Julio Jones Trade Talk with Steve Wyche

advantage of it. Milk, milk it because I don't want to talk about Tim Tebow. I don't want to fight with Greg about Teddy Bridgewater. I just want to talk about and when you have the chance to talk a legitimate football news involving a future Hall of Fame wide receiver who is gonna be on the move, we're gonna die right in. Baby, We're gonna do it with help. I was that was your opening, Mark, But we're still

working on the chemistry ten years in. You know, sometimes, like I'm watching us on screen here, I forget that I'm even in the show. I'm just watching the screen. So you're right, I completely dropped the ball there. So to dive in on this juicy saga between Julio Jones and the Falcons. We need to bring in the man, the myth, the legend, the guiding compass of NFL network, and also with that little side hustle with the Atlanta Falcons. He won't tell me a salary with the team. That's fine.

We moved past that. Steve Weish, what's up, buddy, Welcome back to the podcast. I told you it is more than what you're getting paid for doing the Around the NFL podcast, more more than right and more than what Jim Trot and are getting paid for. The one is huddling people. You're giving people time to catch up on the old episodes. You know, that's what it is. I'd say You're timing though, was impeccable. I mean, the Falcons tend to be kind of uhched in silence and most

for years in a row. You you land there in the major NFL story is bubbling up out of there like a volcano. Good timing. Yeah, how about that recover for Aaron Rodgers? Yeah? Absolutely, And we'll get into Aaron Rodgers in a little bit. But Steve is gonna talk Falcons with us here, and um, let's just set it up real quickly. That's been percolating. Julio Jones maybe on the move falcons are cast draft. Julio might not be happy.

Steve Wise has been reporting this, uh, letting people know that this is something that can be happening any moment. Now and now. Um, Shannon Sharp is the co host of a program called Undisputed on FS one, and um, this is what happened on their Tuesday morning or Monday morning showing really hope the answers here. I got you. Here's your favorite uncle going on brach Lou. You want to go to the cowboy who? Or do you want

to stay in Atlanta? Oh? Man, man, there there's a version of hell from me by the way, where it's me having to watch a Skip Bayless UH talk news program that's about cowboys. Uh, speculation at all times. But that's beside the point. Steve as a Capital J journal first of all, let's just say that where do you stand as a journalist? How that all played out? I don't even know Julio Jones. Jones knew he was on television. He was in a car and he's he's getting information

up the Shannon shrub. Where did that land for you. Well, first of guys, I mean, you know, we've dealt pro athletes long enough to know that that is a very kindred fraternity. There's no way that was a blind phone call. There's no way. I mean, I'm just I'm just thinking about I mean, just think about all the guys we deal with. There's no way that they would do that on live TV. I mean, that is very Jerry Springer stick. But let's let me just say that. I'll play Devil's advocate.

He's he's Julio's in the car. He said he's driving to meet his brother. Shannon calls him, dives right in, does not announce that he's on television, and you could hear the producer, Well you don't hear the producer, but you hear the other talent on the program basically saying like, hey, hey, this this might not be what we're looking for because he might not know he's on TV. But you're saying, there was a that was some w W E stuff. Here's here's why I knew it was, you know, obviously

a set up. You know, at some level he knew that at some point that because they didn't show the whole clip before as they're going to him as it's ringing, skip Bayliss is like, I hope he's got you know, like five seconds before we heard, He's like, I hope

he's got the guts to pick up. And that was the moment where I was like, this is w w E. He was a partner helping his his partner get over in that moment, and he went like a little too far because the alternative here is that something organic happened on one of those live TV studio shows, which, by the way, almost never happens. As we know, everything's pre planned. Uh, and are they gonna do risk it? Going to four rings and hearing Julio Jones's voicemail. Now, at some level

he knew that the call was coming. I believe that. I mean I would agree. I mean, look, suppose suppose Julio started cursing or something a live TV. I mean, you know, you never know how how these phone calls go. But no, she looking Shannon. I know, Shannon, he's got incredible cash a with you know, former players and current players.

He is not going to set somebody up. So I'm sure Julio knew the call was coming, and what was gonna be asked, and you know, Julio wanted to clarify because part of it was Step from the Cowboys party was taking a picture with a fan where a Dallas Cowboys hoodie. Uh And to that point. Today, I was in a conference call with Arthur Smith, the Falcons head coach. He was just like, Hey, we want our players to express themselves. Who want them to be who they are.

I didn't see the pictures, so it's no big deal to me. I mean, I don't think you want your Falcons players um dancing around town and Cowboys gear. It wouldn't be the first thing you're hoping they do. But that's not the biggest issue surrounding Julio Jones anyways, Right, No, it's not. That's not the biggest issue. The fact that Uli Jones steve this might not surprised you because I feel like you had a inkling that it was more

than just cap space. Not saying that the contract wasn't a factor here, but the fact that I know Ian reported it, I think you had you know, some idea here too, that Julio Jones requested a trade months ago. Yeah, look, you know I have heard for a while that Julio Jones was disgruntled. Um, I did not know that he had requested a trade, but I mean again, that didn't

surprise me. And the fact, you know, going back to the draft, when the news first broke, the teams were calling the Falcons about a move for Julio Jones, and the Falcons were saying, look, we've got to fix our cap. We've got to do a market correction. Julio is the guy people want, right, He's the one with value. They're not calling about other people. He's got to be contract. We have to listen. There was always the caveat of we've got to be careful how we handle this because

Julio is a popular player. He's met a lot to the city and a lot to this franchise, so we've got to be delicate here, which led me to believe, again this is experience saying Julio is probably not happy. They don't want to paint him as a jaded or disgruntled player because then that could diminish his value when people know that he wants out. So when they continue to say that we want to protect the image, they'll take the pr hit for moving a popular player, um

for for a salary cap reasons. Again, the whole time I was thinking there's more to this. Julio probably wants out. We've heard some of the disenchantment before. Um, so again this this is no surprise. And as I reported on Total Access last night, uh, this is no longer a matter of this possibly being a trade. This is likely

or definitely going to be a trade. Would I would ask just ask you this, Steve, because like, let's way, so the bedrock, the foundation is we understand that Julio Jones has you know, maybe just the marriage is over. It's they've run their course, and there's maybe it's not you know, massive issues, but it's an endpoint. And the Falcons you know, some stuff that I read that they wanted to do right by him, also that he's done so much for the team that there is a level

of respect. Um. But let's be honest. There aren't twenty five teams lining up with first round picks. There's a gaggle of teams that fit cap space wise and fit in terms of what they'd offer, and they just go for it. But you kind of the Falcons are in a tough spot without really essentially a bidding war, not really seeming to happen here. So what is this business about?

