The Dan Patrick ShowDan eulogizes Gene Hackman and remembers some of his most famous roles. Albert Breer breaks down the latest on Matthew Stafford's trade market and explains why Abdul Carter's injury shouldn't hurt his draft stock. Plus, NFL rules analyst Dean Blandino discusses the end of the chain gang and weighs in on the "tush push" controversy.
You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
It's our one on this Thursday, Dan and the Dan. It's Dan Patrick Show. We'll head to the Combine the Monday morning. Quarterback Albert Breer will stop by a few things to discuss with him. Phone calls always welcome, EH seven to seven three, DP Show email address EPA, Danpatrick dot Com, Twitter handle at DP Show. Stat of the Day is always brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the Dan Patrick Show. And we have just received a couple of new stat of the Day songs. Marvin, do you want to showcase those? Debut those?
It's just a it's just a saturn the day.
Heyo, it's just a saturn of the day.
It's just a it's just a saurage of day.
No video clip, just a clip.
Trip down them the relane. It's it's just a saturage the day. Okay, all right? Who is that?
That is?
Cody and Florida, Hody and Florida. All right? What else do you have? Set of the days?
Set of the days?
Hundred get ready for the Seat of the Day.
It's a real doozy and it's happened today. I hope you're already because it's on the way.
And now here's the super Duper jump and Hooper what the Whooper set up that day?
Hey?
Does he have a bag of fur forks that he's bang amrines castanets? Okay, uh, you know what? They're making Pandora sound even better. That's when you play Pandora too. That's when you that's when we play Pandora.
Stant of the Jay, Start of the Day. We love your arm.
Stat of the Day, Thank you, Pandora. There you go. If you would like to submit a stat of the Day song, feel free to send it to the website. Send it to Tyler operator standing by actually sitting by taking your phone calls. We'll have a poll question play of the Day stat of the Day as well coming up eight seven seven three DP show. Good morning. If you're watching on Peacock, thank you downloading the app and our radio affiliates around the country. Gene Hackman passed away at the age of ninety five. He was living in New Mexico. I believe Santa Fe And when you think of Gene Hackman, at least when I think of Gene Hackman, I think of Normandale in the great sports movie Hoosiers. Actually it's a great movie. It's it's not just limited to a great sports movie. That's a and a lot of times when we think of a sportsman like Rudy is not a sports movie. Rudy is about the underdog who gets a chance. Hoosiers isn't a ketball movie, but it has basketball in it. It's about life in a small town. And I think sometimes we make the mistake of saying, oh, what a great sports movie. Bull Durham is not a baseball movie. It's really about a guy who's been sent to the miners. He's going to help. It's about relationships, and you know, but we use, you know, the focal point, the the centerpiece is sports. I think a lot a lot of times with these movies or we think of that, but it's really more than that. And Hoosiers was that. It was about relationships. And Gene Hackman was wonderful. And I spoke with, you know, the actor who played Jimmy Chitwood, Maris Volanus, and he had no acting experience, he wasn't even really a basketball player, but he played that role so well. And we'll bring back a portion of the interview I did with him a few years ago where he talked about all the actors well want to be actors, people who weren't even actors, who just went and auditioned and they got a chance to meet Gene Hackman, and the role that Hackman played for them getting ready to be actors in the movie Hoosiers. But he passed his way at the age of ninety five. Now there's other movies. I go back when he was Popeye Doyle the French Connection, and he had his little hat that he wore and he was going to catch he was going to catch that drug dealer from France and never did.
Yes.
Seaton a little more recent but one that I always forget about. But man was he great in The Royal Tenenbaumbs.
Yes he was.
That was a phenomenal role that was. That's a great movie. But man was he He was so good in that.
