They around the NFL podcast.
You can't think of.
One fullback who was better than John.
Koh from the Chris Westling podcast studio.
It's around the NFL.
I am Dan Hansis I got heroes here, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, I mean, yes, John Kuhn was a great fullback for the Packers, but the greatest of all time Jim Brown, who passed away late last week. Mark Sessler, you had the old bit up at NFL dot com, and obviously you have your Brown's history and whatnot. So we're gonna get to a bunch of stuff today, including we're gonna do a little running back draft in honor of Jim Brown, the greatest back of all time.
But curious your thoughts on the loss of Brown at the age of eighty seven.
I mean, I know, I like kind of hold back from mentioning like my own writing and stuff on the show. It's not like the easiest thing for me to do. But it was the one of the few pieces that I wrote. It was you know, these obits are written prior to so that they're ready to go. And I spent like three or four long summer days researching like as deeply as I could like all these various elements to Jim Brown, who you know, it's almost like where do you even begin, because I think he lived three
or four completely different lives that all intersected. But it's funny because I heard Gerald McCoy on Good Morning Football talk about the fact that he didn't when he was young he knew Jim Brown is an actor. He didn't, and then his dad had to tell him as a young boy, like, no, this is actually like the greatest football player of all time who is now an actor, who was also an activist, who also did incredible work
for the black athlete in general. And there's just I think, Greg there was a biography that we almost purchased once that he wrote and like his own story, and it is filled with incredible anecdotes. And I mean there were ups and downs with Jim Brown, there's no question about it.
But the thing I came away with was just that, like, it's kind of crazy that in sports today, just from the sports angle, that we have better athletes than we've ever had in our lifetime easily, and football players are coming out looking like robots and machines, and it's like, why haven't we had twenty five Jim Brown's at this point, and there's just one. There's literally you'd have to composite other running backs and athletes together to even equal Jim Brown.
And I know it's easy if you're younger to look at the black and white cut ups the tape and forget that we don't have like today's technology where you could see him from so many different angles and doing things that completely are improbable from a physical angle, and that no one ever dominated him. He dominated everyone, And it's like he had the complete and utter respect of everyone he ever played against, because there's no like Jim Brown.
No player like Jim Brown. I mean, I guess that's but that's how you measure in terms of on the field greatness and then everything in terms of how large of a life he lived off the field. But with just talking on the field like that, that is how you get the name like got like I think there's not much of an argument that the greatest players in football history are Jerry Rice and Jim Brown, and I think you put those in some order, and you could like get in there with Lawrence Taylor, or you can
start talking about quarterbacks. But I just think in terms of if you judge it based on the eras that they were in and the domination that they had. Jim Brown and Jerry Rice are really the two best answers, and Jim Brown, to me, is the better answer because I'm someone that is more about how truly dominant you were at the time in your peak, not about longevity, and Jerry Rice had all of that too, which is why both answers are great. But there hasn't been another
player like him. And you remember, like he was thirty years old when he retired, and so it seems like he he left some food on the table there because he was at his absolute peak still when he retired, but he was going to go do the Dirty Dozen. It's like like he was going to do a classic movie. And any athlete that's ever tried to make that transition, like Jim Brown was doing it, and he was doing it at a time where he was making a lot more money not playing football, so it made absolute sense,
but just in terms of what he did. And we can get into off the field too, but I think I think Bill Belichick said it, you know, just like he wanted, and we can get to it, like he just hoped that people growing up today would understand what a titanic figure he was on and off the field.
Yeah, I mean he was such a big, in some ways complicated figure, and what he did on the field no one ever approached. He was bigger and stronger than everyone. You watch those videos like it is, those old NFL films clips of him just dragging people around, and how many players used to say, it's like, you don't tackle Jim Brown, you just grab them and hold on until somebody comes to help.
Like he was at that level.
He averaged over five yards of carry and set so many records and you know, and then it's the same guy that in nineteen sixty seven organized the Cleveland Summit, which was at the time a huge deal, which was a gathering of the nation's most prominent black athletes. Bill Russell was there. Just watched a documentary on Bill Russell that really dug into that and how important that was when it happened.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar was there.
Muhammad Ali was tied into the fight, his fight against serving in Vietnam, and he worked in Los Angeles to work with you know, against gang activities in the inner cities. But he's also the same guy that had domestic violence issues that followed and plagued him and his reputation throughout his life as well, in addition to all the Hollywood stuff his career as an actor. It's kind of it's one of those huge lives that crosses over in so many places. And you know, we when this podcast was
just starting out, and it's like embryotic form. When we were the atl Debate Club, before Greg and West even hit the scene, we would be tacked onto the back of the Dave Damashek football program. And Mark, I know, obviously with your connection to the Browns, it was a highlight of your career and it was mine as well because I don't know, I still don't know how it happened. Mark, it was so long ago, is and it was this
month eleven years ago. In twenty thirteen, we did a fifteen twenty minute interview with Jim Brown who came into the old Studio sixty six in Culver City, And I wrote this on Twitter like it didn't feel like we actually even had a podcast until Jim Brown was talking to us. And I'll never forget, like how you know, we were nubes and were just learning how to even
talk into microphones and he treated us with respect. And I remember after it was over, the day wrapped up and we headed I think we went to Rocco's and we just sat at belly up at the bar and we're like, can you believe that just fucking happened, Like we just interviewed Jim Brown and it was cool and he respected us in the conversation.
It was it was like completely surreal because for obvious reasons, and I mean we went back and listened to it, someone very loyally went and found it because it's not easy to find that stuff these days, those old podcasts. But listening to it, like like my voice like literally was like completely different in a bit.
Gravel, I hear this now, well, I think we're put it on the back of the back of the show.
I'll ad it so they can hear it.
But you know, the thing about him was that I thought some of our most interesting like conversation with him in that bit was about Hollywood, about other things, like the football part is there. I mean, this is a guy that had fifteen hundred yards in a twelve game season, he had eighteen hundred yards in a fourteen game seed and never missed in a game. Ever, the only running back to average over one hundred yard per game in his career, led.
The league in rushing yards. Just while we're throwing stats out there, every season of his career except one.
But he also say no and like in that because you know, we dug into football movies and why they're a bit wanting and lacking to say the least. But he was in any given Sunday, and so we just sort of asked about, you know, as an actor, you're suddenly going up with al Pacino, and he had been in a bunch of films by then, but he just sort of talked about how like his approach and you can listen to it to why he knew he'd succeed alongside al Pacino, was kind of everything about the competitor
he was. And some of his best stories from his earliest days were when he was on the Syracuse when he was in Syracuse, or when he was in the on the Cleveland Browns and they'd go down south and it was like the hotel manager for the Cleveland Browns would say, well, we have a different hotel a couple cities away for the African American numbers of the team and Paul Jim would always be like, no, you don't, and then Paul Brown would shime in and say, absolutely not,
you don't split up. The Cleveland Browns were here together, but they dealt with that so into such a degree early on in his career, and I think that he I think some of his ire and anger, where some of that came from was the inequality that he talked about from the minute he was born. And like other athletes talk about the fact that even when you succeeded early on in your career as a black athlete, that people would just still doubt you because of the color
of your skin. But they were like, Jim Brown was undoubtable and he kind of changed sports for the black athlete forever.
And you mentioned lacrosse because he is like a Paul Bunyan Babe Ruth type figure, and one's real and one's not. Like Jim Brown, sometimes it felt like he wasn't even real. He's a lot of people believe him to be the greatest lacrosse player who ever lived, as well, like and you think about his true life, right it can you imagine Jim Brown rampaging on a lacrosse field scoring four hundred goals.
You're in your bare legs, like no patting below the belt, a.
Lot of exit vlo on those throws. I don't know if they use that terminology there.
That book I mentioned was, or that Mark mentioned at least that I was thinking about, it was actually a memoir by a guy named James Tobak who has his own problematic history, and it was called Jim the Author's self centered memoir on the Great Jim Brown, and it related a period in James Tobak's life, who became a director.
He did that Tyson documentary that was pretty well known where Jim Brown and him were living together and they were just like kind of playing basketball in the yard all the time and just like sort of what that
was like. And it's about James Brown, but it's about this guy's experience, and it was a very interesting look like early seventies Jim Brown, and because he was one of the most prominent advocates and activists for black athletes that there's literally ever been until basically his dying day, Like he was working for gangs in California, like trying to help them out, and he famously, like you know, he would leave his door open so that the guys could like come and stay there if they wanted. And
he never gave up that fight. And then and you did mention it, Dan, It's part of him. And this
is what Belichick talked about. Belichick said he hoped that his legacy wouldn't just be remembered for the bad things, for his violence towards women, which was repeated, and that that it was so black and white, like all of these great things that he did in the world, and the type of person he was to the people that meant something to him, and that he didn't try to deny really, I mean, he never came to terms with what happened with all of these women over the years.
And they were young women, and they were rape allegations, assault allegations, you know, throwing the woman off the balcony, which Spike Lee included in that documentary, which is a great documentary too. And I do think it's it's worth sort of thinking about that that this this person like he was that was both of him, Like there's no need to there's no like take to have about that he was that person and he never and I listened to Bomani Jones talk about James Brown.
It was.
It's really good if anyone wanted to listen to his podcast too, So I'm not trying to bite him here. He talked for twenty five minutes about it, and there's there's no like, there's no way to uh, there's no take on what he was in terms of how afraid he was to ever come to terms with his violence towards women, because he never apologized. He never he never stepped, he never took a step back or showed any awareness
of all the wrong things that he did. But he still was living all this other life at the same time, doing all of this productive stuff, and that was just who he was. And like to I think to Belichick's point, I don't think all the rest of it's getting forgotten. And I don't think that's getting forgotten too. It's just like that's that was the Jim Brown story, and that was like a very unfortunate part of that story. And it's it's a it's a big story. It's like a Babe Ruth type story.
