The Bobby Bones Show - Lots to Say: Ravens/Steelers moves and Pro Bowl WR Jeremy Maclin

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel have both been fooled by AI and rank the top ways their getting fooled with news and media.  Looking back at the Draft, Matt recalls his experience with the Patriots.  What do you make of the Ravens signing Diego Pavia?  Matt questions the Steelers placing a rarely used tender on Aaron Rodgers.   Fmr Pro Bowl WR Jeremy Maclin talks about his Draft and coming into the league with the Eagles and Andy Reid.  Jeremy talks about the pressures of being a first rounder and what advice he'd give to rookies.  Jeremy opens up about turning to coaching and the changes needed in College Football.  Jeremy looks back at playing at Missouri and the number of NFL players the program produces. Bobby highlights a story of a baseball team that had to chose between prom and a playoff game.  Plus, identity theft stories involving a former Alabama player and someone pretending to work for Justin Beiber! Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel is part of the NFL Podcast Network See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and IHart podcast. We got lots to say. We got lots. Here's Bobby. Everybody, welcome. And happy birthday to my wife.

It is not my wife's birthday. But last night, we were laying in the bed. She was feeding the baby. And I get a text from Matt. He's like, hey, tell your wife, have you. birthday. You're a thoughtful guy. Trying to be thoughtful. You were wrong. I mean, you're wrong. I was wrong. Way wrong. And I thought I was missing something, some kind of joke. And I said, Caitlin, did you say, anywhere was your birthday? She was like, no, birthday is in January. I said,

okay. She was, okay. She was, because Castle's like, tell Caitlin, happy birthday. She goes, that's very sweet. Um, anyway, birthday. It's all replied back, and I said, no, uh, not her birthday. How did you hear that? How did your mom tell you? It was my wife's birthday. So I got a text message. I'm dropping off the kids, and it's from my mom, and she had done the voice, right, the text, voice text. So it came out cluttered and unreadable, but I made out maybe it was something Bobby Bones, wife, birthday, just a heads-up type deal.

She sounds like a Mother's Day, something? I have no idea. So she sends us and I had it on my, so then I wrote it down, making sure that I send well wishes and happy birthday, trying to be the nice guy. I send it over and you send it back and you're like, did. It's in January. Like, what are you talking about? And so I'm like, oh my God. I was like, never trusting my mom again, this, that, and the other. Where would your mom have even seen that?

Like, what if she said it came up on her feed? So after that exchange that we had where I'm sitting there going, well, and then I thought maybe it's your birthday. Look it up. Not your birthday either. Few weeks ago. A few weeks ago. But a few weeks ago is a few weeks ago. Three months ago is a whole another thing. And she goes, there was something that came up on my feed and Kaelin was wishing Bobby happy birthday or something. So she meant to say that it was your birthday. So I was like, mom, you know that sometimes on Instagram these feeds will roll back right in time. It wasn't a chronological feed. It wasn't a chronological feed. So it wasn't the most recent feed. So she, being a good mother, text me, hey, make sure that you know that it's Bobby. I think she meant to say it was your birthday,

not your wives. And through that whole text chain, I just sent the text being confident that it was. But just so you know. I accept the birthday wishes. Yeah. From your mom. Three weeks late. That is tricky sometimes, though, because I'll see Arkansas just signed a new basketball recruit. And I'm like, oh, let's go. Who is it today? But I already I already saw that one like a month ago. And it's literally from a month ago.

Right. Exactly. So it was just a misunderstanding. Probably on my side. I sure. have done maybe a little bit more research to make sure that I'm sending it on the right date. But I just want to be a nice guy, you know, I want to reach out, make sure people feel special on their special day. That's the type of person I am. That is the type of person you are. But I think about me getting fooled. I think at number three, it's when the feed is not chronological, obviously, and sometimes I'll be date confused. I think at number two, a really good AI video can make me second guess. It's hard to fool me because I use a lot of AI to create myself. But a really good one

will have me questioning or going to like search for a second source. So that's the second way I get fooled. The AI stuff messes with me. I'll send videos to my wife. Check this video out. It could be of a flood of a town. It could be of a hippo. A dinosaur.

I do the hippo. And then the leopard's throwing up over here. I was like, gosh, this is awesome. Look at Mother Nature protecting hippos. I mean, it's some of those. And I'll just send it off. And she's like, Matt, that's AI. I was like, okay.

Well, I thought it was still pretty cool. They do some amazing stuff with AI these days. So we were talking about before we started recording that we were talking about bunkers because we had tornadoes near us last night. And so the conversation was, you know, storm, tornado and shelters. And, you know, in Tennessee, there are no basements. Right. It's crazy. Because the ground is so hard, so rocky.

And other places I've lived, there have been basements. Yeah, well, I was a kid city, everybody had a basement. Does it really so? So there's no basement. It's hard to get underground for, any sort of tornado. And I'd seen these cool videos because I would love a bunker.

That would be like the thing if it was... I think that you'd spend more time in a bunker than you actually do your house, even on a sunny day. Probably so. Well, now, if I didn't have a wife and a kid, absolutely, because before I met my wife,

I never came out of our room. Yeah, you're like, I'm good. Like, I can finally afford it, like a nice house, I never left my room. But they have these videos where they'll dig this massive hole with a backhoe, and they'll take and drop an airplane,

an old airplane that's no longer being used in the hole. Then they'll cover it up, But that airplane is used as a bunker. Those are sick. Those are pretty sick. Those are awesome. All those ones that they generate, even the AI ones, like you said, they come and dig this massive hole.

