Episode Transcript
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: It's time Time for the Burning River Sportscast. From Moneyball to Monkey Ball, the evolution of the Cleveland Browns continues and has fans maybe a little apprehensive. Stefanski had worn thin and we were all ready for him to go. Jim Schwartz had endeared himself to fans with his gritty attitude and a fair amount of success. Despite an off incapable of holding up their end of the bargain. Fans probably would have rallied support around Jim and been quite content with the move. Unfortunately, the Browns spent several weeks telling everyone they were looking for an unconventional candidate, a young up and coming offensive mind, potentially one willing to keep Jim Schwartz on as DC aligning with more modern NFL populist trends. And then we hired an older guy, a Cleveland coaching retread that wasn't overly popular in his last stint in Berea and by most accounts was the reason Harbaugh was fired in Baltimore February of 2026. It's impossible to know whether Monken Ball will be a huge hit or another failure, but given the mixed messaging coming from the Browns leading up to the change, it's fair to at least question whether or not they believe in this move. We'll break it all down for you next on the Burning River Sportscast.
Croissant.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Either talk different or have a different face.
Those are your choices.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: There's nothing wrong with his face. He's a nice looking face.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: You can't take it back now.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: I don't know if I'm the person that has this problem, but I have it probably.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: I don't know where this is going.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: But it's not gonna be good. A higher frequency of explosive diarrhea than most.
[00:02:42] Speaker C: We have a guy who blows up the toilets and everybody's like how does it even get there?
It's very confusing.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Todd Monken for his part is basically steered clear of these.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Freudian slip.
We had no idea about. This is breaking news about Todd Monken.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: I think we should do a charity event this year.
Punkin Chunking.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: I like that.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah Punkin chunking with Todd Monkey.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Let's get on this.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: I think there is a video of a tickle fight that says otherwise, my friend.
[00:03:23] Speaker C: Oh, he tickled him good.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's true. You don't think these guys that are with their first head coaching gig are looking at like, which we'll get to this guy in a minute. Bill Belichick and saying like, that's who I aspire be.
You can't be that if you started the Browns.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: No. Well, Bill Belichick did.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Pretty clear immediately. J.J. mcCarthy's ass. On to lighter topics, though.
That came out right.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Farts, farts.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: That's it. That's the fact.
Welcome in to the Burning River Sportscast presented by the fine folks at tap in media. I'm Kenny Thunder seated beside a man who I'm both surprised and disappointed he's lived this long. He' red hot Ronnie jams and on the board today. The last time I saw a face that looked like his, I fed it a banana. He's the big bone man.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Bone.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: What's the difference between a blind hunter and a constipated owl? Ooh, ooh.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: The owl hoots.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: One shoots but can't hit.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: One. The other one hoots but can't shit.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Back to red hot. Where can our listeners find the dopest dope they ever heard? On a podcast. The number one ranked football podcast and all the good pods. The official podcast of dozens of Cleveland Brownsbackers around the world and the unofficial podcast of Cleveland Brownsbackers everywhere.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: I like that your opening segment has become how long can I stump these guys with my jokes before I give them the punchline? You can find our podcast wherever each podcast. We're talking Apple podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio podcast, Castro Good Pods. We are number one ranked football podcast.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Number one. One number one.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: And leave a review and your preferred podcast app. It's the best way to help us grow. And don't forget to subscribe on YouTube. The only place you can find a video podcast. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram and Tick tock. Our handle for all those socials is at Burning for Sportscast. We are an X as well at the handle at Burning for Pod. While you're at it, check out our merch www.thetab media.com backslash shop. All kinds of stuff in there today on the show. This way you can look forward to the Browns brief. We have a coach.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: We do.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: We have a coach.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Smoke coming out of the stack in Berea.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's so much drama already surrounding this whole thing.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: At this point, the smoke's mostly cleared because we're weeks off.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, we're a little late on this, but, you know, we didn't record a.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Show last week, so. Yeah, we're late to the party.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Yep. Quick trip around the NFL. We were going to do a recap of whatever the hell that was that they call the Pro Bowl. I don't want to do that, so I'm not going to do it. And so we're going to bring you a quick super bowl preview instead.
Guys, it's super bowl week.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: It's finally here.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: The Browns couldn't be further from a.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Super bowl so far away. That's. That's true.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So we can't even sniff. I don't have anything funny to say there. I just want to say the Brown's going to be further. So with that, let's get things started with the burning of our new new.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Story of the week.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: All right, for the burning of a news story of the week, the Akron Rubber Ducks will officially become the Akan Chip Dippers.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yes, yes. You heard that right. The Akron Rubber Ducks will rebrand to the Akron chip dippers for two nights only on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20, as part of the Rubber Ducks created only in Akan series.
So this. I don't know if anybody like, like knows what this is, but basically, they do things that are just only for Macron. They rebrand their team into these things for a couple nights each season. They've done quite a few of them.
I think previously they were the Akron White French, which is the salad dressing that's sold here. Barberton Fried chicken and hot rice.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: I like Barberton chicken.
You know, Barberton is actually the fried chicken capital of the world.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Well, of course is.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Fried and lard, no seed oils.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys know the Akron cheese salads? I know you're a fan of those, Kenny.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: That would be Luigi's.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Yep. And the Akron Galley boys, which obviously is Swenson.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Swensons, they were actually just in town. They fed LeBron James before he played the Cavaliers crew.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: And the Akron galley boys, when they did that last year, was a dope ass logo, because it was like a galley boy. It was. It was a galley. It was literally the galley boy. He had, like, eyes and, like, ran around and stuff.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: So pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the galley boy is still, like, probably one of the best slaps mean. That's always good.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Shout out to my cousin. Whataburger is shit.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Wait, wait, wait, wait. It's not even on the same level.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: You never explained the chip dippers to our listeners.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: I'm not done. I'm not done. I was just letting you know that my Whataburger Shit.
Yeah. So the. The chip dippers. Let me go to the story here.
First of all, some background on the chip dippers. This is the. Lawson's chip dip is what they're paying homage to.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: I kind of don't like that they're the chip dippers and they didn't incorporate Lawson's in design. If it's a marketing, branding deal, rights thing. But, like, but it's not chip dip that's synonymous with Akron. It's Lawson's. I mean, Lawson's is the world's greatest chip dip. And it was manufactured here for.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: I think it's because they still wanted to maintain the city's name so they couldn't be like the Lawson's chip dippers. They were the. They're the Akron chip dippers.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: But I don't. She just. I don't know. Should be Lawson's.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Fair. But either way, some background on Lawson's chip dip. Around 1939, J.J. lawson started his own Lawson's Milk Company in Cuyahoga Falls.
As his business expanded, Lawson started offering more products, including his famous French onion chip dip. The popularity of Lawson's chip dip inspired other Ohio companies like Toff Dairy and Smith's Dairy to launch their own French onion dip throughout the state.
But over 80 years losses, chip dip has been number one.
And so again, Akan is paying homage to Akron's favorite chip companion for the last 80 years.
It's. And in their statement, they said chip dip has been a major part of Akan get togethers for decades. We're excited to celebrate Akron's chip dip history for a pair of knights this summer and find out who has the best chip dip in the area.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: You can go anywhere in the country and go to a grocery store and pick up a chip dip. But. But it's not the same as Lawson's. It is not even close. Lawson's is. It is otherworldly. And there's just something about it. It's the creamy smoothness of it. It's just. It's. You can't beat it.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: So I think that answers your question why Lawson's isn't incorporated. The only way Lawson's is incorporated into this thing is the colors are the purple and blue that you see with the Lawson's chip, the magenta in blue that you see with the Lawson's chip diploma.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: I never considered blue a part of their palette, but I guess it is. I always think of it as purple.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: And white, but it's white.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: But I guess purple. I guess the can. The.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: The.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: His arms and his. The outline is blue. Yeah. But anyways, they're the Akron rubber ducks are lumping in toft and Smiths to say, like, this is a big part of Akron.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Smith's is the dairy in the country.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah. So it's all together, but we all know the answer. Lawson ship dip is the best. It's not even close.
It's liter. Not even close. The fact, the fact that Lawson's the company. Lawson's like gas, like convenience store has been bought several times over. They just keep Lawson's chip dip. That tells you everything, you know about how good it is. So, yeah.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Are you guys ruffles guys or lays guys?
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Ruffles with the chip. With.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: With chip tip. I like ruffles just because the, the ridges make it easier to dip, you know, so much. I mean, I know you can get lays.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: The lasers are. Are wavy. They're really thick. Like there's. They're big channel.
The ruffles are small channel.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: If you're talking about just the chip, I like lays. But if we're going chip dip, I'm probably buying ruffles.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: I think I go ruffles across the board. Even their flavored chips are good.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Well, everybody knows you're an idiot, so.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: But there's just something about those ruffles and Lawsons. You can't beat it.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Yep. Bonus news story real quick.
Olympian Red Gerard has created a Cleveland inspired pro model snowboard for the upcoming Winter Olympics, complete with a map of the city and a guardian of traffic from Hope Memorial Bridge on it.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: So people love these guardian statues.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Yeah. He said his quote was, I'm from Cleveland. There's such a great fan base there, and I'm so thankful for the people there. And my whole family's.
Excuse me.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah, right there.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: It's cold season.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: And my whole family still lives there. So just bringing it all back to there was the whole idea. So it's pretty cool that a guy that's from the area is honoring Cleveland on his snowboard in the Winter Olympics. So.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Milan Cortina Olympics.
Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Those ones.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Bonus. Bonus. New story of the week.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Oh, nice. More.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Did you guys see those Lindsey Vaughn business?
[00:11:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I heard she's.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: She's going, but that tore her acl.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: And it's still gonna go.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: It's crazy. I mean, she's like 41.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: You would think.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: I think we're all here for some Lindsey Von.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I don't have any problems with Lindsey Vaughn. It's just a wild story.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Just want to be the Olympics without her, you know?
[00:11:56] Speaker B: And, I mean, I guess, like, this is probably her, what, last Winter Olympics, I would guess.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: Has to be. She's like 90. In Olympics.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: In Olympics. World. Yeah.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: World.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: She's ancient. So maybe you just strap on a brace and say, to hell with it. But I would think, like, downhill skiing, snowboarding. Need your knees quite important for that.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Bo, you're having knee issues. You think you could ski?
[00:12:19] Speaker C: I bet she was able to get an mri.
That's something I'm not able to get, apparently.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: This is a. That's foreshadowing. That's foreshadowing. We're gonna do a gassed up today's.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Grievances right here on air.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we're gonna do a gassed up today.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: I did. I. I did have a thought, though, just that, you know, who did Lindsey Von used to date?
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Tiger Woods.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Tiger Woods. And he did win a US Open on a torn acl. So maybe she's just like, if Tiger can do it, yeah, why can't I?
[00:12:45] Speaker A: That's true.
Yeah. So those are the new stories of the week.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Didn't think we'd be going there.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Neither did I. Before we get to the Browns, why.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Would we want to talk about the Browns on a Browns podcast?
[00:13:00] Speaker A: I don't know.
Let me remind everybody. Call the Burning for Sports, guys.
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Call that Leave your hot takes on the Hot Take Hotline. I think we do have one hot take from the Hot Take Hotline.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Get a hot take.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Let's hear it.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Are you excited?
[00:13:12] Speaker A: I'm excited.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Here we go.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Hey, guys, it's Menachem from the Brownsbackers of North Jersey in a couple weeks. Just want to say hi, see how you guys are doing. Also, Congrats on episode 150. Listen to it last week. Quite good.
I got a hot take. It's about the Rooney rule. I like the idea of it, but the. The fact that a virtual interview doesn't count as an interview might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
It's an interview. They post it on social media. We've interviewed whoever it is, and then it's not considered an interview. It's the most ridiculous thing ever. These virtual interviews, if they don't count towards the Rooney rule. They shouldn't count as interviews and you shouldn't be allowed to do. That's my hot take.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: I got nothing against Angry Bobby this week.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: It's been a while since I've seen him and spoke to him so I don't have anything to say about him. But chances are if we're powering him, he'd still be, you know, right there after Mrs. Angry Bobby and the boys. All right, have a great week.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Love the show.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: We'll speak soon. All the best. I really was hoping to be able to make fun of whoever left a hot take this week and I can't because I agree with that. Like why? What is the point? Why? If you're saying that counts as an interview, why does it not count as an interview? Towards the Rooney.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: The craziest thing about the Rooney rule. We'll talk in depth about the Rooney rule later. But was just that at one point in this coaching cycle we were looking at like Nate She Rojas and like he. We couldn't hire him because we didn't interview enough candidates of color.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: He was potentially the guy we were going.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: We could have hired him as our.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: We couldn't have hired him because.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Couldn't even though he would have been considered a minority candidate for the role because we didn't interview another one. Like, like if the, if the whole goal is to create diversity and get more, you know, African Americans especially like in that seat and then you make it, you can't hire them.
You, you have to wait until you interview more.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: It's the whole point of like once you've succeeded in a mission, you just like stop in the sales world. You make the sale. You just shut up.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Quit selling any. Once they say yes and sign you stop selling them things.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: That's it. Yeah, I don't, I don't really know. I agree with you, Manakum on all fronts. Bobby is dead last.
You know Bobby on there catching straight face.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Now that we've met Menaka, at least virtually the more I listen to him, his voice doesn't match his face.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah, there's just something about your voice.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: It doesn't piss me off. It just. Yeah, you said the more, the more I hear him then on these calls and I'm thinking like talk different does not sound like the monogam looks or.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Either talk different or have a different face.
Those are your choices.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: There's nothing wrong with his face. He's a nice looking man.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: You can't take it back now.
You can't take it back all right, so leave us your hot takes on the hot take hotline.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Thank you for calling Monocum. We love monochrome.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Yeah, we want hot takes. We want hot takes. 330-2278, 0813-302278, 0813-3022-7808-0330-2278-081333-02278, 081-call now. We're not standing by. We'll put you on the air.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: The burning River Monacan line.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Good job.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Hotline.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Monaka hotline. I like it.
And with that, let's go ahead and get into the brown.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: So many parts.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: The ending from bone. I like it.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: You know what?
Before we get into this, I just got a quick question for you guys.
Speaking of farts. For me, I don't know if I'm the only person that has this problem, but I have it probably.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: I don't know where this is going.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: But it's not going to be good. A higher frequency of explosive diarrhe than most.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Why is this in the. Why does this shit make it. Literally, why does this shit make it in the show?
[00:17:06] Speaker C: It should definitely be in the show.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: I'm just thinking, like, I don't like. How often do you guys clean your toilet bowl?
Just anytime there's a mark in it. Like, I don't like. For me, I guess I have to do it every day because that's just. It's just my bigger gripe is like, shouldn't we make toilets out of something that poop doesn't stick to?
[00:17:26] Speaker C: I find it amazing sometimes that it does to that porcelain. It's coated in water and sometimes other chemicals that are in the toilet.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: How does it get so stuck on there?
[00:17:34] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Like, porcelain should be pretty slippery fiber, I would think.
I would think that's the reason we chose porcelain is because most stuff slides off of it. But for whatever reason, poop seems to stick to it an awful lot.
Also, thinking about explosive diarrhea, one final tangent here.
Have you guys reached a point in your old age where your explosive diarrhea has a direction? Because it's always the same quadrant of the bowl? And I'm like, why does my butthole point that direction?
[00:18:02] Speaker A: What the fuck is happening?
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Like, I would think when it explod explodes like that, it just should go everywhere. But no, it just always shoots back into the right for me. Do you guys have a right? You guys have a direction?
[00:18:13] Speaker C: It's like an ongoing thing at work. We have a guy who blows up the toilets. And everybody's like, how does it even get there?
It's very confusing.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Red iron is checked out.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: I just got a notification that my. The. The baby's room is hot right now.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: I feel like this is a great topic because I feel like most people who work in. In some type of office building or.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: You know, with people walk into bathrooms and question, like, how the. Did that guy shit there? Yeah.
[00:18:39] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Like, no way it was me.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: So you guys don't have a preferred direction?
[00:18:47] Speaker A: You should really take a look back there and see why it's shooting in specific directions. That's.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Check that out for me.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: No.
Absolutely. Now that's a job for Mrs. Kenny Thunder.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: I just don't understand why it only goes in one direction.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Absolutely not. We'll probably get a good look at it when you get punished for losing King of the north this year.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Third component of this tangent. Last night, I almost shit myself.
I really had some gurgling going on.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Pathetic loser.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: I really had some gurgling going on as I was sitting on the couch watching the end of Stranger Things.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: If you have that going on, you need to get up and make moves.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: And I was like, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it to the end. And then probably, like, three minutes from the end of Stranger Things, I sneezed, and it came out of nowhere, and it was a hard sneeze, and it just. And I was like, oh, man, I just shit myself here on the couch.
Luckily, I didn't, but I was really very concerned.
I just wanted to share that with.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: You guys.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Because at my age, you probably shouldn't be shitting yourself, but I was really afraid.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: That does happen every now and then.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: It was just one of those hard, powerful sneezes, you know, I wasn't. It wasn't ready and expecting it, and it came out of nowhere. And just at the same time, the Sphinxer let loose.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: All right, and now we're going to get into the Browns brief.
I'm pausing for Sounder again because.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Oh, we're running the Sounder again. Yeah, we're gonna run it back.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Had to separate the rest of the show from that nonsense. The hell was that?
This is like, at the end of our. At the end of our show when you run the Sounder. I'm sorry, I hijacked your. To do some good podcasting. Like, this is the good pod podcast.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: That wasn't good podcast.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: No, that was terrible.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: All right.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: I am appalled. I'm not appalled. Paul's over there.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Paul's over there.
[00:20:47] Speaker C: Can I pause one second? Oh, God.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: That's wild.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Anyways, now it's time for the Browns brief.
The Browns coaching search update. We got one for you. They've got a coach.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: We got a coach.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: We've got a coach. It's Todd Monken.
Or as Kenny calls him, monkey business.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Monkey ball.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Kenny, Give me one word that comes to mind when you think of Todd as Brown's head coach.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Bananas.
This is bananas. B A N A N A S.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: So you're not going with exciting.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: I think we specifically said as we were running through the list of candidates on the last show, the only candidate that we weren't overly excited about was Todd Monkin.
[00:21:28] Speaker C: That. That literally came up.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: That was like a quorum. Anybody but Todd Monkin across the board. And it wasn't so much that we didn't want Todd Monkin, it was just.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: That he was not excited.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: He was not. He was not. Not intriguing or interesting to the level the other candidates were.
[00:21:45] Speaker C: And that's all. That's just what it is.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And. And to your point, like there was other young exciting candidates that they had been saying for weeks, which we'll get to this whole thing, but they've been saying for weeks that they were the front runners for the job and instead we go with 59 year old Todd Monken. So, yeah, you know who else is not excited?
Miles Garrett.
Because immediately after Todd Monkin was. Was hired, he tw a. What was it?
