Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
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[00:00:55] Speaker B: Media.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: It's time.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Time for the Burning River sportscast. A lot can change in just one week. Surprises and bounce backs littered the landscape in week two. That same week was all it took for the walls in Berea to come crumbling down. The eternal hope and optimism of Browns fans everywhere dashed in just week two. In the blink of an eye, the NFL's preeminent running back and superstar was launched into the sky only for gravity to return him into a hodgepodge of lumpy leg and shredded CLS. As Browns fans held their breath, it soon became apparent that the season and possibly career of a fan favorite was not only in jeopardy, but over. And a football season full of hopes and dreams flashed before our very eyes like the great Jim Crochet once melodied. If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do is to save every day till eternity passes away just to spend them with you. Nick Chubb. With the season still young, where do the Brownies go from here? What's the new answer to the run game? Can this team stay competitive despite this loss? Will Deshaun ever earn any of the $230,000,000 in guaranteed cash proffered to him by Jimmy and the boys? And will Nicholas Jamal Chubb return to the Browns like Leroy Brown, better than old King Kong and meaner than a junkyard dog? We'll break it all down for you next on the Burning River Sports cast.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: I would argue that Deshaun Watson we're getting right now is the same Baker that was injured. Agree like. That's basically what we're getting right now, and I don't like that. Kenny Pickett.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Kenny Pickett?
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Two gloves. McGee, over there.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: He's got dumber hair than I do.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it was still a nice, tight, long ass kick.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Bowen, you got anything to say about Stefanik? Yeah.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: What do you call a guy who goes quarterback option left on fourth and one?
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Do we call him Kevin? Stefanik.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Smartest guy in the room.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Even better. Yeah.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Get your ass ready. It's about to get hot.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Especially Kenny. I know you play DB, so I'd be interested. Doesn't look like it. Now.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Oh, sure.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: I know you played DB, so I'd be interested to get your take on this.
[00:03:29] Speaker D: I never missed a kickoff in my life, and let me tell you something, that's one kickoff I will not miss.
It's like St. Patrick's Day. Kiss me. I'm Irish. Touch me. I'm Frank.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Welcome into the Burning River Sportscast, presented by Tapin'media and brought to you by the Cleveland Browns fan crews. I'm your host, Kenny Thunder, joined by my co host and founder of Egyptian ladies lesbian lingerie line Ulala Sphinx. He's red.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: He's hot.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: He's roundy jams. Along with our trusty board up who keeps a stable of pregnant and recently postpartum women in his garage to produce him an endless supply of milk. The man with the healthiest vitamin D field bones in the game, the big bone man. Big bone. How's the Bone family?
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Bone family is great. They're feeling good, and they're alive.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Excellent. Back to Red eye. Two questions.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: If you and brown's alum Frank Stammers founded a political party, what would it be called?
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Why do you keep doing it? It would be called the Donuts.
I just love donuts. All right.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Number two, elephants and donkeys are old news. What would your mascot be?
[00:04:44] Speaker A: The Donut.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: A donut?
Not like the Cleveland Stamers?
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Nah, I don't like it.
Yeah, I just like donuts, man.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: It was weird because he'd think they would come from you.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Guy likes donuts.
[00:05:00] Speaker E: He likes to see almost naked.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: That's cool, man.
[00:05:02] Speaker D: Whatever.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Do you want to know where you can find our podcast?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. We can all the Donut lovers find our podcast.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: You can find our podcast wherever you get our podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, spotify Stitcher. Google Podcasts. Amazon Music. Pandora iHeartRadio Podcast castro good pods and so many more. Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube, the only place that you can find our video podcast. And check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Our handle for all those socials and YouTube is at Burning River Sportscast. And we are on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter as well with the handle Burning River Pod.
And while you're at it, one last thing you can do while you're online is check out our merch that's at WW Dot Thetapinmedia.com Shop. We've got shoes, hats, mugs, mouse pad, shirts, shorts, flags, phone cases. You name it, we got it. And the cruise line is officially out.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Swim trunks, slides, tank tops. Do we have tank tops?
[00:05:58] Speaker A: We don't? We got T shirts.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Let's get some tank tops.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: All right, I'll do it.
So make sure you check that out along with everything else in the store. We're constantly adding to that as time goes on, but we've got another great show for you planned today. Despite the terrible news that Kenny mentioned in the opening of the show. Today we have an interview with the Tennessee Brownsbackers brownsbackers organization that's located in the heart of titans territory. We've got the week two recap of the worst day that we can remember as Cleveland Browns fans. We've got an interview with another Browns alumni that will be joining us on the Cleveland Browns Fan Cruise in the second half of the show. Today's guest as you alluded to Frank Stams.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Frank.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Frank. Frank. Frank. Frank. I wonder if he will be happy that he's going to be part of the Donut party.
And finally, the week three preview of the game against the Tennessee Titans. So that takes us to the Burning River news story of the week.
All right, so the news story of the week. This week, McDonald's has announced that they are getting rid of all self serve soda machines, and it will now be served only by the cash registered person. I guess they went automated on everything. They decided to bring something back. They're like, we took away a lot of jobs. We got to give them back. We got to pay $15 an hour for people to get you soda.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: I can't figure out what the purpose of this is. I mean, I guess the only thing I can figure is that because they've gone so far to the gig economy to, like, DoorDash and Uber eats that they have so little in store visitation that maybe there's a cost savings there. But people are still going to drink the pop. That's like, the best part of going into the McDonald's.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: So are all Coca Cola freestyles just gone now out of those places, or they just have freestyle on the back?
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Well, no, they're not going to be at McDonald's anymore, that's for sure.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know, but the only cost savings I see is, like, the people that come in and they're like, I want this one. Nah, dump it. I want this. Nah, dump it. But I mean, how much money are you actually saving?
[00:08:10] Speaker B: But that's the best part about going to McDonald's is because sometimes you're not sure what you're in the mood for, and you can just kind of get a spread and you taste they didn't change this one. This kind of tastes soda water. You're like, let me try the Coke. Coke. This is good. It's so good.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Instead, now I got to take it back.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: And I just hate having to wait at a register for if a salad.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Comes on top, I send it back.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: I hate having to wait at a register for a refill. That's so inconvenient. But I guess it's true. When's the last time you've been inside of a McDonald's to eat and sat down and ate a meal? I don't it's definitely pre pandemic for me.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Me. That's that goes for just about any fast food place. Like, you just get it and get in your case, you get a DoorDash. I know you DoorDash. Everything true.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Even the last time I went into McDonald's, it wasn't to get food. It was just a pee on a road trip.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: That's actually the reason we go into fast food place. Like, actually inside the fast food places most of the time as well, is road trip peas.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: And we even ordered food there. And then we just took it back to the car. We were like, let's just eat in the car.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: I don't want to eat here.
[00:09:09] Speaker D: Don't.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: But I don't know. Something about you just makes me sad. Like, I have a young son who now is going to grow up in a world where he can't just mix all 17 flavors of soda together.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Feels bad.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Does feel bad.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Back when I was a kid, that.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Was the best part of going to.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: A place like that.
I don't know if you guys are as turned down as we are, but you can't get soda on your own at McDonald's anymore.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: I was as turned down as I ever was until and a football.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: And then I was super more there.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: So with that, let's get into the week two recap.
All right, so this week the Cleveland Browns were beaten on one of the weirdest, most tragic nights that I can remember as a Browns fan. We lost game 26 22. The Pittsburgh Steelers. Let's start with them. Let's run through the stats fairly quickly here, because, you know, we want to get into some of the discussion around storylines with the game.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: I don't even know that we need any of these pleasantries. Like, no one had any stats that were really that great.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: We're going to do it anyways because it's what we do, and it's what our fans expect. The Pittsburgh Steelers, let's start with their offense. Kenny Pickett, 15 to 3222 yards, one touchdown, one interception. George Pickens, four receptions, 127 yards, and a touchdown. Besides that, one big catch, his big touchdown, he really didn't do anything. Naji Harris, ten carries, 43 yards. Jalen Warren, six carries, 20 yards, four receptions, 66 yards. Their defense, though, was a different story because their offense was pretty unimpressive. But their defense, six sacks, three turnovers, forced two touchdowns. TJ. Watt and Alex Highsmith, both had touchdowns. Both had they they kind of feasted on our offensive line all night. And then their special teams. Chris Boswell, two for two field goals, two for two extra points. Which leads us to the Cleveland Browns on offense. Deshaun Watson was about as mediocre as mediocre can be. 22 of 40 for 235 yards, a touchdown and interception, six carries for 22 yards. So we'll stop there real quick. What are your thoughts on Deshaun especially obviously, we'll get into Nick Chubb and some of that stuff here shortly. But what were your thoughts on Deshaun Watson?
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Look, I know it's week two, and it's early in the season.
He's obviously got to turn it around. But if you remember a couple of weeks ago, I said, all you people that came at Baker for Baker's numbers keep that same energy, because you know who is 31st out of 32 quarterbacks in the NFL in yards right now? Just Sean Watson. You know who's 31st? You know who's completing 70% of his passes and is ranked 11th in the NFL in yards right now?
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Probably Baker Mayfield.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Baker Mayfield. So we're not getting Baker back. I know it's not part of the discussion. It's frustrating because this is exactly what we said about Baker. You can't win. We can't get to the next level because our quarterback can't throw for more than 250 yards in a game. Our quarterback is not able to lead us down the field at the end of the game and win a game winning drive.
It's all the same shit. So the question is, was Baker bad? Is Deshaun bad, or is our coaching bad? Which one is it?
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Well, you know, where we all or at least where I tend to fall on that. But I am one of the guys that I was excited about, deshaun Watson. I've given him the benefit of the doubt. I've said up to this point, he has to shake off the rust, whatever. It's been eight games, though. He's officially half a season in an entire offseason to work with the coaching staff, to work with the players, to gel and do whatever he's got to do to get back to where he was. I mean, for $230,000,000 guaranteed, you need to not only get back to where you were when you were playing for Houston, but you probably have to be better than that. And he's nowhere near that. He's not even sniffing the numbers that he had when he was in Houston. And so, to me, half a season in full offseason mean even a guy again, I was excited about the move. Personal stuff aside with Deshaun Watson, I was excited about the football player.
I mean, right now, he's just not showing it. And it's starting to get to the point where if you're not questioning at this point whether he can actually make it back to the player he was in Houston, at least then you're not paying attention. I mean, no matter how much you wanted to stand by him when this whole thing started, if you aren't questioning him at this point and concerned, at least concerned about where he's going to end up this season, then the wool's been pulled completely over your eyes. And, like, Kenny just not you're not coming with the same energy that you came at Baker.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: You can't treat him differently because he came. Let's not forget that Deshaun Watson once led the league in passing yards. They also went four and twelve that year.
So I just have such a hard time with that. We're giving Deshaun kind of a free pass here, saying he'll get it together and we just need more time. Time. Well, as we saw on Monday night, time.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Well, that's not even getting into some of the specifics of Monday night. I mean, he had two face mask penalties. He pushed a ref.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: He threw a pick on the very first play.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: That wasn't his fault. Let's be honest. It got hit. Harrison Bryant in the hand.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Look again, same energy at the end of the day is a stat line. Baker didn't get the benefit of the doubt when he threw a pick that hit somebody in the fair.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: But I would say, in general, that's fair.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: But here's my thing. I go back to the two things, the eye test, which is, not only are his stats bad, look at the guy on the field. Look at him on the sideline. He looks lost. He looks defeated.
He looks slow. He plants. If you watch his dropbacks, you watch him get to his final backstep, he takes his weird bunny hop where he's double clutching. He looks just like Baker Mayfield, actually, in the same offense. And then nothing happens. And I'll go back to what I said on, I think, our very first show, and I've said it all along, is I'm concerned about this guy's mental fitness. This guy look, the NFL all but said he did all the things that he was accused of. Right. That's why they suspended him. And according to law, he wasn't found liable. But here's the thing. This just seems the only thing.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: At the very least, you have to question his mental stability.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah, because there's something going on there. Right? Like, this is a guy that thought he could do whatever he wanted, was on top of the world, was in UNICEF commercials and everything else, was a face of the franchise, face of the NFL. And all of a sudden, that all came crumbling down for him. And it's got to be hard. It's almost like when LeBron left for the first time and was playing the villain, and he admitted later that that wasn't really his role. To me, I compare it more to Tiger Woods. When you think about Tiger Woods, tiger woods had the most confidence in the world. That's why he won every tournament.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Because from Grace, you can imagine, you.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Listened to guys that played him, and they said you would get up on Sunday, and you knew you were playing Tiger, and you knew you were going to lose, because that's how much confidence Tiger Woods had throwing a nine iron through a back SUV window. All of a sudden, everything changes because he was outed as this pervert, sex addict, whatever you want to call him, and everything that everybody thought they knew about Tiger Woods all of a sudden came crashing down around him, and it took him years to get back to playing for him, to where he was winning tournaments.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Oh, and it could be argued he never got back there.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I mean, you're right. He never got back to the dominance that he had. But I'm just saying, just to win one tournament, it would go back to Bay Hill. When he won finally, it was years.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: After we were there. That was phenomenal.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: But so he's a different quarterback than he is today or was then. And I think a big part of that is his confidence and where he is mentally. I don't know how you fix that, because that's not something that a normal person goes through.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Bone man, you got any thoughts on Deshaun Watson right now?
[00:16:50] Speaker C: I was kind of just disturbed about how many overthrown passes there were, or even at the end of the game where he didn't even give our guy a chance to catch the ball. Like, no shit. They didn't call penalty on that because the ball was five yards out of bounds.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Right. I don't understand all these people that are like, Why wasn't there a flag thrown? Well, even if the guy was untouched, there was no way he was catching that ball.
Go on. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: No, and it's the same thing. Even with the first play of the game, the ball was high and outside.
It was easy pitch and catch. You practice that every day. He knew that play was coming. First play of the game, and he didn't put it where it needed to be sure it touched the receiver's hands. I agree with that. And he should have caught it. But first play the game.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: But put him on him.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: You rehearse that.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Put it on mean, those are all fair points.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: I mean, the high balls, especially, and I love that know, Baker used to get in trouble with that, too, from not being leveraged on his back foot properly and throwing the ball too high for the guys. Deshaun has introduced the ground ball as well.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: It's almost like he overcorrects every time.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Baker was never very good at it. Baker threw a lot of balls over guys'heads, but he didn't throw them into the dirt as much as Deshaun.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: No, one more thing. I think one of the biggest things that got under people's skin with Baker was batted down passes. And that was a reoccurring theme on Monday night. And I just thought, how many were there?
[00:18:11] Speaker A: I think there was two or three that got batted.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: At least two or three, which I know defenders are looking for that now.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: And they play nowadays, they come up short and they jump, whatever, but it's.
[00:18:18] Speaker C: Still one of those glaring things that you see, and it's just like a drive.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And here's what I'll say not I don't think any of us here is arguing, bring Baker. There are those, Go get Baker and bring him back. Nobody here is arguing that. No, we're just saying what it is, is you got to see both guys in the same light, and you got to judge them equally. And not real hard on Baker, but we give Deshaun Watson the benefit of the doubt on any given day.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: What's so frustrating is we were told we were getting an upgrade.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And so far it just hasn't been there. There's been no like I said, I was one of the guys that was really excited about Deshaun Watson as a football player.
But let's be honest, he has not shown that he is an upgrade to this point. In fact, I would argue that he's actually shown he's a downgrade to this point.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Well, yeah, when you think about Baker Mayfield and what he knew and how to run this offense before he got towards labrum up, that like, this was a guy that was growing in a sustainable team, in a sustainable franchise. They had draft capital and they had cap room. And all of a sudden, you max out your cap room. You pull out all your draft picks. I mean, could Baker have been better if you added some other top talent around him and he was just as capable as Deshaun Watson is today?
[00:19:33] Speaker A: I'd argue that Deshaun Watson we're getting right now is the same Baker that was injured.
[00:19:37] Speaker D: Agreed.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Like, that's basically what we're getting right now. And I don't like that. But let's move on. We've spent enough time talking about Baker and Watson.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: That might be the hottest take of the year.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Well, make sure you cut that out. Put that on a short clip, and we'll throw it out there all over the place. Next up here, the one that we don't want to talk about, but we have to talk about. And we're only going to talk about him shortly here because we're going to get into his injury later. But Nick Chubb, before he went down ten carries for 64 yards. And he was just starting to carve them up when this happened.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: He looks great again.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll move on from that. Like I said, we'll talk about his injury here shortly. Next up, Jerome Ford. Again, we will talk about him shortly. He's going to be featured further later on in the podcast, but he did fill in as best he could in Nick Chubb stead, the Cleveland Browns wide receivers. Amari Cooper, seven receptions for 90 yards. And Joku, four receptions for 48 yards. Elijah Moore, three receptions for 36 yards. And here's the deal. Cooper had an okay day, but besides that, nobody really did anything. It seems like we're having deja vu. Like, I saw this story when we had Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry and whoever else, and we just can't fucking figure out how to get our goddamn wide receivers involved. Like, how can you not get them the ball? We have so much talent in the wide receiver room. Hell, cedric Tillman's riding the bench. That's how much talent we have in the wide receiver room. And we can't get any of them the ball.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: That's why they didn't need Austin Watkins. Because why would you sign him when you're not going to throw receivers the ball.
[00:21:12] Speaker D: Right.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: I just don't understand, how hard is it? Elijah Moore, who is arguably like our top weapon on our team. From an athletic standpoint, sure, he's the most dynamic when the ball is in his hands and we just can't figure out how to get him the we've.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Not even tried a little bit because they put him on under rounds and things from time to time, but there's just something's not right there. It's not right. And thank God for Mark Cooper because at least he catches the ball when you throw it to him.
