NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Unpacking Packers Drama; Jets New Uniforms

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

A room filled with heroes- Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal bring you all of the latest news around the NFL including the Green Bay Packers drama between Rodgers and McCarthy (03:27), the New York Jets unveiling their new uniforms, (20:39) and Kirk Cousins addressing Michigan State before the final four. (27:39) The heroes answer some mailbag questions (32:16), take a trip into Ricky's DMs (43:32) and handle some unfortunate HR Shield related business.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. Never slide into the DMs. Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis. Join in a room filled with some heroes.

Mark Sessler to my left, Greg Rosenthal, to my right. What is up, boys? Hey, Nate. I, well, this happened a lot, obviously, during Wes's successful war against cancer. But I can't remember. It's been a while since the three amigos in the room have been together here. How is everybody? Is that what we're calling ourselves?

That's our name? Why not? It's fine. Three amigos. It feels a little, like we're sounding a little too excited that West is here. It's definitely like a popular dad movie, you know, and we're a bunch of dads. I think it's a little before our time. Speaking of being a bunch of dads, and Rick, you brought it up right before we started.

So the Shield came back on Wednesday. Should let you guys know that we are 1-0 at 23 to 12 conquest over a dollar taco. Played more like 50-cent taco. Yanks. Nailed it. And very sore right now, my body sore. I am aging. I'm almost 39 now.

Ricky, though, makes me feel better because young Erica Tamposi also feeling some aches and pains from the opener. I am, yeah. It's also just muscles you haven't used in a long, long, long time. Different muscles. So it's like I was getting out of my car and I, like, lifted my leg to, you know, swing out of my car and, like, the top of my thighs. I was like, what the? I like how you describe that you swing your leg out of like you have a prosthetic or something. Yeah.

I do. It's sprinting. You know, you're not doing a lot of sprinting in regular life. And when you score 23 runs, there's a lot of running around the bases. A lot of sprinting. Is that your biggest romp of all time? We've had games where we put up runs like that. But it was a nice way to start the season.

A lot of people. Wes played great. In fact, hit a home run and got on base, as he always does. We really hit the ball well. Fielded pretty well. And the pitching by Brooke was always good, as always. and there's one issue and we're going to get to it at the end of the show

outside of Dollar Taco being in your league to begin with are you even in the same league that you were in last time? We are in the same league, yes. It seemed very suspect. They are a new team and they have some hitters but we took care of business. There is some unfortunate softball-related shield matters that we will hit at the end of the show.

I'll just leave it there. Not everything was good on Wednesday night. Just like a little tease. Let's just say that in this situation, Mark Sessler is not a Ted Thompson-like character falling asleep during meetings. He's on top of things.

He's wide awake and ready to pounce. It's coming up on today's show. Yes, the mailback, we haven't opened it up in a few weeks. So we reached out to our wonderful listeners of the podcast and you guys hit us up with a bunch of questions. So we'll answer some of those. But let's start with the news. And yes, the big news of the week

in what's been a slow week in the NFL, Well, good job by Bleacher Report and Tyler Dunn because they picked the perfect time to drop a bombshell about the Green Bay Packers. Well, then I guess there's only one thing left to do. What's that? Win the whole fucking thing. Now that's leadership. That's Tom Berringer from Major League. That's what you want in a locker room.

That's what the shield has. we have expert leadership up up at the top um what about in the packers locker room jake taylor his name was in major league hmm great movie um the packers bleach report dropped a long long long study of what went on behind the scenes the downfall uh if an overall thesis of what was the thesis of this piece by tyler done the downfall of the packers the relationship between Mike McCarthy, Packers coach, who got fired last December, Aaron Rogers, and the overall feeling of a huge missed opportunity, what could have been a dynasty, wasn't.

Why was it the case? And Mark, we'll start with you here. There's the two principal characters here, neither come off looking well. McCarthy, who comes off as a guy who got complacent and lazy and misguided about why the team was successful, right down to missing meetings to get massages, which he categorically denies. And then Aaron Rogers, a superstar who does not know how to get along with other people, who is petulant, who is sensitive,

and the Packers could not be functional with these two people at the center of the action. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those articles where suddenly Tyler Dunn does all the work. he uses every single beat source avenue that he has he was in the past puts it out there and then you get everyone else commenting on it and wanting to get their tweets about his story liked and retweeted

because it's one of those things that just takes off and everyone has a point of view it is a football story to me the skeleton of it is about football to some degree but it fit much more in like psychology today because it's about football to one degree but it really was the study and it said in the article it was well stated, an arranged marriage that went totally south, basically.

And I came out of it just fascinated to read how honest some of the sources got with him about what was going on behind the scenes. And I look at Aaron Rogers. I don't know if I look at him differently because I think even on this show, we've always recognized that Aaron Rogers is a little bit of an extra character, a little bit of a different dude. And to me, this was, it clarified some of the stuff about Rogers that separates him a little bit from a Tom Brady. I look at him as someone who has been a chip on the shoulder type quarterback,

which can be used in a well, in a very good way, and he has. But the mirror of that is, I feel there's a B-line of an element of him where he takes a grudge and he holds on to it for a decade plus. I mean, we heard that he essentially had a grudge against Mike McCarthy from the minute they were put together because Mike McCarthy with the Niners favored Alex Smith over Aaron Rogers. We all know about the draft day sit and wait for the Packers quarterback and that it never really got a whole lot better. And the thing that

bothered me a little bit, and there's so much to get into here, was the immense amount of backbiting and backstabbing that happened from quarterback towards coach in this and also the coaching, losing his essentially, according to this article, his zeal to lead the team down the stretch.