Like Julio Jones wants to play for the Patriots or he'd be comfortable going X, Y and Z. Why do the Falcons have to cater to Julio Jones on any level? I mean, is that what they're trying to do? Just so there's a nice final chapter here. No, But but let me tell you something. And Jimmy Jones are Jimmy Johnson's sorry, talk him this years ago, to him this

years ago when he took over covering the Dolphins. It's like, look, if you've got a good player who has been good in the community, has a good image, you don't want to trap on the guy. If you move him right, you don't want to trade him to the Siberian Huskies, you know, if you can avoid it, um and you want to trade him to a contender. I mean, Julio is thirty two, He's got value. But if possible, maybe you do trade him to a contender because in that

way you might get more of a value pick. Okay, let's just say it is the Packers, right, The Packers might be willing to give up a first rounder because of Julio Jones. That pick is gonna be probably twenty nine, thirty, thirty one or thirty two. So they may say, Okay, we might be able to forsake back in one right, which I don't think is gonna happen. I think it's gonna be a two or blow. But even if the

back end too, that's fine. But if all you're getting is a team, like let's say the Raiders, you don't know if they're gonna be middle of the pack bad or good. You might be saying, okay, Raisers might be willing to give up a second rounder that could be fifteen or lower, or or fifteen or higher. But you know, it just all depends on where you think it's it's

gonna be. Just like when the ray A Doll kalil Mac, they're like, hey, there are teams that came with better offers and the Bears, but they felt the Bears weren't gonna be very good, and then we're gonna get a higher pick out of it. So there's all kinds of things that go into it, But a lot of it is if you're a new regime and you're trying to establish credibility, and you know, look, you just you don't

know all of a sudden, Okay, guys just gruntled. Let's send him to a franchise has had his issues, like the Jaguars or someplace like that. Let's try to send up to a contender, and then I wouldn't be like, okay, that was okay. That that really helps out in the agent world, the player world about the perception of your club and the perception of your leadership. So you cannot overlook that element. This Todd France guy sounds like a

serious fellow, so I hear you on that front. I also think that that the timing of um the trade is where the cap makes a huge, huge difference. So in the world that okay, some teams had an idea Julio might be out there before the draft, and the Falcons clearly didn't get an offer that they thought was worth it. Well, that was, you know, partly because is whatever that offer had to be, it had to be worth the fact that they weren't saving any money against

the cap to trade Julio Jones before June one. If they are trading him after June one, uh, then you're saving fifteen million dollars in cap space. And that helps out with you know, the rookies and everything else you want to do. So if no one was blowing them away in April, which I think it's safe to say it sounds like no one was coming with the first round pick, then it's like, let's wait until June one, let's let it, let's let it sit a little bit or and uh and we trade him then, and we

saved the cap space then. And I think what Julio Jones was doing with this phone call was that he

saw this all the story popping up last week. And I think at some level, either Shannon Sharp saw an in and I think people aren't giving him enough credit to think that he just like sprung it on and sawn in to make some news with a friend of his or someone he knows, or Julio Jones or someone in his camp said like, let's start taking control of this story a little bit, like let's let's make it clear what we want that we do want out of teams no. And and that's that's how that call happens.

And Julio deserves, like, you know, a best supporting actor now because I you just get to feel like he's so cool in all situations that he's just got to be who he is, and that's why it just sounded like just sounded so natural. But it makes total sense now why they're trading him. I still don't love it as a football fan because I wanted to see that

team together and score thirty five points a game. But the fact that he wanted out makes all of the reasonings from the last couple of weeks make a lot more sense, because it's really about that they both want out of this marriage, not just Falcons. Do you think Steve that Julio Jones is on this team a week from now? Yeah? Yeah, Look, and the guys I remember reporting this for months now, pay attention to what Steve White reports on every one of your NFL media platforms.

The Falcons are willing to take this up to training camp, right because because because we have this Jude first trigger date.

But what's gonna happen now is teams are in minicamps and things like this, So they wanted you all these guys go or guys have acquired fit in to see before they make a move like this, right, Julio Jones maybe a special case because he's such a great player and he's such a physical specimen but you know, there's a lot of things we talk about, but the Falcons are willing to take this up to training camp to

see what type of offers they can get. Now, they may find themselves are waiting so long getting an offer they really didn't want. But at some point this is gonna happen. Um, you know. And we're also saying, well, there's only a couple of teams with the cap space to take this on. Does anybody remember when the Los Angeles Rams had no cap space but then they traded away Marcus Peters gonna keep to leave and found the cap space to acquire Jalen Ramsey. Guys, let's give these

general managers and cap guys credit. Let's not discount teams from making moves. Teams can be creative on how they want to do this stuff. So again, there's gonna be a wide NetCast. There's gonna be multiple teams coming after Julio Jones. Again, I don't know what the compensation is gonna be, but if you feel he's the guy who's gonna get you over the top, teams are going to

come and get him. Right. Here's my one thing. If I was a Felt and fan, it's like, I understand, like you want to do the right thing, as you mentioned before. Um, but if they don't, if they're just if teams are saying, look at we know the Falcons are in a tough spot here, we're gonna low ball them where none of us is none of us are giving a first round pick at most. It's gonna be something that would never look the equal of Julio Jones.

Is there a world where they get tough and say, we're not trading him for a bag of peanuts and a spoon, Um, we want more. And if no one's giving it to us, Julio Jones is not being traded, would he just simply not play? Do you think would he would? Is there ever a world where maybe the trade doesn't happen? I mean, you could get ugly if everyone's saying, we're not going to give up. You know, a good deal for a thirty two year old guy

who's probably going into the Hall of Fame. I don't know, but when's the last time you've seen thirty one NFL teams try to collude and do something like it. There are owners out there who want Julio Jones to come put their team over the top I meant done. If a second can get it done, that seems like noth ut to me. We we've covered this league long enough. Some team is going to do this, and it's probably

gonna come down to a bidding war to get it done. Look, if nothing else, Julio has got a very powerful agent, Jimmy Sexton. He's calling these teams saying, if you want him, give them, put this on the table and get it done. Well, just to that point, though, if if this is something that's been out there for a while Julio wanted out. If a market for let's say a first round pick didn't develop before the draft, why should we assume it's going to develop sometime during the summer. What what in