And no, I think it's hard to get receivers involved when this offense that we were told was a brand new air raid. Something we've never seen before is the same three tight end sets we've always seen. Kevin sue has to come out. Hell, it was the second half of the game in a tight game.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: And don't get too far into coaching because we've got a whole segment on that.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Well, they've got Pierre Strong out in a three tight end set as one of these guys and they're throwing a ball to at a critical moment.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Pierre strong. You've got all these other weapons. You're throwing a ball to Pierre Strong.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Come on, come on. And like I said, we will get into coaching here in a minute, but let's move on to defense because I'm sick of talking about how putrid our offense was, especially once Nick Chubb went down on the defensive side. They looked phenomenal. Again, a lot of energy from start to finish. Only allowed twelve points. They were again confident, they were again disruptive, they were again relentless. Unfortunately for them, the offense gave up more points to the Steelers than the defense did. The defense only got home for two sacks in this one. Takitake got one and then there was half each on the same play awarded to Shelby Harrison.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Mohurst, can I say something about that real quick? Sure, go ahead.
I agree. The defense played really well.
I need better out of well, yeah.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: I mean, I will say that since I kind of glazed over it, but Miles Garrett's, it's the same complaint that we've had for him from the beginning. We love Miles Garrett. We think he's phenomenal athlete. We think he's great for the Browns.
We are realistic and don't think he's ever going to be that vocal leader that everybody wants him to be. We think he's more of a lead by example kind of guy and he just plays his game. But here's the deal. Miles Garrett also disappears towards the end of the game a lot and he did it again in this one. He was nowhere to be found on pass rushes towards the end of the game.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: He was nowhere to be found on pass rushes anytime during the game. I mean, I need Miles when Kenny Pickett is standing back there just holding the ball.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Kenny pickett.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Kenny Pickett.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Two gloves. McGee, over there.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: He's got dumber hair than do.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
No, I agree. And it is frustrating every time I see Miles Garrett seemingly take a play or two or three or four or five or six off in a row, and he's just kind of jogging out.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: You're the best player on the field. This is the thing that we talk about. Miles is like, no one can stop him. Anytime he wants to get back there, he can then fucking do it.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree.
Boney, you got a take on that?
[00:24:10] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: I don't know.
I feel like he did his job, but he needs to make sacks. That's the most important part. I feel like last week he had that big moment where he sacked Joe Burrow.
This week he didn't.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: You heard it from Bone. We need more sacks out of he needs to make sacks.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: This would be a multi sack game.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah. No, we totally agree. And I just want him to pick up the effort, especially in the key moments of the game.
Honestly, I really don't care if you take a few plays off. You're the best player on the defense. Sometimes you have to take them all.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Off and then make critical sacks.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: If you're there in the critical points of the game and you're coming up with big plays when it matters most, then nobody's going to care. The problem is, you take the plays off when it matters most. Next up here, though, Grant Delpit, again, was all over the place. Six tackles, a pass, breakup, and an interception, and he was phenomenal. And so was the rest of the secondary, to be honest with you. There was only that one busted coverage that I mentioned earlier with George Pickens. And you could see it wasn't busted coverage like we saw last year, where it happened just all the time. It was busted coverage like, oh, somebody legitimately missed, like, one assignment and George Pickens happened to be wide open.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: And those things happen. It's the NFL. The teams you're playing are good. George Pickens is a stud is good. I mean, the fact that they held him to, what, three catches at 100 yards is pretty good. He's their best player. He's their best weapon offensively.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you take away that one catch, they held him to three catches for, like, 40 yards.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And it still is a new defense.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: So I still give Jim Shorts and his Jim Shorts a little bit of leeway here for those types of plays because there are new calls. You've got a bunch of new faces in the secondary playing different positions and things.
You've had some injuries, too, back there a little bit. So you got guys in and out. Those things are going to happen, but those things should be overcomeable when you're playing an opponent that's inferior to you.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I mean. For the most part, the defense did that. They did overcome things. It was the offense that let everybody down. The defense played well the rest of the game. Even after that busted know, last year's defense that busted coverage happened and then all of a sudden the wheels fell off and they were terrible the rest of the game. This year they tightened it up and they played well throughout the rest of the game and they looked good. So special teams, dustin Hopkins, bone man, your boy is no longer perfect.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: All right, so he's not perfect. He's five for six on the year. All right. But you don't have that deep, sick gut feeling when he kicks the ball. Even the miss. It was a good miss.
It was still a nice tight, long ass kick.
[00:26:46] Speaker E: I still like him.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: No, it was a close miss, I will give you that. And to his credit, he came back with a 55 yarder and when he came out for the 55 yarder, I was like, oh, God, the last one was missed. Are we going to start down this road again? We were bringing him out for a 55 yard kick to redeem himself and smashed it. Dead nut center.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Dead nut center.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: So two for three field goals. He played well.
Which brings us to coaching. Oh, boy. So we kind of mentioned it a couple times already and I didn't want to get too far into it before we got to this segment because we're going to start with the head coach, Kevin Stefanski. Terrible again in this one. This is the Kevin Stefanski I remember from last year.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: He's officially Stefanik again.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just going to say he's with that performance, he is back to Stefanic. I have no respect for this man.
I'm just so goddamn sick of seeing him just I don't even know what he does out there sometimes.
It was your moment. It was your moment our leader went down. It was your moment to rally the team, bring them together and do something big here. And instead it just feels like we were lost.
Once Chubb went down, everybody didn't know what to do and they were looking to somebody to step up and be that guy. And neither Stefanik or Deshaun Watson, which we already mentioned, stepped up and did anything about it. Yeah.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Look, I get it. It was hard when Nick Chubb went down and you realized all the potential that this season held all of a sudden had this big rain cloud hanging over it. It was awful. Hell, I quit tweeting for the game. I shut the Twitter machine down.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: I was like legitimately shut.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: I literally can't focus on anything besides the fact that my heart hurts because of the Nick Chubb injury, but felt.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Like I was going to throw up the rest of the game, but gone.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: But that's why they pay Stefanik what he gets paid. Yeah, they pay him. And for those moments, for those moments when you have to bring a team together and be a leader of men, you can't just get whittled down and go, oh, boy, this is not good. That's what we were all seen at home. But we're not the head coach.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Well, and here's the biggest problem. So TJ Watt, in this postgame interview, said that they knew the play on the game ceiling, fumble recovery for a touchdown. And it's something we've been saying for three years now. For three years. His play calling is predictable. We don't run enough shorter routes to get the QB in a rhythm, and he is terrible, absolutely terrible, with situational awareness and play calling. I just don't understand it. Like, how do you go back to the same shit every time we need a play that doesn't work? It didn't work before. It's not going to work this time.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: Why do I feel like that? Every play that goes for positive yards has a level of difficulty, like, above ten.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: There's no routes that are anything less than, like, 15 yards and a five step drop.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: It's a five step drop. And I'm watching Deshaun Watson literally throw, literally the lasers down the sideline where it's just him and a receiver and a DB, and the wide receiver just has to make a ridiculous jump ball to get to getting the catch. That's the only thing this offense has brought to us this year, is watching them make the hardest throw possible on every possession, and then they can't hit the easy things.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: They don't do any of the fundamentals well, scarce environmental.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: No. The fact that TJ Watt came out and said that, that's damning. And that's all you need to know. Because for the last three years, kevin Stefanski's told us he's the head coach and offensive coordinator.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: It's about time for that shit to.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: He thinks he's an offensive coordinator. He's not even a good offensive coordinator.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: No.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: When the other team is telegraphing your.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Plays, maybe if you had time to actually spend time drawing up plays and doing what you need to do as an offensive coordinator, but you're the head coach. You have more responsibilities than just the offense. So give up that play calling. It's about time.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: And the thing is, again, just going.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Or if you want to go in and tell Haslam, hey, I'll just be the offensive coordinator, you need a new head coach. Like, whatever, yeah, hand in your papers.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Tell, my name is Stefanik, and I'm done.
No, but I'll just go back again to just the Nick Chubb injury.
This was a team that was not as good as you. This should not have been moving the heavens and the earth to motivate this team to win. It should be like, hey, guys, next man up. I know this one hurts. We'll talk about it later. We got to get our shit together, win this football game. Simple as that. But it doesn't seem like he had that conversation, nor anybody else on that sideline.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: No. From that point forward, everybody's just like, head down, like nothing.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: They were me on my couch at home. I was devastated.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: Exactly. And we understand it, but you're the football team, I'm a football coach. And you need to yeah.
Bone, you got anything to say about Stefanik?
[00:31:22] Speaker C: Yeah. What do you call a guy who goes quarterback option left on fourth and one?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Do we call him kevin stefanik.
[00:31:31] Speaker C: Smartest guy in the even better.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
And we said it all last year and we'll continue to say it this year. The only guy in the room that Kevin Stefanski is outsmarting is himself.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Over and over and over.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Just every it seems like week in and week out at this point, so I'm not sure what else to say. It feels like we're kind of beating a dead horse, but we're going to continue to do this all year long until he turns things around and actually does something.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Because here's the thing. I want Kevin Stefanski to be the coach of the Cleveland Browns. I want him to be great. I want him to be 2020 COVID that was out there winning games, doing new things that we hadn't seen before, and was creative with his offense out.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: There snapping necks and cashing checks.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: But that's not what this has become. And you're in real danger now, losing the season, because you got a game coming up this week against an AFC opponent in the Titans that we'll talk about later. But you also have the Ravens then before the bye. If you go into that bye, week one and three and deshaun continues to look bad and your play calling continues to look like shit and the other team knows what you're calling before you call it.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: The noise is going to start getting loud here in Cleveland and the heat, the temperature is going to start going up right under your ass. Kevin Stefanski, get your ass ready.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: This is about to get hot.
I don't want Kevin Stefanski to be fired, but he's going to get himself fired.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Moving on, though, getting your head coach.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Fired four weeks in is not a good recipe for anything.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: It's a recipe for losing lots and lots of games.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: I mean, I guess the Cavs did it when they fired David Blatt, but that was different.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: It's not the same sport, but let's move on. We could spend the entire podcast talking about our hate for Kevin Stefanik in games like this, but we'll move on to a coach that has shown us why we brought him in and has had his unit looking fantastic both games so far this season. Jim Schwartz, I mean, do you have anything to say other than that? I mean, he's just as advertised, right? It was the exact reason we brought him in.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: I think he holds his players accountable and I think it was when they were talking during the game about if you make a big play on defense and you aren't celebrating and getting just revved up and ready to go, he's on your ass and you're running last.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: That's how it should be. We don't need Kevin Stefanik, just stone face. No matter what happens, it works for Nick Chubb because he runs for 150 yards a goddamn game.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Well, he's all business, but on defense, you got to have that attitude. Your job is to kick the other team's ass. That's it.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you mentioned it. He wants them celebrating. It's kind of the deon Sanders mentality. He wants his players to play well and let you know that they're playing well, and that's what they've been doing. And they have this confidence breeds confidence, this swagger about them that I mean, they're intimidating. You watch. It's no joke. I know we're only two games in, and this could completely change as the season goes on. It will, but so mean. This is the nastiest Browns defense I've ever seen through two. It's it's crazy to watch, because as soon as they're on the field, I'm looking at it, I'm like, man, we're winning. Whatever matchup we have right now, we're winning it.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: Whatever he's doing, I feel like he has just unleashed every single person on the defense to just hit their full potential and just play balls out.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: It's funny you say that and use that phrase, because that's what they all said in the offseason. They all kept saying it over and over again.
They said, we're off the leash, or we're unchained, or use terms like that to say. Basically, he's telling us, go out there and play. Stop thinking when you get out there, just go out there and do. And that's what they're all doing. And they're making big play after big play, and they're looking pretty damn good.
Let's move on, though. Bubba Ventron to close out our coaching breakdown here. First of all, tell your returners to get away from the ball if they don't plan to fair catch it. I mean, holy shit. There was twice in this game where somebody called fair catch and then just kind of stood next to it and let the ball hit right next to him. I'm like, what are you doing? Just run away.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Then they tackled two guys that were making fair catches.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah, if a fair catch is happening, just go away. Just go away.
[00:35:39] Speaker C: Can we get back to the fair catch? I feel like there was like five times where they just let it drop and they downed us within the five. And did they just not trust somebody to catch it? Because that killed us.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I totally agree. I don't know why we did that, but that's what I was saying. Even on those, like, one, just catch the ball, and two, if you're not going to catch it, get away. From it. It's not hard, right? I mean, luckily, it didn't cost us anything in this game.
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Their punter could be player of the.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Game because pinned us inside the five, like three times.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Well, he was the only player on our team with stats.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: No, not our punter. Their punter. Yeah.
Besides that, we played so good, we.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Didn'T bring our punter out.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: That's true.
I have on here. Besides that, the special teams was fine. But I mean, I guess that's a lot of stuff that we just tacked on there. So buba Ventron, get your shit together. Obviously, we're not calling for his firing yet like we were for prefer after two weeks last season. So at least we got that going here's.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: What worries me right now, though, is that if this thing goes south, and it goes south quickly, all the good things that Jim Shorts is doing, he would probably be promoted as the interim head coach, but that's still only keeping him then for another 14 weeks because they're going to retain the coaching staff if this thing blows up. So I would be super disappointed if Stefanik can't get his shit together and we end up losing Jim Shorts because of this whole thing.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be egregious, but no. So, overall total yards Cleveland 408, Pittsburgh 255 1st. Downs cleveland 20, pittsburgh, nine. Time of possession, cleveland, 35 28, pittsburgh, 24 32. And yes, this is a game that we lost penalties, and this is kind of where you start to see why. Cleveland, eight for 81 yards, pittsburgh, five for 31. And here's the big one. Turnovers. Cleveland four. Pittsburgh two. There's no reason we should ever, ever have four turnovers in a game. It's just nonsense.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: And three of those were from your quarterback.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
So in other Browns news, here my player to watch this past week. I will say this was Duan Jones. And while the offensive line as a whole was pretty bad, duan Jones did receive a 74.6 passing block grade in this game, and that was the highest grade among all Browns offensive linemen. So one, it isn't surprising. The number itself isn't surprising because they all played like ass. The 74.6, that's pretty low, you would think, for the highest grade pass blocker, but they all played like ass. But the fact that Dewan Jones had the highest grade was pretty surprising to me, especially because if you were on socials, he was getting blown up. Like, he was like people were talking about how bad he was. And I'm like, I think he's doing okay. He's up against TJ Watt pretty much the whole I mean, I think TJ.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Watt is arguably the best defensive player in the NFL, which is sad because we have Miles Garrett on our team. But Miles Garrett doesn't bring the same energy that has no, I think that's.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Why TJ Watt gets gets more exposure. As far as people talk about him more, he comes up big in big time moments, and that's why he's always going to be higher up as far as defensive MVP voting, unless miles Garrett just has an unreal season, which he's not really off to that start yet. So we'll see.
Yeah, but yeah. So next up here, though, this is where we could talk about it. I know we've kind of been putting it off a little bit. We're all devastated. We've alluded to it a couple of times real quick.
[00:39:19] Speaker B: Wanted to finish one other thing on the defense before we talk about Nick chubb. I saw his brother JJ. Tweeted that with his sack that he had against the browns. I think he hit 81 and a half sacks.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Now the Pittsburgh steelers all time leader.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: I think he's now the Pittsburgh Steelers all time leader in sacks. And basically he's the best player in the game. Should be a hall of fame reader. Clay matthews, officially 80 and a half sacks in his career, can't step to hall of fame. And we know a few of those seasons they weren't even counting sacks because it wasn't a stat yet. So just my plug for clay just.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: To say, put clay matthews in the hall of fame.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: No one disrespects TJ. Watt in his game. He is great, but they have the same number of sacks, and it's like, okay, fair.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: No, I agree. Clay matthews should be in, and I don't know why he's not again. I mean, kenny, kenny did it again. We're putting off talking about Nick chubb because we're all just so devastated.
It's by far the worst thing that has ever happened to me as a browns fan. He is officially done for the season with one of the nastiest looking knee injuries that you'll probably ever see. I don't recommend you go and look for that picture.
I know that a lot of people blew it up on social media and put it even next to his injury at Georgia, things like that. It was about as bad as bad can be.
And it was the same knee that he dislocated in college. And with that injury, he tore his MCL, PCL and LCL in college. It was told at the time he may never play again. And here we are, very similar injury. I mean, if you had to ask me, I would say he probably dislocated his knee again. He probably tore those same ligaments, if not his ACL as well.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Your knee just doesn't bend that way.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: No, but here's the deal. I mean, he did battle back to become the best running back in the game after that injury in college.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: What worries me is I think there's a difference between coming back from that injury at 19 and at 26, 27.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: Yeah, and I will say I agree with that, but I will say that this one looks like it may be an even worse injury. To be honest with you. The one in college was a non contact injury. He planted his foot.
His knee buckled backwards when he dislocated his knee. This one was full on. Somebody dove at your legs and your knee was bent 90 degrees in the wrong direction. So we still don't know the extent of it. We will find that out in the coming weeks, I'm sure, but the weight of this and the effect it will have on the team cannot be understated enough. Nick Chubb is the heart and soul of the team. He's their undisputed leader, despite the fact.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: That they didn't make him a captain this year.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they go as he goes. And because of that, I was not surprised at all that we couldn't seem to put anything together after he went down. Regardless of I know we've already talked about it a little bit, regardless of whose fault you think the loss was or who was or wasn't doing what they were supposed to do, bottom line is it was going to be hard winning anything after that happened. And so even when we took Delete at 22 to 19, I just kind of felt like this night feels bad, so I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up losing this game.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: What's the thanos line?
What did it cost?
Cost everything.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: Look, I have been struggling for the words, the understanding of something like this happens. It's just the literal definition of why do bad things happen to good people?