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Instagram story.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: An Instagram story. That's what it was. And it was a convenience store worker. I think it's a Popeyes fast food employee employee with. Outside on a break with his head down in his hands, just depressed, looking dejected. So clearly Miles Garrett's not that excited about it. And I think this just is simply because I don't think it's a thing against Todd Monkin. I think it's more so because he was probably the most outspoken guy for Jim Schwarzenegger Schwartz being head coach.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Well, a lot of the defensive guys, I mean, Zell was. Was vocal about it as well. So I think there was. I think there was a hope in the building that they were going to bring in, as the Browns had themselves said, a young offensive mind that would be willing to keep Jim Schwartz on staff because he led one of the best defenses in the NFL for the last couple of years. So, you know when you. And when you don't hire Jim Schwartz or this young offensive mind and you go with Todd Monken, who's been here before, and is an older guy and probably has. Is well networked and is going to bring in a lot of his own guys. Jim Schwartz probably is. Is a casualty in that.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Yeah. You mentioned Denzel Ward. He, on the other hand, when asked about Monkin said, quote, I'm just looking forward to us having an amazing offense.
So it's kind of like a double edged sword. There is like a, like a, some praise for Todd Monken and also a shot at Kevin Stefanski on his way out the doors. So true. Just. Just kind of funny to see. And it's the first time anybody's fully acknowledged that bluntly that the offense was just ass last year, so.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Also true. And it was ass.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Player wise. Player wise, yeah.
So filling out his staff.
And he said this about the process. Todd Monket said this about the process. He says they're spending their time right now building an elite staff and they've done that these last couple.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Elite and the Browns are probably words that usually don't in the same sentence very often ever.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: But that staff so far includes the following. Daniel Stern, associate head coach, while he's interviewing.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Expected to be hired.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Expected to be hired.
George Warhop, offensive line coach. He was actually with the Browns prior to this a ways back, oh 9.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: To 13, I think.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: And when they hired him, Joe Thomas actually was tweeting and he said this is an amazing hire. He's an awesome offensive line coach.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: He's been around the league for a long time, since 96. So me and seen a lot of football.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: He coached Joe Thomas for a good portion of his career. So that's a Hall of Fame left tackle. So yeah, the guy's pretty good.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Travis Switzer, Is that how you say it?
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah, this one, this one was funny to me because this was lauded kind of all around is like, this is a great hire.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's the offensive coordinator.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: 33 years old, has had one job in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: Great hire.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Yeah, great, great hire.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: He's probably familiar with Akron chip dip.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, he is.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Well, he, he does get us. Yes.
[00:25:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I'm not, I'm not even saying it's a bad hire. Just it's funny how they say these things when you just get to know.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he might be a really good hire. But what we do know is that he does get us because, yeah, he.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Went to the University of Akron. He played football there.
Not sure if that's a flex or not. University of Akron is pretty ass.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: But hey, they had Charlie Fry once.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: They don't anymore.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: He was a Heisman candidate.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: They' consistently like one of the worst teams in Division 1 football.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Did they win the wagon Wheel this year?
[00:25:32] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: I don't think so.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Probably not.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: They lost everything.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: The worst teams in Division 1 football every year. Anyways.
What?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Never mind.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: In case. In case you were wondering, Todd Monkin is calling the place. So we're back to this whole thing like, who should be calling the place, who should we. Who should not be calling the plays. Right now. Todd Monkey gets a pass because. Because we haven't seen him call plays yet. So just something to keep an eye on as. As things unfold here because we're hoping everything goes swimmingly, but if it doesn't, I. I'm sure that's going to be a topic of discussion pretty quick.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: And Monkin obviously was here before, I think, on the Freddy Kitchen staff, and I don't think that he necessarily called plays. I think Freddy was very involved there because there were.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Which is funny that he ended up being the guy because he had some really choice words to say about his time in Cleveland before.
In prior interviews a few years back.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: It was well documented that on the field before games, he would rail about how much of a dumpster fire Cleveland was and that Freddie would do things like call plays that weren't on the play sheet.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Since then, it seems to have been spun as like it's more of a Freddy Kitchens issue and not a Cleveland issue. Like it was Freddy Kitchens going wrong.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: It's always. It's always easy to blame that guy. Right? I mean, I mean, not just Freddy Kitchens, but any of these Browns coaches that failed. I mean, you can say, oh, Jadzynski was this and Hugh Jackson was that. Like, it's easy to.
To make those guys your. Your whipping post, like they got fired.
[00:26:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Some other coaches here, though. Danny Brayer, Brier pass game coordinator. Mike, was it Bajakian, QB's coach.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Jeff Blasco, tight ends coach.
And while we're on this topic, is Jim Schwarz staying or going? What do you guys think?
[00:27:15] Speaker B: I mean, the initial reports were Jim Schwartz is gone. Right.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: He told people when. When the head coaching came down, he building. He was furious, kind of stormed out, told everybody he wasn't coming back, was just visibly upset.
But since then, pretty much every likely landing spot for Jim Schwartz has been filled.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: So there's a lot of jobs in the NFL, There's a lot of jobs in college.
I can't see a way this guy comes back. And it seems like the Browns are standing on business here. They've kind of said, hey, you're under contract.
So pretty much the only way out would be to retire.
But I have a hard time believing that they wouldn't let him out.
But I just. I can't see a scenario in which he comes back after the way things unfolded. You interview the guy twice for the head coaching gig. He had the support of the locker room and the players.
If your girlfriend dumps you a week before the prom, are you taking her?
Probably not, right?
[00:28:14] Speaker A: I don't know. I mean, I. The only thing that I would think is Jim Schwartz probably still wants a chance to continue to work with this defense and just build his resume for another head coaching gig that he's going to get.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah. But I think in his mind, he was snubbed and stood up by the Browns.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: That's fair. Todd Monken, for his part, is basically steered clear of these.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Freudian slip.
We had no idea about. This is breaking news about Todd Monken.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: All right.
Yeah. So Todd Monken has steered clear of all of the Jim Schwartz talk. Really the only things he said about it is when he was asked about Jim Schwartz, he said, I didn't take this job because of Jim Schwartz. I have a lot of respect for him and I hope he does for me as well. But when I was preparing for the Cleveland Browns the last few years, I was preparing to chip Miles Garrett, not Jim Schwartz. Schwartz. It's been a. To go against this defense six times in the last three years, schematically and more importantly, because of the players. The players are why I came here.
So, I mean, a little bit of a dig at Jim Schwartz. Like, I don't really care if you stay or go. It doesn't matter to me. But at the same time, I think it was respectful, like it was. It was just kind of like a. Like I'm.
I think it was a. There's 32 jobs. I. I'm sorry that I won the head coaching job.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: He's praising the players, too, at the same time.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Right, Right. So, like, yeah, in.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: In every case, I mean, these guys are saying what they have to say. Right. Todd Monkin's gonna. Going to say, hey, good things about the Browns players, I would think, topically, again, across the board. Right. Jim Schwartz has now been snubbed by this organization for a job that he thought he deserved, thought he was going to get.
That probably checks a box that says Jim Schwartz isn't coming back. Todd Monkin's coming in as a brand new head coach, has his Own network, his own guys. He's probably going to bring them.
When you add all those things together, I don't see a scenario in which Jim Schwartz comes back, which, look, I like Jim Schwartz a lot, and I would have been fine if they had hired Jim Schwartz.
I do think there's. And I said this couple weeks ago, like, we have to get out of our fears a little bit here. Like, Jim Schwartz brought this team and this defense to a certain level, then it was very good. Who's to say that Todd Mungen doesn't bring in a guy that can bring them to the next level and be even better?
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And to that point, Todd Monkett has basically said, look, we're keeping the same exact scheme. Every. This scheme is built for these players, and we're everything the same.
And it's a weird thing. Like, I understand defensive coordinators have their schemes that they like to run and whatever the case may be, but, I mean, these guys are all NFL coaches. You don't think they can adapt and say, you know, I'm going to run a three, four, when I usually run a four or three, if that's what the personnel calls for.
Like, I. To your point, he's going to. If Jim Schwartz leaves, he's bringing somebody in that's going to do exactly that.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And look, and I know Monk is an offensive guy, but if you're an offensive coach, you scheme against defenses. So he understands the concepts and what they were running and what the players do well and what you had to defend against as an offense playing this defense. So he certainly understands that conceptually. And it's. It's the old adage. Right. Like the NFL, all these teams are. It's a copycat league. They all run the same shit. Right. So it's not like Jim Schwartz has some kind of patent on what he does. You know, there's a lot that goes into coaching and how you motivate players and the discussions you have and whatever your different, you know, techniques and points of emphasis are.
But at the end of the day, it's. It's scheme and concept, and those are things that can be matched. And Todd Monken's at least acknowledging that. We need to maintain a lot of what's been done here.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
And if you needed to know how big of a topic or issue this has become, when Jimmy Haslam was asked about it, he said, I think Jim and Jim's future is a subject for another day. He just completely shut it down. I was like, we're not talking about.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: This right now, which again checks another box for there's no way Jim Schwartz comes back into this man mess.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So Todd Monken for his part has said all the right things in his press conferences so far. I mean literally we're getting the polar opposite of Kevin Stefanski so far. Just a few of the sound bites that I liked that he, in his opening press conference is that I think you have to hold the players accountable for what they say, for what they say their dreams and aspirations are.
One of the very first things he talked about was the thing that everybody complained that Kevin Stefanski never did was hold anybody accountable.
Except for apparently when he's going out the door and all these people that are talking about how great he was say he held everybody accountable. Yes, we will. So, so that was a big one for me. And then another huge quote from him. Our job as coaches is to, to develop systems that allow our players to play fast and maximize their ability to abilities.
Something that Kevin Stefanski had no idea how to do.
Absolutely none. Like we didn't play to our players skills and abilities at all.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: Kevin definitely had better hair.
He was much more handsome, much younger, Much younger, much more polished. Monken kind of looks like he's teaching a 90s Sunday school group.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: His voice was completely gone in this. He sounds like he might die soon.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Just ill fitting. Blazer, untucked shirt and jeans kind of, kind of was like to your point, the polar opposite of Kevin.
[00:33:38] Speaker C: Like I believe, I believe he teared up first thing.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Here's a sloppy football guy versus like the polished academic.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I don't have any, I don't have any huge problems.
[00:33:48] Speaker A: A lot of stories about growing up. All he wanted to do was, was be like a football player for Halloween and like do football things and get football toys and games and whatever.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: And yeah, again like this isn't anything against Todd Monken. Like we weren't excited about Monkin, but the guy's been in the league for a long time, he's paid his dues. It's. It's probably his turn to get a shot and that's fair.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: I think we should do a charity event this year called Monk and Punkin. Chunkin.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: I like that.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Punkin Junkin with Todd Monkey.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Let's get on this.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: I don't even know where I was going with that. But I guess my point, the only thing I was trying to say was like, like regardless of how we feel today, no one knows whether he's going to be successful or fail.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: It.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: It seemed Odd in the moment that they went with him.
But at this point what, what can we do? You're going to sit and wait and see how this thing goes.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think you wrapped it up pretty nicely at the beginning of this is like this is a guy we weren't excited for. I'm not saying he's a bad choice. I'm just saying I don't know like at this point now, now instead of being excited I'm just. But let's see what happens.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: I mean in some ways, in some ways it's better than taking a gamble on a guy that you knew nothing about.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: The biggest, the biggest hang up is the Jim Schwartz thing is like you passed up our 60 year old coach to take a guy that's 59.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Well the biggest hang up or a.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: 58 year old is the way they're one year off. Whatever it is.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: The biggest hangup is the way that the Browns had communicated the coaching search up until the point they hired Todd Monkin which was this didn't look like the type of guy that they said they were wanted Y and what is.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: The point of the subterfuge when when nobody else is looking at Todd Monket.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: That was the next thing right. Is if he truly was and I, I think this is maybe next on the list.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Well coaching search issue. So yeah we're getting into it right now. That's, that's next on the list is just all of the things that happened during the coach.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: If he would truly was your top choice.
Why why be clandestine about it when it wasn't like he was interviewing a five other head coach positions. Then you were afraid he was going to get stolen out of the mix.
Like how did that not come out that he was the leading man?
[00:36:01] Speaker C: Did he interview with any other team?
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Besides it's not been. It's not been documented officially anywhere else. There was.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: I think the Giants was the offensive coordinator.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: There were. He was up for offensive coordinator jobs.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: And I don't even think he interviewed. I think John Harbaugh was just like that's who I plan on bringing if.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: New York would sense because Harbaugh has a relationship with him. So I think that's where people thought he would end up. But, but again to the point point like it wasn't some, this wasn't somebody that was sought after by the rest of the league highly in any kind of way that the Browns should have been threatened about.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It was just weird and just again coaching search issues like all the things that came up during this. Like, what is the deal with all the hoops that they made these coaches jump through when they're doing the interview? Like the multi part essays, like all the other that they had them do? Like, that was just asinine.
Um, why is Jimmy Haslam, like I understand he's the owner, so he wants to be involved in the coaching search, but why is he? I mean, outside looking in, it looked like Andrew Barry did nothing. It looked like it was Jimmy Haslam finding a coach.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Well, it looked like there's tension in the building. You have Andrew Barry coming out to press conferences saying, hey, we're looking for a young, hot up and coming offensive mind. And then you have the guy that Jimmy picked. So I think the question starts to become now what is Andrew Barry's long term future here in Cleveland? Does that, does this start to bifurcate in the same, same way that it did with Stefanski on draft night last year where hey, this is the initial rub and now we're going in two different directions and if Andrew Barry is saying, hey, this is what I would have done and if you're going to go against my advice, you know you can.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just that we can't do anything without browsing it up.
We can't.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: It's the only way.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: And here's the thing too is like you had all these guys dropping out, out. We had like three candidates I think drop out right in the middle of it. And three candidates that were at the time supposedly some of our top candidates.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: And that was maybe almost the most embarrassing part of it to me.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: I think what happened was they wanted you. Dinsky, I think he was the guy. And then when he dropped out, they're like, I guess we'll go with Todd Monken. I don't know.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: So can I float a theory?
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Yeah, go ahead.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: I agree with you. I think the Browns were high on, we want a young, hot up and cominging offensive mind. Udinsky, Shieldhouse were probably on top of their list.
I think as Mike McDaniel and Yudinsky and these guys started to fall off, I think there was a point in time where they realized we're not going to get what we want this year.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: The young up and comer doesn't want.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Us, doesn't want us, and somebody has to coach this team next year. So Todd Monken is a very conservative, very safe answer to that. And if Todd Monkin comes in and turns Shador into a pro Bowler, even though he already turns him into an all star quarterback and they start winning a bunch of games.
This looks like a genius move. If they win nine or 10 games next year, you go, Brown's front office finally got something right. If he fails next year and they win three or four games and you come into the 2027 campaign with the very first overall pick in the draft and you say look, Todd Monk and tried didn't work out. There's no harm lost. No one's going to, no one's going to cry over Todd Monk and getting fired next year if they think they can lure the candidate they want with the first overall pick. Hey, we tried this didn't work. Like, we still have a lot of great talent here, but you're going to have the chance to pick your quarterback and start this whole thing over. And I think that is very likely what happened here because like you said, these, these guys are just dropping like flies.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: But if you're a young coach, why would you want to come here right now?
Why? You, you, there's no reason because you're, you're looking at probably a one or two year stint and you're, it's going to be terrible and you're going to be looked at as like now I got to wait another 10 years for a couple coaching job.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: And so these, these young guys, they're smart. I mean there's a reason why they're the hot young guys in the NFL. Hot young guys. Why they're the hot young guys in the NFL. And like every, they were sought after coaches this year.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: And they know that they could go pretty much anywhere in the next couple years. Why would you take the Browns job instead of waiting for something better and ruin your chances of. I mean you don't think these guys that are with their first head coaching gig are looking at, at like which we'll get to this guy in a minute. Bill Belichick and saying like that's who I aspire be. You can't be that if you start start with the Browns.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: No. Well, Bill Belichick did.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: I mean as point Kenny Thunder as a head coach.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Bill Belichick did agree. I think what's what you might be able to lure that candidate with next year is the first overall pick. Because if you pick, let's just say Archmage Manning has a great season next year and he's the consensus number one overall. As a young head coach coming into an organization that hasn't had success, you can tie yourself to an arch Manning and buy yourself three to five years. Right. Like if you invest in the Number one overall pitch.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: Let me develop him.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: You go, let me develop so you. So right now there's uncertainty with Shador. There's.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: And that's so easy because he's guaranteed to be like, top three pick. Like, you know, you can't miss with you, quote, unquote, can't miss with him.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Right. There's going to be like, it's going to be Archman or somebody that fired.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Way better for picking the guy that everyone thinks you should pick.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: And even if you don't have success right away, if you win three games, two, five games the first couple seasons with a. A number one overall pick, rookie quarterback, you can. You can survive that.
[00:41:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: If this team goes 2 and 15 again next year, that ain't good.
[00:41:31] Speaker C: You're.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: You're not good.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: No. No.
And so Todd Monkin, the new head coach, is. Bottom line, this is how coaches have fared in Cleveland since 1999, though. So let me just. I'm gonna pull up these 1999 and 2000. Chris Palmer, 5 and 27.
Solid. Yeah. 2001, 2004. Butch Davis, 24 and 35. 2005, 2008. Romeo Cornell, 24 and 40. 2009. 2010. Eric Manini, 10 and 22.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: And genius.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Pat Shermer, 11 to 12, 9 and 23. 2013. Rob Chidinski, 4 and 30.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: 12.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: And then you get into 14 to 15. Mike Petton, 10 and 22, 16 to 18. Hugh Jackson, 3, 36 and 1.
Freddy Kitchens in 19, 6 and 10. And then Kevin Stefansky, 20 to 25, who everyone thinks is such a great coach. 45 and 56 and now 20, 26 and beyond with Todd Monkin, what are we going to do? So it hasn't been easy. No, this has been terrible. Terrible.
So if they did pick the right guy, to your point, this was the low risk, high reward move, and we'll see what happens. Is Monk in the guy? Can he turn it around?
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Probably not.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: If I was a. I'm not a betting man, I'm not going to go there.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think the other. I think.
I think a lot of the trend in the NFL has been, let's bring in these younger guys, Sean McVeighs of the world.
Because. Because that guy, if he's good, can coach, keep him for a long time. Forever.
If you bring in a Todd Monkin and he's really successful here, you get.
[00:43:10] Speaker A: Him for five years, and then he's gonna be.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: I mean, what does that timeline look like?
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Now, granted, you probably get him for 10.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: The Browns would love to have five years of really good football, but let's.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Say I'd love to have one year of really good football.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Let's say you stumble a little bit out of the gate and you have a year, two, three years of mediocre to bad football before things start to click and he gets into year five and six and you're going to, hey, you're 66, 67 now. And this isn't to be ageist. It's just the reality of like there's not a lot of 70 year old plus coaches in the NFL. There's Pete Carroll, but there's not a lot of those.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: I mean it's a very demanding job.