Well, I think Rogers never based on this article, fully bought into McCarthy's coaching that he was ultimately a helpful person in his career. And that's a tough... He thought he was smarter than Mike McCarthy. I mean, he probably is.

I mean, I don't think many people would doubt that. But the fact that that relationship was so toxic throughout is a shame. I mean, it's a bummer. And my immediate thought reading this, and they hit on it towards the end, is like the Packers struggled here because they don't have an owner. They're in a unique spot. Now, now there's a lot of NFL owners out there that maybe wouldn't have the ability

or the gravitas or the wherewithal to step in and fix this situation anyways. But the Packers literally don't have an owner. But they had a president and general manager. But even during a lot of this, especially early on, that president figure, Mark Murphy was not as powerful and not as upfront as he is now. Now, that position has taken some transition over the years. They did have a general manager, and so maybe it was on Ted Thompson to step in. Because ultimately McCarthy, I think, you know, some of the things that stuck out to me was

McCarthy had to understand that his relationship with Rogers was the most important thing, and he never was able to address that. And ultimately, Rogers was never going anywhere. He's one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. So if this is the problem, like that needed to be addressed quicker. Either it's sitting the two of them down or it's getting rid of McCarthy quicker. I mean, it does remind you about the NFC championship in 2015 that not only did he run the ball three straight times before punting it back to the Seahawks and not cut Brandon Bostic. But he kicked field goals on the one yard line two different times.

And it's just like a reminder of like that's the type of thing that drove Aaron Rogers, I think, crazy over the years. I think there's a lot of different ways to view how the Aaron Rogers comes off. not as many different ways to view how McCarthy comes off. It's crazy to think that, you know, the Jets were reportedly interested in Mike McCarthy. There was whispers that Cleveland was that if you were a team right now saddled with Mike McCarthy and this article came out as a fan, you'd be concerned because he comes across as someone that, to your point, Greg, the fact that he was stuck around for so long, almost immediately outmoded as a strategist.

The big article, it seemed like there were factions in this article, the way there are when these things come out, where there were certain. Mike McCarthy people who had issues with Aaron Rogers, the person. And then there were others who felt like, it said that people sympathize with Aaron Rogers for being stuck in an offense that never evolved. Well, people around the league have been talking about that for years. Right. They're the most predictable kind of basic. And Wesu is not here would love to be because he's been calling them out for not adjusting type often so that you can watch that and you can see that. Then again, you also, you know, the stuff about Rogers doesn't mean it's not true.

Like you've heard, you've heard a lot of stories behind the scenes. Like he'll, someone will write something early on in their days as a beat writer of the Packers that Rogers didn't like, and he won't speak to them for the rest of their time there in Green Bay. So, like, that's part of it. And I think a voice like James Jones, who works for our network and immediately kind of came out and was like, that's not the Aaron Rogers I know. Like, the one I know, like, 100% is a leader that we follow that, like, we like that we like that relationship.

It does not seem like Aaron Rogers is necessarily a guy that's going to get everyone on the same page. But I think if he respects you, there's a lot of people that have no problem with Well, the strongest voice in this, I thought, was Ryan Grant. And he came out hard on Rogers. But Ryan Grant has not been with the team for half a decade plus. I think why articles like this are so great is this is all stuff that's been kind of under the radar and people that were closer to all new. And I think that's why Mike McCarthy, for instance, the Jets interviewed him, but never gave him any serious thought from what I heard behind the scenes.

Nobody else really took interest in him because this was all stuff that was out there, like within football. circles that McCarthy had lost his zeal that he kind of had lost the respect of Aaron Rogers and Rogers to me is the thing that I took the most interest in out of this and quite frankly it was disappointing to read a lot of the things about his inability to connect with the young players how hard he rode young players as young wide receivers the the way people are scratching their heads like how can he just cut people out of his life and not ever think about there's no kind of going back once you do that he has no relationship with his own family Mike McCarthy and it's a obviously not a great relationship that they ever had going

back to for some reason Rogers put it on McCarthy that the Niners you know picked Alex Smith ahead of him that Mike McCarthy preferred Alex Smith like that he I mean listen that was just a football decision he but he kept that with him Mike McCarthy tried to have a dinner and and tell Aaron like maybe you know reach out to your mom and Aaron Rogers was not having any of it And there is two sides of the story. And it's good to hear guys like James Jones who say the other side that this guy who is a leader. But you hear a lot here.

There is a lot of smoke here that I buy into that Rogers is a major problem, why they haven't won the Super Bowl since 2010. And I do worry about it. And we briefly spoke. We did an interview with Matt LaFlor at the owners meetings. He was not consulted, Rogers, before LaFlor was hired. I don't know if that was a smart move, honestly, internally with that organization, what they know about Rogers.

and he's around the same age as Aaron Rogers. If Aaron Rogers thought he was smarter than Mike McCarthy and elder who had been in the league a long time, I wonder how that relationship was going to go with a young guy, first year coach. It's a dicey situation. Well, they said, I found it interesting. It's like Rogers is the type that wants to be challenged on some level

that felt they felt, you know, the part where Mike McCarthy felt threatened by Alex Van Pelt who had a relationship, you know, quarterback's coach, which a lot of people thought highly of. You could sort of see that even in the way that McCarthy talked and carried himself that he got his own ego involved there. And I think Rogers is going to want a coach that he feels like is adding to him. And he probably never felt that with McCarthy.

