Offseason Inner Monologues: 2022 Edition

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Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL podcast, Nice rack An, Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. My name is Dan Hansis and uh I come to you from a virtual room filled with some heroes, Mark Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal. How are we pretty rare that a money drop take takes you aback? And after after ten years, it takes a lot. I haven't seen that expression on Dan's face. Where what is the origin story? You say, Nice rack? There's there's often inside jokes that I don't remember that came up, and I guess it's right. Um, I feel like that was directed at someone else. That would be the end of the podcast, but we're okay. I don't know what it means. I feel maybe an insult. You know, you got to get into you know, training camp is gonna start for everybody. You know, I'm gonna have to hit that peloton. You're gonna have to really start to zone in for week one. Maybe work on the rack. Mark Marks zoned in right now, Dan, I didn't take it as a bod comment about you. I think I'm not sure what it was referring to. It was murky and confusing. Well let's just let it pass then and we'll dig in and maybe fire Graver after the show. I don't have the power to remove Graver from the commissioner chair. Excuse me, the producer. I would get a three fourths vote, though we could. We could do that another mark, any ideas, marks like finally I outnumbered, we outnumber them. Now, welcome to the Thursday edition. I am still in Texas. Um, the boys are still in California. Greg is heading to mother Japan in days now. And what what a moment it's gonna be when we do our first I mean, how many miles will separate? Well, how far is California, Southern California from Japan. I mean we're talking at ocean right, Um, you know, not not pretty much equal to Tokyo to London, which we do as a trip. It's about fifty miles. Google. Like, one of my bigger problems with traveling is just like getting on a plane and sitting on a plane for nine hours. That's fair, But I am taking this actually both flights, um by myself. So it could be worse. It could be worse. We are traveling separately. They're going a day and a half in front of me. The visa complications that delayed me having to get a ticket. But but I'm going, oh, just wait until the flight delays. I got stranded in Mexico a couple of months ago. I ended up a day late to Texas. It's really fun. What's going on in the airline industry? Hey? The the day yesterday for me was fun. I went to Putters and Gutters, great place in um Marble Falls, Texas. I shout that out. I went to a great cheese bit burger place. What was the name of it? If you're in central Texas, I have the place for you to go and lamp passes. I wish I remembered it. I'll get back to you on that mark. What's going on for you and uh in your neck of the woods? Well? One question, are you getting recognized, um, you know at the golf course, UM in eateries on the street. Are people kind of you know, flagging you down just to say thank you for the content, for the work that you've done. I don't think that's gonna really happen in this part of the country. Now. That's not to say there's not NFL fans around here. Are fans are our podcast, But this very much is UM college football heaven Um. I'm wearing a bailor hat right now because my father in law is a big time Sick and Bears guy, and we're gonna talk about a little more Texas football a little later in the news. That has Justin Graver, the Texas native and UT graduate, all pumped up. But yeah, this feels like if we did, like around the CFB podcast, I feel like it would be a pretty good chance around the NFL A little are hit and miss just to give you the answer, that full answer and a little bookkeeping. On Monday's show, I challenged the shadowy League figures um and said, if you listen to the show, hit me up on work email, and you don't even have to put anything in the body, just the subject I'm listening. One third floor executive did email me, I'm listening. Wow, one male or female is a male? I won't say who it was beyond that, But then also had a quick note that they really enjoyed uh the NFL Media Summit podcast last week and to keep up the good work. So it was a positive email. But I don't know, maybe Roger or others were tied up in other things so they didn't they didn't get a chance to email me. But I gotta say though that that hits the over. I mean my I said the over under a half, so I think I think, did you I missed that? I would have said it in one and a half after, but it's you know, we got one though, all right. So yes, we're gonna do it on today's show. We're gonna share some inner monologues. We're gonna bring that back. We did it last summer. Is fun and guess what it's June. This is it. This is ground zero for the quiet period of the NFL calendar. Um. So we're just gonna have some fun and let you know what's going on. The things that certain NFL figures are thinking that are taking up hard drive in their mind right now that they would never share, certainly not with the media, yeah who's like us, but also even maybe with their own loved ones where their own team, Yeah, whenever, the deepest internal monologues and thoughts that are often secret that you know it's you don't You don't want to be completely vulnerable and release it out there. But we're gonna do that today. I think everyone, to certain extent um, some more than others, certainly there's a level of self doubt and a level of reflection that goes on that you would keep to yourself. We're we're open, A're cracking that open. This is one source that we're exposing. It's these certain figures that are coming up today and we're gonna let you know how they feel. But before that, let's do some news. One more. I got sixty nine touch songs. If you know what I mean. It's a little like little cackle laugh at the end. Rob Gronkowski, of course, Um sent out the Instagram message on Monday announcing he was not coming back and had once again gone into retirement. It should be noted that Adam Schefter. Um was contacted by his agent, who texted Schefter and probably others. It would not surprise me if Tom Brady calls him him being grunk during the season to come back, and Rob answers the call. This is just my opinion, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rob comes back during the season or next season. He's coming back, I mean, what is that? What is that? Rosenhaus, who who's gross agent, was clearly putting it out there like we're open for business, just uh, just not yet. And I thought it was interesting. Mike Floria, who who often um, you know, has stories and quotes from Rosenhouse and stuff, uh, noted that it might have just been a financial thing. That it's like if they weren't going to pay him what he wanted. He didn't want to play the whole season necessarily for Tampa, but maybe he'll play half the season. And if you want to parse that even further, the fact that Rosenhaus specifically cites, you know, if Tom calls, it's not necessarily grunk searching for another team to come out of the woodwork and pay him. It's just like, you know, the