Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts.
We got lots to say, we got.
Lots to say, would better here, and we hope you stay because we.
Got lost to say.
Yeah, we got lost to say.
Here's Bobby That.
So he's Matt Castle. I'm Bobby Bones and we're doing this podcast question for you.
Matt.
We have known each other for about a month now. Obviously I haven't known who's.
Getting closer by the day. Yeah, very much, very much, study my best friend.
Whenever the call was made to you, hey you should do this podcast and think like, what did you even know about me? Or and be completely honest, what did you know about me? And what do they tell you about me?
Okay, so I knew that you were a radio personality, but I'm not gonna lie. When I got the email, along with like just kind of general introduction, they put your whole resume underneath.
Oh they were selling me, let's go. Oh.
So so I sat there, I'm reading and I'm like, holy, that's goodness.
All right?
So I was like big bulls sell or twice big bullet point, big bullet point, big bullet point like all your viewers on social media and everything else.
I was like, oh, this is pretty big deal right now, I don't know. I'm still trying to get over thirty on mine.
Right You're like three point four, I think was the stat And so I was like, well, I've been interested in the podcast in a long time. And then I was like yeah, I mean, I've got nothing but time and lots to say love it.
And for me, it was because one of the guys at the NFL they were like, hey, come come on, and I went to the NFL headquarters and they were like, do this show. And I was like, I want to do it without somebody that has credibility because I have none. I just have big opinions and I'm kind of funny.
And they're like Matt.
Castle and I was like, oh, the guy, well, Brady got heard. He went in what happened to him?
That's exactly right.
It's in my resume at all your life, but they didn't need to with me.
They had to convince you. So as you're hearing.
This show has called lots to say, We're gonna have guests from the world of entertainment and the world of football.
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This is lots to say.
Tara Warner coming up in it just a little bit.
Hey, what are these.
Guys thinking right now? They're going to the playoffs if they've never been in the playoffs? What's the week like leading up to the first playoff game?
Well, you know that the intensity ratchets up and a whole other level, right because you know you're really at that point in the season that you've been trending toward. And for some of these teams that got in that had to win that last game, it's it's exciting. You know that everything is about to come to a head
right now. And the biggest thing for every player, and I think every organization is to try to stay within your routine, not make it bigger than it is, even though as a player it's undoubtedly you know that this is going to be the biggest game of the year, and you know if you win, you advance. If you lose, your one and done. So there's a lot that goes
into this week. The preparation. I don't want to say it changes, it's just you don't want to leave any stone unturned, so you want the review everything, the attention to detail that you have. You're super focused and it's an exciting time. I mean, I think that the guys and players that sometimes don't play as well is because they make the moment bigger than what it really is, because at the end of the day, you still have
to go out and execute. You just know that your margin for air shrinks dramatically when you get to playoffs, because these are all great teams that are going out and they're ultimate goals to go to the super Bowl.
In baseball, the wildcard tends to do well in the postseason because they're playing hot as the season's ending. Like you're competing for that wildcard spot, right, so you're at the elite level, the best you've played all year for the most part, and that roles into the postseason.
How does that translate into football?
Does it?
The teams that just hold on or just crawl like Denver, like they had to win to get in, Like would you rather be a Denver? And we'll take personnel out of it, but would you rather be a Denver who's playing hot right then, or a team like Buffalo.
Now they set their guys the.
Right they sat them and they got an extra week of rest. You know, it's interesting because I think the teams that excel in the playoffs are the teams with momentum, and it comes down to the health of your team, right It's the health of your team, the momentum that you've built and if you get hot at the right time of year, which is if those teams get hot right now. Even going back to two thousand and seven Super Bowl that I was in with the New England Patriots,
we played the Giants. We played them the last game of the year, and both teams played all their starters. It was a heck of a game. I think we ended up winning thirty eight thirty five, something like that. But they crawled into the playoffs. But then they got hot and they went all the way to the Super Bowl. We met them back in the Super Bowl four weeks later and they ended up beating us.
So it's all about can.
You build on that momentum and then that confidence comes by winning one game, winning two games, and if you get hot at the end, become a streaky team.
I mean, the sky's the limit was that Super Bowl Andy?
That Super Bowl was in Arizona, and gosh, I can't believe they won that game. I mean Eli throws that ball late in the game. Yeah, on top of the head Rodney Harrison. Basically Eli was in the clutch. He throws up a hail Mary in the middle of the field. David Tyreek catches the ball. Rodney Harrison's right there, like the all time great safety, catches it on top of
his head. For I think it was like a third and fifteen conversion, maybe it was fourth down, and then they go down throw a slant goat to Plexico Burgus on that drive, take the lead and we never were able to recapture. We had like a less than two minutes to go down the field and they were able to close it out.
It was.
It was devastating considering where we were at in the year seventeen and O going in or eighteen and O going in.
That That sucks. Oh, that sucked. That one hurt to think about.
It does just because of the historical value of that game and what it meant if you if you win that game, you're the best team of all time, and instead we had to go back and lick our wounds. And we had the greatest after party planned, and we still went to the after party.
Like Snoop Dogg was.
There, earth Wind and Fire, I think Rihanna was there. Then we had who was at Lionel Richie's in the other room playing just privately for parents and families and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there and I was the backup quarterback, so I didn't play, and I was devastated by loss, but I enjoyed myself that night still because it was an incredible season. But imagine if we would have won, how much fun it would have been.
Yeah, I don't know if I would be able to go out. Is the pressure because your family's with you one hundred.
Percent, You've got so many people at I think it would be so sick that I wouldn't. We want to go over and have a good time, and people were sick.
You're sick to your stomach because you're a minute and twenty seconds away from winning the Super Bowl and completing a perfect season. And to go through that season and we dominated early on, but then we had some adversity late in the year where we overcame some games. We beat Baltimore on a last second play. I mean, it was an incredible season all around. And then to go get to the super Bowl and be at the cusp of greatness and not be able to complete the season, it's stung.
What about you playing in playoffs? You have kans City a.
Year, Kansas City a year, Kansas City year.
We played Baltimore in the first round and unfortunately Baltimore beat us pretty badly. I mean it it was close in the first half. I think we might have even gone in and with a tie ball game. In the second half, it got away from us.
But that week leading up to it intense.
It's a different time of type of intensity. You also, you know you're going up against Baltimore, and Baltimore always I was never really intimidated by players. You're intimate intimidated by units because you know it takes your best every single play, every single quarter to overcome and beat the team like that. And the caliber of players that they had with Suggs and ray Lewis and ed Reid, they just had players across the board, and so you know
it's going to be a grind. You know it's going to be a challenge, and like I said, a small mistake here or there that makes all the difference in the world. And that's what happened in the second half. I think I threw an interception. I tried to fit a ball in there. Ray Lewis, of course, with his big eyes, I thought he was going this way.
He came back and baited me and intercepted the ball.
But and then when that game ends, it's just you know, there, You've got a really good team and you got to that point, but it abruptly ends and it's over, and you're just sitting there going what could have we done different? And you're always second guess and decisions that you made or plays that you want back, and it's it's a tough pill to swallow because now you have all off season to kind of chew on that and try to reevaluate how do we get better for next season.
Let's take game film out of the equation. As far as looking ahead, and I've we've not gonna announce it, yeah, but I have a comedy specialist coming out on a TV network, which is very exciting. We just heck, yeah, haven't signed signed it, but have signed it. But I can't watch it back. I don't need to watch it back because I don't need to improve because I'm on the road right now. So I'm asking about a playoff game that you don't need to improve from.
