Hello, week Side Podcast listeners. I'm Jenny Brentis. I'm here with Connor or. It is late June and we now have news of more sports leagues with dates to move forward. Major League Baseball or returned to camps on July first for a sixty game season that they will play. We have the NWSL Challenge Cup. Of course, since we last spoke, there was a setback with the Orlando Pride. Several members of the team tested positive. They will not be participating, So a lot of stops and starts, but in general, it seems like things are headed towards trying to make sports work, despite the fact that we don't really know if they will work and what that will lead to. Connor. Yeah, um, so it feels like every episode is like, Hello, we're in a holding pattern, you know, I know, just like you know, but you know, we're at least all doing it together, right, We're figuring this out one step at a time. But this is the closest that I've felt um to any sports actually taking place. And maybe it's just me, but you know, to see the NWSL on American soil actually happen, um, to see NASCAR um actually take place, golf. Um. You know, that was really the first time that it registered for me the Bundesliga. You know, it's just not a part of my daily routine, nor really is Nascar. But at the same time, it just felt like, now that it's been on home turf, it feels like we're at least inching a little bit closer. Though I remain consistent with what we said on the last podcast, which is I still find it hard to believe that we're actually going to play football. But good luck to everybody. I hope it does work out. Yeah, it just seems like the number of cases that are still in the United States is still at a level that is is worrisome. We didn't have this whole, you know, almost total reduction of cases in the country. There's still a lot of cases in and around US, which I think will make things complicated in the weeks ahead. But um, but yeah, there are definitely efforts to move forward, um, to keep on this track, and that will lead us to our first topic. Connor. A recent Yeah, a recent report from Daniel Kaplan of the Athletics suggests that fan attendants will be different in every state, saying this will not be a one size fits all approach? Is that fair considering what we know about certain states and various stadiums built in home field advantage, The Seahawks get to have fans and I don't know another team doesn't. That's totally unfair because the Seahawks, the Chiefs, like there are teams with a pronounced home field advantage, like something that does give them an edge. And uh, you know, I think ignoring that it's ridiculous. If if that happens, and if that takes place, I think coaches will lose their minds. I agree, because there's nothing that we know the NFL cares about more than competitive balance. That's what we all always hear bandied about in any situation, Well, what about the competitive balance? Right, It's just like this thing that we always hear about. So to me, this seems like a huge concern for competitive balance because differ very different environments, you know, very different conditions. Uh, you might get no home field advantage whatsoever, while some other team is getting partial or full home field advantage. Um. So I agree, Connor. I early on in the process, when there was talk about if staffs could return to team facilities, there was Initially the policy was no one could until everybody could, until the last state who was farthest behind, would set the policy for all of the rest of the states. Um. And I think that that's the best thing moving forward. Whatever the most restrictive state is, or wherever there are the most concerns and most restrictions that need to be in place, that should be legal. I think it's strange to expect that you would have different situations in different states, especially because this has been such a moving uh you know, it's very fluid. What where their outbreaks and where their issues and what states are the hot spots. So it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Yeah, and you I mean, I guess the retort is, well, the Chargers have been doing it for the last two years, and now it's time for everybody to do it. But I think that if you go down the rabbit hole here, it's like, Okay, some teams are going to play in an empty stadium, so it's gonna be wayasier to pick up their calls, and some teams aren't gonna play in an empty stadium, so you're not gonna be able to pick up their calls like that. Right, There is a distinct, like you could put a numerical value on the advantage that a team would have there um And that's just something that I'm thinking off the top of my head, which to me, the fact that any of this stuff is getting out there from somebody in authority just shows how far away we are from actual legitimate football. I mean, like, this is not going to happen. They're not going to let some teams let fans in and not let some teams have fans, and coaches will freak out. If Bill Belichick can have fans and somebody else is gonna be able to have fans, that guy is gonna stage a major league coup and and destroy the NFL from within, if if, if given the chance. I mean, there's so many of these things that I just feel like everybody is still so off the cuff, which to me shows that like there is no plan. You know, nobody's ready to go yet, because if you're still thinking this way, then I don't know, I mean, it shows that there isn't hasn't been a whole lot of thought put into this, right And I think you're kind of caught in this weird area where a couple of months ago we were talking about like it felt weird to be moving forward when the season was six months ahead or six months away rather, and we didn't know what things would look like at that point, and how could you be making plans now for things to be going as normal. Then we kind of shifted to this part like, Okay, things are