Like, yeah, violence against men as well. He That's one thing he always said too, is like, you know, he had an issue on a golf course with a friend he was a very competitive person. He would get physical and that was something he struggled with. But their story is huge. It's a huge He's a huge, imperfect person. We're all imperfect Brown no exception. Dead at the age of eighty seven. And that he was on the ATL Debate Club Mark.
I do remember one thing about that, one other last thing about that interview, because I think it helped that it was late May that we had him on the show, that there was less happening at NFL Network and we were happening that day.
The car wash wasn't too crowded.
Yeah, and so he gave us a lot of his time. But at one point, because we, you know we I think we were atypical with what we were trying to do, and he's like, you boys, you got some funny questions. Like he's just sort of like actually and like it wasn't even on the air, I don't think, but.
He's sort of set out.
I think it was after and I haven't a chance to go back and listen to it yet, but I will, along with the audience hopefully. At one point I think I called him audacious and like he paused in his like I like that. I like the way and I remember it was just like whoa just floating out of that building that day.
All right, Okay, good job on the on the O bit. Yes, everyone should check that out. All that I think you did years ago is now out there.
And that dropping that kind of Friday, Yeah, it made me look like it was like absolutely one of the busier journalists at NFL dot com that day, which was not totally true, but I had been in the past.
We don't need yeah, we don't need to share it like maybe you were. Maybe you look Friday morning, you looked at it and crumpled it up and started over.
That's what I like to think of it. It's like she wanted to come out fresh.
Now we're talking.
How the saucage gets made. Oh all right, Uh, let's get to other far less important NFL news. But listen, this is a round of the NFL hit.
It Jimmy Brown as Napoleon Jefferson. Jefferson is any man fighting for recognition against the odds, says Brown. I think I understand him pretty well.
All right, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
You know, before we learned of the sad news about jim Brown on Friday, I had a chuckle internally when I checked in on my laptop when I woke up Friday morning, and the top headline at ESPN dot com was Mitch Trubisky nearing essential with Steelers, and I was like, huh, it's kind of funny considering like the.
Ecosystem there now.
And then about five hours later, this was still before the news of Brown had broke.
There was still number one in the stack.
It was a slow news day on Friday because Mitch Trubissy is not the future in Pittsburgh, but they like him.
They like them enough to keep them around.
Because Omar Con announced on the Pat McAfee show, and then Ian Rappaport followed up with some more information that Mitch Trubisky is staying with the steel on a two year extension. He will be Kenny Pickett's main backup in twenty twenty three and he's under contract for three seasons. I have no idea how much money, Gregy that means. I'm seeing it on a report here that it's over north of nineteen million whatever.
But he is the guy in the building. They like him and he's still there.
Yeah, they wanted to lower his twenty twenty three cap number, and the only way to do that without cutting him would be or maybe even including cutting him would be to give him an extension. But they really do like Trubisky, so it kind of makes sense. But essentially they don't like putting pay cuts out there because it makes the agents look bad. But I'm sure this is it's essentially a pay cut, you know, mass is an extension. But also they got him at a pretty good rate for
a backup. And I guess Trubisky's kind of cool, just like, all right, I like this place. I'm just going to be a back.
I remember his last I don't know if he came back later at some point the injury, but he was bench in the middle of the Jet Steelers game last October because he was playing dreadfully. I so I.
Will defend I go ahead, twenty twenty three play. It's twenty twenty two play. For the rest of my life, It'll be the least popular or mentioned take ever. I thought he played pretty well for the Steelers.
I mean I thought he had streaks where because.
How many games, how many starts are talking here?
Five games?
He started, five games, He had some interceptions. He threw four touchdowns in five games right, and five interceptions.
He threw some interceptions for sure, but I think just play to play it was maybe some of the best, if not the best Mitch Trubisky i've seen.
See what you know, what's going on? What's going on? We're getting, We're getting the next iteration of super milk toast average quarterback the ground.
Now, I've always been very anti as as of you. I'm just saying I could see why, like he's a good backup.
Well, I think I think the thing was a year ago when they were trying to prop him up as he's our starter until can he pick it is ready and like anyone viewing him as a starter, that agitated me always, but as a backup, totally cool with it. And I think that snow he's totally cool with it.
Right, That's that's an interesting part of it that he was. I think he's due nineteen million over the next three years, which is seems like at six per year, six or seven. No, that's like the backup break, So it's like he was fine locking himself. I'm gonna check pff. I swear I did not do this. Oh, and I knew it. I knew they'd be good because I gotta say I kinda tend to be on the same page with the PFF. Out of their great they had, they have him too high.
But he was the fifteenth rank quarterback according to PFF out of forty one exactly, tied almost with Kenny Pickett. Should that made some sense to me?
Hmmm?
I mean to the eyes, now you want he's a rookie and he's getting better, blah blah blah. And to the eyes, I would not put him in the top fifteen. But I'm saying he played better than he used to play.
They had their schedule. It was the fourth start of the season where he got benched, and they were coming off a bye in week four, and they stuck with Trubisky. I always thought that was interesting because they that would have been the time where you hand it over to Picket week four after that buye. But they brought him out for Week four and then benched him at halftime, and then that was that was when Pickett took over
and he you know, you know, he was good. Well, he got better and better as the season went along.
And we'll see.
According to Mark, the Steelers with Kenny Pickett will be a potential Chuggernaut.
I believe they will be a playoff team because it's like they win nine games when you buy a twelve is yeah, I don't I don't hate it.
We'll see what happens.
Speaking of Kenny Pickett, when he came into the league, it was Ben Roethlisberger on the way out. Roethlisberger, you know, has so many records with the Steelers, multiple super Bowls, and uh big Ben. He admitted on his podcast Football and with Ben Roethlisberger that he told Pickett face to face that his initial reaction was that the QB would struggle, and he was being very upfront about being okay with it.
I'll be completely honest, like and I'll be I'll be super tranparent here and I'm gonna get blasted. I probably shouldn't say this, but who cares at this point. I wouldn't say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail, but like you know, when someone comes to replace and you're like, you know, I feel I still feel like I had it. I hope he doesn't come like ball out and then it's like Ben, who right?
I mean, he definitely didn't have to say this, but I guess Big Ben is in retirement mode now and doesn't.
Well, he's got a podcast, so you need to This is a smart move. Actually, I know.
I'm a little concerned that he's spelled footballing foot boweling Yeah, b A L L I L A, And I'm assuming he that's not how he perceives it to be spelled.
But he's affectating the words. They are a little he is.
He is just saying what most people would be in in that same situation.
But Greg, I'll just tee this up for you, go ahead.
No, I I like a little more transparent. I think that's a it's a human He even went on about it, just saying, like, look, it's just like a selfish part of me, you know, probably, but he was worried. I that's him being real. So if he's bringing that sort of reality, I might have to check out football and with Ben Roethzpergers, what a pretty deep bench of podcasts. I listened to almost no football. I like the audio books. It would be tough for football and to crack in,
but I like, I think it's a human reaction. I think about this. A lot of people feel that way. They weren't gonna say Ben who by the way regardless, he's gonna be in the Hall of Fame, and he's got his own U complicated legacy.
To put it mildly, how about this, give it one shot? Give it one shot? Okay, I got the next boweling. Maybe I'll take the one with Kenny Pickett. That sounds at least like okay. I would listen to, although I would say it's on the show, right or is he just talking?
You know what it's I let us know because the way he phrased that, it sounded like he was talking about Kenny Pickett, who wasn't there.
But can items I.
Think Kenny Pickett's there. Kenny Pickett's there, He's absolutely there. I've confirmed it.
As a professional podcaster, I'd love to hear. By the way, first of all, would pickets center In response? As a professional podcaster, I would say, may be a more interesting episode is after this went viral? What has been have to say the next app? You have two options and you might or check out two full episodes.
We know a couple podcasts that just went one episode and then they couldn't there was they weren't able to you know, craft a second one so that you can go in that direction. I love what he said because, first of all, like what athlete wouldn't kind of feel that way.
I think some would. I think some are secure enough in themselves that they're not really like wanting others. But I think they may not. That might be the minority. I think that's the minority. But you said, who would, I think there are plenty of people that that's probably not in that.
I kind of would want my quarterback to not want the next guy coming outshine them.
It's kind of like that.
You hear about this all the time with you know, bands and recording artists. You have your whole life mark to record your first and then what six weeks three months to record your second. Yeah, that's a lot of question too.
Basically in other quarter.
Get why that analogy applies here?
Some mark said it earlier and reference to something else, and I was just adding on to that.
That's how this works.
Joe Burrow is another quarterback, an excellent quarterback, an incredible quarterback. He is not under second contract yet, he's still on that rookie deal. It's that time where Cincinnati would hypothetically get a deal done.
The Bengals don't have a great.
Track record a big spenders and now here they have a transformational quarterback just entering his prime.
It is time to pay up.
Here is what Burrow said in recent comments talking about his contract situation and also the idea of keeping the Bengals core together of playmakers. Some people, many people believe they're the best wide receiver group in the league. For instance, how do you balance getting paid the way you deserve to be paid with keeping your teammates around you.
Yeah, it's definitely. You know, whenever you have guys on the team that need to be paid, that's always on your mind.
You want that to be a focal point and so we're working to make that happen.
Burrow delivered those comments one day after the Bengals started Phase two.
