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3 & Out - Justin Fields and Social Media, Caleb Williams goes agentless, Fugazi Friday

Published Feb 23, 2024, 11:01 AM

John dives into the latest with Justin Fields and if the media is looking too much into the fact the he wants to get away from football when he goes on a mini vacation, is Caleb Williams making the right decision by not having an agent, and the return of "Fugazi Friday."

Later, John answers your questions for this episode's mailbag segment.

6:45 - Justin vs. Social Media

11:10 - Head coaches vs. the media

21:19 - Caleb Williams is going agentless

25:16 - Fugazi Friday

33:00 - Mailbag

34:20 - What's going on with the Giants

52:10 - Can the Browns change their image

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #Herd

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What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast, How are we doing? It? Is Thursday afternoon and here's the game plan. We got a podcast today, hit on fields some drawd Mayo said, we do draft daily, so every day we're going to talk about something regarding the NFL Draft. Today it will be Caleb Williams. Something Kaleis Campbell said in regards to gambling in the issues he has with the current status quo. That is the NFL stance when it comes to players. It's Friday, so we gotta do a little Fugazi Friday. A couple of things that jumped out to me. You know, I gotta hit on the NBA All Star Game which had seven million points and that nice Adam Silver special. And we will also do a mailbag at John Middlecoff is the mailbag fire in those dms for next week? On Sunday, I'm gonna do something with Coward, who I think has been on vacation all week living the good life. So we will talk some football on Sunday. I'm traveling on Monday to Indianapolis. We'll be at the combine on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Do not know my exact status in terms of podcasts. We'll have podcasts next week for sure. Obviously going there to talk with people and interview them ideally on this podcast, and on camera, was texting with a guy that might have just won his third Super Bowl today. Coach Reid said, he's down. My guy, Howie Roseman, He's down. Have some other texts out to see the coaches and the gms that I know in the league, and then we'll just be hustling see who else we can get on the show. And we'll obviously have those interviews for the next couple of weeks hopefully, hopefully we can get a lot. That's the reason I'm going, and other than that, so that that'll be the status. So I don't have an exact We'll have podcasts next week for sure, might not have one on Tuesday, but they'll be flowing after that, but we might depend May. I'll just do one from the hotel room when I get there Monday night, order a little room service, but it's a fluid process. So I'm helping take it the Volume to Indy and the Combine, which I've probably been six or seven times in my life. It's a good time, a lot of stuff going on. It's very relaxed, it's very chill in terms of has a little bit of a Super Bowl week feel to it. But the difference is like all the coaches and all the gms are there, well not all. I mean, Kyle Shanahan is not gonna go. Sean McVay doesn't go half the time, so not everyone goes, but the majority guys go, So we will. We will set up shop there next week. And other than that, you guys know the Drill. Subscribe to the podcast. We also have a YouTube channel. Subscribe to that as well. And we got merch theVolume dot Com The Volume dot Com go check out the merch three and out. But before we dive in, you know, I gotta tell you about my friends at Game Time. They are the official ticketing app of this podcast. Spring Training, NBA games, college basketball, the NCAA tournament. You want to go to a golf tournament, you want to go to a concert, comedy show, get out of the house, it's Sonny where I am right now, Go enjoy yourself. Take a loved one, take your wife, take your son, take a dad, take a brother, and go have some fun and do it on me right now. Download the game Time app promo code John John John get you twenty dollars a off any pair of tickets. I honestly, I've probably used them seven times in twenty twenty three. I even got more aggressive going out because I was like, ah, a friends at game Time, save a little money, go enjoy yourself. Cannot recommend them enough. Storr with Justin Fields who at this point in time, as we sit here on February twenty second, I think it's inevitable he is going to be on another team. He will be traded, and the parameters of that trade will be constituted and I would say loosely concrete by the end of next week. Now I am very, very unsure of his value. But I think anytime you get trades or free agency, if you have multiple teams interested, it just drives up the price. The problem when you get these type trades. A couple of years ago, the Carolina Panthers traded for Sam Darmald and they gave up a second round pick, and they also picked up his fifth year option, and then a year later they regretted it. So these situations are complicated because you're trading a pick that usually is a cheap starter for a quarterback that obviously has some question marks if he's getting traded after his third year, and the contractual obligations of picking up that fifth year option, which is a purely guaranteed number, which I think I read somewhere it's over twenty million dollars, So it's it's not cheap and it's complicated. But he definitely is not like some bum I just think he's a pretty flawed player. He's not a great pocket passer, as we saw down the stretch of the season, especially that final game against the Packers. But when he unfollowed everyone, and I think, listen, once the content happens, I can I'll discuss it when especially with a with a player like this who is kind of in limbo. I can't imagine what a loser you have to be to search players about following and unfollowing certain things like get a fucking life. But someone did it, and then Justin Fields was asked about it, and he basically said, I'm tired of all the talk. I just want it to be over, and I'm about to go on vacation and I'm just trying to enjoy myself and as someone. And basically he alluded to like, I'm gonna look at my phone and when I look at it, I don't want to see the stuff. I just don't. I actually thought that's one of the most relatable things I've ever heard in athletes say, because most of these athletes claim they never look they're all I mean, the NBA is addicted to their phone. Football in the offseason is on it, and listen, we're all guilty as well. I averaged way too many hours a day on the cell phone. Now you could argue I do it for work, but still it's very, very unhealthy. I deleted Twitter from my phone because I don't want to have to look at it. It is a negative Internet schmorgasboard of fucking losers being angry on a daily basis, Like why do I want these other people's thoughts, those people in the media in my head twenty four to seven, three sixty five. So I deleted it. And when I have to go load something for work, wise, I'll just sign in on the internet browser. But I do not. I don't have the self discipline. And let's face it, this cell phone and these apps, the social media apps, are as addicting of as