Bucks want to bring me back and they're in contention and they needed I'll play, you know. But I actually felt bad for a second after the show, um, just thinking about It's like, oh, we didn't really provide context of like what these last couple of years meant for Gron's career and what a legend it's like. But I'm glad we didn't because he'll be coming back. We have. We absolutely totally nailed it and spent about two and a half minutes on it because this is exactly what we said would occur, and by the way, if he does indeed stick to this retirement, it's still is nothing to feel bad about Greg because in five years when he's a first eligibility can't And guy, if we're still doing the show by then, we absolutely have all those conversations. It'll be great. They'll be great conversations. There's no escape. Now. I feel like, um, we're like blood Brothers for life, Mark, this show will be going on in for infinity. Why are you pointing that commentent to to me because it's toward you basically all right, alright, or Roger Goodell testified Wednesday before members of Congress. We're going to talk about this because on four only a part of doing this job, which is covering everything connected with this professional football league around the NFL, is all the distasteful things surrounding the Washington commanders, and it's building and building and building. And now we're going to talk about the latest chapter. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified Wednesday before members of Congress at a hearing by the House Committee of Oversight and Reform about ongoing scrutiny into the organization's workplace culture and accusations from women employees of pervasive sexual harassment by team executives connected to the Commanders. So Goodell testified Wednesday a Congresswoman Rashida Talib from Michigan, after initially asking whether he would recommend Snyder's removal as owner of the Commanders, the congresswoman followed up by asking Goodell, will you remove him? Here's what Roger had to say, Well, remove him. I don't have the authority to remove him, Congresswoman. And an NFL owner can be removed, and here's the background and why Goodell answer that way. An NFL owner can be removed only by a three quarters vote twenty four out of thirty two majority vote of fellow owners, although Goodell does have the ability in his position as Commissioner to officially recommend such a vote. Daniel Snyder, the center of all this, the owner of the Commanders, was invited to testify but declined, deciding overseas business commitments and concerns about due process. Committee chair Carolyn Maloney out of New York announced during the hearing that she plans to issue a subpoena to compel Snyder to testify. It ain't going away. It it was disappointing to watch this to UH to watch Roger Goodell try to answer for Day and Snyder, which is like, that's what the commissioner on on paper makes his money for his being up there and trying to protect UH Snyder. But at what point does that grow so tiresome that Roger Goodell does recommend to start this process because he could if he really, if he really wanted to, he could he could recommend to start the process and at least force UH some sort of vote. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen, if only because if it was going to happen UM, you would have thought it would have already. And they kept pointing to that they've they've changed their organization. Ron Rivera came in Jason Write, their new president came in UM. Dan Snyder is no longer the day to day UM operating owner. But there's a lot of quotes from Moron Rivera and other people that indicate Dan Snyder is still very involved in the day to day operations, and so that doesn't really match up. And some of the allegations are new, and I think that's probably their biggest problem, is that the new NFL investigation into them after the one that that they never released. The report for came from allegations that came from these congressional hearings a year ago. And there's allegations from the Washington Post that that Dan Snyder essentially like sent goons to intimidate these witnesses and and find things out. And that was in the last year. So that's not just um old news. Washington Posts also um you know how to report with details about a previously known sexual assault that Dan Snyder was accused of, that that there was a payment of back in two thousand and nine. So it's all just disappointing, just as someone that's I feel like we've been ever since we've worked for the NFL, there's been extremely disappointing negative stories about this one particular franchise, and and that there's one commonality that that's been there the whole time and still right. It's hard to find an owner that has more consistently gone against what you would want an NFL owner to do. I mean, there's some startling other cases out there as well, but Snyder, going on decades um, this has been the culture and I mean the idea that he would survive this after we find out along the way during this investigation that he was using private investigators, offering hush money to witnesses, UH, doing shadow investigations to intimidate people inside his own building. To me, I don't know what the other owners, the other thirty one owners um where they are mentally if they want to protect him and keep him around. Because you're Daniel Snyder, the one thing you don't want to do is testify at all. I mean I totally get from his angle why he is staying away as long as possible because nothing good can come from that. And I thought that Goodell, you know, his role is to protect the owners to some degree, but he spent two hours having to be very slick um and very slippery around certain answers. I mean, they offered a bunch of strange questions too. It wasn't all just on this investigation because they have two hours to do what they want with it. But if you're a Goodell, this is the last thing you want to be happening in the middle of June, when folks, this football season is about to start and this thing can explode. I think this this doesn't end with Daniel Snyder out of the mix. Um. I don't think there's a lot of hope for any of these owners to be corrected in the way they behave. In a statement, a spokesperson for Snyder characterized the report and the hearing itself as a politically charged show trial and said Congress should not be investigating an issue a football team addressed years ago. That is the whole angle. And even though when it comes from the league now with after the investigation that the team held of the commander's football team and it led to the ten million dollar fine and the and Snyder being forced to step back that they say things have changed since then. But there are obviously a lot of people out here, including in the government here, that want more. They that's not good enough just this idea, Oh it's fixed now. They want accountability what's happened for what's happened in the past. And when asked about the alleged quote shadow investigation that Snyder and the Commanders were involved with, Goodell said any action that would discourage people from coming forward would be inappropriate. So that's where