Speaker 1: Da Around the NFL Podcast wants to go to Disneyland
Speaker 1: with Bruce arians Well, welcome back to another edition of
Speaker 1: the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansis,
Speaker 1: and I am joined by a room filled with heroes,
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler, Chris Westling and Greg Roseltal. What's up boys?
Speaker 1: Hey Dan, I'm not sure what that was about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe we're a year late on going to Disneyland with Bruce.
Speaker 1: Bruce has got some things to work out. She didn't
Speaker 1: have any making any trips. I know Sid she loves Disneyland.
Speaker 1: We're all excited about Disneyland. Greg went to Disneyland recently. Hey,
Speaker 1: but Bruce, stay in the Cardinals facility. Figure this situation out,
Speaker 1: Especially on a short week. It's not really gonna have
Speaker 1: time to go Sydney. You said you spent the whole
Speaker 1: weekend there two weekends ago, which is somewhat troubling. Were
Speaker 1: you back there last weekend? You're gonna be shocked, but yes,
Speaker 1: I was. What can I I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: know we have a lot to get to, but what
Speaker 1: is the continual appeal is there? Is it a ride
Speaker 1: you must attend over and over or said like a
Speaker 1: certain snack bar that has you hooked. No. Last well,
Speaker 1: two weeks ago, I had some friends in town from Utah,
Speaker 1: and then last week it was mostly out of boredom.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you. Nothing else going on.
Speaker 1: I was like, you got the past, so's it's a
Speaker 1: possible explanation. This is that old adage, don't ask questions
Speaker 1: you don't want to know the answers to. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: peek behind the kimono. I thought you'd just like to
Speaker 1: hang out with cartoon mascots. There wasn't a whole lot
Speaker 1: of that. I. Um, I heard a nice, some good
Speaker 1: corporate term. We have to go up the steps uh
Speaker 1: to get to the second floor, uh, to get to
Speaker 1: the podcast studio, and then all the corporal Shadowy League
Speaker 1: figures are mostly upstairs on the third floor. They've never
Speaker 1: heard the show before. Um, but I heard you guys
Speaker 1: say listen, man, we gotta sit Mike down and have
Speaker 1: a honest discussion. Is that it does imply that most
Speaker 1: of their conversations are not imbued with honesty. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: also honest discussion that that is corporo jargon for we
Speaker 1: might have to can this bro? Are you sure that
Speaker 1: you did you use the correct name there, such as
Speaker 1: anyone any Listen, it was not actually Mike. Okay, say
Speaker 1: a lot of Mike's in the buildings. Suddenly feeling concerned,
Speaker 1: there are like seventy whites named Mike in this building. Yes.
Speaker 1: This is the Tuesday edition the Around the NFL podcast,
Speaker 1: sponsored of course, and brought to you by Mr Flames
Speaker 1: economics class in the Hague, the Netherlands and Mark Mr
Speaker 1: F brought us some tasty sandwiches today. Really he is
Speaker 1: not uh not fulfilling his part of the deal. This
Speaker 1: is all working out. I mean, I want to say
Speaker 1: one thing about him when you go and I don't
Speaker 1: know why only fifty people are following. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: teacher Mike Flame on Twitter, get get with it. But
Speaker 1: when you go to his Twitter page, Mr F on
Speaker 1: his Twitter page, it's a The large image above your
Speaker 1: icon is a country road, you know, surrounded by Missed
Speaker 1: with him walking down in a backpack. I like this guy.
Speaker 1: That sounds like you country road with miss that's your
Speaker 1: dream to just wander away into a country. Why are
Speaker 1: we here get to the hate? Why don't we just
Speaker 1: do the show from the Hague? So I do what
Speaker 1: we do want to say thanks to the the entire
Speaker 1: economics class if they're listening because it was delicious sandwich
Speaker 1: and some ginger ale, some fries. It was great. These
Speaker 1: guys get sponsorship. Let me just say something, Are you listening, dicks,
Speaker 1: this nice little back of voices, the rapport that we're having,
Speaker 1: this cool drop that we have for Mr Flame this
Speaker 1: could have been yours, Dick. All right. By the way,
Speaker 1: only Mark out of us follows Mr f So I'm
Speaker 1: going to right now. That's bad. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I've
Speaker 1: asked listeners to follow him and none of you guys are. Well,
Speaker 1: you have to be a word. I don't just follow
Speaker 1: Willy Nilly, So I'll check in on his account and
Speaker 1: the CV he's a worthy fall information is incorrect. I
Speaker 1: am following nice alright, get on board. Okay, here we go,
Speaker 1: Mike flam One. By the way, Flame one. Today's show,
Speaker 1: we're gonna recap the Monday night football game between the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants. We will continue
Speaker 1: our team of a t L conversation. See if we're
Speaker 1: any closer or or perhaps finally, uh, we're reaching the
Speaker 1: finish line to choose the team of a t L.
Speaker 1: We will then check in. Uh. We had our power poll.
Speaker 1: Uh In the before the season started, we released our
Speaker 1: first power poll. And now we're gonna check in. We
Speaker 1: did another round of voting for our power poll. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do the quarter pole power poll. And let me
Speaker 1: say something about this. And you got you got a
Speaker 1: miss of an email. Hey, quarter pole and I got
Speaker 1: some tweets too. Is a racing term? Uh? In horse racing,
Speaker 1: quarter pole means it's three quarters of the race. Well,
Speaker 1: deal with it. I'm calling call quarter pole anyway. Do
Speaker 1: you know what the pool is? It's mark. You can
Speaker 1: move it anywhere you want. In our situation, we use
Speaker 1: it at the quarter pool, the first quarter pool. Horse
Speaker 1: racing can have the three quarter pool. That don't have
Speaker 1: to follow their rules. We don't have to follow the
Speaker 1: rules of a dead sport. Was well, I mean, why
Speaker 1: don't we guys have to go there? This is right?
Speaker 1: Horse racing is not, you know, commanding the lexicon of
Speaker 1: sports journalism right now? Um, okay, let's leave it there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the quarter pole power pole. Greg has been trying
Speaker 1: to turn off a television that is doubling our voice
Speaker 1: and he just put the volume up like a seventy
Speaker 1: three year old dad. You got it now, though I
Speaker 1: turned on another one by mistake. I was trying to
Speaker 1: help you out. No grandchildren, It's just a d It
Speaker 1: was kind of cute watching you scramble there. I liked it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then we will uh talk about a banger uh
Speaker 1: that Mr Sessler wrote on Bill Belichick in his course
Speaker 1: Fondence with Bill back uh in the day. So we'll
Speaker 1: dig into Mark's big um home run long form and
Speaker 1: our sidelines piece the Belichick letters. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: that's exciting, and then we'll touch on the Thursday night game.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna spend too much time there, but that's it.
Speaker 1: That's what's going on with the show today. But let's
Speaker 1: start by talking about the last game of week four.
Speaker 1: Ah yes, ah yes, Monday night football from US Bank Stadium,
Speaker 1: my favorite stadium in the NFL. Haven't been there yet,
Speaker 1: hopefully God willing uh in you know, two years from
Speaker 1: now when the Super Bowls there will be there all
Speaker 1: as a group. But until then, all I can do
Speaker 1: is enjoy this place on television. And it is an
Speaker 1: amazing facility and a great uh atmosphere. For football, and
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings are doing their part to make the
Speaker 1: fans happy because once again, the Vikings defense showed that
Speaker 1: it is for real. It is a unit that can
Speaker 1: stifle all the best quarterbacks in the league, including Eli Manning,
Speaker 1: who became the latest high profile quarterback to struggle against
Speaker 1: Minnesota's defense. His big three wide receiver tandem shutdown and
Speaker 1: including Odell Beckham. UH Minnesota jumped out to a two
Speaker 1: touchdown lead. UH. The Giants got back into it in
Speaker 1: the second half, but then the Minnesota Vikings salted away
Speaker 1: with a final score. UH. The final uh tally was
Speaker 1: twenty four to ten Vikings over Giants. The Giants fall
Speaker 1: to two and two. That Mark Cecil, your nominee for
Speaker 1: the Team of a t L. The Minnesota Vikings now
Speaker 1: undefeated at four and oh. The Vikings to me and
Speaker 1: I realized the kind of football they play, UH is
Speaker 1: a little countercultural to what the what the well, what
Speaker 1: the NFL? Well, what the NFL they have sidebar? Well,
Speaker 1: now what the NFL would like to promote, which is
Speaker 1: high scoring games and madness and a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: acrobatics through the air. This reminds me this team I'm
Speaker 1: not sure how far, how far they'll go or what
Speaker 1: will happen to them. Uh. They're not a perfect team,
Speaker 1: but they remind me a lot of going back to
Speaker 1: the day when we first started watching football. The team
Speaker 1: the Bears, team like West and I would say, you
Speaker 1: go back to the eighties, the early eighties where the
Speaker 1: eighty four Bears the year before they become the eighty
Speaker 1: five Bears, and the eighty five Giants before they became
Speaker 1: the eighties six Giants, where you see the d n
Speaker 1: A forming of a great defense and dominating defense. And
Speaker 1: we talked in the offseason about this being a super
Speaker 1: Bowl level defense with a top five coach, and those
Speaker 1: two things have come to pass already in Week four.
