PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Super Bowl repeat for Jalen Hurts, Eagles will mean slaying difficult schedule of 2025 opponents

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Unlike 2022 and 2024 when the Eagles made the Super Bowl thanks in part to the benefit of an easy schedule, the slate of opponents in 2025 looks to be their toughest in recent memory. So as Cooper DeJean, Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, Jalen Carter and E.J. Jenkins look to reclaim glory, the road will be even more difficult. Deniz Selman explains why as he joins Fran Duffy, Zach Berman and Bo Wulf for a hardcore foursome. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to the P. H.LY Eagles podcast presented by True Mark Financial Credit Union. Call it a shotgun start because it's a foursome today, baby. We got Zach Berman, the professor, Danis Salman, myself, Bo Wolf, and Fran Duffy, our NFL draft analyst for All City here to just hang out the four of us. One day ahead of the schedule release, the professor is going to explain to us why the road to a repeat Super Bowl appearance for the Eagles. will be especially difficult this year given the slate of opponents. Professor, thanks for joining us. Oh, it's great to be here. It's been a while. It's been a while. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. Good to see you all. I have seen you all outside the show recently. It was great to see Fran and Zach at the diehards events last week with the film breakdown where I watched more college football that night. I told Fran than I have in the last three years.

Did anybody pop for you? I love experience. I loved the Drew McCuba part. more than more than the rest I think I don't know if just like on the film the safety position just kind of that was the feedback I got was that there was one play

in particular maybe you maybe you said it yeah he rewound that bad boy that really made you we watched that one like about 10 times but yeah it was awesome and of course I had to hit him up on whether or not he felt that he would be playing to the boundary or to the field

hmm well I said what did you say well I just stayed on brand then I asked the question to Fran if he was more of a boundary guy, because he looked like he had been boundary on all the place so far, and Fran immediately answered that he was more of a strong side, weak side designation that they had. Zach, nice to see you as well. You and I have gone pants today, whereas the professor and Fran have gone shorts.

So you and I are on the same team. I'm always happy to be on your team. This is the first because they always happen to wear pants. Always happy to wear pants as well. It's the first time the four of us are in the studio together, in this one together, since the Wednesday before the Washington game. Your second favorite show in the history of the show. That was a good show.

That was a really good show. I was proud of that one as I listened to it back. Is that our last good show? No. I believe that's right. As far as Zach is concerned. I'll try to see if Brandon Brooks can come back on too. That would be wonderful.

Please. And Fran, nice to see you as well. We had the final episode of this cycle of the PHAY draft show with Fran Duffy. Check that out. And you dropped the, the big bit of insight. Arch Manning is good.

Arch Manning is good. I'm excited for what's to come with a potential future number one pick. How do you guys feel about a, Zach and I discussed a very important topic yesterday. I'd like to hear from you and the professor. How do you guys feel about a dark shower? Oh, man, I missed this.

So I watched the whole show up until I got a phone call right at the beginning of overtime. Unbelievable. All right. Dark shower, as in like, lights off? Yeah, lights off. I would say I lean more towards I'm against a dark shower.

Okay. But I don't know why I would be why I would be against it, but I would say it does feel a little weird when it is dark shower, yeah. Professor, you are going to love my answer to this, Beau. When I was, of course, I did listen to the whole show. And I was just smiling. There's like a special word for it in Turkey. Is that we're going to tell me? Well, no, there's not a special word.

But Emily can tell you, and she gets annoyed by this, that unless we have guests who are likely to walk into the bedroom, I never turn the lights on during a shower because I heat the bright lights. And instead, I leave the door open and have the daylight come in, but it's from like two rooms away. So it's only a little bit of light. And I'll do that, even if it's getting close to dusk, in which case it will be basically a dark shower. So yeah, I'm all about the dark shower. Yeah, I mean, you test your senses, like a little bat in the cave. Yeah, we have a really bright light over the shower too, which it feels like a spotlight. I don't know. I'm not into. Yeah.

Go ahead. You look like you had something to add. No, I'm fascinated by this conversation at the start of the schedule show about the dark shower. Where did you guys land on this? Oh, I'm very pro-dark shower. You're a pro-dark and you're anti. I just never, I'm not anti. I'm apathetic to it.

But he said he's going to give it a shot. Yeah, I will give it a shot at some point, but I'm apathetic to it. Yeah, then when you're done? What's the reasoning to say? Oh, well, you know, you get in touch with your senses a little bit more. How well do you know the space? It's also good for if you were trying to get ready for bed. Maybe that is a good, on-ramp.

And then you have to sit to pee after because you can't see the, you know, so you can rest while sitting to pee. What's the connection there? You can pee in the dark, you know. No, but you might miss. So you sit. Well, not if you pee in the shower. Well, that's true.

I'm not a big pee in the shower guy. I actually, I know theoretically that's probably okay, but it's not for me. Zach? I got to tell you, Emily called me today at, at it was like 11 o'clock. She says, what are you doing? I said, I'm prepping for the show. This was not part of the prep. So,

uh, yeah, don't have a strong opinion on that. I mean, I, I, I, I pee in the toilet,

but, um, respect to those that pee in the shower. Yeah. Whatever. How about outside? You're like an outside pee. An outside,

a nature pee, as we call it. I was, I wouldn't use the verb like. I, um, I mean, if,

well, famously, you don't like to play road games with the other one, but yeah, definitely not. But I try not to. I try not to with that. Um,

no, peeing is, in the bushes is a very normal thing. Amen. Could be exploring doing this in the backyard because apparently groundhogs are more fearful of human urine than animal urine.

So you can mark their own territory. To keep the groundhogs out of the garden, you're just protecting the plants. Or just doing what I've got to do to be sustainable. What more could you do as a man? Apparently nothing. That's great. That's very wise of groundhogs.

That's good evolution by them. They should be more afraid of humans. By far my least favorite animal, Groundhog. See, there you go. Yeah. I mean, I guess to be able to ward off your least favorite animal with your own urine. I mean, what a superbuck.

But you know what? Remains to be seen. We'll find out soon. Now that we're on this topic. Yeah. Which topic? I'm okay with the, with the nature pee. I'm not okay.

I'm not okay with the parking lot pee. You see this at games, you know, people tailgating. Oh, yeah. They'll just go behind someone's car and pee. I agree. Yeah. Yeah, like find, you know, there's their porta potty. I know people don't like to wait for, for, for porta potties, wait to go into the stadium.

I know not everyone has tickets when the tailgate. I don't like the peeing by your car move so much. I agree with that. Yeah. It's untoward. Exactly. It's debauchress. Yeah.

It's an easy one to agree with. Now, how about have you ever done the pee while you're driving? Have you ever been in such a tough situation that you've had to pull that off? No, have you? It's preparer. I didn't have to be what ads? Yeah. Like stuck in traffic, that's happened?

Like into a cup or something? Yeah. Okay. Into a car? I mean, like a bottle? Yeah, not like a... Not just into the car? Yeah, not just out the window, but that's happened before.

Out the window. Wow. What I found is that the cup is never big enough for that, like a... Oh, wow. Wow. That direction I was going. My, my Wawa coffee. That lid could not possibly contain all the I have to offer.

Can't get a $40. Is it time for overtime? 108. All right, Zach, you have a story up on all pHOY.com. You talked to Howie Roseman yesterday, who got the MVP award. Take us through what you heard. Yeah, the most valuable Philadelphia in Halle Roseman. That's what it was.

Second year in a row that they did. The most valuable peer. Second year in a row that the award started, it's from the Philadelphia, the visitors bureau. And they gave it to Brandon Graham last year. They gave to Hallie Roseman this year. So I had a chance to catch up with Howley. And look, there weren't really hard hitting football questions.

