The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - What we’re thankful for this NFL season

Episode Date: November 25, 2021

There is plenty to be thankful for this NFL season. Robert Mays and Lindsay Jones discuss what tops their list. They talk about the return of the fan experience, the Manningcast, the new group of wide receivers and much more.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The Athletic Football Show is presented by State Farm, because like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Get a quote today. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Today's Thursday, November 25th. It's Thanksgiving. We are so glad that you guys are here.

And I'm also so glad to be joined by my good friend, Lindsay Jones. Lindsay, how you doing? I am great. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving to you. We're obviously not recording it on Thanksgiving. We're recording this the day before, but you're listening to it on Thanksgiving. We wanted to give you guys something.

just to be a part of your day. You know, you're sitting there, you're cooking, and you're feeling grateful. It's the entire point of today. It's to show some gratitude to really kind of sit back, take stock of what you have in your lives. And we're going to do that with our football lives. We're going to talk through today the things that we have been thankful for

so far during this NFL season. There is plenty to get to. Lindsay, what is the thing that first comes to mind for you? What is the thing that you are most thankful for as you have watched the 20th? 21 NFL season. Yeah. So I'm going to keep largely this to like kind of a football, you know, the football scope.

But, you know, I think longtime listeners of the podcast will know how much I kind of had to talk about like I was our COVID reporter all of last year. You were a trooper. And I still am to an extent. But I will say that I have been to games this year. I've traveled a couple times. I've been to stadiums. And I am so thankful that it feels like football back to normal.

Everything about last year was so messed up, was so stressful for everybody on and off the field. And there was just something about weaving your way through the tailgate lot at Arrowhead Stadium four hours before kickoff. And it just feels like football again. And it's normal. And being inside the stadiums. And I don't think we really truly appreciated last year how much we missed that when it was gone. And now that it's back, it's just been.

It's just been really nice to kind of have that again. And I think it's been happening largely in a safe way, you know, not to say that that's been completely handled correctly and that there's not still dangers out there. But I think they've figured out a way to have the NFL in a safe, responsible way. And we're getting a better product. I mean, this year has been nuts. It's hard to tell who is good and who is bad. But I think the fan experience is back and the experience that we all missed last year,

of the loud stadiums and the crowds impacting games and just all of kind of the pomp and circumstance that go around with NFL games. That's back. And, you know, it's been great. And as much as I hate parking like a mile away from Arrowhead Stadium, I love wandering through that and getting the smells and the sounds. And, you know, I've wandered through the tailgates at Mile High Stadium in Denver where I live and I've been booking some trips to go to games in December. And I love that. That's my favorite part of this job is kind of being in the stadiums, feeling the atmosphere. And I'm just grateful that that is back. I think the Colts are playing somebody.

I think it might be the Patriots. It's a big game in December that just got flexed out into a Saturday, I believe. And that's, that's calling to me. That little drive to Indianapolis, it's only three hours. I would love to go to one because I feel the same way. You know, it's, I've always said to people that my favorite football game to go to every single year, and I used to go annually and hopefully I can get some playoff games this year, is a conference championship game

because it's the biggest game in a stadium filled with fans filled with the fans of that team. It still feels like a real environment. Like that, it always, my favorite moments, like the moments as an NFL observer, fan and journalist,

have been stadium moments. Like those are the things that really stick with me. I will never ever forget being in Seattle, I think it was 2014, and it was right at the height of the Seahawks, Niners rivalry. and they played on a Sunday night. And I was in Seattle in that stadium,

standing next to a security guard who had steel chainsaw headphones on because that's what you had to wear in that place in order to get through a game if you were sitting outside because it was so loud. And I vividly remember standing there. I vividly remember kind of the shaking of the press box

in Philadelphia when they beat the Vikings in the N.S.C. championship game. I have never been afraid for my well-being as much as I did being in that stadium and watching those Philadelphia and celebrate during that NFC championship game. And having that element of it, that's why we do it, right? You do it for those moments where you get shills, whether it's before the game or when the crowd really peaks up or when those moments arise during the course of a football game.

