Patrick Mahomes’ new deal, Washington’s new name and new rules for training camp

back back on television in his suit. He's wearing a tie right now, much uh much better dress than Marker, Ricky and I and U and had to uh, you know, had to report the big Patrick Mahomes contract which started right before we started taping, which I which I feel like is is good luck, you know, great great day for Patrick's. Yeah, I mean, yeah, We've had a few, I guess good ones, um since the last good one,

which was when Patrick Mahains won the Super Bowl. But you know, like my daughter was born, I'm taking over her room to uh to do work stuff and talk to you guys, which is fun, but it's uh, it was.

It was an interesting few minutes there because we had talked about, you know, to open up the kimono a little bit, uh, you know, trying to do this around noon and then I look at my Twitter time on and it's like, oh, well, I guess they're gonna want to do this, so uh we had to wait for Mike Silver to get on the phone with somebody so we could do it. And it's like, yeah, they're gonna give him a lot of money. All right, cool, see you later. Watch Total Access tonight, and I mean it

is assured that it's assured that this show. Um, we we float a starting time out there episode after episode and it's something we'll get in the way, and this time it was real news. I mean, I would say also just to uh on the celebration of Patrick, you have not that this is something that everyone celebrates sekily, but an annual holiday of an I wish based um platform celebrating Patrick's in March every year. So winning, So yeah, I pay homage to to you know, my Irish heritage.

You know, I didn't have a lot of stay in the matter, but yeah, you know, it's it's a it's it's a fun it's a fun shout out to you know, look back, yeah, our list, there's maybe wondering, you know where where's Dan Dan at you know? I believe he's either hanging out with his brother, our host Dan Hansas Um or he's you know, in day three of three part interview UM with The Gatesville Messenger and I just couldn't do the show. He will be back on Wednesday.

We're still doing two shows a week until training camp starts, assuming it does start. And Uh, I feel like we were already into the news. Maybe maybe let's do the chit chat at the end. Well, we should. I do want to do a catch up. I do want to do a catch up because I want to see what like people were doing. This was the closest thing we had to like an NFL ish week off last week. But I feel like we're already into the into the news.

So Ricky, let's let's do some news. I think we finally arrived at the moment in time where we're going to say goodbye to this nickname that uh clearly was racist and has been a blight on the league for a long long time. Well said there by Mike Silver talking about the Washington team name change that was on air just a few hours ago with Patrick Claiban. Again, what a day and We'll get to that news in just a minute, but we gotta start. We're gonna start

with Mahomes. We already have and Silver was the one who confirmed the story UH for us at NFL Network. But Adam Schefter broke it. And since he broke it, he's broken a few more terms. First of all, it's a it's a twelve year contract. It's ten new years tacked on to the two already left on his rookie deal. It is expected to total more than four hundred million dollars UH in total. But we don't really know any

more details as we are are taping this. First of all, I think Schefter and I was gonna, I honestly was gonna tweet about this last week. I wonder if Schefter and Ian keep track of when the other one is on vacation, because I think that they work harder in those weeks to try to get over on the other guy. I at least know our guy, Ian would do something like that. That's not a it's not even it's not even going after him. And I thought about that because

the Cam Newton broke news broke. I did text with Ian a little bit last week. He was on vacation and you know, Schefter is loving dropping this bomb while Ian is wherever Ian is. I mean, it's a competition that I think UM is tracked heavily by about zero

point three percent of the country. It's basically one of them, and you are definitely but you know, I think one of the privileges that just enjoying sports from a distance would be to not have to worry about when Ian is on vacation and Adam Schefter is dropping a bombs

on a social media platform. But I only mentioned it because it took a while to confirm it, and that's just rare and today in in this media landscape, that someone actually has some exclusive news, uh for that long and it's ultimately news that you know, we expected at some point, but we just didn't know when it was

going to happen. Patrick, And I think like in terms of the competition, it kind of plays into the way that we consumed it today, right because you mentioned how Schefter has kind of part and parceled this out, and I think he would if it were not for the climate, right of like what's he doing right now? That he would probably you know, kind of chill out and be like, oh, let's do it total terms, so it's gonna be twelve total years. They're tacking it on. This is the up

to number. But it was just like, hey, ten years, ten years, patfrom Homes, Hey, what's up? Everybody reacted this, which is like cool, Like I'm not a reporter, like I'm I'm not out of schefter. I've seen that got grind all the time. But you know, when we're talking about contracts, that initial part of the conversation like dominates so much of the perception where that the up to number gets out there and everybody's like, oh my god, they're gonna give him. It's like, that's not what, that's

not what. It's. Yeah, I've already seen a lot of takes and and when it comes to the money of it all, and none of them makes sense. It's a boring it's a boring, repetitive take that we've had on this show that you just you gotta wait and see um and and even the takes that are like why would Patrick Mahomes do this? Like why sign any tenure contract?

You gotta you gotta see the deal. And Schefter did indicate it is believed that he'll have the contract tied to a percentage of the salary cap number, which we've heard talked about forever as a possibility, and it makes a lot of sense for these really high level players, especially quarterbacks, And it sounds like that's exactly what's gonna happen here. I'm guessing, you know what, we'll find out what that percentages. Again, it could be the total deals.

I think four twenties something million right now, but it could be more as the salary cap goes up. And my guesses and we'll see, you know, whatever percentage of the salary cap he's taken up in the next few years, you know, well that that's the percentage he's gonna want to be taking up in the future too. And so if you're Patrick Mahomes, any deal is a no brainer because why step on the field again until you just sign the contract that changes your life, your family's life forever.

The key is the next few years after that, they'll figure it out. Things are gonna change, Patrick Mahomes, Uh, we'll change, the NFL will change. But he's locked in and and I'm assuming he's getting paid, uh, you know,

a fair amount of money for the next few seasons. Yeah, I mean it's it's a deal that harks back to not pre this cb A, but kind of action that happened pre the previous cb A when you had guys like Donovan McNabb signing twelve year extensions drew BLEDSOE people mentioned but the tenure commitment in the league, and you know, we talked about it with John Gruden that that stands out.