It was more what Philadelphia means to him. And he, he spoke quite a bit. I was speaking one-on-one with him about, you know, how this city, it's been 25 years for him here. And this is where his children grew up, right? And so there's terms that he didn't use, you know, like the topping that you would use on ice cream and what you would call, what he would call a sub and what they call a hoagie.

There are Philadelphia terms that his children use, and they root for the teams, and they speak like Philly sports fans. And so it occurred to him there that, you know, this is their hometown. And I asked him, when did this really feel like your hometown? And he said after the Super Bowl, the first Super Bowl. And then I asked him, too, about, you know, could you take any talented sports executive from a different market and put them here?

Or does it take a certain type of person? And he said he hasn't worked somewhere else, so it's hard for him to say. But he likes to think of it like Sinatra's New York, New York. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And he says, Philadelphia is the sports version of that. That if you can do this job here, you can do it anywhere. He doesn't know if the universe is true. And then...

Can't think of a Philadelphia song to reference? Yeah, true. And then in his speech, he spoke about, you know, because before them, they were talking about all the exciting things that were happening in 2026 in the city, the World Cup, the World Cup, I'm sorry, the All-Star game, the U.S. I'm sorry, the PGA Championship. And apparently the World Cup is going to be like the biggest sports revenue driver that's happened in Philly ever. And so Howie gets up. You heard about this. You heard about the World Cup? No, no.

Who knew the World Cup was a big. No, but I didn't know for the singular city. It was, you know, because there's no, it's not like the championship game, the semifinal. Just like the, it's something, they're getting six cents for every cent they spend back in terms of what they'll generate. That's actually not obvious, right? Because the stadium's only so big, like, you don't know which, which teams it's going to be. Sure. So the fact that there are two billion people watching on TV is one thing.

But like in terms of the city, I'm a little surprised by that. But it's, people have to come. It's not like, you know. if this, you know, an Eagles game, a lot of people are in the area. Like, people have to, as tourists, visit the city in order to go to the games. Yeah, yeah. And it'll depend a lot on which people it is. People will go to wherever their teams are playing.

So it's not like they have a choice to not choose Philadelphia. And then, but then how it gets up to the microphone, he's like, I'm excited for all the things happening in 2026, but 2025 is about celebrating the Super Bowl. He's like, let's not overlook that. And so, but I'll also point out how he was very eager to get in front of a screen to see the draft lottery. Because I was catching up with him around 630 and he wanted to know when, you know, the Sixers would, when the cards would come out. And so. Shout out to the P.H.L.Y. Sixers grew.

Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to them. And all of them are great. But because we have Fran here, it's important to say, Derek's draft guide is out now on all phtly.com. and everything you need to know about the draft prospects are, are there, how he finished his speech in time to see the draft lottery and obviously good news for Philly. And if I can just say a quick thing about PHLI, if I will.

The Flyers have the six pick. The Sixers have the third pick. You're not going to find more comprehensive coverage of those two teams in particular anywhere in this market than PHLY. We have daily shows for every team. We have multiple people covering these teams, on-site reporters, smart written content, shorts, everything you need to know. And these are teams that frankly don't get the same volume of coverage from some other

markets or from some other outlets in this market. So P-H-L-Y does a great job with those two teams. Amen. And you've got to become a diehard to access all that content. Fran, aside from Howard Roseman, who would have been your most valuable Philadelphia? What is the turn? Is it a calendar year? Is it event to event?

Yeah, this kicks off the tourism, the tourism year in Philly, which I guess is the summer. Because it's technically the event. It's called the Philly opener is the event at the Constitution. I'm sorry, at Independent Center. So I suppose tourism year from summer to summer, I suppose. And have they given it? Who, like you said, Brandon Graham got it last? So two years in a row of Eagles.

Two years in a year. Who's gotten it in the past? Well, the award just started last year. J. Jenkins, fingers crossed. Who would you have gone? I got nothing. I was trying to think of it. I took that, you went on that sidebar and I spent that entire 90 seconds thinking of a smart

answer and I couldn't think of anything funny. Joe Walker is not in Philly anymore. Oh, Joe Walker. I would have gone with Julia. Yeah, Joe Walker did win the E. Block Courage Award, so we know how courageous he is. Absolutely. All right. One other thing to get to, Zach, before we get into the nuts and bolts

of how difficult this Eagle schedule looks like, and that is some schedule news. Yes. So we talked yesterday about the week one, the season kickoff against the Cowboys. What else do we know? Yeah, we know that the Eagles are playing in Washington on December 20th.

That's a Saturday game. Week 16. Week 16. We know that week, the Black Friday game. The Eagles are playing Black Friday. You were excited about that possibility yesterday. I was excited about that possibility. I think it's going to be good for the show.

I think it's going to be good for the show. What an awesome day to watch football. 3 o'clock. on Black Friday. Some people aren't working. Schools are off. It's not too late in the day. Your kids can watch. You can still go out to dinner that night if you want. It is an awesome time. Three o'clock against the Chicago Bears. He loves this. Yeah. When they came out with Black Friday football, I thought it was awesome. Not one o'clock. Not two o'clock. It's a three o'clock. Great time for that. And then today we found out that week,

the Eagles are playing Monday night football against the Green Bay Packers. Lambeau Field. It won't be frozen Tundra then, but Week 10, that's November 10th, is that game. There you go. Well, you were worried that the Packers game might be Christmas Day. Yeah, I mean, not worried as much as just speculating it might be, because last year, what the NFL did was they had the four teams that played on the Saturday before Christmas also all play on Christmas.

that Saturday before was the 21st last year. Right. They actually had the Chiefs play on the 15th, the 21st, and the 25th. But that's because Christmas was a Wednesday. Yeah. So this year it's a Thursday, so they could just have regular teams playing on Christmas. And it looks like that's what's going to happen because the two other teams playing on December 20th are Green Bay and Chicago. The Eagles do play both Green Bay and Chicago, but as Zach just detailed, both of those games are now accounted for on the schedule.

So we pretty much know the Eagles will not be on Christmas unless, the Eagles are on short arrest than their opponent. Yeah, because there's two more Christmas. There are two more Christmas games left to be announced, but also this year there's the set. It's the Peacock exclusive Saturday game. So how much, what did Roger slip you to make sure that you announced it that way? Bo's eyes rolled so hard out of his head.

Because they've got the Peacock exclusive. You're right. I probably didn't need to stop. You're more of a shout-out to Amazon guy. I mean, the Friday, Black Friday game is only on Amazon. I got to say the- And don't miss week three when they're playing on Tubey. The Amazon production quality is better, I believe.

Shout out to Amazon. I'm not advocating for these things, but when you watch Friday night baseball on Apple TV, it is spectacular to watch. Do you not find that to be the case? I've never done it. You haven't watched Friday night baseball on Apple TV? you're missing out as a baseball fan.

Chat way in here. When you see these Friday games, the camera work, the data. The data on the screen. Do they have like their own camera people? Yes. Yeah. So the production quality is outstanding. Zach, you'll be happy to know that every single time we get a package from Amazon

always says shout out to Amazon. It's a lasting legacy. Yeah. I hope that's not my last thing. It's not listening. All right. We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side,

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Why is it that Eagles fans should be a little bit wary, a little bit reticent of the season to come? Yeah, well, the schedule is definitely more difficult this year than it has been in recent years. It's actually probably more difficult than it has been in any season that I recall. Let me just do a quick summary by traditional methods. Okay. First, there are 11 games against teams that made the playoffs last year.

That was eight a year ago. 11 games against teams that won 10 or more games last year. That was only six a year ago. There are six games against teams that won 12 or more games last year. That was only three a year ago. And there are four games against teams that made the final four last year, teams that were in the championship games. And that was only one a year ago.