That's why we love this. You know, you can see it from as much of an aesthetic distance and an emotional distance as you do now, which I think all of us do when you cover it day in and day out for 10 years. But those are still those visceral moments that make this entire thing worth it. and to be back in that again, that's real. Like, that's meaningful. That's at the core of why we love this shit. Yeah, and I hope the fans are enjoying it.

You know, I hope that they're feeling that too. And, you know, having the season where you weren't able to go to games, or maybe you were able to go to just a couple, and it felt weird because there were only 5,000 people in the stadium. So hopefully you're getting that. And, you know, I have those moments too. And I was thinking, you know, you were talking championship games. Ram Saints at the Superdome.

the NFC championship game a couple of years ago was the loudest place I've ever been. And do you remember that? It was very cool. And do you remember during that game, there was the whistle that you kept hearing on the broadcast? And it was like, where is that whistle? I was watching that game in the press, in the press room at Arrowhead. I remember, like, I was sitting there with, like, Jeff Darlington was sitting there and a couple other people in that little room. And that's where we watched the past interference.

I don't remember everything about that game because I wasn't sitting and watching it intently. So one of the things that. kind of like pulling back the curtain on the way that we do our jobs and the way that I like to do my job, especially. And something that the athletic really gives us the freedom to do is, you know, you kind of are following along. Like what is going on online? What are people talking about? And during that game, it was so loud in there. And the Saints had the momentum in that game.

And it kind of felt like this is it. Drew Breeze is going to go back to the Super Bowl and the Saints are going to win this game. And everybody on Twitter kept talking about there's this whistle. Like, what is this whistle on the broadcast? And I found, I used my binoculars and we figured it out. And there is the guy who is dressed like a whistle in the front row of behind the Saints bench. And I said, I'm going to go find that guy.

And I went down. I knew where he was. I found the section and I weaved my way down into the stadium. And I watched almost the entire third quarter from the front row of that section. So a little bit behind the Saints bench. And there was a whole row of guys that were dressed like, priest. There was the guy who's dressed like the whistle. The guy who stands next to the guy who's dressed like Draclitt dressed like the whistle is the guy who owns Jocamo's, which is like,

oh, wow. Yeah. Oh my God. I met Jocamo and it was like the biggest like celebrity site. I mean, it was incredible. I was like, I love your food. Um, and I went there with Kat Terrell like last time I was there and the amount of food. It was troubling. It was a troubling amount of food. Oh my God. So, so good. Um, but I, so I, you know, I had this all. I had this. I had this. stuff and about how, you know, New Orleans getting back to the Super Bowl and the sound. And because the sound was its was its own character really in that game. And then ultimately we get to the fourth quarter and the story of that game is the non-pass interference call. And so all of that stuff just went up into the ether. But that's the shit that I love. Like that is the fun type

of story to do. And I'm just getting excited thinking about, you know, I'm going to go to the Monday night football game in a couple weeks, Rams Cardinals. You know, that's going to be a huge game in the NFC. you know, thinking about going to playoff games in L.A. or Arrowhead Stadium or New England, you know, wherever these games might be and what sort of stories are out there because, you know, the stories were going to be football stories last year, but now we have the opportunity to kind of tell those, those stories that are larger that have the fans involved. And I'm really, I'm just really excited about that. It sounds great. I'm very much looking forward to that kind of stuff in the back half of the

season. My first one is I'm thankful for the Manning cast. And here's why I'm thankful for it. similar to kind of that conversation we've done this for so long right and after a certain point it feels like you're consuming and interacting with the NFL in the same way and things don't always change and I'm thankful that we're kind of entering into this space where the broadcasts of games are thinking differently about how they want to present to you and having that conversation I don't think the man in cast is perfect I don't think it's the greatest thing that's ever happened I was on Michelle Beatle show today I said I would scrap like the non football games and I understand why they're appealing.

Like that's why that's the second broadcast on ESPN and I have my Rinky Think podcast. But I love when they're just talking about football. And I love that just natural reaction to it. I love the coaches room during the college football championship game. Like I think that type of approach to this, the alternate Amazon streams, just the different sorts of ways we can interact with the game live as it's happening.

I appreciate that. As someone who really wants to dig, into some of the nuts and bolts, I think that seeing them react to these things in real time, getting some context and some insight from them, like listening to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady talk about football as a football game is going on. That's amazing.