we're at there. Good luck with that new stadium, by the way, like getting public funds for the new stadium, and I think that is it's all connected. There that that this is there. This is the local team that Congress is a little more interested in, maybe than than other teams. There's public money, there's the antitrust exemption that the NFL gets and has benefited from. So I don't think it's it. It doesn't seem like it's ending. That's why when the when, the when the Jack del Rio comments came out, one of the first piggybacked responses by lawmakers was, well, that might have been the tipping point that takes us out of any interest for this new stadium. In football news, let's get into a time for news and notes presented by upwork, where you can build a team that will build your business. Learn more at upwork dot com NFL network. Seeing rapp Report reports Jalen Ramsey underwent shoulder surgery on Tuesday. That's interesting. June shoulder surgery football player. Okay, that's important to note, but he should be ready before the start of the season. Rapp Report added that Ramsey played with tears in both of his shoulders during the season. He was on Instagram the day of the report from rapp Report landed and he was in a shoulder sling. So he's been with the Rams or two and a half years since that blockbuster trade from the Jaguars, and he's coming off obviously a Super Bowl championship, So that's a major major piece of the puzzle in l A. And they just have to hope the rehab goes off without a hitch. I am afraid of like saying the same things that we say at this time of year every year, but sometimes you just gotta do it, which is that like, no one wants to have surgery in June, they were hoping to avoid it. That this is bad news because if they knew that he had to get it, you would have had it much earlier, and that there's no real accountability in terms of timelines within reporting in June, and just we we've learned over the years that many times when they say they're going to be ready for the season, there that's true, and many times when they say they're going to be ready for the season, it's not true. And there's really no way to know at this time of year, but it is. It is something that is disappointing. There's no way the Rams and Jalen Ramsey, especially considering how thin they are at cornerback, would have wanted to wait this long. Yeah, the timing is super ill. The only thing I'd say that's positive if if, if he can get healthy enough, is that you're under the same system with Raheem Morris he played. He's there sort of five position star guy that does everything for them. He knows what he's doing. It's not like missing time and meetings or you know that part of it is is certainly manageable, But yeah, it's sort of a mess. Uh. In signings news, the Steelers have signed defensive tackle Larry ogum Jobi to a one year deal. He finds a home. He had a three year, forty million dollar deal forty point five million to be exact with the Bears that fizzled out after he failed a physical, but now he lands on his feet. Not the deal he was looking for in free agency, but he could rest re establish his value playing with the Pittsburgh defense that has obviously obviously some big time players on it. Your thoughts on the move, Mark Well, I think it's I think it's a classic Steelers late summer signing and they found a good guy here. It's it could be more than depth because after stephanto It retired, he could play that role. Um. He brings pressure from the inside. I mean at this point, if at some point he lands with the Ravens, he will have been with all four a f C North teams. But he did good things with the Browns. He had seven a career high seven sacks last year with the Bengals. Um. Speaking to that internal pressure, he's not He's sort of been hot and cold against the run. He wasn't good against the run last year. But when you add him to Cam Hayward, you know you got Miles Jack in Pittsburgh as well. T J. Watt I like this signing for the Steelers. I think it's when he goes there. I think it's gonna work out. If he wins somewhere else, I'm not so sure he You set up perfectly with a classic Steeler signing. They find these cheap guys late in free agency, and Ogan Joey has been very up and down as a player, and that's why the Bengals chose b J. Hill over him. They actually, you know, b J. Hill ended up replacing him when Ogan Job got hurt, played outstanding in their playoff run. They end up giving Hill the big contract. But Ogan Job flashes and has made a ton of big blaze in his career, and I just feel like Mike Tomins will get the best out of him. This now leaves Dan fourteen players still left on the top one oh one that that has never been the case this deep uh into the off season. He's gonna list them for you. Just why not? Odell Beckham, Dwayne Brown still out there, the tackle thirty seven years old but played pretty well us here, Trey Flowers, former Patriot Lion, J C. Treader not sure why he's still available. Will Fuller, Eric Fisher, Julio Jones, Anthony Barr, Justin Houston, Sheldon Richardson and Dominans Wu, Kevin King, Danta high Tower and Riley Reef. I mean THO, some guys who can play for you. Part players there, some good ball players. Go get them, including I believe you mentioned Will Fuller still out there. I know everybody's kicking the tires looking to get better. Put that man with a good quarterback, you will make you better. You have a little bit of a Will Fuller fetish and it's been going on for years. He's replaced Lamar Miller as like the random former Houston Texans named Miller that you love. That's it. You guys cracked it. Wait he's not named Miller. He's fuller now from the Texans tree is my fetish? All right, all right, got some sad news. Ravens outside landbacker Jalen Ferguson has died at the age I actually have two items of really sad news around the Baltimore Ravens. So Jalen Ferguson passes away at the age of twenty six, the team announced Wednesday. Ravens coach John Harbaugh said that Jalen was a good hearted, gentle person who loved his family and his team. He was a joy to talk with and be around every day. Baltimore Police said officers responded to a home in the northern district of the city where they found Ferguson unresponsive and being treated by medics. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on the scene by medics. Um this is a man with three children, three very young children. A former third round picked by the Ravens in two thousand nine, who had been fully involved in all of the team's offensive offseason practices this year. So he was in going in a great direction in his career. So young with the family, and we lose Jalen Ferguson and at the age of also we lose Tony Saragosa, the Goose, one of the more notable, well known NFL figures of the early two thousands in late nineties defensive tackle uh with a huge personality, died Wednesday at the age of fifty five. Because of his death was not immediately available, but he was a key cog in the middle of the Ravens defense in two thousand, one of the best, if not the best defense ever. Twelve year career with the Colts and then Ravens, and I like this tweet from Jimmer say the Goose squeeze two hundred fun loving years into fifty five. He was one of the most physically strongest players I've ever seen in fifty years. In Greece, they would ask one question at the end of one's life. This is only Jim Mercy wouldweet this. Did he have passion? In Tony's case, Yes he did. So we lose Sarah Goosa and Jalen Ferguson in one day. Very sad. Well with Sarah Goosa, I'll just say one thing about him. Um, you know he was an on air presence on Fox for years too, and I that that I wasn't always thrilled with what he did on that on that vehicle, but his teammates, to a man, uh it absolutely loved this guy. And I think he was one of the better practical jokers UM of this century in the league because there were stories where like on the first Hard Knocks UM, when you know, Shannon Sharpe was in that tight end room with with the rest of that crew. He locked them in UM their meeting room and put a table up against the door, and they couldn't find their way out, and like it was just this that was just sort of what do we do all that? There's another time when a bunch of young players, UM, this is a weird story. They had made a giant pot of coco um and in the locker room and Saragosa snuck in like a large amount of laxative. And so they went out to practice UM in the cold after this coco and one player after the next was running back into the facility to do uh to you know, respond to what a laxative would do. UM. And the last single mentioned is that he when they went to the Super Bowl in that year, two thousand they knocked out the Raiders in the playoffs, and it was it was his hit on Rich Gannon the turtle totally turned Oakland upside down. And his quote, Sarah Goosa said, I saw Rich's eyes roll back. He got every pound of my fat ass on him. So I responded to be one of the more enjoyable characters of that era. Oh yeah, I mean he got to be one of the better undrafted UH free agents of the nineties period. You're an undrafted guy and you end up starting in the league for twelve years, start a hundred and forty eight games, win a ring UH with the Ravens. You meant to be part of that broadcast team Kenny, Moose and Goose. I just that that trio. It's always like in my brain it was Kenny Albert Moose and Goose. They were either the number two team or the number three team, and he sort of did this thing. Not many people have replaced it where he was on the sideline, but he was part of the broadcast the whole time, and just saying goofy stuff and and I'm with you on the hard knocks. Memories like I don't remember that much as a player, Ozzie knew some um brought up that he's one of the best run stoppers in Ravens history, and and actually that sort of role has continued throughout Ravens history under Ozzy Knewsom. They're always sort of looking for the next Tony Sarah Gooso with a big time run stopper in the middle. Now it's Brandon Williams. It's like Hellode not of different guys like that. But that Hard Knocks to me was maybe I'm not remembering well, but I just feel like that was the best one because they sort of didn't realize what it was and it was big time players being totally loose. They got away with a lot, they allowed everything, And if if you're a big enough dork that you would want to go back and watch a Hard Knocks, that would be like my number one recommendation because it's just like a different NFL. And Sarah Goosa was was maybe the star of it, the number one person he was. I mean it was I think Brian Billick thought he was the star because I've never seen a man carry himself with more irrational confidence. Um as the head coach of that team after the two thousand Super Bowl season. I just remember him laying in a hammock at one point was like a Bahama you know, Panama Jack had on just like I Am the King of the World, but Saragosa. That wasn't even his best HBO vehicle, Greggy. He also had a four episode run on The Sopranos right late in that series where he played an enforcer named Frankie Cortez, So you know he had that. He had all sorts of different angles and he um. He also yeh, the what did you call it? The Moose, Goose and Loose? What was it again? It is Kenny Moose and Goose that the Blue team was a team for a while. I feel like we used to, or at least I used to have some fun at the expense of Goose with his role on the on those telecasts, so we're like cut to Goose and then he'd be the way I always remember it, he'd either like be behind the field goal post or like halfway up the tabel and they just throw it to Goose and he'd say something Goose esque and then he would come back to the telecast. Um. But yes, definitely a memorable uh figure. I feel like West had strong opinions on Kenny Moose and Goose if he went back to like our two thousand, fourteen thirteen, it's like we have been we have been doing this a long time. I mean, they were that that I understand that a nice nickname, but they were critique to times. I mean, he was part of it. Wasn't everyone's cup of tea on air, but that you And one more note on Jalen Ferguson. Uh great nickname in college sack Daddy Awesome. He holds the FBS FBS record for career sacks with and wow, that's crazy. I know, I mean that that, you know, that is sad. And he was going to have you know, when I did the projected starters. Not that the football side of it is that important, but you know, he he had an opportunity because of injuries and just how their roster is. He was probably penciled into to start this year. They've been good at kind of developing that position and this was his time to step up. And just it's tragic. I think everyone there, his teammates and everyone were just stunned. There. It was out of nowhere, alright, And finally in the news arch manning the next Manning, there was the father. Was he too Lane? Was he too Lane? Guy? Archie Archie was that old miss. And then with sts you know, that's still one of the great saints of all time. Um, there haven't been that many that have topped him. And then there was Peyton, one of the greatest to ever strap it up, multiple m vps, a couple of Super Bowl wins. And then Eli who had a couple of Super Bowl wins of his own at Greg Rosenthal's expense directly and one of the great German ever. And now here comes arch son of Cooper Cooper, who as another brother from the Manning family that people thought had a chance to be a truly great pro but I believe it was a neck injury that kept Cooper from following his NFL dreams. But here is his son, who is a blue absolute blue chip quarterback. He ends up um committing to Texas over other suitors that included Georgia, Alabama, l s U, Clemson, and Virginia. Now we are not your source for college football, h insight, but Justin Graver is an of Texan As. I sit in Texas right now. Like I said at the top of the show, they love their college football. And I could picture a young Graver just rolling through co Eds and then just attending all those Saturday games. Uh, he's doing the hook him horns thing or whatever that is there it is, and then now you have this dude or he pumped up Graver. Yeah, pretty pumped up. I think Texas is finally back. Right. We can say it with confidence. Games first, right, and the sec you would think you would think with