PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | From Super Bowl radio row: Sights and sounds from media night with Javon Hargrave

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Super Bowl week with All City rolls on from radio row as Zach Berman and Bo Wulf are joined by a group of guests to talk Philadelphia Eagles and review the scene on media night. Ex-Eagle Javon Hargrave dishes on who would have won the fight between Dre Greenlaw and Dom DiSandro and a former Georgia Bulldogs spills the dirt on Kelee Ringo, Nakobe Dean, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and more. Come have some fun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

H.LY Eagles podcast live from Radio Row here at the Super Bowl, presented by Factor Meal kits. Head to FactorMeals.com slash Eagles 50 and use code Eagles 50 to get 50% off. Bo Wolf, Zach Berman in the thick of things. Zach, how are you doing? Doing great. Excuse me, doing great. Thrilled to be here. Excited for the show.

It was a fun first day and each day is going to get better. It was good catching up with different people at, you call media night. It's the official we call opening night. Okay. You're not an opening night guy. I'm just not a, don't, I'm not going to listen to what you want me to call it

and just call it that without, you know. Okay. So you want to call it? I'm not a sheep, Zach. You're definitely not a sheep. We know that. I'm a wolf. You are a wolf.

It was good speaking with, with different coaches and players and executives there. And with a fun show ahead. Fun show ahead. We're going to get you some scenes from media night, opening night, the Chiefs and Niners, some Eagles connections, some silliness.

We've got lots of that to give you throughout the week. We'll give you a few of those today, including Jvon Hargrave, the former Eagle. We're going to hear from Connor or from Sports Illustrated who's going to join us and maybe some other special surprises along the way. But, Zach, what were your big takeaways from last night? My big takeaways were, well, first off, it was my first time speaking to J-Von since,

since he left. So good catching up with him. Of course, the two of you are Thickest Thieves. We spoke about the Southbury Bowjangles. Yeah, we spoke about... But have you ever, you've never had Bojangles? Boe. I've had plenty of Bojangles.

I spent two years covering the ACCC. Okay, okay. That's the official meal. You've never had cookout. Is that, is this the... I've never had cookout, no. Never had cookout. I've had a lot of Bojangles.

Bojangles is great. Bojangles fries, very underrated. I would say like top four fries in the game of fast food Okay, and what are the first three? You know, Bojangos might be my favorite fries. If you get them fresh. Okay.

There's a great seasoning on those bad boys. You know, like McDonald's fries, if you get them right out right out the kitchen, that's good. But I'm trying to think of what other fries are good. How about you? Chick-fil-a-waffle fries are good. Yeah, but I think there's a wider variance on the Chick-fil-a-waffle fries.

Sometimes you get those wet-noodly ones. True. You don't like the wet-nood-y ones. No. But, no, I was, I used to drive from Charlottesville to all the ACCC outputs in North Carolina. Sure. And there was, like, Midway was Lynchburg. And there was a Bojangles in Lynchburg that I used to stop.

Okay. Yes. What's J.Vongles order? Good question. I don't have the specific order, but if they win the Super Bowl, he's going to have breaking news here. He's going to have. Hold on, hold on. Let's tweet this out.

Let's go Schefter style. He's going to have fried chicken. and I think mac and cheese, I have the exact meal that he's going to reward himself if they win the Super Bowl. And if he loses, he's going to have doubled as emotional eating? No, because if you recall, in high school he went 0 and 11 one year, and he passed by Bojangles on the way home and did not have it to penalize himself for losing. He's been doing a lot of winning recently, but he hasn't had as many cheat meals after games, and he's going to have a cheat meal if they win this one.

Do you think the Eagles regret letting J. Von Hargrave go? I don't think that they regret letting J. Von Hargraveh go. I do think they missed them to a certain extent, a really productive player. The fact that they were able to draft J.L. Carter, I think, eased to that. But I do think that they could have redistributed some of the money that they spent last offseason. And, like, I think they probably would rather had J. Von Hargrave this past year than James Bradbury. Yeah. Now, you will write about this on all city or on all Ph.L.

dot com coming up later this week but quickly tell us i know you asked him about clarifying those comments about like comparing the two different organizations the two different cultures yeah he spoke about that basically saying that it was taken out of context like people just read the headline he meant it in a good way he was real happy last year with the way and when i say last year i mean the 2022 season not the 2023 season uh with the way the eagles managed their practices if you weren't familiar with the comments. He was on a podcast with Ark Armstead, I believe, where he basically said, like, the Niners

practices are much harder, much more intense than the Eagles practices, and he said the Niners are like the heat, and the Eagles are like the Warriors. And he said, it worked out great. They were healthy. He felt good. They had a lot of success. He didn't mean it in a bad way. He just met they were different styles. And he said, I even

gave it the comparison to the heat and the Warriors. Like, those are two really good teams. I don't think the Eagles would or should object to being compared to the Golden State Warriors, so. Well, of course, anything that Bob Myers has touched to you is gold. Well, Bob Myers is an awfully successful general manager. I think there's a lot of franchises that would emulate what Bob Myers and Joe Lacob and the Golden State Warriors are done. Okay. Well, let's get a little snippet of a conversation with Javon Hargrave from Super Bowl

Media Night. This is not the exact hard-hitting interview that you'll get to read about on all p.hly.com. This is a little bit more silliness. Survey questions. You could use a time machine for one day. What would you use it for? A time machine for one day? Go back to some of my best memories. Like what?

What's the first one that comes to mind? Getting drafted. Okay, that's a good one. Getting drafted. I don't know, just, you know, some family members, seeing some of the family members in France that passed away. I mean, that's really, that's a big thing I want to do. Who was your first celebrity crush?

as a kid? Jennifer Lopez. Okay, good one. Is it okay to pee sitting down? Yeah. Thank you very much. All right, last one. Who would have won the fight

between Dre Greenlaw and Big Dom? That's tough. I ain't going to say that. I ain't answered that. I think you know the answer. I ain't. I'm going to get crucified either way. If I ain't,

because if I, you're smart. You're smart. I'm going to get it. I ain't answering that. Thank you, Jayvon. Good luck. I appreciate it.

little Radio Row Magic here, joined now at the table by our All-City colleague, Todd Davis. Todd, how are you? I'm doing great. How you guys doing? We're doing very well. That ring is impressive, Todd. Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

Well earned, too, right? What is, yeah. I mean, what's like the care of the ring? How often do you bring it out? What's your whole ring routine? You know, I really don't wear it too much. You know, I keep it in like a jewelry box. Okay.

So it's locked away. It's pretty secure. And then just like special occasions or any kind of like charity work. That's when I bring it. And if you want to flex a little bit. Yeah, I think it's a good flex. I would say so. One thing we want to ask you about, the main thing we want to talk to you about is you had a chance when you played for the Broncos.

I think one year, right, to play under Vic Fangio, who is the Eagles' new defensive coordinator. What can Eagles fans and Eagles players in that building expect with Fangio? You know, it's a unique experience. You know, he's definitely a brilliant football mind. Definitely knows how to orchestrate a great defense. Not much of a talker. Okay. You know, not much of a talker.

You definitely have to, like, lead conversations when you guys are talking. But overall, I think he's a good guy. Not my favorite Broncos coach. Okay. But I think he was a great guy. Who was your favorite Broncos coach? Kubiak, for sure. Well, you got that ring.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, can't go wrong. So, like, the book on Vic from a player's perspective is, like, kind of crotchety, like, a curmudgeon old guy. Is that, does that track? I don't know who, you know, gave that description. but, you know, it's probably somebody that was in a locker room, but maybe it's an accurate one. No, go ahead.

In Philly, a big knock on the roster composition is that they don't value linebackers. And you being a linebacker who played for Vic Fangio, how important is that position in his scheme? It's very important. I think it's maybe the most important. If you look at all the success he's had throughout his, you know, coordinating career, he's had great linebackers from, you know, Devaro Bowman at San Francisco.

