Predicting Every Game & Ownership Preparedness | Week In Review 

Published Sep 4, 2020, 4:54 PM

Mitch, Conor, Jenny, and Albert are back for another week in review, looking back in depth at what we've written this week. We hear about Conor's process of predicting the outcome of every game, Jenny's piece on the owners preparedness heading into the season, and Albert's look at how teams have adjusted to COVID testing during camp

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to the mm QB Week in Review Podcast. This is our Friday show. And guess what, everyone, this is the last Friday of the NFL offseason. This time next week we will officially have the first game in the books. I guess I should say knock on wood. Assuming everything goes as scheduled, but we are supposed to have opening night next Thursday. We are back. I am Mitch Goldich. I'm joined by the full crew, Albert Brier, Connor or Jenny Varentis. How's everyone doing? Hello, Mitch, how's everyone doing? I got a great hello? And uh and we'll just assume Jenny's doing great. I'm great. Yeah. Here, alright, Well, we've got a We've got a lot to talk about this week. For those of you who are new, this is our show where sometimes we go a little bit off topic. But one one thing we like to do is dive into all the stories that we've all written this week for the m m QB. And we've got a bunch. Albert wrote his usual columns this week. Connor brought back an annual MMQB tradition. I had a fun little story go up this morning. Jenny has Friday's daily cover. So we've got plenty of things to talk about, but we always start talking about just sort of what we've been up to this week. This became sort of a pandemic tradition back when we were all trying to pass time back at the beginning of quarantine, and we've kept it up because it's just nice to know what everyone's up to. So I don't know if any of you want to volunteer and go first something that you've been doing this week. And well, we're still theoretically and quarantine, right, things are opening up a little bit more, we should say, um, but yeah, I mean that that is true. Most of none of us are out partying at the ozarks or some of the other poor behaviors that we've seen. You're right, I think all of us are still being careful and that is that is typically evident when we talk about what we've been doing this week. So that's uh, that that is true and fair to bring up. Thanks, I can start, Um, I have been painting, painting bedrooms. I think that was like, you know, we've reached the end of the part of the pandemic where you've run out of logical projects to do and now it's the illogical. It's painting something that's been painted three years ago, just painted a different color. So that's kind of where we're at right now. What did you look at swatches? What what colors are we working with here? Navajo White has been a big um has been a big power player, I would say, throughout this process. Alright, definitely, So this is this will have to go on the Instagram at some point. Literature. Sure, yeah, no, it's it's more of a cream, you know, um, a dark cream, but it pops with a with a true white um. If you're going to try to kind of play those off of one another. So that's that's really the goal here. All right, I love it. Albert or Jenny, either of you want to go next? Ye? Sure. I had, like I think we all remember when we were kids, like going shopping for school supplies and stuff, and uh so, you know, for the first time, I uh, you know, because we have a kid, like our oldest is going in kindergarten. Um, I actually had a list of things that we had to get, we had to get Steven and um it was interesting how different that is, you know. And just as we were talking about the stuff we gotta get him, and you're ordering it online instead of I don't know, I I'm sure you guys have the same memories I do of like, you know, you go to the CVS or whatever to pick up notebooks and pens and those sorts of stuff, those sorts of things, Like I mean, add the pandemic to the fact that you can do everything online now, and so you know, the idea of school shopping now for kids is going on a website and pushing a bunch of buttons. So we did that and right the same time, their soccer stuff came for the fall, which was, um, I guess like sort of a nice sign of normalcy. Um, you know, Steve is gonna be six in October, Drews four, and um, so their new cleats and their new soccer gear came, and so be good to get them back in sports. Yeah, what I mean, what's the youth sports scene looking like in Massachusetts with everything going on? It's it's weird, man, like the high school sports. So there's no football in the fall. Um, and there's this like different I don't know, this committee or whatever it is, like some board that maybe like released guidelines that that have made it very difficult to play certain sports, and so I know soccer is I think soccer is getting gonna get played, but it's under different rules. I think volleyball they're moving it outside, um, and then football is off all together and um, but then the youth sports are ago. So it's sort of like I think everything else in our country where it's like, well wait a second, you got this over here and that over there, and these don't really match up. So, UM, I do know they're gonna be different rules as far as like, um, you know what the kids can do and everything else in soccer, but you know, I don't. I'm a little skeptical as to how those are gonna hold up when you're you know, those rules are being applied to six year olds. Yeah, Albert, that's a little bit of a cover story talking about your kids, because we all follow you on Twitter and we know you spent the week breathlessly following Big ten football rumors and reporting and that's the real thing I've been keeping you busy all week. Yeah. Well, well, well, hey, hey, it looks like they're working on so we'll see what happened. Might we might get some news later today? Uh, Jenny, how about you. Oh, I've been trying to get back into running a little bit. I guess that was this week's focus. My gym that I go to, it's sort of like a boutique fitness place with twelve person classes, so they're just shutting down now because opening with capacity wouldn't be viable. So I'm trying to figure out some other things. I used to run a ton, like I ran a half marathon like seven or eight years ago, but it's really hard to get back into it. Really struggled this morning on some of the hills in Central Central Park. So you need to get my Stammina back. I think I didn't was this logged and Strava I was unaware of this. Son. I don't like to log my Strava runs because on slow days I know there will be commentary, so I just keep them private. So you're a lurker just you have the ability to follow me and Connor as as was discussed earlier. Fair, I