And whether that's right or wrong, like, I don't know, the organization to me would have had to step up. But you do wonder, because some of these rookies you're talking about, they're still on the team. Like the part about Equineminius St. Brown and Marquez Valde Scantling, getting frozen out for, you know, or struggling with not knowing what to do because should I listen to Rogers? and run the route that he wants me to run?

Todd in the middle. Or should I listen to the coach? And that's on Aaron Rogers. Should I cover for the route? And yes. That's a terrible, terrible look for Aaron Rogers that he would put these young guys in that position where you can't win either way.

And if you're a young guy trying to establish yourself in the league, like you've got to know better. You've got to be a better leader than that. That said, like, you know, Tom Brady certainly run off like a million wide receivers over the league, you know, over the years on New England that couldn't get up to speed, including a lot of young ones. I'm not saying, I'm just saying that's part of, it's tricky. You got to find the right line, but like that's part of being the quarterback on some level.

I think the difference with the young receivers in Green Bay being caught in the middle of coaches' demands and the idea that they talk about Aaron Rogers when you're out, you're out with him. And that means on the field potentially. That means off the field. That's pure dysfunction. And it's kind of just beguiling that this relationship lasted as long as it. Right. That's what I mean.

That's why the ownership thing was the first thing that came to my mind. was like, wow, this went on for way too long. And you can put some fault on Rogers or not. You know, obviously, yes, some of it. But either way, like, someone had to be stepping. He was changing a third of the plays by last year. That's crazy. And they weren't working.

I mean, how brutal, if McCarthy read this, this is one where it's like, they say don't read it. It's like, I hope Mike McCarthy didn't read this because it would be brutal. Like, his low football IQ was questioned a few times. And I don't know. know if anyone is like standing on a table and and backing them and the part where they're like Rogers has kind of turned into FARV which is like the thing he didn't want to be right is really you know kind of fascinating and interesting and I thought the kicker in this article was near the end

and you kept thinking it was going to come to the end and then there was another chunky large anecdote coming at you but when Mark Murphy basically pulled yeah Aaron Rogers aside when Matt LaFleur was hired without Aaron Rogers consultants say do not get in the way you do not be in the This time. That was kind of the most breathtaking moment of the whole thing. You know what that is, by the way. La Raville Magnific. Yeah, it is.

I mean, that is such a concern. Like, because Rogers has the power to blow everything up. He's so powerful in that organization, perhaps too powerful. And I wonder. I guess, but I would say to that, Mark Murphy, you should have said that years ago. Oh, yeah. For sure. I don't know.

It's a tricky thing. Like, literally back in the day, it was very confusing who was even running the packer. and eventually it sort of turned into, like, I don't know. I just feel like Ted Thompson, who is, you know, deep out of the picture at this point, he did not come across well at all because he's obviously on the... Attached in physically unwell. Yeah, and like the modern-day fan is like, please be active in free agency. And I think there was voices within the organization saying,

please build a team around what should be a team going to the Super Bowl. Please add parts. And they talk about him falling asleep in meetings. I think the thing is with the NFL, the more you hear, the stuff that we don't hear as much as certain people, obviously. but when you hear little anecdotes that you could never go to air with, some of them are stunning and you're just like, wait a minute, this is the most human business because some of the F-ups behind the scenes

and the infighting and the lack of responsibility and accountability, and it came forth in this article for multiple people. And the massage story, even he put, you know, the writer Tyler Dunn cast some doubt about that, but I think he made a good point putting out, like the point was that the team, that there were large sections of the team that believed that, whether it was true or not, whether that happened one time that he was getting the massage.

The fact that large sections of the team believe that, I don't know. I'm still, I guess I'm an Aaron Rogers fan ultimately, and yes, this is disappointing, but I do just wish there was like another world where he had a strong offensive coach in mind

that he respected that he played with previously, and that Matt Lafleur is that guy because we'll have to see if Matt LaFer is that guy. We'll see. Packers fans have had it really easy. I've always killed him for that that you've gone from Fav to Rogers, it's been one thing up. But if you read this, I feel for Packers fans

because it really feels like two or three Super Bowl rings were lost in the mix here. And it's kind of like when Aaron Rogers is telling Greg Jennings after speaking to Carlos Rogers about, you know, this is probably my contract year. And Aaron Rogers is simply saying, go, get out of here. You're not coming back. And like, you're done with him.

When you're done with him, you're done. There's a good side to that maybe, but there's definitely a negative when he's your team leader and the sun that everyone orbits around. My final thought spinning forward is I just wonder, based on what you read in that article and the general feeling around Aaron Rogers circa 2019, he says he wants to be challenged. He says he needs somebody or that that's how he would work best, how this team would work best. I'm not convinced he actually does want to be challenged by somebody. I get the feeling that Aaron Rogers might just be a guy who says this is my world, this is my team, and he's going to have a hard time respecting anyone.

It sounds like some coaches over the years have... Good luck, Matt Laugh. See, that's the thing, though. Like, it sounds like some coaches over the years have. I really believe that he would because I think he wants to be great, but that he would need a great coach. And just like your run-of-the-mill average NFL coach, maybe that's not going to be enough, you know, to be able to deal with him.

Aaron Rodgers read this, right? Well, I would imagine someone has briefed him because it seems to be plugged in on any critique. I feel like he might have read it 10 times by now. I think it's safe to say that Dunn family is off like his Christmas card distribution list. It's not getting a lot of like one-on-one time with Rogers. Do we finally trust my Green Bay Dar that was buzzing for large sections of last season in the season previous? Well, you never really said what it was. It had nothing to do with this.