The Todd Davis. He's always... Roquant Smith. Yeah, Roquant Smith. Todd Davis. He always loves great hard-hitting, fast-flowing linebacker. So I think it's maybe the most important position, you know, in his defense. And so what are the responsibilities in his defense for a linebacker that are different

than they might be in some other schemes? You know, there's a lot of checks that linebackers have to make versus different formation versus different, you know, alignments. I think you have to do a lot getting guys lined up and ready, and he's always bringing in, you know, new plays and different schemes. Like he may come to you Saturday morning, you know, as a linebacker, like, hey, I'm probably going to put this in tomorrow. Okay.

We haven't worked. We haven't ran it, but you've got to get guys ready. You're like, all right. But it came to me at 4 a.m. last night. It came to me in the vision, and I just have to run the, yeah. Okay. Now, we sort of hear about, like, some defensive coordinators are very static scheme, right? And this is what we do, and this scheme allows us to have answers for,

different things, whereas there are some who are a little bit more weak-to-week game-plans specific. You sort of change things around. Which end of that spectrum is Vic in your experience? I think he's game-plans specific, and I think he game plans based off of, you know, who he has in that locker room. He's not one of those guys that, like, you know, this is my scheme. I run it no matter who I have. I think he does a good job of mixing it up based on the personnel that he has, you know, any given team, really. And the reason that's important, too, is because, like, that scheme, if you will, has become vogue around the NFL. And then it's kind of at a point now where teams know how to play against it.

Is it adapting to the point that like what Brandon Staley runs or what Carolina runs? Like that's not quite the same scheme that he has anymore that it keeps evolving? Yeah, I think so. And I think you see he continues to have success, you know, from team to team. Like even though teams are adapting, even though officers are getting much more powerful and really, you know, mixing up run, pass, RPO, deep shots, intermediate passing game, I think he's able to adjust well. He's been a coach for so long. I think that's a testament to how well he adapts to different offensive schemes.

What about your understanding of the things that he's going to ask from the corners and the safeties and the secondary? He's going to ask them to play a lot of man. I think he's going to ask them to have some tough downs. You know, sitting down and talking to him, he was just explaining how not every down is going to be a hard down for each player, but we just need you to win. We need you to win one or two of your tough downs for us to be a successful defense. Like if we're playing cover two. Yeah, if we're playing cover two, the corners may have an easy down just covering the flat. But when it's man to man in the red zone and we got to really, we need that one, that's when we need the corners to step up.

So every person's tough down. He likes to rotate it. That's interesting. And then you just win one or two of your tough downs and, you know, you'd be a pretty successful defense. Which from like just the standpoint of how do you make it through a whole game, that's kind of nice. You know that you're not that you're going to take the play off, but like if you got to, you know that you got to bring it on a few downs. That's interesting. Exactly.

helped you as a player? Yeah, I think it has because not necessarily you have to take a playoff, but, you know, if I'm sitting in cover four, I know this is probably my easier down. Right. And playing man-to-man on Kelsey is probably my tougher down. So I know I got to, you know, maybe preserve some energy in cover four and then cover one, I got to give everything I got. That's interesting.

Now, random question that has nothing to do with the scheme itself. He's on record saying he's a big Philadelphia Phillies fan and watches every game. Did he ever mention the Phillies in defensive meetings with you guys? No, I can't say he brought. them up. So I'm not saying he is or isn't, but I don't know if I've ever heard it before. Okay. Now, any other like sort of personality quirks to keep an eye out for with Vic? No, he's a good guy. You know, it was really funny because he's from Scranton, right? And I'm a big office fan. Me too. I love The Office. So like, I'm thinking he's from Scranton.

Of course he loves it. He watches it. And so I ask him about it. He's like, no, just not my humor. It's not really fun to me. And I was, I was shocked because this one of the best shows ever made. Which of the office characters would you compare him to the closest? He's a little bit, a little bit of a creed. Yeah, I was going to say. Just a little bit. Okay, that's good. Anything else?

No, that was great stuff. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Great insight. Thank you guys. It's good to see you. Enjoy that ring, man. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Unbelievable. I mean, what a knowledgeable colleague we have. What a coup for us. And as we continue to roll on here from Radio Row, let me tell you about bagels and co. because if you're back in Philly, you probably want a bagel, a Brooklyn-style bagel made in Philly. We're talking huge bagels, the biggest bagels in Philly. They've got a large variety, usually 15 to 20 different types to choose from daily,

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to find the closest bagels in Coe near you. Now, a bit of a flex here. I was proud of my steps yesterday, but steps are only one part of a healthy diet. The other part is you're eating, you know. The third part is sleep. And where to go for your healthy meals? while factors delicious, ready-to-eat-eat meals make eating better every day easy.

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options done easily, and there's no prep. It's not a mess. Factor meals are 100% ready to heat and eat, so there's no prep in cooking or clean it up needed. Head to FactorMeals.com slash Eagles 50 and use code Eagles 50 to get 50% off. That's code Eagles 50 at Factorsmeal.com slash Eagles 50 to get 50% off. And again, we appreciate Factor Meals presenting,

the Factor Meal Kids, I should say, presenting the P-H-L-Y Eagles show here live from Super Bowl Radio Row. And one last thing to tell you about, if you are here in Vegas, you can come hang out with all of the All-City people. Tomorrow night at the Overhang Bar at the Circa Resort, our good friends at Circa from 6 to 8 p.m. Two free drinks, if you are SVP. So come join us, hang out. I know Zach's going to be pounding those drinks. That will probably not be the case, but I'm going to enjoy spending time with all my All-City colleagues and everyone who wants to come between six and eight here.

at Circa. And speaking of people who know college, Zach, I think it's a pleasure now to bring on Connor Orr of Sports Illustrated, a man who you've seen Zach from a young age, and you've risen together to the heights of the industry. How are you, Connor? I'm good. How are you? We're doing well. Connor, Sports Illustrated, and we didn't just go to college together. We worked together at the Star Ledger. Connor. What was the power dynamic? Well, no, Connor and I were in comparable positions. He was on the Jets, I was on the Giants. He was working with Jenny Vrentas, who's now at the New York Times, formerly Sports Illustrated. I was working with Mike Garofo now at NFL Network.

But he and I were, I guess we can say like the number two's on the beat. It was more like a defined structure back then. Okay. Like some beats are 1-1A. This was like a 1-2 structure. And so we were able to kind of experience it commissary. I shouldn't say commissary. Compare notes.

I was going to say, yeah. Who had a tougher? No, compare notes. And then Connor since then has become. one of the preeminent football voices in America. So it's awesome to have them on. I was thinking about this when I was walking over, and so Zach is a little bit older than me.

Okay. And when I picked up the student newspaper for the first time at Syracuse, I was really intimidated, right? Because you get there and everybody's already on their way to becoming like Bob Costas, you know? Yes. So I flipped the student newspaper over to the sports section, and you see Zach's headshot, right, in the column.

And this guy is already writing like, you know, Jim Murray. Like, he's super. talented and I see Berman and I'm just like what is this is this Chris Berman's nephew or something I was like I got no shot like I'm never going to be able to to get my foot in the door here so it was very exact Zach was like the first I remember that I called my dad and he was like how is it and I was like they got like Chris Berman's nephew writing for the school newspaper this guy's phenomenal I was like there's no shot that you know we got to figure something else out you know let's try finance but what was it a two year difference one year I think so two years yeah

I appreciate that. Funny story. I was once, this is going to sound like a flex, but it's not. Everything is a flex when you're as talented as much. I was once in Andy Reed's office, and he made a joke.

He said, I thought you might be related to Chris, and then I kind of saw he got. Chris Burman. Chris is huge. Yeah, Chris is a big guy. I'm not particularly big. So it's pretty,

I remember that day. I remember vividly. It was a funny joke. that is a good joke and you got to spend some time with Andy last night yes yeah it was it was really good it's always good seeing Andy

always good catching up with Andy Connor I was thinking about a conversation we had at the combine a couple years ago and I think you were out in front of this before anybody on the Eagles beat was I was about to ask and that was after the first year

of Nick Siriani it had not come out yet that Nick had given up play calling and you were sort of very not you didn't want to boast about it you're like my understanding is that You know, Shane Steichen has a lot to do with the Eagle's success in the second half this year. Just want to give you credit for that. You were all over that.