Well, yeah, like as far as the hours that you put in and everything else.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: So I guess it's just like it's. Is it a long term answer? Like I, I don't know. I mean again, I would take five or six great years of football if Todd Monkin's awesome. But.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: And then with Todd Monkin being the head coach. Todd Monkin was ever everyone's. Including Andrew Barry's top choice for head coach throughout the process, per, you guessed it, Mary Kay Cabot.
[00:44:06] Speaker C: Ah, no way.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: So her quote was, the truth is Monkin was the strong number one choice of everyone on the search committee, including Barry.
Kenny, I believe it was you that said in our last episode, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something along the lines of, well, it doesn't matter who we picked because whoever we picked, they're going to come out and say it was the guy that we wanted from the, the very beginning.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: The Browns are always trying to win that PR battle.
Yeah, I mean, look, we telegraphed that a couple weeks ago. So again, I find it hard to believe that Todd Monken was number one on the board, but.
[00:44:41] Speaker C: Who better to report that than Mary Kay Cabin.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: But you knew it was coming.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: She's the worst.
She has never broken a story in her entire life.
And then, you know, just some more on the owner GM relationship. Here, here.
Jimmy Haslam just kind of out of nowhere.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: Yeah. This was an unforced error.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
Made it very clear that it was Andrew Barry alone who was responsible for the Deshaun Watson debacle. I don't even know the leading question for this, but I know that his quote was, Andrew Barry brought the idea of a fully guaranteed contract to us and said this is what I think would get it done. So you put this squarely on Andrew Barry and he's still Here and he's still here. So for all you people that are Barry fans because of this one good draft he had last year here, this is the guy that has hamstrung this team for the last however many years because of the deshaun Watson trade, and he's still here.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: That's. I did not know he said that. This is insane.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:38] Speaker C: How's this guy still have a job?
[00:45:41] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: I mean, we've said. I mean, we've been saying that this is all along, right? Like, I don't know how you survived for years. What is basically now generally accepted is the worst move in NFL history.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: It's either accepted as the worst trade or like top two, top two or three.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: I mean, how do you survive that? Especially when you pair in mediocre draft classes around it.
The, the only thing Andrew Barry has ever gotten credit for that is a positive for this team is he's a wizard with the cap, he's a good number cruncher, and he had one good draft.
So I don't know. That was a weird, it was a weird moment for Haslam to say that.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: You know what's crazy is, is.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Shador.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Sanders now goes down as a Pro Bowler drafted by Andrew Barry, which again, we'll get to the Pro bowl stuff in a minute. But yeah, I don't know how he's still here.
It's just mind boggling that he was, he orchestrated that. It was his idea. He cooked that up all by himself, brought it to them. They signed off on it and it blew up in their face. And they said, you know what? We'll give you another shot.
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and then there's also been subsequent news reports that Kevin Stefanski wanted to keep Baker. So, I mean, the blame lies.
Blame lies solely on Andrew. Andrew Barry, according to, According to public record.
[00:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah. So I don't, I don't know. And speaking of desean Watson, it's. It's sounding like he might get a legitimate shot at the starting job because Todd Monkin, that was one of the other things that I picked up in his press conference. He was very non committal on who the QB one for this team is going forward, which you kind of have to be. He hasn't really been in the building. He hasn't really. I'm sure he hasn't had a head.
Kevin Ski would love this. He hasn't had a chance to, to watch the tape and see what he sees and go back and do some work. But yeah, I just, I don't Know, I, I thought this was interesting that he left this open. He didn't say, well, we got a couple young quarterbacks that we could work with here.
You know, he left it open for, for desean Watson to be the starting quarterback going into next season.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: I think there is a video of a tickle fight that says otherwise, my friend.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: Oh, he tickled him good.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
I think he's supposed to be grabbing his arm, but it really just looks like he's tickling.
[00:47:53] Speaker B: Sanders cracking.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: And that actually turned into a big thing because everybody was like, well, Shador Sanders in the building meeting Todd Monkin and DeSean Watson is over on a boat in Italy or wherever the he is. So, you know, doing desean Watson things.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: True.
Well, to be fair, Shadora doesn't have the type of money that deshaun Watson has.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: He has enough money to be on a boat in Italy if he wants to.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: I don't know, man. He was like selling cleats and jerseys to pay for his bills.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: So, yeah, that's a PR move.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Especially after he got robbed.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: Should I say?
[00:48:22] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, I think again, going back to how much money this.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: Anders makes off of just like his.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Social media shit, this Nike contract, every.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Time he has a play, everything he does, anything. Yeah, get out of here.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: Todd Monket has to say this, right? I mean, this is the pr. You don't know what's going to happen in the draft. You don't know what moves Andrew Barry might want to make a quarterback this year. He's apparently the guy that's solely, unanimously in charge of making the quarterback moves and contracts. So who knows what that guy's going to do. Loose cannon. So you have to kind of be non committal, which I don't read into that anything other than he's just saying what he has to on day one.
Look, we know the quarterback conversation is a question mark for this football team, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I have a hard time believing desean is going to be A, healthy to, you know, to sustain health at this point after the injuries he's had.
Um, you know, he's a guy that was a fairly mobile quarterback and he's had Achilles and ankle injuries now the last couple of years. So what does that do to his game? And two or B, like, if he is healthy, is he any good? He hasn't played football in a couple of years now.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: We've also talked about this at length on our show though, that that could, I mean, we've seen Kevin Stefanski, who at first was known as a quarterback whisperer, is. I mean, in my opinion is the quarterback killer. Like, he's, he's terrible with quarterbacks.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: I agree with you. But he also hasn't played football now for a really long time.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Agreed. Agreed.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: So is he any good anymore? Can he still read defensive? If he gets on the field quickly.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: And is anything above average, Kevin Stefanski is going to look like a. An idiot.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: True. And to be fair, again, just to Todd Monkin, I know people are upset about the Sean Watson. Nobody wants to see him play again. If DeSean Watson is your best quarterback.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: In camp, be a coach.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: As the coach, you should put the best players on the field. So if that's coming from.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: We like Shador. We think that's probably the best out going forward. That's what's best for the future of the team. But.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: But if you have a legitimate quarterback competition in OTAs and camp and in the preseason and you said he's going.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: To have a comeback year. Comeback year next year and then he's going to get a huge contract again.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: That'S probably what's going to happen.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So speaking of Shador, it's finally here. Store Sanders is a Pro Bowler. Now, I know we've talked about a little bit already, but not just a Pro Bowler. He was the starter in the Pro Bowl.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: AFC starter.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: And just while we're talking about quarterbacks be in the Pro Bowl.
Joe Flacco was also a Pro Bowler this year.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: Browns quarterback Joe Flago.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: So we had two, technically three Pro Bowlers on the roster this year. I know we were going to say two, but we technically had three because Deshaun Watson's made Pro Bowls too.
[00:51:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
Look, I like Shador as much as the next guy. Right. I would like to see the kid get a chance to play this year. I'm excited about the prospect of that.
The Pro Bowl.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: Come on.
[00:51:20] Speaker C: Did, did, did just that many people say no or were that many quarterbacks hu.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: But there was combination of both.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Quarterbacks that were much better than him that were passed up for him for it just it just because of fan vote or. I think so. I think it just speaks to how big of a joke the Pro bowl has become. Like it's not a real thing. The all Pro list and the people that make all Pro teams is more indicative of like good play.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: And that's. I think the bigger question is like what do we do with the Pro bowl at this point? Because when the game started, I Know.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: You watched some of it.
[00:51:50] Speaker B: You texted us when the game started tanking in. It wasn't competitive anymore. They said, okay, we got to change things. And we were supportive of that move. We said, you know, a competition.
[00:52:01] Speaker A: It was just annoying.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: A competition of wills and skills like that makes sense. Let's bring the quarterback competitions back and have them throw through hoops and have them push sleds around. Like, that would be at least something that they could do. But even that now, I think, has lost its luster. I think they're having a hard time selling tickets to this thing. Players don't want to go to it. It's in Orlando. It's not like the all expensive paid trip to Hawaii that they used to get.
So what do we do with the Pro bowl going forward? Because it's clearly not. It's not even a watchable product. They've moved it from Sundays before the super bowl to Tuesday night. Yeah, what are we doing here? It's people. They can't even sell commercials for it.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: It's unwatchable.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: I didn't watch a single moment of it. I know you did because you texted us and said, well, I watched Sanders had another interception bounce off a receiver hands.
[00:52:47] Speaker B: Yeah, we're at an interception right off of Jamar Chase's hands. So it doesn't matter who the receivers are. It just. This guy's just plagued with bad luck, I guess. But.
But let's be. I like you, Shador can't be a Pro Bowler. He just. No, if you're gonna just say, like, this is a fan vote, and just say, hey, look, fans can vote their.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: Favorite players Pro bowl team, and don't do anything.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't know. I don't know how else you do this, because I don't know how you eliminate the risk of injury in a senseless, meaningless game. And even these skill competitions, like, I don't know if Miles Garrett tours ACL pushing a sled or playing dodgeball, we'd probably be pretty pissed.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: Yeah, they would be over.
[00:53:24] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. He took himself out of the game. Right. Was that because of an injury or was he just like, I'm not doing.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: This, so I don't know. They just got to come up with some other way to honor the best players in the game. And. And the guys that are in the super bowl and the guys that were injured but were the best all season, like, should still get some kind of resume builder so that when hall of Fame votes come and. And things like that that they're Recognized. But it, this thing's just got.
[00:53:49] Speaker C: Well now when you're like listing a player's accolades and you're just like six time All Pro, four time Pro Bowler, it's like, I'm just saying in 10 years, when you bring that up, it's.
[00:53:59] Speaker A: Like it's not going to matter.
[00:54:00] Speaker C: At what point do we.
[00:54:01] Speaker A: Eventually Pro Bowls aren't going to matter.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: But the problem is up until now it has mattered. Right. When you do hall of Fame, when they go, hey, these are the 12 guys that are up for the hall of Fame, those types of things get mentioned. He was an eight time Pro Bowler. Like what do you, what do you do with that now?
[00:54:16] Speaker A: Nothing.
Nothing. You mentioned Miles Garrett. Speaking of Miles Garrett, Miles Garrett and Carson Schwezinger named finalist for 2025 Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year respectively. So that's exciting news for the Browns.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: That'll be Saturday night, right before the Super Bowl.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
More exciting news for the Browns. They will play in the first ever NFL game in France against the New Orleans Saints. This will take place.
How do you know you've been to. How do you know you're from France?
[00:54:54] Speaker B: What was Kettle's character on? Was that all that when he was like the one wearing a raincoat in the tub?
[00:54:59] Speaker A: The rubber ducky.
What was his.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: He was always doing the French thing. I don't know.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.
[00:55:09] Speaker B: What was this? What was the segment?
[00:55:10] Speaker A: I don't remember. We had a rubber duck. That was. This whole thing is bath time.
It didn't make any sense. It was on all that.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: We got to bring that back on Saturday Night Live.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: And then finally here in the Browns, brief, if you're getting keeping score here, the 2025 Cleveland Browns, two Pro bowl, three Pro bowl quarterbacks on the roster for the first time ever in Browns history. Two for this season.
Defensive player of the year and single season sack record for Miles Garrett.
Most likely defensive player of the year, most likely defensive rookie of the year and sixth in the league in total tackles for Carson Swezinger, fewest yards allowed per drive for their defense, first in the league and QB hits third in total pass defense. And we were 5 and 12.
[00:55:53] Speaker B: Hire the coach and you still don't have a quarterback.
[00:55:55] Speaker A: Yep.
Feels bad with that. Let's take a quick trip around the NFL.
All right.
The NFL has informed me that the new salary cap will be somewhere between 301.2 million and 305.7 million per club this year.
Significant jump from 279.2 million this past year.
And that's nearly 100 million more than the 208.2 million in 2022.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
Can I give you your flowers here?
[00:56:41] Speaker A: Yeah, you can.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: So this was a big discussion around the time that we guaranteed the contract for Deshaun Watson and, and there were a few voices, Red Hot Ronnie Jams included, that said, guys, this isn't that big of a deal because in a couple of years the cap's going to go up anyway and this is just going to be a non factor.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: It's just going to be a normal contract. And really for a quarterback, I mean it's still high, but it's, it's.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: And here we are. Because when this story came out, I immediately saw the Browns like cap number is pretty excessive now to bring in new talent. Like they have tens of millions of dollars with this new cap increase to like pretty much make whatever moves they would need.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: Even with the DeSean Watson contract on the books.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: See, it was, it was one of the moments. This is, I know we talk. Talk down Andrew Barry a lot because we're not big fans of his, but it, this is one of those things that he did foresee, I think, and he saw the writing on the wall with the salary cap and said, yeah, this will probably hurt for a minute, but this is going to go up. So it's going to hurt a lot less on the, on the back end of this thing. And I think that's also why they've reworked the contract so many times to backload it because he's like, the salary cap keeps going up.
[00:57:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:57:47] Speaker A: So we're going to be fine.
[00:57:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Which came to fruition. It did read out Ronnie James told you a couple years ago it would.
[00:57:55] Speaker C: Have been great if he was a good player.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: And you had your franchise quarterback and we're building around him with that cap room.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: I'm not saying I'm Nostradamus, but you know, here we are. We actually have some good takes on our show. If you guys listen like bone was spitting fire all season long. Every, every single week. His, his key to victory was like, what happened? We didn't win.
But he would call what was going to happen in the game every single week.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: I wouldn't call you Nostradamus, but I'd call you Master Anus.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: And with the salary cap going up, just salary cap related. Are the QB super contracts coming to an end?
[00:58:35] Speaker B: Speaking of master real quick just booked a cruise and you can Pick your own title.
Like Mr. Mrs. Master Lord. So I made my son Master Kenny. So when he gets on board, hopefully they're like, master Kenny, welcome aboard, Master Kenny.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: If they don't.
[00:58:50] Speaker B: Old English family or something.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: If they don't. If they don't, say, you better tell them. Excuse me. It's Master Kenny.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: Oh, no tips for you. No gratuity. I want it back. My prepaid gratuities. Give those back.
[00:59:00] Speaker A: Excuse me. He's got a title.
[00:59:01] Speaker B: It's Master.
[00:59:04] Speaker A: But anyways, super contracts, they come to an end. I know you had some information on this, Kenny.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I just thought this was interesting because these quarterback contracts have gotten out of control. I. Obviously, the Deshaun.
[00:59:13] Speaker A: It was a whole talking point for us. I don't know if it was this past season or season before, but you said quarterbacks have to stop.
[00:59:18] Speaker B: Yes, that's true, too. Because these contracts are making it harder and harder for teams to bring in talent around these quarterbacks. And I think the value of quarterbacks, while it's still the most important position on the field, has gotten so out of control.
And when you look at the quarterbacks that are making the most money in the field, the league this year, Dak at 60 million. Burrow at 55 million. Josh Allen at 55 million. Trevor Lawrence at 55 million. Jared Goff at 53, Purdy at 53. Tua at 53. Tua at 53. Jeez.
Herbert at 52. Lamar 52. The four guys left standing, Stafford, who took a pay cut down to 40 million. Still a lot of money, but that's peanuts in the quarterback world.
Darnold at 33. Drake May and Bo Nix. Right. Rookie deals. So, like, teams that are doing well for the entirety of the season and making it deep into the playoffs and into the super bowl, are paying their quarterbacks less, have more cap flexibility and more room to bring in a premier edge rusher.
Yeah, guys, the guys that. The teams that have guys that are on cheaper contracts but are still quality players, even if they're not the elite of the elite. And, you know, Stafford's really good, but.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: You hit on the perfect thing. Right there was the. What have I been calling for? That we haven't been able to do since Deshaun Watson's been here when. Well, yeah, an elite pass rusher to pair with Miles Garrett. Like, you can't do it because you don't have any money.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no money.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: So we have more money now, though. Salary cap went up.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: I just think, like, I. I hope that there's starting to be a, an acknowledgment around the NFL that like, does it make sense to pay $60 million a year to die? Scott, who. What is Dak1?
[01:00:56] Speaker A: He's the second best quarterback in, In Texas.
Yeah.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: I mean, C.J. stroud is making his winning playoff games and he's not. So it's just a lot of money to have wrapped up in a guy that you're not winning with.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:09] Speaker B: At any position.
[01:01:10] Speaker A: Well, in Deshaun Watts's case, you don't win anything with him.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: No. You win, you lose everything, including the money.
[01:01:16] Speaker C: Regress.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Next up here, but John Roberts. Robinson had this to say about the Atlanta Falcons new head coach, Kevin Stefanski. Quote Kevin Stefanski, he fired, bro. I like him a lot in his offensive scheme. Tommy Reese, he's the OC but he don't call the place.
First of all, I like at the end of this, he just throws it. Tommy Reese. Yeah, he's here, but he's not really doing anything.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: Which we kind of knew from their time in Cleveland.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that was, it was in the whole promoting him and letting him call plays. That was just an extension of Kevin Stefanski.
[01:01:49] Speaker B: Tells me Bijan Robinson hasn't watched a lot of Cleveland Browns football.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: No, he hasn't. He's. He, he gonna learn today.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: He's in for a rude awakening because I think if you look at Kevin's track record, specifically with a top tier NFL running back, he's not getting the ball. Nick Chubbs struggled to get 12 and 13 carries a game. If you think you're going to be a factor, good luck, my friend.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: Not to mention high pressure situation down in the end, down in the red zone. Guess what? You're the wildcat.
That might be why he likes it, though, because he gets more touches, but touches like that, not like traditional running.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: Back people touching him.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
And then in addition to Tommy Reese, Alex Van Pelt has joined the Falcons as QB's coach and a few other guys have kind of followed him from the Browns. Stefanski is going to die on this hill. He's. He is. He's there. He said he wants to, to prove that it was the Browns, not him.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: He's. He's definitely drawn a line in the sand. I mean, he basically brought as many guys as he could from Cleveland with him.
[01:02:51] Speaker A: It's literally like the Atlanta Browns at this point.
[01:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So they either are going to be massively successful and Kevin will be proven right in this whole thing and redeemed, or the Atlanta Falcons will become the Atlanta Browns.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: And we'll all know what we already know, which is Kevin Stefan. He asks.
[01:03:07] Speaker C: He trash.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he asks.
While we're on the Calvin Stefanski topic, though, Adidi Kinkabwala will tell you that he was a phenomenal coach. I know we didn't get a chance to talk about this because it's been too, you know, we took a week off.
But on his way out the door, she promptly wrote a story about how he extensively worked with the young QBs last year. He wanted Baker and that was not his call to trade him.
[01:03:30] Speaker B: There was more.
[01:03:31] Speaker A: What was the other things.
