Hard Knocks Detroit Lions: Episode 1 Recap

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Speaker 1: The last thing's gonna say is this, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no light. There's a song Metallica has no leaf clover, and it says, man, when it comes to the soothing light at the end of your tunnel, it's just a freight train coming your way. If you're seeing a light, it's a freight train. Just put your head down and go to work. It's about to be fun, man, It's about to be fun, you know. I never felt comfortable around the Metallica kids growing up. When I was in junior high, in elementary school, they were the toughs and the provocative tour and album t shirts my mom would never let me wear. In high school, they were the teammates on the baseball team who never smiled. There was a general intensity and worldview that intimidated me. So I stayed away classic adolescents defense mechanism, Stay away and they can't hurt you. But then I watched Dan Campbell in the Hard Knocks premiere, all the emotion pouring out of that man, all the layers, and I'm starting to think maybe I was wrong to try to put the Metallica kids in a box. Maybe I had the Metallica kids wrong this whole time, well some of them. Welcome to the first ever Hard Knocks podcast. I am Dan Kansas and for the next five weeks, we will take the journey through Detroit Lions training camp thanks to the greatest football documentary series ever created, the off fore mentioned Hard Knocks. And I say we because I will not be alone. My co host in this venture. The Deuce Staley to my errand Glenn, the Tiny Bucks to my tug boat. It's Colleen Wolf, Connie Dan Campbell is a star and so are you. I love it. I am so excited to talk about this. This season is going to be so good. This first episode had so many things to talk about. Yeah, it really was a great start too. I believe the sixteenth season seventeenth season actually of Hard Knocks, which is pretty hard to believe. And you know, we had talked about Connie and you and I go way back, and I've been working together for a better part of a decade. For the last ten years, I handled all the Hard Knocks recap write ups on NFL dot com. But you and I always wanted to do this a podcast where we watched the show and reacted day of got it out to the people who could also experience the show and talk about it. So this is kind of a fun thing for you and I and around the NFL listeners who have to know both of us through the years. I'd say this is a dream come true. I mean, it's been so many years we've been talking about this, and I consider myself an expert because I've watched the show for so long and I've read all of your recaps, So like, while you were working, I was watching the show and like maybe having a cocktail and making my own notes that would go nowhere, and now they can go somewhere, which is really nice. That is excellent, and the NFL dot com recap game goes on. I passed the torch to Brendan Walker. So after you listen to this show, head over to NFL dot com and check out Brendan's thoughts on episode one. UH. Studying the Detroit Lines with Yes, Dan Campbell Dan Tallica. He was known during his playing days as Dan Talica for his obsession with the heavy metal band Metallica. And yes, there is an intensity to Campbell. We see it kind of you see it right away in that cold open. We played a portion of it here at the top of the show before, of course, and what a score this is. And thank you to Ken Rodgers and everybody in NFL Films for hooking us up the David Robido iconic Hard Knocks theme. We see, Connie that the intensity that Campbell brings is shared throughout that roster. And also the vibes, Connie, the vibes that they are good, They are so good. So I feel like even just the opening scene when Dan Campbell walks in the room, just the way that he walks, and I know that we were talking recently on the Around the NFL podcast about was it West that was obsessed with people's gates, like how they walked melously In fact, I wonder what he would think about Dan Campbell's gate because the way that he walked in with his arms swinging, it was almost like a march in a way, and I felt like it was a very commanding stance that he had, and it goes along. It's very on brand, like it goes along with his voice and the whole thing with him talking about viously in Metallica and the fact that it comes full circle in the episode because they play the song at the very end of the episode you knew was coming if you watched enough Hard Knocks. He knew No Leaf Clover is coming. And they did not disappoint. The music department in the show never does No. That's the thing. Like, the music is so good, the cinematography is so good, and the fact that we get to hear all of these coaches actually saying what they think and swearing. It's so raw. It feels like something that I shouldn't be allowed to watch. And that's why I like it so much. But Dan Campbell is obviously a star, and we knew he was going to be, and there were so many things, so many