Best of the Week on The Dan Patrick Show

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: Let me get to Fernando Mendoza. Now once again we take the interview on Monday. We wanted to play you know here once we got to Pittsburgh and he joined us on behalf of Pfizer the Every Breakthrough Matters campaign. Every step makes a difference, starting with your cancer screening. And the first question I asked Fernando Mendoza if I would have told him last year he was going to win the Heisman, what would he have said?

00:00:32
Speaker 3: I would have said, what are you on? Because that would have been out of the realm of reality. However, at the same time, focused around the present moment, you know, going in the future, there were some projections. I said, Hey, this kid has some raw ability and maybe could reject to this. However, you know, in reality, at that point a year ago, I just made the move from cal to Indiana and I was getting my buck kicked by the Indiana defense in spring ball. Amazing Brian Haynes defense has proved to be the best defense in the nation. So I would have been a little skeptical, but it's been a great blessing and those tough experience have forged me into the player and character ams today.

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Speaker 2: Okay, but you had to have doubts about yourself that you leave cal you go to Indiana and all of a sudden you're getting your lunch handed to you. Did you have any second thoughts about going to Indiana?

00:01:23
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I did have second thoughts for going to Indiana, especially when leaving California having lived in Miami, been leaving California great weather cities, I mean that city, So States and then moving to Blimington, Indiana, which is awesome, but zero degree.

00:01:42
Speaker 4: And seven inches of snow is not.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: You know, it's not idea, especially for someone who comes from a warmer weather state. But I believe those experiences have also primed me for the NFL, to them playing cold weather performances and cold weather games. But there was definitely a lot of you know, weariness, and maybe some are not some regrets, but maybe some double takes at first. However, God's plan pride and true and been very blessed this year.

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Speaker 5: You grew up a Dolphins fan.

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Speaker 4: I grew up. I did, but I really didn't because although I liked.

00:02:20
Speaker 5: Then, now it's okay, and that was.

00:02:22
Speaker 3: A huge Miami Hurricanes fan, but my dad did his medical residency in Boston and so I only.

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Speaker 4: Lived there for two years.

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Speaker 3: But when I was seven years old, I watched I think it was like six years old, actually, I watched Newinglam Patriots play the Giants, and although the lost, my phone enamored with the New England Patriots.

00:02:41
Speaker 4: So that was my team growing up.

00:02:43
Speaker 5: Have you met Tom Brady?

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Speaker 6: I have.

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Speaker 3: I've met him in the official thirty visit.

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Speaker 5: At the Raiders and how did that go?

00:02:53
Speaker 4: It was fantastic. It was fantastic.

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Speaker 3: He gave me the message that he's gonna push me and he's not going to be all lovey dovey, and that if the Raiders draft me, he is going to be, you know, a mentor and wants to pour into whatever quarterback the Raiders have, whether it's me, whether they draft somebody else or you know, or like the Raiders. They also signed Kirk Cousins.

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Speaker 5: What was your reaction when they brought in Kirk Cousins.

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Speaker 3: Well, if I'm lucky enough to go to the Raiders, I think it'd be a great opportunity to be able to learn from someone who's had so much success throughout the years and who I think has a very similar playing style as me.

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Speaker 4: I'd been able to watch his film.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: There was two years ago where I watched all his Minnesota Vikings pass tape, every single pass where there's incomplete completion throughout the entire season, which is a lot because the NFL is a lot of games.

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Speaker 4: But to be able to even learn from that.

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Speaker 2: Wait, wait, wait, wait, so you went back and looked at all of his throws.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, this is actually funny enough.

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Speaker 3: This was maybe some foreshadowing, but this was This was a year ago when I was back in California, and there are a couple of comparisons on, Hey, you play a little bit like Kirk Cousins, Sam Donald, just from our NFL guys, And so at that point I was like, Okay, let me watch these guys and see what they do, see whither they do good, and see what they do you know they need improvement on. And so in this aspect, it was for my free time, and I love watching nfootball.

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Speaker 4: So after I was.

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Speaker 3: Doing my process, i'd watch thirty minutes or an hour of Kirk Cousins or Sam Donald. Then this past year it was Matthew Stafford not saying I play like Matthew Stafford. But it's something great to learn from and those experiences have helped me a lot. It has to get adjusted to the college games and a Sea quarterbacks process the defense.

00:04:40
Speaker 2: We're talking to Fernando Mendoza and he's joining us on behalf of Pfizer Every Breakthrough Matters campaign. All right, Peyton Manning's probably the best pitch man. So let me hear your pitch for Pfizer here.

00:04:56
Speaker 3: I'll let Peyton Manning hold the rain on that and hold the throne on that.

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Speaker 4: He is for sure the goat of pitches.

00:05:03
Speaker 3: However, I believe that the partnerships that are most viable and most significant.

00:05:10
Speaker 4: To me are the ones that have tangible application.

00:05:13
Speaker 3: I've been very vocal and I've had first hand experience with health in my life and my family's life, and that's why I believe it's very important to broadcast out a visorfarall dot com slash screens, because fifty percent of Americans are behind on their cancer screens, and to take that step in your health is something that I believe that I've been put on this platform to them push and to then help other families and individuals with the help that the front.

00:05:42
Speaker 5: Uh, what did you say from the National title game?

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Speaker 4: Excuse me?

00:05:47
Speaker 6: What did I?

00:05:48
Speaker 5: Yeah? Like uniform? Did you get the football?

00:05:51
Speaker 7: I save?

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Speaker 4: Okay, I love Blueminton. I love my guy Mitch in the EQ room.

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Speaker 3: And he was lucky enough to give me a game ball after because all those were gone. But my younger brother, Alberto, he took We took one ball home from the stadium. And I have my helmet. I don't know where my shoulder pads are. I think we might have my shoulder pads, but definitely helmet, jersey and towel and cleats.