anything I've ever seen in my entire life. It's not even debatable. And listen, I use them. I'm not acting like I'm better or trying to get on my moral high horse here, but let's just acknowledge what it is. I can't imagine I'm almost forty years old, and when I was in college is when Facebook started. I can't imagine being twenty five years old, rich, good looking, famous, you know seven figures were the followers, and just seeing craziness NonStop. So I understand deleting something, especially in Fields mentioned this on the podcast to the Saint Brown Bros. This is out of my control, Like I don't control whether I stay or go when I get traded. It's not like I asked for a trade or wanted to get traded. They traded me. And I think he's making a I actually think it's very mature what he's doing, to be honest with you. Mostly, you couldn't pay someone in the media to delete their Twitter account for seven days they would jump off a bridge before they did that, So listen, I have no issue doing something like this, And like I said, I actually think doing that is very relatable because it crosses all of our minds. I don't care what we do for a living with just the bullshit we see on these places on a daily basis. Anytime you fire a coach in college or the pros, if you have currently a guy that's a big like asshole, the next guy you hire is usually a really nice guy, and vice versa. If you have a really nice guy, the next guy you hire is usually like hardline discipline nobs guy. Think of relationships are a lot like that when you break up with someone. I mean, there can be several variables, but there are a couple things that you're like, God, that that really drove me nuts. Well, the next girl you're gonna date, you're probably looking to avoid those things. Now, there is no perfect person, just like there is no perfect coach, but it's pretty easy to avoid what you just didn't like in the other person. And the Crafts Now have had four coaches. Bill Parcels, I mean, one of the most notorious hardline, tough guys in the history of the sport, Pete Carroll, who is easily one of the most energetic, bubbly, smiley, positive guys in the history of football, and then Belichick, who is probably the biggest curmudgeon in the history of professional sports. Definitely in the running. And now they've hired Gerrod Mail, a guy that Belichick drafted and played for, and he made some comments this week that really stood out to me. Whether I don't know the guy, I don't know if he truly believes this or not, but he said something that I just find fucking moronic. But it's something you say when your bosses have specifically talked to you about this. He said, the relationship with the media is very important. Talking about his assistant coaches, they know the relationship with the media is also very important. I think there needs to be a good relationship between the two groups. Personally, as someone who's worked on a team and now works on this side, I think that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And I'm not necessarily blaming him. I think this is specifically coming from Robert and probably Jonathan Why because Belichick, in his mind, had an awful relationship with the media, right what's gruff was never open. Was just not a fun press conference for those guys on a daily basis, and they want to pivot to be the opposite. But being in with the media or being out with the media is easily in professional sports. This is not politics where you use them for propaganda. Because even in because even when you fail in the government, like no one actually cares. We're in football, like you can use media members as propaganda. But then the games happen and it's either you win or you lose. So you can play the media for these next seven months and you know, give them some good information, give them some sit downs, give them some one on ones. You start zero and four, you think any of those guys give a flying fuck, they're coming for your throat. Football is one of the last It's honestly the only place these other sports don't have it anymore. Where every day is treated like you win or go home in terms of the way it's covered. And I understand Mayo is trying to appease his bosses, but I think this is so stupid, and I think this is so this is classic worrying about the wrong things. Belichick acted like and listen it came pretty natural to him because he never wanted to give anything up. And once you kind of open the flood gates, you got to answer for other stuff and it just becomes a pain in the ass. Now, personally, I like it when coaches are candid, but it can be a pain in the ass for them. Kyle Shanahan can be too candid. Sometimes he says things. It's like what he did it multiple times this year about Steve Wilkes. Now, ultimately he ended up fireing Steve Wilks and it was pretty clear. Or Trey Lancer sometimes over the years, Like, I appreciate that, but it can make your job more difficult when you're in that position. The media is completely irrelevant. They truly are. They're just a completely separate entity. They don't control your destiny. You do. They don't even shape the narrative because they can try. They can call you an idiot, but the moment you start winning, they can't say anything, just like they can call you, Hey, this Brandon Staley guy. He knows all of our names. He's analytically driven. And then we start watching him coach write any story you want, but we all know. So I think, like this is very predictable. But the only thing that matters in professional sports is winning and losing, because that ultimately shapes the story. Not having some guys like you. Belichick didn't need those guys to like him. Why he had six Lombardi Trophies, he went to nine Super Bowls, he was going to conference championships every single year. Like sorry, I didn't have the effort to constantly be super nice to everyone in the media room. I bet if you asked a lot of those guys throughout the years, they had a good relationship with them. I just think optics, I truly believe this. Optics is one of the dumbest fucking things. And for a long time, especially as social media and everyone thought the power of like Twitter and stuff, it was a big deal. Like with companies, it's clearly shifting because we realize how pointless all the stuff is that way, like that, there's a big gap between the Internet and actual reality. What we post and what we text, what we say to our friends and what we say online, what you say in reality is all that matters. The reason Belichick like, no matter what anyone wrote last year, no matter how many of us that went like, I think he's a good coach. He was struggling to win five games. That's all that mattered. In the previous year. I think they won seven. So you start losing. No one can control positively or negatively anything about you. The record does. Caleb Williams will not have an agent, and my first reaction is why would he He does not need one. He is at worst, and I mean it would be an enormous upset. He would be the second overall pick. But I would say, sitting here right now, even before the commne ninety eight percent, he's going to be the number one overall draft pick. The contract's already set. Why would you give a half a percent or a percent to anyone when the contract