NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Team Slogans with Conor Orr

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the NFL starting with why the Jets can't have nice things. Ricky Hollywood surprises the boys with a surprise Saints guest and Conor Orr stops by to go through the 2021 team slogans. We close the show with a flashback to the first time Wess talked about his Bengals divorce dossier.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Doesn't care too much about what others think. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hans, as I come to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal. You know, this was one of the great, like, shots of my career occurred on Tuesday night doing my assignment, which I've been doing since 2012, writing Hard Knocks Review.

Ricky, do you have the clip from Hard Knocks this week? I'm really not satisfied. I want a lot more. That guy's going to blow up this year, Mark, my words. Take him in your fantasy drafts. I'll go with a guy who has it. C.D. Lamb. Yes, that was the old Zusser's voice talking about C.D. Lamb, and it was a taken from the around the NFL broadcast,

and it was Mark in the shot, and Connie in the shot, and Greg Nott in the shot. So let's just break it down there. Very cool. that ATN made Hard Knocks. It felt like a real career achievement. Greg, I do feel bad about the timing of it. Because you're not someone who takes a lot of vacation. That was just that one show.

Yeah, never will visit my parents again. That half of, that second on Hard Knocks. I think it's just the first of many, though. You know, I think it's great. You know, you got the big talk. You got the vocal, you know, you got the words out there. That's the big spot. So next time, we'll be back on that again.

I don't want to be like the, like, I saw someone in your mentions very upset. Like they weren't on it. That's a bad. That's a bad look. Who is someone just a street, a person off the street? Someone else, no, within our company on the talent side. Because Patrick Claibon, another friend of the show, had a nice cameo as well. He got like a camera.

Not only did Claibon get on the show. He was actually, because he was on the scene at camp, And they had the tight shot on Claibon's beautiful face. I mean, the guy. Handsome man. It's almost annoying how good-looking Patrick is, in addition to nice and smart and good at his job. But I'm in the weeds.

Awesome. The Claibon's there. Someone else at the company that works with the company that was at that camp has yet to get on the show. I have to ask you, Dan. Let's go. Let's get Jane on the show. Get Jane Slater on the show, Hard Knocks producers.

I mean, we're going to bring it up. It's true. she's been covering them you want if you're if you're covering them you're looking for that shot where you like ask the question at the presser let's get jane on too we'll ask her like how mad she actually is i want to find that out uh what's that mark well no i was just going to say let and you know you have been extremely pro hard knocks um i have been if anything milk toast in my reaction to hard knocks from its inception what if they had grabbed a sound bite where i happened to be saying something about cd lamb with you sitting there and not saying a word what would have

happen to what would it what would how would we have handled that i think we would not be talking about this right now it would be it would be it would not be part of the show it would be like when the NFL network did a commercial uh of around the NFL and dan didn't have a speaking line in that commercial and he immediately complained about it i never complained to anyone outside of you guys but that wasn't believed well suddenly there was a new ad like a fortnight later so it's maybe it was just mystical powers but i will say this mark how does it that had to be a bit bittersweet for you because it is the show you hate more than any other show in the world. So for your face to be on, it had to be something like,

it's cool that I'm out there, but I also, I hate this show so much. Number one, I don't hate it, but my dislike for it certainly lessons when they're featuring me on it. I'm just, I'm cozying up to it. I'm going to watch it again. It's a good product. Maybe they're listening to this podcast, and they're like, we know how to get Sessler. Smart.

You know, let's go Rams, invite me to some games, bring me into your luxury suite. you know, everything will start to change. Coming up on, so that was cool, though. That was very cool. You know what else is cool? Connor Orr, that's our buddy. He hasn't been on the show in a minute. He will be on the show today when we unveil team slogans for the 2021 season.

So that's going to be a lot of fun. But before that, let's do some news. I have a big legal file full of newspaper articles of Y-Intyre of why I was breaking up with the Cincinnati Bengals about 10 or 15 years ago. You broke up with the team yourself? Yeah, well, I feel like they kind of left me at the altar and gave me no choice.

If they're not going to love me, why would I love him back? So they, they don't want to be Charlie Brown. Yeah, I'm not going to be the Charlie Brown. Oh, man, it's so good to hear Wes's voice. And that, of course, ties back to the major development earlier this week, when you told the story about Chris Wessling's divorcing the Bengals dossier that Lakeisha rescued out of a trash bin at NFL Network headquarters last week.

And yes, we wondered. We talked about it on the show, Greg. Like, when did we even start talking about the dossier? We brought it up for the first time and forever last week, and it ended up being a faithful reference. But way back, it was indeed the first year of this show in 2013. Yeah, one of our listeners pointed out It should have been around October 13th He found a tweet of yours

And we'll have a nice little A nice little ending to our show here Our listeners can wait for A little call back there I was saying I said to Erica Yesterday It was just so nice to hear Wes's voice I don't think we've played his voice on this show

Since he passed So I'm sure the listeners enjoy that as well And as Greg said We'll play a little bit of a longer clip of West talking about his dossier at the end of today's show. All right, let's get to the news. Let's start with some crushing injury news for my beloved New York Jets. It surrounds Carl Lawson, unblockable in training camp, in other organized team activities.

He seemed to be the guy that was going to break, yes, that streak. The Jets have not had a big-time premier pass rusher since, John Abraham left in 2006. And Lawson was going to be that guy and be the key for Robert Salas' defense. Well, I don't think so anymore because Lawson, during a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers, heard a pop in his Achilles, carted off the field. We're waiting as we record this for the results of that MRI, but it does not sound good. So Blosson signs a three-year, $45 million contract in free agency,

and it looks like his first year with the Jets might not ever get off the ground and I am dead inside. Such a bummer. I mean, you look at like... I don't want to be around anymore. Stop it, Erica. It is because I don't know.

Like, I love this signing when it happened. I loved everything I heard about him this training camp and off-season. I thought he was undervalued. As much money as they paid him, I thought it was going to be one of those free agent deals that ends up being even better than you think.

As we're taping this, as you mentioned, Dan, we are still waiting for final word. Usually these things don't go well when they think it's going in a certain direction. I tried to ask around, and I think there was some question whether there could be a better scenario than worse case, but we'll see. And it's a killer for them, because I think they need that defensive line to make up for the secondary. And him specifically.

Right. He was such a key. Your coverage is going to be as good, I think, as your front end. or vice versa. And we know the back end of the Jets defense has problems. So they needed the front line to make up for it. And if Lawson is out for the year, that that's going to be a lot tougher. And you give Joe Douglas credit because he put a lot of money into Lawson to solve that eternal pass rushing void. But he's put a lot of money into CJ Mosley too. There's been terrible luck with these big name players that they brought in to alter their defense. And, you know,

when they talk about Achilles, a lot of times like, you know, I saw a tweet from someone who is an on-field trainer that says, you know right away. You'll go get the MRI, but... It rolls up. The Achilles rolls up. You just, you know. And so I imagine they do, and it's... You know, I know that you have to do these practices.

We have to do these preseason games. But I start more and more to side with these coaches that just keep their star players out of as much action as possible. It's tougher for the Jets. They're learning a new scheme. You know, Lawson's in a new scheme. When you're going to do those, you can't not practice.

