OverDrive - Patrick on Leonard's cap circumvention, the NFL season starting and the Seahawks' chase for the Super Bowl

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Host of the Dan Patrick Show, Dan Patrick joined OverDrive to discuss the beginning of the NFL season, the Seahawks' quest back to the Super Bowl, the Bills' looking for a grand season, Kawhi Leonard's cap circumvention with the Clippers and the future with the Raptors, how the Clippers navigate through the suspensions and fines and more.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Here's a guy you hear every day on TSM Radio, the host of the Dan Patrick show joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Here is Dan Patrick. How are you doing, Dan? Good guys.

Do you think that's a possibility within the next few years? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, opening week? Yeah, I think if the NFL can find a way to monetize something. It goes out of its way. I thought, you know, these Friday nights, I know they have high school football, and there is, you know,

there's laws in place to make sure that they don't take over Fridays as well. But it feels like they'll work their way around this. And I think it's a great idea that you're suggesting. You may not think it's a great idea, but to do it every day of the week would be kind of interesting for that first week of the season. Yeah.

The only week you could do it, right? You prepare a team. It's like setting up for the Hall of Fame game. Get in early. You know you're playing on the Tuesday night. I think teams would actually love that because then they'd have an even long. It would almost be a second buy week for whichever teams end up on that docket. By the way, Goddala, what kind of money did he sign as an extent?

I think he just signed for four more years. He does. 50 million a year? Dan Patrick money, I think. Yeah, that kind of money we're talking, Dan. he's probably making Dak Prescott money okay that's 60 million

yeah yeah at least 60 a lot of cash I think Jerry Jones was the only guy that was pissed that he was making that much a couple years ago he's like enough of this yeah he was yeah he did fight back on that the last extension he got

Seattle go ahead commissioners they're not making anywhere near this I mean Greg Sankey who's the SEC commissioner makes five, little over five million. Adam Silver may make, you know, 15 million, Rob Manfred with baseball. So Roger Goodell is delivered.

He did what they asked him to do and then some. So Seattle tomorrow night. Tell them what you think. Tell them what you think. Well, I mean, all I said was I don't think they're going to go back to back and win the Super Bowl. And you guys thought that that was disrespect. Well, no, just they're not getting enough love. That's what it is.

That appears to be the perception around football that Seattle's not getting whatever love they're supposed to get. You're like every other pundit, you just jump on the Rams and you have a love affair with the Rams and you've already given them the title. Well, to an extent, where do you stand on that, Dan? I agree with you, but if I'm Seattle, I love this. You know what? Disrespect us, disregard us, and we'll play on the field. I mean, that's the, and plus, if this team was in Denver, then we would probably fawn all over them. Or they were, you know, Buffalo or Dallas or Minnesota.

It's just Seattle feels like, you know, it's their own little portion of the world and they're fine with that. But talking to their head coach, Mike McDonald, this summer in Lake Tahoe, what an impressive guy. And I could just imagine him saying, don't read anything. say anything. It doesn't matter. Because I was trying to think the last time somebody won the Super Bowl and we didn't even think they were going to win their division the next

year. And, you know, because everybody's all over the Rams and probably the Niners because they'll say, well, they're getting healthy or healthier and maybe they'll be better than Seattle. That was an impressive team last year from start to finish both

sides of the ball. And I can't imagine that they're going to fall off the face of the NFL map. Dan, how difficult do you think it's going to be for Mike Brable to be business as usual this year? Do you think he's going to have a difficult time doing his job? I think if they're successful, then he'll be fine. It's when they're not, then that's usually when the knives come out. Now, that's a media that's been cordoned off for decades, you know, with Belichick,

and now you bring in Brable and they'll probably try to pull the Patriots way of things but they're trying, you know, if something comes up with Diana Rusini, which you just did, and then somebody wants to ask that

question, you just don't want to be frozen out if your local media because, you know, that's when coach won't be available to you or players won't be available because PR, look, they're there for the team and they can be just as petty as us.

But I think if they win, then it'll probably be able to get through this season. And once he's through this season, unless something comes, well, Diane is going to get a job in the media. Somebody will hire her. And then she's going to make comments, because why

hire her if she's not going to make any comments about this? So it'll probably bubble back up periodically. Well, his predecessor, well, I guess Drod Miao technically was in between him and

Belichick, but Belichick's in one down in Carolina. Like it never stopped. Yeah, down in Carolina. They did win their first game of the college season. Where does he show up on your radar now as you do a daily show? Because I'm sure he was high on the list for 20 years.

You know, he's kind of there, but let's see what happens when they get to Notre Dame. and if they would happen to play competitively or beat Notre Dame, I put the over under at two and a half when he took the job, and I'll still take the under that he's only there for the rest of this year. You've got to mess with his son with Mike Lombardi's GM, and he's another guy. If he wins, then okay.

