Hour 2 - Yes or No on Bill Belichick, Kevin Stefanski

00:00:00
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio Hour two. It's a meat Friday. Gangs al here ready to go.

00:00:09
Speaker 2: This is our last show here at the Homeman Cave, and then we're headed out to San Francisco and Monday through Friday six am Local till nine am Local, we'll be at the China Basin Park and that's in the shadows of the Oracle Park, the baseball home of the San Francisco Giants.

00:00:27
Speaker 1: Come down and join us.

00:00:29
Speaker 2: Dress appropriately, probably a little breezy, around forty degrees at six am. It's a meat Friday. Mango habanero glazed pork shoulder, Colorado stuffed chicken breast their courtesy of Heartland State Company, as well as macaroni and cheese, biscuits and mashed potatoes.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: Who has it better than we do? No body phone calls coming up. Operator Tyler sitting by eight seven to seven three DP show. Good morning.

00:00:58
Speaker 2: If you're watching on Peacock or the NBA Sports Network, we'll talk to the new head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, the former Cleveland brown head coach, Kevin Stefanski, Rich Eyesen in an hour from now and also in the final hour, we'll talk to Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold. Raiders and Cardinals still open for business, looking for their head coaches and probably waiting until the end of the Super Bowl to bring in maybe one of these coordinators. Certainly feels like that for the Raiders. And my tip off was when I was watching Tom Brady listening to Tom Brady do the Seattle game. He talked a lot about Clint Kobyak dialing up stuff, and I'm thinking, and then I think at one point said, you know, and my guy, Clint Kubiak, and I'm going I'll be damn. Tom's telling us who he's going to hire right here in front of us. But at least he was flirting with him, and then you start to realize that maybe that's who is going to be the next head coach of the Raiders. Who could have saw that coming? I know, I don't think he mentioned the offensive coordinator for the Rams, but all I know is Clint Kubiak was dialing up some stuff. And if he's dialing up stuff, or Todd Munkin or Spags is dialing up something, you know. Monkin got the Cleveland Browns head coaching job.

00:02:22
Speaker 1: Although I don't. It felt like a who did we get okay?

00:02:28
Speaker 2: Because they couldn't take a chance any longer and have more potential candidates, or candidates say I don't want to interview for the job. And I thought Jim Schwartz, their defensive coordinator, was going to get it just because he would be the only guy who wanted it. He was in the building, and then all of a sudden they announced they're bringing in Todd Munkin and Jim Schwartz, the defensive coordinator, said, I'm out of here. I mean, imagine that the one good thing about the Browns their defense, and they lose their defensive coordinator.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: I'm out of here, yes, Pauli.

00:03:03
Speaker 3: Todd Monkin was there in twenty nineteen. He was the Browns oc then he went to Georgia for a few years, Ravens for a few years, and he's back.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: I mean, the Ravens ran a fun offense. They put points on the board.

00:03:15
Speaker 4: It's not the worst thing for a Browns fan to be like, Hey, we got a guy who might play a fun brand of football, something we haven't seen in a long time.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: But I do I have a quarterback who can play that style of offense. That would be the biggest concern because should Or Sanders is not playing the game the way Lamar Jackson does not even close. Well, you know, Josh Allen's probably the only one who does play that way, but you bring him in, they still have to decide if they have a quarterback. Okay, does Kevin Stefanski answer this question? Is should Or Sanders a franchise quarterback? Does he answer that?

00:03:56
Speaker 1: Paulie?

00:03:57
Speaker 5: No?

00:03:57
Speaker 3: Because I watched him the other day and he's asked about Browns things. He said, I'm all into the Falcons about the future and.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: What's going on.

00:04:05
Speaker 2: Now, come on, yeah, it's all future, It's all about content.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: Doesn't he know?

00:04:10
Speaker 2: I can't waste everybody's time, can't be talking about the Falcons. Well, I'm going to ask you about Kirk Cousins. What's his future there?

00:04:17
Speaker 6: Yes, Hud, I could see him answering it not to be rude, but he won't really say much. I'll say he could be you know, we'll see what the future holds and just kind of leave it generic like that.

00:04:25
Speaker 5: Mmm.

00:04:26
Speaker 2: Okay, Josh Allen had foot surgery, and you know they were bringing in Joe Brady announcing him as the new head coach, and all of a sudden, I see Josh Allen on crutches and I'm like, wait, what happened here? So he had foot surgery. I don't know to what extent. I'm sure it was successful because all surgeries on athletes are successful, but he did take blame for Sean McDermott being fired.

