Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Former Viking Sage Rosenfels talks about training QBs, Mahomes/Brady and DeShaun Watson

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking quarterback Sage Rosenfels get together again for the first time since this summer and they just shoot the breeze on quarterback talk. Sage discusses training NFL prospect Ian Book from Notre Dame and what the difference is between college and the NFL. They talk about what makes Patrick Mahomes so special in a QB's eyes, why Tom Brady's last dance is really fun for Sage to watch, how DeShaun Watson would change the Vikings if they somehow traded for him and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and the band is back together, joining me, former Minnesota Viking, and my longtime radio co-host Sage Rosenfels. What is up, Sage? Great to see you. From my snowy abode to yours.

Hello, Mr. Collar. It's been a while, but off doing other things. You've been doing the same thing, which is covering the Minnesota Vikings, covering other occasional aspects of Minnesota sports, I'm sure, and all sports in general. But in particular, the Vikings, you've been watching a lot of Kirk Cousins. You've been watching the offensive line. You are deep diving into it.

And it was nice to see her take a step back for me and not have to talk about something that I felt like I already knew the answer to. And I knew what the problem was. And I knew where those struggles are. Because I've seen it consistently now for eight to ten years. And it's not surprised me that the team, they end up seven and nine? Seven and nine. Seven and nine. It's a good division, by the way. I mean, take a Green Bay.

I really had a great feeling about how Matt LaFleur's offense would make Aaron Rodgers great again. I really did. And I really felt Mike McCarthy, that offense, would be hard to play in as a quarterback. It's a very quarterback-dependent. And if Aaron Rodgers could play in something where he was a part, he was the Kirk Cirk cousins of a team um i've seen him make a lot of amazing throws over the

years and uh and to watch that the last couple years and to watch how good he is at some of the things that they do not surprising to me uh that the uh the packers are have been really dominant the last couple years since le LeFleur's arrival. So it's been nice to step back and watch the Vikings from afar, not deep dive on why when the left guard gets beat, it's now second, 16, and that's just the way it's going to be. That's just the way it's going to be. I couldn't imagine watching Kansas city film regularly and being like,

look at this throw. He makes, you know, and I think this is a nine step drop, right? He is just dropping back there and, and, and seeing it all. And it's that's so fun to watch watching that the Vikings offense last year was not as fun to watch. And, and so it was yeah it's nice to do other things i just worked out ian book in jacksonville florida for five days physical training like on the field footwork some timing stuff some thoughts about different things and then a lot of film work you know somewhere between two and really up to like four hours a day of film and chalkboard stuff and him wanting to explain

these you know running plays and passing plays that he felt good about to uh you know the offensive coordinators the the quarterback coaches of these senior bowl teams that he is in currently so i haven't had a ton of chance to watch all of the ian book throws when you find that on the world of reddit and twitter or whatever all of the book throws at when you find that on the world of Reddit and Twitter or whatever, all of the books throws at the senior bowl. There's one of them for day one or a whole bunch of them. I'd love to see how some of the things that he and I had talked about, how if they affected his game,

he's one of those guys who is a very good athlete. He's a good thrower, but he's always sort of had the choppy feet. He sort of has the Peyton Manning feet thing, but he does. He doesn't have the other aspects of Manning's game, right? So he could find a little rhythm and then some different aspects of his game, I think would make him a better player and scramble less. It's nice to have a guy who can scramble. You don't want to have a guy who is mostly scrambling.

And I think he scrambled a lot at Notre Dame. So he's a great kid, good thrower. The football spins it pretty well. And yeah, well, we'll see what NFL coaches think of the Senior Bowl. Supposedly the Senior Bowl this year is like the best Senior Bowl. He's been doing it for 23 years. And this is the most talent he has ever seen of all these guys who are playing, which is pretty cool.