your mind? Because next year is yeah, it's your futures. It's it's futures. You don't know where you're gonna pick. I mean, if you think you're gonna be really good again, Let's say you're a team like the Colts, right, your roster's pretty well stacked, and then you say, okay, we'll give up a first rounder next or even a second rounder plus a third. Those are probably gonna be back into They're gonna be back in picks, whatever round they're

gonna be, and you do it. You're you're thinking differently before your current draft or your current season as opposed to future years. Plus you know what, a guy may pop in achilles while he's training. A guy may pop a hammy or something, um, you know, during the offseason workouts. So again, that's why I don't think that I think this is gonna be a slow burn. I don't think

this is gonna happen anytime soon. Um. And frankly, you know, when it comes to veterans and things like this, I I things do tend to play out once we kind of get near that that Hall of Fame game training camp trigger date. So I wouldn't think anything happens to the end of June early July. Man, there's so many

teams that he makes sense. There's a great article by Mike Sando and The Athletic a couple of weeks ago kind of breaking down the analytics of whether a late first round pick um basically as worth more than a veteran and looking at some of these veteran trades, and you know, trying to prove statistically that more than half of these late first round picks don't get their fifth year option even picked up, which would be they're not

even an average starter. And that some teams, the Rams and the Chiefs, but especially the Rams being the most notable example. It's kind of like these late round, first round picks, like I'm gonna take one in the hand and trade them for veterans. And and when I when I read that article, I immediately thought about the Chiefs. How about that Chiefs go at Julio Jones. I mean, you've got to be feeling good. You're picking at the end of the first round. You just traded one for

a ladd of Brown. Trade next year's one for Julio Jones and fly. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard to do. No again and again, this is why I'm not counting any team out. Even though we look at the Rams, like they don't have cap space, they don't have this, they don't have first round draft picks. They do have like wide receivers, so they can I mean,

but I mean, I'm never counting a team out. On a team like the Niners, I would kind of count well, I mean, I don't know if I can count them out, but you know, they just gave up a whole lot to give Zach Wilson. This is not a team that probably wants to get into a situation like the Rams that are constantly forsaking first round traffic, just kind of based on their history. But again, I look at a team like the Colts, even if Julio is a one

year ringer. The folks with the Toronto Raptors love the fact that they only had Kawhi Leonard for half the season. They got a trophy on the case, right, So I mean these are all things that these teams have to take into account. I mean, he's got a tight you know everything I hear. He's pretty close to Cam Newton. I mean, if Cam is gonna be the starter in New England and Julio has got the you know, the Alabama connection with Saban, who's got the connection with Belichick?

I mean you just you just never know. Dances like oh Jesus Christ, let's not talk about the Patriots now. That makes a lot of sense. And I think the forty Niners you mentioned them, they make so much sense. You get the Kyle Shanahan connection. You look at that that that room. If if he was ever added Brandon, I you Diebo Samuel and Julio Jones is the alpha that that sounds awesome for a team that's looking to

get over the hump. They're exactly the type of team that should be forthsaking the future because they have a wind now window potentially the Charges. Greg your your team is another team that jumped out to me. They have the cap space. I think he represents a big upgrade over Mike Williams, who's in the final year of his rookie deal. Uh. Just two teams that jumped out to me because I looked at, of course over the cap to see who could even facilitate it. But Steve also

makes a good point. Don't just rule out teams based on cap space right now, because they can wheel and deal to make it happen. Like the ramsaid once upup a time. Ravens, I mean, they don't have a lot of cap room. But to your point, Steve, like you know, you just shift some stuff around. I look at teams that are aggressive. I could see the Ravens doing something aggressive. The Cults fit aggressively. Chris Ballard has you know, wheeled and dealed before, and they it's all about lifting up.

Carson wentz Um. The Patriots have been, you know, extraordinarily aggressive this offseason, and if you looked at their roster, you wouldn't love what they have at wide receiver. This would change everything. Even though Belichick once told the Falcons not to draft Julio Jones, I think his opinion has

probably shifted on that front. The book I was trying to like connect the sources here because that was from a Michael Holly book back in the day that he did about the Falcons front office and a little bit about the Patriots front office. And yeah, Belichick said, is there really that much big of a difference between Jonathan Baldwin who's gonna go at the end of the first round and Julio Jones, which is not a tape. Yeah,

that that held up too well. But Holly was the one who was breaking this story that Julio and camera Clus. I'm trying to I'm like putting it. Yeah, no, they are. I mean there, there's there, there's definitely something there. But also also if you're the Tennessee Titans, oh yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you make a move like this. They've got all their players coming at like Julio Jones too.

There seems to be a lot of heat there. I guess I can totally ignore the cap thing, but they have about half a million dollars in cap space, so creative, Yeah, maybe say, Julio, will will extend you two years, right and and they and they rework the deal. I mean, all of these things can be done to facilitate NFL trades. Seahawks have been known to get real aggressive for veterans. That's what I thought to like, mark which team, which

front offices? They're not afraid to just yeah, they only had like two picks this year, so now maybe they can start trading. But we're talking a second rounder, liked it could be a second and a third or something less. They don't need to draft. That never backfires and teams. Michael Holley, by the way, also reported that Jones believes that Matt Ryan has lost a little zing on his

deep ball. You hearing anything about that embedded within the falcon, Steve Wish, that's not That's not what I've necessarily have heard. Is the uh is the rub is the velocity on that Ryan's passing Look last last time the games. It's a fact his deep ball is not as good as it was. I think he's only thrown for like five thousand yards a year for like however many years. I mean, I mean, don't play are I think, buddy? I think I think his arm strength is not what it once was.

I think that's maybe, I mean probably not. But you know, look, if you've got guys, you can catch it and go. And that's the other thing about the Falcons. I mean, you know they've got Calvin Ridley and this dude, Russell Gage. I went, I was back watching some of their phone from last year. Player. Yeah, he's a pretty darnka player. So it's not like the cupboard is bear if they

if they decide to move him. Plus guys, look, if they get a future even a future mid round second and a future mid round third or mid round four, now they've got a ham out even if they finish around five hundred to start moving up, if they're back in the quarterback market in a year two. So I mean, all of these things are coming into play with this whole conversation. Steve, You've been very generous with your time today.

I know you're a hot commodity on the network side with all this going on, and you're always a great friend of the show. So great a friend of the show, Steve Um, that it's time to introduce another challenge to the listeners. You did not let us down a couple of years ago when we asked for a Colleen Wolf theme song. Now we come to you, the audience again, all the musicians out there, to come up with a Steve Wife's theme song for the Around the NFL podcast.