Yeah, there were so many of those movies that I mean, that's that's quite a We talked to Kevin Costner years ago in New York and he talked about working with him on No Way Out movie and just talked about Costner saying I knew I had to up my game because I was going to be acting alongside Gene Hackman. But I still go back to the replacements with Keanu Reeves the quarterback, and I don't know, like, look, Paul Newman was in slap Shot, and that's what made Slap Shot even more brilliant, because Paul Newman, legendary actor, was willing to play this down and out minor league hockey coach and Gene Hackman in the replacements. Like I kept whenever I would see the movie, I go, how do they get Gene Hackman to me in the replacements? I mean, it's it's it's not a legendary, unbelievable, Oh my gosh, have you seen the replacements great sports movies of all time? That's not going to be in the category Alex on Jeopardy. But and Keanu Reeves, I think had done Speed. He had done the movie Speed and Matrix, so he had a little bit, you know, little bit of a resume. But Gene Hackman and all of a sudden, he's the coach and replacements and I go, okay, all right. Although Gene Hackman did think that his career could be over in Hoosiers, he acted alongside Dennis Hopper, and they did talk about it, you know, off screen, like this could be the end of our careers because of that. But Dennis Hopper legendary actor as well, plays the alcoholic father of one of the players in Hoosiers. But Gene Hackman aged ninety five and feels like everybody has their favorite. He was what Lex Luthor and Superman? Yeah, I never saw it, never saw the movie, didn't see the first one. I still haven't seen the first Star Wars, so I'll get around to it one of these days.
Yeah, Pauline, there's a story I looked it up after you brought it up that Keanu Reeves was in the replacements. He was set to be in the replacements and they got interest from Gene Hackman and they were shocked. But he is pricey, So Keanu Reeves said, you can cut my salary if it gets Gene happened in the movie. I don't know if that's a true one. That's a legendary Hollywood story.
Todd reach out to Keanu Reeves.
We're on it.
Did you see any of the Superman movies, by the way, with.
General Zod and there was one with Richard Pryor and there's a bunch of them.
No, none of the Superman.
No.
That was the note that I said earlier that I hadn't seen. I didn't see the first one.
Thought maybe checked out one of the SEQUELSS.
It would be odd to see two and three without seeing the first one, kind of standalone. And I'm not going to watch the original Rocky, but I'm going to watch three and four. Are you kidding me?
Yes?
Eton isn't it crazy?
Speaking of the Superman movies that the first one, the first Superman was George Reeve, and then the next one was Christopher Reeves.
Hm was that he was the that was the TV series George.
Reeves, George Reeve, I think Christopher Reeves, I think so?
Yeah, Okay, I.
Say George Reeve was in the TV Showeorge Reeves has an S and then Christopher Reeve.
Yes, Oh that's what is I have it backwards, Yeah, but yeah he was. He was in the TV show.
And we also just referenced Keanu Reeves. Oh, in the same segment dan Reeves was a consultant.
What Dan Reeves was a consultant on the stupier member.
You had to get that line out of here. I thank you. We didn't hear it the first time, but you know, yes, Paul.
It is interesting that some movies give you a level of immortality. There might be better movies, bigger movies that Gene Hacken was in, but with sports movies, so those will be talked about on sports radio and TV forever. And Hoosiers is it really is the one seed and then it goes down from there? If you look at all those lists.
Yeah, I mean it depends. You know, people love Bull Durham, they love Rudy, those are usually the top ones. But uh I loved I loved Hoosiers because it's just small town. It's in Indiana. Uh I could relate to a little bit of it. The scenery is so underrated, you know when they do those bus trips, were going to their games and just the landscape that you had.
Now.
Granted it's not exciting because it's a lot of cornfields and barns, but I could relate to it. So Geene Hackman passing away at the age of ninety five. Michael in Chicago, Hi, Mike, what's on your mind today?
Good morning Dan, Good morning Dan Utts. Is what you guys missed on the pre show introduction. You've missed a couple of great movies that he did. One of the best ever think he did was The Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.
Yeah, yeah, he was.
He was unbelievable in that is the mean sheriff in the town of Big Whiskey, if you remember, and he was good in the firm he played.
