Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
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[00:00:19] Speaker B: And celebrating on the beach with your.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Favorite Browns alumni like Josh Cribs, Webster Slaughter, Aaron Metcalf, and a dozen others. Book now and take advantage of our.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Easy, budget friendly payment plans on this.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Once in a lifetime, all inclusive cruise adventure. The clock's ticking, Browns fans. To book your cabin and for more information, visit brownsfancruise.com or call 216-284-6472. Today browns Fan Cruise, where diehard fans and Browns alumni come together for the trip of a lifetime. Don't wait. Secure your spot today and go brown Media.
It's time.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Time for the Burning River sportscast. Don't worry, friends. We knew it'd be back. That feeling when too many things are going just right, just a little too long. When the anxiety sticks away and you're feeling like this is going to be another great week. And then, right on cue, third and three happens. Two minutes later, everything you thought you knew, everything you thought you had, and everything you thought you wanted blows up right before your very eyes in the only way the Browns can. I've heard a lot of general anger and disappointment about the way this game ended. And my question to you, in all sincerity is why?
Look around you. How can you tempt fate? How can you cruise on bad decisions and unpreparedness? How long can you stare a problem in the face and not solve it and expect it not to bite you in the ass? Well, let me tell you, Cleveland, that burning mind, burning ass, burning when you have to pee. Burning river feeling is your goddamn destiny, and you're the only one who can change it. And if you're not down with that, I got three words for you burning river.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: George gas.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: How much does it cost you to get your oil changed?
About $100, $100 or so. It'd be like if you let a four year old change your oil and you gave him $100 and you said, well, I paid him the going rate.
Why'd my car blow up? Why did he not do a good job?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Every 23 years for 23 days, he gets the feast.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: That was badass.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Well, especially when has it mark Henry or mark Henry?
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Mark Henry. Oh, no sexual juggler is here.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Ass.
If you want one way to describe Desmond Ritter ass.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Why does this surprise any of us?
[00:03:03] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: This is what they do. This is what this franchise has continued to put out for you every year since 1999. Whether it was the learners, whether it was Jimmy and D Haslam, it doesn't matter. It's the same shit, different day every year with this team. As soon as they walk into berea, they forget all common sense and this just turns into a shit show. It's like, how bad can we screw this up week in and week out? How can we frustrate people all over the city? How can we be the worst part of their week? Guys, we'll be back.
Welcome in to the Burning River Sportscast, presented by Tapping Media and brought to you by Seaside Events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns Fan Cruise. I'm Kenny Thunder, sick as a dog, joined as always by my former first lady and the angriest man on the interwebs, red Hot, Rodney Jams. And the big bone man on the board, the man with so much skin, but only one big bone. Tell the people how it is.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: I cut my beard. I'm not very happy about it.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Feels bad.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: All right, back to red hot. Two questions, yo, who have you been itching to talk to about the Cleveland Browns Fan Cruise? Brought to you by Seaside Events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Fan Cruise, who has brought to you.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Today this edition of the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Any of the alumni that are coming with us, I'd probably say Dave Zastadil.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: That's a good choice. And number two, if you were looking for the exclusive podcast brought to you by Seaside Events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns Fan Cruise, where would you find it?
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, man.
Well, first of all, I cut my beard too, and it feels not right. But anyways, you can find our podcast wherever we get your podcast. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, spotify Stitcher, google Podcasts, amazon Music. Pandora I, Heart Radio podcast. Castro good pods and so many more. And wow, I stumbled through that this week. That's not good, but not a good start to the show. But don't forget to subscribe on YouTube, the only place that you can find our video podcast. And check us out on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, our handles for all of those. And YouTube is at Burningover Sportscast. And we are on X, the artist formerly known as Twitter as well with the handle at Burningover Pod. And while you're at it and on the interwebs, as you so kindly mentioned a moment ago, go ahead and check out our merchandise. You can find that at WW dot thetappandmedia.com shop. We've got all kinds of stuff in the shop. The cruise lines there, the Chub lines there. Cold weather gear is coming. Cold weather gear should probably be should probably be here. Yeah, it's cold now. I'll make sure I get on that, but make sure you check everything out in the store. We're constantly adding to it as time goes on, and as always, is the case during Brown season. We have a big show for you today. Week eight, recap of the heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating loss to the Seattle seahawks. An interview with the Northwest Tucson Browns backers. We've also 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. You already mentioned him. I mentioned him because I wanted to talk to him. And now here we are talking to him.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: We're talking to him.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Dave Zastadel. He also happened to play for both teams that are playing this week. So that's pretty cool.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: That is interesting.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: And then finally, we have the Week Nine preview for that game against the Arizona Cardinals.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: That's some brilliant programming there.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: See what I did? So I hope you're wearing an extra pair of underwear because we're about to entertain the shit out. Wow.
