Friday News Rundown with Steve Wyche

the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan fans is coming to you from a virtual room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Greg Rostal and our old buddy, the Great Steve. What's up boys? Coming up? Fantasy spectacular? A little little pop there? Not. Nothing's happened in the world or uh in sports or the NFL since that Fantasy Spectacular? Not at all. You haven't been busy at all on NFL network. Nah, No, I mean nothing nothing in pro sports whatsoever, especially the NBA,

boy and quiet not at all. Yeah, that's actually if well you can't see it listeners, but we're on a video stream while we're doing this, and they've Steve is in front of what I imagine to be his bed. They just moved that to NFL Network and he just sleeps in that. They put it in the green room and then they wake Steve up and then have an anchor another seven hours of either hard hitting news analysis or major social events, and they just have Steve at the front of it at all times. I'm sure it's

not at all a grind for you this summer in Springs. Hey, look, there's a difference between a job and there's a difference between work. Um, so what I am doing is is a job, and the NFL Network is definitely keeping me in a specific lane. You've been there a long time. You've been at the network since the beginning, right, No, No, I came in in Uh when did I start? No? Five? So I think I was three years after the phone

the found me. Yeah, well there hasn't. I mean, there's never been a you haven't had a you've never seen a summer like this, or you've never seen programs like this. I get that that hits me watching it yesterday. And

you did an awesome job. You know. Some of the interviews like with with Derrick Kendricks, were you know, emotional, They were a lot, they were impactful, and but watching it, I just thought, Man, NFL network is different than it was, you know, three or four years ago at this time, and in if nothing else, that's some that's some change.

You know, if like if racial progress in this country is like an ocean liner, it's like that, that's it moving a little bit, because I would have never imagined like some of just the programming that we've had, and I know a lot of people are are proud of that. Whatever would have imagined that been possible on NFL network a few years back. No, look, let's go back just four years to this past Wednesday through all August, right, that's when Colin Kaepernick sat for the national anthem at

the game. I was at the preseason game against the Packers up at Santa Clara Um, and of course that's what started the whole um protesting, you know, racial injustice or the national anthem and the crap we had to go through just to have that discussion. Everything had to be run up fifteen levels of chains, like why can't we just have a discussion, and so you talk about an evolution, So now it's just like, hey, let's have an idea let's discuss it. You guys are pretty much

green lighted. I mean still as we know our network and where we work, some things do have to go through a lot of clearance. That's in any workplace. UM. But you know again that that is an evolution that you talked about an ocean line or moving racial progress at least in terms of programming. This is more like it's been a speedboat. So you know, I will I will give the network in the NFL credit for that.

I think some of the genesis for that were the you know, company wide zoom calls that you you hosted along with MJ some of that, and there was just very real, raw uh life experiences on there, and it kind of blew the walls down. There was no I didn't. I just feel like that it was a turning point to somebody where it's like, we're not gonna turn around and it's not gonna be two thousand and fifteen with all this red tape to get stuff on the air.

At this point, it's gonna be real or I think people want to jump ship or just wait for it to die down and then waited out and then move up. Let's get back to football. I'm totally with you on that. Hmm uh, Steve, so obviously great to talk to you about all this stuff, but also you are such a great football reporter. So as much time as you have today, we're gonna gonna spend through what's going on in the league.

If you if you gotta jump off, if they if they yank you and say we need you back in the studio to anchor fourteen straight hours, we got you. If you want to hang in for half an hour, that would be awesome too. So I'm here for you, guys. Don't worry about it. You just you know you need I got, I got you. H You're the man, all right,

let's get into it. So the last time, uh, we spoke to you, we did our standard Monday news show and then the Fantasy Extravaganza, which you could check out of course right now if you have a fantasy draft coming up Wednesday, so we didn't hit any news and then everything exploded, uh in this country again. There was the terrible police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin that has really upset a lot of people in this country.

And the NBA had a historic moment on Wednesday when in the middle of their playoffs, in the middle of a bubble uh down in Orlando where all the teams are UH. There was essentially a walkout, and a decision was made by the teams that were scheduled on Wednesday and the league players in general that we're not playing while all this is going on uh in our world and affects obviously black players so much and all of us. And then the NFL the next day practices start to

be uh canceled. In fact, nine teams had their practices uh canceled. Bears, Jets, Packers, Cults, Titans, Broncos, Cardinals, Chargers, and the Washington football team. They did not practice Thursday in response to the shooting. On Friday, the Ravens didn't practice and announced that they were going to have a hold a unifying session about social justice reform. It's all at the forefront, and uh, Steve, what have you taken out of the last seventy two hours and not just

the NFL world but the sports world here. Well, look, it's there's always been this kind of stimmering discussion, right with the NFL being black and the NBA being what black and these these uh professional sports. What would happen. If these players of color decided to strike, so to speak, they're gonna withhold their services everything pretty much other than the NHL and the NASCAR. Opposite of a Bubba Wallace,

we come to a screeching halt. So what we've seen these athletes do, and some people are like, well, what is missing a practice actually do for you know, leveling the playing field so to speak. Well, it gets people once again talking about something. So and I said this on Area yesterday, let's let's give these athletes credit all summer long. They've heard the discussion. We need sports to