00:06:16
Speaker 4: The cleats are at home. I almost use those cleats to work out the other day. But I was like, you know, let me just be.

00:06:23
Speaker 5: I'll use the movie cleats.

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Speaker 4: You know, I enjoyed the cleats.

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Speaker 2: Cleachers were take me, take me into the huddle on that game winning touchdown. And but were there any other options other than you creating something?

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Speaker 3: Yes, there were, And the huddle is a very special place. It's like football heaven for me, I believe for a lot of other quarterbacks. It's fourth down in the National Championship. You have ten other players. We've worked all this way through an entire season creating his brothers looking at you, seeing what's the play called? How much does he believe in this play call by the way he says it, and it does?

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Speaker 4: And does he have any other messaging?

00:07:06
Speaker 3: And so at that point I was able to deliver the play call with complete confidence. Our guys, not just me, but all of our guys were able to come together, give each other a little pump up hey, saying this is what we do. We make big plays, big time games. And it was a play that depending on manor zone. The defense was a little bit discombobulated because they didn't believe we'd go for a fourth and five. I believe every analytic expert could tell you we should have keeped the field goal there. However, when the game came down to the wire, I need to trust the big boys up front, the Hoggies, and they delivered us to victory with a great with great blocking whether it's pass or run protection, and they had, you know, and they had a great run game there, I mean a great run game protection there, and it worked and enabled me to get the first down and then go ahead for the store.

00:07:54
Speaker 5: What's the plan for Thursday?

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Speaker 3: The plan for Thursday to stay home and in Miami, Florida. I believe it's very important to have everyone who's poured a part and poured into me and been a part of that village to be there and experience this new opportunity. This is not an end, this is a beginning, and there's gonna be a it's a great new opportunity that there's gonna be a lot of hurdles, and I look forward to resting and confiding in my support system whenever those hurdles occur. My mom and my dad wanted to do it in Miami because we need to hop on a plane the next day whatever team drafts me.

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Speaker 4: And it's been in a lot of travel this year.

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Speaker 3: And although Pittsburgh is going to be a great event, I can't wait to be a great league partner, I believe, especially with my mom, she really wanted to do it at home and it's going to be most applicable and easiest for our family.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: How old are you fifty? I mean, you don't sound like your age here. What would you have done if you didn't play football?

00:08:55
Speaker 3: If I didn't do football, I'd be grinding the streaks of New York doing finance.

00:09:00
Speaker 4: Luckily, God has blessed me. So I don't need to work twenty four hour days.

00:09:04
Speaker 5: Oh no, you're gonna be working twenty four hour days.

00:09:07
Speaker 4: But it's not worked for me.

00:09:08
Speaker 3: It's it's fun. It's fun for me. It's fun and it's it's great. Whether it's ever i'm eating, I'm usually watching YouTube video of somebody breaking that NFL football.

00:09:17
Speaker 4: Every single Sunday, I'm Watchington football. I love, actually just do love football.

00:09:21
Speaker 5: Give me that address again for Pfizer.

00:09:23
Speaker 3: It's Pfizerfurall dot com slash screenings.

00:09:27
Speaker 5: All right, great to meet you.

00:09:30
Speaker 2: Congratulations on a wonderful season and the Raiders will be lucky to have you.

00:09:35
Speaker 4: Great to meet you. I love your Nevada sticker there in the front or patch.

00:09:39
Speaker 3: Excuse me, yeah, been Fanny for a long time. My dad loves listening to you. So thank you so much again for having me on. God bless hope you have a future interaction.

00:09:47
Speaker 5: Thank you, Bun Fernando Mendoza.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: 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. The NFL Draft is where it all starts.

00:10:05
Speaker 8: This is crazy. I can't believe it. From the picks to the breakdowns.

00:10:08
Speaker 1: Weird covering all of it because in the NFL.

00:10:12
Speaker 8: I'll put myself in a position to be here.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: One pick can change everything. It's Draft Night, Lock joined Jenny Tapped, Jay Laser, LeVar Arrington, and former Falcons GM Terry Bombo April twenty third and five pm, and it's brought to you by Express Bros. And Weibo on Fox Sports Radio.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: I don't know if he enjoys coming on the show, but I enjoy having him on the show. Bill Coward, the Hall of Famer and NFL Today's CBS studio analyst who joins this Now in the program.

00:11:12
Speaker 9: I'll get off the good start off.

00:11:20
Speaker 2: I no, I know we're not gonna argue. We're not gonna yell today, are we.

00:11:24
Speaker 7: Now?

00:11:25
Speaker 2: I didn't bring your babblehead because that's what you looked for, right. I was kind of wondering, Noah, I brought a Jerome Bettist babblehead.

00:11:33
Speaker 5: So can you pull that mic up to your coach?

00:11:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I didn't want anything to happen to the bibblehead you sent me.

00:11:38
Speaker 6: So that that was very thoughtful.

00:11:40
Speaker 9: When you're on your part, yes, seriously, because you don't want to get lost, you know, in course of travel.

00:11:45
Speaker 2: I don't want anything damage other than what's damaged with our relationship here.

00:11:51
Speaker 6: We're not going down that road.

00:11:52
Speaker 5: No. No, I will not make you mad.

00:11:54
Speaker 9: No no, we never get mad. We just discuss things. Sometimes you take me down dark corridors of my life. But other than that, we're fine.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: Did you ever change your route to get to the stadium, going to the stadium and coming back from the stadium after a game?

00:12:12
Speaker 6: No, so on game day.

00:12:15
Speaker 9: On home games, I would stay in a hotel the night before the game, I would drive up to Fox Chapel and pick up my family, my daughter, my three daughters, and my wife, and.

00:12:26
Speaker 6: We would come in together.