But if he doesn't, then that's when all of a sudden we start to look at everything else, and you could fire him for cause. and he's making 10 million. It's just a public university, and I don't care who you are. He's 74-year-old Bill Belichick. He's not, you know, 60-year-old Bill Belichick. Dan, can you fire up our Bill's fans here in Toronto?

We're carrying their games on this station. Can you get these fans a reason to have, it's been the same thing the last two or three years with Alan, and it's his time and the window of opportunity. Where do you stand with the bills? I offensively great

it's just defensively I don't know if they have that it guy or Ed Oliver's been great obviously went through the tragic

of losing his child but I this is where you might see a defense create some stars right in front of us they got to have that I mean you've changed

coaches so what are you changing What is going to be different with this team? I still feel like it's, you know, a lot of cook and a lot of Josh and then hope your defense keeps you in the games, and maybe Josh can be Superman. But I don't know.

I'm going to make my Super Bowl pick tomorrow. And I think what we do is we have wishful reporting in the media. Like we hope for certain stories to happen. And I think deep down we're hoping. being Buffalo and Detroit would play in the Super Bowl. But I don't know. I think there'll be a 10-11 win team. I just don't know when we see them in big moments,

they just don't come up big enough. Is that like the top of the list for you? If you could choose a Super Bowl, you'd pick Detroit Buffalo? Yeah, because somebody has to win. And I just, you know, having covered those Buffalo Super Bowl, being around that fan base, being around those players, it was like after a while, it almost felt like after they lost two,

that they kind of, you know, you're kind of bracing yourself for, we're going to lose again. The question is by how many. And if they got a Super Bowl, that'd be pretty cool. You know, there's only a couple of those stories still left. You know, the Cubs winning, the Red Sox winning. and if Buffalo or Detroit would happen to win, you know, we'd be able to cross off that on the,

we hope they win list. Dan, shifting gears to basketball, what do you make from the outside the Kauai Leonard News and him coming to Toronto? Well, I think he should be suspended for at least half the year. And he got off. You know, I know you'd say, well, you had to pay 700,000. If you're going to give me

40 million off the books, and I got to pay 700,000, I'll do quick math here. Yep, I'll do that. And I would have suspended him. He knew what he was doing. I mean, you could blame your uncle. He knew what he

was doing. Like, at some point, do you say, there's a boatload of money in my bank account. I'll be damned. How'd that happened? Oh, don't ask, you know? Like, come on. Yeah. I would have suspended Balmer for the year, as they've done. I would have done the draft picks.

I agreed with that. How do you make it sting with the guys worth $150 billion? You don't let him go to games. I think that will drive him crazy. With Kauai, I wouldn't let him get out of this without paying some kind of embarrassing. You know, embarrassment part of this of you're going to have to sit out for an entire year for what you did. And maybe it's not over.

I was told yesterday there's not a guarantee this trade is going to go through like everybody thinks it is. And then I think Brian Winhorse was talking about that today on ESPN. Maybe there's a holdup in this, but I do think he should be punished. Dan, do you think there's other executives

that are just sitting, sweating, and waiting? Because this is not exactly like this is the first time something like this happened. Like, you hear some of the side stories and nonsense that are going on with some of these deals. There's got to be some guys sitting at their desk wedding. Yes. And I had a prominent player.

I won't even give any hints on it, but he said that he was helped out when he was playing, promised when he retired. And I just said, well, how prevalent is this across the league? said not only the league but in other sports, if you can help somebody and not do it in a what would appear to be a nefarious way, then you're going to do that because you're, as he said, quote, taking care of your own. And I go, okay, but taking care of your own doesn't allow you to circumvent the salary cap.

And he laughed and he said, sometimes it's not money, necessarily money that you'll get. But do players ask for this? Do agents ask for this? Absolutely. Might curtail that a little bit now, but do I think it's happened over the years? Absolutely. It's almost like college and pro football have flipped. Where college used to be, hey, wink, wink, nudge, here's some cash. But, dude, imagine asking for the extra, extra, extra, after a 50 million per year salary.