I guess is that a thing Phase two of team workouts.
It's OTA's twenty teams kicked off OTAs this week and yes T Higgins is there, Jamar Chase. Keeping those guys together, Greg feels like would be a win win for Burrow and the Bengals.
It was really striking doing the projected starters for the AFC North how long this group has been together on both sides of the ball, Like the top five names, which is burrow mixing. You know, Chase, Boyd and Higgins have been the exact same for three straight years on that projected starter series, and then a lot of the defense has been the same too, And that's just so, by the way, Sorry, Ali, you know, if you're out there listing the projected starter series, I was way ahead
of time. Now I'm struggling. The Tybee trip did not did not help. We got to talk to Tybe after. I'm a little Yeah, I'm a little behind. So the rest of it is coming. He's only got two teams in the AMC North there are four, but the Bengals are are well positioned to be the best team with that sort of continuity, and I like I like that.
I would just suggest that you maybe just hit him up on text, because I would.
I would gamble.
Our digital features editor. I'll even I.
Would gamble he's not listening to this episode.
That's true. I did. I did send an apologetic slack, But sending two of the four teams is sort of an apology in itself. Uh, You're you're recognizing that you're coming in not really what the the editor is looking for.
And to your overall point, looking at the stability of that core that doesn't last. So there is right, there's a technic.
Year that was a takeaway like I know some of them will be back, but this is the year.
And and Joe Burrow famously said at the end of last season, our window is my entire career.
Which I love that.
I love the swag that Burrow possesses, and to a certain extent, he's right. But this particular team, which is apsolutely championship worthy and nearly did it a couple of years ago, just like the Bills, a big storyline in the AFC.
I'm not breaking news here.
The Bills and the Bengals have a major crossroad season ahead to get over the hump or else.
And I don't really want to hear about, you know, Cincinnati being a mom and pop franchise that Joe pez is gonna suddenly have to go the quasi Tom Brady route where you take way less money than you should the big chunks of your shouldn't. Well, he's not married to Giselle, so he can't lean on someone else's fortune.
I don't know what's going on.
I mean, I think fine, yeah, but I mean, like Peyton Manning, like they found a way to give Peyton Manning new weapons in waves throughout his entire career. I think Brady played with less and like he tried to, you know, salvage that with a couple of big signings by taking less money. But every one of these quarterbacks are just going to become the highest paid player in the league. I don't there's no way that Burrow does not. How would you justify that if you're his agent, right he?
I think you will, and you're right, you can't afford Joe, go sell your team for five billion dollars and uh, then you have a lot of money.
M M. Finally, in the news, the NFL Man, we talk about it every year. At a certain point, we should probably just not talk about it anymore because the NFL on side kick alternative once again stalls UH in the Senate.
No vote expected at the league spring the.
Senate with a lot of commanders, a lot of commanders in Washington, Tom Pelasero.
In Washington, d C in the Pentagon.
I love that h we played it last week.
I just love Thigsman circling back on it and just saying, hey, listen, we have new ownership coming in and Snyder and me. I don't know if they were boys, but Snyder was cool with thisman being a major figurehead. This would not be the time to go all Eric Dickerson and just start, you know, taking out the blowtorch and just like saying whatever you want, saying, I'll were inspect this current ownership
group they want to keep the Commanders. If they say they don't want it, I'll be on that radio show again burying the name.
Well, it's a wise way to handle that, which is not how I've always felt about Joe. Thisman's approach to things that are verbal.
Tom Peliser reports the NFL Owner's Table the Eagles proposal to create a fourth and twenty alternative to the on side kick. So it wasn't voted down, but quote further discussion needed.
Are they just giggling annually with kind Yeah?
Four straight years now and pelsero Caps's tweet the pel Raiser with a long running debate continues. Is it really a debate or is it something that the Eagles just need to take the l.
Might be that time it's got some support and I think it like gets like one or two new teams.
I want to keep it going Okay, I mean, yeah, it doesn't really matter. You could also dress a third quarterback again. The other huge news out of the owner's.
Meetings well, which is exactly what the Steelers will be doing with Mason Rudolph who was brought back.
As well kids at covering base.
They still have Mason Rudolph.
Yeah, I couldn't.
He didn't get another job and they brought him so unhappy with the team last year, I thought he should have been the second he get the number two.
No team loves their underperforming, forming former starting quarterbacks more than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
No need to update anything.
All right.
They did not approve the Commander sale, and then we're waiting. We'll update it. Thursday is our our next show. I have a feeling they're gonna make it flex. Scheduling for T and F will get past. I feel like in the next day or two. And with new restrictions they're proposing now that you need twenty eight days notice, so you gotta get up and you can only do it twice in a four week span, so it's really kind of almost a test trial to do it. But I have a feeling that will pass.
Well, that's for things too.
I still don't like it, though, I still would say nothing is better. But we'll see. Don't need to get ahead of the news. We'll find out.
We shall see that you want to add something.
Break if it would help, if the fan knew that suddenly, hey, Game X is completely shifting day and time.
You know, I'm flying there or I'm not flying.
They're giving they're giving him a getting them on us.
You know that that feels it's a ding shot.
You ever try to book a flight inside a month? Sometimes it's a little bit of a it's a challenge. I've got a book a hotel. Are there hotels available inside a month in urban centers?
I don't know.
I depends on this.
I'm not sure if I've literally ever booked a hotel or bought a flight in more than a month. I've exclusively done it last minute, which is a problem that I'm working to address. Hasn't had a lot of progress.
That that is a Rosenthal move, And can I just add.
One more thing? With me?
More and more we are seeing I don't know if this is just it feels that way, but doesn't it feel like in the last let's see, in the ten years of doing the show. NFL stadiums have more road fans than ever, like it feels like a traveling to see you team is there's been an uptick in that realm and then other fan bases invading stadiums. It's not just happening in LA. So yeah, there's a lot of people impacted by a schedule shifting on short notice like that.
Well you've gotten You've got a vastly larger group of fans rooting for terrible teams, and it gets to become even if they're doing all right, they'll sell those tickets on the secondary marker, which is a little tough for when we were like ten or twelve, you had to like stand outside of the stadium and try to get someone to buy them.
And why is all this happening all those ten year olds outside of it? You're within a you know, tickets for the poor.
Yet I got the Yankees tickets outside of the stadium a few times, did you never?
Oh yeah, we did buy by the old, good old days. It gets in the front.
I got to, I got to you're selling selling got to anyway, why is all that happening with the schedule shifting? Follow the money? But you know, that take a break, We'll be right back.
Running in Ah.
Yes, the great iconic Jim Brown Hall of Famer and many eyes, although labeled a full back regularly routinely called the greatest running back who ever lived.
Half back back in the day, also worked. It sort of covered both.
One of the conversation points in the ATL interview, which you could check at the end of the show, is we brought up very original.
We asked him about running back.
Mount Rushmore and at that time, coming off a two thousand yard season, he said, there's no brainer. My dear friend Adrian should be on that running back Mount Rushmore. And that's an interesting take. I wonder if Brown thought that ten years on. But Peterson, I think in my lifetime I think would have been there.
Is there, but uh yeah.
Would be on the Mount Rushmore of your lifetime.
Yeah, let's do it, because Brown's like, here we go. I think Barry Sanders ap or all day.
I would put Tomlinson a lt walk ahead of Peterson, but I think he would be my fourth.
Walter Payton wow lifetime. Well so you're watchable, yeah, since early nineties. And do I want to put Emmitt on there? I don't know.
But Emmitt yes, what I mean, not over any of those guys though, Barry Peterson l t and for me, Marshall Falk is the fourth that I think. That's my four buck Oh yeah, okay, I.
Watched Peyton, but I didn't watch I watched the end of his career.
But EMMITTT. Smith absolutely would.
Be who you're Zach Zenner? Oh yeah, the.
Collectively sort of forgot him.
Anyway, On the topic of running backs and Jim Brown, why don't we do a little fun off seas and Segi. Let's do a draft of current running backs. We'll put together how about this Eric behind the glass, Let's put together groups of four Yeah, and then we'll put it to a vote, and who has the best group of running backs? And then based on that vote, the winner gets to gloat and the person who comes.
In now, because what, you can't always trust the votes. I remember we did some exercise like this recently, and I don't I think you one and.
I lost, So you couldn't trust the vote in that case.
Right, I still believe God sounds very reliable actually, Okay, So anyway, if I win, for instance, I will gloat.
If Greg wins, he will not gloat because the vote isn't true to what's real?
Is that is that cover both sides?
I don't know, I might gloat anyways. Okay, good sounds fun. Wait that that's we're having funny if we're If we're doing that, then we gotta go snake snake drafting, snake it up.
And I'm gonna out of respect and Greg if you want to disagree, because you're very competitive, just incredibly so. I want to say Mark as as the longtime Browns fan Jim Brown, Oh, bit right, we can give them the first overall picks.
Sure, let's do it.
Why don't we go this way? We'll get and this again, magnanimous as usual. You could pick second if you want. Yeah, and I'll take the third.
Pick magnanimous as usual, like pointing, take take this away.
Uh.
Some say it's like when you call yourself humble, that that has happened recently. I've seen that humble the.
Number three position in this but I'll go number one.
I also, I will say voters aside, like I'm not just I'm picking the guys that I want on my team, who I like watching.
For this season. Yeah, we should. We should put the parameters like it's right now, it's this season, it's not their career right now.
Right now, entering September twenty twenty three, that's who we're talking about.
This is easy for me. I'm going uh with the number one pick, Christian McCaffrey.
Hmm, you gotta from ros when you said, YEA.