Now, that's looking at how teams did last year. The other thing, which I like to do every year... I mean, you couldn't possibly have more games against teams in the final four. Yeah. You could have one more, right? because you play you could be but you couldn't

Washington twice you could have four oh wait no there are four yeah you're right if you were one of the teams if you were one of the teams then you could have five

because the Eagles were you're correct yeah they're playing all three of the other teams well if you weren't you could have six but yeah well no because you don't if you

oh two teams from your division could have made it so you could yeah you're right okay that was that was definitely something to strive something to strive for

in future years Yes, so you could have six. Now, a lot of times people, and this is a modern way of thinking about this now, is that looking at last year's performance is kind of silly. We know things about teams at this point that we know that last year's performance is not necessarily reflective of what we expect them to do this year. So with all the sports books out there and all the gambling odds that we have, one thing that I like to do is I like to take a look at what I did. I took three different sports books. I looked at their Super Bowl odds right now for all the teams. And I averaged them.

That 365 among them, I'm sure. Bet365 was one of the three. I won't mention the other two. Thank you. Theirs were bad. Yeah, well, they were different. And that's why I did three. I was like, it was surprised that how different they were.

Some arbitrage opportunities for those of you into such things. But the ranking of teams, one to 32, based on Super Bowl odds, is my starting point for this. and then what I do is I just have a Julia, you can put up the one, like the first chart, the one with like the little squares. The big one. Yeah.

What I do is I take all of the teams games and I just do an average opponent ranking. So it's like, you know, so if you play the Eagles, the Eagles are first on the list. Eagles are Super Bowl favorites. Right. So if you play the Eagles,

that means that you're playing against the team ranked first. If you're playing the Saints, you're playing against the team ranked 32nd, right? And so I do this for all 17 games for all 32 teams, and I do the average opponent ranking for those teams, and then I rank the teams based on who has the better teams on their schedule versus the worst ones.

And there's a very broad range. So the giants have the hardest schedule in the league. Their average opponent ranking is 12th. The 49ers average opponent is 21st. So that's a pretty big difference, given that this is all for all 17 games. The Eagles this year have the third most difficult schedule in the NFL. Last year, they were 27th on this list.

So last year's schedule, the 2024 schedule, the Eagles had the sixth easiest schedule in the league. This year they have the third hardest schedule in the league. And if you break it down by how many teams they're playing that are in the top X teams and those kinds of things, it's easily the hardest schedule that they've had recently. So if you look at like this is somewhat arbitrary cutoffs here, the chart lets you do any,

you can just count and see how many it is in any number. But I looked at games against the top 14 teams. And 14 teams make the playoffs. So these are kind of like the 14 teams expected to make the playoffs. In the past four years, it's been 5, 8, 6. This year it's 11. 11 of the 17 games are against teams in the top 14. Seven of those are on the road.

So seven of the road games this year are against teams that are in the top 14. And then when you look at easy games, teams against teams in the bottom 14, there are only three such games, the two against the Giants and the one against the Raiders. In past years, it's been 11,

8, and 8. Even that 2020s schedule, which was so top heavy, there were still eight games against teams in the bottom 14. This year, that is not the case. Julie, if you pull up the other graphic, that's a nice kind of visual summary and you can find all of these on my

on my blue sky I posted them in the other place as well but blue sky would be better if you if you just look at this visual it kind of you can see the colored teams or the teams that the teams are playing the Eagles are playing this year and you can see that the bottom of the rankings

are basically blank this year whereas in past years there have been plenty of games against teams that were not expected to be good coming in and I think it's fair to say the you know the three times the Eagles have been to the Super Bowl the last decade were all years in which we knew going into the season that it looked like a pretty easy schedule for sure so like when the schedule was about to be released last year and we were talking about this the main the main takeaway for me was this looks a lot more like the 222 schedule than the 2023 schedule and this year it's kind of you know the next year's version of that this looks a lot more like the 2023 schedule then the then last year's schedule and in fact it's even harder because

There are so many games against the top teams. Like in 2023, we talked about the gauntlet. Yeah. There were five games against top six teams. They were all played back to back, all five of those games. Right. It's kind of crazy. This year, there are again five games against those top six teams,

which is the same total number of such games. We don't know the order yet. Mm-hmm. But the Eagles also play nine games against the teams ranked nine through 18 this year, in addition to those other five. Whereas that 20-23 season, that was only four such games. So there are five more games

against themes in the top 18 than there were in 2023. So the schedule is like, it's like upper middle class heavy. Like the Eagles play like almost every team in that middle part. And it's not just that this is a team that was in first place.

You might think it's because it's a first place schedule, but they're playing the two divisions that are the best divisions in their respective conferences in the AFC West and the NFC North. That's correct. So if you were to rank...

Their extra games are the bucks and the bills, which are difficult, but that's what's doing the heavy lift. And the Rams, yeah. So the Rams, the Bucks and the bills are the three uncommon games. Those are all first place teams from last year.

That's not the main thing. Yeah. Like the bucks aren't even that high on the list. Neither are the Rams. But the NFC North, like you said, is the is the division in the NFC that has the highest combined Super Bowl odds. And the AFC West is the one in the AFC. So there's only like a one in 12 chance that you're going to draw both, like both conferences, hardest division, even taking your division out of it.

Okay. And so this should only happen like once every 12 years. Well, this is the year. And that has nothing to do with how the Eagles did last year. It's just luck of the draw because it's a rotation, predetermined rotation. So, Zach, make some plans for late January. The Eagles will not be in the playoffs. Well, I think they're a playoff team.

But the Super Bowl, now they are the favorite to repeat from the odds makers. But yeah, this is going to be done. And that's with the knowledge of the schedule. Exactly. So I am curious, though, what all you guys think in terms of like, because we knew these opponents ahead of time. And that's how that's how we're able to do the show to on this day. But as we spin it to tomorrow, what, what matters then? Is it the sequencing of games? Is it the amount of rest ahead of these real difficult games? What are like the real

trigger points tomorrow that matter? Yeah, it's so hard to tell. I mean, we know like from 2023 that that sequence seemed to matter. Like it seemed to really get in the players' heads that it was just going to be this like very difficult stretch and it turned into a historic collapse. even though the first half of that stretch was actually three wins. Just kind of a weird, just weird. I mean... The attrition that builds up.

Yeah, I mean, I still hope to one day learn what happened. Yeah, I mean, I go back to, yeah, like, our analysis of that when that schedule came out was low. I'm like, this stretch is going to crush them. And then, you know, it wasn't the stretch necessarily that crushed them. It was something else. Last year, our schedule analysis would have been, oh, man, that week five by.

That's way too early. That's going to hurt them. And it turned out to be the best thing for the team. Yeah, yeah, total gods. Who knows? Like, whatever we say tomorrow, hopefully it's entertaining, but it will probably be dead wrong somehow.

Yeah, and in terms of dead wrong, also, like, one of the things I get as a response to posting these is how does this relate to how teams actually end up, right? And if you look at just last year, six of the top eight teams by preseason odds did make the playoffs, and only two of the bottom eight did, you know. So it's not like there isn't any relationship. but Washington was 28th on this list last year.

Like we thought those were going to be easy games and Washington ended up making the NFC championship game. Denver was 29th on the list and they made the playoffs. San Francisco was second on the list and they didn't even come close to making the playoffs. So you just don't know, obviously, but at this time, I think this is the best method. I like using Super Bowl odds rather than using expected wins because expected wins are so dependent on the schedule that ranking the schedule based on expected.

wins when the expected wins are already based on schedule is a little more circular than looking at Super Bowl odds. I think Super Bowl odds, it's such an upside measure that the schedule is less of a factor in that. The one bug that I find with Super Bowl odds and with preseason projections, and it goes to what you're saying with Denver and Washington last year, is it's so hard to project rookie quarterbacks. And that's the bug. It is that teams that kind of a jump onto the scene typically have a rookie quarterback that you don't know how to account for. And conversely, and you see this in your draft devals, Fran, like there are rookie quarterbacks who you expect to jump on the scene and do outstanding.