little things that happened throughout the show, and I just feel like he's kind of an artist because no one paints a better picture than him. In this entire episode, when he's talking about how he'll play guys anywhere on grass on turf, uh, they'll go to a landfill, he said, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you have one ass, cheek and three toes, I'll beat your ass. What does that mean, by the way, can you help me with that? I was trying to figure that, And of course we know Campbell famously is all into body parts and breaking them down in battle. But I'm curious, wouldn't it mean that so he's saying it doesn't matter if you have one ass cheek and three toes. Wouldn't it wouldn't make more sense if he was the one that was down to one butt cheek and three toes and he would still beat your ass. Wouldn't it be kind of messed up for him to just tear up a dude with half an ass and three edit toes like that one got. I don't know if he mixed it up, you know, we all do that sometimes, but it still was a provocative thought. I did think about that after the fact, and I was wondering, like, maybe if he went, I don't care if you have three ass cheeks and like seventeen toes, I'll beat your ass because at that point then there's some type of competitive advantage if you have extra toes that you're able to, you know, weaponize at this point. And he's no, he's huge on animal analogies and sometimes the metaph wars getting mixed. Um. He had a speech at Lion's Scrimmage last week that I thought might make its way into this episode, but I think it got so played up in social that they didn't use it. Where he says, you know, watch out hyenas. Okay, lions hyenas. Uh. He called another player a serpent, and then he at the beginning of today's episode. Tonight's episode he talked about now you're a sea creature, like pulling out your victims to see to drown them. Like he's very big, He's all over the place, Dan Campbell with his animal metaphors. But I see what we're going for, just like the idea, and maybe this is to bring it back all to the same place like in in nature it you know, a lion does not care if it's prey is walked up, you know, if it's missing body parts and it's not a fair fight, he will savagely destroy you. Maybe that's where it's at. I don't know. Did we get there? Maybe I think so because I enjoyed the ocean metaphor that he went with and the any scene and I don't know if we have a clip of that, but let's let's listen to the ocean that port it's it's not a lion, right because a lion that can't be in the ocean, so now where Now the lions are a different creature, but the point will hold. Let's listen to it, justin grave of our producer. They're dangerous man. You just got to get ahold of him. Though. If you could just get ahold of him and you start dragging the rest out to the deep dark abyss, you can drown him. I mean it's hard core, but the players, you kind of, the players love it. You can tell that the players love it. They do because he followed that quote up by saying, that's who we gotta be, will tread water as long as it takes before we fucking bury you. And I was like, let's go, and I'm on like a plane and I'm trying to keep it cool and it's not happening. I know that he says a lot of things that are sometimes weird, but they're also wonderful in a way because you just don't get anything like this from anyone else in the league. No, he's such a He's a breath of fresh air and grave during maybe maybe check in with standards and practices, uh to see because hard knocks, the cursing is all there. None of it's bleeped, maybe we don't have to be believed, just maybe something to check in with you're I mean, but you're so right about Campbell and you have to go back as a and we're both hard knocks students of the show. Um, you gotta go back to to me the Rex Ryan season with the Jets in two thousand and ten to see, uh, to find a season where it's it seems so clear who was the star of the show in terms of it's the head coach. And I think that is something that we took out of this first episode and we're gonna get to all the different things that we kind of were into, uh in episode one, ending with We're gonna have some m v P voting um on episode one, uh. And I think Dan Campbell is going to be on both our ballots, Connie. So I've just excited to see where this Campbell journey takes us over the next five weeks, because it felt like it was just warming up. I have just like an entire section of Campbell takeaways, like things that I just in its own category. I feel like cameras could just follow him around the whole time. But there are so many different sides to Dan Campbell, Like, it's not just the one who has all of the metaphors and is screaming at practice. Like. I like the fact that he's able to laugh at himself too. At one point during the show, he was talking about how his foot got stuck in his dog gate at home and he fell and so then his wrist was all messed up, but he was still back to do updowns with the team. Like the fact that he