And then they're laying these concrete for the, it's almost like a tunnel and then a walkway. And then they've got their food source. And I'm sitting there going, man, that is very elaborate. Like somebody has to. How much does that cost? It looked like the Pentagon did. I was like, what in the hell? Number one way I get fooled is probably NBA Sentinel.

Do you guys get sentinel fold? What's that? Yeah, what's that? So I believe the real Twitter account is NBA Central, but Cental is one letter off, and it's all like really things that didn't happen, parodies. And sometimes because that one letter is off, it gets reported as true. Right, right. They're looking at it going, oh, yeah, this has got to be true. It's NBA Central.

Yeah, and it's literally Cental, though. So it's NBA Cental. it's obviously a parody account but people again it looks so real that people start reporting it as real so that's probably where I get full the most because I don't see the one letter in Central and Central so yeah here we are

here we are I don't get I just take everything for what it's worth and then if somebody tells me it's fake I'm like all right that's great so I'm an idiot kind of like a birthday like one I pulled up Jayland Derron was reportedly playing through his ex on his mind per Krisby Hain. Crispy.

So it's a picture of him. Instead of the injury, it's like he's currently playing through his ex on his mind. So there's just a lot of... There's a lot of them. So clever. If you get scintled,

that means you got fooled. That's kind of that terminology. So, uh, yeah, what's, hey, let me ask you a question. Whenever you were called,

whenever, so you were drafted, where? Sinth around. When you got a call, who called you? So the first person that called me was I got on,

the phone with Coach Belich. Actually, it was Beersh. Bears versus his assistant, like his main right-hand guy. Belichick's assistant? Belichick's assistant and said, hey, Matt, we've, I've got Coach Belichick here. And I was like, what? Like, I thought it was a joke. And say, hey, hey, Matt, Coach Balochick here. I just want to tell you, congratulations. You're going to be a New England Patriot. We're drafting you next in the NFL draft. And I was like, are you kidding me right now? Because, I mean, my chances of getting drafted were pretty slim. not starting a game in college at the quarterback position. My junior year, I was playing tight in for God's sakes

and blocking on special teams. So I was just trying to hope to get in the camp, but the fact, the New England Patriots were just coming off their third Super Bowl in four years, and I get a call from Coach Belichick, which I hadn't had a private workout. They hadn't come out and sat me down or anything like that. And not to say that there was a lot of teams that did that.

There was probably five or six teams that I actually did have a private workout for, But he calls, he says that, welcome to the New England Patriots, and my heart just let up what joy did. I mean, there's no better feeling when there's so much uncertainty, especially because I was getting to the stage of, okay, I got to make a serious life decision and free agency here of a good fit, somebody might give me an opportunity.

But they took all that guesswork out because they went ahead and drafted me. And so I went in, they said, please hold, because Nancy Meyer's going to get on the phone. she's going to tell you she's going to tell you what we're going to do here and when the rookie minicamp is and this that and the other and I was just like fired up so I went in

Lauren my wife she was my girlfriend at the time standing up sitting there opening something reading it I said look at the board she's like you haven't come up that you haven't come up yet and I was like watch the board and then the ticker came across and that was the coolest thing ever the ticker Matt Castle

QB and you know the commentators had no idea Matt Castle's thrown 32 passes, and I don't really know. We don't really have any draft composition for this guy. I couldn't really tell you anything about him. Like, haven't really seen him in a game. So it was wild. Did you expect your phone to ring?

Did you hope your phone would ring? Which was it? I didn't expect it. I was already fielding calls, because we're getting later in the seventh round, mid-seventh round. I was already fielding calls from a lot of those teams. I did workouts with talking about coming in as a potential free agent.

It was Tennessee, it was Cincinnati. It was San Diego, the Raiders at the time. I think there was maybe one other. And so that was a decision that I had to make pretty abruptly after. So because they call and they want to get you in as a free agent and do all that stuff. So there was no expectation. Now, I did get a call from Scott Piole the morning of the draft that day on the final day of the draft. and I saw, I think it was a 508 area code, which is New England,

and I pick it up, and it's Scott Piole saying, hey, Matt, we really like you. I just want to let you know, if we do take a quarterback late, we're going to take you, but if not, we'd love to consider, for you to consider us in free agency. And so I was like, wow, that's pretty profound that the GM of the New England Patriots actually called me to say they might. So I was hopeful, but at the end of the day,

realistically I thought okay this was just a phone call to let me know that they're very interested and want to potentially bring me in as a free agent. Were you getting other calls though from those teams to where you didn't know if they were going to say hey, we want you to be a free agent or we're going to draft you? I mean, I was potentially hopeful that that might happen because there's a few teams on that list that I just mentioned. But if they call, were you like, I don't know if they're going to call it maybe draft me or a free agent.

100%. You're saying they're going, oh, free agent. Oh, yeah. Right. It's like that buildup, like maybe they're calling to maybe take me late. Right. And then all of a sudden you're sitting there going, oh, okay, you want me to come in as free. Thank you so much for calling. And then it's the waiting game. And then all of a sudden, New England called. And I thought it might be something similar. But New England was, I think they were up next or the pick after. So that's when I was like, again, hopeful. And then it hit. And I was like, wow. Where do you think if you had to have been a free agent based on where you were in your life at that point, where do you think you would have ended up? proximity to home, probably San Diego. And who was there at the time?