And then, you know, like Caleb Williams last year and it's just not as efficient. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because now we get, we get to ask Fran about how good Tyler Shuck is going to be. And it's also the, there's not just the rookies, but JJ McCarthy is on the equal schedule. You know, who knows like what Michael Pennix and the Atlanta Falcons look like, there's all these teams where it's, you know, if you have questions, that obviously doesn't take

no account like all the injuries and things like that that could affect what those murderers rogue kind of stretches look like do you have like

a team in your mind of like you think they couldn't really overperform among the bottom groups yeah you you asked me that question

as if I don't know you're trying to prime me for spread your wins and fly you know I don't tell I'm too good at that game for it

to matter for me mining info I would say just looking at it Tampa is the team I'd probably fade you know from that from that group is like that that might be a little bit overinflated.

Chicago at 16 feels right to me. Yeah. Denver at 12 is probably a little heavy. I think that's, yeah. Denver 12 is a little heavy. I remember Atlanta last year was like, I can actually look up what they were.

Atlanta was 13th last year. Right. And we were all saying like why. You know, like why are they so high? They had the easiest schedule. And that's like one of the things that made me doubt like whether this is a little circular as well.

Right. Like is Atlanta that high because their schedule so easy? but yeah New England went from the hardest scheduled last year by the way to the 31st this year so these things tend to be cyclical because of the division road The San Francisco one is interesting

I mean for them to be a... I've never seen that they don't have Julie if you put up their eighth in odds Super Bowl odds and they've got by far the easiest schedule according to your calculation they do not have a single game against a team in the top eight which is really hard to do I mean like given that every team plays three division winners just by construction

it's crazy. They play one team in the top 13, and that's the Rams. They play them twice, but still, I mean, it's just crazy. They kind of have an outlier, easy schedule. And then people were poking fun at the fact that the Giants have the hardest schedule in the league, even though they were a last place team.

That's, when you compare the Giants and the Eagles, the reason the Giants' schedule is harder than the Eagles is because of two crucial games, which I'm sure you've figured out. Yes. The Giants have to play them. play the Eagles twice, the Eagles get to play the Giants twice, which makes it even more impressive that the Eagle's schedule is so hard, according to this metric. They don't get to

play themselves. Like, you know, usually when you have a, when you're better yourself, it means your schedule is going to look easier on this, but in the Eagles case, and also the Lions case, even though both of those teams are very good. Their schedules are very hard. Does this make you feel different about the Eagles in general, Fran? No, I probably feel the same. You know, This is, it's a very talented team. You know there's going to be a tough schedule. Yeah, I don't think I feel any different. Zach?

It's so hard to repeat. And it's like, I keep going back. I remember talking to Jason Kelsey about the Super Bowl hangover. And it was just such an astute point. He's like, it's not a Super Bowl hangover. It's just really hard to get to the Super Bowl, right? And so if you look at it historically, the teams that are able to do it have generational quarterbacks, right?

Like Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady, they get back year to year. Even like upper echelon quarterbacks who win it, Matthew Stafford, it's hard to get back that next year. And so the Eagles have a loaded roster, but there are so many variables. So I don't think the schedule itself,

the schedule is a variable here that you have to consider. It is a hard path, but it's just so difficult to repeat. It's exactly what you said about like Sequin and Zach Bond and the Eagles defense. The Eagles had like the best possible outcome in so many ways. I don't want to say that there's regression that you have to expect, but there's regression you have to expect.

I see on this topic, I mean, I see people in the chat asking about the NFC East curse, like the repeat curse, how no one has repeated in the NFC east since 2004, so 20 years in a row. Washington seems to be the obvious top contender to beat out the Eagles this year comparing those two schedules there are three games that are different right and we mentioned the Eagles ones

it's the Bills who are ranked second on the Super Bowl odds the Rams who are 9th and the Bucks who are 14th all three of Washington's uncommon games are against bottom half teams so they play Seattle who's 20th Miami who's 22nd and Atlanta who's 23rd and so they end up with a kind of average looking schedule. They're 12th in schedule difficulty. But it's only three games that are different.

Dallas has the eighth most difficult schedule. They benefit. Their schedule looks harder because they have to play Washington and the Eagles, right? And so it's a little bit because of their own. Their uncommon games are against Arizona, who is 19th, Carolina, who's 27th, and the Jets, who are 28th. So their uncommon games

are easier, as they're supposed to be, because they were third place. Can you guys remind me, how do they choose the out of conference single game single game it's the it's against the division that you played two years ago okay so you can't play the same a fc team two years in a row right um we're getting into weeds here but fran since you brought this up yeah this is the fifth year that they're doing the right 17th game when they first came out with this uh i had a lot of thoughts about it right as as our viewers may who who have been following me for long enough may know and one of my thoughts was that this is a natural four-year cycle.

But after four years, if you continue it into the fifth year, it creates an asymmetry with, like, the location of the games. So the Eagles are playing at the AFC East this year, playing at Buffalo. Four years ago, they played at the Jets for the same game.

It was the at, and if they continue this, like the NFC East, AFC East 17th games will always be at the AFCC team. Oh, interesting. So over time, those, you know, fan bases are more likely to see the Eagles than the Eagles fans are likely to see those teams. It's not something they would actually want to continue long term. I thought

they might have flipped it. And I think the only reason they're not flipping it is because they expect to add an 18th game soon enough that this isn't going to keep going. But like this is, this is bothering me a little bit this year that, that we have this asymmetry. You hit it on the head there. Yeah. The 18th game is coming. I was just Labor Day. Maybe Labor Day to President's Day. You mock it, but it's coming. Nobody's mocking the 18th game. I mean, I am mocking the 18th game. Like, they don't have enough money and these guys don't put enough. their body's on the line, but they're going to do it because... And they have to add a bi-week if they do that, right?

I would. They would make it 20 weeks. That's how you get the labor data present. Exactly. I'm also curious what you guys think about. So week one, I spoke yesterday how coaches would love that early game. And I was saying, is this just something I hear or is there data behind it? So I looked at a 10-year sample size.

And in week two, the teams... What are you doing some work? The teams that play... I do a lot of work for the show. The teams that play Thursday night in week two, they are 16 and 4. Now, typically, though, but this is what I want to ask you guys. Typically, they're putting good teams on that kickoff game. So how much of it do you think is the extra rest compared to these are just teams that are naturally superior?

Anytime you win it a 75% clip, it jumps out. Well, one of them is the Super Bowl champion, right? Yes, and they're not putting a bad team against the Super Bowl champion. So that's what, I don't know if it's just a quality. the team or if it's if it's really having that extra rest coming into it until week two i mean i think 16 and four is enough to be interesting you know it you might expect it to be like i don't know 16 and four is like suspiciously about the record of the super bowl champion i don't know i think i think it's probably more it's also the other team that's not just this i know but that team's gonna be a

good team too so i think i feel like uh it's like just enough to be interesting yeah because i've i I've heard this, like coaches want to be that team that plays against. It was like 14 and 6th and we'd be like, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, coaches want to play that Thursday game, that Thursday opener, even though it's like, you know, you're going into the opposing Super Bowl team. It's because it's, it's easy to prepare for week one in the sense you have all that time. And then you have that extra time.

Yeah, coaches want, want that early game because it means they get to leave their families a couple days sooner. Yeah, they don't get a Labor Day weekend. It doesn't mess up the other 17 weeks from a schedule standpoint. It's very easy to say, all. This is a football Monday, football Tuesday, and set your week that way coming out of camp. They have been giving those teams extra Thursday games in recent years.