[01:03:32] Speaker B: He was spending a lot of one on one time with both quarterbacks. Just revisionist history for both guys that they were taking their input into the offensive scheme each week for things that they do well and like to see.
[01:03:46] Speaker A: Tuning the offense to their skills, which bullshit I say because I watched the offense every week and it was not tuned to anybody's skills.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: Something tells me Shador didn't say, kev, when we get to the red zone.
[01:03:56] Speaker A: Pull me out of the game.
[01:03:59] Speaker B: Can we make that a part of the game plan, Kev? I don't want to be in on the most critical plays of the game.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely not.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: It was just. Yeah, a retelling.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: Fourth and one and we. And we need this yard. Put it in the tight end in the backup center and then have them fumble.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, a retelling of the.
The entire history.
[01:04:20] Speaker A: They honestly think that they can pull the wool over our eyes and like we didn't witness what we just witnessed for the past six years.
[01:04:27] Speaker B: And it's just really sad what our media has become because I actually, like, Dee is on local radio a lot and she's been a fixture for a number of years now, even on the, the broadcast channels and things. So.
But this is very clearly a puff piece made for it and to make Kevin look better than he is. So I don't know what that conversation is. I don't know if they were just friendly on the sidelines. I don't know if, you know, your agent slips you 50 grand and says, like, hey, can you help us out here? We need some good, good PR moving into this next phase of Kevin's life.
But very clearly you, you see people in the media like Mary Kay Cabot, now Adidi, carrying water for these guys and you just can't trust anything they say anymore. I mean, this instantly discredits everything she's ever done. If these things were true, why hadn't we heard about them? All season long, when people were going, why isn't Shador getting any first team reps? Why isn't he even in practice? Why. Why is he throwing two equipment guys on the sideline? Like, if you would have said at any moment, hey, Kevin has a plan for these guys. He's taking them under his wing. He's spending time one on one in the mornings after practice, has. Has filmed sessions independently with these guys.
[01:05:38] Speaker A: Like, what if you're.
[01:05:40] Speaker B: You just would have quieted a lot of noise during the season.
[01:05:42] Speaker A: Right. If you're going to tell me that it's not. No, you know, we don't need to know that stuff. Well, why not? If that's. If the story's getting out of control.
[01:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:49] Speaker A: It's pretty simple to shut it down and say, no, no, no, actually, we're doing this, this, this and this.
[01:05:53] Speaker B: Well, I'm like, blame and. And like, shame on Kevin Stefanski's agent and his team that they didn't get these things out because you were. We were living in a world where people were going, I think Kevin Stefanski might literally be a racist. Like, that was. That was the point that fans had gotten to is he doesn't like Shador because he's a racist.
[01:06:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: Like, how do you let that narrative marinate all year long without saying guys like, Kevin is doing everything he can to help both these guys be successful? He's got a plan in place. The whole organization is in and on board, and they're doing all these things, extracurriculars, to make these guys better every day.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:30] Speaker B: You can't just ignore it. If that's the truth, why not let it? Let the truth will set you free.
[01:06:35] Speaker A: The simple answer is Kevin might still.
[01:06:37] Speaker B: Be employed if these things were true.
[01:06:40] Speaker A: The simple answer is it's not the truth.
[01:06:42] Speaker B: Employed by the Browns. He is employed by Atlanta.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: But, yeah, which. Which. I don't know if you guys heard his press conference, but he made it very clear that that's where he wanted to be, not here.
The only dig he took at Cleveland.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: I mean, I'd probably rather live in Atlanta, too. Is nice down there.
[01:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
The whole Kevin thing, though, this is taken on him going to Atlanta has taken on, like, a new life because Baker then immediately was like, I think somebody put out a piece. What was the piece they said or tweeted out?
[01:07:12] Speaker C: They said something about Stefanski never having a good quarterback.
[01:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Or he said, they said.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: And then Baker failed.
[01:07:19] Speaker A: Baker and somebody else failed. And he said failed is a stretch paraphrasing, but he went on to say, and they shipped me out of there like a piece of garbage after I won them playoff game.
[01:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:31] Speaker A: Is more or less what he said.
Bad take by Joe Thomas to rebut this. Came out and said, well, if you're worried about him not calling you when he left and whatever else, because that was the other part of his. Baker said, nobody called me and said sorry about this or what.
[01:07:43] Speaker B: No one's ever talked to him since Kevin. Kevin never reached out or talked to him since that happened.
[01:07:47] Speaker A: Joe Thomas with a bad take, which he doesn't have many. I like Joe Thomas. Joe Thomas, Cleveland legend. Right. I mean with most of what he says. But he came out and said, well, that's a two way street. Well, why the would. Would Baker Mayfield reach out to the guy that just traded his ass and say, hey man, why'd you do that?
[01:08:02] Speaker B: Yeah, you want to be friends? Yeah.
[01:08:03] Speaker C: The head coach who didn't have my back.
[01:08:04] Speaker A: Right.
[01:08:05] Speaker B: Right.
[01:08:06] Speaker A: Me go make sure we're cool. Like you turned this whole thing, turned.
[01:08:09] Speaker B: This whole thing into a dumpster fight.
[01:08:10] Speaker A: Let's take that further because Adit again said Kevin was the one that didn't want to trade Baker.
[01:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: Didn't want to get rid of him. So if you're the guy that didn't want to trade him, don't you think you'd be reaching out and be like, hey man, this ain't my call. Yeah.
[01:08:22] Speaker B: At least privately. Right. Hey, man, like, sorry the way things.
[01:08:25] Speaker A: Ended just Baker probably wouldn't have sent this tweet. He probably. It probably been more along the lines of more pointed at Andrew Barry and the front office and less at Kevin. No, he continued the tweet. The rest of the tweet said, excited to see coach and Atlanta for year. Yeah. So like it clearly was aimed at Kevin Stefanski.
[01:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
The final thing I would say about this is I love it. Not, not, not because I like, like love Baker, but just I, I like competitive, fiery. Like this is good for the NFL. The NFL has gotten to this point, right. Where at after every game guys are doing jersey swaps and taking pictures with their and vacationing in the offseason together.
[01:09:00] Speaker A: We need some.
[01:09:01] Speaker B: I like a little bit of hate, a little bit of animosity to just.
[01:09:04] Speaker C: Baker isn't going to be shaking his.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: Hand after the game rivalries.
[01:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean I want every time Baker there's a touchdown against Atlanta that he's grabbing his junk and mouthing off like that's, that's makes it fun.
[01:09:14] Speaker A: I hope to God, he goes back to that and does that same thing next year. I hope we don't.
[01:09:18] Speaker B: Bell needs more of those types of.
[01:09:20] Speaker A: Rivalries on the field. When he throws a touchdown with like six seconds left in the game to win it for Tampa Bay against Atlanta, he just walks over straight to Kev's Fisk. He grabs his junk and says, you, dude.
Oh, my God.
[01:09:32] Speaker B: It's good. It's cinema.
[01:09:34] Speaker A: Kevin, of course, took the high road. He said literally nothing. He was like, baker's good player.
Just what you would expect from Kevin. Just. He's just a piece of.
You eat pieces of for breakfast. No.
Anyways, moving on here, though, because we're supposed to be an NFL talk and not Browns talk, but we got back into it, so.
Quesi Adolfo Mensah fired as Minnesota eight months after an extension. They literally rage fired this guy because Sam Darnold is in the super bowl and he shipped him out.
[01:10:07] Speaker B: So, yeah, this story continues to evolve.
At first, he was just fired. And I think that was the conventional wisdom was like, how do you let Sam Darnold walk after he wins 14 games in Minnesota? Then you start JJ McCarthy, who is ass really bad.
[01:10:24] Speaker C: He worked under Andrew Barry, correct?
[01:10:26] Speaker B: He did, yeah. So he was like the protege to Andrew Barry, and then Minnesota kind of.
[01:10:30] Speaker C: So does he have the worst move in NFL history?
No.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: No.
[01:10:35] Speaker C: Over Andrew Barry.
[01:10:36] Speaker A: No. Because you just let him walk. He didn't like. It wasn't like, we, like, you forced him, traded all of our assets to get somebody who was ass.
[01:10:43] Speaker C: Well.
[01:10:43] Speaker B: And to be fair, at that point, Sam Darnold did play well there in Minnesota. But I don't think that at that point anybody, like, everybody was on board, like, Sam Darnold's gonna be great. He went to Seattle and we were all kind of. Of like, that's kind of a weird move. Like, I don't know. We'll see.
[01:10:56] Speaker A: Here we are.
[01:10:57] Speaker B: Like, I think. I think people still. I mean, Sam Darnold's in the super bowl, and there's still a fair amount of like, Sam Darnold's probably a very average quarterback.
[01:11:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm in that boat.
[01:11:07] Speaker B: I mean, I agree. And you know, he's got a really big forehead. It's probably not fairhead. And he was pretty good. He started. He strung together a couple nice seasons now.
[01:11:18] Speaker A: Didn't even bite on that at all.
[01:11:19] Speaker B: But it'll probably be. It'll probably take two or three more seasons like this year and last year for Sam Darnold to really be. To earn the Respect as a top passer in the league.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: And then that's probably when he'll be ass again. Kind of like Gino Smith. He was like, I'm real good for a few years, but now that you guys think I'm good, I'm really bad again.
[01:11:35] Speaker B: The fall rise and fall of Geno Smith needs to be studied because he.
[01:11:40] Speaker A: Just fell off Quesi, though Mensa league executives, you said his story keeps growing. League executives thought he should have been fired in 2023 for taking two weeks paternity leave. Two weeks paternity leave.
[01:11:55] Speaker B: Disbelief. It was reported that this man, how dare he take two weeks off for the birth of a child.
[01:12:01] Speaker A: Which. Let's stop here for a second, because I think that's the most asinine thing I've ever heard. Like, we don't get nearly enough paternity leave, parental leave in general.
[01:12:09] Speaker B: I'm not in any boat on Quesi Adolfo Mensah. Like, I could care less whether he comes and goes or if he's any good or not.
[01:12:15] Speaker A: If you have a child, you should spend time with your child.
[01:12:17] Speaker B: But I find this idea that, like the GM of a football team, because it's one of 32, can't take two weeks off for something as important as the birth of a child. So whether you like the guy, hate the guy, I think he's a good GM or a bad gm.
This, this glorification of work culture is a poison, I think, to America and to the rest of the world. To the world, really. Most of the rest of the world has kind of got on board now and offers three, six, nine months of parental leave for having a new baby.
I mean, I think the tide has started to turn. I've seen CEOs in this country say, look, all of our jobs are important. The most important thing you'll ever do is bring a kid into this world or adopt a kid and bring them into your house. Like, the raising of the next generation is the most important job we all share, which is good. Like, we're getting. We're making strides there. But it's still. When you. When you hear this and go, how dare he take two weeks off? It's. It's poison.
It's you. I can't. I can't understand that thought process. There's no job that's too important that people shouldn't get some time away or some type of rest.
The President of the United States maybe is maybe just administratively the most important job in the world. That guy still gets to golf. He still Gets to have Christmas with his family.
[01:13:30] Speaker A: Like, talked about the. The NFL GM's being one of 32. The President of the United States is one of one.
[01:13:36] Speaker B: One of one. Right. He's the guy in charge of the nuclear code, so that's pretty important. But he's allowed to golf. And people make heads and tails about, oh, the president's golfing again. But every president for the last hundred years has taken time to golf and played hundreds of rounds of golf. And his secrets, regardless, whatever, but the fact that is the GM of an NFL team, I mean, unless he's literally missing draft number night.
[01:13:58] Speaker C: What are you.
[01:13:59] Speaker B: What are you doing?
[01:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm, I'm all.
[01:14:01] Speaker B: You're crunching numbers. You have an assistant GM for a reason. The team can't survive for two weeks with the assistant gm.
[01:14:07] Speaker A: Can't survive for two weeks with your assistant gm. You guys got bigger problems.
[01:14:10] Speaker B: And I'm pretty sure that quesi men dofu mensa probably didn't say, hey, guys, I'm incommunicado for two weeks. He probably said, I have a cell phone.
You know how to get a hold of me if we need something? Yeah, Like, I don't know. My wife had a stuff C section for two weeks after my son was born.
[01:14:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:14:29] Speaker B: Like, I was showering her, feeding, like we, I was doing everything. Like, she, she, she just couldn't because she had, she had been cut open and splayed open.
[01:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm here to say I'm, I'm all, I'm all for women in this country, minimum should have six months to a year, honestly. And men should have somewhere between three and six months at least.
[01:14:47] Speaker B: There just needs to be some kind of respectable leave and it shouldn't be looked down, down upon. Right. I think that's the thing is like.
[01:14:53] Speaker A: I had it at my own job and, and I took it and I had six weeks and I took it all at once. And everybody was like, wait. Because I had the option I could like split it up into multi. But everybody's like, wait, you're taking it all at once? I'm like, yeah, I'm taking all. The first, like, few months of your baby's life are the most important. That's when all these bonds are formed and everything else is happening and, and that's when you should be there.
What do you mean? It's like a taboo thing that I'm taking my paternity leave that you gave me.
[01:15:18] Speaker B: It's just a huge change. It's a huge transition position for the parents. For the baby that's been brought into this world.
[01:15:24] Speaker A: Like we just recently had a deal. You know, I say just recently. He's like 10 months old now. But we, we have our second. I'm still getting used to it. It's, there's still things that happen every day that I just don't. I'm like, we're gonna have to figure out how to navigate this.
[01:15:39] Speaker B: It's just a crazy thing. And, but, but the way people still look down upon it. Even we're in companies that offer it, it's like it's an inc. Inconvenience to them that you're going to be out for a couple of weeks. Like to me that should I say that's not a personal, that's a problem then with staffing. Right. You should have adequate coverage for these types of things. And you know, maybe it takes from the company's bottom line to hire an additional employee, but that's them's the breaks. Right?
[01:16:02] Speaker A: If you can't handle your employees having children, that's your problem.
[01:16:06] Speaker B: It's a sad reality to live in. Like if we can't bring kids into this world and provide them adequate care and support. So regardless, I guess it's a tangent that doesn't make, it doesn't matter to anyone else.
[01:16:17] Speaker A: But everybody likes to knock the, you know the fact that when a dad's non existent and he leaves but a guy that's buried in doesn't see his kids, like that's okay. It's this, it's, there's not a big difference there. Let's be honest.
[01:16:30] Speaker B: And it is an important job in the organization. I get that. Like I'm not discounting like he, I'm.
[01:16:35] Speaker A: Getting fired up about this.
[01:16:36] Speaker B: This is two weeks. Two weeks. That seems overly fair.
[01:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:16:41] Speaker B: And if the, and if the football program has a problem with it, don't offer that as a benefit. That should be in your contract on day one. Hey case, in case you didn't know, when you have a kid, we expect you to be here and then if you agree to that, then fine. Those are the terms. Right. You're an at will employee. That is what it is.
[01:16:57] Speaker A: Bone thoughts on paternity leave?
[01:16:59] Speaker C: I'm all for extra paternity leave. I, I, I got two weeks for each of my kids. Just because it wasn't a thing for me to do.
[01:17:06] Speaker A: Do you feel like it was enough?
[01:17:08] Speaker C: No. No. And at the new company I work for it. You could take six weeks and it's, nobody bats it I so, and that's.
[01:17:15] Speaker A: How they should be. I mean, that's what the.
Like, like you said, it's so, it's so looked down upon at so many companies still. But it's good for your company.
[01:17:22] Speaker C: Luckily, like, luckily when my kids are born, like my wife's mom was around, so she was able to help out a lot, which was great. But not everybody has that, you know, type of support. So C sections as well. So she needed help and you needed to be there. Right? And I was just in a situation where I couldn't do it.
[01:17:39] Speaker B: So, yeah, my last job, when I had my son, my boss was, was like, oh, it'll be fine. Like, take as much time as you need. But it was kind of like a veiled, like, when will you come back? Like, I took, I took about.
[01:17:51] Speaker A: That's how most places I took about.
[01:17:52] Speaker B: Two and a half weeks. And at that, that point I was starting to get text messages like, hey, where are you at? Like, wait, you told me to take as much time as I need.
[01:18:02] Speaker A: That's the opposite. Like, you should never feel like that. Like you're being rushed back, you know, I think.
[01:18:08] Speaker C: You know, you know what?
The first, my first daughter. I was off one week.
[01:18:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:18:14] Speaker C: That's all I could do because that was only the amount of time that I had.
[01:18:17] Speaker A: Crazy.
[01:18:18] Speaker B: It's wild.
[01:18:19] Speaker A: I don't know. We got off on this, but back to, back to Mensa because we still had a few more things. Now. Now he's being outed. In addition to his egregious use of paternity leave as being one of the worst GMs in the NFL, reportedly he uses PFF to evaluate draft picks, not attending Senior Bowl, Shrine bowl or any college games. Drafting zero Pro Bowlers in four years. He also let Danielle, Danielle Daniel Jones, in addition to Sam Darnold, walk. And he didn't sign Aaron Rodgers in the off season when they had a chance. And he drafted J.J. mcCarthy, who is their quote unquote, franchise quarterback right now. And we've been saying this for a long time. I mean, it was pretty clear immediately JJ McCarthy's ATH ass.
[01:18:59] Speaker B: Wow, man, you're having a hard time tonight.
Yeah, yeah. The JJ McCarthy thing baffles me to this day because he wasn't a good college quarterback. He won a lot of games because he was in Michigan, but he could.
[01:19:14] Speaker A: Not pass the ball.
[01:19:15] Speaker B: He wasn't a prolific passer. So I don't know why there was a belief that he was going to be in the NFL. Like this is all sudden this big Question mark. Like they thought he was going to be great. I don't understand how you didn't see the writing on the wall.
[01:19:27] Speaker A: Oh, there's so the media team tried so hard all year to build him up as the guy.
[01:19:30] Speaker B: To me, all these things, you know what they look like to me, Andrew Barry? They, they look like what I would expect a guy that was taught and mentored by Andrew Barry to do. So doesn't surprise me in the least.
[01:19:42] Speaker A: Andrew Barry had one good draft outside.
[01:19:44] Speaker B: Of the maternity paternity leave. That, that I think is a non sequitur but apparently is lumped in here.
[01:19:50] Speaker A: Yep.
Moving on the head Coach tracker here. Ten openings this year. The Cardinals went with Mike LaFlore, the Falcons went with Kevin Stanski, Baltimore went with Jesse, Buffalo went with Joe Brady, Browns went with Todd Monken, Raiders went with Clint Kubiak, Dolphins went with Jeff Halfley, Giants went with John Harbaugh, Pittsburgh went with Mike McCarthy and Tennessee went with Robert Sala.
Anything stand out here, Kenny?
[01:20:16] Speaker B: 10 coach openings. So effectively a third of the NFL and the news and the buzz has been out of those 10. Even with the Rooney Rule, there were zero hero black head coaches hired this cycle, which is his create a lot of conversation that the NFL is racist and the, the importance of the Rooney Rule. A lot of conversations about DEI and other things too. And like I don't know that we're here to litigate any of that.