And to two nuggets here. First of all, you're gonna send your submission. It's thirty seconds or less. Do not go a second over thirty or you're done. V a t N podcast at Gmail and Ricky will parse through all the submissions. Now, Steve, I want you to have some creative First of all, how do you feel about this? Oh? No, I'm loving it because I know here here's a great part. Because you have such a great English audience. I know

they're gonna hit like some banger reggae music. I was gonna say, that's what I'm hoping for, That's what I was gonna say. I want you to have some creative control over this. Um and uh is that a direction? We don't want to tell people necessarily what type of music to send in, But at the same time I wanted to be a nice match for Steve and his personality. So you maybe a reggae groove, okay, anything else you

want to have? That definitely the genre along along the Mr Vegas kind of you know, I don't I don't want any of the of the culture reggae. You're well, you're from St. Louis, So maybe something Nelly like or where where's your wife from? My wife is from Jamaica. Much more I'm much more, yes, much more in that I haven't been to St. Louis and even though that's my ship's it's been a minute alright, So something in the reggae groove Steve Weistan that genre v A t

N podcast at gmail. Send in your submissions and the next time we have Steve on the podcast, maybe we'll play some and figure out what the Steve Wisch a t N theme song is. But a bunch of pasty guys from the UK making reggae, what could go wrong? We do have do not sleep on the UK reggae? Hey, that's a knowledgeable, acknowledgeable stuff, right, you know, your favorite band back in the day with Squeeze Share Love a little. No, we're calling all of our listeners across the globe. Maybe

I have have some Jamaican listeners. Let's let's do this thing. Um all right, Steve, you've said it all. Thank you so much and best of luck the iconic Steve. Why yeah, I just thought the the audience did not let us down and um with Colleen's submission. Now, Steve, I think he's earned this. I think this is uh something that is going to really pop. Well, it might get on you could get on Patrick Claybourne's radar. Um. You know, other friends in the show might definitely have more appearances.

That's tough, but maybe he'll get one eventually. I think I think if listeners need any direction, like, is there any other personal things about Steve? I do think of Steve as you call them? Did you call him the conscience of NFL network? That was good? He she does sort of like the president, like the like if there was a class president of NFL network on air people, I feel like Steve would be the pick, like he's sort of he's sort of the guy. Right. Well, yeah,

and I think it's good. I like that you're giving some cliffs notes here for the audience. But I also like the idea of whoever is putting together this composition, you have to be a listener. You have to understand Steve and his sensibilities and his background and everything, and that will take that into account. I mean, I really want to see where people when people think creatively about this um, what comes out. I also don't think you

necessarily now want UM. You know it's gonna be Erica's sure to listen to them all, but four hundred reggae based songs. I mean, if you're coming from somewhere else as a musician, or win him over, maybe you win him over with something from left field. Absolutely, and that's what happened with Colleen. I think we went with more of a hip hop theme, which is one of Colleen's favorite genres of music. But we were all over the

map and that was fun, all right. And it's not a chore, Ricky, do you you see this as a chore or an honor in a way, really, to to collaborate with the listeners in this way. Yeah, I can't wait to go through it, all right. It's like I can't wait to listen to the first eight entries and just tell you those those were the best that's not true. What if there's seven hundred of them? Will you listen

to all seven hundred? What if five hundred of them are by people who really shouldn't have ever considered music as a hobby. I might not listen to all thirty seconds at that point, but seven of them are marked just sending voice memos to you at like three in the morning. Perfect it might get picked um, honestly, yeah, And if if you don't know anything from the colleen submission, this is the big leagues. We have a lot of talented uh listeners. Do not send in some chinesy chenzy

voicemail memo. I want real musicianship here. That's all I ask. All right, let's do some uh, let's some more news, and then we'll say goodbye. Hit it Ricky. Former NFL star Philip Rivers returned to the gridiron tonight, this time calling the shots on the sideline. Retired quarterback now head coach of the St. Michael Catholic High School Cardinals led his team onto the field for spring day matchup at

the Alma Bryant Hurricanes. It's gotta be it's gotta be um a mind trip for these kids, because I looked it up. Philip Rivers this year was playing for the Super Bowl UM in the tournament of the NFL uh known as the playoffs for the Cults. Played pretty well too in the game, and he walked away at age thirty nine. I looked up over on spot rack dot com his career earnings. He earned a quarter of a billion dollars in salary as a football player over twenty seasons.

And now he's the head coach of your high school team. That's wild. I'd be freaking out. I mean, you know, Brett Farve did the same thing, and I mean these are legends, and you know, maybe the high school player of today he was fifteen years old. He didn't watch fifteen years of Philip Rivers. But there's it's not lost on anyone playing football at that age, like the incredible concept that an NFL quarterback is now like in your face at meetings and telling you to take lapse quicker.

And you know, I I would find it highly unusual to reconcile pluses. His son is coming up and is going to be on the team shortly, I think if he's not yet, And there there's a there's many more to follow, which is why he parked himself there and he's he's ready. It's awesome though. That video made me really happy. I just I love Philip Rivers. I love

that he said this was his lifelong dream. He said that too when he signed the contract, like with a year, you know, he still had that cult year to go. I believe it. His dad was his high school coach. He said it was his lifeblog dream and he like stuck to it and and he's doing it amazing. I just I just want Philip Rivers to be happy. See, it's not all about the championship. Think of all the good times we had along the way, all the joy

that Philip Greg just kep. He just he just keeps going with the point and where we were like in eight minutes into Philip Rivers appreciate. I love it too. I don't have to love it as much as everyone else, but I'm happy for him. He's I just, you know, like I love. I don't know if he's taking a dime from the school. Probably not. He signed a twenty five million dollar contract for one season with the overpay. By the way, he was okay last season, But if

Greg's gonna get in his tired points. I'll do the same. Um. I also want to hear um Philip Rivers just talking to the news reporter, because think about it from this perspective, because I've been in the I've been in the shoes of this guy, uh covering high school sports. Like you're usually talking to he's just like you know, regular Joe guys that are in the community and they're the head coach of the football team. Now you're interviewing Philip Rivers.