Thank you. I feel like you are like very plugged in at the coach level. Yeah, I think everybody has their niche. I started doing the list a couple of years ago. Love the list. As a way to quantify, find some sort of way to quantify coaches outside of this guy knows this guy or this guy runs this scheme. Which, unfortunately, is how so much of the high. hiring process. Exactly.

Yes. But through that, you know, it got to know a lot of people and very fortunate. But that was a very intimidating moment for me because Philadelphia beatwriters are terrifying. All of you guys, like if you parachute in, I don't like to go because I'm scared of all of you. And then when I said something, when I said something that you all disagreed with, I was like, I was in a cold sweat because I was. He's like, dead on. Am I, is my information wrong? Well, because you have to understand that first year,

Shane on the podium was like so unimpressive. It felt like he had no idea what was going on. And meanwhile, behind the scenes, he's turning the keys. And the other part too is that Jeff Stoutland has a lot of juice in Eagles building. So I think the assumption among the beatwriters and it was incorrect. And he was the run game coordinator. Yeah. Was that like when you, when you gear more.

toward this like run-based offense. This is Stalin's influence, right? And because Shane's background was, you know. How hard is it to just press the run button? Exactly. Yeah. But you were on top of that. And by the way, you were on top of it with your list.

Like you identified Shane as a hot candidate before anyone else. He gets the- Not as hot as D'Amico, but- He gets the Colts job. You had Gannon on that list. He gets the Cardinals job. So you have, you've been on top of that all along. Rough, tough year this year, my two top candidates

were Ben Johnson and Ezero Evereaux, Evereaux. But they both got interviews. I mean, Ben Johnson would have gotten a job if you wanted to job. But the thing that was amazing about Shane was, I talked to Philip Rivers and just about kind of what kind of coach he was at that time, you know, back when we were talking about it. And he said, you know, he's like, you know how I throw the ball funny? And he's like, well, Shane would, when he was calling plays or when he was designing stuff

for me, he would drop back and kind of pretend to throw like me so that he could understand that there's certain reads and there's certain things that I'm going to look at that are going to be uncomfortable uniquely for me. And I think that, I think that Shane understood with Jalen specifically that what Jalen's thing was, was, you know, he needed to see the defense a certain way before the snap. And if things looked right to him, then he could play with confidence. And so shame is really good at making, lining all that stuff up for Jalen, right? And I think you saw what happens when you don't have that kind of that concierge service or whatever it is behind the scenes this year. So talking to as many coaches as you do, how do you feel about the setup that is now

going to be in Philadelphia where it's a bit of a Frankenstein of people being brought in from different places? Like, Fangio's getting his guys on the defensive side of the ball, but Nick is now going to be a little bit more hands off. They're bringing in Kellan Moore, who he has never worked with before. They're adding some other guys who have been maybe Peter principled elsewhere. and are coming down a level to their normal level, when you are bringing in these different parts who have no relationship with each other necessarily, how do you feel like that's going to go?

It can work out well and it cannot. I think it can work out well like it worked out the first year with Brian Daebel, where he said, I don't want to hire any of my friends, I want to hire good coaches, and then two years into it, him and Wickmartin are screaming at each other, and the door's slamming and he's walking out of the building.

Is it possible he didn't want to hire any of his friends because he doesn't have any friends? Also possible. And in Carolina, I gave Frank Reich a lot of credit for trying the same thing, but that was one of the most disastrous assemblages of coaches that I think we've had in recent memory. That was a disaster through and through. So you look at the situation in Philly.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a coach's five-step guide to survival. And step three is coming out and telling people you're going to spend more time in various meetings and not be focused on one side of the ball. So Nick's getting pretty. Step three. He went right to step three. A couple of times. I remember, and he used to cover the Jets, this happened with Rex Ryan towards the end.

And Rex Ryan came out one day and he said, I'm going to spend a lot of time in the offensive meeting. And everyone's like, dear God, right? So I was talking to him in his office about this, and he goes, let me draw you a play. And he goes, and he tries to draw a play, and he goes, hold on, I have to draw it the other. Because he had never drawn a play from an offensive. We had to flip the paper upside out. This is what we're doing, you know. I'm not saying Nick is like that.

but this is sort of the foreign territory he's walking into, you know. It's going to be interesting. Now, one of Connor's best stories, I can do a whole show on Connor's great stories, but... You're way too nice. But you'll appreciate this, is... So Steve Belichick, the father, Bill Belichick's father, wrote a book, Football Scouting Methods, okay? It's not in print anymore. You have to get it used, okay?

I read it when I was in college. Connor read it. You read that book when you were in college? Yeah, because they... We got it. The Syracuse Library was able to get it, I think, from Cornell's Library. I don't know, but they had like a library trading system, so I was able to get that out in college. But anyways, I bring this up because Connor didn't just read the book, okay?

This is what Connor did. He then went to a game, and he scouted the game using Steve Belchek's methods. An amazing idea, well-executed, terrific story. I bring that up. You're looking your lips in the stands. I bring that up because we're talking about coaches. There were rumors, I think well-founded rumors, that the Eagles were interested in Bill Belichick had they moved on from Nick Siriani.

Now, as we know, Bill Belichick did not get a job. A, what's your read on why Belichick is not coaching in the NFL next year? And B, are the Eagles a team to look at if this goes south? I think if there's a – I think there has to be mutual interest between Belichick and what he sees as a window and that team in what they see as a window. And certainly the Eagles are one of those teams. You know, he identified Atlanta early on in the process. I think that Las Vegas was also on his radar, but much less so.

I think Atlanta was sort of the one that he identified as the failing asset that I could come in real quick and I could flip this thing around. Philly, if that was on the table, is comparable in almost every way to Atlanta in that situation. Plus they have a much better quarterback, you know. and the amount of veterans there, I think he has cachet with that generation of guys, that group of guys. I think it would work,

and it's the perfect safety ripcord for them to pull for a year or two. So long as Howie and everybody else doesn't mind taking a step back, because I do think that that's a big part of what Belichick still wants. Now, would he respect them enough to kind of have some sort of mutual relationship there? I don't know, because it didn't work out in Atlanta that way. Yeah, I mean, my sense is that, how he would not want that. I think, you know, you saw that he wanted Nick to stay.

He wanted to, they were calling around to help fill that coaching staff. I don't know that he would want that power dynamic with Bill. I also don't know that if things go so badly this year, then they would go to Belichick. I feel like then they'd be wanting to start fresh. This year it felt like it made sense to me more if they were going to move on from Nick because it is a little bit more turnkey. Like the, the case that I've made is that to the Eagles, to some degree coaches are kind of fungible.

The roster is king, and if you're going to just try to get the most out of the roster, it's what you've seen them do. They want to get these high floors with Vic Fangio and Kellan Moore. If you brought in Bill Belichick, you're squeezing the lemon, like squeezing the juice even more. I don't know Belichick well. I don't know really at all, honestly. So I just say, I mean, you have read more about him than most humans. I should frame him like that.

I don't know Bill Belichick. What I've heard about him and Connor can, and back this up if it's true or false, is that he has a reverence for the NFC East. Like the Giants organization still means a lot to him. His time with the Giants, he holds dear. I think he, I would imagine he has his eyes on those three NFC East situations, the Eagles, the Giants, and the Cowboys.

Because I think each of those are potentially, if it goes south with any of those teams, then I think there will be a new coach next year. if you were to be able to talk him into pairing him with an up-and-coming offensive coordinator, which I think might be difficult. But here's the crazy thing about Belichick. If you talk to some of the... Have you heard about Josh McDaniels?

If you talk to like the guys that are, you know, coming up on in the coaching ranks, right? The whatever you, for lack of a better term, I hate saying hot young coaches because it sounds, you know, I don't want to make a comment. Ryan's. He comes to mind. He's a very attractive young man. I mean, you know, he would be high. Mike. Good luck on coach, Power. Thank you very much. He's number one with a bullet to me, but... But all of these coaches talk to Belichick. They know Belichick. He communicates with them. He knows them. And so why not just grab, like, you know, someone from the Rams and just go to Atlanta and run this thing?