There is such an unusual deal between the Raiders and their coach, but us, like from an NFL standpoint, ten years ago, um, we were weeks away from Sam Bradford signing his rookie deal with the St. Louis Rams. So it's just such an incredible amount of time that I'm I'm glad for both parties. Why not lock mahomes down

for as long as you can? Uh? I simply don't concern myself with the numbers and the contract beyond you know, a couple of years from now, as you said, Greg, because none of those contracts that they mentioned that go on for ten plus years lived to see the light of day. I mean, it's sort of just a it's a huge commitment and I think that matters a lot. And you've got a wiggle room there but the idea that my Homes is going to be there on these

terms ten years now would would be shocking to me. Yeah, and that's something that we even see with like three and four year deals, where we're reporting a three and four year deal and then turns out two years after that, Uh, somebody's on their way out, and it's like, well, that three year, forty million dollar contract turned out to be neither of of of neither one of those um and so like, yeah, I'm happy for Patrick Mahomes, and you know, once we find out more, you know, good, but this

is arguably the best player in the NFL. So yeah, he should get a lot of money and we shouldn't pay any edge that people who have complained about it, they do seem to agree with Greg's you know, Greg, you've floated out there that you think that Mahomes could go down is the greatest quarterback of all time, which you know you said that before even the Super Bowl doesn't feel that much of a stretch at this point.

But they it's basically then saying and they told us before Mahomes in that combine, before Mahomes took the starting role, that behind the scenes they were just in love with him, and they've been on board all along. And and obviously the other Twitter reaction is the the high like the spotlight that it points on every team, the Jaguars, the Bears, everyone else that passed on this guy, that he's not going away. He's gonna haunt that narrative for a decade

to come. Right. He he has played better in his first two seasons as a starter than any football player, any quarterback I've ever seen, and I don't think it's that close. And just what he can do as a player, you know, I would we were saying that after eight games. I don't think we needed to see these full two years. I think this is a tenure deal that he could

get to the end of. In theory, like I can still imagine being on the Chiefs in ten years, but I imagine it will be more like Aaron Rodgers who has signed um some contracts which at the time we're record setting, market setting deals, and then he's just, you know, signed a bunch of contracts since well before those those deals ended. And you do think, you know, if we're doing the winners and losers here, it's like it is great to be a Chiefs fan. And it's great to

be Andy Reid. It's great to be Patrick Mahomes. Teammates that are gonna play with him too. It's great to be you know, Patrick Mahomes is wife or fiance, I'm not just married, you know. It's great to a lot of people, but especially Andy Reid, who who you followed around.

I mean, I do think that is it is such an important part of the story is that think Patrick Mahomes would have been a transcendent player no matter what, but he did happen to end up with like the one of if you know, the greatest play callers I've ever seen. The fact that those two guys are gonna be together probably about as long as Andy Reid wants to be together, is is something and they're gonna You're gonna have to deal with that for for for as

long as Patrick Mahomes is healthy. It's symbiotic because certainly, if you're Andy Reid and you were thinking about maybe a third stop as a coach at some point, if Alex Smith were still your quarterback, um, this ties you to Kansas City for the long haul two and you could have a Bill Belichicken career. If Mahomes lives up

to You know. I also I always think back to, like the Aaron Rodgers team that knocked out the Steelers in the Super Bowl, and back when that happened ten years ago, we were thinking, of course, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers will win five more of those, and of course you'd lock them down for ten years. And they have not won one since. So it just doesn't always

go quite as smoothly. But why this feels like a no brainer Other than that, yeah, it's it's so like the idea of success in fact, like so fleeting that you go back to a moment early on last season where Patrick mahomes Is knee is bent backwards and a fraction of an inch could have determined whether or not they won the Super Bowl at all or he even played football for the rest of the year. And and

you look at the way things have progressed since then. Um, here he's got this mega contract which could balance on a needle in terms of whether or not it happened. Uh. And here we are, we're in a situation where the season could be balancing on a needle, and it's like people have to make decisions. Uh. And like the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes both bet on football existing in ten

years and Patrick Mames still being good audit. So that's the thing, and we're going to get to um all the latest on what the NFL and the NFL p A are negotiating when it comes to the pandemic. But I do think getting paid in the pandemic is tricky, Like only only the most value of people are getting new big money and I and I mean that somewhat

for NFL players, I mean that more just everywhere. I sort of made a a half joking tweet about Baumani Jones from ESPN getting a new contract during the pandemics, like, Hey, if you're getting a new contract during the pandemic, that's for the That's for like the upper Show, you know what I mean. That's that's for like everyone's great that you know works there and blah blah blah. But you're only getting it if you're the like the near the

cream of the crop. That's Patrick Mahomes. That has to be the most Greig Esque storyline of the entire offseason.

I don't tracking people's contracts and different networks. I mean I I don't know anyone who would be more not dipped in intrigue with that than Greg, Well, we have we have some personal like, hey, this is our industry, so I'm curious out I'm not banking on a new contract, and I'm curious about how Look, all of the fallout and repercussions from this is gonna be for for everyone in every industry, but are selfishly I'll absolve Greg on

the meat peeping situation of watching other people's media contracts because you know, it kind of ties into everything right now. To Greg's point, like, we there's so much uncertainty everywhere and we've watched our industry kind of will first of all be undermined and undercut and destroyed by vulture capitalists.

But aside from that, you know, just folks not wanting to pay for good work and so like if somebody's worth it now, uh, if if companies feel good about it, then yeah, it's not it's not necessarily Greg being like, oh like those blogs that are like Katie Nolan got sixty three. It was a sweet spot for Greg. It was the feeling it is it is, but it also is the feeling a we're seeing some people getting treated

cold during this pandemic. We we know about that and that, and that's that's the case maybe any year in this business. So it's not just now, but is long, right, especially now. And the second is I like bou monies, you know podcast, So I was just you know, that was giving him a shout out, a little compliment. That's all ten years is long. You're doubting you're one of those people that that is like because there is like the salary cap people it's like, well, how is how are they gonna win?