Like, that is a truly special experience. My favorite part of this gig is getting to sit and have football conversations. Like, when you get to ask somebody, what does this mean? Explain this to me. And for that to be Peyton Manning as a live game is going on, that shit rules.

Like, that's exactly the type of stuff I care about. So the fact that this is likely going to lead to more imitations, some of which will inevitably fail, right? Most of them will probably fail. Yeah, it's not going to be this cookie cutter thing. But I think expanding our minds and the way that we think about the conversation and dialogue around the football games that's happening, that's only a good thing. It's only a good thing for fans.

It's only a good thing for the people creating content around the sport. Like that to me is the imagination and ingenuity that's going to keep driving us forward. and I love seeing stuff like that exist. Oh, I love it. It has become appointment television for me on Monday nights. I record it because oftentimes I miss a lot of the live Monday night broadcasts. Yeah, you're barely watching the game. I'm doing mom.

I'm doing mom stuff. And I'll go back and I'll listen to parts of it. I'm with you that I think the best part of the Manning cast is when it's just Peyton and Eli talking about football or they have a very specific football guest who is also joining in that conversation. I think it was the first week that they did it. Week one, they had Russell Wilson on in the fourth quarter. And that game, it was Raiders, Ravens. And I think did they go to overtime? If it didn't go to overtime, it was like, it was tied.

It did go to overtime. I'm fairly certain it went to overtime. It was that Brian Edwards gameway touchdown, I think. And it was a lot of like two minute drill. And a lot of very, yes, yes, yes. And it was a very, a lot of like very schematic stuff. And they had Russell in there where Russell's a guy who does not open himself up a lot for his guy who is his forward faces.

as he is. He doesn't kind of open himself up to kind of who he is a lot and doesn't get, he doesn't like to reveal a lot. But that was the perfect setting where they were, it was just this like awesome football talk, just three quarterbacks talking about scheme and what play should be run here and what do you see out of this defense. That was awesome. We got a, we got some of Drew Breeze doing that. You know, and then you got, you got Philip Rivers and as a guest and they were like that stuff I loved. There have been some of the other guests that have been really fun Obviously, when any time you get Marshawn Lynch, like, that's going to be a viral moment. It was, you know, the pairing of those guys.

And that part was really fun. I could do without 25 minutes of Kevin Hart. Yeah, that's the time of stuff I just don't need. And again, I understand why you're trying to cast a wide net with that kind of thing. I, the one I thought that was really good, I think could kind of sporadic, all right, this is an idea if we continue doing this. McAfee was really interesting in two different ways. One, he hosts.

So his ability to set them up was really cool. And two, his background with Peyton. Like Parcells obviously has a history of football aspect that you can dig into with him. So it's like, how would you have handled this? But if you get guys specifically from their careers, I think asking them some specifics about certain moments about this is when you did this, also being able to needle them and to kind of prod them about stuff and mine some comedy out of that. Like those are the type of guests I think would be worthwhile.

I'm not here I am producing the Manning cast. But I do think that at its core, like the, heart of it and the ethos of it is exactly the type of thing I like when it comes to digesting and ingesting football. I think the one thing that is missing for me out of it. And I think it's one of the reasons that Peyton Manning hasn't all the way gone into, hasn't just become a full-time broadcaster is that I still don't think he's giving enough of the personal, like, when we did this or when I saw this coverage, this is what we would run. I think he's still kind of, he's holding back a lot of those kind of like secrets of stuff, like the stuff that Tony Romo

just so freely gives away. And I think that maybe Drew Breeze is starting to get comfortable, you know, talking a little bit more as he's going. And we're going to see Drew Breeze in like an actual color commentator role. I believe on one of the Thanksgiving games this week. He's, I think he's going to be, is he doing the Saints game? Is that right? I should check this before I talk about that.

I think he's in the booth with Mike Tariko doing the color commentary for one of the games this week. Yes. So that'll be really interesting. And I want to see how much, how much Drew Breeze is able to kind of, put on a broadcaster hat and not be like saints drew breeze. And if he's able to kind of be critical of what Sean Peyton might be calling or what's running, because that's that's really tricky.