Just the fact that it's been brought up now as a big story. Like I don't know know it. To me there's still three black head coaches in the NFL.
Robert Sala is not white. So I don't know like how he gets lumped in with like I thought the intent of the Rooney rule was to help expand access to minority to basically non white males.
So Robert Sal is Lebanese. I would think that that's on some level considered a minority.
Higher non white anyway.
And I just think like demographically in the country, like this isn't that far off then. Right. If we're saying three out of 32 are black, you have Robert Sala who's Lebanese and there's. I'm sure I'm missing one or two others that would be considered non white male.
African Americans make up around 12% of the population in the US the US so what percentage of head coach should they be of any job, not just NFL head coaches, but of any job. I would expect them to be 10 to 12% of that workforce. Right. I mean, so I don't know that Demographically, like, they're that far off. I don't know. With the Rooney rule and all that entails, like, what is the. What is the anticipated or appropriate amount of black NFL head coaches? What numbers should that be? What are we aspiring hiring, too?
[01:22:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And what I would say about the Rooney rule, I think where the flaw in it is.
Where the flaw in it lies is specifically what you just talked about is, like, it doesn't apply to all minorities. Like, I, I'm all for. Like, he's trying to, to help the situation and whatever. Like, that's fine.
But why. Why would it not apply to all minorities?
[01:22:36] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I just think the, the whole idea is we're trying to create a more diverse leadership role across organizations and, you know, whatever. Whatever that means to different organizations. I don't know. But like, if, if we have.
[01:22:51] Speaker A: Because to me, like, Robert Sala is a hire, it creates a more diverse NFL.
[01:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah, he's.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: So that's. That's a win for the diversity factor. That's like, that's great.
[01:23:01] Speaker B: You.
[01:23:01] Speaker A: You created a more diverse NFL.
[01:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah. When you're thinking about diversity and inclusion, like, that's. That should be considered a win. But it's been widely reported that 0 out of 10 were not in effect coinciding with the Rooney rule and the intent. But I don't know that. I mean, I look at it and say then nine out of the 10 were white. And Robert Lebanese, you already touched on it.
[01:23:22] Speaker A: The Rooney rules. An odd thing because you have the Browns, who at the time. All reports were that Shieldhouse was one of our finalists for head coach and we couldn't even.
[01:23:32] Speaker B: Daniel was another one that was in the mix.
[01:23:34] Speaker A: We couldn't even hire Shieldhouse if we wanted to because we hadn't interviewed enough role candidates. Yeah. So it was. It's just a weird. I think that. And I don't have the answers. That's the, that's the problem. I don't think.
[01:23:46] Speaker B: Well, I just think like a lot of it comes back again just to demographically, the way the country is situated. If you, if you look at the demographic of football Fans, it's high 70s, white male, which means more white males grow up than any other segment of the population interested in football. It's an American game. So we grow up interested in football, play football. Football. And have a significant interest in continuing to do something with football.
Just by the sheer numbers, the volume and scale is. The majority of people that are watching the game are white and male. So I don't know why it's a surprise that the majority then of the people working for these organizations are white and male.
[01:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
And again, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what the, what the, you know, threshold is that, like, what are you trying to reach?
I don't know. I don't have the answers.
[01:24:41] Speaker B: No, no, no answers here. I just, it just was. Again, it was a story this week because of that. Because it's like, does the Rooney rule matter? Like, our, our organizations. Is. Is the NFL inherently racist? Are we just checking off boxes as we go to interview minority candidates and. Or like, is this actually helping? And are some of the, the coaches that have head coaching positions, is that in effect because of the Rooney rule? Like, I don't. I think going into this year there were five black head coaches. So at that point you're looking closer to, you know, 12 to 15% of the popular. So it's still very in line with demographically what the country looks like.
[01:25:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And the Browns are an interesting case too, because again, we talked about they weren't able to hire another one. Well, then what did they do? I mean, it looked bad for the Browns because what, out of nowhere, at the very end of this thing, who was it? Anthony Lynn or whoever it was, the.
[01:25:29] Speaker B: The was brought in as it was.
[01:25:30] Speaker A: Brought in a Rooney interview, and they said he wasn't. But yeah, I mean, everybody in their brother knows that you have to satisfy the Rooney Rule and you bring him in at the very end. Like, that's a, that's a bad look. Like that's, that's not good for anybody. Well, it's not good for anybody.
[01:25:46] Speaker B: And I think when it comes to the Rooney Rule in the conversation, I think if you look at, I think it was implemented in like 2002. Like, I think you have basically the same amount, amount of African American head coaches today than you did when it was implemented. So it's like, is this even. Is this helping anything? And I don't know, but it's just. Is, is there. I mean, we aren't having the same conversation about, like, are there enough Asian American head coaches, Latin American head coaches? Like, I. Yeah, I don't know.
[01:26:16] Speaker A: Yep. And the whole goal is more diversity is the bottom line, so.
[01:26:20] Speaker B: Right. And I think you have hard time too, accusing the Browns of being a racist organization. I mean, they have an African American gm. We've had Romeo Cornell here, we've had Hugh Jackson here as a head coach. So to say, like, oh, the NFL is inherently racist because they hired white males in this cycle. Well, we hired Todd Monken, but we have hired blackhead coaches in the past. So what's the, what's the, what's the answer and what's the issue? I don't, I don't know.
[01:26:47] Speaker A: I don't know. On the lighter topics though, that came out wrong.
[01:26:52] Speaker B: Wow. It's like the third time tonight. Wow.
[01:26:56] Speaker A: Make sure you edit that one out.
[01:26:57] Speaker B: Wow. No, that's a. Stay.
[01:27:02] Speaker A: On to.
[01:27:05] Speaker B: Different unintentional, but still funny.
[01:27:09] Speaker A: Drew Brees had 386 passes touchdowns from 2008 to 2018.
Why am I telling you this?
I'm telling you this because the New York jets have thrown for 382 touchdowns since 2000.
[01:27:25] Speaker B: That's bad.
[01:27:26] Speaker A: I just wanted to. On the Jets. That's why I'm telling you this.
[01:27:28] Speaker C: They still suck.
[01:27:29] Speaker B: Gino Smith didn't do much to help that.
[01:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:27:31] Speaker B: Or Sam Darnold.
[01:27:32] Speaker A: No, no, no, no. Nick Chubb. You know, one of our favorite Browns of all time is probably one and done in Houston. Insiders are saying he will be the odd man out in the backfield and they probably will not look to resign him in the off season. So it's hard to watch your heroes fall.
[01:27:49] Speaker B: Do you think there's a chance the Browns resign him?
[01:27:52] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[01:27:52] Speaker B: Let him retire Brown.
[01:27:56] Speaker A: I mean, maybe, but I don't, I don't think there's a chance they resign him and give him any significant time. So.
[01:28:01] Speaker B: No, but I mean you don't necessarily. I don't think that you're expecting that from a 31 year old running back. But do you bring him back? Because he's a good locker room presence and I think he might guys something.
[01:28:11] Speaker A: I think he might actually retire this offseason.
Bring him back on a one day contract.
[01:28:15] Speaker C: Did they even break. Yeah, they brought back Joe Hayden. Right. For a one day contract or something like that. Retires.
[01:28:19] Speaker A: I think they might do that with ch. I think he might retire.
[01:28:23] Speaker B: I don't know.
[01:28:24] Speaker A: Which is unfortunate. The, the, the devastating injury in Pittsburgh really derailed what was going to be his knees. Probably a Hall of Fame career.
[01:28:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:28:34] Speaker A: Next up, NFL talking about revamping the kickoff rules again. Speaking of safety, NFL got what it wanted with kickoffs.
You know, the kickoffs mattered again.
Side effect of that though was a significant rise in concussions. So the returns jumped from 32.8% in 2024 to 74.5% in 2025. That's 1,157 more kickoff returns than the Previous year.
But the side effect of that is concussions on kickoff. Went from 8 in 2024 to 35 in 2025.
So what do you guys think about this? I mean, I don't know if we have the answers, but what do you think about them revamping the kickoff rules again?
[01:29:16] Speaker B: I mean, you can start. I mean, obviously the big incentive was that if you were kicking touchbacks, they were getting the ball with at the 35 yard line or something. Right. So that's a hard pill to swallow.
That was something that even going back to like our high school football days, I mean we were taught about percentages of where a drive starts, leads to.
[01:29:35] Speaker A: More touch like 20 some percent when you go from the 20 to the.
[01:29:38] Speaker B: 30, I mean it increases with every yard that you start above the 20. Right. So mathematically there's incentive to kick off and, and get better field position for your defense.
I don't know. To me, like, have we reached a point where the kickoff goes the way the Pro bowl is? It outlived its usefulness in the game if we're saying the high speed collisions are too dangerous and we keep having to circumnavigate.
[01:30:02] Speaker A: And I actually kind of like this year's kick. I was like, this was fun.
[01:30:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I did too.
[01:30:06] Speaker B: So I don't know, like to me should, to me, kickoffs especially returns and return touchdowns, which are exciting plays to watch. Sure.
Should they be the deciding factor in games for whether a team is better than the other like special teams is. I feel like they just come, they.
[01:30:24] Speaker A: Just three facets of the game.
[01:30:25] Speaker B: So yeah. Should it be though? Like, I don't know. We, we, we pay good money to watch quarterbacks throw the ball, receivers make incredible catches and defensive guys hit people really hard.
[01:30:37] Speaker C: And then a kicker loses you the game.
[01:30:38] Speaker B: And then a kicker loses you the game or a return changes the course of the game.
[01:30:41] Speaker A: They get rid of kicking. So kicking can still you lose you the game forever. Sure.
[01:30:46] Speaker B: But do we start to minimize the impact of special teams in general, Especially if it's become too dangerous?
[01:30:53] Speaker A: I'm a complete opposite of you guys on this one because special teams is a important to the game and I think it always will be.
[01:30:59] Speaker B: But, but have we already minimized the importance of special teams by changing up and screwing up the onside kick rules?
[01:31:04] Speaker A: Kickoff specifically. I agree with that. Kickoff specifically, I think, I'm not saying I wanted to. I think at this point, if you're going to make it anything like it was last year before they redid the Rules, just get rid of it. Well, and that's from a guy that's saying, like, I want special team. I think it's because what we had last year, where you're only returning 32.8% of the time. Why. Why do you even have that play? Yeah, why do you even have it? What's the point?
[01:31:28] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:31:30] Speaker A: And then again, like, to your. What you just said, there's. It's almost impossible to get an onside kick now because of what they've done to it. Like, you can't surprise. They're.
[01:31:39] Speaker B: No.
[01:31:39] Speaker A: No longer can Pat McAfee run up there and kick at 10 yards and run up and get the ball himself.
[01:31:43] Speaker B: Well, in like New Orleans in a Super bowl, then they do that right after halftime or before they start the game or something.
[01:31:48] Speaker A: Like, you can't do that.
[01:31:49] Speaker B: You know, those are the things that made the game exciting.
At least change things up a little bit. But that's totally gone now. You can't do it until the fourth quarter of the game anyways. Whatever.
And you have the stupid rules. Like, they know you're going to do it.
[01:32:01] Speaker A: So I will concede that. I will say if it's going to go back to anything like it was, where we're only returning 30% or less.
[01:32:07] Speaker B: Of our kicks, the question is, I guess, do you amend the incentive and the starting point?
[01:32:13] Speaker A: Do you go back to like, say the 30 or the 25?
[01:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah. You make it less detrimental to defenses to have a touchback so you have less returns and then less concussions.
Do you do away with it entirely and just you score and the other team gets the ball on the 20 or the 25 or. I think the proposal that I like the most is. I think it was a Greg Shiano proposal. I think it's called the Russiano proposal, which is the other team gets the ball. Or you would essentially amend the kickoff to a 4th and 15 where your option is just a punt and it's almost like a kickoff. So you just kind of. The game evolves, special teams evolves to now, you know, punt teams and what you're going to do there from a strategic standpoint. Or it's 4th and 15 and you could go for it.
[01:33:06] Speaker A: That would be interesting.
[01:33:07] Speaker B: And then you at least have the excitement of like, hey, when your team's like, do you have a better chance of recovering an onside kick? Or do you have a better chance of completing a. For a path. A pass on a path.
Fourth and 15, you're getting hanging out with you too much that can be interesting and I think that maybe is one way to solve it. I don't know if a punt return is any safer than a kickoff return, but, but at least then you still have special teams as a component in the game. But you have the option that punt return to go for it.
[01:33:33] Speaker A: I feel like inherently has to be because you don't get like a running start. Everybody's on the line. I mean the only guy that you get a running start at is the guy returning the ball.
[01:33:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And then like, do you treat then that like a kickoff where you can't cough and corner the punt out of bounds on like a kickoff play? I don't know.
[01:33:49] Speaker A: We're not going to solve this here, boys.
[01:33:51] Speaker B: Well, I just think it' an interesting thing to consider and it's going to likely change.
[01:33:55] Speaker A: My problem with this whole thing is is the kickoff more dangerous than any other play in football?
I know they try and tell you it is because they're going faster, theoretically. And it's high speed collisions and whatever. Like you don't think a wide receiver coming across the middle getting laid out by a linebacker is just as violent as somebody getting hit on a kick return?
[01:34:12] Speaker B: Believe me, Roger Goodell would love to outlaw that from the game too.
[01:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm just saying like it's crazy to, to me that, that it's like kickoffs has been the focus, but it's not really any more dangerous than any other play. But I don't know.
[01:34:24] Speaker B: Well, that's the other thing. Do we just say, hey, it is a dangerous, like it's at some point you can't take all the violence out of the sport. Right. Do you just say, hey, this is.
[01:34:32] Speaker A: What just had a interview where he was like, like, what are we doing, guys? Like, we're quarterbacks, we're football players, we signed up for this like to some extent. I know that's, that's unpopular and people don't like to see say that anymore, but we signed up and there's a chance we're going to get hurt on any given play.
[01:34:47] Speaker B: I think the problem with that is Joe Flacco was in a position where he was making tens of millions of dollars a year. So like fair for him to say that, like, go ahead and hit me. I'm making 28 to 35 million dollars a year. If you're a special teamer and you're living contract to contract year and making 600, $700,000 a year or a million two a year, it's a little different long term.
[01:35:09] Speaker A: The ramifications of injuries, the argument. But at the same time, you are still signing up for it. You could go have a safe job as a banker or a, you know, whatever.
[01:35:17] Speaker B: Nobody tackles me at work.
The last time I've been tackled, I'm John Hughes. I've been signed up for that.
[01:35:24] Speaker A: I have never been tackled at my job.
So.
[01:35:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:35:29] Speaker A: Bone has the most physically demanding job of us all. And he still.
And if somebody tackled him, He's a top 10 crossfitter in the world. Whoop their ass.
[01:35:39] Speaker B: So let's be honest. True. I would.
I would let someone tackle me for $700,000 a year.
[01:35:44] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:35:45] Speaker B: A bunch of times.
[01:35:46] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[01:35:47] Speaker B: And if it shortened my. If I. If I lost the last five years of my life, if I didn't live to be 78 and only 73, like, I. I'd probably still, like, if I knew that going in.
[01:35:56] Speaker A: Be honest, I'll probably give up 10 years.
[01:35:58] Speaker C: A whole lot of money passing down to your kids and your family.
[01:36:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:36:02] Speaker A: No. $100 million is not enough to live on.
[01:36:05] Speaker B: You know what? I've changed my mind on this whole thing. Like, we just gotta stop being such wimps about this whole thing.
[01:36:12] Speaker A: Full kickoff.
[01:36:13] Speaker B: There's people that do dangerous jobs, right? I mean, we have people that climb poles and lines for a living. We have people that are in the military that jump on grenades to save their friends. We have people in fire departments and police departments around this country that are making $65,000 a year.
Comes with the territory.
[01:36:30] Speaker A: Let's go.
[01:36:30] Speaker B: No more wimps.
[01:36:31] Speaker A: Let's go.
[01:36:32] Speaker C: I don't know if this matters, but I just think about the past sometimes. Like before guns and people just. Just knife fight each other.
[01:36:39] Speaker B: Sword fight, Just like up close and.
[01:36:41] Speaker C: Personal, just knife fight each other.
[01:36:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:36:43] Speaker C: And that was just life.
[01:36:44] Speaker B: Even the American Revolution, you had guns, but they weren't great.
[01:36:47] Speaker C: Crazy.
[01:36:48] Speaker B: You just line up side to side, 10 yards away from each other, and fire.
[01:36:51] Speaker C: Now we're taking away hits in football.
Come on.
[01:36:55] Speaker A: What have we become?
[01:36:57] Speaker B: The softening of men.
[01:36:59] Speaker A: Listen, seriously, on. On the, on the flip side of that, I'm actually somebody that's. That's all on board for, like, people get up in arms about, like, why do football players or any sports for that matter, make so much money? Because they're performing in front of millions of people.
[01:37:11] Speaker B: Everybody's on the line.
[01:37:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, you're. A doctor's not being watched. Sure. A doctor also makes a lot of money. Not NFL money, but he makes a lot of money. But Is a million people watching a doctor do a surgery every day. No.
[01:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:37:24] Speaker A: So, like, I'm all for the. The athletes making a ton of money.
Even though they're not doctors or military guys or whatever the case may be.
[01:37:32] Speaker C: They're the best at what they do in the entire world.
[01:37:33] Speaker B: Would be interesting to have that as like a reality show. Like if every time I dropped a. A sale, like there were a hundred thousand people on Twitter going, this guy blows. He can't sell a shoe to us.
[01:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah. That's my point. Like, nobody's watching you because nobody gives a.
[01:37:47] Speaker B: This is every week. People are just on me.
[01:37:51] Speaker A: All four. Like, there's a reason why the NFL is. Is so popular and there's a reason why that's high stakes. Yeah. And there's so much money that goes into it. Why wouldn't the players be paid so much? And again, probably misguided anger. You probably should be mad at the owners. They make a hell of a lot more than those. Those players do. But I still don't even mind that.
[01:38:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:38:13] Speaker A: So I'm on both sides of this. I think let the game be dangerous, but let the players pay. Get paid as much as they want to get paid.
[01:38:19] Speaker B: I think doctor is a tough analogy to make because doctors. Doctors are paid well. I think the. The more like it's like your first responders or even like teachers and teachers. Like. I think we would all agree those jobs are critically important.
[01:38:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Absolutely.
[01:38:32] Speaker B: Infrastructure and the health of the country.
[01:38:33] Speaker A: But do a million people watch you teach every day?
[01:38:35] Speaker B: No. It's true. I. But in the grand scheme of things, is teaching young minds more important to the world than.
[01:38:42] Speaker A: I 100 think so. And I 100 think teachers in general should be paid much more than they are paid. However, a million people aren't watching you teach.
