NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl Week Over/Unders

Episode Date: January 26, 2018

A room filled with heroes- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal- check in on the latest news from around the league, including what Cowboys’ Executive Vice President & CEO Stephen Jones had to say about Dez Bryant’s “antics” on the field (12:00); How quarterback Josh McCown feels about possibly returning to the Jets (17:00); Who won the NFL Merch War in 2017? (24:00); Super Bowl Week over/unders for the ATN crew (35:00); And checking in with Kevin Patra, live from Orlando for a Pro Bowl update (1:01:00).Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's Squarespace.com. Offer code Around. The Around the NFL podcast. heading to the Super Bowl. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast presented by Head and Shoulders. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with Heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan.

Ow! Last show in beautiful California before we hop on a plane and fly into the tundra. How about that? The Frozen Tundra. That's, see, that's Wisconsin, bro. They don't like that. I'm just trying to, like, warm up to the idea that I'm staring at Dan Hansis, wearing a Dan Hansis shirt, a picture of himself on the shirt. Well, Dan leads the – this is fantastic.

The end leads the all-time using the third-person standings on this podcast, like 87 to 2. I don't know who has two. But so wearing your own T-shirt makes sense. Now, let's clear it up for the audience a little bit. This shirt was a gift from a really talented illustrator. His name is Electric. Excuse me, Electric. I call him Electric, Alexis Frederick Frost.

And he actually sent us some of his children's books that he illustrates that has since become Jack's favorite book ever. Wow. So check that out. The book is called, I'll get a plug in there for it's going to come up. The book is called Oger's Away. It's an excellent book. Anyway, he also drew some, you know, what do they call these? characterization

t-shirts caricatures yeah it's a caricature of each of us put it on a t-shirt they're great yeah and I'm shooting something a little later

today for our Tuesday Super Bowl show video show that will air we're taping a Tuesday in Minnesota will air on next Friday a week from Friday and you know

that's part of my costume okay and meanwhile I'm totally cool but I'd wear it anyway but I did notice something Nobody has, like, mentioned it as they're, like, Matt Harmon, for instance, the fantasy guy, Matt Harmon,

walk by me, kind of his eyes dropped down, didn't say anything, which means he's like, as he's walking by, he's like, oh, what a dude. He's judging you. And I mean, it's, you know, you're doing it for a work-mandated video role. It's fine. So you should not be judged, but if people don't know that, you're going to be heavily judged by at least a few people in the building. And that's Harmon's move. He's always just judging us quietly. I don't know just kidding um is that true yeah i don't think that's true and we'll get mattie in

in the offseason uh on the around the NFL podcast big show today again yes the last show before we head to minneapolis or super bowl week we can say super bowl week again with no punishment uh no trips to the NFL media agony chamber so we are in the clear Colleen's still in there actually she's a little girl you wonder how much she can take that's i'm concerned that maybe we might have taken this too far? Something about it from a human resources side feels a little off. Well, no, they're the ones that built that place. If I know, Colleen, she's just napping in there.

Let's hope so. Let's hope it's not the long nap. Today's show, it is Super Bowl week once the calendar turns over. And we're going to do a little Super Bowl week overs and unders. This is, all of us have covered many Super Bowls now. So we kind of know the beats of the week And we've seen the Patriots more than enough Jesus Christ

Another week of the Patriots Yeah This will be the fifth Get ready The fifth Patriot Super Bowl alone that I've covered Look at that. How about that? Ridiculous.

How about that? It's ridiculous. They're two and two. You've covered five Patriots Super Bowl Yeah, because my first one that I covered was the first Giants Patriots in 2008, 2007 season. You've covered five Super Bowls

for your favorite team. I am almost 38 years old, and my team's never played in the Super Bowl in my lifetime. There is a difference. We've talked about this on the show. Wes and I covered Bears Patriots in January of 1986, by the way. So we've got you beat. You guys are out all night.

Snowstorms. Back in the mid-80s. After we finished our paper route. Little Genesis, some snowstorms. All right. Today's show. Hit the news. What's going on around the league?

We will also, as I said, do the, Super Bowl week over under and oh yeah Kevin Patra he is in Orlando you might remember last year they told Connor or hey buddy you're not going to the Super Bowl we're sending to the Pro Bowl which led to it to the song this song A man's man got a mortgage drinks the brown stuff and rates up his foliage

an ex-beat and 10 my not state ballet Connor Orlando today of course Kevin Patchett doesn't get his own song but he will be on today's show we're going to see what's going on with K Pat Well he's he drew the better straw here because he's going to the Super Bowl directly after this After a little road

I mean I don't think Connor was super enthused about the idea that he was going to the Pro Bowl instead of the Super Bowl that you wouldn't pick that combination Yeah but both What I like about Patra, he's a grumbler. He's going to be annoyed that he's going to have to go to both for a full week and all that. So we'll check it with him. See where he's at.

He might grumble. Out of all your musical renditions, that one is by far my favorite. Oh, thank you. Wow. I mean, it's a little, I don't want to slight Kim Dice, but the Conor Orlando today is, I don't know, it just strikes me. I really appreciate that, Wes. All right. Let's get to it.

Let's do some news. If you're going to compete against me, you better be willing to give up your life because I'm giving up part. That was the first episode of the Tom versus Time Facebook series. Handmade for you. Well, I'm going to watch it because I'm interested just like behind the scenes of Tom Brady. But can we calm down a little bit with the histrionics of that? Like, I'm willing to give up my life. Yeah, I don't know about the context of that quote, but Jesus complex, anyone?

It's like, what are you really like giving up? He was saying, and I, it's a smart point saying basically everything. Break swoops in. Everything you choose to do is essentially choosing not to do something else and vice versa. And he's saying that, you know, you got to make choices. So what's he giving up, though? Like nachos? Kids, life.

But he, no, he very quickly likes to show that he spends all this time with his kids, too. He's not completely unbalanced where he's hidden alone. And it's a little, here's thing, it's a little condescending to the other human beings that are pro football quarterbacks. And we get it. You're the best. but it's basically putting all of them. You just don't really understand like I do. How about the rest of us?

I'll even leave it just at quarterbacks, but sure, the rest of us. Very unselfish of him to sacrifice losing football games. That's what he's cut out of it. But I don't doubt that he cuts out more of his life than all of us or most NFL quarterbacks and is kind of a has a one-dimensional life on some, not totally. In all seriousness, I'm asking you, what is he really cutting out? he's not cutting out a life of luxury where he has everything he needs around him. A lot of other people, how about someone working three jobs just to put food on the table?

They're not doing what they want to do with their life. Laciness is something he's cut out of his life, the ability to take like an hour just to do whatever you want and do nothing. He's cut that out. Just like certain foods that he would enjoy. He's cut out. Nachos. Yeah. I think a lot of it is like the ability to have free time to use it.

He goes to that early. Instead of obsessing over being the best full of. football player you could possibly be. He's like cutting out Fallon, S&L, but you could DVR all that. I don't know if he's watching much of DVR. It was a very boring first episode that you can skip ahead to episode two. There was not much. And I'll watch, I'll watch it regardless.

Oh, I'll definitely be watching the whole thing. There wasn't much to it. And here's something that's interesting. Cowboys VP Stephen Jones, son of Jera, has not been pulling any punches in the media. When asked about Des, he was on the hanging with the boys podcast. which, Wes, I know you are a subscriber. It's on Dallas Cowboys.com. I didn't know it was about the Cowboys.

