't think they're going to expect that he's retiring this year. But I think it's a reminder that I don't think you expect Big Ben to take care of his body necessarily as well as Tom Brady does and play as well at 39 as he's playing at 35. They got to start planning for the future, so maybe it's a good push to that. You also get the feeling, or at least I do, that all these older quarterbacks when they get out of bed, you roll out of bed and sometimes it's a little tougher to get to the bathroom, to get to the kitchen.

Bones are cracking. Big Ben seems like a guy that might have that problem more than other players. He has, and we know about the injuries because he lets us all know about them, but he has taken a beating, and he is a big guy, and I would not be surprised if he doesn't feel too good right now, and he's wondering how much longer he wants to do that. Apparently, too, he's told Tomlin before that he has contemplated retirement. So, I mean, this is possible if he has mentioned it. Well, here's what Tomlin said when he was told of what Big Ben said on the radio.

He said it. So you do take it seriously. I think that that's a fair assessment in terms of where he is in his career. I'm not alarmed by it. I think that's just football, you know, Wes. I have no doubt that within the 48-hour period after his season-ending loss, the thought of retirement entered his mind. I have no doubt that that, as Greg said,

it happens for so many players. That's the fallout. It happens to me after every show. I was going to say, how many times since one of us left this building and been like, all right, I'm done. I'm done with this. I'm getting out.

But you sit down and think about it and then sit down and think about giving $18 million back to the Steelers. If he's not on that team, if he hasn't told the Steelers by the beginning of free agency in March that he's coming back, I'll agree not to block anyone on Twitter for a month. Wow. Wow, that's bold.

You got to start reporting them. That's next level block. Nice. You mentioned, though, you want Wes to snitch on people on Twitter next. That's next level. You referred, though, West, to something about the young receivers, like that he, that there was a deity,

Kinkawala, I believe, reported that he, he was upset with how immature his young receivers. Well, I think that also extends, that also extends to the one who was suspended all year, Martavis Bryant. And if he's on the field, that AFC championship game goes a lot differently. Totally different.

By the way, one last note on this. He is 35 almost. Steelers got to figure out a plan of quarterback. Because they've been ignoring the backup position for a long time. Yeah. And their current backups heading towards free agency. All right. In other Steelers news, Mike Tomlin spoke about a successful Pittsburgh season

that also had some controversy, of course, at the end with Antonio Brown and his Facebook Live. and Mike Tomlin spoke about his star-wide receiver about how their relationship will be going forward. Tomlin said, I'm going to continue to challenge him in the ways I've challenged him over the course of his career to continue to find new ways to be an impact player for us to continue to grow within the role that is his role in this team. He wanted to say, I think it's important that we have great clarity about not only what their roles are formally, but what the informal responsibilities are associated with those ever-growing and ever-changing roles. Greg, translate that for me.

I'll translate it to Antonio Brown needs to grow up. He's so talented that he has more responsibility on this team than he realizes. And if he doesn't grow up, maybe he's an ex-stealer. Don't forget. No way. No way. Don't forget.

This is the same coach that literally said last week after the Facebook Live thing. This is the type of stuff why great players leave the team. they're on. Don't forget, Santoneo Holmes was a young star in the team that won a Super Bowl and got sent down to town. Stop. Stop. I'm not going to stop. You guys have Antonio Brown all. This guy has a Jerry Rice work ethic. No receiver in the league works harder than Antonio Brown. They are not getting rid of him no matter what. This is message sending. It's like you've made a couple of bad decisions. Start being more of a team player. And why do you send a message? Because he needs to be more of a team player. And what happens if he is in the field. they're going to send a couple more messages

but they're not getting rid of Antonio Brown. I think they're all frustrated with him too because they're stuck with a wonderful player but they're not going to get rid of him, I don't think. And honestly, I don't know if he's going to change. So they're in a bad spot. Not everyone needs to be some gigantic leader. There's plenty of immature great players

in the history of the NFL. You can't build a whole team around that but he's not the quarterback. It's not the end of the world. The Steelers like to said these messages. I mean, Ben Robb, I don't know if it was a, message being sent.