forgot, you know, I forgot this, like like my stravas private and I didn't. I couldn't remember, like did I make it private? And somebody actually told me? So one of my friends told me this and you guys might want to look out for it. Like one of my is buddy of mine who lives in the city in Boston. This is a couple of years ago, but he's seen I had signed up and he was like, oh, you're leaving your account open and I'm like, yeah, Like why is that a big deal. He's like, well, that's like away people steal bikes, And I'm like what He's like, yeah, like people find out where other people live and use Strava to steal bikes. Have you guys heard of that. I never googled it or I just took his word for it and hit the private button. So that's why I'm private on Strava. But like he told me, like it was just this whole big thing. So I don't know why I didn't remember that the first time you guys brought up strap Strava. But there it is for you. Yeah, the bike, I'm private partly because I run like from my parking lot, and then it would be like Superbviously people would know where I live, people would know where Jenny lives if my Strava was made public because everyone knows that we're neighbors. So that's that's it was an obvious call for me to go private. I'm beginning to sour on Strava because, like anything else, it is a social media app. And I was running the other day and I was like moderately happy with my time, and then I was like, I should really go up this big hill because it's better for me, it's better for my health. But then I was like, but then it will destroy my time that everyone will be able to see on Strava. And the moment that that hit me, I was like, see, this is bad. This is just like fitness Instagram now, and so you need to you can't have that be the mindset. So I'm beginning to cool a little bit on on Strava. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing. It's nice when having other people encourages you to do more and go a little bit faster. But and I'll admit that thought has crossed my mind to where it's like, oh, my time is pretty good, do I want to go another mile or two? And one thing, my my wife will sometimes like do her run and then shut off Strava and then like finish or run or do like a second portion. Um, not that she's concerned about like times things like that, but like sometimes that are still like break it up into segments and that's something I've done too, or I'll finish and shut it off and then like I was gonna say, do the I don't really like do Harlem Hill. I try and avoid that and cut across before then. But like, um, you know you can. You can shut it off and then do the hill, Connor, and then we can still give you your deserved kudos on the earlier parts of your run. I just it's just one thing or another. I'm just you live for the kudos, you know, and and that's a shame because you are great at giving out kudos that I'll finish my run and five minutes later I'll have a notification from Connor, which is nice. I I am a big believer in kudos. So my best runs are the ones when I get a kudos from you and Bet Marston are old editor. Those are that's when I know I had a good one that day. Bet of Runners World is I find the kudos are not as frequent but probably more meaningful. So I agree, as as a as a top editor Runners World, it would it would mean more to get that kudos. But I like the chief selective about it, because then that means that not every run is special. You know, I respect that You've got to be judicial about your hat tips, no doubt. Um, So I'll go last one thing. I had a friend who wrote a book this uh that just came out. And it's funny, like we all work with a million writers, so we all have a million friends and colleagues who have written books and mostly about sports. But this friend is actually we grew up together. We went to summer camp together as kids, and he became a rabbi and is the rabbi who officiated my wedding. And he came up with a book why Jews do that? Or thirty questions your rabbi never answered? And I haven't read it yet. It's sitting on my couch in my sort of my on deck circle for the next book that I'm going to read. I just finished one, so I'm gonna dive in whenever I have free time. But I haven't had any free time to get any reading done. But it was very nice. This week we had a a Zoom celebration. We rounded up a bunch of guys from my bunk at summer camp as kids, and we got together to celebrate and toast him for his book. So a plug for av Ra Molotex's book if you want to check it out. I'm excited to read it, and it was fun just to We've talked about this all summer, how people are getting together virtually, and even if it's a group of friends you might not necessarily get together with in person um, but it's nice to check in and see how everyone's doing on zoom and it'll be interesting if that keeps up even when we are allowed to travel and go out and see people in real life and everything. So that was a fun group to have a nice little virtual celebration with this week. Will you'd be reading this before after the Vladimir Putin Judo book, I've already I already read the Vladimir Putin Judo book back before the Olympics when I covered judo, but I will probably read it before. I could always get the Judo refresher before the Tokyo Olympics come back in UM, but I'm more likely to read this Putin's on the bookshelf of ROMs, on the on the couch in the on deck circle. Nice. All right? Should we talk about some football and our stories this week. I think we should do it. Any volunteers, Connor, you get to go first because you are so enthusiastic. You wrote, like I said, our annual tradition predicting all two hundred and fifty six games. You sat down with an empty spreadsheet and gave us all thirty two teams records. Do you want to first talk about your methodology and then we can talk about some of the specific predictions that you like or that other people didn't like. Sure, Um, so this is uh. My wife sets up the spreadsheet for me. She is like amazing at excel. I don't understand how any of this stuff works, and so UM sets it up. So the third column is the winner, the first column is home, second column is away, and the third column is winner. That stuff I all have to manually put in, and then um, all that stuff gets sent to a separate page where the winners populate. And I do it first, and I try not to look at anything, and then you do it again to sort of adjust, um, to to make it slightly more realistic, like I think the first time I did it, like the Titans were like fourteen and two and I was like, well, that can't happen. And uh, um, you know, anytime you look at the chiefs in an Excel spreadsheet with like no other distractions around you, of course you're going to pick them to win. So I tried to kind of bring them back down to earth a little