The Ringer NFL Show - The Harris Group Agrees to Buy the Commanders and Takeaways From the NFL Schedule Release

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz open by discussing the agreement to sell the Washington Commanders to Harris Group and what this means going forward. They go on to recap the 2023-24 NFL schedule and discuss their favorite and least favorite moments from the schedule release. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Stefan Anderson Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Musical Elements: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Sean Fennessey, one of the hosts of the Prestige TV podcast. HBO's Barry is back for a fourth and final season. And that means I'll be back recapping the show with co-creator and star Bill Hader to dive deep on the themes, scenes, and major moments in the series. Bill will provide insight into how every episode was made and why it's ending. New Prestige TV Barry recaps will go live every Sunday night when the episode ends. So make sure you're subscribed to the Prestige TV podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, Ringer NFL show listeners.

Nor Pintziotti here. We've got a very fun episode with Stephen Ruiz coming at you in a minute. We had a bunch of fun talking about the schedule. But there was a little news this afternoon that I wanted to make sure we cover for you guys that happened after we recorded today, which is that the Josh Harris group that also includes Magic Johnson and several other people from the sports and business worlds has reached an agreement to buy drum roll please. The commanders from Daniel Snyder. It is a $6.05 billion deal that is now signed and accepted. exclusive. Those are sort of the operative terms because you'd probably heard that $6.05 billion figure

before now, but it was unsigned and non-exclusive. And that means that the commanders can no longer take other offers while Harris gets the deal approved by the League Finance Committee and ratified by at least 24 of the owners. What you should know is that this is essentially done, but not quite. The Washington Post reported today that the Finance Committee has some concerns, about it based on, at least in part, the relatively large number of limited partners who'd be buying in under Harris. He's obviously the big name and it would be the principal. But there's Magic Johnson and there's a bunch of other guys that would be involved. And, you know, the league likes to keep that a tight-knit circle. So I think that's something that they're thinking about.

That said, I would just say that there are a lot of people in ownership and around the NFL who stand to benefit pretty immensely from a team selling for over six big. billion dollars. And the post also reported that Harris would have to pay a breakup fee, though the size in terms of that. They didn't know. But he would have some penalty there if the deal falls through. So it seems safe to assume that this is happening and the parties have a fair bit of confidence that this is going to happen. A couple things that feel worth pointing out that we don't know. One is if any sort of legal indemnification for Snyder is part of this. we do know that the league has seemed pretty resistant to that,

but it's something that he's expressed wanting through the various points of negotiation. The other is what this means for the Mary Jo White report on her investigation into the many sexual misconduct allegations within that franchise during Snyder's tenure. Seth Wickersham and Don Van Nata Jr. reported today for ESPN that Snyder and his lawyers have lobbied the NFL

to limit the release of that report using the threat of a dragged out sale process of leverage. We'll see. We'll find out how much leverage that really gets them when this is all said and done. I would just say that Roger Goodell has said out loud in front of cameras, in front of microphones to many, many people,

quite a very many times that the report will be made public. And he also appeared in front of Congress, largely because of the issue of whether the investor, investigations into those issues were being made public. So my two senses, that seems like a tough cell, but we will find out. There's definitely some stuff to iron out here, but it does feel like we can say goodbye to Dan, to the Dan Snyder era. So, you know, as Green Day's time of your life plays softly in the background, we will always be able to remember the 424 winning percentage, the suing of the season ticket holders, the time he pushed through a Landover, Maryland safety ordinance,

eliminating street crossings on Sundays so that fans couldn't park in cheaper parking lots. The harassment allegations, the allegations of horrible treatment of cheerleaders, of skimming revenue off the top from various events, of charging the team millions of dollars to put its logo on his private jets, the meddling and personnel, RG3's health, Albert Hainsworth, Jim Zorn, hiding on the yacht from a subpoena. I could go on, but you all know that Stephanie got the picture. My point, though, other than the fact that it's just sort of fun to go through that list because it is wild, is that there is a tendency. And I think in a lot of cases, it's a well-founded one to say that all these guys, all these ownership groups have their issues.