It's like, I'm not doubt you can figure it out how to win around Patrick Mahomes. But what if he in ten years? Like what if in four years he has like an Alex Smith type injury and like ten years. I mean maybe it's just me being afraid of commitment in general, but ten years is like a long time. Well that's the thing, and it's probably a thing that

you need to you know, you know, therapy. It's just it's just writing contracts with people that are close and personal to you have it out like in two to three months maybe or you know, if you um, you know, have an opinion on Shawshank redemption, that doesn't necessarily drive with the way that I feel about it. Uh, you know, we will talk to each other anymore. Well, I do that with my friends and in wife. You know, it's

it's all about the guaranteed money. It's like, you know, it's all about the guaranteed money in front because like maybe maybe the friendship or you know, the relationship it ends after four or five years, but at that point you can get out without as much. I'm right. I mean, how much guaranteed money have you offered your wife? I think you should know the figure you could break that it was you know, it was a joke. It was

it was not to be taken seriously. But to answer your question seriously, Erica, when we find out the details that you know, it'll be like any contract where the guarantees are not throughout the deal. It'll be complicated, but they'll you know, if first, if if something terrible happened, you can always get out of it. And if not, then you're just you know, gonna have some salary cap hits for a couple of years, like like the Washington team does with Alex Smith for the last few years,

which which I think provides our segue here. Let's get to I can't believe this is not the top story of the day. That shows what a what a solid day of news. It is that while we were gone last week over the UH fourth of July holiday, UM, the Washington football team released the statement after really interesting and UH in intense pressure from corporations that they would stop working with their team unless they change their team nickname.

The Washington Football Team released the statement. I never thought i'd see the day. Actually I did think i'd see the day, but maybe not this soon, and and not under this ownership that they are going under a review UH to change their team name. And our guy, you rapport, this was what he got called in on vacation about UM reported it is it is likely they are changing the team name. There there's no way that they're gonna

go through this review and stick with it. And I think the only question is how does UH how quickly does it happen? Is it happening before this season, which their coach Ron Rivera says he hopes and and I think is probably realistic, and how that affects the uniform and everything. But UM, you know, a pretty I would say,

exciting day for the NFL. I you know, Roger Goodell said he he was fully supporting it, and to me, this has been one of those third rail topics on this podcast and and with the NFL in general for decades, and it's nice to know that it's that discussion is going away. Patrick. And it's been so freeing, right because you've called it the Washington football team a few times. There's been times where I've felt pressure, right because if

you're on the show. I've maintained my entire career working for the NFL that I don't want to say the name just from a standpoint of it's a slur and that's that's how I've always felt about it. But you know, you get emails, um, you get tweets, it's like, hey, you gotta say the name. Why aren't you saying the name? And it's like one because I don't. I don't want to. I've I've felt like I need to because somebody who has power might tell me that, you know, this is

something that that we need to do. And so it's just it's very relieving. It's very freeing to be able to have the conversation Mike with Mike's over where I don't feel like I'm as bullet proof as Mike, but I can be on TV while Mike calls it racist and you know, I'm not gonna push back on that

because it's a slur. So yeah, like considering the structure of America and uh, you know what what a lot of people have come to realize in in the year, Uh, it just doesn't really have a place if you're gonna name the team now, nobody in their right mind and be like, oh yeah, let's let's name it the slur So then why why would we still have it? And it sucks that it it took you know, multiple people being murdered and millions of people to get in the

streets for it to happen, but it's happened. So I'm glad that we can move on. And you know, people who haven't been able to buy apparel, people who haven't been able to say the name of the team, they can embrace it now. And and that's a good thing. I'm I'm thinking people are starting to realize that. Yeah.

I mean, let's I think it's very evident to all that the Redskins did not lead the charge here, um are world in our society led the charge and put Daniel Snyder, who in really when this podcast started, and it's been a topic that we've touched on through the duration of this show. Um basically for a while. It was really hot at the beginning. I remember in our news room it was it was kind of the the

the controversial topic for quite a long time. Yeah, and I you know, this is one of the few teams that in sports that did not put out a statement after the George Floyd incident. And I think one of the reasons. Reading an athletic article, they said basically that the issue is when the when they go and do that, then their name becomes the focal point of that tweet because it's hanging out there is something that is um

out of joint with where we're going. So, you know, I think plenty of plenty of players supported a change

years ago, but there is certainly um even now. You look at some of the old school Washington Stars, who probably because that was just the team they were on, were more open my did or I should say, just open to the idea that that was their tradition, saying get rid of it now because we are in a polar shift, as we should be, and this should have happened a long time ago, but this organization has struggled Um,

and we've studied with other things this offseason. They've struggled with things that should have happened a long time ago. It's a really fascinating story on on a few levels.

But I do want to read the words of of the the National Congress of American Indians, who who have been you know, fighting this for a while, and they wrote in a statement, this moment has been eighty seven years in the making, and we have reached this moment thanks to decades of tireless efforts by tribal leaders, advocate, citizens, and partners to educate America about the origins and meaning

of the r word um. The n c i A looks forward to immediately commencing discussions with the league and team how they will change the team's name in mascot Um. Indian country deserves nothing less. The time to change is now, and that leads us to, you know, what they will do with the the name. And supposedly there's two names that have you know, come to the forefront. And the statement by um Ron Rivera was the one quoted in

it uh not not ownership. Um did mention um native history, but also mentioned military history and and supposedly, and we don't know that these are the two names, but these are the two that keep getting floated out there, so I'm guessing these are the two names that Ron Rivera mentioned that he likes. Two names that are being talked about are the Red Tails Um which uh, you know, has a World War Two Black air fighting background, and then the Warriors, which would be more of like a

native background, And those are those are the two. Those are the two that that they're thinking about. I don't know if I have a take on like which which they should do or whatever, but it's really it's really interesting to see Ron Rivera be so front and center. There's reporting that Dan Snyder that the owner has been out of the country, and look, Rivera, just like he did with with kind of representing the team after the murder of George Floyd, Um is doing the same now,