I'm not saying that. I just... The one thing that I find annoying for, specifically like a hard, hard-bitten Jets fan base, is that you're sort of waiting around for killer news to arrive before week one. And it just seems like every couple days

there's one of these. And yes, you have to practice, but last year there was a lot less of this, and it was fine. Sheldon Rankins was carted off, too. But there wasn't less injuries. In fact, I don't want to spit in the sky, as your mom would say, Dan. But I was thinking how this training

camp's been thankfully devoid of a lot of major injuries. So was the first week the preseason and i i am a little more of the school in terms of even playing preseason players like the patriots and some other teams do that it's like it's football ultimately you have to play football to like play football and whether it happens now or in week one or week three like it it's terrible for the the team and for the player and there's there's no way to avoid it i i do think there's something to the fact of like the way the players train and how muscular and big they are now maybe that does lead to more of these types of injuries than used to happen in the 70s and 80s,

which if you go look at the numbers, there really are. But that's something you can't avoid. I don't know what you do about that. No, it's not fun being a Jets fan. And I'm not going to turn this into a pity party. Sheldon Rankins was also carted off today, too. And he's a guy with an injury history who they're hoping to start. It didn't sound as serious, but he did have a pretty serious, possibly serious.

I just, I don't know, man. It's just like, sometimes it just makes you wonder. It's just, how does it always happen to the Jets? And he did, and Joe Douglas was not responsible for the C.J. Mosley signing. That was Mike McCagney, but it was the same deal where Mike, C.J. Mosley signed this big contract, came over from the Ravens, was the star of training camp, was absolutely dominating in his first game in week one, and then popped his groin and missed the entire year with it. and then opted out last year, and it's just been like, okay, so that didn't work. Lawson's same thing, dominant throughout training camp. For him now to go, every jet fan knows that the ceiling on your season,

which already wasn't high necessarily, just went down significantly because he was kind of the janga piece of everything Sol is trying to do, and they'll be trying to play catch-up all year as a result. So I just, I'm pissed. Curious to see Mosley, by the way. We haven't mentioned C.J. Mosley in a long time. I am curious to see him this year. This was one of the best inside linebackers in the league at one point,

and he will be playing on this Jets team. So I am curious. He could give them a little bit of a boost there. One star of the Jets pass that I also didn't work out is Jamal Adams. He has now signed a new contract with the Seattle Seahawks. This went down a little earlier in the week. It's four years, $70 million. Very good money for Adams, who is now, as expected,

the highest paid safety in the NFL, and it is not, I guess it's not at the level money-wise as the true superstars might get, but that's, I guess, a product of his position, and it doesn't really matter ultimately. The Seahawks needed to get this guy back on the field, and now he's there, and he's paid, and they can go forward. There's like a lot of negative reaction to this. I get that Jamal Adams is a little ponderous, and, you know, seems to always, be talking about money, but that's also like 98% of the players in my book. But he's getting paid

less than Darius Leonard, as we mentioned on our network show, who got 20 million a year. And like, everyone glowed over that deal and looks at the cult's front office, his forward thinking. And yes, I get the Seahawks were kind of jammed into this. That's the part I don't like is that they kind just got stuck into this thing where, let's say he had declined last year. I think they still would have been kind of hamstrung to overpay him. But he made a big difference on the field last year. It's like, this is a great player if he's put in the right position. I don't hate the contract. It's not that much money for someone who could be the center of their defense.

My safeties are underpaid. I thought they had a good team-friendly contract. If you really look at the true guarantees, it's closer to $20 million. I mean, it's actually almost shocking how little it is compared to some of the tackles that signed. Like Nate Solder had a much better contract than Jamal Adams, signing with the Giants years ago. Safeties just do not get paid. There's a lot of good safeties

who are about to become free agents, Tyron Matthew, Jesse Bates, Harrison Smith, Marcus May, and they're going to all slot in probably under Jamal Adams. So I think it's a good bargain. He's a unique player who I think

has a coaching staff too who will know how to use him and kind of max him out the next few years. In other injury news, bad injury news, no injury news is good injury news. Tevin Jenkins, the second round draft pick of the Chicago Bears, who's slated to be there starting left tackle.

Well, he is probably done for the year after lingering back issues have now led to back surgery. And the Bears hope to have them back this season, but that could be overly optimistic. And now the team is scrambling to find a replacement. Jason Peters, the long time. And I say a long time tackle of the Eagles, who was on the street, turning 40 in January.

January. He has been added to the roster as a potential fill-in, but the bears will be scrambling now, especially after deciding not to bring back Charles Leno, the incumbent tackle of a year ago. Bad news for Chicago. They cut Leno, who played every snap practically the last handful of years at a solid enough level, and he was at a below-market contract. It didn't make sense at the time. We first guessed that one. We talked about that.

They're like, why are they cutting Charles Leno exactly? Like, you want to have an extra tackle. And a lot of times after the draft, you slot in these rookies. You're just like, okay, that problem's set. You know, there's our second round pick. Left tackle solved. It's like, it doesn't, A, he might not play that well, and then B, something like this could happen.

And it felt like an unforced error considering the other guys that they're paying a lot of money, like Jimmy Graham on this roster. I'm with you. It's like you definitely, I think you need to see tackles over the course of a, they're at least their first season to get a really good picture of who they are. And this was a player. with known back issues, they trade up for them, the back issues of a different variety now show up.

I think it's super concerning. Like, yeah, he probably won't play this year, but in general, like, back issues for a tackle don't, and, you know, that's not something that's going to just fade away in five minutes. Like, the bears have done some very questionable things. I think Justin Fields helped them out hugely from a cue rating angle, but that front office is lucky to still be around. I wonder if this makes them more worried about playing fields,

or you could say less because you want a mobile quarterback at some point. It shouldn't really have an impact, but if I'm a Justin Fields fan, I'm a little concerned about it. I'd always be more worried about playing Andy Dalton, but I hear you. And happy trails to Tim Tebow, cut loose by the Jacksonville Jaguars. So that was a thing, and now it's no longer a thing. And also Josh Rosen, the former number 10 overall pick a couple of years back, who was not playing well with the 49ers.

and couldn't even win the third string backup job. So two former first round picks head into the sunset. That is what's happening in the news. Hey, you guys. What? I actually have Lil Jordan Humphrey, like, on the line. He's like, here. What?

Little Jay? Little Jay in the house? Or guy, okay. You're joking. No, like right now, I'm going to put them in, okay? Oh, Ricky. Look at you, Ricky. All right.

Here we go. Wow. This is exciting. Excellent work, Ricky. Now joining us, the New Orleans Saints wide receiver, former Texas star wide receiver. And now he's looking to make a big impact in the NFL. Lil Jordan Humphrey. Welcome to the Around the NFL podcast, Lil Jordan. Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Okay. So, all right. So this podcast is stupid sometimes. And we fall down these wormholes that we struggle to dig out of. And as you see, perhaps right now, I'm Dan, that's Mark, that's Greg. Those are three of the most boring white guy names imaginable. And then there's Lil Jordan Humphrey, who to me has the best name in the NFL going right now and did the research.

Your mom gave it to you, correct me if I'm wrong, your mom gave you the name. It's not a nickname. It's a full name because your older brother said, name him Michael Jordan. And your mom was like, well, let's slow down. It's pump the brakes on an MJ situation. and Lil Jordan it is. Is that all check out, or is Wikipedia failing me? That's correct.