00:04:53
Speaker 7: I'd be lying to you if I'm sitting here saying that, you know, I feel like I had part in it, because if we made, if I make one more play that game in Denver, We're probably not having this press conference right now. We're probably not making a change and all honestly, it's probably we're probably getting ready to play another game. And that's that's the hard part to taken from my perspective.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: Okay, man, you got in front of the media. I appreciate that. Uh fell on his sword, taking some blame there. You have an update on the surgery, Poling.

00:05:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, according to the bills, Uh it was his fifth metatarsal bone that he broke. It was an old injury that he reaggravated in the game, and they had it cleaned up. They like to use where his like cleaned up surgeries. Negative cleaned up is nicer.

00:05:39
Speaker 1: But it's weird.

00:05:39
Speaker 2: Sean Payton is the one who announced the surgery and that he had had prior surgeries on his foot.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: He's gone team by tea. That is a little on your business.

00:05:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's He's the on budsman for all the surgeries here.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: Hey, you guys had prior surgeries there? I know all about it, Yes, Paul.

00:05:58
Speaker 3: Have you guys ever had one of those walking boots after an injury or surgery?

00:06:02
Speaker 8: Mm?

00:06:04
Speaker 1: No, No, they're big. Yeah.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: Most of my injuries are from my knees on up, I didn't have any. Even being a high flyer. You know, you'd think i'd have maybe some foot issues there. But Marvin, why are you laughing?

00:06:27
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to laugh. Okay, sorry, come on, you're a dat a flyer. I dated a flyer, yeah, cheerleader. Yeah. I lost her to a rugby player.

00:06:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are tough, and maybe a basketball player too.

00:06:45
Speaker 1: I don't know. Something got lost in translation.

00:06:49
Speaker 9: I'm glad you don't remember it.

00:06:50
Speaker 1: Oh, I remember it.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: I remember it. She tells everybody that we dated. I tell everybody that she left me. Yes, do you remember how that went down?

00:07:00
Speaker 9: Was there a conversation that she is.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: I just remember somebody saying, Oh, your girlfriend's over at the rugby house.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: That's never a good time. That's not a good Yeah, and I remember it again.

00:07:17
Speaker 2: She had a crush on one of the basketball players too, and would always talk about how cute he was.

00:07:22
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: I just I didn't read the room red flag DP.

00:07:26
Speaker 2: You know, I read the room after she left the room, and she wasn't coming back like I love you.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: Maybe not keep away from running around soup. Oh, you know, I was just worried about my jumper. You know, I should have worried about her. I hope she's doing well. Is that a country song? I was just worried about my jumper. I should have been worried about you.

00:07:53
Speaker 3: That sounds like a country Clint Black, Can.

00:07:57
Speaker 4: You make a basketball themed country songs? Then it's about the game and love.

00:08:04
Speaker 2: For love of the game. Wasn't that a was Tupac in that wasn't there? Basket loving basketball? Loving basketball? Yes, Tupac and Janet Jackson.

00:08:17
Speaker 4: For the love of the game. Was Kevin Costner? That's a Kevin Costner movie?

00:08:23
Speaker 5: Oh?

00:08:23
Speaker 1: Was that Baseball? Yeah? Where he's a Detroit Tiger. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:08:29
Speaker 3: It always bothered me that the title was for love of the game, not for the love of the.

00:08:33
Speaker 1: Game, and that's why I didn't see it. Oh that was it? Yeah truly?

00:08:38
Speaker 5: Okay?

00:08:39
Speaker 10: Uh you confused Kevin Costner and Tupac.

00:08:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it happens both great lyricists.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: Let's see who will be the first player to score sixty in a regular season game?

00:08:55
Speaker 1: DraftKings just sent me a list.

00:08:57
Speaker 2: M Lucas the favorite, then SGA, Jannis, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Cooper flag goes for forty nine last night.

00:09:10
Speaker 1: Not on that list.

00:09:11
Speaker 2: There's interesting prop bets, and I love the creativity. And I don't know if I have this correct, I remember reading it, but the first what will be shown first? Alcatraz or the Bay Bridge?

00:09:26
Speaker 1: Oh?

00:09:31
Speaker 2: So this is the Super Bowl broadcast? Which landmark will be shown first?

00:09:36
Speaker 1: Todd, It's got.

00:09:37
Speaker 6: To be the bridge. First of all, it's pretty, or it's a pretty of a look than some old building. Secondly, I think most people would instantly realize what that is as opposed to, you know, unless there was some kind of neon side that's an Alcoraz, which I don't think.

00:09:48
Speaker 1: That or Alcatraz.

00:09:50
Speaker 9: I call him Alcoraz. Watch too much of the Australian.

00:09:52
Speaker 1: Opening, might show him. Yeah, they could, you know, really weird.

00:09:55
Speaker 9: You can win a lot of money on that bed Alcoraz.