But Ben Rathesberger was on the trade block. It was a little bit of a while ago. It was a way different circumstance. It was a way different circumstance. Nobody wanted him too. But there was thought at the time, and this is, wait, when was that, oh, wait. Way back. There was thought at the time that they were kind of putting that out there as a wake-up call.

Can we stop acting like what Antonio Brown did and making maybe two bad decisions? No. It's on par with Big Ben or San Antonio. It's not remotely. I'm assuming there's way more to this. When the second Tomlin said that in the press conference last week about Antonio Brown, I assume there's way more to it that their general annoyance or lack of, you know, respect for how he's conducting himself went further than Facebook Live.

I wonder also if, and this came out to us in the public later, but that Brown had the six-figure Facebook Live deal, that not only did he act stupidly by taping that when Tomlin and Rothersberger was speaking, that it was also, he had a financial impact toward himself, how poorly that could have played inside the locker room. You put your six-figured deal above the team. How big does your yacht have to be, Antonio? You already make it 10 million a year?

Yeah, it's just immature, I think. And I'm sure in the moment he was super excited, and it was just wrong place. And he pouted, he pouted according to, again, Adi Kinkawa during that game after DeAngelo Williams scored a touchdown. That was literally the high point of the game for the Steelers. That was the moment where you thought, I thought, okay, this is going to go back and forth.

They, you know, they cut the lead there. And at that point in the game, he's getting upset. Yeah, but on a scale of like one to Odell Beckham on how annoying you are to teammates, he's probably a two. Yeah, he's fine. He's fine with that. I think it's something to track, though. And he is going to be 29 in July.

So if he's got to grow up, well, he's almost 30 years. Oh, yeah, know your role, Antonio. Moving on, Todd Gurley. Oh, man, poor Todd Gurley. came into the league in 2015, really, he was one of those guys, kind of like the way Reggie Bush was heralded when he came into the league is this guy not only a star, but could be a superstar in the way that Ezekieli Elie became this season.

And then what happened this season? He had a really nice rookie of the year, rookie of the year campaign in 2015, but stuck in a miserable offense, Gurley regressed. He finished with 3.2 yards per attempt. That was the lowest of any running back with 150 or more. rushing attempts. He was on the Rich Eisen's show on Tuesday and was asked to characterize his 2016 season. Like a nightmare, you know, it's like I still can't believe, you know, this season. It was definitely a tough year, a learning experience for me, you know, to be, what, 4 and 12 this

year. Don't want to feel that feeling against. Wes, Gurley also had described the Rams attack as a, quote, middle school offense back in December. a tape man, watching Todd Gurley, do you think the crappiness of his offense hurt him as a player in terms of how explosive he was, how hard he was trying? What were you seeing on tape? I don't think it's an effort issue, but I think it was a bad habit issue. I think just like Aaron Rogers was forced into bad habits when his offensive line got injured last year and his receivers didn't separate from coverage, you start to see Aaron Rogers' footwork slip. You start to see him throwing from bad angles. Todd Gurley missed clear holes.

and he was one of the most unproductive running backs we've seen, but he also is the same guy who Brian Baudinger said in the middle of his rookie year, my mom could scout Todd Gurley. His talent is that obvious. He had 125 or more yards in his first four starts. When you say he was compared to Reggie Bush, people were much higher on Todd Gurley after his first month in the league than anybody ever was on Reggie Bush.

I think the talent is obvious, and I think you fix him by fixing what's around him and coaching him up. Maybe it came too easy. You know, it came too easy, and I don't think I was the only one that heard, you know, some whispers about whether he came in as prepared for his second season as you would have liked. And so you combine that with a totally unimaginative, terrible offensive line and offensive coaching staff, and it doesn't look well. You know, the problem is he didn't make people miss in space, and that's not about the offensive line.

So when everyone all didn't want to put any blame on him, I'm like, I can see it. You know, he's out there in space and he's getting tackled. Yeah, nobody respected the passing game either. So he didn't have a shot there. And when he did, he couldn't find the holes, like you said, Wes. But also, there were so many turnovers. And it was just, I agree, it was a freaking nightmare to watch them this season.