you know, is the one kind of representing them. And so when you sign up for that coaching job, especially right now because there's no executives there like Bruce Allen, that's part of what you're signing up for. It's a little different than than other teams, and it's it's unfortunate that, you know, over the course of the franchise's history, once they started allowing minorities to play on the team. UM that minority players, UM fans have kind of bore the

brunt of this conversation. And that's it's unfortunate that Ron Rivera, who want to four minority coaches in the NFL, UM is kind of tasked with handling this. But you feel better I guess with him in that position than the person who has maintained over the course is that he is not changing the name and so UM it took a lot to get Dan Snyder where where he is now. I don't know what role other people will play in making a name change. I know personally my my father's

from Tuskegee. UM. I've tried to meet every Tuskegee Airman that I could for our listeners, especially overseas. But anywhere, what do you what can you give us a little background that might not be figuring? Red Tales is a reference to a fighter squadron UM flue P fifty one

Mustangs the Tuskegee Airmen in World War Two. They were mainly a bomber escort group at a time where UM, you know the power structure of the American military didn't necessarily allow black men or women to be in leadership roles or even be in the same platoons or divisions as white soldiers. And they had a sterling record as far as escort and bombers, never losing one over the

course of their years in Germany. And you know they came home, Um, you know it should have been heroes, but were did not access to a lot of the programs that that made you know, that era of America quote on great. Uh, you know, your access to the g I Bill wasn't the same as a black American And so there's there's so much American history tied into that. And uh, you know, for me personally, any name is

an upgrade over a slur um. But for for me personally, um, you know, the small handful of those men that we have left, I'd want to hear from them because if if we can honor their legacy and history with the name and then they feel good with it, I'm I'm all for it. But I would hate to see those men in the sacrifices and what they did, um, and what they had to deal with when they returned home. I would hate to see them reduced to a mascot.

But if they're okay with it, I'm okay with it. Yeah, if they're okay with it, that would be my preference too, because if the only if the other option, and that probably will be others out there, but Warriors to me, obviously, I think of the NBA team, and I think of like eight hundred and fifty high school scattered across the

country with the same very um well tread nicknames. So I would prefer the previous and um if it to me, it feels original, it works, and it would be quite a spectrum shift from what's name previously well and and I don't want to spend the whole show on this, but it really is like worth going back and looking how this happened, because last week there was a report that eight seven investment firms. At least this was the

first that I saw of it. And if either of you want to correct me, um eighty seven investment from sent letters to FedEx and PEPSI, some of the biggest sponsors of watching of the of the football team, and said if you don't, um, if they don't change the name, like we're gonna, you know, stop supporting you, and then pretty quickly Pepsi, FedEx, and Nike, you know, within days, all threatened UM to remove their sponsorship from the team. Now FedEx, it's his owner is a minority owner of

the team, and their name is on the field. And Nike right now took all the Washington you know, apparel offline, and they did that even before uh you know what, you know, they announced that they they're going to look into changing the name and and it's it's still offline. And on top of that, there's been reports that these minority owners, including UM, you know, the owner of FedEx, all want to sell their their shares of the team too,

which is which is another part of it. I think even whether it means to be seen whether that changes based on the name change or not, but that that's been the reporting that that's going to be part of this story too. So I can't help but think back we were just talking about this, I think it was

the last time you were on the show. Patrick. It's very similar to how the government threatened this team UM with finances basically unless they allowed black players onto the team, that they would have problems with their stadium in Washington. And again here. It wasn't the government, it was corporation saying basically, we're gonna take away your money, and the

decision was almost made for them. It's just sort of fascinating, how what is its sixty almost sixty years later it repeats itself and it's it's kind of you know, free Dan Snyder from having to say that he made the decision himself, um, because he's he's maintained it the entire time that he's owned the football team, that he's not changing the name. Um. And i'd like to think that, well, it's not that i'd like to think, it's what I think in terms of, like, you know, we we're gonna

sell our shares in the team. That might be something to you know, give Dan Snyder a little more freedom, because I would hesitate to believe that these men who have made a lot of money, uh, would short the value of the thing that they're trying to sell before they sell it right, right, And it's of the team. So it's not like it's not like, um, you know, Venus and Serena Williams and Gloria estef On selling their

shares of the Dolphin. This is like this is like is like you know, NFL ownership is to have to approve all that like that, that is a big chunk. Well and behind the scenes, I mean, the the FedEx CEO Fred Smith is um Dan Dan Snyder reported looks looks up to him and thinks very highly of him. So I think that this created a tectonic shift. Um.

And you know, but it's not not so long ago that. Uh, corporate interests were one of the reasons and money attached to that and lost money were the reasons that Colin Kaepernick was not getting jobs with all sorts of teams. I mean, so now look how much is how much has changed now he's signing production deals with Disney, which is not part of our news rundown, but uh, but it is fascinating. You're right, it is. It is a changing world and and part of that is the pandemic.

And so let's get into like this week in COVID news, which which is tough. It's been it's been a while since we've talked, and I feel like there's been a lot that's happened on this front. And and Mark and I were talking about this and you could almost you like put the lot you part of the last minutes of the show, not with an asterix, but I just feel like everything almost right now. And the Washington team name is is a great? Um is a great? Uh

you know the reason that this proves this rule. But like almost anything we talk about football wives feels beside the point to talking about, like how is the coronavirus

gonna impact this season? As we get closer to the season, it just feels like that's the conversation and that's what part and it might not be fun, and of course we're gonna be previewing the season and talking about other stuff too, but it's like that's that's the conversation because that's the world where that's the world we're living in terms of this football league, and that it kind of reminds me a little bit of the lockout, where it's like the only thing you could talk about until the

lockout was over, it was the lockout. It's like almost everything we're gonna be able to talk about on this show, it's gonna have to be related um to how the NFL is moving forward, and so there's a lot to get to. But basically, the NFL and the NFL p A are going back and forth and trying UH to figure out the rules UH in which they are going to do. So the NFL sent out UH some rules and and we'll talk about those, but I'll start the start it with UM just to talk about the preseason.