him if he if he lives up to his billing. I don't know, I don't know anything about prospects, but he's been like the number one prospect hype wise for years. Yeah. I don't know if it's just because his name is Manning, but he's like the clear number one quarterback on that level of like Trevor Lawrence Andrew luck type of guys Opal works out and Graver you just, um, you know when you went to school. I asked you before the show. You just missed the magical um run of cult McCoy a. Texas probably the last really relevant era for them in some respect. Will this pull you back? Will you be going? Do you think that you'll go back and watch games? And do you think that Manning has a chance to outshine cult McCoy in the setting. I think he does because his name is Manning. But he's got to be he's gonna win games. Like Greg said, so I've been pretty like into Texas football. They have a really fun way of making you strong believers in September and then completely crumbling down the stretch. So every year is like, um, yeah, I mean they've fallen off the map, but now you know they're they're entering the sec They're getting ready. Shout out to Isadore, Newman where Arch goes to school. A couple of my good friends from college went there a football jugger not despite being some small like school, and they somehow get all the Mannings. I don't know how that works. That's a great point, Greg Dan. What is going on in the streets in tech. You're in Texas, You're it's he let around you. What's the physical human response to this news that just broke hours ago? You're right there, there's nothing going on. I'm actually fairly close to Austin. But again, the Texas is very spread out, you know, it's very different than where the three of us currently live, which is a very highly concentrated region of the country, So I haven't seen another human today. Putters, putters and gutters is like where everyone is uh hanging out and that's it. There was like seven people of putters and gutters, um, and that's it. But anyway, good good luck to see that picture, by the way, of all the Mannings hanging out. I believe in New Orleans, but maybe maybe not. Maybe they were in Texas and they all had identical looking polos and wrinkled uh shorts. And I showed that picture to my son to see if he recognized anyone in the picture, and he did recognize Peyton Manning and mentioned how much he dislikes Eli Manning as a Patriots fan. I don't like that guy there, Dan. You know there's a Manning nephew or you know on that wears Slayer shirt and has a mohawk and you know, ripped up jeans and a chain and smokes cigarettes that they just keep hidden. Yeah, probably like up in the attic somewhere, like chained to a chain to a bed, like you know the Kennedy story, the poor Kennedy woman that they kind of kept out of view. UM, a similar situation. They put they put a drill into her head by the way. So I know it's a very sad story. I was kind of dancing around that aspect of it, but more that she was kept out of the public I for the balance of her life, sodomized, taken out of the taken out of the rotation. Could this guy be lobotomized. I don't know. If he exists, he might be in danger. Certainly he'd be in danger of being forced to wear khaki shorts. Similar to how marx um child that popped up a few years ago. Right, remember the missing child. I mean, she's not missing anymore, but we didn't talk. It's my my daughter. We've dan met her. She's a very nice young woman. What's her deal. She's twenty four years old, lives in not too far from here. And that was News and Notes presented by up work, the world's work marketplace. Learn more at upwork dot com. All right, let's take a break and we'll get to some deep internal thoughts that would never be shared with the public from your favorite NFL stars. All Right, we're back. It's time. It's time to dig in to let the people know what's really going on behind the eyes of some of the most notable NFL figures. And I would say this, and I think this needs to be a bit of a promise that we won't use anything that we broadcast today against these individuals because we are in a sense you could say, it's an invasion of their privacy at a biblical level what we're doing here. So that goes for everyone listening, any Shadowy League figures, including that one gentleman on the third floor, and anyone else. I think that's fair ground, real set. I think that's that's just because we're wielding a certain amount of power here and it's going to take us and the listeners um, a lot of restraint to not even think about it. You know, when you hear something very disturbing about someone and every time you see them, that's all you can think about. We've got to refrain from that being the case with these NFL figures. Well, right, two, Like people are concerned about that privacy data, um, and we're getting literally inside their brains. That's some privacy data you normally want to protect them. They can't, all right, So let's let's get inside a brain. Greg, do you want to get us going today? Sure? Um, let's get inside the mind of pet Carroll. People ask me all the time, like, how long is this gonna take? Are you gonna throw the ball forward? I don't know that. I don't really care about that. What do I do know is that things are going to go the right way. People want to say, Oh, Gino or Drew, how about asking this question, Rashot or ken that's Shotpenny or ken Walker. Here's what Gino can do. He can turn around, hold the ball to his left, and then one of those running backs can run to the left or to the right. It's up to them. They actually you can also run to the middle, one of the things we've been thinking about. They can actually start running to the left, and then they can change directions and then run to the right. There's all sorts of options. I'm just so jacked and pumped to get after it. I'm so happy. Russell Wilson's gone. Wait was that? Was that allowed? Was that what allowed? Out? Loud? I like the Pete Carroll cadence. I thought, you really got Pete Carroll down there just right. I can always you can always hear the winter green gum chomping between the back bowlers. It's funny, yeah, that Pete, you know, still always positive, always completely confident that the most optimistic scenario plays out. That's just Pete Carroll. I mean that he's not concerned. I think, I think, I mean now that we know that, I mean, he didn't want to even let it out from his own internal thoughts there at the end. But he's just so excited. He's so excited to be turning the page from this domineerian personality that was running his his franchise, when he has so many different offensive options that he laid out that Drew lock Ginou can do very well. Well. It's funny Greg that you, um, we're able to drill into the mind of Pete Carroll, because I have drilled right into the mind of that quarterback that you mentioned, Geno Smith. Oh my gosh, I thought you said that, Russell. This is it. This is my moment, my stage, and no one's gonna take it for me. Last time I was in training camp with a starting job in my back pocket, some Jabroni teammate broke my jaw because I skipped out on a high school football camp without noticed and refused