Pretty cool. So he's got that Dolphins training staff or the Dolphins coaching staff who didn't have a coordinator and so we were trying to watch last year's offense and seeing what they were doing and I see why they didn't have a coordinator at the end of the season it was it felt sloppy to me yeah it felt sloppy um and uh and it can get sloppy on those fields sometimes down in South Florida, but it did feel sloppy, and so that was a challenge, too, of what type of offense you're going to be in. But there are certain aspects of the game and throwing

and fundamentals that are good in every offense and are needed, and kids have the ability to do them to, in my opinion, sort of take that next step. And the kid's got some real possibilities he picks things up fast and and and he can change his body and his speed a little bit and and he's a strong athlete so he's a lacrosse player i was a basketball player it's sort of like you think about quarterbacks as different positions that's to me when you really think about what the style they are right so i i think pat mahomes is a

good high school basketball player not surprising probably a really good baseball player too not you you find me a great basketball player that's a great baseball player i'll make you a quarterback give me a couple yeah well uh patrick mahomes has that shortstop throw where he can contort his body in all sorts of freakish ways i i love I love that. Sometimes that's where I think Ian struggles a little bit is he doesn't have all, he can't make all those just sort of weird sidearm. He can do some, but not as much. And it's nice to be able to have those types of things where you ditch it out to the ride, or you're sort of throw it behind somebody or your feet aren't perfect. Um, and I think that's actually an important aspect. You can do it accurately

all the best it's hard to do it your breeze doesn't do that great either but he's so accurate on all the other stuff he hasn't had to have that you know per se but the other stuff that that mahomes kid does is it's like watching jordan play you know probably when he for or not or not dr j it's almost like oh my god here's a guy who's literally playing above the rim and up and under and and it changed the way you thought of basketball at that point and i think mahomes is probably doing that at the quarterback position more than any of the other you know quote-unquote athletic throwers like michael vick was an insane athlete and he had a cannon for an arm and he

could be but he it wasn't as loose he was very sort of almost machine-like in his drop in his things right he was very well coached and didn't necessarily freelance while throwing the football mahomes does all that it's pretty magical it sort of reminds me of uh of the shooter for golden state a little bit steph curry yeah there's an aspect where there's a similarity there i mean it's not about me having a dad who's a professional athlete or something but there's something there a looseness that he plays with that you really can't coach there's creativity i think is like the thing that goes beyond what we can teach athletes to do is like, there's something natural. There's a backyard element. Randy Moss was like this. There's like a backyard part of Randy Moss that you just can't teach

Barry Sanders, Dion Sanders, guys like that, um, that Patrick Mahomes brings to the quarterback position. And we've never really seen someone that creative at the quarterback position before. I did want to ask you, um, I know that I'm sure Vikings fans' wheels are turning about Ian Book of like middle rounds or whatever, but you and I had some good discussions last year at the Combine with people about college quarterbacks and how much they have to learn before they go to the NFL. And I've talked a little bit on the show

about just if the Vikings could draft a quarterback with some ceiling, some potential, and sit him behind Kirk cousins, that that's a great plan because usually rookies have so far to go. I'm just wondering from you training some of these college guys, like what is the gap there that they have to close from college offenses to the NFL? Like where is the biggest area it's tough for them? I think understand the fine details of the game the ability to anticipate

i think it's more of a see and throw it in the college game and less of that in the pro game the defenses are just too good they're too fast and they understand themselves really well college defense i don't think they understand themselves that well right the defenses they know their weaknesses and so they know what offense is like to do to try to attack them and they just from years of repetitions, they get, they respond faster. So the game gets quicker and that, and even Ian said, the biggest difference he sees when he watches film is that the quarterback maybe gets one hitch.

Sometimes it takes five steps and throws the ball and gets run into afterwards or even hard. And it's a guy that's actually being blocked, you know so to get the ball out fast and to throw from a really small space that is the difference it really is um by the way part of not to jump back to my home but part of his creativity is the fact that andy reed has always been one of the best o-line coaches in the league. I know he's not coaching them all the time in every drill and everything. But going back to Philly, McNabb had some really good offensive lines, well-coached guys.