Rivers, Breeze. I think that was Rivers. Rivers and Breeze were there, but Breeze was, Breeze and Rivers were both there, but again, free agent guy, like you're just trying to pick it. You know you're not going in to compete for a starting position, but you knew at some point the dam was going to break between Breeze and Rivers because they drafted Rivers so high that they were going to move Breeze somewhere

or something was going to happen. And so I felt like maybe I can work myself into a backup roll there. So by the time you guys hear this, this is going to have been news for a half a day, maybe even a day. But not only did we hear, I think, yesterday, that Diego Pavia was going to go to rookie mini camp, but now the Ravens are signing former Vanderbiltail quarterback Diego Pavia. Let's go, Diego.

To a three-year deal. Pavia is supposed to try out this weekend, but the Raven signed him in advance. Signed him to a three-year deal. Yeah. don't know exactly what that means because there are no details. Right. Meaning three years, you can cut them at any time.

Right. Three years, like, what's the signing bonus? Like, that's the guaranteed money that he's going to make. For sure. But it's interesting that they've kind of changed because that's not even like free agent. That's, we're offering a deal right now. Right. And that's an incredible deal for somebody that's going into free agency.

Sometimes you have your, like, preferred free agents that maybe for some reason, dropped in the draft, maybe had an injury, something like that, that they will sign guys to two-year, I have maybe three-year deals, but that's few and far between. Most of these guys are coming in. We'll sign a rookie contract, but it's year-to-year. And it's probably similar for Diego. I'm sure there's no guarantees in this type of contract. The other part about it is, how do they envision him? Do they envision him fitting into a system as a quarterback, or because he's such a he has a physical presence to him but his body type doesn't fit the mold for a quarterback are they trying to utilize him in maybe a different way uh it will be interesting to see

how that all plays out i would assume because lamar jackson's not a big guy he can play within right that raven's offense because i think they probably and you would know this more than i would i think they probably scheme against his height i don't think he's six one seven six foot tall right like lamar jackson's not a big quarterback at deagle pavia will be the shortest quarterback in the NFL, by the way. Right. He will be. But at the same time,

there is a system fit there because Diego Pavia, with the zone read, the ability to take off and run, schematically, you wouldn't have to change too much if Diego worked himself into a position to where he's

a backup quarterback or something like that, where there's other guys that, if you've got Lamar Jackson, you've got a 6-4 pocket passer, now you're changing the entirety of the offense and how you approach it, and that's a lot on an offensive coordinator to do. But there is something

to be said that Diego ran probably something similar to what Lamar does in terms of putting the defense in conflict and playing 11 and 11 football because of all the abilities that he has to run the football. I think I'm just full by the propaganda. It says Lamar Jackson six foot two. And so the fact that.

Lamar Jackson? No, I don't know that. I just said that. I wouldn't have thought he was six too because they talk about him like he's so easily broken and small. Yeah, I would have said six foot max probably. I would have said that too.

I would not have said six foot. I think he's taught on that. Hmm. It says he's six two. It also says Diego Pavia's 510. I'm going to tell you. I don't know if that's true. So we're probably dealing with a 6-1 and a 5-9. Well, he was in the roster or whatever it was. He was like 6-1 for Vanda. Pavia? Yeah, Pavia. I was like, with shoes on with a little bit of a bump. But then they did it at the combine. They're like, yeah, he's 5-10. I was like that. Oh, do they give him 5-10 at the combine? I think so. I don't know they give him 5-9 and a half. Yeah, I see 5-9 and 7-8. Oh, that's so close. 5-10 and 1-8. Diego, you got to like fake tippy toe that stuff.

Like you can't get your heel all the way off the ground. Oh, here we go. Yeah, sorry. Official Combine height, 510 and 1-8. Okay, good for him in there, baby. That's like someone who gets their hand measured and it's really short and they go back to second time. And all of a sudden it's grown because they've learned how to stretch themselves out. Let's get a little extra inch. Jeremy Macklin coming up just a little bit. So Jeremy Macklin, start at Missouri.

I'm supposed to hate Missouri. Arkansas's forced rival is Missouri. Oh, is it the forced rival? It's the forced rival. Not really our rival. I don't really think they consider us their rival. Is it because it's been so one-sided? It's because the states border each other.

And it's called the borderline rivalry. Oh, that's a good line. Yeah. What's the trophy? The two states on top of each other. It's heavy. It's like 100 pounds. I kind of like the Big Ten traditions of like the Buckets and stuff.

The pig. Yeah. And the buckets, the Spatoon, the Axe. They just have the most random stuff in the big day. Yeah, Mizzou has been a forced rivalry for us. The head coach at Mizzou is Eli Drinkwitz, who I like a lot. I'm not supposed to, but he grew up a diehard Razorback fan, season ticket holder. Really?

Coached high school in Arkansas, yeah, and then made his way, but never played college football. He's one of those guys that started coaching as soon as he finished high school. Yeah. And is like nerd smart. Mike Leach was similar to that. Like, kind of a different approach. So everything about him is different. He acts different.

You either love him or you hate him. And most people that aren't them hate them because he definitely has like a nerd swagger to him. Right. But I really like him. Yeah, I think he's a hell of a football coach. He's built a great program there. I'm a big fan.

I was hosting for Rich Eisen once, and I had him on the show when I was hosting for Rich. And he comes on. And immediately he goes to, because I don't know how he got access to it. But he goes to how much that I've been donated to the University of Arkansas immediately.

First thing he starts talking about. He called you out. Big time. He's like, I saw it. you donated this much money. Like, how did you find that out? We have access to that stuff. Like, called me out immediately on the show.