definitely not going to be normal, and what are they going to look like? And now here we are, you know, a month or two out from when games are supposed to being played, when they're supposed to be practices, and I think there's still a lot of confusion over what things will actually look like. We've talked about there's confusion over what media access will look like. There's confusion over will reporters be allowed in the stadiums for games, and so we don't have those answers to questions and are just narrow slice of our participation in NFL coverage and games. So there's definitely not protocols in place for fans. And I understand the need to be able to adjust to things, but if you say you're going to go ahead with the season in these circumstances, and yet we still don't know exactly how that will make sense. Then I think it's just kind of that's where we've been stuck in this holding pattern. Connor, We've just been talking to in theoreticals for a few months. So it makes me, you know. And while the sports talk radio UM perspective on all this is dangerous and stupid in large way shapes reforms. You know, something hit me the other day when I was listening in the car that someone said, Okay, let's say the n B a uh goes forward with this scatter shot season and it's whatever, a thirty game season or play in championship or whatever it is, um, you know, and the Lakers win the NBA title. That would give I think Lebron James a certain record number of titles. It would give the Lakers more titles than the Celtics. Like how legitimate are you viewing this? And the same would go for baseball, Like if it's a consequential World Series, how how how much weight are you actually giving a team that did this in a small sample size and we're gonna argue about it forever and it's like, why are we even putting ourselves through this? Like why can't we just do a year without it? And it was the financial planning that bad across all major sports leagues that they couldn't handle something like this, And I don't know. It just seems like, no matter what happens with the NFL, we're not going to start on time, and if we are, there's gonna be fits and starts, and there's gonna be unexpected bumps in the road, and either way, there's gonna be huge calls to delegitimize whoever else succeeds. Like imagine, God forbid if and I'm just using this as an example, like ten people on the Colts get sick in the middle of the season and they're winning the a f C South and all, and then all of a sudden, Texans come back and win the division because their ten most important players got sick. Like you would call that into question, right, you would say that you know, this isn't fair, and uh, this wouldn't happen during a normal season, so the Texans don't aren't legitimate division champions. And you know, I feel like that's the way that most fans are gonna look at this. And while they're clamoring for a season to start, I don't know if there's a season that can start that can make everybody happy. You know, there's gonna be a lot of really crappy things that are gonna happen if we force these people to be in close confines together, um and fans and all all these people. And I don't think that we're going to be satisfied with an outcome at all. And so I don't know. That just kind of popped into my head and I thought that was interesting. No, that's a good point. Yeah, I mean there have been, uh, some of these questions coming up with say, shortened Major League Baseball season, like will there be an asterisk by this champion? And you know, I don't think so, because it's you're winning whatever the circumstances are being presented, right, But yeah, it is going to be a different kind of season and a lot of different complicating factors. And the examples that you gave are are really good, you know, and I think we're just we're being reminded of how hard it will be if players are not in a bubble, which there are plenty of concerns with that approach. But if players are not in a bubble, which is not the plan for the NFL, then you're going to have issues. You're going to have outbreaks, and it might not just be one or two players. So yeah, if a player in Major League Baseball, I mean, four hundred has always been that like classic Ted Williams batting average threshold, like you know, but players have hit four hundred for a quarter of a season before. If someone hits four hundred for a season, is that, you know, a record or is that you know? What do you consider that and all this? You know? I don't know. I just feel like maybe it's good for sports stock radio, though I don't know, because that's really the kind of thing that they traffic and they can argue about it forever. But um, I don't know. I just feel like nothing is going to come of UH A shortened season, an abbreviated season that is going to make anybody feel totally good. And I don't know. If that's the case, then do you really want to go forward with it? I don't know. Agree, I agree, Connor, I agree well with that in mind, we'll go onto news Topics number two, which Debbie Downs. That is the end of the Debbie down UH segment. If you follow us on Instagram. We're trying to have a little bit of fun with our uh natural pessimism, but all right, uh news topic number two. Dak Prescott signed his franchise tender to a chorus of sources, say reports outlining the quote unquote massive average over the Cowboys that he has in the considerable future. What do you make of the noise surrounding Prescott situation? And doesn't seem likely the deal goes down before July? Um. One of the takeaways that I did have, I think it was Adam Schefter that had that bigger thing on just how much leverage that Dak Prescott has is the point is a valid one that, um, you know, the cap might go way down next year, and if you franchise him this year and then you get into the Kirk Cousins situation where you keep having to