They knew how to use that. Like he's always – and Mahomes has that. And then he gets to have – he doesn't have some terrible line. They're just well-coached. And they're just, as you know over the the years they're just better coach lines than others in my opinion and ones that allow the quarterbacks to have a little bit more time so it's a it's a sort of a scary combination down there uh that Patrick Mahomes says I don't know if you put Mahomes on uh the Jets team if the Jets are gonna win more than maybe seven or eight games I don't

know it seems to be a bad football team so there's only so much a great player can do. But anyway, yeah, Ian Book, one thing he says is the quickness you have to get the ball out in the NFL is that's the biggest difference. So I want to talk about some other quarterbacks with you too, because this off season is bananas already. Like the Super Bowl hasn't even been played. And already we've got rumors that Jared golf could be traded.

Matt Stafford agreeing to be traded to Sean Watson wants out. So I want your opinion on the Deshaun Watson things. It's really interesting to me of a guy just saying, you know what, this organization, not great. So why don't you just send me somewhere else? It kind of reminds me of what Carson Palmer did years ago, where he said, I'm just going to straight up retire if you don't trade me away. And eventually it worked out for Carson Palmer to end up in Arizona and have

another shot at it. But Deshaun Watson is 25 years old Sage and Vikings fans are tweeting me every day. Like, is there any way like, no, not really, but I did see a report today that the Chicago Bears want to investigate the possibilities of trying to bring in Deshaun Watson which should terrify everyone because I know that their team only won a couple of games this year but he was incredible every time I saw him it was like the whole team on one player's shoulders. And I think wherever he lands, that franchise is instantly changed. Deshaun Watson can get out of the Houston Texans.

And we can dive into my former teams and the Washington franchise and then the Miami franchise and then Houston now, which is – is there a bigger dumpster fire than Houston currently in the NFL? They've taken, I don't even know about the players. It just sort of seems like, Holy cow. It's like, I'm hearing these things about these various executives and life coaches that are executives and all these, and the whole thing seems.

It's not good. It's a, one of my normal teams Kubiak it was it was a quality work environment when I was there with Gary Kubiak and Rick Smith and it seems it has just fallen off the thing and as you were talking I thought to myself what if Carson Palmer could have gotten out of gotten out of Cincinnati at year five yeah yeah right at. Right. At year four. Right. He had been at the end of the day, happier going to a team with better coaches, better challenges, better organization. I would say, yes, he wishes he would have done that. I promise you, you don't, it's hard to very, very hard to win in Cincinnati.

It's now really hard to win. it seems like to me in Houston get out of there and go find somewhere else and as a another franchise I seems like to me he's a pretty transcendent player I'd love to see him in an offense that where he didn't have to be Superman like literally Superman I think if i've watched football the last few years who i think has to do the most it seems to be him to make that ship go and it would be amazing to see him in can you imagine him in san francisco i know i know you know jimmy grappolo brought him to the Super Bowl, right? And then what could Deshaun Watson do? No offense to Jimmy Garoppolo, right?

What would he be like with Sean McVay? No offense to Jared Goff, right? Could a trade be in there with one of those quarterbacks with a first rounder? So at least the other team now has a quarterback and maybe an inexpensive quarterback, right? And you take some of that. I think Deshaun Watson probably would take a pay cut to get out of that situation um and he should i don't know if chicago is the answer i think they're gonna let you know they didn't know how to use trubisky correctly right why would they know how to use this guy correctly figured it out

right at the end be better he would be better but travis was running around all that time and when they had more of a pocket passer in there it was a disaster uh with uh with nick falls this year it was not good they won a couple games but it was sort of like lucky it was that nick flows magic that occasionally comes out one out of three or one out of four times and uh so i don't if i were him i wouldn't want to go to chicago they've been a losing franchise for the last 20 plus years not all the time but more often than not the vikings have been winning i would say average to winning franchises uh and a couple really good years couple championship games and in the last 20 years so it's not it's the cupboards never bear in minnesota it hasn't been i don't think for a long time.