Speaker 1: Will it stick, I don't know, but they keep passing
Speaker 1: the test over and over. What they did to New
Speaker 1: York's receiving crew last night is notable. They are second
Speaker 1: in the NFL and sax to the Broncos. Lim Vaal
Speaker 1: Joseph despite not in last night, despite none less night,
Speaker 1: Limball Joseph shuts down the trenches in the running game,
Speaker 1: and they are big, athletic and range at linebacker in
Speaker 1: the defensive backfield, taking away the intermediate and deep plays
Speaker 1: and they really limit you two plays around the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. Well, to me, they have been building this
Speaker 1: defense really for a few years now and they're here.
Speaker 1: To me, they've they've arrived. The rest of the team,
Speaker 1: maybe it'll take them until next year to catch up,
Speaker 1: but you said it with Joseph. They got six guys
Speaker 1: in the box on third and one, and they say, okay,
Speaker 1: try to run on us on a running down. We're
Speaker 1: just gonna leave six guys here and let our big
Speaker 1: athletes do all sorts of crazy stuff on the perimeter
Speaker 1: and confuse you try to run on us. No, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a three yard lost Giants, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth down. You're not gonna get
Speaker 1: that either. They have such an amazing defense, and Xavier
Speaker 1: Rhodes makes such a huge difference. What did you jump?
Speaker 1: He came back in week three. Here's the guy whos
Speaker 1: are making the leap a few years ago. Took him
Speaker 1: a little extra, but he's great. He shut down Kelvin
Speaker 1: Benjamin when he was matched up against him last week,
Speaker 1: and he really shut down out of Beckham last night
Speaker 1: to two points. There again about their defense number one. Yes,
Speaker 1: they had no sacks, but that's because Eli Manning was
Speaker 1: firing the ball into the turf the moment someone got
Speaker 1: in his perimeter. I've never seen Eli looked more spook.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was between the loudness of
Speaker 1: the crowd and just the ferocity of that defense, but
Speaker 1: Eli did not look at all comfortable. And yeah, the
Speaker 1: other big storyline in this game was that Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: was completely neutral neutralized by Rhodes and again lost to School.
Speaker 1: It was a little bit of a suspect flag, but
Speaker 1: he's not gonna get the benefit of the doubt anymore.
Speaker 1: And you know, you could take if you take Odell
Speaker 1: out of that passing attack, what you know, they have
Speaker 1: some nice players left, but he is the key to
Speaker 1: that offense. We've seen that for two years. This was
Speaker 1: his worst game that he had a short drop, the
Speaker 1: taunting penalty, uh didn't get open and then on the
Speaker 1: interception there was a miscommunication with Eli Manning too. And
Speaker 1: it was the lowest output of his career, right and not.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the statistical side, it's that is defense.
Speaker 1: It's almost the way you watch college football. A good
Speaker 1: team wipes out the team the opponent's best player, and
Speaker 1: it changes the complete complexion of the game. And they
Speaker 1: hits it. I mean, Anthony Barr had had a hit
Speaker 1: on Who was it? Who was the It was the
Speaker 1: New York Charity. It was insane. I mean Danio Hunter,
Speaker 1: Anthony Barr, Harrison Smith. These guys are just athletes, and
Speaker 1: I I love watching this team play because they're a
Speaker 1: complete team and they're a reminder of complimentary football. They
Speaker 1: have a formula. Every game they get a special teams play.
Speaker 1: I know it's not Blair Walsh playing well, but every
Speaker 1: team they get a contribution from their punting uh returns
Speaker 1: or or Cordell Patterson's playing well and they get Sam
Speaker 1: Bradford to deliver some nice balls on third down. He's
Speaker 1: not the best quarterback in the league, but considering who
Speaker 1: doesn't have much of an offensive line, he's playing very well.
Speaker 1: And Sam Bradford. You know, West did an excellent job
Speaker 1: writing this Game of last Night, but you talked about
Speaker 1: Sam Bradford and we've never seen him on a team
Speaker 1: with this many parts around him. Uh So it's a
Speaker 1: completely different situation for that quarterback. But you just still
Speaker 1: expect with the Sam Bradford that we've known for so
Speaker 1: long to come in deflate the operation somehow that he
Speaker 1: would take away from all the parts around him, and
Speaker 1: that is not happening. Play to place. He makes me
Speaker 1: like because it's a weird story. It's just this, The
Speaker 1: whole thing is so weird that that makes me like
Speaker 1: the more that they're doing it without Teddy and Adrian Peterson.
Speaker 1: The biggest difference to me and Sam Bradford is he's
Speaker 1: attacking down the field now on Okay, yeah, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: got the weapons to do it too, and he's not
Speaker 1: always going to get to face a cornerback like Trevin Wade,
Speaker 1: who was a complete liability for the Giants last night.
Speaker 1: But the two deep balls to Charles Johnson, another one
Speaker 1: to Adam Felan that could have been a pass interference
Speaker 1: hearence call. These are not throws Sam Bradford was making
Speaker 1: with the Rams and Eagles. And he's the first quarterback too.
Speaker 1: I think, really we've heard about Kyle Rudolf year after year.
Speaker 1: Kyle Rudolph is gonna be Jordan Cameron, He's gonna be
Speaker 1: all these people. He's he's having the season of his
Speaker 1: career right now. And and before we move on, the
Speaker 1: Giants team defense is much better this year. I would
Speaker 1: say their average, which is a huge improvement from where
Speaker 1: they were a year ago. But they are not getting
Speaker 1: much pass rush out of Olivier Vernon or Jason They're
Speaker 1: not a good pass rushing team and they spent a
Speaker 1: lot of money on that. And on a night where
Speaker 1: Lynval Joseph, a guy that they let walk away in
Speaker 1: free agency, is very valuable, Jerry Reese is watching those guys.
Speaker 1: Those two defensive ends Vernon and Jpp play more snaps
Speaker 1: than any defensive ends in the league. So you either
Speaker 1: gotta trust the guys behind him to rotate in you
Speaker 1: gotta get creative. I don't know what it is. They've
Speaker 1: been stopping the run and the secondary has been playing
Speaker 1: well until this week when they were banged up, but
Speaker 1: they're not rushing the passage. We should say a little
Speaker 1: bit about cour Darrel Patterson. He had the element of
Speaker 1: surprise in his favor in this game. The Giants were
Speaker 1: not prepared for him to be their number two receiver
Speaker 1: and to get end to get the bubble screens, the handoff,
Speaker 1: uh running routes. I don't know. He still seems like
Speaker 1: a guy who has to get his touch is manufactured.
Speaker 1: To me, he's gonna be around the line of scrip
Speaker 1: and back to Beckham for a second return. A bad
Speaker 1: team would have gotten rate of Corderill Pattison and not
Speaker 1: found a way to use him at all. By now,
Speaker 1: the potential Pro Bowl returner. He's a great returner right now,
Speaker 1: and back to Beckham. This feels like a thing now
Speaker 1: with him. It really does, to the point where, listen,
Speaker 1: he's the numbers are still okay, they're representative at least
Speaker 1: in catches and yardage, but he has no touchdowns. Every
Speaker 1: week where the shots on the sideline where he has
Speaker 1: his own teammates trying to talk to him, I think
Speaker 1: he's starting the emotion the emotions that he are that
Speaker 1: he's showing. He seems to me maybe psyching himself out
Speaker 1: a little bit. At this point. I'd like to see
Speaker 1: the old old Dell who could not be covered. And
Speaker 1: I know Xavier Rhodes is a great corner on the rise,
Speaker 1: but there was a time in those first couple of
Speaker 1: seasons where Odell just it doesn't matter who was out there,
Speaker 1: He's gonna get his yardage. So it was kind of
Speaker 1: telling to me to see him get kind of taken
Speaker 1: out of the equation there. That's something to watch. Well,
Speaker 1: that's on ELI too, and it's on their play caller.