Do you watch the tape back?
Honestly, no, I do not go back and watch that game because it hurts too much. Now, it might take some time. I might do it five months down the road. But once that game was over, it was like, it's too hard to go back and evaluate it right away, because normally you're used to coming in after every game good, better and different, and coming in and evaluating and you get the grade sheet, how'd you do?
And sometimes you grade out really well.
Other times you know you're sitting there and second guessing what your coach really wrote down as a negative. You're like, wait, this is w I did it, But you don't have any of that. After the playoff games, you literally come in.
There's no for momentum, right but there's nowhere to go.
There's nowhere to go, and you know that next year's team is going to be completely different than this year's team. Coaches are going to change, players are going to change, and so it's going to be different, So you don't reevaluate that game. It's just kind of you wrap a bow on it. You have your individual meetings with your coaches.
With the head coach, you know, the only time that you really go in and talk to the head coach and maybe some of the other personnel guys, is if you're going to be a free agent, they want you back and they're still doing contract negotiations, and that is what it is.
But it's really saying goodbye to all your buddies and then.
All of a sudden you're cleaning out your locker and the next thing you know, you're figuring out what you're doing for the offseason.
It's going to be a weird question.
But whenever we would wrap a season of like My adventure show, Breaking Bobby Bones or American Idol or whatever, you get people gifts, right because it's like the last time you probably talked to them a little more see them.
I'm a little gift.
When I finished Dancing with the Stars, I gave shoring to like a iPod or phone or something.
Let's be honest. You even a new car.
You guys won, Yeah, no new car, but I remember, right, I yeah, we got n we to the nice gifts, but we didn't get the money. Then I don't think think about Dancing of the Stars. It's I think I'm making like four undred thousand dollars.
In that show.
That's outstanding because I won, though, because oh yeah one is ten thousand, everybody gets it. Everybody goes to week two. Okay, that's ten thousand, and then it gets to twenty five thousand. If you last twenty five thousand, and then like the last two or three or fifty to fifty to fifty, So oh.
There's major instead of that, and I wonder why you got torn labor and you're like shooting up everybody.
You're like, look, I did take a.
Little bit of money, but yes, the money, but we didn't get it right then though. But I guess my point is we bought each other gifts, yeah, because we might not see each other again. Does that happen at all on a team at the end of the year, you walk around and give the little gifts to your buddies.
Well, season still ongoing in at the end of the year, you've got Christmas. So as a quarterback, oh yeah, Like the quarterbacks now I heard are just absurd with what they're getting the offensive lineman or some of the prime time running backs.
What they get guys?
Rolelexes cars did the trucks, but that was a commercial, right, But still I agree, But about your boys trucks even like the I stout chains. Yeah, that's freaking crazy. You get all the guys, I absurd. What did you have to do do that?
Oh yeah yeah, I mean I got big, big screen televisions one year, I got iPads one year.
Sucks.
Well, that's the other thing is you got to evaluate. No, like I'm a little small, Like, hey, guys, it didn't go so well this year.
I got sacked thirty five times. No, what about backup linement? You have to get. You have to get anybody that is on that team as a quarterback. You're obligated to.
And I still apologize to the lineman for the Patriots because the year I took over for Brady, like I wasn't used to are accustomed to getting any of these gifts.
I didn't really know the lay of the land.
So all of a sudden, season ended and I was like I got traded to Kansas City and I never got my boys at the Patriots any gifts, And so they still this day. They're like, you're the cheapest son of a bitch I've ever been around. I'm like, I agree with you, I apologize, they're still coming, but I had so much respect for those guys at the end of the day though, that you will hear it because
it's something that is expected. You like that, regardless of where or not you had a successful year at the offensive line, or they blocked really well or great, it's just it's what you do in the NFL.
I liked Burrow and the Swords. Yeah, they wanted guns and Borrow got them swords. Like with all with an individual story, thought that was kind of cool. Jared Goff did all the steaks, did the wagou with the big yetti ice chest, I believe, And people were giving them crap because they said, you can't give them a truck. But again, Rock Party makes relatively speaking, no money compared
to other starting name quarterbacks. It's a lot of money and general but we're talking just like with us peers starting quarterback doesn't even make a million bucks a year. So they were like, how did he buy Toyota Tundras for his whole life? It turns out it as part of a commercial. But you're right, like there is an expectation.
There's an expectation.
Like my staff expected me to give them a massive gift every Christmas, and I got the expectation got so big I stopped getting any gift for anybody. Well, there's it's a lot of pressure. Well it's it's a stupid expace.
It's an absurd So.
I will one off them things privately, but I don't.
Do the whole. I got everybody this, I got all.
You guys the greatest gift you'll ever imagine, because every year it just gets bigger and bigger.
It ends up being you have to beat yourself the last year as well.
Yeah, but again you were the back You were the start, but you were the backup. So I don't feel like that should be the same on you, Like Brady should have still got the guys the gift.
But that year I started every year, I mean the first game, first game, and I didn't even get credit for that win.
He got credit for that win.
It was zero zero when I went, wait, you didn't get to win as he started. That's how it works in the NFL. If you start and play one snap, the first stap, the first snap, even though you might get hurt on that snap, and then the other guy comes in and they win the ball game.
He gets the credit.
You would think it would be an a snack because in baseball, if you start, you've got to go five innings. Right to me, if it's zero zero, it's the quarterback that played the most.
It's the quarterback that played the most or scored the most points for the team in order to win.
Wait, wait to get the rollbook. We need to go.
Let's go to County Hill.
Ready.
I want my win back.
Let's go.
All right, coming up, Kurt Warner, we'll talk to him. Do you know Kurt, I do?
I do?
I played in this charity event before great event, Blag Football Event. I've known him for a long time. He's an incredible person.
Never met him.
Excited Kurt Warner coming up here in the second. We're about to talk with Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.
Kurt is known for having a great redemption story.
Undrafted player PAULA Famer, one of the best analysts in the game. You can watch them every Sunday in NFL Game Day Morning at nine named Eastern NFL Network.
A big thanks to Kurt for coming on.
I know this is your boy, so I'll let you guys, all the athletes, this is going to be what I just have to just deal with.
The athletes are.
Your people, right and and but then the artist are your people.
I know it's not even that. It's just I'm just jealous.
I just want to I always want to be part of the cool athlete club and I'm not that.
And I just to get reminded of how you just get stuck.
In the locker. No, but you are.
You're starting me in a locker many years ago at a different time. Never, I never would do something like that. I was always a good teammate Kurt. I'm talking about Bully just in general. I want him on the team and just show me Kurt Warner here he is.
We love this guy, Hurt. What's up, buddy?
How you doing? Man? What's going on?
Life?
Man?
Life is great.
Got the five kids rocking and rolling, doing the college football thing. I did that this year with NBC. But all in all, Man can't complain. Just getting through those holiday seasons, as you well know, with all these all these kids and then family coming into town, it was just chaotic. It's kind of nice to get back into a normal routine and setting.
Gosh, it makes it fun though. That kids, little ones makes everything worth wild. So that's awesome. Good, I'm glad you're doing well. It's good to see you.
It's great to see you too. How do you guys know each other? Gosh, we've known each other for a long time.
