The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street’ — The Stink of Green Bay (Ep. 178)

Episode Date: November 8, 2017

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier break down the Lions' success at Lambeau (04:00), emerging issues in Indianapolis (10:30), a tactical mistake by John Lynch (19:00), coaching opportunities opening up in the college game (25:45), and the origin of the Raiders uniform (36:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. Wanted to tell you about House of Carbs. Hosted by one of my best friends, Joe House. I've known him since 1988. And the entire time I've known him, he's been very, very hungry. And now he is a chance to host a podcast about being hungry. All the things that make him hungry, the food that he loves, it is a podcast by the hungry for the hungry.

And it's not your typical foofy food podcast where they're talking about foie gras and all that stuff. No, no. We're talking about diners. We're talking about fried chicken sandwiches, pizza slices. best Chinese food. Everything you talk about with food is on this podcast. And with great guests like David Chang, Chris Bianco, Jimmy Kimmel, a bunch of people coming up, all of them love food.

Nobody loves food quite as much as Joe House. But listen, check this out. Subscribe right now to have some carbs wherever you get your podcasts. I'm the GM Street part of the Ringar Podcast Network. I'm Tate Fraser and I'm sticking across from Mr. Mike Lombardi. Take Frazier. We're in the house of Sinatraville, apparently. Our man, Jim Cunningham, just came in.

Our producer, Jim Cunningham, telling great stories for usual. I mean, it was awesome, right? The history of Gower Studios from here to eternity. And then I guess, Sinatra, you think he did from strangers in the night in this room? It was brilliant. I mean, I can feel it now. You're like the new Sinatra. Everyone says it's Jay-Z, but it's really you, Mr. Michael-Murdy.

No, I wish I were. Although I do drink. There's a great drink. You're way too young for this. So Sinatra loved Jack Banners. Okay. on one big ice cube and just a splash of water. So he liked Jack Daniels so much

that Jack Daniels was honored that he drank their drink. They made, it's called Sinatra Select. It's a certain kind of Jack Daniels that he drinks. That's the drink to have. It's perfect. I have it at the house. You come over the house. I'll even pour it for you.

I'm more of a Maker's Mark guy, but I'll have a... You've never had Sinatra Select? No, I never had... You sound like my young son, Matthew. I don't want to drink Sinatra Select. That's not how I talk. He sounds like Matthew. I don't, you know, I got this $180 bottle of bourbon and I don't want to try.

I want Maker's Mark. Okay, fine, whatever. I don't want you to waste it on me, basically. You know, that's his line too, cheese. You just got humble people in your life. You should be proud of that. Anyway, I feel the presence in a son of, so. There's nothing to everything about Sanacho's.

There's some gravitas to this podcast today, knowing the Sinatra story. Like, you know, like if you understood Sinatra, you should really read. There's a great call. There's a great article. I know this is a podcast about football, but there's a great column. It's a guy by name Gay Talese. Now, Gay Talese grew up in my hometown called Ocean City, New Jersey. Okay.

His parents were clothed. They made custom tailors, okay? And during the war, my mother and father and all my relatives, these were all Italians that lived in Ocean City, didn't like the Talises because during the war, they pretended they were French, which was like, you know, the bad thing. But anyway, Talis went on to the University of Alabama, became a great writer, and he writes this incredible column. And if anybody has a fan of Sinatra, they should read this column.

was an Esquire. It's in the top 10 columns of all time. It's called Sinatra has a cold. Okay. So Talese comes out to write this article on Sinatra, and when he gets to Los Angeles and he goes over the Beverly Hills Hotel, he finds out Mr. Sinatra has a cold. That's the first thing he won't do the interview.

So he spends three months out here, and he writes this great column, which is brilliant. And the title of the column, Sinatra has a cold. Did you know he had over 500 hair pieces? Frank Sinatra? Yeah. Just what? He had over 500.

hair pieces. He had two women that would cut out the hair pieces for him on a daily basis. Oh, it's fascinating. I mean, this stuff here, if you want Sinatra, we can make this whole podcast, Sinatra. Well, maybe we should start a Sinatra podcast, Tuckerville Simmons. They have a, they have a thing on Seriously Sinatra. I mean, there's nothing better. Sunday mornings with Sinatra is the greatest thing. Let's talk football. Do you know what's unbelievable though? Frank Sinatra is a picture of him literally right behind. Yeah, he's right behind you. I love it. Yeah. And I feel better about the pride of Hoboken. Yeah. Oh, God. That's so good. Well, yeah, let's talk about football. They, they like football and Hoboken, I'm sure.

They do. Absolutely. Well, another place that loves football is Green Bay, and they're not happy with their product. And last night, we saw what the Green Bay Packers are without their man, Aaron Rogers. And they are who we thought they were. Yes, exactly who we thought they were. In the mortal words of Dennis Green, God rest of soul, look, I think the Packer fans have been blessed. They've been very fortunate.