Speaker 1: You you're playing in Minnesota, where Randy Moss used to
Speaker 1: tell his quarterback throw me the damn ball. These guys
Speaker 1: can't jump with me. Sometimes us get to throw it
Speaker 1: up and let the guy make a play. Here Randy Moss,
Speaker 1: all these guys can't jump with me. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's quite good. A lot of yaws. When you voice
Speaker 1: to draw a place from West Virginia, which is a
Speaker 1: cousin to Ohio. I want to say one thing. I
Speaker 1: like Dan. Dan is on the Minnesota Vikings stadium beat,
Speaker 1: and I've killed domes. And I'll tell you why. Because
Speaker 1: on television, which is where we're watching most of these games,
Speaker 1: now we're not there. It's it's tempered. The sound is
Speaker 1: tempered on these domes. And even the Falcons had a
Speaker 1: pumping crowd noise, which is ridiculous, non ridiculous, that's true,
Speaker 1: they didn't have to. But this stadium listening to that
Speaker 1: game last night, total unleashed, raucous, unhinged chaos. Sign me up.
Speaker 1: The old Metro Dome is a loud too. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is like a new phenomenon a
Speaker 1: loud dome, but that is a special facility. Fantastic sound there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they engineered it or what is special.
Speaker 1: It's loud. All right, let's move on, folks. T the
Speaker 1: team looks it's a very special honor. Yes, Dick Banks,
Speaker 1: the one man house band said it. Well, this is
Speaker 1: a very special honor, and that's why we're making sure
Speaker 1: we're getting it right. We have narrowed it down the
Speaker 1: most recent nominees the Raiders, Vikings, Eagles, and Cardinals, and
Speaker 1: we're coming off a week for and by the way,
Speaker 1: Mark just I don't want to get two sidetracked here.
Speaker 1: But the other reason why a lot of ways you're
Speaker 1: seeing the Vikings is counterculture. Sure, Robbie Shankar's ghost playing
Speaker 1: the sitar on the sideline, I've seen I saw it
Speaker 1: three times. That would do it. That would take the
Speaker 1: countercultural anger over the edge. So here we go. Now
Speaker 1: the Vikings are uh, in a lot of ways, looking
Speaker 1: like the favorite right now? Four and oh a fun
Speaker 1: exciting team to watch. Uh, maybe not a high Octanton team.
Speaker 1: But uh, one thing, we're just talking about that stadium.
Speaker 1: I think that's in their favor to what a fun
Speaker 1: atmosphere it is for those home games, at least these
Speaker 1: first couple of primetime games. So the Vikings four and oh,
Speaker 1: the Raiders, like we said, now three and one looking
Speaker 1: very exciting in terms of offense and stealing these games
Speaker 1: in the end. That's kind of what I like in
Speaker 1: a t L team, A team of a t L
Speaker 1: that kind of keep you guess and get get you excited,
Speaker 1: play an excited Brandon Ball. And of course, lady Lady Gaga,
Speaker 1: excuse me, little Debbie? Whoa I think they will upset
Speaker 1: little Debbie. Well, Lady Gagas, I don't think little Debby
Speaker 1: wants to be compared to anyone. Yeah, she is her
Speaker 1: own person, that's true. The Eagles on a bye and Greg,
Speaker 1: where are you on that? Where you did you think
Speaker 1: that by the bye as bad timing as we try
Speaker 1: to figure out a team of a t L or
Speaker 1: did you like the people marinating on that three and
Speaker 1: oh start? Well, nothing can go wrong when you're on
Speaker 1: a buy. I feel like the Eagles have been three
Speaker 1: and oh for a hundred years that's true. And then Wes,
Speaker 1: you went to the Cardinals from the Titans, and then
Speaker 1: they laid another egg, and you're ready to say goodbye
Speaker 1: to the Cardinals. Now goodbye to all the teams. All right,
Speaker 1: take us through. That's we'll start right there. Let's start
Speaker 1: right there, Chris Westling. Uh, you are still there's not
Speaker 1: a team that's jumping out to you? Uh? Is that yes?
Speaker 1: Is that a correct or incorrect statement? But there are
Speaker 1: no teams jumping out to me, certainly, not any teams
Speaker 1: that would be eligible for Team of a t L
Speaker 1: as in, not a contender, not in a perennial powerhouse.
Speaker 1: Those are the fun teams to watch to me, But
Speaker 1: it can be a contender, certainly, right we picked the
Speaker 1: Cardinals last year. The Raiders fail on a very specific point.
Speaker 1: When I turn on Ravens Raiders, I find myself organically
Speaker 1: rooting for the Ravens hard in that game. And it's
Speaker 1: not nothing against the Raiders. I just find the Ravens
Speaker 1: to be a more fun team to watch, and I'm
Speaker 1: more interested in the storylines and the players on their team.
Speaker 1: So when I turned it on, I was just like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Ravens are fun. To what. I hope they win
Speaker 1: this game an issue. The Vikings fail on many levels
Speaker 1: for me. There This wasn't the case when Mark chose them,
Speaker 1: but there are a four and no front runner. Now
Speaker 1: they are not that fun for me to watch. I
Speaker 1: don't look forward to watching them on game Pass, and
Speaker 1: their fan base is insufferable and so insecure as a
Speaker 1: collection of human beings. Did they will that? They will not.
Speaker 1: They will feel the biggest slight if they're not chosen
Speaker 1: team of eight t L now just by a little
Speaker 1: what is it? Every fan base kind of has that
Speaker 1: pocket of just I don't kind of complain or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't remember a collection of people for one team
Speaker 1: under one uniform taking personal insults and them towards this podcast.
Speaker 1: So I can't say by by way of context. Last
Speaker 1: year we were down on the Vikings and points of
Speaker 1: the season, and uh, I guess there's a Viking subreddit
Speaker 1: that took issue with the team and I I for
Speaker 1: one listen. Part of the part of this job is
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a lot of criticism both on Twitter
Speaker 1: and ending subreddits. Everyone's felt the burn. You just kind
Speaker 1: I become kind of numb to it. So I kind
Speaker 1: of say whatever, there's every fan base is gonna have
Speaker 1: bad apples that are just gonna be jerks for no reason. Well,
Speaker 1: I get that, and I had almost this exact conversation
Speaker 1: with the Paramore last night when you pore, when you
Speaker 1: get a alternative rock band, No, your lady friends, thank you.
Speaker 1: Criticism comes with the job. That's fine, it's not why
Speaker 1: do we have to accept insults and personal attacks? Though?
Speaker 1: That's very that's a very fair point. That's a major
Speaker 1: difference to me. The studio audience get arriving a little late.
Speaker 1: Let's get them in the doors and seated before the
Speaker 1: segment starts going forward forward said so I, I uh,
Speaker 1: I understand where West is coming from. And I think
Speaker 1: the key to this process is it needs to be organic,
Speaker 1: that it needs to be a natural team we can
Speaker 1: all get behind. And if that happens, that would be beautiful.
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't happen anytime soon or not at
Speaker 1: all this season, you know, so be it. But I
Speaker 1: am speaking from the heart here that when I watched
Speaker 1: that Panthers Vikings game, I that was the most exciting
Speaker 1: forty minutes of football, The final forty minutes of that game.
Speaker 1: That I've seen from any team all year, because I
Speaker 1: was so surprised by it, just how dominant the Vikings were.
Speaker 1: And I love the storyline of that they're doing it
Speaker 1: without their quarterback and they're running back. And it was
Speaker 1: really hammered home last night because on paper, that was
Speaker 1: not an especially enjoyable game, but I I really liked
Speaker 1: watching it because I was rooting for the Vikings and
Speaker 1: I just I like the whole vibe. I like Zimmer,
Speaker 1: I like the defense, and to me, I just threw
Speaker 1: the Eagles out last last week, kind of just to
Speaker 1: throw another team out, because I do like the Eagles too,
Speaker 1: But the Vikings, I'm all on board with the Vikings.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm putting my support behind the Vikings because that
Speaker 1: the heart wants what the heart wants. It is a
Speaker 1: genuine feeling. I like watching this team. They remind me
Speaker 1: a little bit of our original team of a t L,
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers two thousand thirteens. I go ahead, I'll
Speaker 1: echo everything you just said, Gregorus. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: the reasons why I am on the Vikings train. But
Speaker 1: I I would say from another angle that when this
Speaker 1: came about, we didn't even know what to call it.
Speaker 1: At first, it was just that you you West and
Speaker 1: Greg specifically really fell hard for the Panthers, and that's
Speaker 1: that organic moment where there's no turning back. That's how
Speaker 1: I feel about the Vikings. But you can't manufacture from
Speaker 1: all four of us, and I don't think we want
Speaker 1: to try to make that happen in any way, and
Speaker 1: so we've got to come We don't want it to
Speaker 1: tear the podcast apart and all of us go down
Speaker 1: and just write blogs for the rest of our life either.
Speaker 1: So I think we at this point like we can
Speaker 1: find a sensible solution. I don't think we're there this week.
Speaker 1: Let's love this out there. I love the Raiders, this team,
Speaker 1: um but I will I'm hearing what's going on in
Speaker 1: this room and I'm looking. I sent out a poll
Speaker 1: on around the NFL Twitter poll who should be the
Speaker 1: team of a t L Over six thousand votes say
Speaker 1: the Vikings um are subreddit are around the NFL subreddit,
Speaker 1: which has over three thousand people on it, and everybody
Speaker 1: should check that out. They voted in favor of the Raiders.