We compete fraternity of quarterback fraternity.
We compete against each other. And then in addition to that, yeah.
I just think when you're both playing, and then obviously me covering the league for so long that we've crossed passed a million times. That Yeah, he woke me up in New England one year, which is one game that I'd like to forget.
I wasn't playing.
You can forget one game in my NFL career, that would be the one I want to forget.
I think it was the perfect storm, literally the perfect storm, because they come up.
To New England that year.
It was late in the year and it is a full snowstorm. I mean the entire the entire field. You couldn't even see anything, and it was freezing cold, and it was just the elements worked in our favor and we got a roll early I mean I threw a few slip screens is all I had to do really in that game.
Next thing, I know, Randon, Yeah, because we did absolutely nothing, So it was it was awful. But you're right, you know, coming from Arizona, we roll in in that snowstorm and we're just like what are we doing? And you know we didn't. We didn't know all about the basoline and putting stuff on your shoes, like we're sliding all over and it's like, this is awful. This was awful. But yeah,
I was a beat down. So he's always etched in my mind in my career, in that one game that that I'd love to give back if I could.
We were talking a few minutes ago about quarterbacks in Christmas, and I was talking about how I kind of screwed over his line then whenever he went in for Brady because he got you know, he left, didn't get them gifts.
But we started going through all the gifts this year.
What was that culture like for quarterbacks whenever you were playing, did you have to buy them crazy gifts?
Well, we bought them gifts, but like you know, we didn't make fifty million dollars a year. I mean we still make good money, but we didn't make fifty million dollars. I mean, guys are getting cars and likes. It's ridiculous. Like, yeah, I gave away some big screen TVs to my guys, which was a big deal back then, like portable DVD players, you know those things that were kind of in style. Again, that was a long time ago for me. But yeah,
we gave them gifts. But like this is ridiculous, you know because now they reflect back on it, like, hey, what did you give us? And it's like unfair for us. Matt, I agree with you.
I mean it's gotten so out of control.
And now all the linemen that we play with, I almost look at him around that Christmas time when I talked to all my buddies and stuff, I'm like, I'm sorry, Like I didn't know that it was going to get to the stage. I mean, it's gotten out of hand.
And the other thing is is linemen now make more than we made as quarterbacks then, Like the linemen are making ridiculous Like it's ridiculous. I don't know why we have to buy them gifts. As much as I love them and as much as I appreciate them, it's like and everybody makes great money. Now, I don't know.
Who's trending up hardest right now, not who's the best going into the playoffs, who's trending up the hardest.
You're saying a team as a whole.
Yes, as a whole, and that is a.
That's a good question. I don't know if we have that one team that's just kind of running and necessarily hit their stride because a couple of these teams I think took a little step back. But I'm still going to say the Lions are like after that big win on Sunday Night where I think a lot of people had questions and all the injuries and they dominated another fourteen win team. Going into the playoffs, I would have
to say that they're they're trending up right. We've got the Eagles that have some questions because the quarterback hasn't played in a couple of weeks, Minnesota that obviously just took a big loss. There. You know, the other teams in the NFC, you don't really you're not really excited about.
And I look at the AFC and I just think it's so much about matchups, Like I could see the Bills beating the Chiefs, but the Ravens beating the Bills, and I don't know, it's going to be fun to see how that plays out and who wins and who loses and what the matchups are over there. But I think that big win for the Lions, and to finish the season with just two losses with all the things that have gone wrong, I would probably say they're the one team that continues to trend up for me.
Now in the AFC, you obviously have the Chiefs and they're going for their three peat right now, and they've definitely got some concerns obviously at the left tackle position, the health of some of their guys. Patrick Mahomes has he played well at times this year, but not the dominant nature that we've been necessarily accustomed to of watching him. But at the same time, they're fifteen and two and
they didn't even play last week. Do you think that this is another season in which they get to the playoffs and they're the team to beat in the AFC? Just to see the landscape and how it's gone this season for them and a lot of close wins, but at the same time, they haven't had the dominant they haven't played at the dominant way in which they were kind of used to seeing.
Yeah, I still think you have to say that the team to beat because they continue to find ways to win. And then the other thing I would say is that even I just mentioned the Lions, is maybe the team
trending up. I thought the Chiefs the last game that they played with all their guys a couple weeks ago was the best I had seen them play all year long, and so, you know, you just wonder because they're one of those teams that always seems to kind of hit their stride at the end of the year and end of the playoffs, so home field advantage by really only one loss on the season and playing their best football at the end of the year, I do think they're still the team to beat. Do I believe they can
be beaten? Of course I do. I think there's a couple teams on the AFC side that I just mentioned with, you know, with Baltimore and you know, and also with the Bills that definitely could beat the Chiefs. So I don't think this is a lock by any means, but I do think there's still the team to beat.
The Chargers, being in the same division as the Chiefs.
They've played twice already, that could end up being a matchup obviously before the AFC Championship game, like a guy like Harball third game, like, does it give them a bit of an advantage like going time number three? He knows his team is personnel a little more.
I just think, you know, because again you look at the way teams are playing, both the Chiefs and the Chargers, and both of them really play kind of low scoring, muddle it up type of games, and it's really going to come down I think in the AFC a lot of times too, who makes that drive down the stretch? Who may that play down the stretch to win a game? I'm not sure. I'm believing that the Chiefs, even though they're the team to beat, are going to blow out anybody.
I still think they're going to be in a bunch of close games. Now. They've been better in those moments than anybody else, so you give them the edge. But I think it's really going to come down to in a lot of those games. Chargers Chiefs, if they played, I believe it would be a one possession game, and which team makes those plays either side of the ball down the stretch? To win the game, will win the game. I just I think it's going to be that way in a lot of games on the AFC side, especially
where the Chiefs are involved. It's just happens to be that there's so much better in those moments than everybody else. But you know, I sit here, like I think a lot of the pundits out there are fans that have watched it look at the Chiefs and say, can they sustain these one possession wins through the playoffs against Like
can they keep doing that? You just almost feel like it's got to catch up to them, where there's just one game where it's close and Patrick doesn't make the play, or you know, they don't block the kick or the defense doesn't get like you just feel like that will catch up to them. But they've just been better at it than anybody else, so you lean in their direction.
Ert you've been in both situations where you've had the first round by been the number one seed, and then at the same time you've been a team that has had to play in the wildcard round. Talk to us a little bit about the mentality of you're playing well at the end of the season, you get in it as a wild card team and all of a sudden you catch fire in the momentum and the advantage of that versus Obviously there's an advantage to having that extra week, to have that week off to rest your body, have
that extra week of preparation. But talk to us about that team and the mentality of the wild card teams coming in and if they can build that momentum and what the importance is for teams like that and for them to go deep into the playoffs.
I believe the mentality is built off of where you are, Matt, Yeah, you know this, Like if you're the team getting the buy, your mentality is, yeah, we've earned this, we get to buy. Everybody else has to play. They're gonna beat each other up. We don't have to play as many games. This is awesome. And then if you don't get the buy, but you're playing really well, the mentality is in the locker room like we're playing great, let's just get out on the field.