use the tag, you're now all of a sudden maybe allocating like twenty or thirty percent of your cap to one person, which you've got to get that under control before um, before you're dealing with something like this, right, Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, So you think that they would be potentially more incentivized to work on a long term deal and maybe just backload the heck out of it, you know, and assume that next year you're going to get banged and then after that everything kind of goes back to normal. Maybe yeah, yeah, I mean mean, I think it makes sense to try to work on something to get this large cap number off the books, especially if you're considering other moves. I don't know, are they considering a Jamal Adams move. I'm still skeptical like that they would have space for him in addition to all of the other contracts that they would be paying, But um, it seems like both sides would want to move towards something with all of the uncertainty right now. Yeah, I mean, he's he played better than almost every other quarterback in the league last year, and I think the same can be said about the year before. Um, maybe Mike McCarthy wants to get his hands on him first and and give him a trial run in his offense and things are going to be different. But that waiting period comes with a tremendous financial penalty, you know. I mean, we saw how badly things worked out for Washington and Kirk Cousins, and to try to, you know, move that along, I think is really dangerous, especially because I don't think Dac is like I think Doc is a top ten player would definitely have a market somewhere else whereas I think some of these other quarterbacks maybe the market is not as robust and they could kind of negotiate their price down. Yeah, And I mean maybe it makes sense for DAC to try the Kirk Cousins year to year approach. But you pointed out at the at the top that's an interesting counter to that, Connor. Yeah, the the whole thing with the salary cap next year is going to be really interesting, like what happens, you know, and um, you know, like I think we're looking at an entire year of players who are either coming up on mega deals or whatever it is. I mean that's a really you know that that that has to be awful timing, Like if that thing does crunch, Like, are there is there something they can put in place to prevent something like that from happening, Like, I don't know what what what could be done? Right? Yeah, that's definitely I mean that's gonna have such an influence moving forward on how teams handle things. Yeah, I don't know. I'm a big proponent of just get it done with him. I mean, I just I don't know, what's out there that's better unless you think you're getting into the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes, which I think the Cowboys are too good to be able to do right now. And who knows what Trevor Lawrence is going to do. I mean, this is a weird season. Maybe there isn't college football. We don't know what's going to happen, you know, for teams that are planning on tanking for him, uh in in next year's draft. It's it's hard to say. So I would say, you know, um, you know, dance Uh what is this phrase? Dance with the date you brought or something like that. I don't know. Yeah, I love the one. You're with a couple of different options here, um, but yeah, I mean with the cap um, you know, so the one I guess. Good thing is that they are locked into this labor deal, which I'm certainly not going to criticize the players for pushing back against in the spring, the ones who did vote no, because a lot has changed, and in any labor negotiation, you know, the circumstances changed rapidly and you have to just go with the information you have at the time. But now that they are locked in I think that does pro probably help offset the potential of Um someone mentioned you know you could probably like borrow against future years to offset any kind of decrease in the cap. I'm not exactly sure how that will work. Um, that's something maybe we can delve into in a future show, Connor. But um, but yeah, I mean, I think the fact that they are currently locked into this labor deal will probably help some of that, uh, you know, help offset the vacillation a little bit there. I think there are ways to work around that a little bit that might help somewhat. So vacillation is one of my favorite words. I love. I mean, I don't know, it just makes me, as I'm floundering for the right words with salaries sound like oh yeah, it makes me sound like maybe not so dumb. But um, this is a shot in the dark here. Um, but I know that you've been perusing Netflix a little bit more aggressively during the during the pandemic times. Have you seen the Ozarks? No? I haven't, I have not, Okay, UM, It's it's very loosely about an accountant who um uh launders money for a very large Mexican drug cartel and um, for some reason, While I was watching it, I was thinking about the NFL, and I was like, that's who these teams should be hiring, Like, are people like that, like like money launders and you know, to get around some of the cap you know, constraints and stuff like that, because I feel like there's just not a whole lot of creativity right now in in the cap business. But if you're facing something that they can't borrow against and all of a sudden everything goes way down, you hire one of those guys and you just make the money disappear. There's a million of those people. So is at the headline for the show or advocates for the NFL to money launder? Should I put that in the show? Notes different teams to money launder? But yeah, what's the what do they prefer? Um? Uh, different teams to become angel investors? That's what That's the kind of the isn't that the fun term for a Launderer's I'm an angel investor? Okay? Yeah, yeah, I don't know. This is not really a world I'm very familiar with, but I'm glad that you