Yes, well, we couldn't do all of them, Michael, I mean, I mean the compliment is we couldn't get to all of that. But we are a sports show. That's why we brought up Hoosiers. But you're right, the Firm with Tom Cruise, he was very good in that. But U we've taken a trip down memory lane.
We just sent margin Mississippi burning an apology.
Go God.
So I'm going to apologize to all the Hackman fans and of course mister Hackman rest in peace that if we didn't get all the movies mentioned where, we can't do the entire show on Gene Hackman. Let's see NFL considering overtime tweaks. We'll talk to Albert Breer about this, and maybe they're going to get rid of the chain gang. There's going to be a digital spotting of the football. So these are some of the things they're discussing at the combine. I've been saying all along about the digital spotting of the football. It is so random when you see the official grab the ball and put it down after somebody's made a catch or a run, and you're going, really there and it's just random, And I thought, can't we come up and we accept it. You're like like the Bills against the Chiefs and the playoffs. You're like, uh, I think he got it, and all of a sudden, you go, he didn't get it.
Now.
I do like the chain gang when they bring it out and then they stretch out the chain. I think we all like that. I don't know if we're gonna have that. Maybe you do a kind of a video component of that. If you're watching on TV, like.
Loop loop bloop, bloop bloop.
And then all of a sudden, you see it's a first town and you get a you know whatever sound effect there are you.
Saying, just recreate the digital marker and and have the same anticipation.
Yeah, perfect, Just go gas price is right ish?
Yeah?
You know, yeah, that's what is that? Uh?
That game of a mountain clown law dude, dude, it on the mountain climber guy and then he falls off the cliff.
Oh I thought it was this one. You spin the big thing you spin. Yeah, yeah, it could be that too. Okay, put the showcase showdown.
Ye try to get on that. You got to get close to it. You got two spins to get close to a dollar cliffhanger?
Is that the name of the hell of a segment? We're gonna submit this for the Sports Emmy. Oh yeah, this is this is how we lose it instead of this how we do it? Todd, This how we lose it. That's what you do. You Jordan and Patrick doestract. My Pistons won. The Pistons won again. They beat the celt You got to take them seriously. They're in the playoffs right now. I think they have the sixth best record in the East. They won eight in a row. It's a young team, fun team. Those are always the ones that make me nervous. You know, when you get to the playoffs, you got to play against the team may not know what the hell they're doing come playoff time. But sometimes they don't have pressure on them.
Uh.
Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady Ski buddies. Question mark, question mark, we'll have that story for you coming up. Another betting investigation the University of New Orleans basketball team. There's probably five or six open investigations into college basketball game fixing. They got to do away with prop bets said that last year. Got to do away with that because if you're a kid at the University of New Orleans, you're not getting an IO. Your team is terrible, and I'm just going to give you a hey, this might be something that played out. You're not going to the NBA. Who's going to notice we're New Orleans. We're not any good. We've won four games, so what you know, I miss a shot, you know the over under. We're playing University of Texas at Rio Grand. Nobody's going to know. Well, Vegas has to know. This is what Vegas does. They're the watchdogs because this is their business. And a lot of times you'll see these aren't big time programs because the big time programs they're getting taken care of. It's when you play at these smaller schools that maybe you have the temptation to go, you know what, be nice to get a couple of one hundred bucks, a thousand bucks here, whatever it is. There's a lot of investigations going on, open investigations in this I think there's been an open investigation into Temple basketball for a couple of years now, and there's going to be more. But get rid of prop bets for college athletes. Certainly. I don't think they'll do it with the pros, but at least the college athletes, because they can be they can be lured, they can be tempted because they don't have that money. You make it to the NBA, you're making money. College basketball not the case.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio. You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich. We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on.
In the world.
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world. Of sports and pop culture stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together.
I mean that says something, right.
So check us out. We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls, chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the.
Most interactive show on planetar.
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you miss any of the live show, just search kobeen on Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media that's Cavino and Rich.
Very busy man. He's the Monday morning quarterback, but he works other days as well. Don't want you to think that he only works on Monday. He's Albert Breer joining us from the combine in Indianapolis. Thanks for joining us. Let me start with tweaking overtime. What the NFL is proposing.