That would be a better place for him. Playing indoors you find. I don't know. I did a football camp a couple years ago with Clint Kubiak. I thought he was great. The greatness of his dad and the ability to communicate with his dad was so evident. I watched him install West coast plays, just install two or three plays and to watch him do that and to sit in the back of this room with a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds was really something else for me.

And to see the clear precision and the conciseness of what we're working and how we're working it and what the read is. I think he'd be an excellent offensive coordinator not a rah-rah guy he is very young but i know a good communicator when i see one i also know a guy who doesn't have some big ego and ego is the cause of death for offensive coaches ego is i know everything i know everything and the good ones go i don't know everything because this is a evolving game that just keeps getting more and more advanced and and uh and those are the good ones the humble ones and i think he'd be a coordinator maybe someday somewhere so i don't

know minnesota would be a better spot for me uh than than chicago i imagine it's two first round draft picks is what everyone's saying and probably probably change to go along with that probably more right i mean the texans are gonna are gonna it would be interesting there's these teams like miami that have a quarterback and some other franchise and say hey let's rally rally around tua then maybe it's just you know now we have i think i think two is going to be a good player. I really do. But, you know, I think Watson already is a great player. Like, that's the thing that you have.

Well, guy, he could be a really good player. Or, you know, this guy could be a great player. I'd like to see Tua in with the Saints. That, to me, is super super intriguing because I think he has those Drew Brees properties. He has that accuracy and anticipation. He's a sort of a better athlete, the way he sort of moves and runs around. He's not a tall guy. Uh, he does have great vision for a shorter guy. I think he'd be a guy that could probably do well in Sean Payton's offense. You know what I've started looking for when I watch things on tape is just when a quarterback has easy answers and when they don't. So like watching Lamar Jackson's passing

game in Baltimore in the playoffs, it's like, man, the guy just never has like a little crossing route where he throws it five yards and the guy runs for 30, right? It's always drop back and stand there and let these routes develop. And I'm like, is that right for Lamar Jackson? I don't know. And then he's got to run and take off. And there were times last year on third downs and things. I thought the same for Kirk cousins, like, are we giving him enough easy answers with some of the short stuff that maybe, um, you know, you see McVay and Shanahan who have built on Kubiak's offense giving those those screen passes and those quick throws and Buffalo does this a ton for Josh Allen now his luck ran out when he faced the Chiefs eventually but um you know a lot of easy answers for him even though he's got this

mega bazooka it's like a lot of times you'll see teams say well you're really talented so let's make you know let's do really hard things for you and they kind of miss the forest through the trees there and I think I think that's been the case with Deshaun Watson even when I was hold on it's Let's make, you know, let's do really hard things for you. And they kind of miss the forest through the trees there. And I think that's been the case with Deshaun Watson. Even when I was. Hold on. It's always, if you took the mindset of how can we make it easy on our quarterback in a sense of making his life easier and then all the aspects that go into it, right?

Make it easy on somebody very talented in a sense and then when they when you need them to elevate so they can elevate it yeah don't make it hard for them on first down get the ball out don't make it right i've i've said for years the hardest thing to do offencing the national football league is drop back pass you know the the um the the complexity of defense is but really the time because the defensive line so fast so anything you can do that's not a regular drop back seven steps shotgun five steps somebody's 20 yards down the field the fewer those you can call in the game generally you have more overall success and um and getting the ball out is huge getting completions of five six

seven and making things easier on third down it's all all huge and and i i do think the the future coaches are finally understanding that you know gain the ball out also when you with that style of offense they have they have a smaller offensive lines right you know I was with Chris Myers, an old name, as my center in Houston. He was like 285, 6'2", probably 6'3", but he could really move and was very quick and made it to the pro ball. But those guys generally struggle in like one-on-one pass situations with a 340-pound nose tackle that can move, right? And that is the challenge with the

offense so they they started going okay quick screens or being really good screen team can they get the you get those big guys out running so that's another good thing yeah it was all aspects of uh making offense i mean guys that can run and move but that is hard to do in the drop back pass and it seemed like that's what they were doing a lot of uh in houston the last couple years with their quarterback. He was just in that pocket and life was always hard for him. Yeah, and with the Vikings, I think they were getting themselves down in games and putting themselves into dropback situations, in part because they were conservative early in games and their defense couldn't bail them out from doing that. So if you punt a couple times in the first half, you punt three times the first half.