are. So we bring a lot of different perspectives to the week side podcasts. So Connor Ore is our money laundering expert. I wish I was, and then maybe I wouldn't. I wish I did my taxes for the first time last year on turbo tax and uh, it was not good, Like it just didn't go well. And I was like, how do there are people who are so good at this? Like I was talking to someone one of my neighbors down the street and he's like, yeah, I had to buy a new truck because we needed a write off, and so it's basically a free truck. And I was like, how does that work? Like how do I need a car? You know? But then it's then it also gets my taxes free, Like what's going on here? You know, I'm definitely not when I was in college, you know, making small amount of income working a lab or whatever, and my parents, you know, we're doing my taxes for They're they're very smart. And um, I got a refund from the I R S for X amount of number dollars or whatever. And my father was certain that this refund was too big, that the I R S was giving me back too much money, and that they had aired And we went through a series of phone calls with the I R S where they were like, no, this is fine. My dad was like, no, look at the tax coat and like X whatever I had to be on the collex was mine, you know, and he'd helped me with it or whatever. My dad ended up being right, so I had to give the money back. My dad was like the I R S was like, this is fine, just take this much money. It wasn't even like a large sum. We're talking like a couple of hundred. Maybe. My dad was so intended not ever being able to like be deemed any kind of fraud, even if it was the R S is mistake. He was like, we know that it's a mistake, and it's our duty to tell them that it's a mistake and give the money back. So Dr Jim Brentis is one of the world's great people, like the like a foundational human that like you feel like when you think about like like the ideal American, it's Jim Brentis. He is, like, he's the man. Well, I will never forget that. So now you know my taxes, I'm always like Jim Brentis, you know, gotta be you know, very by the book. Despite what the I R S might say, they can they could always be wrong, so dominate him for president. Yeah, he would have been a good president. You have been a good president. Um, all right. News topic number three, New Lions principal owner Sheila ford Hamp said that if Nat, Patricia and Bob Quinn wanted Colin Kaepernick, that ownership would stand behind them. Does this feel like a meaningful gesture coming from one of the few team owners you've heard address the situation, or just more empty promises? Well, on the one hand, Connor, I will give her credit for actually answering the question. I have been on plenty of calls or conversations where people say, we don't want to talk about Kaepernick, So I give her credit for answering the question. But I think you're right. I mean, there's this concern about these empty promises. We've talked about this on the show before, and people say publicly, yeah, we consider them, or they'd be on our list or something of that sort. But then they're not actually making a call seeing if Kaepernick wants to work out, you know, making any kind of outreach. Right, So we've yet to hear that there has been outreached from a team, right, correct? YEA? So my thing is like if you're considering him at all, maybe you have questions. That's fair. It's fair to have questions. He hasn't played in a long time, but you should call and at least get those questions answered, right, at least make the outreach. Um. So until we hear that someone has made the outreach, I'm not going to put a lot of stock in public comments. Yeah, I think it's um. You know, like at the end of World Cup or I guess any soccer or English football, whatever you want to call it, since we have international viewers, and soccer is a rating word to to them. Um, but you know, at the end of games when a team is ahead, uh, they kind of pass it back to their defenders and they just sort of kicked the ball to each other to burn off the rest of the clock. That's what I feel like everybody's doing with Kaepernick. Right. It's like, Okay, well, I'm not sure because it's an ownership issue. Kicked the ball over there. Well, this is a team issue. We'll see if the coaches want to kick the ball over there. Well, it's sort of a money issue. We're gonna kick the ball over there, and uh, they're just hoping that the people chasing uh and who are down just get tired and and eventually they do, you know. And and that's my guess is that is eventually the strategies that every coach is going to say that it's a bigger conversation that we have to have or that you know, or they're just going to do what kind of Anthony Lynn said and you know it's like, well he fits, but I haven't talked to him yet, and then uh, or if you're an owner, you're gonna say, well, we'll ask the coaches. You know, I don't care, you know, and that's why we're paying them for and so um, I think there's gonna end just gonna be this endless kind of what would you whole like just milking the clock? I guess, you know, I think that's a really good analogy. I think the soccer analogy is a good one. I don't know the exact termnology, but I can picture exactly what we're talking about, where you're just kind of trying to drain and you know there's probably like stoppage time on the clock and you don't how much much how much is there, so you're just kind of kicking them all around. I think I think that makes sense. This this coming from the Star Ledgers World Cup live blogger. By the way, there's my intern assignment, which was to get into the office that like we knew this right is South Africa was two thousand ten, Yes, yes, yes, so the time difference whatever, the time difference, So I don't I don't think it was bad. It was just there was just a game really late at night, maybe because they were what