bit, but also, um, make sure that a few of the major talking points from the weak Side podcast, including the surging Chargers and the sinking forty Niners, were also reflected in that. So that was something that I had to kind of counterweight as well. Yeah, the forty Niners fans, they were they were among the louder ones who I saw them in the Bills who you've been on the Bills bandwagon for a year and a half, how as long as Brandon Bean's been there. What happened to your bills in this exercise. I'm just gonna say that I got as many compliments behind the scenes for picking them to finish seven and nine as I did annoying and nasty uh direct messages. Although I've become friends with a student at St. John Fisher College, so that was very exciting. Uh. If the Bills finished better than nine and seven, I'm going to meet him up there um before training camp next season and buy him a plate of chicken wings. So um, so we have a fun little bet going on there. Most of them though, a lot of d m s of clown emojis. Um. Someone said, how easy must it be to get your job? Um, you know a lot of that kind of stuff. Um, I wish I had your job because then I could get paid for being an idiot. Um that was. Um, that was a more memorable one. And uh, you know, just a lot of f us and and stuff like that. So um, you know, but so just a regular Thursday or Wednesday, you know, pretty much the usual. So so how much tinkering did you do? Because I know you and the first version you sent me you just copied and pasted all the teams and their win totals And I said, Connor, there's only thirty one teams here. And it was because you had the Bengals I think going oh in sixteens and they were not in the list, and then you went back and gave them a couple of wins. How much tinkering did you do to make sure that the final records looked like what you wanted? Just just enough and and even still like I think I have three to two different divisions, like the a f C North has three teams with the winning record, and the NFC South has three teams with the winning record with I can't imagine happens all that much. And um, it was pointed out to me that that looked rather ridiculous, especially the NFC South having to ten win teams and then a fourteen win team, um, which is a lot um. But um, I'm pro Falcons as well, so I had to find a way to sort of reflect that in there. So I tried to not tinker as much as possible, but just to make it look somewhat realistic. And I mean, the truth of the matter is Jonathan Jones, who was our former co worker who came up with this idea, who did this long before I did, seems to have some sort of secret sauce and makes it look so much better. And he's typically right, whereas you know, for example, last year, I had the Ravens going four and twelve. So did you like how do you project upsets? Like? Do you like? That? Was one thing I've wondered with this exercise, is like projecting like off the wall weird upsets? Yeah. Um, just so of slamming them in there, like you know, like you would say, like, okay, like there's gotta be at least like ten weird things that happened in a season. So the Chargers sweeping the Chiefs would be a weird thing, and so let's do it, you know. Um, And I don't know, the Giants beating a very good opponent down the stretch who are in playoff contention, you know, Like I tried to bang in a few of those, um, usually like one or two every other week. Um, and then you kind of hope that it all works out, but sometimes it's just ridiculous. Um. But UM, I will point out that Mitch was right when I turned it in. Initially, I thought I messed it up because the Bengals just were not logged on the spreadsheet. But that's because the spreadsheet only logged teams that had won a game. And so um, I had to go back and I had to give the Bengals two wins and those are theoretically upsets. Despite um, certain blogs that I've read that have informed me that the Bengals are going eight and eight and I'm an idiot, so eating yeah, yeah, they're um, definitely some some blogs that came to my attention that are uniquely high on the Bengals. Um, so good good for good for you guys. See having having been in New England for this whole run, like like I know there would be like when they were really rolling, like if you said they were gonna win ten games, people would take that as an insult. And I think you had them at ten this year, right, so like that's not an insult anymore because Brady's gone. Did you like did that reaction come from Chiefs fans at all? Because it's like like like I think they're kind of in that spot now where it's like like anything like anything under like twelve wins is seen as like a slap in the face. Albert. This is a good opportunity to discuss um something that I've been very interested in, and that's sort of this like um ability for when things are going well for fans, they often show their true colors. And I feel like Chiefs ends were actually pretty measured in that there was some like your clown for you know, uh, not putting them at ten, you know, putting them at ten wins or whatever. But um, I would say that they've been far better overall than Panthers fans during the fifteen in one season by far one of the worst out of nowhere groups of fans Buccaneers fans this preseason, which I don't know where you were for the last twenty years, but welcome. Uh. Yeah, Seahawks fans, um, which I've now come to realize are not the worst. Um they are. They're hilarious, They're very funny. And two I think they're good. I think it's good. Yeah, I think it's good. At first I treated it as I felt it is threatening, but now I realized is not. Is totally fine. Um, But I I would actually compliment Chiefs fans on being somewhat understanding of the fact that, like um, in the history of the NFL, just because your team wins the Super Bowl does not mean they win the next thirty Super Bowls. So you know, things contract and expand typically they don't win the next thirty. I agree that is that doesn't happen a lot, correct, But yeah, and then you're totally right. I mean, if you pulled every fan base and said how many how many games will your team win this year, and then you added those up, it would be so much higher than two. Every optimistic every fan base or like the cast of Good Morning Football, you know, or you know, stuff like that, they would all say that every team is going sixteen and now you have to pick teams that are going to be disappointing, and nobody's gonna want to hear that. In September, I think I saw someone do that somewhere. I want to say, maybe it was like a few years ago. Somebody did that where they actually went and looked at a bunch of like experts predictions of the season and they added them up and like said like like and it was like yeah, yeah, and it was crazy. It was like like fifty sixty more wins