Odds are when you have the 29th ranked defense, the other team's going to score a couple of times in the first half, you punt three times the first half, like odds are when you have the 29th ranked defense, the other team's going to score a couple of times. Like they didn't really shift their mentality to, we have to be aggressive right off the beginning. And then, you know, kind of play from there. It was get behind and then, oh, now we've got to be aggressive, which means taking sacks, making mistakes, turnovers, things like that.

When you're forced into the drop. Would you say, would you say it's generally it's because generally what they're doing is protecting their quarterback. They never want to, right? That's just generally all the things we talk about with their quarterback because they're trying to protect him. And that is trying to get the ball out quick and trying to do screens and obviously the running game bootlegs are much easier than drop back pass play actions but either drop back pass he's got to have a good

running game he's got to have a good defense he's got to have good receivers he's got to have this he's got to have this i don't even know what the quarterback has in houston i don't even know what the running back is i really don't know what david johnson are i don't even know what the quarterback has in Houston. I don't even know what the running back is. I really don't know what the receivers are. I don't know where the offensive linemen are. I know they traded too much for left tackle one time for Miami or something. They screwed that deal up. But I don't know. But no one's going like, what can we – people should be trying to get Deshaun Watson,

Adam Thielen, and Jefferson and uh this running back I mean just imagine what he could do it would be so much easier on this kid and when the coach called a play and the left guard got beat oh my god he just ran for 20 yards or made a great throw in bought time right and we're not putting on third and 18 after that sack and the difference in that it does not i don't know where you find it in some statistical category and some analytical algorithm i don't know what that is but it is a complete game changer it's it's it's completely changed that franchise in kansas city and i think whoever gets to sean w, it could, I think with the right coaching it can, it could completely change and they got, they got to have good players,

get him some really good players and make an, and, and, you know, and it, I, I, he, I think the world of this kid, I really do. And I'm sure it's been a struggle down there in Houston. Cause I have not enjoyed watching them play football at all. Oh, I know. I mean, even when they played the Vikings, it was kind of hideous to watch and he still had them within a drop pass in the end zone of maybe tying up that game against the Vikings when they came back, but their offense was let's run inside zone out of the shotgun with a running back who's completely shot and just put Watson in the toughest spots and ask him to basically wiggle his way out of it.

And I I've thought Sage now, I mean, I don't think that there's a realistic trade you can even make up with your brain that gets him to Minnesota. But let's just say, I think the Vikings go instantly to a Super Bowl contender if Deshaun Watson is their quarterback. I think they're the second best team in the NFC North immediately. All right. Looks like Detroit starting over. Yeah. Chicago's still trying to figure some things out. Yeah. Green Bay is a bit, they're a playoff team and they are,

I'd like to see it. It'd be, it'd be awesome. If it was like he would came to Minnesota, I'm not sure who the coordinator is going to be. I don't know the whole situation, But if he was in that right offense and to give it two, three, four years, yeah, I think he can be on one of those teams. They'd have to put a heck of a – get some good drafts right and get some good decent free agents and figure out the cap stuff and whatever. But, you know, they've spent a lot of money over the last three or four years

trying to get this thing to where it's not going to happen with the current situation up there quarterback wise. And so, yes, this this guy, imagine Deshaun Watson on that team with Case Keenum at quarterback. Just imagine what this kid could. You know, you got to think that they're in the Super Bowl that year. I think he's that type of player. Right. Right. Yeah. right yeah i mean of course they would need to improve on the defensive side and you know there's a couple other things that they would need to do but with the nfc really in flux and i wanted to ask you about this too um you know i think breeze is going to be gone right breeze uh you know i don't know he could play forever but one's done it's the same supernial powerhouse they're gonna they're done and that's