So I'll talk to Jeremy Macklin coming up in just a few minutes. All right, what do you have? What is your lead? Did you see the Steelers placed a rarely used unrestricted free agent tender on Aaron Rogers? Now, to wrap our head around it, we're going to bring in our expert, Kevin. Explain this? Because you were trying to tell me what exactly this meant.

And he's unrestricted, but they placed the tender on him. Does it mean that whatever someone else offers them, the Steelers have the right to offer him as well? Yeah, they have the first rights to him. And by July 22nd, he can negotiate. They have the rights. And then if he signs another team, they have to give the Steelers,

that team who signs them, and if he agrees, has to give the Steelers a pick. Yeah, which is crazy to me. So they put this tender on them. They have the right of right to match the offer. It's a 10% increase in last year's salary. But in addition to that,

if the other team does decide to sign them, they've got to give up a pick. this feels a bit like Lamar Jackson was offered up a couple years ago they were like hey Lamar you be a free agent whatever anybody else offers you will be match it yeah yeah yeah but his is a lot I mean Aaron Rogers only got paid 15 million last year 80 bucks I right it was 80 bucks yeah that next year is that crazy I thought he was making way more than 15 last year and for that caliber of player with his experience and to come and be the guy for your team the going rate for

starting quarterback in the NFL these days is wildly higher than that. Yeah, but he's old. And it's not like he had any success with the Jets except for that back half of the second season. Granted, there was an Achilles there. He blew out as Achilles. No, I know, but I'm saying, but there was no success there to pay him a bunch of money off of. I felt like last year was the year that he was going to kind of prove that he was still worth the money, but at the same time, you're still getting a year older while you're doing that.

He's 61, and Rogers is. 61 still doing it. Yeah, 61 years old. Doing it at a high level. still, you know, and he's a decision maker. You know what? When he makes that decision, he gets? He did look really good throwing the ball

times last year. I mean, he's still Aaron Rogers. He still can sling it all over the yard. Man, you know he's good old as LeBron. Man, he's good. How does he do that, dude? I mean, I just know. 41.

The games are late, so it's annoying sometimes that the Lakers play West Coast. But I've been trying to watch as much of that series as possible because they have no Luca. They have no Austin Rees. I don't think Luca's anywhere near it coming back. And LeBron's doing it all. Yeah.

Game four was a pretty tough watch. But dude's 41 years old. It's been wild to watch LeBron. I think LeBron's the best basketball player ever. I thought that for a while. I think LeBron's the best basketball player ever. There's all the arguments, right? It's Jordan, it's Kobe, it's LeBron.

But LeBron, I think everybody's argument against LeBron is that, well, he went to a dream team when he went to Miami to start, but then he won one in Cleveland. And he's won one with the Lakers. They've stacked the cards around him every championship that he's won. But at the same time,

If you go back and look at Jordan's teams during that dynasty. Yeah. Pippin's a Hall of Famer, top 50 all time. Pippin. Rodman. Even like the Bill Cartwrights, the Will Produce, who were just big dudes. But they were a stack team. It wasn't just all Michael Jordan.

Yeah, so LeBron is best basketball player ever. And I say that as someone who got to experience Michael Jordan. Like you probably didn't get Michael Jordan, did you? No, I remember him more on the Wizards. On the Wizards. In the front office? playing. Like LeBron all-time leading score,

and I think he'll end up top three all-time and assists. Yeah. He's definitely the most athletic person of any sport. Have you ever seen him play in person? Yeah. He is so big.

Yeah. I mean, it's incredible his movement abilities being that size. All those guys in the NBA, just from an athletic standpoint, it just blows my mind how skilled they are. But LeBron in particular. He's playing with his son in the playoffs, too.

I got to say that. the LeBron and a Lakers hater, that is really cool. I saw someone tweet out that LeBron created his own person to throw an alley-oop to because he threw one to Brony and Brony caught it kind of went under with a reverse layup and it's like LeBron had to create his own person to throw an alley hoops here,

which I thought was pretty funny. Why don't we break? We'll come back with Missouri Great Eagle, Chief, Raven, Jeremy Macklin. Happy Pride Month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space to celebrate your existence.

IHeart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride. Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride Canada. Your 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride. IHeart Radio. All right, let's bring in Jeremy McClain, former Missouri star, first round NFL draft pick,

Long time NFL wide receiver with the Eagles, Chiefs and Ravens, over 500 catches, more than 6,800 receiving yards, 49 touchdowns. Now he's got a podcast called True Sons, TRU, True Sons. You can listen wherever you get your podcast. Jeremy, appreciate you joining us. I appreciate you guys having me on, man. Let me start with this. We're talking about the draft second ago.

Do you remember your call? Who called you and what they said to you on draft day? Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of called me off guard because it was the Philadelphia Eagles. and I hadn't talked to them the whole draft process. I guess I met with them at the combat, but no pre-draft visit, no other calls. Nobody called about questionnaires,

trying to find out kind of any background information. But yeah, man, that's something you never forget, right? I mean, it changes the whole landscape of what you got going on, man. But it was a pretty cool moment. Who was it that called you? And what did he say? At the time, it was Howie Roseman.