is black and white. We know what the numbers are going to be. Everyone knows what the numbers are going to be. You could argue, I guess over a relative cash flow on a given year, but the amount of cash, the signing bonus, it is all set in stone now. Having an agent for your second contract, if you become a star, is important. It's much easier to get business done when you have one of those guys. But as we sit here, it's I'd argue it's completely irrelevant unless he went to the combine out of shape, bad attitude, stuff like that. Like if I'm just assuming he's been working out, he's gonna go smile on his face, interact with everybody else. He doesn't need any representation. And I'm not anti agent, but for a guy like this, because I saw Florio wrote like, sometimes if it starts getting nasty, none of that matters. None of the nasty. I always hate this time of year because stories come out about guys not being smart enough or getting in trouble, and the media always gets up in arms. I'm sorry, guys, this is a big boy business with millions of dollars on the line and creating a market also of like, bad mouthing some guys is part of the deal because I want, Yeah, I'm gonna leak a story that's gonna talk bad about a guy that I actually want on my team and hopefully he drops. The teams have all the information, they know it's true or not, so any team worth their salt knows the bs from the reality, and the media's always say this is so unfair. He just wants to have a balanced life, because that always comes out like you know, he has too many interests, and they're like, let him be balanced, let him be like Anthony Rendon who said that baseball is not as number one priority. Well that's fine. If you're a high school kid. If I give you two hundred and forty five fucking million dollars, I sure hope it's your priority. I mean that's kind of the way the world works. You know, listen it. As long as Caleb just acts normal, I think everything will be fine in that contract. He can just put pen to paper. It's not that big a deal. Kaleis Campbell, who is super high level guy, was a really really good player in his heyday. It's kind of bouncing around the league at the end of his career. You know what's funny is I was walking around the Cosmo with Greg Papa, who is the forty nine ers play by play guy, and he told me that he wasn't allowed as a league employee to even like play blackjack or you know, go to play I was like, you want to play a little roulette, you want to have a cocktail? Can't not allowed? Like you're not I understand you're not being able to bet on football, but you can't go to the table. Now I don't even know if he's correct on that, but he truly believed it. And then he claimed that guys in the league were not allowed to gamble either in Vegas, though I saw a bunch of guy gambling. Bottom line is Kalais Campbell said that he thinks the rules are stupid and clearly no one knows what's actually going on. And I at first I was like, why does it even matter if you're betting on football if it's not your team? And then the more and more I've thought about it, like most of you would agree, it's you can't have that I can't have, you know, like Joey Bosol, why can't he bet on the Super Bowl? Well, because he can call Nick and Nick go, well, you know Fred Warner has pulled his hamstring in practice. Our God, our game plans sucks. I would bet against us, right, you have inside information. But you could argue like, these guys all cross pollinate, but they can bet on baseball or basketball, which they're not allowed to. They have friends in those leagues, so maybe that's why. But they are not currently allowed to gamble in any other sports. And Kalais was like, in what world are all the teams allowed to be in business with this stuff, and then we're not allowed to gamble on other sports. And I always I struggle with this one because I'm a gambler and love to gamble. And I even couldn't help myself. I bet on the Mexico Open this week. I put my picks up on online. They're actually looking pretty good. Huh, Cam Champ Nap and who else did I bet? I forget. But this is a very slippery slope. But at the end of the day, the players benefit from this too because they share the revenue. I do think this stuff is complicated because for so long they've had a hard line stance. We do not mess with gambling. They're not federally legal, but state by state, they just opened the floodgates and did it. Though, like the Arizona Cardinals can have a DraftKings sponsorship in their stadium and have a casino. Same with Mark Davis and the Raiders, but Jed York is not allowed, right, so there are still some barriers from team to team. But I do think you just gotta give it time. I do think over time they'll pivot and they will try to be I guess more fair in terms of yeah, this is a little bit of an archaic way of thinking, but I mean you still open the internet and see like, oh, Darius Rutger got a dui. Well, actually he wasn't drunk, he wasn't even high. He just had weed in the car. Like how could anyone Like I can't relate to that. If I pressed a button right now, there'd be you know, I'd get a weed. It's not even a weed dealer. I just have a company come to my house, give him a credit card and they be like, what do you want? You want edibles, you want roll joints, you want pens, and then here's a credit card. I pay tax on it. So I think as society changes, we just got to catch up, and the league has to catch up. And I think they're very sensitive to this because I don't think they ever want their one of their players to get involved in a situation non football where it's like, well, this guy bet on the NBA Finals turns out his really good buddies one of the guys on the team. I guess that would be the only logic because other than that, to me, it would be open open the floodgates. Let him do everything but bet on football, because even Klay as Campbell goes. I understand we can't bet on football. That's fine and that is fair, But betting on these other sports I can't. I can't bet on a baseball I can't bet on the World Series. I can't bet on the NBA. You can. Why can't I? Well, it's ended with Fugazi Friday. And sometimes I'm trying to get consistent with these and I forget about it. But it hit me the other day this is gonna be my Well, actually, let's just we'll blow through this first Forgazi. I mean, I think listen, the NFL dealt with this because their game became a giant just embarrassment. You could not play like they were playing. So they scrapped it and they went to flag football, and it still does five or six million people watching. I haven't watched one snap of it, but I think they all acknowledge. Wave the white flag. We're not even going to try to play a real game anymore. Let's just dick around. Hell, you could be drunk or high out there with having flags on. Baseball has always been able to have a normal game because you can just play a baseball game. Like if you go to a spring training game or a regular season game or the All Star Game, it's like you're just playing baseball or not. There's no way to kind of half asset, right. You're still pitching hard, you're throwing your pitchers, you're trying to hit. It's just it's pretty normal. It's the easiest to actually operate without having to worry about