And I don't know whether it's loyalty, whether it's an assimilation into a system. but he's still a great, he's still the best defensive coach in the NFL, and I don't think it's close. Like, you know, the other thing when you get talking to these coaches is they still hate playing him more than anybody else. And I go back to

when Mike McDaniel was lighting it on fire with Miami early on, the coach who messed it up for him and for everybody else was Belichick. And everybody started copying what he was doing, muddying to his first read, doing all this crazy stuff, and everybody else started doing that to the Dolphins

after that. He was the one who figured it out. He's always the one who figures it out. He would be a great head coach, and it's mind-blowing to me that he's not in the NFL. It is kind of wild. Now, speaking of defensive coaches, if we can move on a bit here, is we just had Todd Davis sitting in your seat. All-City, he's with DNVR, part of the All-City Network, Super Bowl-winning linebacker, he played for Vic Fangio. And he gave us this story. He's a big office fan, and he wanted to ask Vic Fangio about the office because he knew Vic was from Scranton. So two-part question here. One, you're from Scranton. How many people just assume you like the office because you're from Scranton? And two, the real question here is Vic Fangio, is it going to

work in Philly? So as a sub-answer to the first question, I'm sure that what Vic Fangio said was I'm not from Scranton. I'm from Dunmore. Is that what he said? No, he just said it's not my sense of humor. Okay. So yeah, Dunmore is like, it's just a very, it's a continuation of Scranton, but to the people there, it would be like a border of like a, like, it's not Jerry McNamara territory. It's not Jerry Macon territory. It's the next town. It's literally the next town of it. But they would be offended at the suggestion. Very much so. Like if you, how dare you suggest I could possibly be a Scranton man? If you talk to people from Dunmore and you're like, oh, you're from Scranton, that would be like, you know, some sort of war-torn countries.

Halfield McCoy. Yes. So quick aside there, the Syriani's, they're known as being from Jamestown, New York. Like, if you talk to them, they're, they say, we're actually from West Delacott, right? Like, you have to make that clear. So it's similar to that. Yeah. Yeah. So the office was like an amazing gift for me because going to Syracuse, that was like

right at peak office time. And so what like. That was your cultural cachet. I didn't have a lot of conversation starters. I'm not an interesting guy. That's not true. Come on. Especially, you know, 18 or, you know, how old are when we start college?

18. You know, I really didn't have much going for me. I had, my dad told me this, he goes, listen, what everybody does in college is they wear their letterman's jackets so that you can see other people from other high schools and you can be like, yo, what's up? So the first night, like, that's what kind of disaster I am on campus. I'm walking around Syracuse my first night. And it's hot out. It's late August, you know, and I got a high school letterman's jacket on. And everybody's like, what is wrong with this person?

So thank God for the office because it saved me. If you want to tell us you were a high school letterman, you can just tell us right away. I got it at the very end by accumulating enough backup minutes. It took me till my last season of high school football to accumulate the minutes for that letter. I'm very proud of it. What position? Center. Good for you.

I've dropped a few LBs back then since then. So is Vic Fangio going to work in Philly? I think so. He has the right player set there, and he's got the right complementary coaching there. Miami was a different situation. Mike McDaniel wanted the Vic Fangio system. I don't know if he had the Vic Fangio players. I mean, the Eagles have, you know, depending on how many people they decide to bring back, they have that hardened core, you know, and, you know, especially if they can get some of these guys to come back or whatever they want to do.

But I do think Siriani, too, is a good complimentary coach there. He's going to be able to feed off of what Vic is trying to get to those players. And I think Taylor a message that fits that. And so all of these years later, is there still a bit of a rivalry between the tag team you and Jenny against Zach and Mike? There was never a rivalry. Well, so I was like, I was an intern and then I graduated to like a clerk. And so clerk was like a word in the newspaper industry back then that was like we can pay him a sub-legal wage and just allow him to subsist there. So Zach was hired from the post.

So it was much a bigger deal for us to have Zach there. So Zach got a phone. And that's that like, it bothered me to no end for years because I had to pay for my cell phone. Yeah, that's not fair. And so when I finally got a work phone, I was like, all right, we're like, And now you're calling your dad and being like, guess what? I'm on the same level as Zach Burma. Remember that phone call from 10 years ago?

So you know what bothered me about Connor? And this is a compliment to Connor. But if we're doing this. If we want to do it. Yeah, so on this scale. So I just got hired, no, I took the job because I wanted to cover the NFL and I wanted to work with Mike Garfou. And it was great. But then a few weeks in, something happened with our Nets coverage and like the Nets,

beat writer was no longer there. And so Connor, they brought Connor onto the beat, to the Nets beat at the time. It was kind of like a temporary role, but all this stuff was going on with them. They had just traded Darren Williams, or they were trading there.

No, they were going to trade for Carmelo Anthem. Yeah, that's okay. And Connor was like at the epicenter of all this. Meanwhile, I'm writing these like sidebars on Matt Dodge, and I'm there thinking like, man, I've worked my butt off. I've gotten at this point, okay? I'm like, I would love, this is the biggest story in sports right now,

and you have Conard there, and Ike. And you put Conner on? No, no, no, because I wasn't traveling with the Giants. Like, I would only do the local, like, so the Giants, I remember there was a weekend when the Giants were in Seattle. I remember this distinctly. And our editor, who was an amazing guy, he is an amazing guy, not was. He stole.

He's an amazing guy, Drew, and he had me do the New York Marathon, okay? He made you run it? No, I ain't to cover the New York Marathon. because I didn't go to Seattle. And Connor was in like the Epis was doing all this great stuff on the Nets. And I'm there writing about a marathon runner and I'm like, send me to the Nets right now.

I would love to contribute to that. So yeah, and Connor did an awesome job and he does an amazing job still. What you didn't know is that they were planning on canceling the Nets. And so that was like, what they were basically doing was they were sending me out on a plank and then they were going to cut the plank. So I took a bullet for you there.

I'm glad it worked out, though. That's very funny. Now, you did ask yesterday when we talked about you coming on, you wanted to give your pitch. Somebody come out and buy Sports Illustrated, something that close to my heart, but this is you. This is your vocation. Zach was the first person I asked. I know Zach's smart financially. He's sound.

I thought that he might be able to put a profile together. I asked him what he would do if he could have a time machine for one day. And his answer was he would, what was it? He would want to go buy the... Invest in Google's IPO, which is not a far-fetched answer. That's a very sensible answer. Yeah. I feel like Bo wants to go date Domingo Ryan, so.

No, I would, I'd rather say, I'd rather, like, spend some time with my dead mom. On that. I'd be expected to take that too. That's my honest answer. I'm sorry. Domingo can come to him. Yeah, yeah. I think that would be a fun pair.

I will say this. I think that our, what's the saying? Rumors of our, rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, something like that. Yeah. I'm so proud of everyone who works there. Everyone's still kicking, kicking butt. Is this a show where you can say ass? Yeah.

Yeah. I know Zach, he doesn't work blue, so I didn't want to. Zach is the one who works blue. He drops S bombs all the time. Does he really? Yeah. Oh, golly, all right. S-Bombs, come on.

Es-Bombs? Is this PG-13? Like, come on. See? So I'd say stick with us and more good to come. We'll be around. Well, we're excited about it. You are doing great work in all the people at Sports Illustrated.

So, Connor, thank you so much for taking time. Thanks, fellas. We really appreciate it. Now, time to give you one of my favorite interviews from Super Bowl Media Night last night. This is going to be a really insightful peek into the Georgia guys on the Eagles roster. We spent some time with Malik Herring, who played in college with Jordan Davis

and Jalen Carter and Keely Ringo and Dianne Swift and Nicobie Dean, all these guys. And he's got these, like, memories that I think are very insightful into the players they are today. So enjoy Malik Herring from Media Night last night. I cover the Eagles, so I know you've got a lot of Georgia boys on that team. What are, like, your best stories from those guys? Oh, man, I got a lot of Keeley,

making him cry all the time as a freshman. Okay. I mean, I hospital with college. Nolan making him wine. He's a man, Nolan, bro. He's always trying to be right all the time. But like, it was just like, hey, bro, when you're on the field, we'd be tired,

we don't got to switch. Right. The playbook is. We can play both sides. You don't run all the way over. Coach, you won't let me go over here. I'm like, bro, Nolan, stop being a baby. It's okay.

