Now, let's welcome in Shawn Merriman, uh, the former All Pro linebacker and host of the Lights Out podcast, and you can reach him on Twitter at Shawn Merriman Sean. What's up, buddy, How you doing Welcome to the odd couple. What's up, fellas? Are you doing doing good? Hey? Me and Jonas have gotten into it because Tom Brady should be as concerned about cheating in football as he is about what uniform number players are wearing. What he's making a big stink about the new rule players can wear
any number. Basically, where are you on this? Is this that big of a deal? And if you could have wore any other number, would you have changed to a lower number or a different number? You know what? Um? I don't totally disagree with him on one part, right, I think that people making it such a big deal, Right, You've seeing people going back to the college numbers, um in the single digits. I'm like, okay, cool, it's a number you still gotta go and perform, right, Uh So
on that part of I do agree with. You know, I don't agree much with what Tom Brady got to say anything he does, but on that part I do, I do. I do think they're just making it too big of a deal. It's it's a jersey number. It's fun, you know. It sounds like they're trying to put some kind of fun back in the football, which is always a good thing because they've taken a lot of it out of it over the years. Um, but yeah, it's
it's a big deal, guys. It's not a you know, nothing, nothing serious to be talked about and then getting as much as much media attention as it has for the past week or so. Yeah, it's just slow news. But yeah,
I mean to teither that or baseball games. So you know, we had we had, you gotta But now, in all seriousness, Sean, every single year, it seems the NFL comes out and there's different rule changes, things that they do differently, whether it's the on site kick or moving the extra point back, etcetera, etcetera.
You being a former player, you being a guy who played at the highest level, if you could change one thing in the NFL, if you could make one rule change right now, the NFL came to you and said dealer's choice, make the call. I'm sorry that you know. It's hard to say and I and I don't want to sound um you know, Bob Barry called, you know
like I'm going back in old times. But I just feel that um, you know, the hits to the head or the timing and the guy gets hit, you know, after he has two feet on the ground or whatever. It's almost just as an assent. They're just protecting the offense side of the ball just so much. Um so so that or you know, the quarterback hits around the neck,
you know, those like teddy things like that. I wish they could take away because you gotta you got point five seconds man, and make a decision like that, and then you can cast your team severely, um just by you know, slapping down top of the shoulder patch right, you know, as a pass rusher, you're just going buy and you just get him around the neck, not even tackle him. If you touch him around the neck, it's
automatic flag. So that part of it. I just think that garden the offensive guys just way too much and you're taking a lot of the fun um and instincts out of the game before ball Sean, do you feel just a quick follow up, do you feel like the NFL has made it Obviously they've made it more difficult on the defensive side of it. But do you talk to other defensive players and say, man, it's so obvious there's a bias towards the offense in this league. It's
so obvious that everything is slanted towards them. And if that like the NBA where you can't touch anybody defensive exactly exactly, Like, if that's the case, what are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to coach these guys up? When you when when, like you said, you come anywhere near the head and you're gonna get flagged
and your team's out fifteen yards. Well, I can tell you that it's just all depending on who you ask, right, Because I had Roy Williams, who you know, the safety for the Dallas Cowboys, on my podcast about a month ago, and you know that conversation was deep, right because now you have a guy who played the game four speed. He was gonna lay you out no matter what. He
wasn't going for interception um. And so you know, it's just depending on what era guys you talked to, because you know, you might have some guys to say, hey, man, you know, obviously there's a bunch of head traumu and uh, you know, legal hits and we're trying to protect guys. Then you got some guys saying like that's that's b s. Right, I'm going in to make a hit. I'm going to
make a play. I should have an equal opportunity to gonna make a play on the ball, and and and and and have, um you know, some some leadway to go out and make a big play. So it's just a matter of what you talked to. And I just hate sounding like the old I mean, I know I've been retires some years now, man, but I hate sounding like the old guy because when I was playing, you have you got the guys to play in the ages and nineties and like, oh you know they're that football
that they're soft. Now, we were leather hell mints and we you know, didn't play with any teeth, right, I mean, these guys just just like you know, I don't want to come across as the old hater to the younger generations, but there there are us. There's just some rules, man. It just it takes the fun out of the game
because you can't control it. If if offensive linement is blocking you, you're being held, you're reaching, you're scratching and sprouting just to get the quarterback showed the path and just throw him off a little bit. And if you just grace his upper half, you know you're going to get a flag. And that's just told. It's just it's pointless to me. Hey, Sean, you said you don't want to sound like that old guy, but we just took
your comments. We put him through our translator, and this is what you sound like, all right, Sean Mary and of course the former All Pro linebacker host of the Lights Out podcast, joining us here on the odd couple. Uh So, I why do you make up the Trevor Lawrence? You know, the quotes came out like it's not the end of the world. I'm not obsessed with football. I do my job, I study, I do everything I'm supposed to.