Speaker 1: But I am kind of in the same place where
Speaker 1: I could definitely get behind the Vikings, and which is
Speaker 1: not to put on pressure on West, because I think
Speaker 1: West has to if it's a couple more weeks, maybe
Speaker 1: West where you need to watch a couple more games
Speaker 1: and see if you can get in. Uh, and if
Speaker 1: you can't, no hard feelings, we just won't have a team.
Speaker 1: But I would be willing to go with the Vikings
Speaker 1: as well, just a question. I noticed that I had
Speaker 1: received zero um clapping feedback from the audience after my comments,
Speaker 1: which just fine. I don't know anything about that. That's
Speaker 1: a studio audience. We pay them, trying to control studio audiences.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I understand it's a dead silence man's room,
Speaker 1: all right, West or what are you worried? What are
Speaker 1: you thinking right now? Uh? We're in the trust tree
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, I don't like the Vikings. That's where
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking. Hmm, part part of me problem.
Speaker 1: You know, someone said something that that Kevin Patrick tweeted
Speaker 1: something that, you know, it struck me as so much true.
Speaker 1: That kind of the fun of it is trying to
Speaker 1: find the team itself, that the chase of it all.
Speaker 1: So if the chase doesn't end, so be it. Hey,
Speaker 1: here's the reality. I'm gonna root for the Vikings. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna root for the Eagles. I'm gonna root for the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers even though no one likes them. You're gonna like
Speaker 1: the teams you like. I don't think you should root
Speaker 1: for the Buccaneers though. No, I'm not getting up on them.
Speaker 1: I will I will meet you guys in the middle.
Speaker 1: I will do some homework. I'll go watch all four
Speaker 1: Vikings games, see if my attitude changes, and I'll get
Speaker 1: back to you. What more could you ask for? You
Speaker 1: couldn't ask for anything more? And that's the that's the
Speaker 1: type of attitude that makes Chris Westling what they call
Speaker 1: in your culture greg a Mench's an uber mench. That's
Speaker 1: I don't know what called super mench not anti semitism
Speaker 1: today between this and that, what does that mean? Semis
Speaker 1: the joke the crowd? What does the crowd have to
Speaker 1: say about this crowd is the crowd is anti Semitic?
Speaker 1: Actually I don't like. In fact, we don't like that.
Speaker 1: Send this crowd out of here because we're done with
Speaker 1: the team of a tall discussion and we're done with you, alright.
Speaker 1: So there is the uh, the conclusion there that we
Speaker 1: have three votes for the Vikings. West is gonna go
Speaker 1: back to his think tank watch their last four games. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're playing, they're playing this week, you're asking me, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you're the fanboys. They do play this week?
Speaker 1: Can play? I believe? Then they have that's correct. They
Speaker 1: play the Texans and then the bye Mark knows their schedule.
Speaker 1: There we go, So five games for West to dig
Speaker 1: through and be a scientist on and then we'll let
Speaker 1: you know. Uh, and who knows, maybe someone magically appears,
Speaker 1: another team appears, but we seem to be narrowing things down.
Speaker 1: Now we'll see what happened. So the Raiders are out.
Speaker 1: I know what. No, in converse, I'll go watch Raiders games.
Speaker 1: To me, no team, choose a team, you don't. It's
Speaker 1: it's like a captain of the ships, just trying to
Speaker 1: bring this thing back to port. And I I like
Speaker 1: the Vikings. Greg likes the Vikings. You like the Vikings. Uh,
Speaker 1: and West has an open mind on the Vikings. I'm
Speaker 1: willing to say goodbye to the Raiders if if Greg
Speaker 1: feels more strongly about the Vikings and you feel more
Speaker 1: strongly about the Vikings, and West the Raiders don't really
Speaker 1: do much for him. Well then, and then I I
Speaker 1: gotta go against death. That's why I do like that
Speaker 1: both teams represents sort of seafaring, hostile warrior types, which
Speaker 1: is attractive. I like that. That's a good point. Let's
Speaker 1: not close the door and the Raiders maybe they really
Speaker 1: blow the doors off everybody, uh this week. But yeah,
Speaker 1: by the way, Buccaneers a third seafaring chaotics fibe. So
Speaker 1: it's a very right they might be who knows how
Speaker 1: you sell me on the vikings with a nod to
Speaker 1: their history a seafaring warrior. I mean, who knows Tom
Speaker 1: Brady is coming back this week? Maybe that I would
Speaker 1: vote for them right now? Oh I that thank you
Speaker 1: for even saying that, because I get to do a
Speaker 1: very loud veto pound the table. Never will whatever happen.
Speaker 1: We have two votes for the Patriots, and that's all
Speaker 1: you want to get. I don't know. Maybe you get
Speaker 1: a third vote, but you'll never get a four. Works
Speaker 1: a big Belichick fan. He just wrote a love letter
Speaker 1: to him. Go ahead and mark it, do it too,
Speaker 1: but I'll never vote. Yes, it would almost talk about counterculture.
Speaker 1: Choosing the Patriots would be the truly surprising move that
Speaker 1: we could do. Yeah, the mass populace and get behind that. Wait,
Speaker 1: why are downloads down one million? All right, okay, let's
Speaker 1: talk power poll folks. Uh, the first power poll of
Speaker 1: this season. We bring this up. We wrote about an
Speaker 1: article on this right, well, it was due about an
Speaker 1: hour ago. And yeah, the one for tomorrow will be
Speaker 1: published today late by me. Okay, September two, Greg Rosenthal
Speaker 1: wrote a banger at one. Okay, it's like miss this one.
Speaker 1: We needed to just get it up. And the Seahawks, Okay,
Speaker 1: the Seahawks topped the around the NFL Power Poll. We
Speaker 1: had a top five that we called our title contenders Seahawks, Patriots, Cardinals, Panthers, Packers,
Speaker 1: And I'll just share the top ten with you guys.
Speaker 1: The Pittsburgh Steelers were at six, followed by the Bengals,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, the Broncos, and the Raiders. That was the
Speaker 1: top ten. And then let's just look at the bottom
Speaker 1: five here. The bottom five were the Lions, Rams, Bears, Browns,
Speaker 1: and forty Niners. So that's where we stood before the
Speaker 1: first game of the season. And now what we did
Speaker 1: was each of us did a ranking one to thirty two,
Speaker 1: and then our satellite heroes, Kevin patra Um, who offered
Speaker 1: some salty context with his one through correct What was Mark?
Speaker 1: If you could, could you bring up what Patrick labeled
Speaker 1: his first group of teams? Uh, it would be I'd
Speaker 1: have to like stop the show to go find the email.
Speaker 1: But I can I can put into context for you
Speaker 1: because I was, and I think I could give you
Speaker 1: the exact word. Please do well. I was classic Patricks
Speaker 1: what I like to call it. I found it. I
Speaker 1: got it. This is obnoxious. Have a tea party. That's
Speaker 1: pat That's his first category of the good players of
Speaker 1: the good team. Right, That's that's your group of a
Speaker 1: lead teams, you know anyway? So okay, So now after
Speaker 1: four games, the four of us did a new one
Speaker 1: through thirty two. Kevin patra Connor Or in his Haunted mansion,
Speaker 1: which will get to his one through thirty two, and
Speaker 1: then of course the great Colleen Wolf Connie Fox she
Speaker 1: chimed in. So all told that seven UM heroes and
Speaker 1: satellite heroes that all did a power rankings. And this
Speaker 1: is what our new list what we came up with
Speaker 1: as uh our updated power poll UM five through one.
Speaker 1: Here we go, Steelers at five, Vikings at four, Seahawks
Speaker 1: at three, Broncos at two, and Patriots at one. Uh So,
Speaker 1: so there you go. The Patriots jump uh to number one.
Speaker 1: The Seahawks were a number one team, they dropped to three.
Speaker 1: But Patriots, Broncos, Seahawks, Vikings, Steelers our top five. Um
Speaker 1: anything surprising there? Yeah, that's to me. I'm a big
Speaker 1: Patriots fan. It seems silly to me to rank the
Speaker 1: Patriots above the Broncos. Well, I know we're we're projecting
Speaker 1: Tom Brady or something, because I think the Broncos have
Speaker 1: been fantastic. Their defense is better than ever, and they're
Speaker 1: more complete. The Patriots haven't had two of the top
Speaker 1: five best players in the NFL. That's fine, but the
Speaker 1: Broncos can't do anything more than they've done. They are
Speaker 1: fifth in the league and yards per attempt passing, They
Speaker 1: are a top five in the league and scoring. They
Speaker 1: have one of the best defenses of all time. To me,
Speaker 1: it's just like, what more do you need to do?