they're probably like twelve hours ahead or eight hours ahead from us, right, several hours several hours ahead, but several is the safer word there, Connor, because I don't actually know the exact time difference, but yeah, you would, it would have made sense that you had to go in early in the morning. Yeah, going in the big there was no TV. It was in our sports editor's office, so it was you were looking at a TV behind glass in somebody else's office. It was Drew's big two back TV that was facing the continuous news desk and you had to sit there and you had a live blog World Cup games, because why not go to New Jersey's largest news source for you know, World Cup live blogging? Definitely you know, uh so, yeah, it was like, and I didn't know anything about it at the time, and I was just like, go, you know, yeah, I trust your I trust your insight and your ability to you know, use these soccer analogies. I think that's good. Connor. I think there's got to be a good word for it. That there's gotta be like a good like British word, you know. So if if somebody knows of it, please email us at the week Side or weak Side pot at gmail dot com. I would like to know that. No, I agree, and I think the analogy makes a lot of sense. I think the last couple of year is the sort of has been the same problem is that we haven't seen teams make outreach or have a conversation or bring him in for a workout. Um, they've made determinations about whether or not they want him without actually working out or talking to him, which certainly only reinforces the idea that it's reasons beyond anything if his play or physical ability or whatever the case maybe that have led to his not being signed. I mean, I think that only serves to reinforce those beliefs. So um, yeah, so in my view, nothing really has changed. There's been a lot of talk, and I think Goodell has been more willing to talk about the fact that he should be signed, but ultimately it comes down to the owners, and we haven't heard a lot from the owner's Connor, I mean, that's been a pretty quiet thing. I mean we talked to the other show, you know, we have like Gayle Benson had a common in February that she proudly was saying that she had told Rogers that to not let the players kneel. And so I think that we're we need a little bit more of um, we need a little bit more of a public response from the owners. If their policies and ideas have have shifted, then we need to hear about that. So you know, Okay, so now we have someone in Lion's ownership saying that if they want to sign him, that's fine, But then, like you said, Connor, will they kick it back to someone else when it's their time to comment. So yeah, I really hope there's a fun word for this, like you know, like I always like the like the British announcers always have something like fun to say, you know about like oh there, I'm not doing an accent, but like you know, they're doing this whatever it is, you know, I don't know. I'm hopeful from I guess bad news to worst news for news topic number four, This is definitely the worst news at all the five. This is definitely the worst news. Yeah. A report from the NFL Network suggests that both the Ravens and the Seahawks are interested in finding Antonio Brown. Jenny winning sure is important, but this seems like a bad idea at any cost. Correct. Absolutely, He's a bad guy who did horrible things. He threatened somebody, like you know, he has a history of um of terrible behavior, like inexcusable awful behavior, like what are we doing here? There's been domestic police reports, there's been a rape allegation, there's been other abusive and threatening behavior, and there has been no indication that Brown has worked to correct any of those behaviors or that he's you know, acknowledged the things that he's done wrong. Um. Maybe you know, because you say yes, there there there can be a path back. Fine, But if you've had a mounting ledger of offenses and you haven't made an attempt to say that you corrected those behaviors, that you're apologizing that you're working on things, um, And I don't know that I trust that teams are getting that information from him connor like do you trust NFL clubs to say, what have you done to better yourself? I don't. No, I mean is this going to be And again, I mean every situation is unique and different, um, but it was another instance of domestic violence. I mean, you know, the Browns had um so much time to get their story straight before talking about Kareem Hunt and couldn't talk about Kareem Hunt, you know. And how do we have any faith in you know, the Seahawks or the Ravens having a super long landing pad f Antonio Brown and then being able to handle the nuance of this situation. No chance, I mean absolutely not. There's there's just there's no way, um. I in my mind and in my heart, I feel like one of the two teams would probably have a better shot at it given the way that they've handled things in the past. But that's only very slightly and not in a way I think that would make anybody feel good about the situation. So I don't know, you know, I I just think, you know, the good, whatever on field benefit comes from this is not going to be nearly worth um, the feeling that you're going to be left with knowing that this guy is on your team, unless some like you said, some very important work has been done behind the scenes and breakthroughs have been made and people can understand and articulate that correctly. I I don't know, though, that seems dicey to me. Yeah, And given the NFL's track record, we haven't ever seen that that's a precondition, right. I mean there's sometimes there's like loose guidelines baked in, like they'll do this treatment or this training, or they'll but it's it's it's never been like it's just not been a codified part of a return to play, right. I Mean, it's always guidelines rather than saying like we need to see this player