Absolutely easy and like for me, watching what happened in a better environment in San Francisco, the way he was used doubled my fascination with him.
So he's my number one pick.
You get him in that Shanahan offense and Mark's let's get a little tickle on the pants.
That's not untrue.
You look back like that draft he was in. I don't know if these guys will come up later, but Cook Nixon, like you couldn't go wrong in that draft. But McCaffrey, who was that the top one, has ended up the best?
Can I with you?
I'll just push back some important in this conversation. Yeah, the previous two years are compromised by injury.
Just something to keep an eye on.
UH and UH also throw out there he didn't lose a fumble last season.
So he's trustworthy with the ball in his hands.
I'm not going to say's dude to lose them now, But well.
Maybe there's some some of that in there too, but I don't think so. And he hadn't nearly nineteen hundred yards on the season. He had over twelve hundred scrimmage yards in eleven games in San Francisco. Now, is his body gonna be able to take that type of usage in another year?
That would be my concern. But no one is gonna bang on the cess doog for going.
It's a totally fair concern.
But I kind of want to just remove that from it, because, like, if I'm projecting seventeen games, he's the clear best player here.
Availability it's an important ability.
It's actually a skill set to have health.
Yes, well I'm I'm also made to be operating on a twelve game season, so there's a lot less work to do.
You're out of you know, there's.
Interesting he got engage this offseason.
Two to that that young woman, very attractive Olivia something or other. It's all coming together for Christian McCaffrey. He really hit the lottery in life. Greg the second pick, Danny A.
Mondola's out there, just oh colpo right this hell? You know the one that got away.
She's great.
A number two pick is gonna be Bejon Robinson and I had some other thoughts, but I want like McCaffrey and so the hunh wasn't just the way you prefaced it. I thought you were going in a different direction because of your your previous fandom. And I'm going bijon though, because unlike some of the other possible options, Like I just think he's gonna be so dynamic on all three downs and like it is a passing league and so
that is so important to me. I know his numbers weren't crazy in the passing game of Texas, but I think his skill set is just outrageous. Get the running backs while they're young. I'm happy that he hasn't had any NFL mileage. I know we haven't seen it and there's a little bit of risk there, but I don't know. I think I don't I don't think it's that big. I really don't.
Well, I mean, there is a projection there where just we like, let's see what happens with him, But I think he's he was in my top three, okay, for similar reasons. I mean, I don't really care what the talking about in May. But he has talked about the fact that Arthur Smith, you know, in early OTAs, has sampled him all over the field, and like you can just tell Tyler Elgier massive admiration for him as one
of my guys. I think Beajon Robinson is not unlike a Jim Brown early career type person where he could come in and just be ultra dominant and be an you know, offensive player of the year conversations right away.
Right Like he really reminds me more than anyone that's come out of Tomlinson and Falk. Both of those guys came into the league and were top players immediately. Tomlinson led the league and touches as a rookie. Falk I think was All Pro as a rookie he had eighteen hundred yards or okay, second team All Pro, like and I think that's the type of player Bjohn is going to be.
Mark Sessler, I don't like what you're about to do here.
I think I've woken up and I've chosen violence because I know you on it, but you're not going to get it because I got Nick Chubb with the number three overall pick. I think, uh, you know, at a time where we're talking about Jim Brown. It's it's interesting to think that Chubb is I think a little bit underrated.
I think it definitely is, especially you know, is he the Browns have kind of gone down after they were on the rise there and and then you had the Deshaun Watson drama and it kind of just buried everything around Cleveland.
So Chubb was just off the radar. But he just he's just different.
Like if we're talking about like Jim Brown was different and he was like to me, when Nick Chubb has the ball in his hands, and God forbid, he gets on an offense that's functional.
With a high level quarterback.
Lookout because he set career highs in all major categories just about He averaged over five yards carried like you know who.
It never hasn't every season of his career.
Isn't that crazy five point six one season, so you know, it's seventeen games now, so fifteen hundred yards isn't quite what it used to be. But still, even in a down year for Cleveland with quarterback issues throughout the year, he was an absolute stud. He is my pick at number three overall, and I kind of love it. I think I would have taken him at number two if I had the pick.
I think it helps him this year. They're not It sounds like they're not going to resign Kareem Hunt. When you see him on fantasy lists, I feel like Chubb is always lower than the actual player and.
What he is to watch visitor.
He does have little remnants of Jim Brown to me in certain moments, the way he runs, like there's just something about his violent, aggressive nature.
No gloves. Does he use gloves?
Well, I'd have to check it.
I'm not sure if there's a clearance to that every game. But also if you go look up like Nick Chubb in game images, he just looks like a running back that you'd create an a laboratory. He'd completely changed how I felt about the Browns for a chunk of time because of how dom it was. He harks back to what that team always said it wanted to be in that division, and he was the manifestation.
And yet he's not on your team here it's mine.
Right, Well, I he was my made me. You've made me upset because I actually.
Thought I always sort of historically thought you were a little bit lower on Nick Chubb.
No, I love Chubb, So I was lower. I guess I'm Mayfield, but Chubb was always that.
Is that's clear, but like, but this was this is a great pick by you.
Look I I yeah, that was. It would have been.
I'm annoyed.
Now Chubb and beejeone would have been my top two. I couldn't really decide, but uh.
Greg runs away with this. If you Chubb, and I'm saying that.
The passing game, you know, he's just not quite as dynamic in the passing game, and so that's just like the tiny knock. But he's the best runner. I would have said, if you need five yards and your life depended on it, he would be my umber one. Overall.
Well, I'm going to address that with my second pick as we snake around now and I did. This was between two players, but one is more durable and has a less kind of injury history in terms of reconstructive surgeries on the knees and whatnot.
Austin Eckler is my pick. And don't say reach.
You can't say it because you got to look at the production, which is Titanic. I mean, and Saquon Barkley obviously is the other guy had in mind here. But what Austin Eckler has done just these last two years, you understand, even though it didn't work out for him, this attempt to get a new contract and even get moved in a trade. He's a victim of the way the NFL and the decision makers view running backs entering their late twenties.
But he's a locking in.
If you want a running back that's gonna have one hundred catches, he'll give you that one hundred and seven.
Last year.
He finds the end zone like nobody else in the league. I think at this point, I used to think it was Alvin Kamara. Now to me, the guy when he has the ball and he's hitting inside the five yard line, the guy that's gonna get over the goal is Austin Eckler. And you see that in terms of his touchdowns.
What is his number?
He has some absurd number of touchdowns in the last two years. Something it's close to forty, I believe. So he's a dynamic.
Height led the league both both years.
Thirty eight. And he even started a little slow this past season, fantasy heads will tell you, and he's.
The running game was a bit of a mess, and then he then he started to cook.
So you if you want to the best all purpose back in the league and when you factor in everything including durability, is probably McCaffrey. But if you want to say, well the factor in the durability, I'm gonna say it's Eckler.
One hundred and seven catches.
It's wild.
I don't know how that slipped slipped past me.
I mean, I guess if if part of this is like you're gonna like hard scrabble a defense by literally putting four of these runners into the backfield, Like, I love what you've done because you can do literally anything.
Those two players.
He's my third down back.
Yeah, that's I'm not lucky at them had That's why I said reach at first, because just because he hasn't had the touch, oh he has the last two years, two seventy six in three eleven. I'm not at all I'm being a jerk. I'm being the same way the Chargers are not giving him that money. I'm being the same way the NFL was not drafting him. That you see guys that are physically a little more explosive or younger in the case of Jon Robinson, uh, and you
just I lean a little more there. But you're right, all right, let's go all my friends are jerks.
You are up.
I mean I can pick didn't seem fair. Well, this is tricky. See, I could make a pick that I think would be geared towards winning the vote.
You're in your head now.
The voters though they would like Saquan he's frilly, but I don't care. I'm taking Alvin Kamara. Actually, I trust him more on a down to down basis that he can do everything.
A factoring in a likely suspension that could wipe out at the beginning of a season.
Well that doesn't count based on September, based on.
The Alvin Kamara right now, So it's it's a factor for the Saints.
I'm not taking this suspension world. I thought, it's just like we're taking who's the best at playing football.
I don't know, man, he's got some court cases to handle. First. You think we was a black what.
We got from last year from Alvin Kamara was the best version.
No, he wasn't his best, and so that is a little bit of a concern coming into year seven. I think just comparing him to some of the other running backs that would be available, you could you could you could pick little things out of each one of them, and to me, I think Kamara's still got one at least one last truly great season. And when you just look at skill sets of what you want in a running back, power as you mentioned, like shocking power inside the five year yard line when you need it make
you miss. I don't think his offensive line has been helping him out lately. The receiving skills. To me, he is almost the perfect back. He could almost be the number one overall back. He's not at a coming off like his best season ever. But I still feel good at the suspension. That's BS. I'm not taking it. Not that is Greg.
You surprised me with that pick. I don't totally dislike it, but I would not have gone there now.
The real ones out there, they know, the fantasy people that had Alvin Kamara on Christmas Night or Christmas Day twenty twenty, when he scored six touchdowns and single handedly lifted and myself included thousands and thousands of people to the greatest Christmas gift ever given in a fantasy scenario. I will always have a love in respect for Alvin from that standpoint. But since since as you picking him means him, I'm sure, but since the end of twenty
twenty has he is? He a little bit a little bit less than I mean, if you look at some of the numbers he's come down, it back is he has he already played his best football? Like where do the Saints feel about him? When you factor in the off the fields?
I would also factor in like their quarterback play, like the fact that Jean paton fantasy.
Oh, you mean in terms of actual.
Actual the actual experience of it.