They went from John Mujikov to Brett Farr to Aaron Rogers. And so they've had this, like, incredible lifetime, shelf life. And Aaron Rogers, what we've now learned, all those people, whether it's Skip Bayliss or anybody else who takes shot at Aaron Rogers that he's not very good, they can just shut up today, okay? Because Aaron Rogers is the deodorant for everything that ales their team. These are called deodorant quarterbacks, and that means they cover up the sins of everything else. Peyton Manning was the ultimate deodorant quarterback. When he got hurt all of a sudden, all those draft picks that they had into Indianapolis, not so good. Same thing with Green Bay.

Their defense, not so good. Their offense, not so good. You know, and so life without Aaron Rogers is a tough life. Absolutely. And even just looking at that team and the way they're constructed, it really all does fall on the shoulders of Anne Rogers to make plays. And we all know that, but seeing it without him, I mean, it just illuminates everything that's wrong.

It's all the glaring weaknesses out there. I think people are way too hard on Mike McCarthy. And here's why. McCarthy's dealt this hand. So he knows that Ted Thompson, his general manager, will only play, only draft young players. He wants to build his team through the draft. That's Ted Thompson's moniker.

That's what he's always done his whole life. And that's what small markets usually do in general. All right. So that's fine. But people want McCarthy to be this creative, think out of the box, have this system of offense that's a little bit like the Patriot. You can't be that when everything you do when your lifeline comes from the draft. If you're constantly going to play rookie running backs,

you're constantly going to play younger receivers, you've got to have a system in place that's fairly simple so they can all learn it. And so McCarthy, to me, is the ultimate soldier. He's the ultimate. His dad was a police officer in Pittsburgh. He's the ultimate beat cop. I mean, he does exactly what he needs to do.

Rogers made him a Super Bowl winning coach, but don't take things away from McCarthy. Don't blame him for the ills because he can't really change what he's doing because the way the roster is constructed. But he gets a reprieve, right? I mean, without Rogers, there's no way. Yeah. I don't know if Ted Thompson's going to get a reprieve.

I think people are going to take a closer. When you lose the deodorant quarterback, which has happened in Indianapolis, look, you want to know another deodorant quarterback? How about my man, Deshawn Watson? Yep. I mean, he's coming up a lot of suits in Houston, okay? Absolutely. All right. Tom Savage brought him all back up.

Yeah, but they smelled again. I mean, they needed a shower bad. I mean, they were living in the aqueduct once she got done. But so they have to find a way to. Ted's not going to be able to walk away. The defense isn't very good. I think McCarthy made a serious mistake. I mean, the one thing I will be critical of them,

the defense under Dom, and look, you can't watch an NFL game. There should be an over and under of how long before the TVs go to Don Capers in the box. I mean, like, it's just like, there's Dom Kaper's. You remember him. You remember Don Capers? Great scheme. Let's get, you know, look, Dom's a wonderful man. But I think he should have made a change defensively because that scheme,

If you look at that scheme closely, whether it's the caper scheme, whether it's the Dick LeBow scheme, that scheme is kind of dying out. It's not the same effectiveness. And it's easier, I don't want to wish anybody to get fired, but it's easier to fire. It would be easier to change the scheme by getting rid of Dom than it would be to ask Dom to go in and change what he does. You're not going to, Dom's not going to change what he does. I think off season-season wise, I think that was a serious mistake for the Packers. And their talent level on defense isn't very good. And who's to say capers wouldn't go somewhere else?

and, you know, like what Dick LaBeau did, you know, go down to Tennessee. But I think what's happening now is you have to keep track of this on the trends of the league. If you don't realize that that scheme is slowly dying away. You know, then you get a problem. But Green Bay didn't want to make any changes and I think it's going to cost them. Can I talk about the other team, Jim Caldwell, just so happy that he's happy. Yeah. There's nothing like a Jim Caldwell smile at a press conference to really get you going.

How about last night, though, Tate Frasier? Like, I mean, Amir Abdullah, Abdullah is. the king of fumbling, okay? Yes. He fumbled at Nebraska. He had 14, he put 12 on the ground, okay? Like, and he fumbles one time. We're so busy talking about turkey holes, whatever that was.

I have no idea what it was, but Gruden, that we never saw the clip. We had to come back to it. And then he's still on the field again when he fumbles again. I don't even know how they recovered the other fumble. Well, thank God they have Marvin Jones, though, right? Yeah, thank God they have Marvin Jones. I mean, look, I thought. He was in a select class that goes into Lambo and somehow is better on the road at

Lambo than he is at home or anywhere else in the NFL. I thought Matthew Stafford last night, I don't know where I think Clay Matthews must be in West Cape May too because I couldn't find him. You know, he's too busy doing those commercials with the whole Matthews family. It's amazing. You're watching the game. You can't find Clay Matthews that go to commercial and you got three, you find Clay Matthews three times in a row. You didn't even know they had that many Matthews in the family. I mean, you know, I mean, it's like, whoa, wait a minute.

You can't do that many commercials. You got to make a play before you get to a commercial, right? There should be a rule. Like, we're not going to run the Allstate commercial with Clay. if he doesn't at least have a tackle in the game. So, yeah, you couldn't find him. I mean, you just couldn't find him in the game. I don't know. The Packers' defense just didn't look good at all. But I thought Matthew Stafford was unbelievable last night.