Hang it with the boys, bro. He had this to say when asked about Bryant's well-known sideline antics. You know, the other thing that we all see, it's certainly visible to anyone who watches our games, watches our sideline, is Des is certainly a fiery guy. Right, right. It plays with a lot of emotion, both on and off the field. and sometimes that can be a distraction.

It can be a distraction for Des. It can be a distraction for other teammates. And we just have to really get our hands around when you put all the full body of work together where that's headed. And, of course, we pay Des a lot of money. He knows that. He's aware of it as anybody when he talks to Jerry and myself. And, you know, he knows when you get paid that kind of money,

there's high expectations in terms of the productivity. as you mentioned. And so those are all things that we have to look at as a team, as an organization, when we start to put our team together for next year. Mark, is Des Dunn in Dallas? Well, I mean, Des Bryant made it very clear in probably what were emotional locker room comments late in the season after the Cowboys season was basically kaput, saying, no, I'm not going to take, I'm great, I'm not going to take a pay cut.

And he's got a $16.5 million cap hit. And this, to me, feels a little bit like setting the table to say that we understand you aren't the Des Brian of old. By the way, some of the baggage that comes with the Des Bryant experience is still part of what we're dealing with. So when we're going to ask you to take a pay cut, it's not coming out of nowhere. At the same time, I don't know if Brian will want to do it. How do you pay this guy the third highest among wide receivers going into the next season? The last time he had a thousand-yard season, Peyton Manning and Colin Kaepernick were good at football. In a while, and it's kind of annoying because, and sad, because he was so fun and explosive and he was such, he had such a great rapport with Tony Romo and it simply hasn't translated.

I think it's been a combination of two things. The chemistry is not the same with Romo. And then Des's ability, maybe, through injuries and bumps and bruises through the years, they caught up to him. We're accepting you into the scientist society. Wow. Because a year ago or a year and a half ago at this time. Shut up, Greg. You went out on a limb and said, I don't think Des is ever going to be the same after that foot surgery.

And I cast a sideways glance or two at you and, like, where are you getting this? Is this just zooser intuition here or what? But it turned out to be dead on. So I'm the only one not in the science. You're already in. I'm already in. Well, that's news to me. I don't think Greg agrees with the idea that either Dan or Mark would be in this little.

Come down to the lab. It's been getting dusty. There hasn't been a lot of work given getting done there. We need to catch up with the offseason coming up. I like it upstairs, like the kitchen that's right above the steps that lead to the basin hanging out there. In other news, so we'll see. That's going to be a big story to track. By the way, this is the thing, I can already see, it's already happening.

Every time Des Bryant speaks or anyone speaks about Des Bryant, it is a post on our website. This is the story that no one can unhook themselves from, and this is why I don't enjoy Des Bryant. Yeah, and leading total access. Some skill sets don't age well. His might be one of those. But, you know, part of those comments were Steve Johnson, Stephen Jones, when asked about it, was, you know what Jerry thinks of Jones? He loves him like a son.

He really loves death. So it's almost like Stephen Jones is separating him. Like, yeah, dad is just kind of emotionally attached. I guess we're going to have to, we might have to just keep paying him. Meanwhile, I looked quickly at the cap numbers. You know, he's due $16.5 million cap number. One of their highest cap numbers next year, $8.9 million for Tony Romo. So that's still hurting them.

Next year. I think Stephen and Jera are playing a little good cop bad. I think so, too. And I don't think Des Bryant's back. I think they're, I can see them draft. They're building a little paper file here. Like, we've been whispering all offseason about it. In other news, yes, we will be talking with Kevin Patra.

He spoke with Levion Bell, who's at the Pro Bowl in Orlando. Wow. And, yeah, it's pretty good. Talk about AT& Insider here. Intrepidant-in-law, Kevin Patrick. Nice job. Anyway, he told Patrick that he is confident that a long-term deal will get done with the Steelers. and there is, I guess there's been reports

that there's some belief that all this talk about he's, oh, Lev, I'm going to sit out a year and the Steelers aren't going to blink that when everything turns over and toward a new season, he'll be under contract and that would probably make sense, right? I love the changing of the guard among NFL insiders here.

You've got Peter King on Twitter throwing out speculation that Lev Bell is going to sign with the Raiders. Everybody's assuming that because he missed the walkthrough, he's not going to be back with the Steelers. And there's Patcher with boots on the crew. On the ground. Getting the story.

On the ground. He's just changing the whole nature of the story. Kevin Petra is shaping it. You could read between the lines and think maybe Love Bell's realizing, you know, the Steelers aren't necessarily going to give him everything that he wants and he has to kind of throw it out there that. Yeah, I want to be. I want to be with it. He's manipulating Kevin Patra?

I mean, no one can do that. That's true. Never happened. Never will happen. In other news, Josh. McCown was at NFL network. Deeker, who is a fine woman behind the scenes here at the NFL network, contacted me on our instant messaging client.

It's like, you got to get in, say hi to Josh McCown. You got to say, I was like, me, I'm good. Really? Tara Deeker. Tara. Our very own Jeremy Bergman from downstairs interviewed him. And my first question was, does the hair on Josh McCown? I feel like he could have been, you know, the seventh or eighth person in Madman

if they were looking for new characters back. Then he has an old, like, feel to him. Yeah, he does. Like I'm in Drago. Yeah, absolutely. And Bergman said that, you know, it was impressive, but if I'm not mistaken, I thought he said it could have used a little bit of gel.

Little product. Little bit, yes, right? He does that post game, but, you know, he's showing up to NFL. A lot of sharp looking. Oh, yeah. I mean, his jaw could be like the fifth member of this podcast. That thing's a force of nature.

Anyway, so McCown was on our flagship program on NFL Network, total access. And he wants to keep playing and he'd like it to be with the Jets. Here's what Josh had to say. Right now, that's how it's looking at this time of the year. I go through those conversations with my family and talk with them through that and pray through that. But you know, where we're at right now, you know, I'm feeling like I want to play. So I'm looking forward to the next few months seeing what happens and, you know, I'll be ready to go. I'd be surprised if he's back with the Jets, the more I think about it because I really think the Jets are going to come out of this

draft and free agency with a new option at quarterback. And Wes, the other reason I think that is McCown he played so well before he got hurt last year. Why does he want to be somebody's just like mentor? Can't he get a job somewhere? No. I think he's a bridge quarterback. I think everyone

knows he's a bridge quarterback and nobody... There's a market for bridge quarterbacks. Yeah, but nobody should trust Josh McCown to play 16 games. He plays with a reckless playing style. He's injured quite a bit as Mark knows from the Cleveland days. I see him as a guy who makes a ton of sense for the Jets. They have so much respect for him. And this is a draft where a guy like Baker, Mayfield, or Josh Allen could definitely fall to number

six. I don't know if I'm Kirk Cousins if I want to go to the Jets or somewhere like that, even if I'm free. There are going to be a lot fewer bridge quarterback opportunities after this draft, I think. Unless some of these teams look at these quarterbacks and say, and this is possible, not ready in year one. So you're going to get the Kirk Cousins, the Alex Smith. But the Jets, to me, I mean, if they bring back McCown, it better be because they've drafted Baker Mayfield or someone who they want to rest for a year. We talked about this yesterday, Dan, they're, this is these teams, the Jets, the Browns, all these QB needy teams, maybe even the Broncos, this is your time.