injuries. Basketball to me, is much closer to baseball than it is football. Now. Basketball has always had an element of screwing around a little bit in the All Star Game. But there have been a lot of videos going viral from when I was in like high school in college, and a lot of it revolved around Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, guys just playing hard. There were almost four hundred points scored in that All Star Game. Adam Silver learned a valuable lesson. Adam, I don't care how much you try to be the player's friends. They don't give one shit about anything you say because his whole thing is like he had to talk with him. He thought they were gonna play hard, and they've never played less hardy. They couldn't have cared less and that game is one of Like again, this is not for me that the weekend is no longer for me. It just it lost its lester a long long time ago. But you can't have a NBA basketball game with the best players scoring over two hundred points like that. That just that can't happen. So that's the number one fugazigo in the NBA All Star Game is just talk about talk about a disaster. I've always been a good tipper when I had no money in college or early on in my professional career. I'm making twenty thirty forty grand. If I went to a restaurant and someone was good, I tipped you. It's why I actually always tip well on door Dash and Uber East orders, like you are doing a service that I do not want to do. You're going somewhere picking it up and driving it to me Like that's I appreciate that. Any industry where you above and beyond for me, I have no problem tipping you. You don't need to throw something in my face when I give you the card a tip like I want to tip you. There has this culture of and I noticed it a couple of years ago in like CVS's and Targets and McDonald's, like, do you want to donate to the charity. Well, if I donate to charity, let's say I give ten grand to a charity, Like, obviously I'm trying to do something good. But you get the credit of being able to write ten thousand dollars either off your company or your income. Well, if all these companies that are taking that right now, I can't even imagine the write off CVS is getting right now in terms of when you like, oh, donate a dollar. All these companies, it's a it's a giant that you talk about a fugazi. But when I drive to Starbucks and I get a six dollar ice coffee, which makes me very happy. I don't I don't spend much time like I make coffee home, but sometimes I just want an iced coffee, an ic A cold brew with vanilla cold foam is my drink. And hell, it's almost seven dollars for the large one. And then they get up to you and they hand you the thing. And they've just handed you the drink. They didn't even make it. They're just handing it to you, and they look at you as you're kind of pressing the button and you're paying seven dollars for a coffee that Goss fucking Schultz and Company two dollars to make max and they're just staring at you, and there's this weird there's become this like shame and eye contact. But you're not gonna tip me, like it's my fault that you're working for this fortune five hometer company. That's listen. If you had done something for me to deserve a tip, I have no problem with it. I'm just using Starbucks as an example. It's happening everywhere. It is out of control something and again, I am pro tipping. I hate chip cheap people. I despise I try to avoid cheap people. And I'm not just trying to butter myself up here. I am a legitimately a pretty solid tipper, but the the tipping on like three dollars things seven dollars. I've always thought as someone that was single for a long time in like my late twenties, who would pick up, who wouldn't cook that often. I would go pick up dinner if I because I remember Drew Brees got shamed years ago for going to get a couple of pizzas I fucking drove to you, like I order the food. I'm picking up fifty dollars in pizzas or twenty five dollars and burgers and fries or whatever I'm coming. I'm paying to come here, and then I'm paying for the meal, and then I give you a tip for just handing me the thing. It just it baffles my mind. It doesn't make any sense, It really doesn't. I think we are broken. We are broken now. I don't expect no one's more incompetent in the government, so they won't fix it. But someone has to come in. There has to be some universal agreement for industry standards, like some industries one hundred percent you tip if they do a solid. Other tip's not even an option unless I want to give you an extra. It shouldn't be on when they hand me the thing for the credit card. It shouldn't even be an option. And then when it is an option and you're like, you don't deserve a tip, and you fucking give me those eyes like you know they're kind of screwing me here. It's not my problem. I could be getting screwed to my line of work too, So I just I think this whole tipping thing and obviously it got accelerated over the last several years. Is just one of the craziest fugazis I've ever seen. Okay, let's dive into the mailbag. You guys know the drill at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire in those dms from Ryan. Are you surprised the NFL doesn't have a track man for their kickers to simulate the yardage and wind when they are kicking into the net warming up? Like how track man to simulate the golf round. Honestly never crossed my mind, but kind of genius. I would say. The difference though, is it's one thing to practice on the track man indoor simulator in golf, no golfer. And if we're using a kicker, so you're talking like a PGA golfer, just like a professional kicker, you'd actually go to the range where you actually go to the course because you want to see the ball fly. So I hear what you're saying. I kind of understand it. Maybe in like OTA's or training camp, but in terms of games and even game week you want to kick. I think the kicking into the net is more just warming up your leg right, because you kick before the game and you kick at halftime, so you see the fly. I think it's just to keep the motion down less about where the ball's going. But I've never kicked in the NFL, so that's a good question. What do you think happens with Dayball and the Giants? As a Giants fan, I'd like to think they can compete this year, but it ain't looking that promising. If they do miss the playoffs and the offense looks like dogshit again, would you fire him even after winning Coach of the Year in his first year. Obviously there's the behavioral stuff with him, which if he doesn't clean that, he's one hundred percent gone. One thing's pretty clear the Giants and John mara is big on like old school values and looking right and kind of conducting yourself in a certain level. I know through because I know people that quote unquote covered the team, you know, as writers and people that are around the team every day. I listen. I was with the Eagles, so I kind of have a feel for the Giants you as a fan and people that cover the team know like it's a pretty old school organization that they did not. They're not on board with the way everything played out with Wink and day Ball and the articles coming out about the way he acts. Like, let's face it, I know they fired Tom Coughlin, but they like more of a presidential operation