Moving on, the Cleveland Browns, they are keeping Jamie Collins, the player that they acquired in a trade with the New England Patriots this season. The Browns have agreed to a four-year contract with Collins. The team announced Monday. that deal is worth $50 million, including $26 million in guarantees. That's some serious money contract that eclipses, using Chris Westling's word there. Good word there, Wes. Oh, thank you.

The per year salary of Panthers linebacker Luke Keekely and Greg, obviously the Patriots weren't hurt by the trade of Jamie Collins because they played even better on defense after he left and are now in the Super Bowl. I'd be nice to have him. Did the Browns make the right move here to give all this money to James? I'd take Jamie Collins back for one game if they could use him for the Super Bowl. I mean, Jamie Collins is talented, he's versatile, and the fact that he's going to have Greg Williams as his defensive coordinator, I think bodes well, because that's a guy who likes to use linebackers creatively. I think when Collins, I think Collins went on the trade block because he wanted this contract, and he got it.

So credit to his agent and credit to the Patriots for knowing they weren't going to pay him. And I guess assuming a late third round picks better than a rest of the season of Jamie Collins. Yeah, it's great for the Browns considering that, I mean, he's 27 years old. He could get another contract still after this. They're going to have him for the prime of his career probably. And they're able to use him in so many different ways that they need him. And if he, they could maybe have done it with a trade later. but the fact that the Browns were able to talk to him

and have him there in the building and sort of warm up to him and everything. I mean, that played so much to their advantage. It didn't make much of an impact with the Browns. It's worth noting that. Not just that they were bad still, but that he was okay. His numbers weren't huge, right, Wes? And also, he did get accused of the freelancing in New England

and you wonder if the Browns remain in a losing culture, how he'll perform in that type of setting. But to me, Wes, this was a move. the Browns had to make in the sense that you've got to start building something and having some playmakers, and he's a real playmaker, whether or not they know this is going to be the right deal for him. This is the kind of move where I really feel hamstrung by the distance we all are from Jamie Collins and the Patriots locker room and the Brown's locker room, his talent is

obvious. And if you're the Browns who are switching to a 4-3 defense, which he's perfectly suited for, and you have tons of salary cap space, but no pro bowl talents, okay, extend him. But do I feel good about an organization like the Patriots deciding he's not worth the money and that maybe he's not a team first player and puts himself before the team? Whereas an organization like the Browns is all too eager to give him the money. No, I don't feel good about that. It's a little bit of a red flag that the Patriots want to give up on them.

Other teams could have potentially traded for him too. You got to assume this is the best deal that they could get. He was out there and other teams chose essentially not to go for it. It's also entered my mind that they purposely sent him. They banished him to Cleveland instead of sending to another place. All right, you want to be a pain in our butt? We're going to send you to the worst franchise in the league. That's pretty bad.

It's been done before in NFL history many times. It seems crazy he's making more than Kikley, but the reality is if he got to the open market, now there's so much cap space. Everyone's going to make an insane amount. I bet he would have made a lot more money if he actually made it to free agency. If Olivier Vernon's getting 17 a year, it's Jamie Collins can too. all right there you go hey we got some more to get to but i think it might be a good time to bring it back

especially with connie fox in the studio how about we do a little bit of uh i don't know odds and ends oh it's time for odds and ends odds and ends hey everybody tell your friends because it's time for odds and ends wow hey look at that that was beautiful did you write those lyrics uh no Just a natural performer There was a lot of dancing going on There was some of this I wish there was a video

Shooter McGavin a little bit was involved Shout out Joe Biden he knows A Rick Rubin type producer note When we throw it back to you at the end of odds it ends Get into it quicker Right yeah Wow Yeah

Well I didn't know it was going to be that short And I thought really my time was going to be Some people can handle constructive criticism But I know you can I can. All right. Do you have a singing background? No.

I thought you did great. Oh, thanks. Again. Now too much time is past. Too much time is past. So let's do the song again. No, no, no, no. Odds and ends.