You don't have another, you can't float around with some fill in the blank veteran under center. I never put anything past the Jets in terms of messing things up, but it seems to be no chance. They'll just be like, oh, Josh, he's our quarterback next year. They kind of did that this year. I think they're going to have a young guy. out or if the rest of it you know it actually worked against them if you really want to keep it real they almost would need to trade he played well enough to give them five wins when they probably

would have been better off winning two or three he he played well enough if if like the team around him was great like they could have been a winning team a keenam-esque situation maybe yeah yeah i mean he played that well and they have we even mentioned that john morton got fired by the way that we have not we didn't pick that to them that makes it less likely to me that they would bring McCown back. Now, they promoted Jeremy Bates, who's been a quarterback. Who was his quarterback coach, but it is a changing of the guard. And it was a surprising firing.

He is 38, and I always said, everyone's like, oh, you know, he's not a true 38 because he's sat on the bench. He is because he's still, he's as brittle as they come on some level. There's always something happening to him. He's definitely a true 38. We're talking about a guy who was coaching high school football five years ago. Yeah. Speaking of Case Keenham had such a special year.

year with the Vikings. Everything fell apart for that team last Sunday, but still Keenham was one of the great stories of the year. You would think that would lock him in with the Vikings, but slow your role, Mark, specifically. Stop assuming that, Mark. Stop being. I will.

Well, you know, you guys are down in your, the three of you now are all down in the science lab. I'm upstairs just throwing darts. So, you know. When Mike Zimmer spoke in his end of year press conference when asked of Keenum, deserve to be the team's signal caller next year. His response was, quote,

we're going to work through the process. Now, yes, obvious coach speak, Greg, obvious coach speak. But at the same time, don't you think Case Keenum maybe deserves a little bit more than coach speak in that spot? What a year he had. Yes, but I'm not surprised based on Zimmer's public comments throughout the season. And I'm not surprised based on some not so,

you know, reading between the lines, comments from insiders throughout the season where they made it clear that Zimmer, I don't know, ever really embraced the idea of Keenham as like a long-term quarterback. Nor should he. Right? He's considered a backup his whole career and just because... He's not one to BS. It was a perfect storm for him with Pat Schumer as coordinator,

great wide receiver core, solid offensive line, solid running game. Everything went as perfectly as it could for Case Keenum. you can't bet $20 million a year on that happening again. I feel like bad teams, and it's not to downplay what Keenham did this season. You could overreact to one good year on the cusp of a 30-year-old quarterback campaign and massively overpay him. And then he comes back down to Earth with a new coordinator, and you're stuck with that contract. But didn't we just spend last week having the conversation that it's not fair to call Case Keenum

or put him in the category of Nick Foles because Case Keenham has proven this year that he's an actual player and a guy that's a major reason for their success. I feel like after one loss, now we're willing to knock them back down. I just think it's because we've seen this before with certain quarterback. It's in sharp contrast to when Alex Flanagan from NFL Network interviewed John Lynch yesterday about the idea of bringing back Jimmy Garoppolo, which is obviously going to happen. And John Lynch, you know, he's got a quarterback with a contract situation coming up. And there was no hedging the bets.

It was like, oh, he wants it. Well, but they found a franchise quarterback. from top to bottom, everyone believes it. I think, as Greg pointed out, with Keenham, there isn't a belief top to bottom. This is the same GM that drafted Teddy Bridgewater, and the same coach was there when they did it. I mean, there are other apples, other, you know, irons in the fire. It's complicated because other, all you need is one team that wants to pay Case Keenum a lot of money. And in this market, you would think there will be one.

I think the Vikings have more options than Case Keenum has options, especially when Dave Getteman comes out and says, we're keeping Eli Manning for 2018. so you're not following Pat Schumer to the Giants. That's one avenue that's closed down. And the Vikings have Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater as options too. Lindsay, question. See. If I asked you which player in the NFL move the most merchandise in the NFL

in the NFL shop in the 2017 season, who would you say it was? Who would you guess? Oh, that's a great question. Do you want a hint? No, no. Just one hint. It's not Mike Lennon. I'll give you a hint.

It's a quarterback. I would say Carson Wentz. You nailed it. Wow. Fulton for the win. Carson Wentz was the number one merch mover. That's jerseys and all other articles associated with a player's name and likeness. According to NFL shop, data delivered directly to the ATN insider.

Wow. Yeah. We want the truth. Go to the Zeus. I thought I meant Kevin Patton. Hit me up. There's another third person for the scoreboard. It's up to 87.

I'm literally wearing a shirt with my own picture on it. Kevin Patrick. Go to the suits. Wentz was the number one seller this season, spanning September 1st through January 18. He was not the number one mover in terms of who sold in the most states. Tommy Boy Brady sold in. 10 states.

It was the number one seller, all six New England states, but also New York. A lot of people. Oh, where he was the number one seller. I was able to sell a jersey in, you know, Wyoming or something, at least one guy. New York and like, oh, why, how could that happen in New York? Look at a map. New York's entire east side borders in New England, and it's a bad time for the Jets and the Giants. Not so hot either right now.

All these Patriots fans, I would have already have a Tom Brady jersey or are you buying it for your kids. It's like you're into the second and third generation of Patriots fans just bathing in glory. So you're buying jerseys for the next wave of family members. Yeah, well, that's true. My son Walker seems to be a Patriots fan. He's definitely getting

on board. So I could get him on. The evil continues. Not defensive about New York, Greg, but a lot of people don't understand what New York really is, how huge it is and how much of it could not be further removed from actually like the New York City area. Sure.

Anyway, also, Brady was number one in Indiana, Florida, Hawaii, and those New England states. And Wentz was number one in states ranging from Jersey to Kentucky to North Dakota, where he played ball, I believe, in Montana. It was also number one in the District of Columbia. Well, President and quarterback are the two most important positions in this country. and Winston Brady had better years than the president. Wow. That's fair. And some other surprises.

Greg, these are for you. I know you love these little nugs. Okay. Some hot nugs for you right here. Alvin Kamara outsold Drew Breeze in Louisiana, number one. Camara. Bad news for you, Mark. Antonio Brown, number one in Ohio.

We're going Camara. Not Camara? Camara. Whatever, guys. Antonio Brown, number one in Ohio, Mark. How about that? I mean, I can't almost blame. What jersey do you buy as a Browns fan?

I thought Miles Gere would have a chance. We got the Bengals, too. That is pretty amazing. Christian McCaffrey beat out Cam Newton for number one. Sean Watson, number one in South Carolina. Well, the rookies have an inherent edge, I suppose. Yeah, right. But then Brady doesn't matter.

He's in his 18th night. I mean, he's Tom Brady. He's Tom Brady. It's true. Anyway, so that's fun. I love Tom Brady. That's fun. A little merch talk in a big spot.

And finally, the XFL is back. Remember the XFL, right? I watched the opening inaugural game of the XFL in New York City when it came. It was awful. It was terrible. About five minutes in, you knew that you had been sold a bill of goods. What year it was? It was 2001.