You just didn't like that they were in prime time a lot. Wasn't that what it was? Something about the whole Green Bay Packers experience, obviously, are you saying it has not been in my radar? Well, it's funny. And when I read this, I thought, oh, yeah. You just thought they had it too. No, this is like one of your prop vets that you almost get right, but then since you're in the same area, you say, I got this.

Well, there is one thing about Aaron Rogers. And then all the Sessler minions are like, yeah, yeah, he did it. He did it. Give it to him. No, the one about Aaron Rogers, it's like, Aaron Rogers. It's like he's the guy that you send out a billion gifts a week about how he's so technically brilliant and beautiful. And look at this pass.

He threw behind his back and it completed for 15 yards. But there is an argument. We've talked about it in and out the podcast. There's always been some little bit of a chip missing. or something that makes him a little bit of a different experience. Sure. This clarified something. Well, the article also, which we know, but he is regarded almost like you cast it off as an aside

as the most physically gifted quarterback to ever play football. And he's miserable. But, and that makes him kind of fascinating, to be honest. That's like, that's like the billionaire who's miserable, nothing will make him happy. You know how it kind of reminds, you know, made me think of Dan Marino. Because I think a lot, you know, Dan Marine, there weren't as many, you know, there weren't blogs or there wasn't Twitter or anything. Definitely weren't blogs.

Right. This was a very similar narrative around Dan Marino in a lot of ways. Different in some ways, obviously with the coaches and everything. But in terms of the talent and the relationship he had with his teammates and freezing them out and never kind of like fulfilling his destiny, it reminded me a lot of it. He did buy his linemen isotoner gloves. He will remember that. And another head coach who stuck around too long.

Yep. During his prime years. All right. In other news. I'm really excited about these uniforms from the perspective of where this organization is right now. The theme of this team is take flight. We're ready to enter a new era. Hashtag take flight, baby.

Was that like a cult leader? Who was that? That was David McTavish of the Church of Scientology. Okay, thank you. That's a... No, that was Christopher Johnson, the acting owner of Jets. who unveiled their new uniforms. David Miskevich.

Something like that. Thursday in Manhattan. And as you guys would expect, a lot of people on Twitter, Zusser, what do you think? What do you like them? I think they're okay. I think they certainly, my thoughts on uniform reveals in general,

it goes like there. There's two components involved for me. Is that in the last five, six years, the teams and social media seized on and successfully seized on this idea that fans love this, so you're going to build it up for months and months and months. And the downside of that is when it gets revealed, after all the buildup, it's almost always a little bit of like a, oh, that's all it is? So I think you have that, that works with all teams when they do this.

And then you have what I call the Jets tax, which is, and everyone else gets to have fun with this. And as a Browns fan, you know this too, Mark. But I don't get to have fun with this, but everybody else does, and I don't hate on it. It's just always better to just kill the Jets and make fun of the Jets. And that's always going to happen. So that's why I think there was some criticism of the jerseys. I think they're okay. I like the green helmet.

I like that they modified the logo up top. I'm not huge on the New York across the chest, but that's another thing that happened about 20 years ago. A bunch of marketers got in the ears of these sports teams. The Giants did the same thing when they went back to the NY. logo and they're like you got to get new york in the mix you got to mark it around new york so i think that's why they did that the black alternate jerseys ha all right whatever that's that just that's it is what it is those are my favorites i i would give a i'd give the uniform like a b minus a b it's not a disaster not a home run curious here guys well i would say like not

being a disaster is a win because as a brown span you lived in a uniform scenario that was a disaster for half a decade. And one thing, the whole hoopla surrounding the uniform reveal is tedious. I like the young team. I liked, there was something about Jamal Adams and Sam Darnold out there together. And they were on Good Morning Football today. I'll say one thing, the uniforms looked a lot better on Good Morning Football. I don't know if it was the lighting on the set. My thing with uniforms is always, I don't care how they look on a stage. I want to see what they look like on the field because they typically will look very different. I'm a big fan of Matt finish helmets over super shiny so I want to warm up to that but I don't think they're a disaster on any level

they're totally fine for the most part but it was not a disaster it could have been so much worse I like the helmet the Brown's uniforms last year by midseason when when they were playing well and there was some hope the uniforms it's a psychological thing started to look good to me it started to look good so don't worry about it well yeah inevitably they're kind of you know the design is using kind of new design trends and generally people outside of the Saskatchewan rough rider thing that's what I mean though that's kind of what I mean I'm saying older people like us are going to push against it Gotham green spotlight white it's just white and stealth black those are Nike told the juts those are new colors I love the black I like the helmet and I like a lot of

people were saying the same joke out there that it was kind of like the Tulane green jets so it's Like, if you're looking like the Tulane Green Wave out there, and it does look pretty much exactly like one of the new Tulane uniforms, I like it. And they, that's fine. I don't, yeah, that doesn't love. It's not a bad thing. And then it was like, oh, this reminds me of the Tulane uniforms.

Well, you can pick any era outside in 1969 and say that's, oh, it's a bad error for their uniforms. It's, they need to start something new. And that's what they're trying to do. It's the whole, the reboot thing, the idea of the bold new look will be a bold new direction, which the Buccaneers, once upon a time, actually pulled off back in the late 90s where they were terrible for 25 years, got new uniforms, and it immediately became a Super Bowl contender.