That the NFL p A reportedly doesn't want to play a preseason, and the NFL, you know, was expected to announce that it was gonna be reduced to two games. They never did announce that. You know, a lot of reporters said this is gonna be announced Thursday last week, and it never happened. So the NFL p A is UM pushing back against that. And I think Devin and Jason mccordy you have a podcast, said it pretty well like they're not even worried about four games two games

of preseason. They're worried about the on roting on ramp process to the start of training camp, and like we'll worry about preseason when we get there because we have to worry about all these rules and how we're gonna even start getting back safely because it's pretty soon. The initial proposal from the NFL not to keep honking, but UH is for the rookies, some rookies to show up July nine, so that's thirteen days from when we're taping this.

That is that is pretty soon UM. And in the rules of how they're going to figure that all out, UM, you know, are changeable. But the NFL did put some things out there. Mark, I don't know what stood out to you from from what's been out there. Well, I think it's the that to me, the players need to be taken very seriously. And if you look at the letter that UM the NFL p A President J C. Tread Or the Brown Center wrote, I think it's UM

and this. I've never really seen the NFL and all the sports linked together UM this way ever in our lifetime, where you're monitoring how athletes and other leagues are taking charge and taking stands in a stance on UM the seasons to come, and the NFL the players seem to favor the idea of a forty eight day run up minus games that would get them better prepared for Week one.

But you know, as Mike Garrifoe tweeted last week about UM comments from some of the players, it's sort of more like, if there's so much concern nationally about this virus and it's rising the way it is. Why are and this is the question they're asking, why are we returning to work to begin with? And where I think about a month ago, we felt in a place where, um, we were thinking, hey, you know what, the ramp up is happening, and you can you can kind of see

society shifting and opening up again. And there were issues with that, but you could you could you could see a way for sports to happen if things continued on that path. Well, the path has been utterly imploded. The path doesn't exist right now. Where the loan country UM in the world that decided in various pockets to treat

this um politically and completely different. And I just you know, the some of the whispers now and some of the issues coming out of some sources, and some of this is on the athletics reported elsewhere, is that people inside teams are saying, we have not been given detailed, detailed enough ideas on how we get from today to a couple of weeks from now when we have peep there all the time that in other sports, testing is not

happening as quickly as it should. Teams are having in baseball to take it out on their own to get stuff done. I just think that you're talking about an immense labyrinth um um. And and by the other thing they would talk about that this is not a bubble situation like the NFL. They've used the word ecosystem, but the ecosystem has not worked um anywhere else in this country outside of the ecosystem being in your own home for the most part. Yeah, there's so many questions to

to answer. And Alan Sill's as always as maintained throughout this that you know, we're going to change this process as new information becomes available. There's this constant flow of new information about a virus that don't know, um, something that didn't exist this this time a year ago, and if it did, nobody knew about it. And you know, you have to wonder, well, if players are gonna report, if rookies are gonna report, how are they going to get there, how are they going to apple to the team?

Are we going to test them before or after they get there? And are they going to be quarantined after they get there? And at what point does everybody get on the field. It's like a situation in a locker room where you're only going to be as safe as the least safe person in your entire franchise, and how

do you how do you run up to that? And I think, like when Greg was starting the segment in terms of you know, COVID nineteen tying into everything, it just does you know, I'm not sure that we would be that we would have talked about Washington changing their name if not for COVID nineteen, if not for the circumstances that led to millions of people getting into the street, because they realize the inequities that they've experienced a lot of other people in this country have been experiencing for

a long time, a long time before the disease, and so it's just it. It's it's made for this situation of heightened awareness about everything, where a league that is so firm and its decisions that you know, it's basically the word of God three time that they have some edict is now in a situation where there's pushback and they're reacting to it like, oh yeah, that that pushback is probably right right. They're negotiating their negotiating with the NFLPA.

To their credit, I you know, they don't in theory, they don't have to according to the terms of the c b A. They could, they could make their own terms and and just say it. But I actually almost pushed back a little bit against all the criticism of all the leagues in the States that are coming back. Okay, so MLS has been trying to come back. They've already had some games canceled, they've had outbreaks, they've had troubles in different pockets. The NBA is trying to come back.

Some of the players don't want to come back. So that that's one thing that'll happen in the NFL too. You you would you would think, um. But more importantly, like flights are getting delayed and some people are getting tested positive like you mentioned Patrick before you get on the flight, and they're trying to figure that out with the bubble. Baseball is having similar shoes and these these are the leagues that are just starting to even start

the process to coming back. And I see a lot of fan reaction that's like, how can they not handle you know, the MLS, you know, and people are just like really upset and I and I just think like they're not built for this, and like, and we've said it, we if the country's a mess, if the citizens and the government of this country can't handle it. Why why do you expect the league that is basically built to put on the field an incredible product that I love

professional football and print money. Those are the two things that the NFL does incredibly well. There's no reason for me to think that the NFL or all these other leagues are gonna be able to handle much less college football. That's another conversation. Are going to be able to handle the myriad of issues that come up? J C. Treader, who you mentioned Mark Um you know, said kind of like when you solve one little thing, it's like three other things pop up that that you think of. Right.

I think if you look at college football where it's it's not as UM, you know, you've got completely separate conferences act, acting and operating their own way that what happens, and people will know by the time they listen to this. To some degree, the IVY League is talking about maybe being the conference that says we're out of this. We're not doing this. We we either you delay it or we play in the spring, but we're not jumping into

this two weeks from now. And they were the first UM group back way back when to say we're shutting down sports when a bunch of other conferences refused to do that, and they were prophetic and correct in that choice.

And so if that happens, I wonder if because you have to look at how college football operates a little bit, and if that became a way for other, maybe more conferences that didn't want to mention, hey, we'll do it first, UM to follow suit that if college football decided to make this choice, because the problem is the spread of the virus would be the same for both and even worse for college because you're on college campuses and stuff.