give America distraction. We need something to take us away from the constant discussion about you know, this this racial tempest, you know, the societal ills. So these athletes said, okay, we've given you that. We've give you know, there's been the NBA playoffs, Major League Baseball and whatnot. But yet we have another police shooting. We've got a seventeen year old white kid shooting protesters with an armed rifle that apparently his mother helped him get and drove him across

state lines to execute. So we're gonna step back from sports so you don't have that distraction so we have to focus on these conversations one more time because there is an election coming up in a couple of months, UM, where maybe you can vote out some district attorneys who are not holding police officers accountable. There are things that, um, these players are trying to draw attention to because you know, you hear a lot of these athletes whore saying, what

is what is what's going on? We've been We've been in the streets for months, We've been doing this and they're still shooting unarmed black people. But the law enforcement and so there's a sense of frustration there as well. But I mean that's where some of these conversations teams are having saying, Look, this isn't necessarily as much as we want to be short term, this could be a long term play too. This is why you have to educate, and this is why you have to take a step back.

And as Troy Vincent, the nfl is senior vice president Football Operations, set on an ESPN radio interview yesterday, if you don't think NFL players aren't talking about missing ball games in your wildly naive um. Jim Trotter had a tweet this morning saying that he has heard from players

saying this conversation is going on. So could you imagine after a whole summer of the NFL coming up with all these plans to play football during COVID and no fans in the stadium, that if all of a sudden the players pulled out the trap door and said we're not taking the field, it would be gutting. And you talk about enhancing conversation and potential action and stoking emotions, Um,

that would be a tricker. And again, let's let's not think if if all of a sudden, something else happens and police officers aren't arrested or nothing is taken into account. It's it's a different day. We talked about it is a different day, and this could absolutely happen. And the players voices are so powerful together and I think part of it is, you know what people wondering, what what can you accomplish by sitting out, Well, there's a lot

of people that aren't listening. They don't have any black people in their life to listen to. It's gonna be athletes, I mean they this is the conversation that wouldn't be happening in a lot of places if it wasn't for sports, and when people say like, well, what what's the actual action, Like is anyone paying attention here? Like the NBA literally just announced that they're going to agree to essentially require any NBA arenas UM which the owner of the team you know, owns UM to open up and be a

voting facility. Like the work that Lebron has done their UM is happening. And all these players which which we try to highlight sometimes but we know it's not football, but they're doing a ton of things in their community. They're just trying to get people to listen. And I think that that's effective, you know, on a grassroots level, but it's also just effective like emotionally, I think if anyone's listening, you know, just list thing to these people

to um. Eric Hendricks for instance, you know, talk about his pain and so how can you not be affected by that? And so that's I think reaching people that otherwise would maybe not have black voices uh in their lives. And and that's a that's a powerful thing when when they stand together, because I think you look at the ownership level and people are saying, Okay, well, what are the NFL owners gonna say? You know, because we haven't heard a ton from them. Well, you look at the Ravens.

That's the team who who released the statement with some very specific, you know, requests, and that's a team you know, they asked Mitch McConnell to bring the George George Floyd Justice and Policing Act Um to the Senate floor. That's very specific. And some people might think it's political. Well, the the leadership of that team in terms of you know,

ownership and coaches and stuff. To me that they're saying it's not political because they're from different sides of the aisle, if you want to look at it that way, like you're talking to their players, but they're they're not necessarily voting the same way that their players vote. But they're saying, this is just not shooting unarmed black people. This is human rights, you know what. You know, this isn't like

a political statement. And for that organization to move from to that statement from three years ago, at this very time, their team president was saying in the public forum that they asked sponsors and their fans whether they should sign Kaepernick or not as an excuse sort of to to not signed Kaepernick after you know, John Harbow was pretty clear he wanted to I mean that that's changed. I mean that that's having a pretty big impact on a pretty big um organization that has has a lot of

say in the city of Baltimore. I mean there is there's there are no black owners, and it took the NFL one hundred years to hire the first black team president.

So I mean there's it's totally discordant with the fact and Steve, just like you said, I mean the communities where seventy five or eighty of these players, many of them come from our unrecognizable to to to what the owners grew up dealing with, and many executives, and I do see one thing that I find encouraging is I mean I think the coaches were in a real different

place a couple of years ago. I had talked to one head coach, you know, and this doesn't happen often, but he basically unloaded on the Kaepernick situation and basically we he said, this is a distraction to us. We don't want to deal with that kind of stuff. I see coaches today, uh, listening and interacting with their players, and even those teams that didn't cancel practice, they took time and a lot of time and will continue to

to say where are we on this. You look at the Titans, the message they put out as a team that was very powerful visually to see that, and you know their players are powerful, they have they have this has swung in their favor and I think that's so different than the NFL that I grew up watching. And you know, I can only imagine where will be a couple of months from now because I have grown more. I think when this started and Steve, we had you on right after, you know, the George Floyd incident that

I thought, oh, this is very hopeful. All this is happening, you kind of, you know, stepped down and said, I don't I'm not there yet. I don't think we necessarily can just say everything's gonna change for the better. And I have come to agree with that in the sense that it's not a matter of if, but when the next thing occurs that causes the entire sports world to pause again. I just it doesn't seem like we're out of out of the woods on any front. Um. Good stuff, guys.