Yeah, so they want to formalize or at least look at formalizing the rules.
So it's the same from the regular season.
To to the postseason, and as you know, you know, Dan, what they did amend the rule in the postseason after you know, the Super Bowl a few years back, was to ensure that both teams would have a chance to have the ball in overtime. And you know, whether or not they go to that or tweak it further, I know, you know, TROYA. Vincent had talked about reimagining the whole thing altogether. I don't think we'll go to, like, you know, a college version of overtime. I do think they want to maintain some of the elements of a normal game flow that you have in the way that overtime has been played in the NFL forever.
But you know, I think that the general idea is.
To come up with a solution that would work for both the season and the postseason.
The Brady Matthew Stafford's story of skiing together in Montana, like, do you have the real story of this, because there seems to be conflicting stories of this was something that was planned, and then there's another story that says that it was random that they ran into each other in Montana.
I mean, I can say that that is and you may be familiar with the place, but that's a pretty high end club in Montana that people on that level, that level of celebrity are at and and spend time at, and so the idea that they would unintentionally run into each other is not far fetched. I don't know exactly how that happened. I don't think that I'm not you know, I.
Don't know for sure.
I haven't dunk into it quite as much yet, but I don't think. I don't know that Brady invited Matthew Stafford there. Matthew Stafford, I know, had been there in the past, and so again, not that unusual that it would happen. But I do think it shows how Brady is really a part of what the Raiders are doing now.
And Brady, you know, is an.
Intgrale part of their of their interview process of convincing head coaching and general manager candidates that it was a better job than it has been in recent years and that and then ultimately, you know, they wind up hiring two guys that Brady's got a relationship with, Pete Carroll of course, who he competed against for me all those years, and and John spyt Tech, who he became pretty close with over the three years they spent together in Tampa. So I think the Raiders are serious, a serious suitor for for Matthew Stafford.
But this wasn't tampering that if Brady.
Staffords permission Okay, okay, yeah, I mean Stafford ad permission now. And Stafford's had permission DAN for over three weeks now, like Stafford got permission to speak with other teams starting during Super Bowl Week, So I believe.
It's either right at three weeks.
Or just over three weeks that he's had permission to go out and speak to other teams.
What is the market for Matthew Stafford.
More than the Rams want to pay right now? I think is the best way to describe that.
For those who don't know. He's on the books for twenty seven million dollars in.
Cash in twenty twenty five, and that number was lowered by four million dollars because they borrowed that four million and another million from twenty.
T twenty six to give him a five million dollar raise in.
Twenty twenty four, which isn't a raise at all if you're just borrowing from one year and giving it to the and putting it in another which is why I think everybody knew when they made that contract adjustment after a really tough six month negotiation, that they were going.
To be back at the table again.
And the way Stafford's looking at it is the quarterback market has materially changed. There are nine quarterbacks making over fifty million dollars a year, and his deal at forty million per is fifty percent below the top of the market, which is Dak Prescott at sixty million. So the Rams basically said to Matthew, all right, like, well, if you go out and see what the market is and go out and see what you can get.
And I don't think they use the word trade specifically with.
Him, but once you kind of let him out of the building and let him go do that, to go and see his work, there's some risk involved. And the risk is that the way he sees his his.
Worth is going to be matched with the way other teams see his worth. Even it's thirty seven years old. And that's what happened.
Matthew found teams plural that we're willing to go to a number that was commensurate with where the market is at the position. And so how do you put that tooth paste back in the tube. Now, if you're the Rams, who I mean? Mcphae still really likes Matthew's a good relationship.
Matthew really likes living in southern California.
But the reality is they told him he was worth They felt like he was worth X. He felt like he was worth Why then he goes to the market proves he's worthwhy?
So, now, how do you reel that all back in?
If you're the team, it's not an easy thing to do.