the again i can see sean payton being one of those coaches by the way i can see him going i ain't getting any younger and giving up a couple whatever and getting uh that quarterback i can see that because he sort of does what he wants there and he knows it'd be a heck of a lot easier getting to the super bowl not completely starting over. And that situation as well, after Breeze has gone. And Jameis Winston ain't going to be the answer. Right. Right. So he's one of those guys that, that intrigues me. Want to remind you about our friends at Soda Stick. If you use the promo code Purple Insider,

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there's quarterbacks who are playing, including one in the Superbowl where you were playing when these guys were playing Phillip rivers, Drew Brees. I mean, Ben Roethlisberger is being talked about as, as leaving Aaron Rogers. And now it's like, where, I mean, Rogers, who knows? I assume he's going to continue to play for the Packers and it's all just a little bit classic Rogers drama or his push for a new contract. But it's really interesting to me as having these quarterbacks who have been successful for such a

long time, basically my entire adult life and even dating back to your career. And now we're getting to like the very end here. I mean, it must be kind of weird. It's so weird. And as somebody who started my career and played against and, you know, maybe even with a lot of these guys, I mean, me having, every time the combine comes up, I'm remembering things that happened at my combine. Right. I remember sitting at like a table having lunch and it's like two yasasopo breeze i think it was

like matt light who played the patriots for a long time which breezes left tackle and just other guys and going out and throwing and then you know then everyone gets drafted there's a rookie symposium and there's a card shoot thing and getting to spend time with these guys charity events over that time but also like watching you know i was in miami so i saw the beginning of the tom brady thing my first year in miami they won it um and they went over that no they they won the year before or something like that um and it was just it's something else to then you have to compete against that guy twice a year eight times in four years and watch watch him do his magic at the end of games and our defense was good

and they were coached so well and just but to see this whole thing it's interesting by the way you see the picture of him when he like came out how fat his face was for here yes so like we talk about health and stuff and i'm not i don't't want to get a controversial, but like when I was coming out, it was about gaining weight. Right. Which was like drinking these probably heavy dairy. It was creatine, probably a lot of protein shakes. You know, you're doing anything you can and you'd see these guys sort of, you see it like with high school offensive linemen,

they sort of ballooned up in a way. Yeah. And now he's 43 and he's like the healthiest person. Of course you can afford to be, which is nice. Right. But, but still athletically playing at such a high level. It's just incredible to watch his transformation. And I got a couple of little Tom Brady stories, which is, of cool I don't have anything Pat Mahomes he's these young guys it's a whole different ball game and um you know at least Steinberg was his agent or still is his agent so I know Lee a little bit but uh you'd think I live in Omaha I need to get down there

and find do a little Pat Mahomes quarterback collective camp or something like that. I've thought about that. So we tried last year to go see him and we got Matt Moore, although which for you and I lovers of the journeyman quarterback, it was pretty rewarding to see Matt Moore balling against the Vikings and leading a comeback win. But I sort of feel like you should write a book about the journeyman quarterback. You should, I think it'd be something you'd probably enjoy or it's like a podcast series and because the stories of journeyman quarterbacks are just

incredible because you're just you're bouncing around the people you meet you're right on the edge of like the super famous people you know so you're sort of like people really care about you know the head coach and all these things. It's just, and you're just sort of like, you're just on the outside of it. And then when you play well, you know, last around a while. But yeah, just all the games and the stories and the people and everyone, and they all have them. And then they have odd after football lives, it seems like.

Every time. From our podcast. It's one of the most fun things that I get to do is sort sort of like it's like talking about the life of the journeyman quarterback and they're just every single one is completely it's not going being an accountant for a big financial firm downtown it's it's not that it is quite the the odd life so um i mean you must have loved and i did too the idea of j of Josh McCown soon being an NFL head coach. It's like, of course, it's classic. It has to be.