Actually, I take that back. I take that back. It was Joe Banner. I also talked to Coach Reed, and I talked to Harry Roseman all in that same sequence. Talk to me about you. You got to go and play for Coach Reed right off the jump as a rookie and throughout the early stages of your career. What is about Coach Reed's offense that when it's firing on all cylinders

just makes it an incredible offense to not only play in, but also just to be able to excel at your position? I think he's the best one. of the best to ever do it in creating mismatches, right? I think he does a good job of putting his playmakers a position to be successful, but also to have things in their favor. And I think it helps when you have good players. You know, you go from, you know, from Deshaun, myself, right? You go to, you know, Kansas City. I kind of follow him, but then you get a Tyreek and some of these other guys, Travis Kelsey. So, but I think he just does an awesome job of putting us in position

to be successful. And I think there's no. No, for him, there's no ego, right? There's no ego. There's no, hey, you know, we have to do things a certain way. I think he's constantly evolving with the game. And I think now it definitely helps when you got probably the quarterback that's on the fastest track to the Hall of Fame than we've ever seen. Right. So, but I think he does a great job of putting his guys in position.

Castle played with the Chiefs. And so we've talked about the fan base in Kansas City a little bit. What would you say the difference is? And can you feel it between the fan base in Philly? and the fan base in Kansas City. Do they feel different? Definitely. I mean, the environment is different.

I think they're both special places. But, I mean, you know, they didn't say they didn't boo and throw snowballs or Santa Claus for no reason, right, in Philly. So, I mean, you definitely feel the difference. But I think they both create a very, very unique experience that I would argue are two of the best in the whole national football league. And I'm fortunate enough to have play for both of them. When you come into an organization like that,

a fan base like that as a first rounder, do you feel the pressure immediately to perform at a high level right away? Oh, absolutely. I think, you know, I'm not going to say it's just, you know, in particular to just Philly, I think it's anywhere. But, you know, you definitely feel the pressures not only from the fan base, but from yourself, right? But, you know, if you're not playing well,

they're going to let you know about it, right? You're going to read the blogs. you're going to read, you know, the sites for a little bit. I had to get off of those things when I was to the Philly early on. It's why I learned how to not let those things affect me, because I had never, at least not that I seen, I had never been talked about in a negative way before. You know, I was called injury prone, which was odd

because I was, you know, on track to be one of the receivers who played the most. I was called soft and all these other things, and that kind of shut people up when I had my big year in Philly. So you definitely have to condition yourself to be able to handle some of those things. And kind of as you navigate your career, you kind of realize that at the end of the day, they just want to win, right? Maybe they don't know how always have the best delivery on how to tell you those type of things. But at the end of the day, fans just want to win. And as players for those certain fan bases, like you want to be able to do what you think. can to help, you know, deliver those wins.

Physically, what would you tell rookies coming in, like how to adjust and how to be ready for the NFL? Honestly, I would say find a vet. Find a vet who's done it at a high level who knows how to, how to, how to, you know, go about their business, you know, whether it's how you take care of your bodies, whether it's what you do in the weight room, you know, things now go days are a lot, you know, you hear a lot of things about sports science and kind of bringing some of the science into, you know, how to condition your body.

and kind of how to take care of your body. So that's a little bit different than when I play. But I would say find a vet man that's been in it who understands how to do it, who has been able to do it for a long time and be consistent. I really just kind of grab on them and kind of pick their brains

not only about things that they do on the field but things they do off the field but as well. What do you think for these wide receivers in the league today that separates elite wide receiver play versus good wide receiver play. And is there something you can point to and say, it's route running, it's route recognition, it's defensive recognition.

I just say I'm interested to hear from your perspective. I mean, I think there are so many different ways you can look at it, right? I think sometimes you got guys that are just physical freaks, you know, that can go out there and do things that just physically nobody else can do. You can definitely see certain guys who may be better at running routes, who may be better at winning contested balls, who may be better at the lot of scrimmage you are releasing, maybe better getting out of breaks.

I think a lot of times good from elite, sometimes it's just target share. Sometimes it's how many times you're getting the ball thrown your way, right? As good as Jamar Chase is, and I would arguably say he's a top two receiver in the lead, it definitely helps me. And you're getting, you know, you can say something next game, you're getting 25 targets, you know what I mean?

And, you know, in today's game, he may deserve that. So I'm not throwing any shade on him for that. But I think a lot of times, man, when you get to the best of the best, sometimes it's target share. And sometimes it's about, you know, your opportunities and what you're able to do with those targets and, you know, how frequent those targets come. Was that a conversation that you ever had to have even behind closed doors of, hey, I think I need the ball a little more?

I think the way I played a game and I always wanted to be a complete football player. So I always, you know, it didn't matter, you know, kind of what was going on throughout the course of the game, I was going to play my artist. Were there times where I was upset where I didn't get the ball? Absolutely. But it never affected the way I played the game.

My big thing was, it was kind of, if the OC, if I wasn't in the mind of the OC to try to get the ball in my hands, I think that's where my issues came into play. But if he called plays that were supposed to go my way, and for whatever reason, you know, maybe he missed me or maybe there was a different coverage

or maybe we got pressure or hell, maybe I didn't get open, right? Then as a receiver, you can't be mad about that, right? Hey, he tried to get you the ball. You were at the forefront of his mind. Things just didn't work out. But it's no secret. Every receiver likes the ball.