The Rams wouldn't they learn from what happened with sakuon Barkley with the Giants, where you say, go out there, see if anybody wants to pay you that kind of money. Oh wait a minute, wait, you're leaving. Granted, you know staff it is thirty six, thirty seven years of age, but it feels But I'm always interested when I are curious, when I hear an analyst go, you know, he wants to go to a place where he can win. Well, the Rams that that's a team that can win now, and they did win now, and they almost went to the NFC title game. You got pook, you got a great young defense, you got Pokinakua, you got Williams is your running back. I don't know, just feels like pay him the money if you want to try to make another run at the super Bowl, giving two years one hundred million dollars.
I agree, But I think part of this is timelines too, right, Like does the RAMS timeline match up with Matthew Stafford's which Matthew Stafford's timeline is to win right now and to go all in right now to win right now, and.
You don't think the RAMS timeline is to win right now.
But yeah, but here, okay, So like let's say you're the RAMS and Matthew Stafford is going year to year now, and you've dealt with at a really difficult negotiation. Now you want to see you're you're you're in this spot where you're being asked to set another contractual precedent that maybe could be a problem for you down the line, and you're looking at the market and you're saying, well, can we get Aaron Rodgers for a lot less than that and bring back the assets that would come to Matthew Stafford deal? I mean, I know McVeigh really likes Jimmy Garoppolo. That's going to sound crazy to some people. But I think he believes he can win with Jimmy Garoppolos. So I think for the Rams, part of this is our timeline may not match up completely with Matthew's timeline. We've got a team here that we think can win for the next five or six years. We're gonna have a lot of big contracts coming down the pike. And you know, if we're in a year to year situation with Matthew Stafford, that's a pretty tough place to be based on what we would what we what we might need to spend to keep him. And so so that's when you start to look at some of the alternatives.
Like, again, what if be Aaron Rodgers on a cheaper deal.
Now you got more cash to spend this offseason to surround Aaron Rodgers, and then you get the assets, whether it's a first round pick, second round pick, whatever it is, you get the assets coming back to us too. So it's interesting from that perspective, and I mean, shoot, it's I mean think about like if the Giants were to get him.
Now you have Andrew Thomas coming back at left tackle.
You have Malite Neighbors as your number one receiver, you have Tracy coming back as a young back. Maybe Cooper Cup winds up there, maybe Travis Hunter winds up there. Like that team I think could become a contender pretty fast.
He's Albert Breer, the Monday Morning Quarterback senior NFL reporter. The digital spotting of the football, I like it. I don't know if it's a done deal. I'm always curious when I watch a game, how random it sometimes seems when the official spots the ball. Yeah, do you think we're how far down the line do you think we are with the digital part of spotting of football.
I think we're getting closer, you know.
I this is something that they're not going to just, you know, do all in one fell swoop.
You know.
I think there's going to be some experimentation, and I don't think they want to be completely reliant on technology that maybe they haven't been able to do wholesale checks and all that different stuff with. But I think it's coming, you know, and I think it makes sense. You know, It's I always sort of think of like the tennis matches, right where how long have they had they had that tech? That technology at Wimbledon, the US Open, wherever? You know, where they got the ball and you can see where the ball hit. You know, like, how long have they they had that dan a.
Decade maybe longer, right, they've had it for so But you don't have a lot of tennis players in the way of seeing where the ball hits or where it goes out where the NFL there's a lot of confusion going on with tennis. It's a player, is the ball in or out? You know, you don't have a lot of bodies blocking that.
And I agree that the technology is more it's more complicated in football because.
Like you said, the amount of bodies out there.
But I mean, if it's been over a decade that they've had that in tennis, then wouldn't it stand to reason that they've made enough advances to make it.
On a well baseball. Baseball's going to implement this. The question is not if, but when. I just and maybe you keep the chain gang as a backup in case the technology goes down during the game. But I don't know. I'm all for it just because I've seen how random the spotting of the football is.
It does feel that way, doesn't it, like when you see a guy under a pile. I mean, there are definitely times for me where I'm wondering, how the hell does you know where to spot that?