I think it's fair. And I guess I just look at his career arc and I think he's gonna have one great year still left in him. But you're right. They drafted Kendrick Miller, who's kind of a like fantasy wise, he would not be up this high like Echeler to me was fairly low on my list, like not in the top eight, but for fantasy he might be number one, whereas Kamara, I sort of would flip him.
Kamara, Yeah, and it's it's in my head a little bit because he averaged three point seven yards per carat twenty one, and last year he recovered a little bit and was better, but he hasn't really performed.
Like a superstar for a couple of years.
But you're saying it still ps in the eye test. I think, Okay, Okay, Mark, you're up. You got two in a row here, all right.
I am gonna take Saquon Barkley, okay, as my second running back alongside Christian McCaffrey.
Look at it.
I could you could if you if I wanted to, Like he's gonna argue against myself, it's possible you get both of my first running backs for like seven games in a season.
There is that problem. But I am dismissing that part of.
And Greg, I heard you just in tone that you think it's over. Mark's gonna win. I believe this competition will be made and won in the last two picks.
Okay.
I think there's probably some people a little down on the Saquon bark five year journey.
I don't know. I just feel like they're the shine. They're shining names. He's still a little too boom or bus for me. I love what Takon Barkley did last year, but I want more reliability, and I do think he's he's not as reliable as some of these guys.
I think again, like I said, it's a question about will he be there. But the version of the player that we saw last year in Brian Dabolls offense with better quarterback play, I mean, final the whole offense finally awakened from a four year injury riddled nightmare, and we saw the guy that they drafted back in the day. And I'm going with the like just going for the ceiling if you get that ceiling of McCaffrey, were all regrets.
All right, everybody pause, pause this draft, take a break, we'll finish it up.
All right, welcome back.
I'm still in the I mean, you know, in the war rooms situation. Here, this is, this is There's so many different ways I can go here. We're going vikings you here, I'm gonna get I think I'm gonna lose points here because I think people believe that this player is close to the end. But I absolutely love watching him, and I think people could I know, when they put this out on social they're not going to say, like, here's how Mark drafted. It just gonna be like, we
don't we think this guy's beyond the pale. But Derick Henry, that's my dude.
Like, I mean, I just.
Love He's one of the reasons that I absolutely adored watching the Titans, adored watching their offense pairing him with Ryan Tannehill. I mean, this year in that offense, we'll see. But the player itself, Derrick Henry, we met him in person. I thought him to be a very likable, impressive in both his personality and yes, because it's like you're gonna be working with this player a day after day. So Dereck Henry is my pick, okay, And I don't really care what anyone Yeah.
I mean that we don't really have to say anything.
But he you know, there is a reality where the Titans are a bottom feeder in the AFC, or he.
Gets traded somewhere and has one more five.
He's incredible and there's no one like him. But he's a little why I'm not as big on Saquon either, although I have regrets because I think I might have I might have let my Alvin Kamara love you could have gotten him in the third or even fourth affect me too much. I could have gotten Saquon. There's maybe
a little a little more explosive right now. But the reason I don't love Saquon or Henry is I'm not like, I love Henry, but it's like one one, one, one, three, seven, twenty one or whatever, and it's like, I don't like all those one.
The old Barry Sanders logic.
A lot of ones, I mean at this stage of his career. Yeah, that said, there's literally.
Player were a lot of things that weren't ones from Derrick Henry.
That's what I mean. But it's like a slow build and then then suddenly that he runs through seven people.
Does he have That's a great point, mar I would you know?
I would, I would ask does he have the same burst that he had a couple of years ago before the foot injury. I don't know.
I mean I think I think when like I said, still the same player, when they look at my list, I think there'll be people that'll they'll think that Derrick Henry was drafted by someone that didn't maybe watch Derrick Henry play.
Yeah, but you got a lot of star wattage here, right, Yeah? And that not well your team leaving him. I think your team's looking good. It's kind of under the raidar. He had the second highest yards from scrimmage of his career last year, was a better receiver, led the league and carries again three out of four years. So that's a concern that he might break down. But it's not like he wasn't productive. He had nineteen hundred yards from scrimmage last year. That's crazy.
I think it's a solid pick.
Mark, I did too.
Are you okay with the input and the analysis if it like leans positive toward you?
No, I definitely am yeah when it does that.
Yes, yeah, Greg, you have to somehow salage this.
See it gets a little you're.
Kind of a yeah, you're in the weeds right now.
I'm not You guys are acting like Alvin kamaras some sort of bum. I'm taking Jonathan Taylor. I want a big playmaker on the ground here. Let's go.
Oh man, what just spinning, dude?
No, I'm happy with that.
He Yes, he's coming off one of the more disappointing follow up years to a truly great breakout year that anyone could remember.
But I'll go give you some pop on this one.
GREGI like, if if the line is better, if your quarterback Richardson is out of the box, a player.
Could tailor regain his form. I think he's like twenty five.
He's twenty four years old. He had twenty one hundred yards and twenty touchdowns just two seasons ago. His production last year was about the fact that he missed games primarily and that his team stunk and he wasn't popping quite as much early. I think he got better as the season went along. He's a good receiver. He's not
a great receiver. But in terms of a ceiling here, I'll take whatever his odds are to lead the league and rushing this year, because I know they'll be somewhat long, and to me, he's got a pretty decent chance to lead the league.
I like it.
He probably would have been my next pick too. And I think last year's Colts made it easy to forget about anything any of them had done the year prior. I mean, it was just such a chaotic soup of terrible play and the line crumbled. It was a year ago we all thought they might be like an AFC title game contender, and I think back now with Shane Steichen, if he is what we think he can be as
a coach. Anthony Richardson like, there's so this is a completely different offense and a better, better line play, and Jonathan Taylor is There's no question about the fact that like his career is ahead of him.
It's a solid pitch, but my offensive line is awesome. He'moving them from you know, consideration, people around them.
People when they see these lists are not gonna understand what's happening.
You kind of have to think how people.
I'm not worried about the people. The people. I dare you to vote for me. No one's voting for this team. Screw you off.
Well, you're you're attempting to run psychological truth.
I think this is a classic spin out. It's a classic spinout scenario going it's a car crash. I have a I'm in a tough spot here because I'm kind of caught between because we had speaking of people I personally enjoy I liked having Aaron Jones on the Super Bowl Week podcast. Yeah, I like him as a player. He does have versatility.
M hm.
First guy to be discussed at length, but maybe not being picked. You have two picks, by the way.
I do, and uh, you know, and then there's Josh Jacobs and Josh Jacobs is the rushing champ and that means something right, Hell yeah, I'd think so.
Tangible proof of ability.
He was really good last year too.
Two years in a row is probably the question for most everyone.
Like he was every bit as good as his numbers were.
You know, that's why that thinking ahead front office declined his fifth year option before the season.
They knew what was coming.
But if either are the only two year debating, just picked the two.
Yeah, well it's not that simple, Gergy, but I will go ahead and pull the trigger on Josh Jacobs.
He sounded more excited.
I'm that excited just because you know, there's a reason also why the Raiders declined the option and he didn't. Even though he's a first round pick, he wasn't really shaping up as a special player, but he was absolutely dynamic. I almost wish everybody's talking about now that DeVonta Adams spoke out against the offense a little bit, maybe he'll be moved. That seems like a non starter because of the the dead money involved and what a mess that would be for the Raiders.
After the fact, Josh Jacobs.
Being used in getting three hundred and forty more carries on this Raiders team, does that excite me?
Not totally. But his play was so good. He had so many.
Huge runs, game winning runs, walk off touchdowns. He was everything you want out of a featured back, three down banger, and that's why even gave him something out in the receiving game. Fifty three catches, four hundred yards. I will give josh Jack Jacobs my pick with number three and number four. Yeah, I could now, I mean logically that makes sense that I would then just pivot to Aaron Jones. But I won't because I want to have a little wild card in here too. And that's why Breese Hall,
I knew you were going to do. It is my final pick, and it's a total homer pick. But I want you to go before the knee injury. Check that game tape of those final weeks before the injury. You will not find a more electric running back in football. He As much as Zach Wilson's failures last year and the offensive line injuries, his absence is really what ruined their season because he was just about to take over. He would have been Rookie of the Year, not his
teammate Garrett Wilson. And there's a projection here coming off in ACL and we'll see his availability and all that, but I am willing to roll the dice and put my faith in modern medicine to Breece Hall, absolutely explosive and exciting. And that's where you go with your fourth pick.
You've now snatched away two players that I wanted because of.
Healthing better than doing it. And I'm with you with Brece Hall.
It's always good to hurt your friends.
Also, I think it's a good team planning.
You've got a You've got a young young player who will be around for years years, and that you know, on a on a four running back.
Football team, thank you, with no other position.
I have a I have a banger in Jacobs and who he does?
They just played each other, so who's playing defense? I guess they got to play defense too. My team has some two waivers.
We have not that out.
Yes, I mean, I'm just saying that there are four running backs just roving the countryside looking for competition.
Basically, all right, Greg, close out your nuclear disasso.
I really was spinning out because, like I kind of wish I took Jacob's because no one was going to take Taylor anyways. I don't think or you weren't, you could.
Get James Connor here.
Greg, Wait, just I don't know if this will make Craig feel better worse. But I wouldn't have taken Kamara or Jonathan Taylor period. Would you have taken either of them?
I would have gone Jonathan Taylor.
I didn't even think about it. Available to strategy. I have inside information. I've done some reporting sources close to Mark's computer, which I can see that's not.
Some say on tour. But also that's gamesmanship.