I thought he did. His accuracy with the football was unbelievable. And, you know, I mean, he was the difference maker. He looked fresh and healthy. He almost looked like he came off a buy the way he was so into the game. Yeah, it really did. Yeah, it was good. I kept thinking, wait a minute, did they have a buy last week?

And I know they played Pittsburgh and they gained a bunch of yards. Now, Jim Bob, Kuder. Could he get any more love? He's the best. I think Gruden just like saying Jim Bob Kudor. It's like his catchphrase at this point. Jim Bob Kuda. You know, he just loves it. He just loves it. It's good for the brand. You got to feel like Jim Bob's going to get a job at some point. I usually could tell if Gruden likes somebody or he doesn't, but from the way he describes it, you know. But I wasn't sure if he likes Jim Bob Kuder or not. Like, it just says it. It's three-knit. Like, I call you tape Brazier. I think he stole that from me. It's a good thought exercise just to listen to him to say the name Kirk Cousins and then the name Jim Bob

Kuder and see the enthusiasm in different ways there. Because Kirk cousins, Kirk cousins. And then Jabal Gooder. Jay Gruden. I love how it says Jay Gruden. And Jay Gruden. That Jay Gruden. Yeah, he loves that. Let's talk about a guy that is MIA at this point, and we haven't seen him in a long time, and that's Mr. Andrew Luck.

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback, there was some controversy today. Jim Ursa comes out and says that he thinks luck, it's not all the shoulder. We all know the shoulder is not quite right. He says it may be more of a mental thing with him. And then Tony Dunjie is on with Dan Patrick. He made some comments about it.

And the way it was originally framed was that he said that he had spoken with Jim Ursay. And then he recanted on that and said that he did not speak to Jim Merce. He was just responding to what he saw in the quotes from Ursay himself. But at this point, there's just a lot of clouds and a lot of conversations about a guy that we haven't seen in a long time in a guy that we thought would be the, you know, the face of this franchise and maybe one of the faces of the NFL. And he was the Yoderant quarterback in Indianapolis because now look at the mess that Chris Baller is trying to clean up there. I mean, they really don't have a very good

offensive line. I do think there is some issues, and I thought this would, I think you saw it with Sam Bradford when he tried to play, after he came back from the injury. I think there's a mental block you go through that you have to kind of get through when you have an injury, especially one as bad as luck at, that you feel like you can throw it and come back from. I think it's just human nature, right? I don't know if. And it's your prize possession. I mean, it's like when you get Tommy John surgery as a pitcher and you come back and you're supposed to be throwing 100 miles per hour. I mean, it's hard to convince yourself to try to let your arm go that hard. Right. I mean, I'm sure Gordon Hayward's going to go through the same thing.

Like, well, first time he gets on the court and he can't touch the rim when he jumps. I mean, he's going to say, what's going on with my life, right? I'm sure Sinatra had the same problem when he was worried about singing. Yeah. I mean, you know, it didn't have any honey that more than his voice was a little raspy. Exactly. You know, it's like, you know, Springsteen went through nasal surgery or something like that, and he comes out, you're worried about whether you could sing again.

So I get it. I just think it's a block you have to go over. I think this is not something uncommon. I think we'll make it into a bigger story than it really is. I think the issue in Indianapolis, more than anything, is they're going to have to hire a coach, and everybody's going to want them to hire somebody to make Andrew Luck better. And I think when you really look at this, and a friend of mine was emailing me over the weekend, was talking about it is like this notion that you hire an offensive coach to make your team better,

I think it's probably not the right thing to do. I think defensive coaches, if you look at the league, Pete Carroll, Belichick, what Sean McDermott's doing. Now look, Sean McVeigh's doing a great job there. So there's exceptions to every rule. But I think if I was in Indianapolis and I knew I had Andrew Luck coming back, I'd hire and I was going to make the move with Chuck Pagano. I'd hire a defensive coach.

Like a guy like Sean McDermott, right? If you could bring him into Indianapolis, change the culture of the team and then have this piece and Andrew Luck to add to that. I mean, that makes everything better. I mean, when has it ever worked? I mean, in my time and my career, when has it ever worked when a player has gotten a job, like Eli Manning gets Ben Mac to do the job.

Or James Whittinson gets a dirt cutter a job. I mean, like, when does that work? Like, I was going back racking my brain over that. And like, we got to have this guy. We got to have that guy. It doesn't work. I mean, you know, it's unfortunate. You know, Jay Cutler wants this guy to be his head coach or he wants that guy to be

his coach. Like, the program has to be bigger than that. And I think that to me, if you want to build a program and you want to compete at the highest level, whether it's against the Patriots or against Seattle or against any Super Bowl team, I think there has to be an element of toughness that comes from your team. And you're only going to get that from defense. Do you think, I mean, look, people look all over me. You know, when are you going to admit Doug Peterson? Look, I think Jim Schwartz has a pretty good job in Philadelphia. I mean, you want to give Doug all the credit, but I think somebody's coaching the defense over there, too.

He's been unbelievable. And he was, I mean, I think he gets a bad rap for his time in Detroit. But, I mean, he had moments in Detroit. I mean, good and bad. But he still exemplified all the bodies that you would want to see in a head coach, and he handles himself in that way. I mean, I was going to ask you what a name would be, you know, a defensive guy to go in there. And Schwartz seems like a guy that could be a big hand. I mean, to me, short should be a head coach. I mean, everybody says, oh, you know, this and that. Look, when Schwartz was in Detroit, he's dealing with a front office that politely was not exactly up to the level that, you know, that was hard.