Pat's did it too because they changed with Bursals. Well, the Broncos had their surrever, and when they moved to their more current ones, they went to two Super Bowles with Elway right away. Maybe there is some type of connection there, and the Jets will be playing in February next year. That's what I take out of it. What my take also was, you know, they make a big deal out of it because I do remember when I was more in that boss mode, the metrics. I mean, people, you know, we could write like 17, you know, great long forms for the rest of the year. They're not going to combine to, you know, equal the amount of traffic.

I was your uniform. I for like two seasons. They were just like, wow, the biggest articles of these year, uniforms. It was a bigger deal when I was younger, too. When Parcells took over and the first thing he did, well, he took over 97, starting in the 98 year, he said, we want to call back to the Namath era, and that's when they did the reboot that they called. I remember back to the future, I think, was their angle at that time. Now it's 20 years later, and I get it.

It's time to kind of freshen things up, so we'll see what happens. Jack and Harrison, I'm already, take my money, NFL shop. I'm going to get some darnel jersey. What about the people that bought a darnal jersey last year, though, and are stuck with the stuff? It's probably fine, but. It's not great, though. It's a tough situation.

I agree. You should have known it was coming. Yeah. I feel. I feel like the back to the uniform things, but with the brown. I feel like they should just really embrace and just go back to the 80s look. Is that the thing that's out there?

I believe from all hints out there and this has gone back two years that they realized they got a little too fluffy and a little too crazy that the overwhelming cry to make this change is, and they talked about it, it's nothing fancy essentially is the tagline. Because they are the Cleveland Browns.

Their whole thing is that they're just simple, like this is our franchise, where the Browns. I think they're going back to that and they're keeping the Browns. brown uniforms that they leaned on heavy. Oh, right. Yes, those ones.

Is the elf going to be phased out? I think the elf is going to be, which the elf has essentially been phased out for a long time outside of some end zone paint and, you know, Freddie Kitchen's baseball hats. Like, I think he's going to be a big part of it, it or he. I don't know, as an elf, a he, I guess it is a he. Probably. A thing? Yeah. A mystical creature?

A woodland creature. Fairy tale. Let's move on. Kirk Cousins. This is interesting. So he is set to address Michigan State, his alma mater, ahead of their final four NCAA basketball matchup against Greg. Texas Tech, I believe.

Texas Tech, the Red Raiders. And I just want to point out, am I totally comfortable if I'm a Michigan State fan with Kirk Cousins being the guy, guys, take this thing home. I don't know if I'm comfortable with it. Throwing that out there. Higher or lower grade than the Jets uniforms. Kirk Cousins speaking to Michigan State.

It's pretty random. Against the new Jets uniforms. If you're giving it the grade, Kirk Cousins being selected to address Michigan State for me is a C-minus. I was checking around. There's divergent opinions on Kirk C-Cousins' pre-game speeches because they have a lot of energy.

he's kind of the guy who does it for the Vikings but sometimes they're a little weird remember the one last year where he was like you know they put us in prime time that's because they want to see it like he was very excited that they like flexed them in or something we deserve to be flexed um so fired up so specific you're not watching any of the march madness uh Greg I have not I did see good games I did see like the very end of the the Duke game while while in our hotel room in Phoenix, I remember. It is the worst time of the year of place. I'm not, you know.

It's been, not hating. It used to be like my favorite. Used to be my favorite thing. But, you know, when you get older sometimes in life, you just, you're like, what connection do I have to any of this? I'll take my time doing something else. What do you do instead of watching basketball? You know, spend time with the family, read.

Overrated. Tennis. You know, I watch a lot of tennis. Watch a lot of tennis Wow I actually was at a El Segundo Tavern Not a tavern

It's kind of more a bar and grill With an outdoor component to it And I was watching the Auburn Kentucky game And a listener of the Around the NFL podcast Happened to be sitting right there

And he said hello And said he was a big fan of the show Is that the rock and roll themed place that has an outdoor section Yes I believe It is owned by Gene Simmons and it's nice place I mean there was a time

there was a time is there every Saturday from 12 till 3 if you are interested seeing him again this is a time in my life day where the Yukon Huskies were like my number one sports team I remember an ex-girlfriend getting mad that like I canceled on a a plan with her because I wanted to watch a big Monday you know big

Yukon Villanova game back in the Ray Allen I think Carrie Kittles did you recover did the relationship find its left I mean it no not I mean it failed for many reasons including That I think it was like a red flag that I would have rather, you know, watch Big Monday at that point. Ouch. Finally in the news, Patrick Mahomes.

Guy's got a cannon. He's so gifted the Chief's quarterback. Well, you know, another guy's got a cannon. Mark, your boys, your team, the Bills. They got this young kid, Josh Allen. He could heave it. Anyway, speaking. Not always to the right person, but from Western New York.

He was honored at a charity event for athletic and philanthropic achievements, nailed it. Mahomes acknowledged an offseason Twitter challenge from Josh Allen to see who could toss the biggest bomb. Josh is a great dude, but no one that I've known has been able to throw a ball farther than me, Mahomes said via the Batavia Daily News. I've never seen Josh throw in person, but maybe next off season we can set something up to see who could throw the whole pitts can get further. I would be careful. What about this off season? Yeah, why not? Why next off season?

