# NFL’s Toughest Schedules, Expectations For Aaron Rodgers? Expanded College Football Playoff

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 18 May 2026, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/c6f9019a-9c36-4876-b3db-b44e000bd925/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin is joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” to talk football. They start with their reactions to the NFL schedule and discuss the 49ers incredibly brutal travel schedule and Colin argues it may be punishment from the league (3:15) and also how the addition of international games and new holiday games has created more tough scheduling (11:00). Colin also pushes back on the idea that the Bears have the toughest schedule (15:45). They move to Aaron Rodgers finally signing a one year deal with the Steelers and debate what type of season to expect from the veteran (27:30). They pivot to college football looking to expand to a 24 team playoff and Colin explains why it will encourage teams to schedule better opponents during the season and will create a better regular season even if it creates more blowouts in the playoff (38:30). They also push back on the fan backlash to more NFLgames being broadcast on streaming services (49:00). Finally, they examine the terrible quality of the games on the Sunday Night Football schedule and debate whether the NFL’s partnership with NBC could be nearing its end soon (1:00:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

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[1:27] Speaker 1: hymns dot com slash cow hurt. I wanted to talk
[1:35] Speaker 1: some football because we haven't. We haven't talked in a while,
[1:38] Speaker 1: and I thought it was really interesting. One of the
[1:42] Speaker 1: Albert Brewers on my show the other day and it's
[1:45] Speaker 1: like I learned this years ago. Uh. He was a
[1:48] Speaker 1: writer at USA Today, John Saracino, and this was like God,
[1:51] Speaker 1: this was in the like nineties, and we were talking
[1:54] Speaker 1: one time about journalism and he goes, you know, you
[1:56] Speaker 1: can write the same story two ways. You know, if
[1:58] Speaker 1: people treat you poorly, you know, over the course of
[2:00] Speaker 1: a journalism career, if somebody just consistently is a pain
[2:03] Speaker 1: in the ass. You know, you're a human being, you
[2:07] Speaker 1: can write the same story two different ways. And I
[2:10] Speaker 1: think the NFL has always done that schedules are not
[2:13] Speaker 1: even even though the hardest and the weakest with you know,
[2:16] Speaker 1: New England's last year was historically weak, but you know
[2:19] Speaker 1: it's not as statistically the gap isn't the Grand Canyon,
[2:24] Speaker 1: but the Niners playing thirty eight times of fifty eight
[2:27] Speaker 1: time zones and coming from Australia and then not getting
[2:31] Speaker 1: a Monday night game an extra day's rest while the
[2:33] Speaker 1: Rams do. Did you kind of feel like Albert Breer
[2:37] Speaker 1: brought this up that, you know, Kyle being outspoken. NFL
[2:42] Speaker 1: does not like friendly fire. They never have. They will
[2:46] Speaker 1: punish you if if you don't fall in line. I
[2:49] Speaker 1: mean they do it with networks when John you may
[2:52] Speaker 1: not remember this, maybe you do remember Playmakers.
[2:56] Speaker 2: Oh, I watched it in my freshman year in college.
[2:58] Speaker 2: He was my favorite show on television. Column.
[3:00] Speaker 1: There is no question NFL punished ESPN five years in
[3:04] Speaker 1: a row, gave them crap games, punished them, and it
[3:10] Speaker 1: was their way of slapping their hand and saying, don't
[3:12] Speaker 1: glamorize the ugly parts of our game, which are allegations
[3:17] Speaker 1: to begin with, probably most at some point were true.
[3:19] Speaker 1: You know, on some steroids, you know, performance enhancing stuff.
[3:23] Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly.
[3:24] Speaker 2: Call it it was the league. I mean it basically
[3:26] Speaker 2: paralleled what was going on in the NFL at the time.
[3:28] Speaker 2: It was real, but it was just fake.
[3:31] Speaker 1: And so and I worked at ESPN and I set
[3:34] Speaker 1: it on the air when I was there, I'm like, Oh,
[3:36] Speaker 1: we're being punished, there's no question. So do you think
[3:39] Speaker 1: they punished the Niners in Kyle Shanahan.
[3:42] Speaker 2: Well, I think we got to go back to Belichick.
[3:45] Speaker 2: He was always at those league meetings. He refused to
[3:48] Speaker 2: take the picture. He was the one guy that always
[3:51] Speaker 2: really got after it. And I'm not even talking about
[3:53] Speaker 2: the suspensions and this stuff. He always had a big
[3:56] Speaker 2: beef with the people in the league office. Had never coached,
[3:59] Speaker 2: most of them have never played. They did not know
[4:02] Speaker 2: what it was like to try to operate the thing
[4:05] Speaker 2: making the money. And it's where he always butted heads,
[4:07] Speaker 2: and he took it to the end degree. I do
[4:10] Speaker 2: you think Kyle, I mean, Kyle's had money since he
[4:13] Speaker 2: was a kid, you know, so Kyle carries himself and
[4:15] Speaker 2: now he's really successful. I don't think he's afraid to
[4:18] Speaker 2: piss people off, right, He's not afraid to piss people off.
[4:21] Speaker 2: In his own building. He is not happy with the
[4:25] Speaker 2: international travel and specifically this game. I don't discrew them.
[4:29] Speaker 2: I think Australia. I think we could talk big picture
[4:32] Speaker 2: like I'm not one of those people. I know you're
[4:34] Speaker 2: not either. I'm not just like anti successful people. You're
[4:37] Speaker 2: either growing or dying. The NFL. I think it is
[4:40] Speaker 2: it tapped out domestically. How much bigger can it get?
[4:43] Speaker 2: You know, no one wants to just well, they're making enough.
[4:45] Speaker 2: That's not how people think. Now. Is this gonna work
[4:49] Speaker 2: in twenty thirty years we'll look back. I don't know,
[4:51] Speaker 2: but I could see Australia. I mean, these two teams
[4:54] Speaker 2: have to fly sixteen years. I thought when he was
[4:57] Speaker 2: at the owner's meetings with Florio and Lafleur kind of
[4:59] Speaker 2: poke them. His main beef was with the Rams. You
[5:03] Speaker 2: lived in Los Angeles for a long time. The forty
[5:05] Speaker 2: nine Ers have all their home games at Levi Stadium,
[5:08] Speaker 2: and they have two other home games in Los Angeles
[5:11] Speaker 2: where they have I went to a game there once.
[5:14] Speaker 2: It felt like seventy nine fans absolutely same deal. Here
[5:18] Speaker 2: in Arizona they have multiple Niner home games. So the
[5:21] Speaker 2: Rams when they were gonna get one of their games
[5:23] Speaker 2: they found out they're going to Australia, they start going
[5:27] Speaker 2: to the league. You know, Kevin Deemoff very well connected.
[5:31] Speaker 2: We want the Niners, and so Kyle's going well. Of
[5:34] Speaker 2: course they want us because at their home game they
[5:36] Speaker 2: got to go on silent count. So but I also
[5:40] Speaker 2: think Kyle's much more in the school of a Bill
[5:44] Speaker 2: or Sean Payton, where he's not afraid to piss people off.
[5:47] Speaker 2: It doesn't mean, like Andy Reid, just because he's a
[5:49] Speaker 2: nice guy, isn't making his displeasures known. I actually have
[5:54] Speaker 2: no problem with the no Monday Night game because I
[5:56] Speaker 2: thought the league did give him a solid They do
[5:58] Speaker 2: get the Dolphins and the Cardinals. Yes, this Australia game
[6:01] Speaker 2: is huge. Whoever wins that game, I think we would
[6:03] Speaker 2: both agree is gonna feel like three wins because of
[6:06] Speaker 2: the travel. But if you do lose it to get
[6:10] Speaker 2: the Dolphins and the Cardinals, if you're the Niners, I
[6:13] Speaker 2: think it's a pretty easy two home games. I actually
[6:16] Speaker 2: think the Monday night game, if you told me, I
[6:18] Speaker 2: could get the next week the Dolphins at home, because
[6:22] Speaker 2: by the time they land, it'll be like Friday night.
[6:25] Speaker 2: They do get Saturday Sunday to get back, because once
[6:27] Speaker 2: you go the Monday night game, then it direct, you know,
[6:29] Speaker 2: just get you off a little bit. Now, if you
[6:31] Speaker 2: win the Australia game, it won't necessarily matter. You'll be
[6:34] Speaker 2: feeling pretty good. But I don't think the Niners necessarily
[6:37] Speaker 2: got screwed with that. You could argue Colin the Rams
[6:42] Speaker 2: and the Packers playing that Wednesday Thanksgiving it they don't
[6:46] Speaker 2: get a bye. Their bye is the previous week where
[6:49] Speaker 2: usually you get another week till you play on Sunday.
[6:52] Speaker 2: That's their bye from minor. Unless I'm misreading everything that
[6:56] Speaker 2: I saw, I might correct on it. And then they
[6:57] Speaker 2: play the next that Wednesday, so they get the week
[7:00] Speaker 2: off like they play on Sunday, week off, and then
[7:03] Speaker 2: they play on Wednesday because the league because of those rules,
[7:06] Speaker 2: couldn't play the previous weekend on Saturday because of college
[7:08] Speaker 2: and high school football. Right, So I'd argue the Rams
[7:13] Speaker 2: they don't just get a normal buy throughout the Packers do,
[7:15] Speaker 2: like that sucks. You don't think they're displeased with that,
[7:19] Speaker 2: Like this is this is what happens with the expansion
[7:22] Speaker 2: the international game. Yes, these teams, you know a lot
[7:25] Speaker 2: of these gms talk through these coaches, they are furious.
[7:29] Speaker 2: Now a lot of them don't have the juice or
[7:31] Speaker 2: the equity to say what Kyle's saying. Well, they're all
[7:33] Speaker 2: thinking it. Yeah.
[7:34] Speaker 1: And I will say this that the International Games used
[7:38] Speaker 1: to get Jacksonville. I think the NFL has looked at research,
[7:41] Speaker 1: looked at merch sales, and said, guys, we got some
[7:44] Speaker 1: momentum here. We are really building something. So I will
[7:47] Speaker 1: give the NFL credit. And I mean, you know, I
[7:49] Speaker 1: own the volume. I mean I know. The understanding is
[7:53] Speaker 1: you don't stand pat or you get gobbled up. You
[7:55] Speaker 1: have to grow. Yeah, that's the reality of business. You're
[7:58] Speaker 1: trying to create. Scale makes you more powerful, you can
[8:01] Speaker 1: buy better shows. If you stand patent any business, you're dead.
