Jenny, Conor and Gary start things off with every conceivable take on the Julio Jones trade: The positives for the Titans, trying to figure out the Falcons' plan, one coach who is simultaneously thrilled and maybe a little terrified, and much, much more.
And before we get into more serious topics, a conversation about the week's two silliest headlines, starting with Tua and the playbook. What does it mean when a second-year quarterback says on a Zoom call that he has a better grasp of the playbook? And how would opening locker rooms to (vaccinated) journalists be a step toward avoiding such silly controversies in the future?
Then, the goings-on in Chicago, where apparently a promise made in March to Andy Dalton is being treated as an unbreakable contract in June. Why the Bears will absolutely not be starting Dalton when the season begins if he doesn't outplay Justin Fields this summer.
Plus, a deeper look into the mess the league has made for itself when it comes to Toradol usage and race-norming in the concussion settlement. And why it’s taking them far too long to do the right thing.
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Hello, and welcome to the m m QB Monday Morning NFL Podcast. I'm Gary Frandling, I'm Jenny Francis, and we have we have some big headlines to go through this week. Guys. We have a little bit of to uh silliness down in Miami. We have some stuff going on with Andy Dalton and Thomas is made to uh. And we also have some serious stuff to do at the end of the show. Uh, not that this first thing isn't serious, but maybe not beyond football series. But we're starting off with Julio Jones. Julio Jones has been moved. He is off to Tennessee. The compensation was the Falcons receive a second round pick and rounder Julio Jones and a three sixth round pick go back to the Falcons. Uh. So we finally reach the end of this storyline, which I don't know, I thought it might carry us all the way through August. I guess I'm a little bit sad to see it go. But the issue was finding a trade partner who's who was gonna be able to fit with what the Falcons had to do here, not only in terms of the conversation they got, but but the salary cap situation in Atlanta. Yeah, I think the price that the Falcons got back evidently that was the best that the market would bear for a partner that was willing to take on the entire salary, which was the Falcons top concern was was clearing that off their books so they could sign their rookie class. And I think it makes sense that it probably the market topped out with a second round pick. I don't think anyone was going to give up a first round pick and then also take on that salary. But one question that I have is the Falcons planned from this point forward because they decided not to go the route despite being in prime position to take a quarterback in this year's draft if there was one that they liked still there at number four, but they passed on the opportunity to take a quarterback this year and decided to go forward with Matt Ryan. You would think that what would pair with that plan would be keeping Julio Jones, But sticking with Matt Ryan and treating Julio Jones is kind of a mismatching of directions for the team here. So I'm a little confused as to what their plans are for one and moving forward, especially too, when you consider the fact that, Okay, so he's going to Tennessee a team that runs the same offense as the one that the Falcons are currently running and the one that Julio Jones thrived in um when he made the Super Bowl with the Falcons. And what's interesting about that offense is, you know, if your number one receiver isn't a track star, then you need Julio Jones, Like that's the only other kind of guy that works as a number one receiver in that offense. And so, you know, because you need him to be physical, you need him to be a precise route runner, you need him to be able to beat up on on cornerbacks. And so to me, it just it doesn't make sense because if you're Atlanta, you need him to make this work unless there's something that we're not seeing, something we don't know about Calvin Ridley, something we don't know about their plans for Kyle pitts Um. And you know, if I'm Tennessee, I'm thrilled at this point because you know, you basically just got all of the you know, you upgraded from Corey Davis, and you have a receiver that fits the scheme perfectly. But I don't know how Atlanta doesn't see that because they're running the same offense. Yeah it Uh, I guess on the Ryan front. And again, look if they didn't like Justin Fields and like mac Jones, like yeah, you know, you don't take a quarterback when it's all said and done. But uh, they apparently knew back in March. Julio had asked for this trade, uh, and asked to keep it quiet and and maybe was a little bit surprised that he announced it himself on on Fox Sports one. But uh, they knew this in March, so you would think of the very least they would have done their due diligence on the quarterbacks. Maybe it's a little bit of if we're going to be optimists about this, maybe it's a little bit of okay, they didn't love Justin Fields or mac Jones, but also maybe they're looking at at Matt Ryan and saying, like, we can get five years out of Matt Ryan. Here. We saw what Matt Ryan did under Kyle Shanahan. This is loosely conceptually a similar offense here, and we think he has some stuff left. And now that we have you know, Calvin Ridley is probably a bona fide number one who, by the way, they're gonna have to pay very soon. And now you add Kyle Pitts and I guess you could say it makes sense. Maybe, Yeah, that's a fair point. Gary. I mean, they may not have liked Fields or Jones and thus they would go forward