You know what I mean? Like there aren't those and so it would I think to some degree.
Solve that help me understand. The NFL Players Association gives team grades, so the players vote on things from is your team friendly to the families of the football players? The food, nutrition, weight room? Does does anything happen? I saw the Jacksonville Jaguars. Their grade for treating families of football players was an F like an F like, I don't know what the treatment is, but how do you Does anything change with this? I think the Kansas City Chiefs got like that.
They like they're grounding some of these kids or something I don't.
I don't know, given timeouts or bad seats or whatever, not preferential parking. But does anything change when the players vote and it's an anonymous vote on your team.
Yeah they I mean it actually has worked. And you know, I think we all like gravitate to the low hanging fruit. I don't know if you remember, but there was like a I can't remember what team it was, but there's.
A rat problem with one of the teams.
I think Chiefs had not somebody who was ratting things out.
It was I think the chiefs had like folding chairs in their locker room instead of real shares.
But that's when you're supposed to win. Then you take care of your players. That's proof that you win. And all you do is keep the money. You didn't upgrade your Was it.
The Cardinals that were like, if you were staying late at the facility as a player, they were charging you for dinner, Like I don't know, Like, but here's the thing. It's like some of this stuff is ridiculous, and I do think like making a public has shamed some owners into.
Making changes, you know what I mean, Like and maybe.
That's the wrong word, but but I think part of it has been. I mean, look, here's the deal.
So these guys.
Come from major college programs, most of them do, where they're in these.
Facilities that are palaces, and everything is.
Done to make them feel like the most important people on campus.
And it has to be that way because.
In college, you're recruiting kids and you need to entice them to pick your school over another one. And now in the era of the transfer portal, you know, you have to convince the guy that he should stay when he can up and leave whenever he wants.
The NFL has never had to do that, you know.
So I got a lot of cases like these guys go from big time college programs, They'll walk into the NFL and their NFL facility will be way worse than what they were than their workplace in college. And there's really with the amount of money the NFL makes, there's no reason for it to be that way. I mean, these are supposed to be finely tuned athletes that are, you know, measuring everything that goes into their body and spending every waking moment trying to put them and position to play at the highest level on Sunday, and so, like, I think there was this feeling among NFL players in general, based on what a lot of those guys had as college players, that NFL teams were falling way, way, way short of where they should be. And I think there had been complaints in the past, and they'd fallen on deaf ears, so you know, they go public and I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of these things improved. I mean, the Patriots who've gotten killed the last couple of years in this are opening a new facility. I think in part because of the bad pr they've taken. You know, the chiefs replace those chairs. The Cardinals don't charge for dinner anymore, which I you know, I don't think anybody charges for dinner anymore, which is like a good thing.
You know.
It's funny that somebody did in the first place, but it took care of the problem in the back end, you know. So I think that's the idea here, and I do think to some degree it's working. Maybe not with everybody, but I'd say the great majority of owners who've been publicly embarrassed by these report cards over the last three years have have done something about it on the back end.
Mel Kiper in his latest mock draft has Abdul Carter Penn steak goal number one now comes word that could need surgery. I know he had a bad shoulder. Now they're talking about foot surgery here.
Yeah.
So, like I I think he's gonna be okay now, and I don't think it's going to affect his draft stock. Like, I still think he's likely. He's probably the leader in the clubhouse to be the number one overall pick. I think a lot of people would tell you he's the best player in the draft. The easiest translation in the draft. I would say Travis hunder might be the best player. But this is the guy who you look at him and you know exactly what he's going to be in the pros. But you know, it's a foot and those can be problematic, like what is I think his foot, back and hamstring, right, are the ones that, like you just you have to be yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to you know, do your diligence on it, have your doctors look at it, and then if.
You draft him, something something you have to keep an eye on.
So I don't think it'll affect his draft stock. But I don't want to tell you that, you know, a foot injury, you know, at a young age for an athlete like this is nothing, It's not nothing.