Speaker 1: They just to settle you down just a little bit, greg,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at the overall outside of Connor, who
Speaker 1: went completely off grid on this, three people picked the
Speaker 1: Patriots number one. Three picked the Broncos. The issue is
Speaker 1: that a few people had the Broncos down at three.
Speaker 1: Nobody had I guess it even out. It's it just
Speaker 1: was a slight weight and it's not crazy. You're right,
Speaker 1: it's not crazy. Yeah, if this was who's the best
Speaker 1: team after four weeks, maybe the Broncos would be the
Speaker 1: runaway number one, but were not. The way I are
Speaker 1: stood to power poll is who's going to be there
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. Yeah, I think you yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the same. Different ways to look at it, And
Speaker 1: I think the Patriots, you know, latest stinker in week four,
Speaker 1: I think, which maybe sticks in people's minds a little bit,
Speaker 1: but three and oh where they were easily winning with
Speaker 1: backup quarterbacks and without without close to undercent I and
Speaker 1: I just think when you now, when you're adding in
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, the best quarterback in the league, well until
Speaker 1: he starts his hashtag, then then things just get better.
Speaker 1: And maybe gron I look at it like the Broncos
Speaker 1: are starting Trevor Simeon the whole time though that's there's
Speaker 1: no different you know, it's not like they should be.
Speaker 1: So there's a ceiling at deposition where New England ceiling
Speaker 1: is about at higher. But I know, and I know
Speaker 1: the Broncos have an incredible defense. But you're really going
Speaker 1: to say that Tom Brady and the Patriots with Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick should be behind Trevor Simeon and Gary Kubiak and
Speaker 1: the broncho I think the Broncos haven't. Their ceiling this
Speaker 1: year is higher than it was last year, and they
Speaker 1: were the world champions last but again, it costs the board.
Speaker 1: Most people are agreeing with what you're saying. They were
Speaker 1: the world champions last ye and they narrowly made the playoffs. Uh.
Speaker 1: Here is uh won twelve games. I mean they won
Speaker 1: the same amount of games as literally every team in
Speaker 1: the league except for except for the if they don't
Speaker 1: win that Bengals game, which could have gone either way.
Speaker 1: There where they were in trouble. That's how it happens. Uh.
Speaker 1: Here is the updated Uh let's see where we're in here.
Speaker 1: This is confusing. There's too many lists. What do you
Speaker 1: want to you have something? Uh? So, yeah, we had
Speaker 1: the Vikings at four, the stealers of five, and there
Speaker 1: here's six through ten. The Eagles undefeated, maybe hurt by
Speaker 1: that bye week once again, Greg, that bye week really
Speaker 1: doing a number on your nomina. I had them lower
Speaker 1: than that the Packers at seven, which that's some respect
Speaker 1: for the Packers eight number eight. The Falcons, how about that?
Speaker 1: Where were they on the preseason power poll? Greg? They
Speaker 1: were buried deep in the twenty one. That's got to
Speaker 1: be one of the first big they were. They were
Speaker 1: in the if everything breaks right category and really no
Speaker 1: one else in that category other than the Eagles who
Speaker 1: were twenty six on our really care much for your categories?
Speaker 1: I prefer Patras. Where did you have the Falcons? West?
Speaker 1: I had the Falcons eighth, so you're you're buying in.
Speaker 1: I had him at seven, so I'm buying in on
Speaker 1: him a little bit here. What about you, mark ninth? Ninth?
Speaker 1: And where did you? Yeah? Right in that range, I
Speaker 1: think there was a big drop off. I think there's
Speaker 1: a drop off too after the Falcons. There wasn't a
Speaker 1: close ninth to me. The Falcons are a flawed team
Speaker 1: given up thirty points a game, but they have something
Speaker 1: that's undeniable, which is right now the best offense in football.
Speaker 1: The top ten closes out with the Cowboys at number nine,
Speaker 1: who were on a three game winning streak. I like that.
Speaker 1: I think they deserve a top ten spot. And then
Speaker 1: you have the Bengals at ten West, where did you
Speaker 1: have Cincinnati? I had him at eleven. Okay, I had
Speaker 1: him at thirteen. What about you mark the Bengals? I
Speaker 1: had them at all right, yes, range twelve. They haven't
Speaker 1: really played great, But it's like, which teams below do
Speaker 1: you really want to move up above those? Here? Is?
Speaker 1: Here is now? Let's do eleven through uh twenty, Uh Raiders, Ravens,
Speaker 1: Cardinals at thirteen. Where were they in the preseason poll?
Speaker 1: They were really high? Leave renumber three. Well, when you
Speaker 1: play like uh, dog crap, that's what happens. The Texans
Speaker 1: at fourteen and now without J. J. Watt, I'm a
Speaker 1: little surprised there that high with what being out for
Speaker 1: the year in Oswild are not looking great. The Panthers
Speaker 1: at fifteen, right at the Dalton line for NFL teams
Speaker 1: right now. A little but you know what, when you're
Speaker 1: one in three, this happens that the Rams at sixteen, uh,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs at seventeen. The Giants had a big chance,
Speaker 1: I think, to jump near the top ten, but did
Speaker 1: not get it done. In Minnesota. So they're at eighteen,
Speaker 1: and then the Bills at nineteen, and the Jets, my
Speaker 1: Jets at twenty. I cannot. I cannot defend the Jets
Speaker 1: as a homer. I have them at nineteen. I think
Speaker 1: they're probably not as bad as a one in three team,
Speaker 1: but they're playing terrible right now, so they deserve to
Speaker 1: be there. Any surprises there, uh, Mark Sessler? I don't
Speaker 1: think so, because I think all this is just a
Speaker 1: hodgepodge of kind of you know, sort of their teams
Speaker 1: and lots with many issues too, with you know, super
Speaker 1: Bowl hopes. In terms of the Cardinals and the Panthers,
Speaker 1: not a Panthers one. Let's uh, let's call it what
Speaker 1: it is. They're skewed down because of Connor roars, deep antipathy,
Speaker 1: a little Carolina. I we we took a look at
Speaker 1: Connors rankings. Let's bring up Connors rankings. I think it's
Speaker 1: important to at this point, before we finish out the list,
Speaker 1: um have a better idea where Connor falls. With his picks,
Speaker 1: which were absolutely wild, some of them. They usually are.
Speaker 1: What what do we have? Mark? Do you have them up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I do? I mean, all right, let's we'll start with
Speaker 1: what Greg mentioned. He has the Panthers buried down at
Speaker 1: number twenty eight, um number spots behind the fort He's
Speaker 1: even that they beat by third. And see that when
Speaker 1: had seventeen wins last year, have not lost like anybody
Speaker 1: who a season ending injury, A team that just in
Speaker 1: a funk a little bit, one of the worst teams
Speaker 1: in football. Well, and so so if he's down him
Speaker 1: down to twenty eight, what there's got to be other madness,
Speaker 1: and there is. He's got the forty Niners at twenty three,
Speaker 1: which no one else came close to. That everyone has
Speaker 1: at the Niners bottom feeding them. Let's get Connor on
Speaker 1: the line here to talk about his list a little bit. Hey, Sid,
Speaker 1: can we get Connor on the line while we're efforting?
Speaker 1: I found why I diverged. I have the Ravens, as
Speaker 1: is the fifth best team in the NFL. I have
Speaker 1: them at eight. But a lot of people had him lower. Connor,
Speaker 1: are you there? Yeah? I mean I've been on for
Speaker 1: like twenty minutes waiting for you guys. You called me
Speaker 1: in the middle of a nap. Connor, you're taking naps
Speaker 1: at six pm? He's an interesting Connor? Or are you
Speaker 1: kidding me with this list. I mean, you know, how
Speaker 1: do you define power? I see U I power is
Speaker 1: you know, maybe Cam Newton can't run the ball anymore,
Speaker 1: maybe Derrick Anderson is going to be the quarterback. And
Speaker 1: if if that's the case, then that team sucks, you know,
Speaker 1: so I can can I ask a question how much
Speaker 1: of the Carolina ranking here near the bottom of the
Speaker 1: entire league has to do with your unending holy war
Speaker 1: with desk editor David Eally. You know, I'm I've come
Speaker 1: together with Dave on this. I actually told him that
Speaker 1: Calvin Benjamin I like him a lot. So I feel
Speaker 1: like that was sort of me bridging the gap, um
Speaker 1: and and doing some good stuff for my future at
Speaker 1: the company. Didn't seem like you're bridging the gap. During
Speaker 1: the Panthers lost last Sunday. During the game to Atlanta,
Speaker 1: I had Julio Jones on my fantasy team, and I
Speaker 1: think I had a beer at that point. So that
Speaker 1: was you know, we're gonna get a little fired up.
Speaker 1: You know, three points, that's uh, you know, our three
Speaker 1: receiving arts, that's uh, that's May plus stuff right there.
