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All right, off a week vacation. Nice to be back in the saddle. Flew cross country. Just landed about an hour ago. John Middlecoff, former NFL scout, going to the NFL Combine here this week. Also three and out his podcast Go Low as his golf podcast. Yeah, so I got a first of all, I usually flight Delta. I flew American Airlines back. I told my wife that's the best meal I've ever had in a flight in my life.
Would you eat?
Is incredible? So they start with fresh olives, you know, heated almonds, pistachios, and then they go into this peach salad, and then they have ahi tuna, and then they go into tortilla soup, and then they go into green beans, grain bread, olive oil, piece of chicken with like a salce on it. That's what I chose and then I waited about an hour and a half, took about a half hour and anup, woke up and had like this
ginger and vanilla ice cream dessert. I told my wife, I'm like that some thing's being experimented, like either profits are through the roof of American Airlines, So tip of the calf to American Airlines. I'm like, honey, I ate better than you. And I was at thirty three thousand feet. I can't help you.
People complaining about flies a lot, and listen, I don't. Everyone's had a bad experience here and there. But I think for the most part, I mean, if you're not flying Spirit Airlines, it's pretty darn good. Yeah, I mean it's pretty darn good what we have in twenty twenty four, especially in this country, if you live in major airports, the ability to get around it can't be ever been as easy as it is right now.
Yeah. And I you know, one of the things years ago I started doing well, I told my wife, just we'll fly first class this point forward. Let's just do it. They had a pod, so I watched, you know, I downloaded a couple of Netflix and Apple TV shows. I downloaded, you know, four or five episodes of stuff. All of it was really really good. But I you know, I
think sometimes like I've been on planes. I've had three or four people on planes that were crazy, like disruptive, by and large, you know, most people just sit down quiet, really good people. I've said this for years. I've been a Delta flyer forever, forever. I think what our industry does, commercial aviation, for how many people are at airports. And for the record, I don't care what you think about the economy. It can't be that bad because every flight
I've been on for six years is packed. And I know what I'm paying for these seats, and they ain't giving them away. There's no discounts here. My flight today, packed, flight out packed. I don't I'm not a guy that loves private, especially in the winter. I'm not gonna fly it.
You know.
If I can get a first class seat on a three and a half hour flight, there's no need for me to go private. I don't care. Most of the flights are on time. Now you're taking off at Lagordia at five point thirty on a Friday night, no shit, you're gonna sit on the tarmac for a while. But I just think I think sometimes in America we forget how good our grocery stores are, Like we forget how good an efficient our country is. I went to London about six seven years ago, went to Wimbledon maybe eight
years ago. My hotel didn't have air conditioning, a high end hotel, and the toilets were inconsistent. And I'm like, man, if you went to a Marriotte, you'd go to complain to management. In this country, I think sometimes we just complained to complain.
I know multiple people, one that flies for United, one that flies for American. They both flew fighter jets in the Air Force. How does it get any better than that? That guy's overqualified to fly us around the country. That's like having Trent Williams as my personal security guard. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that, right, And that's who a lot of these pilots are. They served in the military, flying a lot more expensive, a lot more
difficult aircrafts. And those are the guys that fly us around for forty years from basically their age thirty till when they retire.
Yeah. I mean I couldn't even tell you the last flight I was on that had really bad turbulence, and there's always bumps. Couldn't couldn't tell you. I mean, I just thought, I'm sitting on that American Airlines flight today and I'm thinking this living I am. And they even had this little app or something on the TV you could download, and I'm watching where we're flying and it's like I can monitor the flight. I'm sitting there watching
a Netflix show. I want to pivot to this though, because one of the things I downloaded was episodes three and four of Dynasty. You know, off the Jeff Benedict book. He's on my show in about two weeks. Episode four, John, I don't know if you saw it is one of the best episodes of a documentary sports documentary I've ever seen in my life. The Randy moss arrival, the Spige
losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl. I mean it was Robert Kraft's son said he walked into the locker room and grown men were vomiting and bawling, And you forget the two things so far through four episodes that you forget how big that upset of Kurt Warner in the rams was. They Yeah, we're offensively ahead of their time. I mean they had a Niners feel like, can anybody stop them to win that game? They, by the way, it was fourteen three and a half, the completely shut them down.
They'd already won a Super Bowl a couple of years previously. I mean, that team was pretty special, Hall of famers.
Everywhere, and then you forget how historic that eighteen and oh team going for nineteen and oh. You know, as I watched it, I was I thought if I was interviewing Tom Brady and I said, Tom, take one play out of your career, I guarantee you, he'd say the David Tyree catch. And when I watched it, I'm like, oh my god. Teddy Bruski's like, yeah, we've done that to people. We did that to the Saint Louis Rams. He goes, I know what they were feeling. They believe now they were the better team.
You know, I haven't seen I've seen the three episodes. I watched three of them on Friday night. I think we also forget and it really kind of puts into context how big a balls Bill had when he made that move. The guy who was one hundred million dollar contract with one hundred million.
Dollars, oh yeah, Drew Bledsoe, Yeah.
Number one overall pick. And this is where I think football coaches they just have more juice than the other coaches in basketball and definitely in baseball, because such more of a management league when their gut tells them something. I mean, we see it all the time in football, right college, and pro to know that, Like, yeah, Drew doesn't move around as well anymore, right, he's been hit too much. And you watch the other thing. I'm watching
it with my girlfriend. She's like, God, these guys look bigger back then. I'm like, yeah, Marie, these quarterbacks back in the day were all six ' six. They were all huge. When Tom and Drew are standing next to each other, Caleb's coming out, he's barely six ' one. These guys have him by five inches. I mean, Drew Bledsoe is a strapping individual. That's the old school quarterback.