[8:04] Speaker 1: So the NFL, and I'll tell you something. When I go,
[8:08] Speaker 1: I go to Europe. I try to go every year
[8:09] Speaker 1: with my son. It's our kind of dad something we
[8:12] Speaker 1: try to If he goes and he's still in college,
[8:14] Speaker 1: he'll go over do a class abroad every year in
[8:16] Speaker 1: the summer, and I'll go over early with him. His
[8:19] Speaker 1: mom will go over late. And I see NFL stuff,
[8:22] Speaker 1: not a ton of it, but I see some of it.
[8:25] Speaker 1: And so it's like, oh yeah. I mean you'll go
[8:27] Speaker 1: to a sports bar, you go to a pub, and
[8:29] Speaker 1: you'll see stuff and it's like, oh, look at that.
[8:31] Speaker 1: And so I'm going to defend the NFL and the
[8:34] Speaker 1: international games.
[8:36] Speaker 2: I don't.
[8:36] Speaker 1: I you know, Brazil felt like, wow, that is just that.
[8:39] Speaker 1: Remember the Packers Eagles went over there. But you know,
[8:43] Speaker 1: I just I always pushed back. I'll give you an example.
[8:49] Speaker 1: College football playoff. It's gonna maybe go to twenty four.
[8:52] Speaker 1: Everybody freaks out, John, Well, the regular season won't matter. Well,
[8:57] Speaker 1: the college football playoff was twelve last year and the
[9:00] Speaker 1: ratings were up from previous years. They so they tripled
[9:04] Speaker 1: the size of the playoff or actually had a playoff
[9:07] Speaker 1: and the ratings went up. Well, nobody will care about
[9:09] Speaker 1: Auburn Alabama, folks. Auburn versus Alabama is gonna matter in
[9:14] Speaker 1: that state for the rest of my life. Texas Oklahoma,
[9:17] Speaker 1: those teams could be zero to five. Texas Oklahoma's gonna matter.
[9:22] Speaker 1: I grew up in Washington State. The Apple Cup. Some
[9:24] Speaker 1: years it was insane because somebody was going to the
[9:27] Speaker 1: Rose Bowl. It was I went to several. It was
[9:30] Speaker 1: ohways huge. So I mean that's and we can circle
[9:33] Speaker 1: back to that later. But my point is I think
[9:37] Speaker 1: international is just part of it.
[9:39] Speaker 2: Well, I'll give you one the forty nine ers. They
[9:42] Speaker 2: played two games right Australian Mexico City. They want to
[9:45] Speaker 2: go to Mexico City. I think if you just asked Knserl,
[9:48] Speaker 2: guy who's got the biggest Mexican fan base, they could
[9:50] Speaker 2: be like Cowboys Raiders I've been if you quantified it,
[9:53] Speaker 2: the Niners would be every bit as big, if not bigger.
[9:55] Speaker 2: They actively wanted to play that game in Mexico City.
[9:58] Speaker 2: They did a couple of years ago. I think ownership wise,
[10:01] Speaker 2: I don't know. If Kyle, they'd probably do it every year,
[10:05] Speaker 2: you know, kind of like Jacksonville with London, right, and
[10:07] Speaker 2: I think you know, Kyle salary and John salary keeps
[10:10] Speaker 2: going up. They're like, hey, we'll go to Mexico City
[10:12] Speaker 2: every other year. They want that. They have no problem
[10:14] Speaker 2: with that game. I think the Australia, the Brazil, like
[10:18] Speaker 2: I clearly anyone that's met some from Australia, they love
[10:22] Speaker 2: sports over there. Yes, I do think the time zone,
[10:25] Speaker 2: you know is someone that likes golf and you watch
[10:27] Speaker 2: it sometimes when time zone gets off look, they have
[10:30] Speaker 2: to play that game at ten thirty five Australian time
[10:33] Speaker 2: to kick off. Now for them, they'll acclimate weird time
[10:37] Speaker 2: for the people over there. Like I understand the UK, London, France,
[10:42] Speaker 2: they've expanded into Germany. Yeah, sixteen hour flight, Collin, I
[10:45] Speaker 2: mean you've been on some long flight. That's a long time, man,
[10:48] Speaker 2: that's a long What would you guess if they're playing
[10:51] Speaker 2: that game technically Thursday for US Friday, that they leave
[10:55] Speaker 2: Saturday the previous week.
[10:57] Speaker 1: Honestly, it's I've never gone to Australia. I once asked
[11:01] Speaker 1: Lachlan Murdoch. You know the Murdocks are from Australia. Yeah,
[11:04] Speaker 1: and lock Lachland obviously owns Fox. I asked him once, Hey,
[11:08] Speaker 1: you know I was thinking about going to Australia. Locklan's
[11:12] Speaker 1: a really nice guy. I mean, just really really cool guy.
[11:15] Speaker 1: I mean, if you're around him, it's he had a
[11:17] Speaker 1: party of this house once I was invited to. I
[11:19] Speaker 1: walked in. He's knocking down Australian beer. He's just a
[11:23] Speaker 1: regular guy. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's just he's got
[11:26] Speaker 1: just a cool set up in his house. But he said,
[11:29] Speaker 1: it's like you live in Manhattan Beach, don't you. It's
[11:32] Speaker 1: it's just like Manhattan Beach.
[11:33] Speaker 2: Don't go.
[11:34] Speaker 1: So I think for a lot of the West Coast players,
[11:37] Speaker 1: you know, California has sort of an Australia feel to it.
[11:40] Speaker 1: Now if you take you know, I I don't know.
[11:42] Speaker 1: I people grumble about change and growth, but I gotta
[11:49] Speaker 1: tell you, if I was a pro player and I
[11:51] Speaker 1: got to play in Brazil or Australia, I think maybe
[11:54] Speaker 1: if I was a veteran, I wouldn't love it, But
[11:57] Speaker 1: if I could open my season there, I think it
[12:00] Speaker 1: would be kind of cool.
[12:01] Speaker 2: I think players in general are less faced, right, no
[12:04] Speaker 2: different than like I think sometime employees or whatever are
[12:08] Speaker 2: less faced by than management. Like I think everyone looks
[12:11] Speaker 2: at it through a different lens. I think this is
[12:13] Speaker 2: something that keeps coaches up at night and front offices
[12:16] Speaker 2: up at night. Sure do you think Christ McCaffrey's lost
[12:19] Speaker 2: much sleep about it. He's probably already got some hyperbaric
[12:21] Speaker 2: chamber that will travel in the travel case. You know,
[12:25] Speaker 2: Matt Stafford, They're already prepared and sending food over there.
[12:28] Speaker 2: So if it doesn't you know that the players they adapt.
[12:31] Speaker 2: I remember working for Pat Hill He's like, players adapt
[12:34] Speaker 2: so much faster than coaches. Believe, you know, pro college,
[12:37] Speaker 2: you name it. You could play on the moon tomorrow.
[12:40] Speaker 2: They'd be like, Okay, where do I put my cleats?
[12:42] Speaker 2: And I think sometimes and we talk a lot about
[12:44] Speaker 2: it because the coaches talk all the time, so we
[12:46] Speaker 2: react to them. Then you hear the players, No big deal,
[12:49] Speaker 2: We'll be ready. And you know what I found fascinated
[12:51] Speaker 2: about the Rams is, you know, whenever I come down
[12:54] Speaker 2: to do your show and I'm in Los Angeles. Obviously
[12:56] Speaker 2: I spent most of my life in California, but I'm
[12:58] Speaker 2: from northern California. You know, in northern California, the Giants,
[13:02] Speaker 2: the Warriors under Steph has become this huge brand. And
[13:04] Speaker 2: obviously the Niners are like the Yankees of football up there.
[13:08] Speaker 2: LA has that it's just the Lakers and the Dodgers.
[13:11] Speaker 2: The Rams are one of the rare. They're way bigger nationally,
[13:14] Speaker 2: yeah than they are Like you go locally, yeah, you
[13:17] Speaker 2: go locally. The Dodgers feel like the Yankees down there,
[13:20] Speaker 2: right yeah. And the Lakers are just have historic, ingrained
[13:24] Speaker 2: soul to the people. The Rams just don't and people,
[13:27] Speaker 2: you know, some people push back It's like guys say,
[13:29] Speaker 2: they would in Saint Louis for a long time, and
[13:31] Speaker 2: they were one of the Super Bowls.
[13:33] Speaker 1: They were the Orange County team that was really if
[13:37] Speaker 1: you looked at LA was Raiders, Territory, Chargers was San Diego.
[13:42] Speaker 1: The Rams. I remember Bob Starr was the play by
[13:46] Speaker 1: play guy. You know, the Rams never felt like LA.
[13:48] Speaker 1: The Raiders felt like LA. So you know, I I mean,
[13:53] Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I mean, I think they've
[13:55] Speaker 1: done a great job in Los Angeles to build I mean,
[13:57] Speaker 1: how lucky are they They have Stafford and McVeigh and
[14:00] Speaker 1: Stan Kronke, and there's a lot I see during the season.
[14:03] Speaker 1: You see a lot of La Ram stuff in the city.
[14:06] Speaker 1: But I don't know, you know, the other schedule. It's
[14:08] Speaker 1: funny people say, you know, the toughest schedule was the Bears,
[14:13] Speaker 1: and I'm like, I think Kansas City schedule having to
[14:17] Speaker 1: face Josh Allen, Matt Stafford, Joe Burrow three weeks in
[14:22] Speaker 1: a row, all in the road, followed by Drake May
[14:25] Speaker 1: Justin Herbert brock Purty. I'm like, that's six pro Bowlish
[14:29] Speaker 1: quarterbacks in a row. If you go five hundred, I
[14:32] Speaker 1: mean honestly, you'd feel good about that. The Bear schedule
[14:35] Speaker 1: is fascinating to me. So I do believe the NFL
[14:38] Speaker 1: takes teams and wants to make sure that certain markets.