than were possible league wide. So Connor, kudos to you because someone has to uh come here with the cold heart truth and the facts and that your team's gonna lose more than you think they are this year probably, And so thanks for thanks for taking that one for us, for the team. We appreciate it any too, anytime, my pleasure. All right, Jenny, let's move on to your story you had, like I mentioned Friday's Daily cover and you wrote about the NFL owners and basically what's coming and are they ready for it? Do you want to tell us a little about your story today, Yeah, just kind of asking the question of if there is a tipping point in the season. Uh, if you know, this is an unusual football season for a lot of reasons. Right, there's obviously the pandemic, and there's this racial reckoning in our country, and we saw with the NBA last week everything came to a stand still. Um, and to get it back on track, to get the sea and back on track, to get the players feeling comfortable continuing to play under the circumstances in our country following the shooting of Jacob Blake, it really required all of the capital of the relationship between the players, with the league and the owners to get things back on track. So I think there's a lot of questions moving forward. The NFL has taken a lot of steps this summer. Recently this week they rolled out some new actions in advance of the season, perhaps in an effort to be a little bit more proactive and they have in the past. They announced that facilities will be closed on election day, UM, that stadiums could be turned into polling places. The league and the union would partner on college funds for the children of victims of police shootings. UM. So there were some interesting steps taken, and I think a lot of the actions are on par with what we saw the NBA rollout, but there is a credibility gap as far as the NFL goes. There are owners who are major donors against causes that the players are speaking for, one of the main focuses for a few teams. We saw the Ravens and the Texans push for support for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, asking Mitch McConnell to bring that to the Senate floor for a vote. There are owners who have contributed directly to McConnell and the Republican Party of Kentucky. UM. You know, I think political donations across the board have been um or not across the board, not every owner, but um multiple owners have donated to directly to candidates who are anti the causes that the players are championing, anti racial equality, in many cases, not amenable to systematic changes to address police sprutality. UM. So there's that. There's obviously the Kaepernick problem of this continued blackballing, the fact that he continues not to have a job, and we have seen the commissioner Roger Goodell back the players back protests, UH say that players or say the league should have listened sooner, and I think those are all positive steps. But ultimately, on some level, this requires the individual clubs to choose how they are going to act, and I think there are there is an earned skepticism there for how the owners would handle situation this season. If the players were to consider something like the NFL or the NBA did last week with the wildcat strike. Can you guess how you think that would go over, if, if, and possibly when they get to that point during the season. Well, I think the key is for the league and the owners to continue taking these proactive steps and to continue demonstrating support before you get to the point of players considering a strike. The reality, though, is that the way things are in our country, it is hard to imagine that there will not be another instance of police brutality. And that is a sad thing to say, but that is a sad reality there. The likelihood is that there will be another video, another case, another instance that really for black men in America makes it difficult to do your job that day, And how will the NFL respond if the players want to take action beyond what has been taken to this point in time, which is what the NBA did. You know, we talked a little bit last week, and I think some of our conversation on the pod last week contributed to some of the things that I was thinking about in the story. But we saw the owners fumble the handling of Kaepernick. They're still struggling with how to talk about demonstrations during the national anthem. We have Jerry Jones advocating for a compromise. Even John Murra he said he would support his players rights to kneel, but that he would prefer that they would stand. I think if you're trying to process how that would feel. Imagine if you as an employee and your owners said I would prefer that you act this way. UM, I A support your right to do otherwise, but this is my preference. UM So, I think there's a lot of mixed messages or muddying of the message, and um I think the players need to feel supported. You know, two years ago, when the league passed an anthem policy that required players to either stand or stay in the locker room or risk their team being fined. That was just two years ago, right, And there was a stand still agreement that was agreed upon in the summer of eighteen, so that policy is still on the books. Now. The stand still agreement prevents it from being implemented, but that policy is still in the Game Operations Manual, right, So it's there, and obviously it hasn't been forced because of the stand still agreement. But we're not talking very long ago when their players were going into a season feeling entirely unsupported for even the act of kneeling during the national anthem. And now we're going into a season where there have been larger scale demonstrations in the NBA and other sports leagues. And so if players want to go that path, Um, you know, the owners are going to have some They're gonna be put under the spotlight a little bit more than I think they would like. Yeah, I think, like, I don't know, like I think. The one thing that's interesting about it too, Jenny, is just you know, and I read your story like I think was Dominique Foxworth said that the owners are pragmatic about their money. Um, it's interesting how regional this is. Uh, you know, I think for someone like Jeffrey Louri who is in a city that I think is fairly liberal. Um, he can say these things, say the things that he said, and it'll be digested one way. And if he were in say Texas or Louisiana or Tennessee or one of those places, that might be digested a little different. And I remember sitting with a sitting with the front office guy just couple of summers ago, and we were talking about all of this, and um, you know, he said to me, He's like, listen, you know, and this is a team in the South, and he was like listen, Like you know, I like, you know, I feel like I like I want to support our players with all of this. So that the problem is, like we've already had sponsors tell us that if our players do this, they're gonna bail and that's a problem for us, you know, And so like we've sort of had to navigate this where we are we're going to quietly support our players, but from a business standpoint, we have to consider everything that's that everything that's at stake here. And so like, I I think that that's one thing that's really just interesting about the whole thing is that, like I think any sort of blanket way of handling it is. I think it's I think it's like a little difficult to expect every owner to handle it the same way, and not just because of who they are, but also because of where they are, you know, and um, you know, so I think it's like the same thing as like you know in San Francisco, um, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Read and um, you know, and and I think Tori Smith at one point to that year like kneeling like like I think it was digested one way in the stadium there, whereas you know, when it happened in Dallas, Um, you know, that was a little different, you know. And so it's just I think so much of this stuff is regional, is regional, and and and each of the owners is dealing with something a little different. And I think that part of it is is fascinating because I think it's you know, it'll be interesting to see when we get an owner in the Deep South somewhere come out strongly on something like this, you know, um, because I don't know that we've necessarily maybe David Tepper, David Tepper said somebody like like come out really strongly saying the players can kneel. I support them if they kneel and just let that be where it is, well, I would say I talked to one of the professors I talked to is David jalen Or from Washington State. He's written extensively about racing sports. Uh, and I think what you said about the business interests, that's obviously a big factor. And I think for owners the framing often has to be what is the business interest which is disappointing but also a reality. But learn me the point of when you start saying that this is what the fans want or this is what your market wants, that's two things. One that's you're making a statement about what you believe your fan base to be a that might not necessarily be true, um, but you're basically saying this is who we want our fan base to be in a way, and to it also takes the onus off of the owners because then they're saying, well, I'm only doing this because I'm listening to my fans and this is what they want, rather than saying I'm making a determination as a community leader of what is the right thing for our organization to do. So I think, you know, I don't think the owners should be taken off of them, I think, and that's what really play as are asking for is for them to not just be reactive, for them to not just follow the money or follow public pressure, to be a little bit more proactive. And one step that we haven't really seen a lot of follow through on is this use of your political influence and power and capital to make or to push for legislative changes and policy changes. There have been some owners that have followed through with the promise on local outreach to d a s and police chiefs, government officials, etcetera. There's a difference between making that outreach. I noticed the joint statement between the league and the union said to talk about improved community police relations, and that seems to be the general framing. But what about using that influence to push for these laws to be passed or brought to a vote. And that's what we saw the Ravens and Texans do. They took a step forward in that regard with the team statement asking specifically for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act to be passed be brought to center floor for a vote. I thought that was an important step forward, and I think that's what we're asking for a little bit is where are you giving your money, how are you using your influence in the community, and to take a stance right, to not just go with the way the wind blows, because we we say, all these owners are powerful people and they build teams and we call them mr. But then when it's asked to take a stance on an issue that isn't a political issue it's about human rights, we say, well, they have to go with what their fans say. I think that's a little bit of a cop out. Yeah, I think like the other thing that I think, like you could see um to me, Like what was so brilliant about what the players did with the commissioner in the spring was they forced him to pick a side. They said, here's the statement we want you to read, and it's your choice. Now. If you read it, you're with us. If you don't, you're not. And that's that. And they sort of put him in a corner where it was, this is what we want you to read. And it'll be interesting to see if players on individual teams now would do the same things with their owners. You know what I'm saying, where it's like, we're not gonna let you straddle the fence anymore. We're gonna like like, we're gonna draw something up for you. And I think that this did happen to some degree in Baltimore at least like like and that's nothing. That's not to say Steve Baschetti wouldn't have signed off on it. I think he's been one of the more progressive guys, but the players really did drive that. Indianapolis is another one where they worked with their player development people to kind of craft some of the stuff that they um they did they did last week where they had a four point plan coming out of it. Like I wonder if maybe on the on the team level, now you see a little bit more of let's put something together as players the same way that group of players did in the spring, and let's bring it to the owner and we'll say this is what we're looking for. And so I think you're starting to see a little bit more of that where it's not just well, just back us, it's more like, here's what we want you to do, and if you don't want to do it, like, that's your choice, but you're you're telling us where you stand that yeah, And I think that is how change happens. It's people being willing to agitate. Its people being willing to go to people of power and power and say it shouldn't be this way. I don't want it to be this way, and this is what you need to do to fix it. Um, But I do want to acknowledge the fact that that's exhausting for players, Like it's exhausting to, in addition to your work day, have to work on a statement and you know, garner support around the locker room and go to the people that employ you asking them for things Like I think that's that's important, and they've taken that on, and I just want to acknowledge the amount of extra effort that takes on an addition to a full work day with practice and all of the responsibilities that they have in their lives. Like the players are leading the way, and the least the owners can do is just kind of meet what they're asking of them, no doubt, And I think that adds weight to what they're doing, too, is the amount of work that goes into it. Now, you're making my blood boil over the comment that Jared Kushner made the day after the NBA players had the wildcat strike when he said something along the lines of, well, you know what, specifically, why don't they come up with specific plan? And it's like that shouldn't be their job. Many of them have done a great job leading the way and that, like you've said, but yeah, these people also have lives and careers and a lot to worry about. Um, but yeah, it's it's been great to see the way a lot of these players have uh stood up. It's gonna be interesting partly because it is an election year and I know that, um, you know a lot of these are social justice topics, but they are going to be in the news because people, owners, coaches, a lot of public figures are gonna be asked to pick aside and they're gonna be talking politics and talking about the election, and you know who is likely to be talking about NFL players throughout the season. So yeah, they've sort of uh, the NFL has been on the back burner all off season, and not that it's ever on the back burner, but other sports have had games come back and now they're going to be under the microscope a lot more once the games actually start this week. So it'll be interesting to see what happens this fall. Who on that note, Albert, uh, should I'm not gonna I'm not gonna top that. Should we speak a little optimistically about the season. It seems like people are pumped that there's football and their confident that we're gonna get to the to the finish line and the Super Bowl in February seven? Is that right? And honestly, like I I, um, I've tried to be open minded about this, like and it's I think over I think, you know, when things in July, when things sort of went hay while a little bit, we had the situation with the Marlins, I think that was the early August. Um, you know, I think that there was just this feeling that there's like no way the NFL was gonna make it and they're not in the bubble, and um, you know, so I just like this week I sort of wanted to revisit that, like, and I wanted to revisit the idea that playing football is not possible in these conditions, um, and so like I just sort of asked around with coaches and general managers and some assistant coaches that weren't quoted in the story and everything else. Um, and like the main thing that I that I got back from them was that they are all far more optimistic um than they were about a month and a half ago when they all reported for camp. And so, you know, I think there's this idea, and there was this idea that football was a superspreader of the buyers, and I mean for very logical reasons, because there's physical contact and because you're breathing on each other and everything else. And the numbers just haven't haven't haven't haven't borne that out And I think, like maybe the most impactful number in mich You can speak to this like because you know, he edited the story, but I think the most impactful number to me was kind of the dividing line between football practice and not between practicing football and not practicing football. And if you want to go through, you know, the months leading up to training camp and then the ramp up period, the NFL had a hundred and seventy one players test positive. And that's just the known number, right, Like, so there may have been guys who had it in the off season who were asymptomatic who weren't tested, but we don't know about. But the number we have is won seventy one UM. And that was leading up to August eleven. In the eighteen days after that, which would have been the first eighteen days of real football practice for UM. You know, for for for thirty of the thirty two teams, the Texans and the chief started a few days before that. UM. There were only four positive tests. And to me, that's just that to me tells you tell that. That tells me you can play football, UM, and that you have to be careful. And they've taken as a zilion precautions here and the I think the protocols are really good. But that tells me a that you can play football and be that UM and be that that you know what, the protocols they put in place, all the work the union in the league did for those six weeks leading up to training camp has been effective. And so that was sort of my take of way. It doesn't mean there's not gonna be bumps, UM. You know, I think we're all UM. I think we're all kind of you know, tied to what happens in the rest of the country. So football is not immune from that. If things get worse in America over the next few months, you know, it's gonna be tougher for football, no question about it. Um. You know, obviously, like the workdays shortened now because the guys are out of training camp, people's kids are gonna go back to school, people's wives are gonna go back to work. There's there's all these different things that that are going to be introduced into the ecosystem. Um And like all that's a fact or no question. And you know, travel, I don't think travel is as big a deal as some people make it out to be, just because these guys aren't like slepting through on commercial flights and all that. Like I think, you know, Jenny, we've Jenny Connor, We've seen the way these guys, these teams travel. They're not like they're not traveling the same way the public, the general public is. Um. But there are gonna be some added things with travel. I just say that right now. Um. You know, I'm with the guys that I talked to this week that I feel way more confident that we're going to get a season played and we're going to get playoffs in a super Bowl, UM than I was six weeks ago. UM. And I think exponentially, like exponentially more confident than I was six weeks ago. Mozel. On the podcast, Albert said, schlepping this is this is wonderful. Why why didn't we start doing this months ago? I love this. Sorry, Jenny Ahead, No, I mean, I was just gonna say, you know, I think the coming weeks will be interesting. A lot of teams were in hotels, or some teams were in hotels right during camp. As the season starts, maybe back at home, kids might be going back to school. Everyone has their different family situation that they have to figure out. I do think, you know, everyone has been pretty transparent about the testing numbers, about the protocols. You know, the league has had regular calls with Alan Sills. Feel like he's been willing to, you know, talk and share whatever information has been needed. So they have taken the necessary steps to get to this point, which you know, I at this point, it does feel like we're ready for the season and that it's