and day Ball, which I can't appreciate. A little rough around the edges right now when you're the boss. There's a way to treat someone in the way not to treat someone. And clearly everything that came out of there that it's not ideal and people don't like working there. But like you said, and we talked about this on the podcast, portion optics and all that stuff. Even Wink Martindale said, nothing changed from year one to year two. We lost. When you win, it covers up everything. It's why the only thing that matters in the National Football League is winning. And this year they were hard to watch. I mean, they were an embarrassment, right. I don't think he's necessarily on the hot seat because he replaced two people that were two and done two and done right Shermer, Joe Judge. It was pretty ugly. So if he can just have them competitive, I would say seven to nine wins and they missed the playoffs. I think he's getting a fourth year, but I don't think he can afford another just like you said, dog shit season, So I definitely think there's some pressure. Here's the other thing. They play in a division which Cowboys are a playoff team. Eagles are a playoff level team. And now we'll see what Washington does. Like are they just much more buttoned up next year? Do they hit on the quarterback all of a sudden You're looking if that organization is no longer a joke and is well run and winning. And when I say winning, just I mean competing to be an above five hundred team. You're gonna have a problem with Caleb Williams being deemed a generational talent. Do you think him being on a bad USC team helps him long term? For example, we see guys come from undefeated teams like Lawrence not a generational talent and to a lesser degree fields and see them struggle. Even Burrow had a bad year at LSU, he also did a transfer, not like Kayleb, Williams transferred to follow his coach, transferred because Overmeyer said you're never playing here. Yeah, I would say it would be a positive long term that he just didn't go undefeated this year, and it was really easy that his team and his defense was so shitty that he had to figure out ways to just if he didn't have some moments. Now, he played bad in some games, but like Mahomes winning seven eight games, and if he wasn't brilliant, they're not going to a bowl game. So yeah, I think there's definitely some merit to what you just said. I have a question about choosing content for the show. I've noticed in recent years that by about Wednesday after the Super Bowl, most of the national radio shows and pods start talking heavy about the NBA. I understand you need to start weaning off football some, but they talk NBA like it's popular, is equal to the National Football League. Drives me nuts and is an instant turned the channel for me. I don't care about meaningless and boring regular season basketball, and the TV ratings bear it out. I'll never understand the logic for covering the NBA this aggressively. As someone in the content business, do you have any insight why they do this. I've never had a national radio show. I mean, I have a national podcast, but I can talk about whatever I want, right and obviously we talk football three sixty five here, and we just do golf because I like golf. I'm a football guy. Football is the biggest sport going, and football is what I enjoy talking about, and obviously what people enjoy consuming for a long, long period of time in the business, and as I just grew up a sports talk radio listener is you would just play the seasons. So if you're older, you would talk about the NBA because that's just what you did. And I think there's an element to that. Right where I'm thirty nine years old, most of my friends, just like most of the people looking at the television ratings, aren't consuming the sport like they used to. But I do think old habits die hard, so I think there's some of that. I also think some people in the media probably just like the NBA they actually watch it. I no longer do, so I can't. I don't know. I don't really listen to like I don't know, I don't consume as much content. I actually consume NBA content in a weird way, not like the breakdowns of individual games like you, I don't care, but the big picture stories. I listen to NBA pods for entertainment value. But I don't watch the game. But you don't have to worry about that. Here we're talking football, football, and more football with some golf, because that's what I watch and that's what I like. Listen. I can't speak for anyone else. I do think a lot of people, just like the NBA that talk about sports like I like baseball a lot. But we're not talking here in the podcast. What do you think Sakwan will wind up wind up next season? I think it's gonna be very very interesting this offseason when it comes to these running backs because last year they got very very angry. Nothing changed, absolutely nothing changed. It's gonna happen again, sa Kwan, Josh Jacobs, Right, these guys. You know Jonathan Taylor got an extension. Clearly wasn't that much money. I don't know, man, I think that it's the same conversations are gonna come up. They're getting screwed. This is BS. Look at Christian McCaffrey. Christian McCaffrey's better than you guys. He's like a hybrid wide receiver. He's a very unique player. He's also been under contract the forty nine ers, And it'll be interesting because Kyle Shanthans loves a guy, but I wouldn't be in the business of paying running backs either. I've been trying to kill this cricket. We have this, you know, like a beverage fridge in the kitchen island, and somehow a cricket got way underneath it, and I can't really pull out the beverage fridge. And every night this cricket goes nuts. It sounds like he's right next year ear and we are far away from the cricket. And I've had people on Instagram's chat GPT, I've googled it how to take out a cricket and the one thing, you know that I've put a light there overnight in a bowl of water with honey around the rim, hoping to uh I could drown the cricket. Has not worked. I don't know what to do, but it's me versus the cricket. Right now, the cricket is dominating. I'm from Portugal and I've been following the NFL for about three years. Love it. When are we going to see a team's firing the coach to promote their offensive coordinator. For example, if the Saints have a good season like one playoff win and a good offense quotations unlikely. What are the odds of them firing Dennis Allen? We know he isn't that good and promoting Kubiak. This would also prevent teams from hiring what do you think we're gonna see? It inevitable? You know, eventually it's it's inevitable. Right, Let's face it. If the Eagles had a do over, they would hire Shane Stikeen right, Like, I'm not it's not gonna ask how he that he wouldn't he wouldn't even touch the subject. But like it's pretty clear, like it doesn't take You don't need to be in the organization and know, like what coach would you rather have? And I'm trying to think of another recent example. You know, the good example would be Bobby Slowick and Demiko Ryans. Like the one thing, it's pretty clear Demiko's good, right, Demiko is good? Just like I thought Rabel was good. You wouldn't hire Arthur Smith over Rabel. If you have a good defensive coach, you keep him around and