We're gonna beat everybody that we play. And so that becomes so important, is the mentality that goes into making that run. And you know, in good teams or teams that are playing well can build that mentality, however, they want to build that mentality, and so that's exactly what
we did. No matter you know, which team I was on or what situation we were in, we would always try to, you know, change the narrative to, oh, we don't want to buy, like we don't want to buy, We're playing great, we don't want anything to slow down the momentum that we had. Let's just go make a run. And then obviously on the other side, like we earned the buye, we're gonna be sitting back, We're chilling. Everybody's getting beat up and has to play an extra game
travel on the road. So you know, so much of this game is as much mental as it is physical and convincing yourself that your situation is the best situation, you know, whether that's you know, seating who we have to play like, you know, I'm sure there's uh you know, I'm trying to think right now at the top of my head. Uh oh that that that are playing against the Texans, right The Texans aren't playing very well, so
I think it's a Chargers right, yep. So the Chargers are like, Okay, I know we're a wild card team, but hey, we got the best matchup in the first round of the playoffs because we're playing against the team that's you know, been kind of limping down the stretch. So it's just part of the nature of us athletes
is Okay, where do we where? Where can we create that narrative that fits what we're trying to do, And we're just gonna we're gonna pound that narrative because that's going to be the reason that we make a run.
Let's talk about the human nature part of this.
Like Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator with the Lions, who you know, didn't head coach last year, he said, I want to stay. I believe in the offense. I'm going to stay with Detroit. Great decision. He's killing it. He's going to have whatever job probably he wants. However, these jobs are open right now. They're interviewing right now. He's not interviewing because he's but still, you're a human and it's like that's got to be
on your mind as well as you enter. And I looked a few minutes ago, the lines are favored to win the Super Bowl. They're the number one team right now as far as like the odds, Like that's the human part of that's got to be difficult for somebody, right.
Would I would think so, like, I don't really know, you know, especially when you know you are We use Ben Johnson as that example. It's like, you've never been a head coach, So this is like your moment, your opportunity. You got to be ready for these interviews. You've got to be thinking like, Okay, if the season's over and I get one of these jobs, like who's going to be on my staff? Who am I going to take?
Like yeah, and then all of that while whatever your normal schedule is to prepare and create and build a game plan. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you balance it. I mean, you know, we always said as players too, like you know, family was
kind of that other side of it. So we talked about Ben Johnson the head coaching spot and is current like for us it was or for me it was the family, Like, okay, so this is the amount of time I'm going to spend, you know, preparing for football, and then I need to shut that off and try to you know, be a dad or a husband or or focus on family over here. And it was really
hard to do. You know, it was hard to, you know, for those things not to get all mixed together and me thinking about football when I should be at home, or me thinking about you know, family and something that was going on when I should be at football and balancing that out. So I would have to think that would be a huge I mean, I don't think you can.
You know, if if somebody's calling me today and going to do a you know, head coaching intergy interview with me today while we're getting ready for a playoff game a week and a half from now, Yeah, I mean I think you're fully focused on, Okay, how do I get this head coaching job? You know, what do I need to do and how do I have everything in place? And your current team has to take a little bit of a backseat in that regard. So figuring out that balance I think has to be key. But I think
you're one unred percent right. Human nature is going to say, Okay, I'm going to lean towards you know, I'm gonna have to lean into both of them and probably take some time away from you know, the current task at hand for the future task at hand.
You played in a lot of these playoff games and we are having this discussion before. But Bobby was asking me, how does it change going into playoffs, like your mentality and you know that the intensity goes up tenfold. But were you one of those players that had a specific routine and tried to stick to that routine not make it bigger than it was? Were you also one of those quarterbacks? Look, I hated that feeling I used to get before the game. I always got those knots in
my stomach. Oh, would over analyze, do all those But once you got out on the field, you get hit for the first time and you start to process and you go, hey, this is just football. I got to be reactionary, rely on my preparation what I need to do. But what time type of mentality you have going into these type of.
Weeks, Yeah, playoffs was different. And so I was one of those guys that was really good at focusing. And so my kids still joke to this day, like, you know, even if I'm if I'm sending you a text, Matt, and my kids are in the room with me, and they're like, dad, dad, Dad, I don't hear them because, like, I'm focused on what I'm trying to say to you in the text, and I just tune out all the other noise, and they're like, Dad, we're trying to get
your attention, Like all you're doing is texting. But I had an uncanny ability to focus, which obviously a lot of guys at our level and sisily playing quarterback with seventy thousand people, you know, have that ability to focus. But during you know, the normal week, it would come about three thirty four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and my wife would be like, all right, he's in the zone. Go to the hotel, go to your room, like get like, no reason for you to be around anymore because you're
you're a different guy. When I got into the playoffs, it was always like I had to tell my wife, Okay, honey, I know in the past, you've given me twenty four hours forty eight hours. Now I need four weeks. Like I'm not going to be a good dad, I'm not going to be a good husband. I am locking in for the next four weeks and it's going to be all football and it's all focused on trying to win a championship and then we can celebrate and go on
trips and do that afterwards. But it was really that kind of change for me, Matt, where it was like I could never get it off my mind and I didn't really want to, Like I didn't want to separate it at that point, Like I knew it was all about the regular Season's great, but the regular season was just set me up to have a chance to win it all. So once we got into the playoffs, that was it. Like everything else is gone, everything else is
pushed out. I'm sorry, but this is my focus. And you know, and just like we were talking about the split focus and bounce, I wasn't even looking to balance anymore. My mindset was, Okay, we're playing Sunday. I am not taking a minute off in terms of my preparation so I can be the best that I can be on Sunday. And you know, obviously my mindset was, I want to do it for four weeks because it's going to end up by us being in the super Bowl and hopefully winning it.
I want to talk about the Steelers for a second, because it feels.
Like they are always one, like like the halfway house of winning. They don't lose enough because in the NBA, if you're mid in the NBA, you do not get a top draft pick.
You do not get better.
If you're winning five hundred, you're just going to stay. You almost have to bomb out to get way better. The Steelers never do that. They always Tomlin has a winning record every year. And so here they are again not playing well now, but they're in the playoffs. But do they need to lose and get a top pick in order to move forward because I feel like they're in the same spot every year.
Yeah, I mean right now for the Steelers, they need to find a quarterback like that, that's just the nature of our business anymore, like either have one or you don't in terms of having one that you believe can win a championship or you don't. And if you don't have one of those guys, it's going to be a struggle week in and week out, and it's going to
be a struggle come playoff time. And so you know, when Big Ben was there, they were always competitive and they always had a chance to win in the playoffs. And you know, and since Big Ben, they just haven't had that guy. I still think, you know, I still think there are a couple pieces away, but I think they have a good football team. Like if you took
Patrick Mahomes and put them on this team. I think we'd be looking at this team completely differently, and I think we'd say this team has a chance to win a championship. You know, you put Josh Allen on this team with that defense and that run game and a couple of the playmakers on the outside, Lamar Jackson. So I don't think it's a huge overhaul for them. I think they need to add some pieces on the outside. They're skilled players. But I think it's as much as anything.
I look at this league every year, I look at the playoffs every year and I say, who's got a chance to win a championship? Who's got a chance to win in the playoffs, And it's all based around having a guy at that position that is different and you know, can be different in a lot of different ways, but that's different than everybody else. And I think that's more than anything else, what the Steelers are missing right now.
But to get a quarterback, especially even like this year, a should or a cam Ward who's going to go one, two, three and two of those top three spots. Last year you saw like to get one of those top picks, you've either got to trade something valuable or suck and it's they have a lot of great players, but like you said, they cannot find that quarterback.