The guy lost two games in college, looks like he cares about winning, but a lot of people made a big deal about it. Would you rather a guy say the standard quotes that people want to hear and lie or or be honest and just you know, tell people who he really is. Which one which one do you want? No? I love it because when I saw that, the first thing that came to my mind is, Hey, I'm number one, and it doesn't matter whether I love football like it,
Hey there's or anything in different. I'm going to but one no matter what. Right, And that's that's just the truth. And no one not one of the thirty two teams and sitting back and saying, uh, you know, Trevor Launch uh is not committed to football. Let's you know, let's think about passing on them, right, Um, not one. And I don't either if he came into they you know, football is not a big deal to me, and I just playing because I can and I like to make
a lot of money. He's still going number one no matter what. Uh. And that was point. That was point proven. I think that a lot of a lot of people need to understand this too. This is the drive, you know, from the combine to the drive that this is the process, right, this is the same thing while we're seeing uh, you know all the things that about justice, about fields and everything else. That's the point where people start to nippick. They started nippick on your character, They start a nippick
on every quote or everything you still work at. You know, they're epic. This is the time to do it. So I'm not gonna I'm not. It wasn't. I wasn't shocked when he came out and made a big deal about what he said, because they want him to say, Hey, I love football, I eat, sleep and breathing. I go home and I think about my playbook, that that's doing this process. That's what a lot of gms and and coaches in front office, that's what they're looking for you
to say. But he know in his heart of hearts he's going number one no matter what, so he can say that, Sean Merriman the last one for me before we let you go. What's it gonna take? All right, I'm gonna slide a blank contract across the table. How much is it gonna take for you to get in the ring with Jake Paul and and do what many people have been wanting to do for a long time and shut that guy up? How much is it gonna take?
You know what? To be honest, man, I've trained with Jake and uh and I like the kid a lot. I just think he's he's bringing so much attention to himself, and it's a good thing him because attention in this game means you're gonna get big pay checks, right, People pay for attention. Um, and he's always gonna have that until he goes out and fight the guy that uh that's been doing it for a long time. But if I'm Jake Paul, I'll be doing just exactly what I'm doing.
Pick and choose in my battles until I'm ready. You know, I don't know what he made maybe five plus millions last fight, Go and make another five and two million, and then fight somebody when you're ready. Until then, um, you know, just sit back and watch me and keep getting attention. Yeah, good for him, man, good for him. I just don't drink any water around the cooler around him. I'm just people are going down left and right, all
right there? What is Sean Merrivin? I appreciate it. We appreciate you stopping by giving us some knowledge you're under couple. Thanks buddy, you got it. Man, appreciate it. Thanks Sean. You know what I'm saying. It might be a little sleepy juice in there. No, maybe, Oh is this the uh, it's just like when they used to spike drinks back and then what I'm saying, what was what was the guy's name? Was it Aaron? Remember? Aaron Pry remember the boxer Aaron Dryer, who, by the way, was a savage,
a great boxer. Remember Panama Lewis was his trainer, and I think Panama Lewis there was reports that he had put something in his drink like that was that was one of the reports out there that it has always been about that in boxing, back in the old days, when you know a cooler was just sitting there, you know, easily exactly. Yeah,