you just have to lose your offensive coordinator. Well, when you have two offensive coaches and one guy isn't calling the game and the other guy is and then you see him go somewhere else. You're like, Jesus screwed up there. I'm a twenty one year old junior at Iowa State. My hair has recently started to receive badly, thinking of going bald once I graduate and get a real job. Any advice. When I started going bald, it was also in college. I remember being at cal Poly and looking down at the desk and seeing hairs and I used to have really, really thick, like bushy hair. I didn't think that much of it, and then it got progressively worse. I did not recede, though, mine just fell out, and if I grew it out right now, I would have little to no hair on the top of my head. My advice, listen, I think this is probably one of the more insecure situations for any man. You just kind of got to play it by feel. You get to a point where you know it looks really bad if you can keep it short, and it doesn't look that bad even if it's receding a little bit. You see a lot of forehead rocket but there does get to a point where there's the point of ode return, and when you get to the point and overturn. You just got to pull the trigger. Here's when I did it. When I worked at Fresno State, we took a team picture one time in a bowl game. But it wasn't a team picture. It was like pictures that the school was taking at practice, and there was like a team huddle and the picture was from like above and behind at like the head coach, you know, addressing the team, and I was on the outside of it and you could see the back of my head and there was a lot of head and not a lot of hair, and everyone used to kind of make fun of me, and I actually got the nickname. We were playing Nevada one year. It was actually my second year there, and this was when Kaepernick was on the team. They were pretty good. They actually kicked our ass that game. Ryan Matthews got knocked out of the game. And the turf there was like the turf on the Nevada field. If you kind of like moved your hands or moved your foot by it, it just you could see the bottom of kind of like the ubbery part. It was very it was like very thin hair and a dude. Eric Brown, who now coaches Clovis West in Fresno, who was a player on the team who got injured, who was then like coaching, said middle cop, this looks just like your hair. And my nickname became Turf, and a lot of people from Fresno that's my nickname. They call me Turf because the turf represented my thinning hair. I think you just know, and once you do it, you kind of never regret it. And I know some people. I mean, I could afford to get hand probably hair transplants right now, But the problem with hair transplants is it just replaces the hair that you already have. So it's not like I could just go I want Brad Pitt's hair. I want Tom Brady's hair flow, and even he's had him. But I think I just get the hair that I used to have, which wasn't honestly that great. You seem always to give good advice on the pod. I admire the platform you've created. I'm nineteen years old and I'm almost feeling stuck. Everyone says that you're young and you have time, but I almost not sure where to even start. I'm in D two D sales right now while also working part time. What advice would you give for just getting out there and starting something, whether it's a small business, a real estate or even growing a personal brand or really any way sort to start making money. What did you do to start your journey of success? I followed what I liked. That was the key to myse Listen, Not everyone is the same. We all run different races. But I'm not smart enough to like, I couldn't have just gone to work somewhere and been super dynamic in any industry. So I had to follow what I was passionate about doing, and in my twenties that was football. Obviously, I worked in football, and you worked long days and it was not easy, and I did not make any money when a lot of my friends with college degrees were making hundreds of thousands of dollars at different companies. But luckily, like I didn't have that much envy or jealousy in terms of money. Like, I'm actually not like Listen. I live a pretty expensive lifestyle, but money doesn't mean anything. It doesn't do anything for me. I just have you know, expensive take like I like playing golf, I like, you know, the nice gym or whatever. But for the most part, like, I'm not money driven in the sense that I like to gamble, but I don't like it doesn't get me off. You could send me a twenty million dollar wire right now, like Collins, Like you guys just hit twenty million dollars, here's twenty million dollars. I'm not saying I wouldn't. I wouldn't smile, I wouldn't fucking be able to do some stuff with it. But it doesn't it It doesn't do that much for it for me personally. Some people are I've always said, though, I think most people that are successful, and I was lucky growing up. Some of my friend's grandparents, the guy my dad worked for, they all, every single one of them that were rich, really were addicted to what they did, whether it was farming. I knew a buddy's dad that was the CEO of a health company, and it's just like they just loved it and they could do it seven days a week. It's why these football coaches are so successful. They're addicted to football. So the easiest way to become successful is to find what you like and then go down that path. Now, depending if you go. If what you love is finance, yeah you're gonna get closer to money faster. But if what you like is some of these other industries. It might not be the case, but it will set you on the path. When you like doing something, you end up doing more of it and having no problem because no matter what you do, you're gonna end up working. So if you like what you're doing when you're working, you don't really look at it like you're working. What did Belichick say? Forever? Right? Sure beats being a plumber. I mean, the guy was working twenty hours a day for fucking forty five years for nine months a year. But the dude love football as much as anybody, and obviously he's talented at it. We all have different talent levels probably whatever we do. But I think the easiest way is to not think short term. And that's the best advantage you have. When you're nineteen, you have so much time left, so you gotta think big picture. Can't think, well, how am I gonna make money for the next two months? And I'm not talking about like how am I gonna eat or pay the rent. I just think a lot of people make decisions on like what you could do this job that you'd really love, especially if you're nineteen or twenty or twenty one. Or whatever in your twenties. This pays you half as much or a quarter as much as this other job that you don't care about at all. So even let's just pick some numbers. Let's say I gave you a job of something you really like to do, I mean really like to do for thirty grand, or you could work at this insurance company and with bonus and stuff, you might make one hundred grand. Ninety percent of people are like, hey, I take one hundred grands more than three x the number. Well, I think, big picture, that thirty thousand dollars job, if that's your passion, whatever that may be. I don't know, I can't speak for you, but is better off