And for someone like Nick Chubb, who's just the consummate professional who does everything the right way, this is a guy that scores and kind of hands the ball back to the referee. Right. There's not a lot of flash to his game other than the fact that he's just the best in the world at what he does.
And just to have something go so badly, so gruesome, it was upsetting. It was disappointing. Like we said in the open, you kind of see the whole season before you flash before your eyes and go, man, what could have been? Because, look, we talked at length about this roster, and it is the best roster the Browns have put together in several years on paper. And if they could get things going in the right direction, whether it's Stefanik or Deshaun, all these guys, this team could be special and it could still be special. It's just going to be a lot harder to do now because you can't just replace what Nick Chubb does for you.
So just super disappointing. Feels bad all around.
I've been just absolutely devastated since the moment it happened.
And we wish the guy nothing but the best and the healthy recovery. But again, I would say coming back from this injury eight years later to have the same kind of knee reconstruction.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Done, it's hard to do that at 28.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: It's harder to do.
He was right in the middle of his prime. And this year is a year that I think there was a ton of expectations that he would be a league leader in rushing for the first time. I think that's one of this is the only thing Nick Chubb hasn't done is led the league in rushing.
And this seemed like a year that could have been perfect for him, the way things played out in terms of personnel moves and his role in the offense, because he was going to get such a bulk of the running load. He's just going to get all the load, but look, just super dissatisfying from crying, super dissatisfying all the way around.
And look, I think what's really unfortunate here and that I don't think anyone's talking about yet, because there's still the shock and the just disappointment of it all is this could not have been positioned better for the front office. They've made it very clear that the offense going forward is Deshaun's offense. It's going to run through Deshaun and his arm. The NFL has made it very clear that running backs aren't worth a damn.
And so this is a perfect opportunity for them to come back and could they could dead cap Nick and it would save them money and not like a million dollars. It would save them like $8 million, I think. So this could very well be the end of Nick Chubb as a Cleveland Brown. Whether or not he recovers fully or not, this gives the front office the excuse it needs to say, hey, look, we're going to run this thing through Deshaun and we're going to play running back by committee and we'll see where that takes us. And that's, I think, the second most disappointing thing about this whole thing.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree, and that's really unfortunate. But I do want to ask you guys about something here. I heard a lot of chatter in the last couple of days since Nick Chubb went down. People calling out Minka Fitzpatrick. They're saying it was a cheap shot in targeting and saying he should be suspended for the entire year. I just want to get both Bone and Kenny's thoughts on this because I have my own and especially Kenny, I know you played DB, so I'd be interested. Doesn't look like it now.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Oh, sure.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: I know you played DB, so I'd be interested to get your take on this.
We'll start with you, Kenny.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: So this is the question. Is this the cheap shot? Is it targeting? Yeah, I heard a lot of this talk, too, and frankly, it's bullshit.
This was not something that make a Fitzpatrick was intending to do.
I think we've seen those types of plays in the past. But until we find out that there's a bounty gate incentive behind this whole thing, williams ain't there. I have a hard time believing that Makeup Fitzpatrick tried to do this. It was an awkward tackle in the middle of a pile in a pretty important moment of the drive.
And look, I just think weird things happen. You get tangled up, and it's not great. I've seen I've heard guys talking about should there be an intent to like, should that be the definition of a tackle? And I'm like, why are we going to over legislate the? Like, I get it. Nick Chubb got hurt and it sucks.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: It's terrible.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: I wish I had someone to blame and just say, you're the asshole that did it, and you should have done something differently. But the fact of the matter is, this is one of those inferred risks that you take anytime you step on the field, that sometimes bad things happen that are really no one's fault, and it's just a complete accident.
And I think that's what this was. I think. Minka Fitzpat, here's the thing. How do you stop Nick chop?
That was what they taught us growing up, was you make a tackle, you get a big guy running at you, especially a strong running back. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The low guy wins, period.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Bone, what are your thoughts on this?
[00:48:36] Speaker C: That's exactly how I would have tried to tackle Nick Chubb. I mean, I probably would have died.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: But here's the deal.
Obviously, this was at the high school level, but we got Bone Man here who was 165 pounds playing middle linebacker in high school. So he has some experience with taking on bigger dudes.
[00:48:55] Speaker C: There's nothing more embarrassing than getting run over for everybody to see. And he's doing it at a national level. Like, Nick Chubb is probably the most powerful running back in the game.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Seen the legs on that dude?
[00:49:08] Speaker C: It was within the ten yards, right? I don't remember exactly. It was I mean, he's trying to stop a touchdown, and you're playing to win, to go, not owing two. You're trying to make a play. And I thought it was clean. It was a little weird.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: It looked weird.
[00:49:26] Speaker C: I hope that's just noise about putting more red tape on how you tackle people, because I feel like they already do enough of that and it'd just be terrible.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: It's funny. I thought actually we would at least get one of us that disagree. But I guess the fact that we've all played at some level before understands that when you're taking on a guy that's much bigger than you. Here's the thing. I'm pretty sure Nick Chubb has at least 30 to 40 pounds on Minka Fitzpatrick.
Yeah. How else are you going to take him down? And that's what DBS are taught. And for all those people that are saying, well, he needs to at least wrap and look like he's trying to make a tackle, I'm sorry, but that's not what DBS are taught. They're taught to literally go in. And when you're that undersized compared to the running back, you kind of do this. It's almost like a leg sweep type tackle where you throw, like, your shoulder and back just below their knees.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: You just got to body them with anything.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: That's just what you're trying to do. And sometimes you get run over anyways.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: But that's what you do a lot of the time. You're not going to even make that solo tackle.
You're going to be there to slow him down so somebody else bigger than you can actually hold on to that.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: No, I agree. And so I have a couple of things here that I wanted to make sure I talked about. The first is the fact that this is what the game has become. That's what a lot of people aren't talking about is with all the focus on concussions and head injuries and those types of things, it has forced safeties especially more than any other position, it has forced safeties to now they can't come in and when somebody's wrapped up and already kind of taken control of, they can't come in and deliver that big blow to knock them down. Instead, they got to just go in and dive at their legs because if they hit them up high, they could get fined, they could get suspended, whatever else, and that hurts their team.
So what are they going to do? They're going to go at their legs. And what happens when you go at people's legs and especially below the knee, the number of knee injuries and lower body, lower leg injuries is going to increase significantly. And I think this is just a product of that. In addition, there was a lot of people talking about, well, he was already wrapped up. There's no need to do that. It's Nick freaking Chubb.
I'm not going to lie to you. I watched the replay. I'm pretty sure if Minka Fitzpatrick didn't come in and do that, he was getting out of that tackle and scoring. He was on the verge of shrugging that tackle off, throwing that guy to the ground and getting out of it and scoring a touchdown. So if Minka Fitzpatrick doesn't do that, that's six points the other way.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: How many times have you seen Nick Chubb come out of a pile?
[00:52:01] Speaker A: Like, lot.
[00:52:02] Speaker E: A lot.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think that kenny, you nailed it at the beginning of this. All this talk about Minka Fitzpatrick targeting, do I think the Steelers are a dirty team? Hell yes. Do I hate the Steelers? Yes. But it wasn't a dirty play. It was a football play. He did what he needed to do as the safety of the schittsburg Steelers.
And yeah, I just think it's bullshit. Everybody coming at Minka Fitzpatrick and saying that this was an intentional move. It's also essentially a coworker. Even though they're on opposite teams, it's a coworker that you're saying this guy intentionally came in and hurt and more so than ever, players are friends with other players around the league, division rival, or just don't I just don't see that happening.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: Yeah, look, again, assuming that there's no bounty. Gate going.
Fitzpatrick probably feels bad.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: We're going to find out that Greg Williams was a consultant.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: He probably feels bad about that. No one's in it to end someone's career. No, he probably feels terrible now. That's what I'm saying. He probably feels bad about it. But I don't think there was anything intentional about it at all.
So, yeah, I think if Minka Fitzpatrick wraps Nick Chubb there, you know what he does? He ends up in Nick Chubb's backpack on his way to the end zone. That's all he does. He's just getting a piggyback ride into the end zone.
You have to tackle differently when you're the undersized man. So, yeah, this whole discussion about that has just been pissing me off all day long because the last thing that we need is more rules in this game that make it harder for the defense to play.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: Football is a brutal sport and sometimes brutal injuries happen. Yeah, it is what it sucks. We are going to miss Nick Chubb and we wish it didn't happen, but it did. It is what it is.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: Every time, like, blinked today, I was like, did I just wake up from a bad dream?
[00:53:51] Speaker A: I hope so. You did it.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: I will say this. There was a dirty play in this game that was very visible because it got played on the replay.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: Are we going to put it behind us?
[00:54:02] Speaker B: I don't know if I can even find it, but if I can, I will. There was a dirty play in this game when Zadarius Smith went down on the no contact injury, when he rolled his ankle or whatever, when he was coming behind and fell down and missed a couple of plays, he fell down again, not being contacted by anybody. And the two guys in Pittsburgh looked at each other and they said, this guy. And they basically belly flopped on him on the ground. And I was like, that's a dirty play. Yeah, you want to see a dirty play? That's a dirty they watch this guy fall that no one touched. That's a dirty play.
[00:54:28] Speaker A: That's dirty. What Minka Fitzpatrick did was a football play.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Agreed.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: In response to Nick Chubb going down, the Browns did sign Kareem Hunt back to the team.
Big Reed is back. They say they plan to keep Ford as the primary back for the rest of the season and use Hunt to spell him. But here's all I'll say about that, is we'll see how long that lasts.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it won't last very long. Ford's already put the ball on the ground this year. He hasn't looked great in pass protection.
And Hunt has familiarity with the system and with the playbook. And I still think he has plenty of tread left on the tires there. So as long as Jerome Ford can sustain a number one slot, great. But I just think it's going to be in general, this is going to be running back committee but you need somebody to, like, Hunt that you can depend on in crucial situations because I don't know that Jerome Ford, even if he's your primary back, is he your third down back?
[00:55:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. And speaking of Jerome Ford, that takes us to the Burning River Sports Guest.
[00:55:27] Speaker B: Down, baby.
Doesn't matter, man.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: You got to play tough people in.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: The National Football League.
[00:55:34] Speaker A: You got to be ready. And we got to be the dogs that we are every time we step.
[00:55:39] Speaker B: On there on Sunday and be ready to attack.
[00:55:41] Speaker A: And don't stop until we're in that locker room. All right? So this week's Burning River Sports cast Dog of the Week is Jerome Ford 16 rushes for 106 yards, including a 69 yard run 69 that set up a touchdown and temporarily gave us a lead. He had three receptions for 25 yards and a touchdown. And look, we've said it already. You can't say it enough. You can't replace Nick Chubb, but he did his best job to fill in. In a tough situation where you're a young back, you weren't expecting to know this type of workload put on your shoulders, especially this early in the season. And all of that kind of happened in the blink of an eye. And I think he did a nice job doing what he could to help this team win a football game.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: And he was banged up during camp. He missed a lot of time in the offseason, training camp and leading up to the season. So hopefully as he gets more reps, he'll get even better.
Again, very few bright spots, if any, on this Cleveland Browns offense during the Steelers week.
But he was one. So, yeah, the 69 yard run, that was huge at the time.
The thing is, we've seen different backs come in with this offensive line and this running scheme coming in and have success, whether it Johnson and Kareem when he was here with Nick Chubby last couple of years. So I think he has potential to be a suitable starter. I just think Reem is going to get more playing time than people think.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: So once again, the Burning River Sportscast Dog of the week is Jerome Ford.
And that leads us to the division roundup.
All right, so in the division roundup here, we'll start with there was only two games, everybody played each other. So Baltimore beats Cincinnati as Joe Burrow re aggravates his calf injury. I was wrong with my pick on that. Both Kenny and Bone man were right. And then Cleveland obviously loses to Pittsburgh. We were all wrong with that pick. And so our updated records for King of the north, which we will talk about later in the episode. I am at three and two. Kenny's at four and one, and Bone Man is at four and one. Yes, it has happened. I'm in last place. And I will say this, Kenny, this feels really bad. I just don't understand how you were able to do this for an entire season last year.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: Look, I think you scored this wrong because I think I'm three and two with you. So as much as I want to be in first place and want you to eat shit, I'm going to be the bigger man here.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: What was your record last week?
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Because I missed a game last week, so I think I'm also three and two.
[00:58:33] Speaker A: Nice. Well, now I share it with you and it feels less bad. I'm feeling good right now. I actually feel ten times better. So it's a good day. Well, it's not a good day. Nick Chubb still hurt, but it's not as bad as it once was.
All right.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: But John Hughes was as big as he ever was.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. It's time for around the NFL.
Man Kenny, got a question for you. When you think of good defenses, who do you think of?
[00:59:09] Speaker B: Baltimore.
[00:59:10] Speaker C: Pittsburgh.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: San Francisco.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Notice none of you guys tampa Bay. Notice none of you guys said that. The saints.
[00:59:17] Speaker B: No, I did not.
[00:59:18] Speaker A: But the Saints have extended their streak of games, allowing under 20 points to ten games this week. That is the longest streak in franchise history. And they made Bryce Young look absolutely silly this week. They made him look like a first or like a mean.
[00:59:33] Speaker B: Let's be honest, bryce Young kind of looks silly.
[00:59:36] Speaker A: That's true. But he did look like a rookie throughout that entire game.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: Bryce Young actually reminds me not in any way like a person, but watching him play football, the closest thing I can compare him to right now. And maybe this will change if he gets better, but is he's so he's so small. He's so small.
[00:59:57] Speaker A: Every time I hear that name I watched the thing on Netflix with him, by the way. It just makes the Browns look even know.
[01:00:07] Speaker B: But anyways, we were not a good moment in time.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we were talking about Bryce Young. And speaking of Bryce Young, number one overall pick is questionable for week three after he left the Monday Night Football game with ankle injury. It's the dreaded high ankle sprain, and he has not practiced this week as of Wednesday, so you know what that means. Andy Dalton is in line to start and the Red Rocket is back.
[01:00:29] Speaker B: Look, I'll give that guy credit. Don't look at Chad Henny just hanging in there, just soaking up every dollar, being a backup quarterback.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: And man, remember we couldn't stop Henny.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: Being kind of effective.
He doesn't lose every game.
He's okay.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Loses like 50% of them.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: He just loses a lot of them. But yeah, I probably won't pick them to win this week.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was it on Bryce Young. Speaking of top QBs in the draft dealing with injuries, anthony Richardson remains in concussion protocol and is not practicing this one week after we talked about which us and like every other sports show in the history of sports shows talked about him needing to get down and avoid hits in order to stay out of concussion protocol. No, he decided he wanted to take on more defenders than he is in concussion. I just I gotta say, I think he might have a very short career.
[01:01:26] Speaker B: I literally said last week, I said Bryce Young and CJ stroud have the higher upside because they can play cerebral football in the pocket. And Anthony Richardson is just such an athlete that he just does whatever he wants because he can. And that is probably going to be.
[01:01:40] Speaker A: His downfall and can't rely on that.
[01:01:41] Speaker B: Here we are.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: I tell people he was great until.
[01:01:44] Speaker B: He got hit in the head.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I tell people all the know when you're a freak athlete in college, it works because you're a freak athlete when you get to the NFL. Every player in the NFL was the freak athlete for their team in college. So you just can't rely on that solely once you're in the NFL.
In other QB news here, Justin Fields came out this week and said he is playing robotic and that he thinks coaching may have something to do with that. So is there a little bit of trouble in Chicago? I know, Kenny, you've said all along the only way Justin Fields can reach his full potential is if he gets out of Chicago.
[01:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah, they're a mess.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: They're a lot like, hey, I'm Nick, I'm from Chicago.
[01:02:24] Speaker B: They're a lot like the Browns have been in terms of just front office is a disaster.
Can't decide on a head coach that's worth a damn and has made player personnel moves that don't make a lot of sense. So, yeah, look, it's a tough break. I like Justin Fields. I wish that he could have played for anybody else because I just think that he's never going to have success in Chicago. It's unfortunate.
[01:02:50] Speaker A: It's a fair point. On the opposite end of QB situations and overall stability at the position, patrick Mahomes restructured his contract this week. He will now be paid $210.6 million between 2023 and 2026. That is the most in history over a four year span. It could reach upwards of 218,000,000 if incentives hit, but the 210.6 million is fully guaranteed. The sides also plan to revisit the deal again after the 2026 season, which effectively cuts the remaining years of the deal from eight to three. So he basically got a three year, 210.6 million, fully guaranteed contract. And I know that this has been weighing heavy, heavy on Kenny's mind for some time. Maybe this is the time to talk about it, maybe it's not. But Kenny, you got anything you want to say here?
[01:03:43] Speaker B: We're going back to this. The quarterbacks need to stop.
[01:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah, quarterbacks need to stop. That's Kenny's message.
[01:03:49] Speaker B: These quarterbacks need to stop.
Look, how much money is do you.
[01:03:55] Speaker A: Want to save this conversation? Because you can get pretty deep into this.
[01:03:59] Speaker B: How much money is enough money for the best player in the NFL? Because the last time I checked, patrick Mahomes can't play this game by himself.
You've eliminated the whole middle class of quarterbacks. We saw this with Baker, right. They didn't want to pay Baker $40 million a year because he wasn't maybe a $40 million a year quarterback, which is fair. But could Baker have been a $25 million a year quarterback?
[01:04:23] Speaker A: Sure.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: But we've eliminated that whole weight class of quarterback in the NFL to say, you're either a journeyman up here or you're done. You're either a journeyman backup or a rookie, and we'll deal with that because that'll be our rookie or rookie window. We can bring in a lot of talent around you, and if you're any good, we'll win. But if you're Patrick Mahomes, we're going to give you all the money and all the assets, and we can't really do anything else besides you just leave you on your own. At some point, these quarterbacks have to stop demanding these 40 and $50 million contracts because it's 40 and 50 today. It's going to be 63 years from now as the cap continues to increase.