[14:47] Speaker 1: I mean, we always think the NBA is market sensitive,
[14:51] Speaker 1: but Chicago is a massive television market and a huge
[14:56] Speaker 1: sports town and was dormant in the NFL. It felt
[14:58] Speaker 1: like for fifteen years, the Bears are supposed to have
[15:02] Speaker 1: the hardest schedule, zero teams off of Bye Carolina, Minnesota
[15:07] Speaker 1: to start, not brutal. At the end of the year,
[15:10] Speaker 1: they get Green Band Detroit, both at home. Again, that's
[15:13] Speaker 1: about as good as you're gonna do in Division. The
[15:16] Speaker 1: toughest games Seattle, they get extra rest, and then they
[15:19] Speaker 1: get Jacksonville, New England. You know those are go either
[15:22] Speaker 1: away games, both at home. I looked at their schedule,
[15:25] Speaker 1: then I looked at Denver's for six games or Kansas
[15:27] Speaker 1: City's Gauntlet of Quarterbacks. I just for all the advertise
[15:32] Speaker 1: last year New England had the easiest schedule. It was ridiculous.
[15:35] Speaker 1: I remember looking at it. The Niners schedule last year
[15:38] Speaker 1: just jumped off. It jumped off your phone. You're like, Jesus,
[15:42] Speaker 1: this is just bad. Quarterback after bad quarterback. I don't
[15:45] Speaker 1: think the Bear schedule is that bad at all.
[15:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, unlike college football, you know, Notre Dame's
[15:51] Speaker 2: getting crushed. They go, well, we scheduled Michigan State ten
[15:54] Speaker 2: years ago and they were good. Now they suck in.
[15:56] Speaker 2: The NFL just rotates. So part of the reason I
[15:59] Speaker 2: think if you look at the NFC West and the
[16:01] Speaker 2: AFC West, they're playing each other this year, so those divisions,
[16:05] Speaker 2: it's like, are already good and then it's like, oh,
[16:07] Speaker 2: Seattle's play Kansas City has played Denver. Denver plays the Niners.
[16:10] Speaker 2: And the other thing with the Bears last year is
[16:15] Speaker 2: two of their three wins were against the Packers, a
[16:17] Speaker 2: team that they just couldn't beat forever, and now they
[16:20] Speaker 2: have momentum and confidence against them. The other thing is
[16:23] Speaker 2: if you just pull up their schedule that week three
[16:26] Speaker 2: at night, Monday Night football against the Eagles jumps out.
[16:29] Speaker 2: I watched that game on my couch on Black Friday
[16:31] Speaker 2: last year. Ben Johnson destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles and Vic
[16:34] Speaker 2: Fangio's defense ran it right down their throat. So to me,
[16:39] Speaker 2: the Giants and the Commanders got a lot of respect.
[16:43] Speaker 2: They're both getting four I think combined eight primetime games. Yeah,
[16:47] Speaker 2: Jade Daniels had one of the great rookie seasons we've
[16:49] Speaker 2: ever seen, but last year he was banged up. He slim.
[16:53] Speaker 2: It's like, is there coach any good?
[16:54] Speaker 1: Like?
[16:55] Speaker 2: Ben Johnson's a star and clearly Caleb his ceiling. Who
[16:59] Speaker 2: knows if hit it, but he's damn good, right, cand
[17:02] Speaker 2: jaydon even stay on the field. What does Caleb ever
[17:04] Speaker 2: get hurt? Either? Is Washington's roster that good? You know?
[17:08] Speaker 2: The Giants? Who doesn't like John Harbaugh? It's been very impressive,
[17:12] Speaker 2: same resume as McCarthy. We all think McCarthy and the
[17:15] Speaker 2: Steelers think, you know, we'll see John Harbaugh jolted back
[17:19] Speaker 2: when he got Lamar Jackson one of the most talented
[17:21] Speaker 2: players we've ever seen. So I feel really confident about
[17:24] Speaker 2: the Bears carrying it over. Those are the two teams
[17:27] Speaker 2: that are getting the same treatment in terms of prime
[17:29] Speaker 2: time games. It's like, I don't know, you know, can
[17:31] Speaker 2: Jackson Dart stay on the field the whole time? Last
[17:33] Speaker 2: year he was runn around, he got hurt. Yes, The
[17:35] Speaker 2: one thing you feel good about is like Caleb and
[17:39] Speaker 2: Ben Johnson, you know, I would buy more stock in
[17:42] Speaker 2: Ben Johnson if he was on the SMB. And clearly
[17:46] Speaker 2: Caleb ssould just improve because his improvement isn't on stuff
[17:50] Speaker 2: that's very tough to reach. His improvement is like hit
[17:53] Speaker 2: a wheel route, hit the out route on time. I'm
[17:56] Speaker 2: not high on Minnesota. I've had Viking sneak. You have
[17:58] Speaker 2: a big fan base. I hear from them a lot.
[18:00] Speaker 2: Oh no, no, John In the last twenty five seasons, we've
[18:04] Speaker 2: had like five bad seasons. They are a very consistent organization.
[18:08] Speaker 2: This quarterback situation though, you know, the JJ situation. If
[18:12] Speaker 2: he doesn't win that job. To me, he wanted to
[18:14] Speaker 2: be on the team week one. Kyler's just a pretty
[18:17] Speaker 2: fickle guy. He can look good, he can get injured.
[18:19] Speaker 1: Oh you know, you've watched him in Arizona.
[18:21] Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave him a couple million dollars that Carson.
[18:24] Speaker 2: Carson Wentz didn't just get a veteran minimum no money.
[18:27] Speaker 2: They guaranteed him seven figures. He's gonna make three million dollars.
[18:30] Speaker 2: That's like the going rate for kind of like an
[18:31] Speaker 2: older veteran backup. So they're heads in their bet a
[18:34] Speaker 2: little bit like this could go. Now they have an
[18:36] Speaker 2: excellent coaching staff, but to me, Minnesota is a little
[18:40] Speaker 2: bit on tilt. Yeah, I'm betting against him, same now
[18:44] Speaker 2: i'm betting before Kyler.
[18:45] Speaker 1: I kind of feel like he's not gonna be Sam
[18:48] Speaker 1: Darnold good because I think Donald's better. But I'm kind
[18:51] Speaker 1: of rude. I've always been a Kyler fan, understand all
[18:54] Speaker 1: the nonsense, and if he fails in Minnesota, then it's
[18:57] Speaker 1: on everybody else that attains him. I do think he's
[19:00] Speaker 1: gonna play well. He's a motivated player, and I do
[19:02] Speaker 1: think he's talented as hell. And they went out and
[19:05] Speaker 1: got you know, Juwan Jennings, Like they have real players here.
[19:08] Speaker 1: I think they're somewhat limited. Although it should be noted
[19:11] Speaker 1: that Vikings last year in division were foreign too. That
[19:13] Speaker 1: division's weird. It's a weird division.
[19:17] Speaker 2: It's kind of like the North. You look up on
[19:18] Speaker 2: Thursday Night football and the Browns or beating the Bengals
[19:21] Speaker 2: or the Steelers, They're like, what's going just because it
[19:23] Speaker 2: is that Northern element of football to me is like
[19:28] Speaker 2: anytime those six teams play each other or I guess
[19:31] Speaker 2: eight teams in the AFC and NFC North, you're never
[19:34] Speaker 2: shocked with an outcome. The schedule that by far to
[19:37] Speaker 2: me is the hardest, and we knew it because again
[19:39] Speaker 2: we knew who everyone was playing. We said, know the days.
[19:42] Speaker 2: That's what the crazy part about the NFL is, it
[19:44] Speaker 2: makes a big deal of something we already knew. Is
[19:46] Speaker 2: the Patriots schedule is all brutal.
[19:50] Speaker 1: I mean they are on the road every third week
[19:52] Speaker 1: for a long trip.
[19:54] Speaker 2: And they just it's a lot of Seattle's and you know,
[19:58] Speaker 2: Bears and Packers and Lions and Chargers. Obviously they play
[20:02] Speaker 2: the Bills twice, the Chiefs, the Broncos. I do think
[20:07] Speaker 2: the Jets, who were an absolute laughing sock last year,
[20:10] Speaker 2: do have a lot of good players. If they're gone.
[20:12] Speaker 1: Their offense, if you put if I said, Sam Donald
[20:16] Speaker 1: goes back to New York and they had a good coach.
[20:19] Speaker 1: Look at the Jets offensive, I mean they got both
[20:22] Speaker 1: tackle set, running back, wide receiver, tight end. They actually
[20:26] Speaker 1: have whoever the next quarterback is is walking into a
[20:30] Speaker 1: great space.
[20:32] Speaker 2: They're assuming Gino is just not just completely shot. They're
[20:36] Speaker 2: probably more likely a five or six win team than
[20:38] Speaker 2: like a two win team. Yeah, you know it's hard.
[20:41] Speaker 2: I mean we've seen a lot of Jim tom Sula
[20:43] Speaker 2: won five games. You know, sometimes I think people underestimate,
[20:49] Speaker 2: you know, like the season the Raiders and the Jets
[20:51] Speaker 2: have that doesn't happen to even bad franchises. That's a
[20:55] Speaker 2: once in five years you have awful You go six,
[20:58] Speaker 2: Ask Andy what six and eleven? Six and eleven feels brutal? Right,
[21:02] Speaker 2: so you you have the two or three win seasons,
[21:05] Speaker 2: that's as bad as against the Patriots. To me, I
[21:07] Speaker 2: mean that that opening night at Seattle into that place,
[21:11] Speaker 2: that place is gonna be just It's gonna feel like
[21:15] Speaker 2: an sec game. You won't be able to hear yourself
[21:17] Speaker 2: think that team is the Seattle is clearly more talented.
[21:21] Speaker 2: That's gonna That's a tough started spot on Wednesday night.
[21:25] Speaker 2: Godspeed Mike.
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[22:58] Speaker 1: gambling problem called one eight hundred g ambler. So Aaron
[23:06] Speaker 1: Rodgers signs a one year deal with the Steelers. You
[23:09] Speaker 1: know I was thinking about this today, is that if
[23:12] Speaker 1: you go back, you know, Aaron's career has had so
[23:14] Speaker 1: many parallels with Brett Farve's. It's so weird, even though
[23:19] Speaker 1: they're very different people that you know, the career's end
[23:23] Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, I kind of thought they'd get
[23:25] Speaker 1: more Super Bowls. They both got kind of rigid at
[23:28] Speaker 1: the end in Green Bay, right like they didn't want
[23:30] Speaker 1: to learn, you know, they just didn't love their situation.