You know, I I just curious, Steve, if you had anything else to add before we move on from this topic. UM, go ahead, yeah, I mean it's everything you guys said. It was so eloquent. I mean, from the fact that the players using their their voices, and I think the NBA has really led the way on this, and the NBA has always been more outspoken because the players segressing the Lion it's on Tuesday. Not to cut you off, but it isn't is interesting the Lions on Tuesday sort

of were the first ones to to react. I did find that kind of compelling, you know what I mean with a team, let Patricia was the first one to act right, and this is a team where before we heard the mad Patricia wasn't listening to his players. So I mean, you know, that's you know, to get to the point you talked about where coaches being in a different place, I mean, that's that's a great step. And we're seeing teams like the Carolina Panthers using their stadium

as a polling place. And you know, one of the studies where Jerry Mandarink has been highlighted for years and where Gerry management highlighted for years. Um, it's just again, you know, to hear Devin mccordy yesterday, the pages though. Um it was gutting and um for him to say that, you know, even if we do miss games or do this, there's just so many people who still won't care about black and brown lives. Um. And he over and over he talked about the hopelessness. But this is where hopefully

some of these people understand. If you've got a ten year old son or daughter who says, uh, hey, dad, how come they're not playing NBA games tonight, He's got

to answer himself thing. And this is where they're either going to direct their children, um to seeing the world through a straw of white privilege or hate, or they're gonna say, well, listen there, they're not playing because you know, we've seen this summer a lot of black people and armed black people have been killed by police and blah blah, and explain some of the social dynamics were even eight

years from now. And that child is that has an opportunity to vote or to do something, they can grow up with a different type of mindset. So that's why I'm looks a fifty four year old man saying, you know, we get, we just can't give up. As frustrating as it is, as many times as we say, nothing is happening. Like with Bruce Arians Um said, hey, protesting, I've been doing it since the sixties. Nothing's coming out of And I think a lot of people took his words the

wrong way because Bruce Arians frankly, is about it. It's about it. I mean he's done. He's done more for you know, integrating his coaching staff with people of color and women than anybody so far by light years. And and so just because we're not seeing short term results, which we all want, doesn't mean that the steps players

and coaches and teams are taking Um isn't working. Yeah, Arians pointed to nineteen sixty seven and nineteen sixty because he was on the ground back then too, and like he was a educator and a teacher before he became a coach. Though I hear you on that front too. All right, let's move on. And before we do, Mark, I talked to one head coach what it got going on up there? Mark? What's going on at Sessler manor? Well, I'm just saying because first of all, all I like

this is back in the day or years ago. Me acting like I like do this all the time is what I'm trying to say is it was an unusual occurrence for me to be speaking with a head coach. But the conce you did, you left it. You left it vague enough to make it seem like maybe you picked up the phone yesterday and you're like, you know what, you know, this is a sense of the time in

the country. I need to hear from one of the thirty two I know on this show that that would have that comment would be followed up on so I it wouldn't stay vague for long. I'm guessing it was after a couple of pops in in Indianapolis. Well, wrong city, But you're not wrong. On the other that was actually a verbalized feat by Mark that was very well done, so open ended. Drop right, Greg, it was. It was a right pub wrong stool. All right, let's move on,

talk about all right. The Washington Post on Wednesday reported additional examples of workplace sexual harassment inside the Washington football team organization. There are allegations that Dan Snyder, the team owner, was personally involved. I'll watch out now, Watch out now. The Post reported a former cheerleader saying Snyder invited her to a hotel room with one of his friends and

that longtime team executive Larry Michael. That's how about this dude made extra cheerleading videos for the owners, showing sensitive material that wasn't made public. Snyder released a statement denying those specific allegations and saying he was unaware of the incidents until now. Greg h you know, the league quit, you know, quickly came out with the statement, said we're gonna investigate all of this. The allegations are abhorrent and

all that. When the Post, which obviously is a source to be trusted, continues to have this avalanche of material and now Snyder is personally implicated, it potentially changes the come of this organizational reboot. Yeah. I was really confused by a lot of the public statements and that, and that's what we can go off. I guess, you know, if we want to just stick to strict reporting. The the NFL's statement, you know, said how aggressively they condone

the behavior. The behavior didn't name the team, right, and I I I also think of whom the person because the behavior that was alleged was the owner, you know, he he was at the top of the alleged behavior. So that's part of it. Then you look at Washington football team's statements, and and part of it was stronger than it was a few weeks ago that the team

said the behavior had no place in our society. Snyder said at one point he takes full responsibility because he's in charge of the organization, but then the rest of the statement went on to aggressively attack the victim, condoning the behavior. It also went on to say how much better that they need to be as an organization, while saying they denied all the allegations, So why do you need to be better if if you're denying the allegations.