with Ryan and that or that may have been there planing all along. Anyway, but we've talked a lot about the foul because that Cottor brings up a good point for the Titans. This is fantastic. I think on an earlier podcast we had talked about what was the thing that the Titans hadn't done to get better this offseason, or you know, they didn't seem to have made a splashy move. Well, this is it. And now they have a d Brown, Derrick Henry and Julio Jones. You know, it's an offense that Julio will thrive in. Plus you have the incredible threat of the run game, which Atlanta didn't have last season. And so the Titans get a lot of loaded boxes from the opposing defense, which should open a lot of opportunities up for Julio. And they have two fantastic receivers. I mean, it's a in a division where they're clearly the favorite, but they're also one of the top teams in the whole conference. Yeah, I just I think we fool ourselves sometimes, like and and I don't know anybody um or anybody that's you know, gonna check themselves and say they're being a percent honest. It's gonna stand up on a soapbox and say, I think the Falcons got tremendous value for Julio Jones today, and you know, maybe it bears it out, maybe there knows something about Julio and and maybe you know, he is really past his athletic prime and in the second round pick ends up looking good in a few years. But as of right now, like I cannot imagine like just sitting there and talking yourself into a two and four as a good thing. Like you know, you're just looking around and you're and you're in your war room and you're looking around and you're saying, Okay, you know, this guy is no longer with us, but we have a second and a fourth round pick. I don't think that sits well with anybody in Atlanta, or at least unless there's something we don't know that shouldn't sit well with anybody in Atlanta. Yeah, I mean, maybe there's a scenario where Julio wants another contract if he has another couple of big years. But also it's like cool, Julio had another couple of big years. That was that was a good thing. Uh, that's that's not a bad problem to have at that point. I'll I'll say this, and I said a couple of shows ago. I mean, Julio Jones is like loved them respected by teammates, by coaches, by fans, by I don't know, enemies. I mean, everyone has just the utmost respect for the guy. He is absolutely like every team would want him in their locker room and want him in their building if you're trying to build your program. So uh, it makes all the sense in the world here for the Titans. I will say, the one guy I will peg as a as as a loser in this trade is Todd Downing has He's just he's the most fascinating assistant coach in the league to be Uh. Todd Downing a couple of years ago was maybe on the verge of being a rising coaching star. He was taking over the Raiders offense. Derek Carr was maybe this young, sort of ready to ascend to m v P type of quarterback and it just all went sour there and then he was out. And then he sort of, you know, laid low for a couple of years and tend to see and now he's getting a second shot as an offense coordinator, as a play caller, he's replacing Arthur Smith, who I mean, if you could make the argument Arthur Smith is the best play caller in the league the last couple of years, so Downing has to replaced him already. And if the talent was a little bit worse, maybe you could be like, you know, they were down a little bit this year, but hey, what are you gonna do? I mean, you know that Josh Reynolds replacing Corey David it just wasn't meant to be. But now they're kind of so stacked at the skill positions. It's like if if they're great, it'll be like, oh what Downing? I mean, Look, look, I was telling as a working anyone could make it work here, and if it doesn't work out, then it's like Downing blew it. Like Ryan to Hmmill might just have an off year. That might be the way it goes here, could have an off year, Derrick Henry could finally start behaving like a running back who's carried the ball like four hundred times a year. You know, I mean that's that's coming at some point. You know, the bills on that, you know, on that way of life are coming to at some point. So you know, yeah, I'm with you, poor Todd. Well, that is a sobering Monday morning case. Gary. I imagine that Todd Downing was enjoying his Sunday. He was probably celebrating, I have this new weapon. My offense is going to be fantastic this year. And here's Gary rambling to say, well, it's not going to live up to expectations no matter what. For Todd down any anyone could have led the league in scoring with these guys and then if it then if it ends up being their fifth in scoring, it's like, oh well, when when an underachieving unit here, look at all these guys they have. But alright, but that's one way to look at it. Look, I think Todd Downing, I think Todd Downing will do well. I think he I think it's a really nice second act for him. But it's just this kind of like turns up the pressure just a little bit, all right, to an uncomfortable level, maybe fair enough. But as as I'm sure we'll hear the coaching line quoted many times this summer. It's a great problem to have, isn't It? Isn't now what coaches always? That's that's a It's a great problem to have until everyone's calling for your job. If you're Julio Jones, would you rather be in like some players? Like, you know, I feel like it's like you force your way out, you know, And but then like where are you? You know what I mean? And is this where you'd want to go? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question. You are really delivering a lot of a lot of things to think about this money morning. If I appreciate it that the podcast needs intension, I mean, that's that's a fair point to Connor. It's the grass is always greener, and then you end up there and is it as good as what you expected? We're all gonna die one day, does any of this matter? No? Look, I think it's a good landage. Schematically, it's certainly a good landing spot here. You know, I don't know, does anyone want to be on an a f C team that's not the Chiefs. It's like, if he was going to pick his spot, you pick the Chiefs. And if the Chiefs aren't interested, well, okay, well you gotta you gotta do something else there there. You know, there was some buzz about he wanted to go to the Patriots. I don't know how much was behind that. It sounds like the Patriots were not terribly interested at this point that there. There are a lot of Patriots put out some some interesting messages through their surrogates over the last couple of years. A year ago it was it was Jared Stidham was would have been a first round pick in and it's like, I don't think that's right, doesn't sound right. It was Julio Jones dying to get to New England. I'm sure he would have gone there. I'm sure he'd happily gone there had he been traded there. But I don't know. Kansas City has to be the top of everyone's list if you wanted with the Super Bowl, right, assuming the Falcons wanted to get him out of the NFC, which they did, yes, the Chiefs would be the obvious pick, and everything else is a gamble. I mean, even going to the best team in a conference or in the league is a gamble anyway, But it's even more of a gamble if you don't go to the best team. Jenny and I know this because we covered the two ten New York Jets. Oh man, this is just this is my favorite bit of all time coming Tomlinson and Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes. I can't wait until when we're talking over whatever medium exists then in media and just talking about the twenty ten Jus, my grandkids will just be like, I don't want to go over to grandpa's house. He just talks about somebody named Dustin Keller and Santonio Holmes and how they should have ran the ball with Dadian Tomlinson at the goal I should have run the ball with shown green at the goal line and stila, datis Tomlinson. And listen, there are a lot of future grandparents right now who live in Atlanta who will be talking about the today that the Falcons traded away franchise legend Julio Jones. Yeah, and that's the Super Bowl. Yeah, that's the bummer. That's the bummer for for the Falcons. And yeah, you break up with your with your franchise guy, and yeah, that's that's sad. That is a little bit sad. So we will end on a sad note with the Julio Jones is sad for Atlanta. I mean, what a fantastic player, incredibly fun to watch. Sure there have been some injuries along the way, but it's a contact sport and you know he's thirty two. Okay, you know, so we missed some games last season, but all signs pointed they're still being a lot left for Julio and hopefully we get to see it with the Titans this year. But yeah, big bummer for Atlanta. Positive, I can end on it on a positive note. Um, Julio Jones is going to get to stay um if he wants, at the Union Station Hotel in Nashville, which is beautiful, UM and right down the street from the stadium. And so so that's I mean, that would get me fired up about a move to Tennessee. So there you go, Connor, you're staying in the Union Station Marriott. I've never stayed there, but I have been to the lobby there the lobby car, and it's lovely, the best, just the best. All right, let's uh, let's get silly for a few moments. Here. We have to go down to Miami and talk about some salacious headlines that to a tongue of Iloa, I didn't know he had a playbook. He had, he had no idea that. That's what I'm gathering from the headlines. I see. This is the time of year when playbook is in many headlines. It's, you know, learning a new playbook from the new coach, or as Connor and I have referenced many times before the Jets circa having to playbooks one for Mark Sanchez or Tim Tebow. It's also the time to over analyze what a scrutinized quarterback says about his previous knowledge of the playbook, which is exactly where we find ourselves with Toa or the Jets in twenty oh gosh, lockout year was that where we had to ask every player if he received a playbook during the like I remember there was the Rex Ryan book tour after his second straight a F c Ampionship game, and I was there. I remember a frantic phone call between us and he said, I gotta ask if Mohammed Wilkerson got his playbook. And I remember that now, like and that was like a big I felt like a big victory when I was like, because he left, he was shepherded out of the Barnes and no, but I was like, ras, did Mohammed welcome to get his playbook? And you know, yeah, he got it. So everybod where, Everybody's all good got the playbook. I was gonna say, I really needed closure on that anecdote playbook. He got the playbook. Everybody's good, So we uh we know now to us struggled as a rookie, that's uh somewhat expected, considering the fact that he was coming off of major hip surgery, the fact that we had the the strange offseason, and and look, can we say all the time some guys learned better on the field than the virtual type of setting. To him might be one of those guys ultimately, But the comment he made was essentially, uh, you know, he knows the playbook better now. If you were to part these comments, you would say, this is a guy entering a second year who's saying I know the playbook better now than I did a year ago, which seems just completely normal. Yeah, and so just to kind of clue everybody into kind of how this works, Um, you know, a player will say something on