to reimburse the cost of airfare. My teammate had fronted me in good faith. What a jerk. That guy was totally in in the wrong. But I'm always right. I'm Geno Smith coach Carol traded for Drew Lock. That's funny as hell. Beat knows that dude can't hold my giant jockstrap. Let's strap Drew in the Gino coasted this summer. Then watch him plummet to a horrifying death. Yeah that's right. I'm straight up murdering the competition. This Baker Mayfield coming to town. Please. The only thing that dude could beat me in is commercial revenue and a lack of troubling d U I R s. And that's only one nothing plenty of ball game there, mental checklist time, baby win, a starting job? Check when m v P check, when super Bowl check? Find proof Earth is flat? Sideways check? Oh yeah, this is gonna be a great year. Still chasing that flat earth concept. I like that he's he doesn't give up. Well he doesn't dress because I would have thought I would have been the one who could get inside the mind. But you you really did it. Um. He backed off that flat earth stuff publicly, but you know he thinks about it all right, And you know, and Pete Carroll has some theories of his own, so the two of them kind of go hand in hand. Interesting. It's gonna be an interesting season in Seattle based on what we just heard. Well, I hope the murdering was metaphorical, you know, on the field, um, because otherwise it be a little to be troubling. But again, we can't use any of this him. No, it's but if anybody wants to, you know, shoot Drew Lock, the d M that might have ability to maybe just a heads up, watch your back. I don't think we're supposed to tell Drew Lock based on the ground rules. I think surprised by trust tree here. That's all right, all right, was another edition of MS Sipping on Vena checking on. I assume you have someone from the Seattle Seahawks. I do not. I am traveling. I'm taking us to Tampa, where we're going to get inside the head of Bruce Arians and sometimes it bugs me. Tom retires, then Tom un retires, then I retire. Kind of, let's be real, baby, I was bumped upstairs, classic lever poll on the old guy. So now Tom and left witch Huddle is a twosome to design the weekly game plan without me. Classy moved by Lefty after I went to bat for him ten thou times. Some times I tell myself trust nobody bright side. I'm still making a fat paycheck, still get to eat in the team cafeteria, which by the way, has hugely improved since they replaced that last chef's super dull Jessica Yardley with this new guy, El Gucci. El Gucci has done incredible things to the menu. Wonderful pork tenderloin yesterday for lunch, every morning, waffles dipped in butter and foreign syrups. There was a fish fry last Friday, which I was first in line for. El Gucci has his own way of crispin French fries and then serving them with multiple dipping sauces ranch, chipotle, sweet chili, honey, barbecue, Dijon. The other day, battleship for NET came up to me in the cafeteria and there I was huddled over a massive second lunch. Two dense Try Tips sandwiches, a big bowl of spaghetti undermeat sauce, a green salad with honey dipped croutons, and a massive tumbler whiskey. What you've been working on these days for Net? Asked me nothing, baby, I said nothing at all. Wow. That checks out feels um feels on point. It feels like, Um, I have some concern level for Bruce's health, you know, because he's been You see him puttering around in that golf cart when he was coaching last year. So I don't know if there's like a lot of exercise. Um. And I definitely it seems like al Gucci, great food, but dangerous that he's eating almost too much. It's a problematic path potentially. Yeah, Bruce is he loves life and he's not a guy that's always as careful as he needs to be. So hopefully he's mixing in some salads of the commissary. Um. I I would love to see, honestly, So since the announcement came that he was moving upstairs, what was that in February January February if you gave him a piece of loose leaf paper and a pen in and said, please, if you could, Bruce, list everything you've accomplished work wise since you've moved into this front office role. I would love to see it. And he can't bullshit. He needs to actually list tangible work that he's done. He's probably made half a million dollars in salaries. Right. I don't know if he has a boss, but I I think it would be good if he doesn't. I mean, I feel like I am. You know. We're still working hard and I want to do the best job we can. But I have slight arians tendencies here because our huddle has really gone up and not since we moved into Engle several and it's free so much like for arians um and I schedule my time at work around service. I actually had to run in yesterday to just get the microphone to bring to Japan, you know. And I and I showed up specifically to get the end of breakfast and waited around for the beginning of laton before that eleven am. It off right ten thirty, so you have to get there before ten thirty, hang out to a couple, you know, talk around, and then get that lunch and sometimes then we'll take a podcast if it was a day we do that. Come back for kind of lunch too, which is like a souper a little lunch part two. Yeah, they've got pizza slices um free all the time. There was a initially when we moved into the building, they said, you know, it's going to be free for I think September, just so that people who, you know, the anxiety of returning to work, like, let's kind of grease the skids, give you some nice food, and the pricing the cost never came. It just was remain free, which is sort of an anti corporate move there. Typically they're like taking water coolers away and stuff like that. Not here. And during our contract negotiations and you know, you you have different options and you're weighing what you want to do next um with the podcast and in our careers, and you know, we ultimately you know, when I was asked, you know what what made the difference? And I said, oh, yeah, you know great, you know, great people work here. It's great. You know, the studio is great. We've had such a great run here at NFL. We think we could keep it up going forward. But really, if you wanted to get into my internal monologue, it was like, oh, the free food at the much improved promissary, Like it starts there and ends there. It was at least of my thinking in terms of making a final decision. And that's an internal monologue, Greg, you got another one? I do all right? Let's do it. This is inside the mind of Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, I really think for me, it's it's just kind of funny how this off season being portrayed in the media. We're all gonna miss Devant. I love Devanty. You saw the photos on Instagram. That's proof, right, that's real mhmm to himself. But I don't know if people really saw the results of the m v P Award voting the last two years. One name I didn't see at the top, Davante Adams didn't. He didn't see him get a vote. But I and kind of people maybe should should go see those results the m v P Award the last two years. There is one name that that's there. It's pretty consistent. So it's like I told Goody last year, I think I've been pretty incredible and based