That's correct. All right, cool. So, like, do you go by Lil Jordan? What are your teammates call you? I'm just out of curiosity. Let's start there. I mean, I go by Liljord and LJ. Most people call me LJ because, you know, it just, I get the question all the time.

That's your real name. That's your real name. Everybody thinks is a nickname. But I just go by LJ to keep it short and simple, you know. But, yeah, a little Jordan is my real name. I love to go about that, but just keep it, you know what I mean, normal. Do you run into trouble, let's say if you were like, you know, applying for like a lease car or maybe if you at some point were looking to get a job and had to write Little Jordan in like

the very official boxed piece of paper? Are they saying, what's going on here with this? I mean, luckily I haven't had to like fill out any job applications for that. You know what I mean? And I can deal with that. But other than that, like I don't run into any problems. I just look at it. I show them my ID, you know, and just it's an easy process. If Arizona's ID, it's got to be his real name. I mean, you could, you could take it

two ways. Like, your name's little Jordan Humphrey, you got to carry that on your shoulders, you know? Like, you could either back down or you could become like a UT legend and be making this Saints team. So it must have given you something to live up to. Facts, it did.

It definitely did. I mean, I guess it's just that mother inspiration, you know what I mean? She saw something special, I mean, when she had. And so, hey, you know so did your mom start to get worried when you kept growing because this is the thing that's really been tripping me up the six foot four thing and it's like everybody wants to be tall every guy wants to be tall we don't all get to be tall speak for yourself i'm loving five five look at my happy life beautiful wife like great career it it suits me gregg always wanted to be five and a half feet tall but everybody else wants to be six four and you are so at any point

did it ever cross your mind, maybe I need to make a modification here. And again, it's a little tricky because it's not a nickname. It's a birth name and it's from your mom. But once you go, 510, 511, 6, 1, 2. Did it ever cross your mind? Maybe it's time to mix it up or did you like the kind of the yin and yang of it all? I mean, I never really thought about it like that. I know.

I mean, I just got kidding tall, but I was like, it's my name. So I'm never going, you know what I mean? It's just, I don't know. I just never thought about it like that. We're so stupid. It is. Like that's the thing. Like, why can't we just focus on the Saints' wide receiver battle?

Why do I keep getting hung up on the name? And so any adjustments like large Jordan Humphrey or not so Lil, Jordan Humphrey. There's also one, what if it was kept little Jordan Humphrey, open parenthetical, who's actually six foot four, closed parenthetical? No. I'm good on that, you know? All right, I give up. It is. In reality, it's just a name, you know what I mean?

It's a little different, but hopefully, you know what I'm saying? I can, I do enough just so, like, it becomes a normal thing, you know what I mean? So, yeah. I know. I'm sorry we're dwelling on it. I'm going to try to move on. I am actually curious, Lil Jordan, L.J., about this Saints wide receiver room. It's kind of a weird, at least from our perspective, with the Saints right now.

of an unusual offseason and that there are so many question marks when they've been so locked and loaded the last few years. And one thing that stands out is you are an undrafted player. There are seven of you, I believe, that are fighting for big time reps in that wide receiver room. Everybody knows Michael Thomas and that he's dealing with the ankle surgery, but there seems to be a real opportunity here for you to really make an impact in your third season here. Yeah, I mean, it's a great opportunity, honestly. I'm just trying to seized that. And just by going out there, working every day, competing. And hopefully, you know, I'll find a spot on this team, the squad. Right. You entered such a crazy situation, you know,

you get to be there for the last year of Drew Brees. Now it's like a, you know, a different quarterback room, although James Winston and Tassum Hill were there before, but now they're battling for the lead spot. I just got to be curious. As a longtime believer in James Winston, what is that guy like in the locker room, like as your quarterback, as one of the leaders on this team now? I mean, great guy. You know, somebody you can talk to about anything. He's going to lead you in the right direction. He's also going to have fun with it.

So, I mean, he's a guy that you want as a quarterback. And same with Taysam. Like, I don't know, it's going to be a hard decision for coach to make that. You know what I mean? So what if. What if James tries to eat the W again in the pregame? puddle like would he lose the team if he did it or would people like like oh cool callback man we're in on it where we're i doubt he'll lose a team you know um that's him you know i mean he's

different about how he approached things and yeah you can't knock him for it because he brings energy when he does the way he does his thing so um i mean i doubt i doubt that he'll lose a team i think he's his energy bringing fruit chuggles losing people up and stuff so yeah i know also at Texas that you were a poet. You wrote a couple of poems that went, I would call viral, semi-viral. What kind of poem will the

Saints write this season in your mind? That's a good question, Mark. Whoa, Sassie. What kind of poem? Hopefully a great one. Honestly, I feel like we got the tools to do, to have a great season. We just got to, you know what I mean, keep working.

Try to get better than this training camp and, you know, just leave, just trusting coach's plan, the coach's plan, and execute it at the best of our abilities. And I think it would be fine. What was your poetry style? Because I know Mark must have done this for you just saw that and felt the kinship. He is definitely the poet. He would love to go viral with the poem. It hasn't quite happened for him yet.

Like how did he do not? I couldn't tell you the poem style. It's been a minute. I think I wrote it, what, 2017, 2018? team. But I just like to write sometimes, you know, just get my, get my mind on some, clear my mind on the paper. So, yeah, I don't have a specific style that's say that. Well, well, Jordan, thank you for joining us. And I would like to make an announcement for anyone listening. Now that we have asked the line of questioning about his name moratorium, no one asks L.J. about his name any longer. It is what it is. He's not changing it.

He likes it. He loves his mom. Get off his back. Let him start on the football. L.J. Humphrey, little Jordan. Thank you, buddy. And best of luck this season. Good luck.

Thank you. Thanks, man. Thank you. Appreciate you. Look at Richard's coming through with the booking. There he goes. Little Jordan. L.J.

And Erica, props to Erica. I was kind of joking, to be quite honest with you. When I said, let's get a little Jordan Humphrey on the show. And then he shows up and he rolls up and he rolls. with the punches. That was fun. Yeah, thanks. The email I had to send a booking for like why we wanted him. It was like, um, we're really interested. He seemed to be curious if like we were joking too for a chunk of it, but he was a good sport. I think five questions into the name origin. He probably figured out we weren't going to go in

too many other directions with him. Yes, he was indeed a good sport. Speaking of good sports, we have another guest now. And he is, uh, the honorary mayor of my not south dakota north dakota south dakota north dakota maybe he can help us out and he is a long time friend of the show former colleague let's welcome him back he's in the best shape of his life connor or welcome back to uh the run the NFL podcast what's up buddy and is it north or south dakota i know you know my not north dakota right there you go oh shit you don't know either. Ricky. You're the honor. You are the mayor in waiting. How would you? It's North Dakota. You know, I have like that inability to, you can convince me of anything. And so like when Dan had expressed doubt at the beginning, I was like, I have the frisbee sitting right behind me that I think says North Dakota on it. And, uh, you know, but I don't even know what I typed in my naughty North Dakota. What are you, can you spell it? That's a whole different place. Pre-dated Ricky, I guess. Or she wasn't paying attention during that hour.