cares so much about everyone too. I love yeah, and the updowns. You know, that was pretty intense, and it did make me think how you see so many coaches in the NFL, and I get it because the same thing happens for me covering the NFL. Can't imagine what it is for these guys. The hours they put in you see, the what happens with their bodies from August to January. Uh, the long hours, the bad eating habits. That's not gonna happen to Dan Campbell, who's doing a hundred updowns in practice in August in a hundred degrees uh and heavy humidity. But you're right, the players clearly, UM love this dude, And I thought you really saw that after Campbell, we saw the first padded practice, and Campbell stops practice at the or at the end of practice. He shares disappointment that things the intensity wasn't quite quite where it needed to be, and he explained that he knows petted practices might seem intense at this stage, but they're so important given you need to be ready, and it helps you actually even though you're it's they're so intense, be ready and healthy for when real games begin and you're getting hit for real. And that all made sense, and then here comes Jamal Williams, the really promising young running back for the Lions, who is clearly you can imagine a favorite of Dan Campbell. And this is how after Campbell leaves um, Jamal gets the team together and follows up on the coach's point, do not give up. Do not feel like you're tired. Were you tired? Take a last year and thinking that fucking record and he was just getting started. Uh. Kind of the emotions were flowing emotions everywhere in these lines. Everybody's great when they're not tired. The champions is when they tired. That's when the real champions come out. That's when the real dog come out. Because if you go piss like a puppy. Stay on the parts and let the black dog see. Let him on the field, have some hard I get them about it. I'm about to cry. Don't care about y'all. Last year, wasn't it last year? Yeah? I mean I agree. For this year, I'm trying to be better for y'all. When you say I'm tired, I'm gonna keep calling. Remember your why, Remember why you play football. I want trying to give everything you got every day like that. You at one point you hear is team. It's like, oh, okay, this is going next level. And by the end there it is Connie, yes, sir, everybody was buying in Williams's passion. It's just you can hear the sheer desperation of a guy that does not want to experience what he went through last year. The anguish is still so raw and palpable. And just the fact that he was able to conjure up that passion in that moment and he was screaming so passionately that he started to cry like I honestly I can relate to that. Uh. And that is a moment where you can really see his connection with the team and how much he cares he's going to be a star, Like, there's going to be plenty more moments from him coming up. Absolutely, he's definitely in the running for Hard Knocks m v P. And this is the official Hard Knocks podcast. We've been great. We were given up the NFL Official Hard Knocks podcast, the NFL's official Hard Knocks What is that different than is there another official Hard Knocks podcast? There's not, but they asked if we would refer to it as the NFL's official Hard Knocks podcast that comes from HBO. Alright, the NFL's official Hard Knox podcast. I like it. I'm pushing for it. It's official the jacket. Maybe maybe we can get like some hard knocks. Yeah, like a varsity let's work on the swag. Justin by the end of the five weeks. But yeah, so you see you see Jamal Williams buy an in, and you see the other players buy and then like I was saying, the vibes are good around this team. I mean, it's a Hard Knocks trope. Certainly going inside the meeting room and seeing the first round pick, in this case, number two overall pick, Aiden Hutchinson get up and perform a song he has to share a signing bonus, which is twenty three million dollars. We can do we could do a whole podcast. Connie just on Aidan Hutchinson's like out of Central Casting, perfect family. But oh my god. But then he goes up and he performs Billy Jean, and I was thinking, I'm watching all these kids. They're all born in the early two thousand's at this point, many of them, and they know every word of Billy Gean. I'm like, oh, Michael Jackson. I guess it's like the Beatles for this younger generation of people, so you just know it. But anyway, beside the point, the the excitement of everyone's singing the chorus together. We've watched that a hundred times on Hard Knocks. I don't remember ever seeing a room explode and be that in that together. Uh. As the Billy Jean performs by Aidan Hutchinson, the entire room lit up like the way that everyone hyped him I haven't seen ever before. And I thought that it was really smart that he chose that song. I'm sure he likes it, but also a song that is iconic, even if it isn't like of the time. Right now, that that that song is everyone. Everyone has heard it at a bar, and I feel like everyone