But the NFL has a long list of players that fall under the category of being susceptible to symptoms from coronavirus, body mass index issues, UM, players with blood clout issues, players with all sorts of stuff where I just wonder if you're an NFL player, there's a lot of pressure, probably universally to jump back in and we want to play. Everyone wants the games, but also your safety, your family safety.

We could be in a situation where everyone's kids are home again next fall, and who is assessing the mental health of what all people have been through over the past four or five months. Just because you're a twenty three year old athlete, you need to run into the fray and play this season. We're seeing empowered athletes for other sports saying no, not so fast, or you can, but I'm not gonna and I'm not going to be

penalized for it. And will there be NFL players of note who make the same choice because their risk is higher than going out there and playing eighteen holes of golf. And we've already seen. I saw, um, you know, Adam Shine had an article on NFL dot com of the players under the most pressure, and I saw von Miller are on there, and and I'm like, von Miller is a and asthmatic, B is going to play a majority of his games at altitude, and C is recovering from

a respiratory disease. It's killed a hundred twenty thousand plus thousand people. So when we're talking about pressure, like the pressure should be first of all, as Greg was saying on a federal government that hassed with doing these things, because preparing for a pandemic, you can't do that. Business isn't built to prepare for something that they don't know

what's happened. Bull businesses are built to make money. And so as Greg was saying, like the NFL, major League Baseball, all of these organizations, how how are they supposed to handle something that specifically should be tasked by a competent federal government. Unfortunately, you know, we had a movement in this country for about thirty years to dismantle and undermine every action that a federal government might take because supposedly

it's bad. But here we are with you know, we're gonna come up on half a million people dying and people might finally start to realize that that's probably not the way to go. And it's it's it's frustrating, uh to see you know, players, players, families and just general Americans being put in the situation, um when we could have taken an example from almost every other country before. Right.

I know, I'm thinking of our our listeners overseas who are listening to us and and they just know and they want to get their football too, but they have to be just thinking, you guys are a mess. You know, we're in the middle of it right now. We're we're all in California, everyone on this show right now, and

like we're we're in the middle of it. You know, it's it's it's the cases are as high as they've ever been and and just information is coming out, knowledge about the virus is coming out about how it's more of a blood vessel disease. You mentioned blood clots and markets just it's like there's just so much that you you don't know, but the things like we're trying to figure out that that we do know. It's like everything needs to have a have an asterick of like if

this happened. So I am going to go through some of some of the proposals and like what's out there, Like players players want to show up with E D players instead of ninety That sounds like that could happen. So it's like ten ten less players UM players want and and this is a really interesting no more than twenty players in a given facility at one time during the initial period training conditioning, covering the first three weeks

of camp. So I I had talked to some people that worked for teams and they had said they thought the first couple of weeks, we're gonna be like O T S. And that's why they never expected the preseason to really happen. That in the best case scenario, they're gonna do ot S mini camps the first couple of weeks. So the players are saying they just they only want

virtual meetings. Um, they want to sort of a maybe it's like multiple squads of the team that show up a maximum of forty players at a time, even later in training camp. Again, these rules are all gonna be negotiate and change, but it does just get you thinking a little bit um about how even in the best case scenario for this going really well. Um, look, the Premier League just tested almost two thousand players no one,

no one tested positive. I mean, no one would expect anything close to that happening here right now because of what's going on in our country. But like people are, they are playing professional sports elsewhere. But it is worth thinking with these rule changes. Mark Murphy mentioned he thinks practice squads are gonna get expanded a lot and maybe include veteran players so it doesn't just have to be

young young players. These are some of the rules they're talking about, and even in the best case scenario, it's it's worth thinking about. Okay, August is gonna be very different, uh, of how the teams are ramping up. Even even in like the NFL's dream scenario that everything stays on track, Uh to week one, it's gonna be very different. Well, then they and you know, the other guidelines talk about symptomatic players would be sidelined for minimum of ten days.

Asymptomatic would be um as as little as five days if you pass two positive tests, and Philip Rivers on a call asked the question, you know what if someone gets it and has zero symptoms and feels fine, uh, days before the super Bowl, they would be out And like, that's fine, that's the super Bowl, and who knows if we'll even experience the super Bowl this year. But let's say you get into these early season games because they seem determined to have this week one. I mean that

that to see you've literally never heard anything else. Um, we'll see if that happens too. But like the concept of being someone who plays fantasy football the least of my concerns at this point. But like you could have people like major brand name stars um in and out of the lineup left and right, and you could lose half your offensive line and you could face a fully

healthy defensive line. It just seems that, um, I don't hear a lot about that what is what happens in mid October when rosters are reduced and in shambles there, they're just doesn't seemed to be much of um that we're hearing, and we're kept in the dark as to what the continuity plan is when this stuff actually gets the hope that they hope all along and it's just been a hope, not a plan, is that this country

gets the virus under control. You know, as as the governor of South Carolina, that right, the governor of South Carolina, of all places, said it. He said, you know, if you want to see football Clemson in South Carolina, you know, put on your masks because right now there's no chance

they're playing football. He used those words, and I think that it's a it's a larger thing that if you if you go back even reading the Pro Football Talk articles from March, like the thought was daily testing was going to be simple by the time we get the training camp and that the virus would be under control. But it's not so. Obviously the league is going to have to adjust and there's there's still a chance that we can have a better UH test with a more

quick turnaround. You know that Tom Pellisera was hoping that there was saying that they the league's thought was that they could turn a test around in less than a day, and so once once we lose that window where there's three to four days, um, you know, there's a hope, right that we could get better at this, you know, and they want daily testing. The league said every other day, but that the union would like daily testing. And I mean honestly, because the spread of this virus happens before

symptoms start. That's one thing that has been consistent. I think the CDC said of the virus spread comes from people who have the virus, but they're not showing symptoms yet, but they're still shedding virus. And so it's of course like people and players should protect themselves, but it's it's I hate to keep coming back to it, as much as I would like to just shame everybody that's not

wearing a mask. This this is something that requires who requires confident it would be the guy to do it, don't you think, like, you know, like if if if the federal government was like we've been reading some of your tweets, Claybon, You've been pretty off on us, but you we actually think you're the guy to shame everyone into wearing masks. I feel like you would be a stronger.