Yeah, because it doesn't count as you're required Thursday games. Right, yeah. There you go. All right, on the other side, after this break, we want to hear from Danes. You know, you heard that little kernel of the thing about the schedule that is really bothering him.

Well, let's find out what else is bothering him and how he would change the NFL schedule that's coming up after this. Imagine your fan cave with a bold new centerpiece, that's right, the Mod Max sectional from Ashley. Now imagine getting that bad boy for free. We have teamed with Ashley to give one lucky winner the chance to bring home this flexible, ultra comfortable sectional, plus a $1,000 gift card to bring your dream fan cave to life.

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terms and conditions apply. Hey, poor bear and unclear and stonkz Zach Berman and David R. and poor jam. I already said you. What are you guys... It's a polar bear.

Oh, sorry, poor jam. Sorry. Polar bear too. What are you guys doing? 7.30 tomorrow night. Let me tell you what you'll do. You'll be watching P.HLY, our special NFL schedule release,

extra show presented by our friends at Philly Sports trips. They do a great job. I see them on the road. They take all the planning. out of your hands. It's so you get to root on the Eagles with your other friends who go on the trip,

so make sure you check them out. And we will be teaming up with them for the schedule release show. Tune in to see Bo, Anthony, and me react to the matchups coming down the pike for our reigning Super Bowl champion for the reigning Super Bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagles.

Again, the NFL schedule extra show will be held tomorrow night, May 14th, beginning at 7.30 p.m. And if you can't get enough of the foursome energy that we have on the set right now and you want to get in on a foursome yourself, well, join us at Valleybrook Country Club for the second annual PHLY Liberty Open presented by Xfinity on June 14th from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern. The four-person scramble includes a limited edition at P.HLY golf tea, prizes and post-round dinner and draft beer along with a great raffle including Philly memorabilia.

Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile in all in one plan, get lightning fast speeds at home and a secure network on the go. Restrictions apply. Xfinity internet required actual speeds vary. Visit all p.gloi.com slash events to learn more and purchase an individual or foursome reservation for the tournament. Diehard members are eligible to save $50 on a foursome terms and conditions apply. Friend, have you gotten out on the course yet? Nope. Soon.

I've gotten a couple invites, but I've had to. But due to scheduling stuff, I haven't been able to get out yet. Top golf once or twice. Okay. Not bad. Francis, Francis loves a, loves a top golf.

Okay. He's like, yeah, he had a blast. We went for Meg, we went for Meg's birthday a couple weeks ago. Okay. Loved it.

Sounds fun. Yeah. Zach? Haven't golfed in my life. I passed by, the trial, or was stuck in traffic for Truist over the weekend. Oh.

I heard people had a great time. I heard the course look great on TV. Have you played there before? I have not. One time. One time. How is it? Is it a nice course?

All this time, I thought the Philadelphia Cricket Club was the course in Chestnut Hill. Apparently that's a nine-hole course, and the main course is in Flowertown. Found that out over the weekend when I was in traffic on Joshua Road. There you go. Because you have to pee when you were stuck in traffic. What's that? Do you have to pee when you were stuck in traffic? traffic.

I actually did, but I just did when I got home. You were like cricket, professor? Cricket, no. See, I could see. That was a good question. I could see you having been a cricketeer. Yeah, I went to see cricket when I was in India, a little IPL between the Mumbai Indians. Controversial name, by the way.

And the Punjab Kings 11, it was awesome. I was really bothering the poor young woman behind me. who made the mistake of volunteering some rules. Yeah, that's a terrible mistake. And then lots and lots of follow-ups. Give a mouse a cookie situation. Yeah, yeah. She had no idea who she was talking to.

And I had so many follow-ups for her. Yeah, of course. Every time something happened, I was like, what if this had happened instead? What would have that have been? Yeah, some question. I don't think the analytics is fully taken. Is that right?

Yeah, and it seemed like there were some analytical inefficiency. In what sense? I don't remember. It was a long time ago. But I remember thinking at the time. I feel like in a different life, I would have been a very good cricket player. Have you played cricket? When I was in Australia, I did like a, you know, like a, they were playing some pickup cricket one time.

Pick up cricket. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we had some with some kids. Yeah, I hit some, yeah. But I feel like I could have been very good. I, you're great baseball player. A lot of correlation. A lot of correlation with baseball.

Yeah, you're a great baseball player. A great baseball player, that's exactly right. I could see you being. One of the greats. Not one of the greats, but. I mean, yeah. Well, certainly in your county's high school baseball. That's right.

That's true. All right. Professor, let's get to what's grind in your gear. No, I don't care about you in golf. Okay. Are you going to come to the Valleybrook? I'll be in, I'll be in Turkey, but I did.

I don't think of the name the Liberty Open, by the way. Is that a sponsor? You're looking at me as if I knew. It's, whoa. There's only a matter of time. Checkoff's laptop. Shock on start. Yeah, what's grinding your,

gears about the schedule. Schedule, yeah. I think in general, the thing that annoys me the most about the schedule is that there are just so many games at the same time. Like, it's like an artifact of like the way the 1970s TV contracts

worked. And it's crazy to me that in 2025, with the ability to using technology, like, have everybody watch every game very easily. Think of all the different channels they could put the games on. Well, I mean, if you want to be, if you want be cynical that way, yes. I mean, like, given that they're willing to do that. Yeah. Now, I would say that you could do that without doing that, obviously. You could have like one

package that you sell. And they do. They have the Sunday ticket. But when you sell Sunday ticket, which they're doing now, you're selling the right to watch sometimes up to 10 games that are all at the same time. Like, why not stagger those games to be in more time slots, whether it's on the Sunday or across different days? That I don't really get. I think having more weeks by adding by weeks, whether they add the 18th game or not, and just having there be more time slots. So you're saying on a regular football center, you've got a game at 1 o'clock, a game of 2 o'clock, a game at 3 o'clock, that kind of stagger? I don't see why not.

And, you know, like, so I per-so this should come with a caveat. I watch the NFL very weirdly. Okay, like I do, I do not ever watch Red Zone. I rarely watch games live that are not the Eagles. What do you do normally? So what I normally do, oh, no, nothing, almost nothing. Yeah, yeah. I like, I don't know, I like going to get a cheese steak.

I eat that pretty normally. Me too. Yeah. I do some things normally, yeah, but very few. So I do not watch NFL games. I don't just sit and watch like bears, bucks, like if it's on, you know, like TV. I watch the Eagles games live, obviously. Every other game, I'm pretty much watching on the replay, like condensed.

And I will even like cover the bottom of my screen. So I can't see the scores of the other games. So then I can watch like pretty much the, all. pretty much all of every game. If it's a game I really don't care about, I'll just watch like the last, the fourth quarter or something, unconvinced.

It takes like eight minutes. So for me, like, I actually... You appreciate that level of sick on them? Of course. Yeah, I cannot do that. I actually don't even, like... So this doesn't even really affect me that the games are at the same time.

But it still bothers me because it seems like, from an economic perspective, it's not the best thing for the league and for the fan enjoyment perspective. I know it's, like, exciting to people that, like, it's like the whatever hour

on Red Zone that they call it. The witch are! That's right. But I don't understand why it wouldn't be better to stagger them so that you can actually watch the fourth quarters of like pretty much all the games. We get more witches. There you go. Yeah. So I would say like, why not just have games start at like 11, noon, one, two, three, four?

Like, why not? And then every game gets its own fourth quarter by itself. You could still put the primetime games or the best games in a way that they don't overlap with each other. so you can still watch double headers, but then you're not missing like the ends of other games at that time. I don't see why that's not better.