it's a fun song to play along to, sing along to, dance along too. That's a smart move to get the room involved by like a song that everyone can kind of like get down to. So that. I love the fact too that he was so confident that he messed up in the beginning, and it was so cute because he starts laughing at himself and he's so embarrassed. You can tell he's in front of this whole room. They start like booing him. But it's all about how he recovers, and that's like anything in life. You're going to mess up, but you can really tell what people are about how they recover when they do mess up. And everyone just leaned in the way that he hit that chorus, Like I rewatched it a couple of times. Everyone bought in on that. I mean, he was out of key, he had very little grasps of the melody, but it didn't matter because everybody was along for the ride. And I think, like going back to the Metallica kids growing up, one of the things that I always intimidated me is that they never seemed that they took themselves so seriously, and and Aidan Hutchinson could as a number two overall pick be a very serious guy and say I'm not going along with any of this stuff. But clearly he's not. He's not afraid to be kind of the butt of the joke when it's all in good fun. Billy Billy Jean, by the way, came out in two so forty years ago. In that entire room knew this song. We also saw Malcolm Rodriguez Um out of Oklahoma State, his signing bonus one hundred thousand dollars, a little bit difference. He puts on I believe some Mexican music and guess what, his dancing is pretty good. And the vibes were there too, so uh everything we heard the grit and they that's something they have leaned in, leaned into. It's even on the wall at Lion's headquarter in the meeting the room like the grit and the togetherness of the team is there um and what happens always for me, Connie, and I don't know about you, I always buy in on the Hard Knocks team. They always sucked me in. By the end of the five weeks, to the point where I'm in. I'm like, oh, thirteen and four, I'll see in the championship game, like and we're we're on our way. I mean, I don't know if there's enough talent on this roster to get them to jump from three wins to playoff positioning, but you could tell this is a team that is going to play together, fight together, and get better with a better roster, which they do. This is to me like a playoff team watching watching Hard Knocks. They go from the basement too. They're going to the super Bowl. And that's how it happens. Every single year I end up like drafting players from my fantasy team and it never works out. Ever, it's I'm never right about this, but I don't care because I enjoy the ride so much. So. Also, before we move on from Hudge, I'm gonna call him Huch. Now we're talking about his family real quick, because the family dynamic, the family alone, I was even thinking about maybe having the whole family as an m v P vote. Um. First of all, they're all gorgeous, um beautiful human beings and like supportive of each other and really happy. It's like really nice to see that. I feel like that is maybe not something that is normal and that everyone goes through, or maybe that's just me. But um, I think that when the story that his mom was telling about the fact that she found that picture of him when he was little wearing the Lions jersey, like right before the draft, and she put it in her purse and said, how you know if he ended up not getting drafted to the Lions, that she was going to be sobbing on television and it wasn't going to be like happy tears. It was going to be actual grief, so that we all knew he was going to the Lions basically from the end of the two thousand one uh calendar year. Yeah, the cynical New Yorker and me wants to be like, yeah, they're so perfect and so beautiful, but I bet there's all sorts of ugliness behind the scenes. Like now probably not. Their house is probably amazing. It was a sunny day when they did that interview. I bet the lunch was served was delicious, the lemonade was perfect. Everyone is absolutely beautiful. It just feels like a family that was straight out of Central Casting. So good it for Hutch and the Hutch Gang. Love it. Love the hutch Gang. They were all very blessed um and I wonder if we'll see more of them. All right, let's take a quick break before we get to our awards. Are m v P voting? Anything else that stood out to us in episode one of Hard Knocks the Detroit Lions Training camp with the Detroit Lions On this the official NFL official podcast. What is the title? We're working with the NFL's Official Hard Knocks podcast. All right, let's take a break. All right, Connie, we're back. I want to talk some favorite quotes. Top quotes of episode one of Hard Knocks Training Camp with the Detroit Lions. Do you want to get it going? Yes? Yes, Okay. So I'm a big fan of the coaching staff vibes that are there. I love the way that Dan Campbell and the Lions have assembled the coaching staff with so many former players Antoine Randall, l