[23:33] Speaker 1: They were both talked about retirement in Green Bay. They
[23:37] Speaker 1: both end up going to the Jets. It doesn't work
[23:40] Speaker 1: for either of them, and then they go to better franchises.
[23:44] Speaker 1: Aaron goes to the Steelers and Farv goes to the Vikings. Well,
[23:48] Speaker 1: Farv's first year in Minnesota is one of my favorite
[23:50] Speaker 1: years ever. He goes thirty three and thirty three touchdown,
[23:53] Speaker 1: seven pick. It was a magical year. It's one of
[23:54] Speaker 1: the great NFL stories the last fifty years in the league.
[23:59] Speaker 1: It was in I would rooting for them so hard
[24:02] Speaker 1: that year until that terrible pick against was it Arizona's
[24:05] Speaker 1: awful gofful But you know, I look at Aaron coming
[24:10] Speaker 1: back for a year. The older you get, Tom Brady
[24:13] Speaker 1: would tell you this, the more committed and obsessed you
[24:16] Speaker 1: have to be. Lebron would tell you this, because you're
[24:18] Speaker 1: just your body doesn't react, it needs extra rest. It
[24:21] Speaker 1: just the reality is you age easier to get injured.
[24:25] Speaker 1: You think there's a chance, I mean, DK metcalf is
[24:29] Speaker 1: on the slide, still not a great o line. What
[24:33] Speaker 1: kind of year do you think Aaron has? His quarterback rating?
[24:36] Speaker 1: We don't talk about QBR much. He's been in the
[24:39] Speaker 1: like twenty third, twenty sixth, twenty fifth in the league.
[24:43] Speaker 1: What kind of year do you think he has?
[24:47] Speaker 2: Tom Brady that forty five year old season just no
[24:50] Speaker 2: longer wanted to get hit the team. That team was
[24:54] Speaker 2: way more talented. They had younger core players that once
[24:57] Speaker 2: Baker got there, the next couple of years was making
[24:59] Speaker 2: playoff runs were a legitimate Remember Tom at toe to
[25:01] Speaker 2: toe with the Rams.
[25:02] Speaker 1: He didn't want to get guys in rhyme. Stafford's the
[25:05] Speaker 1: only old quarterback is willing to stand in. I was
[25:09] Speaker 1: talking to one of his best friends last night. I
[25:11] Speaker 1: was in LA I flew to Chicago and Hit. One
[25:13] Speaker 1: of his best friends was at a party I was
[25:16] Speaker 1: at and I said, you know, tell Matt I have
[25:18] Speaker 1: nothing to do care. I said, I really respect the
[25:21] Speaker 1: fact that Matt is the last old guy in the
[25:22] Speaker 1: league that will let go of the ball knowing he's
[25:26] Speaker 1: going to get drilled. Aaron doesn't want it, Brady. The
[25:29] Speaker 1: last year Tom didn't want it.
[25:31] Speaker 2: How could you? I mean, at that point in time,
[25:33] Speaker 2: Tom had forty five? Like what am I doing this for?
[25:37] Speaker 2: Aaron did last year with that once his wrist broke
[25:40] Speaker 2: to battle through that is he going to do that
[25:42] Speaker 2: again for a team that now he has evidence that, Yeah,
[25:47] Speaker 2: our ceiling's only so high. He used the Minnesota example.
[25:51] Speaker 2: I just pulled up their stats. Adrian Peterson, who was
[25:54] Speaker 2: one of the great prospects of all time was in
[25:55] Speaker 2: like year two had eighteen touchdowns. Pretty sure they had
[25:59] Speaker 2: just traded with in the last couple of years. For
[26:01] Speaker 2: Jared Allen, who'd go on to have a Hall of
[26:02] Speaker 2: Fame career, he was all he was like TJ. Watt
[26:04] Speaker 2: five years ago, that that team was just so much
[26:07] Speaker 2: more physically gifted with young guys in their prime than
[26:11] Speaker 2: this Steeler operation. Remember him and McCarthy like had a
[26:15] Speaker 2: bad breakup, and you know, time heals all wounds. And
[26:18] Speaker 2: now I say, maybe you forget you.
[26:20] Speaker 1: Know this, this this is funny. Like I remember.
[26:23] Speaker 2: Everybody was fired after the Arizona game and that was
[26:26] Speaker 2: very unlike Green Bay to fire a coach in season,
[26:29] Speaker 2: and it was pretty ugly. They lost to a terrible
[26:31] Speaker 2: Arizona team at home, like thirteen to three or something.
[26:34] Speaker 2: Mike was fired on Monday morning.
[26:36] Speaker 1: I remember when Facebook was younger as a company.
[26:39] Speaker 2: Now it's meta.
[26:41] Speaker 1: And there was a story I read somewhere about, you know, hookups,
[26:44] Speaker 1: face hookups from high school or hookups from college, people
[26:48] Speaker 1: that dated for years and years. Now they were in
[26:50] Speaker 1: their forties, they go on Facebook and reconnect, they reconnect
[26:54] Speaker 1: and that that it was like and I don't forget
[26:57] Speaker 1: what the article was, but the article was your memory
[27:00] Speaker 1: are much greater than reality, Like your memories are, oh,
[27:04] Speaker 1: you know, the sex was good, or oh, I might
[27:06] Speaker 1: had so much fun with her, and then you reconnect
[27:08] Speaker 1: on Facebook and after about two days you're like, oh god,
[27:10] Speaker 1: this is why I dumped him or I dumped her.
[27:14] Speaker 1: And it's the same way as people want to pretend
[27:17] Speaker 1: that Mike and Aaron it wasn't that bad. It was bad.
[27:21] Speaker 1: I had two players on the Packers that I had
[27:26] Speaker 1: this really well sourced. They're like, Aaron couldn't stand Mike,
[27:29] Speaker 1: like the play would come in from the huddle. Aaron
[27:32] Speaker 1: was like Aaron I think one year with Mike maybe
[27:34] Speaker 1: it was the last year led the NFL and throwaways.
[27:36] Speaker 1: Basically he would just if Mike called a play didn't like,
[27:39] Speaker 1: he would get the ball, look around, throw it out
[27:41] Speaker 1: of bounce. It was awful. And by the way, they're
[27:44] Speaker 1: not the same guy. One guy looks like a Milwaukee cop.
[27:47] Speaker 1: One guy looks like an actor, you know, like they're
[27:50] Speaker 1: just not Their sensibility is totally different. When guy's a
[27:52] Speaker 1: little and I think Mike's underrated as a coach. I
[27:55] Speaker 1: think Aaron maybe is overrated a little bit now in
[27:57] Speaker 1: the last several years of quarterback. But this idea that was, okay, Aaron,
[28:03] Speaker 1: you know, who are we hitting here? Aaron can be difficult.
[28:07] Speaker 1: I mean I've known three four people with the Packers.
[28:10] Speaker 1: I've known players, coaches. Aaron's moody. Aaron's difficult, and that's fine.
[28:14] Speaker 1: He has every right to be a unique personality. But
[28:16] Speaker 1: this idea they were kumbai a is just bullshit.
[28:19] Speaker 2: No, he got really bad. Remember there was a lot
[28:21] Speaker 2: of staff movement those last couple of years, a lot
[28:24] Speaker 2: of pressure about some underachievements in some of their playoff runs.
[28:28] Speaker 2: The defense was pretty embarrassing. But again, that's what twenty eighteen.
[28:34] Speaker 2: I mean, we're almost halfway through twenty twenty six. So,
[28:37] Speaker 2: like you said, the separation, clearly they've rekindled a little
[28:40] Speaker 2: bit over the years, just bsing. There's a big difference
[28:44] Speaker 2: of someone you know, I'm glad I don't work with
[28:46] Speaker 2: you anymore, but you could be Internet friends or texts
[28:49] Speaker 2: here and there. Right then, to spend the amount of
[28:51] Speaker 2: time the offensive play caller and the quarterback in the
[28:55] Speaker 2: NFL in an operation, say one thing about Mike mc arthy,
[29:01] Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. He's not
[29:04] Speaker 2: taking the Jags and the Cardinals job. I mean, this
[29:06] Speaker 2: is those are three of the most glamorous jobs in
[29:07] Speaker 2: the history of American sports. This this is a team
[29:11] Speaker 2: that is under the microscope. Their fan base is massive.
[29:15] Speaker 2: You saw the pressure cooker a little bit last year,
[29:17] Speaker 2: and that's where I think Aaron took pride and like
[29:19] Speaker 2: I'm playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, play hurt even though
[29:22] Speaker 2: they had no shot. I guess I'm not surprised. I mean,
[29:26] Speaker 2: by all accounts, it looks like he got a race right,
[29:28] Speaker 2: which is clearly why he was holding out. But I
[29:31] Speaker 2: think this thing, if you were betting the likelihood that
[29:34] Speaker 2: it kind of goes like last year a little bit
[29:36] Speaker 2: better or could go worse, you just bet on the
[29:38] Speaker 2: odds that forty two year old quarterback goes worse.
[29:40] Speaker 1: Well, Also, do you think as Mike McCarthy built his
[29:44] Speaker 1: Pittsburgh staff. Okay, so it was ugly at the end,
[29:47] Speaker 1: and the feeling was Aaron won and got Mike whacked. Okay,
[29:52] Speaker 1: you don't think people hold little grudges, I mean a
[29:54] Speaker 1: little bit. What do you think Mike's been sick because
[29:57] Speaker 1: you know, I don't think Mike. I think Mike would
[29:59] Speaker 1: like to play Will Howard and Drew Aller.
[30:01] Speaker 2: I really do.
[30:02] Speaker 1: I think Mike McCarthy wants to he wants to go
[30:04] Speaker 1: to I don't think the owners let it go.
[30:08] Speaker 2: I don't.
[30:08] Speaker 1: And Omar Khan's powerless, He's irrelevant. I think the owners
[30:12] Speaker 1: the routies want to compete. Omar Khan is, in my opinion,
[30:15] Speaker 1: one of the weaker gms. He didn't have any say here.
[30:19] Speaker 1: What I believe to be true is if you and
[30:22] Speaker 1: I had a terrible break up last couple of years
[30:26] Speaker 1: and we came back and I hired a staff, and
[30:30] Speaker 1: I didn't know where you were, and then you eventually
[30:34] Speaker 1: came back. Don't you think over the course of the
[30:36] Speaker 1: months where I didn't know where you were, I'd be saying, well, yes,
[30:41] Speaker 1: this is what John does. Just guys, just you got it.