Odds and ends. Hey, everybody, tell your friends, because it's odds and ends. All right. We're getting closer. It's like Zingfield Polly's over here. All right. We'll start with, Connie, I was interested, your thoughts on this. Olivia Munn, who's the girlfriend of Aaron Rogers,

penned a letter to Packers fans after the NFC title game loss to the Falcons in which she thanked all the Packers fans for sending their positive energy. Do you believe in positive energy, Colleen? And would you like your husband to send out a note on your behalf after a personal setback? No, I don't think I would like that, but I guess it would be nice of him to do that.

that. I don't know. This just, it doesn't feel super sincere to me. I think the whole, she's writing it on a piece of paper with a pen, trying to add that special touch. But then she also gets in a shot at the end of it by saying to all of you who encouraged and supported them by choosing to put only positive energy help them get this far. So basically everybody who didn't do that, you're done, you're out, you're gone. Yeah, I mean, life's not all cupcakes and rosé. Well, it is for Olivia Mon. Well, that's true.

Here's the bright side, by the way, for Rogers and Munn. They don't have to deal with two straight weeks of the world asking about the family situation. That's the old positive. Are they creeping up on, like, the length of time Pam and Roy were engaged? Why aren't they engaged? How long have they been together? Why aren't they married? Wow.

Wes putting pressure on someone who was married. That is he. Let's dig into this. Let's expect to that. How about that? I lived in sin for four years once and then eight years once. By the way, enough with the open letters. I don't even know if this is an open letter.

It's like on a, but writers out there, anyone using the open letter, it's over. Enough for the open letter. I agree. Moving on with odds and ends. Nobody else has a thought on that. Just me, just the girl. You're just asking the girl about the quarterbacks. You know, go to a woman's march and now you're burying me.

I didn't mean anything by it. No, I just thought, you know, constructive criticism, Dan. I was unaware that that article existed. I would not be, like, thrilled if Emily sent out a letter about and around column that bombed or something. So, no. All right. Moving on, Tom Brady started an Instagram account. He quoted the hangover, Greg Rosenthal, in his account of picture with the two quarterbacks,

including our friend Jake Brisket. Oh, slides me off a piece of that, Jake Brisket. So he used the old Wolfpack line from Zach Alfenekis in The Hangover, which came out now eight years ago almost, is the hangover, so it was kind of a dad joke, is the hangover the new animal house for this generation, for the off-referenced comedy hit? I think you nailed it.

I'm trying to think what else it would be. I mean, not for me. Old school is kind of like They're all like that Anchorman maybe Anchorman Anchorman is good though I feel like old school in Anchorman

or a notch above the hangover as far as quality of movie All right so Uncle Humor So Animal House Well Uncle Humor to be Yeah it's coming I feel like they're just hitting Animal House is old school

Dead No I'm saying what are the new ones Oh Caddyshack is Anchorman Caddyshack is Anchorman Yeah because it's actually good And then what's the third one in the triumph? The hangover is...

It's Animal House, Caddyshack, and what's the other one? Hangover is like The Bachelor with Tom Hanks. No, there was a big one. There's a big, it's a big three of Uncle Humor. Big Loboskey? No, no. Early 80s. Stripes.

I love stripes. Exactly. Of course you do, Wes. What about Christmas vacation? Animal House, Caddy. Oh, Blues Brothers? Is it Blues Brothers? No.

Lapshot? This is terrible. That's great. Wait, are he still taping? I don't know. It's all part of this. I don't know. But anyway, hangover, Anchorman, and old schooler, the new Uncle Humor.

Tom Brady's involved. Hey, the Pro Bowl skills competition showdown is back. That will be happening, I guess, this week. All right. In Orlando. And one of the events, a signature event that they're bringing back. They're not bringing back. It's the first time it's ever been involved is Dodgeball, which, you know, could be interesting.

I used to love Dodgeball. But it did get me thinking. What is, go around the room here, the one obscure, and I note obscure skill that all of you have that you are certain you could defeat everyone else in the room in. Oh. That you could defeat. I can figure skate. I can fly a plane. Wait, you can fly a plane?

Yeah. That's pretty badass. Student pilot. Really? Yeah. Like little ones, like little like Grumman's and Cessna. Yeah, I do this. Cherokee.

It is impressive. I'm a great parallel parker, and I can always tell when somebody has a haircut. Are you sure? Wow. That's a lot of skills you have. Yeah. Boom. Yeah, but the thing is, you have to be sure you're better than the rest of the room.