Aaron Glenn, Do Staley, Hank Frailey. I mean, there's so many good players on that team on that staff now. And Do Staley it's not just because he was an Eagle. He really stole a lot of those scenes. And one of my favorite scenes was when he was talking about how we have to graduate as men and be able to look at the guy next to us and say I love you, and it just means you care about them. The fact that you have Dan Campbell talking about drowning people out in the ocean and then Do Staley talking telling them to tell each other I love you, and that's the dynamic of this team that I just can't get enough of. But the coaching staff and Do Staley in particular, when he was talking about that I love you, he goes, hey, gee, I love you man. I want to puck you up in between the lines, but I love you man, like that's real, even like he said I love you, And then the beginning of the follow up sentence like through me for a loop, just it was like a phrasing situation. But then he finished sentence and I was like, Okay, that makes sense. I got a little weird for a second there. And there was that whole montage of them just talking trash to each other, and it was both playful and agitating somehow at the same time. Do you think that was played up for the camera? Do you think they're really like that? I was, I was. I try not again, I try not to be a cynical person um, but these guys know there's a thousand cameras around them and everyone's miked up. I wanted to be that way. I want deucon A g t be going at it at all times. But I'm just curious if it might be a J. J. Watt working out at loan at midnight at Houston, Texans headquarters with no one else there. But the lights don't don't crush my dreams all real I think too, because the fact that they played, and they were players, and that's probably how they were on the field, so it's probably natural for them like that that it seems like offense versus defense, there's a lot of tension even if the spirits are good. Did you guys think it was kind of weird that Deuce Staley was sort of acting as the offensive coordinator in that whole practice period, like where is the cord? The offensive coordinator is a man named Ben Johnson. This is his first year in the role for the Lions. He was the tight ends coach for the last two years, so just weird he was absent from the whole episode. I wonder if like Ben Johnson's family like shot him text after this, Like, I know Deuce is technically not just the running backs coaches assistant head coach, but I think he's kind of in your territory and maybe Ben, this week in practice, you're gonna have to lean into the cameras and show who you are because it really is like, and that's joking, but in seriousness, there is a Um Hard Knocks. Everyone watches the show, all the coaches in front office people in the league. It does give you a platform to kind of pitch yourself for that next job. And if you're OC, the next job is a big chair. So Ben, listen, get to work, dude, be or ganic, but don't be afraid of the cameras because Deuce is bringing it. You gotta be natural. People can spot a fraud and that's Deuce. That is his personality. Like even when he was circling Aaron Glenn like a vulture and was laughing about it like he I think is just a ham but I think he's also someone who has head coaching aspirations. So it just works and it is it is fitting Connie that me the lifelong um Troubled Jets fan, Aaron Glenn was one of the great cornerbacks in Jets history. I always loved Glenn as a player and do Staley, Oh beloved running back for your Philadelphia Eagles. Isn't that That's just cute. It's just cute, isn't it. I like it. It seems like it was just meant to be meant for us to do this pod. Let's see, let me get another quote in there? What did I like? All right? How about more Jamal Williams. Love Jamal Williams. I love his vibe of his energy. I love him as a player too. By the way, um, and I love a trope of hard knocks. Is you know? Bodily functions are discussed on the show because when a bunch of dudes are together, these things come up. And when Jamal Williams is talking trash at the defense, uh during a drill where the running backs are running through some kind of weak sauce arm tackles in the middle of the Detroit defense, he had a very interesting put down to share with America and the world. The drip drip part maybe I could have done with the house, but again descriptive. Again it's provocative, but I didn't need the drip drip, And again he said, a g once again, We'll just leave Aaron Glen alone. Well. He also followed it up at the end of the episode Jamal Williams by telling Dan Campbell that they needed to get clorox bleached for breeze in the locker room. Right, So it seems like maybe there's a deeper issue there that they need to figure out. Yeah, I think you might be right about that. Um, we'll get to that later. I also want to point out I don't know who this guy was. It's also a funny hard knocks thing when you know, you cut to the what is it the camera in the corner at the top