Cheating would be another way to look at it. He has this. First of all, I think he was blowing smoke up you with the bree saw. He was a little lower on his list. Second, blowing smoke up me.
Yeah, oh.
Oh, my bad bad reporting you are?
You're gonna spot screen right.
I think it's accurate.
To make it for good podcasting. My point of this whole preamble was to be uh, Mark and I had the exact same names uh next anyways, which was Ramondre Stevenson and Aaron Jones, And I hadn't decided which of those two I wanted to take in my mind yet, but we had the same next two up. But I'm gonna take Aaron Jones. He was an affable guy, and I do think back maybe we'll get to Tybee here.
I do think back to Wes's impressions of Aaron Jones that he just thought he was such a natural, explosive runner. And again, Ramandre is gonna be a better fantasy pick. Ormandre's an amazing player. I like them both a lot, but just in terms of the the quality that Aaron Jones has put out year after year after year after year, that's actually what makes a great running back. And we know he's not wearing down. I don't think he's gotten worse at all, and he's kept fresh because of the
way that they've used him. He is the modern back that, like the defense does not know what they're gonna do on a certain play, and he can do anything. So if I was billing team, I truly would take Jones over Remandra, even though I love them both.
And there's the other Aaron's gone in Green Bay that gives me a little bit of pause about how that could negatively impact their running game, and and.
I don't get to worry about that on my team, right.
I guess we look at it from different perspectives obviously, but that to me matters in terms of what kind of production you'll have this year. But it's a good pick.
We're just out there. I'm like, I'm like Mark Malone, the Nuggets coach. Nobody believed in us, no one's talking about us. We're gonna roam the countryside.
He's gonna win the champions. You are not winning anything. So I'm gonna leave here.
And completely forget that we created this list. This is gonna be a Greg internal think piece for like the next twenty four plus hours, because I can tell you're you're affected by what's but Jones.
You did. You landed the plane with just a touch of dignity here. That's fine, that's good.
The only thing I made a mistake strategy. I wasn't really thinking what you guys were gonna do.
You know, I look at your list, Greg, and I there's you know, it's got its qualities.
I just don't even know who your like number one guy is, to be honest.
The guy I took, and it was gonna take first overall bees on freaking Robinson.
That's fine, but I mean, you would have taken Kyle Pitts if we did a tight end or Vietnam and.
You don't never know Sally you had him in your top three.
Just never know how it's gonna go it's all you know, all right, close it out more?
All right.
I do find this to be kind of a soup down here because part.
Of me, you're in a tricky spot.
Well, I mean it's you know, I can't really lose this yere. But like Travis Eutn is very interesting to me, Tony Pollard, Kenneth Walker. Uh, but I mean I am gonna go Remandre Stevenson. We keep dipping into like what he's gonna look like in that offense in New England.
But I don't think that surprising.
No.
I love watching him last year.
And I think he's he has a chance to be like yardage wise top five, top four.
I think it's a you can make a pretty good argument Rimandre Stevenson was a better running back than Breeze Hall last year when they were both on the field. He can do everything. He can make make you miss. Maybe he can't break the huge plays at Breeze Hawkins. I shouldn't say that, but in terms of making people, he reminds me a lot of Josh Jacobs. Actually, I think he's a very s They.
Let Damien Harris go he did. Yeah, that's also a benefit to this but there's the Patriots are kind of an annoying team and the running backs that he's ready to eat maybe and get get to touch what he had. He had two hundred and seventy eighty.
Yards last year from scrimmage, seventy almost seventy catches.
What are the big guys getting, like the real dogs, like not Derek Henry level, but like what do you want from touches plus three hundred?
Is that what we're talking about?
Absolutely? He was at two seventy nine. Yeah, three three, let's maybe gets an up tick.
Yeah, so all right, some guys that didn't get picked before we sign off here, I want.
To hear about.
I really like Travest, like gravytns. That's a tough omission. Like if you were going to build a fifteen that was off our o mits etn would be there.
Wouldn't be on mine. But Pollard Pollard next game there, I think off the injury Dalvin Cook, who's still.
Viking, But I don't know about Cook anymore.
I would not have Cook. I think Cook is Miles Sanders.
I think Cook's cooks wait and see mix in. I feel like is cooked? Dalvin Cook played pretty well? Uh I don't think he would make sense for this exercise, but I think JK. Dobbins, now another year removed from that injury, is ready to emerge. So him and Kenneth Walker would have been on my long list.
I gotta, I gotta throw it out there, Mark, just because it was a big to do on our show.
Yeah, Tyler Algier.
You know, if you don't have Jon Robinson, Tyler Algier could have had massive yardage.
But this is kind of a time where he might he could have.
Used Tyler algaere algae a little life. He's officially, uh, your guy.
I've just thrown him at one of those booy things.
What is it the what is it the life?
This wasn't that circular one.
This was the like DiCaprio and a piece of wood that floats down into the sea. Unfortunately, because he's not I didn't I didn't want to pinpoint, not pinpoint Tyler Child.
But he's not in my top four in this thing.
No, he wasn't on my long one. I really good player that we have. You know, we only got through top twelve in the league. If we did top twenty, is he on there?
Maybe I still believe that Damian fierce a year from now will be in this size.
What is this? Dan is making an arm motion? Are we taping this for YouTube? It's time Eric bed the glass.
I got my Oxford blue on that smoothed it out.
So if for the YouTube viewers, you should check us out around the NFL podcast subscribed Absolutely, what were what was that motion?
You were right?
Keeps telling people what to do.
I mean it every time he mentions it. We never did it coming.
From I was It's like it's a TC top from TC Tuggers.
Yeah. I should have picked that.
Happy birthday to Link Westling three years old.
And and I texted Lakeisha today that three that's where it really starts to get fun. Yeah, and they're in Saint Louis now, so it would be great to see him.
But he's happy. Lakeisha's happy.
Greg.
You know that because you were in Tybee this past weekend.
Yeah, Lincoln was the star of the weekend. I mean it was amazing to spend the time with Colleen. Came and and Keisha was down there and seeing all of our friends in Tybee. But I really will remember it as a trip. I got to know Link better because I think you're right. Three you're coming into your own and oh, yeah, he's a good hang. Like he he is a good hang. He was there like his dad would have been at every event, every you know, we go on the boat, he's driving the boat, we go
to the bar. He's having a good time coming out site, you know, bringing all of Wes's friends out with him to go jump on the speed.
But of course there's a three year old at the bar.
No one's question actually was told at one point because he was sitting up at a bar and this was a different place, and of course it was like one of Wes's friends own this restaurant. Was like, yeah, he can't sit up there, but he can sit at one of the tables.
It was okay, okay, you gotta have limits.
You gotta restrictions.
And he's sort of I mean, I've been around a lot of kids to beare minimum. I love my kids, but sometimes other kids I don't engage as much with, especially when they're younger. But he truly is like a fun hanging. One thing I noticed and it really it touched me and Keisha too, like he like was really
all about Wes's boys. The girls not so much, you know, poor COLLEENI didn't get as much attention, but I think he just like liked hanging out in time with the guys and like he was he was happier to see me than my my kids are happy to see me. And he was like that with a lot of uh, Chris's closest friends, Wayne and Jim and like everyone sort of had their Link moments because he would just grab your hand and go kind of take you off and you would do things with Link and it really it
was beautiful. It felt like like Chris was there and then and he was there through Link and going down there, you just feel a lot, you know, you guys had that experience. You feel everything. You feel happy, you feel like Wes should be there, you feel sad. It's just like everything together.
We like when you call him a good hang a good hangout. I mean, and you mentioned West, but Lakeisha is very high on that power rank too, has been, so.
Let's rank him.
The combined DNA is powerful. I did notice there were some nice shots of you guys riding in a car together, you and Link.
He was driving the golf car.
Yeah, I mean, Keisha, maybe we should put you know, some guardrails on this he was.
Skinny dipping at one point and you were about four inches from.
His Yeah, breaking news. We have another topless Greg shot that that is now oh no surface, not that we'll share it, gregy, but just people should know because it came up recently that there was a topless beach shot of Greg, which I don't really remember.
It was scrub kind of remember, got on the radar of multiple NFL employees because I think, so, what is this.
And this is for?
This is for you know, maybe some fans out there that just want to picture it. It's Greg topless in a jacuzzi and that's a little extra special.
And link also naked, so actually he's his crop that album naked. It helps prevent it from getting out. We don't need that. Yeah, we were having fun. We got after it too, I mean we had fun. You're right about Keish that I think that gets lost. Maybe our listeners don't even know that. Like Keish is one of my best friends. Is one of all of our best friends too, like in that and that it's not because
of Wes, It's just they were a combination. They were a powerhouse that was combined together, and so it was it was a it was a blast.
That's why we were so excited way back in the day when Wes and Lakeisha got together, because Lakeisha had established herself as a powerhouse in the newsroom and and a fun hang and it was like, oh, that makes way more sense than these others randoms that Chris is dating right now.
Well, yeah, I mean we were rooting for it and it was the ideal love story.
Yeah, it's it's crazy because it was their anniversary weekend two and it was the same weekend I went there five years ago, and so it is it's there is a heaviness too, It's it's not the same without West being there. But we felt like like being there and having fun with all his friends. I love his friends,
and everyone popped up, you know. During the weeknd. Jason, who was as efficient, who lived nearby no longer in Tybe, came by for a little bit and we saw Wayne and Rosie a lot and everyone and and but it was five years ago. That it's crazy. I've been there four times in five years. Once was to celebrate West getting over cancer. Once was the wedding, Once was celebrating his life after he died, and then this was this was the fourth and it's just it's insane what's happened
over those five years. But we we appreciate all the people that have been along for the ride.