Well, I mean, I know that's how we look at it in the big picture, and that may be the case this year, but let's also look at bon Niggs. You know, bo Nicks has got his team in the playoffs and he was a mid range pick. Lamar Jackson was the thirty first pick in the first round, and we know what Lamar Jackson has has been and so I don't think there's you know, I don't think it has to be a top pick, you know. I just think, again, the landscape is different, you know, around the NFL or
in the draft every single year. But you've got to find one of those guys. I mean, maybe it's going out and maybe it's Sam Donald. You know, again, I don't know, he's had one great year. I don't know if that's going to be Sam the rest of his career. But maybe that's the guy.
You know.
Obviously, they went out and got a couple of quarterbacks this year in hopes that one of them was the guy. But but that's not the case. So I just don't think there's only one way to play it. You know, maybe Sam Donald stays in Minnesota, and maybe Pittsburgh goes and gets JJ McCarthy and maybe that's the guy that
they find a way to build around. So yeah, when you're in the middle or end of the first round, you probably have to be a little bit more creative or a little bit more convicted or dive in a little bit deeper to finding a guy that maybe isn't the top pick in the draft. You know, but you know, Matt and I might be able to sit here and tell you, like, there's some of those guys out there.
Yeah, you know you don't need to be I mean.
That were drafted in the top five, so you know, so I think there's other ways to do it.
I mean, when you look at this rookie class, you got two rookie quarterbacks playing obviously in the playoffs with Bo Nicks, and then you got Jayde Daniels who's having a phenomenal year. But then you look at some of these other quarterbacks that were drafted in this first round. Pinnicks played late, obviously, Drake May went through his struggles. But how much of the success of these young quarterbacks coming in the league, because you know, not always the
college offensive scheme correlates to the NFL. And I've heard you say it before, like it's hard to watch films sometimes on these guys and see how it's going to translate to the next level.
How much of it is system fit in your opinion.
I think most of it is system fit. But I think the problem, man, is that we don't always know what the perfect system fit is for a quarterback right until we see it, you know. So, like c J. Stroud was a great example to me. Like I thought CJ was really good at Ohio State. I didn't know if I thought he could be transcendent based on what I saw at Ohio State because of the way and the nature of how they played the game and you know, throwing the ball down the field more and doing some
that big passing game. And then his first year in Houston and they were asking him to read and get the ball out and throw it quick and do all this intermediate stuff. And I was like, oh my gosh, this guy's way better than I thought he was. Like I didn't know he had all this in him, but I didn't know because he didn't get a chance to
show it to us. I think Drake May was the guy for me this year that you know, coming out of last year, you know, I didn't like his footwork and you know, I thought he was kind of all over some times on the reads, and you know, so I really didn't know how he was going to translate
to the NFL. I saw some of that stuff in preseason, but when he actually became the starter, he played really really good football in terms of consistent withness rows, that his eyes were in the right spot most of the time, in terms of making reads and getting there on time. And I was kind of blown away with what I saw in New England, and they had a lot of limitations around him, but I thought he played really really
well this year. If you're just looking at the quarterback position and what you want your quarterback to be seeing and when you want him to be throwing it, and the decision making that he had, I thought he was really good. And it wasn't what I saw, you know, specifically last year. You know, it's a little bit better the year before in college, but last year in college, it wasn't what I saw. So I didn't really know.
And then I guess we could use a Jaden Daniels who this isn't exactly who he was at dollege, you know, like, you know, if you're taking a guy and saying, Okay, this is exactly what I saw, and then you place it and you're like, oh my gosh, it's the same guy, and he's in a system that seems very similar. But
he's doing all of those things. Which is another question that you always fight with as an analyst or probably as a coach, is like, Okay, he's really good in college, but you know, he can't be the same guy in the NFL CA any like, you know, because it's different. He looks like exactly the same guy. So the guy that won the Heisman last year that was the best player in college football is the best rookie quarterback and you know it was one of the top quarterbacks in
the league. And it's because he's doing the exact same things that he did. And it's obviously why it's such an inexact science is because you don't know if what were in college is the best that they've got. You don't know if the system fits him, you don't know how it's going to translate. And sure enough, we've got a bunch of guys that have played really really well in the pros you know already this rookie year. And you know, I think there's some different elements there, but
I think fits is extremely important. And you know, the quarterback being able to see the game the way the play caller designs the game or the way the play calor calls the game. If your quarterback sees it the same way, it gives you, you know, and a much better chance of succeeding, especially early.
I tell jokes, that's how I make my living.
So my NFL personnel scouting is not a tiptop like probably yours or Matt says. So this question is really just like a dude asking how do they miss? How do you miss on a quarterback? How do you miss when it's a top five to seven to ten pick and then they end up not being what you thought they were after all the time, money efforts, science.
Well, I mean, I think, you know, I think there's you know, a couple of ways to look at it. I think, first of all, you know, we throw around, especially come draft time. This guy's ceiling, oh, this guy's stealing is so high, And my question is always how do you know with ceiling unless he's been there, Like, how do you know what a ceiling is until he's shown us what is ceiling? So we throw around this word ceiling as if somebody is going to get infinitely
better at the next level. I have no idea why we do that. Because a guy can run really fast and throw really far, we think he's ultimately going to be able to think really fast and process really well. And like, I don't know, but that's the term we've come to use for all of these guys, and a lot of times it's the really athletic guys, right because we say to ourselves, they've got this unbelievable physical skill set that now, if their mental skill set matches their
physical skill set, their ceiling is way up here. But we have no idea if that's ever going to happen. And so that's how you miss is that we project the guy's ceiling when we don't know what a ceiling is. I have seen plenty of college quarterbacks come into the NFL and five years, you know, into the NFL, they are the exact same quarterback they were in college. They
didn't get better, they didn't improve in any area. So now they get swallowed up in the NFL because what they were in college is just isn't good enough in the NFL. And we've seen other guys like a Tom Brady, who was, you know, good college quarterback, Like you know, he wasn't even a great college court. He was a good college quarterback, and we saw him come into the
league and every year he got better. Like he's like fifty seven years old, and I'm not sure he's hit his ceiling yet, Like I don't even know, Like he could probably come back and be even better. Like it was. It was amazing to watch because you're like, how does this guy get better? How is this guy throwing forty touchdown passes at forty five years old? Like you just
couldn't figure it out. But but that's the other side of it, is that average quarterback, Like we've all seen the pictures at the you know, Combine, and we've all know where he was drafted overall because he was average in college, but just got better and got better and got better. And you know, you could probably stay the same about me, Like I sat on the bench for four years in college, so people didn't even know who
I was as a quarterback. But you know, playing an arena football in Europe, I think helped me to develop so that when I got back into the league, I was a better quarterback. I was closer to my ceiling at that point, but nobody knew that. Like all everybody would see is like, well, the ceiling's not very high. Because he's sat on the bench for four years at an FCS school, he must not be very good. But
we don't really know. And that's why we miss is because you know, if if there was a chart out there that said, Okay, Matt ceiling is right here and he's playing at this level, then we could go, oh, okay, he's only got a little ways to go. Let's go find the guy. But but you know, it's not out there, and so it's just a crapshoot. Most of the time.