Yeah, there's a solid like 87% of our listenership that's probably not familiar with Minot. But it's like one of the most important cities in the country. My not is a city in North Dakota. And for those not in the know, Connor once built a Madden franchise or was it a college football franchise, whatever it was for EA sports, his video games that he loves so much. And talked about it on the show. And then My not got all hot in the pants and sent a bunch of swag to us. and I think they gave Connor the key to the city. It got pretty wild.

The key to the city never showed up. And it led to like this long, festering conspiracy that, like, I think at the time I was mad at Greg and I just thought he was keeping it and not giving it to me. And so, like, for a long time, I was just like, God, this guy is just like, you know, plays dirty. What facts did you have to suggest that? Nothing to support it. Based on zero. All right. Greg, this is the chance to take.

it out and make the wrong right. Yeah, I do remember that that time that Connor was mad at me during his entire employment at the NFL. It was good. The Greg manager face. So many

exciting times. But Connor, forget about Minot. Let's not forget about it. It's part of the show's history. We love Minot. But let's now spin forward. What is up with you, buddy? How you doing? What's going on? Are you are you professionally fulfilled? Are you personally fulfilled? Take us through it all.

Everything is, everything's great, you know. Sports Illustrated is great. The football preview issue hits stands in a week from now, which I think everybody should go by. And the MMQB podcast is a lot of fun. And we've gotten a lot of crossover listeners, which has been awesome. Like we've gotten emails from a lot of people from ATN that have bounced over there. And so that's been really cool. Hopefully we haven't lost them. You're saying that they're listening to both. You haven't told them. I've made them all sign agreements saying that they'll only listen to one podcast.

Wait, that's you. Jenny, is Breer involved with this? It's me, Jenny, and our senior editor, Gary Gremlin. It makes up the MMQB podcast. I think Albert has a show, a YouTube show now. No, it's good to keep them out of that. We're trying to appeal to the kids. Yeah.

So let me ask you this. before we get into it because fun sag we're going to come up with team slogans heading into the 2021 season with connor's help but to me at least if you're in our age range and connor you're younger but you're still i think fit under this when you were going through j school and you had your dreams of being a big uh sports writer the holy grail was are you writing the cover story the gamer for the super bowl for s i is that a possibility for or as we kind of look forward maybe i don't know about this year but maybe in the next five years do you think you're on a path where you might write the sports illustrated gamer for the super

bowl um oh is it possible i i would say this uh the the two people who do it now gregg bishop and jenny vrentis are both very young and very incredible and the work that they've put into that is is staggering and so I would say that like I would jump at the chance to to do it one day but I don't know where I fall in the lineage you know what I mean like you have to you have to be born in the right royal birth order and I seem to have gotten wedged in there but I will I will say I've gotten to help a couple times like and contribute some stuff which which was very cool and And, yeah, I mean, the amount of work that they do on that is staggering. I mean, Jenny's sort of a mentor to you, Connor, so it would be you kind of having to take your mentor and throw her under the bus to get the assignment, which is dirty.

Right. I think they're both young and trusting. I know them both a little bit. So I think they'd be susceptible to foul play, the same. The thought has crossed. Yeah. I mean, the thought to sort of, you know, Frank Underwood, the whole thing has occurred. to me. And it's just something that I'm keeping in my back pocket. I've lived the first half of my life

as sort of a quiet guy, but that exists inside all of us somewhere. That's Greg, our former manager. He's scouted, who is vulnerable, who could be manipulated. Let's get into it. Do you have the key to the city, Greg? What about the producer that took our stitcher? Does she have it? I mean that would be troubling that was yeah I think she was gone

she was gone by then what did they promise you a key to the city and say they were going to send it? They said it was mailed to Culver City and it was never forwarded to me

the only reason I think I got some of the other stuff that was sent to me is I happened to be in the office on like that one time a year I would show up to re-sign my contract when a giant that giant box came

and like I got like tank tops I got a coozy, I got pens, I got a frisbee that was behind me, and like pretzels, like vanilla icing-coated pretzels, which were just ridiculously good. Just to let you know our mailroom, there are anecdotes of our mailroom. Dan knows a couple of stories where they have hardcore flagged packages that have arrived and they've never really gotten to. Well, they've ended careers. They've ended careers.

Maybe they saw, you know, who is this NFL scribe receiving a giant gold or something? Silver Key, we're sending this straight to your higher boss above Greg, who no longer is with the company. That also checks out, yeah. Let's get to it. Team slogans for 2021. Connor, we're going to go through him. We're going to just kind of cycle through teams.

And if you, this is, I sent the text to the boys yesterday, and I laid it out like this. You could have one slogan, five, 12, 32. And we're just going to rip through the teams. And when you have a slogan, let me know. okay and we'll do it that way and let's start in the aFC east with the buffalo bills i'll get us going uh cole beasley does not represent the views of the buffalo bills ownership or related properties solid they're they're like over 90% that's long that's long for a slogan but uh i did notice you know they're their left tackle dion dockins who um was in the hospital with covid he was

partially vaccinated maybe the highest paid player on their team other than john Josh Ellen, I think, and, you know, one of their best players and said he, not to take go too serious, but he was worried he might die. And so they asked him about Cole Beasley. And it's a tricky thing. And he was, he played it pretty cool. He's like, you know, I respect anyone wants to have their own wishes. But I am so thankful that I was partially vaccinated or I might have died.

You wonder if like these things come up? What does partially mean? Was he in between jabs or did he just not get the second? He got the jab at the start of training camp like a lot. of players did once they sort of were compelled to and got covid days later or almost like immediately later i feel like the the jab thing has become very commonplace now and i don't like does anybody else not like that and they say like you got the jab yeah i don't like it no i can't it makes me serious literally the first time i've ever said that and i even as i was saying i was like

i'm not going to say that ever again it's in headlines now it's like falcons 100% jabbed i didn't want to take it too serious there but that felt like like a weird wild story like there are two of your biggest leaders on your offense like you do wonder what kind of conversations happen in cases like that because they all had to have been pretty worried that Dion Dawkins is laid up in a hospital worried that he might die a mere 31 more teams to get through up next the New England Patriots anybody got one did not do good job guys we're flying right now I didn't know why would we go through all 32 teams I thought I know it's everyone You know what?

It's just throw out the teams you got. When one shows up, it's a beautiful treat. I was workshopping one that I tossed out that I could just throw out there. Yes, please. Just like now back to like now featuring the original recipe or like now back to the original recipe or something like that. You know, because it's like now they are once again like a boring plotting offense with like a like a quarterback who does nothing but release the ball in time and you know and everybody seems to love it. Mine would be more, yeah, like something directed towards the fans, just from the team, just being like saying, don't cheer too loud when we bench Cam.

Everyone thinks we're racist. So that would be my slogan. Yeah, mine is kind of the voice of the fans. Mack Jones, that's more like it. All right, dolphins, anybody. Dolphins, I got double the OCs. Oh, he's a G. little John Gonzalez

inside baseball callback. John Ronald Gonzalez born March 12th, 1977 as an American sports writer who's married Annette Broadcaster Colleen Wolfe John, who's a Pisces resides in Los Angeles

with his wife and two dogs. G.C., good call. John Gonzalez, Colleen's husband's been trying to get that off the ground for about, oh, I don't know. 15 years? In our circle, it's gotten off the ground.