And there's nothing like the reason a lot of those Patriots teams were successful is because Tom Brady wasn't always the highest paid quarterback in the NFL.
[01:05:07] Speaker A: No.
[01:05:07] Speaker B: Would you rather have a good team? Would Patrick Mahomes rather have Tyree kill right now than Isaiah Pacheco?
[01:05:14] Speaker A: I would assume so, probably.
Imagine if he's still on that team.
[01:05:21] Speaker B: You can't build sustainable teams and pay your quarterback 15, $60 million a year. And at what point do you look at yourself and I think Joe Burrow has kind of said, yeah, I don't necessarily need to be the highest paid ever. I'm going to get generational money regardless, and I want to save some from buddies like Jamar and Higgins. Like, let's get these guys signed the contracts, because I can't throw the ball to myself.
So that's my message, is the quarterbacks need to stop.
[01:05:48] Speaker A: We have that written on our board in the studio, and it's just like underlined from Kenny just, quarterbacks need to stop.
[01:05:55] Speaker B: Every quarterback that gets a contract is the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. Again, every time a new deal is like, we have to stop that or else no one's going to be able to afford the rest of their team. Agreed.
[01:06:04] Speaker A: But we're going to move on or else Kenny might be talking all night. So let's talk about a position besides quarterback. Saquon Barkley has been ruled out for Thursday Night Football this week with a high ankle sprain. In the midst of all the craziness regarding how the running back position is valued, two of the most prominent running backs in the league, him and Nick Chubb, have been sidelined with injuries. Both of them were on that Zoom meeting in the offseason where they talked about the state of the position.
And frankly, this whole thing plays into why owners aren't paying them. And that's unfortunate. But these injuries are why. And now so we're going to bring in Kareem Hunt. We're going to have Kareem Hunt and Jerome Ford basically combined to be the Nick Chubb and they're not going to be as good as him, but they'll be serviceable. And so what the owners are going to say is, see, didn't need a Nick Chubb. See, we didn't need a Saquon Barkley because somebody's going to back him up and somebody's at least going to be serviceable. But I think it's such a disservice to these running backs because they change teams and all the front office and all the coaches seem to see is the numbers at the end of the day. But these running backs change the way their team approaches the game in don't.
[01:07:19] Speaker B: You can't look at this Browns team and say they got better by losing Nick Chubb. No, they could have signed anybody in the NFL and you would have been like, they got better.
Maybe Jonathan Taylor because he's younger. I don't know. But look, agreed, this plays right into their hands. It's one of the other things that upset me when Nick Chubb went down because I was really hoping that he would just have 1800 yards this year and be a big reason why the Browns were successful just to really stick it to the man. And now that is off the table as bad. I do think that this has to come back the other way eventually because I think we've seen even this year already some of these good quarterbacks and teams that are good teams struggle out the gate. And I don't know if it's just because it's the beginning of the year and no one played in preseason or if defensive coaches are getting smarter and better at protecting against elite quarterbacks. I think you saw shoot, what was the game where this weekend where Brian Flores ended up where they were just running players, like down the middle of the field so they couldn't throw the ball deep.
I think it was maybe the Bills game, but I just think defensive coordinators are getting more creative with their schemes. And at some point this has to come back the other way. Because if you have Nick Chubb on your roster and you can't throw the ball 30 yards down the field to Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle and everyone else, then if you have a running back that can get six, seven, eight yards of carry, then why wouldn't you? Yeah, you get to run the ball again, get back to the fundamentals. And I don't see I hope it swings back, how this doesn't swing back at some point because at some point you're just going to be guarding against air raid all the way across the NFL at all times.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: Bone, thoughts on the running back position?
[01:09:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it'll come back, and I still think it's just as important as ever been hot take from Bone man.
[01:09:16] Speaker A: No, I'm with you. I mean, we agree it has to come back because the running backs I mean, you can't just eliminate running backs.
[01:09:23] Speaker B: No. And it seems continue to drop more and more players into coverage, and you see more three man fronts instead of four man fronts.
It has to come back into style now, whether that's with a stable of running backs or a bell cow, I guess we'll see. But then are you going to pay three guys to do the job of one?
[01:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah, which doesn't make sense to me either, but I digress that's. It for around the NFL. Kenny, you want to do an interview?
[01:09:52] Speaker B: I love doing interviews.
[01:09:54] Speaker A: This week we have the Titans, so let's go ahead and let's bring on somebody from the Middle Tennessee Browns backers Craig Finch. Welcome.
[01:10:40] Speaker E: Hey, how's it going? Thanks for having me.
[01:10:45] Speaker A: Good. Yeah. Thanks for being with us here.
So, first of all, obviously, like I said, you guys are the Middle Tennessee Brownsbackers. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your chapter?
[01:10:57] Speaker E: Yeah, absolutely.
We've been established since 1988.
I believe we've got over 200 active members currently in the club there. We meet every Sunday or every game day, so to speak. We meet at the Nashville Palace. It's a very nice venue, accommodates, I think over 400, 500 people total.
If we fill the place up there, we usually have between 175, 200 members generally most Sundays.
It's located close to Opry Mills Mall. So anyone that's in the Nashville area, that's a pretty big hot spot. Opry Land used to be there used to be a theme park years ago, and they turned it into a mall. But we're a couple of blocks from there. Like I said, great venue. My father in law is actually the president of the club.
Great food, great drink specials, things of that. We always have 50 50 raffles, giveaway prizes, kids prizes. It's a real fun environment, for sure.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: So basically, if you're a Browns fan in Tennessee, in Nashville, it sounds like Nashville area specifically, you need to be here on game days, right? Nashville palace. Absolutely.
[01:12:09] Speaker E: It's the place to be, for sure. And it's close to the airport, very easily accessible. I mean, you're probably ten minutes maybe at the most from the airport, probably about 15 minutes from downtown.
[01:12:21] Speaker B: A lot of cool things to check.
[01:12:22] Speaker E: Out in that area.
[01:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And so with that being said, I know you mentioned some 50 50 raffles. I know that's kind of a way to raise money and those types of things. So are you guys involved with any community service, any charity work down there?
[01:12:37] Speaker E: Yeah, I don't have the specifics on who we are connected to. I wish I would have had that information provided to me, but I do know we do donations. I believe the Humane Society is one of the ones we do. I know we do a food drive at the end of the year where we know our members bring in canned goods and things of that nature as well. So there's definitely a lot of charitable activities taking place with us as well.
[01:13:01] Speaker B: Awesome. Yeah, I know that's. One of the things I think that gets overlooked sometimes about the Brownsbackers organizations is folks just think it's a bunch of Browns fans getting together to watch the game, which it is and it is. But then there's also this component that's very civic minded and trying to do good things in the community.
So it's a little bit tough out there just because I'm sure that's Titans town, but every little bit helps. So quick question too, just around your viewing location and some of the events that you do have set up, sounds like you said there's around 200 or so members in the group. Do you get that pretty consistently and do you get a lot of guests.
[01:13:38] Speaker E: Out of town if the season doesn't go as well? Of course you do see a little bit of that viewership drop off at some points, but generally it's been pretty well packed there for the last couple of years where the excitement level has been real high. And we've got a big huge, I think it's 160 inch viewing, like a big projected type screen at the front. Also a lot of different televisions around the rest of the bar. So, I mean, if someone's coming to check us out, there's no way you're going to miss the game.
[01:14:10] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:14:12] Speaker B: What's your closest do you have hostile fans coming bother you? Like Cincinnati fans or anybody that.
[01:14:18] Speaker E: We'Re a dedicated viewing location. So there's another viewing location in the same kind of parking lot that shows all the games. So generally speaking, we really don't have opposing teams or especially the team we're playing. We don't usually have a whole lot of those fans come. I mean, it's primarily Browns only.
I'm sure they let us.
Yeah. Years ago we'd have a know, like we played the Ravens or something, you'd have a few that wanted to come in and know that was their thing, I guess. But generally most of the time it's mostly all Browns fans.
[01:14:55] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:14:55] Speaker A: And that's the way to do it because then like you said, you don't have any of these other teams trying to come in and harass you. We all know that everybody loves to harass Browns fans with mean, obviously a great viewing location that's dedicated to you guys. It sounds like you got a lot going on there. Are there any upcoming events that you're hosting or looking forward to besides obviously just meeting every Sunday?
[01:15:22] Speaker E: I know that my father in law met Bernie back at the president's meeting back a couple, three or so weeks ago. There's been discussions of at some point, possibly trying to get him to come in and do a signing or something to that effect. We've had Kevin Mack before. Come in.
Ernest Minor has been there, I believe. See, when we play the Titans, it's usually a massive two, three, 4000. Browns fans will kind of inundate Nashville the last time we played them here and beat them in that really kind of crazy game where we were down 28 to three or 28 to something, and we came back in the second half and won. I mean, all you could hear in the entire stadium was barking and Browns fans hooping and hollering. So it was a really big, funny kind of turn of events with that one.
But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's something that's going to be at some point in the works. I don't know if it'll happen this season or not, but I do know that those conversations have been had and that is something to be discussed.
[01:16:29] Speaker B: That's awesome. I was actually at that game in Nashville last time, went off. So it was a really good time.
Right.
[01:16:36] Speaker A: I don't think people understand how well Browns fans travel.
Browns fans everywhere.
[01:16:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Go ahead.
[01:16:48] Speaker E: They have a thing where they say tighten up. It's kind of their catchphrase, if you will. Like, we're here we go. Brownies and all you heard in the first half of that game was everyone just tighten up, tighten up. And then by the end of the third quarter, the first fourth quarter, you didn't hear that at all anymore. So it was pretty fun.
[01:17:08] Speaker A: Tightened down.
[01:17:11] Speaker B: So I know part of the Brownsbackers deal is you don't want to really drive viewers away from the location, but do you have maybe like a one time a year or special occasions where you have either a block of tickets to go to a game or some kind of tailgate activities or anything like that?
[01:17:29] Speaker E: We have in the past, yeah, we've done. As far as proximity to us, we've had game where the whole club went to Atlanta, kind of like chartered a bus and did that. Actually, the last time when they did that to the Atlanta trip was when my last son had four children, three boys and a girl. So my wife and I didn't get to attend because we were in a hospital having our last child. But they do those every so often when there is a regional game. Like, we play the Colts every so often. I don't know if they're doing it this year. I think the Colts is that in Cleveland? I can't recall.
Pretty sure we play the Colts.
Yeah, I can't recall.
[01:18:08] Speaker A: I have to look, this we'll definitely.
[01:18:11] Speaker E: We definitely have done those type deals before. And of course, when you get 100 plus people typically or more, you can kind of get a big chunk of tickets and make something of it.
[01:18:23] Speaker B: Awesome.
[01:18:24] Speaker A: Sure you guys are doing good things down there. The fact that you've got that many showing up week in and week out is phenomenal. I know some of these places and some of these chapters struggle to have that viewership kind of stay the whole time, especially just conveniences of people's. Just Kenny loves watching at home. That's where he watches all the time.
[01:18:46] Speaker B: My house being remodeled, but, yeah, his.
[01:18:48] Speaker A: House is being remodeled, so he needs a place like National Palace to go watch the game. But more on the football side of things.
You know, devastation this past week against the Steelers. So can you just kind of give us what your thoughts on the game were?
[01:19:04] Speaker E: I mean, it was about as deflating as it could have been to me personally because the opportunity was there know, a big step forward, in my opinion, where we were positioned with our divisional win against Cincinnati, with the divisional opponent against the Steelers and the Ravens coming up in a couple of weeks. It was just a really great opportunity to take advantage of conference wins, divisional wins, and just stick it to the Steelers. Obviously, I believe that we would have overcame the quick pick six that took place if you didn't have the earth shattering blow of Nick Chubb going down in the fashion that he did.
To be perfectly honest with you, I believe that there was a lot of an indictment there on the coach and the quarterback because those are, in my opinion, the two guys that you look to when Adversity hits. You want your quarterback to put it on their back. You want him to say, it's okay, we're going to get through it. We're going to go win this game. And you want your head coach to kind of keep everybody locked in and refocused on what the task is at hand. Obviously, that kind of a loss had an impact on their mental state. I mean, I believe as a fan, he's my favorite player. I'm wearing his jersey right now. I have my fantasy team named after him. I mean, it was a substantially depressing blow to take, but at the end of the day, you still have to just turn the page and move forward. And I feel like we were so deflated that it was not going to even when we had the lead at 22 to 19, I believe it was I still didn't have that, like, we've got this feeling. I had the, oh, what's coming next kind of feeling. But you got to move forward. We got Titans this week, so I'm excited that they've signed Kareem Hunt. I believe that that will immediately bring back into that locker room a little bit of energy and a spark plug because he immediately has rapport with the players already there.
Familiar with the offensive schemes. I don't think that it's an immediate plug and play. Like he's not going to come in and start on that game, but I believe his role. Will quickly be what it once was, if not even more with chubb's absence.
[01:21:25] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with that. And you talked about a few things there. First of all, the indictment on the coach and the quarterback. I think we both agree with you there, especially in Chubbs stead the rest of the season they're going to have to step up. Deshaun is going to have to be the $230,000,000 quarterback that we brought him in to be and Kevin Stefancy is going to have to take a huge or Stefanic as we like to call him on this program because we don't respect him when he coaches the way he did this week. But he's going to have to step up and know, kind of galvanize this team and help them come together in the wake of that injury because you're right, there's no way to replace a nick Chubb. Nobody can replace a nick chubb. Sure, Kareem's going to come in and he's going to do what he can, but nobody can replace that. And you as the coach and you as the quarterback need to lead and get these guys in a good headspace to play every week and give them that person to look to.
[01:22:27] Speaker E: Right. I don't want to say they quit or gave up, but I just feel like it was such a huge opportunity that they could have pushed through. I guess my thing is like you want to see in that situation, your team is going to probably either a, quit or b, get mad and turn that mad and that frustration into the fire that will push them to that next level. And I hope that know, they've had a few days to kind of process what happened, that that will be the mentality that they have moving forward. As I heard Anthony Walker today know, the rest of this season is going to be dedicated to Nick Chubb and I genuinely hope that that is a message that will resonate through the organization because that guy's given everything he can. I mean, that guy works to the end of the day and then some. So you really want the players to maybe appreciate that this could have been something and still could be something special, but it's going to take everybody putting everything they can forward to make that happen. Because there is a little bit of a factor of there are some teams that are currently down that people didn't expect to be down. So when you've got that opportunity in front of you, you really have to take full advantage of it in the immediate sense.
[01:23:44] Speaker B: I think that's what's so doubly frustrating about this week's game is Pittsburgh is not a very good football.
Can't you can't kick yourself when you have those opportunities to beat teams that you're clearly better than and the defense played so well. You doubled them up during the entire game.
[01:24:06] Speaker E: Yeah, you doubled them up. I mean, we had twice as many first downs, twice as many yards. They didn't take a snap within the 20 yard in the red zone. So when you look at those metrics, those analytics, you can't look at that and say anything other than that quarterback on that field. And I'm a guy who I had mixed feelings about Deshaun Watson on the initial side because, of course, all the personal aspects of things around my wife can't stand the guy personally. But I also saw the bigger picture that this person, from a skill set standpoint, could arguably be the best quarterback we had, but you've got to take advantage of those moments. And I guess I would say, like looking at the Patrick Mahomes of the world, the Josh Allen's certain, just insert those guys, given the ball two and a half minutes to go in the game, you still got a time out in your pocket. You want that guy to go take you and win that game. And that's not what mean. There's a guy that's on YouTube named Wyatt's World who said he believes he's walking around with a guilty conscience on his mind. He's not what he once was from a player relations standpoint. A lot of guys don't like him, and they probably don't mix words about that, and so that's affecting his psyche. And so in my opinion, you've got to get that worked out. I mean, I grew up playing golf. A lot of golf is played in the six inches between your ears. So in this case, you don't forget how to play football. You don't lose that ability and that skill set when you've done this your whole life, but you can lose sight of mental clarity and focus and being able to get your head in the right mindset, and I just don't know if he's there yet. And it's super uber frustrating because I was one of those guys that stuck my head out and said, hey, this could be great.
This guy could take us to the promised land, all discretions aside.
And I'm hoping that that's still the case. Truly, I do.
[01:26:11] Speaker A: I feel like me and you are like kindred spirits, because your exact scenario that you just described there is my life. My wife hates him too. And I was like, I agree that the things that he's accused of are terrible, but like you said, I took everything in and assessed everything instead of just hanging up on that. And now I'm kind of like, was it right? I don't know.
[01:26:38] Speaker B: I think what's really interesting there is sorry, go ahead.
[01:26:43] Speaker E: I was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, so there wasn't a Tennessee Titans team here when I was a child. I'm 44 years old, so I grew up a 49 Ers fan. And the reason that was was they were on television. Jerry Rice, Joe Montana even trans into, you know, terrell Owens. I mean, they were a team that was just kind of like your New England Patriots or your Kansas City Chiefs. Now, they were showcased often. So that was a team that was on TV, and I had an uncle who rooted for them. When I met my wife, I went to a few Browns games at their club viewing area at the time. And the Browns fandom was so contagious and so like the environment and the experience that the fans brought, because at that time, we're talking, like know, and if you remember the helmet, I can't recall the, you know, pulling the helmet off, those kind of experience, those kind of years in that period of time. But the fans were so diehard and so committed to their team that they loved being there, rooting them on even if they weren't good. I found, man, I'm really going to be watching a lot of these guys play, and I kind of like these people, and that's how I became a fan.