on my years, yeah, I think it'd be nice if everyone out there just recognized. Now, if there's one thing I know to be true, it's that inside Aaron Rodgers's brain, there's a lot of self congratulatve with some congratulations going on so vindictive. I mean, he he just he needs to look for someone to to push back against, and he sees he sees what's out there and this is the closest thing. Oh, people, people aren't ranking there are the Packers in their top five offenses? Are people so worried? Oh, the Packers are gonna be really missing Davante Adams. The Packers are about one man and one man only. This will be a good test. They haven't quite stacked the roster in this favor. There are some other quarterbacks that have gotten better UM support this offseason, in my opinion, and one of them is a guy that's about into his second year up there in New England. Well, summer break is here. I'm back home in Jacksonville and it feels good. Drinking natty lights, blasting my favorite band, Creed, taking the pontoon boat out on the lake with Becky jog Head and all my other friends. We deserve this. I deserve this. I've worked hard on my body and game all offseason so guys like Craig rosen Bloom can make snarky comments at my He won't be able to make snarky comments at my expense this year. But hanging out with babes and bros doesn't stop my mind from wandering, and at night I forget it. I can't sleep, I can hardly breathe. That's all I can think about. Who is my offensive coordinator? Is it Mr QB sneak on thirty nine Joe Judge? I can't be Is it Patricia? That Patricia? Like I? I locked his keys in his car at minicamp twice. I know enough by now that it's not appropriate to ask questions or have creative thoughts with my team. But every other quarterback knows who their coaches. Why can't I? It's almost like, hey, stop, what Belichick? Is that you? How could you be in my head? It's impossible. You will do as you're told to take orders from superiors without question. But do you understand? I just do you understand? Grumble grumble, yes, sir? Okay, no more Creed on the pontoon only bon Jovi. Yes, yes, coach, My life is a nightmare. Wow, it's not easy up there in the Patriot Way. I mean, it's it's Belichick's next frontier. We think we can get inside the mind. He's inside the mind of ninety different men, the monitoring their conversation. He waited a long time to penetrate the mind of Mac Jones, to this pivotal moment where there was doubt. It's a big finish. It's a big finish. I think it's one of his skills, the greatest skills in the legendary coaching run is that ability to mind meld. It's funny because when I when I hear like Mac Jones's voice inside of his head, for some reason, it's like more like, well, I hope the guys are really going to catch the balls this year. That's just I don't know why. That's I really gotta have fun playing the football with the guys. It sounds like from Jacksonville. That kind of opened up a whole other world for me. Yeah, I thought you were going into that. I didn't. Why does that open up? Yeah? I guess that kind of makes sense. He seems like a like a sort of southern bro, which is what Jacksonville I imagined to be. Alabama. Yeah, I mean, no disrespe to anybody listening from Duval, but I thought he was like a good old boy from I guess from Alabama or the surrounding area up there. I don't know. Anyway, it's rich that in that in North Florida, you know, it's very uh it's very southern Laurabama. Is that I've been there, had I've had a few wild nights at Florabama. Again, how come we didn't get any of these Rosenthal wild nights? You speak about them with such frequency. Did any of them happen post nine eleven? Greg? Uh? Wait nine eleven? No? No? Well, I mean I had some wild nights in my life, but I was out of college and and there might have been a few trips back there for weddings and whatnot, but not not at Florabama. I mean, you're trying to implicate Greg, and no, I'm just saying that most of greg wild tales happened from an era before um even nine eleven. It's it seems all right. I just wanted to make sure you weren't read. It was an important sort of um Greg moment in the country that was like a before and after. I see where you're going, But I was out here in Los Angeles at the time, working at Hallway Pictures, which produced uh Johnson's Family and Vacation starring Cedric the Entertainers. In terms of the time space continuum continuum there mark that if our theory holds true, that Greg was born age thirty two standing up? Does he even know what nine eleven is? Is he just playing along right now? Well that's a that's a rich mystery. And not all these two lane stories are just part of some amazing backstory that I pre wrote. Yes, all right, that's given me a lot of credit. Alright, Mark finished. Well this is strange because um, I we must be LinkedIn in this exercise some agreement. We're using these powers because I also have a new England patriot, um who is going to be very important to to Mac Jones. And that his first round pick um Cole Strange. And when I was um penetrating the mind of culture strange. Uh, you know, I kind of spent a lot of time and they're trying to figure out because he was doing something weird. He all of his internal monologues are done in dear diary format. That's how he thinks. Um, I don't know if that appeals to Bill Belichick, and that's why they you know, maybe drafted over drafted him. But this is here we'll go here we go. Yeah, interesting dear diary. I heard the chuckles when I was drafted. Of course I did. Who's this guy? And why is he going twenty nine. Overall, the little blogger boys won't be giggling so hard when I grind a dolphin's interior alignment into dust four minutes into week one. Those little keyboardists won't know what to say when I make all pro after seventeen pristine starts without allowing a single sack of mac Daddy Jones. My physical body glows like a diamond. This morning, I climbed the mountain located at the edge of my apartment complex, upward and through the hilly regions to where few trees remained. There, I encountered a billy goat. It stood frozen, its eyes piercing into mine. Through some hidden power of nature, the goats spoke to me telepathically something many humans do not understand, said the beast, its eyes now blazing red. Is that your experience here is simply a vision, a dream of sorts, but not in the way that you think of dreams. Is football real? I asked, not especially, said the goat. Are you real? I asked? Can I answer your question with a question? Said the animal? Okay, Would you believe me if I said I was your ninth grade girlfriend, Nikki Exxon in the form of a mountain goat. But Nicki Xxon married Chris Trigger. No, that's a false illusion. I am Nicki x song and I'm still in love with you and think about you every day. Cole, I have to go now, I said, I have to lift weights the facility. Then I walked down the mountain and got into my truck and drove the Patriot Place where strength and conditioning coach ted Frumpy spotted me on the dumbbell. Mm hmm, wow, it's I love that both you and Cole are are fans of the phrase my physical body UM and UM, and I feel like um. This is almost a dream