[30:44] Speaker 1: You know, boy, he's this guy. You know, he's a
[30:47] Speaker 1: lot of work, he's you know, super talented. But now
[30:54] Speaker 1: I just think it's human nature. As Aaron disappears and
[30:58] Speaker 1: is mysterious that McCarthy in private meetings with his new staff.
[31:03] Speaker 1: Remember the Steelers don't fire coaches. John McCarthy's going to
[31:07] Speaker 1: be there probably until he retires. He's gonna be there
[31:10] Speaker 1: eight years.
[31:11] Speaker 2: Aaron get it. He's gonna get his own quarterback one
[31:14] Speaker 2: in the next five years.
[31:15] Speaker 1: So Mike's there for a nurse seven to eight years.
[31:17] Speaker 1: Aaron's there for one year. So Mike is probably, you know,
[31:22] Speaker 1: in closed door meetings over coffees, like, listen, we play nice,
[31:26] Speaker 1: we say nice stuff publicly the owners. Why, I honestly
[31:30] Speaker 1: believe deep down Mike's like, listen, this is what the
[31:32] Speaker 1: owners want, the Rooney family. Let's just let's just be
[31:35] Speaker 1: good stewards to the franchise. I don't think that's conspiracy theory.
[31:38] Speaker 1: I think that's what's happening. And you play nice to
[31:40] Speaker 1: the cameras and you say the nice stuff, but ask
[31:43] Speaker 1: let me ask you, if you were the coach of
[31:45] Speaker 1: the Steelers and you knew you had a long runway,
[31:47] Speaker 1: wouldn't you just want to see if the young guys
[31:49] Speaker 1: can play. Just let's just see what they can play.
[31:51] Speaker 2: To the moment that they Tomlin quit or whatever. And
[31:55] Speaker 2: Rooney did the press conference and he says, we don't
[31:58] Speaker 2: because he was kind of getting like, isn't it time
[32:01] Speaker 2: to maybe just rip the band aid off, a just
[32:02] Speaker 2: kind of reset for a year. And I think it's
[32:05] Speaker 2: art the third or the fifth or that's not what
[32:08] Speaker 2: we do here. We come and they are They are
[32:12] Speaker 2: the opposite of the Sam Hinky, you know, tank sixers,
[32:16] Speaker 2: and which I can respect. But let's say they go
[32:19] Speaker 2: eight to nine or nine and eight and either missed
[32:21] Speaker 2: the playoffs by game or get bounced. You're just in
[32:23] Speaker 2: the same situation next year. But Aaron, it's not like
[32:26] Speaker 2: he's going to come back for a third year, right,
[32:28] Speaker 2: And who's to say that Aaron can even make it
[32:30] Speaker 2: through the year. Here's the other thing. Older players, historically,
[32:36] Speaker 2: guys and the quarterbacks at thirty five started breaking down.
[32:39] Speaker 2: Now that number has been pushed back with health, and
[32:41] Speaker 2: Aaron clearly takes it seriously. But over the last couple
[32:44] Speaker 2: of years, a guy that's not exactly exactly Lamar Jackson anything,
[32:48] Speaker 2: has a torn achilles, He broke his wrist, so he
[32:52] Speaker 2: doesn't move around as well anymore. Their offensive line last year,
[32:55] Speaker 2: you know, their left tackle is in a neck issue.
[32:57] Speaker 2: They just declined his fifth year option. They just invest
[33:00] Speaker 2: did in somewhat of a project offensive tackle. Who's to
[33:03] Speaker 2: say that he's gonna make it through the season in
[33:06] Speaker 2: play seventeen games. It's just it's he's had two pretty
[33:10] Speaker 2: major injuries over the last because that older players, you're
[33:13] Speaker 2: just a little more brittle. You definitely don't move as fast.
[33:16] Speaker 2: One of aaron superpowers was always being able to get away,
[33:19] Speaker 2: even when you think about far from those Minnesota That
[33:22] Speaker 2: last year in Minnesota, he was excellent. The next year
[33:25] Speaker 2: I worked for the Eagles, he got hurt when we
[33:28] Speaker 2: were supposed to play him, and obviously was never the same.
[33:30] Speaker 2: Remember he got slammed in like the goal line and
[33:32] Speaker 2: a Sunday night football game. You just cause you're just
[33:34] Speaker 2: not quite as quick even though your body goes, well,
[33:37] Speaker 2: I've made this move a million times, well the same
[33:40] Speaker 2: twenty seventeen or this isn't twenty twenty one. So I
[33:43] Speaker 2: would just bet on the health to me would be
[33:45] Speaker 2: a major, major question. That's the same thing with any
[33:47] Speaker 2: of these older quarterbacks. That's why Stafford, you know, kind
[33:50] Speaker 2: of got to pick your spots. You gotta sit in there.
[33:53] Speaker 2: Maybe when you're playing the Niners in Seattle, but if
[33:55] Speaker 2: we're playing some random team, like it's just hit the ground.
[33:59] Speaker 2: Peyton Manning did a really good job of that throughout
[34:01] Speaker 2: his career. Look at him by the end of his
[34:03] Speaker 2: career is neck and shoulder didn't work. It's a it's
[34:06] Speaker 2: a brutal where there's nothing. There's nothing like this that
[34:09] Speaker 2: the hits these guys take, and Erron's taken a lot
[34:12] Speaker 2: over the years.
[34:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, so I did want to address the college football thing.
[34:15] Speaker 1: So it looks like they're going to move in the
[34:17] Speaker 1: direction of the twenty fourteen playoff. And again, I did
[34:21] Speaker 1: not grow up in a traditional family, you know, blah
[34:23] Speaker 1: blah blah. So I like change, I don't like all change.
[34:27] Speaker 1: Don't screw the Masters, don't screw with March madness. I mean,
[34:32] Speaker 1: there are some things I just think are I mean
[34:36] Speaker 1: I literally watch every shot the last couple of days
[34:40] Speaker 1: of the Masters, like I just don't screw with it.
[34:42] Speaker 1: And I and I think there are some things you
[34:45] Speaker 1: can tweak. I think sports think rules are very tweakable.
[34:50] Speaker 1: But when people say, you know, college basketball colin, I mean,
[34:55] Speaker 1: it's it's there's so many teams in the tournament. It's
[34:58] Speaker 1: made college basketball regular season irrelevant. Well, college basketball is
[35:02] Speaker 1: regular season is three times as long as the twelve
[35:06] Speaker 1: game college.
[35:07] Speaker 2: Football regular season games right right.
[35:09] Speaker 1: Also, in college basketball, with sixty eight teams, we don't
[35:15] Speaker 1: have really, I mean, anybody with life. We don't really
[35:18] Speaker 1: argue on selection Sunday. You know about a legitimate team
[35:22] Speaker 1: not getting in. In college football, we went to a
[35:25] Speaker 1: twelve team playoff. Notre Dame had an argument to get
[35:29] Speaker 1: in like that, that was a real argument. Now, I said,
[35:32] Speaker 1: I thought Miami deserved more than Notre Dame, but Notre
[35:34] Speaker 1: Dame had their argument, right, Like, that's just with twelve.
[35:39] Speaker 1: If you go to twenty four, like college basketball, you're
[35:41] Speaker 1: going to get out of legitimate, big time arguments. The
[35:44] Speaker 1: second thing here is college football is more popular than
[35:47] Speaker 1: college basketball, and it's not particularly close college basketball. I
[35:50] Speaker 1: remember telling Doug gott Lead this. He admits it now,
[35:53] Speaker 1: but at the time he because he'd loved college basketball.
[35:55] Speaker 1: He said, college basketball he's got three week sport. College
[35:58] Speaker 1: football is a four month sport. Now with a playoff,
[36:01] Speaker 1: it's a five it's almost you know, September, October, November, December.
[36:04] Speaker 1: It's a four and a half month sport. So college
[36:07] Speaker 1: football can doesn't have to play by college basketball rules.
[36:14] Speaker 1: I understand that people say it can ding the regular season,
[36:21] Speaker 1: but the way college football ended my entire life, and
[36:25] Speaker 1: I've been a fan of college football. It's the first
[36:27] Speaker 1: sport I really fell in love with baseball and college football.
[36:29] Speaker 1: John it used to be sports writers voted on who
[36:33] Speaker 1: should be number one. Then it was the stupid BCS system,
[36:36] Speaker 1: and then it was I mean, it was just an
[36:38] Speaker 1: it's gone. It was computers, it's been sports writers. It's like, guys,
[36:43] Speaker 1: we've all thought college football was the best movie with
[36:48] Speaker 1: a ludicrous ending, so now we're just going to have
[36:51] Speaker 1: a longer ending. And the outer knock I have on
[36:54] Speaker 1: college football as a gigantic fan is there's always been
[36:57] Speaker 1: this kind of scarcity of big games where like the
[36:59] Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend, you're like, ooh, I want to watch it,
[37:01] Speaker 1: and you're like, there's only two great games because with
[37:04] Speaker 1: a twelve team playoff, Notre Dame almost guaranteed to be in,
[37:07] Speaker 1: and to James Madison's you're like, well, then it's like
[37:11] Speaker 1: a nine team playoff, nobody wants to play big games.
[37:14] Speaker 1: You get to sixteen to twenty four, Okay, now now
[37:18] Speaker 1: I'm willing to play that tough Notre Dame out of
[37:21] Speaker 1: conference game. By the way, Notre Dame's Pete Bovaqua knows
[37:26] Speaker 1: he's for the expansion because he knows in his conference
[37:31] Speaker 1: he needs USC, he needs a Texas he needs. They
[37:35] Speaker 1: have Texas scheduled in a couple of years, although the
[37:37] Speaker 1: game is very fluid. So my take is college football's
[37:41] Speaker 1: ending always underwhelmed. It was it got very sec It
[37:46] Speaker 1: was always like, well, there should be more teams involved.
[37:50] Speaker 1: So I don't have a problem changing the ending to
[37:53] Speaker 1: a movie when nobody really liked the ending to the movie.
[37:58] Speaker 2: I would only be okay with it if we just
[38:00] Speaker 2: remove all the crappy regular season games. Then you are
[38:04] Speaker 2: mandated to only play other Power four teams. Maybe you
[38:07] Speaker 2: get one non Fresno State or whatever. Yeah, you no
[38:10] Speaker 2: longer get to play the Sisters of the Poor before
[38:14] Speaker 2: the Auburn game. You no longer you know, USC has
[38:17] Speaker 2: scheduled some UC Davis types, which I understand even though
[38:21] Speaker 2: I hate it. Now I get why they do it.