Feels like you're dodging There's plenty of time left to get that done Maybe logistically He wants Mahomes is a type of guy That thinks big picture Above the treetops as they say In the Corbo offices here And he wants to make sure

He's got an arena He can get the promotion out there They could move tickets, merch All those things It still feels like you've got A solid four months Right It's one of those things

Where it's like Oh yeah we should go out to dinner sometime and you're like Well wait You're here You're in town for a month right now Like should we make but oh yeah we should do it sometime we'll be in touch and then two years later we see each other

again um all right that's what's happening in the news let's get to the mailbag because again another tease we have unfortunately some issues we have to work out with the shield and some behind the scenes um a problem that came up on Wednesday net so we're going to get to that but let's first hit the mailbag our great listeners of the around the NFL podcast who we love sent in a bunch of questions. So I'm going to go through some of them right now, starting with Neil underscore G.C. Which team do you think has the best roster pre-draft going into the season?

He's got the best roster right now. If you had to pick. Chiefs? No, not on defense. Rams? Cults? it's a tough one it's a tough one i think i'd go eagles i've been kind of banging that drum chiefs would be close chiefs i know it's like not really that great of a defensive roster but

patrick mahomes and just the talent on offense is enough for me our boy neil dutton asks what other team uniforms would you and the heroes change other than the browns pending and the bucks blatantly obvious that's that is easy for me the uniform and it is no dis on a division rival. The Cincinnati Bengals uniform to me has been an eyesore for a thousand years. Hmm. I would go to Patriots. I'm not, I haven't been a fan. I guess it makes me. Locked in, though. You have too much glory with these uniforms to go back to Patry. I think they'll, they'll switch it. Yeah, once Brady retires, but it kind of doesn't make sense until then. What about you? I don't hate a lot of them. A lot of them are good.

One of the first players I liked, and it was pre-Jets, was Boomer Assison. And I really loved that Bengals team in the late 80s, and I actually liked the stripes. The Jaguars, they're fixing their helmets, too, I believe. I think they've already done it. So they got rid of the two-tone. We're a season plus into that. Yeah, so I think, I'm all right.

Like I said, I don't care as much about it. I used to, like, when I was a teenager, it meant a lot to me. It doesn't get me hung up. The Rams, they don't, do they still have the mismatched helmet with the jersey? I don't like that to the blue tone. that's a little off, not fan of that. Yeah, I think they got to fix that.

All right, here we go. Joey, excuse me, Jeskato writes, have you ever skipped work for a massage or planned to in the future? This one's for Erica. I have. You have? Yeah, I love getting massages.

Yeah? It's nice. I've only gotten one massage and it was on my honeymoon. Same thing. That's so funny. I was just like, well, I guess if you're going to do it, now is the time.

And I enjoyed it, but that was the only time, like, you know, really came up. I had one ever and it was with my wife where you have like a, like students are learning how to do it. So it's like a cut rate like $10 massage. It was fine, but I don't need to like. That's, it's a funny thing to think about it.

Simone's just like, hey Mark, I've got like a group on two for one massages, 10 bucks at the old, you know, Charlie's, uh, I think we were walking by like a massage school or something. It's a bit of a roll of the dice. How much damage can they do? But it's kind of like when. Well, it's not like that you get a haircut, super cuts or something. Exactly. It's not their first week on the job, but they've learned the trade in theory,

and they're just about to become set apart as their own. Guys are weird with massages, though. They don't like, you know, I tried to bring my brother to a massage place, and he was like, he was like, I don't want, like, another dude, like, rubbing my back. And I was like, okay, then get a woman. You know, I probably has some problems. Ask for a woman.

You know. I would ask for a woman myself. In fact, I did for my honeymoon massage. It was a big burly woman. the German. Well, they'd need to be using those elbows and getting in the... It's so soothing. It's really good for your health, too, and your muscles.

I try to get one of the once a month. I think it just seems like it's not so much... I love the actual active massage, but just like paying... It's just paying money for that level of like... It seems so indulgent. Not that I don't indulge in other things, but it just seems wild. What do you indulgent? What do you pay money for?

Food. It's been way too much money on food. This from our old friend, TMR. to replace the around the AAF podcast. Can you do a Greg likes rap spinoff instead? I like that. This is the rap that we're playing, the rapidy rap. What's happening here?

I don't think I'd be a panelist on this show. I mean, I would break it out open, you know, more than just rap. Yeah, you do have a larger pal than perhaps suggested on this point. Yeah, we were just texting about the great new Jenny. Lewis album last night, Dan. Great stuff. Love that. What's called, down the line?

On the line. On the line. This is like the music from white men can't jump during all the like two-on-two games. Josh McKinney, will the heroes be coming to Nashville for the draft? If so, any plans. We wanted to, but it was one of those things. They actually, the shadow league figures have done a good job recently sending us to events. So we can't complain.

But for whatever reason, and we haven't done it for a few years, the draft. We kind of circled Nashville as something we wanted to go to potentially, but it just didn't take off. Well, also, Wes has, we have a bachelor party event for Wes, and then, like, weeks later, the wedding. And so, I don't know if Wes would even walk to go. I mean, Wes has gone, in fact, right now for a wedding-related event back in Cincinnati, I think. Paramar's got him active. He just got that whole thing. And Wes, and this is the thing about Wes, three years ago, would you ever imagine, West just

being let around like Siegfried and Roy and Monticor. We could probably find sound bites where he would be like, I'm not going anyway. I'm just going to get married in my backyard. No, but the second he was with the paramour, this all seemed. Of course, soon as the actual person you're getting married to gets involved, the rules change. Exactly. Very quickly. Prague Power asks, shouldn't you guys have learned by now not to write off the Patriots before the season starts?