Just go over there. Yeah. Coley, bet the playbook say I got to be over here. I'm like, all right, Nolan. But I love Nolan. Okay. JD? Ooh, no.

I'm going to tell more about this. This one thing about Swift. Okay. We had these mopeds in college. Okay. Everybody was running a mopeds. Swift was doing a little donut in the middle of the little courtyard. You know, it was a little wet.

Oh, no. So my boy, Amir Smith was, like, turning and turning. He turned a little too hard one time. He failed. So that was a funny moment right there. And is it like, at first you're like, is he okay? And then you're laughing. He was good.

No, we just started laughing. It went on hard falling. It was crazy. He was just a little slow. It was, like, oh. Did nobody expect it, though, because we were running all night. N'Cobie? Nacobie.

Yeah, of course. We got a lot of me. I just remember, I'll tell you one of you. I go to this because it was Nolan. It was Nolan, Trayvon Walker, Nicopi. I was going to trade room. They stayed in the floor above me, so I pulled it up to their room there freshman year.

We didn't here chilling. Colby had a book because, you know, he's an engineer major. Yeah. He had a book studying, and he had a 45 dumbbell right here. So, like, I'm talking, I started talking to him, he read. He started talking to me and read. Then he started talking to me and doing the kernel. I'm like, hold on, Kobe, what you doing, bro?

It's too much. Yeah, like, relax, boy. You're like, no, I got to get it in. I said you're studying. It sounds like somebody I know. You're a dog at heart, but he's going to be different from day one. Jordan Davis,

I remember this one time, man, and practice. Jordan Davis freshman year, he was overweight. He didn't know, Jordan was big. It's happened before, yeah. He was overweight. So, like, they weren't,

they don't travel to no games until he get his weight down. But he really wanted to play, and it was his one. a week he was buzzing his tail and he were like two pounds and he was two pounds and he still they still to let him they still to let him travel to the next Monday they like run the dog piss off of him bro and he over there like I can't forget this I'm going to home yeah like it's okay but it's all right just keep running bro and stop eating the crazy stuff then we hit me anything coming in the first one yeah whatever like what kings yeah well just it's hard to pass that up

Fried chicken and large fries with sweet tea and sweet lemonade. He either used to tan the canes and the tacos. Okay. Street taco. He was street taco maniac at Joint David. I mean, that sounds good to me, but, yeah. No, he put me on taco. Okay.

I'll bust him too. Okay. I'll be right with him now. Now, how about Jalen Carter? I remember Jalen workout he did. Whole line, bro. They're doing the same thing over and over, and everybody, the N.M.

looked the same face on the ground. I was like, what the hell? But then it was like, you're coming in. Like he just ran the gauntlet of like, yeah. Yeah, I'm like, you're going to come in, you're inside? He was like, no, I'm a junior. You're a junior. They were like, yeah, you got to get that boy up by the hill

because you can take some spots. No, he went like that. But he definitely dominated, threw people on their faces, man, and definitely didn't look like no junior in high school. And so is it like as you go through this process, are you hearing from all these guys? you got a big group chat with all the dogs? 100%.

We talk almost every day. Okay. If not every day, we'll at least talking twice a week. Okay. And then going back, what were you making Keeley cry about? Bro, bro. He'd be complaining, bro. That's all he talks.

He'd be telling like a little girl. Because if you get on this nerve, he'd be like, right, right, whatever, blah, blah, bro. So, like, whatever you say to him, he just get to him. And he just thought, So you do it to him, he'd get annoyed. They start whining and start me like, man, y'all just not where I'm from, bro. I'm from Arizona, man.

You're not from Arizona. You're from Washington. And he'd get mad about that, too. And so these guys, like, if they watch that, they would say, like, you're doing the best Keely Rango impression they've ever seen. Like, you're in hell of that. Yeah, Keely. Brow, wow, you know, Brian, big a half out of you. That's keylet right now.

That's good. All right, I got a couple survey questions I'm asking everybody. If you had a time machine for one day, what would you use it for? You think about this question all the time. Really? You should be watching our show, man. This is all we do. I do want to go back in time.

If I would have did this, it would have been like this. Oh, yeah. But then I want to go back in time in the Coliseum. Oh, like Gladiator fights. Yeah, I just see it. Just to be in the crowd, yeah. You just see, like, what were they like? Yeah.

It's like the way they described it is that sign. Yeah, of course, to see that would be amazing. What's the biggest one if, though? You're thinking about, like, if I had done this or that, what's the one in your mind that's like what would have happened? Man, it would have. Go back to night green, right? Okay.

I told my ACL playing basketball Christmas tournament. Okay. I'm a hooper and heart. Are you? I was going to say, is that your better game? So that's my wood-up. Okay. If I didn't, if I didn't tell my A-ZL day,

I would I win the game, if I, like, what if I would have won the game 40 pounds? Okay. And it became a D-N and the migrating just to football, you know. I would have been like 2-10, 205. What were you? Like a slash 3-D wing? What are we talking?

I was like a 3-4-5. I can, there'll be one and two, though. I can control the rock. Okay. I can facilitate. Okay. I can shoot that thing. I can pad that thing.

I can post them. You wouldn't have been here in the Super Bowl. But you want to know what the basketball career would have been? I just love basketball going on. Like, I wanted to be LeBron so bad, brother. Who didn't? Exactly. Okay.

Last two. I just had real big hoop dreams. I want to be like hot sauce. Love that. I used to watch streetball all the time. Oh, love that. Yeah. Favorite, like, who was your childhood,

celebrity crush oh santa oh nice she was beautiful she's still beautiful yeah she's gorgeous real honor too good answers

all right last one is it okay to pee sitting down is it okay to pee sitting down yes Not even like middle of the night. You're tired. Nothing.

I mean, there's a lot of ways you can go around that. Yeah, that's true. And then what makes you comfortable, bro? Okay. No judgment, just not for you. Yeah, I'm not going to do it. If I can stand up, I can stand up. Okay.

I'm not going to, I don't see the need of me going out my way to sit down. Sure. But you're a young athletic man. Your knees aren't barking like us old guys. like, you know, as old guys. Oh, my knees bark. My knee, don't get me wrong. Now, my knees bark.

They bark live. Okay. I just deal with it, though. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I still ain't go to sit down to pee. In that car, you might always get a bottle

and just roll to the side. Okay. You feel me? Yeah, I feel you. And keep the germacs, too. There you go. All right, Malik. Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Good luck on Sunday. Thank you so much. Radio Row with another All-City colleague for whom Vic Fangio is right in his wheelhouse sack. But before we do that, let me tell you about my wheelhouse. Wheelhouse is my go-to sports card gift and apparel shop in the Delaware Valley, and it should be yours too. Their motto is cards and community because love of sports unites us all. They carry all your favorite.

Card brands like tops chrome baseball and mosaic football as well as T-shirts, hats, hoodies from brands like Mitchell and Ness, 47 brand junk food starter, and shy vintage sports, which is my favorite one. on that list. If you're looking to grade your sports card collection, Wheelhouse offers PSA grading submissions. They also host tons of different family-friendly events and birthday parties every month. You can stop in to either of their stores in Wayne or Westchester, open seven days a week at 11 a.m. Use code P-HL-Y. It gets you $10 off any purchase of $25 or more in store. Also, be sure to give them a follow on Instagram like I do at Wheelhouse Cards. All right. Adam Hogue of CHGO. What's up, guys? How are you?

I'm great. I love Super Bowl Week. This is the best. Fantastic. So much happening. Zach's in Vegas, which is his favorite thing. We talked to Todd Davis, who played for Vic Fangio. Okay, yeah. Now we want to talk to somebody who covered Vic Fangio so we can get the sense of what Zach has to expect in all of these weekly press conferences. What are your tips for covering Vic?