And, you know, and I think Peyton and Eli have both kind of held back a little bit of, it's not that they're not critical because we see it all over their faces, especially Peyton Manning's face when he's disappointed in quarterback play. But there's still kind of this reluctance to like be critical of, exactly the way that plays go down or why things didn't work. And I'd love to see them kind of put a little bit more of that in there and get more, you know, tell more of those personal stories and not just stories from like making fun of each other for Peyton's 28 Interceptions as a rookie, which that's always fun. And I love that they needle each other. I love

that they're, you know, clearly the chemistry is there. And that's something that you're not going to be able to recreate. Like there's every other network is going to try to do this now. Right. And it's going to be impossible because you're not going to have two people. who know each other and have the type of chemistry that Peyton and Eli do. But I do love it. It's become, you know, it is the way that I watch Monday Night Football now. And, you know, just like Red Zone has transformed my Sundays. This is now transformed my Mondays.

And, you know, I just hope that they keep finding a way to like refine it and make it better and take out those kind of some of the clunky stuff that isn't working. And I do want them to fix some of the technology stuff. Yeah, that seems such a strange blind spot to me. I guess you want it to feel lived in and natural, and there's a certain aspect to it that you lose if it's overproduced and you're getting guys cameras and whatever else. But I don't know. The fact that we're watching Nick Sabin from a cave with his headphone audio just seems very strange to me. Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of been this interesting thing because this is not a type of show that like anybody would have even tried two years ago, like pre-pandemic. The idea that like Peyton and Eli could just be hanging out in their basements or in Peyton Manning's case, like his. everybody's tricked out garage, you know, like a luxury car collector garage that is not Peyton Manning's basement. I saw that on Twitter the other day. Somebody was asking, it's not actually his house. But it is in Denver. It's kind of a garage studio that was tricked out specifically for this broadcast. You know, you wouldn't have conceived of this of like we could have Peyton and Eli in different places and we do it remotely and there's not an actual host and we don't have to build a studio and all of that.

It's just like this is something that is like a post-pandemic broadcasting type of creation. And I love that. But can we get these guys professional mics? Can we run through like do a trial on the audio and the video? Because, yeah, that's the one thing that is really just kind of like irksome about the whole thing. We'll get there. We'll get there. Into year two is always when you make the biggest steps as a as the host of a podcast in its second year.

That's when you really got to start cleaning things up a little bit. All right. Let's get to our next one here. What is the next thing that you were thankful for from this NFL season? All right. So let's talk football for just a second. And I think you and I might be somewhat aligned here. But it's been really fun this year to see specifically for me, kind of this new group of young

wide receiving talent that is coming out. And like, I don't know if we can technically call Cooper Cup like a young breakout star because he's been around for a few years. But it's been really kind of cool to see this next generation of NFL. wide receivers. So it's guys like Cooper Cup and Justin Jefferson and Debo Samuel and Terry McLaurin. Like it's just this new generation of wide receivers. And it's been really fun because every week it seems like there is almost a different guy, except for it's Cooper Cup every week. But it's kind of some new young guy that's making us sit up and say, wow. Like it's not kind of the

same, the same group. You know, this is passing of the guard to this new group of wide receivers. So, you know, what I've been scanning through, you know, box scores. and you go through true media and try to do, you know, look at advanced receiving stats and passing stats and stuff. It's been cool to see kind of this new group of guys there. So I'm excited about the young wide receivers, Jamar Chase, C.D. Lamb, you know, Jerry Judy in Denver where I live, you know, he, he had missed a bunch of time this year, but he, their offense is so much better when he's on the field.

I love watching him run route. So it's just this new group of receivers that I'm super excited about. Yeah, we've, I've talked about it and written about it so much over the last two years, just this idea that we've stepped into a golden age of receiving. I spent a lot of time writing a story about it a couple of years ago for The Ringer, just about, all right, is this real? Like, are we really going to be seeing the best wide receiver class that we've ever seen in every single draft subsequently for the rest of time? And why that might be the case. And it's just because of the way the game has changed at lower levels, right? I mean, these kids are eight years old