Few owners are perfect. But Dan Snyder for a while has been pretty clearly a top contender for the worst owner in professional sports. So I think I'll just end by saying that we can live. let this be a good day for the commanders and that you guys came here to hear about the schedule release. So we will now get to that and get to Stephen. I'm Nora Princeati. I am here with Stephen Ruiz. There are exactly 118 days as of this recording until the season opener, Chiefs Lions. And we know that blessed piece of information because the NFL schedule in all of its glory has been released over the course of...

approximately 600,000 hours of broadcasts, dribs and drabs, different venues for the release of just individual games, which I for one believe is just the most compelling entertainment product. This league is capable of putting on. Stephen, are you enjoying schedule season? Is it just like the greatest thing that we could possibly be entertained by and witness? I'm having the time of my life. I went to the coffee shop earlier today

and everyone was talking about the week six slate. They couldn't believe it. It was the talk of the shop. You feel the buzz, right? It's like, everybody says the water cooler is dead, but they don't know the schedule release. They don't know what the schedule release does for the people, for communities. They don't. It just gets people talking. We were joking before we

started taping that we should do this like first take style and just make this like an incredibly combative pod. Get in screaming matches is about like who's got more games coming off of five weeks. 405 start. This should have been a 425 start. Okay. NFL's losing its mind.

I will say there are a couple weeks where the split between early window and late window is like, there's like nine games in the early window and then three in the afternoon. And I just want like I want heads to roll. I'm mad. I'm big mad. I want to start a fight. Wait. want a big four o'clock slate? Is that what you're advocating for? I want more like, yes,

it's so annoying when there's just like 800 million games all stacked in one window and it's so hard to pay attention to everything. And then all of a sudden it's just like, we could have put more games here. We could have. Yeah. Think of the, think of the podcasters. Think of the Sunday night podcasts. As I was saying that, I was like, all right, this is probably just like a, a podcaster's qualm. So whatever, they don't have to listen to me. But we're going to talk some schedule release. Because you know what? We're part of the machine. And that's how it is.

As Stephen and I have consumed all of the schedule content, voraciously, we're each going to do like five takeaways and just chat it up about some things we've noticed. So, Stephen, would you like to kick us off? Yeah, I'm going to start out with a negative one. The Thursday night football slate. It stinks. It stinks.

It's a bad schedule. And like, we've come. We don't have high expectations for Thursday night football, but there was the assumption that it would be better this year because there weren't stipulations where a team had to be in prime time. The NFL schedule makers weren't burdened by having to fit in the Texans somewhere and make an interesting game. But still, this schedule is bad.

Like the only game, okay, Minnesota, Philadelphia to kick it off. Decent game. Last year we got Kansas City chargers to kick off the Thursday. Well, yeah, but that was like the first part of the deal and they had to that was like one of the best, the most exciting, the most anticipated games of the entire schedule was that chart. Yeah, that's a good point. But after this, after that first game,

I could see each of these games just not being interesting at all because there's like one good team against one team that could be a few. Like the next game is Giants 49ers. Are we really that confident in the Giants being compelling enough? Even by week two, we could lose interest. And then Bears, commanders, Broncos, Chiefs, Saints, Jaguars. wires, we get bucks to bills.

That could even be a bad game by then. Baker Mayfield's involved. The only game that I like on the Thursday night schedule, like at this point, is Baltimore, Cincinnati, November 16th, Week 11. I'm very excited for that game. But all the other ones, I feel like this is going to be a season where you can take Thursdays off. Dolphins Jets?

That's Black Friday football. Oh, you're right. It's an Amazon game, but it's not. Wow. Wow. That's BFF. Okay, but come on, that's still like, if we're talking about the Amazon package, I feel like it still counts. Yeah, it still counts.

But I mean the proper Thursday night football, the Thursday night where it's like mid-November and you're kind of fatigued from the season, you're oversaturated with football. And then you get Patriots, Steelers. Are you tuning in for that? Well, Mack Jones, Kenny Pickett action? I don't know. No, I'm not. That's not a horrible game. Yeah.

Saints Los Angeles Rams on December 21st. Yeah, that could be bleak. No one's watching. That could be really bleak. All right, I'll give you one sort of off of that, which is that I guess we'll just, we'll start negative on both friends. The Rams, I'm worried about the Rams.