going to happen, which was not something you could have said six weeks ago. But I do think there's still a lot of questions in the weeks ahead, and we'll see how things play out when it's more of a regular season routine rather than the bubble of camp. I would say this, I do think one thing that one thing that I think, like at least my radar was up for was circumly. I'll try to like paint a picture of what I sort of saw that could happen. Is that somebody gets into the bubble, the quote unquote bubble because it's not a real bubble, but gets into the quote unquote bubble carrying the virus and doesn't know they have the virus and test negative for the virus and goes into the bubble. And now all of a sudden, because they're practicing football, seven other people have it. We haven't seen that, you know what I mean? Like, and that to me a great sign. That to me is a really really good sign because again, like I I just I think like football was seen is like this thing that was sort of impossible to do, or at least some people thought it be impossible to do it in the conditions that the pandemics created for all of us. And I would tell you that, like six weeks ago, I would have very much seen a scenario like the one I just sort of painted. They're playing out and it just hasn't It just hasn't happened, you know, And so I think that's at least a good sign that there is that the football isn't the super spreader that everybody thought it would be. Yeah, I'm six weeks ago when I wrote my story ripping up the NFL schedule and chopping it in half and having games every two weeks and teams flying on game day, and and that was like at the height of the Marlin situation and all the MLB teams just being postponed for a week at a time. And yeah, I mean, I'm I'm stunned that we've gone from there to where we are now in just six weeks um, because it does feel so much more likely. But again, it's like, and I think Albert, a few of the coaches and gms you talked to in your piece made this point, got to keep your foot on the gas and stay vigilant and stay safe because one out, you know, an outbreak tomorrow could derail things. And even though it does feel much more likely that we're going to get to the Super Bowl on its scheduled date, we might miss a game or two or a week along the way. And that's definitely possible if there's an outbreak or something happens, or like you said if numbers worsen uh in a region of the country or the country as a whole. So you know, they're not out of the woods yet, but I'll be the first to admit it. And you know, it's very possible to get to February, and my article from July or August looks very stupid. Um, but you know it's stunning, uh. And part of that, I mean baseball it's gone much better. They've still had issues. The Oakland A's are the most recent team. They had a nice stretch where no games were canceled, and then Oakland had to cancel if your postpone a few games because of some positive tests. And they set out a week and they're gonna be back in and I think, uh, coming up soon, maybe even as early as this weekend. MLB is gonna be back to having all thirty teams ready to play at once, which they've had less often than not throughout the course of the whole season. But they're gonna be back at that point. And you know, because they're not playing in a bubble, that's uh, you know, much more indicative of what the NFL situation is going to be like then watching the NBA and the NHL and the w n b A operating in bubbles. Well, the daily testing has been the biggest reason that there hasn't been a super spreader situation. When you have daily testing, that helps to rent that when you have the resources for daily testing. Which is the difference obviously between the NFL versus lower levels of sports. Yeah, And I think it's like I think the one difference Mitch that I would say between baseball and football. Baseball players are going on like seven day road trips like and to me that like kind of it takes, I would say, a lot more self control to lock yourself in hotel room for seven days then it takes for a football player to do it. And like these these teams aren't going places for three days, you know what I mean. Like they're flying out on Saturday afternoon in most cases, bussing from the charter to the hotel, going and having dinner at the hotel, having neat meetings, have curfew, wake up in the morning, go to the stadium, play the game, and then the next day I mean they literally like T s A is set up at the stadium. When they walk out of the locker room, they go through T s a. They're on a bus and they're going back to their charter and they're coming home. And so I do think like football, they are far less variables would travel because of the duration of travel. Um, So I do think that that's one thing that's you know, in the NFL's favorite like you said, like there's I think human behavior is going to dictate a lot of this too. And you know, like how is a twenty three year old going to active as team's own six, you know what I mean? Like that's a like that's a real life variable that's going to be thrown into all of this, you know, because there are gonna be teams, as Connor kind of explained with his you know projection, they're gonna be teams, are gonna be bad, you know what I mean, Like, they're gonna be teams. They're gonna be bad. They're gonna teams. They're gonna be out of it it in October November, and now all of a sudden that cared of like competing for championships and everything else is gone. Maybe you're not listening quite as much. So human behavior is definitely a huge factor in all of this, as is the conditions in the country as a whole. Yeah, all right, we are running a little bit long today. But before we wrap up, does anyone want to play host real fast and ask me a couple of questions about my story instead of me just awkwardly, uh, just launching right in and telling you about it. Anyone want to team me up with a question? Hey, Mitch, tell us about your story? Oh? Perfect, Connor? That was great. So yeah, Connor dipped out for a little bit. We weren't gonna say anything, but he's uh, he is back. So I wrote a story today. The twenties are here. Now that we've got football, let's talk about some some stats and some stars and all the young allent in the league. I think, you know, why would you predict who's going to lead the league in statistical categories in one season when you can predict for the entire decade. So I looked at nine different stats and tried to predict who will be the NFL leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, rushing yards and touchdowns, receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, sacks, and interceptions over the next ten years, which was a fun exercise. I also went back and looked at the tens and tried to guess who we would have