And you're watching when Drew runs and get hit by moel Lewis, I'm thinking, like most quarterbacks now get out of bounds, even Brock perties faster right there there, and the difference in style. And You've been saying this forever about Belichick. He was perfectly set up for that old school football, right, and this is where Tom benefits. Obviously, he took a lot in his control and was really good. But we're gonna talk a lot about draft picks over
the next couple months. If you go to a team that sucks you, unless you're an all time transcendent talent, it's gonna be very, very difficult. Tom did get to begin starting on a team full of really good defensive players and clearly a really good coaching staff, and he'd be the first to tell you, I think a lot of these Patriot guys are kind of in a weird way offended by everyone talking about Belichick because it almost
diminishes a little bit. Like what they had as a group was pretty special, and you watch all these guys, you're like, yeah, it was a pretty high level group of individuals.
Yeah, it's very Omerita. It's very much secrets kept in the family. That's why Mangenie I was told. Mangini called Bill and said, Bill, I know what should do. Don't tape the Jets.
Don't do it.
Bill just said, whatever, I'm gonna tape the Jets. Bill thought like, it's Omerita, it's the family, their secrets. You got a job because of me and it burned him.
You know.
Speaking of folks, if you haven't watched them on Apple TV, you should Dynasty. The book's great as well by Jeff Foot.
The footage they have, it's just it's remarkable.
But Ernie Adams, and it made me think, So Ernie Adams is just fantastic. So he is Bills basically, and I I mean he is, you know, a CFO kind of like you could. I mean, there's nothing he's I would say the valet, but he's his caddie and you're like, no, no, he was often he was often his brains. And I was thinking about this, and so years and years ago when I worked at ESPN, George Bodenheimer was the CEO,
and George was really sharp. But when you're the CEO of a major company, you need it to somebody that can can call you out, somebody they can watch the minutia you're doing all these meetings after meetings, I mean. And George was as smart a guy that I've ever had the honor or privilege to work under. And his two was like John Skipper who became the president. And I remember when Skipper got the job, he didn't have
a strong two and it really cost him. And I can remember somebody in the company saying to me, John doesn't have he doesn't have a John. And it's always made me think about this, whether it's Andy Reid with maybe it's a Spags, maybe there's somebody on the staff is most great. I mean, let's be honest, Dave wantsd at Jimmy Johnson. They just really trusted each other, Parcels and Belichick, where Belichick's like, Bill, you gotta trust me
on this, and they battle on this stuff. Saban has done a remarkable job in college to keep the turnstile of coordinators coming in. But you know, and you could say since Kirby Smart left, the defense hasn't been quite as good. You know, he went to Georgia. But when you watch this special Ernie Adams, I don't even know there are moments and Damian Woody pointed this out. He was considered a genius in the building. Bill often you
can just see him. He'd walk off the podium at practice when Ernie retired about you know, and then years later Dante's Karnakia. I think that's undervalued. We all talked Brady, but it's Bill had people that he just he just leaned on and they all in a short period of time left and watched this for Ernie Adams, who, by the way, is a funny guy. Like if there's anybody you've ever wanted to sit and have a beer with in football, it's Ernie Adams.
I heard when they were out of football. Well, Bill wasn't. When they got fired in Cleveland and Bill went to work for parcels, Ernie was out for a little bit. That Ernie made Bill millions in the stock market because Ernie was just, you know, so brilliant. He just started working on finance till they get back in the league. When Bill got the head coach in New England, so he if you think about it as a head coach, especially when you get of his level of fame and wealth.
The hierarchy in a building is a lot like the military, where everyone kind of is intimidated by you, and even when you're having a one on one conversation, there's a level of I'm here here there. It's just a natural hierarchy of the building where a coach needs a guy that he can go in, close the door and have a normal human one on one conversation where anything can be said, and that was always what Bill had in Ernie, Right,
a guy that he had known since high school. Think about that in that two thousand and one Super Bowl, he was the guy, Ernie, what do you think we should do with a minute thirty left? As John Maddens kneel the ball, kneel the ball, and Ernie's like, I think we're gas Bill, Let's put the pedal to the medal and go for it. Right. But that's who he asked, not Charlie Weiss, not Romeo Crenell, not these other coaches that he's known for a long time as well. So
I've always thought this about Bill. Bill is a very very good talent evaluator at coach Right, he found Josh McDaniels, Brian Flores, Adam Peters, Jason Light, all these guys, Casario. But eventually you run out of it. And that's what it felt like these last couple of years, is he just ran out of guys. Yeah, he could not replenish
the well and obviously the quarterback situation. But I you know, I told you I think like a month ago, I think Bill should do Amazon TV and show his personality a little bit and just kind of rebrand himself a little bit, because right now the NFL owners look at him like this curmudgeon, negative guy, power hungary. They all know he's a good coach. But you rebrand yourself a little bit. A year later, you got three guys begging you for their job, and let's face it, right now,
that just was not the case, which is crazy. He couldn't get a head coaching job. He just couldn't know no.
One wanted him. And I also think, so I think about this all the time in life, that no is a really powerful word that people don't use enough, and sometimes missing on a job is the best thing ever. There was one great job opening this year, Chargers, Yeah, next year, and this is not even unlikely. Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott. You start going to Derek Carr. There could be I wrote the oh, Trevor Lawrence. There could be like five six high end quarterbacks who need coaches.
You can't win in this league. I mean, Belichick's proof. You can't win big in this league without the quarterback. So there's a lot of these jobs. I mean, Williams absolutely so. In a weird way, Rabel and Bill built out for a year you made a ton of money, golf a little bit watch games. By the way, Mike McCarthy, not at that level, ended up getting the cowboy gig. It's a remarkable I mean, and I think about this all the time. I mean, you're as a euro former scout.
You know this. There's an insecurity among even great coaches. Once you're out, you've got to get back in. And I've thought about this before, like even in my profession. It's like, if you're talented, just sit back and watch shows implode, watch managers get you know, act. Stuff opens up really fast in big money businesses, Silicon Valley football media, blah blah, whatever it is law. And I think coaches
sometimes feel like I've got to get a gig. But I mean, if if the Charger's job wasn't open, the only other job I would have left Michigan for if I was Hardbaugh is Washington because they have like eighty million dollars cap space, And I actually think if they get Drake May, I think I think he's going to be okay. I mean, what did you make this week of everybody getting more cap space? Because the NFL came
out and announced the revenues were higher than expected. The rams now have like forty three million, forty two million dollars in cap space.