It's very confusing. And then on top of all of those statements, you have a confusing investigation that's going on that the NFL use the word independent, but ultimately the investigation is hired out by the team. And you add that all up, and and Jason Wright had their new team president, had a great statement on that. But it's a lot, it's a lot to deal with, and it

makes it's discouraging, and it's discouraging for right. Like I thought about this when they announced him, and everyone was excited about the progress, and they should be, but I also thought, well, you know what, you know what, you know, it'd be great, Um if the first black team president isn't um having to defend the indefensible on some level within a week of of getting the job, that that

he got a job that that wouldn't require that. Well, I mean if if he came to the organization didn't think he was gonna be he knew what he was walking into. Yeah, I mean, Jason, Jason knew we was coming into. I mean, this is this is an organization that's had misstep after misstep. But this is awful, um in terms of you know, additional allegations. But you're right,

who's going to be investigating this? Okay? If this is I mean, just think about how much he the league took, you know, when when it hired the independent investigator to investigate bounty Gate, and just like how much of the

supposed evidence. I mean, it seems so skewed in some cases, Like Okay, so the NFL ended up lacking credibility because it hired its own and how investigators and we saw the punishment was like Sean Payton getting suspended for a year and somebody the punishment handed down significantly team to outweigh the evidence that this independent investigation was able to get its hands on. And so what what's gonna happen here? I mean, suppose this independent investigation finds out all these

insidiary things that Dan Snyder was accused of. Okay, what's the recommendation, What's what's the result. Are we gonna should he sell the team? He's getting sued by his minority owners essentially right now. That was a big part of the report, I mean, and that's part of what they want, is for him to sell the team. Another two, there's two more interesting turn down this and our former employer,

the Washington Post. Um, you know, Daniel Snyder accused him of this being a hit job, right who owns the Washington Post, Guys, Jeff correct Well, who's the number one name you here? As as as someone that the league would love to have owning an NFL team. So it's almost like, uh, Snyder was accusing, Okay, this is an intentional hit job to undermine me so Basios can get his hands on my ball club. Okay. And so there there's so many layers. I don't think that's the case

at all. Again, working for the Washington Post, they're gonna they are aggressive when they see improprieties, and they get this is what we've done. I've done investigative story for the Washington Post. This is the water the Washington Post. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're if you're up to something ballets, they're gonna report it and they're not gonna deny. And they've done a lot of reporting

on Snyder over the years. Right. And in the secondary part of that, my dear friend the columnists Sally Jenkins, who if she decides to sharpening knives to come after you your toast. The column that she wrote about that first off, the lead was probably the most incredible lead I've ever read that had something to do with the NFL is basically getting its just due for not scraping Daniel Snyder off the bottom of its shoe. And I was like, all right, this is not going to go

well the rest of the way for Daniel Snyder. But she's saying she she's putting so much blame on the other owners in the NFL for not holding him to a higher standard before, because of course they had to know some of these things. We don't know how much they knew, but this could have far reaching implications if more and more of this continues to shine and how that organization on the field this year has to function

with all this going on. If you're a player there, you have to be like, what, like, what is going on Ron Rivera? The job Ron Rivera has to do while he's also battling an illness um is just going to be absolutely I mean, this is you're you're climbing to him alayas with toothpicks right here, right now, alright, stay tuned to what comes next with the Washington football team. I don't get the vibe that the Washington Post has done yet. I don't think uh. In other news, let's

move on to some football news. Will spin through an update around our league. Bad news for the Eagles, who continue to take hits on their offensive line. They placed second year left tackle Andre Dillard on injured reserve with torn biceps. Unbelievable setback to the team that had already lost right guard Brandon Brooks to an achilles earlier this summer. Dillard the number two overall pick in last year's draft.

He was a little up and down mark, but he was the guy they were counting on a lot to protect Carson Wentz's blindside and now they're talking about maybe moving Jason Peters back to left tackle, the guy that they obviously weren't in a rush to bring back in the first place, and they were gonna play him at guard. This is not a good situation in Philly. Well, they're very lucky they brought him back for the guard role initially because they would be in serious hot water otherwise.

I mean, if I want to look in a weird are like this a team so that I could start to rule out I'm not talking about the Eagles at this point, but it is banged up or totally insufficient offensive lines, and they they went from solid too extremely questionable in the course of a couple of months, and like it just you know, I think teams would get out to a slow start and then you see what

the chaos that could unfold this season. I don't like the chances for in a run heavy early part of the year, if you can't protect your quarterback and blow holes open four runners, I just don't like it at all. For the I mean, they they have the worst injury lucky year after year. I mean, I was we were just talking about it last week. It's like their season doesn't get going until they lose a few keep starters. So they they lose an all Pro in Brandon Brooks,

and now they lose their left tackle. First round pick. I think he turns this year. That first round pick. He's not you know, young either. I think they've gone from excellent on paper, maybe the best most talented offensive line in the league. Certainly one of them. Um too solid at least that's what they're hoping that think if Peters can stay healthy. It was okay last year, he just was banged up and they wanted to move to the young guy that they could be solid. But it's