Zoom, It'll get written a certain way, It'll get picked up by somebody who wasn't on the zoom who then takes a segment of the quote that was written a certain way and then places a different headline on it. And then uh, people make a big deal out of it and say, oh my god to it. Didn't know the playbook last year. Um, and so let me venture a little bit of a solution to this problem, which the NFL seems to want to do, the opposite of which is, uh, hey, let us back into the locker room. Uh we all got vaccinated. Um well, I don't want to speak for a lot of us, but I did I know Jenny did. We're ready to go back into locker rooms, and so let us back in there, and then we can go back to tah and say, hey, I just want to clarify this before right this you meant this or did you mean this? And uh, then we don't have to have these stupid conversations. So, yeah, this is a particularly stupid conversation and Connor, that is a important point to make. I I agree. I think more interactions between the media and players lead to less miscommunications, lead to a better understanding of what someone is trying to say, leads to more in depth and thoughtful answers than you might get over a zoom. So yes, here here to locker room access, human interaction, and then the people who are most capable of communicating those interactions to others. That's uh, it's a good way to do it. You know, like, what else are we thinking? And you know, I think there's a particular frustration because this happened to the story that I wrote a couple of years ago. I remember again, it all comes back to the two thousand eleven two twelve Jets. Stephen Hill was their second round draft pick, and I remember I did a big story on him going into his second season, and he said that, yeah, you know, I I didn't quite grasp the playbook as well the first year. And then you write that, then it gets rewritten as Steven Hill didn't understand the playbook, and then you get a call from the Jets saying, how could you do this? And but it's like, no, this is what I wrote, and well then where did this come from? I don't know, And so you know, there's this whole back and forth and you know, and then you go back to the player and say, hey, you know, I I this is what I wrote, and I just want you to be clear on this and and we can foster this sort of understanding. But uh instead now you know to uh rightfully, so has every reason to not want to do another zoom or to not feel like going on there and and giving a great explanation for a question or something like that, and uh, you know, here we are, you know, yeah, I mean, and if you look at his comments, he was saying that he wasn't comfortable checking plays, alerting plays, that he didn't necessarily have an fan stability or any ability to make a lot of changes at the line of scrimmage. And I actually don't think that that's that unusual for a rookie quarterback. All of that stuff grows with time. So he went from trying to be honest and giving an honest assessment of how much better he could be this year, especially because he's already facing a lot of scrutiny. I think this is going to be one of the more interesting storylines of this season because he faced so much scrutiny last year and there were so many calls for the Dolphins to move on from him after he played, you know, barely half a season. And now he's trying to be candid and saying this is where I can make a lot of games in year two, and people are saying, oh my god, this means he was terrible last year. The other thing is I remember Patrick Mahomes making a comment at the end of one of his first few seasons. I think it was after his first season as a starter, where he said, I didn't even really know how to read defenses. And the response from everyone and again, yes, the awe of Mahomes is warranted, but I remember the response, Wow, imagine how much better he'll be when he understands defense is fully and And this is like the polar opposite of that. This is like, well, that's horrible, rather than being optimistic for what's to come. It is it. You have to lock it into your narrative and run with that, and you can't be shaken from your narrative no matter what happens. It's just like we have these painful, preconceived biases on everything, and it's the filter from which we see the world. We also, I mean, and that's the other thing. We we do need reporters back in the locker rooms. And the other part of this equation is people do need to find trusted sources and also to read past the headline and to read past the tweet and all of that stuff. I'm the guy who writes the headlines and the tweets, and uh, I mean, my goodness, you should not be going off of what I'm writing about Connors and Jenny's work here. It's it's just a crime. But uh, as far as it goes, there's just this game of telephone when it comes to the aggregate of a lot of these stories. And I mean, it's it's not gonna go away. There's no point complaining about it. But I'll complain about it anyway. But yeah, you know, that's how a story that starts as two is saying, uh, I can get a better feel for this offense. And this playbook turns into uh too, I forgot to ask for a playbook last year and and and never looked at it. And Purple Monkey Dishwasher and then we uh, we all go on with our lives at the risk of messing up the audio on this because I got I got yelled at once for doing this on and uh when I was working somewhere else. But um, I was gonna pound the desk and say, okay, let's just let's pound that stupid story in a submission. There we go like that's it, beat it down, it's Scott, it's done. I was, I tell the story. Now. I was at NFL Network and I was on TV, which I hate doing because I'm not good at