Called it. It doesn't feel like that long ago that the NFL salary cap was like one hundred and fifty million dollars, does it. I mean, this thing is, this thing has gone up at rapids speed. Two hundred and fifty five million dollars a lot of money. And if you think about it, it's actually easier to set yourself up for the next several years because what's two fifty five in five years three forty, I mean it's going
to go up substantially. So signing some of these contracts, I do think we need to look at them a little bit differently. Right when you extend the guy the way they can manipulate the money on the salary cap to add up to two hundred and fifty five million dollars, you need a lot of cap hits at twenty thirty forty million dollars. So it definitely makes it a lot more easy. Now here's the problem salary cap space in baseball.
If Sho heo Tani and and even though they don't have a salary cap, but you know what I mean, If a baseball player is hitting free agency. Show Heyo Tani's hitting free agency. If Kevin Durant's a free agent, he's hitting free agency. Well you just t Higgins franchised. You're going to see that list of like the top ten free agents. Franchise franchise, franchise, franchise. That's what makes football a little unique is having a lot of cap space in this sport. Most of the best quote unquote
free agents never hit the open market. And then to get that next here B player, I think you pay like a twenty five thirty percent premium. Look at last year, the best tackle on the market, McGlinchey, you had to give him almost sixty million guaranteed. The forty nine Ers his third contract, Hardgrave, he gets eighty million dollars forty million dollars guaranteed. So you pay an ultimately, it's like you know, beachfront real estate, because not that many guys
hit it. So if it's a starter, a good starter, a guy that you know is a plug and play starter, you pay for it, right And even some of these guys that are franchised, maybe they're quote unquote available through a trade. It's like, oh, you know, we'd be open to trading t Higgins, but we need your one in the twenties, and then you have to pay him twenty three million dollars a year. So it's if you want
to dabble in, that market is very, very expensive. It's why to me, the Washingtons of the world, I would just take a deep breath, kind of let things play out. The Texans are a better example. Okay, you already see you got some stuff. If I got to overpay a guard and overpay a linebacker that I really like, who cares. Yeah, I got seventy million dollars if I if I invest thirty five and those two guys, I feel pretty good
about it. But I already know what I got. Like with Washington and some of these teams, let's just try to walk before we run. Let's just see how the quarterback is because yeah, Drake may or Jayden Daniels, whoever they end up taking. I mean, how often do we see these guys be overwhelmed or whatever. Then all of a sudden you got to kind of you want flexibility as much as possible. To me, the Texans are a good example. Like I'd be pretty aggressive here, Like could
I go get a T. Higgins. Could I make a trade right and then pay a guy like I'd be open to a lot of different options.
You know. One of the things you're going to the combine. One of the things that's great about the draft is it really has you know, the NBA Draft is fun, but there's two rounds and these guys coming at nineteen and they go to bad teams. So and the hit rate's pretty low because you don't have as much video. It's hard. In the NBA NFL college draft you have minimum three years of film. A lot of these guys
come from two or three major conferences. They're playing against NFL guys, So misses, but there's a lot of hits as well. You know. Now, I was thinking about one of the things in the draft that I was reading a story and I forget God. I want to give credit to whoever did it. They went back and looked at last year's draft and graded it, and again it's not so Houston had the most successful draft. So when C. J. Stroud comes in and crushes some of it is very explainable.
They hit like on five draft picks number two. I know the Rams and the Seahawks were up there. The Packers were at three, and I got to tell you something. I said this, I like both the Packers' last two drafts. Is I sometimes wonder about this, but by the way the Jets and the Giants terrible. Is that I sometimes wonder? And you worked in the building because Philadelphia, where you worked, it's a wealthy franchise. There are a lot of money here.
Green Bay could argue over the last twenty five years has done a better job than anybody in this league drafting and developing and when you were in the league. And my take is, is a lack of an owner helpful. The guys run at it are just all football guys. But the Packers, they went to last year's draft and
the receivers hit and the tight ends hit. And I just when I look at Green Bay, I think, Okay, They've had different gms, different coaches, They nail quarterbacks, great o' line, they always always find receivers and tight ends when you were in the league. Is it one of those classic the millionaire next door that if you're on a school teacher salary, you're just not going to waste as much money. You're going to be smarter than a stockbroker, who's got
money to right? Are the Packers seen as frugal because they don't have the game day revenue? But when I saw that list, and again I apologize for not crediting who it was, I saw it on the plane. It was best draft. Last year Packers were a third and I thought, God, when is the last bad draft the Packers had.
I think a lot has to do with, you know, a lot of cultures. When I get rid of everyone, right, a GM and A and a coach, the owner gets to hire everybody, and he's always the boss. He's always hovering over everybody. It goes back to Ron Wolf and Holmgren. Ron taught all these guys right from Ted Thompson. Gudakins had worked there forever. So they've had the same culture in terms of management since Ron Wolf showed up in the early nineties. So the way they look at players,
they've always been obsessed with high weight speed. I don't think it has to do as much with like pinchion pennies and not being able to like, you know, you're the Rays, they're the Yankee, so you have to outthink them. I just think that they've taught and streamlined it from generation to generation very very well. They have a like a company culture there that I think has transcended general managers from Ron Wolf to Ted Thompson and Gudakins, and
I think they've been pretty consistent. Back to what you're saying with the draft of like they all know what they're looking for because they've been looking for the same thing now for thirty years. Helps a lot when you have a quarterback, right, they have a quarterback and they know how to surround the guy, and they've always done an incredible job of surrounding the guy on offense. I think the Ravens are a pretty good example of how they transitioned from Ossni to Da Costa because the Costa
was his right hand man forever. Yes, So it's like the point when you have the cohesion, like why are the Chiefs so strong right now? Because Andy has Spags who's never leaving, I mean, and who has goes back for twenty years beating Belichick and Brady. It's very unique to have that. Kyle or McVeigh get a good coordinator, Boom, the guy's gone. They can't hold on to their defensive coordinator. So I think having the cohesion the Packers is a great place to work. I remember when we were there.
When I worked in the league, everyone was always kind of envious of like cause it was like this chill vibe, but they were winning big and it was just through the Green Bay Packers. There was like the pressure we had in Philadelphia, felt it every day when you went in the building. They definitely don't have that. Yeah, I think the Chiefs really have that going on right now, but a lot has to do with winning. I just
think it's a very unique organization. But I do think it gets back to the streamline vision from generation to generation, and they've all crossed, you know, like John Schneider hires Mike McDonald. They don't know each other. They're hoping this chemistry works because he's good coach with the Ravens, and you know he knows, but it's like you're kind of keeping your fingers crossed. You look at Harball goes to the Chargers. Who do they hire as his general manager?
A guy he knows, A guy he's comfortable with from Baltimore. So you're like, yeah, it's probably gonna work out. He knows John there, it's all in the family that matters, Like Shanahan's had a lot of success with people he knows. He's worked with Robert Solid he coached, Tamiko Ryans, Brian Greasy, he worked with when he was young in Tampa's dad
knows him. We're all comfortable with people we know, right, who do you hire the volume like to run your management people that you're comfortable people with, You know, it helps. Now they have to be talented, but like when you're all on the same page, it's a lot easier to operate. And I think for thirty plus years the packers have just had a lot of cohesion. Not a lot of people leave their coaches, do you know, But there their scouts.
I don't know if they pay top notch relative to the NFL executives, but I sure know when they're winning things are having success, people like working there.
Yeah, you can also buy a hell of a house in Milwaukee, live like a king four hundred and ninety thousand dollars. You know, It's it's just it was when I saw the list, it was like, God, Green Bay knows what they're doing and to your point, quarterbacks kind of make it all work. You can, I mean, listen Brett Veach in Kansas City's had some misses. You forget sky Moore, you forget them really quickly. Malmes makes you forget shit really quickly.
Well, it's like someone told me with the Jets a couple of years ago. They're like they had all those picks in the top whatever, the first couple of rounds for two straight years, we could go seven of eight. They all could be Pro bowlers. If Zach's a whiff, were in trouble, we'd go one of eight. If Zach's a hit. Contract extensions, Well what happened? They went seven eight, Maybe not seven eight, but five or six of eight. And Zach's the problem and they got issues that quarterback.
I mean, if Jordan Love and we're all gonna pencil him in, I do think there's a difference of kind of They got to fly him too the radar a little bit. This year. They started slow, then they came on. Everyone next year is gonna be looking at them like double digit wins playoff team. It is a different pressure. That's why I give a lot of credit to the Lions. Everyone took the Lions seriously this year coming in and they handled it well like it's it's a it's another.
Now Lafleur has success. Now he's been a part of those type teams with Aaron, so he's I feel comfortable with it. But sustaining high level play year in year out, that's hard. So you know there's gonna be a lot of tangible pressure on Jordan Love next year.
So it's it's interesting when I this is kind of a vague topic, but I know I've always kind of measured how often I talk football. I don't work at the NFL network, nor do I want to. I like the NBA. I like, you know, an October September baseball series. I like the World Cup, a good UFC fight, I like March Madness. I could never just talk football, and I've always kept the number around sixty five percent of the show. But I was talking to a TV exec.
I had a meeting about ten twelve days ago with a really smart guy, and we were talking about the Big Ten, and he said, those ratings are going to go up fifteen to twenty percent. And I had given college football about an eight year break a hiatus on my show because it got very regional and very southern. And I'm not anti SEC, but if it was all it.
Was Alabama, Georgia every in Clemson every year for seven straight years.
Yeah, and so it just like listen, once baseball became very local. Nobody in Minnesota is going to watch the Mariners. Nobody in Seattle gives a rip about Tampa Bay. Yet a Seahawk fan would watch the Buccaneer in Baker Mayfield play. So once baseball about ten twelve years ago, I felt it really got local. I just didn't talk about it. College basketball is a turnstile now between the transfer portal one and done. You can't name the starters on Duke, but it is sort of interesting. I was talking to
this executive about the growth of college football. He goes, you're not going to believe the numbers are going to explode. And me started talking about the Big Ten schedule and he's like, you're gonna get Washington, Oregon or Washington, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, USC You're gonna have three and four games in a row all day. And it did make me think as I was off this week, and I you know, I kind of shut it down. When I'm off, I don't watch sports. I just leave
and there was nothing going on anyway. I'm watching the Warriors Nuggets today.
Crappy year.
But the biggest story in baseball last week as the season starts uniforms. You know, they're kind of sheer see through. Biggest story in the NBA was how bad the All Star Game was. The biggest story in college basketball was storming the court. Yet, the NFL is the sport we talk about because we watch the games. Listen, if you're a fan, listen to what we talk about when people, sportscasters, podcasters talk football. We actually talk about strategy in the
games that the NFL. With the growth of college football, which by the way, between the draft and the combine, they're really starting to go hand in hand. College basketball in the NBA are the Grand Canyon. They have nothing in common. Most of the great players don't even want to play in college basketball college baseball, but Major League baseball, college hockey, they don't connect. You know, college soccer and the MLS they don't connect. College football connects with the
NFL more and more. And I was sitting there this week watching people talk about sports, and I thought, am I going to do an eighty percent football show? Based on the audience. As I've said, the audience drives the show what they want. I follow ratings and I'm sitting there thinking, I don't want to work at the NFL network. But John, between legalized gambling, people now stick through bad games.
This massive Big Ten SCC explosion, where now the two conferences are going to have all the games we watch, the ratings are going to skyrocket the twelve team playoff. I was sitting there this week and I thought, Jesus, you're talking about see through pants in baseball? Is that amongst your friends when you go golf, does anybody talk about anything other?