work to correct things. That's long been the problem with second chances in the NFL is that it's not contingent upon anything to prevent behaviors from reoccurring UM or you know, having systems in place to ensure that they don't UM. So I think that's where any kind of conversation like this is frustrating, and I think teams are probably just banking on the hope that like, Okay, well that was last year, and some of these bad things have kind of receded from public consciousness, and maybe he hasn't been tweeting as many crazy things, and so it's fine. But UM, I don't know. I don't I don't see that. I don't subscribe to that. Believe No, I don't either, I think for whatever the reason. I mean, you know, we saw Andy Reid and you guys I think did a really great job in the Super Bowl game story of addressing the calculus that he went through, um to sign certain players that Frank Clark you know, uh comes to mind and weighing that against uh, that legacy defining super Bowl. Um, if you're Pete Carroll or you're John Harbaugh, both of whom have one correct, Yeah, both of whom have a super Bowl title. Like you've already done it the right way quote unquote, UM, you know what are you doing? You know, like this just doesn't feel like the right thing to do, you know, and who knows? Who knows how Andy Reid's gonna feel about this Super Bowl in twenty years. I don't know. Um, that's hard to answer right now. Um, but who you know, I think you have to you have to really think about that, you know, if your team and saying that you know, we you know this is you're gonna have to explain that to two people. You know that I signed this guy because I was desperate to win, you know, and and I made that that's the decision I made. I don't know if that's that's tough to me. I don't know. I don't I wouldn't be able to do that personally, right or you know, at least answer the questions of like did you ask him about what he's what steps he's taking, and like, you know, at least be more transparent about what work will continue to go on, rather than treating it like something that you don't want to answer. Um. And so I think this will continue to be a frustrating part of watching and covering the NFL. Connor, I agree. Um. One thing that I think will end on something that is not as frustrating in that I feel like, I don't know. It just takes me back to our our formative young years. Anytime there's a controversy involving a member of the secondary of the Jets, I just get all fired up and I remember young Connor and Jenny all Bright eyed and bushy tailed. You know, yeah, all right. News topic number five, The relationship between the Jets and Jamal Adams continues to intensify through social media and other more anonymous back channels. It is a weird offseason to try and leverage a mega deal, and yet Adams seems intent on getting what he wants before the start of the season. Is this a solid plan? This has been very entertaining to Fallow. That's why I'm kind of laughing a little bit, Connor, because like this is like a break from like some of the heavy stuff. I mean, it's a it's a player contract negotiation. It's a little bit messy, but it's this is not like, you know, a life changing I mean it's life changing, but it's not like, Okay, it's not a heavy topic, right, It's it's just your typical back and forth between our contract negotiations and Jamal. Items will get paid, you know, and and and everything will be fine. Uh. You know, this is one of those things that like at least you know, in the end, like everything is going to be okay, Like he will not play on a deal that is not going to at least guarantee him a little bit of security in the future and the Jets will probably have their star player and like everything will be okay. But it's just like the fun back and forth stage now. I mean, then, there's been a lot on social media, like he's been liking posts of him photoshopped into other uniforms. And then there was that video that surface of him driving through a parking lot and they say, are you going to come to Dallas? And he said trying to. I couldn't even tell that was him from that video O'Connor. It seemed, I mean, I you would have to screenshot and pause, but the vehicle went back too quickly for me to get a good look at the driver's face. But I guess we're taking this at face value or others have probably screenshot it and zoomed in a little bit more. But um, yeah, lots of lots of dialogue. The uh I was listening to uh S former s I colleague Maggie Gray, who has a show on w f A n Now and they got a call from the guy who commented on Jamal adams Instagram and got Jamal Adams to say that what did he say the other day? Like maybe it's time to move on right right, and uh and that guy called the show and said, you know it, tried to explain his point of view, and in commenting to Jamal Adams, his point was a little dicey and that like he's like Patrick Mahomes hasn't gotten a new deal yet, so you shouldn't have one. And you know, I think that's that's what kind of got Jamal Adams upset. But like this is a fun New York stupid thing. It's just like it's unique to the area that and it's unique to the Jets, like they just they starve for generational talent and then they just can't figure out how to keep anybody happy. It's just like it's just if you know, God, like the whole world is changing, but you're like, at least this is the same. Like it's just like this is good. It reminds me of a year. Yeah, And I don't know to answer your original question, like, I don't know if the strategy is going to be a sound one. It seems very likely Connor he will be back with the Jets when training camp begins, whenever that will be I think, So, I mean, in the hard part, when you're doing this and I think that Reva's towards the end of Drell Reva's towards the end of his career was really really took exception to that idea that he was like a mercenary. Uh, you know, and he really hated that label, um because you know, he was like, I always wanted to play for the Jets, but you know, the X, Y and Z happened. Whatever you want to say, um, but this is the fine line that you have to walk between, Like are you going to go so far that you know you're just gonna be constantly asked about you know, is it gonna sound disingenuous once you sign your contract to say that I always wanted to stay here. When you're peeling out a parking lot and saying, yeah, please sign me Dallas Cowboys, you know you've got to like apply the right amount of pressure, but then also like you know, also handle it a little more definitely than this, because I feel like it's almost gonna go off the rails. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting there. Yeah. I mean, sometimes these things, Okay, the player comes back and it's fine, and you know during Revass holdouts, he was pretty quiet during the whole time, which I think made it easier to come back when he did. Versus when the player is you know, video taped or some kind of public comments about wanting to leave. I think it makes it a little bit harder. I mean that was true with Lady on Bell. I mean, I think it's got to a certain point where they were just too much had been said and he just, like I felt like he couldn't go back to Pittsburgh at that point. So what will it be like for Jamal Adams when he reports the camp and the teammates are like, hey, you've said X, Y and Z. I don't know. I mean, I think generally in locker rooms, players understand a guy wanting to get paid. But I do think there becomes a difference when it's like you don't want to be here with us, Like sometimes I feel like, I don't know, I feel like there is with a Lady on Bell situation, for instance, you did sear his teammates speaking out against him. I don't know how the Jezz teammates will feel. Probably most of them think Jamal should be paid and want him to be paid. He's a great problem, they rights, But do they want him to be. I mean, will that happen in New York or will he get paid somewhere else? So, but yeah, I think it's a fascinating saga to follow. I mean, it'll work out one way or the other. And it's kind of like this is like what the summer generally is covering the NFL. There's always some contract dispute, you know, so it's kind of nice to have that uh in the backdrop to talk about, yeah, talk about you know, we didn't need you, Roger Goodell, to go ahead with all this stuff, to be the brave person to take our minds off it. We just needed to allow nature to happen as it does and to allow a player in a team to fight about their contract in New York, specifically in Floren Park. Um, nature is healing. There is a contract hold out with a star defensive back in Florien Park. That feels, I don't know, like a weight gut lifted off me when you said that, I don't know. Um, I will say this too. And the last thing I'll add on this is, I feel like the most effective thing to do during a contract negotiation is the is the just the Instagram like because you can always say it was an accident, like if you like a post, because hasn't accidentally like to post um here and there? Well, actually, speaking of Connor, should we discuss our interesting DM history. Let's do it, okay. So the other day on Instagram, I reposted the mm QB Instagram post that Connor had shared and it was the Debbie Downer and I said, Connor or at the helm of the MMQB instagram has been one bright spots. So then you know it appears in Connor's d M s. And then I get a message from him, why did you send me a shapewear ad in December? And I'm like, what? So I go back. Sure enough in our d M history, which there are no other d ms, this was the only one and it was the first one December nine. It's a shaper Mint ad. Christmas deals are ringing, and it's a woman wearing shapewear. Um name for its shapewear. Well, shapewear is like the general term, but this is a specific brand. I guess shaper Minute, which I've never heard of. Connor and yeah, I have no memory of sending this, And Connor said, I didn't know if you were trying to tell me something at the time, and so then we you know, Connor made the comments like kind of like the idea that in dozens of your closest friends were stealthily bombed by this shapewear ad and it's possible, like I should go back and look at my other d M history. I don't know how this happened. Did I accidentally send it? Like was there something in it that we were laughing about. This is a year and a half ago, so I don't have any memory of sending this. I don't either. Um. And just as you've been saying this for the first time, I've gone through the whole ad. Um. It's a very long ad. Uh. It's Christmas themed, so that obviously makes sense. You sent in December of So the first woman is wearing a Santa Claus hat and in front of a Christmas tree. Um. But uh, yeah, very interesting. Maybe we'll make that Instagram photo for our episode this week, um, and our d M history, and we can call it um. Uh, we can call the episode trying to fit all the pieces together because it brings in Jamal Adams and the Jets. That brings in the NFL trying to get their stadiums and charge and and shaper Mint. Nice little pop for shaper Mint, by the way, get get to us. I mean, come on, you know again a brand I had never heard of. So um, we're always we're always looking for sponsors, right, that's right. It could be a could be a title sponsor. We have that opening available if anyone's interested. So um, all right, shill we move on to the Oracle. Let's do it. Let's do it. Um. So my oracle prediction. I think this will be a rotating bit now because Shelby. Shelby crushed me on this when our producer who dug up all my horrible predictions and uh and and play them back for you last year. But I do think that Dak Prescott steal gets done before um the July five deadlift deadline. I think Jerry Jones