Every receiver wants to be involved. But yeah, that was kind of how I approached it. You know, during your career, you played with some really good quarterbacks. You had Donovan McNabb, Michael Vic, Alex Smith, Joe Flacco. Of all those quarterbacks, which one through the most receiver-friendly, catchable ball. So I think the guy to do the most receiver-friendly catchable ball is Alex Smith. I love

Lawrence, man. He's a great, great competitor. I think he's extremely underrated. I think my favorite quarterback, you didn't even name was Nick Fowles. Me and Nick were on a, had a pretty good relationship. We're on a pretty good historic pace

the year before he broke his collarbone. We just had things clicking. And I think still to this day. I mean, I got no cry because any of the quarterbacks I play with, I'm, you know, I'm appreciative of all of them. But I think that my favorite was

Nick Foz. Now that you're the head coach of your alma mater, I see your hoodie on there now, Kirkwood, when you're doing position breakouts, are you going with the quarterbacks? He's the head coach? Or you're going with the receivers? A little bit of everything. I float, man. So I am the offensive coordinator, so

I run our group offensive meetings. But When we break down, you know, there's some times I'm in there with the receivers. There's a lot of times I'm there with the O line, right? That was one of the things that I had to learn when I got back to high school was off as the line play at the high school level. Because where I just came from, you know, I'm used to Jason Kelsey being able to snap the ball and be the first puller out.

Or I'm used to, you know, certain guys being able to handle these guys one-on-one. And in high school, it's a completely different game. you kind of got to, you know, be a little more strategic, especially up front offensively. I feel like defensive lines at the high school level or a little more advanced, not because of schematics, but just because, hey, they don't have to be as technical. I can just kind of bulldoze you.

I can, you know, speed, move you, whatever the case may be. So it was learning the offense alive for me at the high school level. Pride month, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence. Iheart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival, and we won't stop.

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What made you want to go back and coach high school football? obviously with the wealth of knowledge that you have, that you can make a major impact, but why the decision to be a head coach? I mean, I knew I wanted to coach in what capacity, at what level I didn't really know. I had some chances to do some stuff in college. I had some chances to do some stuff in the league.

Those chances, those opportunities still will come every now and in. When I got back here, my little cousin was a senior here at my alma mater. And it was a chance for me to coach him. And ironically, he just signed a free agency. and deal with the bill, so good luck to him. Next one. But I just knew I wanted to coach and being able to do it, you know,

at the, you know, where I'm from, I walk these same halls. I live in some of these same neighborhood as some of these kids. There's no better feeling. I feel like I'm supposed to be home and I feel like this is my purpose. Is there a lot of teaching that you do to your,

you coach your office coordinator, but your defensive coordinator, or like your other position, your skill position coaches because you play in the league, they also want to know from you? Yeah, they ask a lot of questions, especially my receiver coach. I feel like him and I have a really good relationship. Constantly talking, constantly bouncing ideas off of each other. He's constantly picking my brain.

You know, a really cool moment the other week. You know, my little cousin was here kind of working with the receivers, just giving them some pointers. But, yeah, man, you know, I think a lot of times, especially the old head coach, When I first started, I was just a volunteer receiver coach. But he wanted to know more about the stories. He wanted to know more about the guys that I played with.

Who was the goofiest? Who was the craziest? What's the craziest NFL story you had? But, yeah, man, just, you know, constantly, you know, I'm able to, you know, kind of share my knowledge. But I trust my staff. I got three former head coaches on my staff. We got close to 200 years of experience damn near. So it's a pretty good group that I have.

The question that he asked about the craziest NFL story you have, do you have it on the top of your brain? Because I kind of want to hear this. May. So, yes. That's appropriate to share. Hey, inappropriate, appropriate. Whatever's on your mind, spit it.

So this didn't happen to meet, right? But you remember, you remember, so when the XFL became like, a thing. You guys remember me? He hate me? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So he would be like, yeah. So I couldn't believe this. So we're, we're, we're, I get to Philly, I'm a rookie and I'm sitting in the train in the room and, and the trainers are talking and they're talking about just crazy things that have happened, right? So he did two crazy things. One of them, I feel

like I can share the other one's a little bit more extreme, but so I guess Philly plays the Panthers in a divisional playoff game. At this time, he's not a part of the team. I actually think he's signed to a different team. Somehow, some way, he had made his way onto the Eagle sideline. He had an Eagles coat on, and they end up beating the Panthers, and he's running around, celebrate, talking about something, hey, we did it, right? Bruns up won't most of the Lurie, right? So he's a part of the big celebration.

He's not even a part of the team, right, and all that other things. So I just see that how that happens, right? You got all that security on the sideline. How does a guy who has nothing to do with the organization makes his way back to the sideline? You guys podcast, you taught college football a lot, especially in Missouri. If you could fix, I don't want to say change, but if you could fix something within college football right now,

but you get one fix only, what do you do? That's not a fair question, man. There's a lot. I would say there needs to be a cap on the number of years of eligibility, or I think kind of hand-in-hand, I think there needs to be a salary cap on, NIL. With no cap, it allows the big dogs to get even bigger.

Yeah. The big dogs are getting bigger. And even steel, right? Like, even with, you know, what they are talking about, it's on the brink of college ball with, you know, everybody opting in and having kind of what we're talking about, like this salary cap, you know, how do you regulate, you know, a dealership wanting to give somebody an endorsement deal

and paying them X amount of dollars, right? So I just think there's so much, right, that you have to fix. I think those two would be a start. But I think there's just so much you got to fix. How much money do you think you would have made an NIL money when you're in college based on all your accolades and achievements? Are we present day? Are we talking about that?

We're present day. Yeah, present day. Yeah. Jerry Macklin, All-American sitting there, they're saying, hey, what's it going to take to bring you back for one more year? For what I did and who I was at that football team, I'm not saying that I'm as good of a prospect as Jeremiah Smith. I think if he's getting top dollar,

I think that's kind of where I probably would have been at. Why did you go to Missouri? Like, why? Because you could have really gone anywhere, but why did you go to Missouri? In state school. I think they showed me, They showed me what it, kind of what I was looking for.