Up next, the New York Jets. I have one for the Jets. What do you got? Once you go, Zach, you never get. go back. After today, I kind of feel like it could be like, oh, man, it's happening again. Stop.

That's the slogan. Tough day. I don't really. I can't believe it. I don't know what the slogan is, but I do like here in New York, like, it's happening right before our eyes where they're positing, they're, they're juxtaposing Robert Sala and Joe Judge, and like, Robert Sala is like this wonderfully calm. Zen human and then Joe Judge is like screaming at everybody and yelling at everybody and he has not back down from that at all and he's like yeah I don't yell at my players and and that has kind of continued and it has been sort of the best so like the slogan would almost be like best head coaching fight since like Rex and Tom Coughlin you know whereas like we used to have that fun dynamic where it was like polar opposites and I feel like we're back there again which is just like look at big blue you know if if nothing.

else, I think they are the team you want to be right now in New York, the Jets. I mean, I'm still brokenhearted about the Carl Lawson development here, but I think as a Jets fan, I don't want to be around anymore. Just stay on the positive side of things, and I'll go with this for their slogan. The New York Jets. A boy will lead them. What do you think? It's like the music my aunt listens to.

It's like the start of a long journey. We've talked about him appearing to be a small, not small, because he's not small, because he's not small, but just a boy. I like it. Because it's like the beginning of a long adventure. You don't have to get to that. the end. You don't have to get to the Lord of the Ring yet. This is like the start of nine hours straight. I mean, a lot of boys are very disorganized. They're still figuring things out. So I hope that when you say, boy, that you're not looking for the pure traits of a person who's not an adult

to lead a franchise. I think you get it, Mark. You have some biblical knowledge. I mean, a young child will lead them. We're looking at him as a Christ-like figure more than ever now that what's happening on the other side of the football. I mean, this comes a week after you compared this to your Sam Darnold fetish and said, I'm not going down this road again. I'm more philosophical this time, and now you've compared him to... I am. I am trying to take a step back, especially after the news that today, I am again, fully

aware of the curse that my organization is still dealing with after the Joe Namath Super Bowl. Like, I understand that, so I'm trying to take a step back. But the organization, they need to get behind the young kid now more than ever. The AFC North, how about your Cleveland Browns, Mark? I didn't do one for them. All right, anybody else? Nice. All right.

How about this? If I knew the format was going through all 32 teams. Yeah, I feel grossly unprepared now. I think it's fine that some get no attention. They're still workshopping. They don't deserve a slogan. How about for the Browns? Do you trust us?

Yeah. I like that. I don't know. Yeah, I think that's where they're. I got one for the Bengals, too. Don't trust us. Yes. The Bengals could just be check the dossier.

I have one for the Bengals too. I do too. It's a little bit more of an in-house slogan to everyone who works there. It says, please line up at the machine in the corner over there to punch your time cards each day at 5 p.m. Paychecks will be direct deposited or mailed in paper form on Fridays at 11 a.m. Just check the box. That's good. It's good to get that information.

it's like that's internal information but it's also in case they miss like an email if it's on like the media guide uh they'll probably see it there who else had one i i just went with it's football because like you know it's it's very like straightforward and legal um because like you're not promising anybody anything um and theoretically the product that you're putting out there is football yeah stadiums downtown i didn't realize like how much the stadium is very just downtown and walkable until being in Cincinnati this summer.

It's just like, hey, what a great thing. How about that? Cincinnati Bengals, the stadium is downtown. Why not? You know? For Steelers I had, we're still here, Mark. And Connor, for that matter. I like that a lot.

Mine is similar, but it's, if you thought our fans were obnoxious before, just wait until the Sevenge Revenge Tour. It's not wrong. You just edit out the word revenge there upon reading it. All right.

For the Ravens, I had preseason is the reason for the season. And the Ravens are riding. Well, actually, we actually have a trailer that I wanted to debut on the show for the Baltimore Ravens because this podcast is very exciting. In a world where exhibition football was mocked. diminished and marginalized one team had the guts to take a stand five years 18 victories big rush come and McSorley throws touchdown zero defeats on Benon off the play bank throws intercepted the Baltimore Ravens simply won't lose means a lot I mean it means you know whether it's a winning streak or just the idea of how you approach the game

I just think it's a credit to the players in terms of cooperation and coaches over the years in terms of we've run a good training camp and off-season program and guys are ready to play, you know, good fundamental football. And that's what wins, whether it's pre-seasonal, season or whatever it might be. This August, the hay is in the barn. The hay's in the barn. How much fun is that? Summer School is in session. Makes the catch. Is he inbound?

Touchdown for Shaw Parraven. And the Baltimore Ravens are going streaking in. In the quad. We're going, streaky! Can they be beat? No fucking way. Coming soon to a theater near you. So long.

Streaking in the quad. They better not go one in two now. I mean, shout out. That is amazing production work by everyone involved in. Great, great voice. And great job. by Rick Gosselin for pointing out the 18-game winning streak, because I don't think anyone even noticed other than him.

You know how relieved John Harbaugh was when somebody brought it up? Like, he was just like, oh, thank God. Okay, let me talk about this. Yeah. My slogan, we're not just crab cakes and Cal Ripkin anymore. It doesn't feel as, like, meaningful after hearing that video. That was Jason Zumwalt, of course, on the voiceover. Wow.

What a talent. A talent, yep. AFC South. let's see i got texans see in 2025 yeah i have a texans one okay um it the main slogan that you would see all around the stadium is called ride the multicolored turtle from shiba with an exclamation mark and it's like hey so what does that mean but in the small type um it says every fan ages three and up receives a tab of lSD with their game day ticket place said tab under tongue during the national anthem one in 16 becomes a gorgeous rainbow we respect you

so instructional yeah just imagine the the billboard there it's going all around the stadium i love it i do like the instructional nature of your slogans mark i'm not very good at slogans so i you know i've got i've got some texans related ones which is just um the 2021 jacksonville jaguars we're not the texan I just think, like, that would be like a big hit. And then the Texans 2121 slogan, which is just stop asking.

Right, right. Just stop asking. Leave us alone. Deshaun Watson's lack of awareness was outrageous when he kind of barked at a cameraman that was training the lens on him as he's walking off the practice field last week. It's like the same thing every day. Like upset that you're being put on camera. Dude, you're kind of a story.

whether you want to be or not. Jenny, you, Brent this, by the way, doing, like, incredible work. I am thankful for her. I'm thankful for... She's all over this. Companies like Sports Illustrated that don't have television deals, you know, with the NFL that are able to do this sort of reporting because we get a lot of grief. And we've talked about this, you know, Deshaun Watson quite a bit, I think.

But I think the NFL media gets a lot of understandable and needed grief for how, like, we've handled Deshaun Watson, but it's like, ESP, if you have noticed, ESPN, pro football talk with NBC, like everyone who are also employees of the NFL because they're getting paid by the NFL because they're partners, their coverage is just as regrettable, I would say, would be my word. Like, it's a tough one. Yeah. It's on my radar.