I think I remember where I was too. I was going to college. It was the fall or spring of 2000, I believe it was. Well, it launched in 99, like announced. So I think, yeah, 2000 the following season. But here's what's amazing to me. So Vince McMahon, who runs WWE, confirmed this just before our show today on Thursday, that he will be relaunching the XFL. He hopes that the league off the ground by January 2020.

My question, and this is, and we're going to, again, I'll have to ask Lindsay her thoughts on this. Lindsay, a monster professional wrestling fan. That was a huge disaster 20 years ago. And I know there's a lot of reasons why Vince McMahon like he thought at the end of the 90s, why it would work, and I know he's changing up the model a little bit. He doesn't want to take on the NFL, but I don't care when you're doing it in the season. You're taking on the NFL. What's going to change this time compared to last time?

Lindsay? Well, I didn't really watch it the first time. I was like the rest of the world where I watched the first one and never cared about it again. Right. And, I mean, the one thing that stood out to me in his press conference was that he said he wants to make this all about the fans and listen to the fans. But he does a horrible. He does a horrible job with that with WWE. And it's almost like he does the exact opposite of what everybody wants in WWE.

Now, he did start up a whole new company just to franchise or to be able to raise money for this venture. And he says it has absolutely nothing to do with WWE. So I imagine that's the one thing that will be different because they kind of intermixed. Well, they're not attached at all this time. Right. So that's the one thing. Well, if he's running it, though. that's like saying.

Well, he said there will be no cross over. And he's running this. So he's attached, I guess is my point. Right. But he said that's the most important thing. Yeah. I mean, I think the one, why is it now? I mean, it's absurd. A lot of absurd things are announced and dove into every month of every year.

So sure, it's happening again. But this is the season where there's a distinct backlash from parts of our country against the NFL. And he's talking about, hey, our players are not going to have. He said, no one with a DUI will be allowed in the XFL, no one with X, Y, and Z. Everything that you can't stand about the NFL, we're going to embrace your voice. And it's a pocket of fans, and it's a rather large pocket in part of this country. Maybe that's where you're hoping it starts with. You know what?

I'm starting to piece this together in real time. He's also a staunch conservative. He's going to lean into the conservative values end of this, the people that have been turned off by the NFL and the anthem. them and that's where like, oh, no thugs with DUIs, he wants to play that type of angle and maybe get traction, I don't know, from Trump America, maybe that's his power play here? That's definitely one angle. There's a second angle that, in my opinion, the NFL used to be the vanguard of changing rules to make the product more entertaining up until a few years ago.

And now the last few years, they do not make it more entertaining. The catch roll is a major issue. Instant replay is a major issue. And one of Vince McMahon's goals is to make a two-hour game with an easy catch roll. And to me, that's what this league is going to face plant. It's absolutely going to face plant. But the good that can come out of it is forcing the NFL to look in the mirror on some of its bad roles. Yeah, I think there's always been a possibility and maybe even a need for another football league,

whether it was run by the NFL or not, it doesn't make sense that by far the most popular, and you said it's a vocal contingent against the NFL this year, ultimately it's still dwarfing everything else on the television dial actually by a bigger percentage than it ever has because all scripted programming is down so much. For something that popular, you would think you could have some sort of minor league

or developmental league or another thing. But I remember when I worked at Pro Football Talk, We spent like two years writing about the buildup to the UFL. I don't know if anyone remembers like the, I don't even. Josh McCown played in the U.S. Jay Gruden, I believe was a coach in the UFL. It's like, and then it got there and no one cared and nothing ever happened. And listening to McMahon's press conference and what he said,

everything is very vague. He really has no plans yet. It's like eight cities. That's about all he knows. He's revealing it. We're going to go listening. He says we're going to go listen to the fans, hear what they want. want and then figure it out. I mean, last time what you forget is that it was Dick Ebersol and

NBC that partnered directly to put these games on prime time, on real television, and you're not going to have that this time around, at this point at least. But I do like some of the stuff they did. It was a massive disaster, but the way they opened games, there was no kickoff. It was two guys scrambling for the ball. They got rid of that almost immediately. But I mean, they tried this stuff right away. And I remember, like, honestly, watching with a bunch of, like, guys in this bar, because there was a lot of juice around it. It was February 2001, a week after. There you go.

Like eight minutes into the first quarter, we all just went back to our drinks. It's like, oh, this is a mess. Well, the hook of it the first time around. Tommy Maddox played in it. Was no, this isn't sissy football. It's like, you're going to get killed. No fair catches. You got no kickoff, scramble for the ball.

I think the first scramble, a guy blew out his knee. I mean, it couldn't have been a bigger disaster. And it's a 30 for 30 if you're interested in the history, if you're a little younger. and you don't know what the X-FL was all about. Check it out. Johnny Mansell wants to play. He immediately tweeted out.

But he can't because X-FL-20 record. Maybe once you're in, you can't have a DIY. But I'll say that if you're already creating. Why that works, though, you have to get two or three of those glue guys that would make us go watch it. If Johnny Manzell was in the XFL, I would turn on to watch. Well, McMahon quickly threw out, like, this will be a home for Tim Tebow if he wants to play. So he knows what he's doing.

He's trying to. He would also, in a heartbeat, bend that rule to get Johnny Manzell into the league. I was going to say. Vince McMahon not known like is the backbone of integrity. I don't know what the rules are. If there is an XFL, if it actually happens, I would bet strongly that Johnny Manzell play. Like, how does that not happen? He would be the face of the league.

He's the MVP. He gets an obvious DUI in the way back from like one of the games. There's no way he's going to leave the league. They might even swipe it under the car. They've got to get one of those guys almost for every team. that we, a quarterback that we all remember. That's what they should do. They should have.

Kaepernick. Each team. Kaepernick. Each team. Well, that's not going to fit with that family. No way. He doesn't want anything to do with Kaepernick. This league exists because for people who don't like the NFL because of Kaepern.

He's trying to say. That's introduced you to the concept of pro wrestling. Right. You're going to have evil guys and good guys. Well, McMahon said for what it's worth, there will be no politics. No, I'm not getting to politics. And at least we should stand up, stick up for Colin. Kaepernick here. There's no way Colin Kaepernick would ever play in this league in the first

play. So let's give them a little credit. That's true. What about like RG3 and Ocho Cinco? Yeah. Like that kind of stuff you get closer where if they want to play and they're not going to get an NFL role. OJiko right now could draw like six fans to a league. No way. He's got a crazy following on Twitter. Nobody's watching like a 40-something year old Chad Ocho Senko fumble balls around the field. It's got to be in a quarterback position. Also a domestic violence history. So I guess that would eliminate it. Going forward. All right, here we go.

Moving on. That's what's happening in the news. All right, Super Bowl week, overs and unders. So we're going to throw out some scenarios and offer a over-under. And then we'll go around the room. I'll get it going. Mark was furiously pointing someone else start. Well, I have an odd one that I think would throw the tone of the game off.

I know how you work, Mark. We've played these. All right. I think the listener would be like, I've got some XFL reading to catch up on. Any of these type of, when we play these games, I know never to start with you

because yours will always be a lot different. So we warm up to Sessler in these scenarios. I got you. I got your back, buddy. This part's going into the show what you just expect. I got it, maybe. I'll throw out a very like straight sort of football one.