Football is the other thing that it comes up consistently. Even and I know a couple of guys and play golf with some former Major League Baseball players. They talk football. I mean the Bill's fan, a Packer fan. That's all they want to talk about. And during the fall, I think college football, like you said, think about next year Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, LSU, the SEC and the Big Ten get it's gonna feel like NFL light. I think the NFL. I've said this forever.
I don't know if it's gonna last forever my entire life. Like I'm almost forty does that forty years dominating When I was growing up. Baseball was huge the nineties with the Yankees basketball with Michael Jordan. But for the foreseeable future, I don't see how that gap. I'm the All Star Game, guys actively talk like why would we even try to participate? Anthony Rendon, who's making two hundred and forty five million dollars to that story, He's like, yeah, baseball is not
even a priority. It's like, well, I think for two hundred and fifty million dollars, probably probably don't want to say that, buddy. You know, it's like, can you imagine an NFL play? I think the relatability sometimes with you and I don't even blame these guys cause you're getting two hundred fifty million dollars guaranteed. Some of these basketball
players I played. I played golf last week during the All Star break with a guy that calls NBA games, and he was saying, one problem is, and he's on a pretty high level team, but he just sees it around the league, is it's always like you have to max everybody out. Well, you can't lose them. Well, is the guy a max player? Like we had the max Zion, Did you or I mean, did you have to? Because in the NFL you don't have to, and you would not,
And so everyone's making all this money. If I don't care who you are, if you're twenty five years old and you're basically guaranteed to get an astronomical amount of money, you're gonna be jaded in the way you think about everything.
Yeah, we're in football.
It still has this old school meritocracy that if you do not produce within two years. I've seen it forever. It's why when I used to go to Niners camp a lot like I'm not gonna make it too big a deal about a third or fourth round pick, because every year I've seen that third fourth round pick by the time training camp ends, the undrafted free agents beating him out and might even beat out the starter, And all of a sudden, two undrafted free agents are starting.
Guys are coming from everywhere, every team, I don't care if you're a playoff team or a shitty team, and they're It's kind of like relates to our life. You gotta produce whatever you do. You either generate revenue, get your job done, or you gotta get replaced. Where I think in basketball and baseball, it's kind of like scholarship once you get paid, Like, I can't what am I gonna do with you? Even in football, you're gonna see so many names this week. You're like, got it. I
thought that guy was under a long term contract. They're like, yeah, we're thinking about cutting him if you won't take a pay cut, well, thinking about trading him. So basically every guy, I mean, we could probably name thirty guys like untouchable in the NFL. A lot of them are quarterbacks and then a lot of like high level Trent Williams, Travis Kelce, like those type guys. But basically every other name you go half the Pro Bowl roster, you're like, yeah, yeah, we could move on from that guy.
Yep.
And I think basketball and baseball used to have an element of that. And definitely their guys were wired. Like working in like local television in the Bay Area and meeting a lot of guys that played in the eighties and nineties, they had that attitude in baseball and basketball, I can be replaced, I could be cut. They were very relatable individuals. It's why Charles Barkley is like one of the biggest TV stars of all time. He's relatable.
I think it's much more difficult for the modern guy in that sport to be relatable because you're making one hundred million dollars guaranteed whether you're good or bad. No one has a problem when you're good getting paid. But he's like, is this guy, even Jordan Poole's making one hundred and thirty million dollars, he's like the worst in the NBA.
Yeah. Well, and I've talked to a handful of execs and I've brought this up before. They laugh at the NBA structure. They're like, what a joke they make fun NFL guys. I remember having this conversation a couple of years ago when the CTE thing came down, and a lot of these Northeast media types who don't understand the passion for football in the Midwest or college football, they're like, it's the end of the NFL. Like you've been in the Northeast way too long, where baseball still talked about
on sports radio a lot. I'm like, football's not going anywhere. It's way too big to fail. There's way too much money, and they've cleaned it up that nobody hits at practice anymore once the season starts. By the way, you get to the Super Bowl, usually the teams that get to the Super Bowl are missing maybe one starter. Like everybody's got the I mean, guys are healthy.
Miners and Chiefs were healthy.
Yeah, so there's a you know the Chiefs a few years ago missing their tackles, and it was like, yeah, that's what happens. But one of the things the structure of the NFL is the structure of most of our lives. You're tradeable, cuttable, fireable. And I never understand fans like this is like we're fans. I look at fans and I just think you guys are in your mind this idea. I want my guy to get the bag.
Fuck that.
I don't want many players to get the bag because it limits my flexibility. I am always rooting for the team to sign a reasonable contract so it gives the team flexibility. I mean this idea like Dack's got a three hundred million dollars net worth after his next contract, He's fine, but you're you're not fine if you overpay players. But it is interesting. The NFL is the only sport and I will say the MLS and hockey are the closest. NBA Baseball are a mess that it's like you just.
I turned to a former hockey guy that played fifteen years. I didn't know who he was, but we started BS and he was one of the most relatable individuals. I had to google him after God, this guy played. They have a relatability to the way they talk and the way they interact. They're actually I'm like, this guy could have talked to anyone in here and could have gotten along. It was very impressive.
Yeah, I met a guy at a bar in Naples one time. NHL guy was a Bruin. I didn't know. I'm google them same. But I also think they have a very tight cap and stars get paid. Everybody else makes a good living, not an insane living. And I'm not anti I always said this. I'm not anti players making money. I'm not anti mobility. But in any business, if you're paying B and C employees a money, you're going to have a problem. And I do think and again, I love NBA playoff basketball, I really do. It's one
of my favorite things. But I NFL guys they look executives, owners, they look at the NBA and baseball and they just laugh at their structure.