I'm sure. I can parallel park like a son. Everyone thinks they're great. I texted my wife asking what she thought for it because I couldn't think of anything I'm good at. And parallel parking was one of the things she came up with me for. So who knows? Wow. And I can parallel park as well.

So there we go. Should we have a parallel parking? Add it to the, yeah. That's an off-season podcast. Add it to the skills competition. Yeah. That's got to happen. We're doing it.

Wes, what is your obscure skill? I can pull my right shoulder out of socket any time I want. No. That's obscure. Also, I can put a stack of coins on my elbow, flip it and catch it with my hand. Do better. Yeah. That's awesome, really?

Yes. Okay. A large stack of coins. That's interesting. Your arm comes out of the socket? It's out of socket right now. Ew, no way. That's gross, Wes.

That was weird. That was weird. You okay? Yeah, sometimes it happens to the left shoulder and really hurt. I didn't even know it was happening there. No, it's out of socket right now. Okay. Okay, wow.

I can always tell when someone's wearing any new article of clothing. I will pick it out and the person will always be surprised. That's true. And you give it names. That is an obscure scale. They do give names. I got names. I also can, and this doesn't work when I'm drunk, which is bad.

that it backfires in this spot, but I can speak at a voice level that is high enough that anyone in my direct area can hear me, but someone just out of earshot, I know the exact moment someone is out of ear shot where I could speak, where I'm not whispering, I'm actually speaking, but I know they're not hearing it.

It's a pretty handy skill set for a person of your habits. Right, who likes to talk trash on people. How often has that backfires? How do you know how good they are at hearing? because people's hearings, you know, varies. Exactly. That's part of the skill. It's very obscure.

But it's most fun to talk bad about people when you're drunk. So in bars, it has backfired in the past, but that's a skill that I have. I could also spin the football on the ground definitely longer than anyone here. That's part of the skills challenge. I'll buy that. Put it down. Mark it down.

I'll buy that. All right. Greg, you. Well, I'm a suggested parallel parking, sports gambling, cutting lines. Losing parking tickets, but I'm going to go with that. I can bend my fingers back to touch the back of their hands. Everybody's still gross stuff. Wait, what do you mean?

Do it. I'm not looking. Ooh. Yeah, you can do that benefit. That's crazy. No one else can top me on that. That is, yeah. I'm not going near that.

I feel like you're missing something. Yeah, missing joints. I forgot one. What? I can make a 50-yard field goal left-footed and a 35-yard field goal right-footed. Wow. Really? It's on tape.

You can do it right now? How old were you? How many tries do you need? It was right before I left Tybee, so five years ago. It's like the Andy Reed tape. I will give you $100 if you can do that on your first try. I can nail a 50-yard field goal on your first try. I mean, I can kick it far enough.

I don't know if it'll go through the... We're going to have to have a field day here. Sydney, I don't want to put you on the spot. Do you have any obscure skills? I don't have any gross obscure skills, but I remember lyrics like nobody's business. And I also can remember... names of celebrities, but not names of people that I meet. So there's that.

That's tough. All right. Good guys. Good job, guys. And one last odds and ends note here. Luke Bryan is playing a singing the National Anthem at Super Bowl 51. I would like to play some Luke Bryan music right now. Oh, yeah.

Let's do it. Couldn't get the rights, but we do have this country music. I don't know. This is generic country music. Cool. So I feel like I'm at the Super Bowl in Houston. Wait, this is better than Luke Bryant. Do you know Luke Bryant's music?

I've heard a couple of songs. I'm not impressed. Can we book this guy? What is this? This is the house music. We use this. Put this guy on the National Anthem. We use this a lot on the Rosenthal and Justin Lake Vanity Project.

What was that? R.J.B. A little podcast. Oh, by the way. I forgot about this. The shadowy league figures, we tried to bring it back. What they do now? For Steelers Patriots, shadowy league figures would not allow it.

What? Shot it down. I meant to make us think of it. What did they mean not allowed it? I forgot about it. They didn't allow it to happen. They were afraid. Didn't allow what to happen.