[38:24] Speaker 2: That that has to go away. Yeah, in the NFL,
[38:27] Speaker 2: the uh, you know, the forty nine ers don't get
[38:29] Speaker 2: to schedule Birmingham in the UFL Week three. Let's you
[38:33] Speaker 2: play other teams at your level? Are they just gonna
[38:37] Speaker 2: you know you and I are just some D one
[38:38] Speaker 2: Double A guys. They have a twenty four team playoff.
[38:41] Speaker 2: It's pretty simple. You start right after the regular season ends.
[38:44] Speaker 2: But in D one Double A you don't have conference
[38:46] Speaker 2: championship games, and then they have a twenty four teams
[38:49] Speaker 2: make it. The top eight teams get a buy. Sixteen
[38:53] Speaker 2: teams play at home venues, and you could only honestly
[38:57] Speaker 2: go two home venues. Because I think one thing that
[39:00] Speaker 2: pops you know better than me, the economics of these
[39:03] Speaker 2: neutral site games for the broadcast partners, the home venue
[39:06] Speaker 2: games pomp on. To remember a couple of years ago
[39:08] Speaker 2: when Signetti came out of nowhere playing Notre Dame on
[39:11] Speaker 2: that night game like this is incredible. Penn State at SMU.
[39:16] Speaker 2: I think they played during the day, but anytime this
[39:18] Speaker 2: year Alabama hosted or Oklahoma hosted Alabama at night on
[39:22] Speaker 2: Friday night.
[39:23] Speaker 1: Huge, that works.
[39:25] Speaker 2: So to me, if you go multiple games at home,
[39:28] Speaker 2: I don't need expansion. But if it's inevitable, I'm just
[39:32] Speaker 2: gonna get behind it because I'm gonna watch it. You
[39:33] Speaker 2: gotta start right away. None of this. These coaches. Dan
[39:36] Speaker 2: Lanning has been talking about this. Kirby let's just play
[39:39] Speaker 2: none of these huge breaks. And to me, you would
[39:41] Speaker 2: just start immediately.
[39:42] Speaker 1: Yep.
[39:43] Speaker 2: I've been saying forever if they were going to stay
[39:45] Speaker 2: the same, because it was clear last year and it
[39:48] Speaker 2: kind of became evident a couple of years ago. But
[39:50] Speaker 2: last year I have a lot of respect for Ohio
[39:52] Speaker 2: State in Indiana. Both teams did. They both could have
[39:55] Speaker 2: just said we're not playing this conference championship game, but
[39:57] Speaker 2: not only did they play, they played it like it
[39:58] Speaker 2: was the national champion. I would turn that conference championship
[40:03] Speaker 2: game because clearly it's a huge money maker for the
[40:05] Speaker 2: Big ten the SEC. You take two teams, especially in
[40:08] Speaker 2: the twenty four it's like an elimination game. You got
[40:11] Speaker 2: to win that game to get into the dance. That
[40:14] Speaker 2: was my thought with the twelve team playoff. Maybe I
[40:15] Speaker 2: don't know if that would change in the twenty four
[40:18] Speaker 2: but what happened to the conference championship game in a
[40:21] Speaker 2: twenty fourteen playoff? Why would anyone want the extra mileage
[40:24] Speaker 2: if you're going to have to go even further. Yeah,
[40:27] Speaker 2: that'd be one question that they have to figure out.
[40:29] Speaker 2: These commissioners already talking about it like, yeah, it's pretty
[40:33] Speaker 2: it's pretty clear that changes are on the horizon with
[40:37] Speaker 2: these championship games. If we keep headed down this because
[40:40] Speaker 2: a team could happen this year, we're not playing in it,
[40:44] Speaker 2: and you couldn't even blame them.
[40:46] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean one of the things that small colleges
[40:50] Speaker 1: like I went to Eastern Washington and their argument is,
[40:53] Speaker 1: you know, we need that game against Washington State. And
[40:56] Speaker 1: I've always like pushed back and said, listen, if your
[40:58] Speaker 1: school needs a blowout LAE loss to have a sports program,
[41:02] Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't have a sports program. And I say
[41:04] Speaker 1: that to somebody that went to Eastern Washington University. My
[41:08] Speaker 1: take is, if you can't make the economics work without
[41:10] Speaker 1: playing Tennessee and losing fifty six to ten, then you
[41:13] Speaker 1: shouldn't have sports. You shouldn't have that sport at your school.
[41:16] Speaker 2: But this all gets back though, colin to the Title
[41:18] Speaker 2: nine thing. It's like football could afford at Eastern Washington
[41:21] Speaker 2: to pay for itself, they can't have all the other athletics.
[41:24] Speaker 2: That's where the business model of college athletics gets a
[41:27] Speaker 2: little funky. It does not parallel pro sports at all,
[41:31] Speaker 2: even though now football is being run like a pro operation.
[41:34] Speaker 2: So it's that, to me, is the elephant in the
[41:37] Speaker 2: room as we move in this economic kind of windfall
[41:41] Speaker 2: that football and basketball is bringing in. Is tennis teams
[41:45] Speaker 2: are getting cut. I mean, are all these are none
[41:47] Speaker 2: of these going to exist? That all just exists at
[41:49] Speaker 2: the club level. I think that's very possible in the
[41:50] Speaker 2: next ten years.
[42:03] Speaker 1: Again, this has been si'vetak I have friends who are
[42:06] Speaker 1: you know, have kids playing tennis at college, and I've said,
[42:10] Speaker 1: it's just not sustainable when your business model is Listen,
[42:14] Speaker 1: we're hemorrhaging money, but we feel like we're better humans
[42:17] Speaker 1: because we have fencing. It's like, guys, that's not going
[42:20] Speaker 1: to last. We're seeing it across with AI, We're seeing
[42:24] Speaker 1: it across all business models. A lot of stuff that
[42:27] Speaker 1: we just said, you know, it's just, you know, it's
[42:29] Speaker 1: just it's getting more severe more bottom line with sports,
[42:35] Speaker 1: just like the NFL, you guys are gonna go overseas,
[42:38] Speaker 1: You're gonna have to deal with seventeen games. We're gonna
[42:40] Speaker 1: move to eighteen games. Everything grows over time, everything grows
[42:45] Speaker 1: you just and if you're one of those people that's
[42:47] Speaker 1: uncomfortable with it, I understand it. There's a lot of
[42:49] Speaker 1: traditionalists in this country. I get it, but it's going
[42:52] Speaker 1: to be a rough If you're a sports fan, good god.
[42:55] Speaker 1: I mean, baseball now drives me nuts, Like if the
[42:58] Speaker 1: Yankees are playing, it's like what where? I mean? Like honestly, like,
[43:02] Speaker 1: I think baseball's kind of lost itself a little. It's like,
[43:04] Speaker 1: you know, Baseball. I don't love all your tradition, but
[43:07] Speaker 1: it was nice when you were mostly a network product.
[43:11] Speaker 1: People are bitching about Amazon Prime has the game seven
[43:14] Speaker 1: Calves and Pistons. Now Amazon NBA would say, well, they
[43:17] Speaker 1: have five times as many subscribers as a network does,
[43:21] Speaker 1: so like, what are you a cable I.
[43:22] Speaker 2: Don't understand the argument of Amazon. I've never met a
[43:25] Speaker 2: human that doesn't have Amazon. My mother in law was
[43:27] Speaker 2: just here for the week. She asked me, She says,
[43:29] Speaker 2: do you guys ever go to the store? I said, Jennifer,
[43:32] Speaker 2: why would I go to the store when I could
[43:33] Speaker 2: order everything from hammer to a toothpaste to you name
[43:36] Speaker 2: it with one press of a button and they delivered
[43:39] Speaker 2: to my house in five hours. Amazon's one of the
[43:41] Speaker 2: most remarkable companies what they're doing right now, And I
[43:44] Speaker 2: wanted to ask you the Thursday night schedule. It's not
[43:48] Speaker 2: that long ago. When that schedule was, it felt like
[43:50] Speaker 2: the London game, a lot of Jags. You could argue
[43:53] Speaker 2: that is the best lineup. And it's been this way
[43:55] Speaker 2: for a couple of years. Are they treating Amazon now
[43:59] Speaker 2: like as big of an equal if not their number
[44:02] Speaker 2: one part? Or that Thursday night schedule was mind blowing.
[44:05] Speaker 1: I thought it was better than Monday Night Football. Actually
[44:07] Speaker 1: I thought, well, you know, it's funny. So remember when
[44:11] Speaker 1: Fox had it. Briefly, Fox had the Thursday Night five
[44:14] Speaker 1: years ago and Fox just couldn't make the numbers work.
[44:18] Speaker 1: But Fox really leaned on the NFL. I think I
[44:21] Speaker 1: can say this now and said, guys, if we're going
[44:23] Speaker 1: to do this, the quality has to be better, and
[44:27] Speaker 1: we also need more rivalry games. So is it possible
[44:31] Speaker 1: that you know, we could get like same time zone teams,
[44:34] Speaker 1: like we'd love to have a Steelers Ravens, not Steelers Chargers.
[44:38] Speaker 1: And so I think, you know, Fox really went back
[44:40] Speaker 1: and forth with the league and said, you know, we
[44:41] Speaker 1: like Thursday, it's getting expensive, but can we have some
[44:44] Speaker 1: more rivalry games in that? And I think the NFL obliged.
[44:47] Speaker 1: I think they did a much I think Fox in
[44:49] Speaker 1: the NFL worked. It was really bad for a while.
[44:52] Speaker 1: Fox got the league to give them some rice, really nice.
[44:55] Speaker 1: You know, you're Steeler Raven kind of level games. And
[44:58] Speaker 1: I think Amazon now with the deepest pockets of any
[45:00] Speaker 1: of the broadcast partners because of Jeff Bezos.
[45:03] Speaker 2: And I mean, they're a three trillion dollar company, Colin.