00:12:27
Speaker 9: And so we'd drive through and I'd try to get there obviously two hours before. I'd try to get in there by eleven o'clock for one o'clock games, And so we would drive through the parking lot and it was really kind of a neat drive there, and then on the way home usually we had to wait for the doctors to give us a report, and so we would be sitting there and certainly it was a lot better atmosphere after a win than it was after a loss. But we would kind of let the crowd go and then we would drive back up twenty eight to go back to Fox Chapel was about a twenty minute drive from the stadium.

00:12:59
Speaker 2: What happens though, if after a loss and you're pulling over for gas.

00:13:03
Speaker 9: Well, I wouldn't get gas on game day, So I mean my gas came like during the course of the week. If I go in on a Tuesday, you know, drop the kids off. You know, if we went, I just dropped the kids off, go by the gas station. But if we lost, Honestly, as I got around here more often, I'd wait till Tuesday night. So on my way back, self served round eleven forty five twelve o'clock at night. Because if you go in there during the day, everyone just tells you, you know, you're you're throwing the ball way too much, You're not playing very good defense. Why don't you try this? I got a lot of suggestions along the way. Yeah, and as you know, and I just were very respectful of the people here. This is a very knowledgeable fan base and very passionate fan base, and they kind of take things personal as you know about Pittsburgh as you can't.

00:13:48
Speaker 6: Get around here. It's very territorial.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: You know.

00:13:51
Speaker 9: I grew up on the other side of that hill right there, about four miles from the stadium, a place called Crafton Pennsylvania. And you learn very quickly as you look around here that it's a city with a lot of communities connected by bridges. But there's a proud element of your community that you represent, and so you understand that it does become a little territorial, it becomes personal. And I kind of took that philosophy in my way of talking about games each week and trying to make every game personal because I grew up that way here.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: Well, was there any part of you that said, I don't want to screw up this franchise, Like I'm a local, I'm honored, but I might be the guy who doesn't do well here and let everybody down.

00:14:36
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, like, yeah, happens a lot. You know.

00:14:40
Speaker 9: I got the job. I was thirty four years old, and I'll never forget. I remember I was in Kansas City and I came in and with my wife and we went back and remember laying in bed that night, I said, Wow, if I don't screw this up. In three years, I can go back to my twentieth high school class for union or Carlington High School, being the head coach of my hometown team.

00:14:58
Speaker 6: So my first thing was, don't screw this up.

00:15:00
Speaker 5: Wait, you went back to your high school reunion in.

00:15:03
Speaker 6: My twentieth year.

00:15:04
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean for my twentieth hig school class, and that was three years in and I do have a story about that.

00:15:09
Speaker 6: And so it was.

00:15:11
Speaker 9: It was we lost the San Diego Charger championship game that year, and so we had that spring and so I said my wife, I said, listen, you know I got to go to the twentieth class reunion. And she goes, Oh, all we're gonna do is go there and tell you how great you are as a coach, blah blah blah.

00:15:26
Speaker 6: I go, no, if I go, promise, I'm gonna go. It's gonna be a just a drive by. We're gonna go in.

00:15:30
Speaker 9: I got a nice place for us to have dinner up on Mount Washington. I said, but we're gonna say hi. And so we get on right here. It's like there's the Gateway Clipper. So it's on here and I said, oh, that's pretty cool. They have a dinner on the water. It's just really cool. So I get on there and all of a sudden, I'm talking with a bunch of guys. All of a sudden, I feel the thing moving. We just it's a dinner cruise.

00:15:51
Speaker 7: I go, oh shit.

00:15:53
Speaker 8: So I looked over.

00:15:55
Speaker 9: I look over and my wife is looking at me like, wow, you just I don't know, know, honestly, I didn't well now on a dinner cruise from three hours. The first hour, everyone's very cordial. The second hour, after all my buddies had a few drinks. They're telling me how like why you screwed up that San Diego Charger game. Okay, like you made some bad calls and you're too good to get us tickets now. So now if you buy the end of the three hour cruise, I have about two people. I'm talking to him, mad at all my friends. My wife's not talking to me.

00:16:22
Speaker 6: We drive home.

00:16:23
Speaker 9: I go, wow, that was a nice night. So that was my twenty Facebook classroom.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: When's the last time you bought a beer in Pittsburgh.

00:16:34
Speaker 9: It's been a while. I you know, I don't come back that often, to be quite honest with you, my brothers do live here. I come back during the season a lot, sometimes in the off season, and you know, I I.

00:16:47
Speaker 6: Just I love this city.

00:16:48
Speaker 9: It takes me back down memory lane, suny times, going back into Crafton and just where you were raised and going by Carlington High School, going into Carnegie and Harness Wagner Field.

00:16:58
Speaker 6: It was right off the street.

00:17:00
Speaker 5: Parents get to enjoy all this.

00:17:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, they did. They did.

00:17:03
Speaker 9: My dad, you know, he didn't come to the Super Bowl that we won in two thousand and five, but he sat at home and watched it. And they did, they they You know, my dad's great stories is my first year.

00:17:17
Speaker 6: It was nineteen ninety.

00:17:18
Speaker 9: Two and Neil Donald was a starter and Bobby made him the starter. Neil Donald got hurt like week ten or eleven. I put Bobby Brister in finished out the season. Like the last three or four games. We were like two and two, but Bubby was getting better each game. He hadn't played all year, and we got into a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills. I put Neil Donald back in, thinking that no starter should lose, no starters should lose his job injury. At the time, I thought, Okay, that's the way it should be. It's thinking that's the proper way of doing it. We get into the game and Neil didn't hadn't played in over a month, didn't play well. I don't think I made the right decision at the time. I sat back and said, Wow, I put a guy in who hadn't played in five weeks for the biggest playoff game of the career. But anyway, so I'm thinking that myself. If I go over to the house afterwards in the kind of sunday or like it was, after all the playoffs were over, and we're sitting there and we got all the kids were there and my brothers are there, and my dad was in the sitting in the same same seat Pops and Iron City beer.