00:09:57
Speaker 2: And then you had Djokovic who just advanced to the finals of the Australian Open. And then I think Paulie said, hey, or maybe it was Marvin better Joker, Nicola Jokic or Novak Djokovic better joker. So the tennis player basketball player pole question? Yeah, yeah, better yoker. Yeah, I would say Djokovic because he's probably the greatest tennis player of all time and at his age, and he's going to go to the final and face Alcarez or Alcatraz.

00:10:34
Speaker 3: Yes, Pauli escape from Alcarez. They've used that in tennis before.

00:10:37
Speaker 5: I did.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: Not easy to do. Not easy to do either.

00:10:40
Speaker 3: Have a couple more prop bets for you, the brgs, just since these are very very snarky Seahawks to attempt to pass on or inside the Patriots one yard line.

00:10:49
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, I saw that one. Wow, that one's tough. That one callback.

00:10:58
Speaker 2: I saw a breakdown of that final drive by Russell Wilson Junior the third against the Patriots, and he was incredible. He was I thought he was the best player on the field that night. And you know, just big plays. And then you had Curse with the catch, and then you had Marshawn taking it down to the one and a half and he starts to the right side of Russell, goes to the left side, and then they throw the pass because once he went to the left side, I'm thinking, I got this unbelievable, unbelievable view. Marshaun Lynch is running right into me in the end zone, right by the goalpost. Because I thought, okay, I here it is. And Patriots can't do anything about it. They know what's gonna happen. They can't do anything about it. And then all of a sudden, who's the guy Browner? Marvin, you always.

00:11:49
Speaker 1: Mentioned this guy, Brandon Browner, the corner.

00:11:51
Speaker 2: Brandon Browner makes an unbelievable play because he grabs the receiver and Evan mccordy, Jason mccordy said, you know, once we knew what the play was, you take away the guy who was going to set the pick or run interference and Browner grabs him. And then that allows Malcolm Butler to have a free run at the football.

00:12:17
Speaker 1: Like just little things.

00:12:19
Speaker 2: I mean not little things that could get your coach into the Hall of Fame, but just little things that the Patriots.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: I mean, the players saw that one coming, not the coach. Yeah, he didn't. He was like, damn, I didn't know that.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: Starting to hear more and more that when Armando Selgero, who is a voter and he writes for OutKick, and he talked about spygate came up and it lasted about an hour the conversation about Belichick, and one of the voters followed up with me yesterday after the show and he said that once spygate came up and then Belichick's record without Tom Brady came up, he said, that's the first time I thought that I realized Belichick might not get in, He might not get eighty percent of the votes. But leading up to that thought, of course he's going to get in. How ironic would it be if Robert Kraft gets in and Belichick doesn't get in, Because there's we don't know who got in of those other you know, the other nominees. We know Belichick didn't get in. I haven't heard anything about. Somebody said, you know, is Elsie Greenwood going to get in?

00:13:38
Speaker 1: I go, I hope.

00:13:41
Speaker 2: I don't know if Kenny Anderson's getting in. Roger Craig, but it might be Robert Craft. And he should be in the Hall of Fame. But does he pay a price because he ran the organization that these things happened under.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: I guess you can say his watch.

00:13:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pauline, when you had Sal Powell on the other day, he said, I don't look for the negative. I look for the positives to make their case for the Hall of Fame. Like if you wanted to ding Brady for something, Tom Brady, who is as first ballot as it gets, what do you say, Oh, he went nine years without winning a Super Bowl. As if that's a negative, you know, you could make stuff up, you'd have to create something.

00:14:16
Speaker 1: But it's factually true. But he was in them.

00:14:19
Speaker 3: He was in the AFC title game like six times in that stretch.

00:14:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I you know, Brady was directly involved in a cheating scandal, deflate Gate, spygate. You know, we you know, Jimmy Johnson said, hey, we tried to do it. Other teams have done this, and you know the same thing, but we kind of brushed those off, you know, like it's no big deal. But it's Belichick and the Patriots. Therefore, somehow, you know, it's more severe. But if you look at defleate gate, I mean, that's Tom involved in manipulating a football, even though it's a silly rule. Silly rule.

00:14:58
Speaker 10: Yes, Marvin, I feel bad for the guys that are going to get into the Hall of Fame because every Super Bowl they get to the goal line and they announce all of the Hall of Famers. They all go out there and they wave, and it's going to be one glaring omission, and the play by play guys Colin's worth intrico, they're going to talk about Belichick not getting into the Hall of Fame instead of the guys that actually did get in.

00:15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hall of Fame did reach out and say, do you guys want to bring your show up here?

00:15:21
Speaker 5: Now we do?

00:15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, like all right, but this is during the ceremonies. They want to know if you want to come out there in August not now yes.

00:15:31
Speaker 5: Touch.

00:15:31
Speaker 9: I just got to note they just voted no.

00:15:34
Speaker 1: That's kind of fun. Oh they don't want to votes. Darn it, darn it.

00:15:42
Speaker 2: All right, let me take a break. We'll talk to the Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski. We'll get to more of your phone calls as well on this meet Friday. We're back after this.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio wapp.

00:16:00
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00:16:29
Speaker 2: Sam Darnold will join us in an hour from now. Rich Eisen will join us. Coming up at the top of the hour. Kevin Stefanski, the Falcons head coach, two time Coach of the Year, joining us on the program coach congratulations.

00:16:42
Speaker 1: Where are your Coach of the Year awards?

00:16:46
Speaker 12: You know, one was on my daughter's bedstand for a minute. She liked it, And that one I think is somewhere in storage. And then the other one I gave to my cousin Steve, because the night of that award, I don't remember that, but I wasn't there, but the person that announced the award said Steve Stefancy. So my cousin Steve, who I'm very close with, he has that somewhere in his home office.

00:17:13
Speaker 1: Does it say Steve Stefanski on it?

00:17:15
Speaker 5: Now? The award itself has my own care. Never miss an opportunity to have a joke like that.

00:17:22
Speaker 1: What do those awards mean to you?

00:17:25
Speaker 12: You know, it means a lot to me because that's those individual awards are such a reflection of the collective.

00:17:32
Speaker 5: And I think about those.

00:17:33
Speaker 12: You know, one of them was from year one for us in Cleveland in twenty twenty when I went to the playoffs, won a playoff game, and just the that team and those coaches and how we battled. That was the COVID year and everybody knows how unique all of that was.

00:17:47
Speaker 5: And then the one.

00:17:48
Speaker 12: From twenty three was a great reflection on an amazing group of guys that fought and scratched and clawed our way to the playoffs behind unbelievable defense, behind multiple quarterbacks.

00:17:59
Speaker 5: And that's a credit to the coaching staff.

00:18:01
Speaker 12: I know the award says my name, but man, is that's an award that goes to the coaching staff.

00:18:05
Speaker 1: How do you know you're wired to be a head coach?

00:18:09
Speaker 5: Great? I don't know, A good question. I don't.

00:18:12
Speaker 12: It's funny. I didn't set out to have this job. This was not a grand plan. I think fourth grade I wanted to be an architect, if I remember correctly. But yeah, these type of things, they just what I try to do is keep my head down, do the job I have that's currently in front of me. I was so blessed along the way to be put in positions that where I could grow. And I can't tell you how lucky I was to be at the Vikings, for instance, for fifteen seasons and to move my way around that coaching staff. I didn't set out for that. That wasn't the roadmap, but I found myself in this position.

00:18:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I've said before, there are certain guys who were just meant to be coordinators. When you become a head coach, I mean you got to be your answering to everybody about everything. You got to be a CEO, and you get for they're away from what you really love doing and being a coordinator.

00:19:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's very interesting.

00:19:05
Speaker 12: You're right, and I loved my time as a position coach. I love my time as a coordinator. I remember when I was named a coordinator for the first time. I'm at practice and I'm walking around during individual periods as the quarterbacks are working and the tight ends are working.

00:19:18
Speaker 5: Over here, and where do I go? Where do I fit in here?

00:19:21
Speaker 12: And then as a head coach, now I'm helping out the defense or I'm watching special teams. So you're always trying to navigate where you can help. And certainly as you get farther, as you get to the coordinator role or you get to the head coach role, it is easy to get.

00:19:35
Speaker 5: Farther away from that.

00:19:36
Speaker 12: So you have to work very hard to get involved in drills, get involved.

00:19:40
Speaker 5: In meetings, be intentional about that is important.

00:19:43
Speaker 2: When you interview with the falcons. How much is you're interviewing them or them interviewing you.

00:19:50
Speaker 5: It's absolutely both, you know.

00:19:52
Speaker 12: I was very fortunate over the last few weeks to go on some visits to have some zooms with different teams, and those were fact finding missions for me. I've been doing this now. I've been in the league for twenty years, so I.

00:20:04
Speaker 5: Know a lot of people. I know a lot of people I'm talking to. We have mutual friends.

00:20:07
Speaker 12: But I'm trying to find out about these buildings and find out who these people are and what they're about. Obviously, you make your phone calls and you certainly know who they are from other people. But then you sit across from somebody, I think you get a feel for somebody and you talk about what your values are, what they believe, and see if there's a mesh.

00:20:26
Speaker 1: There if you will, how do you use Matt ryan.