Thanks for joining us. I know you got a busy schedule, so we appreciate you carbon out some time. Thank you. Albert. That's Albert Breer, the Monday Morning quarterback senior NFL reporter.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Dean Blandino Fox Sports, NFL college football rules analyst and former NFL MVP of Officiating joining us from the combine. Good to talk to you again, Dean. What do you want to chew up? First?
Let so whatever you got. I love that you called me the MVP of officiating. That's I love that title.
I love that and you should be you know the heck with Mike Pereira. It's you, that's right, that's right. Okay, help me understand the technology of spotting the football or first down, like, where where are we headed and when will we get there?
Yeah?
So, I think short term, what the league is going to do, I think for the regular season in twenty twenty five is the officials will still spot the football, but instead of bringing out the chain gang, they're going to use this optic tracking and these these cameras that are positioned around the around the stadium to tell you exactly where the ball is in relation.
To the line of game.
So instead of stretching out the chains, you'll have this graphic pop up and it'll say the ball is six inches short or the ball made the line of game.
I think that's the short term.
Long term, I think we're going to use some of this this tracking technology where they'll eventually be able to use that tech to actually spot the football, to say, here's where the ball was, when when the knee was down, or when the runners progress was stopped. I don't think we're going to be there in the next two to three years, but I think eventually we may see that at some point.
Well, I think we all love when the chain gang comes out, so I do, like, I love it. I think they got this reversed. They should be trying to spot the football. It is so random at times and it's unscientific. And the chain gang, these are just guys holding the chain. We want them coming out. You stretch out the chain. That's good TV Dean.
I love it.
I agree with you one hundred percent in that you know the chan It's it's dramatic, right, It's that how you watch the game and is it going to be a first down? And then we've got these guys that run out and this is their moment in the sun. I love the chain Gang, but I don't think the technology, like I said, is there yet to spot the football.
But you know, I guess we don't. You know, there's not a lot of chain Gang enthusiasts.
Also the Toush push. It feels like I'm obligated to ask you about this. From from an officiating standpoint, what concerns you about this play?
Well, from an officiating standpoint, it's just a it's it's an almost impossible play to officiate as to where the ball is when in relation to the goal line, because you have all these bodies creating this mass and you're trying to figure out where the ball is. You think about the Josh Allen play in the AFC Championship game. You have two officials coming into two different spots. So I think from an officiating standpoint, it's just a difficult play to discern.
Where the ball is.
That's it.
I don't think they'll change it.
I think with the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, I think some some clubs will say, well, it's going to feel like sour.
Grapes if we voted, if we voted out.
But a personally, I don't love the play, but but it is what it is at this point.
Okay, But take me back to two thousand and five when the NFL said it's okay to push the ball carrier. Yeah, yeah, I you.
Know, And I was there when that rule had been on the books forever and it was illegal to aid the runner sister runner and push, and the officials just didn't call it. They just didn't. They felt it was difficult. We just didn't see flags. So they felt, Okay, if we have a rule in the book that isn't being officiated, let's take it out now. It took, however, many years for this push push to really gain traction, but it was illegal forever prior to two thousand and six, and I think it would be an easy fix.
I think there's a safety element to it, you know.
I mean, I know the league came out and said there's no there's no injury data on the play.
But look at the Super Bowl.
I mean, Chris Jones was was was banged up on the play. You've had several egos. Offensive linemen have said it's a it's a tough play to execute. So we'll see, We'll see how it goes. But I'm just not sure why we keep it in.
Well, the Eagles will tell you that their linement are more susceptible to an injury than the defense is with that play.
Yeah, yeah, and that's a concern that is a real concern, and I just it's an unfair play too when you think about think about the defense if they if they stack up the runner at the at the line of scrimmage and drive him ten yards back.
The offense isn't going to.
Lose those ten yards, right, You're going to get forward progress and come back to the line of scrimmage. But we allow the offense to push runners down the field and gain that advantage.
So I just think it's unfair.