For the slogan, like, so I, at first I imagined, like, you know, what the Texans need to do is lean into what they are. Beyond, you know, kind of the tire fire that's engulfed the organization, which is like they just have this hilarious old man as a head coach and who's just comically lost. And like I would drape on the sides of the stadium like these large, like powerful pictures of him, like almost like Stalin and in Russia. You know what I mean? And then like Sean Payton in the year he was suspended. Yeah. And then those big posts. True propaganda.

Do we get beeps on this? Can I say something? Sure, it's a little rip, buddy. Yeah. So it'd be like, you know, it's like, it's Cully time, motherfucker, you know? Like, really like, you know, like, everything's got to be like Cully, you know, like, it just like really bang the people over the head with it, you know? You got to put the focus somewhere if your management,

trying to get the fan base excited, build it around Grandpa Cully. All right, AFC West for the Chargers. And this is like my mom's old thing. where she says if you say something you don't want to happen don't spit in the scoy well

how about charges what could possibly go wrong are they saying that with confidence like we feel confident it has been a pretty quiet month which gets to my charger slogan too

which is just have you seen Justin Herbert that's all just like who else that's like an actual slogan they could use on a billboard here like please Rams don't have

have Justin Hurd like have you seen Justin This is amazing. We lucked into this guy. What about don't make your season ticket package a business decision, actually go to the games? I had, see, I went in a different direction there. I had for the Chargers, you had me at Hello, because have you listened to Brandon Staley talk?

Thank you. This is the most engaging human on planet Earth. Like, it's, what's the line from Superbad? It's like the first time I heard the Beatles, watching their little. watching their little snippet of, and I'm, granted, I'm like, I'm the target audience there. I just melt into a puddle every time I hear, like, rapid fire coach talk. You and Mark, he is right there. No, we're two peas in a pod with Staley, and I'm with you.

He sold me on, like, that first round of pressers that he did. I was, like, you know, listening to a beautiful nerd. And I don't mean, like, a bad version of a nerd, like, the good aspects of a nerd. On Sundays, you can literally run across from the office. I realize, like, I guess we should have known this, but it's. like the entrance is literally like a hundred feet away from our office you could just run over in the middle and watch your boy brandon staley sounds chaotic i don't know if you could get in they'll have a by the time we actually get there i'm sure they'll have a seven-foot wall with barbed wire

there's a wall there's a wall but you know you're gonna move around like oh do you sir do you have you $175 to enter the stadium no um i got the chiefs in this division all right too um my my chief's slogan is be grateful for our existence. Just like, have some gratitude, Chiefs fans. You haven't had a playoff win in, what, 20 plus years before Mahomes. This is the best part. It's like why I always say week one is the best week of the NFL season because you got the most ahead of you.

It's like this is still the best part of the Mahomes experience. You're in year four. You've already got a Super Bowl in your pocket. You went to another. Like, everything is ahead of you. Just be grateful. Are you sensing, like, a lack of gratitude? I was going to say, as first I said, fair point.

I said, what evidence is Greg have that the Chiefs fan base isn't? No, it's a good reminder. As the years, maybe I'm projecting. Like a pre-Scolding. It's a pre-colding. As a Patriots fan, like, the Patriots fan still had all that gratitude going into 2004, I would say. Like, that was the time where it started stacking these years up. So you're looking at your head here.

Yeah, it really turned into obnoxious fan behavior. Right around it. All right. Let's move to, well, I have for the Raiders, if we stink, it's Mayox Fault, or maybe the QBs. That deflection over in the desert. All right, NFC. NFC. East. Whoa, whoa, we're missing. You got one? You got another one? Missing the Denver Broncos, right? What do you got? You have to say it in the right voice. I've kind of been practicing it a little bit. It's kind of like football like mom used to make.

You know, like it has to be like in a really like Italian voice. And I think the reason that I like it is, because their coach is an old Italian man from Scranton. And like he's built this like dream vision of a team that like an elderly man from Scranton would build. Like this unstoppable defense, a running game, a great offensive line, and perhaps a quarterback, we don't know. Like there might not be one. But, you know, in that way, it's sort of like if I'm going out, I'm going out exactly how, you know, my 90-year-old high school football coach would go out. hunters and slogans all sound like like slogans like they've been tested like you like

you scored well with the fans and focus groups I love it yeah you know so that's why I didn't do a lot of them but you know the work that went into this you know stellar you're hitting home runs you're hitting home runs exactly you only play against lefty pitchers uh but you mash your OPS is through the roof and your platoon role in the NFC to start with the east for the Washington football team we can't have a slogan until we have a name that's that's where I'm coming from I know I'm not uh probably um being out number three to one on oh it's so cool well that's why that's why my my slogan would be more leaning into it which is more that we are the football team like that's pretty they're the ones that's pretty good well they have the list

of the all the names they're considering um I'm not a fan of almost any of them at all like I would stick with football team like the rest of them the division they're not changing the name i i would i would put a sandwich on it that's a kind of we are the football team because i'm picturing it on a billboard and it's so stupid but then you look at it and it's like that's pretty good you got to bold it out you got to bold the out you know or something or make it all caps the you know you got to make that part exciting yeah i would just go like please please don't call us the defenders would be like that right because that's going to get It's so uncomfortable, like, right away.

You know what I mean? Or how about if the defense falls off a cliff and at some point is it the worst defense in the league for five years and your nickname is the Defenders? Yeah. Yeah. Ooh, that's a good point. That's a good point. In your face.

I don't know who came up with some of these names. In your face. One is like the Red Pigs or the Red Hogs. Like, what do we come on here? The Red Pigs. Is that up for? I like that a lot and I don't think that's one of them. But Red Pigs would be fantastic.

Someone online photoshopped. The Red Pigs. Terry McClecks. Lauren in a Red Wolf's jersey, I guess Red Wolves was a thing. And, like, there was like these claws, claws coming down, like bloody claws coming down his shoulders. And then it's, and then their slogan, it was like, Washington Red Wolves, we won't concern ourselves with the opinions of sheep, you know, because.

And I was just like, wow, like, that would be so bad that it would be the best thing for the franchise. Like, that's what you do. You lean into the worst nickname of all time. and you just totally rebrand. I really like that. I feel like the guiding principle should be if the name conjures up an image of Jake Rudin as your quarterback,

then you're not a professional, like, NFL level team name and go back to the shop. All right. For the New York Giants, Ricky, can you play the Mara clip from his recent press availability? We're all in the hot seat. You know, I mean, with our fans in particular, we've given them too many losing seasons. It's time for us to start winning.

But no, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that's inaccurately. The New York Giants, even the freaking owner is on the hot seat. No one's ever heard of that before. It's never happened. An owner has never been on the hot seat until the 2021 New York Giants. I believe it. I think he resigns in shame if the Giants go 7 and 10.

No doubt. Do you guys buy it? Totally. He'd walk away from it all. He's literally been saying this every year since I started covering the team in 2010, and there's, like, every year he comes out and does his yearly availability. And then someone says, is there a playoff mandate? And he said, we're all on the hot seat. But a quick, like, boring story is like, when Tom Kaufman was there, the big thing was every year he had a slogan.

And it was terrible. And it was always, like, from some picture book he probably read on General Patton or something like that. right before the season started. Picture book. But it was like a very, like, frantic thing where it was like, which beat reporter is going to be the first guy to identify the slogan. And, like, sometimes the players would, in the very early days of Twitter, like, maybe hashtag it. And then you're like, is that the slogan? And, like, you know, and then you'd get there and it'd be like, burn the boats or, you know, we're going all in.