I was already worried about the Rams, but their schedule includes, they and the 49ers, I think both got totally screwed by this. because they are the only two teams to face four opponents coming off of their by week. There is no other team that will be in that situation more than twice. And for the Rams, already just like not going to be a good team probably. They've got the Steelers in week seven coming off of their buy. The Cowboys in week eight, the Ravens in week 14 and the commanders in week 15.

the Cowboys game and the Ravens game are both on the road. For the 49ers, it's the Browns coming off thereby in week six, the Bengals in week eight, the Jaguars in week 10, the Cardinals in week 15. Only that Cincinnati game is in San Francisco, but the Jags game, the 49ers are also coming off thereby,

so it kind of cancels out. I am more confident in San Francisco to, like that's tough, particularly for a team that's been so, had so many issues with injuries that were used to seeing them deal with. You don't like the look of that. But like, the Rams are this team

where it's like if a few things break wrong, all of a sudden this is absolutely one of the worst teams in the league. And, you know, I don't want to keep dunking on the schedule, but we already know who everybody's playing. The stuff that really matters is like, the travel timing and the cadences of buys and all of that stuff. And like nobody got dealt a worse hand, I think, than the Rams in this just because of that, that, that scheduling. Yeah.

And the Jets also got some tough scheduling. The Giants got some tough scheduling. The Jets, I feel like they, they got a raw deal just because the Aaron Rogers thing happened so late. And a lot of the schedule, I think, was contingent on that trade. happening whether the Jets were a primetime team or not. So I feel like they kind of got like a short trip out of the schedule. But they were like what they were one of my winners. I'll move on to my next point because I wanted to talk about the content, the content teams

putting out the schedule videos. The Jets were in my top five. The Jets were in my top five for bringing out the Gio Gugster guy. One of my favorite people on the one of the best internet people. You know why he's so good at being an internet person? He knows what the people want. The people just want to see him. look at a picture real quick and then guess where it is on the map.

And he always gets it right. The Jets, A plus schedule release video, F-minus schedule for them. So you could decide if your winners are losers there. But shout out to the Titans, shout out to the Chargers, the ones that are getting the most, I think they're getting the most credit around the internet. But two very good content teams, and they lived up to their billing. The Chargers had the most pressure on them. They had the anime video last year, which was a big hit.

And they came back with the second one, which is always risky to double up. And I think it was even better this time around. There were a lot of jokes. A lot of the Aaron Rogers, the Jets section was very funny. A lot of Easter eggs in there. But A plus to all the content teams. Mike McDaniel hitting the vape. Yes.

That was so good. Like that was so, so, so, so good. That and for the Raiders game on the slot machine, they had the exact contract figure for Jimmy Garoppolo, which I thought was a really solid. They just continue Kings stay Kings in that case, I think. At the bottom, at the bottom, very fine print.

I, like, zoomed in on all this. I was trying to find all the jokes. It says, voucher not available for the whole season. It was a Jimmy G. injury joke. That's solid. That's incredibly good. Maybe over the line for an NFL team, but for me, I think that's pretty funny.

And the QR code. Did you scan the QR code? No. Like, there was a QR code on the voucher thing. And if you scan it, it takes you to a link to the Chargers website. It says, like, Chargers fans click here. And that's to buy tickets. And it says Raiders fans, click here.

And that's a link to, like, a Google search for how to get a job. They're incredible. They're just absolutely incredible. I'm so proud of everybody who works in the social media department to that organization. The Chargers, like, famously a team that kind of over promises and underdelivers. Not the social media people. Absolutely just, like, bringing the heat at all times. Incredible stuff.

Also that the Broncos, they did like an office parody. I thought theirs was good too. Great stuff. This is like, I mean, this is their Super Bowl. If you work in social media for an NFL team, the schedule release is their Super Bowl. And I think everybody brought their egg in. For some of these teams like this is literally their Super Bowl,

like the Titans, it's not getting any better than this. I'm sorry, Titans fans. Speaking of teams that it seems like the league doesn't think it's getting all that much better for. I'll give you another one. It's interesting to see because we are now in the situation where teams don't have to have a prime time game. So we will not be seeing the Texans, Cardinals, Colts, or Falcons.