[01:38:49] Speaker B: We all think we should be paid more. The problem is, if everybody made a million dollars, money would be meaningless. Nobody would work, and there would be no where to get services. The economy would collapse.
[01:38:58] Speaker A: You want me to blow your mind?
Nothing's backing your money right now.
[01:39:01] Speaker B: There's nothing backing anything.
[01:39:02] Speaker A: Nope. It's all made up. Points don't matter.
[01:39:05] Speaker C: Gold. Let's take a break here.
[01:39:08] Speaker A: Everybody to invest in gold.
[01:39:11] Speaker B: Drop that cryptocurrency.
[01:39:13] Speaker A: Move on here. Bill Belichick was not a first ballot hall of Famer.
The guy, the coach that has the most Super Bowls of any coach. Most super bowl appearances of any coach, most division championships of any coach, Most playoff wins of any coach. 302 regular season wins, which ranks third all time and 333 total wins, which ranked second all time. He did not get the 40 out of 50 votes needed to get in. He didn't even need all of them.
There was 10 guys in this thing, more than 10 guys that didn't vote for this man to be a first bow hall of Famer. Which. Which one tells me that the hall of Fame voting is kind of a joke.
[01:39:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:39:49] Speaker A: And two, a lot of politics going on there because it's all these people that I know. Bill Belichick didn't there. There was a lot of enemy. He made a lot of friends, but he also made a lot of enemies in the NFL being as great as he was. So to me, like, these are all guys that have axes to grind that we just don't want to see him get in.
[01:40:06] Speaker B: Well, and the problem is you get the Spygate stuff right? But like, I think that was what.
[01:40:10] Speaker A: Everybody fell back on is. Is, oh well, there was deflate gate and Spygate and blah.
[01:40:14] Speaker B: But if the NFL hasn't taken action, they haven't rescinded the Patriots Super Bowls. Right. I mean, if.
[01:40:21] Speaker A: Kudos to the NFL because this isn't the ncaa. We don't just take away wins and act like didn't happen by the letter of the law.
[01:40:27] Speaker B: Those things didn't happen or didn't impact the game in some meaningful way.
[01:40:32] Speaker A: You could tell me all you want that Ohio State is stripped of their Big Ten championships.
Yeah. Because. Because guys sold their trophies and whatever else for tattoos.
I say that game happened and they won.
[01:40:45] Speaker B: Ten years later, these guys are each making $6 million a year playing college football.
[01:40:49] Speaker A: Stupid.
[01:40:51] Speaker B: Look, the Pro bowl done. Gotta go. Kickoffs probably done. Gotta go. The hall of Fame officially a joke. I like, I'm not big like protest guy or like I'm gonna. I'm gonna not watch because I don't agree with whatever. Like the people are like, I'm not watching the super bowl halftime show. Cause I don't like to perform like this to me, discredits everything the hall of Fame stands for. The hall of Fame is for.
[01:41:16] Speaker A: He's widely known.
Best coach ever.
[01:41:19] Speaker B: Best of the best. You don't have a. Nobody has a resume. I don't care whether you're a player, coach, owner, anything. Nobody has a better resume than Bill Belichick, period.
If he's not a first ballot guy, I don't know what the standard or the qualification is to get the hall of Fame.
[01:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:41:39] Speaker B: So like I.
[01:41:40] Speaker A: Here's the. Here's the kicker, Robert Kraft also didn't get in.
[01:41:43] Speaker B: He's not a kicker. He's an owner.
[01:41:44] Speaker A: No, he's known her.
[01:41:46] Speaker B: But he also didn't get Robert Craft another one. Yeah, but to me, Bill Belichick's resume.
[01:41:49] Speaker A: Still much more is more is.
[01:41:52] Speaker B: Is. Is better than Robert Kraft's even, because, like, as an owner, you can throw a lot of money around.
[01:41:58] Speaker A: And like, I'm just saying, like, I think. I mean, I think you would agree, and. And. But I would have thought Robert Craft should be in the hall of Fame as well.
[01:42:06] Speaker B: I mean, if we're at a point where we have owners and these guys in the NFL hall of Fame, like, he should be in the. In the list. So just completely discredits everything the hall of Fame stands for and is a disgrace.
[01:42:21] Speaker A: Man, just imagine what Tom Brady could have done if he would have had a Hall of Fame coach.
[01:42:25] Speaker B: Could have been 12 Super Bowls an owner.
[01:42:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:42:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. I just like that they have to fix that. The NFL has to.
[01:42:32] Speaker A: You have to fix that, too.
[01:42:33] Speaker B: How do you not. How do you.
[01:42:35] Speaker A: I don't know.
[01:42:35] Speaker C: It's insane.
[01:42:36] Speaker B: I don't know who gets.
[01:42:37] Speaker A: And clearly, these guys cannot separate whatever personal issues they have from. Like, everybody knows Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all time.
[01:42:44] Speaker B: Shador is a Pro Bowler, and Bill Belichick is not a Hall of Famer.
[01:42:48] Speaker A: What a world we're living in.
[01:42:50] Speaker B: Todd Monkin's our head coach.
[01:42:52] Speaker A: Speaking of the Patriots, the Patriots are practicing at Stanford, and the Seahawks are practicing at San Jose State.
Number. Notice, I. I didn't say anybody was practicing at the 49ers practice facility. That's because given the uncertainty around whether or not the substation next door is causing tendons to degenerate, they've decided to just forego that altogether and just practice away from the substation. So this. This story has gotten legs. Exactly. With this whole substation. Legs just disintegrating people's tendons.
[01:43:22] Speaker B: Yeah. The 49ers have been victimized. It feels like more than others.
[01:43:27] Speaker A: With injuries. With soft tissue injuries.
[01:43:28] Speaker B: Soft tissue and tendon tears.
They asked John lynch about this recently. I mean, this is the point where, like, this is coming up in press conferences now.
And his response was basically like, they are asking anyone and everyone if there's an actual study done, any kind of empirical evidence that EMF can cause tendon ruptures outside of one guy making a YouTube video with a nanometer, whatever he had with him.
But it is interesting, I mean, that at least these other NFL YouTube video. By the way, these other NFL teams have taken notice to the point where they're like, we wouldn't, we don't want to practice on the NFL quality and level field and practice facility. And the best, one of the top facilities on the planet for our sport because of the electrical substation next door.
[01:44:13] Speaker A: Let's test this theory. Bone, you're a lineman.
[01:44:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:44:16] Speaker A: In your day job. You have any soft tissue issues right now?
[01:44:20] Speaker C: Yes, I do.
[01:44:22] Speaker A: We solved it.
[01:44:23] Speaker C: But yeah, I will say they happened before I became alignment.
[01:44:28] Speaker A: Has it gotten worse?
[01:44:29] Speaker B: Has that ever been anything that like, you've been counseled or talked to by like, like, does that come up in like health memos or anything that like, hey, this could be dangerous. Like when you signed up for the job.
[01:44:39] Speaker C: No, it's more about contact and then.
[01:44:41] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they're more worried about you actually getting electrocuted.
[01:44:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Bones handling levels of energy that you touch it and you could literally like explode.
[01:44:51] Speaker B: They don't, they don't much care if you rupture a tendon or have alien babies.
[01:44:55] Speaker C: No.
[01:44:56] Speaker B: Mutant children.
[01:44:56] Speaker C: No, I, I, in the past I've heard about, you know, you don't want to live under, you know, high tension or high voltage power lines. You know, like distribute not or transmission lines. Yeah, like, you know, the big stuff, like plus 150, 150, 000 volts, stuff like that.
[01:45:12] Speaker B: For what reason in particular?
[01:45:14] Speaker A: Just same thing that you're, that we're.
[01:45:16] Speaker C: Talking about, you know. Although my kid got cancer or something and I happened to live under power lines.
[01:45:22] Speaker A: EMF stuff, man.
[01:45:23] Speaker C: Stuff that gets associated with, weird stuff happens.
[01:45:25] Speaker A: They don't have enough data on it.
[01:45:27] Speaker C: Yeah, but, Yeah, I don't think I, I, I don't know. I'm around the substation often, but I'm not practicing or running or.
[01:45:35] Speaker A: It's funny, we talk about this climbing, but my sister.
[01:45:37] Speaker C: I should probably use this to get my mri.
[01:45:40] Speaker A: We'll talk about that soon. Don't worry. I t my, it's funny you mentioned that, not living under transmission lines. My sister and her husband and their kids live under a transmission line.
[01:45:52] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:45:53] Speaker B: I like your sister.
[01:45:54] Speaker A: It's in their front yard. It's not that sister.
[01:45:55] Speaker B: No, I like both your sisters.
[01:45:57] Speaker A: Okay, well, thank you.
[01:45:58] Speaker B: And your mom.
[01:46:00] Speaker A: Thank you.
This is my life. Everybody.
[01:46:04] Speaker B: Lovely ladies.
[01:46:05] Speaker A: My life.
But with that, let's go ahead and get into the super bowl preview.
[01:46:10] Speaker B: We're just gonna leave it there. I gotta talk about, about the conspiracy just. Done.
[01:46:13] Speaker A: All right, now let's Bring it back. Boom. Go back.
[01:46:17] Speaker C: Left click.
[01:46:18] Speaker B: Right click.
[01:46:19] Speaker C: Click.
[01:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go.
[01:46:20] Speaker C: Right click again.
[01:46:21] Speaker A: I forgot that we didn't finish it up. We didn't close the loop here. So get it.
[01:46:25] Speaker B: Because it's like electromagnetic forces.
[01:46:27] Speaker A: What do you got? You had some more about the story, I think.
[01:46:29] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't.
[01:46:30] Speaker A: Are you me right now?
[01:46:32] Speaker B: I just thought we were gonna keep talking about it. I mean, it's a wild story.
[01:46:36] Speaker A: The.
[01:46:36] Speaker B: The physics and the law that govern our planet are pretty wild.
[01:46:40] Speaker A: I mean, it is a wild story. Is that. I mean, but we kind of really talked about is the whole theory is that the electromagnetic fields are. Are just shredding tendons is basically what's happening. And the 49ers, if you look at the amount of tendon tears they've had this year compared to the rest of the NFL, it's. It's significantly more.
[01:46:57] Speaker B: When I think they're the only NFL franchise that has a practice facility in a football field that is literally next door to one of the larger, largest substations in the country.
[01:47:05] Speaker A: Yep. And the football field, the. The stadium, from what I understand is it's not as big of a concern because it's like, you play there one.
[01:47:12] Speaker B: Day, probably a bigger concern for the fans sitting in the stands are going to have mutant children.
[01:47:17] Speaker A: They probably wouldn't be a fan. They're only. Again, they're only there for how many times a year or going to a game. But.
But the practice facility like you said, that they use every single day.
[01:47:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're working out and that's.
[01:47:28] Speaker A: Where they have their team meetings and everything. So it's got the indoor facilities for all their meetings. Yeah, I mean, interesting thing. And the guy. Again, shout out to. I don't even know what the guy's name is, but brilliant YouTube video.
Just poorly shot and just went over. It was like, look at this. Look at all the electromagnetic field. You hear. Look at. Look at.
[01:47:45] Speaker B: Well, I think what was interesting about that video is like, I don't think that video was the genesis of the conversation. Like the. It started with like, hey, there's a lot of injuries over here. And then people started putting the pieces together. Like, what's different about Levi Field and the practice facilities than is different about anything else? Let's take a look.
[01:48:02] Speaker A: What's that thing over there?
[01:48:03] Speaker B: Giant electrical substation next door. And then that guy did the. The radiation test or whatever he had with his. I don't even know what that thing's called, but. Yeah, but it went Wild.
[01:48:13] Speaker A: It's a pretty crazy thing. It's too soon to say definitively that's what's going on. But, I mean, honestly, I'm on the side of. I think that at this point, it's probably likely.
Yeah. I mean, how else do you explain it?
[01:48:27] Speaker C: There's something there.
[01:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:48:28] Speaker C: I mean, it's been for a couple.
[01:48:30] Speaker A: Years in a row, if I'm not mistaken.
[01:48:31] Speaker B: That could just be the salt water. There could be in the bay.
[01:48:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. I guess with that, let's go ahead and get into the super bowl preview.
All right, guys, the super bowl is here, the pinnacle of the sport.
[01:48:53] Speaker B: It's here.
I'm not there.
[01:48:55] Speaker A: I'm not gonna lie to you. This is probably one of the least excited I've ever been for a Super Bowl.
Dude.
[01:49:01] Speaker B: I was thinking that, and I was wondering if it was just me.
[01:49:03] Speaker A: No, I'm. I'm serious. Like, I just.
[01:49:05] Speaker B: Is it because I have.
[01:49:06] Speaker A: There's nobody that I'm really invested in in the Super Bowl. Like, I don't care about the Seahawks. I don't care about the Patriots.
[01:49:11] Speaker B: Like, the super bowl used to be, like, a holiday for me. Like, I was excited for the entire team two weeks leading up to it. And, like, I think it's because of.
[01:49:17] Speaker A: The Browns, because I was just so disenfranchised with everything that happened with the Browns at the end of the season. Like, it just was to. To a boiling point where I was like, I am so fed up with this. Nothing's gone our way since. Nothing exciting has happened with the Browns. We hired Todd Monkin again. Nothing against Todd Bunkin, but is he excited? No, I'm not excited about it. I'm just like, yeah, he's another coach.
[01:49:36] Speaker B: Hope it works out.
[01:49:37] Speaker A: Yeah, hope it works out. I hope he's great.
[01:49:39] Speaker B: I don't know if it's like, am I disenfranchised franchise because the Browns were so bad, or am I reaching a point in my adult fandom that I am more invested in my local team and less invested in the NFL at large?
[01:49:50] Speaker A: It's probably a combination of all these things, to be honest with you.
[01:49:52] Speaker B: Or, like, is it just, like. I mean, super bowl losing its luster?
[01:49:56] Speaker A: Full disclosure, this was. And you guys know this, but this is the first year in 20 years.
[01:50:02] Speaker B: That I didn't bless bone.
[01:50:06] Speaker A: God damn. This is the first year in 20 years that I didn't do fantasy football. Any fantasy football. I did none this year, and it was glorious.
I was like, I don't have to pay attention to. I just get to watch the Browns. I don't have to worry about it. It was great.
[01:50:20] Speaker B: It isn't fun anymore. It's one of those things that I do. It's almost a job. I just do it because I have always done it.
[01:50:26] Speaker A: I think I will get back into it eventually, but I think I need a few years. I needed.
[01:50:31] Speaker B: I don't enjoy it anymore at all.
[01:50:33] Speaker A: And you're really invested in some of the leagues you're in. You're like keeper leagues that are like D leagues.
[01:50:37] Speaker B: And that's mostly the reason I stay, because I'm in this league that is a keeper.
[01:50:40] Speaker A: But if I leave, I'm going to start from square one when I come back.
[01:50:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:50:44] Speaker A: So.
[01:50:45] Speaker B: But I don't enjoy it anymore. I don't know. Like, I don't.
[01:50:48] Speaker A: Like.
[01:50:48] Speaker B: It might just be that the super bowl to me has lost its. Its meaning, is like the pinnacle of the sport. Because I used to be in my childhood days, like, under the delusions of grandeur, the delusions of attitude.
[01:51:01] Speaker A: You might play in the NFL one day.
[01:51:02] Speaker B: No, not that. Just that, like, this is the pinnacle. Like, this is the grand, greatest sporting event in the world. And I've kind of reached a point now after watching decades of football, where my thought process when it comes to the super bowl is like, it doesn't matter that much. Like, it's nice to have a winner.
[01:51:18] Speaker A: It only matters.
[01:51:20] Speaker B: But it's nice to have a. It's nice to kind of wrap the season up. But to me, it's not even always the best team that wins a Super Bowl. It's the team that had chemistry at the right time. It's the team that was healthy at the right time. Like, I don't know.
[01:51:36] Speaker A: It's a team that caught a ball off their health moment.
[01:51:38] Speaker B: Could Denver have won the super bowl this year if Bo Nicks didn't get hurt? I will never know because he broke his leg.
[01:51:44] Speaker A: Like, I think there's a really good argument to say they'd at least be in it because they only lost 10, seven.
[01:51:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:51:49] Speaker B: I mean, if they had some offense in that game, they might have been able to do something. So I don't know. Like, it just feels to me like the super bowl isn't as meaningful. And now we're at a point where you can't even get into the hall of Fame by winning multiple Super Bowls. Like, just. It's been like.
[01:52:05] Speaker A: I think that's discounted. Again, that's. That's something that the hall of Fame voters, in this instance, they don't take that into account when really you should.
Like, it does devalue the, the Super Bowls that Bill Belichick has. Like, what number of Super Bowls does it take for you to be a first ballot hall of Famer? Like, you're legitimately directly saying to fans, yeah, that this many Super Bowls doesn't matter.
[01:52:30] Speaker B: I just know that, like, I watched Peyton Manning play his whole career growing up, and if he had never won a Super Bowl, I still am thinking he's one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game, regardless of what he ever did in the, in the Super Bowl. And same thing with, like, guys like Dan Marino. Like, one of the greatest quarterbacks statistically of all time never won a Super Bowl. Does he suck? Like, it took John Elway until the final year of his career to win a Super. Super bowl, but people put so much stake in Super Bowls, especially for hall of Fame resumes and that. Or the greatest of all time debates. You know, how many Super Bowls did they win? I don't know. Like, Joe Montana won four. Like, he was really good, but was.
[01:53:11] Speaker A: He had a stat team.
[01:53:12] Speaker B: Is he way better than guys like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees? Like, from a skill level? I, I don't know. Like, but that number means a lot. The winning Super Bowls means a lot. I just, to me, it doesn't. I can't, I can't judge players based on how many times you want a Super bowl because I just think there's so many other factors.
Being good at the game.
[01:53:31] Speaker A: You say it all the time. One team wins every year. Like, it's, it's really hard to win a Super Bowl.
[01:53:35] Speaker B: You be really lucky. It's. To me, it's luck more than even.
[01:53:37] Speaker A: To get one in your career. You have to be lucky.
[01:53:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:53:40] Speaker A: So I, I don't know. I, I think it still means a lot, but I think it's, it's, there's something to be said about losing its luster there. People that are listening to this right now, they're probably like, what the is wrong with you guys? You run a football podcast.
Yeah, I understand, but I, I think for me, what it is, is it means less as I get older, unless it's my team in it and my team ain't never gonna be in it.
[01:54:00] Speaker C: So I think that's, I think that's probably part of it.
[01:54:03] Speaker A: Whereas it's like I'm just losing interest because I just, I look at it, I'm like, my team ain't gonna be.
[01:54:07] Speaker B: There, do you think?
[01:54:08] Speaker A: We're so far away from that. We're so far removed from that, that it's. It's. It's like, I watch these teams, and legitimately, you watch these teams, it looks like they're playing a completely different game than what the Browns play.