of the room, and it's just a wide shot of the meeting room and it's like they weren't expecting to catch something. But then there's a dude and I don't know who he was kind of looked like a beefew offensive lineman type. And then I felt seen by the moment that he shared he was sharing he was he was sharing something private about himself that didn't get a huge reaction, but I was like, I feel you man, whoever you are. I've gone these like certain like articles of clothing that I really like, but they just like don't fit and I'm like saving him until I can fit in him. If I can't wait for that, I'm like saving him until I could fit in him. I I have a couple of pair of jeans and like a Polover two. It's like, oh, that's hot. Listen, we all do work on that. Work on something. Dresses, some jumpsuits, some things from yesterday we do that should be part of the show. Maybe that's our pre show thing. Um, all right, how about some plot line predictions for episode two? This is a good way to what are the things? Maybe either you expected to see in this episode and haven't, so you assume it'll show up soon, um or whatever you want. Do you have something calling? Okay, so I thought, I don't know why. I thought that we would have at least a line from Jared Golf. We got one. The quarterback he had one. Yeah, he checked in real quick with Aidan Hutchinson when he was like on the sideline with I think his dad and said something like the kids doing good and then walked away and that was it. Oh. I thought that was just like a pat on his back. I didn't even hear the line something, But you're right, I mean, I think you're I think it's a great call. The quarterback QB one is always going to be a central figure in Hard Knocks, but Goff might be the one outlier UM because incredibly, this is the fourth major NFL Films documentary program that Goff has been connected to. And I'm not you know, listen, this is not me speaking for a Hard Knocks producer, but this is not by choice. Jared Goff is not the most dynamic Hard Knocks personality we've seen walk through the doors. But he was on the two thousand sixteen Hard Knocks UH covering the Rams when he was a rookie number one overall pick. He was on the two thousand sixteen All or Nothing UM season UH, covering that entire sixteen season. He was then on the two thousand twenty Los Angeles Rams Hard Knocks season when it was split with the Chargers, and now here we are he gets moved to the Detroit Lions, and NFL Films seemingly follows, but trust me, it was not on purpose. I don't know how much we're gonna see if Jared Goff, because I don't think he's really about it. He actually doesn't really I'm not piling on Jared Goff here, Connie, but he doesn't strike me as a Dan Campbell guy. And I know he he set you sense ever since the Trade that he's kind of a bridge to whatever comes next in Detroit. But I don't know if we're gonna get a portion of hard knocks. And I hope I'm wrong whatever, Actually I don't hope i'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong Where Dan Campbell is is spinning poems about Jared Goff and how much he loves him, I don't since it's coming, but maybe I'll be wrong. I think that Jared Goff is probably thrilled that he's in the position where he doesn't have to be a main character on the show because there are all of these other personalities and we haven't even like met any of the wide receivers really yet. I don't know if like the guy like I'm on ros st Brown, d J. Chark who they just got in there, um Jamis and Williams like one of those guys I'm sure is going to pop at some point. But I know that Jamal Williams is going to end up being a star. I think that a theme that's probably going to continue throughout the season, is Dan Campbell letting guys just be themselves, because I thought it was really telling during that scene with Kelvin Sheppard, the linebackers coach, when he was talking about the fact that he was thinking about cutting his hair because I guess he felt like some pressure to cut his hair when he got the job as a head coach, and Campbell was like, don't you don't you dare do that? Like be the person that you want to be, the person that you truly are. Not some don't try and be something else just because you feel like you should. So I think that's going to happen. I will say that when they did the early in the episode and they showed Dan Campbell's evolution, how he got to where he is. Oh, the hair his last season, he has hair like a professional wrestler, and then as soon as Bill parcels he's on Bill's staff, it's it's high and tight. So he did he cut his hair, But maybe things are different than they were. Maybe he has regrets though, maybe he has learned and he wishes that he kept it. I don't know you mentioned Jamison Williams. He is the other first round picked the wide receiver. He's rehabbing the torn a c l In my experience covering the show, if it's especially if it's a rookie and he's doing a lot of rehab, you might not get more than check in. But we'll see. Uh, we didn't