picked if we were playing the same game back in to see if possibly that would give me some insight into how to make a smart pick now. Um, And so that was a fun exercise. Looking back, I feel I'm totally caught up on the two thousand nine season. I can tell you everything that happened that year after studying those leaderboards throughout the week. Um, but yeah, it was. It was a fun exercise to go through. And I looked at the favorites. The favorites are some people you would expect. You know, Patrick Mahomes, Uh, you know se Kwan, Parclay, Ezekiel Elliott, all the are so many good wide receivers in the league, looking even some of the young rookies. But I think some of the fun uh stuff for me was I also looked at some dark horse candidates and tried to pick one of those for each categories. I can share with you my favorite dark horse pick this one. This is gonna be fun. If you haven't read the story yet, I haven't seen it, which is possible because it just went up this morning. Uh, it is possible that Lamar Jackson could lead the league in rushing yards over the next decade, which is very fun to think about because right, yeah, running running backs have a very short shelf life. So I looked at the twenty tents. There were basically four guys who played the whole decade as lead backs. They were Adrian Peterson, Lashawn McCoy, Frank Gore, and Marshawn Lynch, although he retired twice in between and came back. Um, so you know, you're trying to project who are the young backs who were still going to be in the league, and a lot of them could be out. Lamar was twenty two last year, so you know, when he's thirty two, you'd expect he's still going to be an NFL starter. He was sixth in the league and rushing yards last year with twelve hundred and change. And so if he gives us like three or four more seasons between a thousand and twelve hundred, even if in nine he's thirty two and he has a season with like four thousand passing yards and six hundred rushing yards, you know, if guys like Joe Mixon and Dalvin Cook and Josh Jacobs aren't even in the league anymore, that could be a huge leg up for him. Uh, it's not impossible. It's funny to think about, but it would be really cool if Lamar Jackson led the league in rushing over an entire decade. Did you have like a like a Jamaar Chase or a Trevor Lawrence or someone like that in the mix? Yeah, Jamar Chase was my dark horse for receiving yards um And that was another one where Larry Fitzgerald was awesome this decade. But a lot of the leaders for the Tens are guys who did not join the league until in the middle of the decade, Like and Draft have been huge that right, Yeah, well, and Antonio Brown was I think, but his key year he was mostly a punt returner. DeAndre Hopkins came in later. Julio Jones and A J. Green, Uh were they had those two and J J. Watt and Tyrne and so and so. Part of that is, like those guys are just they could be outliers because they're awesome. But it's also true that the league gets more and more pass happy every year, and so it's possible that it's going to be an even even more of a passing environment. Five eight years from now, and so it's tempting to look at some of you know, Michael Thomas, uh, some of the guys who are six now. But it just makes sense that some of the players who are like twenty four, even the rookies, that they could be putting up insane numbers, uh, you know, eight to ten years from now. And so yeah, you've got to consider I had Seedee Lamb as my pick for receptions um, and then I had Jamar Chase as my dark horse for receiving yards. I talked about other guys. I had a J. Brown in there um for one of them. Now the categories are planning to for a little bit. I think a J. Brown was my UH received my receiving touchdowns pick um. So yeah, so it's fun. And then the same thing with um sacks and interceptions, where like von Miller led he was a UH college junior in two thousand nine and then went back for his senior year, got to the NFL inven So I picked uh nick Bosa the younger one, partly because of his youth, because it's hard for older guys. So it's a fun little exercise and I'm not going to rattle off every single one, especially with our podcast running a bit long. But people can go check it out because I had some fun and uh, the nice thing is I'm not gonna be wrong for a very long time. So if anyone has complaints, you can. I've said on Twitter, and I said in the story you can hold him for thirty you can let me know about it then, because I can just say I got time, give it a chance. My guys still might come through. We get some we get some marg Manning love oh in this podcast. What I could have done, I know, I knew that was time. My first is running along and it's time. It's time to end. The first two from people are actually people telling me that I shouldn't be discounting Tom Brady so quickly, and that, uh, they're expecting ten more years out of him. I I and I didn't even make that joke in the piece. I don't even I don't think he was mentioned. I'll give you a fun one that you can kind of file away for. There's a So I was doing my podcast a couple weeks ago with Jordan Palmer, and he was talking about who he sees as the next Joe Burrow, and there's this kid j T. Daniels at Georgia, and he was like, and he's gonna be throwing to Calvin Johnson, Like, what are you talking about, Calvin Johnson. So there's a there's a receiver at Georgia named George Pickens who was great as a freshman last year. And Jordan Palmer swore to me, this is Calvin Johnson. So file that name away, Mitch, George Pickens from Georgia. George Pickens from Georgia. Easy term. That's how there you go. I only have to remember too and hach manning. But if we don't know where he's going to school yet, yeah, he's a little young. Alright, that's an appropriate note to end on. Connor Connor already left once he's he's ready to leave a second time and the first time, but this time I think I'm just gonna walk off, all right, Thanks everyone for listening. As usual, make sure you subscribe to the mm QB NFL podcast. The season is here and we've got awesome stuff. We've got shows on that feed five days a week. You get Albert, you get Andy and Gary, you get Connor and Jenny on the week side. So uh, make sure you subscribe. Check out the mm QB on the site for all of our stories everything. Next week is a big week on the site. We're gonna have all of our season predictions, are preseason power rankings, are bold predictions. We're gonna give you all our award winners and Super Bowl picks. So make sure you check it out so that again you can tell us how wrong we are when that's inevitable, although maybe someone will get it right this year. We'll see thanks everyone for listening, and we'll we'll do this again next week. In it beg

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