Ricky would be pretty good too, Greg. You know, if this rendition of the federal government asked me to do anything, I would promptly, uh, you know, send something back that would likely cost me. All right, how about maybe the next for California. You know, just do it for California. We're our own. Little Ricky would be good at that. She would, she would get after people. I think she

would too. But I have to say that things went south after on our NFL Network show right around Memorial Day that um Ricky suggested that everyone get on the outside and go outside and enjoy yourselves. And you know, that's a little bit what I said. I said, wear a mask, but get some fresh air because everyone's mental health is deteriorating at a rapid pace. There's the way to live. There's a way to listen. We've been doing

it for a couple of months. We've been going out and been wearing a mask since this all started, and been doing doing things. There's a way to be safe, like many countries around the world have been doing it. But it back to that ecosystem part of it because it's not in a it's not above in Disney World. Um and I could even see players sneaking out of that bubble. Give me a break. But uh, you're you're asking like vast amounts of people within every organization, many

of them, you know. I'm not just saying every player is young and thinks they're invincible, nonsense. Plenty want to stay safe. But you're going to have to culturally get everyone on that team to say we will not take a risk, and no one in our family will. They want to test all their family members. It's just a spider web. I mean, you're asking for um, complete and clear uh, you know, following those rules, and that's that is goes completely against the blueprint of what we're seeing,

um in all fifty states, in various places, right. I mean there was talk of maybe even you know, finding players who act irresponsibly, which people got on and I took that to men. They're reserving the right to it, you know, just as almost as a threat. But it all gets it all gets really murky. It's complicated. It's going to be part of the discussion. Sorry to all our listeners of you know, but we've ship you sticking out. You know, it's like if we you know it's it

is what it is, but they're there. Um. The last thing I want to mention on on this was just the change, uh in the proposal of how the media is going to cover it, because a lot of people probably don't know this. They were away from their computer and uh, I know it caught your eye. Mark that that four. I think it's gonna be like four reporters will have access uh to the team and their daily practices, but they can't. It will be very limited. They can't

tweet out during practice. Um. It's almost gonna be like a pool report situation like at the Super Bowl, where one person gets to kind of provide um, you know, somewhat generic report for the rest of um, the football

world to to know what happened there that day. Yeah, I mean in the in the in the sort of instant cynical um analysis and reply from a lot of old school FEAT writers is that the NFL has wanted to do this for a long time or get closer to this and merely like for instance, I mean the All European Soccer they are so much more restrictive on the media than than the NFL or any American sport is right, and we've been arching towards that for a

long time. Long gone in the days of you know, a general manager hanging out with one reporter and having like a four hour dinner. It's like those all those media times are now so stripped down in um bare bones that you just wonder when we get back to normal if and when, um what the will the easing go back to full media um sweaty piles of like eighteen guys surrounding one player, or is that is that a thing of the past, because I mean it's text coverage, I mean exactly. The part of me is like, do

I need media day at the Super Bowl? Well? I don't, but the league would like that to happen, so, um, you know, it's it's going to affect this season in ways that it will be the freakiest campaign whatever part of it exists. Ever, And if you're a media person, you're a lot of them are going to be shut out from doing their jobs. The way that they travel. I mean, it's very it's hard to think about. We we do something NFL Network called inside Training Camp, which

I'm sure they're trying to plan Um. But that involves you know, reporters flying all around the country to different in these shirts left and right marks. Yeah, wearing the shirt that's that that can't happen, uh the same way I can. I can anticipate though, if NFL network keeps getting like one of those four spots, like are they exempt from that rule? It's all you know, or as

TV examp. I don't even like the details are a little uh murky right now, but I can already imagine the pushback of like how come Gara Folo gets every day and the Eagles camp, you know, from the Philadelphia and Choirer reporters and everything. Yeah, I just the the provisions of the media policy that don't have anything to do with the virus. Um. You know, those those kind of jump out to me in terms of what what what what was that? What what are we looking for?

Like tweeting during practice? Um? And like the specifics of like does does specific plays include whether or not a quarterback is getting second team reps? Because that's like basically the only story that we have, right You're not supposed to I thought they said you're not supposed to mention

their teams players. Some teams already were pretty restrictive, you know, so different teams have different rules, Like I can think of some teams have have adopted those rules already, and then some teams like the Cowboys, are like, please give away as much as you can. We want you to talk to us please, like we love it. We're gonna trot out. We're gonna trot out, Sean Lee, you know, to come talk to you guys. Right after Briant called them like a name on Twitter, like come back over here.

You know, we we love it. I just love the idea that, like, you know, Bill Belichick is sitting there taking notes watching NFL Network like, oh, I'm more, it's Blowbinger took six reps, you know with the third team. It's just like, no, I can't believe Mobo got brought up on a show that Dan. We do have before we go, we have a couple of very quick just Football league items, um and one involves your team, Mark.

So I was curious what your thought was when you heard David and Joku the Browns tight end, asked for a trade. Well, I'm not I'm not that surprised. I kind of think what what I looked at that tight end group. They went out and signed Austin Hooper and then they used a fourth round pick on Harrison Bryant. And you know, we aren't college heads, and so around draft time people will tweet us and say, you're gonna

love this player. I did not. I I got like twenty five people reaching out saying Harrison Bryant is going to be the dude like a year or two from now. So if you're David and Joko, you're thinking, how do I fit into this? It's gotten. I was the lead guy here last year, was injury written um thumb injury out for twelve weeks. But I would say this that they they seem committed to them, and I don't think that they're bouncing off of this just to move them for what are you gonna get for him right now?