Dan does one, you know, it's kind of funny. Like edging away a little football. And then you have something that includes. the end of the world. We did not want to do all football. We talked about that also with this. It's like, right?

Greg or West, straight one. Dan's a little irreverent. And then Mark, an asteroid hits the Earth. You are, listen, you are, you are, you, it was commanded that we don't dip entirely into football scenarios here. We're not, we can say Super Bowl, but it's not our, you know, only option here. All right. Here we go.

All right. Why don't we go through our old, our old ways? So why don't you get us going, Greg, with something very close to the best. All right. I'll start over, over on. This is how you know, by the way, we've been doing our show too long. Over under Thursday night.

It's not a numbers thing. Over under Thursday night, we know the status of Rob Gruncowski for the game. By Thursday of next week. Thursday night of Super Bowl week. I'll take the, we know his status. We know for sure whether he's playing or not. So under would be like.

Under would be we know before that. I'll take the under. I will, too, because if he's actively practicing and he's out of the protocol, he's playing. So I'll take the under. It's the Patriots. It's over. Even if he's practicing, they're probably going to list him as questionable. A lot of times that protocol goes right up until Friday or Saturday.

That's why I chose Thursday night. I mean, then I would go over, too, because I think the thing, or we're talking about, the assumption is, oh, it's everyone in the building. It's like, of course he's playing. Like, even if they list everyone questionable. Grab Sheet and Tom Kern will have this by Wednesday. Oh, right. good top current pop are you saying i don't think the patriots are going to say it though i'll never say we know we know for sure if if ian had reported it definitively that would count

we know we know we know under under i'm taking the under so you're coming is it ean specifically or any insider that we trust anyone anyone we trust kevin patra yeah i'll take the under yeah i mean yeah and he's playing come on i mean we hear you know i don't think we're at the insider but how many players have has zeuser talked to this year patra's out there with boots on the ground. How many of I? And I talk to people behind the scenes. Concussions are tricky.

You just don't know. Like you're either cleared or you're not. There's not, you can't fudge it. Most guys, though, come back after. Right. But you never know when it's going to strike somebody funny. It's tricky for Gron because he has such like a low baseline of, like, he generally seems concussed anyhow.

This is a bit. They're doing the bit. All right. Next one. I'll do kind of a straight one, too. Over under, here we go. Percentage of Eagles fans against the capacity and attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium for Super Bowl 52.

I'll set the over under 66.6%. Well, we'll never get this actual. But it's a fun time. Here we go. Thank you, great. I'm just saying, we're never going to know. I was going to decide. Band's going to eyeball it for it.

Do you feel validated? Did the eyeball test? Yeah. Let me just give you a little context. I did some math, nailed it, 67,000 approximately at U.S. Bank Stadium, 66.6% would be about 45K of that 67 Eagles fans, over under 45,000 Eagles fans in attendance. I'm going under because I think you have to remember that a lot of fans aren't going to be fans of either the Patriots or the Eagles. That's part of it. A lot of people are just going to go to the Super Bowl.

So I'm going to go under for that reason. And I do think there will be more Eagles than Patriots by quite a bit. I'll go under. I think that you're not super far off. But there is a memory of when they were in Arizona. And they showed Belichick coming down the tunnel. And people went nuts, booing him. And I thought, this crowd is so heavy Seahawks right now.

But then they showed Brady and the place exploded. And there's a lot of neutral fans in there that love Tom Brady. We just heard about the jerseys. I love Tom Brady. I'm going under me. I'm going way. way under. I wouldn't even say two-thirds Eagles versus

it will be total Pats fans. No, I would say there'll be more Eagles fans, but it's a huge percentage, which is really neither. I mean, that's got to be a minimum 25, 30%, which is neither. And the Patriots fans have showed up last year, they certainly, not that the Falcons are a great

fan base in terms of having huge numbers, but the Patriots fans have showed up. The Falcons fans, and it's not their fault, went utterly quiet for the final third of the game because they were The case behind it, for me, is at what point has everyone in New England that's wanted to go to a Super Bowl gone? Or, you know, if you're going to make choices, if you've already gone once or twice, and if you're somebody that loves the Patriots and go to the Super Bowl, you've probably done it by now, at least once,

are you going to go to Minneapolis? When you're thinking to yourself, oh, they'll probably be back and I can shoot down to Atlanta next year or two years from now. When they're back again, I'll go see him in Miami. I already saw him twice in the last 12 years. It's a fair X factor. 15 years. Meanwhile, the Eagles fans, these people are crazy. I mean, Colleen's insane. Like this idea that they have this opportunity to win a Super Bowl, I feel like they're

going to flood the market. That's why I think that. And there has been a Patriots fan belief, I think, with the last two, that this is the last one, so we better go get to it. But now I think that's eroded. Yeah. All right. We're getting closer to Marks. Wes, you're... Don't oversell mine. That's a bad way to do it. inching our way to Sessler.

Over under think pieces on Ernie Adams, whom David Halberstim called Belichick's Belichick. In a year where a situational football and the Patriots go beat everyone at the final buzzer, how many think pieces on Ernie Adams? And all right, so in terms of where they would be housed on like any website anywhere or like the top 20 football websites potentially? I would say any national website. Or Boston Globe, Boston Media.

Or would this be television featureettes? Wait, has anyone in this room ever written an Ernie Adams piece? Not yet. Hasn't someone from around the NFL at one point written an Ernie Adams piece? There's a definitive piece written by Wright Thompson, I believe, in 2008 or 2009. I think Dan Shaughnessy's written about him. And in both of these pieces, basically no information comes to light because he's that much, he's cloak and dagger. Like, nobody knows what he does.

They once put, players in Boston once put up a picture of him in a team meeting with the caption, does anybody know what this guy does? Who is he again? Wait, you have to give a number, though. You can't just see you over under. He's been Belichick's like tight coaching friend for decades and decades and decades. He's on the staff. He's almost like special projects and he's been credited with some crazy stuff over the years.

He's also been like a, yeah, he's also been like in his times away from football, like a masterful hedge fund manager who just, he's a rainman. maker who makes people tons of money. He's the guy Belichick bounces stuff off, and it sounds like during the game, he does some game management. You know, different coaches have game management guys, and he's one of them. So what are you putting the over under at? I'm setting it at two. It's probably going to be way over, I would think.

I will go over because there's just an insane amount of media out there. And again, I think it's like, this may be the last time you get a Super Bowl thing piece on Ernie Adams. Probably will just be next year. Probably just be next year. but I'm going to go under just based on just to get the Patriots fans all ride up. I noticed at the NFL.com planning, it's like there's a lot more enthusiasm to write about the Eagles. Feels like a lot more Eagles content coming because everyone's tired of writing about the Patriots.

Can you write about the Pats? Yeah. And that actually, to me, trends toward writing about Ernie Adams, something different. Yeah. I'm going to write three Ernie Adams because of Justice. I'm going to win. I'm going on. Out of spite.

All right, Mark, you're up. All right, a lot of, I've already here. A lot of bitching about the weather from me, but from others, too. Yeah, many people, I think there's just a general concern about what it is that we're flying into. So mine is a weather-based one, and it's the combined tally of how many times the around the NFL podcast crew, the four of us and Colleen, complains about the weather during Super Bowl Week in Minnesota.