I got it. Like crazy. Like, like, Kauai Leonard had them over a barrel. like he had them the clippers have been a disaster forever well think about how costly Kauai and Paul George

oh it's the biggest it's an absolute calamity for an organization the draft picks now gone and the money's the mess worst trade in history worst worst exit in history ever there like it's a mess

it's a disaster and I don't know how the clippers get out of it Dan like what can they possibly do in the next five years to get out of this well if they get two first round picks for Kauai from Toronto, then maybe it doesn't sting as badly that, okay, now you're losing three first-round

picks. I just don't know who's going to want to go there. Yeah, you have a beautiful arena, but you're the clippers. You don't have a compass. Like what direction you're going in? And this deal, not only with Kauai, but the Paul George deal, like these will go down in history is two of the worst. If not the Paul George deal.

you know, and you lose SGA, like all of that. We used to always bring up Herschel Walker. Boy, this is the worst trade since Herschel Walker. Herschel Walker's got to be smiling thinking, damn, they won't be bringing me up anymore. Now they'll be bringing up, you know, Kauai or Paul George. And does it ever work with the owner slash superfan? One of our colleagues, Dave Nailer, has always had a great quote that stuck with me. And he's like, if you give an owner six beers and put him in a video,

video room, it's a very dangerous situation. Yes. And it's so true. But like, does it ever work with the crazy owner? I don't, I never want to hear from my owner. And I really don't want to see him unless we're announcing a new coach or he's holding up a Super Bowl trophy. I always admired the Steelers organization because they just, they let people do their jobs.

If you've only had that many coaches in your history, you're allowing people to do their jobs. And I've always admired those organizations. But if that owner, oh, he's going to be in the draft room or he's going to have his own talk show. And while I am referencing Jerry Jones, I will say he's done a, I think he's done a really good job at letting his football people be football people.

Therefore, I think they've gotten better. But those guys think, hey, I'm worth a billion. I made a billion. I can make, you know, fantasy football suggestions here. Or, you know, the Jets owner conferring with his grandkids on what they should do. Like, how did you get to be a billionaire if you do stupid things like this? But their ego, they're used to getting their way. And nobody wants to tell them you shouldn't do that.

I spoke with somebody who was involved. Let me see if I can characterize this correctly. A very powerful owner, and he told him that he was making a mistake. And he even said it to me. It was last week. He goes, you know, I told him, you're wrong, and here's why. And I go, oh, my God. He goes, everybody in this meeting room, and there were probably 18 to 20 people,

they all looked at him. and then the owner didn't even acknowledge him, and he needed him for a negotiation of purchasing, you know, something. And I was like, how could you possibly say you're wrong and here's why? And he said, but I was correct. I said, well, he goes, I got fired. Oh, I was just going to say he got fired, didn't he? Yeah, Cliff Hager.

I said, well, you know, congratulations. that he said, but I did my job, he paid me to do my job, I did my job, and then he fired me for doing my job. Yeah. I said, yes, he's a billionaire. He doesn't take no for an answer. That's the way it goes. And that's why I love hearing GMs, I say it all the time, I have full autonomy, I demanded full autonomy. No, you don't.

You have no autonomy at all. You think you do because it's day one of the job. And that's what he had to say to get you here. But believe me, the second he wants to chime in, he or she, you're toast. Are you going to have to listen? I mean, that's the reality. Jerry Jones was going to take Johnny Mansell. I know for a fact.

He was going to take Johnny Mansell. They were going to take Connor Cook out of Michigan State. And the Raiders took him the pick before, and then they took Dak Prescott. Because I talked to Jason Garrett about this. So Jerry gets like, you know, I can fix this. And, you know, I got a better idea. I'm a football guy.

I played at Arkansas. I know more than you. you know, that's when you go, oh, no, no, no, no, please. Trouble. An odor walks in a couple of cocktails, and, you know, good God, what did we just do? Well, we'll listen in tomorrow and hear the Super Bowl prediction. I'm looking forward to seeing who you pick. How nervous are you about your Packers?

Very much. They asked me this an hour ago. I'm very nervous. Josh Jacobs, I don't think he's going to play. The offensive line, they're in transition. The secondary, I think, is a real question. question mark, I'm worried. They're in a very tough division. I think 10 and 7, they probably make it, but

Parsons not going to play the first four or five weeks. I'm nervous. You know what you should have? When you asked Dan, I don't know what team we were talking about, the bills, and he just said, I don't know, man. When somebody in sports says, I don't know, man. That's a polite. I know, and I want to say it. Yeah, exactly. He's being polite. And that's what I'm doing with the Packers.

I feel that way with the Packers. I just, I don't think Josh ever plays again for the Packers. Michael Parsons, you know, when and how good when he comes back. This, you start to think about all the quarterbacks with pressure on them this year. Now, we all can, you can always throw in Lamar, you can always throw in Josh. Maybe Mahomes coming back. I think Justin Herbert has pressure. We're waiting for him to be great.

But Jordan Love, this is Big Boy time. And I just don't know. That would be my big concern. I don't know, man. I just don't know. I'm with you. I'm with you. Unfortunately, I see it the same way.

Great catching up with you, Dan. You got it, man. We'll do it again soon. Thank you for this. There he is. Okay, bye. Dan Patrick, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. It's time to Toyota check out the Toyota Tacoma,

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