it. And I had like a little you know, you had the ear button, and the producers like, okay, five seconds whatever. And so I'm making a point like live on NFL Network, and I say and pencil and the browns for the playoffs, and I hit the desk and then someone just yells stop hitting the desk, and so I, uh, I don't do that anymore in any in any place. But I was clearly shook by that. But anyway, Yeah, so let I'm air hitting the desk. Let's let's move on. That's all right, let's move on. Let's move on to Andy Dalton. Then that's uh, that's gonna that's gonna get us going here. Uh, I I just look, I'll say this whole sense of Andy Dalton was promised that he'd be the starter in March or whenever they signed him. Uh, it just is I don't know what that promise is worth, because I I guess if they if Justin Fields goes and lights things up this summer and they go with Justin Fields, there's no real consequence to taking the job away from Andy Dalton, except Andy Dalton's feelings would be hurt. Like, I'm just not sure why this uh continues to be a thing that we sort of zero in on and and uh, I guess I put together a really bad outline here. I hate all these stories. But uh, it's just like like, oh, Andy Dalton was promised the starting job, so no getting out of that. Now he has to be the Week one starter. There's nothing you can do about it. It's like one of the silliest things ever. It's just like, uh, you know the bear, Like you just imagine the phone call. It's like, Hi, this is Matt Naggie. It's like Hi, it's hey, it's Andy, and he's just like, okay, you want to play with for us? Yeah? Can I be the Week one starter? Yeah? Do you promise yes? And then it's like okay, and then they draft Justin Fields and it's like, but you promised, Like like we're four years old again, you have to win the job. And everyone's like, well, Andy Dalton would have picked somewhere else to go if he knew he wasn't gonna start. Where else was he gonna go? Where is he starting? What other team is being like, well, we would have taken him and made him the week one starter. You want to go to Denver? Go ahead, get yourself traded to the Broncos. Yeah. It does also remind me that there are some teams that are just going with no other options at quarterback. So like the Bears have you know, okay they have they have Dalton who could play until Fields is ready, right. The Jets don't seem to have any backup plan for Zach Wilson. And I know I'm veering off topic a little bit, but it just reminds me that isn't it better to have options versus to have just only one option that you have to start the rookie week one? You would think so, Andy Dalton is a very nice backup plan, uh in in every sense of the word. But yeah, it's if again, if Justin Fields is like ready to go, and you've been in that Bear's locker room and you've seen the quarterback play that your team has put out the last couple of years, and then Matt Naggie's like, all right, well Fields is the better guy. But you know, we promised, and I'm a man of my words. So Andy Dalton's going out there a week one. It just it doesn't matter. And and like you said, Jenny, if Justin Fields is not ready to start week one, which is a very real possibility, uh yeah, then any Dalton just starter. But this whole like we have to determine the Bears week one starter right now or not even right now. We had to determine it in March when the roster was not completed yet. I don't know, it's it's just it's a mad, mad, mad mad world. Well I have a solution, Gary. I know that you closely follow the Bills and so perhaps this resonates with you, which ye are we talking where Tyrod Taylor was going to be the starter, but they put Matt Castle under center first, So Matt Castle technically started the first game for the Bills, but then Tyrod Taylor was the quarterback, so they could do that, put Andy Dalton out there for the first snap and then play Fields. That is that is, and now we're solving problems. Matt Maggie. Imagine like the day before the first game and Justin Fields has been ripping it up in practice, and all the players are like, oh my god, we're finally gonna, you know, be a good team again. And then Matt Naggie calls a giant meeting and says, guys, today I'm going to talk to you about something important. Keeping your promises, Like like, really, you're gonna be like this is a meaningless gesture, you know, and it's and it's and it's insane that a player actually believed this, Like it's it's crazy that a player believed any words that came out of a desperate coach's mouth. You should never ever, ever believe anything that the coach tells you, ever, unless it's like a play. Unless it's like a play it's like, okay, you gotta run in this direction. It's like, okay, I vaguely think that you're telling the truth. Anything else, double check it with somebody else. I'd love to pound the table right now. But we're not allowed. We're gonna get another We're gonna get a message from producer Shelby stop beating that. Stop that. Maybe we'll replace it like blow into your microphone. That is now how we emphasize things in an even more annoying way. All Right, So we've we've run through our sort of fringe e starting quarterback uh roster in this show so far, and we're not gonna move on to some stuff that's that's much more serious and uh two things that were in the headlines this past week. We're gonna start with tour at All and the conversation around toward it all. And I kind of want to throw it to Jenny because Number one, Jenny's kind of smarter than both of us. Connor, I'm very sorry about that, but I mean, you do have a deeper knowledge of this than, uh than either Connor and I do. Yeah, honestly, Gary, the biggest surprise