Speaker 1: Here's a window into into Connor's mind. Uh. In his
Speaker 1: power poll. I want I want you to explain how
Speaker 1: the Raiders at eighteen are only one spot ahead of
Speaker 1: the Jaguars at nineteen. What about that Jaguars performance in
Speaker 1: London really got you fired up? They played better after London,
Speaker 1: and I predicted this team was gonna be a nine
Speaker 1: win team. I think they're gonna go in a little
Speaker 1: run here. I expect Jaguars to start pouncing here down
Speaker 1: the down the stretch. Wait how much I'm again I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read into the mind of Connor a little bit?
Speaker 1: How much of seeing the Jaguars in London? Uh made
Speaker 1: you your memory jog back to a nostalgic time and
Speaker 1: nostalgic bromance with Mark Sessler last year in London with
Speaker 1: with the Jaguars and you and you like them more
Speaker 1: because you were thinking about that as you watch the game.
Speaker 1: How about that? I mean, I appreciate the Nickel psychology here, Dan,
Speaker 1: but you know, I think, you know, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a beautiful time in my life. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a hard and football guy and these are
Speaker 1: these are power polls. This is this is hard football. Connor.
Speaker 1: You know we you have your fascinations and we're fascinated
Speaker 1: by you. I'll say that, but when I see uh,
Speaker 1: you know, And this is a massive juxtaposition to anything
Speaker 1: anyone else employed at NFL media puts on paper. You
Speaker 1: have the forty Niners up at twenty three above a
Speaker 1: host of teams, and I'm I'm struggling for beyond your
Speaker 1: fascination with Chip Kelly, a reason for that five spots
Speaker 1: ahead of the Panthers, five spots. I I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna go on a run, you know. And uh, this
Speaker 1: pull is all about power, and uh, power is in
Speaker 1: my hands, right, power, And that's what I do to
Speaker 1: or false Connor your power. Poll rankings can be bought,
Speaker 1: bought with coverage, bought with nice you know conversations. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: that's some fighting. Did you use the phrase he's only
Speaker 1: scores to describe cars? EVO scores the poor Chargers here
Speaker 1: at twenty nine. There is there's another theory I'm working
Speaker 1: here that this is Connor used to cover the New
Speaker 1: York sports teams, the Jets and Giants. This is kind
Speaker 1: of like the tabloid reporter in you it here too,
Speaker 1: just you want to goose the ratings a little bit.
Speaker 1: This will lead to maybe a TV appearance on s
Speaker 1: n Y or something. Yeah. I mean it's been my
Speaker 1: dream to go on Good Morning Football, so hopefully this
Speaker 1: can happen. Uh, you know, just being ridiculous like that,
Speaker 1: I'm trumping it up. I'm making Power pulls great again.
Speaker 1: I mean, we gotta We're not getting out of here.
Speaker 1: You're the only one that we just talked about the
Speaker 1: Patriots and Broncos sweeping everyone's number one spot except for yours.
Speaker 1: The Steelers number one, which I don't entirely think is crazy.
Speaker 1: I would just like to hear, why are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I loved this. This is actually probably one of the
Speaker 1: few things I took seriously on that Power pol Um.
Speaker 1: By the way, your results completely you know, reflect themselves
Speaker 1: in the ultimate results, just well, well, it was amazing.
Speaker 1: I was actually glad that my where I put the
Speaker 1: Panthers I think dropped them to the appropriate Yes, but
Speaker 1: I think it dropped them actually to where you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of maths going on here. It's more
Speaker 1: than it's more than I'm getting credit for it. But um,
Speaker 1: I think the Steelers was pretty amazing against the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: Now that Levy on Bell's back. I love what they're
Speaker 1: doing with that splot receiving the splot D'Angelo Williams in
Speaker 1: the backfield. I think this team is going to be
Speaker 1: unstoppable towards the end of the season. All right, well, Connor,
Speaker 1: I think you've defended yourself quite well here. I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna go see how anyone I don't see how
Speaker 1: anyone could have any questions about this now, now that
Speaker 1: I've done this, I'm saying, you answer the questions. Whether
Speaker 1: or not people have respect, and how you answer them,
Speaker 1: that's up to the audience to decide. But thank you
Speaker 1: for at least, you know, supporting your assertions with some
Speaker 1: real data and defense. It's been It's been real fun, guys.
Speaker 1: All Right, see you later, Connor? Or are you kidding me? Um?
Speaker 1: We gotta we'll get Connor on again. We gotta check
Speaker 1: in on his Madden franchise. He's a married guy now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's still happening. Who knows. We
Speaker 1: just gotta keep tabs on Connor in a way. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of important. Has he gotten through Citizen Kane yet?
Speaker 1: Wasn't that next? Then? Yeah? I wish he's still on
Speaker 1: the line. We'd asked him how that was gone. But alright, alright,
Speaker 1: here is now the twenty one through thirty two again,
Speaker 1: this is the average of all of our Is that
Speaker 1: the right many? Thanks? Uh? Or is it the mean? No,
Speaker 1: it's the average. Okay, it's not the mean. It's not
Speaker 1: the mean would be West picked something up here, Mark
Speaker 1: picked something weight on here, and the mean would be
Speaker 1: I believe that's the median or the mean right in
Speaker 1: the middle. I believe the average is putting everyone's results
Speaker 1: together and averaging them. Okay for thee Yeah, mean? Is
Speaker 1: the average? Like that? There? You advertise your your math
Speaker 1: problems in high schoo Well, I I don't say much,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't far behind you lured you into my
Speaker 1: trap there, all right? Redskins twenty one, Chargers twenty two,
Speaker 1: which I like that. This speaks to our um knowledge
Speaker 1: of the game. We're not just gonna bury them all
Speaker 1: the way down the list because they're one and three,
Speaker 1: because they should be better than that. They've been very competitive,
Speaker 1: the Colts at twenty three, the Saints at twenty four,
Speaker 1: the Jaguars at teams, the Lines at twenty six, the
Speaker 1: Bucks at twenty seven, the Titans at twenty eight. I
Speaker 1: had the Titans at thirty one. Did anyone else have
Speaker 1: them that low? No? You know you you took that price.
Speaker 1: They're pretty close. I had them pretty close thirty nine,
Speaker 1: the Dolphins at twenty nine, way down here, whoa Dolphins?
Speaker 1: Twenty nine? The Bears at thirty and then we had
Speaker 1: a two way tie for last place. And I would
Speaker 1: consider this progress mark not alone in the seller. The
Speaker 1: Browns at thirty one, tied with farty Niners. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair your own for the last winless
Speaker 1: team in the league. You didn't have a meaningless Week
Speaker 1: one shutout over some team on national television, so you
Speaker 1: are where you belong. I had them over four teams.
Speaker 1: I saw something interesting if you just look at you know,
Speaker 1: when teams were trailing in games in terms of games,
Speaker 1: script and everything. The Browns, who were better than thirteen
Speaker 1: teams in the league, and they haven't been blown out.
Speaker 1: They've been ahead in all these games. They've been competitive
Speaker 1: games back and forth. They haven't had some stink bombs
Speaker 1: like a lot of teams have had multiple stinks. I
Speaker 1: completely agree with you, but I have no problem with
Speaker 1: the group putting them down where they are. I really
Speaker 1: want I had them at thirty. I really wanted to
Speaker 1: move them ahead of the Dolphins, who had nine. But
Speaker 1: I do think you know, the Dolphins did beat them,
Speaker 1: maybe didn't deserve it, But I think the Dolmins are
Speaker 1: a little bit better. But the Browns, they've been competitive,
Speaker 1: they've been fun to watch. To be fair to Greg,
Speaker 1: you're right you had the Titans at thirty one, you
Speaker 1: and Dan both. I Uh. I look at the list,
Speaker 1: the original lists. I look at which teams are we
Speaker 1: going to be the most raw about. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Chiefs at nine looks a little or eight ahead of
Speaker 1: the Broncos certainly looks optimistic. We botched the Broncos. We'll
Speaker 1: see we own that we did botch the Broncos. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Rams at twenty nine, I think it's early to
Speaker 1: say that that's gonna be totally wrong. But twenty nine
Speaker 1: is low. Uh. And then the Eagles. We no one
Speaker 1: really saw the Eagles coming in. Where were you on that?
Speaker 1: You could have saved them, you could have listened. I
Speaker 1: had them to fourteenth and winning that division, But that's
Speaker 1: not enough to goose them up a lot. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: there you go there's a powerball. We'll do another one
Speaker 1: at the midpoint of the season, and then I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll do another one after that, but it could
Speaker 1: be the last one. At the midpoint, we'll do one more. Now.