playing seven on seven working on releases. I mean, that's just not how football was, even when I was a kid. When I was 8 years old, 25 years ago, that's not how youth football looked. And now that's where these guys have grown up. I mean, guys like Justin Jefferson, who are 22 years old, Jamar Chase, 15 years ago, they're playing on 7 on 7 like it's AAU football, like it's AAU football essentially. And that just backlog of knowledge, Jerry Judy's a perfect example. I remember talking to Josh Gaddis, who is the offense coordinator at Michigan now,

but he was the wide receivers coach and that offense coordinator at Alabama when Jerry Judy was there. And he was just talking about how many different times Jerry Judy in his youth saw coverage structures. It's like, oh, this is what cover two looks like. This is what quarters looks like. This is when this leverage plays out, this is my understanding of it. And you're seeing that play out in real time. You're seeing these guys just have such a fundamental understanding of the movements associated with the position, the ball skills associated with the position, how to set up guys because they've been doing it so much their entire lives.

it feels like basketball because of how many different just nuanced little moves and tricks and everything else they've gotten to hone over all these years. And basketball is something you could just do in your spare time when you were a kid. And football with it extending in seven on seven and being year round, all that, it started to gain those elements. And I just think that's so cool. And the other side of it is you see different types of guys, right? Like, Devante Smith looks so much different from A.J. Brown.

And the fact that they can affect the game at a similar level despite that difference, that's what's so cool. And I think that the 2021 draft class and the 2020 draft class are the perfect example of that, right? Like the 2020 draft class, you have all of these kind of hyper prototypical receivers. Like Justin Jefferson, C.D. Lamb, their frames are what you'd expect at the position. In 2021, there's none of that, right? You got Jamar Jason. Other than that, it's all these 510 guys.

Devante Smith weighs 120 pounds or whatever, and they can still have a huge impact because at that position, so many different body types and play styles can be effective. And I just love that. I think it makes the game interesting when every single year we get an injection of talent like this, but the injection of talent looks and feels different.

All right, that was one of mine. So that you stole one of mine. We just actually overlapped on one of mine. So what's your next one? So another, I'm going to kind of shift, you know, shift gears a little bit. But I will say from like a conversation standpoint in the way that we think and talk about the NFL, there's been a dramatic shift in 2021 in the conversation around mental health. And I think that is a great thing for this game, for our society. We've seen it kind of, you know, multiple times this year, whether it was Calvin Ridley, you know, stepping away from football and specifically saying it was because he needed to deal with his mental health.

health. It's AJ Brown, you know, really courageously talking about his own mental health struggles. And it's becoming a normalized part of the conversation. And that's so, so, so important. And so it's not something that would have happened five years ago. We would not have been able to have nuanced conversations. We wouldn't have coaches and teams kind of being supportive of a guy like Calvin Ridley stepping away from football. And it's really, it's just really, really, really important. And it's so dramatic the shift just within this calendar year and within this season. And I think it's going to be really important for guys within the league to see that this has happened. They're talking about it now.

And I think it's going to be really important for, you know, young men and women who are watching football. And they're watching their, you know, their football heroes talk about the ways in which they're vulnerable and the way that they've struggled and the way that they need to care for their mental health. So it's just been a really dramatic shift for me. And I'm really grateful and thankful that we're having those conversations and that so many of these athletes have opened themselves up, made themselves vulnerable and have just are going to do so much good for so many people. I totally agree. And just what AJ Brown did last week, it's so important. Lane Johnson is another great example. I mean, him sitting down with Jake Laser that week and talking about that.

I feel like it's just so crucial. if you're going through something to see somebody out there that is willing to be open about going through the same thing. Understanding that you're not alone and this kind of thing is the most important aspect of it. That it's worth looking out for yourself. It's worth reaching out and using resources. I think an offshoot of this is some of the ways that athletes have talked about their own sobriety in the last year. Like Max Crosby willing to come out and say, like, talk about what he's been through. And the fact that him and Darren Waller go to the same meetings.

And there are guys like Randy Gregory retweeting Darren Waller's interview with Taylor Rooks about the way that he sees himself and how it's hard for him to accept that he deserves good things now after everything that he's been through. Like Jordan Poyer has been really open about his sobriety and you see him thriving. Like just the fact that those lines of dialogue are open and you have people out there, whatever they're going through, they can sit there and say, look at that person. Like that person is dealing with the same things that I'm dealing with. And when people in visible places do that, it really matters. Like, it's important.