[45:07] Speaker 1: I mean, I think the reality is you're setting it
[45:10] Speaker 1: up for the next contract. And I mean you and
[45:14] Speaker 1: I I love Thursday night games because when you know,
[45:18] Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest, When I go on FS
[45:20] Speaker 1: one Friday, my first hour of my show. If it's
[45:23] Speaker 1: a good game, I got a game to talk my
[45:25] Speaker 1: show is always easier any sport. When I've got a
[45:28] Speaker 1: huge game to talk about, it fills an hour of
[45:30] Speaker 1: my show.
[45:32] Speaker 2: The game now feels I would say football has never
[45:35] Speaker 2: been more popular. That's sitting here right now, and that
[45:38] Speaker 2: game feels more like appointment viewing than it ever has.
[45:42] Speaker 2: So it's it's a timing of the league's popularity growth. Again,
[45:49] Speaker 2: I think so many people have the Amazon it's a
[45:51] Speaker 2: pretty easy thing to click on. I talk to people
[45:53] Speaker 2: in the league. They love I mean, the crew of
[45:55] Speaker 2: guys from Carissa to Richard to Whitworth to fin they
[46:00] Speaker 2: got a good crew like Amazon's done a pretty good
[46:02] Speaker 2: It's an easy.
[46:03] Speaker 1: Watch and they fight and they've gotten I just talked
[46:05] Speaker 1: to CHRISA. Thompson. I saw her last night at a
[46:08] Speaker 1: party in LA and we talked. I said, you know,
[46:10] Speaker 1: the first year, I texted her the first year she's
[46:13] Speaker 1: the host, and I said, your coverage is loose. It's
[46:15] Speaker 1: not there yet. I said, you're close, but it's just
[46:18] Speaker 1: everything feels loose. And she's like, yeah, we're kind of
[46:21] Speaker 1: getting there, getting there. And then and then I thought
[46:23] Speaker 1: by year two it's like, Okay, you know it's hard,
[46:25] Speaker 1: you're starting. I mean literally, remote television in cold weather
[46:30] Speaker 1: is hard. So I thought Amazon for about a year
[46:33] Speaker 1: was a little clunky, but I thought by year two
[46:35] Speaker 1: they kind of hit it. I'm not a fan of
[46:38] Speaker 1: so far necessarily what Netflix Sports division I don't like
[46:41] Speaker 1: as much as I like Amazon. But Amazon's been doing
[46:43] Speaker 1: it longer and I think they found their footing.
[46:47] Speaker 2: One thing Amazon has is when you win that game,
[46:53] Speaker 2: especially as the season gets going and they are real stakes,
[46:56] Speaker 2: it feels like a really big freaking deal because you
[46:59] Speaker 2: just have a couple of days rest you won the game.
[47:02] Speaker 2: I mean they have the star player on the set.
[47:04] Speaker 2: It feels like they just won a bowl game or something,
[47:07] Speaker 2: you know, I mean, it's so the game. Every once
[47:11] Speaker 2: in a while, you get like a Bills against TUA
[47:13] Speaker 2: in Miami. You know, you have it's inevitable. It's not
[47:16] Speaker 2: every game's perfect, but there are some games where there
[47:19] Speaker 2: feels like big stakes or big stories. Remember was it
[47:22] Speaker 2: last year when Flacco got traded from the Browns to
[47:26] Speaker 2: the Bengals and then beat the Steelers And you're like,
[47:29] Speaker 2: I'm watching something that matters. And I don't remember that
[47:33] Speaker 2: being the case. When I first got in the league,
[47:36] Speaker 2: Roll app who's the PGA guy, they were just starting
[47:39] Speaker 2: trying it out. There'd be like three games throughout the
[47:41] Speaker 2: year randomly. They'd be like a game week four, game
[47:44] Speaker 2: Week nine. I remember we played it. We played Seattle.
[47:48] Speaker 2: And that's back to what you're saying. Philadelphia Eagles should
[47:50] Speaker 2: not be playing Seattle on a Thursday night football games, right,
[47:52] Speaker 2: Philly should play Washington. Seattle should play the nine at.
[47:55] Speaker 1: Ramos argued for, like, you know, let's get better fresher
[47:58] Speaker 1: teams that don't have a seven hour flight for.
[48:02] Speaker 2: Sure, and it was just kind of a one off,
[48:05] Speaker 2: weird deal. Now everyone knows how to handle it. They
[48:08] Speaker 2: no longer mandate everyone playing on the games, right because
[48:12] Speaker 2: I mean, how many teams, what are their five.
[48:14] Speaker 1: Or sixteen Arizona Cleveland? You know, For the record, I
[48:18] Speaker 1: never understood that goes back to our argument ten minutes ago. Ultimately,
[48:24] Speaker 1: business wins. It used to be not long ago, everybody
[48:27] Speaker 1: gets a primetime game. NFL's like kick that thing to
[48:31] Speaker 1: the curb, like, get out of here, Cleveland, you're not
[48:33] Speaker 1: on TV. Jets, you're not on TV. That's the reality
[48:36] Speaker 1: of what's happening. And by the way, the holiday schedule
[48:40] Speaker 1: Christmas and Thanksgiving, I thought was by far and away
[48:44] Speaker 1: the best holidays, the best games of the year, of
[48:47] Speaker 1: the year, even the international Games, A couple of those
[48:50] Speaker 1: games would be the best game of the week. I
[48:52] Speaker 1: think it's just even if you're well run as a business,
[48:55] Speaker 1: it takes you time. It took Amazon like a second
[48:58] Speaker 1: or third year to get their it takes the NFL.
[49:02] Speaker 1: It's taking the NFL. I think they've always been pretty
[49:05] Speaker 1: intentional with their scheduling. I think over the course of
[49:07] Speaker 1: the last three to four years, they've just gotten smarter.
[49:12] Speaker 2: I'm actively rooting for the NFL to be successful until
[49:15] Speaker 2: I die. It's been great for my career. It hopefully
[49:18] Speaker 2: continues to be great. You get you know, you see
[49:21] Speaker 2: this a lot online like is could it ever is
[49:23] Speaker 2: getting too big? Or are they getting too It's like
[49:25] Speaker 2: I'd be trying these things out to I know this,
[49:29] Speaker 2: my wife, my fan walk the Netflix games. The Amazon
[49:32] Speaker 2: games will be on all the holidays, and they will
[49:34] Speaker 2: be in everyone's home the Wednesday game. Like, as you
[49:37] Speaker 2: get older, you're not just. You're not a twenty four
[49:40] Speaker 2: year old kid going out. You're at home on Wednesday night,
[49:42] Speaker 2: you're watching the game.
[49:43] Speaker 1: I was talking about this, probably a year or two
[49:45] Speaker 1: ago with a sports writer and I said to the
[49:48] Speaker 1: sports writer, I said, you guys are just I said, remember,
[49:52] Speaker 1: you guys write about yesterday. I'm a broadcaster. We broadcast
[49:55] Speaker 1: about today and tomorrow. You write about what happened yesterday.
[49:59] Speaker 1: You love the past, you love history. You kind of
[50:01] Speaker 1: cling to it. ESPN Classic everybody thought, oh, I want
[50:05] Speaker 1: to watch old games. Nobody watched. And I said, I said,
[50:10] Speaker 1: newspaper people are cynical. You guys can poke holes through
[50:13] Speaker 1: the NFL. This was somebody that was kind of an
[50:16] Speaker 1: anti kind of anti Thursday anti you know, pro tradition,
[50:21] Speaker 1: and I said, the English Premier League, it doesn't matter
[50:25] Speaker 1: ifho owns the teams. When Man United's playing, people care,
[50:31] Speaker 1: like we are too often in the weeds about it.
[50:34] Speaker 1: The bottom line is in this country, I'm buying Peacock
[50:40] Speaker 1: because I want to watch a Saturday game at the
[50:44] Speaker 1: end of the year with a backup quarterback. And I
[50:47] Speaker 1: know I work in the business, but when you look
[50:48] Speaker 1: at the numbers of what these streamers are getting, people
[50:52] Speaker 1: are signing up may cancel two days later, but the
[50:57] Speaker 1: people love sports, you know. Interesting when the rating system
[51:01] Speaker 1: has changed now they count out of home viewing, which
[51:05] Speaker 1: it didn't make any sense my entire life. The big
[51:07] Speaker 1: argument in my industry was how the hell do you
[51:09] Speaker 1: not count bars? Who watches games by themselves, especially like
[51:12] Speaker 1: World Cup, NFL World Series, March Madness? Who's ever watched
[51:18] Speaker 1: March Madness sitting in a basement by themselves? Like there
[51:22] Speaker 1: are certain things we watch collectively, like World Cup. I've
[51:26] Speaker 1: never watched the World Cup game by myself. Like you're, oh,
[51:28] Speaker 1: it's a celebration, it's the Olympics. You're watching with family
[51:31] Speaker 1: or friends. If you look at the numbers, the only
[51:34] Speaker 1: thing that works on television is sports. Ninety seven out
[51:40] Speaker 1: of one hundred of the highest viewed television programs are sports.
[51:44] Speaker 1: The NFL, for the rest of my life will be
[51:46] Speaker 1: king and will get massive numbers.
[51:49] Speaker 2: Oh and I don't fall soccer really at all, but
[51:51] Speaker 2: I know soccer. They don't play every day. So when
[51:55] Speaker 2: Man you or Man City, when they play once a
[51:57] Speaker 2: week or once every other week, depending on this game,
[51:59] Speaker 2: it's a really big deal. When the NBA Playoffs started,
[52:03] Speaker 2: I remember clicking it because I knew the Lakers were on,
[52:05] Speaker 2: and I went to ESPN. First, wasn't on. Then I
[52:09] Speaker 2: tried whatever Amazon Prime wasn't on. It was on Peacock
[52:14] Speaker 2: Basketball and baseball. It's not appointment. I'm just used to
[52:18] Speaker 2: kind of going TNT. It was on forever. In football,
[52:21] Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, you can't put the Chiefs Dolphin game
[52:24] Speaker 2: on Peacock. You can put it wherever you want. You
[52:26] Speaker 2: have a week lead up, they're not playing the next day.
[52:30] Speaker 2: You have a week to build up. And that's football.
[52:34] Speaker 2: It's just the most suited for an economy where our
[52:37] Speaker 2: attention is so tiny that it's hard to miss something
[52:40] Speaker 2: because you have so many days to not miss it.