Look, the Eagles have done a great job with it, and I wouldn't say we have to take it out just because one team is successful, but I do think there's other elements there.
The kickoff. They seem to be toying with this again. Yeah, do you think there's any modifications to the kickoff rule.
I do think that they'll probably move the touch back to the thirty five when you just kick it through.
The end zone.
I do think that the two options for this year will probably move the kicker back five yards or move the touch back up five yards. And again, I think they were happy with how the play went. You went from twenty two percent, which was was an all time low in terms of returns, to thirty thirty two to thirty three percent, which was better. I think they wanted to look at the injury data, and the injury data says the play wasn't more dangerous. So I think now they're going to look to increase the number of returns. So probably one of those two things, either the touch back to the thirty five or the kicker back to the thirty and we'll see where it goes from there.
Dean Blandino, Fox Sports, NFL college football rules analyst and former NFL MVP of officiating. Could you see anything with tweaking field goals with I mean, they've gotten so, you know, proficient with this, and the NFL doesn't like predictability. It's like the extra point. That's why they moved it back because it was predictable. Do you see anything in the future where the NFL would change anything with field goals.
I think there could be.
I don't think it's going to happen this offseason, but when you look at the evolution of the kickers, it's been incredible. Right now, we're eighty six percent on all field goals, setting records for this year, we had the most field goals per game. I think it was almost three and a half field goals per game, which was the most ever. The kickers are so good and from really any distance, we're seeing sixty yarders like they were thirty yards thirty yards twenty years ago. So yeah, you know, what could you do?
I mean we experimented.
I remember being at the Pro Bowl with the kickers and moving the uprights closer.
You could do that.
You could do some other things because these kickers. Like you said, the NFL doesn't love predictability. I think they like it when teams go for it. You want to see more touchdowns, So I think that's something in the near future we could say, because.
They're all about, you know, content, like what looks great esthetically? What looks if you had a moment where you went to the fifty yard line and the goal post all of a sudden moved in and got a little tighter. It's just like we're talking about with the chain gang. We love that. Now if you do it digitally and you give some drama to that, we love that stuff. I was talking about pylon Cam five years before they even implemented it. It's like, you you have the visual aesthetics to always think about, but imagine if the goal post just went in each five yards or ten yards, it went in x number, yes, x number of inches in Yeah, I mean that.
Look, these are all like things that you think outside the box that would make it.
You know, you would, you would.
As you got closer, it became a harder field goal as the uprights came in. You know, you have to figure out the how to do that with the uprights and the and the goal posts and everything else.
We'll we'll see, but I do think that's something.
The league will look at because again, these kickers are so good today and they're not going to get worse.
They're only going to get better.
What's the wildest rule suggestion that you ever heard?
The wildest you know we've had, you know, thinking about field goals there, you know, if if the kicker can hit an upright, that's worth four points.
You know, so so now you know the doint, the doink would be a good thing.
You know, there's there's been quite a few of of.
But you have to make the field goal when you doink it right.
That could be it. Yeah, you could.
You have to actually hit the upright and go in. You know, there there's variations of that.
That we can play with I think the league.
Has done a good job of not getting gimmicky, you know, with with some of the rules changes, you want to maintain that integrity and the foundation of the game.
And and uh, but there have been some interesting ones over the years.
Is the official Is it up to the official to tailor his shirt the way he wants to?
Yeah, we we you know that happened. You know, we remember ed Hockey Lee and he was really the godfather of the sh medium and uh and and so we you know, the officials get their uniforms. We we would provide them with a tailor at our officiating clinic, but then inevitably they would go to their own their own folks and.
And maybe you know this, leave this.
You know, I've been I feel good about my off season arm workouts, and I want to I want to show it off.
A little bit.
Uh, have fun there in Indianapolis, schmoozing, I'm guessing has that with a lot of schmoozing.
But heading home later today, so we'll we'll head home. But it's been a good week here.
Thank you, Dean. Thanks Dan. That's Dean Blandino, Fox Sports, NFL college football rules analyst, former VP of officiating,