So I've really appreciated that over the last year or so because I think that it's natural to kind of downplay mental health struggles, especially in a sports world, especially in like the hyper masculine world that the NFL is. It's you drill down, you just kind of push through everything. And that never benefits anyone. That is never going to make it worth it on the other side. It's always better to sit there and deal with those things and be open about. them and address them. And the fact that so many of these guys are willing to be kind of beacons for that, I think is such a cool thing. So I totally agree with you. It's been one of my favorite things to watch over the last 12 months or so as it relates to the NFL.

All right. Speaking of Dak Prescott, one of the things that I wanted to hit on is I've been thankful for just the different styles of quarterbacking that we've gotten to see thrive this season. You know, I feel like every year, and I get tied up into this as much as anybody, right? You see a certain group of players come through and you feel like, oh, the shift is here, right? Like the tide has turned. And when you watched Mahomes and Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, all different flavors of it, but all guys that have what I would deem playmaking talent, right? They're not pure pocket passers. They can hurt you in different ways.

And I thought that was going to be it. That's where we were going to be with NFL quarterbacking for the next 50 years. It was never going to be a regression back to the types of guys we saw in the Peyton Manning, Tom Brady kind of era of things. And then you see what Dak Prescott can do. And you see what Joe Burrow can do. And you see what Mack Jones is doing. It's like, maybe this is something you can still viably do and thrive with in the way that the league is currently structured. I don't know where I land on it.

But it's just been cool to watch guys win that way because my favorite quarterback to watch over the last, like, 10 years, people know this, was Philip Rivers. And watching Philip Rivers win that way was always one of my favorite things about engaging with the NFL, which is watching him throw corner routes where he was throwing at the second he got the ball before anybody had even gotten into their breaks because of how much he understood defenses. I want guys to be able to win that way because I think that version of playing the position is interesting. It's so much more intriguing, the sport itself, to have guys that can do it different ways. Because it just you appreciate it at a deeper level.

It's like, I appreciate Justin Herber and the way that I think Justin Herber is one of the rarest throwers of the football I've ever seen in my entire life. And then Boholmes does things off script and some of the creative things he was doing, he does are incredible. As a pure thrower, I think Justin Herbert is as good as anybody I've ever seen, like some of the throws he can make. I appreciate that. But I also appreciate watching Dak just think and dunk his way around the field and being able to orchestrate arguably the best offense in the NFL that way. So I really appreciate that. The fact that every single week you can kind of crack open an NFL game and what's waiting

for you at that position doesn't have to be one thing for a guy to be great. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, what do we talk about the chess matches here? And, you know, we've spent a lot of time on the show talking about the kind of the defensive evolutions that have followed these offensive evolutions and kind of this generation of quarterbacks and how defenses are adjusting, well, it's going to continue to have to evolve because you're not going to be able to play Justin Herbert the same way that you play Patrick Mahomes or you play Jopor or you play now Mack Jones, which I'm going to have like a little

offshoot of like things that I'm thankful for. And I don't know if I'm thankful for like the Brady Belichick legacy conversation continuing, but I think I kind of am until we get to February and they're facing each other in the Super Bowl. And it's all that we talk about. But I do enjoy that there's kind of this new evolution to it. And that, you know, we're getting to talk about Mack Jones as a viable NFL quarterback and what that means for Bill Belichick's legacy. And hopefully everybody listened to the discussion you had with Mitch on the mailbag podcast

the other day because I think it was framed really, really well. But, you know, I do continue to be really excited about the new generations of quarterbacks. But it's really cool that Tom Brady is. Yeah, exactly. It's just like, it's just amazing. And like part of me thought that that guy, that version of the guy was going to die out because the reason that Tom Brady is successful is because he has 20 years of crap in his head, right? I mean, the feel that you develop over two decades of playing the position,

you've seen literally everything a defense can throw at you. The way that you watch film is just so fluent because of how much of it you've done. Could a younger guy do that? Could a younger guy endure whatever growing pains there were at the beginning long enough without being able to tap into athleticism or physical gifts in order to get to that stage? That was my question. Is the middle ground, the early parts, could you get through that and survive it if you weren't one of those dynamic athletes now?