That being said, it's a matter of just understanding that you do have to eventually turn that next page. It's harder to be where you are every year in that swimming and mediocrity versus actually getting it right. And with Deshaun Watson, we all kind of sold. We've been there so long wanting that championship or wanting that success that we were willing to say for the sake of football. Because I told my wife, I said, look, at the end of the day, if you're a Browns fan, you want the Browns to win, and you're rooting for the Browns. And that guy that's behind the helmet is that guy. And she was a Baker fan. She still is. I mean, my oldest son still likes Baker a lot. I didn't ever really have a problem with I mean, it's not my job to evaluate whether they think he can get you to that promised land, and that's what people in those positions do. So I just kind of looked at it like, hey, if I'm not going to stop rooting for the Browns, then I'm going to have to be on board with this and go with it. And it's going to know he's going to win or he's not. But, I mean, that's what you're hoping is going to happen is that he gets over the thump and we take that next step.
[01:29:09] Speaker A: Yeah, Craig, it's very well put. I mean, that's kind of where I was at as so I got to.
[01:29:13] Speaker B: Tell you, that's probably the most interesting story about becoming a Browns fan I've ever heard, because at no point did you get to relish in any of the good of the Browns. A lot of us grew up. At least our parents told us tales of the times that the Browns were good. You came in shortly after Tim Couch got benched and Jeff Garcia was in town and decided this is a team that you can root for.
[01:29:36] Speaker E: I mean, what a I mean, I've got a shirt that says, I married into this.
I don't wear it that often, but I was given that as a Christmas present once from my mother and father in law.
And the idea is that when they do get there, like when it does happen, because I'd like to believe there's also a shirt that I have that I'm sure you all seen, just one before I die.
I've witnessed Super Bowl championships for the team that I loved as a child, so I know how that feels. And when this does happen, when we get to that next place and we actually do it, then it will be all the better. The O and 16 and the one in 15 season won't matter one single bit when you're holding that Super Bowl trophy. So, I mean, that's kind of the idea in principle is that that's why they felt fans are fanatics.
We love our teams, we love our sports. And also, I guess, full disclosure, I grew up a Vanderbilt Commodore fan because I grew up about ten minutes from the stadium and my dad's a huge Vandy fan, so I watched a whole lot of not good football in my lifetime. So it wasn't that hard of an adjustment to make because I root for Vandy no matter what, and they really can't beat Harley one half the time.
So I guess in that sense I had a little bit of a kinship to the fans as far as that.
[01:31:00] Speaker A: Great. Again, great story there. I do want to take a look at this week's game, though, and kind of move us forward here just a little bit. Obviously, we're playing the Tennessee Titans.
It's our week three matchup, and you're there kind of right in their backyard. So can you give us a little insight as to what kind of their local sports commentators are saying about not only their team in this season, but this game specifically?
[01:31:26] Speaker E: Honestly, I haven't heard a lot just because I listen more to Browns radio on my phone, but I will tell you that from my assessment, I feel like they're probably looking at us and saying we're a great team to stop the run. They don't really have a formidable running attack now that their running back has gone down. We know Ford is potentially know he can fill this role fairly well, or at least he looked like he could on Monday night.
But I feel like they're going to probably try to take away any opportunity to run the ball, which means going back to our other comments. The onus will fall on deshaun. Watson. They do not have what is perceivably a very strong secondary or pass defense. So if there ever was an opportunity for him to so called right the ship, that would be what they need to do. And I think Tennessee probably realizes that they're vulnerable on that side of the defense. So it's going to be kind of a matter of can he go out there and go beat them?
With our defense being as strong as it appears to be, I believe that we should be able to bottle up Derek Henry.
I think that he is kind of at the beginning stages of know. When you see a running back lose a little bit of a step, I don't know that he is as dominant as he was a couple of years ago. I believe Tennessee has kind of overutilized his skills there for a you know, they really ran that horse a lot and of course they have not gotten the best complement of offensive weaponry around him. Tannehill is tannehill.
He's a starting quarterback but he's at that bottom tier of starting quarterbacks. In my opinion he probably falls somewhere in that 32 to 24 range as far as what he's able to bring to the table. DeAndre Hopkins, who I would have loved to seen us sign, hasn't done so much so far. Traylon Burks also, you know, second year kind of unproven to a certain extent but again that could have more to do with who's throwing him the ball. And as far as their defensive front, I mean I believe that they're going to be a solid defensive opponent for us but I do believe we have more weapons than they do and I do believe we can exploit some of those matchups. I think Najoku could potentially have a little bit of a better game this week than he has shown so far.
I would say that would about COVID it. As far as what I feel like we should be able to dictate our own terms. I mean if we keep them in check defensively then I don't think we have to go out and score 31 points or something to win this game. I think we can kind of get our stuff together offensively enough to take care of business but I don't think we have to go out there and get in a boat race with them so to speak.
[01:34:24] Speaker B: Has the quarterback chatter started there at this point or does it still feel like this is Tannehill's team?
[01:34:33] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that's probably going to be tabled until the record dictates that it's not. I mean they should not have won against the Chargers.
I watched some of that game on Red Zone because we weren't playing until Monday night and the Chargers, as they have done last year at times and how they've so far done this year is they don't know how to get out of their own way. So I mean when you score at a pretty good clip like they tend to do, you should not be in games with Tennessee that they should have come in there and scored 35 points on them because they are a passing offensive team. So I don't think that the quarterback conversation will start chirping until if, say they find themselves one in four, one in five, or something like that. I don't know when their buy week is, but you've got the guy from Kentucky, Will Levis. You've also got Malik Willis there. So you've got a couple of young guys that know be itching for the opportunity and if your season becomes lost, I think that's when you make that call, I just don't know which one's got a higher pecking order in their eyes.
[01:35:45] Speaker B: Is there still a lot of confidence in the head coach there?
[01:35:48] Speaker E: I think Vrabel has probably got himself enough credit built up in the organization know they would need to have more than one bad season for him to be on the proverbial hot seat. Because good organizations and I'm not necessarily saying the Titans are a good organization, but good organizations don't make knee jerk decisions to Canaga if they have a bad season.
Usually you'll get at least a couple of years. Now if they were to only win two or three games or something if that were the case, because their division is not particularly difficult with the Houston and an Indianapolis in there, though Indianapolis is kind of a little better than I think maybe people know. If you win two or three games, who knows? All bets may be off, but as long as he shows that he's still got control of everyone and running things like he should, I think the organization would know. Give him another year or two at least because you got these young quarterbacks. I mean you just drafted Will Levis if you believe you made the right call as a GM. I don't know that you want to make that kind of a change. Usually when you make something like that, I feel like that's kind of like an offseason para coach pair a quarterback initially and they're kind of in that limbo state where they can't really do that if you're still sitting there with the veteran.
[01:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah fair.
[01:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:37:18] Speaker B: One final thing. Do you know why Will Levis and his girlfriend broke up?
[01:37:24] Speaker E: I do recall seeing her on TikTok a bunch there right around the draft time. So I don't know the details there. But she did get kind of TikTok famous for about Acres is being traded it looks oh, who's he going to I don't know. It popped up on my phone and then just say Cam Acres being traded.
[01:37:46] Speaker A: Breaking news from Greg Finch. Cam Acres has been traded to where? We don't know.
[01:37:54] Speaker E: I would guess the Raiders, but I don't have confirmation on that.
Oh Mike can tell you.
[01:38:02] Speaker A: Let's see.
[01:38:04] Speaker E: Cam acres traded to the Minnesota Vikings.
Interesting.
[01:38:10] Speaker B: That's interesting.
[01:38:10] Speaker A: Well, because they wouldn't sign Davin Cook in the so yeah they needed a new one.
[01:38:15] Speaker B: Realized they needed a running back.
[01:38:16] Speaker E: Still I didn't expect usually you want to trade out of the conference if you can, but I guess they may not feel like he's a significant liability for I mean wouldn't come back to hurt him. I guess.
[01:38:29] Speaker A: I mean, he's been sitting the bench exactly, but no. Yeah.
So you talked about their team versus our team, what they have going for them or don't, and same with the Browns. So with Mean, what do you think is going to happen this week? Do you have a prediction, a score prediction or even just kind of how you think the game is going to go?
[01:38:52] Speaker E: I believe that if we can get a Watson that is closer to what we all hope him to be, it could get to that like, say 20, 713, 27, ten, kind of a range. If we get a Watson closer to what we've seen so far, it could be more of a dog fight, which I hope it's not. I mean, I really would love to see one of those write the ship kind of a games. I mean, you're going to start to hear that chatter really pretty quickly grow if he continues to play at this level where he's not getting it done. So in this case, it's kind of a perfect opportunity for him to hopefully clear some of that out. I'd love to see a 300 yard game, for example, couple of two, three touchdowns, something like that, maybe a couple of touchdowns in the air and one on the ground.
There's another one of those opportunities right in front of you because if you lose this game, gosh forbid you're now one and two and then you're playing the Ravens. The wheels could come off of this fairly quickly, and I think that's really unfair because of all the circumstances here with Chubb and all that. But if you win this game and you do so in a decent fashion, everything goes kind of to a reset. You go back to the okay, we're playing the Ravens next week. We could be two and one in the division and three and one in the conference. There's a lot there in this first four or five games.
So, yeah, I would say 27. I feel so good about the defense. I say 27 to ten, best case scenario, and could be more like 17 to 13.
I still feel like we find a way to win this game, in my opinion.
[01:40:43] Speaker A: I like that, honestly.
We'll get into our predictions later on in our podcast, but I like where your head's at and I hope that you're right.
[01:40:54] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:40:54] Speaker B: And I'll say, Craig, we appreciate the time today, especially coming off a really tough loss and not so much even a loss, but the loss of I mean, I think your words were very succinct, very heartfelt. I think a lot of Cleveland is feeling the same way right now. So just appreciate the way you would kind of phrase that and bring that all together, especially being boots on the ground here, giving us some insight into the Titans. I would say this was a very insightful conversation. I would say you come back and join us anytime. Nashville is kind of our second home. We love it down there.
[01:41:25] Speaker A: Love Nashville.
[01:41:26] Speaker B: It's one of our favorite places to go and play golf and eat and hang out. So hopefully we'll cross paths again. But we really appreciate the time with you today.
[01:41:35] Speaker E: Hey, I certainly appreciate it. Yeah, I'd love to come back anytime you'd like.
[01:41:40] Speaker A: Thanks a lot, Craig. We appreciate it.
[01:41:43] Speaker E: We're the Middle Tennessee Brownsbackers, and you're listening to Burning River Sportscast. Go Browns.
[01:42:00] Speaker A: What a good interview. Craig was pretty insightful there.
[01:42:03] Speaker B: Craig sounds like he's someone that talks football on the reg.
[01:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:42:07] Speaker B: I wonder if he has his own podcast.
[01:42:09] Speaker A: Yeah, he should come on our podcast. Maybe he could be maybe we could bring him on. He could be our correspondent. Our field correspondent.
[01:42:15] Speaker B: I like that. I like that. Well done, Craig. Well done.
[01:42:18] Speaker A: Good job, Craig.
[01:42:18] Speaker B: No, that's why I always like talking to Brownsbackers. I just think that the Brownsbackers pay attention at a different level. If you sit and listen to local radio and the guys that call in and they're like, Nick Jobs sucks. Get out of here.
[01:42:31] Speaker A: Not to bash on some of our local radio guys, but even some of our local radio guys don't know as much as Finch.
[01:42:37] Speaker B: True.
[01:42:37] Speaker A: Agreed. So Craig Finch is the goat, but that'll take us to the sports guys.
[01:42:44] Speaker B: Hot take.
Oh, yeah.
[01:42:50] Speaker A: All right. Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. You think Craig Finch is better than anybody in Cleveland sports radio?
[01:42:56] Speaker B: Craig Finch is better than anyone in Cleveland sports radio.
[01:42:58] Speaker A: Remember, these are hot takes. Hot takes.
[01:43:03] Speaker B: 30 hot takes.
[01:43:12] Speaker A: Call. Now, operators are not standing by. Just an answering machine. But we'll put your hot takes on.
[01:43:19] Speaker B: The air if they're hot enough.
[01:43:20] Speaker A: All right, Kenny, you know what time it is.
[01:43:22] Speaker B: It is time.
[01:43:23] Speaker A: It's time to take a quick revenue break. And then we'll get back here and talk to Frank The Tank Stams and preview the week three game against the Tennessee Titans.
[01:43:34] Speaker B: Sensual.
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[01:45:09] Speaker B: I'm a medium roast guy.
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So before we get into the week three preview, we are going to talk to another Cleveland Browns alum that will be going on the Browns Fan Cruise with uside.
[01:45:49] Speaker B: SM.
[01:46:02] Speaker A: All right, so our next guest is a hometown hero in Northeast Ohio. He played high school football locally before playing four years at one of the biggest college football programs in the nation. After being drafted to the NFL and having an initial stint out west, he made his way to the Cleveland Browns in 1992 and played for Cleveland from 92 to 95. Still resides in the area and continues to make an impact in his community to this day. So without further delay, boys, let's welcome Frank Stamps. Frank.
[01:46:29] Speaker B: Frank. Frank. Frank.
Frank.
[01:46:33] Speaker D: Frank's in the house.
[01:46:36] Speaker A: How are you doing, Frank?
[01:46:38] Speaker D: I'm doing well, Ronnie. Kenny, thanks for having me on.
[01:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem, no problem. So so before we get to some of the questions that we have for you, I do want to talk about something here.
You're going to be on the Browns fan cruise in March of 2024. That is confirmed, stamp, signed, sealed, delivered, whatever you want to say about it. You will be on the cruise.
[01:47:00] Speaker D: I never missed a kickoff in my life. And let me tell you something, that's one kickoff I will not miss.
[01:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah, we will be on the cruise as well. We'll be MCing most of the events on the cruise, and we're really looking forward to sharing that fan cruise with you. So can you just tell our listeners a little bit about the fan cruise here?
[01:47:23] Speaker D: Well, first of all, when the Browns invited me to go on a cruise, for my wife and I, it was a dream come true, because I have never been on a cruise before.
I'm looking forward to this as much as anybody. And then when I start hearing about the cruise, it's a five day cruise. Cruising the Caribbean, leaving out of Miami, stopping in Nassau, the Bahamas, spending a day, you know, spending a couple of days at Sea, and then porting in Jamaica as well, spending a day there and then coming back to Miami. And let me tell you, going Browns Nation, this is going to be the most fun you can legally have in international waters.
[01:48:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, that sums it up pretty looking. I was looking forward to it. Now I just am ecstatic.
[01:48:33] Speaker B: Now I'm ready to go.
[01:48:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I wish we were leaving tomorrow.
[01:48:37] Speaker D: We're rocking out.
[01:48:39] Speaker A: So we will come back to the Browns fan cruise here towards the end of the interview, but right now we want to talk a little bit more about you. I know you've kind of got a pretty interesting story, especially here in Northeast Ohio. Hometown kid, right? So. Lifelong resident of Calga Falls went to St. V's. So tell us a little bit about.
[01:48:59] Speaker D: Went to my dad, went to St. V. People asked me, I grew up in COGA Falls. They said, well, why didn't you go to Cog Falls High School? I said, Listen, there was no decision making process for me as far as where my dad was raised by the nuns in grade school at St. V and then went to high school. So it was a no brainer.
I was going to St. V. Tremendous amount of loyalty there.
So, yeah, I played for a great coach, Johnson Stone, we had a lot of success. We won a couple of state championships while I was there my sophomore and junior year. And then I was lucky enough to get noticed. Notre Dame came calling, took some visits across the country. But how do you not go to Notre Dame? My high school was the Fighting Irish. Right, right.
Plus, my dad a big influence in my life, grew up in the late 40s. Frankly, he was a coach. I think it was four undefeated seasons that he had there. So they never told me where to go, but it was a great fit for me. And I'm lucky enough to win the national championship in my fifth year there. Lou Holtz came in the last three, turned it around, we go undefeated. And interesting, I was projected to go between rounds three and five by the all knowing and all wise Oz, Mel Kuiper and I jumped up into the second round with the 45th pick. And a couple of reasons for that. One, the Rams had an ungodly number of draft choices in the first three rounds because the year before, they just traded Eric Dickerson to the Colts.
We went out to Southern my senior year at Notre Dame, we went out to Southern Cal. We were one. In the nation, they were two. And I had a good game. And in the stands was John Robinson, the head coach of the Rams, and John Shaw, who was the president of the Rams. And they ultimately told me that they loved the way that I competed on the football field, and that's why they chose me in the early, you know, it know, St. V. To Notre Dame and then initially to the Rams breaking into the NFL.
[01:51:08] Speaker B: So could we take a real quick step back?
Uh, cause when you were at St. V's, you actually played a different side of the ball, didn't you?
[01:51:15] Speaker D: Well, at were so I shouldn't say we were so small, but the smaller schools you play just about everything. In fact, there were a couple of games, I don't think I ever came off the field.
I was returning punts, I was running the ball on offense, I was playing linebacker on defense. And listen, if they were paying us back then I would ask for a raise every yeah, no, I was running the ball. And initially, thank you for remembering. Initially I went to Notre Dame as a fullback and it wasn't until my junior first, Holtz's first spring, that would have been the spring of 1986 that I turned a bad break into a good one. I broke my leg my first week of spring practice with Lou Holtz. And to be honest with you, probably the writing was on the wall. I was never going to be he ran the Veer option and I was an eye formation fullback at best. So when I broke my leg, it took me from a five flat to a five five, and there's no way I was playing that. So the next year you and your listeners will like this. There was a young linebacker coach on the staff, Barry Alvarez. When Holtz said I'm done with Stams. Who wants them? Alvarez said, I'll take the rum, dumb. And so that's when I moved.
And I thrived under Barry Alvarez. Just loved his coaching style, just was know, I always thought that he's the kind of coach that should coach with a scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other and just cools the other side of the pillow, as the saying goes.