Here's Rivers just talking casually about high school football. I'm just looking forward to seeing the boys compete. Just just another checkpoint as we head into the summer workouts, and I'm not worried about the scoreboard so much as this again, seeing this competes in if we transfer what we've been

working on practice to the game setting. I just like that to get out, like I've given that exact done that exact same interview for the Journal News in Westchester a million times and had that same answer, only it's Philip Rivers talking back to you. Yeah. Like I I worked for the Ridgefield Press covering the team, and I would call up the coach, coach Guido Myolo on the phone and one week. One week, I planted, not planted,

but I talked to the team was really struggling. I talked to like six of the kids were just in my science class and like drop this a bomb and the Ridgefield Press like tearing the team and like a new one. And he came into the lunch from me, It's like, never operate that way again. I must read every article that you before you princessly that's not how this works. But what happens is suddenly Philip Rivers team is one in five and that cover buds gonna have

to deal with that. I learned. I learned a similar thing early on in my time covering high school or it's because you grow up a fan of sports and sports writing and for me like reading the sports section in the New York Post or whatever, and it's like

sports are covered a certain way. And I remember I covered a high school game where the tight end had like a Jackie Smith type moment where he dropped a wide open pass in the end zone and I believe it costs the Nanuek Golden Knights or whomever it was the game, and I in my dispatch on the game, I noted that the tight end dropped a wide open touchdown pass that was kind of the difference in the game, and the editor of the paper got a very angry phone call from the parent of the player, and the

head coach also called. They're like, what are you doing? Yeah, kids sixteen the bet you know in your defense that kid went his career went nowhere. So yeah you saw that. Yeah, you saw the kernel of the destruction plane. Maybe like he read that and he's like, I need to focus on being an engineer or something, and maybe he went on to do great things helped him. Maybe I thank you note as an honor. Nanue had Golden Night. Jackie Smith, all right, let's get into it. Aaron Rodgers, Hey, how

about that? He's still on the Packers. He was also on Sports Center on Monday. Kenny Maine stalwart there. ESPN recently got laid off by the company. Uh, it was his last time on Sports Center. I was always a big Kenny Maine fan back in the day's. He's a prose pro and great at his job. Um So Rogers did him a solid and appeared on the final Kenny Maine Sports Center talking about the situation. He stressed, my issue is not with the kid in that quarterback room.

Jordan's love. It's with the overall vibe of the Packers organization, with Brian gutakanst in charge with you with my situation. Look, it's it's never been about uh, you know, it never been about the draft pick pick in Jordan. I love Jordan. He's a great kid. Um. You know, he had a lot of fun to work together. I love coaching staff, love my teammates, you know, I love the fan base

in Green Bay's incredible, incredible sixteen years. It's just kind of about a philosophy, you know, and and maybe forgetting that it is about the people that makes the thing. It's about it's about character, it's about culture, it's about doing what things the right way. You you found this a bit strange. Great well, I think he was trying to answer someone answer these questions without saying much of anything. I mean, it went on for a while and parts

of the interview were great. Kenny Maine was great, and Rogers is great too, But the part about the Packers, it's like, I don't know what he was saying. He basically was saying, yeah, he loves everyone except for the front office. I guess it was yeah, that, But if you're got to be so indirect but obvious about it,

I don't know why not just be direct? Why is he just like talking around this whole issue And he went into this whole long thing about culture and the people and philosophy, and it's like, well that all those people you mentioned, they're all still there. It's about the people, like the coaches and the teammates, they're they're there. If

it's about those people, I agree with you. I mean, I think he's trying to there's a bit of a you know, hearts and minds aspect to this, where if you're Aaron Rodgers, you're in a town that bleeds football more than other football towns, and like they at some point Oregon to those fans are gonna lose their patients with the concept of Aaron Rodgers wanting out um, appearing to be difficult, appearing to be a devil all that business that I don't really necessarily think he is that um,

But he's trying to, you know, not so subtly, but in a cryptic way point the arrow back it look at it's our front office, it's our general manager. That created an aura of mistrust between me and the organization. It wasn't um the previous GM, and it doesn't chart back to them, I don't think. But it's very much about the current GM, and like that is enough to create a divorce scenario. I mean, it's just to me, the longer this drags on, I just find the more

petty it's. And and he even said it in the main interview that he believes his MVP season in through a wrench and everything for the Packers, and that's true,

that's honestly the key quota. And it's like, you know, it's it's interesting to me that I think it's a little bit of a window into Rogers personality that there is nothing he could have done more to stick it to the Packers for this betrayal in his mind on some level than to do what he did on the field and be the best player in football and win the m v P. So everything else that's followed now, which just feels like a little bit of a twisting of the knife to make it even more uncomfortable for

Gouda constant and the people that were behind the decision to bring in Jordan's love and and and my last point on this, because I don't want us to dwell on this, but I also want to hear Greg your thoughts on it too. Is like he could say, it's

not about Jordan's love, it's not his fault. But it's like, it's not that different what he's what he's doing to what bred Farb did to him once upon a time, where you just put the young guy in a really tough situation and it's a strange, awkward way to start his NFL career, and it didn't have to be that way, and yet here we are. I mean, I totally agree with you on that that he can he can say that,

but it was about the pick. It was it was probably about not communicating and not feeling like he was, you know, valued enough to communicate the pick ahead of time.

But what what I think is, if the reporting is correct, and if you piece together some of what Ian Rappaport has said in Schefter and then a little more directly with Charles Robinson of Yahoo said was that after this m v P season, Rogers said, give me a contract extension, and when they said no at that point or that they didn't like the terms of what they wanted, that they just wanted to renegotiate, or they just would guarantee this year but not move in into the future. That's

where it went def Con five. And if he's so worried about the pr angle of it all, I would just say that because that to me makes sense, Like I just won the m v P and then I asked for contract extension. Okay, you wanted to move to love but at this point now it's clear I'm not going anywhere in terms of my level of play. Now I want you to commit to me. And if it's true that the Packers at that point this February or whenever it was said no not really, you know, you

don't blame him so much. Just to set that out there, if that's true, yeah, I wish he would clarify that and elucidate that for the people because it is still sort of this thing where it's elongated. It's kind of mysterious because we don't have all the reporting on it. But I'm completely with you because I think you've got a schism here where the other parts of the Fun Office probably you are saying, what are we doing here?

Why would we ever part ways with Aaron Rodgers? But there's other figures saying we drafted Jordan's love and what do you do not play him for three years and then you have to decide on a fifth year option. It's like you just have to shock it up. It's a completely missed um drafts essentially. Or do we fire our general manager who we like just to keep the

franchise star happy. That's of the words say, yeah, But I think the problem is that, like that's a weird organization that doesn't have like a powerful owner that would just come in and clear clear all this up. I think it's a little bit of a trickier type organization with the Mark Murphy angle and your general manager who has power went and picked this quarterback. So I don't know if if it's quite as simple as I think. You keep Rodgers above all, but getting there is tricky.