Colts and Falcons, I find that a little bit surprising just because the Colts could be exciting if Anthony Richardson hits. And then the Falcon's offense, I mean, I know Desmond Ritter is not, like, going to put butts in seats or eyeballs on screens necessarily. But the odds that that offense is boring to watch seem incredibly slim to me. So that's a little bit of a surprise to me. The thing that stands out, though, I mean, it's pretty obvious why you wouldn't put a lot of Texans games in prime time. But I just want to know what the reaction to that is for people on that. that staff and for Casario, for Topeka Ryans, for ownership,

having made some plays that indicate they believe that they are going to be good this year, or at least you would hope that that's the logic behind the trade-up on draft night. League doesn't think so. Schedule makers don't think so. Amazon Web Services don't think so. They don't believe in the Texans plan. The schedule makers basically were saying, I can't believe you guys trade it up for a warrior.

that number three pick for Will Anderson. Do you guys know what you are right now? We're trying to hide you. But like if I'm another team that hasn't like made those moves, like the Texans are, seem to be trying to win something this year. But if I'm like the Bucks or the Rams who don't seem to be trying to win, I would,

I would be content with not having prime time games. Like if I'm the Bucks and I see that, I think they had two prime time games, which is two, too many, I would be like, oh, that's good. I don't want any prime time games. I don't want the nation to see what's going on here. I don't want them to know what we're doing here.

So it could be a positive, it could be a negative. I don't know. But yeah, the Bucks being in two primetime games. I mean, I don't get the reasoning there because even last year when they had Tom Brady, they had a draw. They were still boring to watch on prime time. Like all their primetime games were like hard to watch. Like games played in the teens. And I think it's going to be even worse this year.

That offense was literally sickening. They were a disgusting watch. I don't like, I'm almost like I wonder how it. could possibly be worse. Like, I get it. The quarterback got worse. That seems like a one-to-one the offense is going to be worse.

But there's part of me that's just like, that's not even possible. Because maybe it'll be just, negative points. It'll be like a spectacular train wreck or something. Because that would be better. But that was just the most stagnant, like dull exercise I've ever watched on television.

That is a good point. But I don't think like, I don't think the schedule makers are thinking about like the sickos on Twitter who like, like you remember last year, the cults, Broncos Thursday night game. One of the most memorable Thursday night games, honestly.

And it was memorable because it was one of the worst football games of the year. It was just horrible to watch. Just two quarterbacks who didn't have it anymore, just proving that they don't have it anymore. And I think of any Baker Mayfield versus insert quarterback here might be similar. All the comments on the broadcast is being like, well, this is terrible. Speaking of teams that might want to hide but are not going to get an opportunity, Packers in six primetime are standalone games, which is like the opposite of the, we're hiding the Texans because they're not going to be good.

If you want to take the schedule making process as an indication of who the algorithm, the schedule makers, the league is interested in pumping up and things might be good or interesting. That's a real vote of confidence in Jordan Love. Because they have the Lions on Thursday Night Football in Week 4. Also have the Lions on Thanksgiving. There's a Monday Night Football game in Week 5

against the Raiders. I guess that's sort of like a Devonti Adams reunion revenge game, sort of. And then back-to-back primetime games in weeks 13 and 14 against the Chiefs and the Giants. And then week 17, they've got Sunday night football against

the Vikings at home. great franchise that those Green Bay Packers love beautiful stadium love looking at it, love the vibes. This team might not be that good. Are we sure this is a good idea? And are we sure

that the Packers who were like, hey, Jordan Love, how about basically a pay cut? And Jordan Love was like, yeah, sure, fine, cool, let's do it. Are we sure? Or that that energy matches up with six games where no one else is going to be on TV at the same time. I'm not totally sold. We are not sure.

Jordan Love better be good. I think Jordan Love is one of the people who are probably a little more nervous after the schedule release. Like he's going to be put on a platform for all of us to dissect his game. It's not fair, but it's going to happen. And that's going to be rough. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a few games flexed out. at the end of the year. Even if they are a decent team,

like a, I can see them being like nine and eight. Yeah. But beyond that, but I think like a boring nine. No, I don't think they're going to be like a train wreck or anything. Like,

it's just sort of like, six is a lot. Yeah. Six is a lot. All right. I'm going to ask you for your next one, but let's take a quick break first. We are back.