[01:53:02] Speaker A: Yeah, so he puts you in and he realized pretty quick he's like, this guy's a dog.
[01:53:07] Speaker D: Yeah.
It took me a year to convince him that I wasn't. But we have a great relationship to this day. I've been up there a couple of times to Wisconsin, and it's no coincidence that he's had tremendous success going up there. One of the things I find so.
[01:53:29] Speaker B: Fascinating about your career is some of the folks that you've had the chance to work with. A lot of people, not a lot of people, but there's a large contingent of folks that have played college football, but not very many of them got to play for Lou Holtz.
Can you talk about just what that was like?
[01:53:49] Speaker D: Oh my God. Listen, I should get all the therapy sessions and get you the transcripts. I'm still dealing with that today, I'll tell you. Listen, here's the thing about Lou Holtz. Tough, tough as nails.
Grew up with nothing in Fallensby, West Virginia, and you talk about the great American success story.
Just a guy that worked his ass off his whole life. And when I say he was tough, that's the ultimate compliment, because that's what you have to be, in my opinion, to play football and to be successful. That's one of the, I think, three necessary ingredients.
And he was that he was demanding. But you know why we respected him is because every day he was the same guy. Every day we knew what to expect from him. Every day he worked as hard, if not harder, than we did. So how do you not respect that? You can have your own personal opinions. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I'm not going out and having a beer with them.
[01:54:57] Speaker B: But.
[01:55:01] Speaker D: As a young man looking for an identity and you're absent of the family there, the football team becomes your family, and the father figure there is the head coach. So every day you know what to expect. You rely on that, and you can thrive in that environment if you don't let it drive you crazy. Now, some guys, it will. I mean, that kind of demanding, highly critical environment, only as good as your last play can really play havoc with you. But you know what? I grew up in Northeast Ohio. Tough football. I knew that football. I knew that animal coming to Notre Dame and Lou Holtz, and I wanted to prove him wrong because what are you going to show me?
I wasn't the guy that always needed to win, but I was the guy that never wanted to lose. So I didn't want to lose my position on the team. And ultimately, he had the right chemistry with a lot of players, and we win.
Sounds like it.
[01:56:15] Speaker A: You went from St. V to Notre Dame, drafted by the Rams in 89, and then fast forward a couple of years here, and you ended up heading over to Cleveland. So tell us a little bit about your time with Cleveland.
[01:56:29] Speaker D: Well, it was listen, for a kid growing up in Northeast Ohio, you kidding me. When I got traded to the Browns, I called my dad and I said, hey, I got good news and bad news. And he says, well, what? Give me the good news first.
And I said, well, I got traded to the Browns. He said, well, what the hell possibly could be the bad news?
And he was actually in Las Vegas at the time with my car. And when I got traded because he came out, they came out, my parents came out for a home and home preseason game, and they were going to Vegas. Between the games, I was getting a ride to work. I said, well, the bad news is take my car and keep going. And son of a gun, he did.
He drove my car back to Cleveland. True story. So I arrive in Cleveland and Belichick's the coach saban's on the saban is the defensive know, and Nick recruited me out of high school when I was at St. V, he was at Michigan State, and I knew know, I'm playing with Know. Clay Matthews was on that.
Know Bernie was on the know. Michael Dean was on the know. Had a lot of talent on that team. And Bill's challenge was to put it all together. And as you guys know and Browns fans from that period no, it was a challenge. It was a challenge because Bill was coming in, and he was a Parcels disciple, right? And Parcels was the kind of guy, last guy standing in training camp, makes the team. Well, he inherited a culture from Bud Carson. And from what Clay Matthews was telling me, bud Carson was the ultimate players coach. If it was raining too hard, bud Carson would say, let's just stay in and watch.
You know, a team, over time, gets a little soft in that environment. And I can attest to that, because when I was with the Rams, we came and played Cleveland in the stadium, and we beat them. And I'll be honest with you, that was not a physical football team that we know. Bill's got to change that culture, and that was really hard. And he's changing the defense and he's changing the offense, and you guys know what was going on there. I mean, it was just short of chaos.
But despite that, in 94, up until a couple of years ago when they won at Pittsburgh, won the playoff game in Pittsburgh, the 94 team was the last team to win a playoff game.
Hell, I'm watching the Eagles. They're playing the preseason at Philadelphia, and they showed a stat across the bottom of the screen. It said the last time Cleveland won in Philadelphia was in 1994. And I said, Dang, I remember that game. I had an interception in that.
It's been a long, long time for Browns fans for that playoff road to come back. But I'm confident that Coach Stefanski and the talent that he's got on that team, things are going to happen this year for him.
[01:59:52] Speaker B: So, speaking of a couple of those names again, so you mentioned, first of.
[01:59:55] Speaker A: All, those names are insane to even think about the fact that we had them in Cleveland at the same time.
[02:00:01] Speaker B: Saban belichick. I think Schwartz was there. Was that his first go around that same time?
[02:00:06] Speaker D: Sure? Yeah, I saw Schwartz.
[02:00:08] Speaker B: Not Frank Stams was. Do you have any great.
[02:00:15] Speaker D: He'S there.
[02:00:17] Speaker B: Do you have a favorite Bill Belichick story from your time?
[02:00:26] Speaker D: A humanizing here's, a humanizing story. Bill Belichick. Listen, the guy eats, breathes, sleeps, and does everything else.
Just that's his essence, it's being but he's got a human side. And I remember one day I walked into early to team meetings at eight or 09:00, depending on the day, and I walk in and he's wearing, of all things, not a hoodie, not a torn shirt that he was 99% of the times he's wearing, but he's wearing a blazer, a jacket, a sport coat. And I look and it was a nice sport coat, and I was impressed. And I said, not that I have any fashion plate myself, but I said to him, I said, yeah, Coach, that's a nice looking jacket. He just kind of grunted at me and smiled. And that was on a Wednesday. And then Saturday morning when we were getting ready to take off or play the game, as I walked in, he hands me a note, and it's the name and number of his tailor and the guy that sells him the jackets. And I said, Son of a gun. Of all the things he had to worry about, he had the presence of mind or the memory or I guess I say, the concern to share that with me. And I thought, wow, he loved his players.
He was like Holtz in a lot of ways, and Saban was from the same mold.
They didn't expect anything from their players that they didn't expect from themselves. First. There was a number of times I'd be leaving the facility, 738 O'clock, and I'd grab some game tape to watch at home, and I remember a couple of times going in the linebacker room, and he's there, pitch black, watching film on the bicycle and just like, pouring sweat out of him because he was a triathlete. He ran triathlons.
I'm not saying he was training, but everything he did, he worked hard at it.
Those two stories, probably when I look back at my time there, to think what kind of guy Belichick was.
He's a pretty good guy. He's a pretty good guy, yeah, that's really special.
[02:03:09] Speaker A: And so kind of in that same vein with the people who were there at the time, you were there when he who shall not be named moved the Browns out of town in the wee hours of the night. So I know that lives on in infamy here in Cleveland, and always will. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Maybe give us some insight into those dark times and what it was like around the locker room?
[02:03:32] Speaker D: I'd be happy to. So, of course, that's the 95 season. So I start that season with the Panthers, make it to the last cuts. They cut me.
I'd like to say I want to make an excuse here for myself. I was coming off a knee surgery. I was really kind of plagued by injuries my whole and so they cut me. Couldn't get and my agent gets me a tryout with Kansas City. So go out there, schottenheimer is that coach out there. Great locker room. Montana is the quarterback. Marcus Allen's the running back, some other great players out there. I was like, wow, this is great. So I last there, as Leroy Hoyd would like to say. I fooled him out there for about six, seven weeks, picked up a paycheck, and then my agent calls, and here's how I like to say because the Browns went with Caldwell and another guy, Dixon At, young linebackers, and they didn't pick up. I was a free agent, so they didn't want to sign me as a free agent, but Carolina did. Bill Polian was down there with the Kansas City releases. Me, says, hey, listen, we got to make a roster spot.
We got to waive you. Will you hang around a little bit? I said, Listen, are you going to pay me? And they said no. I said, I'm out of here. My agent calls me and says, and I like to say that the Browns realized their mistake. So they know they want to resign me because they weren't happy with way things were. I said, hey, listen, I'll be there. Give me a couple of days, I'll be there. So I stop in Toledo.
Actually, I stop in Chicago with a budy of mine who's from Toledo. I spend the night, I get up in the morning, he gets a call from his mom. She's living in Toledo. She said there was a story in the Blade that the Browns were going to move. And I told my budy, I said, listen, of the 28 or 30 teams in the NFL at the time, the Browns would be the last team to move. So I drove into Cleveland. We had a team meeting the next morning. Who walks through the door first? The person not to be the name, not to be spoken.
He walks in the door, Belichick's following him. He announces the move. And after that, all hell broke loose. I mean, it was just bedlam.
It was CYA, and nobody knew what their future was going to be.
Know, I remember that from that point on going forward because it was such a bad taste in the community in the Northeast Ohio's mouth. You saw the advertising start diminish weekly in the stadium to the point where at the end of the season, the frickin Marlboro Man was gone. The Marlboro Man. The Marlboro Man.
I don't know if you guys are old enough for that, but the Marlboro Man, that's like freaking the Washington Monument and DC.
And he's gone. And it was so eerie playing in a dark stadium like that with no advertising.
I'll never forget.
[02:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a crazy story.
Like we said, just a terrible time for, I think, just about everybody involved here in Cleveland. Fans, players, coaches, you name it. But you've seen some stuff in the NFL. I would know, kind of with that and everything that you've been around and everything, you've mean, do you have any advice for some of the younger players, especially for the Cleveland Browns? As they start their.
[02:07:15] Speaker D: Know, these players are so much more mature and so more focused on what's at stake.
Well, maybe that's because there's more at stake today, and I'm certainly talking about the dollars, and they're more in tune with prolonging. The career, it was great. I wanted to play it as long as I could. But the focus when I say, what could I tell these guys? These guys are all dialed in with that aspect, being a professional. I think what you want to try to be as much of a professional as possible, because as you guys know, they're laying out a lot of money for these guys, and they want to see a return on it.
Also, the greatest thing about I love the pro game versus the college game, and I'll tell you this quick story, and this is what I could tell the guys, but I think most of them know it.
In college football, they teach you to step with the right foot. In pro football, they teach you how to make the play.
It's all about being productive.
I learned that. That's why I love the pro game, because it was just a football game after that. It was just going out and making plays. It wasn't worried about your position coach, worried about getting fired and all that. They didn't have that attitude in the pros.
It was going out and making plays. So I wish I would have been zeroed in more of that, because a lot of the game is played on instincts, and believe your instincts and go for it. Try to make more plays. I look back in my career and there's a number of plays that if I would have just believed in what I saw, that I would have made those plays, there would have been a number of sacks, big play sacks that I would have made just because I was a split second late. And really, that's the difference in the game, is those split seconds that make a difference. And some guys, you see that, especially at quarterback, the ones that can't make the adjustment from college to pro, split seconds, I was lucky enough that I could do that for a period of time.
So I guess to answer your question, it's like, believe what you see and just go out there and have fun. Play the game like you're six and seven years old again.
[02:09:49] Speaker A: Yeah, obviously I've never played at that level because I'm me, but it sounds like great advice. All these guys are there for a reason, so just trust what got you there in the first place and go out there and play.
[02:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah, no, fascinating.
[02:10:06] Speaker D: I would have said. It like.
[02:10:11] Speaker B: I always get in trouble because Ronnie wants to move this thing forward, and I want to stop and heard I've heard you tell this story again. I don't know previously, but I don't know if all of our viewers have heard this story, but can you speak to just how you ended up in Cleveland from the Rams in the first place?
[02:10:28] Speaker D: Oh, are you going to talk about the trade?
You're talking about the reporter that came down so yeah, I fast forward a little through that, but okay. Classic, right? So I told you I was hurt. My parents come out to the game.
I'm dressing, but not playing.
After the game, I see him outside. I toss them the keys, and then they take off with the car. I go down a locker room, and this reporter comes up to me and starts asking me questions, like real crazy questions, like, how's your state of mind and asking me questions about my injury and all that. And I said, Buddy, I said, you got the right guy. He says, I got the right guy. I go home, and my agent calls me and says, what's going on with you?
I said, I'm hurt. I said, I'm dressing, but I'm not playing. I said, The Browns want to do a deal for you. I said do the deal. Do the and because the Rams ended up moving, like, two, three years. Know, people out there, they don't come and boo you and throw batteries at you and snowballs. They just don't come. They go to the beach, they go to the mountains. They just ignore um. So I said, man, are you kidding me? I go back to the Browns and be lucky enough to play from my hometown. So I go to practice the next day. Here comes Chuck Knox, and he says, Stans, we're going to do you a favor. And I said, oh, yeah? What's that? Because he and I really didn't see eye to eye. He said, we're sending you back to Cleveland.
And he knew that that was what would make me happy, because he's a Western Pennsylvania guy himself. And I said, Gee, Coach, I'm sorry things didn't work out here, but I think I turned around and skipped into the locker room. I was so happy.
So I get on the plane that same day. They fly me into Cleveland, and I'm in the weight room working out, and here comes Belichick. He says, Frank, glad to have you here in Cleveland. I said, Coach, are you kidding me? I grew up down the street here. This is awesome.
And he yeah. He said, you recognize that guy over there? He points another guy in the weight room, non player, part of the administration personnel. He calls him over. I said no. Coach, I don't know him from Adam. He calls him over, he starts asking me the same questions the reporter did three nights prior in the locker room. And I said, Son of a gun, it's the same guy.
He snuck a scout out there to do their due diligence on me before they traded for me. And I said, wow, that's a guy does his homework. And that's when I called know and probably wondering, prior to getting on the plane from La. To Cleveland, I had to find my father and said, hey, listen, I got good news and bad news. And that's when I laid it on him. You got to drive the car all the way back.
[02:13:21] Speaker B: And he did.
[02:13:23] Speaker A: It sounds like the NFL was like the wild, wild west back then. People are just doing crazy stuff.
[02:13:28] Speaker B: This is going to be one of the best stories I've ever like, can.
[02:13:32] Speaker A: You imagine somebody in the NFL doing that?
[02:13:37] Speaker D: Kinds of, all kinds of and I came in during a know they just passed the drug policy and I'm coming in on the tail end of that. And I remember all the older guys talking know the guys were were soft and they could tell a huge know I'd be in locker rooms. We went to New Orleans one time and we played and I'm in the training room waiting. My Achilles were killing me and they were giving us darvicet at the time. So I'm waiting for the trainer and the doc to come in so they could prescribe darvicet for me. And I'm the only one in there. But there's one other item in there and it's the black bag where they keep all the medicine. And the black bag is completely open. And I see veteran after veteran after veteran come in and grab medication out of the black bag. And after that went on for about 1520 minutes. And then the doctor came in and closed the black bag. And I said, oh I get what's going on here. These guys, what the doc doesn't know, he's not responsible for. They were self prescribing, but you had to be like four or five years into the league where they would trust you. They weren't doing that for a rookie. I wasn't tuned into that.
Yeah.
[02:14:53] Speaker A: Wow, man, that was wild.
[02:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:14:59] Speaker D: No, that's why this cruise this why the Browns cruise is going to be so much fun because I'm going to tell these stories and more and I know the other guys like Hanford and Metcalf.
It's just going to be great. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it.
[02:15:22] Speaker A: Well, we know now Frank Stems doesn't hold back, but the last question I had for your time in Cleveland here, though was obviously spending time with the franchise. It's more than just playing football. You kind of become a family.
You grow close with your teammates, your community. Is there a favorite off field memory that you have from your time in.
[02:15:46] Speaker D: Know, when I first got you know, kind of took me under his wing. Why? I don't know. We shared some uh not just on the field being both Northeast Ohio, Miami, Notre Dame, bit of a you know, we shared some experience too that we knew some same people and it kind of took me under his wing. And I'll never forget him being so nice to me. He invited me out he would take the offensive lineman out to dinner and he invited me out with him to Johnny's up in Cleveland there and wonderful restaurant and just hung out with those guys all night long.
I'm speaking to the friendship and the chemistry that he was fostering, and that's a big part that's to me, championship teams, the chemistry is there. I mean, I saw that when I played against the San Francisco 49 ers in Montana. Roger Craig, Rathman Taylor, and the other guy on this Rice, those guys, we played against them over in Japan one year and watching those guys interact.
So getting back to the Browns, Bernie taking me out to dinner, I'll never forget that. And that made me feel good about being part of a team that really I didn't have any.
[02:17:33] Speaker A: Mean that that's awesome. And I would love to sit here and talk Brown stories with you until we have no time left, but fortunately, we'll be following up with more interviews with you on the Fan cruise, actually. So we'll save some of these. But you did have such an amazing and interesting career. But I do know for most guys, they get sort of this whole second life after football. So can you tell us a couple of things, what you're up to today, if you're still involved with the game at all and kind of any charities or anything like that that you're involved with?
[02:18:07] Speaker D: Well, thank you for no, it's important to me know, to give back to the community, and the main way I do that is through the Cleveland Browns Foundation.
They have a number of charities. I mean, they're a charitable organization themselves, and we get involved with through them, browns alumni get involved with the number of charities that they sponsor and contribute to. One of them happens to be the Adaptive Football League, where we're working and playing alongside men and women that have challenges physically and emotionally, and you want to come away a better person, get involved in that.
And then up until recently, I ran the NFL Alumni Club here in Cleveland, and we did a lot of great work.
All the guys, the 70, some guys that were involved, and a lot of these guys are going on the cruise, like Greg Pruitt and Hanford Dixon got involved, and we raised over $100,000 in three years for Special Olympics Ohio.
[02:19:22] Speaker A: That's incredible.
[02:19:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it's really good stuff. I'm a councilman.