Us to bring back to Steelers, because that was like kind of the RJVP bowl right there, Steelers Patriots. Sorry to hear that, Craig. Yeah, I know you're not. You'll have to settle with this podcast, you know? I'll settle for this one. Stop. And that's it for odds and ends.

It's time for odds and ends. Odds and ends. Hey, everybody, tell your friends, because it's odds and ends. Damn, I thought I was going to get it that time. So close. But you sell it. You seem so happy doing it.

There's no other way to sing that. Thank you very much, Colleen. That was beautiful work. And the next time you do it, you'll nail it perfectly. Yeah. I know it. I know. knows pitch and tone it's me don't rub it into west's face

what's a tone um all right speaking of ben rafflesberger i just wanted to quickly before we get mark on the phone um i don't believe that he's going to retire so i thought um just to kind of gauge where this fits in uh in terms of what we should believe and not believe at the quarterback position i i created this morning uh the qb believability scale and what i'll do I'm going to throw some different QB, you know, let's call them hazy factual information about these quarterbacks. Tell me how believable it is. Is it more believable or less believable than Ben Ralthusberger retiring for next season?

Here we go. Brock Osweiler will sign a second contract with the Houston Texans. What's more believable? More or less believable? Like not restructuring. But, like, he'll earn a new contract. He'll earn a new contract. Pen to paper on a new contract.

What is more believable, that or Ben? Yeah. Oh, Ben's more believable. Yeah. He's not going to sign a new contract. That's lower. Andy Dalton will host a relaunch of Yo MTV Rapp. Yes.

Oh, my God. I need that to happen. That's more believable. Well, you want it to happen. Yeah. But is that Ben Rathesberger retiring or MTV Raps, Andy Dalton, the face of that program. I feel like Dalton would be a wrong...

No, people love redheads. I agree with Colleen. That's more believable. Christian Hackenberg will start a game for the Jets. That's not believable. Less believable? This is real? Yeah, that's never happening.

Yeah, that's not... It's more likely that Ben Rathlisberger retires. Then my second round pick will start again. Ben's hanging them up. Yeah, I can't really disagree. RG3 will rush for 100 yards in an NFL or CFL game, more or less believable than Ben Routtsburgh are retiring.

Oh. More. I'm going to say less. 100 yards. That's a lot of yards. I can see him going to the C.S. I don't know if he'd make it to 100 yards. Not moving the C. Yeah, he could get injured.

Ben retiring is more believable than that. Hugh Jackson was his chance. They're going to draft someone. Andrew Luck will call a press conference to acknowledge that he kind of looks and sounds like Andre the Giant. Anybody want to feed it? More or less believable?

Less, everyone knows he sounds like it already. Yeah, but he'll acknowledge it. Yes. The press covers only for that. He's not going to address it. That's believable. And he'll take like an hour of questions about it. And he'll get rid of his book club.

It'll be great. Blake Bordles will suck in 84% of the football cognizante when the summer puff pieces about his mental and mechanics makeover start rolling in. 84% 1,000% more believable. Yeah, that's far more believable. That's expected. Mark's going to write that article.

He will. He'll write many of them. Long form. Don't tell him that now. No. Derek Carr will block half the around the NFL podcast. Well, that already happened, actually. More believable.

Jay Cutler will become the Terry Bradshaw of his generation on a major network studio show. Less believable. Guys, negative charisma. Aaron Rogers and Jordan Rogers will be friends again. Oh, more believable? Yeah, that's a lot. Sad story. You're not putting a timeline on it.

Life is, it's long. It's good. They've got a long timeline to figure this out. Yeah. Jared Goff will be selected to multiple Pro Bowls. Less believable. Like way less believable. Selected or named as a replacement because I saw like Stefan Gilmore.

Yeah, selected. No, actually, name. So he could be like the fourth. Fifth Alternate. Andy Bolton's on pace for like 10 Pro Bowls. Yeah, that's more believable. If he's an alternate, then more believable. People want to end Jared Goff's career.

It was one bad season. So that's more believable. He can turn it around. Alex Smith has made a couple Pro Bowls. He had a similarly awful. My favorite Pro Bowl nugget was when, and make sure you check out the Pro Bowl only on ESPN. Yeah.