get a real dig into another um hard knocks Trope, the underdog guy or guys. These are the guys near the bottom of the roster. As I say that, I know it probably was not an accident that we saw Malcolm Rodriguez do with the salsa dance. We're probably gonna see more of him. Um, I want more Latin music, please, Yes, that would that would be nice. Um. But that's always something that they build into the first couple episodes, and then it all comes home in the season prenamire when you see who made the uh final cut. And then the the other thing that jumped out, UM was there's always at some point a visit where you get an idea of the culture of the city. And I think we're going to get a visit probably Jamal Williams and a teammate that honors the rich history of music in Detroit. That's what I'm thinking. Like in a famous recording studio or a club or something that digs into the blues and the blues or the the soul music of the city, which is a part of the fabric. I'm predicting that the next couple episodes. That's a good call. Like, I've never been to Detroit, and I've been able to travel so many places with this job, but Detroit is one place that i haven't been yet, and I'm really interested to see the music scene, if like, what the food scene is like, because that's usually top of my list. Um, so I hope they incorporate that. We're at RAMS camp around the NFL podcast last week and Allan Robbin sin Uh, new RAMS wide receiver and Detroit native, was going on about Detroit pizza and I'm a pizza dude, and I was like, what is Detroit pizza? And he said it's not quite deep dish, but it's it's definitely it's got its own style, but it might be in that family. And I was like, man, we gotta get some Detroit pizza. How about that, braver another job for the producer. Can we score some Detroit pizza by episode five? Why not? Yeah? That? Um? All right? The the Leev Schreiber quoted the week. Alright, so here's an issue. Not too many guardrails on this program, Connie. But we were told Leef Schreiber, we can't use his voice on this podcast, which is awesome. I don't know why I didn't ask questions, nor did Justin. We just know we can't. That makes me want to use it more. But I understand it feels very exclusive and special, and I did you know I'd like to. Maybe he's like his Ray Donovan character. May be if he's not getting paid, maybe breaks some knuckle. I' who knows. Anyway, we can't use Liev Schriver's voice, but we can write down his dialogue and then ask my good friend and voice actor Jason Zumwalt to give us a Lief Schreiber reading my favorite um line. And Shriver always does a great job and the writers of tying episodes together, and he drops a hammer with a great turn of phrase, and this is how they end the episode, tying it back to the Metallica song, Oh It's always done like a bow. There's a cold calculus to the NFL. Winning is everything. This team knows it. They've been in a dark place for a long time. The light they see now might be a new beginning, or it could be what Dan Campbell warned them about a freight train coming straight at them. Oh my beautiful. He didn't even hear it. You didn't even hear it. I just sent them, Okay, that's a fabulous work around. Really great job by you and Jason. Fantastic stuff. All right, it's time before we sign off episode m v P. And now I want people to understand I did some research on this because what we're gonna do is we're gonna tally votes throughout the five weeks and then name And this is something we're taking from the write ups I did for years um where I named an m v P at the end of the season. For some reason right now, Brian Cox, former defensive line coach of the Atlanta Falcons, was the Hard Knocks m v P five or six years ago. It's the It doesn't have to be the guy you expect. It's just someone who jumps out like a Brian Cox and grabs you and doesn't let go for these five weeks. So the first thing was, Oh, let's do it like how they do the NFL m v P. Voting. But that's basic and lame. You know what that is. It's an Associated Press award. There fifty writers and they all make one pick and that's it. So I said, what about And I'm a baseball fan, I said, what about the points voting that they do for Baseball's m v P. It's called vector voting. And we were gonna signed a point total for a first place vote, a second place vote, and a third place vote, and then at the end we'll figure out who's the true m VP. I feel like this is. And since we're both bad at math, Connie, we're gonna leave it again. A grave there, who's already task with getting us merch and getting us a Detroit pizza. He also has to do math over five weeks. That seems annoying. Uh, Grave Digger, are you having fun yet? This is is everything you dreamed it would be. Honestly, I am just honored and excited to be here. Throw it all at me. I'll handle it, I believe in the grave Digger. He does great work on NFL as well. Um, alright, so let's go first place vote, Episode one, m VP kind of get us going. Okay, this was easy for me. It's Dan Campbell because