He took over. So Martin Mayhew was there. Martin Mayhew took over for Matt Millen and they had Tom Lewan there. The whole cap situation, everything there wasn't exactly easy. I mean, Bob Quinn, who's the GM there now will tell you that. it wasn't a smooth transition. So I think what Jim has done is exactly what most good coaches do, like Belichick. I mean, Belichick gets fired in Cleveland.

He goes up to New England. He's a really good defense coordinator. He goes to the Jets. He's a really good defense coordinator. They learn from their mistakes. But what you get with a defensive head coach is you get team toughness. You get the ability that the kicking game becomes important. You get a lot of toughness.

If you hire an offensive coach, you know, sometimes all they want is clean exchanges. All they want is this, you know, like, you know, we got to carry eight receivers. Who needs a receipt? If John Gruden becomes the head coach, Stamp Bay Buccaneers, they'll carry 27, 28 players on offense. They won't be any good in the case, because that's what he'll want to do.

Now, I'm not saying he won't be successful. I'm just saying the team will have to be successful on offense, not on defense. Yeah, but it's one thing to, like, go and hire a guy like Todd Haley and bring him in and say, I want to do all these different offensive schemes. And, you know, the whole other side of the football needs to be addressed. Right.

Yeah, and then you're just hoping for, you know, like you could hope for you hit the right guy. And when you look at it, like John Elway, He decided to hire a defensive coach. He said, well, Lombardi, you're talking about both sides of your mouth. Well, his defense was pretty good already in place. His biggest issue going into the season was who was going to fix his offense. And that's hard to do.

It would have been nice if he had Kyle Shanahan there to fix his offense. You know, that would have been the perfect idea, right? But I think what people are. That might have been too close with the Shanahan family. I think it was way too close. But it's fascinating that we don't ever write about this or talk about it. But could you imagine? I mean, Denver's lost what, their 0 and 4 on the road this year, not a good road team.

They're not very good at home either. But so, I mean, could you imagine if they would have the cap lumbications of Brock Oswald are still with them had he signed that contract? Do you imagine where they would? If the Cleveland Browns didn't save them, they would be. Well, they save the Texans. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, no, if the Texans didn't save.

Didn't make that trade. It's like a one, two, three of everyone. Could you imagine how bad of shape? I mean, Denver's in bad shape now because by the time they get better on offense, they're not going to be as good as they are on defense. Talib's not going to be the same player. Thomas will be past his prime. Yeah, I mean, things are going to have to change.

And they haven't done a great job of drafting. So for me, like he hired a defensive coach when his strength was defense. Maybe he really needed somebody to build around the offense. I don't know. I think, but each situation is different. But I know this. If I was in Indianapolis, I'd hire a defense coach. Absolutely.

And I'm sure we won't hear the last of Jim Mersey because, you know, he seems to always pop up and have something to say right when you want him. And that leads us to a great segment, which is we're going to insult people. a little bit, and that's not for nothing. And first up, we have Mike Evans. You know, like, I don't get this. Like, this is what bothers me about the NFL is how could a player not get thrown out of the game, but then get suspended for a game? Like, what Mike Evans did was really bad. Like, it was right in front of the officials, too. Like, how... And it was a full-on assault from him. He sprinted, tackled him to take him down,

and started throwing punches. You know, when the, you remember in the wire when Bodie was on one corner and then the other guys were on the other corner and then they would kind of to go out. I mean, this is what it looked like. Right? It looked like there was, there'll be two, two teams were coming after each other, right? All it took was one finger point from James. I was all over. I mean, I wish I would have known James was gave that halftime speech before I went on Saturday.

Sit down. That still pisses me off. Anyway, back to the, meanwhile, back to the ranch. I mean, like, how was Evans not like just thrown out of that game? Like, I don't, like, wasn't somebody watching that? Like, the replay people, like, you realize what Evans did? Like, just tell the official? That's what I mean. We go to Blandino and we ask him about, you know, was the knee down, was the arm down? What was this like an inch? Was this toe tapping of the dirt? It's like, well, could we, can we look at that? Who's been an asshole? Can we throw the asshole off the field, please? And a lot of people were upset because A.J. Green and J. Green and threw him down. A.J. Green, obviously, like, choked Ramsey from Hine, threw him down. And everyone was saying, why don't they get suspended? Why don't they get suspended for a game? It's because he dealt with the punishment. They threw him out of that game. And that was how they handled it at the time.

And I never thought AJ Green should have got suspended. Like when it happened, when you and I sat in here Sunday night and we watched it, we said, Mike Evans is going to get suspended. Like we knew he was going to get suspended. It was like, it was unbelievable. He was still in the game at that point. It was amazing. He was still playing. Unbelievable.