00:18:16
Speaker 6: He how about that was damn Steelers? How dumb was that?

00:18:19
Speaker 9: Was? St start uh Neil' donald we hadn't played over for a month over Bobby Bristol.

00:18:23
Speaker 6: I go, Dad, I go, that was me your Sunday.

00:18:26
Speaker 8: They got your decisions, you know, he said.

00:18:28
Speaker 9: He goes, well, I'm sure he had a good reason, but still a stupid decision.

00:18:31
Speaker 7: I'm like, okay, do.

00:18:32
Speaker 6: You want to hear it?

00:18:35
Speaker 9: So you know my dad was my dad was that guy? I mean he he he was a Pittsburgh through and through. I mean he was sitting in the kitchen and listened to Mine Cope on the games, you know, listening to him at night on the talk radio. He was a true sports lover, didn't play it. He loved baseball more than anything. And yeah, it was it was. We had a special family.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: He's Bill Coward the Hall of Fame. We've asked this question first ninety minutes of the program. You could draft anybody number one, start a franchise, but you don't get like, if you get Jerry Rice, you don't get Joe Montana, if you get Tom Brady, you don't get Bill Belichick, et cetera. So number one overall pick, no matter what era.

00:19:22
Speaker 9: Well, I was in here earlier and listen to your show and tellman from Cleveland made a statement about Jim Brown. He's a pretty special player, pretty special individual. But I think you have to start with the quarterback position. I mean, quite frankly and honestly, I think Tom Brady to me, I mean going against him for all the years. I'm not saying that Joe Montana wasn't a product of the system, but he had a lot of good people around him. I watched Tom Brady grow as a player and his ability to you to try to defend him to you know, him and Peyton Manning were very similar.

00:19:58
Speaker 6: But I that Tom was He had a more accurate arm, I thought at times.

00:20:02
Speaker 9: But I think him and Peyton Manning to me, were two guys that were the face of your franchise.

00:20:07
Speaker 6: No one would work harder. They knew what.

00:20:09
Speaker 9: Preparation was all about. They didn't get flustered in the highest of stress situations. They were they led by example. And I think those two guys to me, Brady and to uh uh Peyton Manning, I think to me are the two guys.

00:20:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would probably say John Lway. I think he did more individually than those two did.

00:20:32
Speaker 3: Uh.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: The other ones were probably Tom was a better quarterback. If I take away quarterback and I say any other position.

00:20:40
Speaker 9: I'm gonna say Lawrence Taylor. I mean he was. He was I added opportunity to coach Derek Thomas and run the same time frame, and Lawrence Taylor, to me, he could wreck havoc in the game. He could just he was a disruptive. This was one of the most disruptive players at his time.

00:20:59
Speaker 2: In the game today, I would say Reggie White, although I did get to see Lawrence Taylor when I was in New York covering the Giants. And I always tell people there's speed when you're watching on TV, and then there's in the moments speed when you're standing on the sideline, and it's completely different, like I can't imagine, you know, can We can see everything unfold and everybody's an expert, but when you see it on the sidelines and you're going, I don't know how it's so quick. Lawrence Taylor got around the end. I mean he created a position. He was the first edge rusher that we labeled.

00:21:37
Speaker 9: You know, I just you think about the draft as we're coming up, and you think about, to me, hybrid players. A guy like Caleb Downs, to me, is a guy that I think is one of those types of guys that you could put him anywhere in the field. Reminds me a lot of Troy Paul Marlin Andoy Troy Palum. Marler was a very disruptive player.

00:21:55
Speaker 5: Was he allowed to do whatever he wanted to?

00:21:57
Speaker 9: He wasn't he earned the rights to do that, So you know, you know, the one thing he made a lot of mistakes his first year, and I remember a couple of times, like you know, I would go into the go into the facility over here, and he was always in there. He was the first one in there and the last one to leave watching tape. And the only other person that was much as him was Rod Woodson. These guys watched more tape. They were looking for any competitive edge they could get, whether it be a stance, whether it be a split, whether it be a formational thing that they saw on the road at home. Certain ways that people did it. So it got to a point where, you know, I just remember telling Chris Hope and actually told Ryan Clark I met saw him last night. I said, you know when the first thing I told Ryan Clark, I said, listen, you're coming in here. I said, I just got to tell you one thing. You know, Troy pal Marlou is going to do some things that are unorthodox and at times he will not play the defense, and I need you to be able to cover up for him. He goes, what do you mean cover up for him? I says, because he's not going to follow the defense. He goes, you don't have to follow the defense around here? I go, no, no, no, no, you go. He he doesn't have to follow the defense, but you need to be able to cover up for him.

00:23:10
Speaker 6: He goes, what do you mean cover up for him? I said, well, if.

00:23:12
Speaker 9: It's too deep and he sees something he made blitz. I goes, I said, well, how do I cover up for him? I said, well, you start talking to the two corners and tell him the backup. And now you were playing a three deep defense suddenly, and I said, and we'll just go from there. And he goes, can anybody do I go, No, no, no, I go, And he goes.

00:23:33
Speaker 6: He goes, how often is he wrong? I go, not often? Not often? I go.

00:23:36
Speaker 9: I said, you know, the one thing I don't want to do is harness him, because when he had a feel for something and he could play very free and do things that were disruptive, you don't harness greatness. And I think the biggest thing you do, and I learned that a little bit with Ben. It's like, let him do his thing. Yes, your structure, Yes there's guidelines, Yes there's an approach, we have to it. But these are players that in the heat of the moment, they can acclimate to the situation. They get a feel for the game. I have a feel from the sideline, but you're on that field. And if you have that feel for the game, wow, I can allow you to play free, play fast, and be aggressive. I like that, and I will live with the periodic mistakes.