It's just like they're stuck in it on a different path connected to Aaron Rodgers up there in Denver O. T As have begun and you know that Drew lock and Teddy Bridgewater involved because they're trying to win a starting quarterback job. In fact, Vic vag y'all plans a fifty fifty split of reps all through the summer and preseason before he decides which one of these guys is his quarterback. Of course, Aaron Rodgers has been connected to

the broncos Um during this process during his fallout. Rodgers is fallout with Green Bay. Luck was asked about it this week and he said, he spent so much time some interesting Luck quotes. He's kind of he's a bit of an interesting guy here. Uh, he makes for a good copy. Lock said he spent so much time this offseason working to improve, including consultations of Peyton Manning look out, that it led him quote being able to do Being able to do that gave me zero time to listen

to all this stuff. Maybe one day I'll go back and read and laugh about all the things that were being said that ended up being completely wrong. And then and then before I thought to you guys, this last part, which was interesting to me as well. Here's another quote from Luck. Luck. I'd like to think the reason no one has said anything to me is because those are probably the really close people in my life, and they understand it's not worth their time either. Whatever happens happens.

And if anyone did say anything to me, it was zero text back or no callback because they are probably not even in my tight, really tight circle. And he added that his father Andy Andy Lock good name, will tell him if he has seen a Broncos player on social media offering support for Lock. Al Right, a lot

of information there. That's I know. I luck um why Lock has been icing me on my textas summer because I've just been sending him all these gifts of Aaron Rodgers doing the uh you know, the state farm belt or whatever. You know. I just he never responds. He has his dad on social media watch to make sure his teammates are saying nice things about him. That's interesting. I don't know, well, I think it's I think it's too is he is he making he's like forcing those

players to say nice things. Where he's like, if you happen to see a player supporting me. Don Miller kind of supported Teddy Bridgewater. I noticed. I wonder if that got on his radar. He was kind of he was like, you know, ted Teddy came in here. I just said, don't worry about everything else, just play like we got you to play, and and he said some things about

Luck too. But I bet in the in the defensive huddle there might be some of that going on, like let's let's have a quarterback that if nothing else just doesn't turn the ball over and lets us go win the game. And so that it's a it's an interesting dynamic, right except every single player on the team would would be like absolute green light yes to Aaron Rodgers if

that became a thing. I mean, but I think between the two, Teddy offers you more like there's he's got these players, you know, look at each other differently, and they's got way more street cred. I mean, Lock is just locked in a athletes speak mode right there. All right. I never I never believe someone when they're like, I didn't I haven't had time to hear any of these nonsense things people are saying. It was like, well, how long would it really take you to hear that? It

would take you, like twenty seconds. You don't have seconds. Like right, I'm gonna go back and then I'm gonna read all the things people said to you. That was the moment where I was like, oh, okay, he knows exactly who's been saying what about him? And that was

like that was his little he said a little too much. Then, I mean, maybe the Broncos are like, we already have an overly complex, mentally confusing quarterback and Drew lock if this is how he processes, you know, his daily you know, getting overly um beguiling Aaron Rodgers in there is probably just a little bit too much. But this kind of this kind of feels like a slightly more pumped up and just slightly more pumped up version of Mike Shanahan

back in two thousand eleven. I stake my reputation on John Beck and Rex Grossman. It's like a little bit higher than that Big faggio is in a tough spot here. Yeah, one of those guys is going to be a starting quarterback most likely the whole the whole fifty fifty reps. We're gonna do it all through precos that's that's never once worked. That is the official kiss of death. Would I would respect it more if he was just like we're gonna ride with Locke or we're gonna ride with Teddy.

But it's just like you know that that well, you know, you know one is gonna start eight games and one's gonna start, um nine, and we're gonna do it. We're gonna spend like eight months, you know, breaking down what happens between now in August. But they're both gonna play. It's one of the great parcels ums of which there are dozens and dozens. If you're a young football and read about Bill Parcels, the big Tuna. Uh. If you

have two quarterbacks, you don't have any mm hmm. In other news, so yes, O t s are kicking off and some good uh injury recovery news at the game's most important position in Dallas, Dak Prescott returned to practice on Monday, UH. The first time he's seen this type of action since he suffered that nasty compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle against the Giants back in Week five. So Prescott is all systems go, barring some

type of setback for a return. And speaking of comeback Player of the Year candidate Joe Burrow, this is a good one. Also, back on the field, he was throwing at the Bengals first O t A. He's got a big Carson Palmer like brace on his knee, but he was planting on that surgically repaired knee making throws. This comes a week after UH it was reported that he

is also all systems go for week one barring setbacks. Yeah, he's still he said though, that he's three months away, he thought from being fully cleared, so doing the math that is late into the preseason, and so being on the field. I think Dak was similar, but he doesn't have the same timeline. It's like the rules that they have to keep players away. They're not even doing eleven on elevens now. They're they're making sure people are at

least ten feet away from Joe Burrow. But they're throwing passes, and it's all it's all a good sign, and it's another sign and football is back. Football is back. I mean, you know he's throwing he's throwing short passes too. I mean, it's just like a it's a starting point. But I mean, you know, we go back twenty years and if you tear your knee up in November, who knows when we see you again. It's just all of it's been, you know, sped up. And he looked really I thought he looked

nimble in the in the video that I saw. But they mark the miracle of modern science. Am I right? You are right, it is. It's miraculous. It's a good, great time to be alive. I know this isn't on our news run down, but you know, the otis were starting.

I did find it interesting that the Bucks are the only team that are basically going and lp a thing like because that tom Brady's got some deuceeically I'm gonna have I'm gonna have my own practice, and apparently all practicing down in Florida or something, and not one of the starters on either side of the ball showed up.

Every other team. Everyone just was like Africana listen. I initially had this like theory that maybe Tom Brady gets on that call um and in another world where everyone listened to what Tom Brady to say about not practice during the off season, that everyone didn't practice because they respect Tom Brady so much, and then just the Bucks did, it would have been like that's next level planning. But it's completely reversed where everyone is practicing. The Bucks didn't

show up to work. All right, you're coasting through your off season. Have a nice time, my my, you know you need fire takes this time of year. On football podcast. My fire take is the Bucks are done champions. Fatigue is set in. They won the Ring and they're just using this as a way to skip, Uh, this very easy amount of a small amount of work they have to do before summer vacation. Uh, yeah, we're crew. We are hurtling. Towards eight and nine, Brady respond that whatever whatever.