Well, I think one power of the NFL, like you said about a random fan will watch not his team and know their players. I also think because the power listen, we can argue over the franchise tag, whether it's fair or not. It's one of the healthiest things for the business by a mile, because when Kevin Durant or Aaron Judge or Shoheo Tani when they hit free agency, there is no mechanism to keep them, and in those leagues, guys turn over a lot, which is not great for
the league. If I'm the Kansa Chiefs, I would imagine bottom ten market in the NFL. If I want to keep Patrick Mahomes his entire career, or the Packers with Rogers Afar, I can until I choose to get rid of them, and that's healthy for my organization for the league. The Chiefs were just in a Super Bowl and they're easily now I would say one of the most recognizable brands in the NFL because of Patrick, and that's not really possible. Like in the NBA, if the Nuggets make
the NBA Finals, it's not great. They would much rather have Steph Curry or Lebron in the NBA Finals. We're in the NFL. It helps to have the Niners there, But if it had been the Lions, maybe it's not one hundred and twenty What is one hundred and fifteen million people still watch the enter It doesn't impact. And that's where I think the NFL has dwarfed everyone that they're no longer dependent on markets. The brands. Yeah, their
brands changed by the player, by the quarterback. Who you know, if Josh Allen's healthy is going to be on the bill for fifteen years and it's all you didn't like that?
Yeah, if you go back ten years, the CTE check whenever it was. It was remarkable to listen to so many sports writers. It was like, guys, your tone deaf. Don't you have never lived in the South. You don't get Texas. It was a lot of Northeast sports writers. It was a lot of this high minded Remember Sports Illustrated started out covering fencing, had to be like persuaded
to cover football. There is this sort of high minded view of you know, college football and football, and it's like, guys, it's it's the best run sport.
You know.
There was a great moment in the Dynasty series with Roger Goodell. Remember when they got rid of the tapes put a hammer to him, got rid of the Spygate tapes. Yeah, and there was this media guy, why'd you get rid of the tape? And he said, well, because the punishment had been handed out. Well, but what about and he said, no, the punishment had been handed out, there was no need for the tapes. Well, I mean why Goodell said, tapes get out? He goes, like these got out? He goes,
we destroyed them, and it shut the reporter up. But the reporter he wanted so badly. Goodell got hammered for that that he destroyed the tapes. And the point was there was no value in those tapes once the spines and suspensions were handed out. Belichick was fine half a million dollars at the time anytime, a lot of money. But at the time he wasn't making what he's making now. And so Goodell gets a lot of crap because I
think by and large, the media doesn't like power. But like Dana White and Goodell, i'd argue are the two best commissioner CEOs of their sport. They're both Dana's highly defiant and Goodell. Think about how big that industry is. What's the last look at how leagues have dealt with societal changes, cultural changes, strikes. I've always thought Goodell, mostly because Goodell doesn't pander to the media. I've had dinner
with him and drinks. You can ask Roger anything. He literally I asked him on the air one time he came on my show and I said, Roger, I love your sport. I don't know what it catches. My friends don't know what it catches. He acknowledged live on the ear. He goes, it's Colin. It's a problem. That year they changed it in the Super Bowl Eagles. Remember in that Super Bowl the ball was juggled and they allowed it.
What commissioner would have done that? I think when I watched The Dynasty, it was another reminder that the NFL is incredibly well run and Goodell really has his shit buttoned up.
How about the part when Robert Craft bought the Patriots that he bought the surrounding area because he knew the value in that that. No, I was like, what a genius. Can you imagine the level of business savviness that it takes to even because he's thinking that before he even has the money and the level of no wonder, he's one of the better owners in the NFL. No wonder his you know, he's being talked about like he is to be able to make a move like that.
Yeah, So for people wondering the stadium wasn't great, but.
I think historically it was like the worst in the NFL.
One I thought, yeah, it was. In fact, they threatened to go to Hertford at one point, and so he bought the Craft, bought the he bought the land around the stadium. So if you bought the stadium, he was gonna you know, he would be making all the money around it with shops and restaurants. No. I think I think what I appreciated about all that is that, you know, Kraft was a Patriot fan. That's all he was. He was a Patriot fan. Yeah, and all these owners when
they buy the team. When Jerry Jones bought the team, Jimmy Johnson told me, for the first year, financially, Jerry was like going to card dealers and try to get ads. Like He's like, we do it. We weren't the Cowboys. It's like you had to overpay Craft. By the way, the first couple of years, they were not rolling.
In it, no one thing. And I said this on the podcast last week. You might not have seen because you were vacationing, but Drod Mayo, they clearly have a huge push from the Patriots to be like, we love the media. Now you guys who are our friends, our assistant coaches, know your importance. And I don't even And I've heard good things. He's an impressive guy. I don't even necessarily blame him for saying that because it's clearly
coming from Jonathan and Robert. I think they are too obsessed, Like, yeah, Bill could be an asshole who cares no one the media does, has no pull in the narrative. Once you start playing games, if you win, it doesn't matter how he is. If you lose, it doesn't none of it matters. He's only gonna be So yeah, they could write great articles for the next six months. The moment he starts zero and four and Jade Daniels has throwing seven interceptions in one touchdown, you got a problem on your hands.
No matter how much they like the guy, they will turn on you every time. So I understand the crafts. They just want some. They want more smiles. It's all bullshit. The reason Belichick got run out of time he started losing it wasn't because his press conferences. And I just think it's a human you know, it's natural reaction to want to pivot off what you just had. In relationships with coaches, we see it all the time. The Craft parcels a hole Pete nice guy, Belichick like parcels now,
jirod Mao like a Pete Carroll happy. And I think they're obsessed with the wrong thing right now in New England, and I do wonder if they got something coming their way, this is gonna be a lot more difficult than they realize.
You know, I've had people ask me this before, why the athletes come on your show, And I think, well, I got a bigger each And I'm not Mike Wallace. I can ask a tough question. But by and large, most athletes have secondary incomes or you know, projects or charities, and we always mention them. But I think the reality of athletes and sports is they largely don't need the media. That's why I've always appreciated let's pivot to the NBA here,
It's why I've always appreciated Lebron James. It doesn't matter if it's a local, regional, telecaster, national. Lebron always stops to talk to the press always. Michael did this too. Jordan was great, Kobe was really good at this stuff. Some guys aren't. But you know, as Lebron season winds down, I think the Lakers have championship length. Lebron ad I don't think their championship team. I think Boston and Denver
just feel like better than everybody. But I do want to talk about the Warriors for second, because generally, speaking as I was, you know, they've gone on a bit of a heater. I think they've won eight of ten, played really really well. They put Clay Thompson on the bench, and they brought this rookie and who they drafted to be the next Clay, the Pods kid, Brandon Podds like and he is frankly, he's got I mean even during draft night, you're like, he kind of plays like Clay.
He's got an edge to him. He's a little salty, and then cominga now has become like a pretty consistently good performer. Wiggins is playing a little better now. Generally, you know, Shaq and Kobe breaks up. The Heatles break up Michael Jordan. You can get really bad, really fast. But I'm sitting watching I'm sitting watching the Warriors over the last two weeks, and I'm like, okay, that's the last dynasty and I'm like, now Cominga's Cominga's a real player,
and Clay's off the bench. Clay's, by the way, he had a heater playing the Nuggets. Clay off the bench is a totally different expectation than Clay starting. And I'm like, I know they have a rookie, but I watch them and I'm like, okay, they don't match up well with Denver. Almost nobody does. Lakers do a little because Ad can defend Jokich, but you know the Bay Area very well. Are we gonna have because it doesn't work this way. When dynasty's end, they go into the freaking tank. Durant left,
they want another one. Then they step back and I watched them in the last two weeks and I'm like, you know what, Steph's still a top five six player, Draymond's still a catalyst, offensively excellent defensive player, Clay off the bench, two young guys that can actually score pods can score, Coaminga can score. Kurzys Wiggins has played much better. I gotta tell you, John the West outside of Denver, everybody's got an issue. Like everybody.
I think one thing the Warriors have is they're a throwback. I mean, these guys have played together forever. I mean you watch the Phoenix Suns. They've been together for ten minutes. Yeah, how can you have any faith in most of these teams beside Denver that they've been put together over the last eighteen months. The Warriors are much more like a nineties or eighties teams where the group has played together forever.
How about Steve kurz contract right, Like he's not in it for the rest of his life, but as long as step is there and Draymond is there and now they have some young players, So yeah, I wouldn't want any part of these guys in a big length I mean last year the Lakers annihilated him in that series length play and Clay was terrible. So to me, if Clay is the day and age of fourteen through eighteen,
is gone right ace. But if he is just a solid I can trust six out of the seven games to be in the high teens in one of those games he gets.
It's like when westbrookoff the bench for the Clippers is a mister energy.
Yeah, I thought, Draymond said on his podcast. He's like, I'm telling you we can compete for a championship this year. Like they're cohesion their group. They got Chris Paul coming back, Cary Peyton's healthy now, and Steph is one of the most remarkable players in the history of sports and still like when he's going, is one of the best players
in the NBA. The key to them, though, is Draymond, who's playing really well in Clay because Steph last year, like what else do you want to do against the Lakers? It was everybody else. So they just need Clay to meet Clay. If he can be like a B for them and then at moments a B plus a minus against good teams in the first or second round, then yeah,
hell yeah they could make a run. Yeah you know it, Steve Kirk about you see their value when Steph showed up, it was like three hundred and twenty five million dollars. That's what lake A bought the team for. Now. I don't think they would sell for this because so much is dependent on Steph who's thirty six, thirty seven years old. Ford valued them at over eight billion dollars.
Oh, I think. So the arena is the arena.
It's a cash cow. It's one of the only cash cows. Yeah.
Yeah.
And also that they own, so that's that's a huge thing.
Yeah, I think that's a huge component to it. It's interesting. So I covered Steve Kirk a couple years in Portland, and that team also had the governor of Oregon, like Chris Dudley. So it was a team that had like problem guys and then two of the smart guys like mayors, and it just was a fast bonus. Was a fascinating player to cover Damien's Damon Stodemeyer Pippen. But Kerr's remarkable. So Kerr is part of the greatest NBA team ever and hit some of the biggest shots. He's now one
of the best coaches. He's largely considered sort of it's got kind of a Phil Jackson field where there's a psychology, a psychological impact, an expertise beyond just x's no's. So he's on the greatest team created, one of the best coaches of all time. As a general manager. It's first of all, it's it's impossible. This list league is. If you don't have great players, you know you're not a great GM. He was. He was clearly capable. He was
a tremendous broadcaster. I mean I thought he was. I think he's one of the best analysts in any sport. I thought Kerr was a riot. He was quick, he was nimble, he was funny player, broadcaster, coach like Kerr. In my lifetime, Phil played marginal player, Phil coach, great GM, disaster broadcaster. No like Steve, Kerr has moved into an area. I mean, I don't know what the compass broadcaster, coach, player. He is one of the most significant people in league history.
I think just people have taken him for granted because he looks so young. People forget that he's an older guy. Now he's moving into a pat riley stage where I'm like, this is an all time top five guy in league history.
And it wasn't he part. I mean, he was one of the key guys in some of those great teams at Arizona. I mean, he's been basketball royalty for since the moment he was eighteen nineteen years old. I think we say this a lot of times in scouting, like this guy could do whatever he wants, could run a bank, could start his own company, could be a football player. And it's usually with famous you know, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady,
Drew Brees usually fall under that. I think we look at Steve a little different because he was a role player, but like that was really the the like his lowest level of accomplishment in terms of his ability right everything else he's been Michael Jordan at like, he's clearly one of the best coaches in the NBA's he's now the highest paid guy. He was, he was an elite, he was an all time great shooter. He just wasn't very big.
He just had physical limitations. But Michael trusted him. I mean the last dance is like, Steve, I'm coming to you, right, trust him that way. Phil swore by him. Phil begged him to take the next job under The media loves to call Phil the village idiot, but for a long time in my life, Phil was the cream of the crop. And Joe lacub who was an old school kind of just like George Steinbrenner killer, i mean, refuses like has gone all in on this guy now for a decade.
