The Fumblerooski Podcast - Doormat -Ep 189 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

How do the NFL's new kickoff rules fit into the game? Has Roger Goodell faced the right amount or too much criticism? Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, and CJ Medeiros debate these topics and more!

Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football. They're saying it's a catch. It's a catch. Oh, it's a catch. Sideline. Touchdown. Unbelievable. Swings it way down the field. The one count.

Sammy Watt takes for the touchdown. Well, some things change and some things stay the same in the NFL world, quite literally, as we are currently sitting here. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, and CJ Medeiros, as always. So there are some things, as I said, that are staying the same, namely being Roger Goodell being extended through 2027. And something's changing, which is the new kickoff rules. And we're going to jump right into it as we already have tucked shaking his head over there and cj is definitely about to i don't know what you're gonna i i can't even i don't even know the unholy things that you

want to do just based off these words you don't like them but um so essentially we'll jump right into it here these new rules are so essentially what it used to be is that if you did a touchback on a kickoff and what, what it used to be is that you would, you would if it was short of the end zone, you would get the ball wherever you took the knee or did the fair catch. They're changing that now. So now it doesn't matter where you are doing a touchback. As soon as you get the ball.

You mean a fair catch? It's both. Oh, fair. Touchback or fair catch, you get the ball at the 25-yard line. So essentially what it takes out now, here is the problem. What it takes out is the, the strategic, um, the strategic game of the kickers kicking the ball short of the end zone so that the returner would have to run it back and try to get some yardage out of it so that they have more favorable position. That's kind of taken out of the game and to that

i kind of ask why do the kickoffs at all now why because no matter what we're getting the ball to 25 yard line if our goal is to because so the the intent of of this rule was to reduce further injuries in football if that's the case why do the kickoff at all? Because now, no matter what, no one's going to run the ball back now. No one is going to do that now. So it's always going to be placed at the 25-yard line. Why do it at all? Why not just put it at the 25-yard line and the next team starts off?

Take special teams almost completely out of it. Just asking. But, CJ, I know i know actually i'll start with tuck because i was gonna say tuck played football start with him i know yeah you've all you've also played football you've done a lot of special teams too right yes this is this is absolutely egregious this is horrendous now i'm not fully like understanding of the rule i thought it was just like on kickoffs, on kick returns and kickoffs and stuff like that. That's what I thought. But now it's on punt. Now that if they wave their hand and they catch the ball, it starts at the 25, not necessarily where they catch it.

This is actually horrible. Forget about spotting the ball at the one-yard line. Forget about trying to the ball at the one-yard line. Forget about trying to be strategic about it. If you punt the ball and if it lands inbounds, congratulations. They're going to fair catch it and get it at the 25. I think this rule is egregious. This is the actual letter of the law of the rule.

I think it's stupid. I think it completely shafts a special team strategy when it comes to that side of the football because everything's split up in third, offense, defense, and special teams. That third of football is just completely shafted to the trash can, and now it's just offense and defense. I think they've completely messed up special teams. I think this rule is completely unfair to the special teams coaches everywhere. No wonder why they hate this rule. All right, CJ.

I swear to God, it seems like every offseason the NFL has another rule where it's like, oh my God, the player safety jesus christ give me a friggin break first of all i'd like to point out how they love player safety so much and yet you know they're like hey kids we're gonna you know just literally expand the regular season. You know, it's like, literally, why even have special teams anymore? I don't understand. Because, like, so let me get this straight. Let's just say the kicker, because I have the rule in front of me right now.

It's a free kick, which basically means kickoff. So, you know, at the beginning of the game, after halftime, and at the start of overtime or after a score it's like it says it must occur behind the team's 25 yard line in order to be placed at the 25 that is asinine in every sense of the word it's like so so you know the old coffin corner trick if you can get it down at the one and they just go, hey, I'm going to fair catch it. Then it's at the 25. Where's the skill?

Like, where, why would you do this? Oh, to prevent injuries? Really? Really? It's just, I think the real question is how far is too far? What's next? It's like, oh, no, no, no. You can only two-hand touch the returner or something like that because it's just the NFL is just going insane with this, you know?

Because, I mean, one big example is roughing the passer. It's like you can't even rush the quarterback anymore. Or it's like those big hits. hits i mean it could just be a clean hit but if it's a big hit nope flags coming out and it's just in the name of player safety which i'm not belittling player safety i think they've gone a little too far which is like i said which is ironic because of like what they're doing like in overtime where you know they're expanding overtime in the postseason. They literally added an extra game to the regular season.

It's like, well, when you continue to expand the game, I'm sorry, your cries for player safety ring hollow. And then it's like, oh, but player safety is like, OK, so one more thing, because there's a lot of activist groups that say, oh, but the player safety, we don't need football. It's too dangerous. These are grown men who know what they're signing up for. Give me a break. Yeah. And if we listen to those activists, they don't even want football to begin with. So why are we listening?

Exactly. They don't even know the game. That's the thing. Everybody that I know, because I know some people, oh, ball is the NFL, it's too dangerous. Everybody who believes that has never watched a game of football in their life. Basically. Well, there's risk to everything that you do. Why is it that when it's something consensual,

where somebody wants to play the game, goes and plays the game, might suffer an unfortunate injury that we must not allow anybody who wants to play the sport to play it anymore or change up the rules to water the game down. Just none of it makes any sense. And this is the same for any sport or activity that's out there. Because it's dangerous or because somebody who decided to play the sport

or do the activity got hurt or something happened that you have to change things up or say that we shouldn't have it anymore because something happened. There's risk to everything that you do. So why are we always playing the, oh, it's dangerous card? You've got to live a little. Come on. Yeah. And I mean, if it happens to football, then like, I'm sorry,

there's more technically dangerous sports, you know, a la boxing and UFC. I mean, you're going to get rid of those too. You're going to get rid of lacrosse. You're going to get rid of hockey. It's like, my question is, where does it really end? Because every sport has some risk even relatively non-contact sports like basketball they've had some horrific injuries remember gordon hayward remember sean livingston yeah not pretty so my point is there's going to

be risk at every sport like there isn't every physical activity but i think it's time for us the fans just go up and say all right enough is enough because there's a lot of people that actually want to outright get rid of special teams and to those people i say just why and most of that most of that that group is our most of that crowd is our people who don't even watch football to begin with that's the funniest part yes like they just don't like they want to get rid of special teams but they just they just they don't they they want to get rid of special teams among other things in football including all of football like they just they just don't watch the sport and they just they're looking for something to protest just for the sake of doing it.

It's sickening, and it's wrong. Just leave the game alone. If you don't like football, don't watch it. Or don't play it. It's an egregious rule. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought, and maybe they did make this a rule and they haven't specified,

but I thought it was on kick returns to, excuse me, punt returns to, which I would have thought was even stupider or even more stupid either way it because at that point well i'm not i'm not going to get him in trouble for something they didn't do but i think we all understand why that would be stupid because now um if the player is past the 40 and he's returning a punt then he's not going to fair catch. Then he feels the need that he has to run it back. That is not preventing injury. That's pressuring players into actually running a ball back, which is worse.

Again, we're only touching on that briefly because they didn't do it. It hasn't happened. But if they did we are we will be ready for it we certainly will with plenty of words um and we may just change our change our podcast to uh swear free or pro swear a couple cuss, S-words, all that stuff. But either way. I've been out of the game for that for a while. Yeah, but we're not doing it.

This is still a family show, semi. All right. So as some things change, some things stay the same, which is Roger Goodell, who will be the Lee lease commissioner now officially through the year 2027. That's next. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast. Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football.

They're saying it's a catch. It's a catch. It's a catch. It's a catch. Side-line. Touchdown. Unbelievable. Swings it way down the field to Watkins.

Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Justin Tucker, CJ Medeiros. So we went over the new kickoff rules now we're headed to roger goodell who has been officially extended through the 2027 nfl season this has kind of gotten some mixed he's i don't know how to describe it everyone can obviously point out it's like oh you know you're you're a patriots fan that's why you don't like him but is there any team fan base that really actually likes him? Nah. Yeah, thank you, Justin. Because, I mean, one of my biggest issues with Roger Goodell

is the NFL's literal wheel of discipline. And they call it that because their punishments are never consistent. And not to mention, Goodell bends so easily to outside pressure, be it from activist groups or be it from owners, be it from the players union. Just he bends to every demand and it's just it's not a good look. And on top of this, it's like, what's he going to do? It's like, yeah, he's been extended. I mean, is he just going to keep the status quo? Because I think the NFL can do better. I really do. I think the NFL needs new blood there

because he's been commissioner for over a decade, at least. Yeah. When did he take over? Was that 2009-ish? Around that time. Somewhere around there. So i'm just saying like you know all things need to change and it's just i don't know like why he's still doing it i mean i don't really have too much to say on this but like what's he even gonna do i just think that a lot of it is a lot of the hate that he gets is i'm not saying that he has has been like necessarily a good commissioner but i feel like a lot of the decisions that are made aren't his and then he that he's kind of just put out by the and the nfl's front office as a puppet kind of just to take all the heat because like if if listen listen if you have all of these

different decisions that are all over the place there's no consistency there that tells me that there's a lot more people in the room who are making decisions if you're going all of these different directions which tells me that roger goodell is not calling the shots here. It's the league's front office. And also a lot of the stuff that the decisions that are made are voted on by the owners. So if we want to blame someone, blame, blame them, blame the owners. Do we really want to give all of these decisions? Um, I mean, all of these team owners are going to be biased and just looking out for their own self-interests. So why are we looking at them?

I don't know. I'm not sure exactly how to tackle this issue, but I just don't believe a lot of it is on the commissioner here. I'm not trying to say that he's perfect by any sense of the word, but I feel like a lot of the hate he gets is unnecessary. Just saying. What do you think, Justin? Oh, you're muted.

Yeah, talk. I'm muted for a reason because I'm going back and forth like do i hate this guy i'm like is it unnaturally like uh i don't have i don't think i have a problem with goodell even though he can be annoying at times with some of the things he does overall i haven't had a problem with him from my fan base i think he's overall fine i haven't heard many from the ravens fan base complain about Goodell As far as we're concerned, even though I think it's from like a fans standpoint when certain owners try to do stuff And we're like don't let them do this

But overall does he get too much hate? Yes, but again, he's like the figurehead of the NFL He's like the face of the company. Of course, he's going to get a lot of hate for it just based off that fact. So when I look at Roger Goodell and I look at him in totality, I think he's been an overall positive for the league and an overall positive towards the NFL. Does he get too much hate? Maybe a little bit at times, specifically during the draft. But outside of that, I think he's done a good job, and I think that's why he keeps on getting extended because he is the face of the NFL, and he keeps on getting extended by the owners

because they feel like he's done a very good job of what he's been doing. And overall, I don't think he's been that much of a problem. Those are pretty – I mean, you can understand why they boo during the nfl draft because it's it's so teed up you i mean you're people a lot of the general public um of the nfl does not isn't a big fan of goodell and then you're out there you're at the draft probably had a few drinks and then roger goodell comes up the man himself live in person they're gonna boo it's too it's just so teed up that it's it's just

going to happen and we see it all the time um when they're introducing the introducing the superbowl champion when they're giving the when they're giving he's giving out the lombardi so it just it happens all the time what that i kind of understand what's going on judge got us oh oh well you're watching you're getting into baseball now we're doing good. We were up, and then Aaron just tied it. Son of a... You're playing the us card. They got us. Us. Don't get it twisted. My Orioles.

I'm actually getting more and more into it because we're actually good this year, but oh my god. Why did Aaron judge? Yeah, the Orioles were going through a rebuild for a few years. It's going to happen. Yeah. I mean, me personally, not a baseball guy, but we were bad.

Even when we weren't going through it, we were bad. Oh, you will be forgiven, I assure you. But, Adam, there's one more thing I want to touch on with Roger Goodell. Yes. Kind of like how we mentioned how he just bends whatever the owners want and how it's the owners that make a lot of the decisions. You know, you and I would like in a commissioner of a sports league, somebody who doesn't get pushed around, somebody with a spine,

somebody who will go to the owners, the activist groups, the player associations looks him in the eye and says you know what no that's what i want in a commissioner and goodell is not that that is all yeah well i also don't know how much just how much power goodell actually has to say no no i'm talking about like outside forces not even the owners like the players union like even like groups outside of the nfl they're always protesting for some stupid reason well it's like but i mean wait but with the owners like yeah i get it but with everyone else like all the other, no, there is no reason to bend the knee. It just depends on how much the league front office cares about that.

I don't know. I feel like there needs to be some more centralized decisions at least because, you know, the NFL is a business, you know, and you can't have whenever somebody starts whining or the owners are like, oh, I want this just no i swear good either goodell needs to grow a spine or there needs to be a new owner or i mean commissioner new commissioner yeah yeah possibly well jesus we can know way over modulated here. Excuse me. Jeez.

I don't know if that went through, but yeah. Well, I mean, it's just something that they'll have to figure out down the stretch here. Because they, I mean, I just don't know how much this all has to do with Goodell, all of the poor decisions made by the league. Because, I mean, like the owners play a part, the league's front office plays a part, and I'm sure Goodell plays some of it, but I don't know how much. And just when you see all of these different decisions being made,

going back and forth on issues, that tells me that there's more than one person in the room who's making decisions. And that's not how it should be. It's going to be all over the place if you don't have a man in charge. Just pretty much as simple as that. Yeah. I don't know. Something to think about.

Yeah. But long story short i don't think goodell deserves a lot of the hate that he gets i feel like he's being pressured by the league as a whole to do a lot of different things and he's just held out there as a puppet he's just taking all taking the blows for the league so that they could say well it's not us it's not the nfl it's our commissioner we have a crappy commissioner but all the bad decisions that are made it's it's him don't look at us don't look at us who actually made the decisions don't look don't look at all the owners look at me look at look at excuse me look at goodell look at him he's a he's the worst commissioner in all of sports. Blame him, not us. Not us.

I will say one thing, though. Do you know when the owners vote, the commissioner has a veto power? Because if not, that's something the league should look into. Well. Because, I mean, the owners I'm trying to think of like they did that's what happened

no no because like i i mean can goodell step in and just say yeah no because nobody likes this rule i mean i know the owners voted for it i want to say 26 voted yes five voted no and one team abstained from voting in total yeah that adds up to 32 i want and one team abstained from voting in total. Yeah, that adds up to 32. I want to know who abstained from voting. I actually saw it. I don't know who it was, but I read who did it.

I don't know what is going on with my... I'm sorry if I'm coming on too loud. And your car speakers, guys, but I don't know what'm coming on too loud and your car speakers guys, but I don't know what's going on with my mics. I'm trying to find like who voted because I know, I think the lions voted against it.

I know the think the Ravens and Patriots both voted against it. For this is my question. It'd be quicker to tell you who didn't. I'm trying to figure. I can't. I don't know where I saw. Because there is one that told you who voted which way. I want to know.

And I cannot remember to save my life which team abstained. It might have been the Raiders. I'm not sure. I think they were more worried about the flexed out games on thursday oh that don't get me started on that that's that's stupid i mean on the bright side at least you get like a 28 days notice and it used to be a lot shorter yeah but you want two thursday night games No, I don't. I don't either. Like, why? Is it because Thursday night football isn't giving you the ratings you want?

That or they're trying to squeeze more money out of Amazon. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the NFL on Amazon because you have to go and get an account. You have to pay money for it. And I just want to flip the TV on, because you have to go and get an account. You have to pay money for it. And I just want to flip the TV on, turn on YouTube TV, which is what I have right now, and just watch the game. Oh, by the way, guys. We're fortunate that they're all the crappy games.

The Thursday night football games are kind of just the ones that are thrown on just so that you can have something that holds you over from Monday, from that previous monday night until sunday which is i don't hate it but it's football and the fact that we were being robbed of it just because like you need to now get a amazon account don't love it yeah oh by the way adam it's official albert breer reports that the teams that voted no were the ravens patriots bangles bears and lions and like and i i did guess it right it was the raiders that abstained from voting bangles bangles are a good one they got screwed over yeah bangles were that's a that

yeah i completely understand that one patriots i understand too they got they got screwed over big time yeah we got the deflate gate garbage yeah and also the league rigging that game against buffalo at the end of the year we all know it was you don't need to be afraid to say it. No, I'm sorry. It's like, oh, you couldn't have written a better script. It's like, yeah, I know. Also, it's interesting looking at the Raiders because they have faced a lot of blowback

with all of their players getting caught for different things, getting suspended, and then eventually they have no choice but to cut their players. I wonder if there's someone within the league's office who is leaking all of this stuff so that it ends up having to happen. You know, it's me. I did it accidentally. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.

I forgive you. Thank you. All right. Well, this is about all the content we have. Short episode. We got anything else? Thanks, NFL offseason. You got anything else? Joey Burrow actually might be the highest paid quarterback soon.

There's a report out there saying he actually might make more money than Lamar Jackson. Oh, I'm sure you're happy. That would make me happy because he's losing Chase. He's losing Higgins. He's losing all his weapons oh that um i'm good with that that would be a stupid decision for them stupid stupid stupid it's it's such a dumb idea like it's that like because because somebody else who may or may not be a better quarterback than yours

is getting paid more than you, you feel the need to pay your quarterback even more. As if there's some correlation to having the highest paid quarterback and the best one. There is by no means necessary, by no means is Joe Burrell not better than Jalen Hurts. They don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. And somehow we're correlating that to how much they get paid.

Who cares? That's better then. You have Joe Burrow on a bargain and Jalen Hurts is being overpaid. He's robbing the Philadelphia front office right now. That part is just stupid. Anything else before we end the show tonight? Nah, but the Celtics are winning, by the way. All right.

I don't care. Don't let us win this one. It's over. Don't let us win this one. Don't let us win this one. That's all I'll say. I'm going to keep saying that until it's potentially knock on wood. Game seven.

All right. That'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more.

Also be sure to follow our Instagram at FumbleRooski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcasts and latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you next week. Over and out.