for you, for you to mark that you would run into um, a high school or middle school ex girlfriend in the form of a goat like you, You would love that I felt connect more connected. Yeah, I think like you know, I mind the the minds of many NFL players to do this exercise and has stood out to me. I feel a connected kind of um brotherhood to him, knowing what we know. You know what we learned minutes earlier. I would be concerned if I'm cold, that Nikki Exxon could potentially be in great danger as seen as a distraction and one that needed to be muzzled, or I guess industrialized. Um, if goats being processed, people people eat some goats, right well, Or that Nikki x on x um um potentially is Bill Belichick. Um, and she's not. It's not really Nikki's levels. He's turning into the clown from it where he has the ability to take on different forms and then psychological and physical menace. I mean, it's it's a heavy thing to be Belichick and inside all these minds because he has been open up to many of the darkest secrets of the known universe. And I hope he can keep his focus as coach, knowing what he now knows about Nikki and the goat and and everything. All the implications Bill Belichick is pennywise, it actually checks out. Um, all right, there you go again. Anything you heard here, Try not I know you can't eliminate it entirely from your mind's eye, but just try to understand that these were private thoughts and m and to respect them in that sense. Thank you to everybody. Yeah, great, great, right, I think, Um, you know, we've we've done this in the debt of the off season a few times. I feel like we need to bring this back on a Tuesday or different show during the season. I think getting inside their minds during the season, I think would be a fun expert g s. All right, that's it for another week of shows here in the off season, Greg, you will no head off to Japan. Got a got a big championship game in the y m c A Bronze League coming up on Saturday first. So your coach you sent a text your coach, the coach of your son's team quit like on short notice, and you've been thrust into the role of head coach at the most critical juncture of the season. That hindsight, he sort of groom me he needed extra help and was a little inconsistent of with his attendance and had various reasons for it throughout the season, and then he just was gone. Um, and I've had to take over, and um, I don't know how to run a basketball practice like pastad If you watched Winning Time on HBO, I feel like more like the Dave McGinnis or I guess Dan Campbell with the Dolphins would be one I would rather be or Joe Vit. You know that. But but I'm struggling and we're in the championship game against a team that is nine in one and whose coach takes it so seriously. It makes me that's the best if you could beat If you could beat the team with the coach that takes kids sports way too seriously, it's so much more rewarding. But we're we're five and five. We're heavy, heavy underdogs in this. We gotta want to take the other gentleman to task. But what kind of person quits the team as coach just before the championship game? Why not can you not maybe cap it off with one more constant? He left me in a tough spot a couple of weeks ago. Probably didn't think we were going to the championship. We've had a nice orchestrated this playoff run. Two and one games, the games that take care of themselves. The practices are some of the longest hours of my life. I just feel like I don't know what to do. Are you playing big or what's your rotation going to be? Well, they're six years old. You try to give everyone some playing time. But I know the way this guy works. He's not taking his best players out. So I'm definitely doing like a box and one given putting our best defensive player on their one superstar, and just that's my main innovation, hoping for the best is Walker has seen an uptick in playing time since you took over. Now I almost overcorrect and trying to do it. But he's he's solid, like he would be in the middle, you know, he's he wouldn't be playing the whole game anyways, like some of the we do have a couple of stars. When you announced this, Graver had some very good ideas for practices and stuff. Would you would you ever consist consider bringing him on as an assistant coach? I would love to. I wish you had sent me those suggestions and I could have had over the Santa Monica y on Thursday for the last practice or Wednesday, and but I could have used your help because I looked at that clock and I was like, wait, we got twenty more minutes. What am I gonna do? What did you suggest grammar? Oh? I suggested layup lines three. Man, we've a nice scrimmage. Scrimmage always eats up the scrimmages, but they the scrimmages the standby in coaching youth. Yeah, teams, you got twenty five minutes left, uh, scrimmage? How about like a game of course, don't the kids play a game of horse with like you know, like a ice cream Sundays as as a surprise that that would take thirty minutes? Right? It just like you're living kicking and screaming, but with basketball instead of soccer, which is great. Well, just know the kids. The kids think you know everything. It's the parents that you have to win over because they're watching, and they're watching. Yeah, I feel like I'm letting like the ones who are genuinely talented. I feel like I'm letting them their kids down that they're not really getting any learned. Greg, you've tugged them to will follow you into taking them to the championship game. I don't. I don't understand that. Like yourself. If you know, if anything, you can turn to the parents and say eat it, they should. They should applaud what you've done. Well, what one of them could have stepped in and seem support if they're they're all nice. Just think about this too, Mark, think about the big I'm assuming Greg the coach is a bigger man. He gets angry at something happens in the game. He says something to Greg you know, Greg has a way of saying things back to people I won't And just imagine what would happen if Greg hits him with a little Greg bomb, if he keeps complaining to the officials and stuff like that. I'm gonna I'm gonna say something. I think I need to go to this game and see how this. It's my call for another Peacemaker summit. I know this guy. I haven't said, I haven't said a word in in our matchups, but it's on everyone's radar. Believe there's always that guy. You know exactly without ever having seen or know the man, I know exactly the type anyway. All right, that's a good luck to you in the championship. When is it Saturday morning? Alright? Good luck in the championship and uh trip to Japan and Mark will be you and I UH with Cavon Thibodeaux on Monday. We gotta figure out how we're gonna move that relationship forward closer to friendship status. Well, I have full confidence that we do. Each time we meet with him, Um, you know, the friendship becomes more intense, and so I think that that that is the direction. Beautiful, all right, thank you, everybody for listening. Enjoy your weekend, have fun, be safe, head to putters and gutters if you're in the Marble Falls area. If, even if you don't, just remember one thing, he'd the call