It's because of the local TV contracts, those have to be expiring soon, right? Like at some point they're going to redo the way the TV contracts are done. And I think they could use more weeks too, like just no reason not to have more weeks. The players wouldn't complain about more by weeks. How do you feel, Fran,

about like, more days of the week being implemented on a regular basis? I think without what Dana has just said about adding more weeks I think if you start having more Wednesday night football more Tuesday night football I think that just from a scheduling standpoint and like equality of schedule standpoint like I think they have to just extend the season just to try and level that playing field out a little bit otherwise I'm not against it you know I enjoy like the thing is is that like you know

during the season I love when it's November and I can watch Eastern Michigan versus Bowling Green on Wednesday night and just have that on the background as I work. You just got such a reaction on a Zach that was like... Friday night, like, you know, Friday night, like,

oh, Meg goes to bed, I can sit and I can watch Washington State versus Oregon State. Like, you know, there's something about that. Nobody else is watching those games. Yeah, right. I mean, the true sickos. How would you feel, Fran, about like a Thursday night double header for the NFL?

Like, instead of just one game. Or like a regular Friday game. I know they have the rules about high school football, but... Yeah. I mean, the thing that they do with Monday night football in the beginning of the season where there's two games, they should do that every week.

Well, when it's two games that are staggered by a decent amount, they should do, last year they had two games staggered by 30 minutes. What the hell was that about? Like, what is that getting you? Well, that's, there has to be some reason for it, right? Is it just that this is the way we're doing such a tight stagger? Yeah. Because I think the advertisers just, like, know that, like,

prime time is prime time, and they don't want to stray from it too much. Yeah. But I agree with Professor Selman as far as, the time slots i think uh i don't want to say i can't speak for all of us but i love when you wake up sunday morning for a europe you know when there's a game in europe and it's on at nine a m it's awesome when i'm on the west coast and for the fantasy football lineups though you know that is true that is tough uh i i don't like short week games for teams as much i've i've long said ever since they

went the thursday they should add an additional buy yeah so you get one real buy and then you get won by like where that Thursday games in between two weeks. That way you have extended time going into it, extended time coming off of it. I've long been an advocate for that. The NFL doesn't want to begin before Labor Day because people are typically, I shouldn't say people, some people are traveling in the month of August. Schools start typically after Labor Day. So they, but you can go into February.

Also, it's important to say they don't care about the health of the players. Yeah, which they should care more about the health of the players, for sure. Adding by-week seems like it would be better for the health of the players and would add more TV slots. Like, I just don't understand why they don't do that. It's more inventory. Yeah, you have inventory. Think about if it were like a regular business.

Like if you had like a bunch of shows. Let's make it like a business. Would you make, well, it is a business. I know. So if you had like a bunch of different, if you were putting on a bunch of plays, like, and you had a bunch of stages in a building, would you put all, all the plays on at the same time and make it so people could only go to one of them? Or would you have them at different times so people who are really into it could go to all of them?

Like basically that's what they're doing. They're like, we're going to have 20 teams. They literally had 20 teams playing at the same exact moment last year in week two, one o'clock. They had 20 teams. I saw that. Why would you do that comment? I do really dislike when they have it where there's like nine games at one o'clock and two games at four. What are you doing?

That goes back to. That's because of the old network schedule. It's like those markets want to have the 425 game on. Exactly. So they put the local game at one, but like, what year is it? Like, I mean, it's just like crazy. Each network's promised a solo slot, that 425 slot. I am, I don't want to say sympathetic to these schedule makers, but I, because it's their

job. But there's, there's a lot of different considerations that they have to deal with. Some legitimate, like, for instance, you know, the Eagles haven't had a week one home game in Philly since 2019. even if they did not win the Super Bowl this year, they would have had a week one home game this year because the Phillies are away that weekend. The Phillies haven't been away in at least 2000,

from 20 to 23, the Phillies were home. They can't share the parking lot, right? So there are situations there. There are some ridiculous ones. Like I've heard stories of someone, you know, like an owner's has a wedding or something, And like they want something, you know, they want a buy or a home game or something like that, free that weekend.

That kind of stuff's ridiculous. There's stuff like when the Pope visited Philadelphia, you know, when the Eagles had to be on the road. So there's a lot of different variables. There's when the 49ers built their stadium, there was something with the hospital nearby and primetime games and traffic that had to be considered. So there's a lot that goes into it that makes it challenging to put, They schedule together. And that's even before network producers get involved.

That's a good point. And then as far as like the by week, like why have they not added like more by weeks? They, to me, the easy reason behind that is because that's collectively bargain. And neither side wants to volunteer that as like that. That is a,

that is like a huge chip that on one of the sides is going to say like, oh, we will give you this. We will allow this if, if we get this back. Even though it's good for both sides. Yeah, because the either side wants to admit.

I agree. Why that's so strong, why that's good for for their side. They're going to use that as a, you know, as a get back. I've heard people say the players might not want it because it makes the season longer, but you just make the preseason shorter, right? It wouldn't actually make the season longer, right? Like most players that I've ever talked to about this, like current and former players,

most say like, yeah, like that's because they know how much money they would get in response, like, you know, get back from that. I think they're okay with it. They're not going to make the preseason now. They would reduce the volume of games, but they're not going to start in August from my understanding. So now they could I think what eventually they'll do is have two preseason games

and everyone has open scrimmages Oh I'm sorry Now they have the joint practice If you start on Labor Day That's one week earlier that the season's starting And you end on President's Day That's one week later right So the players could be against that

They could be like well this is you're making us work Two extra weeks But it seems like you could easily handle that By just having training camps start later or something Like that you could convince the players it's not actually more time. I don't know. And where are we, Zach, on your big international expansion

playing games in the Middle East? Well, there's a game in Australia next year. Okay. So we're actually right on schedule with my international expansion. This is going to, there's going to be an Asia game soon. This is going to continue to grow and grow as it should. Jeffrey Lurie said a year, ago that football is, I think, America's top export, I believe, or something of that nature.

Certainly not our import. But I forget the exact quote. That's also certainly not true. No, I'll tell you the exact quote, actually. But, yeah, there should be more international games. Racism? Well, I mean, racism is pretty common in other places already. But I think, I mean, if we're just looking at the sports, like basketball, the NBA gets consumed

by far more people. he was saying that internationally than the NFL. No, that the NFL needs the untapped. The untapped, perhaps. Certainly on top. Here, let me pull this up here. But in any event, the thing that jumps out is that I'm of the belief they're not going to add a franchise internationally.

And what you're going to see is a full schedule internationally. So at some point, every team plays abroad one game. Yeah, I mean, I think you could easily do that. I mean, 16 international games. And then if you spread it out across the weeks, you do what Zach's saying, have a game at 9 o'clock, depending on where internationally the game is.

And then, yeah, do the stagger thing. I don't know. Let's take a look at the super chats. A bunch of good ones. Starting off with Dinkleberg, says, Fran, the legs are looking good, baby. Thank you. Make sure that you...

Mid-off season one. They're looking so good. He did it twice. One for each leg. No, once for Dane is. Oh, legs are looking good, Dane is. It is. Ah, I apologize. Now, if the super chats have been for different dollar amounts.

Now, if they... That's true. Now, this is, I mean, this is the way to get to people to turn off the audio and get the YouTube on and take a look at those legs. I feel like I have an angle disadvantage here. Franz showing way more leg than me. There's no fault of mine. He's got a nice definition on those things, though. You've got to give them credit. Well, I'm not going to argue that.

So Jeffrey Lorry said, I think it's America's most incredibly potential export. most things in America that are really popular become popular globally. The NFL hasn't yet. It's about to have a chance to be. So that's the quote. The other thing I would change about the schedule, and we've been through this before, but just to kind of finish this,

is I would really make the last week of the season be all AFC one day, all the NFC one day, Saturday, Sunday. And then you can even continue that into Wild Card weekend so that you don't have the offer. That is much better. I do like that. think that would be a much better way to make this.