That as like a quote board so they can't hear the tony your voice and tweeted out from like around the NFL every single show. That's amount of context stuff. Yeah, but Brady would say, probably respond to you being like, we're practicing harder down here. You're not allowed to do all this stuff like I've got uh, you know Guerrero, Alex Guerrero running, you know, having these guys do wild stuff down here. We don't need the team now, Oh

your maskull's out there, We're doing the real work. Well, I'd tell him that my job is to see things through a certain point of view and maybe not include all the facts. So he's not going to get away with that. Uh. Cycling back to Denver real quick, Bradley Chubb. He had an ankle issue last season. Um, they hope to avoid surgery, but he did get surgery to remove a bone spur in his ankle, which is always sounds kind of gross because that's a a floating particle of bone.

Then slightly, you know, a little jar and give it to you when you're done. It's gross anyway. So he'll be in a walking boot for a couple of weeks. Uh, nothing to be too concerned about. He should be ready for training camp. Uh. What's that sound you, Ricky? I hear a sound. It's a I smell smoke. What is that an alarm or something? Oh? I know what that is. That's the sound of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jalen Smith burning. Uh, one of his deep deep people down the line of

his family. True, when he's long gone. At some point, the money's gonna run out in the Jalen Smith family from this lucrative pro career. One generation just lost their college money because he's changing to number nine. Uh, and he has to pay a six figure some for the switch. Sources told Todd Archer of ESPN sod six figures. So he goes from he's lighting money on fire. Number fifty four is now number nine at mid six figure costs. So what does that mean? That's like five? Is that

what that means? Um? And as we talked about on this show, and it all just seems insane. To make the move to number nine, Smith had to buy out the current inventory of number fifty four jerseys and T shirts and T shirts, which follows NFL rules. Uh, he is all from Archer at ESPN. Had he said now that he would change his number two, it would not have cost him any money. So if he just would have stayed number fifty four this year, he could have then switched to this number nine and not paid a dime.

I'm telling you, the money's gonna run out. In the Jalen Smith family. Someone's getting banged here in the biggest of all spots. They're not born yet, the never even know. It's all because he wanted to be number He's got a great financial planner. They're gonna be fine. They're gonna be fine. I'm bummed out. I'm legit bummed out by this story because I don't think Jalen Smith is going

to be on the Cowboys next year. I think there's a chance, and I know he's not thinking this, but I think I mean next year, that it's gonna be a short lived number change. Anyways, I think there's a chance he's not on the Cowboys this year, which I know he's not thinking about he you know, he's had a good career, but there's a legit chance because of um, you know, the the draft that they had and Vanderesh and everything like that he could be on the trade

block or that he could even get cut. So I I after the couple of years that he said, so that that would be like an extra bummer if he paid for all this and then he doesn't even make a team. I would assume that he's not prancing around with that mental state though, thinking, of course I probably won't be here, you know, my career is on the down side. But different defensive coordinator could work. Dan Quinn,

We'll see, might be might be great. That's fair, Mark, you got a lot tied up in this, dan quinnin hiring well. I mean I also think, like how many Cowboys fans are like kay Jalen Smith, but I have like a Tony Romo jersey and now you're number nine, Like what are we doing here? Like you're jumping into like the rail. The one player outside of like Ezekiel Elliott that of this current team probably has like a

ten billion jerseys that people own around town. This is kind of like, you know more like a big picture thing. But dan Quinn got hired by the Falcons because he was the d C of the Legion of Boom Seahawks. Went to Atlanta defense in those last couple of years, couldn't stop a nosebleed. Now he goes to Dallas where the talent. Listen, tell me if you disagree, But is it that much better than it was in Atlanta? Uh?

Now we're gonna say he's going to be a defensive wizard like he was in Attle when he had the best defensive roster of the last ten years. Sometimes this assumption that the head coach that gets fired and then becomes a d C again gets back to d C magic. I don't know. It was like an asp at the highest level. It's also an assumption to assume he's gonna fail. So it's like we're just two men with assumptions battling

against each other, which tells you it's the middle. But that's my logic behind why I'm not saying he's gonna fail. I just sometimes we just say, Okay, now he's gonna be fine and he's gonna make a lot better. But I don't I would say that he's he's under a fair amount of pressure in terms of like if he fails here, like he'll never be a coordinator again. Probably,

but like they put their entire draft towards the defense. Um, if those players work out, And it's a bit last year's scheme, it was the wrong scheme under Mike Nolan for coronavirus time. It was too complex. They were argument. They were mentioning that all season long. Um, and Dan Quinn's scheme is completely different than a bunch of players are already saying they love it. So they drafted again.

It was exactly like Jalen Smith, that number twelve, and they signed Keian O'Neil from Quinn's team, uh and gave him five million dollars to play that position too. That's about That's unfortunate, and I think the disrespect for Tony

Romo is unfortunate. I guess maybe you can't retire every number and everything, especially the Cowboys, but it does just give me one chance to bring up one of my favorite takes, which is somehow, despite being like one of the most famous football players of the last two decades and on TV every week and incredibly you know, well respected as a broadcast, somehow Tony Romo is like incredibly underrated as a player. I the disrespect I hear, Like Tony Romo was had a Hall of Fame chunk of

his career. He didn't go long enough. But it's like people,

I really don't think people respect how he was. It was almost like the negative side of being, uh the quarterback of America's team and you had the high profile failures, the injuries of course, the playoff game with the botched snap, and I think that cloud how good he was, Like I not to who cares, but like I thought, Tony Romo his peak was better than Philip Rivers, like or they five seasons that like Matt Ryan for instance, never had like he there were him at his peak was

just an incredible player. That's I just think there's a bunch of these quarterbacks because you know, I know, it's like you can't talk about if a quarterback wins or loses, Like we love Matthew Stafford's tool set even though they win six games a year. It's like bottom line, I mean, the popular thinking around a quarterback is if Romo had had like two super Bowl runs, even if he had just done what Eli Manning had dug he would be

thought about completely differently. Staffords a good example. It's like, don't bring up and not you didn't Mark, but I've seen it. Don't bring up like Stafford's name when you're talking about Tony Romo. It's like those No but but Romo doesn't have like Romo just and it's a Cowboys issue. It's not a Tony Romo thing. But he doesn't have

those playoff runs. And I just think you're average sports fan like and I don't even look down on their take to be honest, like Romo was attached to like Dan sends some high concept buffoonery early in his career, and like teams that went south in big games. Um Man, I don't know, Man, I don't know. Greg. I think