So he went there, and Steph Curry basically went to the Warriors like I'm not playing for anybody else. So one of the greatest players in the history of the sport basically looked at management like you better figure this out. He told Marcus Thompson Athletic like I wanted Steve to stay and put our contracts together. That's the guy like Michael Jordan's going, you know, on Kobe, the way they talked about Phil that's the way they talk about Steve Kerr.
So I think he's just one of those rare guys. He could have been a politician, he could have been an executive. He was, but in any other industry, obviously, he's just a basketball addict. And I think basketball got lucky that how many guys of his level would have because the last thing that came was coaching. He did everything else right, He broadcasting, general manager, business stuff. It's like I really want to coach. It's usually the other
way around. The guy coaches first kind of gets burned out and does all the other stuff. He actually did the hardest thing last. Now he got lucky. Lucky. He's the wrong word. He made the right decision because he had options. Instead of going to the Knicks, he went to the Warriors, and obviously it changed the trajectory of his basketball life. But when you just think like basketball Hall of Famers, he's got three rings with the Bulls, he's got two rings with the Spurs. He's got four
rings with the Warriors. And they've lost a couple of finals. Right, how many finals the guy have been to? Probably like fifteen.
The we'll wrap it up here, we've been we've been going fifty minutes. We'll wrap it up. So I go. My wife and I John bought a place in Rhode Island because I went there for ten years when I worked at the other place, and we vacation took our kids there. So we sold our house in la in like July and we bought a place in August next to a beach in Rhode Island. So it's always been one of my favorites.
It showed me the picks of the party. It looked good.
Yeah, it's nice, and that's that's where I'll retire in the summer and fall in about twelve years, ten twelve years whatever. And so Friday night we go out with friends and We come home at nine thirty and we pull into the driveway, my wife and I, and there's a car parked in my driveway. Now gotta remember this is a summer, summer town. There's nobody's lights you're on except ours. So I'm like, what's going on? So I pull in behind the car and I walk up to
it with my phone. You know, I don't know what's going on about lights in the house. Is somebody robbing my house? So I go up there and I asked this young girl. She rolls her window down and her dog starts barking. I said, can I ask why you're here? And she says, she pauses, Well, I uh yeah. I was just wondering if your house is for sale. And I'm like, oh, I'm getting robbed. It's nine thirty, there's no for sale sign. I'm getting robbed. Her boyfriend's in
the house. So I called nine one one, given the address. Well, the Westerly Rhode Island Police fantastic, like three dudes, three cars. Wasn't a lot of action, And apparently they came flying down the street. And we're kind of on a point so it's not easy to get to so and they were great guys. I mean, they were just total pros. It really made me feel good about this town. I'm like, these guys really are buttoned up. They were young, fit. Look you're right in the eye. They were to take
names on the guys. Yeah, they weren't effing around. And I was in the house.
What's that was someone in the house.
Well, so the guy goes there cars running. First of all, shouldn't be here cars running, And I said, there's no lights on. So my takeaway was, either she thinks because Taylor Swift lives ten houses away, I said, much bigger than my house. Obviously, I said, does she think this is Taylor Swift's house is a mental health issue? So they talked to her and it was she was very confused, you know, made certain claims that didn't make any sense.
So then you feel sympathy. You're like, okay, Then I had to Then the cops would the house, three of them, you know, they were ready to go. And then I followed in and in this house is one hundred years old. My basement has ten doors, I mean it's it's a maze of doors. And we've been fixing it up for five six months. So and so I tried to eat. I tried to email the Westwardly police the next day. It was so damn hard to find an email. I just was going to email a sergeant and say, hey,
your guys are great. You got good dudes there, man, they were total pros. But you know, it's so I guess my point is when we discovered that Taylor Swift was ten houses away, I was like, that doesn't hurt property value now.
I was like, do you think she was looking for Taylor Swift or she's just kind of off on her eye?
I just said, I because there's been stories of multiple people like being around the property. I mean, Taylor Swift's the biggest star in the world, the biggest star, beautiful, talented. So it really did make me think, oh my god, because this this young lady had no idea who I was. I mean, she didn't care, But my god, I got my wife in the car. I'm here to protect my wife, like right, like, I'm go out of the car. I got the phone. I'm like, you know, but so that's want to hear.
Your thoughts on Baker Mayfield's next contract.
Nah, wasn't really interested in the combine breakdown, not so Anyway, the point was I had a great week off. I love where I went. It's unbelievable, but there was a little drama there. And also that I love Rhode Island. But Rhode Island's got a neat unique history, very unique history that you know. Buddy Seance was a mayor of Providence. Providence Federal Hill, it's where the mob bumb out. So you know, Rhode Island's the wild wild West in government.
I almost I have a wine store business in Connecticut with my friend Brian. You know, we thought about moving into Rhode Island and it was like, Okay.
No thanks, you gotta pay. I'm on twenty percent off the top just to operate.
Oh John, you don't know the half of it. Twenty percent. So and by the way, I love Rhode Island because of its history. It's so unique. It's a little wild wild West. They do their own thing. But earlier that night, the place I was at I went and I it was a very interesting place. I won't give the name out, but I asked the people that took me there, I'm like, they got thirty people in this area. There's twelve people in the restaurant. How the hell do they fund it.
My friend goes, oh, yeah, it's run by the mob, and I'm like, so between I went to a place run by the mob. I mean they had like thirty people and I'm like, there's eight people having dinner. This doesn't make any sense. I mean it was just and then between that and the young lady who I think thought I was Taylor Swift, my Friday was it was full. It was full.
It was a lot of John Gottie call on Coward and Taylor Swift on the same street.
Crazy ass Friday for me. Glad I'm home in quiet Los Angeles. John Middlcoff enjoy the combine, Buddy.
I will take it easy.
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