got to be disappointing. The eagles injury luck is now like four years running. The numbers backing up that the starts that they've missed from good players, well they're missing those Chip Kelly shakes, and you know that's that's that's I've seen this happen in other sports. The Yankees did it last year, fired their entire training staff because everybody got hurt, and then the new staff is on retainer

now and everyone got hurt again. I imagine the Eagles have tried everything they could to try to reverse this trend, but maybe it is simply simply bad luck. Um who knows. In other news, the New York Jets, it's been another nice week for football fans in our Jets fans to point and laugh at my team because it's been a rough week. Greg, especially enjoying himself. And what did I say? I didn't say anything. What did I say? I know? I know you're enjoying the Jets first, enjoying Frank are

rising up that depth chart. You better believe that. Yeah, well, it's Frank Gore season because it's August and people are gonna say nice things about Frank Gore, who has looked very good according to all Beat reporters. Levy On Bell didn't play much in the wipeout scrimmage, where the Jets beat team beat the Jets eight team soundly shut them out,

according to the Beat writers. After the practice, Adam Gaze reported or told the reporters that, yeah, we kind of took it easy with Bell, didn't use him too much because he had some hamstring tightness. And then levy On Bell heads over to Twitter says, there's nothing wrong with my hamstrings. I can't stay loose if I'm not on the field, and the circus car goes round and round and round. Steve Wish Yeah. I mean when left l came out, was like, Hey, Adam Gaze, I'm good to go.

I want to play. Um. You know, this is a weird one though, because coaches. He knows he's probably gonna have to give left Bell the ball four seven thousand times this year, so he's trying to preserve him. But I mean, where where's the communication here? And once again you you immediately say, here's Adam Gauge and a star player, not t and I I we saw in Miami. We saw it with the Jets. This is an easy conversation. Hey, Love, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna work you that much

during practice. When I say I'm not working that much, here's your specifics I'm going to give you. So just roll with it instead of kind of going like this. And maybe Loves is feeling the footsteps of a Frank Gore. There's got to be a text thread out there with like Kenyan Drake and Lev Bell and others that are you know, like that had gone through the gays experience.

And my my concern Dan like from the positive angle that I see the Jetts, tell me you're concerned with the Jets because well, no, I hear you, I hear you. I don't root for US Stalwart dynasty either. But you know, Joe Douglas is the thing I think you have going into the future, and is our Gays and Joe Douglas on the same page with this or this? Does this turn into great question? Another deal? Right? Like more distant? Like and you don't he just traded for Adam Gays

is running back so that you blae. So that makes you think like either Gays is making personnel moves or at least that's my question. Joe Douglass ever been like, let's go trade for Calin. But I mean really like, I think Joe Douglass is making different types of moves in that in general. But well, I would hope that any GM coach set up has some level of communication. And if if Gays like spillage and is one point eight yards per carry last year, bring him into the building.

Why not surrender a draft pick if you must get him in the building. I now that Mark brought up the head coach thing. I gotta, you know, get into the game. And I talked to some people after the Joe Douglas hiring and it was a little overblown in the media. How close Joe Douglas and Adam Gays are.

They worked together for a brief period of time, I believe in Chicago, and they are not married to each other, and I would think, listen, I gotta be honest with you, Like Levy on Bell, he's in great shape, they're saying,

and maybe he's gonna have a great year. But I am just exhausted by this mini era that includes Adam Gaze and Levan Bell, and I don't know if either of these guys are the future of the franchise, to be quite honest with you, beyond so to see them squabbling again in the press, it's just all kinds of exhausting for me, because there are other aspects of the organization that I am excited about, uh, the quarterback UM, the defensive line, uh, the idea of their defense, trying

to figure it out without C. J. Moseley and Jamal Adams. But this is not what I'm excited about. And it's just it's such a grind. It's such a grind. Just talk to him, n talk to your players. I think he was trying to do him a favor of like embarrassing him that he's not getting all the steps. But it's just like Gage doesn't get it. That's it's not who he is. He doesn't he doesn't understand that an important part of the job is communication and being on

the same page of the players. Before you go to a press conference and tell reporters about the Hams drinking, have that talk with Bell so he doesn't run to Twitter and get upset. Because Bell will go to Twitter. We know that as not It's not like left Bells, you know, and you know somebody who could get obnoxious of times on social media. I can't wait for his Adam disk track on his next album coming, Yeah, coming. Is there any way woozy banger that he gets moved? Yeah?