00:24:15
Speaker 5: Give me the player you wanted to draft and you weren't allowed.

00:24:18
Speaker 9: To Javon Curse nineteen ninety nine, we took Troy Edwards.

00:24:23
Speaker 5: You were overruled.

00:24:25
Speaker 6: I don't want to go into it.

00:24:28
Speaker 7: Now, you know, I knew it.

00:24:29
Speaker 8: I see, I knew you were doing this.

00:24:32
Speaker 6: I knew you did this. I was just thinking about this this morning.

00:24:36
Speaker 9: I go.

00:24:37
Speaker 6: I got to think about all the drafts I had. Who was like your worst pick? And you had to go out and ask nothing? You did? You said, like, was I overruled? Do you want to go into that discussion?

00:24:45
Speaker 2: Do you want to open the bottle of one? No?

00:24:49
Speaker 6: But it was that was I.

00:24:51
Speaker 9: That was a very quick answer to that question because Javon Curse at the time would have been a perfect outside linebacker in the three four defense and Troy was a receiver.

00:25:05
Speaker 6: Right after the catch guy, Yeah, it was not it was.

00:25:12
Speaker 9: I wish I could say that there was an overrule there was this no communication and so it led to some change following.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll leave you with this, if if you were coaching the Steelers, yes, how would you feel about your quarterbacking situation.

00:25:27
Speaker 9: We've got to give Will Howard a chance. I think Aaron will come back at some point, I really do you know. I I go back to the same thing, Dan, I think the Steelers can't chase the quarterback. The quarterback's going to come building around him, you know, kind of like what we did. You know we had Tommy Maddox. We want a game with him, tom Zach Cordell and Neil O'Donnell. You know when Ben came along that that team was built. Okay, and I think this right now from the Pittsburgh Steelers, build this thing. I think an offensive alignment tonight. He's going to be the pick they have to make. I said, you know, put that offensive line there. You've got a couple of receivers, whether it's Will Howard or Aaron Rodgers. Maybe the next guy is not here yet. I don't know, but when that next guy comes, it's plug and sert and win. And that's why I say to me, it's like, build everything else around him. You know, don't keep chasing something that you're trying to manufacture.

00:26:20
Speaker 6: It will happen.

00:26:22
Speaker 7: Uh.

00:26:22
Speaker 2: The one piece of advice you gave to Mike Tomlin for TV was what.

00:26:27
Speaker 6: Just be yourself? Honestly, I think that.

00:26:29
Speaker 9: I think that's the biggest thing for Mike and you know, and I think a lot of guys.

00:26:32
Speaker 6: Who have left have come back. I did not go back. My situation is a little bit differently though than those guys.

00:26:38
Speaker 3: You know.

00:26:39
Speaker 5: They you think Mike's going to do this as a career.

00:26:42
Speaker 9: I don't think so. I think he's got I think he loves the sideline. I think he loves the competition. I think he loves that arena. He's an arena guy. And I think when I left, I left for my wife's reasons. It didn't work out, and I got remarried, and I didn't want to take some.

00:27:00
Speaker 6: One back into that world again. I said, you know, it's it's just it's it's a I I would.

00:27:06
Speaker 9: I didn't want to do that again, and quite frankly, I left to my own and I can never envision myself being in another uniform except black and gold.

00:27:22
Speaker 5: Thanks for taking time. I know you got busy schedule.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know you're going to be on Pat McAfee his draft show. Would you like to hit somebody before you leave?

00:27:31
Speaker 9: Well, I the fact that you don't have my bibble head up there, and you blame it on the fact that transportation was an issue, because I can see how much that really takes up a lot of space right there, because you know what that need to happen. See how big that is. And then the fact you had to go down and ask me about my worst draft pick. So I appreciate the fact that we're back to normal.

00:27:48
Speaker 5: Would you like to tackle me?

00:27:50
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I mean no no.

00:27:53
Speaker 9: I would just like to let you keep thinking I'm going to tackle it. You can walk on eggshells the rest of your but I will always be following you. I told you if I came to Pittsburgh, I'm coming to the show.

00:28:05
Speaker 6: And I'm a man.

00:28:07
Speaker 5: My head is always on a swivel.

00:28:08
Speaker 6: Yes, No, you're good, You're good.

00:28:10
Speaker 9: I enjoy our talks due the course of the season because the one thing I do get to talk about with you is more of the philosophical approach to some of the things that are taking place.

00:28:19
Speaker 6: I love the National Football league.

00:28:20
Speaker 9: I feel like on my platform at CBS, being a kind of a guardian of the game.

00:28:25
Speaker 6: I like to call bullshit if I have to do it.

00:28:27
Speaker 9: Periodically, And sometimes I think that we get caught up in the what we perceive, what we want this to look like, as opposed to just doing the right thing. And mister Rooney used to always say this, I'll leave you one last story, Dan Rooney. Like times I would talk to him on a Friday afternoon, everybody's out of the building. I'm in there, just preparing my last little bit for my meeting the next day that next night, and I say, Danny, listen, I'm just wanting you to know, like I may pull the quarterback this week. I don't like the way he's practiced, I don't like the way I'm playing. I'm not sure he's into this. And I says, what I want you to know beforehand, so that you're you're not blindsided by this. He would just say like, okay, like were you going to dinner? And I said, well, like, we're going to dinner at the club. He goes, the girl's got anything this week? I got the girls are fine. I just want to make sure you know about this quarterback thing. He'd turn you, walk around, you walk away. I'm like, oh God, I say something to offend him.

00:29:20
Speaker 6: Like he would stop at the door, he.