Steven. Let's keep it going. All right. My next one is also based on what I think, how the league is perceiving these teams, but I think there's like a fascinating, I don't want to say political battle, But it's like an interesting battle between you have the Chiefs

and then you have the Bills and the Bengals kind of vying for that number two slot that the Colts to Tom Brady's Patriots slot. And it's kind of changed throughout the Chief Run here. Like at first it was the Ravens. Now, and then the Bill stepped up and now it seems like the Bengals are the main rivalry for this team. And it's kind of interesting how the NFL scheduled those games

because all three of those teams play each other. It's like a round Robin situation. First we get Bengals bills, then we get Bill's chiefs. and then we get Bengals' chiefs as the last one. So that tells me the league is kind of looking at Bengals' chiefs as like the next rivalry, and maybe they think that Cincinnati has surpassed Buffalo in the AFC hierarchy. And I say that because you have the Bills Bengals first.

That's kind of like the elimination game, like who gets to go on to play the Chiefs. And then you have Bills Chiefs second. So it's like, let's get that out of the way. And then the main event is Bengal's Chiefs. I mean, I still have the bills ahead of the Bengals and the high. hierarchy in the AFC. But it seems like based on like who who people want to watch, the games they want to see, that the NFL believes that Cincinnati has surpassed Buffalo as that first threat to

Kansas City. I mean, I think that's the right order just because even if I might have the bills a tick over the Bengals, I don't think that Bill's Chief's rivalry ever reached the same level of like animosity. The burrowhead thing, right? Like, Like, there is some real beef, I think, between a lot of those players. And it's fun. Like, I would build to that.

If I were making the schedule, I would have the Bengals be the last one there. Just because I think they hate each other. Like, usually that stuff's fake. But I really do think there's a super, super competitive rivalry. And obviously the Bengals had beaten them, what, three games in a row? And then the Chiefs finally were able to get the upper hand last year. So I think building to sort of like the rematch of that is really, really interesting. I love watching those two teams play each other.

Obviously, the quarterbacks are such a big part of it, but it's always just like, Lou Anirumo stayed in Cincinnati. And that means that there's another opportunity to see what that defense looks like and how they keep attacking Mahomes. So that's a really, really interesting point. And that sort of season long round Robin is such a fun thing to have. but I'm into it ending with Bengals Chiefs. I think so too.

And I think part of the reason is, like you said, there's an actual rivalry there. Whereas like the Bill's Chiefs matchup was always built around the two quarterbacks, just being like these all powerful guys. But they were like the same genre of quarterback. Whereas even with like Burrow is obviously one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, but it's a different style than you see out of the homes. So when these two teams play,

you get like that narrative like oh which quarterback style is best like i think last year people some people were saying like i think dan o'lopchi said uh mahomes is the better player but burroughs the better quarterback i don't know what that means but i think you get those discussions thrown in and then there it kind of got escalated this off season because uh brandon and i'm talking about the bangles and bills part of it as they're like buying for that spot when when being brought up the fact that they couldn't draft a wide receiver because they weren't in positions to draft a Jamar Chase. And then, like, the Bengals kind of fired back.

So there's kind of that animosity forming between those two teams. And I think the more they play each other, the more we're going to get out of that. So I could see this becoming not just, like, oh, what is the top rivalry in the AFC? I could see this being a round Robin thing for the next couple of years. Yeah. No, that would be really cool. I mean, also, like, every Bengals Chiefs game gets decided by, like, three points. So as much of that as we can have, I'm all for it.

Speaking of the bills, tough schedule for them. The entire AFC East has a really tough schedule. But there's in particular, five of their last six games are against 2022 playoff teams, six games in crime time. We always talk about how difficult it is to go to Buffalo late in the year and deal with the weather and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes I think that's overblown, though there certainly is something to it, especially when it's really cold, snowy, wind. whatever. But I think if you're Buffalo, that late season stretch is either kind of daunting

or if they're really good, it'll be really exciting. It'll be a really, really, interesting stretch to watch them finish the year out. But even like, it feels like from week nine on even because they've got the Bengals in week nine. That's that game that you were talking about Stephen. Then they've got the Broncos. Both of those are primetime games. Jets, Eagles, then they've got their buy. And then Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers, Patriots, and then in weeks 18, they finish it out with the Dolphins. So, man, that is a tough way to end the year.

Dolphins game is on the road, Chargers game is on the road, Chiefs game is on the road, Eagles game is on the road, Bengals game is on the road. So if you're Buffalo, I guess in part, you know, they open with the Jets. Maybe you're hoping that Rogers hasn't totally jelled with that offense there and hope to get a win there. Raiders, commanders, then it's the first game against the dolphins. They've got the Jaguars in London. And then Giants, Patriots, Bucks.