Speaker 1: It's just like once you get to the third quarter,
Speaker 1: like what are we doing at that point? But it
Speaker 1: is interesting to check out at the mid way point
Speaker 1: where we are. Let's move By the way, that's why
Speaker 1: football does not use quarter pool for three quarters of
Speaker 1: this season, because nobody cares by that. We use it
Speaker 1: for the first quarter because footballs are better sport than
Speaker 1: horse racing, and everybody around the world knows it. It's
Speaker 1: two thousand, not nineteen thirty three. Get out of the
Speaker 1: depression with your quarter pool. WHOA, let's bringing the fire.
Speaker 1: Horse racing was an inferiors for even in nineteen thirty three.
Speaker 1: I don't care about popularity. You're talking about a man
Speaker 1: riding an animal. That's ridiculous. Thanks you, Greg fair Points.
Speaker 1: You know, hammering horse shoe like metals into their hoofs.
Speaker 1: Started gonna be like, what are we doing society? Please?
Speaker 1: All right, let's move up. This is a show that
Speaker 1: Mark and I used to watch late midlight Dear John, Yeah,
Speaker 1: John lark Kitt, judd Hurst, judd Hurst, and you're the
Speaker 1: same guy judd Hurst and Jerry Burns who works out
Speaker 1: at my gym. Really yeah, good show, a good John
Speaker 1: lar Khitt, Judd Hirsh. Couldn't be further apart. They're both
Speaker 1: mostly you know, forgotten that actors, you know, and you
Speaker 1: just shot down our landing spots for Bobby April and
Speaker 1: you're able to take shots at actors are being out
Speaker 1: of work like a little bit of hypocritical. Don't you think?
Speaker 1: We wanted to do an NFL Now video where we
Speaker 1: said landing spots for disgraced specialty and Greg was like, no,
Speaker 1: he's got a family, and we're like all right, my
Speaker 1: viewed as a market and Judd Hirsh, who had very
Speaker 1: distinguished careers in television, very unfeeling. They were great, you
Speaker 1: put me on the spot. I came up with something
Speaker 1: of how they're similar. Anyway. Dear John was a sitcom
Speaker 1: the eighties about letter writing or something. Anyway, Mark a
Speaker 1: little bit of he got a Dear John letter from
Speaker 1: his wife, Yes he did, and he had to start over. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's not exactly what happened. With Mark Cesler and Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: But Mark did take out the pen and paper in
Speaker 1: the early yetees and started corresponding with the then Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns coach. And Mark, you wrote a killer long form,
Speaker 1: one of the best, if not the best, that we've
Speaker 1: seen on this website NFL dot com. Slash Belichick letters
Speaker 1: is the vanity U R L. And can you just
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit Mark about this? Sell it baby?
Speaker 1: Tell us about the Belichick letters. Well, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's something I mentioned to you guys as far
Speaker 1: as a year plus ago, that I had these letters
Speaker 1: that um in a very lost time as a college
Speaker 1: freshman in Miami, Ohio. You know, I followed the Browns
Speaker 1: since night six and went to college as a freshman
Speaker 1: in and really only went to Miami, Ohio. This sounds
Speaker 1: ridiculous to a thinking person, but uh so that I
Speaker 1: could be closer to Brown's telecast because they didn't there
Speaker 1: was no I had no cable television back then, which
Speaker 1: sounds equally ridiculous. The Jets and Giants, the Jets and Giants.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the Tri Sitaria. Ever, everyone rooted
Speaker 1: for the Jets and Giants. I was not on that train.
Speaker 1: So I went to college UM to be closer to
Speaker 1: the Browns with the express desire to to work for them.
Speaker 1: I just like, I'm just gonna get through college. Everyone
Speaker 1: talks about college is the best four years of your life.
Speaker 1: Couldn't have seen it differently, and uh, I found myself
Speaker 1: at Miami with eighteen credits as a freshman, and to
Speaker 1: make a long story short, got saddled with a Japanese
Speaker 1: class and something called Trees and Shrubs, which is a
Speaker 1: study of Ohio based plant life. Who assigned you these?
Speaker 1: Don't you choose the class? I? I, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to put my parents on blast, but my
Speaker 1: dad and I both agreed that taking Japanese would be
Speaker 1: a great business move, and he and I laughed about
Speaker 1: it many times since the houlture. Well do I don't know.
Speaker 1: I thought that seemed easy to me, but traitorous horticulture
Speaker 1: it was ridiculous. Within a month of both of these classes,
Speaker 1: I knew that I was heat seeking d's and potentially
Speaker 1: in f and I flagged Japanese. But that semester the
Speaker 1: only upside in the classrooms. I took this study, this
Speaker 1: class called Football Studies by the Miami Bohio football coach
Speaker 1: Randy Walker, and it was fascinating and it was only
Speaker 1: for half of credit and it was only for about
Speaker 1: an hour a week, but it completely hooked me. And
Speaker 1: it fed into everything that I wanted to do after school,
Speaker 1: even though it was one eight, one twenty at the
Speaker 1: what I was actually doing at school at the time,
Speaker 1: and as a final project, um what you were supposed
Speaker 1: to reach out to a football coach other than Randy
Speaker 1: Walker and find out about philosophy and how coaching happens
Speaker 1: and happens and all this stuff. And I had burnt
Speaker 1: a lot of bridges with my high school coaches back
Speaker 1: in Connecticut because I had written a series of rather
Speaker 1: scathing articles about the team when I covered them as
Speaker 1: a senior. So I said, if it, I'm gonna swing
Speaker 1: for the fences and write Bill Belichick four hours away
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, and I sent a letter and it was
Speaker 1: like literally the only thing going on in my life
Speaker 1: at the time. I was like, will he possibly right back?
Speaker 1: And I think two weeks past or so, and he did.
Speaker 1: And the envelope back then, you know, in a college
Speaker 1: jorem me of little tiny mailboxes, and when I opened
Speaker 1: the mailbox, and I pulled this letter out with the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Brown's letter head on it. I literally nearly just
Speaker 1: fell to pieces and melted in the middle of my dorm.
Speaker 1: And then from there I had enough um naivete and
Speaker 1: Hubris to write him again and suggest which players he
Speaker 1: should pick, even though I didn't even watch college football,
Speaker 1: told him he should take O. G. McDuffie. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, Belichick was kind enough to write back, and
Speaker 1: it just changed my impression of him because he was
Speaker 1: getting killed in the Cleveland press for being and he
Speaker 1: was to them a cranky He was Belichick. He's what
Speaker 1: we think of him in the press conferences. But I
Speaker 1: saw a very different side. And so the point of
Speaker 1: this article was to find out did he write them?
Speaker 1: Did someone else write them? Maybe his admin um and
Speaker 1: I don't have a complete answer, but I feel that
Speaker 1: he at least dictated them or the contact context of
Speaker 1: them to someone else to write them if it wasn't.
Speaker 1: And the long form again which everybody should read if
Speaker 1: you haven't read it already, NFL dot com slash Belichick letter,
Speaker 1: UH that we do have a bit of an updates
Speaker 1: and breaking news about where you left. UH. This piece
Speaker 1: at the end where you weren't sure you didn't have
Speaker 1: any answers, but maybe you're starting to get a better picture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: starting to because Linda Leone was his admin at the time,
Speaker 1: and I at one point called the complex to try
Speaker 1: to talk to Bill the day before they won their
Speaker 1: wild card game and on New Year's Day against the Patriots,
Speaker 1: and she was very willing to patch me through, and
Speaker 1: I freaked out and said, what could I possibly have
Speaker 1: to say to Bill Belichick? So I just said I
Speaker 1: wish him all the best, and she seemed to understand
Speaker 1: who I was though, So I remember that conversation and
Speaker 1: I tracked down Lynda Leoni, who had previously worked for
Speaker 1: Bill Parcels and now works for Nick Saban in Alabama,
Speaker 1: and she wrote me a very kind email, but she
Speaker 1: didn't want to go on record, and I can understand why.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of probably, yes, exactly. But she
Speaker 1: um today after I sent her the piece weeks later,
Speaker 1: after talking to her the first time, she basically said
Speaker 1: that Bill Belichick had called her up, that he had
Speaker 1: read it the piece, and that day all she said
Speaker 1: was that they talked on the phone about that and
Speaker 1: that time back in Cleveland, so I you know, they're
Speaker 1: old friends, and I about that. I don't know. It
Speaker 1: still leaves me wondering, but I at least you know,
Speaker 1: you know that it's that Belichick has at least seen it,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. Yeah, and I would love it. I
Speaker 1: would love it if you know, maybe not now, Bills
Speaker 1: in the middle of another battle, this being the season,
Speaker 1: if one day you get in touch with Belichick, I
Speaker 1: would love. With the Patriots and they didn't weren't that
Speaker 1: um uh communicative with They were not making this long
Speaker 1: from shocker Throne of sleeves. But if the people of
Speaker 1: the Patriots and understand where Mark was coming from in
Speaker 1: this and they read it that you guys could have
Speaker 1: a conversation, I would love that if that could happen.