[01:54:19] Speaker B: That's true.
[01:54:20] Speaker A: So, like, in my head, I'm just. It's this unattainable goal. Yeah. It's never gonna happen. So it doesn't matter.
[01:54:28] Speaker B: Are we, as Cleveland fans, Cleveland sports fans in general, did we get the monkey off of our back in 2016 when the Cavs won the championship? And so, like, it's. Hey, we saw one before we died.
[01:54:39] Speaker A: Like, I mean, to me, if we never win again, that's what I'm going with. That's the one. That's the one.
[01:54:45] Speaker B: Like, it's the only championship has ever gone matter to me.
[01:54:48] Speaker A: We damn near 12 in one season.
The Guardians took it to the. To the brink. But, you know.
[01:54:53] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, if we hadn't won that super. If we hadn't won that championship in 2016, would we feel differently about the super bowl today? I guess. Like, I don't know. Like, did that change us chemically in our brains?
[01:55:04] Speaker A: I don't think so. Because I don't. I don't think it translates as far as. Like, that doesn't have any bearing on how I feel about the. The Super Bowl.
[01:55:12] Speaker B: There are generations.
[01:55:13] Speaker A: I think it's exactly what Bone said. I think it's the fact that we're so far removed as Browns fans specifically. I just don't care because I'm not. We're not at that level. I can't even talk about the Super Bowl.
[01:55:23] Speaker B: There are generations of Cleveland sports fans who died without ever seeing a championship.
[01:55:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Super bowl probably didn't matter to them either.
Just saying, like, it doesn't matter to them now.
[01:55:34] Speaker B: Bones and dust.
[01:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Just one before I die.
[01:55:37] Speaker C: There's also the fact that if the Browns were to somehow ever make it, we are so priced out of ever going to that I say I will sell everything else.
[01:55:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't matter. I'm going.
[01:55:49] Speaker B: I don't know.
[01:55:49] Speaker C: I used to think we're priced out.
[01:55:51] Speaker B: I used to think that. But honestly, like, I would probably rather watch it at home.
[01:55:55] Speaker A: Isn't.
[01:55:55] Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
[01:55:56] Speaker A: Isn't the average price of a ticket right now like. Like $14,000?
[01:56:00] Speaker B: I think it's like 7 to 10.
[01:56:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I could buy that. I'm in.
[01:56:04] Speaker B: Sell a watch.
[01:56:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that's What? I'm selling a lot of things, but I'm a buy it.
Yeah. I don't know.
[01:56:09] Speaker B: Anyway, super bowl preview.
[01:56:10] Speaker A: Preview.
Listen, I'm going to be honest with our listeners here. I call it super bowl preview. That's. I use the term preview loosely. It's not really a preview. I'm just going to see who all. Who we think is going to win.
[01:56:20] Speaker B: I think the line is four, four and a half.
[01:56:22] Speaker A: For who?
[01:56:24] Speaker B: Seattle.
[01:56:24] Speaker C: Seattle.
[01:56:27] Speaker A: Took you a minute to think about that?
I don't know. Let's. Let's just. Let's just talk about it here. Bone, who do you like in the Super Bowl? It's obviously the Seahawks versus the Patriots.
[01:56:39] Speaker C: Patriots were one of my super bowl teams from the get go is the Rams and the Patriots. And then I believe I have the Patriots wing it winning it all. So I'm going to stick with them.
Going with the Patriots score.
Oh, man. Let's go. 27, 21.
[01:56:57] Speaker A: Kenny, who you got?
[01:57:03] Speaker B: Gosh, this pains me to say.
I do think it would be sweet revengeance or revenge for Vrabel to win after a year removed from being on the Brown staff. Just to. I don't even know that he. Any animosity to the Browns.
[01:57:17] Speaker A: Oh, how history repeats itself. I know he wasn't the head coach of the Browns, but Bill Belichick goes from the Browns to the Patriots win Super Bowls. Mike Vrabel.
[01:57:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I guess just to add salt to the wound, that would be interesting. But.
But I think Sam Darnold gets it done. I think Sam Darnold is a Super bowl champion this time next week.
[01:57:37] Speaker A: That's a sentence I never thought I'd hear.
[01:57:39] Speaker B: I'll go 24, 22. Seahawks.
[01:57:42] Speaker A: Fair.
I am in the same camp as Bone just in the simple fact that I picked the Patriots from the beginning to win the Super Bowl. So that's who I'm sticking with.
[01:57:52] Speaker B: I think if the Seahawks win, I.
[01:57:54] Speaker A: Want to win, to be honest with you, just because I'm kind of rooting.
[01:57:57] Speaker C: For the Seahawks as well.
[01:57:58] Speaker B: I think the Seahawks win. I don't have to get a Brazilian wax.
[01:58:01] Speaker A: No.
What was your score?
[01:58:04] Speaker B: 24, 22.
[01:58:05] Speaker A: I'm gonna go 23, 20.
Patriots. I think we're all kind of in that same ballpark, but.
Did you say Patriots too? You said Patriots, right?
[01:58:17] Speaker B: Seahawks.
[01:58:17] Speaker A: Oh, you're going Seahawks.
[01:58:18] Speaker B: Sam Darnold places.
[01:58:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Sam Darnold has a Super Bowl.
[01:58:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:58:21] Speaker A: A sentence I never thought I'd hear.
Yeah. So I don't know. I. Again, you could Tell.
We aren't as excited this year as we usually are.
Again, I just think that I'm.
[01:58:34] Speaker B: Normally. I'm more excited.
[01:58:35] Speaker A: I am, too. I love this year.
[01:58:36] Speaker B: Super bowl this year.
[01:58:38] Speaker A: And maybe that's a little bit of us having young kids. Priorities are a little bit different. I don't know. I mean, bone your thoughts on that. Did football lose its luster a little bit after you had your kids? They're a little bit older now, probably.
[01:58:48] Speaker C: Yeah. A little more perspective on life and just.
[01:58:50] Speaker A: Just in general, like, it doesn't matter as much.
[01:58:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I still enjoy it. It's still my favorite sport.
But, yeah, I. I would agree with that.
[01:58:57] Speaker B: It's the only sport that I can just turn on, and it doesn't really matter who's playing. I mean, I like to watch the Browns the most.
[01:59:02] Speaker A: I mean, mean, all this being said, I'm definitely watching the super bowl and making buffalo chicken dip and have it do, you know, whole. Whole nine yards. But I'm just not as invested.
[01:59:09] Speaker B: Like, I can watch the Jaguars vs. The Giants on Thursday night, and, like, I will watch the whole damn game.
[01:59:16] Speaker A: And multiple times during a game, you're.
[01:59:18] Speaker B: Like, oh.
[01:59:20] Speaker C: You'Re invested in the calls and what was that?
[01:59:24] Speaker A: Randomly, at some point during the game, you decide you want this team to win, who you're rooting for for the whole game.
[01:59:29] Speaker B: Speaking of Super Bowl, I mean, you guys have thoughts on this Bad Bunny and anything at all? I just. I spent a talking point all year.
[01:59:36] Speaker A: I know everybody's all up in arms about it. Like, why is this guy, like. Like, let's be honest, like, the. The people. Especially lately, the people that have done the Super Bowls are young pop, hip hop, R and B artists that are the hottest right now. The dude just won however many Grammys. Like, of course he's the guy that's doing the Super Bowl. Like, I don't know. Like, it doesn't really, really bother me. I'm probably. If I'm being 100 honest, I'm probably not gonna watch it because I don't listen to Bad Bunny. That's just not the type of music I listen to. I don't.
[02:00:01] Speaker B: Good time for a bathroom break.
[02:00:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Like. Like. But I'm also not going out of my way to say, like, I'm watching this specifically because Bad Bunny. Like, something else specifically because Bad Bunny is performing. I don't really care. It just doesn't do anything. I just.
It's just a guy performing at the. At the halftime show.
[02:00:18] Speaker B: Is it a guy or a Bunny?
[02:00:19] Speaker A: Yes.
[02:00:21] Speaker B: I. I didn't even know who Bad Bunny was until recently. Like, until this whole.
Like, I have never listened. I don't listen to his music or whatever, so I'm not. I'm just not familiar.
But I look at it and I'm like, it's the biggest television event of the year. Like, the NFL's obligation is to put on a spectacle of a show that has people.
[02:00:42] Speaker A: That's what they're gonna do.
[02:00:43] Speaker B: The artists that are relevant today, and whether. I think. Whether you like Bad Bunny or hate Bad Bunny or if you deny that.
[02:00:50] Speaker A: He'S relevant today, you're just living under a rock. Yeah.
[02:00:53] Speaker B: Like, I'm not a Bad Bunny fan, but I. I have learned who he is because he's apparently a big name. I mean, he's winning awards and winning Grammys and stuff. And. And I think that at the end of the day, all of these people that are in Hollywood and even Nashville, like, these big celebrities, like, they live in a different world than we do, and they're all a little bit weird, and they probably all have their weird stuff about them. Maybe they're bad people or maybe they're good people. Maybe they cheat on their spouses. Maybe they're drug addicts. Like. Like, this is a world that I'll never understand because I don't live in it.
[02:01:23] Speaker A: One of my favorite artists of all time is Johnny Cash, and he had the most problems just saying, like, that dude was up.
[02:01:29] Speaker B: Like, I don't know that you're ever going to find somebody that appeals to everyone. I just think, like, there's. And there's always going to be stuff that you're like, oh, that person was bad. Like, I. Rihanna was rubbing her privates during her show. Like, people were offended by that. It's just. I expect that stuff anymore with anything coming out of Hollywood and pop culture media, like, it just is weird. Happens. Ever. Ever since Justin Jackson, Justin Timberlake revealed a boob on tv.
[02:01:55] Speaker C: Like, gonna have you naked by the end of this song.
[02:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that was. That was intense.
Camping.
[02:02:03] Speaker B: Camping.
[02:02:03] Speaker C: Intense camping.
[02:02:05] Speaker A: But, yeah. So that's the super bowl preview. Let's move on real quick. I got.
[02:02:08] Speaker B: Are you going to watch the Turning Point USA America show?
[02:02:10] Speaker A: No.
[02:02:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't think I'm turning. Turning that on is.
[02:02:13] Speaker B: I don't understand how they're even gonna do it. Like, what, am I supposed to just change channels for 18 minutes or whatever?
[02:02:19] Speaker C: Like, as Kid Rock's performing, right?
[02:02:22] Speaker B: There's a bunch.
[02:02:23] Speaker A: There's a bunch of them. But it doesn't matter.
[02:02:25] Speaker B: How do you get that many?
[02:02:26] Speaker A: I just don't understand top tier artists.
[02:02:28] Speaker B: To get together for an 18 minute, like, hey, you guys want to all get together for one song each?
[02:02:33] Speaker A: Like, well, a quarter of a song each. Yeah, I don't get it either. I also just don't get like, like these statement things against like, like you said, like the super, like, he's one of the most relevant artists in pop culture today. Like, yeah, like I didn't care for.
[02:02:48] Speaker B: Kendrick Lamar, but listen to that music. Like I didn't have. But the show was fine.
[02:02:53] Speaker A: Like, yeah, let's just.
[02:02:54] Speaker C: Everything gets politicized.
[02:02:55] Speaker A: It's just crazy. Just let it be what it is. It's a Super bowl halftime show. Just let it be. Yeah, but let's move on. Since we're getting a little gassed up right now, we'll. We'll move straight into gassed up.
Oh, and I understand this doesn't happen very often, but I understand you're gasping about something right now.
[02:03:16] Speaker C: Well, I guess so. I, I kind of already let it out a little bit, but.
[02:03:20] Speaker A: Well, that's why I've been stopping you. Every time you start, you start ramping up, I'm like, hold on, we'll talk about this.
[02:03:24] Speaker B: We want to get you good and gassed up.
[02:03:27] Speaker C: I had this. Well, I don't go to the doctor very often and old school.
[02:03:31] Speaker A: I like that.
[02:03:32] Speaker B: Well, when you're a top 10 crossfitter in the world, you don't have. I mean, you're the pinnacle of health.
[02:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:03:35] Speaker C: And this is the reason why I stopped doing that for a little while. I've been taking a break because I've been having issues with my knee, which has been an ongoing issue.
[02:03:43] Speaker A: So Instead of top 10, you're top 20 right now.
[02:03:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:03:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[02:03:46] Speaker B: And lately stuff on the joints being.
[02:03:48] Speaker C: A top 10 and lately my knee has, has taken a significant turn when I do activities, you know, running, rowing, rucking, squatting, whatever.
[02:03:57] Speaker A: All the things that most of us just rucking.
[02:03:59] Speaker C: I just carry heavy weight on my back and I walk around and rucksack is that thing.
[02:04:04] Speaker A: Rucksack?
[02:04:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[02:04:05] Speaker B: I've never heard of it.
[02:04:06] Speaker C: I enjoy it. And I turned to that because I thought maybe my knee wouldn't hurt all the.
[02:04:11] Speaker A: That everybody does.
[02:04:12] Speaker C: And man, I woke up the next day and man, my knee hurt a lot. And so I stopped doing those activities for a couple weeks. And then I finally got my knee checked out today. And I thought, what was, what was.
[02:04:23] Speaker A: Your intention going in to get your knee checked out?
[02:04:26] Speaker C: I'm like, I've.
[02:04:27] Speaker A: I've.
[02:04:27] Speaker C: I've exhausted every avenue as far as rehabbing my knee through YouTube.
[02:04:34] Speaker A: As one would.
[02:04:35] Speaker C: And I've been successful as far as getting mobility back into it, getting more flexibility, taking away the pain by strengthening around my knee, stretching, deflection. I believe I had an MCL injury in my past, and it's flaring back up. So whether that's scar tissue, whether I tore it again slightly or whatever it is, I don't think it's completely torn. But I imagined that would walk in there, tell the doctor this, and then I'd get an mri.
That's not how it works.
[02:05:01] Speaker A: So, yeah, when you told me this before we started the show tonight, I just laughed. I was like, you thought you could just walk in and be like, I want an mri? They'd be like, yes, sir, right away.
[02:05:10] Speaker C: Right.
[02:05:11] Speaker A: Let's just order one up for you.
[02:05:12] Speaker C: Some. I mean, a frail doctor moves my knee around, touches my knee in a spot where I told him it didn't hurt, and he goes, does this hurt? I'm like, well, no, that's not where I told you it hurt.
And he basically is like, oh, your exam's over.
We're going to do an X ray. And I'm like, that's not going to.
[02:05:28] Speaker A: That's where it starts.
[02:05:29] Speaker C: That's not going to show you anything.
[02:05:30] Speaker A: It always starts with an X ray.
[02:05:32] Speaker C: And then he kind of, in a roundabout way, basically was like, you need to go through all these loopholes if you want to get an mri.
[02:05:37] Speaker A: Tons of hoops.
[02:05:39] Speaker C: You're going to be denied by the insurance.
And he never gave me the information on how do I get insurance to let me get an mri. He told me if I go to Lebanon, I might be able to get one for 400 bucks if I'm out of town. Good advice if I go to another country. So that was beneficial. I guess so, yeah. Now I'm trying to figure out, how do I get an mri. And you have insurance and I have insurance. I've been paying for premiums my entire working career.
Apparently healthy individual who doesn't use his insurance ever wants to use his insurance. They tell me no.
[02:06:13] Speaker A: That's how it goes. So I. I've had elbow issues for a few years.
[02:06:18] Speaker B: Too much wanking.
[02:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's exactly what it was.
[02:06:20] Speaker B: Two hand Dan.
[02:06:21] Speaker A: Well, when my right arm gets tired, I use my left arm. Oh, yeah.
[02:06:24] Speaker B: I mean, you definitely don't need two at one time, but one of. One at a time.
[02:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah. A couple fingers Maybe.
But anyways, so I've had elbow issues. And. And when I went, I. I kind of went down the same path as you. I didn't. I didn't expect to get MRI right away because I'm not an idiot.
But I went. Went into the doctor, and I was like, look, my elbow's really starting to, like, I couldn't even. It got to the point I couldn't even hold a cup of coffee. Like, it would just. I would drop my arm down on the table.
And so I go in and they.
[02:06:58] Speaker B: Start talking about pretty much quit golfing because of this.
[02:07:00] Speaker A: Yes. And so they said, okay, well, the first thing that you have to do is get your normal exam. So that's. You've taken this step. You've gone that far. And I'm not giving advice to anybody out there. I'm sure it's different for different insurance companies. Different. Different doctor's offices, whatever the case may be. But this was the route I had to go. I had to do that.
I then had to be referred to physical therapy. I had to go through six to 10 weeks of physical therapy. Once they finally determined, you know What? It's been six to 10 weeks, this ain't done.
And mind you, this was like dry needling, cupping, like all kinds of. That's not comfortable. Not fun.
[02:07:34] Speaker B: Rucking.
[02:07:35] Speaker A: No, they didn't do any rucking on my elbow.
But in my opinion, it just made it way better.
[02:07:41] Speaker B: Worse.
[02:07:41] Speaker C: Yeah.
[02:07:42] Speaker A: Finally they're like, you know what? This isn't really doing anything. We should probably send you to an orthopedic surgeon so that they could take a look at this. And. And so you go for another exam, and then the orthopedic surgeon says, okay, so physical therapy didn't work.
X rays didn't show anything. The X ray was a second step. Physical therapy, third step.
So now we have to. At that point, you probably will get an mri.
[02:08:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[02:08:06] Speaker A: But again, this is weeks and weeks down the road.
[02:08:07] Speaker C: Yeah. After they copay you to death.
[02:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's going to cost a shift, a ton of money getting an mri, so be ready for that. Sure. Like hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
And then they're gonna tell you, ah, you were right. This is. There's something up here.
And so then the orthopedic surgeon will schedule with you for your surgery, which you also pay an arm and a leg for sure.
And then you'll get a surgery, and it may or may not be successful. In my case, it was not. So.
[02:08:30] Speaker B: So, in other news, kickoffs are broken The Pro bowl is broken, the hall of Fame is broken, and the US Healthcare system is broken.
[02:08:39] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I'm pretty guessed. I said that all calmly, but when I was going through this, it was the most frustrating thing I've. I'd ever experienced up to that point, because I kept telling him exactly what was wrong. I'm like, the pain is right here. If you just take an MRI right there.
[02:08:55] Speaker C: It was almost like, I guarantee you.
[02:08:57] Speaker A: You'Ll see what is happening.
[02:08:58] Speaker C: It was almost like the dude purposely didn't try to recreate the pain I was having.
[02:09:03] Speaker A: Right. And what's the point of. Of X rays, physical therapy, more appointments? Like, the insurance company just ends up paying way more money than if they would have just given me a goddamn X or a goddamn MRI to start with. And this goes deeper. Yeah, I'm getting. I'm getting gassed up now. Apparently, this is me getting gassed up.