I enjoy getting into the I look at it as the arena, and I'm not a Republican or Democrat. People love this. I get on their doorstep. I said, I leave my party affiliation off my leave behind, and they want to know why. And I said, Because, listen, when I was in the locker room and we're trying to win games, there were no Democrats or Republicans. And people say, yeah, we love that.
I'm a councilman here in town.
COGA Falls.
[02:20:01] Speaker A: That's where I live.
[02:20:02] Speaker D: Yeah, COGA Falls. Yeah, I grew up in COGA Falls, so it's special to me. Married to a beautiful wife, Mary. Been married close to 25 years now, two great kids. So I'm really grateful for what I have. I'm really grateful for what I have. So thank you for asking.
[02:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's and I do know one other thing that you're up to today as well, is you have your own podcast, I believe, right?
[02:20:30] Speaker D: Oh, thank yeah, yeah. In the dog pound. Yeah. In the dog pound. We do it with metcalf leroy Horde Hanford Dixon and Mike Tomzek So, yeah, we just kicked off our second season and in the Dog Pound, where you probably find your sports cast, burning river sports casting, it's catching, I think, some momentum. So we love it. We just get in there and yuck it up. We'd love to have you guys on and maybe vice versa. Yeah, for sure.
[02:21:05] Speaker A: And there's nothing better than just talking Browns, right?
[02:21:09] Speaker D: It's the best, right?
[02:21:11] Speaker B: With the season, by the start, there'll be a lot to talk.
Quick, real quick follow up. Just you mentioned kind of in the arena, which I love, just going back to the Teddy Roosevelt man in the arena, what's the harder arena now that you've been involved in local politics and in the NFL?
Oh, wow.
[02:21:33] Speaker D: Are you kidding me? The politics are way harder, at least most of the time in football, you see them coming, there's a line of scrimmage in politics. They're coming from all angles.
I tell people this all the time. What I miss most about football is its honesty.
Because in football, those assistant coaches and head coaches and players, they didn't give a crap about your feelings. They were going to tell you exactly how you feel and they didn't hide things.
But the beauty of that is that you knew exactly where you stood. So you were either going to get better faster or you were going to fail. And it was instantaneous. We'd get criticism. This is a hard part for players when they adjust going into an afterlife. Is that immediate feedback? Because we'd get it from our assistant coaches, then we'd get it in the meeting room from films. So you are constantly being evaluated. A lot of times you're out there. You're not getting that instant evaluation all the time. So you've got to have a strong belief in who you are and the conviction in which you do it to succeed rather than people just driving you all the time to succeed. So I guess I forget your question now because I get off on these tangents.
[02:23:17] Speaker A: Harder, arena football or politics?
[02:23:19] Speaker D: Yeah, politics by far.
[02:23:23] Speaker A: So again, I would love to go ahead.
[02:23:26] Speaker D: I was going to say nobody in politics. No, the whole thing in football well, maybe the whole thing in football is being accountable. And in politics, nobody wants to be accountable.
[02:23:40] Speaker B: I love that.
[02:23:42] Speaker A: So again, I would love to sit here and tell stories all day. This has been phenomenal so far, but I am going to bring this back to the time that we get to. Share on the open ocean in March of 2024 and a couple of amazing stops along the way. So let's talk about some of the things that everyone should look forward to. First of all, what event or activity during the entire fan cruise are you looking forward to most yourself?
[02:24:06] Speaker D: Well, what I'm looking forward to most is the time on the ship. We've got a couple of days at Sea where there's going to be it's just us and the people coming on to enjoy the experience. The players and the fans and the Browns fans and Browns Nation and those activities that they have planned on board. Whether it's a competition, whether maybe it's trivia, whatever, maybe it's storytelling, I'm looking forward to that the most.
Certainly looking forward to getting out, maybe seeing a little bit of the Bahamas, Nassau.
I've never been to Jamaica, so I'd love to see what that's like. But I really like engaging with the fans and talking with them. So I'm really looking forward to getting to know, you know, making a lot of new friends, to be honest with you.
[02:25:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And what event or activity? I mean, that obviously that's what you're looking forward to. And that's one of the things we're looking forward to as well. But what activity or event do you think the fans should be the most excited about?
[02:25:15] Speaker D: Well, I'm really looking forward to hanging out with the fans, whether it's at dinner or on the dance floor or at the pub or at the pool, in the lawn chairs.
I'm looking forward to interacting with the fans.
[02:25:44] Speaker A: And the cool thing is with this, I know at certain events they're kind of behind some red tape or you guys are kind of in your own section and it's like you could look, but you can't touch. You can't get close and really talk to you guys. But this fan crew is completely different, right? I mean, they're able to get right up next to you and have a conversation with you.
[02:26:02] Speaker D: Yeah. I love people touching me. Just touch me.
Listen, you can touch me all the time.
Horror Picture Show that she said touch me. Touch me.
So that's basically I'm going to get a shirt that says touch me. Yeah.
It's not going to say feel me. It's going to just say touch me.
[02:26:26] Speaker B: I like it. Can we collaborate?
[02:26:29] Speaker D: It'll be on the front and the back.
[02:26:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:26:34] Speaker B: Can we collaborate on that?
[02:26:35] Speaker A: Frank? Can we get a shirt that says.
[02:26:36] Speaker B: Touch me, Frank Stams?
[02:26:38] Speaker D: Yeah.
Well, how can we make it know I'm Frank? Touch me. Yeah.
[02:26:45] Speaker A: Well, just burning over. Sportscast will come up with T shirts for each player.
[02:26:49] Speaker D: Yeah. It's like St. Patrick's Day. Kiss me. I'm Irish. Touch me. I'm Frank.
Here's what we should this was a hard thing. You talk about going in the real world. I had a real hard time with this. And I want fans on the cruise to be ready for this. Listen, if we're having a good time and we do something good, say we're in a competition together, we're getting smacked on the bottom. And that really was a problem with HR when I got into the workforce, when I was going around office environment, smacking some of my female coworkers on the bottom.
You can't do that here.
Listen, not only are they going to touch me, but there was a lot of touching going on and huddling up that I'm used to. So you're going to get the true fan experience there's going to be.
[02:27:44] Speaker A: So one thing is guaranteed with Frank Stams, everyone's getting touched.
[02:27:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I like it.
[02:27:52] Speaker A: Something good to look forward to there. But no. I also know that there is a competition for the Brownsbackers organizations out there.
So everybody kind of knows and I just want to recap what that is. The chapter with the most bookings will get an all expenses paid balcony cabin for two on the Browns fan cruise. The chapter with the highest members to bookings ratio also gets an all expenses paid ocean view cabin for two. All members of the winning chapter will receive a specialty dining pass for two guests and all members of the winning chapter will receive a Browns fan cruise commemorative Cleveland Browns autograph football. So with that being said, do you have anything that you want to say to Browns backers across the nation in the world, specifically?
[02:28:32] Speaker D: I just want to say it's going to be an awesome I'm so looking forward to it.
I just think it's going to be awesome. I'm really looking forward to it, getting to know the fans and I think it's just going to be a great experience.
I'm looking forward to the season as well.
[02:28:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we can't wait either. I know we're excited. I'm way more excited now, now that you got me all excited to touch Frank Stam.
How can you not be excited?
[02:29:07] Speaker D: It's contagious, right?
[02:29:10] Speaker A: Maybe I'm going to let people touch me, too. I don't know. We'll see.
[02:29:13] Speaker B: Nobody wants to touch you.
[02:29:15] Speaker A: Okay. All right. No, but Frank, listen, it's been a real pleasure having you on here. We really appreciate it.
I'm sure we will talk again soon. We'll definitely talk again on the fan cruise. But until then, thank you so much for joining us.
Like I said, it's been a pleasure.
[02:29:34] Speaker B: We appreciate you being sport.
[02:29:36] Speaker D: Kenny, Ronnie, thank you so much for having me on the Burning River Sportscast. It's been my pleasure. So thank you.
I'm Frank Stams and you're listening to the Burning River Sportscast. Go Browns.
[02:30:08] Speaker A: Man. Awesome time. Speaking with.
[02:30:14] Speaker B: Tank, Frank was insightful for sure.
[02:30:17] Speaker A: Dude has some, huh?
[02:30:18] Speaker B: Quite a few stories and hopefully there's plenty of more where that came from.
[02:30:22] Speaker A: I was going to say, I feel like we're going to spend a lot of time on the cruise talking with Frank about his time with the Browns. He has some stories.
[02:30:28] Speaker B: I mean, I have more questions than answers, even after a 40 minutes interview.
[02:30:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that was incredible touching on everybody. I don't know, but that'll take us to the week three preview.
All right, so this week we have the Tennessee Titans.
Do you have any matchup previews or opposition research? Anything good you want to talk about before we get into this thing?
[02:30:57] Speaker B: Just the fact that Ryan tannehill is like, the only middle class quarterback left. We were just talking about quarterbacks need to stop.
[02:31:05] Speaker A: They're all gone. Except Ryan Tan.
[02:31:07] Speaker B: Ryan tannehill is the last holdout of like, he's almost good.
[02:31:10] Speaker A: Like, he got top tier Ryan Tannehill.
[02:31:12] Speaker B: And rookie, he's almost good, but not good enough to be paid a whole lot of money, but he's good enough to get some money.
[02:31:18] Speaker A: He's good enough to start everywhere he goes for less money than most people make.
[02:31:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Look, I just think this is an interesting game to handicap because Ryan Tannehill can play really well, and then other times he's just such a wet blanket.
[02:31:35] Speaker A: I do feel like he's just one of those guys that he had a lot of potential and it's not like he's bad by any means. He just never fully lived up to that.
[02:31:45] Speaker B: He's just there.
[02:31:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a solid quarterback.
[02:31:49] Speaker B: And I think that the team plays as Ryan Tannehill plays.
[02:31:54] Speaker A: He has a bad game, they lose.
[02:31:55] Speaker D: Yeah.
[02:31:56] Speaker B: I mean, they've clearly got some talent on that team. Derek Henry is King Henry.
He worries me anytime that we play him because he's just so damn biggest man alive. And there's just some days that he runs harder and angrier than others and I don't know what gets him going, but if you're playing him on that day, it's not good.
But, yeah, I think this is a team with some new talent that they've had in the offseason, and I don't know that it's a team that is expected to do a whole lot outside of the fact that their division isn't very good. So they may be a sneaky pick to win the division just because everyone else is so bad, but Jacksonville's there, too. I would expect them to probably win the division, but outside of like I just think those are your names, right? It's. Ryan Tanhill. Derrick henry.
That's the offense. And I don't know that they have a great supporting cast around, but which.
[02:32:53] Speaker A: We'Ll get into all that I'm going to start with. I do have a couple of position matchups I just want to highlight here the first one, funny enough, you mentioned Ryan tannehill is the brown secondary versus Ryan tannehill. Obviously, we all know this Derrick Henry is the focal point of the Tennessee offense.
But here's the deal. While Ryan Tannehill is a solid quarterback, historically, we're not sure what to expect out of Ryan Tannehill and what quarterback he is going to be week in and week out this year. And I guess that goes for most of his know, just in general, but he had a terrible consistently inconsistent yeah, he had a terrible week one and a loss to the Saints and then he came back and had a really solid second week in a win against the Chargers. So in a high scoring affair, I guess the question is will he be able to complete some passes against the secondary and will he be Dr. Jekyll or will he be devoured by our DBS and look absolutely terrible and be Mr. Hyde? All.
[02:33:57] Speaker B: I mean, I think this game has the potential to be really bad for Ryan Tannehill because our secondary secondary plays as well as they played the other night.
I think this is going to be a bad, bad day for Ryan Tannehill.
[02:34:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree with that. And then my next matchup here is just the Browns defensive line versus the Tennessee offensive line.
This kind of goes hand in hand with the first one that I listed here with the secondary versus Tannehill. But going forward without Nick Chubb for the rest of this season, we will have to lean heavily, heavily on the defense and we're going to have to win a lot of ugly games.
And so with that in mind, the defensive line is going they're going to have to get home on Ryan Tannehill not just this game, but just going forward in general. But they're going to have to get home on Ryan Tannehill and put him in a tough position where he's either being pressured or we're just getting the sack and we're causing turnovers because that's going to be how we win games.
You're not going to win the game ground and pound like we have all season long or the last couple of years when we've won games. It's going to come on the back of the defense and hopefully eventually Deshaun comes alive. But the defense is going to be number one.
[02:35:06] Speaker B: And I would add to that if defense is number one, the special teams is going to be number two, a very close number two. Zach's Guy Dustin Hopkins is going to have to earn his money each week.
[02:35:15] Speaker A: Because, oh, man, you get a D Hop jersey yet?
[02:35:18] Speaker C: Not yet.
[02:35:19] Speaker B: Because I think a lot of those red zone drives that Nick Chubb used to pull a rabbit out of his ass, you won't have that anymore. So you'll be settling for more field goals as you go. So I think it's going to be imperative for not just Dustin Hopkins to make field goals. I also think CORBA Jorquez is going to get more work. I just think more drives are going to stall because of the lack of running comfortability with your running game, the punters all of a sudden going to matter. It's going to be trussle ball where it's like you said, can we win ugly if we have to win ugly? Because we have to win the field position game to put us in position to have a long field goal at the end of the game to win, then fine. But I think that you're right. I think it's all those things together, and I think those two guys have a spotlight on them now.
[02:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree with Mean. Speaking of special teams, by the way, you remember last year we talked about possibly eventually doing a Cade York confidence meter and we never kind of got around to it, but I kind of do want to install the Dustin Hopkins confidence meter, except I want it to be brought to you by Bone Man.
[02:36:27] Speaker B: We know Bone Man is rock hard over Dustin Hopkins.
[02:36:30] Speaker A: Every time we talk about Dustin Hopkins, bone man jumps on and tells everybody how he's feeling at that point. I mean, right now, he was quick to let us know even though he missed a field goal. He's five of six so far.
He came right back and drilled a 55 yarder.
Yeah, I propose that we come up with a Dustin Hopkins confidence meter brought to you by the Bone Man.
[02:36:52] Speaker B: Let's see what I can find as animations this week.
[02:36:54] Speaker A: But yeah. So, as a team, the Tennessee Titans are one in one. They're coming off a solid win against the Chargers. They've looked completely different in both their games so far this season. So your guess is as good as mine as to which team we will get. In my opinion, on paper, even without Nick Chubb, the Browns have the better team. But guess what? The game's not played on paper, and.
[02:37:14] Speaker B: The Chargers know that really well because they played phenomenal.
[02:37:18] Speaker A: The Chargers are the first team in NFL history to score over 50 points over their first two games, at least.
So it's pretty impressive. But you know what it takes us.
[02:37:29] Speaker B: To, kenny, what does it take us.
[02:37:32] Speaker A: To the injury report?
[02:37:33] Speaker B: We got to relive this again. Okay.
[02:37:37] Speaker A: You don't like technoball anymore?
[02:37:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Here we go. I'll play the sounder.
[02:37:46] Speaker A: It's just so good. The guy comes out with the stretcher.
[02:37:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Little ambulance.
[02:37:52] Speaker A: So what are the new additions this week, Kenny?
[02:37:54] Speaker B: So obviously, Nick Chubb done for the season. Feels real bad, but actually, a handful of names on both sides here coming into this week.
I don't know that these are all super impactful, but a lot of guys listed as questionable from the Tennessee side. Amani hooker safety questionable. Peter Skoronsky, I know that he's someone that gets some time. He's their starting tackle. His list is questionable. The Nico Autry defensive end. Questionable. Luke Gifford, linebacker, questionable. Our boy Anthony Kendall, questionable.
[02:38:32] Speaker A: He'll play?
[02:38:33] Speaker B: Tierra Tart big defensive lineman. Questionable. Harold Landry II, questionable. And Derek Henry was limited at practice on Wednesday.
[02:38:42] Speaker A: That'll be fine.
[02:38:42] Speaker B: A toe.
So he's got the old dreaded turf toe.
[02:38:47] Speaker A: Oh, no, not a toe.
[02:38:48] Speaker B: And is officially questionable. So I would imagine many of those statuses are going to change as we get closer to game time, but that's who's out there right now.
They got a couple of guys out for the season already, but none of them really are Caleb Farley, Hassan Haskins, Shaquille Brown, Kyle Phillips, so see you later.
On the Brown side of things, obviously, Nick Chubb feels real bad, couldn't feel worse. A number of cues on our side this week as well. Anthony Walker. Questionable.
[02:39:16] Speaker A: Jedrick Wills, he just dedicated the rest of the season to Chubb. So, yeah. Not Jed Wills. Anthony Walker.
[02:39:23] Speaker B: Jed Wills may be an interesting one if he can't go because don't got.
[02:39:27] Speaker A: A whole lot of depth anymore.
[02:39:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I guess you go to the swing man, I can't think of his name. The big guy that had to fight in the camp.
[02:39:35] Speaker A: Yep.
[02:39:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't think of his name right now. Zidari Smith. Also questionable. Hudson.
[02:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why we've got the Bone man.
[02:39:44] Speaker B: Taki. Taki, questionable. And Amari Cooper, still having some groin and shoulder issues.
And I know Greg Newsom has been listed as questionable, but I think he's just day to day with like some elbow soreness. So a number of cues, but again, I think a lot of those are going to probably be just fine for the game on Sunday. But short week, short turnaround, you never know with some of these guys.
Certainly Mark Cooper had questionable designation going into this week's game and a lot of people didn't think he was going to play at all. So I think he's one that we got to continue to watch because that is the only one that Dejon Watson can count on right now as a receiver, apparently.
[02:40:22] Speaker A: Apparently it's the only one we know how to get the ball, the only.
[02:40:24] Speaker B: One we know how to throw to, but that does it for the injury report.
[02:40:28] Speaker A: And so with that, players to watch this week, we're going to start with you this week. Kenny, who is your player? Did we start with you last week?