At some point, the whole league will be journeyman quarterbacks as head coaches. Josh McCown is like the Steve Kerr. Like, well, of course, he was a good shooter, and he was already a coach. Now, this is what he's been doing for the, probably the last 10 years of his career. And it was honestly, I think part of that was what everyone loves about Josh McCown. I think it was like his lack of big ego. And every time he was a backup, he was like the best backup you can be. Right.

He was supportive. He was over there trying to teach. He was another coach so in a sense and he was sort of this backup starter for his whole career even was out of football for a while and the bears like signed him at the end of the year um but i i think all of that always in that pause of what can i do what can i do and i think that's to me why people like josh mccown is uh there's never any issues with him. I imagine being a coach is completely different than being a player.

All right. I've never sat there and just grinded on film for hours on end. And you're sort of your entire life now is this honey and the kids. I'm not going to be coaching. I'm not going to be at the things. I'm not going to be at the, I'm in a hotel room at a Friday night in Buffalo, you know, uh, getting the team ready. I'm not there. It's a life changer. And for, for someone who didn't do that, I'm happy to, cause I get to, I don't miss a lot of my kids events and these things I get to do so much and I get to explore and travel and explore the world and try different things

that i'm happy i i didn't get into that world right away and probably never will but he wants back into that thing it is a it's a crazy circus it is a crazy circus and i don't even know i don't know how a player could be so immediately ready to be ahead i mean who's he gonna hire that's a whole other thing right but i mean it would be something else it would be something else so that but he is that was the only thing just the texans right i really can't believe they didn't hire bn me i know i mean at this point i can't believe i just figured they're the last ones the enemies in the super bowl everyone thought he should have got a job last year. And then he didn't get the job. It's like, why'd you wait?

Right. You could hire that guy two weeks ago or a month ago. If you're going to have a coaching hire blow up, it might as well be the guy who's working with the best team for years and the best or one of the best coaches. I'm going to hire the passing game coordinator for a team at the worst thing they do is passing. Yeah. Well,

and not hire the guy who's the coordinator for the team that does probably the best job of anybody at doing everything. It was, you know, he's got a great player, but come on, you know, like Phil Jackson had, had, had Jordan and Pippen, but he was still a hell of a coach when he went to Lakers and, you know, but, you know, certain guys know how to do really well and they've got a special player and one of those Zandy Reed. So I know you got to go speaking of doing things for your kids. But let me ask you this, the Super Bowl, it's coming.

And what a quarterback matchup. It doesn't get any better than this. And I want to remind you of something, by the way, when we were on the air together after last year's Superbowl, I asked you, all right, Sage, who's playing in the Superbowl next year? And you said, whoever Tom Brady plays for or my homes. And the answer is both because we didn't know that. Yeah. That's what you said. Cause I remember like, that was your take. It was like, whoever Tom Brady plays for is in the Superbowl. And I think you said, you know, you'll bet against them, you know,

when he's wearing a jacket in a booth doing broadcasting or something, I mean, which good call, no surprise. He's back in the Superbowl, but what do you make of it? Death taxes and Tom Brady in the Superbowl. It's amazing. And for all those who pay their half, they're only half of their taxes out there. That's, that's your

percentage of time ready to go in the super bowl if you get there half the time right incredible i for so it's the greatest of all time versus the greatest of today right that's what we've got yeah we've got the greatest current quarterback in the nfl playing against the greatest all-time quarterback in the nfl that's a fact and i for one and i can't say i've ever like rooted for really tom brady before i don't think so i think i always was sort of rooting for the other team you know but i for one am rooting for him because i think it would be even to watch my to watch my homes have to see that right. To have to see like what the greatest is and then go like maybe go chase it. Right. And his, his life and everything. That would be amazing.