Or like, you know, secure the borders or something. You know, like one of those things. That's what McCarthy did with the Austin Powers thing. You clearly watched that on Netflix. and decided, oh, yeah, Mojo, that's our whole thing. Which, by the way, if you had a whole off season to prepare a speech and that's what you came up with, like, and you knew you were going to be on Hard Knocks? Like, if I'm Jerry Jones, I'm like, who the hell did I hire?

I think it's just it's human capacity we're dealing with there. I don't think, I think, you know. It's my number one takeaway from every Hard Knock season is, has any one of these speeches ever helped any team at all? Like, think of the amount of man hours wasted. I'm sure maybe a couple of them have, but for the most part, think of, like, all the time that's wasted that's not helped anyone in one, like, degree. And they'd still just do it all the time. Speaking of the Cowboys, anybody got one for them? I have one.

I have offense not available in certain participating locations. Just because it's like, I guess it was like a way to get to the fact that, like, Mike McCarthy sort of lied about. everything that he knew about offense leading up to this and that sometimes they look really great and then sometimes they look like the 2011 Packers. And so depending on which game you attend, you really don't know what's coming. So you're not buying McCarthy's epiphany year where he apparently went out and was, you know, downloaded into the motherboard like 88,000 other offensive concepts and he comebacks and it's just the same guy. Don't forget about mojo moments, guys. You got to factor that into the offense this year.

He told Peter King, he's like, I'm going to hire 11 math guys. And then you go to like the team, the team website. It's like, where are the math guys? There's no, it's the same thing. You've got to be a subscriber to get to the math guy. He hired like 11 sixth grade math teachers at an area elementary schools and middle schools. And even then they could teach him like, you know, hey, let's go forward and forth. I've got the Eagles, which the slogan would be.

Siriani, more like Siri yummy. Oh, okay. So. All right. Haven't seen it in person yet. Yeah, lean into his appeal, you're saying? Yeah, yeah, to younger women. To everyone, just like it's Siri yummy.

All right. I like that. Back to Cowboys, I had a clean Gooch, full hearts can't lose. That's money. One and I were introduced to the word Gooch this week in Hard Knocks. I was not familiar with that. Really? Neither was Dan, apparently.

No, it was not. I wasn't. That area of the body. You're showing your age. Yeah. Yeah. That's all right. I don't give a shit.

Well, we still have that area of the body. So it's not like we aren't, we still are part of the experience. I mean, I will give it to the youth of America. I actually like Gooch better than, uh, the other ones. Right. I think I think you guys have hit on something here. Good job with everything else, too. Um, NFC North.

Anybody got one from the north? Missing the Giants, by the way, in the east. I have two for the, what's that, Connor? You're missing the Giants in the east. All right, what do you got for the Giants? We ain't got time to bleed. Roddy Piper? No, Jess Mediura.

Predator. Yes, of course. Just because I was there for the practice where Joe Judge freaked out and made everybody do laps and push-ups, and it was phenomenal. It was like, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before in my life. Do you think, do you get the vibe that that's, he's kind of messing with something here. He's in a little bit of putting himself in danger, put it that way, in 2021 with this type of style.

Do you think this is going to work long term, even long term being December? This is the bellwether. I actually wrote this, this is the bellwether for whether anybody else is going to try this again, right? Like, he is the last guy, I feel like if this doesn't work, then the tough guy coach goes basically out the window. And then Belichick is the last guy that's able to do that. You know, because you can't come in hot anymore and do that. You have to, like, in five years, everybody is going to look like, like Kyle Shanahan. Like the official coaching uniform will change from, like, a polo to like a Patagonia sleeveless vest and like a checkered gingham shirt on the sideline.

Like, everyone's going to look like that guy, you know? Yeah. I don't know if that's a good thing either. No. This approach works if you win. Look at Belichick. It's like, he got to win. that's what matters the most um nfc north i got i got the vikings right which is uh you know

which is just no it's not covid um or like or like oh it's that look on a billboard how does that look like you know just be like maybe it's like a or you can say like put your mask on our quarterback's about to call a play you know uh and uh what if like the the viking helmet or the logo or whoever their mascot is and then it's just locked in a glass or a plexiglass cage like the quarterback wants to be like you just kind of get that out there imagery. It's a visual, yeah. I've got the Packers, which their slogan's going to be like,

okay, 13 and 3 wasn't good enough for you. Watch this. I have a Packers one too. Be happy. With this Packers one, you'd need to, you'd have to imagine yourself in the stadium this Elton John version of this song is blasting in the tagline is the bitch back

Okay That's good A little complaining quarterback is back in the house But then you sell it in a different way I don't know how he's gonna He's probably gonna put that on Goudicunds When he sees the billboard outside You know what?

You know what for all these people That are so hardcore on the other side They can view it through that lens It's really through whatever you want to see it as I like that The Lions you know this is a rebuilding situation for the lion so you've got to kind of look to find your positives here

about Detroit Lions we have the strongest coach and then just leave it at that they do physically he's the strongest coach I it's absolutely true I mean he is a guy like he looks good getting off the bus they always say that about football teams why not your coaching staff well more and more so I think that's true my lines one was you could pair it with that

if times get tough but you can switch over to Little House on the Prairie after the first quarter if you wish it's fine we totally get it I love that you keep those Little House on the Prairie refs strong in the 21st century I was thinking it would be funny if one of the slogans and the lions I guess would fit for this was just like

oh no oh no oh no oh no but that's mean I think it's more like we're trying the Mike Preble thing you know like lions It's like, we're trying the Mike Rable thing, you know? Let's just see if they could do it, you know. NFC South.

I got one for the Saints. Do your job, even if we didn't do our job reinforcing our roster in the offseason. I have a Saints one. Big Sean Payton head. Yeah, Mark. My Saints one is, FYI, we might kind of bite butt, TBD, just a heads up. And you kind of just have that as like a long banner that goes. Why are so negative.

But my Saints one is, if you. love the 2020 pats you'll love us oh i was sort of saying the same thing greg that's what i mean it's i think we're all that's why i feel bad we're all we're all pile in on a little bit i'm just going to say like please please enjoy sean peyton as the head coach of your 2022 dallas cowboys would be we're still connecting those deaths that's one of my favorite rumors i do have a panthers one uh which is who rules matt rules Thumbs up. Sam Darnold better play along to make that billboard make sense.

Can I have had a quarterback throw to the left? I mean, I feel like that. You know, the fans are thinking it, so why not make it the slogan? Finally, unless you had one there in the South, Connor, I know you got to get going in a minute. My Panthers one was just, can our quarterback throw to the left? We'll find out. Finally, the NFC West is kind of a real one for me. The Seahawks, cook or die.

This is it. Just lean into it. Give Russ 17 weeks, and if he falls on his face, you learn something about him, the offense, the state of this team. Cook or die. Cook or die. I do like the short ones, I have to admit. Those just, they sing.