00:29:22
Speaker 9: Would look back, he said, coach, just do the right thing, and he would walk away. That didn't help, But you know what, do you know what it was? Understand the consequences of the choices you make. Are you doing it for one person or are you doing it for the team? Are you worried about hurting someone's feelings or do you think sometimes that has to happen in course of having personal growth, well, which you'll give us substantially team growth.

00:29:46
Speaker 6: So just doing the right thing.

00:29:49
Speaker 9: Sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do, and sometimes the easiest thing to do isn't always the right thing to do.

00:29:54
Speaker 5: I'm ready to run through a wall for you. Oh yeah, will cower everybody.

00:30:04
Speaker 1: 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.

00:30:16
Speaker 2: Got the Minister of Humor Fritzi is here. Got a rhyme time coming up a little bit later on.

00:30:21
Speaker 7: You can deal with a Pittsburgh themes.

00:30:22
Speaker 2: Okay, give the audience an idea of what rhyme time consists of.

00:30:26
Speaker 7: Okay, so rhyme time. There's two clues and then the two the answer to those two clues actually rhyme with one another.

00:30:32
Speaker 5: Okay, rime time. Okay.

00:30:34
Speaker 7: Like an example would be particular pigskin head. Particular pigskin head or coach. To try and make it a little easier. If someone is particular, they would be choosy and the pigskin head locally at a university.

00:30:52
Speaker 8: Duzzi, So time, I can't make their easy.

00:30:55
Speaker 7: I can't just hand you the answers, So choosey, Narduzzi.

00:30:57
Speaker 8: That's a tough one, particular pigskin Okay, give.

00:31:00
Speaker 2: Me a better one so the audience will care.

00:31:02
Speaker 7: That's why that's fair.

00:31:03
Speaker 2: Like you don't lead with a real tough ones. That's why Jeopardy doesn't give you the toughest question.

00:31:08
Speaker 8: You gotta go to twelve hundred.

00:31:09
Speaker 7: Yes, okay, how about paddle boat Dandra fighting steeler. Paddle boat Dandra fighting steeler.

00:31:20
Speaker 5: So something palamalu, right.

00:31:22
Speaker 7: Like a paddle boat? What took a little boat? You're a big boat main person. Name a type of little boat that you can get in and.

00:31:27
Speaker 8: Paddle Paul pontoon, what rhymes with palamalu?

00:31:31
Speaker 7: That would be a row boat. You've never been on a canoe?

00:31:36
Speaker 8: Canoe?

00:31:38
Speaker 7: Help me out here? What is that really a bad clue? A paddle boat being a canoe.

00:31:44
Speaker 5: We're trying to attract an audience.

00:31:46
Speaker 7: I think you guys are purposely playing dumb to make this like just ruin this for me.

00:31:50
Speaker 5: No, no, I'm not playing dumb.

00:31:51
Speaker 7: Canoemalu. Now, I gotta give you a third one Blaze Rocky, think local, flavor, Local, think Pittsburgh, Blaze, Rocky, fire Fly, fire Flyer. There you go. You're not helping me sell this at all.

00:32:10
Speaker 2: Hold on, let me, let me let the audience up. More of that coming up a little bit later on. At right, Dylan is here, got a Raven's hat on. Nobody's taken a shot at you this week?

00:32:24
Speaker 5: Have they?

00:32:26
Speaker 1: There?

00:32:26
Speaker 5: You go just orally? Verbally? Okay, okay, thank you for clarifying that you're welcome Pittsburgh. They're really nice people. They're not that nice.

00:32:37
Speaker 1: They're not quite that nice.

00:32:39
Speaker 2: Paulie is here, Marvin's here, yours truly, and of course the back room guys as well.

00:32:45
Speaker 5: A lot to kind of decipher.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: Here, we'll talk to Lewis Riddick, who was on the draft coverage last night. He played his football at pitt He'll join us coming up. Tom Pelisero, NFL Network, Matt Miller, the draft expert from the Mothership, as well some of the high It's weird too. I felt bad for Jeremiah Love, and it's weird to feel bad for him. He's going to make more guaranteed money than any other running back in history, at over fifty million dollars, but he's going to Arizona. And I thought it was maybe malpractice because once again, you're getting a guy who is great, he's my favorite player in the draft, but you're going to a team that doesn't have a quarterback. I don't know if they have much of an offensive line. McBride is good. You got Marvin Harrison Junior the third, and now you get Jeremiah Love. Now you got building blocks there. But I thought that Jeremiah Love somebody was going to go get him. He's expensive for a running back, but he goes third to the Cardinals. The Ty Simpson situation. I'm going to take you back to yesterday morning. This was probably twelve minutes before the show, Pauli goes, oh, do you see Glazier was on barstool and Glazier said, Hey, there might be something happening in the draft, a big surprise, and I'm paraphrasing. He said, why don't you reach out to him? I said, okay, So I text Jay and I said are you up? Because it was West Coast and I said are you up? He said yeah? And I said, hey, what's going on with the possibility in the first round? Can you give me any kind of breadcrumbs here? And he said, you know, it's blown out of proportion. It's not going to be like Travis Hunter the year before, where there's a big trade between Jacksonville and Cleveland. So then at the very end, I go, hey, what are the Rams doing? And he said, oh, the Jeremiah Love thing? Is this smoke screen? And I go, I wasn't asking about Jeremiah Love. I said, I think they're taking Ty Simpson at the end of the first round. So there's a pause and he goes, I don't know, what do you think. I'm thinking, you're the insider. Why are you asking me this? So I said, I just think they're going to get somebody, and then they'll get somebody at the end of the first round.

00:34:51
Speaker 5: So you get somebody.