I mean, I wanted a family environment. I wanted a place where I was going to feel kind of at home, away from home. For those who don't know, I was committed to the University of Oklahoma to start. And then my receiver coaching up going to the National Football League. So that was kind of my way out of it. And Missouri just kind of stayed constant, right? Coach Pinkles was that staff that he put together and kind of the way did they had things going. You know, it just made a lot of sense for me.

And I kind of wanted to be a part of that turnaround. And I saw it on a brink and I was able to come in and help that turnaround. Yeah, when you look at Missouri today in the program that Eli Drinkwitz has built, are you a proud alumni of what's going on there and the success that they've had? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, I think they have the right guy for the job, too. I think Drink has done a heck of a job. You know, me being in the high school game, I think he's done a heck of job in the state of Missouri recruiting. And I think that was kind of probably what was missing.

I think there was too many good players getting out of the state of Missouri. And I think he's kind of closed that gap a little bit. Now, when you sit up there, you look at Jeremiah Love, who's from, you know, St. Louis. I played against him. And you see him go to Notre Dame and things like that. I think those things still hurt a little bit, but I think he's definitely done a really good job of keeping those high-co-for-guar guys at Amazoo, and I think you're seeing a result of that, kind of on the collegian level. Now we've got to win the bigger games, right? We got to win the close games against the good teams, right? You've got to beat Alabama. You've got to beat Oklahoma. You've got to beat, you know, you got to beat Dandy. You've got to beat, you know,

Texas and some of those teams that are in the SEC. So, you know, Georgia, I think that's the next step, Right, we've been in those games. We've been in situations to do that. Right now we've got to get over there home. On you guys' podcasts, how much you talk, college football, how much you talk to your career? Like, what do you guys do? Yeah, a little bit of everything. Like you said earlier, you know, podcast is true sons with the you.

And we just talk about, you know, it's a Missouri base, but, you know, we talk about kind of what going on in college ball. We've talked about what's going on the NFL. We touch on sports in general, in particular football, you know, and then we kind of get into, you know, kind of what we, do kind of personally kind of our stories, kind of how we became who we are and kind of what we represent, you know, but, you know, kind of kind of do a little bit of everything. I think every week, you know, kind of touch on things that are relevant and kind of what's happening now and too. But yeah, man, I think I think if you want a good podcast to listen to talking about college sports in particular, college football with kind of a Mizzou twist to it, I think that's the one to

listen to. I mean, I look at New Zoo, especially over these last 15 years, and it's been a feeder program for the NFL. You've got some dudes at Missouri year and year out. They're making to the NFL, making an impact on the NFL roster. Talk to me about

when the outside perspective might look at Missouri is a little bit different. If you were to recruit somebody, like a five-star kid and you wanted to come to Missouri, what would you tell them about the school to bring them in? Well, it's your selling point. Well, I think, I think first of foremost, they're going to love you, right?

They are going to treat you how you should be treated. And I say that because, like, you've heard stories about kids going to other places and feeling like they're just a part of something, not necessarily really feeling like they're valued at where they are. And I think Mazoo is going to help you do that. I think Mazu is constantly pushing the needle in the right direction, right? I think we're constantly, you know, bringing new things. to Columbia. I think it's a growing city. I think, you know, the resources are growing. I think,

you know, we're right on the brink of doing something special and being able to compete year and year out, you know, on a national level. And I think, you know, you can be that, that five-star, like you just said, that five-star that helps us do that. You look at what Signetti did last year at Indiana, who, I think people say over the last decade was historically one of the worst programs, All it takes is the right guy, man, and the right guys behind him, man, and you can make it happen in today's game. And I think, like I say, Missouri has the resources to do that. But I guess it's a special place, right?

It's hard to say it because, you know, not very many people have been to Columbia, Missouri, right? But, man, game days, the fan support, just everything that's kind of going around in Columbia, man. It's all pointing in the right direction. Jeremy really appreciate the time and hope everybody checks out True Sons. It's TRU, True Sons podcast. Yeah, good luck with your team and I appreciate you spend some time with us here today. I appreciate you guys for having. Thanks, Jeremy. Pride Months, Toronto. Pride is an opportunity for you to create your own space, to celebrate your existence.

IHeart Radio is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride Toronto Festival and we won't stop. Celebrate Pride. Turn up the love and listen to IHeart Pride Canada. 24-7 radio stream and the only playlist you need for your Toronto Pride celebrations. Pride is so great because it gives a whole bunch of people this visibility that they've never had before. We have a ton to celebrate Toronto. Happy Pride. Iheart Radio. All right, there's a story of this high school baseball team, and they had the choice of go play in a playoff game or go to prom. Tell me they went and played in. Oh, gosh, it's tough.

It's tough if you only get one prom. So they decided to go to prom. Most of them did, yeah. Yeah. The good ones, especially like the good pitcher, the really good pitcher. So Wes Nassau lost its high school baseball playoff game to Swanee in only five innings. They got crushed because they did not have the players. The Warriors were without a good chunk of their roster because of prom, a majority of the upperclassmen on the team chose not to play.