Speaker 1: Never know, I think it will. I think in the
Speaker 1: off season he'll reach out. The Belichick part of the
Speaker 1: story was secondary to me. I identified so much, and
Speaker 1: it took me back a trans parded me to those
Speaker 1: years and I was exactly like you, so wayward, directionless
Speaker 1: and so obsessed with sports that I had no I
Speaker 1: had no idea what the future would hold other than
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be in sports in some way. I just
Speaker 1: have no idea how, and you put off all adult responsibilities.
Speaker 1: You make the worst decisions, You take classes, skip classes,
Speaker 1: have no nothing going on in your life because you
Speaker 1: just are so obsessed with sports. And that's what came
Speaker 1: through to me. Yeah, that was a huge part of it.
Speaker 1: I think the Belichick side actually was the b storyline
Speaker 1: in it too. I mean, it's not the way the
Speaker 1: NFL is gonna obviously correctly sell it a certain way
Speaker 1: to their audience. But it was really hard to write. Um.
Speaker 1: I wrote it in a die bar. It lost and
Speaker 1: found where where I don't think Gregor has been there,
Speaker 1: but Dan has occupied that space that anyone's ever done work.
Speaker 1: They were stunned. I was off in the corner for
Speaker 1: about seven hours, um, you know, with headphones on writing
Speaker 1: it and just in a notebook because I didn't want
Speaker 1: it was such a different time that I didn't want
Speaker 1: to sit in some sterile computer and write it. I
Speaker 1: had to remember and think about it, and they were
Speaker 1: not really easy times. Because as much as you can
Speaker 1: look at where all your friends are now and things
Speaker 1: work out okay, to the most part, it was a
Speaker 1: really I went to three colleges and three years and
Speaker 1: probably drove my parents. Absolutely, they were. They could not
Speaker 1: have been. They're very supportive, they always have been, but
Speaker 1: they were, obviously, I think, as I would now thinking
Speaker 1: about my own child doing that, very concerned because I
Speaker 1: would have these pay phone calls with them where I'd say,
Speaker 1: my goal is to work for the Cleveland Browns and meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I've just gotten an F in Japanese and a D
Speaker 1: in trees and shrubs, and they're wondering what on earth
Speaker 1: is happening. And and that all came through. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're I think the way you felt back then all
Speaker 1: comes through. And even though Belichick is sort of a
Speaker 1: secondary part of it, what you said West, I think
Speaker 1: that would resonate with a lot of people. How sports
Speaker 1: can be that that pillar that, for whatever reason, you
Speaker 1: just find yourself obsessed with. Maybe it's maybe it's to
Speaker 1: distract you from the realities of that you're kind of
Speaker 1: floating out there. And and it's cool to read these
Speaker 1: letters for you know people, obviously just check it out
Speaker 1: on the site Belichick Letters. You know, the letters from
Speaker 1: Belichick are kind of great. I wanted to read your
Speaker 1: your letters to obviously, it was great that you had pictures.
Speaker 1: There's a car on fire too. That's all, you know,
Speaker 1: it's all part of it. It was great that you
Speaker 1: kept all this stuff and and I I didn't even
Speaker 1: take Maybe I'm just naive, but I didn't even think
Speaker 1: that he wouldn't have dictated it because he says it.
Speaker 1: He says, he says, you can tell. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: your fellow students. I do manage to address each and
Speaker 1: every piece of correspondence at least eventually kind of assume
Speaker 1: he's just talking and there she's typing it. But but uh,
Speaker 1: but it's cool. It's cool the information that he sent you.
Speaker 1: I I've I've read everything that there is to read
Speaker 1: about Bill Belichick. Um, I can you know I'm about
Speaker 1: He's my favorite sports figure, I would say, of any
Speaker 1: sport period in sports history. And it's cool. There's sort
Speaker 1: of like a canon of like the great for me
Speaker 1: in my own head of like the great things that
Speaker 1: have been written about Baltchick or or anything. And it's
Speaker 1: it's cool that one of my friends is now written
Speaker 1: like one of those one of those pieces that that
Speaker 1: absolutely belongs at the top of it. And it's really
Speaker 1: more about It's really more about you. Two than than
Speaker 1: just him, but but he's a it's all cool how
Speaker 1: it works altogether. Twenty to twenty five years later, we
Speaker 1: understand that it's it's important to have balance and perspective
Speaker 1: in your life and have many interests, but you lose
Speaker 1: something in that process. You lose that obsession a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it took me back there. I really liked the
Speaker 1: journey that you took us on to go back to
Speaker 1: a time before you had adult responsibilities and when you
Speaker 1: could make big mistakes that would send your life careening
Speaker 1: in many different directions. Well, I definitely thought of I'm
Speaker 1: not just saying this of people like you that had
Speaker 1: a million jobs that we've talked about in other people
Speaker 1: that I just remember, you know. It's it's funny because
Speaker 1: there was no Facebook until a certain age in life,
Speaker 1: and everyone suddenly is married and uh it seems to
Speaker 1: have their act together at least online and then but
Speaker 1: there was a wide birth of eight to ten years
Speaker 1: where I was not the only loss, completely drifting individual.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of them, and that made friendship
Speaker 1: stronger and like it was also painful and amazing all
Speaker 1: at the same time. And it's it's cool because so
Speaker 1: much of sports writing is all written from the perspective
Speaker 1: of of a sportswriter, and and you are a sports writer.
Speaker 1: But the reality is most people that they experienced sports
Speaker 1: as a fan, they experienced sports in the way that
Speaker 1: you wrote. Write this article. That's true. Make sure you
Speaker 1: check it out if you haven't read it. If you
Speaker 1: don't read this article from Mark and you listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast, we will never forgive you NFL dot com
Speaker 1: slash belotchick letters. That's it's a it's a homework assignment
Speaker 1: from the Round the NFL podcast to our readers. You know,
Speaker 1: you know the podcast is free. We don't we don't
Speaker 1: ask for much. But read that article. Uh. That is
Speaker 1: if for today's show we don't have a Thursday night preview. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you really want to learn about our thoughts about
Speaker 1: this game, the Cardinals and and the forty nine ers,
Speaker 1: the Big Potential Drew Stanton, Blaine Gabbert Showdown, make sure
Speaker 1: you find on our YouTube channel, the NFL YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: We have a full preview of the game. We should
Speaker 1: be on Apple TV and whatnot to maybe my the
Speaker 1: power pull back in September. Not a banger. This videos
Speaker 1: a banger. There you go. So that's how you can
Speaker 1: find out our thoughts about that. But then uh, come Thursday,
Speaker 1: of course you will have our recap of that game
Speaker 1: with Wes and Greg and then the all the week
Speaker 1: five games previewed. So that's the next time you'll hear
Speaker 1: from us. Uh. So that's it. That's it, Mark. We
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to talk about you nailing the
Speaker 1: firing of Phillies hitting coach Steve Henderson. You gotta get
Speaker 1: to that tomorrow. Why do you say it now, ahead, Henderson?
Speaker 1: Well this you know this when I call it? Word
Speaker 1: of this. Um. You know, Dan, I'm not a huge
Speaker 1: I don't watch a lot of baseball, but I have
Speaker 1: a lot of sources inside MLB and I I just
Speaker 1: kind of got the Phillies obviously a struggling team. You
Speaker 1: want to let's just start right on paper. This is
Speaker 1: a hitting coach that directed the twenty nine UH attack
Speaker 1: in terms of hitting just a disastrous team out of
Speaker 1: dirty teams twenty nine and on base percentage twenty nine
Speaker 1: and slugging. I mean, right there, the resume speaks for itself.
Speaker 1: But I think it's also Steve Henderson's inability to connect
Speaker 1: with millennials and younger players. That's what I'm hearing as whispers. Now,
Speaker 1: that's there's some people gonna have an axe to grind.
Speaker 1: But also the team does not hit well. That's an issue.
Speaker 1: If you don't mind me asking, who do you think
Speaker 1: on the team stands the most again from Henderson being
Speaker 1: out of the picture, what I I know you're gonna
Speaker 1: want me to list someone on the current roster, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, really, the best the best crop of
Speaker 1: players to gain from this are their Triple A, their
Speaker 1: Double A, their minor players, the players coming up that
Speaker 1: are going to ut. They're gonna have better instruction going forward.
Speaker 1: Phillies fans finally have some hope. Okay, name one player
Speaker 1: in the Phillies, ed Cotch, ed Cotch third, you always
Speaker 1: wanted to make his dad proud of you, like you're
Speaker 1: the mayor while I'm in the big leagues. That's it
Speaker 1: for Tuesday's edition. And on the NFL podcast, my name
Speaker 1: is Dan Hands, signing off for the Quiet Storm, the Mailman,
Speaker 1: the Boss, and I said behind the glass Now Thursday
Speaker 1: two