Oh, I miss Vic. I miss Vic. I miss Vic. Vic was the best. He is so, he's dry in a way, but he's so straightforward. that like most, most coaches say a lot without saying anything. And Vic will say less, but actually, you know. To the point. Yeah, he'll be, you know, ex-player. Yeah, he just didn't play well this week.

You know, he's got to make that tackle. Just like, okay, yeah, it doesn't have to be that. It's hard. Like, you can just say it. Yeah. And then his players, you know, sometimes you've got to be careful that with the players. But I think Vic at this point has so much, you know, he's built up so much equity in the league, respect.

that and they kind of he's the same way in the meetings from what the players would say about him too is he's just like it's just how he is he's just going to say it how it is he's not he's not going to BS anybody he's not going to waste everyone's time with a thousand words when it could just be five um and by the way he's obviously a really good defensive coordinator too when he comes to scheming things up when you go back to that that last defense which was so good um if you were like building that defense from scratch building the big fan geo defense from scratch what's the first thing that you would want to put it? in there? I mean, you've got to have outstanding edge rushers first and foremost. I mean, in Chicago, it didn't really totally click until they traded for Cleo Mac. And then Cleo Mac was, you know, unbelievable, especially in 2018 when that defense was really clicking. So, I mean, it took a few years there

because Vic joined up right away in 2015 with John Fox and they kind of had to rebuild that roster but you could tell right away that they were getting by because of the scheme because of the coaching for a while without actually having too much talent

and then they eventually they made some really good draft picks Eddie Jackson was a great fit in that defense pretty much right away with ball hawk you know being able to ball hawk as a center field there on the back end

so and then he was he was great with players like Kyle Fuller, a cornerback who really got off to a rocky start, first round talent, who it took him a couple years to get going. He had a knee injury at some point. And at first it was kind of rocky with Vic, but then Vic got the most out of him. And then he ended up becoming, he might even actually ended up as a first team all pro at one point. It might have been in 18.

And then, you know, Vic leaves and then Kyle Fuller's career kind of fell off the map after that. So I think that's a good example of a specific player that Vic Fangio was able to get a lot out of and maximize. And now, interestingly, Sean Desai saw kind of the end of that Vic Fangio defense in Chicago. I know the downfall there wasn't all on him. There was a lot going on with the bears at the time. But now you have a situation where Vic takes over for Desai. Yeah. Are you expecting to see from the Eagles like, is it, is Fangio basically what Desai was doing on steroids?

or did you see comparable? Was what DeSai did in Chicago that's similar to what Fangio did in Chicago? Yeah, I mean, what's cool about Sean Desai is, so Sean DeSai started with the Bears back when Mark Trussman was still the head coach. So we're talking a completely different scheme. And obviously, you guys know all about the size background and, you know, the crazy stuff with the education and not really even, you know, having that much of a football background.

It's a pretty cool story. So he sort of learns as a really just basically an intern getting his foot in the door, completely different scheme. And then Vic comes around and they really hit it off. And, you know, he decides like, this is, I love everything Vic's doing. I love this defense. I love this scheme. And then he's sort of like, I feel like he had some bad luck.

Like one of the mistakes we talk about in Chicago a lot is why the hell didn't they just promote Sean to side right away when Vic Fangio left instead of going out and getting Chuck Pagano? It's like they wasted two years there. with a really good defense when they could have just like, you know, got a guy that really believed in what Fangio was doing. He could pretty much coach it the same way. It's not like Pagano was terrible, but it just seemed like a waste there. And then finally Desai gets his chance and then everyone gets fired and he's got to go. So I feel like Sean DeSy for as hard as he's worked because he had some really bad luck at the same time.

And obviously the situation in Philly, I'm sure you guys have talked about it endlessly. Bad luck. It just seems like he got a raw deal. And it's kind of too bad he can't stay on that staff now because I'm sure Vic would love to have them. It'd just be so awkward. It would. It would.

I mean, I totally understand it. But yes, to answer the original question, I do think Vic will be an upgrade, really just more so because of experience, if anything else. Let me check in on one sort of like not a trade, but a roster trade that the two teams made. Eagles fans sort of lament the team left. letting T.J. Edwards go. They were not going to sign him for that deal, but they could have

extended him a year earlier, which I think would have been prudent. Instead, they get the Bears' leftovers of Nicholas Morrow, who was, I mean, I don't want to pick on the guy, but just a real problem in the middle of the defense for them. How did T.J. Edwards play last year? Yeah, a huge upgrade over Nicholas Morrow. You know, we could tell right away. What's crazy is I think he actually outperformed Tremaine Edmund. and Edmonds got the big money. Now, T.J. Edwards has some limitations. I mean, I'm sure you guys have talked about that even when he was in Philly,

but they're able to kind of maybe hide some of the coverage limitations within the scheme. It helps having Tremaine Edmonds there because he's such a big body in the middle of the field. And they have some other good players in that secondary around him. So I think it's been a good fit for T.J. Edwards because they can kind of scheme to his strength. ranks and maybe hide his weaknesses. And honestly, he was probably the best of those linebackers this year on a pretty damn good Bears defense. So especially when you consider the, they're getting more value out of T.J. Edwards than

are, T.J. Edwards, and they are Tremant M. just based on the contract because I understand Philly situation last year. You guys had to make some tough decisions, just giving your salary cap situation. And I feel like the Bears just, it was a perfect situation. He comes back home because he's from the area. I grew up a Bears fan and you know

it was a great landing spot for him and it really from the Bears standpoint with all the cap space they had it was not that expensive of a deal so I mean it's great value I want to be respectful of Adam's time because he has a show over on CHGO real quick

here what's what's what's the read on the Bears are they going to be a threat in the NFC or is this quarterback roulette going to continue so I think the comp for the bears right now or at least like sort of the goal the track they're trying to follow is the lions so they're kind of been a build it slow they've been a year behind the lions this will be year three of the current regime which is where the lions were this year the lions had a similar seat so 2021 for the

lions was similar to what the bears just experienced 2023 where rocky started I think the lion started one in six that season and then they finished really strong now the bears finish wasn't quite as linear as the Lions in 2022, and they failed. The Bears failed to do what the Lions did in week 18 of that season, which was knock Aaron Rogers and the Packers out of the playoffs. The Bears had the same exact opportunity with Jordan Love and the Packers this year, and they couldn't get it done, and that's a big hurdle they've got to get over. But still, you can sort of still see the building blocks start to come together.

So I don't know if they'll be able to get all the way to the NFC championship game. I think that that would be very ambitious to expect that. But I do think in Chicago, they believe if they can get this huge, enormous quarterback decision correct that they should be a playoff team next year we will let you go but i know that people can watch the c hgo show if they want to know the answer to this but very quickly what is your prediction on what they do at quarterback i think they're going to end up drafting cala williams i think it's just too obvious of a situation you've got three years of justin fields and what what i've always said at least in chicago is going into this season sometimes we've got to remind ourselves of this

like our conversation over the summer was the most important whatever happens in 2023 the most important thing is they have to have the answer on Justin Field. And if that answer is not clear, then that is your answer. Yeah. That's well said. It just has to be, and so here we are, the season's over, and every single day we're talking about, well, Justin Fields' this and this

excuse, and a lot of the excuses are valid. He's been in a bad situation. The coaching hasn't been, you know, exceptional on that side of the ball by any means. They're now redoing the staff. He's got to learn a whole new offense again now third time and going into year four. It's not good. But come on, guys. We've been around this league

long enough. When you're going through this process over and over again with these quarterbacks, I think you kind of have your answer. Now, maybe in other situations, it would be more obvious to stick with Justin Fields. But the Bears have been given this gift of the number one overall pick with Kayla Williams staring them in the

face. And I understand that you can get a big haul if you stick with Justin and you trade the pick. But I just, you already passed on CJ Stroud. Can you do that again? If we're talking a year from now, you still don't have your answer on Justin and now CJ Stroud's out there winning an MVP or something like that, and Caleb Williams is the rookie of the year.