Every single one of those early season games that looks even a little bit friendly, there seems it seems like there's very little room for any missteps there because that is a hard way to end the year. Yeah, there's no margin for error at the beginning of the season. They can't like come into the season slow. Because like you said, that stretch at the end, even if they play well, like you could still see them losing games on the road to the Bengals and on the road to the Chargers and on the road to the Chiefs.

That's a tough schedule. And I do think that's the most important part of the, this day is like finding out where those tough stretches are, how the schedule lays out. And that, that does have an effect on teams. There's a reason why teams get mad when their by week is like early in the season. There's a reason why why teams get mad when they have to travel like three times in a row or play tough games after short weeks. And that happens a lot.

And I feel like the league could be better about balancing that. But it feels like this year more so than even in the past, that was less of a concern. it was more about like getting the right games at the right spots and without like any any care about keeping it equitable and i thought the fact that they decided that they weren't going to force teams into having a prime time slot kind of spoke like kind of previewed that and then the schedule came out and it was it was it's one of the most unbalanced schedules i've ever seen there are teams that that have a lot to complain about like the giants like the 49ers the bills could complain a lot. And then there are teams that got a lot, like a lot of breaks. There are teams that

got a lot of rest. The Browns are one of them, surprisingly, given everything they've been up to over the last two years, but they've got a very favorable schedule. So it's interesting to see how this is going to continue. And if teams are going to start complaining about maybe balancing the schedule a little bit more, instead of trying to maximize eyeballs and TV ratings. Now, the owners probably won't, but coaching staffs, I think, might have a say in that. it is like you can feel the shift in some of the sort of allowances that they've started making that they didn't use to that do make the schedule feel more and more unbalanced because you're absolutely right. I mean, they changed the thing where you can, your teams are allowed to have multiple Sunday to Thursday turnarounds. there's the stuff with

the Rans and 49ers facing a ton of teams coming off their bi-weeks. They tried to get the roll through about adding to the Thursday night flex ability late in the season. And Roger hasn't been able to make that what happened yet, but it feels like

if they're going this far, it's just going to be more and more unless teams do start really complaining, which maybe we will start to see them do that. Because it is going to matter. And you can see it in the schedule. I mean, clearly they really, both New York teams, they really, really wanted on TV a lot, especially early in the season,

especially with Rogers on the Jets. But like the giants of seven road games in the first 10 weeks, a lot of that seems like it's designed to facilitate some of the matchups, some of the primetime games. Um, the Jets, I mean, they're going to get three straight home games in week 12. So they're going to get some nice, like, late season pockets. But they're stretched to open the season. They have the bills on Monday night.

Then they go to Dallas on a short week. And then they get the Patriots, which is sort of a rivalry. And then the chiefs. Um, obviously they're milking the Rogers thing for all it's worth. And that's to be expected. And, and of course they're doing that. But you can just see the priority with this schedule was entertainment. And it was not health and safety.

It was not competitive balance. It was not any of these things. It was like, let's give people some games to watch. Which, look, we're consumers. We watch it. I'd rather good games be on at good times and bad games beyond a good times. But it will be very, very, very interesting to see if there are any places around the league that start being sort of vocal about some of these changes.

because it's it's noticeable. So earlier in the pod, you were complaining a little bit about the four o'clock slates throughout the Complaining? Me? Never. But the week once slate of late games, late afternoon games, just perfect, perfect. Kudos to the schedule makers because it's the most toxic slate to possibly have on an opening week.

Like the late Sunday window is supposed to be, you're supposed to relax. you're supposed to, you know, like unwind after the 1 o'clock games. You just got through the witching hour. You just watch Red Zone and like a bunch of things happen. And then we, and then the 4 o'clock games, you kind of just relax. There's one good game on. Everyone's paying attention to it. Not in this week one.

It's the most toxic slate ever. You have, first of all, Packers Bears, big rivalry. Then you throw on top of that Jordan Love's first start as like the full time starter, going against Justin Fields. There'll be a lot of discourse going on with however that game plays out. then you have Philadelphia versus New England, two fan bases that have competed for Super Bowls that are notoriously,

I don't even know what to say, confrontational? I don't know, but it's going to be a toxic game there. And then... Boston versus Philly, like, that's toxic. That's chaotic. Yeah, as we're seeing with the Sixers and Celtics right now. And then the main event, Dolphins Chargers, two at Herber.