And Tony Grimardi was elected to the Pro Bowl, not selected or got added to the roster when he finished like 149th out of 151 ranked cornerbacks on pro football. I can't wait for this game. Let's see, a couple more. It's in the right city. I'll just say that much. Russell Wilson will be photographed in public without any type of Bose product on his person. That's less believable.

Yeah, less believable. He's got like composite parts made of Bose products. He is straight from Bose. Right. He was manufactured by Bose. to win Super Bowl. And finally, Joe Flacco will win a Tony Award. Ooh.

Wait, hasn't he already acted in, like, the Johnny Unitedis movie? Wow, look at Wes, knowing the Flacco. Tony, Tony Awards for acting? That's for Broadway. I thought that was for singing. Oh. Yeah, he's going to sing. He's going to dance.

He's going to do it. Like his own little la-la land? I'm going to go with more believable. I'm going less, less believe. Yeah, definitely less believe. Oh, go with Wes, more. He's not going to win a Tony. He might.

All right. There you go. All right. That's the game. That was the QBee believability scale. I can't believe you don't have music for it. Yeah. It was just something that happened. All right. Now it's time. La Cid, if we can get on the horn, Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Cessler, road tripping on their way to Houston. Are you there? Mark Sessler. Hey, guys. I am here. We are, where are we just outside of Yucca, Arizona, which is about five hours east of Los Angeles, maybe. All right, so.

What have you learned so far about how football connects with the American public? Very little, but I will say that we just went to this very... Oh, no. Well, that's it. I told you was a bad driver. Where basically John Gonzalez just yanked off the road, and he made the right decision. There's like a giant Epcot Center like golf ball that he experienced. explained to me that his mom lived in, this is the owner of this mini-mart, said his mom lived here for about

20 years in this giant golf ball in the middle of the desert, and they're now turning it into a museum for government-sponsored alien activities, and we left very soon after. But he was a Packers fan, so. Well, we missed the very beginning of that. That's Gonzo's mother? No, not Gonzo's mother who's on the East Coast. But actually, the mini-mart owner of this store said it in this golf ball, his mom had lived there for decades, and I don't understand how that came to be, so we left.

An initial challenge that you guys are dealing with, and I would have made the same mistake because I kind of figured you were just going to drive through desert and see the heartland or the desert of the southwest of America, but you're running into some weather issues and you're not exactly prepared, clothing-wise. That's very true. I mean, we're still in a – it's still relatively temperate now. We're in Arizona, but we're heading up. into the mountains to Flagstaff, we're a little bit out of moves. It's the course we're on

to get where we need to go. And someone sent us a photo of Flagstaff, which is under about three feet of snow. And, like, you know, he's a very light packer, which I, he is. He is a light pack. I'll fill in the details here. Yeah. He just brought a duffel bag. I don't know what was inside of it. It could have just been beer. Flip flops. Mark, you see. still with us we might have lost mark i think the alien got him oh no i think we did the snow is that the last we hear from john and mark let's try to get them back on the phone because we still need to find out what your call again later oh no yeah we got to let's try said to get him back on this could be a problem collie your husband is in this car yes and you love him right you have any concerns

about this i have so many concerns i don't Did he need permission to do this? No. Okay. Uh-uh. I was like, you know, you should definitely go. That's going to be great. And then last night I was like, wait, you're going to Houston and how long are you going to be going for?

And who's walking the dogs? Who would you say out of John and Mark is more of an adult? Oh, that's tough because John was watching cartoons the other night on like Friday night by himself. So I feel like it's Mark because Mark takes care of children. But John definitely takes care of dogs, so, you know, in my world, that's sort of like one and the same. Right. You have them on kind of like the same level. Yeah.

Do we have any luck getting marked back on so far soon? Just got his voicemail, so, you know, good sign. I just said don't get arrested. Do you think that that's going to happen? I don't know. I had more questions asked, so that's why I'm a little upset that we were not able to. Maybe you can get back into a better area. Yeah.

I don't know. I think they're going to Roswell. More likely to happen on this trip. Bad things in a snowstorm, bad things legally, or bad things due to aliens? Legally. Probably legally. Aliens?