waits until there's like a moment of certainty with the football world, and I think that he rides it to like this triumphant fourth of July American you know, flash bang deal, like I think it's going to be a big thing. Um. I think he's looking for a way to potentially just accelerate at the right time, put his foot on the gas and get the deal done. I think that's smart. Connor I like it. Okay, so that's one we'll be able to easily a couple of weeks. Yeah, we'll have an answer by July fift Um, alright, my rent is consensus today is, you know, there's been some discussion on on Twitter over the last couple of days about the idea that players testing positive now is actually a good thing because it means that they and theory won't get sick when there's a season, and I think that we should just not be making this statement at this point in time. UM, we still don't know like the long term effects of COVID. There have been some indications that it might have long term effects on lungs. We've certainly seen the lungs of people who have been infected. UM, we don't have a lot of information on that. UM. There's also it's not a binary. You know, you either have a really serious case and its life threatening or it's nothing. I mean, there's definitely a range of outcomes in between. UM that I think we're not accounting for in that calculus, and that these are top level athletes, and that any potential impact you know on your long capacity or you know, your ability to recover, like could make a big difference in performance, um, and that you're you're rolling the dice. You could be a person that has like the cited kind storm has come forward as being like, if you're that's something that you're genetically predisposed to, you could really have a serious case. And so I just think it's like, it's such a dice roll and to say that it's good that players are testing positive now, especially when we don't know what kind of length of time that the immunity would give you. How long did the antibodies last and how long would it confer immunity. We don't have a clear answer for that as well, And so I think it's callous at this point in time to be saying, oh, it's great that these star players are testing positive now because it will give them a competitive advantage in the fall. I mean, there's so many ethical questions that come with forging ahead with sports anyway, and the fact that the economics are really leading the way here um versus public health, and so adding on this other layer of like, yeah, let's just get everyone infected now, um, when it's a serious disease. It's not something like chicken pox or whatever. I mean, I know that that was a thing with chicken pox for instance, right, like then you have it in immunity, right, yeah, Like you know it's like okay, well, if your sister got it, good, then the younger sibling would get it and like everyone's fine. You know. Um, although a vaccine was coming out at the time that we were kids, Connor, I think the vaccine came out like a year after my sister and I both got it. I'm a chicken pox vaccine kid. I've never hear. Okay, well, my sister will never let me down because or never let me live this down because I got chicken pox and then she got it and she had to miss her eighth grade. They had like oh this was in the era when there was still something called home eck O'Connor, but there was like a cake decorating like finale that they've been building up to, and she had to miss it because the chicken pox. The vaccine came out shortly after that. But in any event, I just I think it's just the wrong framing of it. It puts public health secondary, which we already are doing as we're talking about our return to sports, and I don't think it's a narrative that we in the media should be contributing to. That is my friend is consensus. And on that note, I will just mention, UM, we have a fan from Brazil at Wardo and who submitted a great question for an next mail bag issue, UM addition, and we'll definitely get to that Wardo. But Um Edwardo lives in Salpolo, Brazil. UM, and UM just you know, you're talking a little bit after he submitted a question, UM, and he just said that things. You know, we're crazy there. And I just said, hey, you know, if there's anything that we can do, um to help, and he just said, you know, please just keep Brazil in your thoughts, stay safe and respect social distancing. I mean a lot of people there, he said, are going to the beaches and going about life as if, um, this thing isn't happening. But you know, his plea, I think is our plea and everybody else's plea that if we want all this stuff football and you know, having fun and all this stuff, let's just get it through it and take it seriously, um, and not just treat it like it's a bad case of the flu because it's not, you know, and uh so good point, Eduardo, and we hope that you and all yours are staying safe down there, and we really appreciate you listening from Brazil. Yeah. Absolutely, it's a great, great thing to include a great message to send in this week's podcast, Connor. If anyone has any feedback on anything we've talked about, or if you want to explain soccer to us, we have We are accepting messages is at week Side product gmail dot com, so you can find us there. We'll do some more mail bag episodes in the coming weeks to be sure, um, but for now, thanks so much for joining us again this week. The mm QB week Side Podcast is me, Jenny Rerentis and Connor Or. We're produced by Shelby Royston. Size Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody. Ben Eagle is Director of Editorial Projects and Product. Mark Mravik is emeritus Executive Director of the mm QB. Keep up with our entire lineup of podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm q B NFL Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify, Radio dot com, Stitcher, a side dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.