You're like one of the greatest redemption stories of all time. And then you've got guys you have to appreciate it. I'm guessing as an analyst, when you see a guy like Baker Mayfield what he's done over the last two seasons, are a guy like Sam Darnold, who these guys were high draft picks but were written off, you know, just a few years ago, and then they come back, they get into the right system, they have the right offense, and all of a sudden they excel. Even Bryce Young
this year gets bench shirley on. Everybody's saying, oh, this kid's going to be a bus He's not this, that or the other, and then he comes out and plays tremendously well down the stretch.
Do you love why? I mean, I know I do, But do you.
Love and appreciate that aspect of the NFL and for guys like that and what they've been able to do this season?
Yeah? Yeah, And I think different stories different ways. So like you said, I can you know, associate with the Jared Goffs and the Baker Mayfield, who are guys that in their first spot. I believe we're starting quarterbacks in the NFL, like really good quarterbacks like Bakers should still be in Cleveland. You know, I understand the Rams and getting Matthew Stafford, and you know, you can say what
you want there because obviously staff is incredible. But Jared led them to a super Bowl in you know, his first few years. I mean it was playing really really
good football. So he was a good player. And so I understand that because I played really well in Saint Louis and then they kind of said, hey, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna go a different direction, and then being able to come back and show people like I was never not that guy, Like I don't know what you saw or why you decided that, but I was never.
So I loved those stories like I love you know, Baker and Jared and the success that they're having, and kind of going, I don't know what you guys were thinking, but this is who I've been all along. And then I can also relate to, you know, the Sam Darnolds. You know that I was cut by my first NFL team and had to journey around and fight my way back, and and I can appreciate that for for two different reasons.
You know that there's one reason where you know, you do wonder about circumstance, right, you wonder about where the Jets were and they drafted him and did they give
him a real chance to compete? And so it's nice to see him having success in a situation now if that was the case, And then I can also associate it with the other side of saying, maybe Sam wasn't ready at the time, just like I'm not sure I was ready at the time that I got my first opportunity, and so there's something too being able to step away from a situation and go, Okay, how do I need
to get better? You know, instead of just saying, oh, this was all the jets, So this was all the packers cutting me and nobody recognizing my talent may have been the case to some degree, but I think there was also part of it where I had to go okay, but if nobody's seeing it, what am I missing?
Like?
What's the problem here? And where can I get better? So when I do get my next opportunity, I'm ready for it, and so I can appreciate all the different levels of that, you know. I sat down with Geno Smith this year and I was asking him that same thing, you know, like where were you and why did this happen? And how can you be so good now? And he goes, because I needed to learn, you know, and he used a phrase, and I always love this phrase. He said, I didn't know what I didn't know, And that is
so true with so many guys. As you get into the NFL and everybody expects you to know everything, and you think, oh, I know everything. I was really good in college. So I got it all. I know, I know it all. And then you realize, oh god, I didn't know that. Oh and I didn't know that, and
I needed somebody to show me that. And so, like you mentioned Bryce Young, what a great example that you know, he's starting for you know, a year and two games, and then he gets benched because he's not playing very good football. I mean flat out not playing well in at all, you know, holding the ball too long and you know, not being able to see it in all this stuff. So then he sits behind Andy Dalton for a few weeks, the ultimate pro in Andy Dalton. And now he comes back at the end of the year
and he is literally a different player. Like I watch him and I'm like, could five or six weeks on the bench really, you know, change all of that. Like he's getting it out on time, he's making throws that he made and you're just you're kind of odd by how bad it was at the beginning of the year and how good it is now. But you know, I sat down again with him because we covered one of his games, and he said that was a big part
of what he did was step back. And now there's no expectations, and he just watched kind of how Andy did it and how Andy played and how the offense was supposed to run. And now he's come in a completely different player because of that. And so I just I appreciate that side of it too, Like it's okay to say I wasn't good enough. I didn't have all the tools. I didn't know what I needed to know the first time around. And I appreciate guys that, if taken on that run said, but now I got it.
Now I've learned it. You know, I've accepted that I was around this coach and that player and they helped me, and now I see what I didn't know. Now I know it. Now I've got a chance to put my best foot forward like a Sam Donold is right now. And so I do appreciate that side of it too, because because I was there.
Final two questions in mine is how you look at me? I'm like a six point five on the look scale. I know I'm no beauty. No, I don'tkay, no, I'm better than average, but I don't I'm definitely no beauty. Or I look at Kurt like a nine, right, and I would be so frustrated, to be good looking and have to wear a helmet when the other sports your
face is out there. If you're good looking, it's more did you ever have the need to like rip the helmet off, like after a touchdown so people could see that face?
So you get those shaving deals.
Kurt had more personal like the penalty, the fifty nerd penalty for taking his helmet off on the I check.
This, I got this.
Just wonder what good looking people feel like when they have to cover their face up.
Yeah, I don't really know that. I make a question for people that don't play football because that was never anything that I actually consider at any point in time in life. But to your point, though, I mean, you see it now all the time with you know, guys that are on commercials, Like I think that was one
of the things that the NFL. There wasn't as many guys doing commercials, you know, back in the day, And I think that was a big part of it was because people didn't recognize us like they recognized you know, guys that were on a basketball court because they didn't have the helmet on, and so there was only a select few guys that got those commercials. That's kind of The cool thing now is we see all kinds of different guys getting commercials now, so uh, you know, it's
more about personality than it's about anything else. But I gotta say, never once crossed my mind. I need to rip my helmet off so people can see.
Yeah, you would have been the first space that have been sure. Here we are Lions Kansas City. When we talk about breaks, there's there's the break, and then there's the super break where a lot of those guys you know, Jones and Mahomes and they didn't even play week eight. That's when it starts to feel to me like there may be too long of a break. Now again, I mentioned earlier, I tell jokes. I don't know personnel.
That's just that's just.
The coaching, knowing the personnel right and knowing who can take off two weeks and still bounce back three weeks later.
I think so, But I mean, look at I mean, you tell jokes. You say that, so like if you take time off from doing.
I'm the worst. Yeah, you know the last one is pretty good.
Yeah, if I'm off, if I don't tell jokes for two weeks and I go, if I'm torying you back on stage, I'm rusty as awful.
Yeah, that timing element, right, that that just kind of feel for you know, and so I always felt like that when I was playing. Now the thing you have to do you have to remember, though, is even though it's like twenty three days off or whatever it is, for Patrick Mahomes, like he's still practicing every day. He's not playing in the game for those three hours, but he's still going through every practice just like he always
goes through the practice. So it's not like taking twenty three days off from playing football and then we're throwing him out there for a playoff game and we're expecting him to play. Well, that's the first part of it. But I also when I look at Kansas City, they're not like a real timing oriented team. They're just kind of like it's kind of all over and it's kind of based on a field more than it is timing. For me, twenty three days would have been a long time.
Like I was based off of hit the back foot, let the ball go, trust your receivers, see you know the body language of the defense to know what what's going to be open and where you get. So timing was like Vito for the way that I played the game, I couldn't make up for it with all these other skills, So that would have been a long time. Like I would have probably been asking Andy Reid, Hey, can I can I at least play a half? You know? Can I go into this game and just just get my feel,
you know, kind of like a preseason game. Let me get my feel, let me get my comfort, like, Okay, I'm I'm here, I'm good mentally, I feel good, then you can take me out. But but I do think
that's a long time to be off. But I think if there's one team based on the way that they play, and I wouldn't even say one team, like I could see the Ravens doing that too, like Lamar Jackson, because it's not you know, it's not like m boom boom boom, you know, from an efficiency standpoint, it's more like feeling the game. Because I don't think Patrick Mahome is going to forget how to feel the game, and I don't think Lamar Jackson is going to forget how to feel
the game. They're going to go play the way they play. But for guys that are more like me, you know, and there's probably someone the Chiefs that are more kind of rep guys that need to be out there. I could see that being, you know, a little bit of an issue in their first game back.