This goes deeper than just injuries like. Like we're talking about. People have things going on with their bodies where they say, I have pain in my chest or my stomach or whatever the case may be. They make you go through all these hoops to do all this, and in the end, they run an mri. And this is an anecdotal story, not a true story of, like, mine or anything, but, like, they run an MRI and they're like, oh, you have stage four cancer. If we would have done this, this MRI nine months ago, we probably could have saved you, but instead, you're gonna die. Like, what the fuck is wrong with this country?
[02:09:48] Speaker C: Yep. I agree.
[02:09:51] Speaker B: Broken. That's why I just do what I do. Don't. Don't go to the doctor. You have no idea what's wrong with you. And one day you just drop dead anyway.
[02:09:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been doing that my whole life. I'm gonna go back to the YouTube and start rehabbing my knee again.
[02:10:02] Speaker A: Good luck. Good luck. Best of luck to you, sir.
So. So I guess you weren't that guessed up. I was gassed up.
We put bone on the spot, and he shows us just how calm, cool, and collected he is at all times.
[02:10:13] Speaker B: He's always on that level.
[02:10:15] Speaker A: He's like, I was upset about this a little bit. And this is what I sound like.
[02:10:19] Speaker C: When I'm upset about, oh, I get heightened. Yeah, I do.
[02:10:23] Speaker B: Bones, blood pressure has never changed his entire life. It's always.
Every time they go like, 120 over 80, he's like, yeah, I know.
[02:10:32] Speaker A: It's actually lower than that. 110 over.
[02:10:34] Speaker B: Over, like, 68 I'm a natural beta blogger.
[02:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Ye real quick. King in the north.
Kenny, you lost. You gotta get waxed. I'm the king. That's all.
[02:10:47] Speaker B: If I wanted to hear from an I'd fart.
[02:10:50] Speaker A: Nice. Good. Good one. Let me remind you to call the burger sports guys.
Don't forget to call. Leave your hot takes on. Hot take. Highlight. We want hot takes. We want hot takes.
[02:10:59] Speaker B: We want the hot takes.
[02:11:00] Speaker A: 3302-278081-30130 278-130-227881 we're talking to you man. Yeah, man.
[02:11:09] Speaker B: Keep calling man.
[02:11:10] Speaker A: Call us now. We'll kick you right into Jimmy's.
And be sure to check out our gear www.dt media.comshop and that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[02:11:23] Speaker B: Well, I can tell you this week we fit two weeks into one episode. So it was long. It was.
[02:11:28] Speaker A: What are we at now?
[02:11:30] Speaker B: This is 151. Oh, you mean time?
Well over two hours.
[02:11:35] Speaker A: Nice.
[02:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
So sorry we will not be live on Sunday night again. Live shows are over for the season but we will be back next week, probably Thursday with the recap of the super bowl and the season and just kind of put a bow on all the from this year, obviously bringing in any Browns updates and news as it relates to coaching hires, player development, anything else that goes on.
But we'll be pretty much hunkering down and tucking ourselves in for the long cold off season.
We'll be back periodically during that time with draft specials and things like that and other events with Brownsbackers. But otherwise we'll be taking a short hiatus. But you can always hang out with us on social media media.
[02:12:20] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm sure we'll post some stuff there. Yeah, yeah, we got a lot of backlog to work through, a lot of. A lot of clips to.
[02:12:27] Speaker B: Oh there be lots of content all off season long.
[02:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tap media, Facebook X and Instagram at the tapping media. I'm burning Sportscast. That's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, tik tok and YouTube at burning sportscasting on next as well the handle at Burning river podcast. You can find a podcast wherever you podcast Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music Stitcher, Pandora radio Podcast Castro Good pods. We are number one ranked football podcast and so many more reviews are the best thing you can do to help our podcast grow. Please keep supporting and we'll continue to grow together. Tweak our formula when necessary and keep bringing you the best damn Cleveland Brown spot in the land. You know what that takes us to, Kenny?
[02:13:02] Speaker B: Facts for.
[02:13:16] Speaker A: What do you got for us?
[02:13:17] Speaker B: I got some facts.
[02:13:18] Speaker A: Is it whale facts?
No, you. You gave me that look. I was excited. I thought we had some whale facts.
[02:13:25] Speaker B: Still not whale facts.
[02:13:26] Speaker C: Son of a.
[02:13:27] Speaker A: Don't you come back to me again until you have whale facts.
[02:13:30] Speaker B: Maybe for the final week of the season.
[02:13:33] Speaker A: Don't.
[02:13:33] Speaker B: If you're lucky, if you're nice to me between now and then, I won't be gone one. Number one while. Benjamin Franklin. I'm Ben Franklin.
[02:13:46] Speaker A: Can we tell this story real quick?
One time when. When Kenny and us. Kenny and our younger days, when Kenny.
[02:13:52] Speaker B: And I were bachelor days.
[02:13:53] Speaker A: Bachelors and checking out what school we wanted to go to in Florida, we went down there. We checked out the school. The school was great. But we stayed in Florida for another night or two afterwards.
[02:14:03] Speaker B: Then we checked out the ladies.
[02:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And we decided to go out and just check out the. The crowd. Daytona Beach.
And we go into this bar, this dance bar, whatever it is, just club. I don't know what.
Like, it was kind of a nightclub, but it was kind of a. It was weird. I don't know. But anyways, we went in there and everybody's kind of, you know, on the dance floor, kind of all just talking to each other, mingling, whatever. Me and Kenny are posted up on a table. These girls walk up.
[02:14:28] Speaker B: Not as awkward as can be.
[02:14:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. We had no game.
[02:14:33] Speaker B: We never did.
[02:14:33] Speaker A: We were so lucky. We found wives.
But anyways, we're standing.
[02:14:37] Speaker B: The worst part is this was the time in our life when we were in really good shape. We were bench pressing a lot, squatting a lot. In great. Like. Like very low body fat percentage.
[02:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyways, nobody believes that about you.
We.
[02:14:50] Speaker B: I'll post a picture.
[02:14:51] Speaker A: The. The two girls walk up to our table and they say, hey, guys, how you doing?
And Kenny's instant reaction. His inst. Line was, hi, I'm Ben Franklin.
And these girls ran away.
[02:15:08] Speaker B: They didn't know how to take that.
[02:15:10] Speaker A: They literally didn't even say a word. They kind of were like. They gave the okay look and just walked away.
[02:15:16] Speaker B: I invented the public library. This usually works. Fire department.
[02:15:20] Speaker A: This usually works. Yeah. I was flabbergasted. I was like, what the. Mind you, this was a go to for Ken. It was a go to line. But I did not expect. One of the few times that a girl walked up to him and initiated with him he brought out the line, hi, I'm Ben Franklin.
[02:15:34] Speaker B: It did work. One time, that girl told me she would let me do anything I want.
[02:15:38] Speaker A: Nashville. Yeah. A totally separate story around the same time. Ish. A little bit later, probably, but we're still young. Yeah. A girl walked up to watch. They. They started talking to Coyote Ugly. They were talking for a minute, and then we got out onto the street, and we're getting ready to head our separate ways.
And mind you, they've just been talking at this point, but this girl literally know my name. She said she's been asking his name for an hour and a half, and finally she looks at him. She goes, if you tell me your real name, I will do anything you want to do tonight. And he said, I'm Ben Frank.
And she, too, went in the opposite direction.
[02:16:15] Speaker B: Usually works.
[02:16:16] Speaker A: So he's got a history of telling everybody he's Ben Franklin. I digress. Go on. It was. If your. If your son would have been born on July 4th. You guys were going with Ben. Ben Franklin.
[02:16:27] Speaker B: And my next son, if I am blessed with another boy, would be Ben Franklin. Yes.
Ben Franklin Thunder.
[02:16:33] Speaker A: I digress. What are. What are your Ben Franklin fans?
[02:16:36] Speaker B: It'll be Benny and Kenny number one.
[02:16:40] Speaker A: What a bunch of stupid names.
[02:16:42] Speaker B: Not a joke. It's a real thing. Get a.
I mean, that's setting your son up for success. He's going to run for office. He's going to win.
[02:16:50] Speaker A: What's your name?
[02:16:50] Speaker B: Ben Franklin Thunder.
[02:16:52] Speaker A: Benjamin Franklin Thunder.
[02:16:56] Speaker B: Number one.
[02:16:57] Speaker A: If you gave your kid that name, it'd be the longest name in the history. Like. Like, if we're talking, it'd be the longest name in history.
[02:17:03] Speaker B: It's either Ben Franklin Thunder, George Washington Thunder, or Ronald Reagan Thunder. Is one of the. Is one of those. Maybe Nancy Reagan Thunder. It's a girl.
[02:17:11] Speaker A: Nah. If it's a boy. Nancy Reagan Thunder.
[02:17:15] Speaker B: Number one. While Benjamin Franklin was a part of the Committee of Five tasked with penning the Declaration of Independence, he was specifically barred from authoring any of the actual text because the Founding Fathers were very concerned he would hide a fart joke inside of it.
[02:17:36] Speaker A: You might be Franklin.
[02:17:37] Speaker B: Due to his reputation as a wit, prankster, and author of satirical pieces, such as Advice to a Young man on the Church, Choice of a Mistress, and his many essays on flatulence, The Continental Congress felt it was safer to have Thomas Jefferson write the document to prevent him from injecting humor, satire, or lightheartedness into a solemn document that was intended to be taken seriously to the rest of the world. The average age of the founding fathers at the time, 31. Franklin very young, was 70.
[02:18:09] Speaker A: Very old, huh? And very in 1776.
[02:18:13] Speaker B: And very apt to include a fart joke in a solemn dialogue.
[02:18:17] Speaker A: How in the shit did a man live to be 70 at that time?
[02:18:20] Speaker B: He invented health. He invented a lot of things.
[02:18:21] Speaker A: He invented health.
Ben Franklin invented health, everyone. That's the fact that you should take away here.
[02:18:27] Speaker B: No, the fact is they were afraid he's gonna hide a fur joke. The most important document in American history.
[02:18:31] Speaker A: I wish they would have let him.
[02:18:33] Speaker B: Number two.
In 2004, Canadian High School student Mike Mike Rowe, not that Micro was sued over his domain name to his moderately profitable web design business Microsoft.com the Microsoft argued that their trademark had been infringed because of the phonetic resemblance between Microsoft and Microsoft.
Micro, after he offered to sell the domain name to Microsoft for $10,000, was countered using a heavy handed approach of suing the teen, leading to one of the greatest David versus Goliath cases in modern legal history.
Donations and support rolled in leading to an eventual out of court settlement. In exchange, Microsoft took control of the domain name and Mike Rowe was awarded repayment of all expenses that had been incurred, including a new site set up and traffic redirected to this new site. Additionally, Microsoft provided Ro with a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network and all expenses paid trip for him and his family to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, training for a Microsoft certification and an Xbox with a selection of games.
But according to a supposed Reddit forum, the settlement included much more than what was disclosed publicly as he now spends his days as a professional poker player and is able to earn a conscious consistent living.
Wow.
[02:20:02] Speaker A: So he probably got millions on the side.
[02:20:05] Speaker B: Enough to gamble with the rest of his life.
[02:20:07] Speaker A: You have from 10,000 Microsoft and you said we're gonna bury Microsoft.
I dare you.
[02:20:13] Speaker B: Microsoft was buried in bad PR from suing an 18 year old. And so they, the, the PR campaign then was we settled it with an Xbox, we gave the kid an Xbox and he played along.
[02:20:24] Speaker A: You know that's one of the things that everybody accuses as Bill Gates of being.
[02:20:27] Speaker B: And this was 2004 so like the Xbox had been recently launched as a big deal. They needed that to kind of help. Yeah, it's build the momentum of the Xbox campaign.
[02:20:37] Speaker A: What I was saying is it's one of the things Bill Gates has always been accused of is being a good guy.
[02:20:41] Speaker B: You know, especially recently. There's a certain list out there that he keeps popping up on. We won't talk about that, though. Number three.
[02:20:53] Speaker A: Farts. Farts.
[02:20:55] Speaker B: That's it. That's the facts.
Farts are mostly composed of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, and methane, in that order. Air is mostly nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide, in that order.
Other gases are present in both farts and regular air, but only in trace amounts. Water vapor is present in both air and farts.
[02:21:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[02:21:20] Speaker B: And is more variable than other gases. But farts are generally going to be more humid than the ambient air poop particles. This is important because since parts contain methane and are typically quite humid, farts are slightly heavier than air.
[02:21:34] Speaker A: Thus they stay low.
[02:21:35] Speaker B: A single fart typically weighs between 0.03 and 0.1 grams, or 1/200th of an ounce. So farting enough technically helps you lose weight. Big farts bring down the number on the scale.
[02:21:49] Speaker A: Your farts weigh like, like 200, 200 of an ounce. They. They weigh weigh a full ounce.
[02:21:57] Speaker B: It's probably not a good weight loss technique, but if you do fart enough, it could be measurable.
And that, my friends, is fart facts for days.
[02:22:06] Speaker A: If you fart enough, you can shoot.
[02:22:08] Speaker B: Your farts for days.
[02:22:10] Speaker A: Beans, beans, beans, the magical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot, the more you toot.
[02:22:14] Speaker B: Not time for a song yet.
[02:22:15] Speaker A: So eat your beans at every meal.
[02:22:19] Speaker B: That's it. That's all I got.
[02:22:21] Speaker A: All this fart talk is making bone hungry.
Hungry.
What?
[02:22:27] Speaker C: I'm not hungry. I'm tired.
[02:22:30] Speaker B: Are you horny?
[02:22:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going to sleep.
[02:22:33] Speaker A: He's like, I won't answer it.
[02:22:34] Speaker C: Actually, it's late now.
[02:22:36] Speaker B: This is the latest we've ever gone to.
[02:22:38] Speaker A: This is the latest.
[02:22:39] Speaker C: Yeah. So, yeah, goodbye. Bon appetit.
[02:22:43] Speaker B: Don't just be a part of the problem. Don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[02:22:48] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires. Burning river sparks burning river. If you light your farts on fire, you could catch the river on fire.
[02:22:59] Speaker B: Catch your methane.
[02:23:00] Speaker A: Prevent them.
[02:23:01] Speaker C: That's dangerous.
[02:23:02] Speaker B: Prevent the river from.
[02:23:03] Speaker A: Never fart near an open flame.
[02:23:07] Speaker B: Is that a fact?
Bonus fact.
Near an open flame.
[02:23:13] Speaker A: That's just some free advice.
[02:23:15] Speaker B: Farts on farts on fire.
I don't know the rest of that Rocky song.
[02:23:20] Speaker A: Oh, the Rocky song. I was like, where are you going with that?
[02:23:22] Speaker B: I got you farts on fire.
I don't know. Show's over.
[02:23:26] Speaker A: Good night, Cleveland.
[02:23:26] Speaker B: Good night, Cleveland.
[02:23:27] Speaker C: Good night, Akron.
[02:23:28] Speaker A: Quiet on set. I now have two loves in my life.
Big city living and a voodoo woman named Phyllis. I didn't think we'd be getting into Brad Pitt's ass.
[02:23:42] Speaker B: I can't even say I didn't think we'd be getting into Brad Pitt's ass.
[02:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah, didn't think we'd get in there.
[02:23:48] Speaker B: We talk a lot of analingus on this show.
[02:23:51] Speaker A: So put your right foot in and take your right foot out. Then put your right foot in and shut the hell up. Because it's not time for the hokey pokey. It's time for the Burning river Sports Cat. Motorboat. You play the motorboat.
You motorboat. Son of a.
[02:24:07] Speaker B: You old seal.
[02:24:07] Speaker A: Are you.
[02:24:08] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during that interview.
[02:24:09] Speaker A: What? What were you think? Nothing. Cuz you don't have thoughts, cuz you're a brainless idiot.
[02:24:14] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:24:15] Speaker A: My name is Utrid son of Utred, by the way. I want my foreskin back.
[02:24:19] Speaker C: Back.
[02:24:19] Speaker A: It doesn't matter what you think.
[02:24:21] Speaker B: Women's Guide to. To Anal Sex and it was the second edition. Who makes that second edition?
[02:24:27] Speaker C: The weather outside is weather.
[02:24:30] Speaker A: The other one. The finger. The finger. Eating food. Fingers.
[02:24:32] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[02:24:34] Speaker A: My ass is full of.
[02:24:37] Speaker B: Everywhere.
[02:24:38] Speaker C: Yes.
[02:24:38] Speaker B: Ejaculate all over my body and my genitals.
[02:24:41] Speaker C: Yes.
[02:24:41] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[02:24:43] Speaker B: We suck again.
[02:24:44] Speaker C: Don't need fundamentals when you got heart.
[02:24:47] Speaker B: And Jesus.
[02:24:48] Speaker A: And Jesus.
[02:24:49] Speaker C: That's right.
[02:24:50] Speaker A: Touchdown. Anyway, what do you mean funny?
[02:24:52] Speaker C: Funny how?
[02:24:52] Speaker A: How am I funny? It's going down. I'm yelling. Timber.
Should we start a meat podcast? Like. Like, like, like the meat pod Slow roasted.
[02:25:07] Speaker B: The leads are weak.
[02:25:09] Speaker A: Leads a week.
Leads are weak.
[02:25:12] Speaker B: You're weak. That we should send a team of oil core drillers. Allah Armageddon to Mars to have them access the newly discovered reservoirs of water trap 7 to 12 miles under the surface that when released, will cover the entirety of everything on the planet. Less than a mile high. No browns, baby.
[02:25:23] Speaker A: All I do is win, win, win, no matter what. Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts. Oh, Lord. I mean, when I. Last year, when I won and went home, you know, my wife's pants hit the ground.
[02:25:34] Speaker B: Wow. But damn, I'm sorry I hijacked your segment for a second to do some good podcasting.
You know why, mister?
[02:25:42] Speaker A: Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW. That's my name. I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers, so I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[02:25:56] Speaker C: It's Mother Nature.
[02:25:57] Speaker A: I live my life a quarter mile at a time.
[02:25:59] Speaker B: Where's Logo girl when you need her? I desperately want to make love this cheese. We need cheese, girl now. Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson. Who's canceled now?
Who's canceled now?
[02:26:11] Speaker A: Probably me.
[02:26:12] Speaker B: You making it for the fat people.
[02:26:15] Speaker A: I'm not just you.
[02:26:17] Speaker B: We're a whole race, basically.
[02:26:20] Speaker A: No way. You're just straight. Just finger bang their salad.
[02:26:26] Speaker C: You first get shocked and then you get the shocker.
[02:26:31] Speaker B: You like to see almost naked.
[02:26:32] Speaker A: That's cool, man.
[02:26:33] Speaker B: Whatever.
[02:26:38] Speaker A: Are you not entertained?
Are you not entertained?
[02:26:44] Speaker B: Is this not why you were here?
[02:26:57] Speaker A: Today's episode was brought to you by Topath American Gin.
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