he was the most valuable person in the entire episode throughout the episode. It wasn't just one scene that he popped. It was through the entire thing from start to finish, and there were so many different things that I feel like we're revealed about his character and just you know, even like how we talked about what his hair looked like when he was playing, and how he had this like a whole other side to him, and the fact that he is okay being vulnerable and laughing about himself falling at his house, and just how much he cares about the team, talking about like that emotion you can't fake it and I believe it. And then he dropped a D's nuts at the end of the show, which really spoke to me. It won my heart over. So he is my top vote, Dan Campbell, I'm totally with you. My first place vote also is with head coach Dan Campbell for all the reasons Colleen just gave and more. How about your second place vote? Okay, this one, see now it gets a little bit tougher, but I am gonna go second place. Do Staley? Oh interesting? Yeah, I really I just loved him so many different parts um, even from Wick when they have the little montage asking everyone what they think about training camp and people are like, awesome, it's a grind building brotherhood, and Douce Staley is like, it's a bit and then just like laughs at himself and collaps. Like he is very compelling to watch and when he's on camera, I don't I want to hear what he has to say every single time. That is a great call. I definitely wrestled, uh with deuceon case. I thought he deserved a spot. I thought he really stood out and uh he also again the idea of the conversation as someone that's been on sports teams and has lived with other guys like you know, bodily functions are a big part of things. He when he was when he was going in on the running backs room about hey, nobody, nobody's gonna fart in here, and if you're gonna do it, take a walk, go to the bathroom. And he had actual rules that he was fired it up about. There was a straight up fine and I gotta respect that. But uh, my second place vote goes to Jamal Williams, and it's because his personality. You could tell he's a fun loving guy and a charismatic guy, but also the passion that you saw that speech alone. I don't remember ever seeing like if there is like you know the movie Unbreakable where there's Samuel Jackson and Bruce Willis, it's each end one guy is literally unbreakable. The other guy's Mr Glass, like if Jamis winston Is when he was eating the w is at one end, he's the sam Jackson Like on the other end is Jamal Williams speech about players fighting for each other and working hard and getting better and never doing three and fourteen ever again. He's my second place, uh and third place for me, Connie, I I almost had Deuce in here, but I thought Aidan Hutchinson just deserved it because hutch as we call him um. I thought it was just a nice kind of getting to know you of Hutchinson and his perfect family and the guy he doesn't take himself too seriously, and he was behind the Billy Jean moment, which was one of the field good moments I remember on the show. All right, so that's these rankings are really good. My basically I had all of these same people that I was trying to figure out where to slot them and then it came down to the last spot between hutch and Jamal Williams, and I think that I think because Jamal Williams is going to be such a star in future episodes that there's going to be plenty of time for him to maybe make up some ground because that speech was so passionate. But I think that when you lose a room the way that Aidan Hutchinson did at the beginning of the song, and the way that he just went right back in and completely lit that place up, that's not easy to do. And you can be like, that's basically the most vulnerable that you can let yourself become. And then like for him to really really stick the landing at the end, that's got to be my third place vote. Good good call, especially when you begin by introducing yourself as you know, I have a twenty three million dollar signing bonus too, So intrinsically, there's gonna be people that are gonna be like, screw this kid who's never done anything and he has more money than I'll ever have. The guys in the room, uh, and yet they loved him, Yeah, they love Michael Jackson. Whatever. Well, I mean, it was a good song. For him to pick. Then all right, great, we'll tabulate that. Remember vector voting, so we're gonna tabulate and add it up first place, second place, third place, and at the end we will pick the Hard Knocks m VP. And maybe because we are the NFL's official Hard Knocks podcast, maybe we will get the winner of Hard Knocks MVP on this program. I don't know. Or we'll just get Jamal Williams on UM. All Right, good app good premiere, good job conn. We'll be next Tuesday night with another reaction to episode two, and we'll be doing this through the September six season finale of the greatest documentary football program ever created. David Robodo play us out until next week.