big picture if it truly is a good opportunity. And I guess early on, I don't even know. I didn't have that many options, Like, I never gave myself like a fallback, you know, if this doesn't work or I don't like this, I'll go work and I'll try to get a job at a bank, you know where I'll I don't pretend to be some like born entrepreneur. So I was kind of forced into it, and then I realized I'm much better being in the space of not being a W two employee. Having ownership in this stuff gives me excitement. But the reason I was able to do that in my mid thirties was because, like the first twelve years of my life, you know, two years of Fresno State, three years in the NFL, four years in radio right from twenty two to like thirty two. I guess it wasn't fifteen years ten plus years of working. I never made one hundred grand. I got multiple fucking degrees. I mean I had friends because Silicon Valley was taking off, working for some of those companies that had seven figure years. Definitely a lot of people making half a million dollars like in their late early, you know, late twenties. Again, that's not necessarily normal, but given where I was living the perfect timing, the industry is crushing it. Luckily I didn't even care. It was like that, that's a sweet house you bought. I'm living over here in this little shitty apartment. But I liked what I did, so I never like felt envious of, Like God, I wish I was with you, you know, working at Wells Fargo. I don't know if I hopefully I somewhat answer your question been following since these scouting days at Presno. As a lifelong Browns fan, I don't know how you would have done that, but if you did, that's cool. As a lifelong Browns fan, can we ever shake the narrative of being a dumpster fire organization? Over the past five or six years, We've been competitive and made the playoffs a couple times, which is more than a lot of teams can say throughout the same span. Obviously, we have to do it longer, but it seems like people continue to rip us as the same old Browns. Also, what are some real expectations for us this season? With Deshaun and all the other guys getting healthy? I think winning the division isn't too far fetched. I don't think you can win the division with the Deshaun Watson we've seen the last couple of years. We've talked about this during the season. We'll talk about it now. His salary cap triples hit nineteen million to like sixty plus. I think it's like sixty two or sixty three. So your team was pretty stacked last year. Just you know, you had a bunch of injuries and you were still really good because your cap was big and you had a lot of good player Those days are over. You need Deshaun Watson now to be competitive with Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, what Justin Herbert's probably about to be with Jim Harbaugh. You need him to be a Pro Bowl level guy. If he's not, you're completely screwed. If he's good, then yeah, you're gonna be a double digit win team. But he cannot be the guy we've witnessed the last year and a half. He can't because if he is, you're dead on arrival. You have no shot. If he's good, then yeah, you could win eleven twelve games again, I mean good, like thirty five touchdown good. Started listening to you season inspired me to start my own podcast, No one asks sports podcast. If you're not allowed want to say this on there? Yeah I can say it. No one will ask sports podcast that wish I had started years ago. Loved your take on the LIFTPGA issue today and couldn't agree more. I don't know the ins and outs of the potential merger, but it would greatly benefit both parties wallets if they got it sorted out. Obviously an entirely different sport, but it reminds me of the Indye car cart split in the nineties. Open wheel racing in America has still never recovered from that, and I fear the PGA Live don't merge asap it could have the same long term repercussions of the sport. I appreciate you, Yeah, I just think anytime you have a sport that is top heavy in talent, Tennis has this, Golf has this, The NBA has this. If I take of your ten best players half of them to another league, you're in major trouble. This is what the USFL tried in the eighties. It was like Reggie White, Steve Young, they started buying all these players, Doug Flutie. I think I'm not Belichick as a football historian, hell I was born in eighty four. But Jim Kelly, if they would have done that for ten years, it would have been a problem. Like last I checked, having those guys in the NFL was Steve Young, Jim Kelly and Reggie White kind of mattered. So they just can't operate the way they're operating, especially because golf is not mainstream like football, right it is very, very dependent on the lead guys to carry them on a weekly basis, and right now it's just simply a disaster, which makes me sad. Now it's also why I gamble on the Mexico Open, because I'm going to be interested no matter what, because I got a little cash on some guys. I was wondering, do you believe that one of the teams that are indeed in need of a young quarterback would think about signing Russell Wilson to let the rookie sit for a year. I think Russell Wilson is not the guy that you would let a rookie sit behind. He's too famous, there's too much drama around him. I think he's the opposite of the type guy you want around by young rookie quarterback. So I think that those teams we all know him, that are potentially going to draft a quarterback, I don't think they'd be interested in Russell Wilson. I saw chudg Ojo Sinko said the Steelers. That makes some sense. I got, can't you Piickett at this time, he's like twenty five years old. Maybe he's just not good enough. Mason Rudolph's a good backup. He's bringing Russell Wilson. You start him that to me, that makes a lot of sense. That's the type move where the Broncos are paying the salary he gets cut, you sign him for like two million dollars. They pay the other thirty eight million dollars, so he's basically making forty million dollars, so to him whatever, and he gets to start for the Steelers. It actually makes a lot of sense. You think the Vikings only option for getting one of the top quarterbacks in the draft is to trade Jefferson to get one of the top draft picks. I'm hearing a lot of scene about the Vikings wanted to trade up in the draft, but I don't see how that's possible without trading Jefferson or multiple first rounders, which I do not see our front office doing as we are in our division and need the capital to rebuild our defense. I think when you look historically at quarterbacks, like how often do guys that go one, two, three, two of those guys usually suck. It's one thing if you're sitting there to draft the guy, but how often do teams trade up out of nowhere and draft the guy and then feel good about that guy ten years later. Remember a couple of years ago, the Rams and the Eagles traded up. They got jaredy Goff and Carson Wentz. Neither guy was on the team five years, six years later, So that a lot of guys that got drafted, like even in the mid first round historically have been good players. So I think sometimes you can be a little more patient. I think you got to be very careful about forcing things in the draft, because when you force moving way up for a quarterback, it'd be like overextending