Not not enough value right nothing. So and I would say this Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota last year, no team in a league of the time they ran two tight end sets. No other team in the league came close. So there is a chance here for David A. Joku, who is going to start over Harrison Bryant this year, to say you want to trade me, trade me? After a great season um or like if you're Cleveland, like, there's a space for you. I don't think that he's

necessarily the odd man out as some would think. And a lot of people close to the team think that the Joku like they believe in the potential because he looks like he looks the part and he's had he's not reached it yet, So do you go and like it's sort of like Jamal Adams, do you go and trade him for something less than you'd want to just because he's got a new agent and he's making demands. I don't think that's a good look for UM, a

struggling organization trying to become something better. I think like in terms of in Joku, he just wants to see the potential come to fruition with how the Browns could utilize him. And he's looking at a situation where he's going into a contract and he would like to show, you know, he would like to be somewhere where a team is going to utilize him. And I just don't think that they've done enough to show him that, hey, we're gonna feature you, You're gonna be a big part

of our offense. And last year he was hurt for he was out for like three quarters of the season. And I think the plan changes every year. I mean they're coach their offensive Steff changes literally every single season. I think that was a great it's a great point. And Stefancy's offense, I mean that should be their base offense.

That's their four best receivers. They don't really have a third wide receiver, so that they're they're pretty thin actually at wide how everyone thinks that's a huge strength for them, but they're an injury away, you know, from Landry or or O'Dell to being like really thin there. So yeah, have Hooper and the joke go on the field most of the time. Why not. That's gonna create a lot of problems. Another player that we're not sure is going

to be on the field is Chris Jones. I did want to just mention um that, you know, he tweeted out some doubt that he would play at all this year, and maybe people were reading into the tweets a little too much, but the threat is out there. He's one of the players um that is uh you know, franchise tag and has until July fifteen to sign a new contract.

There are no contracts expected maybe really for any of those guys, and Jones seems to be very far away, and you wouldn't think that the Patrick Mahomes contract would would make the Chiefs any closer to signing Jones. So that's it's just a situation to watch for h for a really really good player, I mean, one of the best five interior rush guys in the entire NFL. I would say that's it. I just want to mention Christians.

Let's wrap up with Cam Newton. Um. Kim Newton had a quote um this last weekend where he expressed that no longer time to be humble. I'm tired of being humble because if you're humble, they're just gonna If you're humble and you're staying quiet, they're just gonna dog you like they have been. Anyways, Um, Ricky as someone who probably doesn't get called humble too often, and the Patriots

and what what was your your reaction here? Um, let me just process that you have to throw a dig at me before I get to say, like than you think great Instagram game, you know, big personality, flashy, like you know, I think this is this is you guys

are sympathica, Yeah, I've been called humble a lot. F y I um, but you know, I think that he has sort of like as much as I I do dislike him a little bit from some some past previous stuff, I do think that like he was completely you know, ripped around this this offseason, and and I think he deserves to be able to say, hey, look, I'm freaking Cam Newton. Like it's I'm not gonna just sit back and just be grateful that all of a sudden a team wants me. Like he's going to turn that into

into something good. And I and I hope he goes out there and kicks ask for the Patriots. Yeah, I do Greg good. It's an edge to that. I like that. I mean, I love the idea of I mean, Cam Newton is never gonna be uh, you know, a boring starting quarterback like that was never gonna happen. So I don't know, I love I love the like Cam Newton logo of the Patriots. I don't know if you've seen that, where he's the flying Elvis with the with the hit.

It's the whole thing. I'm looking forward to this experience. I don't know if I quite expressed that as much. On the episode that we had of him. I mean, no matter what all of it, I'm just with it that this Cam Newton Patriots thing is gonna be even if it doesn't go well, it's gonna be fascinating. Go ahead,

go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say to Erica and Greg and everybody else who likes the Patriots, I hope you can come to terms with accepting a quarterback who routinely puts himself as him against the world, who has his own logo, who has his own brand, who makes cryptic Instagram posts and it's kind of weird. I hope you can adjust to having a quarterback that meets all of those things. Yeah, it'll be It'll be an

adjustment for sure. And you know, there are a lot of people wondering, what does this mean we'll never hear from Cam Newton again, that he'll become, you know, another sort of synthetic robot that you seem to just plug into a wall for six days and he goes out and destroys people on Sunday. No, I think they're gonna let him. This is even though everyone's gonna say it's Belichick and nothing will change there. Um, there might be a little bit of a culture shift to some degree.

If when you have Cam Newton at quarterback, I mean, is he gonna be allowed to whether I like it or not, it's gonna be allowed to dress as you know, the on the run during postgame press conferences. I hope he is, like why let him be him? So of course, of course, all right, Patrick's batteries at three percent. I don't know if that. I don't know if that's like rhetorical or like literal, because you've been when did you

start taping NFL now this morning? I know they start pre taping a very good time for follow up questions if it says it now veers towards two percent. But okay, um, it's it's been about a couple of hours because I had this thing out. This is my wife's laptop, and I don't really know a lot about it. Apparently I don't know how to plug it in. So I just the time the day last week I did it like Andrew, and we we started taping that thing at seven twenty

in the morning. So you've been doing this now it's now too in the afternoon. We should let you go. We should go. This show is long we had a whole segment planned, um, but you know we're scrapping it because we're gonna save it. And the news was just beautiful today. It was not beautiful actually, but uh it was. It was. I'm just laughing real quick. Mark, you said

sweaty um you know, reporters or whatever. When I was home back visiting um my brothers, my two younger brothers, they call people like, instead of saying loser or like making fun of someone, they call people sweaty nerds. So I think that I think that you could use it in your vocabulary first. And I've got some breaking news too. We are gonna for the first time ever spin the wheel of teams on our Instagram hand though. Well you're gonna have to go there and find that out. That

was just news to me. Okay, We're just breaking news all over the place. You can check it out there and we will will find out what team uh that is talk about them on Wednesday, who knows. Um, that's it. Thank you Patrick for for jumping on on a day you were you were busy. Thank you guys, and uh for Patrick Clayban for Dan Hanss you know in the Gatesville Messenger out there in Texas for West and Kisha. Why not uh Mark Sessler, Ricky Hollywood, I'm Greg. We

will see a Wednesday sweaty nerd. Just sweaty nerds. S