This includes nitpicks about dangerously low temperatures, wind chill, wind gusts, snowfall, piles of snow on the ground, snowfields, freezing. rain, sleet, stepping in Arctic puddles, getting splashed with waves of freezing water the result of passing cars on the street. This also includes complaints about slipping on icy stairs, slamming one's skull into the godless concrete after a perilous fall on the sidewalk, being hit with snowballs by snickering passerby, being mocked by children in school buses as your work papers blow away in the wind. This includes bemoaning one's lack of proper footwear, verbally wishing one was tucked away in a desert island, bitching about your left foot being wet after stepping

into a small stream of gushing wastewater at the corner of ginger and oxagon streets. This includes telling everyone around you that you don't believe in the scarf as a fashion statement but wished you would actually purchase winterwear before flying from Los Angeles, complaining about an Uber that's outrageously two minutes away and kind of doing that thing where it spins around on the street, kind of lost on the app while your lips turn purple blue in a North American wilderness bitten by temperatures, just a tad below springtime on Mars. putting the over under at 110. Well, that just, what you just described

sounded like a morning with Mark Sessler. That's Tuesday morning. Will I be the only one complaining here and there? Well, at first I was going to ask, does this count on air? But now I realize it's everything. It's everything. It's not on the podcast because we should be. No, it's when we're walking to and from things.

We should have a rule like not saying the word Super Bowl that we're not allowed to say any of that even once. That affects my up or under, Greg, so no. By penalty. But speak freely. Off air, it's going to happen a lot. I'm going to go over. I'm going to go over.

I might complain 110 times myself. I'm all skin and bones. I get cold if a breeze blows through his podcast studio. I mean, I famously have been called the strong and silent type. That's true. I'm going to keep it under. You know, you just deal with it. See, you guys aren't being pros, though.

I'm actually checking the weather. It might be unseasonably warm. You don't know. Let's say. So it might be 27. Let's see. Let's see. The highs.

Oh, the high. on Monday is 15 with a low of five. But here's the good news. It's going to be sunny. 15. I hate sun in that weather. 28. These are the highs.

15, 28, 33, 12, 9. It's going to be a high of 9 on Friday. Oh, we've got some negatives in here. There's some lows. Yeah, low, they're negative. Here's one. And on Super Bowl Sunday, 11 degrees. It is a lot of tunnels and walkway.

Are you kidding me? We're already complaining over, over, over. I just don't want to die! We're staying out. One underrated factor is we're staying out near where all the press conferences are, where Radio Row is, the Mall of America. We're basically, I'm going to have a feeling only going to go between our small hotel, TJA Fridays, and this mall, which are all within about 100 feet of each other.

So we might not even hit. And yet, at the Combine, when you're only asked to cross one street to get from the downtown Indie Tunnel system connected to our hotel and Lucas Oil Stadium, Non-stop complaints for that eight seconds that it takes to cross the street. Non-stop complaining from human beings. I need some input from the listeners on this one. You have mentioned that it would be a good... Brodouts.

Mark has mentioned that it would be a good idea to wear boots or to bring boots. I asked someone from Minnesota downstairs, Brooke her. She's from North Dakota's in Minnesota, all this stuff. She said, hell, yeah, she went out and she is an L.A. person. She went out and bought a low-level pair of boots. I'm doing the same. Nice. A little boot talk in the pod.

Can we save for the boot podcast? I have like a total hot foot, like wet shoes. Speaking of... Speaking of what Greg was referencing, I'll throw out another one. Number of drinks ingested by the Around the NFL podcast team, including Kevin Patra, who's going to be with us, as we said from Monday on, at the TGI Fridays established connected to our hotel where we're staying. I'm not...

This isn't like, oh, Joe, we're going to have a million drinks. No, I want the number. I'm going to set the over under at... 99 and a half for the entire week entire week now let me put in how did I come to this figure Greg is not going to throw back a ton of drinks

Wes this is not previous West this is less on the mend diminished capacity so I'm putting Wes kind of in the Greg Territorial oh come on that's an outrage no like two or three drinks

you know a night not going crazy that's an insult is insulting I apologize I'm not trying to be I'll be under that. And here comes the insult. You're going to, you're going to, you're going to, you talked about me as some sort of a course.

Mark's got 90 of them. No, I think that you and I will probably be in the, like, similar territory. That seems incredibly low. I'm going to go over. I'll go over to. And then Patro will be in our team. Patro, Patcher will be help. He'll be a help in this one.

So add it up, though. And remember, this is specifically at the TGI Fridays. Oh. Could be other locations where we imbi. Oh. But in the Fridays where we are. All planning to spend a lot of time. I may go under because you're talking about like at least three or four of us having to knock off like five plus a night.

Speak for yourself. I don't want to spend the whole time at T.J. Fridays. The mall is right there and there's a million places right there. We're five feet away. We're going to be at the Fridays, Greg. I don't understand why we're locked in a Friday's. We're locked in a front. I'm going to go sit in the food court with the other buddies?

They got, this mall's got everything. This Friday only thing, Friday's only thing. like a David Lynch layer of complexity to the... Interesting. I might go under, too, because if it's only Fridays. It also, like, there's at least the 10% chance that we, you just don't like that Fridays and decide to bag it for the whole week. But we've done, we've done some Yelp research.

No, it seems very, very run-of-the-mill. Yes. And it's going to be just like every other Fridays. This could also, like, vault up to 150. It easily could. We could find it to be, and this is how I picture it in my mind, is an optimist. like it's going to feel like our cheers. What if you get in there and it's, hey, we already are we already friends with some waiters and waitresses.

They're welcome. Yeah. And it's like this is our place. This is our place. Yes, I'll have a ninth. This Friday's is getting more free pub than head and shoulders as all season. I'll take any over. Is Colleen on our team too?

No, I don't have her on this just because she's going to be staying downtown. Oh, she's talent. So, yeah, she's true talent. So she might at some point end up with us, but I don't want to. I don't see her. I don't see her going. of Fridays. She's not going to be with the unwashed masses where we are.

All right. I had an alcohol and alcohol one related with you, but I will save it. You know, if you want to keep it rolling. I'll package it quickly. We don't need to discuss it at length. It's a little bit of a one team versus the other. Are these high, do you have your little highlights on the tech? Just on the old runner part.

Do we know Mark? Do we know Mark? Show three months away from being canceled. The number of alcoholic drinks, Dan and Mark consume. Interesting. Minus those imbibed by Wes, Lindsay Fulton, Greg, NFL media's Mark Brady, a shadowy figure, and Kevin Patra. I'm putting the over under at 20. So that would be what Dan and I do minus a math equation.

Yes, the rest. Okay. Who are the names? The others are Wes, Lindsay Fulton, you, Greg, you, NFL media's Mark Brady, and Kevin Patra. So you add it all up. Interesting. I'm going to go under because I'm going to count on Patra actually. beating both of you.

So then, I mean, he's a beer drinker, too. He's the winner of that whole group. And then you have the rest of us. We just have to be within 20 of the other one. So I like that. I like this one. I'm going under. This is running circles around my mind.

Yeah. I can't even get involved with it. So just, all you need to know is if you want to win, you need to keep drinking nonstop. Well, I'm not going to do that. This is why some of these prop bets are trouble, you know, in Vegas.