I think that money after this year, So it's like it's very tradeable. If a team got into hot Water, you know, in at the running back position, you're paying him this year and then you can do what you want after. If someone wants to give up a sixth for love Bell, I bet they could just go get it before a camp or I I'm with you, it wouldn't shock me if love Bell is on a different team. So do you got a third rounder for Leonard Williams last year. Oh please, all right, let's move on. Buddha

by Acre got paid. The Cardinals safety signed a four year, fifty million dollars fifty nine million dollar extension. Don't want to short him that nine mill. The twenty four year old is now the highest paid safety and league history. Good job by Buddha Baker, who is a second round pick in teen Let all safeties and tackles. Uh. Last season. Uh, he could cover, he could tackle. He's a guy you want in your building, Steve Weich. And now the Arizona

Cardinals have locked him up. Yeah, he's he's a really, really good player. And for what they asked their safeties to do, especially this year because remember they drafted Isaiah Simmons. He's gonna play that mo inside linebacker, kind of the strong side inside linebacker that they could stack over tight end if they need be. Buddha Baker is gonna be responsible for an awful lot on the back end, whether

you're play him free, whether they bring him down. And we know in this division, when you've got all kinds of running backs, you can catch the ball out of the backfield. That's an important position. But but this also goes to show you. I mean the Arizona Cardinals. First off, they're not really paying a ton of people doing have to pay Kyler murrayette. Um, you know, DeAndre Hopkins contract

is coming. But to secure a young player on your defensive nucleus, which they really haven't done since Patrick Peterson. We know Chandler Jones is there as well. That's a really good start because that secondary has the potential to be pretty good this year. You know, Robert Alfred the corner got hurt again, but they've got some pieces, you know, and I talked Advanced Joseph from time to time. They're they're they're pretty here we go. But they you know,

they really feel pretty good about their defense. And the problem last year when they were so terrible is that secondary. It was never together at peace. You know, Peterson suspended six games, Alfred got hurt again last year. They think they've got a pretty good nucleus right there, and if they can get the ball over to Kyler Murray from time to time, they really think they could be a

pretty good team. I think he just represents the kind of player that we're starting to see where the position list player I guess on defense where Baker played you know, safety, but he played outside linebacker, inside linebacker, ed defender, right cornerback, left cornerback. And you go look at his next gen stats breakdown. I mean he's did everything essentially, and that's you know, we used to say Bill Belichick loves those players. Well, by the way, Soda thirty one other coaches, so you

know they well, oh no, no, there's one. We were just talking about it. Who doesn't Okay, he doesn't want that he likes him. From Kellen Balage is it is everybody in Baker got that money. Pat Pete didn't. Pat Pete, uh, probably a future Hall of Famer is in a contract yere to me, he could be kind of the the X factor with that team. If you get old Pat Pete in a in a contract sort of pushed as

an all Pro type player, then watch out. If you get last year's Pat Pete after the after the injury, where he's just kind of he was out there, he was a guy. Um, then they're a different team. So that's kind of something to watch. Are you gonna get Are you gonna get old Pat Pete? You're gonna get old right? Anyway? Issues for the Browns on defense, Mark, they already lost the linebacker Mack Wilson uh to that knee injury. It's gonna cost him a lot of time.

And now they've moved Grant Delpit, the safety to injured reserve after he ruptured as achilles and Monday's practice. So you're losing some pieces of that defense. Mr. Sessler, Well, this pairs well with the previous News item because Joe Woods when they lost del but they invested highly in the draft, they had big plans for him. He basically said, look, we it was honest comment. We don't have anyone else on the roster that can do what we had him

to do. And the Browns linebacking corps in front of the secondary is so questionable that they were talked about as a team that was going to run a lot of like four to five as their base, like five in six defensive backs and using Delpit all over the field. He's gone, Uh, they they've got Anderson Dajo, you got Carl Joseph, a different type of player, Sheldrick RedWine who they draft to. Basically, it's sort of saying I think they keep trying to find someone who's not Shelter gred Wine.

So they have issues. They're one of the more banged up teams in the league right now. Um, it's it's been a long couple of weeks for them, and I had I think that, you know, they've got the Ravens in about sixteen days or whatever it is. I don't like that matchup a whole lot. In other news, the league, our league is considering fake crowd noise range in the range of seventy to eighty five decibles. All right, I'm gonna give you here seven. I'll tell you right now.

This is seventy five decis La la la la la la la la la la. Here's eighty five decibles. La la la la la la la la la. Okay, so they're ye, did you test that out beforehand? How do you do this? That's that's science, greg. As the source explained to p f T, the sound level likely would be constant throughout the game, regardless of whether the home team or the visiting team has the ball. Uh Florio reached out to the league, and a spokesman replied, we

are finalizing plans. Why it's ready to come down on La la la la la la la la I've actually had experience with that, having gone to the Rams scrimmage at the new Sofi Stadium last Saturday, and it's weird because, as we know, the new stadium is near the airport. So I kept on saying to my photographer at the game, are there that many jets landing? Because it seemed it's it's it's it's like white noise. I think of Poultergeist and for those nine young enough to know, go back

and google it. It's like the static sound that you're constantly hearing. Right, you can speak to the person next to you without yelling, but you just noticed there's someone there. So Sean McVeigh after the game was like, that is the worst thing possible, right because you do have to scream a little bit. It's where the quarterback has to, you know, give give some noise about his play. Calls um Cooper cut the wide receiver says he never really thought about it, but then once he recognized it, it

was it was just something you thought about. I mean that they'll have to get used to it, but it's a very peculiar sound. Now, the Ram stadium had like why are they doing it? Do it? How about I don't. I don't. I don't think they're locked into it. I I don't. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's something to give cover to miked up, you know, because some of the language. I don't know, it's gonna happen whatever.

It's just like I didn't necessarily mind it again, because I could have a conversation three ft away or six ft away, I should say from my photographer, Gosh, you're probably more than that without screaming. But you you knew it was there, And like I said, I'm thinking it's planes landing overhead. But as you know, there's not that much air traffic these days, so it was just a really weird sound. Again, just go back and read some of the transcription. Sean mcvette. He was like, this is

the worst everything, lucition. No one've ever done it before either. It's kind of like the fake noise that they're doing for the broadcast for the NBA games, which is bad. It's if you were better at it, maybe I would be into it. But it's like, why is this weird, bad fake crowd noise? It doesn't sound like a real crowd, and it ends up distracting the viewer. Now the players aren't hearing that in the actual NBA stames. But it just goes to show like no one's ever done any

of this stuff before. Of course, that they're bad at it. They don't know if they're doing. I wouldn't mind if they added like a laugh track, if like something like a bad play or you know, let's let's just maximize Sared got like fumbles the balls ha ha. But here's here's the other part. What what happens when you go to those stadiums that have twenty people in it? I mean, is it all? Is it? Is it? Are you still using it? I mean, what's the deal? What about home

stadiums compared to open stadiums? I mean, how is that gonna work? So I love your theory about they're super quietly nervous about the parabolic mic situation because it's gonna be wild. You know, the language is saucy, uh in all the professional sports, but in a football game, especially on the sidelines on a tackle, you know there's some

stuff being shared. Yeah, but Dan, those don't always work. Um, Brown Steelers, you know there's a female I just wanted to say, parabolic that all other injury and I enjoyed it. Craft Sheet reports that running back David Montgomery is expected to miss two to four weeks with that groin injury. People thought it could have been season ending when he was taken off the practice field. So it's better news than initially feared, but still not a great situation. Puts

them right up against Week one Bears Lions. Al Right, Matt Naggy, they gave you the coach of the Year award. Let's let's see this offense be watchable and m or else they might have to take that award away. You know, it's like we might have been a little premature here. If if this offense is as boring as I'm fearing it's going to be. Uh, I don't know. We were a little too quick on Maggie. Well before, before the

pandemic shut us down the studio. Kyle Long, the now retired Bears guard, it was very open about what the Bears have to do in this offense. It doesn't function well unless you run the ball. So last year the offensive line wasn't good. Dave Montgomery did not have that explosiveness. You know, everyone's talking about his open field speed. He didn't have to get off the ball type speed, and then treet Cohen they were playing him more at wide receiver. When I when I saw mcgomery go down, my big

question was, what is going on with Davonte Freeman? Is to where nobody is giving him a call? I mean he's still out there. This was some guys out there and this is he would fit the scheme well, So I don't know what's going on. You know what, left belt, left belt? There, you go there, let's do it. I'm fine, that's fine. Just give me a first round pick. You will pay maximum maximum amounts. He doesn't exactly win trades,

I don't think. I just want to say. I want to say, because there was some there was some shots here taking their greg at Matt Naggie. I would have loved to see how people were talking about Naggi entering if Patrick Mahomes was his quarterback instead of mrs and I thought Naggie did an incredible job. That was always my argument against Rabinsky Um during his better year in two thousand and eighteen, was this is all scheme. These guys are wide open, and that is why Naggi won

won the award. Um So so to be fair, maybe it'll look a little better if if Nick Foles is behind quickly quickly. On that go back and watching Bears too, you will see Allen Robinson running right right all the time. They just didn't get him the ball, which sucks because that guy is an elebut player real quick. The Giants defense, which already looks on paper to be bad, lost, uh two starters, Xavier McKinney and David Mayo. Both McKinney, the

rookie safety, fractured left foot. Mayo torn meniscus in his left knee. He started thirteen games for the team last season. Both believed to be non contact injuries. Greg, Uh, you've been banging the drum a little bit on the pod that the Giants have major deficiencies on the other side of the ball, where Daniel Jones and let's say Kwon Barkley are not playing. This is not getting better. Right on paper, I think that's the worst defense in the league just in terms of talent. Uh, And they were

the worst. They were one of the worst defense in the league last year. You know, in reality, they have a new coordinator, Patrick Graham. Um. You know White White is gonna be doing total access a little labor. I mean you're not getting into David Mayo and McKinney on Total Access, we bring you the real stuff. We we

talked about the Cowboys and Patriots. Um well, I mean, you know, it's fun when I look at the Giants and it was real cool because you know, uh, NFL Films did this film session where he's watching film with Barry Sanders. You know, they're eating the popcorn and then the film breakdown studio. And that's what I think his career is gonna be. Liking to one of the best running backs, most talented players in the NFL right now, it's gonna be doing it on a team that's never

going to get anywhere. Um, and it's just look it happens. It happened to Walter Payton until the end of his career. He played on some god awful teams with the Bears, and you just hope, like someone is remarkable s Kwon Barkley gets something around him. But I look at the Giants and I'm thinking they are the leaders of the pack. And Mark, you and I have been joking about this with the Lions because you're on there there, You're on the train, and I definitely am not. I mean The

Giants to me, are already on the clock. They don't need Trevor Lawrence. But they're gonna hold. They're gonna hold. They get hold the piece, you know, for somebody to come up to get him, because I look at their talent and I'm just kind of like, man, I feel horrible for for Sa Kwon, Barkley, Daniel Jones. Yeah, like I we have to cover all these teams obviously, NonStop

all year long. And if you if you weren't doing that, you jump, you jump out quick on a few and I just I get annoyed with with the team, like the Giants. It's like, hey, here's a great idea. Let's not have an identity on defense for nine straight years. Okay, that's one way you can attack the NFL season. Come on, guys. In other news, finally, in fact good news, the father of Bengal's cornerback Mackenzie Alexander has been found alive in Florida.