And this is this podcast is.
You know, it's it's about family, and it's about the connections that we have on the show and we built through the years, and and so having Lakeisha in our lives and having link in our lives it matters. And listeners know that the people that are important to the show matter. But that's nice, that's very nice. And Lakeisha is coming out again to La and we're gonna get to hang out with her. Got a little event set up next week and she'll be there as well.
So oh that's next week. Oh yeah, this off season is going quickly.
All right.
That's it. Thank you everybody behind the glass for your patience. A lot of yammering other stuff.
We'll be back Thursday, perhaps with a very special guest. Until then, as Chris said, heed the call hands us and mister fancy fans, the Flames need NFL news.
Here's the chance it's at aroundly like a flame.
Boys, Pigskins Hot tonight by.
Welcome back to another edition of the atl Debate Club.
My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined as always by a man who's ferrari never met a neighborhood zone it didn't want to speed through.
Mark Sessler?
Uh?
Are you trying to link me indirectly to Justin Bieber.
A villified pop star and Mark Sessler one in the same.
Very few parallels, you know, Mark, We've.
Been promising a special guest on the Debate Club for several weeks and we finally came up with one for listeners and it's a special one.
Right, Yeah, we finally have and I think, well, I think we've done a good job here. We have what many people consider to be not only the finest Cleveland Brown in history, but arguably the greatest football player of all time. Jim Brown. Thank you for joining us.
Well, that's good to be here, guys, that was a pretty good intro, right, Yeah, I like it, all right, all right.
So I guess we want to start with what's kind of the news with you?
Right now?
You are now back with the Browns, and.
At age seventy seven, my question is what prompted you to want to be involved?
Still, Well, I don't look at age like a lot of people. You know I'm old, and I don't I admit being old, but I don't think old, and my kids don't think of me as being old, and I hope my wife don't think too much about it. But I like to be relevant. I like to be involved. I like to make change. And being with the Browns, WHI helped me make change, being with the league will helped me make change, and I'm very happy about that. And with the Browns being my family, I'm back glad
to be back home. You know, it's it was not too comfortable the last three years not being around them.
If we would have talked to you a year ago and told you, hey, you're gonna be with the Browns and an advisor of this and again, would you.
Have said I was crazy?
No, I wouldn't have looked at it that way, because in the Nation Football League things change all the time. And I knew that the people that were there were not Clevelanders. They really didn't have too much to do with Cleveland. They had, you know, Green Bay background and Seattle background, and you know, I don't think they had the love for Cleveland that I would have someone that played there would have. So you know, you kind of know there's going to be some kind of a change.
It's it's interesting to see what's happened with the club over the last year. Haslam comes in immediately a very engaged owner. I think that what he brought with him was an energy from the ownership position that fans just hadn't seen in a long time, a lot of dedication. He came and he said, I'm going to bring this team back to its winning ways. I can see why that would attract you to come back with him. Your
early thoughts on HASLM. One question that I have is that there is this stuff bubbling up with the company he owns, and the fans just have so much hope in what he's shown so far. Should the fans be concerned about the lawsuits that are piling up?
Well, we're always concerned about things, but we take things as they come, and we go by instincts and intellect. And I am not worried at all about Jimmy Haslam. I consider him a friend. I consider him a bright human being, a compassionate human being. My wife and I love his wife, and I say that, you know, because they have been very kind to us and have been very respectful of us. So if anyone have to worry about controversy, you're looking at it.
Jim Brown.
Brings you enough of that, and so life goes on and life proves itself. And when we made the announcement, he didn't seem to be worried about anything. And if he didn't seem to be worried about anything, I'm not gonna worry about nothing.
So hey, that was enough for me.
You know, you are obviously, as we said up front, you know fewd as one of the great players of all time. And just from a historical standpoint, if we were put together a Mount Rushmore of running backs or fullbacks, you would have Jim Brown on there. You would have
Barry Sanders, Walter Payton. Is there maybe a guy right now, like a fourth guy that Mount Rushmore that it's playing right now, that you think could be viewed twenty years from now as somebody at the level of those names, including you, Yeah, that's.
A no brainer.
My friend, my dear friend, Adrian, he has had an unbelievable year. Last year he came back from an injury that surpassed courage and talent. It was just somewhere up there that nobody's been in the history of running backs. To show that kind of dedication to rehabilitating himself and then having that kind of a year is unprecedented. So I'm glad to be able to say that without hesitation, because after him, I would not have anyone that I would put in that class.
I mean, you've seen so you've been around, and you've seen so many great players, either playing with or watched as a football fan. I mean, was what he did last year was that kind of stunning to watch? That?
Was that something even you were like, Wow, how is he pulling this off?
Well? Yeah, it was.
Amazing because the type of injury and the way you have to depend upon your legs, you can't bypass the need of those legs, and to have that kind of injury and to take on that type of role, the
amount of courage that it takes you can't imagine. And it's the only thing that I could really talk about in this manner that I respect on this degree because I know how difficult it is to be injured and just to come back and be all right, But to be that great and to show that kind of courage, man, it's unprecedented.
I Well, let's talk about back on the Cleveland Browns. A young running back right there, Trent Richardson, who played through a tremendous amount of pain as a rookie last season. It seemed to really show quite a bit of courage to play through what was a broken rib, leg injuries, never really one hundred percent out of the gate. You had some tough comments about him. Do you do you would you like to take any of those back? I know now you guys are relatively close, You've talked a bunch.
What's your view on him today?
My view is that I like him.
He's a tremendous warrior, and he's a real fine running back that has a chance to prove his greatness. Unfortunately, as you said, he was injured, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the things I said about him were not harsh at all. I said he looked like an ordinary back. That's not a criticism. That's a launching pad. What makes you great before you run the ball as
a professional player, Heinsman trophies. Winners fail all the time, so you never know who's going to make that leap in the Pro Bowl and be what they were when they were in college. So if you make this prognostication about how great someone is before they make that leap, it's an unnecessary comment to make. And the great thing
about the comment is how they receive it. And if he'd been mad and angry with me and held it as a grudge, then he would have shown something that would be weakness in my mind.
But he brushed that off his back like it was a feather.
He can't think about what I was saying in that sense, because he knew he was going to have to play up to his game because of what I said, and he tried to do that. If it were not for injuries, he would have had a tremendous year. But we had three or four conversations, and they were beautiful conversations.
You know, going back to your career, you played nine seasons. I think a lot of people are just so fascinated that you would step away from the game at market and I before.
You came in.
We're just looking over your stats and what an amazing final season you had. You go into movies, You retire, and you go into movies as a fan of sports movies.
I find it interesting.
I'm sure when you began as an actor you were getting a lot of scripts for movie type projects. Is that's safe to assume some degree? Yeah? And you know my question to you, and I wonder if you agree, is you know, there have been a lot of great baseball movies, and you know there've been great basketball movies, and there have been some good football movies, but there hasn't been maybe a definitive football movie or many.
Are you? Are you surprised that there aren't more great football movies out there?
Well, any given Sunday was a tremendous.
That's one of the movies, yes, which which you were great in.
Yeah, well I was in and you know it.
But you're right, it's like there should be more great football movies because it has everything.
You know that it.
Has everything that it should have to be able to be show greatness. I don't know why there hasn't been, but you know, behind the scenes, it's been three or four. But like you say, there have been some great baseball movies, and that took it to another level. So I'm stumped. You finally got me. I don't know why I can't give you an answer to that one.
Well, I guess my other question is were you've been out in la for a long time, been acting for decades. Now, did you ever think to yourself, maybe I'm the one that could put together a great football movie with the insight you have.
No, I wouldn't want to put together a football movie. I saw Clinton Tarantino just did a film, Dangle Unchained, and I thought it was a brilliant film. And so when I look at movies, I look at it across the board, and the people that I know in respect loved it and the other people.
Didn't like it.
And I when that movie was over, I stood up in the theater and I laughed.
I did. I just laughed.
Man.
It was like, Holy smoke, this is funny.
And it was.
It was laughed of respect for Tarantino to be able to say so much in the way that he did it.
He's audacious, you know.
Yeah, absolutely, that's a good word. And uh, I just loved the film.
Yeah at Willie be.
Yeah, Danny given sunny. What was it like you had some pretty intense sans with Paccino. I mean, you guys looked like you really were one as a coach and assistant coach. What was it like acting with him?
Oh?
It was great, you know, Al Pacino is one of our great actors of all times. And he's the hell of a guy. And he's one of those guys that like Sinatra, he likes you, he doesn't like you, so he liked me.
So I was cool. And we got together and played.
Chess and you know, hung out a little bit, and it was a great time.
Because we had a lot of good people on that movie.
And Oliver Stone is he's different, you know, you know different, He's a different dude. So he must have fired twenty people. But al Pacino is a fine actor, and I enjoyed working with him tremendously, and I enjoyed it with the respect of me not being in his class and but accepting the role and playing it to the best of my ability without fear of Albercino. But so it was that way I looked at it was the way I looked at it.
Well.
One of the reasons that you're with us today is because back in March, the NFL agreed to pay out forty two millionaires part of a settlement to a group of retired players who have challenged the league over basically using their names and images without consent. I know that's an issue that's important to you. And you're the chairman of the board of the Retired Pro Football Players Association and you're trying to get former players to sign this settlement.
Is that correct? Do you want to address that issue?
Yes, we want all of the players out there to understand it. This is a great opportunity for them because this will be probably the only chance we will have to have players who were not stars be able to benefit from something that the National Football League has set up.