Mark would like to be abducted by aliens, so I would think that that would be okay with him. I don't know if Gonzo would be done. John might be being abducted right now by Mark. All right. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to get Mark. You can follow their journey, though, right? You can where?

Yeah. Well, on Twitter, duh. Road to Houston, sponsored by Bud Light, and it's probably... Sell it. They're going to be taking videos, and maybe the network is going to use them in some capacity, so you can watch the network as well. Especially if they're abducted by aliens. Really?

It's going to be on the network? I have no idea. All right, so, yeah, there you go. Check out, yeah, follow both of the Twitter and Instagram feeds. of Gonzo and Mark during their journey. We'll catch up with them on Thursday. Hopefully they'll be in a place

where we could actually have a discussion. I mean, we could talk new head coaching rankings if you really wanted to pad the show out, but we can save that for Thursday. We don't need to, no time requirement. No, there isn't Mark. There's nothing. Dan, the most disappointed host I've ever seen.

Well, you know, you hope that the signal's working out in your favor, but sometimes, you know, you just got a roll. Yeah. Got to roll. All right. Let's have Colleen Singh, odds and ends.

No, no more. Half hour. That's it. Two per show. That's the max. All right. I just got a text from Mark. We just went into total darkness.

He wrote. I've gotten that text from Mark. It's a metaphor. Sorry, bad phone for 100 miles so far. So, okay. We weren't able to get him, but we will get him back on the line on Thursday. If everything,

Hopefully everything is okay with your husband, John, and Mark Sessler. Okay. That's it. That's how the show's going to end. I'm worried. I'm like really stressed out about this now. I was not stressed at all. I was like, this is great.

You guys are going to go on a road trip. It's going to be so much fun. I didn't even think about it at all. Well, I didn't know Mark was a bad driver. So that's got me. Well, that's the other thing. Sounds like Gonta is doing the driving. That's what I heard.

Yeah, before they. That makes sense. Well, Mark's smart enough to allow. Whose car is it? I think it's a rental. Yeah, probably in Mark's name that John is driving. Is it a rental that's capable of driving up a mountain? Because I don't think they were planning for that initially.

All right. Yeah. So we should stop speculating. Irresponsibly. There's another you could read into this text that Mark just sent me however you want. It's probably only going to go be worse from here. Stop it. You're making that up.

No, I know you're lying. I can tell you're lying. No, he's talking about, I think the reception. He's talking about this. All right. Now Colleen is nervous. I kind of like this. All right, we will be back on Thursday talking to Mark

and also, you know, breaking down a little bit, you know, start looking ahead now toward Super Bowl 51 and maybe some of the matchups. We'll figure it out. We have a plan. You always do. Yeah, we'll have a plan about what we're going to talk about on Thursday. So make sure you check that out and leave ratings

and the stars over on the iTunes and check out the subreddit Grieby does a great job over there at the Around the NFL podcast subreddit, which is growing. I believe it's almost up to. Burgeoning. Burgeoning. It's almost up to 4,000. I'd love to see that get to 5,000 for the Super Bowl. That's the goal.

Maybe that's something to shoot for us. So everybody, check that out. But that's it. Thank you, Connie Fox, for joining. Thanks. Hey, I'm going to head over to the cozy. So Greg, Wes, Sid, if you want to join me. I'm in.

It's great. Cool. I also just realized we never heard. from your husband. So we don't have proof. It went over to Ante that you left him out of that. Oh. Oh, you didn't invite me.

Yeah, that was the whole. Is it because of the woman's thing? That was the bit. That was the bit. But he doesn't listen to women, so it makes sense. The woman's thingy? Oh, by the way, I wasn't going to bring it up. But Greg making that joke after he made poor Sydney, the producer, carry a chair for him

before the joke started. Wes, how did you put it? The strong silent type has a young lady carrying a. I wasn't even looking. Apparently she was carrying a chair. Mr. Gentleman. Come at me with that after that disgrace will display. Are you okay, Sid, after having to do that for Greg?

I think I'll, you know, push on. All right. Let's let's end this now. Sorry, Greg. I wasn't going to bring it up when you came at me. I don't mind. I wasn't even looking. I got no regrets.

Riccani Fox, the mailman, the boss. And new money behind the. ass till Thursday. Thank you.