to me was that it has taken so long for there to be a stance on tour it All. I have had conversations with physicians and people involved in the medical field relating to sports medicine, specifically football, several dating back several years about the risks of towar it all. What was highlighted in this recommendation that it not be used by players is the increased bleeding risk. And it's a non steroil, anti inflammatory, and one of the most extreme side effects, UH is an increase in bleeding and that can exacerbates a lot of injuries, but concussions is one of them. So if you have athletes in a collision sport using towar it all, it's it's a dangerous mix. And I think there's been an awareness of this for a long time. But because this is such a violent sport and players have long relied on something like towar it all to be able to play every week. UH, this will now result in a big change because players do not have this um anymore. And I think that's a good thing. I think it should be outlawed. It should have been outlawed a long time ago. UM. But also to me goes back to the idea that there should be more than one bye week. That there should be you know, that could be used to ensure that players don't have to play on short weeks. You Know, a study like this really reminds you of not that we need a reminder, but I think we do need a reminder sometimes of how dangerous this game is and the fact that there are more measures that should be taken with the schedule to protect the players better than its being done currently. There are so many, um you know, there's so many options out there, which is which is crazy to me that none of them have been actively explored. And I know that part of the issue certainly is that the players are um you know, the players are unionized, and that there's you know, if you wanted some sort of mass holistic program, it would have to go through a bargaining process so that you know, people could find out more about the players, what makes them tick, and how they can help them. But at the same time, like, there's got to be a better answer than like, you know, uh, advilt times ten thousand just being shot into day after day after day. And you know, even the the lay description of it is like, you know, even if you just look at it up on drugs dot Com, it says this should not be considered a long term solution for anything, you know, and like even the most easily accessible um information on this drug is like, hey, stop, you know, stop after like two days and these guys are getting it for months, for weeks, for years. Um. Remember Greg Bishop, our colleague, did that thing with Andrew Whitworth earlier this year where he weaned his body completely off of pain killers, even original strength advil um, out of a fear of you know, exactly where we're going with this. And so I think it's it's crazy to me that it's gone on for this long. Uh, it's crazy all of the issues that it's led to post retirement for players, um, you know, who have grappled with their own issues of pain killer addiction or you know, alcohol stuff like that to to ease the pain from football. And so it's just it blows my mind that it's taken this long to be like, hey, you know, maybe we want to stop doing this, you know, and and we're there's just they just feel so far behind the eight ball now in terms of alternate solutions for pain management. Like I remember people asking Goodell about marijuana, um eight years ago, nine years ago, and there doesn't seem to be any effort to incorporate any sort of holistic pain killing. Um, you know, outside of what athletes can do outside of the facility, you know, a lot of them are turning to acupuncture, you know, massage, therapy, all that stuff, but on their own time, you know, stuff that they don't get into the facility. And so I think the entire process just seems very backwards to me. Yeah, I don't I don't want to advocate for the for the for the cannabis uh solution, But I mean just anecdote. You you hear so many guys there's a lot that we don't know about that either. And I think that that's important to say that. I'm not saying that's a blanket solution, um, you know, but it's just like, how has there been no effort in terms of like a pilot testing, you know, program or research or you know, anything in in instead of just being like, yeah, no, just get your shot, you know, Well that's the thing. Like and and I apologies, Connor, I didn't want to necessarily shoot down your suggestion. I I do think it's it's there's so much anecdotal evidence from retired players saying that this has helped them. Uh, it just seems a little bit ridiculous that we haven't sort of, uh, I don't know it moved this along faster as far as examining that as a possible solution going forward. But I did wanna, you know, Jenny touch on this real quick, that the you could alleviate some of this with sort of smarter, more more sensible scheduling. And it just sort of blew my mind when the you know that the double bye week was put out there, do you extend the season that way instead of adding a seventeenth game per team? And the feedback was kind of like, well, you know, the networks don't really want to have such light schedules midseason, like you know, the uh, CBS and Fox don't want those uh Sunday afternoon slates to be lightened up. And it's just kind of like, are we reaching a point where the argument is we can't do this because maybe people won't watch football. Haven't We sort of crossed that threshold where it's like, people will watch whatever NFL game you put in front of them on Sunday, It does not matter, uh if it ends up being uh, you know, we got three matchups that aren't great, They're gonna sit down