You can get some soft lines, they like to say. I think some real wise guys are going to hammer this one, and Mark's going to be cleaned out. Are we actually betting money? No, I don't know. Okay. I'm a real wild card here.

I think you are. Body's feeling night and day. I kept up with Mark the other night at the whaler. I don't know. Yeah, we finally got to meet Pat Dardy, Roto Pat on Twitter, my former Roto World co-worker, and then Evan Silva, who I have met before, but it was only like the third time. I tried to explain to my wife, Simone, that I was.

I was going out to meet someone named Roto Pat, and it wasn't like it took a little bit of explaining. My invite got lost in the mail, I guess? No, I believe I told you. Come join us. I got a text from Mark and the Uber. Oh, we're going over to meet up with those. It was all, it was all very last minute.

It was supposed to be at night. And then that wasn't going to work. Who reached out to you? Mark. Someone in this room. Oh, okay. Well, that was because I saw you on the way out. It was me.

It was me. Oh, who are you? Oh, we were getting lunch that day. You were quickly, it was automatically assumed I was, I was going to text you. When I went to get lunch that day, Greg was on the phone, I was like, he was like, oh, yeah, I don't know if Wes is available. I was like, I don't know what he's talking about. I don't worry about it. Oh, no. That wasn't like a nice thing to do, I would say. To not invite me.

Play the drop. Oh, it wasn't on purpose. It wasn't on purpose. Not a purpose. Hooray for our plan. It wasn't a thoughtful thing. I'll give you that Not thoughtful

Yeah I would say you probably nailed that All right who's that next I hope you guys had fun though I was out of there Did you get invited Lindsay Come on let's be serious I never get invited to anything Yeah

Okay so at least I wasn't totally alone Just on this side of the glass Well it certainly wasn't a large party That you weren't invited to I did invite you by the way I didn't really your I appreciated it It wasn't necessarily like your

I just didn't Everyone's always invited all the time. That's what I assume. I'm never invited to anything because you just assume I'm not going to go. Okay, Greg. All right. You're invited to TV on Friday. It was a lack of...

It's already forgotten. How about this? Well, clearly not. It's forgotten, but noted. Oh, no. It's been... That's way worse. Noted is not forgotten.

That's way worse. Who's up? Greg, you go ahead. Well, it'll really... Go ahead, friend. It'll really come back to homie... me like in seven years the next time I planned something. All right.

So you plan something once every seven years and you didn't invite me. We were supposed to go out late night and then that didn't happen and change. Greg, I would quickly get to your over under. But you reached out to Mark? Mark, I saw on the way out and it came up, you know. I don't know. I'm not really much of a planner like that.

I have no shame. Okay. Go ahead, buddy. It's not a Mrs. Dalloway over here. I was wondering if it was going to. to come up. And, you know, once it came up, I figured I might as well. Sink the teeth into it.

Yeah. It would have only been a matter of time. It definitely was going to come over. It definitely occurred to get it over with that. It definitely occurred to me as I, like, left that evening. Oh. And to be clear, and I told West's, because Wes actually, he read the tea leaves, and he texted me that night.

And he's like, hey, buddy, just giving you a heads up, you know, sorry that, you know, you didn't really get invited. Oh, give me a break. Well, then he should have invited you. And then I replied. It was Wes's thing as much as anyone. And then I replied. I just got thrown under the bus.

And then I replied, I said, you know, I wasn't going to be. I wouldn't have gone anyway, which is true because I had some dad stuff to do. But, you know, it would have been nice to be invited. Yeah, I mean, even if you can't go, it would be nice to know that you were seen as part of the group. Were you happy to be invited? I was, I was excited to meet Evan and Roto Papp. Yeah, I would have loved to meet them, too. Or at least had the option.

They delivered on, they delivered, they asked about you many times. I will give you that. It did ask about you. It's a good thing. Where is Zusser? Yeah. Where is Zusser? It's a good thing I'm not as sensitive as this or else think of all the things I would hold against you.

Wow. So I'm about a million different things. It's a fair point. So it's over under, Greg. It feels like a hard pivot to Nick Foles is over under interception. I would suggest you. One and a half turnovers. So like Dan's not the only one who's noted things over the years.

Yeah. I guess so. One and a half turnovers for Nick Foles. That's the question. I feel like the show's over. In some ways, it is. I'm going to go under. One and a half turnovers on Super Bowl Sunday.

Remaining around the NFL podcast left in this world. I think he's going to have a fumble, but they're going to recover it. Mark's really trying to push it. Members on this podcast by this show next year. One and a half. Over under. Push. I will take the over

I believe Nick Foles will suck in the Super Bowl I'll save most of my analysis for the game for the week but that's what I feel. Okay. One and a half? That's according to Greg, yeah.

Turnovers. I'll go with over. He's still Nick Fools. He's going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight. Do you feel, Greg, that he's going to play well again? I think he's played well. I think he's playing a much easier defense this week

than he did last week. Yeah, not quite as easy as the Raiders defense in which he was like 0 for 14 on third downs. That game's ancient history, right? What do you got, Wes? Oh, his last week's. You got anything else? And one more over under? Yeah, if you got it.

All right. Over under meetups with podcast fans. Put you on the spot, baby. I'm going one. I'm willing to do how many. I mean, in terms of it, like, not just like randomly. Like a tweet up like we did in San Francisco? Yeah.

I would go push. I say one. I would strongly, I would personally go. Set it at half. So either yes or no, right? I'll go over. Unless you're doing multiples. I'll do it.

I'll do three. We got to get you to Sunday, Wes. We've got to get you to Super Bowl Sunday. Well, two of those, they have to come to Fridays. Okay. I have to think about this. I will do one. One, sounds good.

Like one organized one. Well, I think it's easier to do. We don't have a lot of free nights. When would this? When would this be? We'd have to plan it. well it was was it Friday the other time it wasn't Friday it was right outsource the planning to someone else well that's part of the I would say yeah I would like in the mall of America maybe somewhere

how about that that be crazy I like that yeah Greg doesn't seem wow it's our enclave it's our like that's a little layer yeah okay that's fair so we I'm gonna go under because Hans is said we're never doing that again after the last time I did not say that I did not say that was a little overwhelming the first time, but it was great to see the fans. And since Wes put it on the spot, yeah, I'm in. Count me in. There we go. Let's do it. Greg. You did say that, though. Why are you saying you didn't say that? I love the bombs being thrown back. You're invited to Dan, you're invited. I don't mind. I mean, I was pretty much on that side of things. This is all the script too, Greg, hitting out now. Greg, are you going to join us or not? It depends which night. I guess. Friday night?

Well, we don't know. Up in the air. But yes, late end of the week when your responsibility are shutting down to some degree. All right. One more, Mark. Take us home. All right. Please get us to the end of the show. This is on the Patriot fan Erica Tamposi front. Ooh.

The number of Erica generated Justin Timberlake related tweets. Plus the number of times Erica tweets her beloved Amy Schumer drinking the giant glass of white wine, G-off. Plus the number of tweets where Erica sends out photos of herself in various Patriots gear asking us to pick which one we like best. plus the number of tweets where Tamposi slams Eagles fans, plus the number of tweets where she mentions Emma VP. Now, for clarity's sake, this over-under account begins Monday morning, and it concludes one hour after the Super Bowl to get her little bragging in if they win and all that business or her outrageous anger.