How do you, you can't, you can't have that happen. And you also just think of it from like a GM survival standpoint. Yeah. If you stick with Fields and Caleb Williams is a superstar, you're fired. If you go to Caleb Williams, like, you still get time. Yeah. You're not only resetting the quarterback clock. You're kind of resetting your GM clock a little bit too.

You're buying yourself some time. All right. Well, thank you so much for the insight. All right, guys. Enjoy the show later. Appreciate it. Always loved talking about TJ Edwards. We spent a little bit of time last night with a different former Eagles great.

And that, of course, is James Winchester. We got former Eagles great. James Winchester here. First of all, congratulations. Thank you. What are your big memories from your time with the Eagles? Well, you know, that was my first opportunity to sign with an NFL team. So while I was only there for about two and a half, three weeks,

just enough time for a cup of coffee and get to know some guys, that was a special time of my life and memory that, you know, got to be a part of an NFL team. And I got to play in a couple of preseason games and got to be around the great John Dorm boss and get to learn a couple things from him. And the magic tricks? Dave Fipp. I didn't learn how to do any of the magic trips, but I got to watch him perform a little bit. Absolutely blew my mind.

So that was neat. You know, Donnie Jones, pretty cool deal to get to snap to him in a couple games. And, yeah, I mean, it was a stair step to help me get in the league. You know, never knew that I would end up in Kansas City with the Chiefs. But, you know, at that point in your life, all you can hope for was an opportunity. And they gave me an opportunity. Who were some of the other guys who remember from those two and a half to three weeks? Oh, man.

Well, Lane Johnson's a good buddy of mine. Went to college at Oklahoma with him. So obviously, Lane. We actually had Sam Ocho was actually playing at the time. No, Emmanuel Ocho. Yeah, it was Emmanuel. Yeah, it was playing there. Jordan Poirer was actually in Philadelphia at the time.

I'm sure there's others. obviously I looked up to the specialists, so Donny Jones and John Dorboss, two guys that really stuck out to me. But yeah, I mean, it was a great time to be there, and it was a great opportunity for me. And what's your best Lane story from college? The Lane story? I have too many to tell about Big Lane.

I'll keep the majority of them to myself, but Big Lane is the man. Obviously, he's proven that, and to be a perennial pro bowler, and what an incredible talent and an incredible human being he is. And super proud of him from afar. and I'd love to be playing with Big Lane, but I'm so proud of him. And, you know, he continues to prove his value to the team and that he is the greatest to do it at his position. So I'm super proud of Big Lane, and, yeah, I was grateful for my time in Philadelphia.

I've got a couple, like, survey questions here that I'm asking everybody. If you had a time machine, but you could only use it for one day, what would you use it for? That's a good question. I'd probably go back to when my parents were my age. You know, why not? See what your parents were up to, what they were like at that age. And, you know, we don't have that opportunity to go see your parents when they were, you know, 15, 20 years old. So I'd probably do that.

Probably go see my mom and dad. I like that one. Next one, celebrity. Like, who was your first celebrity crush? Ooh, celebrity crush. That's a good one. I don't know. None are really coming to mind.

I know I have some, but I can't think of one. Okay. Who is your least favorite Philadelphia Eagle? Least favorite. I wasn't there long enough to really have any least favorites. I was just grateful to be a part of them. All right. Last one.

Do you ever pee sitting down? I think everybody does, yeah. Thank you. I mean, it's just part of it, you know? Thank you. Not ashamed. Yeah, this is a long-running argument with my partner. I got kids, you know, so sometimes you just got to take a break and just get away from the kids.

Exactly. You need a break. Yeah. Thank you very much. Typical father answer. Yeah, exactly. There you back on the P.HLY Eagles podcast, presented by Factor meal kits. head to factor meals.com slash eagles 50 and use code eagles 50 to get 50% off.

Zach, are you working on your Portuguese? I would like to learn my Portuguese if I'm in Brazil this fall. I want to be able to converse with the locals, right? And so, yeah, I need to spend some time learning Portuguese this summer. Okay, well, let's talk about it. We talked a little bit about it on sort of a quick hit newser that went on the YouTube page yesterday, but we haven't talked about it on the show. The news coming down from Roger Goodell's press conference,

which you were not invited to, as we talked about. Rubbing it in, yeah. What do you make a... Let's talk Roger first. I mean, how Garbonzo Beans is that? Yeah, I disagree with it. For those who are not familiar with this, Roger Goodell has an annual press conference at the Super Bowl.

It's typically open to all credential media members. It's famously got Huffy because his league employee, Jim Trotter, asked some different. questions? It's typically later in the week. This time it was Monday like hours before media night which takes up most of the headlines anyways, right? So it's kind of buried

as it is, number one. And then it was invitation only. Take questions from the nasty news media. So, yeah, I disagree with, you know, I think that it's ridiculous. In the scheme of things, I don't know if fans care so much about like who's asking questions

and who's not. That's what he's banking on. But I think, yeah, exactly. But I do think that... So let's keep it in the ether. If you're commissioner of the league, you should be able to take questions. It's not like he's like... It's not like he's got a weekly news conference.

Like, this is the one time all year. He gets asked some difficult questions. Give me a break. Yeah, to me it's part of the gig, right? And if there's something you don't want to talk about, then like... Then go cry in your billion-dollar house. No, it's just part of the gig.

It comes with the territory. If you want to be commissioner of the NFL, I think you should be able to... answer questions about the league, both the questions you want to answer and the questions you don't want to answer. I think it's almost like a form of censorship, for lack of a better term. At the same time, are you disappointed that you didn't make the list? I disappointed that I mean, I'm not disappointed.

Is this going to make you anti-Gadale now? I'm not pro or anti-Gadale. I'm a reporter. I'm just in the, you know, I'm... But I'll say, like, in my current capacity, my current capacity, the Gadell press conference isn't as valuable to my cover. It would be kind of funny if he... give you the invite on this bad boy.

What would you ask him? Yeah, like imagine how I was saying. Like you're paying a big fan geo, right? No. Yeah, that's my point, is that there are a lot of people who cover the league at large or there are times when their team

is in the spotlight. I was once, actually, in a, I don't like to make this like sharing stories, but I was in a small conference room with Gidell and I asked a question about Deshawn Jackson.

This was in the 2014 offseason when the Eagles cut Goodell and there was a conference up in New York like the Associated Press Sports Editors and like reporters could go and I was there on behalf of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I have to ask a relevant question. So I asked something about like the league's involvement

in that Deshaunca, like if they checked because there had been a report that the team checked with the league or cleared this by the league because there was all types of NFLPA there stuff and I do recall that was a little messier like the after the fact I was on I was taking calls like I had to get some clarifications about what that answer was so in any event I do recall that okay but but no I yeah so so yes the Eagles are in Brazil next year to open the season uh September 6th Friday night and it's a big deal for the Eagles. Now, I just want to clear one thing up at the top because when this news came out,

one sentiment that I heard is, oh, this is the league screwing the Eagles, taking away a home game. No, not at all. And the reason I'm telling you that is because when the schedule expanded in 2021, the 17 games, one of the rules was that every eight years, a team must give up a home game to play international. The Eagles had not done that. They had not given up a home game yet. And part of that I believe is their agreement with the city is that they have to have eight regular season games in Lincoln Financial Field. So now that there's nine games, they're able to play internationally or they're able to host internationally, and they're going to have to do this once every eight years. So they're going to have to do this again by, what, 2032 at this point, right?

And they'll be on the road. They'll be a road team internationally some point before that, I imagine, because the league's going to, I believe, 10 international scheduled games in the 2025 season. So anyways, this is a big deal for the Eagles because this is the first. The people who might get screwed potentially are the fans if they get charged for a home game in their season ticket package deals, you know? You would imagine that they would only be charged for eight plus the preseason game, but who knows how that works out? I would be surprised if they charge it for an extra game. I would not be surprised if people are trying to make extra money.