The toxic Super Bowl, week one, It actually is. 4 o'clock start. That's insane. This isn't insane. There should be congressional hearings about this. You can't put that on week one at 4 o'clock. I'm sorry.

That has to be a Sunday night game where it's the only game. Everyone's tweeting about it. It's going to be a rough. It's a rough week one. Have you ever had to plan as like a seating chart anywhere, like plan where people are going to sit at something? Yeah, yeah, right. And like there's always a little bit of an impulse to stir the pot.

like fundamentally at the end of the day it's like all right we should make it so that people have the right people to talk to and they'll be entertained and maybe oh these people might get along these people have something in common we'll do that but there's just like this little thing of like that could be

that could be dramatic in a sort of funny way like what if we just did this and that's what I like to imagine happened here it was like all right we have this nice schedule if Sean McBay was playing a planning a party with all of his former players and he was making the seating arrangements.

And he was like, you know what? I'm going to sit Baker Mayfield at the same table as Odell Beckham. That's basically what they did. And I love it. I love it for week one. It might be a little overwhelming. I don't think I'm going to love it at like 7 o'clock on Sunday when we were prepping for the Sunday night pot.

And I'm like, oh, my God, there are all these games I have to catch up on. But right now, perfect. Even Raiders Broncos is in that 425 window in week one. That's just like, those are just toxic vibes. Right. all around. Rust versus the Raiders in general. Russ versus Josh McDaniels. And then you also have Seattle in Los Angeles,

the Rams and the Seahawks, two fan-a-which-and-which-like-it. And feels like it should be a mismatch and the Seahawks should win that. But like, who knows? That stuff gets weird very, very easily. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. That's going to be really funny.

Oh, no, Titan Saints is in the earlier window. Yeah. I'm honestly more interested in that slate than like all of the primetime games combined from week one. From week one. Yeah, like Lions Chiefs. I was kind of surprised the Lions got the opening night game. I think it's a little too much too soon for them. But I can see that being like a blowout for the Chiefs,

especially at home coming off the Super Bowl. Giants, Giants Cowboys is kind of interesting. Giants Cowboys is kind of interesting, but like we've seen it. I've seen that. That seems to be like the week one Sunday night game every year. And then Jets Bills is the intrigues there,

but I don't know how good football game is going to be. But yeah, that 4 o'clock is late and week one is perfect. I'm really excited for Judd's bills. I just want, like the Rogers thing is just fascinating.

Just, it's going to be funny. No matter what happens, it's going to be funny. I feel, I'm not saying, like Cowboys Giants, for instance,

if that could be a good, that could be a really good football game maybe and if that's the case, then like, cool, fun. I don't know if there's all that much, like, even though that is a traditional rivalry,

I don't look, at those two teams right now and go like, oh, all of these subplots, it's just sort of like, all right, they might be reasonably evenly matched and maybe we'll get something good out of it. Bill's Jets, I'm sort of like, this could be a blowout either way

and probably something worth talking about will happen. So that one feels like you can hang your hat on at least some form of entertainment coming out of it. Same thing with Dolphins Chargers, though. And like, that could also be an incredible game.

but just there's going to be stuff. There's going to be something somewhere. I appreciate the NFL nipping it in the bud, like the Emmanuel Acho to a Herbert discourse that we had all season long. We had to wait until like week 15 for it to get settled finally. But now week one, it's out of the way. Like something's going to happen. God forbid like Tua goes off.

And Herbert is terrible. Then we're just going to hear from Acho all season long. But that really is a gift. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, week one is, is. So the Ravens got a nice, nice gentle start. They've got the Texans. Vikings bucks.

49ers, Steelers, Titan Saints. Jags Colts. Jazz Colts could be fun. Panthers Falcons in the early window. That might be, what are you? What's the first? Is that the first one that you're turning your channel to? During the end of early window in week one?

Yeah. I think that's my early leader in the clubhouse for the first game. and then I'm going to click into. You're not interested in commanders, Cardinals? No, I'm not. I don't think anyone is. Let's just agree right now to never talk about that game. Let's just pretend that game.