You guys can watch cart every Sunday in NFL Game Day morning at nine am Eastern on NFL Network. I'm a massive fan. I know you and Matt know each other massive fan. We're both massive fans for different reasons. I was always, you know, wanted to watch it. I was like, take your home and off, man, you're so good, look and show us your face. So thank you real, thanks a lot for the past half hour. We really appreciate it. We'll be watching you coming up this weekend.
Kurt. I appreciate good luck with this, and I appreciate you guys having me on.
We need it.
Thank you, Thank you brother, Thank you, Kurt. I watched WWE on Netflix, and I am a wrestling kid.
I don't really not.
I don't want to say I'm not a wrestling guy now, but I don't keep up with it now like I used to as a kid.
I was dimard. I'm am arketsall.
We're hillbillies like it's I had Jeff Jarrett earlier today, who is in the w W Hall of Fame and is still like part of wrestling in his fifties. And was just talking to him about back in the nineties and two thousands, and did were you a wrestling kid?
You know what I was in the heyday.
So it's the whole Colgan, the Junkyard Dog.
I mean, give me, give me four.
All right, I've got a whole Colgan for sure, because he's whole Colgan. Rick Flair, I used to love the junkyard Dog. I used to love Sergeant Slaughter, I mean Slaughter.
When he turned bad, when he turned like Middle East art Slaughter. Yeah, that was that was weird. Yeah that's Andrey the Giant.
But now you're doing more than four. You know, you said five.
Mount Rushmore's four, You do him four plus.
No, No, I'm doing five because Mount Rushmore is going to add somebody up there someday.
I'm not even the president, the WWE man.
I mean We've got to add somebody. Give me, so say you're five again, out loud, Hulk, Hulk.
I had Andre the Giant, Rick Flair, I did. I named a lot more than I needed to. Sergeant Slaughter. Let's just go with those four well, who are you? Who is your gid?
Did you ever go tho? Did you ever go to match?
So my first match I ever went to, which was random because I don't think I went to another match my entire childhood, was in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were going with my cousins and guess who comes out but the Hulk himself.
Did you know he's going to be there? No, no idea.
I didn't even know who Hulk Wasn't that I mean I was a young kid and all I sort I.
Am American for sure. Yeah, it was. It was epic. Do you remember anybody else there?
No, not one other person, not one other person, but I remember the Hulk and that was song and it just was epic.
You know.
It's it's amazing because forever, you know, as a kid, you're sitting there watching these guys beat the hell out of each other and you're like.
How do they do that? Like how do these dudes go in there and fight?
And then as you get a little bit older, it loses a little bit of luster for you just because you're like, they still beat each other up and it's amazing what they do week in and week out. But at the same time, they're really not beating each other up.
Yeah, I think it loses the luster up they're not really fighting.
But as you get older, older, it gains the Oh my god, the athletes that these girls, freaks, freaks create the like flips, the landing there's the landing on like you're back inside, even that little padding on the floor, the ends they're jumping off. They're two hundred and fifty pounds undred seven. The athleticism is wild.
It is wild.
And then would you get up on the top ropes like you see and you see these guys do backflips and land on somebody or get thrown out of a ring and land perfectly in the middle of full table and break the table just for entertainment value. I mean, it's phenomenal how athletic these guys are, and especially at their size.
I was talking to Jeff, Jared, the guy was talking to today.
I was like, Hey, if.
Somebody gets hurt in a match, like if your right shoulder gets hurt, and they communicate under their breath or some speaking carny, they're all these languages they can speak in the ring, so people don't know that they're talking, Like, will you then protect their right shoulder if they're a the right shoulder, so you're only working on their left side.
He goes, Dude, that's almost every match somebody gets hurt doing something and you're like, right ankle, so the guy knows, just kick him in the left ankle.
Just but it's a dance.
Yeah, it's wild because the core it can't all be coordinated, right. They have to constantly call it. That's what we're talking about calling it in the ring. Yeah, and the cadence of that and to make it look real and then entertaining at the same time.
It's pretty amazing what they do.
And then also when they get up in front of the audience and they go on their rants.
Oh yeah, I think it's goodst spectacular, I would go Stinging is my favorite all time, especially blonde hearts. Aside from wrestling, there are four people that I've tried to have sit down and do an interview with me in person that I have not been able to get and only four as the White Whales.
David Letterman is my hero. Yes, I remember you saying that.
Mark Grace is my favorite ballplayer ever, baseball player Chicago Cubs first baseman never met him, tried Sting is one.
Of them, and I've never met Sting.
In my first book that I wrote, he signed it and sent it back, but I never sent it to him to begin with, which was.
Weird because I wrote whole thing about him.
I wrote a whole thing about him in the book, and I get a mailed back to me and he signed the page that I wrote about him, didn't write a message or anything. He just mailed the book back, and I was like, that's really cool, but that's really weird because I never said it and maybe write a note because I love Sting.
No, no, bro, you just get a signature over, like his name is the wildest thing. Oh a, Bobby, thanks for writing about me. Nothing Sting, love Sting.
We got to go hang out with Stone Cold Steve Boston at his ranch.
There's awesome love that dude, dude whatever we called them from the truck because we flew in and I'm never laid anywhere right, like not that talented, So I got to be disciplined on when I'm gonna get somewhere, where I'm gonna get somewhere, I say it, I'm gonna be about it.
So we're like mister Cold, we're gonna be at your ranch at two pm. And he doesn't live near airport. So we flew private into a small place and then we're gonna drive like thirty minutes over to his ranch. There were so many clouds over the airport we couldn't land. I'm humiliated because I'm like, we're right, we're not gonna make it.
We can't.
We gotta fly to a different airport another half hour away. And so we call him. He's like, yeah, uh, that's all right. I'm just at the ranch anyway, just let me So I'm nervous. I'm nervous about even showing up late. And I'm like, I just want to tell you, Steve, I'm so I should not have been late. And he's like and he curses nonstock and he's like, dude, ranch anyway, we sat with them.
He could not have been a nicer, warmer, more generous.
It was amazing. That's amazing.
Yeah, So you love people like that too, And he's he's authentically real too, right.
Especially super elite in their field who are constantly celebrated because they don't have to act like that, right, yet they still do. And I find that a lot though, Like the more famous the person, the nicer they are because they have nothing to prove.
Right, they're more harmful a lot of us, and they're like they're past all the other minutia.
I would go sting. I would go stone cold Steve Auston. That was right when I was like checking out or watching it every week.
But he's massive. U. Macho man, Randy Savage.
Oh, macho man, I forgot it.
Old brother who was the greatest athlete.
So he played maybe minor league baseball or college baseball really, but get this, he was let's say, right handed, broke his arm, so he just played with his other hand and had to learn. And so then what didn't pitch anymore, like played first base, but started to play with his other hand. He broke one of his arms and then used his other arm, had to learn. He was that kind of athlete. That's absurd. It's absurd. That's what we're
These guys are like crazy. So macho Man is there and probably like a Rick Flair just because of what he meant to the sport.