and watch it. That's how it's been, without a doubt for like a decade now. Yeah, And if you had the double bye week. There would be a lot of scenarios in which you could either eliminate or reduce the number of times that players play on a short week, and then you also have this built in second rest period. Um. I thought that was a real missed opportunity if they're going to make major changes to this schedule and the way a season is played, and you know for a long time that seam all, well, this is you know, we we like these different benchmarks of the year, and this is what the schedule is. And then of course, you know they always want expansion, but the idea of not taking that opportunity to add a second by week for the purpose of player health was really a missed opportunity. Agreed. Another story that really came back to the headlines this week, and this is something that originally came up back in January and February, but I think some folks might have missed it because it was, you know, it was around the Super Bowl, and people tend to watch the Super Bowl even if the game is not a great game, because people watch football no matter what is on. But the league in the concussion settlement, as far as determining whether individual players were eligible for settlement money. Uh, they were relying or the doctors doing the examinations were relying on race norming. Now what that means is a lot of these entire players they don't have the the cognitive baseline tests. They didn't do that during their playing days, so there's no way of of measuring and individual players. Uh, you know, it's sort of drop off as far as a uh cognitive ability goes. So, uh, they relied on averages, and they split those averages by race. There was essentially one, uh you know, one quantitative approach for white players, and there was a different one that was lower for black players. And because it was lower, if a black retired player, uh you know, tested lower because the gap wasn't as large between what that average was, uh, they would not be eligible or they were less likely to be eligible for settlement money. Which uh in a league where look all these guys, they they went to college, a lot of them degrees. I I don't know if there's really a reason to rely on race norming in such situation here and and now the league is finally backing off that after uh kind of holding on for a little while. Yeah, there's a part in the settlement agreement. It's specifically listed that there are five domains of cognitive function. In each domain, there are several tests and that contribute test scores for consideration for your settlement amount. Test selection in the domains was based on the availability of demographically adjusted normative data for Caucasians and African Americans. So it spells it out as part of the settlement agreement. Exactly what you just described, Gary to me the whole thing, and you can lump it in with toward all is like here is sort of all the stuff that the NFL keeps like tripping over to keep in the closet, Like you know, this is kind of the way, whether it's their legal arm or whoever, like this is kind of just the way that they think. This is the This was how things were going for years, and there was such an erosion of morality over time. And I'm not saying like this is solely the fault of Roger Goodell, but it's incredible how we get to this point where we're just now today, you know, trying to unhook players from prescription drugs. We're trying to be able to look at our black and white players the same way and treat them the same way after they all helped get the league to this point, and it's just unbelievable to me. And so, you know, I thought it was interesting that, you know, our old colleague or MMQB creator Peter King, had written something about what was next for Roger Goodell, um and as he reaches the end of his next installment of his contract. And I think that addressing the NFL's past candidly, um, is a great way to set them up for a better future. Because the longer that we continue you to go down this path, the longer that they try to sneak this stuff out on a summer Friday and you know, and hope that we forget about it. Like, the more of this stuff is just gonna keep coming out, more retired players are gonna keep speaking out about their issues. Um Uh, you know, everybody's gonna be honest about, you know, what they feel the experience did to them once they get out. And so why not get ahead of it and say, hey, you know, there was a long time where we just did not have a pulse on this, like we did not have any control or not, you know, um, And it was completely responsible to use pain killers this way, um, to to treat players in a settlement this way like and and we have to get we have to get ahold of this stuff. And I just think that it's just it's mind boggling to me that these are basic human things that are just not being addressed whatsoever. And this is two thousand twenty one. Uh, And that to me is pretty mind blowing. Yeah. And I think it's also jarring to see what has happened here because as as we just discussed, this was part of the settlement. So it's not a surprise to the NFL that it was in there or to you know, some of the attorneys that that's signed off on this right, and you know, it was explicitly stated in the settlement agreement. And the NFL's initial argument was that this is something that is normal, that there are generally demographic different demographic standards. Now they're saying they've come up with a panel to create new standards and that they will both prospectively apply this to people who newly file for settlements and also retroactively. Um. But what we don't know at this point is still how much money were black players denied because of the disparate standards, and for people who are in this position, who are dealing with dementia or other neurological impairment, you need that need to help pay for care now. So there's a lot of time loss. So even if they ultimately make up those payments to people who were wronged in the past, that money could have made a difference in years of care. And so I think an important piece of that. And I know that the judge has asked for a report on how this was applied, but hopefully there is some um somewhat of an examination of how exactly players were hurt in the past. And you know, you could also argue that they shouldn't just be paid what they should have gotten paid, that they should also be paid some restitution for this mistake. Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more. And I guess when you just kind of step back, the thing that bothers me most is it's like, if you're the NFL, clearly you made mistakes in the nineties, the way you end in the eighties and the way you approach these things, and to sort of dig in now on these really inconsequential dollar amounts for for some of these guys, and yeah, the NFL is not a charity. But at the same time, it's this is an accounting error what they would have had to pay to these guys. And the fact that they just dig in with the this sort of you know, rules as rules type of thing and they won't sort of give that extra leeway on on some of these settlement things. It's just it's so incredibly off putting and just uh upsetting from a moral standpoint that there that that they're that they're doing this either of these stories that we talked about that you know at the back end of this show, like if you're in charge of whatever the NFL's legal strategy, if you were overseeing you know, NFL physicians who are doling out these painkillers, Like how do you look at yourself in the mirror, at your kids, at your spouse, at whatever, and with a completely clear heart, explain what was going on there? Like it just it blows my mind. You know, there's a lot of stuff in the NFL. You know, we're on a weekly basis, we're like, oh, this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. And I think that maybe sometimes but not really. I mean, the NFL gets kind of held up as this bell weather of society and they're not prepared to handle it. And you know, but this is this is basic human rights stuff, basic you know, day one care for your fellow human rights stuff. And it's it was just completely unfulfilled for decades, and it's it's really jarring. I don't know how to transition to the end of this. That's a wrap. It was a great I was like, what was I gonna say? Well said, which is what I always say. But yeah, that was a good Uh. I'm trying to think how to transition out of it. There's no easier. I'll wrap it up. I'll do it. I'll get it done. Thanks for going out on a high note. Connor, no problem, Gary. This is supposed to steadily dwindle until we just have an awkward silence and then I read the end credit and that's how the show is supposed to end. All right, that's fine, you know here, let's end on a happy note. Jenny is wearing one of my favorite hats of all time, a classic UM classic Glacier National Park hat, which has been a mainstay of UM. Whereas Jenny has been with me through a lot of hat trial and error through my life, um, and I've always kind of counted her as my closest confidante whenever I purchased a new hat, um, which is something that I need to do more of now that I don't have hair. Um. But her Glacier National Park hat has been like a beacon of sturdiness and stability over the years, and I always enjoyed when I see that over zoom. But still not the longest last hat in my family. My dad is currently wearing the FIFA South Africa Um. What was that Super World Cup? Yeah, so it's his I think I've told the story before, but my mom like won some package at the bank and it was like this little fold up cooler which I have in my apartment, two of these hats and like a soccer ball and like for whatever. My dad doesn't like soccer at all, but it like fits his head. It was just like one of those hats that looked really good. So he wore the first one until it was like faded and fraid um, and then my mom was like, well, I have a second one. So he's on his second one and it's still his favorite hat, but my mom doesn't let him wear it to like doctor's appointments. She makes him wear a newer Penn State hat that doesn't look because it's you know, this one's a little ratty because I think we're several years into this hat as well. So what you're saying is style gets passed down. Alright, guys, this is like our fourth show together, and I don't know, I think I think righteous anger kind of fits us well as far as this goes. That was a great soliloquy by Connor. Well made points. Yeah, good job, everybody. I mean, you know, we're I'm ready to vent with you guys in person. Let's do it, you know pretty soon, huh we'll I'll just be listening to me scream and holler in in a cramped studio somewhere and you'll all be wishing you were back at your house. Is on Zoo. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL podcast is Jenny Brentis, Connor Or and me Gary Gramling. We are produced by Shelby Royson as Eyes Executive producer of podcasts, Scott Brody. Mark Ravick is Emeritus editor of the MQB. Andy Benoit is the founder of the MMQB NFL podcast. Be sure to subscribe to this feed on Apple podcast, and once you do, please leave a rating, m review because it really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify radio dot com, Stitcher, si dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts in the