AFC East champs nine times in a row should tell you not to run with the, quote, changing of the guard narrative, yet you can't seem to help yourself. to run with it. That is certainly fair. And yeah, there is a very good chance to Patriots go 12 and 4 and win their division by three games. I am not ruling that out,

but it is absolutely also fair in 2019 with what's going on around that organization to wonder if we are coming near the end. That's okay too. I don't write them out. What we do for a living? Well, it's funny because the bar is so high now after eight straight buys.

Or is it nine? And nine straight AFCs. championship or eight straight a fc championship and nine straight it's like if they went 10 and six or 11 and five and we're the we're the five seed but some NFC you know some other AFC it's like that would be seen as somehow like the run is over but the bar was high after four straight buys sure they don't seem to care uh this is a good one in honor of operation pink pony is from Connor La Palmy uh what is your favorite NFL or any sport conspiracy theory now in the realm of sports I have a few I

and I'll throw them out there. In the NFL, it's a popular one. This one doesn't do much for me, but I'll throw it out for the purposes of this exercise. The Superdome power outage at Super Bowl 47. The Ravens and Terrell Suggs, and I believe Louis, a Bolton vocal, that the NFL and specifically Roger Goodell

cut the lights because that game was turning into a blowout. And, of course, Colin Kaepardick and the Niners launched a furious comeback as soon as the lights came back on. And my memory of that was, that was our second Super Bowl mark? Yes. You were kind enough to hand over one of your Super Bowl tickets. So Keith, my dad could attend the game. He went with Simone.

They sat together. Yep. She's a Niners fan too. Or the game. And I remember when the lights went down and the air conditioning cut and we were way up in the top. The number one thing that entered my mind is, oh, I brought my dad to the Super Bowl. and now we're being attacked by terrorists. And ISIS is here or someone.

It felt like a total terrorist attack. Glad it wasn't, but it felt like one. I'm with you that. I don't, like the best conspiracy theory stuff that I know, I feel like we can't say on this show. What do you mean? I mean, you're big into conspiracy. We're on the opposite end of that.

Generally, I'm anti-all conspiracy theories and you're pro. I'm not pro. I'm pro one or two, not. all I'm more anti like the way it's framed sometime like my least favorite NFL related conspiracy theory is whenever the Pete Carroll like 9-11 truth or stuff comes up and it's always framed as like hey I'm not saying anything I'm just asking the questions but he's like no no it's been like asking the questions is saying okay that's not a football conspiracy but just talking about the football player talking about a conspiracy yeah um two two NBA ones I love is that and this I actually came up coincidentally on Wednesday show Michael Jordan, David Stern forced him into a one-year hiatus because of his gambling issues, which led to him playing minor league baseball. Patrick Ewing, David Stern again and the NBA rigging the 1985 lottery with a cold envelope to give the Knicks

the number one overall pick and make them relevant again. But my favorite sports conspiracy theory, and I've heard this for years and it popped up, and we could talk about it because both of the main people connected to it, well, two of the three have addressed it publicly was that in 1997, Cal Ripkin Jr., who was still in the,

still had his consecutive game streak going. Maybe it was before 97, because I think he said it in 95. But the theory is, or the conspiracy is that they canceled an Orioles game, blaming an electrical lights malfunction. Oh. Because Cal skipped out of the clubhouse

because he found, that Kevin Costner had been in intimate relations with Cal's wife or he'd caught them in bed together and he wasn't going to the game. That is one of the best ones out there. Canceled the game. I believed it until the Costner part of it. That didn't seem to be much. Costner is the guy that Cal caught with his wife and both sides, Cal and Costner have refuted this. But I love it. Juicy. The electrical part I could buy into that they would cancel it for some reason for Cal. Well, I lived in that area back then and went to Orioles, plenty of Orioles games.

Remember hearing that? Well, I didn't hear that then, but during that run, I could imagine them cutting the lights because it was the biggest thing going at all. And that city was like enamored. I remember. That is one of the sports moments. You remember where you were. I was in the bag shop at the Hamden Country Club watching people's golf clubs. Okay.

With the TV on in the background. All right. There you go. That's the mailbag. Ricky, before we get to our last matter of business regarding the Shield, we haven't ducked into your DM situation in a while. What's going on over there? Oh, let's check it out. That's a way.

Right? Such a good one. I got one from Trick. Uh, his name is trick. Trick. Not a good sign. Okay.

And it says, listen, you're cute. There's no getting around it. So, I don't know if you like country music, but I was thinking maybe one of these days we could drive out to a field, crank up some tunes, smoke a few mcanadoos. I don't even know how that is. Macanudos? I don't know. Maybe even toss a disc around.

And then it's like Pig Latin, I think. Utway, Uday, Uye, Inc thing. Translate it, Mark. What do you think? What do you say? What's A-M-P-A-Y? Either way, it's a strange combination of things. I think cigar smoking.

Is that a reference of marijuana smoking? No, Maconuto is a type of cigar, isn't it? That's even stranger. Nobody likes to... It's classy? And then throw a disc around. I mean, what are we, what is this, dazed and confused? This guy sounds like a major stoner to me.

Like, he might actually be harmless, but I wouldn't, just in case, I would not meet him. Go to a field. I will not meet him. Maybe not, yeah, maybe not. No, yeah, I mean, there's a pretty decent chance you would end up as, like, part of the mulch in the field if you go meet this.

I'm looking at this guy. Recycled compost. I don't think so. I don't, it doesn't have a killer vibe. Really? Eh. Yeah. I don't know. They are, like, according.

According to their website, they are iconic premium cigars. Nice. Well, at least high class. Strange move, though. Strange move. All right. Good trip in the DMs. Listen, you know, the listeners, they fall hard for the producer.