All right. Some more super chance to get to in just a minute right after we head into Overtime. I have something to say about this. Professor, your first time experiencing that in person. It is, yeah, and I've been wondering, actually, what, when did this, like,

it doesn't, it doesn't, is there a sponsor involved in overtime? Like, what, what's going on with overtime? overtime because the fast channel when we're on like the terrestrial television those are hour long blocks so if you want to watch after

you got to go to YouTube or PHOI I know but that's been the case but there was no one screaming overtime maniacally before you didn't get to hear that I love the change I was just wondering what triggered it yeah I gotta say something here Bo's can be proud of me here also Zach did you hear Bo's baby

was born did you did you yeah it's wonderful yeah I knew that Okay. I pose to be proud of me. I always say the customer's right. I'm looking, you know, every feedback on the pizza shop I want to take to make better pizza. I'm ready to push back on a pizza review.

Wow. For the first time, or not the first time, one of the first times, okay? I check every day the Apple podcast comments, the Spotify comments. And there was an Apple podcast comment recently. Deranged. About overtime that this is the work. part of the show and that I but it was someone named bird gang but he said this is overtime itself or the screaming of overtime. No, the screaming. He says it's such a, he said it's such a try hard move for me to do.

And I got to say, look, I'm self-aware enough to know that there's some try hard things that I do that like, you know, being excited for a rookie camp. That's a try hard move, right? You know, going to Howie's thing last night. It's a bit of a try-hard move. Oh, I'll, I, I will own that. I will own that. I promise you. Like, well, the overtime thing, it's just a fun gag. Like, I'm not going into my contract negotiations with Vince or with the CEO, you know, with the CEO of our company being like, and that overtime that I did, like, that's a real big feature to the show. So I'm sorry you feel that way.

I honestly, I could take it or leave it with the overtime. I thought it was a fun thing to add. So this is the one thing where I'll say that's part, that's, I'm not changing that pizza there. So here's my thing. Yeah. I'm very glad that you're taking the stance, number one. Number two, I feel like your overtime exclamation today had the least amount of juice since you started feeling it.

I agree with that. I feel like you pulled back a little bit. You did. You know what I have you? Let it affect you. Maybe he got to my head as I was putting this crust together today. And I'm like, you know, and he thought the crust was a little too thick. And I, so.

That's the bit. I mean, it's the whole thing. So I guess, so please, you know, if you feel otherwise, leave it in our Apple podcast comments. Also, whoever that was, I mean... Can we talk about the pizza shop thing? Because the thing that you were worried about yesterday, about the talking about your book too much.

Yes. This is the problem with the analogy. Well, there are a lot of problems with the analogy. One is that you shouldn't care in the first place. But there are lots of people who were saying, no, keep talking about the book. And so we've talked about this before, but you can't, when one person says one thing

and nine people say they disagree with it, you can't worry about the one. You aren't right about that. And that's part of the challenge. Also, there's things that are sometimes lost in context. For instance, there's a YouTube comment last week. Oh, my God. That's such a great sentence, the beginning of a sentence.

That, uh, that, they said that I stole, that I stole the Tony Kornheiser ending to the show from PTI. When literally the first time I hosted, I said, I did it in honor of Tony Kornheiser. I said, so I need to say, I promise you. if you're if if you left that that YouTube comment I didn't think I came up with and we'll be better tomorrow like I've watched part of the interruption

I've loved the way they end it so I do it as a tip of the cap to Tony Cornerhizer and Michael Wilbonn and of course we all know that Beau came up with the phrase coined the phrase I love you yes yes that's right

I invented that all right a couple more super chats the royalties have got to be really good on them yeah just like Michael Jordan's crying Jordan fresh prince I need an official ruling from Beau, are you team hashtag Fran's thighs or hashtag shield's legs? This is the problem with America today. Why does everything have to be so divisive? Why can't we just enjoy both? You know, why do we have to pit Fran's thighs against shield's legs? Why can't we just enjoy them both? Now, I do think there is a difference in the two things. One, there's the celebration of Franz thighs,

whereas the shield's legs is more a sighting of shield's legs. That was, you know, I believe that started with, was it, with Marissa? Brashtray, I'm sorry, Brown's training camp. Saw Sheel in shorts, yeah, hashtag Sheel's legs. It was more like, oh, they exist. Yes. She didn't know that they existed because she'd never seen them in person before. Whereas friends, this is more like, oh, man.

You know, there's a Justin, Travis Hunter level prospect here. We've got to celebrate the prospect. Roheat. What's next? Tuesday or Wednesday night football? Or is this a specific question, which one is more likely? Well, when Brett Veach was making excuses for why they got killed in the Super Bowl, he was saying that, you know, we played every day of the week this year, except Tuesday.

I don't know why that, like, makes it hard to be in the game in the Super Bowl. But, yeah, they played on Wednesday. But aren't they the ones who want to, like, own Christmas? Yes. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, Christmas was Wednesday last year. That's why there was Wednesday night football last year.

Is it because they're red and white? They want to make a Santa thing? I don't think that. I just think they thought they could own Christmas. I mean, you can't own Christmas, but... I mean, shout out the Catholics. Respect. Great respect for Catholic. I respect. I respect. I respect. I respect. I think you said, I think what you said was I've always had respect for Catholicism. I have always had respect. Yeah. Yeah. How would you rank your respect for the religions? I respect all. I, I mean, if you to get serious. I believe strongly. I respect whoever you pray to, whoever you love, whoever. Like,

that's, yeah, I, I'm indiscriminate in all ways in that regard. It doesn't, if you, if you embrace others, you know, I embrace you. I'm not going to, it would be unfair for me to ask you to say your favorite religion, your least favorite religion. Yeah. What's the middle? What's the middle? What's the median religion in terms of your respect level? I don't know if I have a median I mean, I think my least favorite religions are those that dislike my religion, maybe. But no, I think I respect all. All right. One more super chat, I believe we have.

From Polar Jam. I forgot when your book was coming out, CB. Could you remind me? Yeah, so my book is coming out September 23rd. What's your book? It's called Leap Year. And I'm excited. I should have some fun announcements for that soon, knock on wood.

Um, on that one. Uh, so yeah. He made the, he was going to try to go on. And then he had to actually, actually find it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, have some fun things coming out, hopefully with that book. But, uh, no, the book is the, the manuscript went out three weeks ago. The edits were finalized yesterday.

Um, I will get. Yeah, the edits were finalized yesterday. The book will happen very quickly. No, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, not finalized. The edits were finished yesterday. Oh, I see. I need to approve the edits in the next week or so.

You got a nice piece of feedback on that front, I heard. Yeah. Yeah, it was cleaner than I think some other books might be. So that's, I appreciate that. And then, and it goes to the printers in like two or three weeks or so. And then it comes out, September, it's in bookstore, September 23rd. If you pre-order it now, it'll come out. I think you'll get in your mailbox, September 23rd.

Okay. Danes, I did want to ask you one more question. We don't need to get into the specifics of the White House visit. Okay. But you did break down the two rosters. I did, yeah. If you look at my blue sky, you can see a color-coded Eagles depth chart with who was there and who was not. Who do you think would win that game?

well the defense would have like no players on one side right so that's that's one of the issues with it although let me get it out now let's let's play it out let's say that you can you can fit you can finish the rosters with you know whatever free agents are available so you're talking about an offense with like an offense a good offensive line the only absolutely no wide receivers yeah so the no the no white house team has one offensive lineman Fred Johnson. Okay. That's on the 53, the practice squad, and I are.

Okay. So there were... But you've got AJ Brown, Devante Smith. 13 offensive linemen on one team and one on the other. Yeah. And the entire defense. Yeah. The only skill position player on the White House team is Britain Covey.