And the fund that has been set up is for the benefit of any player and all players, and so a lot of our players are suffering now will get help, and then we're working towards a health plan that can support everything else that's going on in that particular direction. But it's so important to have that fund available to all players and then to.
Be able to hire a.
Firm that can deal with the licensing of our names and images and so forth and so on, and to have that develop into a major fund. So it would be the first time that former players will have anything
like this to work with. And the great thing about it is that the judges has basically guided us down this road because they know that anything that would come from the standpoint of individual moneies with twenty thousand players, and talking about putting enough money up to be able to split that among the players would mean that we all get one hundred dollars, you know. And but with this you have a continual fund, and that fund is controlled by our board of former players and nobody else.
Just seven of us are the board. I'm the chairman of the board, and we can set out to deal with the most extreme cases of need and.
Work our way backwards.
So I think it's a true vend this opportunity, and there is no other alternative because if you say, well, Jim, we don't want to deal with it, then I say, well, I'll just go my way and sue them for my image. And I have a real good chance because I'm using a whole lot more things than nine to nine percent of.
The other players. So those of us who are working for the good of all.
Is working at possibly a sacrifice of our own individual wealth. But that's okay, because it's time that a lot of our players who've never been recognized and who've never looked out for have a chance to benefit from the Nation Football League.
Well, Jim, thank you so much for joining us today. It really is an honor. And I just want to say before you go, Mark.
Sessler, he hasn't said it, but he is a big Cleveland Browns fan. Can you tell Mark that the Lombardi Trophy is going to get to Cleveland?
Oh? Absolutely, I'll tell you what. You'll see us a slow change.
And at some point within the next five or six years, you're gonna see something that's going to really make you.
Feel good coming from you.
I'll believe it'll go.
All right, We're gonna we're gonna put everything we have into it, and uh, it's gonna produce.
It's gonna make one city in this country very happy.
Yes, Jim Brown, thank you very much.
Thank you guys for having me.
All Right, and there he goes Jim Brown not worthy, Not worry. That was pretty impressive.
I'll tell you what. We've had other guests here before, some unimpressive, but other impressive individuals. There was a bit of a there was a feeling in the room in my own.
Yeah. I mean he's like one of those guys. I mean he's one of the players in this league in the history of this league that he kind of changes the temperature and he walks in the room and that's that's you know, you shake his hand and that's Jim Brown.
So that was that was pretty cool.
I mean it was it's telling to me that A he said right off the bat, I don't think about age, right, I want to stay relevant it. You know, two things, he's still involved in the team that he calls his family and uh, this this effort right at at the end in terms of helping retired players.
Oh what was that? By the way, they want to Just.
So, there is a website. I guess if you're a former player and you're listening to this, if you want to sign this settlement, which sounds important, you can go to a website. It's www dot Pro Football Retired Players Association dot com.
Yeah, sign it.
He's at the front of he's the chairman of the board for that. So, I mean, this is something he doesn't have to be involved with this.
I'm sure Jim Brown is doing pretty well financially, but you know, he's decided and that's what he said to us. You know, the reason why he hasn't left the Browns. He likes being involved. He likes being you.
Know, plugged in with the players. So, uh, that. Yeah, that was that was pretty cool.
I like the guy because and I think we we knew this about him to some degree going in. He doesn't mince words, and we were we had come up with some of our questions before him, because we do on occasion prepare.
For this in the bar, as usually in a bar, but yes.
It's the setting. Will we come up with the preparation is often questionable, but I think we felt like we could ask him anything. It wasn't a guy that you have to, you know, tiptoe around. He'll answer any question.
And now give me an honest answer right now.
I mean when Jim Brown tells Mark Sessler that what was his exact wording, was it in five years or something like?
It says a change is basically change.
Is happening, yeah, Obama style. But he's saying something very special is in store.
Well you gotta be you gotta stay alive Mark for five years.
Yeah, well you know that's in the cards.
You know it's gonna happen.
It's gonna end up being one of those final destination situations where what Jim Brown said is exactly true. However, different things are going to start happening to your life where you're you know, gonna step and there's gonna be a helicopter blade that goes by you, or you know, a school bus that comes out of nowhere. So you just keep your head on a swivel, is what I'm saying.
And nothing comes easy.
Now.
You know, we talked about any Given Sunday, and I love talking about anything with Jim Brown's Hollywood career because it was it's run. I don't know, I don't think he's doing much acting anymore, but you know, he went from sixty five through the nineties, dozens of movies. Any Given Sunday was the movie that the football film.
That he was in.
And it is a good movie. I know you really, you really liked it right when it came out. You went to see it with your dad in the movie there.
Yeah.
Yeah, And we you know, the Internet has a very very deep memory. The Internet never forgets. And you know, we did some research on Mark Sessler and any Given Sunday and we came across a chat in Washingtonpost dot com and it has that you know, when a story is old on the Internet, when the font has that very really like times Roman feel to it.
Oh, it was possibly written on a typewriter.
Yeah, yeah, the HDML is very crude. But here we go. From New Haven, Connecticut, a young Mark Sessler wrote to Oliver Stone, the director, excuse.
Me incorrect, wrongtown.
Ridgefield, Connecticut. There he is.
It doesn't even doesn't even give your name up top, although at the bottom of see it does. Let's read what a young Mark Sessler, filled with joy and wonder, wrote to Oliver Stone once upon a time. Thank you Internet for all the great things you do. Oliver Stone. Your movies bring inspiring power and force to the medium.
Wow, that's right off the bat. One reason I have started to make my own films exclamation point, still waiting for those. How do you approach the editing of your films?
Comma, the flash cut, Comma, grainy images, Comma et cetera, and then parentheticals the shadow figure alone in the stands in any given Sunday question, Mark, I would love to know what you see in your mind as the story develops within. You must have your own screenplay version with all the these images included.
It's a question.
I guess yours Comma, not yours truly, just yours, Mark Sessler, Oliverstone, And you know it's funny he gives. Stone gives a rambling.
Technical because you know, I know that is number one I had. I had like seven cups of coffee before I wrote that something's wrong with me.
They gave seven cups of coffee to a nine year old?
Well, I was not nine. I'm not as young as you think I am. But uh it, I look, I seem I seem extremely naive in my in my question.
It's it's kind of adorable.
And you know, Jim Brown cracked me up because he said that Oliver Stone fired twenty people while shooting of football.
Well, which doesn't actually surprise me because Stone is a total loose cannon and if you want to search it out on the internet, his answer is a bit loose cannedy to me, I'm not sure what he's talking about.
Then yeah, if you if if you want to find out how Oliverstone answered Mark, you know tester Google skills.
But listen, let's go back.
To what Brown told us about his Mount Rushmore. We teed him up a little bit. I mean, I guess Adrian Peterson is almost the obvious answer is a guy that can join Brown and Walter Payton and Barry Sanders on that type.
That's just my Mount Rushmore. Do you disagree with those three?
I mean, it's hard to disagree with it. I mean I could I wonder if there's a fifth guy you could add to that.
You can't do that on Mount Rushmore. It's four guys. Everyone knows that well.
And I'm you know, it's at some point that we put another president on the side of the never.
You cannot ever mess with Mount Rushmore. I'm very serious about this, all matters South Dakota related. I'm very serious.
All right, Well, that's fair. It doesn't sound like Trent Richardson's getting on that on that mountain then, according to you. But I do think that again, he he didn't say, you know, I don't think we thought he would, But he didn't backtrack or anything. He basically said, I stand by what I said to everyone else. What he said about Richardson's this big hubbub. But he's basically saying, you haven't arrived as a rookie before you played a game.
Well, I have a theory on this, and I guess I could have brought it up to him, but it's a little it's a little Olverstonian. So I won't do it is that when he made that comment, that was when he was in the period of falling out with the previous ownership.
I don't think.
And the reason I brought up his age seventy seven is I don't think he thought this time last year that he would ever be closely associated or at least professionally associated with the Browns ever again.
So maybe in a Joe Namath type of, you know, tongue, he.
Said, listen, I don't think this guy's that good, not thinking he was going to end up being back in the Browns organization.
Ownership changed over pretty quickly, and.
HASLM came in and apparently is a really nice relationship with Haslim, And now all of a sudden he's in a bit of an awkward situation because now he's in the organization with Richardson. But at the same time, you're Jim Brown, and you don't you don't have to worry about what anybody thinks about what you say.
Yeah, and if what he says is going to happen, if that comes true, h Richardson, Jim Brown has them, all of them might be in a better place than they are today.
So I don't know how do we top Jim Brown going forward in terms of getting a high profile guest, because now that that has to be the ground floor, maybe we can get I don't know, the Pope.
Possibly, Yeah, we'd have to go outside of football circles, so that that opens up that the range of possibilities.
But in the case guys doing right, we've got Wilk, who we do.
Actually, we don't want to say. We don't want to tease it too much because it's a lot of pressure on Wilk.
This Jewish kid from North Hollywood has connections with the Vatican, so I don't worry about getting the post.
So you wouldn't think that.
But that's why Wilk is such an unpredictable talent behind the glass.
I think now when we tell people we got a guest coming, it's it's possibly true, and we do have someone coming next week.
It's a believable lie. Now yeah, no, we may have someone next week. We're working on something behind the scenes.
Don't let us down on Alex.
Okay, I'm sorry, I won't.
You've already sort of let us down on the same guests. So I'm gonna provide reinforcements.
I don't know what you're talking about you're talking in circles.
Okay, listen that we should probably wrap it up now. Mark needs to go sell because the Browns apparently are Super Bowl fifty three champions. It's never too early to start south. So much hope in the room right now and until next week. We'll let Mark go out on that note as a champion of the future.