I think I can make that promise. I'm going to actively try to avoid seeing who won the game. I don't even want to know. I do think that we should follow through on the rule that I think you've been building, that there should be certain games that you're allowed to just strike from the record and they don't count. And I think that the value of that has more to do with games involving teams that are important and that have stakes in some way, but like something dumb happened and therefore it just shouldn't count. That said, blasted into the sunbam.

Games canceled. Sorry. It's over. It's pre-canceled. We flexed it out of the season. It's actually a college football game. It's getting played on Saturday now. you know what, if we're just going to go, go crazy with all the, with like, they can make

the schedule anything and it's fine, that would be great. I know that, I know it's like Congress has the rule and you're not allowed to do that and it had to do with Friday and that was why the Black Friday I think was complicated and whatever. But they changed that and it was fine. So we should be able to do that. It would be great. It would be really fun. Maybe like, Cliff would come back and make an appearance. He would hang out. He loves college. No, I'm not getting any trash on this. No, no, I'm not. No, my idea is like, you remember during the pandemic,

which it was out of necessity, it wasn't like an entertainment thing. But like having a game on like a Tuesday afternoon was kind of nice at times. And if you throw Cardinals commanders on at, you know, 4 o'clock on a Tuesday, I would watch it. There's nothing else to watch. It's sports during the day. That's always good. It's always watchable.

Remember the Tuesday games during the pandemic? what a time. What a weird unsettling time in our nation's history and our football watching history. Put Cardinals commanders on Tuesday at 4 o'clock as like a throwback to the pandemic.

Look, there's not going to be anyone in the stand so it's going to feel like a pandemic game. Incredible. All right. Anything else? We don't need to play for the schedule. I got nothing else. Oh, I did have one note

that I didn't get to about the Jets, Geo-Gessor video schedule release thing. A good bit would have been flashing a picture of Aaron Rogers' little cave thing, the thing he went on the darkest retreat, and having the Geo-Gessor guess where it was. That would have been a good bit, but the Jets don't know content.

Or maybe they don't want to get into a fight with their notoriously sensitive and like combative quarterback over the schedule release. But I agree with you. I like it. I love, so I didn't know, I didn't know the geogessor guy, but I love those TikToks. Like I get a lot of, because I think there's like a few people.

But when you see it on TikTok, you don't really see the person or like sometimes I guess their head is in the corner. But I didn't realize that someone had like cornered the market on that. So I was a big fan of that too. It's just like, how does he do it? You know, how is it possible? I've gone down the rabbit hole and there's some insane, like he gets to some insane. levels where it's like, I'm going to look at a picture for like 0.1 seconds.

It's been flipped backwards, upside down, and black and white. And then he still gets it. He still gets it within like 100 miles of the place. I'm going to put on a blindfold and look at a picture for 10 seconds and I'm not even going to be able to see it. And then I'm going to be like, well, because of how the highway street signs look, we are in Namibia. Yeah.

I don't know how you get that skill set. This is going to be incredible content for anyone listening to the podcast who isn't familiar with the geogess or guy. No, but look it up because it's like a fascinating thing to watch. It is an amazing skill. Like it makes me feel like those people, first of all, would be able to thrive like just out in the world. Just because of their skills of reasoning and deduction. It's just a really impressive thing to watch people do.

It's way more impressive than anything like any explorer did back in the day. Like Lewis and Clark eat shit. How about you try to do this? incredible. Well, and also, like, they, I mean, they didn't have tools, but, like, most old explorers, like, never knew where they were.

And they were like, ah, I've, I've found this. Like, did Christopher Columbus thought he found, like, India or something? Moron. Yeah, he's a loser. Geo Guesser, guys, the only good explorer, navigator, whatever you want to call it. All right.

This is been the Ringar NFL show. Good, good schedule release talk. Yeah. Anytime you can take a dig at Lewis and Clark during a NFL schedule release pod, it's a good podcast. You know it's been a, you know it's been a successful show. All right. Thank you to Stephen. Thank you to Stefan Anderson for production on this episode. We will be back in a couple weeks, actually. We're going to have, start building up to training camp, believe it or not, because it is getting to be that time of year. However, we will be off for the next two weeks, taking a little, taking a little May doldrum's break here on the feet. but we'll be back towards the end of the month. Thank you to Connor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgapal for additional production supervision and to you for listening.