I mean, Rick's pretty special.
Yeah, I was watched the Netflix thing. It's cool that wrestling has gotten so big. It has it's back into pop like pop culture, even like the sports, like they hold up the championship belts for like an interception and stuff like it's back in.
I mean, I'm telling you it took the kids down to the Summer Slam here in Nashville at Nissan Stadium. It was incredible, like just the production and everything that goes in. We sat two rows behind and it was Roman Reigns and brock Lessener in the main event, and I mean it was awesome and people love it. I mean that stadium was packed to the gills.
Yeah, it's a football stadium.
Too, it is, but then they also put the seats on the field, so you're talking about further capacity in what you get for even a football game.
I mean, it was packed and it was awesome.
This has been my very first ever episode.
Thank you.
When I'm sure the microphones have been on, we could have just been talking to ourselves. So if anybody is actually hearing this, thank you for listening.
Hey, Kevin run us.
Each game, let's let's we'll pick each winner in each of the playoff games and we'll call it a day. We do have Tim McGraw coming up in the next episode or two. Jared Allen coming over, so we hope that they resigned us for another episode.
Weren't kidding. We're in a one week contract. Game one. Just go a FC side first.
Kevin, you got Chargers Texans, Chargers Texans.
I'm going with the Chargers. Want the Chargers. Yeah, I like.
I like the Chargers, justin Herbert and just what they bring, the physicality in which they play with.
I just I like the Chargers a.
Lot down arrow on the Texans right now as far as like trending up or down. I didn't really get season two from Stroud. Unfair to expect better than his rookie year, but you just expect growth one to two, as they say, the most growth happens between one and two, right.
But I think Houston surprised a lot of people last year with the rookie quarterbacks and all they have a young team and the way that they came in and just kind of took over that division last year. But then this year, people the expectation level rises and they're expecting this team to be really good, and then all of a sudden people kind of are like, Okay, we got to get.
Up for this game.
Bad division, bad division, really bad division.
I'm agreeing with you, though, I'm just be guess Texans down more than Chargers up.
But Chargers are going to be really good in the next couple of years.
Yeah, I mean Harbaugh. Look, he's a stud man. He wins everywhere he goes.
He's gonna be getting like a Tyreek who's not the Tyreek of five years ago. But Tyrek's like, I'm leaving the Dolphins and he's gonna have a wider, a big number one, not just mconkey, and it's They're gonna be awesome.
He only wins, all right. Next game, Steelers.
Ravens, Yeah, Ravens, and but you know, the Steelers are going to play them closer than they should because they always play them closer than they should.
They will and this is the third time they've met, and it was recent that they played, so they're so familiar with each other. But I just think the Ravens Lamar Jackson, the way he's playing, and Derrick Henry and just.
All the weapons that they have.
What about the pressure on them more because he's got it.
He's got it, man. Is that a real thing to him? Now?
Like everyone and says, I do not perform when it comes to the playoffs, well, I.
Think they've earned the right to say it's Super Bowl or bust. I mean, because there have been such a dominant team for so long during the regular season and they get to this stage and to take that next step as a player and to become the lead of the elite, which he already is the elite elite.
In the regular season. Now he's got to go win a super Bowl next game.
Yeah, Broncos Bills, Broncos Bills.
This is just a which quarterback is far and above the best quarterback? And I mean that this is a quarterback game right right And really, to.
Me, it's the Bills.
And plus they're at home, and you know that there's going to be conditions, and I know that Buffalo is Buffalo's I mean, yeah, Denver's cold for sure. But at the same time, it's just a different environment up there with the Bills mafia and everything else going on. And when you have Josh Allen back there pulling the trigger, I mean, it's going to be a difficult game for the Broncos to go into that stadium and beat that team.
Right now? Yeah, did o Marx, That's all I need to say. Did A Marx in that one. I agree.
Next NFC time Packers at the Eagles.
That's a fun one. I'm going to go with the Eagles.
Hey, so is he out a concussion protocol yet? Do we know like Jalen Hurts.
He's still he still was in concussion protocol? What I and what I read now that could have changed today.
Yes, And we're recording this late Tuesday.
This is going to go up early Wednesday, so he could be out right now.
That would change the dynamics of this game dramatically, all because green Bay.
Green Bay's got a stout defense. There's what's up, Kevin.
He's still in as of two hours ago, he's still in.
More we're expecting him to be out. So let's just say everything. Help is still going to go Eagles green Bay, though, like you said.
If Jalen hurts us out, I'm going to go green Bay.
Okay, But if he's out, I say, there's no way he misses.
There's no way. There's no way. So we're both going to go Eagles. What do you think about Sirianni? So, Nick Sirianni, I called them pipes.
He was with me his first year in the league in Kansas City and you as a player of coach. He was a coach, first year coach there, and he was, you know, like the bottom of the barrel, but awesome. Dude walked around with these tight shirts, always flex in on people and all this stuff.
But he's made his track up.
Now.
I'll tell him this to his face.
I'm like, dude, what are you doing bantering with fans on the sideline and doing all that stuff.
I'm just like, come on, Pipes, what are you doing? Pipes?
I mean, but at the end of the day, you you can't take away his track record. I mean, the dude wins ball games and that team is as good as they are. And then the NFL and they've been for quite some time. So if they're at full health and we've got hurts playing, I'm going.
Yeah, me too.
Next Commanders, Bucks, This is the you know what, this is the game that you sit there and you go you could go either way.
I'm going to go Bucks. Again. If it's either way, I'm usually going to go quarterback.
And if quarterbacks tight, I'm gonna go to quarterback and coach yep, and I'm going to go Bucks. Baker do for four thousand yards. Baker's also not a rookie mm hmm. And from my time playing in the league, you never know what rookie is gonna do when the lives come on.
Right And when you look at Washington, their defense is struggled a little bit down the stretch, and.
They've got a rookie quarterback, but he's amazing. I think they'll be able to put up some points.
But I just believe Baker Mayfield the way that he's playing, and especially these last three games, I mean, I believe the Bucks are gonna win at home.
Last one.
Here Vikings at the Rams.
See, this is the one. To me is this is the Mystery Prize. I'm gonna go and this is that game. And I know Chaos is your boy. He is I know KSI boy. So I'm gonna go first, and I'm gonna go Rams, because again, if i'm gonna go, it's close. I'm gonna go quarterbacks first, and I'm gonna go Stafford and Darnold. I'm taking Stafford. And if I'm gonna go coaches, listen, Kaos's from.
The McVeigh tree. He is exactly. So I'm gonna go with the Rams.
They're familiar with each other. I mean, and they're coming off a devastating loss. At the same time, when you look at the Vikings what they achieved this year. They played earlier in the season, it was a heck of the game and Stafford, he was like seventy five percent in that game and played out of his mind.
I'm gonna go with my boy, Yeah you should.
I'm gonna go with my boy. I'm gonna go with the Vikings. And you know the fact that they're what were they fourteen and three this season and they're playing an away game right.
Now, crazy that itself is crazy. It's kind of nuts.
All right, Thank you guys for listening. We will see you guys again real soon. And then we have a theme song on the backside too, so hit that theme song. Will please follow us, like if you see us in your town, just follow us in your car, subscribe on YouTube.
I don't even know where these buttons are, but push one of them, all right, Bye, guys.
Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts