It's nice time with Dan Ray. I'm going you beasy Boston News Radio, all.
Right now, thanks a lot appreciated. Dad is often doing a little football action special. Thanks to our entertainment guru Cooper Lawrence for joining us. Also early in the program, Joe Lopino Esposito attorney talking about the TikTok man and our next guest, my good friend from the coast, Tanya Ray, Fox Ladies and gentleman of Fox Sports. I do want to get her thoughts on TikTok because she is that's a big deal for her.
It's weird gonna be But if for.
The next forty eight hours follow Tanya Fox on TikTok, That's what I'm telling you.
Do it now? Fox? How you holding up?
Oh?
You know, I'm hanging in there. I'm doing just about as well as like a one hundred million other Americans at this point.
But you know, so, what's you have to say? I love you, man.
You still have the same attitude you always have. What's it like out there? I mean you guys, you Santa Monica.
I used to being I'm over like a little bit further south, actually closer to lax which works out really well for me, but we're in the safe zone from any of the fires and things like that. Just really bad air quality. But otherwise, you know, it's taking a few years off of my life. But you know, I live, I mean live near the Pacific Ocean, so I guess it's worth it.
Well, that's so if you had stayed back here in Boston, you would have lost those years anyways, you know exactly, So you just have to look at it like that.
Sorry, let's get to talk at some sports here, because you need to follow Tanya on social media. She's on all her social media handles, handles, excuse me, at Tanya ray Fox. You can follow her on x you can go TikTok for the next forty eight hours anyways, and Instagram or whatever is coming next. I love your stuff on social media. I love your quick one minute hits, your opinions.
I think they're great.
I think people they're insightful, they're fun, so people should definitely follow them. Let's start with Rabel. Now, when Vrabel was a player here, you were working with us, had a Comcast.
Correct, that was before my time. I was still I was still very very young and in high school and college. When Brabel was there, But you suck?
Are you kidding me? I did that?
Yeah?
Oh god, so you don't remember when do you've ever when Brabel?
Oh no, I did not know the story.
Oh no, we we well.
Greg and I used to get down to Foxborough and we would do the friendly scoop and the first one was Richard Seymour and then after Seymour left, uh.
It was Vrabel. Brabel did it.
So we would pay these guys so much a week to come on and pretend to be our friend to talk to us. And we did this bit where we lined up in a line of scrimmage and Rabel just sent me back twenty yards, I mean, and he didn't even break He barely used any of his strength.
And I swear to god, I thought I broke a ribcage. I mean I was. It's on video somewhere of he just blocked.
It.
Actually might be your It might be your most impressive, impressive athletic feat that you didn't break any bones in that scenario. I were you, I would use that.
I was going to say it was my greatest journalist journalistic feet that too. But there was no doubt that Rabel was going to become a coach.
We know that. What did you think of the whole deal?
I think that Rabel is a good hire. I think he's a good head coach, a good hire. He makes sense for the organization. A lot of what I've talked about about the situation is just that I find the whole approach of the organization from ownership to be very confusing.
I don't quite know what the Crafts are trying to send as far as the message for what they're trying to no pun intended craft the organization into going forward, because there's been this very anti Belichick sentiment coming out of the organization for the last year plus and this idea that they are going to move in a very
different direction. They wanted to leave behind the Belichick way and move into something that was a little bit more progressive, a little bit more forward thinking, and they didn't want somebody at the helm who had a ton of power over personnel and had just I mean, Belichick was the most powerful head coach in the NFL for obvious reasons. So okay, they hire Girodmeo. That makes sense, you know, in the ways that the Craft sort of described it, which was like it's going to be this sort of
soft launch out of the Belichick era. Fine, we all know what happened there. We don't have to kind of
get into the politics of that. But to me, Rabel is actually a step back toward Belichick in a lot of ways, and the fact that they've given him so much say over personnel, I personally think is probably for the best, to be quite honest, I think it's unless you have a really really elite GM like you know, Bret each or Howie Roseman or someone like that, having the coach involved in the personnel decisions, especially if they have the kind of ties to the organization, understand ownership
and everything else the way that Rabel does. I don't hate it. I just I'm very frustrated with what the Crafts have asked of Patriots fans in terms of this departure from Belichick. You don't you know, there are very few coaches that have reached that level, and I think that everybody's feeling a little bit disillusioned at this point because we should be excited to have this new head coach who's familiar and part of the dynasty and Patriots
Hall of Famer. But I sense from a lot of Patriots fans who at least engage with my content, which again could be an echo chamber that there's just like, Okay, this is great, but this seems like you're actually just looking for Belichick two point out. Quite honestly, do.
You have a do you think.
In retrospect, post Belichick or I'm going to say post Brady Quite frankly, what should the crafts have done?
Well, I'm on record as saying they should have let Belichick coach until he died or could no longer function. I think there's about there's a handful of coaches in the history of sports that just kind of earn that. And while I do think, yes, of course everybody has has fireable offenses, there were so many things that were starting from the quarterback position down that were hamstringing their
ability to actually win games. I mean he did with McDaniel's take Mac Jones to the playoffs, which in retrospect was a real incredible feat, right and there, Yes, I think that there was a lot of things Belichick was stuck in. He's showing in US at UNC right now that he just will not work with anybody that he hasn't had a relationship with. For thirty years plus or he's not related to It's a lot, and that's a
lot to deal with. However, unless you have the perfect succession plan, moving on from somebody like this is is just such a difficult task. And I don't think that there. You can you can see in the way that people still interact with Belichick in the national media and throughout even on social media, just he still carries so much weight.
His opinion and his what he's up to carries so much weight, and just for business reasons alone, Belichick was an important person to the Patriots organization, Like you can't trying to move on from that as if there's you know, there's a replacement for that kind of social cachet. I think I think Crafts misunderstood how much he himself could carry the Patriots franchise and the Patriots name and the Patriots brand on his own post Brady Belichick and abandoning
that both. I mean, Brady was eventually retire regardless of whether he left or not. But saying we can just move on from this entirely when you know Belichick's going to keep coaching, you know he's still going to be in the public eye to may It was just a bad business decision more than anything else.
But what about the picking the players, because we all know Belichick and coach. I mean, Belichick could be ninety in coach, but the roster seemed to be going downhill.
Yeah, I think that the roster issues were a little bit overblown. Yes, there were issues. There's always been issues at wide receiver and his inability to fully adjust to life post Brady with his biggest downfall, Right, was this idea that you could get away with being stingy at wide receiver and or being a poor drafter quite honestly at wide receiver when you had Brady making up for all of those mistakes. Absolutely right, he didn't seem to
fully Yeah, he didn't seem to fully grasp that. Like that was not going to be an approach that you could have with Mac Jones or anybody else really, I mean unless you had Chick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or one of these dudes who are like absolutely truly elite. So that, but I also do feel like when you make so you're now made the playoffs with Mac Jones as a rookie louse McDaniels. Again, this is like a pattern through Patriots.
Yeah, that really hurt him, you know, Telly, that's a good point that hasn't discussed enough that the loss of McDaniel sent thim south because then he put it defensive guys in and that was stupid.
Yeah, it was stupid, and he there were definitely his issue. I just I think that the conversation about the drafting thing is just so deeply overblown because when you lose Brady, that the whole idea was that Brady leaving made exposed Belichick right as is bad GM. But when they were winning super Bowls and building those rosters while having Brady, the whole discussion was, this is how you build a roster when you had one of the great quarterbacks of
all time. Right, So it's like, okay, well he didn't have one of the great quarterbacks of all time. He had to, you know, go through the COVID season with Cam Newton's pretty good season all things considered when you look back at it, and then Mac Jones as a rookie, they make the playoffs and then yeah that things were rough. Morale was low. Turns out Mac Jones not a great offensive leader, not let alone the performance on the field
there was a lot going on. So I look back at those draft class I'm like, there's some players in there that really matter that I think would have had everything been going right in the other areas, people wouldn't be so nitpicky about There's just to me when you start talking about the personnel and he had too much power,
It's just like, you can't have it both ways. You either think that he has a knack for building defense and special teams and a weakness on offense, and you deal with it, or you don't and crap decided he didn't want to do with it. But I think replacing that level of experience is a lot more difficult than people realize.
Well, there's no doubt about that. And if he had not put his two.
Defensive guys there and his special teams coach, you know, got I'm so old, I forget their names, but everybody knows what I'm talking about. How about that? How arrogant am I? You know what I'm talking about people, but I can't remember their names.
But I don't remember anyone's names. And I'm not old.
Well obviously not after I thought you were older than you were. But if you just put in a regular offensive coordinator. You know, you could have used Mac Jones as a bridge to get you to the next guy. But when he messed up the offense, So what's that?
I don't think. So I don't know what.
I think.
Mac Jones is a failure. No matter what, you don't think Jels.
You don't think you could have used them for a couple of years just to maybe make the playoffs and then look for the next quarterback.
No, absolutely not, No, I think with I think, I mean yes, I do think that had you gotten a McDaniel's level caliber two offensive coordinator, you probably could have made Josh McDaniels look a little bit I mean sorry, I made Mac Jones.
Looked a little bit more serviceable for a little bit longer. But he was always going to regress because he was essentially just a McDaniel's system quarterback as a It just was this always happens with these guys who have these decent but unimpressive rookie seasons, but they make the playoffs whatever, we start thinking wow, like, you know, this is something that they could build on. But those guys also start thinking that and if you don't have the right mentality,
which Mac Jones just didn't. He did not have the mentality of a franchise quarterback that could be the team. They end up becoming exactly what he did, which was over confident, not working on his passing game, not working on his mechanics, not working well with his coaches. Like those things were always going to happen past rookie season. They probably would have happened with McDaniel's too, It's just
he ended up kind of that. McDaniels is one of those dudes who, with the right guy, can have those types of seasons. And he's not going to work for every type of quarterback but that pure you know, pocket passer.
Yeah, yeah, he can make it work. What do you think about Belichick at seventy two years old and what was it his twenty four year old girlfriend came out and said he's staying at Carolina.
Yeah, no, Grandpa's creepy as heck. Grandpa's Grandpa's gotta get off the fact that he's on social media now. And I'm like, dude, can you not do you know how many people give me crab about this, Like I cried when this guy retired and now he's being weird, So I just calm, creepy Grandpa, because there's nothing, there's no other way for me to cope, Like this guy's this guy has been in my life, you know since I was like thirteen years twelve, thirteen years old, and I
just have to live with the creepiness. But you know he's not the only one.
So well, No, there's a lot of seventy two year old guys that if there was a young twenty four year old woman would want to marry them or live with him, that would certainly say yes. It's the other way around, is like you have to want yeah.
God, oh I do, I do wonder And you know what, that's not for me, that's for her to deal with. That's her own trauma to deal with. And I'm glad it's I'm glad that I was never in that specific position. But either way, you know, wish them the best. Don't want to see it. Please leave it away from my eyeballs.
Got it?
Tay Ray Fox is with us from Fox Sports in Los Angeles. We're going to continue the conversation on Rabel in the NFL. Coming up next to WBZ.
Now Baptist Dan Ray live from the Window World Nice Side Studios. On WBZ News Radio.
Social media star was kid check her out on all the platforms x TikTok at least for the next forty eight hours in Instagram and whatever is coming down the road from FS one and Fox Sports. It's our own Tanya Ray Fox. All right, let's get to Rabel in the situation.
Now.
I had Bert Breyer on last night, and you know, Burt's prey plugged in as you know. So this is what we figured out so far that Rabel will have final say, but he's not going to get caught up in the day to day front office stuff that Bill did.
He will have people.
In the front office do that for him, possibly Elliott Wolf with another Vrabel guy that have they've worked together in the past. So Able still will have final say, but unlike Bill, he's not going to be playing GM every minute of every day.
I don't know what you think about that.
Yeah, I mean I think that that tracks right. Bill was really Bill Belichick was really the only guide doing what Bill Belichick was doing for a reason, and quite honestly, it takes a lot of It takes a lot of energy and effort to even do the regular head coach job. Let alone be in charge of personnel and hiring that and sort of managing that to begin with. So it makes it makes perfect sense to me that they would have people installed to do the day to day management
of that. And you know, I still think it's fine that that rabel is sort of crafting the personnel and then letting it be managed elsewhere. He's i mean, he's there, he's in the building, he's taking care of things, like it makes the most sense. But you know, there's there was there's maybe two coaches in the last you know, twenty five years that would be qualified to do anything more than that, quite honestly.
Well, And one of the things that Bert said would be Friday during a season, nine am and Bill would be in a meeting about the draft during the season. It's like, why you don't have to be Yeah, I mean, you know, you know, there's no need for that. And I think verybel understands that where you have the right people in the front office that can do that day to day stuff, and then when the season's over, it's time to get ready for the draft to come in and they tell you.
What's up, Yeah, Belichick coming. I mean, he's always his need to be involved in absolutely everything. It was good until it wasn't right, and it was productive until it wasn't. And when you didn't have to micromanage your quarterback, when your quarterback was actually sitting with you in meetings, when you trusted their instincts, when you had those conversations and you weren't developing a young rookie or dealing with Cam Newton coming in from the Panthers during COVID seasons and
all of this other stuff. You that's when Belichick should have been able to recognize that that's spreading yourself too thin and that you're not focusing on the task at hand, which is something that he preached to absolutely everybody else. And I think the player the coaches who are former players have a different perspective on what needs to be
invested in the players in order for them to succeed. Now, there's varying degrees of success in doing that, but Vrabel, he was there seeing what worked early on when Belichick, before Belichick had the greatest coach, the greatest quarterback of all time, when he just had a really incredible quarterback, a really great quarterback. And so that early dynasty is actually the best belichick blueprint, and that's where he played,
That's when he played for him. So whatever he took out of that is absolutely going to be applied to how he functions as somebody who's in charge of personnel but is really focusing on being a head coach and understanding where these players are coming from. That is the pro to having a former player as a coach. When it works. When it doesn't work, it looks a lot more like Gerrod Mayo, who is trying a little too
hard to relate to the players. And I do think that Rabel has the has a better balance, has struck a better balance at that.
Did I ever tell you that Mike Vrabel's story when he first came here from Pittsburgh, fact that when you were obviously like you in high school.
Yeah, so Vrabel came in.
Was here in one o two. I can't remember if it was. I think it was after the first Super Bowl. I think he was here for the next two Super Bowls yet, because yeah, he might have been here for the first one because Rabel was a linebacker in Pittsburgh or a defensive end hybrid type of thing, and he was actually the guy that knocked the ball out of drew Bloodshoe's hand when the Patriots lost to Pittsburgh in the title game. So Vrabel was a stud coming out
of Ohio State. When he got to Pittsburgh, he kind of got lost in the shuffle, right, and his stock went down. So Bill was able to make a good deal for him and bring him in. But he wasn't he wasn't considered one of the top backers. Atsbergery was in, like you know Greg Lloyd or all those guys down there, right, So when they brought him over, I was doing sports tonight, which I'm sure you were watching every night, and I said, what the hell is Mike Rabel?
What is this guy gonna do? Right?
So Larry Iso and all those guys like I used to laugh, like Rodney Harrison watched us every night and you go into locker room and he would just kill us, absolutely destroy.
Us, which we loved.
And so Iso recorded the thing and he puts it on Rabel's voicemail that this is this tangue guy saying, who's Mike Rabel?
What the hell's he done? Anyway?
So I first meet Rabel, I mean he is like he is he is like steams coming out of his nose, you know, he's sorting.
I'm like, what the hell is this guy's problem? I go, what, I don't even know the guy? What's going on here?
And later on down the road, I found out that that was the deal with rabel And when he first came to New Way, he really and I interviewed him later on as a player, he had to kind of reinvent himself.
He had to.
That's something that and that's something that's so that story, the you know, sort of underutilized, maybe misused, or just hasn't had their opportunity to really shine player coming to Belichick and the Patriots and having this thriving career is a repeating thing that happened throughout the dynasty. We've seen it happen over and over again. From Rabel on. I mean, there are a lot of players who had that same story.
Undrafted dudes, Wes Welk or whatever else. These guys could come and ended up having these incredible careers and was a quarterback. Yeah, I mean, it happened so many. I mean we could sit here and go back and forth and name probably twenty players that had a very similar experience, whether it was for a couple of years or ten years with the Patriots, right, and whether they were part
of the Super Bowl run or not. And Rabel having that you know, chip on his shoulder thing where it's like I remembered that you didn't even know who I was and said the stuff about me on the radio. Whatever else is also so it's just so typical of these types of players that ended up playing for Belichick, and he like would feed into those He would feed into those chips and make them even more worked up.
But I mean, yeah, that was how listen. Like I said, first of all, you don't have to keep reminding everybody that you think I'm older than I am. By the way, we could just what the reality is. The reality is, Gary, I was just a lot younger when I met you than you remember, because I was an intern, a college intern, okay, but.
But your presence loomed large.
So good because you when you came in as an intern, you didn't act it that that was the difference. I was like, oh my god, boss, we just got a new boss, new person running the place here.
That's so fair. But what I was going to say is that I do remember. I mean I was old enough to remember the type of personality that Rabel was. And so that story that you're telling, both of these stories where he tried to maybe kill you and also just already having a chip on his shoulder about anybody saying anything about him in the in the media. Those that that tracks for me, and he still gives off that energy. It's just normal.
But I'll tell you something though, Tiny what what I've I've said this, and I mean, he's not gonna listen to me, but I would tell him because I've seen this happen all the time Rabel came into town. He's going to be the dude that rescues the franchise and I believe he will. I will they be a dynasty again. As we all know, you have to find the quarterback. You have to find who's going to be the next Brady. You know, who's going to be the next franchise quarterback.
You need that. That's just and that's luck, that's just pure luck. But veryble in a couple of years will have him in the playoffs. They'll be a competitive team. They'll be worth watching. There's no doubt in my mind. You know about that. But you know at his press conference, he God blessed Rochie. The first thing he says is hey Roachie.
You know.
Then he goes on with Current and then he goes with Beatlen Zoe and it's just this big love fest. And I actually was talking to Shaughnessy about this. I said, he has to remember if he doesn't win, that's going to end quickly and people are going to second guess him up and down. And as soon as you get on the field and you become the coach that Lovin is over and he has to run.
You know, it's.
Interesting because you was at My first instance is to say, there's no way he doesn't understand that because the boss and media has been like this forever. If anything, they've gotten softer than they were. Definitely absolutely brutal, right.
Absolutely, thank god for Shaughnessy. He's the last guy left. He is the.
He's the last holdout of from the early era of just absence. I mean, some of those columns are just crazy to go back and read. But on the flip side, Rabel when he was in New England, was part of it was during a LoveFest and it wasn't miss the Patriots. The Red Sox had started winning like this, The city was euphoric in a way that really people hadn't experienced in so really ever, nobody alive had really experienced it. So I it's funny because I think about it, I'm like, well,
he should know that, but now I'm wondering. I mean, he's been gone a long time in terms of his association with the Patriots as somebody where you know, people would actually be talking about him critically. His last season with them was in two thousand and eight, right, so that it's been a lot. Even that season with al Brady, they went eleven and five, and you know, people were disappointed, but more than anything, it was like, how does the
team go eleven in five and miss the playoffs? So yeah, he you know, I will be really interested to see how he adjusts to it if there is critique, and it's going to be yeah, I.
Mean, I mean, yeah, it's going to be a sports radio and the press conferences and the questions, Oh he's gonna get pissed.
Oh he's gonna get passed, no doubt to get pissed.
I'm fine with that. Fine, carry like I love I love a feisty head coach. I love somebody who's mad about it. I love every Joe Missoula, all of it. I don't need. I don't need boring people who don't know how to talk to the media. I'd rather have somebody who's making people mad and engaging or being even I I was one of the people who, like, always loved how salty Bill Belichick was, how weird he was.
I know, the people who had to constantly interview him hated it, and it ended up grinding on them after twenty years. And I understand that. But there's something about somebody who actually shows their personality at a press conference, whether you like their personality or not, that I like. And Brabil is one of those dudes.
And it's okay when you win. More with Tanya ray Fox coming up next here in WBZ.
It's Night Side with Boston's news radio.
Fox Sports a fice one timey ray Fox joining us here and as she reminded me, a former intern.
Which is just an attempt to make me feel old. Do you know how many former interns I have?
Listen?
It was only because you kept being like, you're much younger than I thought you were, which is, you know, an insane thing to say on radio about your guests. So I was just reminding people that, you know, that's that's why, that's it's just been so long because I was just so young and fry, you know.
And that's impressionable.
And you guys, you came in wide I thinking we knew what we were doing, and then you worked there for a year and realized everybody working in sports television is a fraud. Okay, so, oh my god, So it's so amazing. I really tell you. I try to tell people, you know, for twenty five years, I had the easiest gig in the world, because is when you talk to people that aren't that are sports fans, they think, Okay, oh my god, you guys work so hard, you stay up on it.
You know, I'll leave. I go, dude, it's sports. I'm not you know. I remember I got into a debate.
It was coming Monday night football with the Broncos and the Patriots, and I had a friend in Denver. I went to their house after and everybody by the time I got there, everybody's hammered, right, including this little dude who wanted to just debate me on everything in sports everything.
And I'm like, oh my god, this this guy is so annoying.
Somehow we got onto the topic of who's better, Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky.
I don't ask me how, and I went, I.
Go Lemieux and he goes, no way, and he like, I thought the guy was going to attack me, and I go, I got to get away from the student.
I'm like, what's his deal?
And they go, oh, yeah, he's he's a heart surgeon. I'm like what and he's hammered. Oh my god, I go, I hope he's not. I hope he's not in surgery tomorrow.
I'll tell you that.
But that's that's just the thing is like people look at us that work in sports and they they definitely think there's so much more to it than there is.
It's well, and part of.
It is also, yeah, like these are people that the sports are their outlet, like they're funny thing, and so they're like, oh my gosh, I get to talk to somebody who does this for like no one ever wants to go and talk to you about heart surgery. But the reverse amazing, right, Like this person's got I can bounce all of my ridiculous things off this person and they're going to know what I'm talking about which is
really a thing. I mean, I will tell you this, Gary, the respect for people who work in sports media, the real like thinking everybody is super qualified, that's gone way out the windows in social media. I have to be on most people just assume I'm I mean it might peop because I'm a woman too, but just assume they would one hundred percent could do my job any minute of any day. So like, it's really it's taken a full one to eighty from the days.
Of digital question.
But back I agree because my Emerson students, who I think are younger than you know, the emersons. I had a friend, I had a freshman class. I had a freshman class in Emerson. I'm like, oh my god, these poor SAPs. God they don't now. I'm like, uh, and they all gamble, I mean now the DraftKings thing, They're all. I go, I don't know how you guys are doing it?
Is this legal?
They're asking? The first question they asked me was the professor tag. I said, first of all, it's Gary, there's no professor act here. And they said, they said, would you take the over under of some receiver? And I said, stop, stop, put the phone away. We're not doing We're not doing DraftKings here in the class. Okay, we're just not one of the kids said to me. He goes, I go, he was really the guy was a professional camera. I go, do you keep track? He says, well, I'm up like
nineteen grand since I started. I go, You've got to be kidding me. Oh my god, it's crazy. It's crazy.
I mean, I'm not you know, I'm not big into the like sports game. I mean I always though people, I'm like, I cover sports like a.
Sports gambling Do you have to be a lot?
I know, I know, I yes, you do. And so I mean the basic stuff, the spreads and that kind of stuff, like you know whatever, But the real deep sports, I'm like, guys, I that is not my thing and it's not my cup of tea in terms of getting really into the weeds because I actually care about the sports and the analysis, the real nitty gritty xs and odes of this stuff, and then also the broader theme. And people want to talk to me about gambling. I'm
like this. You know, one of my best friends is a professional poker player, and so he is obsessed with sports gambling and I won't even watch sports with him because I'm like, I can't this too much. I want to talk about the game, and you actually don't really care what's happening in the game as long as you know what I mean. And that's that's a totally different experience. And so the fact that that's taken over definitely changes
how you have to interact with people, especially on social media. Obviously, I have the talk shows, like the talk shows that I work on Fox Sports One, Like it's a lot still, you know, the class sports conversation and debate and x's and o' stuff, and that's more up my alley. But yes, I know I have to I have to talk more gambling. And that's fine. Everybody likes to bet on a good over under and I'm down, let's do it. That's fine, let's go.
All right, Well, I'm not going to ask you. I'll tell you that right now.
Thank you, thank you so much.
What is the story for you in the NFL right now?
Right now? I mean, without question, it's uh, Josh Allen versus Lamar Jackson, who is the MVP. That's the biggest story in the NFL right now. That's all anyone cares about, is what's going to happen in that game, and what it's going to say about their legacies in terms of not only just the MVP this year, but the playoffs, and you know how it's going to affect the way that people talk about them moving forward, which is a fascinating.
It's a fascinating concept to tread it all over because they have they just got the worst possible situation put upon them, which is that there's two teams in the AFC that anyone cares about outside of the Chiefs, who are quite boring right now, very patriots of them to be very boring, and and now they're pitted against each
other in the divisional round. So to me, that's like, that's outside of anything happening in the NFC with the Lions or whatever else, all anybody cares about is Josh Allen versus Patrick, Josh Allen versus Lamar Jackson.
Josh Allen has really impressed me, really impressed with.
You would say that, Gary, you would be a Josh Allen guy.
Wow, How can you not be? Though? Why?
I mean, I do I do like Josh Allen. I'm not, I just I'm I'm very much like I've been in the weeds on the analytics and everything else with Lamar Jackson, and I'm I'm team Lamar Jackson for MVP, but I do. That's what I'm saying is that, like Josh Allen has objectively had the best season of his career.
So it's it's I think they're screwing out.
Well, I mean I like, and I honestly like. I don't follow it like I used to be. You know, I am now just a typical sports fan where I'm not sitting there looking again, I'm not sitting there looking over everything that my producers have handed me. God forbid, no, God forbid. But Alan to me seems to he's carried the Bills right more than Jackson has carried Baltimore.
Am I wrong in that? I don't know?
Uh yeah, I mean you are wrong in that. But also that has been the prevailing narrative is that, well, Lamar Jackson has Derrick Henry and their defense is a little better. I would say the Bill's offensive line is a little better. There's all kinds of there is a reason that you think that, But when you are starting to look at all twenty two, when you're starting to
look at what Lamar Jackson is doing. I have compared him many times at this point across the season to what Tom Brady used to do for his offensive lineman, his running backs, and his wide receivers, which was you would suddenly be like, who, so, who's this guy who just had four touchdowns? This running back I've never heard of? And people are like, Okay, well that's some random guy.
This is Dereck Henry. But you look at Derek Henry and suddenly Derrick Henry at his old age is averaging a yard per carry more than he ever has in his career. That's Lamar Jackson. That's the fact that like at the mesh point, people are still looking for Lamar Jackson instead of Derek Henry, and he's opening everything up. The fact that they Flowers, who is a two wide receiver at best, he's a number two, is a pro bowler.
These are things that we used to see Brady do all the time, and by two thousand and seven, two eight, well, two thousand and nine and ten, when their offense started really popping off, we would talk about these kinds of things. The fact that Tom Brady's ability to move in the pocket would make it easier on their offensive line. That's the kind of passer that Lamar Jackson has become, and he has the ability to be the best runner in
the league. And that's why to me, Lamar Jackson sort of elevates himself in a way that Josh Allen on his in h You're not wrong that that team relies entirely on Both teams rely on their quarterback to be incredible. It's just how are they doing it? And to me, Josh Allen is a lot more like prime Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson is a lot more like prime Tom Brady.
Interesting take, and that's that's why she's t Fox.
Ladies and gentlemen, We're going to talk to NFC coming up next here in WBZ.
Now back to Dan ray Line from The Window World Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Okay, Tanya ray Fox is with us from Fox Sports and FS one FS one, excuse me in Los Angeles, it's getting late, you know, you know me, Tanya, you get around eleven o'clock, it's getting a little shaky.
I actually can't believe you're still awake.
I know, I got I used to at the old Fox Sports that which became Comcast Sports.
That on an NBC Sports Boss.
And I needed naps and Ai boy, when we had those Celtic games on the West Coast, who those were tough.
I'll tell you that right now. I remember the great thing.
There's so many great stories with Tommy Heinsen. But tom you must remember when Tommy would sleep if we had a West Coast game, Yeah, and he came in. Tommy was getting off the road. He didn't want to go on the road. So we had a West Coast game and he would come in and do the pregame, in the post game show, and he would take a nap.
He'd be in a lobby.
There's six to eight dude, like this Hall of Famers, like taking a nap in a lobby, Like wake him up.
You know, Tommy off the couch was like.
On the couch that was like barely big enough to hold you know, a five to six person. Oh iconic. Yeah.
I missed that man so much. And he was great, Oh my god, he was. He was absolutely best. He was the best NFL NFC. So the Lions, is it theirs to lose?
Yeah?
I think that people can overthink it and look at the fact that the Rams are really hot, and you know, you're looking around and you're like, Okay, well, how can we talk ourselves out of the Lions because they've had some
injury issues and whatever else. But yeah, when you are as dominant as they have been across the course of the season, and it's not just I mean, it's funny because the Vikings sort of provide a perfect mirror of what the Lions aren't, which is they were a team that was a bad quarterback performance away from falling apart, and that's exactly what happened. And the Lions have actually proven that they can overcome a tough game for Jared
Goff and still win. And they have this developed locker room sort of franchise culture that they all have bought into entirely in a way that I think the Vikings are still working on because they don't have the quarterback fully figured out and their coach isn't quite as far along in his identity in terms of in game coaching. I think we saw that in the playoffs. Kevin O'Connell, to me, had a really bad game in the wildcard ground and to that, because those two teams were fighting
it out all the way until Week eighteen. For the you know NFC North title. It's like here, here are the two options for what a team can be. They can be the Lions or they can end up the Vikings. And yeah that at this point everything is pointing to the fact that they are the team to be. It doesn't mean that they can't be beaten. We've seen way
crazier things happened before. But one hundred percent, if if you're looking to some other team to overtake them or be the savior of the NFC or save you for whatever reason, you're a Dan Campbell hater. I you know, again not a gambling woman, but I wouldn't bet on that.
Personally, I think Campbell's an unbelievable story. I just remember when he was a joke in Miami and yeah, well.
I mean he is a ridiculous personality, right like there are there are certain people that are they are really ridiculous until they work out and until they find the space where they're supposed to be and the people to
buy into their narrative. And I think people a lot of time look around at NFL head coaches and think that there are you know, there's a prototype or something like that, and it's really about fit and and you know, even somebody like Pete Carroll was and not was not revered as an NFL coach until he found the right fit and the right you know, team to build around and then everything worked out. Belichick, I mean I think yeah, I mean again, like so he's somebody who like was
actually pretty. He was okay in Cleveland that everybody remembers his time in Cleveland as being really bad. He was okay in Cleveland, but he was part of that whole. He was part of the the He was basically the last head He was the last head coach before they moved away, and it was just there was everybody had a bad taste in their mouth about it. And then he was just considered as Bill Parcell's right hand guy. And that so there and that that can be said
for a lot of coaches. It's just finding the place where you're supposed to land, and and that me there. There probably isn't another single team in the NFL where Dan Campbell works, but because he works there, and because of his relationship with Jared Goff specifically, I don't know how much you know about their relationship, but Jared Goff did not handle being traded away from the Rams very
well at all. It really shook him mentally and there was a time there work he was going to fall apart, and Dan Campbell understood that we're either going to make Jared Goff work or this team's not going to work. Like we cannot start over at this position.
Tanya, you're in a role, but we have to fly Tanya a fox. Check her out on all the socials. You're the best. We'll talk soon. Coming up next, going to open up the phones. How is this country doing?
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