The Josh Innes Show - Anthony Richardson Fans Are Weird

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

As you know, I think Anthony Richardson is not good. That said, I’m amazed by how idiotic the reaction to his benching has been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howdy, Jmokes! What's happening? It's Josh out and about today. Mobile show. Don't have my studio set up at the house. I'm going around. I'm going to the park. Gonna go for a walk here in a little bit. Gonna go see Neil Diamond tonight. The Neil Diamond musical, which debuted in St. Louis last night. So I guess this would be the second show. It's either the second or the third show of this. It's called Beautiful Noise, and it's a musical set to the music of Neil Diamond, It's Gonna Fuck. I can't wait, so that'll be later on tonight. One of the things that's been interesting to me on social media today, and by the way, I'm mad at myself because now I've allowed myself to get deep into the Twitter X universe again and argue with people and comment on everything. And really I blame Elon because this for you tab pops up and it's like, it knows exactly what

to say to piss me off to the point that I need to respond. It's like, wow, it's as if there's like robots and AI and artificial intelligence and algorithms that are at play here that know exactly what's going to set me off. Wow, what a world. So I start seeing stories about Anthony Richardson, who I've been posting a lot about because I think Anthony Richardson sucks, and I think if Anthony Richardson would have played less against the Texans, the Texans may have lost. It's amazing to think about this, that the Colts, who are four and four right now, are five points separated from the number one team in the division, yet their fans are a big group of losers who would rather watch Anthony Richardson play

than go out and try to compete. And that's been the thing I've seen the most from people. First of all, let's start here. What I've been seeing from people and media people and fans of these teams, I don't think it's calculated or orchestrated, but it feels orchestrated and calculated. Like, all of them have the same viewpoint. Like, everyone is feeling sorry for this guy because he got benched.

But it's like, oh, my God, they're trying to set him back. Oh, they've ruined this kid. The best one I saw was some jamoke who said, so let me get this straight. Daniel Jones gets 71 starts and Anthony Richardson only gets 10. Well, congrats on apples to Boeing airplanes, bro. Like, the comparison isn't even remotely close to the same thing. Like, I like when a fan base or a media person will see what happens at another situation, a totally different situation and says, oh, so this quarterback gets this opportunity, but ours doesn't. Not every situation is the same chief. And oh, by the way,

you drafted a project quarterback who it turns out might stink. But anyway, so everybody in the media, they're all together. They've got their built-in opinions on this, which is the Colts are stupid. The Colts aren't going to win the Super Bowl anyway. Why are they doing this? They're destroying this kid. They've ruined him. Let me tell you this. If your first-round pick, number four overall pick quarterback ain't mentally tough enough to get fucking benched when he sucks,

then you know what? He ain't mentally tough enough to get fucking benched when he sucks, then you know what? He ain't winning shit anyway. But these people are out of their minds. Let me look at it from a standpoint of where that team is. Let me go with this one. The argument is they can't win the Super Bowl anyway, so why not just suck? I would agree with that if you're the New Orleans Saints or the Carolina Panthers. You suck, just go suck and get a high draft pick. Because both of those teams, maybe, are looking for their future quarterback. Like, I get Carolina's got Bryce Young. I feel like they like legitimately gave up on Bryce Young. I don't know that the Colts have legitimately given up on Anthony Richardson. I don't think that's the case.

I just think they realize that the AFC, while not wide open at the top, is a place where you could get to the playoffs. You can go make some revenue for a playoff game. And what good is it for you? By the way, you've already won four. So let's just say you continue on the trajectory you're on and you win six or seven. You ain't really a high draft pick anyway. I mean, you're not like beating down doors and getting another number one overall pick. So if the argument was go one and 16 or go, you know, four and 15 or four and 11 or four and what the fuck with that in the 13, then like, okay. But what I'm seeing from people here is they've got this mindset that there's only one outcome here. And it's that, well,

since we're not winning the Superbowl, be as bad as you can. The problem is you're four and four. The problem is five points separate you from beating the Texans twice. And arguably you could be six and two or five and three if you had even remotely decent quarterback play which Joe Flacco gives you if Joe Flacco plays that game on Sunday I don't know that the Texans lose or the Colts win but I think he got a better shot when he got a pro slinging the ball we've seen in the last couple of years other arguments people are making well uh oh just kicking the can down the road like you did with Gardner Minshew and Jacoby Brissett. Those are two stiffs. They're never will-be's.

So I would agree with you. If the argument was play Gardner Minshew or Jacoby Brissett again, or play Anthony Richardson, then do that. Then play Anthony Richardson. Because I don't see that there's going to be a great difference in win total and a chance to compete and go to the playoffs with those two guys. We've seen that story. The difference is Joe Flacco is a former MVP, which doesn't matter.

But what does matter is what he's done in the last handful of years he's had the opportunity to come in and play quarterback for teams. He's made them better. I believe Joe Flacco is the difference, possibly, between saying, OK, we won six games or seven games to, hey, we won nine. I don't think they'll win 10. But you get to nine and eight in the AFC the way it's currently constructed, you've got a realistic shot to go to the playoffs.

Then the argument would be that you keep getting getting from people is if you can't win the super bowl what does it matter my argument to you would be what does it hurt if you were telling me that going nine and eight losing in the first round was keeping you from having the number one overall pick and drafting uh drafting you know that the all-world quarterback you've always wanted then yes i would say that is stupid we could agree on that the problem is in your mind you've always wanted, then yes, I would say that is stupid. We could agree on that. The problem is, in your mind, you've already got your future first round. You've got your first round pick, and you've got a guy that you believe is the future of the organization. Currently, he's not the present. He sucks. He completes like 48% of his passes. Oh, but Josh, he's got the highest average completion percentage in the league. Yeah, because the only completions he has are the one or two a game

that he throws for 70 yards on busted plays. It's so chill. But this idea that you're somehow setting your franchise back if you go 9-8 and go to the playoffs with Joe Flacco, it's stupid. Like these people can't operate in anything other than absolutes. They can't see things in layers. They can't see things in layers. They can't see things nuanced. That's the problem with people on the Internet.

And the Internet reveals to you how stupid people are. Like they can't sit back and go, well, how about this? I'll throw you an argument I've seen. One of the arguments I've seen is you set the franchise back and you go nine and eight and then you're still stuck in where you are. But you're not. You still have a guy that you drafted number four quarterback who's not playing right now, but maybe he will next year. Two, Joe Flacco's 40. Joe Flacco ain't playing forever. He's not going to be your quarterback for next year either. This is probably a one-off deal and who knows, maybe Flacco retires at the end of the season. Three, you're not in a situation where winning nine games

is going to keep you from moving forward as an organization. What does it hurt? That would be the biggest number three in this. What does it hurt? Tell me the benefits of keeping your quarterback in. Oh, he gets some reps. Great, he gets some reps, and you go from being a team that could get into the playoffs to being a team that goes five and 12. Cool. You get a slightly higher

draft pick. How about this? If I'm a fan of the Colts at this point, give me nine and eight and a chance to go see a playoff game. If I'm on that team, give me a chance to go nine and eight and go to a playoff game because you ain't getting that with Anthony Richardson. Because Anthony Richardson sucks right now. And maybe he won't next year. But today, this day, he blows. So you're telling your team you're not trying to win. And the argument these people are making is it's inane

because you're doing this in this idea that somehow this guy will never recover from getting benched and the organization will never recover from benching him. That is preposterous. If you believe that your quarterback is not capable of bouncing back after getting benched, he's fucking trash. He's a mental midget. So these people are morons and the Colts people continue to be morons. At least the ones I see on social media. I also see a lot of them that are like, hey, what's wrong with winning? And if I didn't believe that you could make the playoffs, then I'm all for it. You realize you are. You were playing for

first place. You were playing for first place three days ago and should have, could have won it. But you're too busy playing a shitty quarterback because yo, you don't want to mess up his confidence. So stupid. I'm blown away. And it bothers me how dumb people are and how unable they are to have a nuanced argument or debate about it. It's one thing or the other. It's either we play him and he's going to become Joe Montana or you don't play him and the organization's fucked for a decade you are children who have the the capacity for debate of a mouse you are stupid you are children you are dopes this shouldn't be that difficult now

and maybe I'll be wrong and maybe Flacco suck. Maybe they'll go back to Anthony Richardson. That's possible. I'm not telling you it's a guarantee they go to the playoffs. What I am telling you is if Anthony Richardson plays, it is a guarantee they don't. I don't know why I'm getting so worked up over this. I think it's because I see the way the media handled this. And for whatever reason, they're treating Anthony Richardson like a child. Like, I feel like when, like, Tim Tebow, who obviously got a lot of national attention,

he was Tim Tebow. But when Tim Tebow came into the league and he sucked, but was still finding ways to win games, everybody in the world wanted you to know that Tim Tebow was a piece of shit. I was one of them. I loved making fun of Tim Tebow. Everyone did. If Tebow would have gotten benched, you would have gone,

ha, Tebow sucks. But Anthony Richardson, we sit here and we're like, oh my God, this poor kid, you're going to mess with his psyche. You knew he was a project. How dare you? I'm just, I'm baffled by people, but then I'm not because people are morons. And then those same people that sit there and they're like, oh my God, our franchise is going to be held back. If they go nine and eight and sneak into the playoffs, maybe pull an upset over somebody. You're going to be at those games and you're going to watch them, you fucking frauds. People fascinate me, man.

They're just, they're dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And I hope the Colts make the playoffs. I'm rooting for it at this point because I want to see these people have to like just kind of like squirm and try to figure out the way they're going to spin the argument that they spent this whole time telling you the organization is a joke for playing Flacco and again Flacco's done after this year anyway no one's asking you to play this dude for 10 years. Your dude ain't ready. And that's unfair to Jonathan Taylor. That's unfair to the other guys on that team that are

pretty good football players who, again, if you go, like, if you want to operate in the assumption that the team wasn't going to be good when the season started, fine. The reality is they're in the race. As we discussed yesterday, you're probably looking at two teams that realistically, three teams in the AFC that realistically don't have a chance to get in as the seven. And as we've discussed, you get in there, you sneak in as a wild card. Imagine you have to play a Texans-type team in the playoffs that you've already seen twice and arguably could have beaten twice. So the people have, they're just all batshit. It's fascinating. I think there's racial components to a lot of this too. I would imagine that a lot of those media people probably had no

problem shitting on what's his name that was's uh the the that uh was drafted by the jets the one dude whose mom is hot i can't believe i'm drawing a blank on that as i drive around town today but you know um zach but like they have no issue shitting on those guys easily but then all of a sudden poor anthony richardson like who cares like treat everybody the fucking same. Like that's the problem with the media. And that's the problem with everything we deal with. Now we treat people differently based on what they believe politically, their social standing, the color of their skin. We are a fucked people. You can't just judge people based on, Hey, do they suck at football? And does it make sense to bench him or not? Everything has to become a, oh, but what about Daniel Jones got to play 71 games, but this guy only

got 10? And then they operate like the guy's never going to play football again. Like, oh, he only got 10 games. Now they kicked him to the curb. I guarantee you that after 10 games, the Indianapolis Colts are not going to punt on their number four draft pick. But looking at this year, they're like, okay, this gives us a better chance to make the playoffs this year. What's wrong with making the playoffs? You're not in a situation where if you lose 100 games, you get to get the number one pick. You already have the quarterback, the most important position on the field that you drafted last year. Losing a bunch of games does not really

help you at this fucking point. I'm, I'm just, I'm baffled. And this is what the internet's done to me. I'm broken. I've been broken by the internet again. Like I just argue with people on there because they are stupid. I got to stop. I've got to, um, I've got to get off the arguing with people bus on Twitter. I need a fucking job. I need to get my ass back to where I need it. My dad's like, maybe you should just go, you know, drive Uber or something just to pass the time. I'm like, you know what? I have, I might have to, because now I'm getting to a point, especially with it being like the political shit and people posting dumb shit. Like all I want to do is argue with people. That's all I want to do. Like last night, I see

this, um, this, uh, video of Robert De Niro calling Trump a piece of shit. And guess what? Trump probably is a piece of shit, right? Probably likely a piece of shit, very likely. And if not a piece of shit, piece of shit adjacent, right? But I'm reading this and I'm like this coming from a dude who is 80 something and his wife just gave birth to a kid. That kid is going to be going to second or third grade with his dad in the ground. You want to talk about being a piece of shit, arrogant, fuck, so narcissistic and so arrogant that you shit a kid into the world when you're 80, knowing that that kid's going to have to spend the bulk of his life not having a dad. He's going to have to have, you know, Stan, the stepdad in there.

That's a piece of shit. So anyway, I'm all over it. I'm off my meds today. But at least I get to go see Neil Diamond. That's a perk. The perk is I get to see Neil Diamond. The negative part is I just want to sit around and argue with people on Twitter. And the interesting thing is these are people telling me that I suck. It used to just be I'd argue with people that said I sucked. Now no one says I suck. They just want to fight with me all the time. Sort of like the, oh God, I pissed off some McDougal. Um, hold on. I'll get into that in a second. I gotta go do something. So I'll, I'll, I will resume this with another podcast in a second. I gotta run. I'll be back.