00:34:52
Speaker 2: Now, you get somebody maybe who's going to be in the on deck circle for Matthew Stafford. We see the Rams they take Ty Simpson thirteenth pick, and all of a sudden I get this text from Glazier. He goes, SHO, I was so, and then he put us worried that you heard something about the Rams taking Ty Simpson. I hadn't heard anything. I just thought they're probably gonna come up and get him. And it turns out that that was his big scoopage that Simpson was going thirteenth. Overall, he might be the right guy who was just the wrong time. My thought was, if you get him in the end of the first round. Now, I've tried to find this out this morning and I haven't gotten and maybe Tom Pelsaro or Lewis Riddy can help me. But it felt like they knew somebody was going to take Ty Simpson a whole lot earlier than anybody else thought. I don't know if it was Pittsburgh, I don't know if the Jets would have come back up, the Cardinals, somebody from what I'm trying to glean some information is they had to go up and get him at thirteen. But until you know we have our insiders on there, I don't know that for a fact, yes, Pauline.

00:36:01
Speaker 10: So the big debate here is the Rams are a current Super Bowl contender.

00:36:05
Speaker 2: Got the best they have the best odds this morning from DraftKings, right to win the Super Bowl.

00:36:10
Speaker 10: And with a thirteenth pick, Sean McVay obviously wants another weapon for next year. Last year, the thirteenth pick was Tyler Warren, the tight end out of Penn State. He had like eighty catches and eight hundred yards. There's impact players available at thirteen.

00:36:23
Speaker 5: I got DraftKings.

00:36:24
Speaker 2: The Rams are the favorite to win the Super Bowl, followed by the Seahawks. Then it's the Bills and Ravens, Chiefs, Niners, Patriots, Chargers, Packers, and the Lions. I don't know what impact these draft picks had yesterday. I do like what Seattle did? They got Jendarian Price. He was the other running back at Notre Dame. Can you find out has there ever been a first round pick who never started a game in his college career? Because I don't think this running back started a game for Notre Dame. But I think they got a great pick because Kenneth Walker goes to Kansas City, you pick him up, and I think that's a great pick for him because he was a that'd be one of those you know, when you would have Love go out of the game and Price come in. And there was no let up there for Notre Dame. But I don't think he started a game. But I can't remember a first round draft pick who didn't start a game. All right, Dylan, what's poll question for the first hour of the program?

00:37:27
Speaker 11: We got a couple options, Dan, I have one from Todd per usual, I will read it without any changes. The most awkward moment of the NFL draft was an increasingly sweaty Roger Goodell extended commissioner hugs of selected players dot dot dot.

00:37:43
Speaker 5: You don't know me like that.

00:37:45
Speaker 11: Fernando Mendoza accidentally leaving his little brother Max hanging for a handshake.

00:37:48
Speaker 2: Okay, I thought that that was like a corporate off site meeting when I saw Fernando Mendoza and his family, a lot of blazers, awkward white guys shaking hand and you know you'd have and his little brother kept he had his hand out for his brother, and his brother totally blew him off, and you're just like, hey, high five, and then it'd be like dap, but somebody's trying to shake your hand. And I was like, and you know, you get up and you start hugging each other. You're in the same room for the last hour. You don't need to introduce yourself to the people you've been sitting there with for an hour now, just like.

00:38:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, Paul.

00:38:26
Speaker 10: I thought the Vendoza family did a good job acting like they were surprised that their brother went number one of the drafts. They're all jumping around and then they're pulling raiders hats from the cushions for the couch.

00:38:35
Speaker 5: Not a big surprise, you know, with like a news crew there. Uh yes, Martin.

00:38:40
Speaker 12: Roger Goodell, he's been perfecting his dat with the players because it's the easy slap hug. Now, there could be a cultural divide sometimes with an older fight man a younger black people, but now it was slap hug. There's no he's been working going there. Yeah, so good for him, I mean, but he was sweating like brother Love in the WWE.

00:39:00
Speaker 5: Shakes over.

00:39:02
Speaker 2: Crisp handshakes, because yesterday we had a member of the audience. You got a picture after African American gentleman who came up and he gave me a handshake.

00:39:14
Speaker 7: Give you a drop interview handsh handshake.

00:39:16
Speaker 2: Came to you, mahr of a man. He started, yeah, like it was all over you like it was a honeymoon.

00:39:21
Speaker 6: It was.

00:39:22
Speaker 12: It's like the camp Peel speech yes or the skip yeah where everyone you know, handshake, handshake. How are you good to meet you? Marvl Oh, how do you like it?

00:39:31
Speaker 2: Damote brother Yeah, jameson Virginia, Yeah, h yes, uh, Dylan, I guess we could do the pole question.

00:39:37
Speaker 11: If you go in for a handshake, are you doing the classic handshake, a quick dap fist bump, the dap hug.

00:39:43
Speaker 8: Because I get this wrong about ninety percent of the time.

00:39:46
Speaker 2: I think you just got to be committed right away whatever it is, Like I put the hand out, but I'm more of a dap guy now, I'm like, all right, we don't need to bring it in and any of that stuff. The commissioner does seem a little overly commissioner like it's just like but he you know, he gets excited there, Yes, huh.

00:40:06
Speaker 7: I think it also depends on the age of the person. Like a handshake is universally accepted, even if it's starting to die out like the dinosaurs. But if like some seventy five year old woman comes over to you, like if we're meeting someone here for a meet and greet, you know, DApp would seem like a kind of a weird thing that someone that might be someone's grandmother, you're gonna dap them up.

00:40:23
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, Tod.

00:40:24
Speaker 7: That seems you.

00:40:25
Speaker 5: Uh, you're the king of hugging and awkwardness. Hu hugging.

00:40:29
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I will meet someone for the first time and I'll bring it in. That's I was brought up that way. No, they don't. You don't want to get arrested or anything, but not not to the point where they're calling nine one one. But just you know, I just like to show people fetch and sometimes it comes across as inappropriate, which is not the intention.