And that was such a, yeah, that was an attitude, you know, just so bad. Yeah, cop an attitude and throwing someone down. Next up, not for nothing. We have your boy, John Lynch. Like, look, I don't like, Glazier had this report that, that Belich. that Lynch asked Belichick about Tom Brady. Like when you as an executive, when you let a privileged and confidential conversation

to Jay Glazer so that he can broadcast it on Fox, I think John Lynch made a really tactical mistake here. I think more than insulting him, I think he should really learn from this. Like you can't take that conversation and broadcast. You're not in the media anymore. You're not in the media anymore. So now you think Belichick's going to trust

anything he says to you that isn't going to go to media, like it just doesn't make any sense. Like it's ridiculous. And now they're putting it out that, oh, well, we're not going to sign, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo. Yeah, Garoppolo is not a done deal. They still may explore options with Kurt Cousins. I mean, they could certainly do it. I mean, we've got the cap room.

They got the cap room. But why would you make the trade? I mean, oh, so you're going to pick up an extra pick because you trade them and you get Kirk Cousins. Like, like that doesn't make, like at some point you got to execute your program. But I think John Lynch tactically. Like at some point, and he gets tremendous PR. Of course.

And this is why. This is why at some point you can't let that conversation out. My thing with this whole situation, let's take it to another layer of the whole conversation. Bill Belichick must have known or had some sort of inkling as to the fact that John Lynch could leak this conversation. So for the people that didn't see the story, you know, John Lynch calls. He's on the phone and he's, you know, inquiring about quarterbacks with the Patriots. and he asked Tom Brady, and then Bill Belichick gives this amazing response.

Like, you mean the greatest quarterback of all time? That's who you're asking for? That's who you want to trade me for? And it's like the perfect canned political response that you would hear. But I feel like he had to know that there was a chance that I could get leaked out because we talked about this before. I mean, Bill Belichick's thing in five, ten years down the line.

I mean, he's not dumb enough to know. Like, he's groomed Garapolo in his system. It may have more value just because he's younger and, you know, can give him 10 more years of, you know, good football in New England. but to be smart enough to not to leak anything bad about Brady and have to deal with that situation. I don't know if that's exactly what happened here,

but I just thought it was amazing. Yeah, I think it is. And I think in fairness to John, had Belichick perhaps said something about Brady that he did, you know, maybe John would have leaked it. He may not have leaked it. And maybe John looks at this as saying, you know, I was doing Belichick a favor by leaking this as it turned it around.

But for me, it's like it was a privilege and confidential conversation. And when you leak it out like that, you know, and then, I mean, leaked out the fact that, first of all, nobody's followed up on it. he originally said that Brady, that Garoppolo was untouchable. That was the first thing that he said. But they never followed up with, well, what made it touchable? Like, what change between conversation A and B to make them touchable?

Which also makes me wonder when this quote unquote conversation happened because it could have happened in the summer for all we know. We have no idea. We don't have dates on it. No. And, you know, like, look, I was at the LBJ library. They have, you know, they record these conversations. So they came, you know, the president's talking on November 2nd here, you know.

But these aren't. So I don't know. To me, it just, you know, I don't think it's really good as an example. I think if you want to be a media guy in the NFL and you're going to leak everything to the media, you're going to get good PR. There's no doubt about it. But if you've got to keep conversations between yourself and other people or else the other guys aren't going to trust you. I mean, it's like when Al Davis would call, you know, he would be like, I don't want this out. This isn't, you know, he knew if somebody was going to leak something.

So he would never make the call. And it just, to me, it's not good business. And could this be something that we see a reflection of this in the future with the 49ers? Like say there is a team that wants to make a deal for Ruben Foster. You want to make this trade. You want to call these guys. Well, I don't want to deal with that. You're getting out that I'm putting T.Y. Hilton to be traded in this trade.

I don't want to deal with the media implication of all that. Which it's fascinating because one of the conditions John Lynch took the job was he wanted to see if the leaks were going to be stopped at 49ers. I mean, that was one of his conditions. Meanwhile, he's the biggest league ever. I mean, you know, it's like everything. You know, I mean, like. Nine times out of ten the guy looking for the rat is the rat. No doubt.

You ever, you know, it's like it's like the departed, you know? Exactly. Exactly. You always don't. It's like the guy that comes up to you, Michael, is going to be the traitor. That's how we knew it was, that's how we knew it was Abe Bogota. Yep. Do you remember that movie?

I'm keeping up with you. I go home every night and just study gangster movies. Somebody asked me today on Twitter. I thought it was the greatest question. They asked me if Ben McAdoo was a wartime consularia. I thought that was like a great question. And my answer back to him was, no, I don't think Ben was a peacetime

at concierge. I don't, like, could you imagine being Ben? Could you imagine Marlon Brando? He might be a dessert time. That would be like a great, that we should probably do that one time as put characters. And could you imagine Ben is a concierge after Sunny got shot? No. Because remember when they asked Ben at halftime,

what he told the team, he mumbled. I don't know if he'd even have an answer. He may just walk away. Maybe he just puts the paper up and covers his face. Yeah, so now I'm thinking in my head, So, all right, at halftime, you know, this would be like, that was almost like Sunny getting killed at the tollbloss. And Ben comes in and now he's got Telvedo that his sons that, he mumbled it. Yeah.

I mean, when you look at Ben, honestly, I mean, I interviewed McAdoo years ago. Like, there was nothing that you got, like you said, this is going to motivate the team. There was no presence to it. Zero. Yes. Zero. It doesn't come across that way through the television either. Oh, shocking.

Really? It doesn't. I mean, surprisingly enough. You think he could get your like, what's that? ringer basketball team going. You think you can get those guys going? Yeah, get them hyped up. Get Richie and everybody going.

Who's the best player on the ring of basketball time? I don't know. A lot of people. They, like, who's like, that's what I need next week from you on GM Street.

I need a rank. You need a scout? You need a scout breakdown? I need, like, one to, like, like, who's the chucker? Well,

calling Kurt Goldsbury. He'll do like a shot chart of everyone on the team. Yeah. And we'll see if we can figure it out. Yeah, they got uniforms. I do cousin Sal against all odds

on Wednesday night. So I'm not there anymore. hand. Oh, we should probably do like a remote brock. You should put that in when you're over at Bill's office. We'll watch the tape. We'll crunch the tape. All right, let's keep going. Maybe we'll get Ben McAdo and he gets fired to come in and see what he has to say about it. He can be a host. I mean, he'll slick back his hair.

Yeah, he's already got the face. He's got the Pat Riley look, right? What did Prop Joe say to look the part, be the part? Exactly. We'll get him a nice suit. We'll deck him out. I miss Prop Joe. I've got to be honest. Let's talk about

should we talk about some college stuff, a little lottery watch? Well, I mean, look, I read the other day Sam Donald's practicing play better. He only missed a couple throws. I mean, people need to get off this one. I know Phil Sims is really high on Josh Allen. I know that. But I don't know if it's going to be a good draft. But I think the University of Florida is a great job.

Yeah, let's talk about that. So right now, one of my favorite coaches, Mr. Randy Shannon, taken over for Florida, from the U to Arkansas, back to the state of Florida. Now he's got a Florida vest on. You know, he's got it all decked out or pull over. I should say. That situation, that job in general, with the way that Georgia is basically climbing to the top of the SEC East right now. I mean, it's a little challenging. Obviously, McElwain, he won the SEC two years in a row, didn't do much. Which is remarkable, right? He didn't get any

credit for that, and now he's out. And there's a lot of PR with him that really, I think, nailed the coffin for him. Yeah, I think, you know, when these college jobs, it's so much when, you know, McElwain's from the West. Like, if he was at Oregon State or if he was at the University of Colorado, that's probably a better fit. Like, like last year when the Oregon job opened up, I thought McElwain would be a candidate for the, because that's really what his background. That's where he likes to be. It's more his kind of place. I think sometimes when you go to areas, like, okay, the Texas A&M job might open up.

Okay, like, you better know what you're getting into when you go down to college station. You better understand the culture. You better understand the people. You better understand the history. Like, you know, Jim Cunningham gave us a history of this room. Okay, so we know it. We feel Sinatra. You've got to feel the history of Florida.

And you've got to understand what it's all about. And I think that, like, Scott Frost will be rumored to be the next head coach at Florida, whether that's a good hire or not. I don't know, but he's done a great job at central Florida. But I think you've got to understand the history and the culture because Florida, like, there's no excuse. I don't care how good Georgia is. Like, there's no excuse Florida. It shouldn't be one of the top five jobs in the country. There's one name down in Florida that's probably going to try to put his hat in the ring and that's Laine Kiffin.

Is there any chance of that? I mean, how about, no, no, come on. I mean. I just wanted to do that for Lane Kiffin. I like to throw my bone every once in a while. How about him saying that, you know, he was like talking about gambling this week on his Twitter. He might have the second most dangerous Twitter handle to somebody else we know, okay? Like, they should stop him from Twitter.

He might end up being the Pete Rose of college football when it's all said and done. You got to wonder. Yeah, you got to wonder. I want to talk about another job that might open up. Jim Moore, Jr. down here with UCLA. I don't think so. You don't think so? No, and here's why.

You know, we are in the state of California. We are broke, right? Yes. So UCLA is a state-run institution. It is. Public schools. Public school. And Jim Marr, I think, has over $11 million to get bought out of his country. They owe them a lot of money.

And unless there's going to be some movie producer or some executive who wants to buy them out, I don't know. The school ain't going to buy them out. What about LaVar Ball? Just throw in $11 million, just buy them out. Help the football team, they all start wearing the BBB gear. There you go. That's a pretty good idea. Just figured it out for you, UCLA.

But, you know, I have to pick the coach when that would make, you know, he would pick whoever he was. There you go. There you go. That would be something Lavar Ball, you got Diddy, just put a whole... That would be awesome. That should be a sitcom. We should tell Solomon about that.

He could probably write that up. Joel Solomon, he'll put it together, that's for sure. Are there any other job openings that you care about? You know, I'm interested to see what the Texas A&M job, if that opens up. Someone is, you know, I mean, that's a really good job. Like, that should be a top five. He's been so hot and cold there, you know,

with the Manzel years, and he came back with a little bit downtrodden years, and he got him back to be a number one in the country for that one little run, and then he fell back down again. It's just been... It seems like for whatever reason, he's almost been getting ousted since he's been there for. I think if I was, again, if I was a college athletic director, I would want to hire somebody who could build a tough program. Because I think, you know, Ohio State lost this week in Iowa. And in France, people say he's too conservative as this, but they run a pro-style offense.

And I know talking to the Ohio State coaches before the game this week, they were worried about playing Iowa because they don't practice against a pro-style offense. Nobody really runs that. So when I was growing up, everybody ran the wishbone and something. form of options. So when you went to go play Oklahoma and you were a random school, say you were the University of Arkansas, you really weren't used to practice it against that type of offense, right? That's where Stanford has become the outlier of college football. Jim Harbaugh went there and said, I'm going to be different than everybody else. I'm going to recruit freshmen and sophomores to try to get their academic state now. And then I'm also going to run an offense that nobody

really practices against. You've got to be different. I think if people's Zig, you've got a zag. I think that's for college football right now. These schools make mistakes when they hire somebody, like Sumlin. He's always been able to get great offensive alignment down there. There's tons of them in the NFL. Like instead of trying to be a spread team, he should be a power team. Like you could be. Because they're big boys up front.

They could be really big boys. Absolutely. They can go to Alabama and they could beat them up. Like to me, you can't beat somebody if you're always going to play their game. Like, they're just better at it than you are. So you've got to zig when they zag. And I think that's part of the problem with college football is there's not enough zagging going on. I tell you right now, you know who loved that speech? Paul Johnson.

Yeah, exactly. He's been zagging for years. Exactly. The triple option will never die if Paul Johnson is still here. I mean, you can read all of Malcolm Gladwell's books, but I mean, Rick Patino, you know, he learned. At Providence with a three-point shot? No, he learned when he was a player sitting on the bench at the University of Massachusetts, and they played Fordham played Massachusetts when they had Dr. Jay.

Yeah. And Fordham pressed the whole game. And it created a problem in the game. Digger Phelps was the coach at Fordham. Do you remember Digger Phelps? Oh, trust me. That highlighter, I can see it right now waving at me. I never got that.

I never understood that. Anyway, so. Always matched his tie. Yeah, which he always dressed well, coach bad. But anyway, that's a whole other thing. Don't talk bad about Notre Dame now. Digger Feltz will run up here and tackle both of us. I know.

I'm going to rest of my mother's soul. She would get mad at me too. She caught me saying a bad word about Notre Dame. I know that. I'm sorry, Mom. Anyway, so, you know, like, so Fordham pressed all the time. So that impact that Patino. And Patino said when I become a coach, I'm going to do that.

And I think that's really. really how you have to approach. That's where I get frustrated with coaches. It's like, don't do the same thing everybody else is doing. You've got to Zig when they Zach. All right, Lombardi, we're going to get to word on the street here in a second. Talk about the NFL ratings. But first, a quick break.

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thing you would ever want to gamble on they even take it to captain morgan's make-believe casino or sal makes up props on all kinds of things sports pop culture you name it we were going to want to get your gambling advice from these guys cousin sal he's been a staple on the bs podcast for the last 10 years so good that we gave him his own podcast check it out against all odds with cousin sal subscribe wherever you get your podcast Let's do a little word on the street, just some sort of some big picture things that are going around. I want to ask you about, I know we haven't talked about this on the podcast. I mean, everyone, every single week, we hear the NFL ratings are down, all this sort of stuff.

I mean, if you're a GM or you're just in a front office of a team, I mean, you don't care, right? You just care about the football product. I think it's a really good time. I think we need leadership in the NFL badly. I think that's really what it's a cry for. This is always everything, whether it's the country or whether it's the NFL, these things always go in cycles. and I think that there needs to be an adjustment in the collective bargaining agreement. I think we know that we live in a country and a society that marijuana is legal in a lot of states.

So we're going to have to handle that issue with the players because you can't suspend a player for marijuana when it's legal to smoke. And it can also be pointed out as like the most egregious crime from a player. Exactly. So, I mean, you know, so you're going to have to balance. And we need to be able to get offensive defensive alignment in a room in February and March. And I'm not saying they need to have pads on because they don't. but they need to be able to work on the fundamentals and techniques. The game has to change.

And we also need to figure out a way to develop quarterbacks. We have to be better at quarterback development. And the quarterbacks have to be coached more, whether we start our own expansion league in the United States or we go back to the World League over in Europe or somewhere. But there needs to be more player development within this, within college, but within pro football to help quarterbacks. Because when you lose quarterback, like last week, when I had to leave Tony P's early, there were a lot of bad quarterbacks on the screen.

There were no quarterbacks. I mean, look at it. Deshawn Watson goes down and, you know, we got Tommy Savage. I'm sorry. I like Tommy Savage. That's a good name. I'm sorry, you know, I mean, it's just don't work. Yeah, it's not the same.

I will say this. We talked about Germany and the fact that they could branch out. Germany is a country that really, really loves football. Loves it. And that's a place where NFL Europe did this to see Bobby Rome, shout out to Bobby Rome, the NFL Super Bowl champion in Europe. Nobody remembers that. But I think that there is a reach internationally and that could help.

But it's just in a weird spot right now where it just feels like everything is negative. We don't have any leadership. I think we have to, you know, sometimes you have to spend money to get money. I mean, sometimes I think it would be better to make the product. If they spend a little money on the product, as opposed to trying to hoard all the money, we need to develop more quarterbacks. We need to find guys and teach the quarterback how to play, how to run with them. And we need to protect the quarterback much better.

And I think, you know, the Broncos accused the Eagles of running a college offense, which is a joke. But they don't. They run the chiefs offense who they just. played the week before. So, you know, I think that offense is going to become more contemporary. And because it's going to become more contemporary, we're going to need more quarterbacks. I mean, Alex Smith takes hits, Blenz takes hits. They're not going to be able to sustain this very long if there's not a good backup. So that's my speech. Yeah, and people were still going to college football games and they're enjoying the spread system and they're seeing the points and it's unbelievable.

I mean, look, you know, there's always a cycle and there's been a lot of growth in the NFL that was time to level off. Yeah. And I will say this. People should keep their eye on the good Goodell contract situation. Arthur Blank is the one handling that. There's been lots of rumors about Jerry Jones, like behind closed doors. I'd be worried. Yes, absolutely. So if Goodell is not the leader of the NFL in the future, foreseeable future,

then we could see some sort of major shift. I mean, I don't want to call him Virgil Salazzo, but if I was, if I was Goodell, I would think he is Virgil Salazar. I think he's going to get his deal. I mean, Jerry Jones is going to get something. And he's got a lot of, he's got McCluskey, and he's got a lot of police with him. Yeah, and he's good friends with Arthur Blank. And they're all on the same side, those owners.

Look, those they all, look, I said this on, we said this on Sunday night, when they get embarrassed and when owners have to take the blame, something's going to happen. Yeah. And when the revenue pool takes a hit, something's going to happen. People are going to address it. Last thing. Do we have a story time? Do we have an Aldavis story today to get everyone motivated for their Wednesday afternoon? You know, I don't really have one off the top of my tongue.

I mean, I have lots of them that I write in the book. No, it's fine. I just always want to check because I always like hearing the Al Davis. Well, you know, I mean, I think where Al would, Al's perspective of the league would be the same thing. I mean, Al was what people don't understand is like, Al would have been really disappointed last night watching the Lions. Because you don't realize the Raiders uniform was from the Lions. Yes. It's from the silver of the Lions and the black from West Point.

And that's just not, you know, this whole Nike notion, like to think that you were going to put Al in a different uniform, we're not going to do that. We're just not going to do that. So you're saying these apparel companies wouldn't have had the sway that they have now with someone like Al Davis. No, they were going to do it his way. It was going to be his way or no way. I mean, Phil Knight could have come down. Oh, that's not what I want. That's not what I asked for.

We'd not have cared about his 80th birthday coming up. No, no, we're not of care. Not a big deal to Al Davis. No, but we could have German chocolate cake today in his honor. There we go. That'd be nice. let's talk about the Thursday night football game real quick before we get out of here.

Got the Seahawks and the Cardinals. The Cardinals looked like there. Who knows? Who knew Drew Stanton could win games for them and be a competent quarterback? Adrian Peter could run the ball 36 times. I mean, at his age coming back on a short week, look, I think Pete Carroll's got to,

look, Pete Carroll played that game into his strength on Sunday night. I mean, he wanted one of the Redskins to have the ball. He's got the home crowd. I mean, at some point, Seattle's going to have to start playing a more complete game. They, they, every game they are in, it's in the fourth quarter, you know, so why wouldn't this be any different? I think it'll be a good game. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be back in New Jersey.

I have to go back for a funeral, but I'll be looking forward to it to sea. We won't be together Sunday. I apologize for that. That's all right. We'll be on the phone. We'll have a nice little phone chat. Yeah, it'll be a late one. I'll have to put it my eyelids to handle that.

But I'll give you a Red Bull or something. There you go. I'll have to do. I'm sure I'll figure it out. But anyway, I think it'll be a good game. I really do. I'm excited about watching Drew Stanton play, but I'm excited to see what Seattle does on the short week.

You know who's excited about watching this game? Who? The Los Angeles Rams fans. This could be one that the Cardinals, you know, knocked down the Seahawks, and then gets the Rams at the top of that division. What do you think the crowd's going to be Saturday? I heard you, I was listening to Sal's podcast.

You bought tickets? Yeah, it did. Do you sell them? Not yet. But I probably were they hard to get? No, no, not hard to get. I just wanted to watch Deshawn in person. I've seen him at Clemson a couple times.

Oh, yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, that's awesome. But now, not in. anymore. I don't think I'm going to go anymore. Well, I love the Coliseum. Hey, by the way, you know, just a lot of traffic. Next week, next week, the Sixers are in town for two games. We should go. I will go with you to a Sixers game. We'll try to diagnose Foles from the stands,

just see what he's looking like. I think he's, oh, they're not going to play, Embed because they need to rest them. Yeah, Rashon Holmes is going to play, right? Yeah, like, can you please explain this to me? Like, he had four days off. He needs more rest. He's a superstar, right? That's how we treat him. Let's get out of here. Lombardi just ran off the set. If you're not watching this, he just,

left for good. All right, this has been another rousing edition of GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. Mr. Mike Lombardi, I'll miss you this weekend. Thanks, stay freezing.