And it's just part of life. What can I say? Yeah. Well, that's something you're used to, I'm sure. All right, before we go. All right, so here's the bad news about the Shield. Yes, we won some sore bodies, some muscles, and Erica's swinging her prosthetic leg out of the car

and that's hard to do for her right now. But we won. The bad news is that our catcher, our part-time catcher, she kind of platoons with the paramour, in fact, behind the plate. Her name is Brassy. I think she's maybe been on the show once, so we've talked about her a few times.

She was not at the game. In fact, for a 9 p.m. game, she overslept. And internally, it was not something we were happy about. We had enough girls, so we were lucky that it did not come back to haunt us because in co-ed softball, the battle to have enough girls

is one of the biggest challenges you face all season. So we were able to survive, but it doesn't make it any less irresponsible and frankly disrespectful to the team, Ricky, as a new girl. I know you don't, as a rookie, you don't get to say as much. You kind of just have to, you know, earn your stripes. but I'm sure you look at it. You're like, this woman, Brassy, has two titles,

and this is how she opens up our comeback season? Yeah. Stunning, right? Yeah. I mean, also not stunning. So. I mean, there's been a track record here of red flags and incidents over the years. It's fair.

Some off-field problems. So Wednesday show, I told you that the Shield was in negotiations to bring Mark Sessler back aboard in a front office role. he handles discipline he's done it in the past and uh mark is kind enough to agree to step in uh and handle this matter involving brassy because you got to cut this cancer out it's not a good way to start the season so mark um would you be okay if we got um brassy on the phone and you could let her know what her punishment is yes because it's simply team business okay let's let's get her on the line

Dude, this is Ryan. Hey, Ryan, can I speak with Shona, please? She actually just left. So she's not around when you need her. That's part for the course. All right, we'll try another number. Thank you. Okay.

Let's try her cell. brassy speaking hey brassy what's up uh skip here i'm going to pass you over to mark sessler he is the shield's human source human resources coordinator um this is a serious issue and i appreciate you to treat it as that yeah this should be addressed i need to explain myself mr sessler okay hold on number one the tone off the bat um is concerning uh there was an incident that I've learned about this morning at the inaugural kickoff game for the Shield, two-time defending champions. Game kicks off at 9 o'clock. I want to present you with the information that I have that you texted a member of our team, Brooke, essentially saying, OMG, I just woke up. The game,

by the way, first pitch at 9 p.m., I'm going to be banned from the Shield. And she writes back and says, you know, five girls at this point, you should be okay. And at that stage, telling you just hurry that you're going to get here, you text back many, many minutes later, about an hour later saying I fell back asleep. In your own words, train wreck, did you all have enough girls? I feel so bad.

Rassy, hold on. You will have a moment to speak. Did you like not out in a heroin house? What is happening here? I'll stay out of this. I want to tell you, number one, what is, present your case very quickly, and I suggest to make it very quick.

I was tired, and I just must have turned my alarm off. I mean, I had my clothes on, bag ready. I just didn't wake up. The thing that bothers all of us is that you are a two-time member of this team. You've been part of two championship efforts. You had a disastrous Cinco de Mayo episode in the first season with the team where you showed up. I would just say three sheets to the win would be generous. that fact that you are a veteran on this team, a leader,

we have younger people, our producer Erica is on the team for the first time, that she has to deal with this from veterans, that the younger players have to suddenly become leaders because our leaders are asleep in their beds and falling asleep twice after the first pitch. Brassy, present your case very quickly. You have one last chance. We have something else to tell you.

I apologize. I was asleep at the wheel. I immediately knew when I woke up. I was going to hear it. So I've been bracing myself for punishments as I know what's coming. We do not need on this team some sort of low-level ladder stage Daryl Strawberry type figure. You are suspended for two games, and I can throw it over to the manager at this point, Dan Hansis. There is a possibility to appeal that down to one, but I see nothing based on your reactions or your actions that we need to take this down to one game, Dan.

I don't feel comfortable having any further conversation on this. I know our HR representatives here. But Brassie, you know I love you, but I think also this punishment is fair. Work on your sleep schedule, please. Well, can we make those two games while I'm on vacation? No, they are effective media. This is not on your terms. Goodbye.

Have a good weekend, Brassie. Thanks. It had to be done. And I don't like doing that. We just suspended Ely a couple of years ago, and that wasn't easy, and this wasn't easy either. And hopefully she'll learn from this and grow. Greg, the Bronx Zoo is in town right now.

I mean, I'm a little more worried about kind of like the underlying off-the-field issues that are contributing to this. I'm worried about her as a person. Yeah, more important than what's going on on the field. Very true. All right, we'll be back next week. Two shows next week, Monday, Thursday. We'll do a Wednesday, Twitter show, of course.

Two shows the following week, Monday, Thursday, Twitter show. well and then draft week hits and we'll be back three shows including uh Thursday night right after the draft doing the show and then Saturday night after round seven so check all that stuff out follow us uh on on Twitter of course but also leave comments and reviews and stars in iTunes and also the around the NFL subreddit which is growing and growing and growing love you guys we love you have a great weekend this is Dan Hansis signing off for Storm. The old boss, Ricky Hollywood, behind the glass. Had to be done, Mark. Had to. Had to be done. Deal Monday.

You did not get enough credit for your Baydar comment. Like, that was so good. Well, because they don't like anything. It's not on my green Baydar, like Bay radar, Green Bay Radar. And both of you guys were like, yeah, I don't know for. I kind of missed it. Sorry, buddy. It's okay.

Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 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

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