And I think we might be getting to yes, right? Like I think that that might be possible. And the doors that that opens, I just think it makes the sport inherently more interesting. And more fun. I mean, this league has never been more competitive for good or bad. I mean, that anybody can literally beat anybody. And it's because we have so many good quarterbacks and really, really smart coaches. All right. What's your last one? All right. So I'm going to get a little sappy here for just a second. And, you know, we've done this before. And I've talked about football with my daughter. We talked about it on our mailbag podcast last month. So I'm not going to go that way today. Although I'm very grateful for that,

for everything that I have in my life and my family, especially my husband and my daughter. But I will say this year, this has been my first year as president of the pro football writers of America. And I will say when I joined the board a couple years ago and got kind of in line to eventually become president, I did not imagine that it would be during a global pandemic or the second season of a pandemic where we would be trying to navigate, not just, you know, the standard stuff where there might be players who don't want to talk or the press conference might be taking too long or, you know, a team isn't making their assistant coaches available, that we're talking about major issues like locker rooms being closed for the second year in a row

and major rewrites of the media access policy. And I will say, well, it's been really, really challenging and it's been a really, really difficult year. And I've spent way more time on the phone with league and union and team people debating access and trying to figure out ways to do this. I've never been more proud of the work that my colleagues have done and the work that they're producing for you guys, the NFL fans and the stories that we're trying to deliver you and are able to deliver you under really difficult circumstances. And I know that none of you guys, the NFL fans, care that locker rooms are closed. I know that that is not something. Nobody feels bad for us and the challenges that we have doing our job. But I will say that all we want to do for you is to give you the store.

the real stories about what's going on with your team and what's happening with your favorite players and the why is if your team is struggling, we want to be able to tell you why that's happening. And it's a lot more difficult when the locker rooms are closed. So that's why I'm just really proud where, you know, and obviously I work at the athletic. I'm immensely proud of our staff. I think we have the best NFL staff top to bottom, reporters, editors of anywhere in the country. So make sure you're subscribing. We've got a great deal going on right now.

But, I mean, just this week or within the last. 10 days or so. Matt Schneidman, our Green Bay Packers reporter, was able to sit down with Devante Adams and deliver an incredibly detailed story about who Devante Adams is, where he came from, and why he's become, you know, one of the most impactful receivers in the country. And, you know, a lot of you're not getting to sit down and have that one-on-one time with guys this year because of the way the rules are. But Matt was able to do it. And it was incredible. Stephen Holder wrote a really incredible story about Dio O'Dangbo this week, who's become this really impactful rookie for the Indianapolis Colts.

He tore his Achilles tendon in January. And the Colts went ahead and drafted him anyways. And if they ended up going on this run, he's going to be a really big reason why. Rianne Walker in Washington, she spent like three months talking to like every single person in Carolina preparing for Ron Rivera's return. I mean, it was such deep reporting and stuff that you just weren't getting out everywhere else. So, you know, our site is covered with it.

I'm so proud of my colleagues. and I just, I know, I know our peers do listen to this show from time to time. And I will just say that, like, I know it's been really hard and to just keep, keep at it because the readers deserve it. And I'm, you know, we're going to keep fighting to get our locker room access back. I was at a team facility last week, two weeks ago. And I was talking to a couple of beatwriters that I know there and just expressing how much respect I have for the job that they've done through all of this. You know, the guys I know that cover teams every single day, including a lot of my colleagues. colleagues at the athletic. What it takes to do that job well right now, it's never been like this.

And when you see people pull it off, it's truly inspirational. It makes me want to do my job better. And I think that the core people we have here and the staff that we have here and the fact that they have people like you looking out for them, it makes football better. It makes it fuller. It makes you appreciate the game more. And the work that people like Jordan Rodriguez and Nate Taylor and all of those other people that I know so well, it makes me care about the sport and think about the sport in different and deeper ways than I would otherwise. And I'm thankful for that. You know, I'm thankful for the football discourse in general. Every once in a while, when you're doing five podcasts a week and it's football on the mind all the time, it can be a lot, right?

I mean, it's, you want to be able to, mental health conversation that we had. Sometimes it's nice to separate who you are from your work and spend a little bit more time on other aspects of your life. But the fact that every single moment of every single day on Twitter, there's a conversation about the sport that's happening that will make you appreciate the sport deeper than you have before. It's never been like this. It's never been smarter, deeper, more thoughtful, the way that we talk and think about football.