yourself on a house and then having if it doesn't work out, all of a sudden, you're looking at a disastrous situation. You know you overextended yourself on the house. Economy turns and you're screwed. Interest rates are high. Now listen, if that area booms, your house goes up doubles. You don't even think twice greatest investment I ever made. You trade up and you get some star quarterback, you don't even You'll never never cross your mind again. It was worth every We would have traded the Chiefs trading up for Patrick Mahomes would have given ten ones for Patrick Mahomes. But when it doesn't work out, it's a pretty big kick, and then you know what it's happened to the Bears twice in like five years. Miss trubiskyit two and then trading up for fields. Neither guy's gonna be on the team because a disaster. At least. And here's the other thing. When you miss on a position player, at least the guy can play. Right. Let's just say you take a defensive lineman. Who's that who's never gonna be worth the top ten pick or five pick. I saw the Raiders did it with Cleveland Ferrell and the Niners did it with Solomon Thomas. You can still play those guys. They can still play twenty thirty snaps, So yeah, you regret the pick, but he's still playing well for you. When you miss on the quarterback, like the Steelers, you're like, well we even want to start this guy. You can't play two quarterbacks at once, so he's kind of worthless. Been listening to the pod for two year and love your takes and honesty. I wanted to ask, although they just played in the Super Bowl, could you see the possible trade Brandon Ayuk to the Chiefs. It would give Pat another premier receiver along with Rice and not only add a deep threat, but a great yak receiver for defenses. Trying to limit Brandon Ayuk would be incredible on the Chiefs. I just don't see the forty nine ers. Several years back, they traded Buckner for pick thirteen. It was like DeForest Buckner was not worth the thirteenth pick. Their problem is they picked the wrong guy. They took kin Latt. They should have just taken worse they got cute. To me, you can't trade Brandon Ayuke for pick thirty two. It's not enough value. It's worth it for you than to just pay m Now, if someone offers you a pick fifteen, you gotta think about it. You gotta think long and hard about it. But I don't think first and foremost. I don't think thirty two is enough. He's too good for you. He had fifteen hundred yards, he's twenty four, he blocks, He's an incredible player for the Niners. But there is like how many guys can you pay? How much money does he want? How can the Chiefs afford to give him twenty five million dollars a year? Maybe they could backload the deal. I think the Chiefs would be interested, for sure, but I don't see the Niners doing that. Love the pod. Been listening for around six months now. What would the number one priority this offseason if you were the Colts general manager. It's a good question. Also, as a fellow time full time creator, congrats and all the success with the podcast. I appreciate that, Tanner. I'd be lying if I said I had like a complete breakdown on the Chiefs or excuse me, the Colts roster. You know, in theory, they have their quarterback, they have a running back under contract. Feels like they could use a little more juice on the outside. Pittman solid, but you know, true number one wide receiver or a tight end, like an impact playmaker I think would definitely help in the passing game. With Anthony Richardson, you always could improve the defense. A pass rusher, you could never have enough of those, and same with the offensive line. So I would say Ballard either go line or a playmaker would be my guest. But that's I feel much more strongly on some of the you know, the Bills, the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Niners, the Cowboys, the Eagles. Just I don't watch as much AFC South, Just being completely real with you. Besides, like I paid attention to the Texans, but I wasn't super locked into you guys. I would love to get Ballard on the pod. I've tried to get him before he goes on Colin a lot. Maybe I can grab him and tell him call and wants him to come on my pod. The NFL is hyper focused on the theme of you can't win without a top shelf quarterback, given those are rare, is it possible for a team to win with a mid level quarterback to winning with the Ravens type or Bucks type defense, Well, those defenses don't really exist, right. The best defense in the league this year was the Ravens and they played probably by the end of the season. The two best defense in the league towards the end of the season were the Chiefs and the Ravens, and they played each other in the AFC Championship. So yeah, now both those teams have Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes. But I think if you have a really good defense, like a super if the Ravens had just played with Gardner Minshew, they would have been really, really hard to beat. If you have a top two or three defense in the NFL and your quarterback is just capable, you can compete. Are you gonna win the Super Bowl? Probably not, because the day and age of those defenses are probably over because you could kill people. Part of their defense wasn't just you couldn't score on them. They were knocking people out of the game. Well you're no longer really knocking guys out of the game, but you are holding people to not that many points. Even the Ravens held the Chiefs seventeen points. Chiefs held the Ravens ten points. Chiefs held the Niners in nineteen points going in overtime. I mean, they didn't score them many points most of the season. So I think when you look at the NFL, defense is still really really important at the highest level. The best defenses are typically the ones that win a championship, and the Chiefs won it. Who knows, maybe the Ravens win that game they beat the Niners. The Niners defense actually was kind of coming apart, which was part of their problem. It wasn't as good as it had been if their defense was better. Shit, they're the Super Bowl champs. So I think we're never going to see the eighty five Bears or the two thousand Ravens or you know, the John Gruden John Lynch, you know, Warren sapp Derek Brooks type defense, even that Cam Chancellor Richard Sherman defense with Pete Carroll. They were killing people. Vernon Davis's career was never the same when they knocked him out in a game. They were just they were hitting people so hard. The Ravens and the Chiefs were doing the equivalent of that in twenty twenty four, the way they tackled, the way they hit but for the most part, like decapitating people and sending him, you know, to the blue tent. Every other play is kind of done. You just need to tackle well, have a good pass rush, and play good red zone defense. But I I mean, Mahomes feels like he win the Super Bowl every year, and if he doesn't, then Josh Allen might right, and brock Party had a Pro Bowl level season like brock Purty season was better than Trent Dilphers or Brad Johnson's or whatever. Right, those guys weren't throwing thirty two touchdowns and they couldn't run like that, So I would I would probably, I guess come to the conclusion of that's going to be difficult to uh to obtain or for us to see something like that again. The volume