Okay. So this is the first game in South America. The Eagles are picked to host it. I think that's a big deal. Now, I had thought initially, I'm like, week one is a good time to have this because you have two weeks off before the game, right? Your last preseason game is Thursday, two weeks before. Right. You're not going to like coming off of a short week or anything like that.

Exactly. And then it's a Friday game, so you get back Saturday and you have time before that next game. So I actually, I was like I like week one. And then I'm thinking about this logistically. And I'm curious to your thoughts here. They're not going to have the roster cut down to 53. Yeah, I think about, like, the travel logistics. Yeah.

It's going to be such a huge headache for the organization. Because I just saw, actually, you know, when I looked this up yesterday, you need to get a travel visa to go to Brazil. Going to Brazil is not like going. It's not even like going to London, right? It's more than having a passport. You need to apply for a visa and all that. So they, I'm not sure who, you know,

not sure how they're going to figure that out with who's going to be on their roster. Right, because they have to do it ahead of time. Exactly. Like 90 guys on the roster, yeah. Exactly. So I'm curious about that. Now, as far as opponents. Well, I'm also curious about, like, first game in South America. Presumably the league is going to want them there to do some promotion and stuff like that. So, like, how early are they going to have to get there?

Yeah, you know, and I was texting some people about this yesterday. Like, are they going to be practicing there for a couple days? So the way it was framed to me, I heard that. And they did not do that for the London game. They went out after the Thursday practice in 2018. They got to London. And there you have jet lag. It's a shorter flight, London, but the time difference is much more significant, right?

But they went after Thursday's practice, and then they practiced in, it wasn't quite in London, it was outside London. On Friday, Saturday was an off day. They played Sunday. I would think for a Friday game, if they used that travel schedule, then they would practice in Philly on Monday and Tuesday. They would go to Brazil after practice on Tuesday. You practice in Brazil on Wednesday. or off Thursday, practice Friday, you play the game Friday. Now, as far, it is true.

Sometimes they do like to have promotional stuff before the game. There's ways around that without the current players. You have, like, Eagles alumni. You have Brent Selk going out there. That'll get the people pumped. But that's typically, you got joy like. Nobody revs up a crowd quite like Brent Selick. I just point that out because I remember Brent Selk in London for that.

Actually, he does a very good job when he has. his stuff on. He's got very vociferous first down point, but, you know, I don't know that he's going to bring the juice to the people of South Pal Antonio. It's, yeah, the games in South Palo, we should say. The Corinthians Arena, which was the host of the first World Cup game in 2014. And then it was also a venue in the Olympics. You're going to bring your Vuvuzela? My Vuvu-I don't know how to play. I take you not from. I do recall. I do recall that World Cup. I was watching quite a bit.

The great thing about that World Cup is there was no time difference, so it was during your hours. So, yeah, I'm curious when they go out. I don't think unless the league wants them out early, they would totally disrupt their schedule. Although for a week one game, perhaps, you know, you do have a little flexibility to get out there earlier. We'll see.

We'll see. Now, as far as the opponent, this is what we know. We know it won't be. We obviously know the nine home teams. We don't have to read them off here. But we know it won't be Jacksonville or Carolina, because Jacksonville and Carolina already have international games. Presumably, the league won't send them the two international games.

We're assuming it's not going to be the NFC East. Okay? So that would, we know the NFC East teams. So then that would leave Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Cleveland, Atlanta. I would guess, if I had to guess, I would think it's going to be Atlanta. Really? Why? for a few reasons.

First off, I would imagine that the Eagles would want to protect the Pittsburgh and the Green Bay game. Okay. Atlanta is one of nine U.S. cities that have a nonstop flight to Sao Paulo. It's the closest geographically of all those places. So that's like a home game for them. Why do they get the advantage? No, it's not a matter of advantage, but there is. They're not flying commercial.

No, it's not a huge Brazilian population in Atlanta, but it is one of, like, it's in the top 10 in Brazilian populations in the United States. Okay. You've done some research here. Yeah, maybe I could see potentially Green Bay. I would think the Eagles would want to protect that Green Bay game. I could be wrong. I could see it being Cleveland or Atlanta, but I'm going to go with Atlanta. Okay.

If it's Cleveland, I hope that, I hope, you know, we get Michael Dunn on the beach. Yeah, I mean, let's go a swimsuit calendar with Michael Dunn in Brazil. I'm frankly hoping Michael Dunn gets a starting job somewhere. So maybe it's not in Cleveland, maybe somewhere else. Maybe Tennessee. Yeah. Iron Callahan. That'd be great.

Maybe Philadelphia. Now we're talking. At right guard? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Overstein. Yeah.

Okay. He's a better player. Or there you go. I like that. Look at that. Signed Michael Dunn. So your thoughts on the game in Brazil? I mean, I think it's an exciting thing.

I hope we get to go. Who do you think the opponent? Yeah, I hope we get to go too. Yeah. That'd be great. Now, you're going to Brazil this summer. I am. 10th anniversary trip.

That's awesome. A little Brazil and Argentina. What made you pick Sal Powell in Argentina? Well, we're not going to South Palo in. Oh, you're going to Rio de Janeiro. But we never been to South America before. Interesting. Yeah.

Okay. And Buenos Aires? Correct. Okay. Nice. Nice. So what made you settle on that? You said you never been...

Well, I wouldn't say we settled. I don't mean settle. I mean... I said we've never been to South America before. We wanted to go somewhere we had to. But there's a handful of players, what? Montepichu. Is that right?

No. I believe you're conflating Montevideo and Manchu Picchu. Okay. Mancho Picchu. Sorry. Mancho. So you could go there. We could, yeah.

So I'm asking, what made you pick Brazil? You can play along with this a little bit of. I don't know, like a city, like a beach. I don't know. That's just where we landed. That's awesome. I was just trying to get a little more covered. We're very excited, yeah.

That's great. Okay, so you can go to Brazil twice within a few weeks. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Yeah. All right. Anything else? So, yes, the Eagles officially announced Callan Moore,

is their offensive coordinator yesterday, took some time for that to become official. How do you feel about the new graphic treatment that they've done with Vic Vanjillo? and killing Moore where it's like offensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, offensive coordinator. I don't have strong thoughts on that. I don't like the, this is like a journalist problem. It's not even a problem. It's like a journalist peccadillo.

Yeah. They started doing this in recent years, which instead of like tweeting out the team statement, they put a link to it. Yeah, well, they just put it in the graphic. So you can't copy. You can't copy paste it. You can't copy paste.

Yeah. So you see you got a type of life, yeah. That's not really a tough life. There's a report out, I believe, from Dan Graziano at ESPN, that Eagles are bringing in Christian Parker from the Broncos coaching staff. I believe he's a South Jersey native. It was broken on Twitter by his older brother. Oh, is that right?

Nice. Okay, good. Jersey native. And he was on Vic Fangio's staff, and it's a role with the defensive backs. We'll see what it is. I also want to give a little Mia Coppa for, there were two listeners who brought this up. We were talking about the Eagles cornerback situation yesterday.

And we did not mention Isaiah Rogers. Yeah, that's true. And I think that's a worthwhile discussion. I do think Isaiah Rogers is going to be part of this mix. He needs to be formally reinstated by the NFL. That's what you could ask Roger about. Yeah, you're right. But I think as Bo and I really get into this roster

in these next few weeks and next few months, we will have extended Isaiah Rogers' conversations. All right. this bad boy up because there's somebody else coming up from All City here. So let's close this bad boy out, the P-H-L-Y Eagles podcast presented by Factor Meal Kits. Head to FactorMeals.com slash Eagles 50

and use code Eagles 50 to get 50% off. Thank you to Adam Hogue. Thank you to Todd Davis. Thank you to Connor or for spending time with us on Radio Row. We are back tomorrow 9 a.m. Vegas time, 12 noon, eastern time with some more fun from Las Vegas. We appreciate it. And remember, if you are in Vegas, you can come hang with us tomorrow night at Circa at the Overhang Bar from 6 to 8, two free drinks, if you are as if you are at P.

So come and join us and hang out. Thanks to everybody for watching and listening to the show today. We will talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love it.