And I sincerely appreciate that. I'll, um, I had one more. And it's about just the running game and how much, I'm so glad that's back. But just know that I appreciate Jonathan Taylor. I guess I'll close it out with this. I, I, 100% agree. And I think that, you know, when I'm thankful for is the,

is the chance to do this job. And it's the chance to have this show and to talk about football all the time with people that I respect, but also really like and getting to do it with you, getting to do it with Nate, getting to do it with Mitch every single week this year, the fact that we were looking for a player. And it's like, well, I'll think you can just do it with Mitch, he and our friends. And for it to be as rewarding as it's been so far, like, this is the coolest job in the world.

Like every once in a while, there are times where it's like, ah, this is a lot. But it's the coolest job in the world. Anytime you can take a step back for 10 seconds and think about it, it's a game I love. You know, people ask me all the time. Like, do you like football less because you are around it all the time because you think about all the time? The answer is no. Like, there are aspects of it that you have to create a little distance for yourself, but

I find the game more interesting than I've ever found it in my entire life. Every single time I watch it, there's something that I'm enthusiastic or curious about and getting to chew on that kind of stuff every single day during the week with you guys every single week throughout the entire football season is amazing. So I'm genuinely grateful about that. And I'm genuinely grateful that you guys listen to this show. The fact that the audience has grown the way that it has, the fact that you guys are so engaged with it,

that we can do a mailbag episode every single week because we get dozens of questions from you. The fact that you call in and are willing to engage with us that way, that's meaningful to me. It is so important to me to understand that when we release these, they just don't go out into the ether. When people are giving Nate and Shield shit about missing their best, and they're looking forward to what they have to do.

And it's not just me. And it's not just me giving them shit because I do. That part of this job is really cool to me. And I appreciate everyone that's listened. I'm grateful for everyone that's listened. And I hope that this holiday season, I hope that this Thanksgiving, if you couldn't spend it with your families last year,

the people that can now, I really hope that you take a step back and try to express some gratitude for that. I got so lucky last year that I got to come down to Miami and spend time with Casey's family. And now that I get to again. And I hope that those of you who missed it last year and get to do that this year, enjoy it. Those of you still can't be with your families.

Thank you for spending this time with us. I hope that we can make your day feel a little bit warmer. They make you feel a little bit less lonely, make you feel like there's somebody out here that's thinking about you, that you're in our hearts, you're in our heads because you definitely are. But do your best to kind of enjoy this day, enjoy the holiday, no matter how you're spending it. Thank you for spending a little bit of time with us today because I sincerely appreciate that. eat your asses off today. Just go ham or turkey or however you're going to go and just really, really lean into it because I know that I'm going to.

Yes, yes. Any sort of sweatpants or drostring pants, drosting khakis are like a thing now for guys. You absolutely can find the right pants for you right now in this moment if you want to look good but also feel good after your dinner. Please, after that long conversation we just had about the work that we're doing at the athletic, A dollar a month for the next 12 months are a Black Friday deal. I hate selling you after a heartfelt conversation, but I'm telling you, this is the time to jump on it if you do not have a subscription. Athletic.com slash football show.

Treat yourself. Give it as a gift. You know, if your brother is short on cash and he's a huge football fan, like, I've never wanted to pay for it. Get it for him for Christmas. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. That's one of the things I do with my brothers every year is I'll buy them league pass or NHL Center Ice or whatever. will make their sports life full. Like, don't be close-minded with your gift ideas.

This is a great chance to give somebody sports if that's what they love. So please consider that. And please enjoy your thanksgivings. Please enjoy your time with your families. We'll be back tomorrow with Nate and Sheel. No days off, baby. We got five podcasts this week. So come back, check that out.

There's an awesome slate of games on Sunday. Thursday, a little bit not great. Sunday is going to be awesome. We'll be all right. So please come check. that out. Please come to listen tomorrow. We'll be back the same way we always are. Enjoy your food. Enjoy your time with your family. We'll talk to you guys soon. Happy Thanksgiving. This was The Athletic Football Show.