00:40:44
Speaker 10: I don't know if it's on Fritzy's poll of awkward moments, but Caden Proctor, the offensive tackle of Alabama, when he got drafted by Miami, Uh, nobody said anything nice about the guy. They didn't say like he's a great player. Mel Kuiper said, career underachiever, still waiting for him to pan out. Nick, this guy used to play underneath him, and he was less than complimentary.

00:41:05
Speaker 2: It was weird that you're trying to say something. It's almost like it feels like a muscle eye situation where you want to say something, and then when your compliment is he's huge, Okay, what else he's huge? And I go okay, and then all of a sudden you're hearing Mill say something. Nick Saban's saying something, and they're saying, you know, he's really got to apply himself and you know, keep his weight down, I think was another comment.

00:41:30
Speaker 7: Yes, Ton, it's tough when they show offensive lineman the highlights in general and they put like the little arrow of the little light on that person, and I know they're doing something significant, but for someone that doesn't play football or it's certainly not offensive line, it doesn't look like anything that exciting.

00:41:43
Speaker 8: You have that big, he should be able to push.

00:41:44
Speaker 7: Them backwards for a couple of seconds of the running back and go through.

00:41:47
Speaker 2: Thank you, Tom Well, the Cowboys got Caleb downs. He seemed pretty excited, felt like that was do you want to talk about an intelligent football player? A great football player, played at Alabama, played at Ohio State, and Dallas went to get him. And I think that was a great pick. As much as we bang on the Cowboys, and there's a lot of reason to do that. They've drafted pretty well. They've had some pretty good draft picks here. But you know, the big headliner was Simpson going to the Rams. Alrighty, any other poll questions there for the first hour, PAULI sent me one, which is just you seem like you got roughed up last night.

00:42:23
Speaker 5: Okay, I was actually I was going to address this.

00:42:25
Speaker 11: So we were here watching the draft and it was pretty loud in here, so it was either talking over people or the three cigars that I smoked.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: You didn't look like you were banged up last night. I wasn't, but you look banged up today.

00:42:40
Speaker 5: I wasn't drinking this morning.

00:42:41
Speaker 10: Okay, baby steps.

00:42:44
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, but you're okay. No, I feel good. It's just my voice is a little hoarse. Okay, I really smoked three cigars.

00:42:51
Speaker 7: Yes, I don't want to get too personal, but I kind of liked the rasped to me more than we get a little close.

00:42:58
Speaker 5: What did you do last night?

00:42:59
Speaker 7: I went to Hamburger Harries or whatever touchdown touchdowns.

00:43:03
Speaker 8: Jesus, what was called home run Harries?

00:43:06
Speaker 7: And I got a turkey club and a side of chicken ten and it's a good thing.

00:43:08
Speaker 8: I got two things betide of chicken. It's a separate it's a separate entre. Some people get French fries. I got like chicken tad.

00:43:14
Speaker 7: But there was the order was. It was fine, it was serviceable, but I was expecting, like you know, when I go out to New York, you get a big cornbief sandwich.

00:43:21
Speaker 5: Get Where did you watch the draft?

00:43:22
Speaker 7: I watched the draft in the comfort of a room seven, not that.

00:43:25
Speaker 8: A jumb okay room seventeen. Know what's going on to your room now that I've checked out, just to case I knew that yesterday there's.

00:43:34
Speaker 7: No stalkers, but seven seventeen and the Sheraton right there at the Sheraton Square station.

00:43:38
Speaker 5: You were there by yourself.

00:43:39
Speaker 7: I was, and I really enjoyed. I enjoyed my time.

00:43:42
Speaker 8: Whoever's in that room next is in for a treat.

00:43:45
Speaker 5: I had my.

00:43:45
Speaker 7: Broncos little Zubez pants on and a little soft boaster and I put the TV on. I had my my hot, my honey mustard for the tenders, a little Mayo for the Turkey club, and I was good to go. I was fine.

00:43:55
Speaker 5: Nobody embraces the city of Pittsburgh quite like you do.

00:43:58
Speaker 7: I went for a long walk on Tuesday after our rehearsal and everything, and then the other days I just we went out for dinner. I was sociable, right. We wanted to do Tuesday night and Wednesday night. But at the last night I wasn't in the wood for anybody.

00:44:09
Speaker 5: We had a draft party last night.

00:44:10
Speaker 7: I heard that you guys may be coming here for something, but I'm not a cigar smoker. And it gets in my face and my eyes stop burning. I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna just watch it under the covers. I was in there like an eight seventeen years under the covers. I think definitely by eight third, by pick six, whoever had the six pick. I was definitely under the covers. Got hot and I took the cover.

00:44:29
Speaker 5: Their children here, so you you were under the car.

00:44:32
Speaker 7: I was very comfortable. Okay, I had my bronco.

00:44:34
Speaker 5: Onesie eye all right. Here we go.

00:44:38
Speaker 2: You were so by the way, uh, the Toddcast, if you ever want to know more about Todd and why Todd is Todd?

00:44:45
Speaker 5: The Toddcast at Dan Patrick.

00:44:47
Speaker 7: Dodcas that's my mother's fault.

00:44:48
Speaker 5: We know that it is your mother's fault.

00:44:50
Speaker 7: At fifty six, I actually, at some point, you got to take responsibility for your own behavior. It's crazy.

00:44:56
Speaker 8: A lot of people do that, but mom screwed me up.

00:44:58
Speaker 7: A lot of people do that when they talk to this like interest. But at some point you're like, you know what, I'm an adult and whatever I do, that's on me.

00:45:03
Speaker 2: Now, this is Friday, Fritzie. I'm gonna put you on a word count today. Okay, that's fair. I'm gonna have to do that, all right. So we're gonna have to have a word count for each hour.

00:45:14
Speaker 7: Are you saying? I tend to ramble a little bit. I don't get to the point. What do we say?

00:45:17
Speaker 5: Land the plane, Todd? Land the plane back to you