And I don't know if he'll go out and retire, but I, and Bruce Arians, that's another thing, Bruce Arians, right. It just seems, I don't know him at all. I know he created an offense. I thought would fit Tom Brady. They don't do boots and stuff. They're a vertical passing team, but they, so they do the types of runs that match up with his type of play action which is more like in the pocket yeah they've done a great job with that football team they've got some really good players and i'm happy for bruce aaron seemed like oh he's a really well-liked coach from like the quarterbacks you know one of those old quarterback guys

yeah yeah so i'm so rude for him as well uh in this thing i think i think kansas city unless mahomes gets hurt i think they're gonna have some more runs of this thing uh he mahomes is so good and i think any reason i coach a little bit longer yeah i think so too yeah i will say that um having spent a lot of my life in buffalo it's hard to root for tom brady to win anything because everybody there just had to suffer Tom Brady. Like you mentioned with being with the dolphins, it was just like, well, you start at second place as you begin the year. But in football fanaticism, it goes from, it goes from jealousy to hate. And then from hate to acceptance and acceptance to respect

and at this point at this point i am like that i am i am 42 i probably need left shoulder surgery by the way it's another conversation but um the fact what he is doing with with the way he can still play at the highest level and his decision-making accuracy and his leadership, how the team and how he picked the right spot. Unbelievable. Really is incredible. Earlier this summer, I was having a little bit of like lower back issues. And I was like, how old is Tom Brady? Like eight years older than me. That's, you know, whatever, not, not from this planet. But yeah, no, I mean, I think I always love,

and maybe this is because like in the peak of my childhood, watching a football, John Elway retired after winning the Superbowl, but I love that when that happens, I loved it when Peyton Manning did it. And if Brady does it, wins the Superbowl walks off into the sunset. I mean, it'll just be one of the coolest stories. And the fact that he's been able to do it away from Belichick also just sort of adds to the right, right. Then you go,

how much did I not like Tom Brady because I didn't like Bill Belichick. Right. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's like not liking a couple. And you didn't know now it's, it's a year later and you go, okay, actually I think, I think this one was more of the problem was brady yeah that's right maybe maybe you know so um that's sort of cool too it is cool you know to see him win and you know that's that was always going to be a conversation i i still think belichick's probably the greatest coach of all time i do um and and i think brady's the greatest quarterback of all time but i but i do think that uh this whole thing has shown that like brady is the greatest

quarterback he did it without that's crazy i mean farb was amazing what we what he did minnesota i got to watch that whole thing that's the only thing i can really um compare it to so far showed up in the middle of training camp, which is wild. Right. Brady was throwing practices, you know? So I am happy for him. I hope that hope they win the game. Sage, this was really fun to get back together.

It had been a while since you and I had recorded any of our conversations. And quite a few people reached out and said, Hey, when is Sage coming back to the podcast? So I'm really glad that you could jump on and that uh you had a good relaxing season not having to study the left guard play which by the way jeremiah searles started calling the winnebago um just because it was an eyesore all year long so that's an iowa company what's wrong with their winnebago uh nothing i'm sure it's a great vehicle but um it's not a corvette when you look at it so um anyway it you know said that the uh i didn't have a you know when you do some radio stuff

like i do or write some articles like i used to uh the the added value of being able to go to football games get a media pass yeah go in the locker rooms when you don't get that it's not nearly as fun as it used to be so um i do enjoy on your show we'll have to do it more often i'm gonna try to take a look at some of these college quarterbacks of course and and look look at them and see what they're thinking but you know i don't know what the vikings are going to do at quarterback you know i don't think uh um i think we're still going to sit at the Superbowls that we attempts that they, the Vikings have, and it's going to be a while until there's somebody else.

That's just how I feel. Well, um, I think it was last year. Maybe I sent you a bunch of quarterbacks and we broke them down. So I hope that, uh, we can do something like that. Yeah. Yeah. We'll definitely get together and have some fun. So this was, this was great, man. I'm glad we could get together. All right. Sounds good.