I have a Niners one. You want a Niners one? Yeah. This would be on top of the big bell bottom. They build like a hundred yard long billboard that also goes up about 30 yards and it just says, anyone smell a think piece? I think what's going to happen with this team is it's going to be everyone, all, everyone, including me, everyone loves Shanahan. And when Shanahan does a lot of amazing stuff with Trey Lance, the fanboys, and it's kind of just feel kind of

like something that I thought I liked a lot more than other people. Everyone's going to like Kyle Shanahan the same and write a billion by week five or six insane think pieces all over the internet about what he's done with Trey Lance and the revolution. And so that sign is just going to be like, you know anyone smell a think piece we should do these slogans at the beginning of training camp i feel like we're getting like a cynical fourth week of training camp we're ready for the season to start a bunch of slogans but i do have a 49ers one too uh mine is uh this is going to be just like 2012 without that harbout time out i see a theme with yours as well gregg a lot of callbacks the past seasons some people will have to do maybe a wikipedia search but they'll connect those dots

Yeah, that's fair. The 49ers fans know. I feel like it, yeah, it's directed. I've got a Cardinals one, but I will need Ricky to bring it up for us if she's there. Hey, a sailor. If you're looking for a good time with a team that feels destined to go 8, 8 and 1, come on over, Big Boy. That was the Cardinals?

Yeah. Okay. They're just kind of selling what they are. Probably one of the most likely teams in the league to go 8, 8, 8, and 1 for the first. time in NFL history. But it could be fun. Remember our ATN intern? Yeah.

What was his name or her name? Kyle! Kyle, that's the slogan for the 49ers. Kyle! All right, Connor. You have a podcast to record. Yeah, you got, and you should listen to it. You're going to listen to it?

You want to listen to it? Right now? Or? Well, when you're done, you know. Yes, what I'll do is, it comes out on Mondays. I got to pick up my kids from. You're taping it Thursday to come out on Monday? Yeah.

Well, that's... Cutting edge. What happens if anything happens at all between now and then? We do add segments. We've done that. Sunday is normally like our wiggle room day, you know, just in case anything gets crazy, you know? I'm going to give it a listen for your sake. That seems like a, yeah.

Okay, well, yes, we're going to listen. There's an entire week of preseason. ahead. So if you're looking for you know, slightly older content to tune in Monday. Anyway, check it out. It is the MMQV

podcast, I believe it's called, correct? That's it. Yeah. And follow Connor at Connor or. That's one and two R's on the last name. One R on the first name. It just made it even more complicated to try to find him. But you'll find him. And one

day he'll be the cover story for a Super Bowl gamer. I feel it. Connor, you're a hero. Well, it was great to see you guys and thank you for having me on and let's all get together soon. Now that we've all got the jab.

Get the jam. Everybody get the jab. All right. There he goes. Connor Orr. There he goes. The iconic, Connor, or get him the key to the city, might not. If you're still listening. I don't know if the man in power

was involved that was involved with the initial gift giving is still in office but a lot of political upheavals have gone down

since 2015 or whenever that story was. Hopefully the my not infrastructure is still in place because they were going to

he was an operative too. I don't think he was like the highest I think he was a regular guy who listened to the show so I'm not sure

what his deal was. By the way like my not North Dakota has some of the grisliest ties to the son of Sam

case that you will find anywhere which i believe i've tried to get you guys i've texted you all this before no one ever responds but um now netflix i believe it's netflix a prime has this son of sam's documentary and my not is featured hardcore in like episode three so if you are a deep diver check it out all right if i do get i don't want the key to that city after what i saw but yeah it's a tough spot when you like wake up on a saturday and you see the three-tier cessler uh tweet storm or a tech storm from like 1.30 in the morning the night before about the son of Sam? Because it's like the next morning. Do you respond then? It's like, why? No, apologies for sharing my interest with my cohorts and friends. I'll step away from that.

Please, never stop sending it. I, yeah, don't always reply because whatever's going on on mark time, wherever you are, sometimes just does not connect with what's going on in other people's times. so I can't really interface, but I also suspect you have me on mute in various formats at times. I've never had you on mute. Never. All right. As promised, before we go, you heard Chris in a little flashback to 2013 when he first, by the way, you didn't just hear Chris. You actually heard a little snippet of the producer that stole our Stitcher.

That was a real time machine. I didn't know that. That's what that was going. Got it. And it's great to hear Wes's voice. And Ricky did a great job digging up the rest of what I believe is a early conversation about the famed Bengals dossier. So as opposed to playing out with our standard music play out, I will say this, heed the call. And now we throw it to, you know, we hop in the time machine when we're all together.

And Wes was explaining to us his divorce from his boyhood team. take it away, Mr. Wessling. Wesleyan, I couldn't help notice you came into the office today with a big file of 1987 paperwork or somebody like that. What is this?

Check out the highlights and underlines and everything. So this is, wow, there it is. That's the Holy Grail. That is exactly what Wes has been speaking of for weeks. He has an entire file. How do you describe it again?

Well, it was a legal file folder when I used to work at a law firm. I have one of the legal files, but it's now in like a hanging file. But what is it exactly? This is my evidence for why I broke up with the Bengals about 15 years ago. It's various articles and research about how they ran their operation at the time and why I felt a need after they left me at the altar to not go back to their loving arms. This is wonderful madness.

This is insane. He has highlighted articles from salon.com places that... Remember King Kaufman from Salon.com? They don't even exist anymore. Some weird iteration of ESPN. He has a 1999 article from the Enquirer entitled Mike Brown's contribution to the lunatic fringe. How about Bengals charging $3 for tap water? That's the most Bengals article ever.

I like how you ever... Clearly, all these were printed up on a Netscape browser with a 56K dial-up connection at a library computer lounge. don't take sports loyalty lightly and if you're going to break up with your team I think you have to have you have to make a case have you ever have they ever lured you back to potential fandom and then you've gone to visit this legal file for evidence of why not no did you were you doing this at the time or then you decided okay I'm going to break up and then I went back and printed all these out I would say half and half like some of those articles are from 98 when I broke up with them and then maybe by 2002 they were having another really historically awful season and I thought

okay maybe I have to remind myself of why I broke up with this team and did and did you ever present did you ever present your case is there someone that you do present such a case too well every once in a while there'll be some very short-sighted ignorant fan who will have this opinion that you can never break up with a team and you have they think loyalty is only a one-way street the fan has to be loyal but the franchise doesn't and at that point maybe I can go get my research and them why exactly this. People forget because the Bengals have had a few good years, how bad of an operation they were.

Right, it was a dry spot. The worst operation I've seen in sports. I have one that's accusing Mike Brown of breaking constitutional rights of freedom of speech. I have another, which I forgot about, where the Bengals, I guess, lightly threatened to move to Cleveland. Did you remember this at all? No, that sounds outrageous. People forget about all the egregious things they did.

How can the Bengals threaten to move to another city with a team that already in plans? No, was it during the... Hey, look, I was hoping that go. I'm looking at something here. West scrawled it in crayon that the Bengals and Brown were in the grassy knoll in Dallas, 63. Well, now we understand Wesseling's divorce from the Bengals better now. I still don't understand. It actually leaves more questions than answers.

We can talk about this over beers. We will, and we will. I don't know how we get back on track because I want to dig through... Literally, I feel like we're not describing it properly. There's probably, what, 300 pieces of paper in that file? Yeah, we will take a photo of this and send it out on our Twitter account and some highlights and you guys can take a look. Oh, boy. Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here.

And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find. anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft

tips and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.