So, I mean, only wide receivers. I mean, Zach, they have the tight ends. It plays out like one of our theoretical drafts where there's a line of scrimmage. Well, it's not even because you got the other line scrimmage, but... So you've got the captain of the White House team. Sequin, right? You got Will Shipley and Ben Van Sumeran in the backfield.

Tanner McKee, a quarterback. I know which team you're on, Beau, for that. Yeah, you got literally all the offensive linemen. You got Dallas gutterre, Calcutera, Nick Mews, and C.J. Usoma. I mean, very deep, tight end group. I mean, you're running the ball, for sure. Whereas the no White House team

has all the wide receivers, E.J. Jenkins, Fred Johnson, Jalen Hertz. Can he gain well? Yeah, but to have a team entirely of, like just a defense entirely of replacement level players. Right. Versus just figuring out an offensive line. Right. I feel like you would have to take the non-Whitehouse team.

Friend, how do you, what do you think? Yeah, I think I would agree. Yeah, the White House team defense starts with Otron Mathis, Morrow Adjima, Eli Ricks, who's very distracted at the White House. Cooper to Jean. 20 year age difference, by the way, if anyone was calculating that. Reed Blankenship, Sidney Brown, and Lewis, C. And 20 year age difference at Eli Ricks' age is a big difference.

Let's, yeah, okay. I mean, it's nothing compared to Bill and Jordan. That's true. Non-White House team would also have trouble with field goals because all the specialists are on the list. I think you could figure that out. Figure it out, yeah. Speaking of the age difference.

Well, I like where this is going. Kili Ringo and Quignon-Mitchell. Yeah, are we still doing this? What do we think? Well, tell me. Are you aware of this thing as? I am aware, yes. It's surprising.

Julia, what do we think? Are we keeping this going? I think we, I mean, I think we'd missed it yesterday. Yeah, I think it's been missed. It's been missed a few times. It feels a little more force now. Sorry. I guess it was such a good time to do it with the debt chart, too.

And it's true. Keeley is older than, or younger than Kuiangelo, I mentioned, despite being drafted a year prior. I think we talked too much about Eli Ricks on yesterday. or not enough definitely not enough yeah yeah

yeah do you have a take do you think who would have won that game I look for things that unite us not divide us so

it's just a football conversation so I yeah I would have to study the rosters but typically I think the teams

I think you have studied the roster yeah that's true actually I mean I I would go with the superior quarterback and I think that's J.O.

and Hertz and so I would go with the team that has J.O. and Hertz as opposed to the team that doesn't have J. Owen Hertz in that situation. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, you got Eli Ricks covering A.J. Brown, you know, so. But, I mean, the one thing else I'll say is that it's easier getting into, or it's easier getting into the White House than it is Eagles training camp, like, from a coverage perspective. Well, I can tell you it's not easy to get binoculars into the Super Bowl. Yeah. But, you know. Imagine if information float as easily.

out of the Novak Complex as it does the White House. The information, what? If information float as easily out of the North Carolina. Yeah, they're not on any signal chats in there. That's true. I did not make this about politics.

I just asked a full question. Okay. Fran, what else is going on? Nothing much. Who's the next guy you're going to watch? Maybe K. Klubnick? Maybe Drew Aller? quarterback Penn State, maybe.

Do you have a, Zach, do you have a favorite of the non-arched Mannings among the quarterbacks? Yeah, I was on this before, I think I told you, Lenora Sellers. Remember I talked about it? Yeah, I think Lenore Seller's. I mean, no, I don't remember that, but I believe you. The South Carolina quarterback. Yeah, no, I don't know who you're talking about it. Yeah.

I brought him up on the show. Lenora Sellers is the guy that jumps out to me. And I'm excited to watch him play. Are we talking like a physical marvel? Yeah, I mean, like. We talked about it a little bit today. 240 pounds. I got good arm, young.

And they have a wide receiver, Nick Harper, who's like a world-class athlete. He'll top Bruce Belvin's Freaklist from Washington, D.C. He's like 6.5, 237. No one of you love him. Runs forward to four. I mean, I'll defer to Fran here. But he kind of had an underwhelming start to his college career. But I think that Sellers Harbor combination is going to be fun to watch.

Yeah, Lenora Sellers is an interesting prospect. I mean, I thought, honestly, they lost Spencer Rattler, and I didn't see much of a drop off this year going to the Norris Sellers. My takeaway from watching all of Harper's explosive catches last year in preparation for the mock draft, he catches the ball weird. He, like, lets the ball into his body, like, all the time. He doesn't look, like, natural at the catch point. But he's like a D.K. Metcalf type, like, physical Marvel.

That's like the kind of thing I would say. Yeah, it's just like, because it was after watching, like, all of his plays of like 20 plus and just see what it. what this kid's about. Yeah. Okay. What were your, your opinion watching the draft lottery last night?

Were you enjoying it? Did you watch the actual lottery? I did. Horrendous job by the announcers. Yes, seriously. Like, they have one job, which is to like know what to say. I won't take any temple liner.

I was like, wait, is that right? It was obviously wrong. Yeah. Like it was like just like what, like, like they could have gotten into the top four themselves. It was like so obvious. It was crazy that they were not, they were not prepared for that.

lotteries? Is there a way you could fix lotteries to make them to make the actual because the NHL one was like very The NHL actually drew the thing Yeah, but it was a certain combination of balls I thought the graphics were bad last night too They should show in like

What the normal list would be What the normal list should be for sure And then pop up over who is actually there There's so much room on the screen to put up stuff Like they easily could have had that Yeah totally I think that they should show The entire thing, yes

Even if it means Even if it means like it doesn't. Yeah. So why not? They put it out online. If you draw the same one again? Yeah. So the NBA put out the actual drawings online so you can see.

Did they put show the conversation with Adelson and the commissioner about how they fixed it? Do you guys remember? Maybe none of you were old enough to remember. In the mid-80s, they actually, like the Patrick Ewing one, like they actually had a bunch of envelopes. Yes. And they put them in this big ball and they did just draw them out there. And they said they rigged it by making

the mix one was like colder or whatever. And UEFA has been accused of this every year like in the Champions League. Like I find it. I find it very hard to believe that UEFA would do anything. They don't even need to freeze the balls there. Like they just, they're only like four things in a bowl.

Like you can just remember which one's which. The guy like goes like this. It's like, you know, like he goes like this and like picks one and he's like, oh, it's rail Madrid. And it's like, it's crazy to me that that's supposed to be considered, like, not rigged. But yeah, I don't know. I like the idea of doing it life. And if you have to redraw, then make it wrong.

Yeah, if that was the NFL, like, people would absolutely, they would be eat that up. Are you expecting the NFL to go lottery at some point? I mean, just from a- Yeah, you guys were talking about it. We've talked about it a bunch on the show. Like, I think right now the tanking problem in the NFL is not big enough to require. a change. Like as long as we have these coaches that are about to be fired, like winning week 18 games, like there isn't going to be a push for a lottery, right? And if you have a lottery with too many

teams, it could create more tanking than now. Sure. Right. Like if you, if you only need to get into the bottom five, that's a much bigger group of teams that are now like, oh, maybe we can get into the bottom five. It could actually cause tanking instead of prevent tanking. So as of now, I don't think it's a good idea. I would be surprised if they ever did it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be surprised. I kind of agree. Okay. All right, good stuff, everybody. Thanks for watching and listening.

We will be back tomorrow. We got a regular show at 2 o'clock, and then the prime time 7.30 schedule release show with Zach, myself, and Cuzz. That'll be a lot of fun. On Thursday, we're back with Zach and Fran. Friday, we're back with Zach and the professor. So it should be a fun week of shows ahead.

We appreciate everybody watching and listening. We will talk to you tomorrow. and as always, we love you.