According to officials, Gene Oddney Alexander was found Thursday morning after he walked up to a ranger station and kissing me Prairie Preserve State Park. Uh, this is a paragraph I want to read you guys, because it's pretty wild story. Okay, so I'm just gonna read this whole paragraph. Uh, this is from an ESPN staff writer, Alexander, and he has a different spelling than his son's name. So there's the first thing that's like, Oh okay. Um was reported missing

on Monday. According to police records, Alexander was picking palmetto berries with a friend he had known for more than ten years when he disappeared in the woods around two pm Monday. Authorities were not able to ping Alexander's exact location because he did not have a cell phone. That's interesting too, it's no cell phone. Alexander the player left

Bengals camp and Aid to search for his father. On Tuesday, Alexander and another man were arrested on misdemeanor batter charge after allegedly hitting the man who went berry picking with his father. So Alexander the son dealing with legal issues, the father safe and sound. That is a weird story. I don't even know what to say to it. It just it felt like it should be in the show. It was just like I read that story, I was following it all week, and so you know, you're happy

for him that he that he found his dad. He's going to be a key part of that secondary Mackenzie Alexander by the way. But there's nice to have a happy ending. But it was just like, Wow, you don't see a story like that too often. I don't know, it was it was pretty wild. I will tell you one time that I this came to mind when I read this because Daniel right, the story struck me. Nobody has anything to say about it, but you wanted to do that about it. I just put it. I just

very very very true. It was just like it was just like, hey, our listeners, they might not be aware of this one. I just thought they should be. There was this one time though, that I went hiking alone, like off the pc H you know, up and it's like the Santa Monica Mountains or whatever, and parked the car, brought a fully charged cell phone with me, got like an hour into the hike, and it was one It's like when you get to the end of a cell

phone and it's about to die. The thing died on me, and I thought, no problem, I'll just had to get back to the car. Then I realized, holy I am totally lost. I took like five or six left and right turns. Had no idea where I was. It was now like six or seven o'clock and I told someone, you know, I'll be home at four, and so there's there's that and like, you know, it's no follow up call. I can't be reached that you can't ping that phone, I guess, and I've I've managed. I've stumbled upon some

weird campsite. Uh. It was next to the pc H. I got out to the p c H and realized that I was about nine miles or so far up the pc H. I had no idea was it was dark out, the pc H was under heavy construction, and I walked for like three more hours until I got to this sort of fish and chips place along the pc H and had to convince the manager at closing time. I just sit in the parking lot for two hours. I had no money on me, uh to go drive me back to my car, which was up you know,

three miles away up a hill. And then I drove home and got home at like like twelve forty five in the morning, and some I was just like, what is going on here? And so, you know, don't wouldn't have gotten that. Don't do that and that, and that. You know, whenever I can tax seven unnecessary minutes onto the show, will do it. So yeah, somebody tells me there was a little bit more to this story, then

you're then you're a great adventure, which actually sounds quite harrowing. Uh. One note is that market used that excuse six times previously to Simoni. I legit walked like fifteen miles that I took the next Alright, well, I'm not gonna win this money. I'm lost unsolved mysteries. All right, Oh, we're glad you made it out. Mark. You took the next

day off. You're working at the NFL, right right. It was like about a month in the job, and I had like both my legs were like, you know, if you haven't really exercised in like six months and suddenly you walked fifteen miles the next day is unpleasant. We know that. That is incredible. He's like, get me back to t I want to put that. Oh my god, I just can't wait till this wife uses that excuse on him. All right, Steve, Steve, you've said it all.

You've done it again. You're one of our very favorite people. You know, a lot of people say that about Steve because Steve is one of those guys that everybody loves. But we love Steve a little bit more. I'm just gonna say yes. Well, and you know, I love you guys. You guys are the absolute best man. I totally appreciate you having me on. All right, great, check out Steve everywhere on NFL network, UM, NFL dot com. He's the man.

All right. That's it. Everybody, remember the UH broadcast around the NFL Broadcast's coming up UH Friday, the streaming version on NFL dot com Saturday morning. It's on the network, so make sure you check it out. Support the show. We love you, everybody, have a nice weekend. They eat your palmetto berries, but be careful. Bring a compass with you or at least the cell phone. They had the signing offer Steve watch The Quiet Storm, The Old Boss, and Ricky Hollywood Wild until Monday.