we're in a little different page on Stafford. I think if you put Stafford on those Cowboys teams with those offenses back in the day, would if you know, if you put Tom Brady on the Lions, you know what, A could have soda, But he hasn't had. He just hasn't had remotely a career like like Tony Romo. Did I mean Tony Tony Romo at his best as a top you know three or four, quarterback four or five times, and and a lot of fun to watch too. Yeah. I don't take a look at their numbers. Too interesting

comparison there all right. Uh. Finally, in the news little transaction wire tidbit here, the Washington football team released long time starting right tackle Morgan Moses on Thursday. Um and the move saves nearly eight million in salary cap space. Uh. And Moses is a guy who's gonna get work because he's a guy that has started every game for this team since two thousand and fifteen. He just turned thirty. Maybe not the best right tackle in football, Greg, but

a guy that is sturdy. Uh. That is good, not great, And there are plenty of bad right tackles in football, so he's gonna get a job pretty quickly. You'd think I was very surprised. I mean, if you trust PFFS numbers, and I don't think Washington agrees with him. He's one of the better right tackles in the league for the last last handful of years. I mean, the Jets. There's a lot of teams that could use the right tackle right Jets a funny georch fans. Fine, I think the

Ravens probably regret giving Alejandra Villainuava eight million dollars. That was that was a shocking contract to me that he got that much late into free agency, because if Villainueva gets eight million, Moseses is a better player and some team is probably gonna he's a rare free agent getting cut now that will still get some good money because

I think they'll be multiple teams that on him. Well, Washington also released garn Christian their other tackles, so you've got you've got two tackles that weren't there a year ago, Charles Leno and a second rounder. Sam Cosmi is essentially your right tackle right now. So Cosmy, I remember it was like a week ago I was saying, Oh, Washington's two lines are just so rock solid, and this this is the Ron Rivera identity, and suddenly you've got at

least questions at one of the tackle spots. Well, they must good about the in house options here to make this move, you cause me, I think they must. They must really be high on Cosmi. Speaking of speaking of that Cosmi, Sam Cosmism, I'm not going near it. Um. Speaking of wish I had it back when I was doing my brief deep dive into teams that made sense

for Julio Jones. I feel like the Charges, if they just didn't pick up Mike Williams fifteen million dollar fifty year option last spring, the Julio Jones, they which be just perfect for them. Keivan Allen and Julio Jones together and you'd have a ton of cap space they have. They have a lot still though, when you said that they have a lot of room that would make sense. I thought that the Moses story was gonna get the

old hands is edit the old hands. It's like we've gone an hour, do we want to finish on Moses. I think we've brought some good energy, some good analysis to it, so it didn't end up as kind of the air coming out of the balloon like I figured. But I thought it was getting the hands is cut, got cutting room floor vibes there for a bit. Potential

had a lot of potential. But then when I did my due diligence ahead of the show, which I always do, I saw that this was an accomplished starting right tackle and he is going to be a value add to another team, and that just feels like something we should talk about on this program. We're we're we're information, we're entertainment, and we're giving you information now that you can go back to bars. Uh. If you're you're vaccinated in the United States, for the most part, you can drop some

major Morgan Moses takes and impress all your friends. Absolutely. Finally, in the news, this one via Ricky Hollywood. Who I just I asked her to scour the web all through the show, and that's exactly what she does. She's so plugged in looking for news items. UM the Food Network is paying Guy Fiery eighty million dollars over three years in the latest deal for the UM Food Guy. What would you call him? I guess he's a celebrity chef type UM at a point six million annually. This is

from Joe Popoliano on Twitter. Fiery would be the fifteenth highest paid player in the NFL, making more than people like Tom Brady, Khalil Macaron Iron Donald and Julio Jones. And let me tell you something before you say, oh, what a disgrace. That guy is terrible. His food is bad, he's cheesy. My brother Kevin Danger Hands is uh sees Guy Fiery as a hero like he loves that dude. He loves his shows, he loves his energy. Um, Guy Fiery, this is the Kevin d jre Hans is um test

and I put a lot of faith into that. That's all I need to know. I mean, danger Hands is has you know, a burgeoning singing career based on some of his social media, but I don't I think it's Guy fear is an easy target. Um. I like his little Diners, drive Ins and Dives show West his favorite. I mean he's fine. We love to, uh, you know, get a little loose, maybe uh eating edible and watch some diners, drive ins and whatever for about hours on end in a row. Right, isn't he worth more than

Jimmy Garoppolo to the populace at large? That's like the same price essentially. I mean he's underpaid compared to compared to like some of these left handed relievers, you know in the Major League Baseball. I'm saying Guy Fieri's earned it. It's a big so we are pro Guy Fiery. It is Connor Or is a huge Fiery fan. Another and by the way, go over all the listeners. Since Mark mentioned it, Kevin danger Hands has put out a coronavirus ballad called Patient Zero over on YouTube. Check it out,

leave a comment. It's a banger. It's actually very well done. Um. I kind of wish it had come out like a year earlier, right at that wave of people's paranoia about the lock in thing. But um, he just knocked it out the park. But I can tell you this, that's when I heard the original demo version very early in the pandemic, and he worked on this thing like Freddie Mercury Works worked on Bohemian Rapsody. He wanted it to be the right sound and the right look for the video.

So checking special on YouTube, Uh, and leave a comment if you can. All right, good, good show. Thanks to Steve Wish again v a t N podcast at gmail. Send in your thirty second or less submission, uh for a Steve Weish jingle. He said he was kind of into the Jamaican vibes. Um, so keep that in mind because I'm sure that will wait, uh, potentially heavily, heavily in the competition. But if you go a different path, if you believe, you believe in the quality of your work,

don't be afraid to be different. I mean, look at Queen Bohemian Rhapsody, that that song should not have worked on any level. It was an absurd piece of music, and now it's a classic of the genre. So just keep that in mind, you know, be your version of blues traveler. That's what I'd say. I don't know what that means, but I don't quite know what it means either. But does that mean you have to wear a vest with like fifty harmonicas in the pockets? If that's true

to your nature? I mean, I just these singers and performers out there just better be, you know, authentic, because we can sniff right through anything that's a little phony exactly. Nothing manufactured will be permitted. All right. We'll be back on Thursday with another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. Thank you to everyone for your support. Um until then, this is Dan Hansis signing of Poor Quiet Storm, the Old Boss Steve. Why should Ricky Hollywood behind the virtual

glass until Thursday? He's the cough