Moreover, these are tweets coming from her official work Twitter account at Tamposi NFL, not that mysterious L.A. socialite burner account she has on the side. with Erica. Over under, I'm putting it at 57. Well, if you follow Erica on Twitter, you know it's crazy. And she tweets dozens of times during any Patriot game. So the Super Bowl, unless she's busy, but I don't imagine she will be actually. Now, I'm thinking about what she'd probably be doing during the game. Maybe she would have some type of work to do.

But I think I'm going to say over. I think she's going to be going nuts on Twitter because she's also going to seize the moment she likes that the show has kind of helped to build an Erica fan base. and she's going to lean into that on Super Bowl Sunday and go nuts with her G-OPS. I think there might be 57 G-Ops of Amy Schumer drinking wine alone. I'm going to go over.

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for 50 bones off your mattress purchase that's half rock to use little Keith hands as parlance terms and conditions apply how do they do that I don't know man it's amazing I'd buy one find out see first hand all right let's get them on the line right now last year it was Connor or this year it's Kevin Patra in Hawaii actually well it's not Hawaii so let's lose that Lindsay let's get some Orlando I'm thinking like turn of the millennium little new metal Orlando's known for

new metal sounds about right this feels Florida to me this is Florida just a bunch of ugly concrete in the middle of a state we might be back there Patrick

what's up buddy welcome hey hey what's going on back to the around the NFL podcast how you doing pal I am doing phenomenal as always right now I'm staring outside my hotel window at two giraffes mowing on some leaves and a bowl right off the side deck here.

So you paint the picture where you are exactly, where is your residence, where you're staying? Do you just say you're burning some leaves? No, no, no, giraffs are eating, mowing down on some leaves. I'm not burning anything. Okay, that's good. I am at, I was put up at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. How about that? A nice Disney resort.

That's cool. Far away from the players. You know, it used to be back, because, Patrick, you know, you know, you know, You've covered a bunch of these going back to the Hawaii days. In the good old days, they'd actually put you in the hotel with the players, and you'd be sharing pool time and dacqueries and talking books with Brown centers. Alex Mack, he was hanging out? Yeah, but now they kind of, is it because of our humble NFL media leanings over the network?

What about network talent? They heard about my discussion with Alex Mack last time. They wanted to keep all of that to the minimum. I'm sure they don't want any book talk going on. But, yeah, no, I mean, Jane Slater, the wonderful Jane Slater from NFL Network, is up at the Plater Hotel and getting to go to all the after-hour events. Oh, love it. They put me out here in the boondock. I'm sure if Greg had come in my spot, he'd probably be ruining with Jailen Ramsey.

So, you know, I'd rather be with the drafts. It actually sounds like a pretty good spot. You should have, like, went in Jane Slater's luggage. Just anything to get you into the hotel. That sounds creepy. I don't know if that's a policy about that sort of thing, Dan. Yeah, that's a good point, Kev. So what has been the scene there?

I know you, so you've been covering the practices, like, take us through if someone has never really known how it works to cover a Pro Bowl. Like, what are you doing over there? Basically, you know, guys are just having fun, mostly goofing off. I mean, the most entertaining thing is Sean Payton hired Drew Breese's sons as ball boys. so you got these like three little runts running around like two feet tall around mammoths like you know Jared golf and such just switching out the balls and most of the time they're just having fun you know they talk about getting the terminology right but most of the time the players are just messing around with each other gagging on each other and it only lasts for about 45 minutes and then they sign autographs

we talk to and we chat with the players that sort of stuff are they in good spirit It seems problematic if, like, Colette O'Semoli steamrolls Drew Breeze's six-year-old son. Like, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. One would think, so today, in fact, it's actually funny. Like, two of the kids that got into wrestling match, you know, brothers do. You know, one of the older ones, like, have the other one in a headlock. And they start, like, almost rolling toward the players that are, you know,

they're not bad attention. And they just took the snap, Truebeet back. And, like, Sean Payton went in and swooped them back and, like, yanked them backwards before they got ran over. Are there any players there, like being around these guys that, I don't know if it's either their physique, like their makeup or their personality, that it completely changed your opinion of one of these so-called stars? Physique? Johnny Hacker is a huge man for a punter, by the way. You saw that a couple weeks?

Yeah, we saw it in the Coliseum. We had the same thing. We were on the field at the end of the game, and as he was jogging to the tunnel, it was remarkable what a beast he was. Yes, he's huge. Andrew Whitworth is another ginormous man along with Joe Staley. I mean, the offensive line and the defensive line may always strike me is because, you know, you know, you can't tell from the camera angle, no matter, you know, all 22 regular film, you can't tell how ginormous these guys are until you seem in person.

So you are now going to go, you're not actually covering the game. You're going to stop back in Sugartown, Chicago, and then hop on a plane to get to Minneapolis to do a full week of Super Bowl coverage. So these are busy times for Kevin Patrick coming at you. It is. It is a busy time. You know, my fiancé is not happy about it. I have to listen to do. What is the big day by the time?

Now is the time to leave, though, for a couple weeks. There's no kids involved. That's true. But I know. I can imagine that she wouldn't be happy. You get used to a little Kevin Patrick. You want it all the time. Get a taste.

You want some more. Yeah. How about learn to win the power struggle? The power struggle with the NFL has never won, Mark. Okay. Okay, well, let's... All right. So here's the good news.

Kevin Patcher is going to be, like I said, at Super Bowl week. So he's going to be on our Thursday show next week. So we're going to get more patch on our lives. And then we could really have a chance, Kevin, to dig into the situation with Nick Shook and some of the whispers that maybe he's been coming for your crown and where you stand on that. He's got the crown.

We can discuss that later. One thing about this Pro Bowl, If anybody's going to watch, my X-Factor, Farrow Cooper, that's my X-Factor. I think he's been working a lot with the offense. I think that some of the higher-profile wide receiver is going to sit out. Pum-returner and scoring touchdown

as a wide receiver. Where else are you getting people expectant analysis? Yeah, best return guy in the league and wants to make up for kind of giving away that playoff game. Get to the desert as quickly as possible. Kevin Patcher, thank you so much, buddy,

and we will see you. And by the way, you're involved with a very important TGI Friday related over-under that we will clue you in on once you get to Minnie with us. We can go. All right, buddy. See it. See you, buddy.

There goes, Patra. Before we get out of here, I want to ask another question. You got big plans for the new year? No. The new year, upcoming? 11 months from now? Let's see what happens. We could all be, you know, who knows what could happen.

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Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code around to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Squarespace, baby. All right, so here's the deal. Again, no show this Sunday. It's the first time we don't have a Sunday show since the first week of September

because we will be traveling. We will have a Tuesday audio show. We will have a late Thursday audio show and, of course, the big one, the flagship Sunday Super Bowl Sunday night recap show in addition to a video-only show that will air on Friday on NFL.com. So so much good stuff coming.

Thank you for listening. listening and let's let's get let's get things going let's do it let's go let's go to minnesota baby yeah and heads is signing off for quiet storm the mailman the old boss lizzie fulton behind the glass till tuesday this is an iHeart podcast this is an iHeart We're going to be the last.