[02:40:36] Speaker B: Start with you, Zach Bone.
[02:40:39] Speaker A: Zach Bone.
So we'll start with you this week. Kenny, who is your player to watch in this game?
[02:40:45] Speaker B: Who's my player to watch this game? I'm going Corey with Jorquez hell yeah, the punter. I do think that you and Bone.
[02:40:54] Speaker A: You should start your own show. It's just all about special teams.
[02:40:57] Speaker B: Look, I think he's going to be more important than people realize. And a couple of kicks that put that offense that isn't very good in a tough position gives way to your defense, making a big play here and there. And I think they're going to, like we just talked about, have to win ugly, have to find creative ways to win with this defensive scoring or special team scoring.
And so for me in a game like this against a team that they're really only going to be able to run the balls kind of their entire offense unless Ryan Tannehill pulls a rabbit out of his ass.
[02:41:26] Speaker A: Everybody's pulling rabbits out of their ass. It's really weird.
[02:41:29] Speaker B: It's already rabbits and asses.
What's a rabbit sound like? Even anyway, I just think the field position game is going to play heavy here.
[02:41:38] Speaker A: According to Kenny Thunder, rabbits sound like.
[02:41:41] Speaker B: I'm going to go bajorquez. And it's not just because I have faith in bajorquez. Bjorkwez has also shanked a few kicks in the last.
[02:41:48] Speaker A: He doesn't look like the Bajorquez we're used to.
[02:41:50] Speaker B: He can really bomb it, but sometimes you don't need to bomb it. You need to keep it out of the end zone. So we need bajorquez to be able to hit some of those inside the 20 and inside the ten.
[02:41:59] Speaker A: Bone man, who you got for your player to watch?
[02:42:02] Speaker C: I'm going to go the entire running back trio or whoever it's going to be. Pierce strong ford. And if Hunt gets any time, I think they'll work him in into it.
[02:42:12] Speaker A: I think the fact that he knows the offense and everything, he might actually play more than people were expecting him to play as long as he stayed in shape.
[02:42:18] Speaker C: I guess just them taking care of the ball. I think the O line will continue to do what it does, and they make running backs look good. We're going to get yards.
[02:42:26] Speaker A: They didn't last week. I mean, even though he had over 100 yards.
Well, I guess they made the running back okay. The quarterback looked terrible.
[02:42:34] Speaker B: Rushing yards.
[02:42:38] Speaker A: I take it back last year. Even I was wrong.
[02:42:42] Speaker B: He's wrong.
[02:42:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they're still going to get their yards. And yeah, just a matter of taking care of the football because you trusted Chubb to hold onto the rock. He didn't fumble.
[02:42:52] Speaker A: He never fumbled. Yeah, so, I mean, that's a good one. My player to watch is Deshaun Watson. Look, your safety blanket in Nick Chubb is gone. You are a QB that has paid $230,000,000 fully guaranteed. You need to step up and lead this football team. You need to get back to at least as good as you were in Houston, and your time needed to get there has officially run out. Everyone's looking to you and leaning on you and counting on you to dig us out of this dark place. And we need to know right now there's no more time to wait. Will you step up or will you crumble? And so my player to watch is Deshaun Watson. More so now than ever.
I'll throw in a bonus. One player to watch on the other side of the ball. Not on the other side of the ball. On Cleveland side. On the other side of the field.
[02:43:36] Speaker B: Anthony Kendall.
[02:43:37] Speaker A: Anthony Kendall, our boy from Baldwin Wallace made the team. As we talked about in a previous episode. He made the team for the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent out of Baldwin Wallace. Tough to do, and he is currently excelling on special teams, especially on the kickoff. I've seen at least three or four tackles where he's tackled somebody inside the 15 on kickoff. So keep an eye out for Anthony Kendall and what they do if they give us a chance to return the ball.
[02:44:07] Speaker B: If anybody's going to have a big play against us, I hope it's true.
[02:44:11] Speaker A: True. And so that'll take us to the King of the north.
[02:44:14] Speaker B: King of the north.
[02:44:22] Speaker A: All right. So as I mentioned earlier in the show, king of the north has taken a terrible turn this week while I am still the reigning defending King of the north, as you can see by my crown that won't stay on above my headphones, here I am now in last place. Well, at least tied for last place with Kenny, and it feels real bad. And I'll ask you again, Kenny, how did you do this all of last year? Because if I felt like this much of a piece of trash every week, I'd probably at least punch myself in the face. If not, do more harm.
[02:44:57] Speaker B: Look, here's the thing. You have to just really get in touch with your inner trash. Panda.
I recommend meditation. There's a couple of good books you crying out there and going for walks.
[02:45:09] Speaker A: Oh, I'm reading.
How to Not Kill Yourself.
Yeah. It's a tough place to be. It's unfamiliar territory for me. It feels weird. I don't like it. So let's just go ahead and get into this week's picks so I can hopefully redeem myself and get back on track here. So first off, we've got the Colts visiting the Ravens. I'll go ahead and take this one first. I think this especially with Anthony Richardson probably out with a concussion, I think this is an easy game for the Ravens. Ravens win it. I don't even want to give a score. It's probably a blowout. Ravens go three and O and are easily a top of division now.
[02:45:49] Speaker B: I actually think this is going to be the closest game of the division game because whether Anthony Richardson comes back or Gardner Minshew plays, I actually have.
[02:45:59] Speaker A: A lot of faith I forgot Gardner Minshew. Nice.
[02:46:00] Speaker B: I have a lot of faith that Gardner Minshew is a player in this league. So I do think this could be closer. I do think the Ravens are the better team. So I'm going Baltimore as well.
[02:46:10] Speaker A: Bone man.
[02:46:11] Speaker D: Yeah.
[02:46:11] Speaker C: I think Ravens ravens had this home game. Lamar Jackson. I think they're going to take it.
[02:46:16] Speaker D: All right.
[02:46:17] Speaker A: So so far there will be no movement in the King of the north standings. Next up, we got Steelers visiting the know. This one I think, is actually going to be close. Both teams not very good.
Even though the Steelers just beat us, they're not a very good team on paper, if you look at it. There's no way we should have lost that game. But we I just the raiders are bad as well. The Steelers, I guess, are less bad. I don't of it's a toss up for me, but I'm going Steelers in this one just because they've got to keep pace with us.
[02:46:52] Speaker B: I've never been more convinced that the Steelers are a trash football team than I am after watching this week. They were really bad. We got in our own way. Obviously, the Nick Chubb injury was devastating, but we lost that game to ourselves. The Steelers didn't take it from us. So I think they're trash. I think the Raiders, they're the home team. So I give them the edge.
[02:47:14] Speaker A: And Bowman.
[02:47:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going Raiders as well. Home team. I just feel like Pittsburgh's terrible.
[02:47:21] Speaker B: Really bad.
[02:47:22] Speaker E: Yeah.
[02:47:23] Speaker A: Oh, man, your quarterback sucks.
[02:47:25] Speaker C: They have TJ. Watts. Excuse me.
He could make a difference, but I just don't think it'll be enough.
[02:47:32] Speaker A: They also have Mike tomlin. So like these games where you're two bad teams, mike Tomlin is kind of the deciding factor.
[02:47:38] Speaker C: That is a fair point there.
[02:47:40] Speaker A: But this is where there could be it's either going to be really bad for me or really good for me.
Next up rams at the Bengals.
Let's start with Bowman.
[02:47:51] Speaker C: I got the Rams. I think Cincinnati is going to continue on their downward spiral at the beginning of the year.
[02:47:58] Speaker A: Nice. I hope so.
[02:47:59] Speaker B: Kenny, look, I know that the report came out this week that Joe Burrow had re aggravated his calf.
Not I guess they're not sure whether or not he's going to play. I would expect him to play because he's Joe Burrow and because he just signed that big contract. But the front office may also not want him to play because he just.
[02:48:20] Speaker A: Signed that big contract.
[02:48:21] Speaker B: Just signed that big contract. And you want him for long term.
But that being said, I just think that the Bengals without a healthy Joe Burrow are not a good football team. So I'm going to go Rams.
[02:48:33] Speaker A: All right. And I'm going Rams for all the same reasons. I'm actually assuming Joe Burrow doesn't play. And even if he does, he just re aggravated that injury last week. So there's a chance he could re aggravate it again. So we've all got the Rams in this one. And then finally Tennessee versus Cleveland in Cleveland. Kenny, who you got?
[02:48:58] Speaker B: Look, I think in a game like, like last week, I went with Cleveland and every time you pick Cleveland, they seem to lose. I said they haven't given me a reason yet to be let down or to think otherwise. They did everything I needed to do in week one. It looked like a complete football team played a good game.
Honestly, I think this game is going to come down to field position and coaching. And I'm going vrable. Tennessee over cleveland at home.
[02:49:26] Speaker A: Oh, man. And so it begins.
Bone, man, who you got?
[02:49:31] Speaker C: I got to pick Cleveland.
I don't think the team loses this game after that just devastating loss last week.
I think they're going to find a way to do it. I feel like I think the run game is going to be better than we think.
I have a lot of faith in our line and I think we're going to take care of the football and eliminate some of these turnovers.
[02:49:53] Speaker A: I hope you're right and I have Cleveland as well for a lot of the same reasons. But I think the biggest thing is I mentioned it just a little bit ago, anthony walker came out. It was either yesterday or today. We're recording on a Wednesday. He came out either yesterday, Tuesday or today, Wednesday and said that the rest of this season for the whole team is dedicated to Nick chubb.
And I just think that the team is actually going to rally around that. It's tough to do in the moment against the Steelers when it just happened, but as you mentioned earlier, Bone, with some time to process things and kind of move on, I just think that they will be able to rally around Nick Chubb, all of our fallen hero, and get a win at least this week for sure at home.
[02:50:42] Speaker B: Final thought on this game.
[02:50:44] Speaker A: Sure.
[02:50:45] Speaker B: We've all seen the t shirts or heard the jokes about having the browns be your pall bearer at your funeral so they can let you down one last time.
[02:50:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[02:50:55] Speaker B: Anthony Walker dedicating the season to Nick chubb if they finish six and eleven or seven and ten. That's kind of what it feels like.
We dedicated this to you, bro. You're seven and ten. Enjoy it.
[02:51:08] Speaker A: That would probably be the most browns thing that we could do.
[02:51:11] Speaker B: Enjoy these seven wins.
[02:51:12] Speaker A: Now that you mentioned it, I don't know. Thank you.
You always like to piss in my cornflake.
All right, so once again, that takes us to the burning river sports guest hot take hotline. Would you guys please call our hot take hotline? We want to hear from you.
Yeah, we want to hear from you guys. We want to put somebody on air. We know that browns fans have a lot to say, so we want those hot takes. We want them on the hot take hotline so we could play them for everybody else.
[02:51:44] Speaker B: Share your hot takes.
[02:51:45] Speaker A: I see the numbers. I know people are listening. So call in.
[02:51:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:51:50] Speaker A: 3302-2780-8033-0227-8080-3302-27. Ochenta ochenta call now. Operators are not standing by and be sure to check out our gear. WW dot dtappidmedia.com shop, go to showspecific. Go to burning river sportscast and get whatever you want. But that'll do it for us this week. In closing here, what can we expect.
[02:52:18] Speaker B: Next week, kenny, what can we expect next week? Another week of football without Nick chubb, that's for sure. Come on. We're going to recap the titans game and hopefully be celebrating a squeaky clean browns win and we will break down the matchup. For week four with the Baltimore Ravens. We do also have another interview on deck with another Browns backers chapter. Actually locally here we have representing the pumpkin patch browns backers. That's right, pumpkin at himself.
[02:52:49] Speaker A: Hell yes.
[02:52:51] Speaker B: And then we will close it out icon.
We will close it out with another interview from Browns alumni to talk Cleveland Browns fan cruise.
[02:53:03] Speaker A: And don't forget to follow us on social media. Tap and Media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the tapping Media and Burning River Sportscast that's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on X the artist formerly known as Twitter at Burning River Pod. You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast. Talking apple podcasts. Spotify. Google podcasts. Amazon Music. Stitcher Pandora. iHeartRadio Podcast Castro. Good pods and so many more.
[02:53:28] Speaker B: This is officially my new favorite part of the show. Just how fast you get through, where to find our podcast, just entertaining to me every week.
[02:53:37] Speaker A: That takes us a fact for days.
[02:53:46] Speaker D: Boy.
[02:53:49] Speaker A: Are we cutting it. No, we're going I am pretty quick, right? I'm getting there. It gets faster every week.
[02:53:56] Speaker B: Yeah, girls hate that.
Facts for days. Number one, let's hear it. The entire surface of your skin is replaced every month. Which put another way, means you have about 1000 different skins in your life.
[02:54:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[02:54:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:54:13] Speaker A: That's a lot like a lizard.
[02:54:14] Speaker B: That's a lot of skin.
[02:54:15] Speaker A: Was it a snake skin?
[02:54:17] Speaker B: I think you lose 30,000 skin cells every hour.
[02:54:22] Speaker A: Number two, that's all dust just floating around. Disgusting.
[02:54:26] Speaker C: We are breathing it in.
[02:54:27] Speaker A: Be sure to dust your homes.
[02:54:29] Speaker B: We are disgusting creatures. On average, you fart enough in one day to fill an entire party balloon.
[02:54:35] Speaker A: In your case, more.
[02:54:37] Speaker B: I could probably fill two or three rabbit party number three.
You're watching naked and afraid.
[02:54:51] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[02:54:52] Speaker B: A lot of stuff that can kill you out there.
[02:54:53] Speaker A: Lots of things.
[02:54:54] Speaker B: One of the first things you got to do is find water.
And you got to find food. You got to find time to build a shelter.
[02:55:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Water is most important though. You got to find that water is more important.
[02:55:04] Speaker B: But also important to note that lack of sleep can kill someone sooner than starvation. No way. Chronic sleep deprivation is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, obesity, and host of other life threatening conditions, including sun death.
[02:55:23] Speaker A: Get yourself some sleep, guys. What are you doing?
[02:55:25] Speaker B: Definitely get some sleep.
[02:55:26] Speaker A: I need more, that's for sure. Bone, you get enough sleep? No, not at all.
[02:55:31] Speaker C: I'm actually really tired right now.
[02:55:33] Speaker A: Bone is not going to die soon. He's probably the healthiest of all of us on this podcast. Yeah, pretty soon we'll have a new studio. I hate to jump the gun there, but eventually we'll have a new studio here and Bone will be on camera eventually. And all you ladies out there, you're going to be excited because he's a good looking man compared to us.
[02:55:50] Speaker B: Can we make bone like what was that daniel Tasha where he wore, like, a specific type of shirt every season. Can we make him wear like, muscle shirts to start every week?
[02:55:58] Speaker A: I like this idea.
[02:55:59] Speaker B: I like this idea.
[02:56:00] Speaker C: Sounds great.
[02:56:01] Speaker B: Bonus fact for days. I have a number four this week. What is it? More germs are transferred by shaking hands than by kissing. Our hands come into contact with millions of germs and bacteria each day. So instead of salutations with your hands, we might as well just make out each other.
Don't just be a part of the problem, be the whole damn problem.
[02:56:25] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires. Burning river sportscast.
Burning river is burning river.
[02:56:40] Speaker D: Was once.
[02:56:41] Speaker A: We didn't start the fire.
[02:56:45] Speaker B: Was it alive? Was it alive?
[02:56:47] Speaker A: Live.
[02:56:48] Speaker B: What happened? You guys stopped?
[02:56:50] Speaker A: No.
[02:56:54] Speaker B: Poop so bad.
[02:56:57] Speaker E: Just let it out.
[02:57:01] Speaker A: What in hell?
[02:57:05] Speaker B: Browns fan cruise and the Burning river sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of?
[02:57:11] Speaker A: Motorboat. You play the motorboat.
[02:57:14] Speaker B: You motorboat son of a bitch.
[02:57:16] Speaker A: You old sailor, you. By the way, I want my foreskin back. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
[02:57:24] Speaker B: We might as well just make out with each other.
[02:57:28] Speaker C: I have seen the top of the mountain and it is good.
[02:57:31] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather.
I just can't stop hurting.
It doesn't matter what you think.
[02:57:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I love people touching. Just touch me.
You can touch me all the time.
Wacky horror picture show that she said touch me. Touch me.
So that's basically I'm going to get a shirt that says touch me. Yeah.
It's not going to say feel me. It's going to just say touch me.
[02:58:03] Speaker B: I like it. Can we collaborate?
[02:58:06] Speaker D: It'll be on the front and the back.
[02:58:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:58:11] Speaker D: Can we collaborate on that?
[02:58:12] Speaker A: Frank?
[02:58:12] Speaker B: Can we get a shirt that says touch me? Frank Stams?
[02:58:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
How can we make it know I'm Frank? Touch me.
[02:58:21] Speaker A: What do you mean? Funny?
[02:58:22] Speaker E: Funny how?
[02:58:23] Speaker A: How am I funny?
[02:58:24] Speaker D: If we're having a good time and we do something good, say we're in a competition together. We're getting smacked on the bottom. And that really was a problem with HR when I got into the workforce and I was going around office environment, smacking some of my female coworkers on the bottom.
You can't do that here.
[02:58:47] Speaker A: Erroneous, erroneous on both counts.
[02:58:50] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:58:51] Speaker A: But damn.
[02:58:52] Speaker B: You know why, Mr?
[02:58:53] Speaker E: Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW. That's my name.
[02:59:01] Speaker B: Ralph, I don't know where you're getting your statistics. Where's logo girl when you need her?
[02:59:06] Speaker E: I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy.
[02:59:08] Speaker B: Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
[02:59:13] Speaker A: No way. You just straight finger banged her salad.
[02:59:19] Speaker C: You first get shocked and then you get the shocker.
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