Could we just make an adjustment and go, hey, let's do it on the next day or the day before? Got one better. Let's do it at 2 p.m. There were times in my schoolastic career where something that would happen in the evening, they would move a game. And yeah, it would have bump right up against school. Yeah, but it didn't happen often, but it did happen a couple times. Right. But the schedule makers in the state of Florida failed. The athletes, this is according to Bro Bible. And so they have about 1,000 students, 9 through 12. It's in Callahan, Florida, which is the northwestern most corner of the state right near the Georgia border. The Warriors compete in the class 3A level. Now, the reason I think probably,

some of the kids decided not to plan the playoff game is they just barely were good enough to make the playoffs anyway. I think if you're a real contender, you think about it differently. If you're a team that's around 500, which is what they were, and it's prom versus,

you're probably gonna lose anyway. Or if you do win, it's probably one more game max. You're like, oh, we're probably not gonna go, guys. I mean, let's be honest. So I think that's probably what made that decision a little easier. It's not an easy decision, because no matter how you do it,

you're letting down the teammates that you played with all season, and at the same time, if you make the decision to play, you end up losing and you miss out on prom because that's a life experience that you take memories away for

from the rest of your life. It's mostly 10th graders that played. I was looking at the picture on Instagram. Maybe it was Twitter. If you're a junior, though, you're a little more intrigued to play, right? Because you have another year to go to prom. Right, you got another year.

You're like, dude, I'm not passing up on this party. I don't know. They were just okay. If they were a good team and they had a real shot, I think you'd have probably seen even the upperclassmen stay and not go to prom. But again, because they were just barely right at 500, you're at your ceiling already going to the playoffs. And what a great way to say how you lost the playoffs.

Yeah, who know? We could have won state, but we went to prom. You had a built-in excuse, guys. We had prom. I'm sorry. They messed up the scheduling. It's not our fault. It's their fault. Best pitcher on the team, Fisher Bennett. He finished the regular season with a 0.94 ERA. Oh, wow. And he went to prom, as did a number of these days.

He might have been able to help the team win. With a 0.94? Yeah, but then he won't be able to throw the next day, and they're probably going to lose that one. Anyway, justice for the team. The schedule makers, let them down. Let them down. Let them down.

Did you hear this story about this ex-Alabama defensive tackle that plead guilty for, for impersonating NFL players. It's a wild story. Like, was the Alabama? Alabama. But the audacity this guy had, I think his name was Luther Davis.

He's 37-year-old. Pled guilty in federal court in Atlanta. One count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft. C.J. Evans-29 also was accused of executing the scheme with Davis. He went in and impersonated Michael Pennix Jr., David Najoku, Xavier McKinney for Green Bay.

And then it also says that he would wear wigs, makeup, do rags, all these things to defraud these people for money. It was wild. And who comes up with that type of elaborate scheme and tries to execute it and not think that they're going to get caught? It's weird that he can impersonate a quarterback, David Njoku, and a defensive tackle. Like, what size are you? And who's falling for this? Tight end and safety. If you think Michael Pinnock is this former defensive tackle.

I didn't know how big the guy is impersonating people. It must be going to people that know nothing about football. And also are you profiling them and saying, I kind of look like him. I think if I put on this, it might give the impression that I am him. You go on a jersey. I mean, that's wild to think about that,

but he was getting away with it for a long time. The Coachella Music Fest, somebody went in and poses Justin Bieber's team and stole a bunch of golf carts. You guys see that? No. They just drove off with all them. They put him on a trailer and drove off.

Yeah. Wow. I mean, if you have confidence, you can pretty much do anything. Part of Justin Bieber team, we need a few golf carts. Okay, boom, trailers there. Out. Yeah, I'm going to type in. Justin Bieber Coachella golf cart theft.

Yes. Here we go. Because for sure this happened. A Newport Beach business scam by phony Bieber staff who claimed the pop star need a rentals for Coachella, and they drove them to Mexico. This is from the New York Post. A Newport Beach rental company says, it's been left reeling after four of its compact

Moki-style buggies worth more than $200,000 altogether vanished and what was an orchestrated scam tied to pop star Justin Bieber. He had nothing to do with it. But yeah, a guy went in, identified himself as Alan, said he worked with Bieber and to shuffle Justin Bieber, and they said, all right, everything seemed to check out.

So they gave them to them, and they look like little mini-jeeps. Have you guys seen them? so they're able to travel around in places like golf carts, but they look like small jeeps. If you do M-O-K-E, but they stole four of them, and they put up on a trail and drove them right off. It's crazy.

Those are legit. They're cool, right? You can't drive them on the road. I've seen them. Yeah, but if, like, you're in, like, fancy beach town, this is like a... Oh, yeah, this is it. Yeah, I was going to say,

this screams Newport Beach. Well, this is for sure what Bobby rents anytime he goes to the beach. Oh, wow. It's like a kid's car. That's definitely the one Bobby who drives with the pink one. Yeah. The Barbie Mobile? Oh, Barbie Mobile? My kids would love that.

Kid me? Yeah, I just can't use it really here. I thought about getting a four-wheeler here, just drive around the property, but then what am I going to do? I'm... I've got a ranger. I love players. You have a bigger property than I do. Yeah, it's blast.

That's how I teach the kids how to drive. You're on probably acreage, real acreage. 30-something? Yeah. I mean, there doesn't need to flex that. 30-something. Must be nice. What?

Do you ask me, right? Did you? I said, you're on some acreage. You know, every now and then, you know, you're just going to throw up. Oh, that's nice. 30 plus. Must be nice to be Matt Castle. That's all I'm saying.

I just get to drive my range around it. That's it. Again, thanks to Jeremy. Thanks to Matt Castle. Thanks to kickoff Kevin. Thanks to Brandon Ray. Thanks to you guys for listening. I'm Bobby Bones.

We have had lots to say. Goodbye, everybody. Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and IHeart podcast. For more podcasts from Iheart Radio, visit the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get Podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.