00:20:30
Speaker 12: Man in a lot of ways, and Matt being here in this role was a huge draw for me that pulled me to this building. Matt's somebody that I've known about for a long time. We both grew up in the Philadelphia area. I've known who Matt is about what he's about. I know exactly where he is in terms of how he feels and sees this game, and that was important to me because Matt's somebody that I'm going to rely heavily on on a day to day basis, on a big picture base as a thought partner. You know, we hired Ian Cunningham last night as our general manager. So within with myself with Matt, we're gonna put our heads together as we move forward here.

00:21:11
Speaker 5: But having a person like.

00:21:12
Speaker 12: Matt that knows this city, that knows what winning is about, that's such a huge.

00:21:17
Speaker 5: Deal for me.

00:21:18
Speaker 2: Kevin Stefanski the Falcons head coach Kirk Cousins situation, trying to understand what happened either yesterday or day before.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: His future with Atlanta is what we'll see.

00:21:33
Speaker 12: That's why we hired Ian Cunningham, you know, just got in last night, so we'll see on all those type of decisions. Obviously, it's no secret Kirk and I have a relationship. I think very very highly of the person. I think very highly of the player. All those type of decisions are something that Ian we'll get in here and again we'll put our heads together on all those type of things. But no secret that, you know, Kirk, somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: For do you have uniform approval?

00:22:01
Speaker 5: That's not my not my contract.

00:22:04
Speaker 12: And I'm I'm one of those guys Dan like whatever is in the locker I'm wearing.

00:22:08
Speaker 5: So let's go.

00:22:09
Speaker 2: Oh man, those eighty throwbacks public public sentiment here, coach.

00:22:15
Speaker 12: Yeah, I love as you can as you can see, I love these colors. I love this logo. But I'll stay in my lane. I'll let those the smart people make those decisions.

00:22:24
Speaker 1: Can we have your old Browns gear?

00:22:28
Speaker 5: You could have.

00:22:29
Speaker 12: It's given away already though, so you're gonna have to go find it, fight it from some other people.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: You know.

00:22:33
Speaker 5: The hardest thing is what these teams do.

00:22:36
Speaker 12: An amazing job of the equipment staff in Cleveland unbelievable, the equipment staff here unbelievable. But what they do is they put your name in every article of Clotland.

00:22:44
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you gotta be careful.

00:22:46
Speaker 12: You don't want that to show up at Goodwill and someone's pulling out, you know, Kevin Spansky's sweatshirt. So I try to give those away to some friends and family in the in the Cleveland area, but sure enough they'll pull the tag and show you that was my sweatshirt.

00:22:58
Speaker 2: I watch your pressference, your introductory press conference. I know you didn't want to talk about the Cleveland Browns, So you want to swat this way you can, But was it fair to Shador and Dylan to be put in a situation like that as rookies.

00:23:14
Speaker 12: Well, first of all, that I would tell you I have zero ill will towards anyone in that building. Dean Jimmy Haslam treated me unbelievably, treated my family unbelievably, So I have no ill will.

00:23:26
Speaker 5: Towards all those type of things.

00:23:27
Speaker 12: As it relates to decisions like that, It's not fair for me to comment those two young players. I love those guys. I loved coaching them. I love their development as a coach. Why we do this is you take a player and you try to get a little bit more out of them, and you try to develop them. And I want to get this guy better at that And I think both those guys you can point to their rookie seasons and say, man, they got better in these areas. Ultimately, we want to continue to improve in those guys.

00:23:53
Speaker 5: Both of them will. But I think very highly of those two young men.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just tough, you know, no matter how old you are. To play that position in the NFL, let alone to go win there and get you know, thrown into that. And I just wondered, you know, you're the head coach, and you know you're an offensive minded guy, and trying to put them in a position to succeed as rookies had to be, you know, one of the more challenging things you probably have gone through.

00:24:23
Speaker 12: I'm happy to have gone through it. You know, it was one of those unique things. Trying to find out ways to structure the offseason, find out ways to make sure you're bringing them along. You know, developing young quarterbacks is something that we want to be, you know, want to be.

00:24:35
Speaker 5: At the forefront of.

00:24:36
Speaker 12: So again, love those two young guys and they'll continue to improve.

00:24:41
Speaker 2: Once again, he's Steve Stefanski. He is the new head coach. Yeah, hey, I'll answering.

00:24:49
Speaker 1: Thank you, coach, and appreciate your time.

00:24:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, appreciate you guys.

00:24:54
Speaker 2: That's Kevin Stefansk. That's funny, that's fun Give it to your buddy named Steve. Yeah, I mean the whole quarterbacking situation, that's the tough part of it is you're the coach and you're coaching for your job management, ownership gives you these two quarterbacks. You get rid of Joe Flacco, which I would have kept Flacco as long as I could, because those two quarterbacks, those rookie quarterbacks.

00:25:23
Speaker 1: They need time.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: They are nowhere near ready to be a franchise quarterback, nowhere near. And you could tell that and then all of a sudden you kind of modify your offense, your playbook, and you know this is an offensive minded guy, and there's only so much you can do and should or some you know, he showed some signs, but he's really not ready to be a starting quarterback in my opinion. And Dylan Gabriel, but you had to put somebody out there. That was the problem. You had too many quarterbacks and then you didn't have enough.

00:25:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, Paulie, I'm really curious about the Falcons quarterback situation going forward. Michael Pennix. I think he's got four and eight as a starter in two years. Injuries, a couple nice games here or there, but it feels like they have a great roster but not assured in the quarterback provision.

00:26:15
Speaker 2: And you know that Kevin is friends with Kirk Cousins and working with him in Minnesota. Now granted it at age thirty seven. I still think he's a better quarterback than Michael Pennix. But I mean, it certainly felt like the Falcons were approaching releasing Kirk Cousins. And then I wonder, does Kirk could he go back to Minnesota, could he go to Pittsburgh? Could he take Matt Ryan's job at CBS? Their pregame show, so some options there. I just know I got Jean Robinson. And when you have that, when you go on the field, you know you have one guy who is better than probably anybody else on that field in most games. You got that guy, that weapon, and you got a division that you can win. And he gets to face Baker Mayfield Junior the third a couple of times a year.

00:27:09
Speaker 1: Yes, Mark.

00:27:09
Speaker 10: And also can he turn Kyle Pitts into the player that we all thought he was going to be when he came out of the draft. We thought he was going to change the tight end position.

00:27:17
Speaker 2: But is Pitt's going to be there next year? I think this is his last year contract.

00:27:23
Speaker 1: I think. All right, some phone calls here, Bill and Sarasota. Hi, Bill, what's on your mind today? Good morning?

00:27:32
Speaker 13: I'm a longtime listener and didn't think I was going to get through. So you know your question earlier today about what the NFL needs to look at at Super Bowl. Yeah, I'm sixty seven, so I've been watching a lot of football. Raven Sam here down in Sarasota, Florida, when I said, and watch games with my friends. None of us know what a pass interference is anymore, none of us, and it's ruining the game. I don't care what they're charging me to watch the game, the Sunday ticket, I do all that stuff, but they are ruining the sport for me because games are decided by these calls. Every team has a gripe.

00:28:09
Speaker 5: I think the.

00:28:09
Speaker 13: NFL needs to figure out they've got the technology, some kind of format where they do a tutorial, a video tutorial with rests, and they go through plays and they break them down and they show us why that was and why that wasn't past interference. It can be a pregame show, it could be on ESPN whatever, but we are lost out here. That's my big riding about the NFL right now. I don't care what they're charging me. I don't know what the game is anymore.

00:28:35
Speaker 1: That's fair.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: I think it's a great idea. If you could get a couple of former officials. I'd love to have current officials and they could tell you what they look for. It's amazing the number of times when I watch slow motion and I watch a dB and a wide receiver kind of hand to hand combat, but that dB almost always trying to turn around to the football and he's going to put his hand on one of your arms almost always. And you know, as a former defensive back told me, if you keep it inside, it's not egregious. If I keep my hands in, you're going to get away with that. And the offense and defense knows that. But I want to know what you see, Like what will you call if your head is turned to the receiver and you're you're not playing the quarterback, you're playing the receiver. They're going to call that every time. But if you keep your hands in and there's kind of Joscelyn and I can hold your arm down and get away with it, I'd just be I'd love to have somebody say this is what we allow. I can I can put my arm around you. I'd say you go across the middle. I can put my arm around you, behind you as long as I'm not polling, but I can use you to then get in front of the football and knock it way.

00:30:01
Speaker 1: But they allowed that.

00:30:03
Speaker 2: So there's certain things where you go, is that past interference? Or why isn't that past interference? Or are you kidding me? That's past interference? Yeah, Pauline.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: What I think makes it worse for the refs every year is we have more technology, more cameras, slower, better, slow motion, replace instantaneously, and those replays are cut and put on social media within seconds of the play, so even if you're not watching, you could find it and react to it and announce your.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: Fervor about it. My fervor, your ferv I mean it.

00:30:34
Speaker 3: Gets twenty five years ago, there was one replay maybe of each play, and it was grainy.

00:30:41
Speaker 2: But then I'm trying to rack my brain of what I thought was past interference, and I thought contact like just something simple. Now I can put my hands on you in certain situations, and trying to understand what they're calling, what they're looking for would help us when we're watching, because then we'd go, oh, yeah, they're not going to call that or that's not past interference. Oh, Michael and Fort Wayne, Hey, Mike, what's on your mind today?

00:31:13
Speaker 14: Hey, and thanks for taking my call on Happy to Meet Friday to you and the whole team. Thank you personally, I'd like to officially submit my nomination to get herb White on the show. I bet he's got some great stories and he's a voice that no one's heard. I can guarantee you that. Secondly, just one thought for you, and you can let me know if I'm off base. But as teams scramble to hire a new head coach this time of year, coaching trees get mentioned a lot, and every time I hear it, I roll my eyes just a little because we all look at the success of Andy Reid or Nick Saban's assistance, and we say, look at the tree.

00:31:49
Speaker 13: It's because of the tree.

00:31:51
Speaker 14: But then Bill Belichick, who is apparently not a Hall of Famer, well, he's got a tree too, and aside from Rabel, his tree stinks.

00:31:58
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:31:59
Speaker 14: So it all just seems like a nice little fun fact and graphic that we like to put on a screen. But it's just a correlation, not a causation.

00:32:05
Speaker 1: All right, Thank you, Michael.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: Well wait till Mike Tomlin comes up for a Hall of Fame discussion. There's no coaching tree there. Sean mcvayh or Kyle Shanahan they had a coaching tree. Or Bill Walsh or Mike Holmgren, they had a coaching tree.

00:32:24
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to know if you can coach, Like, Okay, you got some assistants and you developed them and they became head coaches. Great, How did you do? That's the most important part.

00:32:35
Speaker 5: You know.

00:32:36
Speaker 2: If I see Charlie Weiss wasn't a good head coach or Romeo Coronell, it doesn't take away from Bill Belichick. It, if anything, adds to the fact that he won with them. Like, it's not like those guys, they weren't very good as a head coach. How were they as coordinators? Not everybody needs to be a head coach.

00:32:55
Speaker 3: Yes, Paul, So you're saying the worst you're coaching tree, the better you were as a coach.

00:33:00
Speaker 1: It's actually a good thing. Yeah, Okay, that's the grain. I'm gonna spin it. We're gonna get Belichick into the Hall of Fame by next week. You know, I appreciate that. Well, take a break. More phone calls coming up. We're back after this. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live. Matt in Ohio, Good morning, Matt. What's on your mind today?

00:33:32
Speaker 15: Hey, good morning guys.

00:33:32
Speaker 1: How you doing good.

00:33:35
Speaker 15: So a couple of weeks ago, I fell and dislocated my elbow and I haven't been able to do so much, so I've been kind of sitting around and I thought of an idea for a shirt and also a product placement. So the T shirt would say this shirt is sick sc shut In Crew. On the front of it would be a picture of Dan with all his surgeries and problems. On the back of it, you fritzy, and and kind of a sprinkle the guys in between it, just as Irony kind of had it. Right after I did this, I told my wife that we need to go out and get something because I cannot sleep in bed until this thing starts to heal. So I picked up a Z Cliiner, and I thought, maybe you could pick up z Cliner as a sponsor on the shirt and just say sponsored by z Cliner.

00:34:25
Speaker 1: Little product placement.

00:34:26
Speaker 2: A lot of thought given then, But Matt has a lot of time to just think. Can't move z Cliner, zero gravity if you want to fall asleep. Seven percent of adults have a hard time sleeping an event maybe eight Now with Matt just letting you know, let me.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: See Josh in Texas. Hi, Josh, what's on your mind today?

00:34:48
Speaker 8: Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. Kind of nervous and first time, long time. I just wanted to thank you guys for what you do. My best friend and I used to hang out on Friday mornings and watch the show. We call it Friend Friday. He passed away back in August. I just wanted to give him a shout out. His name was Jet. I miss our friend Fridays, but they definitely live on through you guys. But Dan, all you guys, I appreciate what you do true professionals. Been a fan for a long time.

00:35:19
Speaker 5: I always enjoy the show.

00:35:21
Speaker 8: But I believe you're one of the last true professional journalists. I saw a post on X last night about the sports Reporters.

00:35:29
Speaker 1: I always loved that show.

00:35:30
Speaker 8: Yeah to ask if you feel like professional journalism is slowly fading away?

00:35:36
Speaker 1: And then my last thing.

00:35:38
Speaker 8: A previous caller put in a vote for someone who might be worthy to take over when you, unfortunately and inevitably retire, And I'd like to second a vote for Ross Tucker and then happy meet Friday and friend Friday boys.

00:35:52
Speaker 1: Thank you, Johsh thanks for the phone call.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: Well, I'm worried that you see a lot of newspapers, the sports department going away, Washington Post newspaper in Pittsburgh. But I you know, I was fortunate that I grew up in an environment where writing was really important and reporting was really important. And we've never wavered off this. You know, I'm not a hot take guy, but I it's not what I was brought up to do. Now I know that's the popular thing to do. I just I want to give you an inform take. A hot take just feels careless, like you didn't give it any research. And you know, if it means I wait an hour, or wait a day, or wait a week and then give you an opinion, it's because I hope it's an educated opinion, not off the top of my head, because that's not what I was brought up doing. And we'll go out the same way I came in. Matt in La, Hi, Matt, what's on your mind today?

00:36:54
Speaker 16: Good morning. A little more Belichick talk. I read an article that said that senior member or veteran players who have not yet made it into the NFL were lumped in with coaches. And this person was saying that I don't know if he was a voter or he spoke to a voter, and he said that that impacted because it was I know there were two of the three I remember, Elsie Greenwood and Roger Craig, and he voted for them. He said that took his vote away from Bill Belichick. And then secondly, I was just wondering, is Fritzie known as the Minister of humor because he's so well versed in what's not funny?

00:37:29
Speaker 15: Wow?

00:37:29
Speaker 9: I thought we were gonna be able to go through the rest of the show.

00:37:32
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we're getting all these compliments.

00:37:35
Speaker 9: Was going in such a positive direction?

00:37:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I get that zinger in.

00:37:39
Speaker 2: I don't want voters to try to change the rules midstream. If you say, oh, you know what, I'm not going to vote for Belichick, he'll get in. Let me get these other guys in. Okay, that's a great gesture on your part, but vote yes or no. I'm not going to waste my vote over here.

00:38:00
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do.

00:38:01
Speaker 2: I want to see Kenny Anderson, Roger Craig, Elsie Green would get in the Hall of Fame, Yes, I do. But Belichick should be in the Hall of Fame. That's who you should out of all the candidates, who's the best candidate, Bill Belichick, and then after that it's Robert Kraft. But I think when you are all of a sudden trying to change the rules, I have a problem with that. Yeah, Pauling or yes, I don't.

00:38:26
Speaker 4: Understand why you even have to have like well, it's like somewhere between three to five that get in a year, Like why not just have it be if there's seven Hall of Fame candidates that year, then put all seven in.

00:38:35
Speaker 1: Who cares how many it is?

00:38:36
Speaker 2: I agree, it's not like when I go, oh, there's way we will say not that many candidates this year.

00:38:44
Speaker 5: There is.

00:38:46
Speaker 2: It's overcrowded in the waiting room for the Hall of Fame. Now does that mean everybody gets in? No, you're just a candidate. But like Darren Woodson should be in the Hall of Fame in my opinion, played for the Cowboy, played on championship teams.

00:39:03
Speaker 1: But I don't know if he's going to get in.

00:39:05
Speaker 2: Rodney Harrison, I know when I see somebody, I go, that's a Hall of Fame player. I saw Kenny Anderson play. He was an MVP, but he got lost in the quarterback shuffle. You know, he wasn't Montana or Marino, and you know he was kind of in the middle there and he played for you know, well, they did go to the Super Bowl one year and faced Joe Montana.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: But is everybody going to get in? No, they're not.

00:39:33
Speaker 2: But those who should get in should get in right right in the moment. Not you know, Belichick will get in. And then all of a sudden, how many of these coaching candidates have we done the following? What was their record? What was Jimmy Johnson's record without Troy Aikman? Because they did this to Belichick, They're like, yeah, losing record without Tom Okay, a coaching tree, Okay, spygate, Okay. Jimmy Johnson came out and said we tried to do that and others and a former Colt's assistant was a master at doing that.

00:40:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. See, isn't it crazy?

00:40:14
Speaker 4: How before Tom Brady left New England, the whole talking point was, well, yeah, but Tom's only great because of Bill. And now all of a sudden, Tom goes to Tampa and it's like, oh, look, it turns out Bill was completely overrated this whole time.

00:40:28
Speaker 1: Thank God for Tom. That's crazy, the flip.

00:40:32
Speaker 2: I just you know how we're putting Belichick out on an island and we didn't do that for other coaches. Did anybody say, well, what was Bill Walsh's record without Steve Young and Joe Montana.

00:40:45
Speaker 1: I don't care. I know what it was with them. Yeah, Paulie.

00:40:49
Speaker 3: The common threat is the other guys you mentioned were all cooperative with the media when they were at their peak.

00:40:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess.

00:40:56
Speaker 2: Rich eisen Well, Jonas on loan from NFL Network does his radio show on the mother Ship. Also, Sam Darnold will stop by final hour on this meet Friday. Well that was quick, Fritzy Seaton, Marve Paula, yours truly final hour right after this