[52:42] Speaker 2: Where these other sports it's every day you're playing. Every
[52:44] Speaker 2: day you're playing for the first time. Now, Basketball, whenever
[52:47] Speaker 2: they played tonight, they'll just have four teams remaining, so
[52:50] Speaker 2: it's pretty easy to kind of follow. But early on
[52:52] Speaker 2: in the playoffs, you got three or four games going
[52:54] Speaker 2: to night. They're on different networks. It's you know, football,
[52:57] Speaker 2: once the playoffs start, there's only one game going at
[52:59] Speaker 2: a time. Even look at basketball, which Adam got a
[53:04] Speaker 2: lot of credit for tripling his deal. Well, clearly the networks,
[53:09] Speaker 2: this is not they don't get treated like the NFL
[53:11] Speaker 2: that networks do whatever they want. They had games that
[53:13] Speaker 2: were that were one game would start and then an
[53:15] Speaker 2: hour later the other game would start, Like the Laker
[53:18] Speaker 2: game would be at five thirty when the other game
[53:19] Speaker 2: tipped off at four thirty. My entire life in the NBA,
[53:23] Speaker 2: it would be four four thirty and then the other
[53:24] Speaker 2: game would start. When that thing ended, Well, those days
[53:27] Speaker 2: are done because they go, well, we paid this much.
[53:29] Speaker 2: If I get the Lakers or the next I'm throwing
[53:31] Speaker 2: them on the prime time. Yeah, I don't blame them.
[53:33] Speaker 2: I'd be doing the same thing too. But clearly if
[53:37] Speaker 2: the NBA surely doesn't want that, they want everyone to
[53:39] Speaker 2: be able to watch both the games, well that's no
[53:41] Speaker 2: longer the case.
[53:42] Speaker 1: You know another example, John, of the NFL, you know,
[53:47] Speaker 1: looking forward, if not an agenda, they have a plan.
[53:52] Speaker 1: So there's a lot of questions whether because NBC went
[53:56] Speaker 1: heavy into the NBA and you know the NFL's attack
[54:00] Speaker 1: the NBA. Just look at the Christmas schedule, so there
[54:02] Speaker 1: are some questions about is the NFL going to remain
[54:05] Speaker 1: on NBC. So if you look at the Thursday night schedule,
[54:10] Speaker 1: I mean there's some games here, John, you know, Minnesota,
[54:13] Speaker 1: San Francisco, like you could throw on ten Niner games
[54:18] Speaker 1: that were more interesting than that. Houston Pittsburgh, there's no
[54:23] Speaker 1: rivalry there.
[54:24] Speaker 2: The Atlanta Falcons playing the Ravens. That one's weird to me.
[54:28] Speaker 2: I know, Carolina was in the playoff team. How about
[54:31] Speaker 2: this isn't the cam Newton Carolina Panthers.
[54:32] Speaker 1: Here, Jacksonville at Dallas of all the Cowboy games, Jacksonville
[54:38] Speaker 1: one of the smaller brands in the league. I mean,
[54:41] Speaker 1: they don't have real traditional rivalries. I mean Detroit at
[54:44] Speaker 1: Carolina doesn't that feel a little bit to you, Like,
[54:48] Speaker 1: like the NFL watched NBC take a big part of
[54:52] Speaker 1: their sports budget, protect themselves and say, hey, we're going
[54:55] Speaker 1: to go NBA in the NFL going okay, all right?
[54:59] Speaker 1: Because the Thursday schedule now is better than the Sunday skip.
[55:04] Speaker 2: Is there a chance that Amazon could own Thursday Night
[55:07] Speaker 2: and Sunday Night in the next go round?
[55:11] Speaker 1: Absolutely?
[55:12] Speaker 2: Absolutely, That's what you know because clearly Netflix, they're CEO.
[55:17] Speaker 2: He's talked, he's been adamant, we don't want a full package.
[55:20] Speaker 2: They've been big on Jake Paul fights, this Tom Brady roast,
[55:24] Speaker 2: the Christmas Games. Like their track record is pretty consistent
[55:28] Speaker 2: with what they've said, the way they've built separate from
[55:30] Speaker 2: the belt, the dude that climbed the did you watch
[55:33] Speaker 2: that thing in Tokyo whatever, the tallest building they like
[55:37] Speaker 2: doing stuff like that. Thursday Night Football is going really well.
[55:41] Speaker 2: You know, we talked about this popularity. Why wouldn't they go,
[55:44] Speaker 2: We'll take Thursday and Sunda Night football again? Three trillion
[55:47] Speaker 2: dollar company, but we're in Netflix here at the volume.
[55:51] Speaker 2: They're very successful company. They're three hundred billion. I googled
[55:54] Speaker 2: it the other day so three hundred billion three, like
[55:57] Speaker 2: Amazon is gigantic and getting bigger, and.
[56:01] Speaker 1: I I don't think and I say this, and I
[56:04] Speaker 1: know I'll get pushback. I don't think the NFL would
[56:06] Speaker 1: ever screw Fox. I think Fox has been a great partner.
[56:10] Speaker 1: I think I think Fox does a great job. I mean,
[56:12] Speaker 1: Fox puts Tom Brady on the games, then it's Greg
[56:14] Speaker 1: Olsen on the games. The quality of Fox's broadcast in
[56:17] Speaker 1: my lifetime, our Super Bowl coverage has always been unbelievable.
[56:22] Speaker 1: Like I think Fox feels like the NFL. Honestly, if
[56:25] Speaker 1: I if you said Fox, I'd be like, oh, Simpson's.
[56:29] Speaker 2: And he's just CBS. I would say the Masters.
[56:32] Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. See. By the way, for
[56:36] Speaker 1: a long time CBS I was like, oh March Madness Masters, NFL.
[56:41] Speaker 1: To me, Fox is sort of like NFL Simpsons World Series.
[56:46] Speaker 1: I mean that's I mean, an American idol for a
[56:49] Speaker 1: long time. So I don't think. I think that's a
[56:51] Speaker 1: relationship that will be embolden for years to come. NBC,
[56:56] Speaker 1: you know, going back and saying we're gonna do NBA.
[57:00] Speaker 1: What is the messaging?
[57:01] Speaker 2: But you've talked about this before, don't most people in
[57:05] Speaker 2: the industry believe that they got overly aggressive on the
[57:09] Speaker 2: amount of money they paid the NBA. So how do
[57:11] Speaker 2: they get into a bidding war for what has been
[57:14] Speaker 2: for a long time? The Sunday Football has been, for
[57:17] Speaker 2: a long period of time the number one television hoone
[57:19] Speaker 2: in America? Right, So why wouldn't Amazon if they see
[57:23] Speaker 2: what Thursday night Football, which forever was viewed as a
[57:26] Speaker 2: throwaway was like, Oh, Brian roll after genius, he just
[57:29] Speaker 2: created something out another. Sunday Night football is the marquee
[57:32] Speaker 2: game typically of the day everyone you know, depending on
[57:35] Speaker 2: the week. Obviously Fox has good afternoon or CBS can
[57:39] Speaker 2: have a great afternoon game, but the Sunday night game
[57:42] Speaker 2: is the highest rate of game of the day typically
[57:43] Speaker 2: on Sunday listen.
[57:45] Speaker 1: I don't think NBC. First of all, they could never
[57:48] Speaker 1: outbit Amazon for obvious reasons. The second thing is they're
[57:52] Speaker 1: gonna be They're gonna hemorrhage on the NBA. ESPN will
[57:55] Speaker 1: be fine because they were the incumbent. They don't have
[57:59] Speaker 1: to build a new remote unit, so espn'll be fine.
[58:03] Speaker 1: Amazon's fine because they're Amazon. NBC is a traditional broadcaster.
[58:07] Speaker 1: They have peacock I just I think they're gonna lose
[58:09] Speaker 1: a billion dollars. I think it's so hard to create
[58:13] Speaker 1: a remote unit to travel. I mean, it's just the
[58:16] Speaker 1: whole day, and it's like it's any business that starts up.
[58:19] Speaker 1: You see this all the time. You over these AI companies.
[58:23] Speaker 1: You're not gonna get a lot of this money back.
[58:25] Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of losers and very few winners.
[58:27] Speaker 1: AI people just spend like crazy. And I think NBC
[58:31] Speaker 1: is in a survival mode now. The Ellisons are connected
[58:34] Speaker 1: to CBS. You know, the Murdocks have done well with Fox.
[58:37] Speaker 1: You've got Amazon, Netflix. Even though scalability wise, Foxes is
[58:41] Speaker 1: not gigantic. But their relationship to me with the NFL,
[58:46] Speaker 1: it just feels deep and it feels respectful. And I think,
[58:50] Speaker 1: and I'll say this, I think Fox is really good
[58:52] Speaker 1: on the NFL.
[58:53] Speaker 2: Think how many times, over the course of just my
[58:56] Speaker 2: life things when I was a kid, we didn't have
[58:58] Speaker 2: cable up until like right when I went to high school.
[59:01] Speaker 2: I did not know there was a Sunday night football
[59:03] Speaker 2: game until I went over to my grandma's house and
[59:06] Speaker 2: Paul McGuire remember in Thiasman, it used to be on
[59:09] Speaker 2: ESPN Sunday Night Football and Monday Night FOOTBA at the
[59:12] Speaker 2: time was on ABC. So these networks in terms of
[59:17] Speaker 2: the prime time it's always rotated a little bit when
[59:20] Speaker 2: it came up to television deals, who bid on what package?
[59:23] Speaker 2: If I was a betting man right now, just looking
[59:25] Speaker 2: at the way the schedules have played out, because Monday
[59:27] Speaker 2: Night Football was bad years ago, ESPN changed their messaging,
[59:32] Speaker 2: got back and good with the NFL. They had writers
[59:35] Speaker 2: wanting the NFL to burn to the ground, so it's like, well,
[59:37] Speaker 2: the company probably would go along with it if that happened.
[59:40] Speaker 2: A great business. They have done a good job building
[59:43] Speaker 2: that thing back, and now Monday Night Football and Thursday
[59:46] Speaker 2: Night Football, especially this year, feel like the Marquee Knights.
[59:50] Speaker 2: And if I was a betting man, I'd say Sunday
[59:53] Speaker 2: Night Football, I would guess on Amazon. I would say
[59:56] Speaker 2: Amazon owns Thursday and Sunday Night Football, and Box and
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: CBS has all the games, uh, you know on Sunday
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: morning and Sunday afternoon.
[1:00:05] Speaker 1: John Middlecoff, former NFL scout three and out, can see
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: anybody

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