Let's start things off properly. Let's get into the Burning River news story of the weekend. All right, everybody. So for the first time in US history, the average debt per US citizen has surpassed $100,000. And to put that into perspective, the debt on this day in 2008 was $35,484. Yes, you heard that right. In just 15 short years, the debt per citizen in the US has gone up $65,000.
Kenny, Bone Man, you guys got anything to say about this?
[00:07:11] Speaker B: First off, yes. So, first off, again, I am sick as a dog dying. So I'm going to try to preserve my voice as much as I can and say as little as I can.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Good luck. This is not the topic for you to say.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Just a little bit about as impactful as I can. $100,000? You fucking kidding me.
Here's the thing. We said this is a new story of the week. The funny thing is, this news story exists nowhere. I only happened to see the US national debt clock driving into work the other day, downtown Cleveland, and I was like, $100,000?
Wow. And I know that it just changed because I was amazed when it said 90, 95, and 98. So, yeah, 100 is a lot, especially considering the debt was $8 trillion or something when we were in high school. So taking it to the day, you're at almost $34 trillion in US national debt, and you look around and you wonder why the world around you sucks so bad.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, you pretty much said it all. I think Bone Man may have something to add there. But Bone, you got anything?
[00:08:15] Speaker C: Regardless of the way you look at it, I mean, there's been presidents on both sides of the aisle since 2008, and the debt continues to rise.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Oh, it don't matter.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: There's a lot of lip service that goes into it, but I digress with that. But, yeah, let's add to it. Let's get into another war.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Let's just start another one.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: It's just amazing to me that every year this country brings in more tax revenue than any country in the history of the world.
So I think this year we're going to bring in, like, four and a half trillion dollars in tax revenue. $4.4 trillion in tax revenue. The budget is like six and a half trillion dollars. How do we overspend by $2 trillion more tax revenue than has ever been levied against this country ever in the history of the world?
[00:08:58] Speaker A: I don't know. I mean, it's just wild. How is that even possible to have that much debt per citizen? How is that possible?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: All I know is that any country that has this kind of debt per person doesn't end well.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Are we starting to see what do they always say about the biggest empires in the history of the world?
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah. They tax and spend themselves into not prosperity, into oblivion. Oblivion.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: And they implode. They end from within. And it seems like that's what's happening here.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: If you've wondered why things are more expensive everywhere you look, I mean, this is the reason why.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: This is the reason why.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Rampant inflation.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: But like, bone, man. So eloquently, put it I digress.
And so with that, we're going to go ahead and get into the week eight recap.
The Cleveland Browns went into Seattle. And just when we think that maybe this Browns team is different, maybe, just maybe, this year's Browns team can get us over the hump, they remind us that nobody, nobody is better at stealing defeat from the jaws of victory than the Cleveland Browns. We lost this game 24 to 20 despite having a 20 to 17 lead with just was it just two minutes? About two minutes left? Yeah, I think it was with two minutes.
And so let's start, as we always do with our opponents, the Seattle Seahawks. Let's start with their offense. Gino Smith was 23 of 37 for 254 yards. Two touchdowns, two interceptions, two carries for negative three yards. And then he actually played pretty well. I thought Gino had a decent game. I mean, I know he threw two interceptions, but eye test. I'm talking eye test right now. I mean, just looking at it, he actually seemed like he had a decent game.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: He had a good start and a good finish, which are the most important.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Parts of the game.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Everything in between was kind of like very mediocre.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: But this is something I just kind of thought about. The way he got out of sacks and just eluded our defenders reminded me of, like, Ben Roethlisberger, who just you could not sack the dude in the pocket. He just somehow got out of it and made a play downfield, I felt like all game.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah, no, and that's a good point. There were several times throughout the game where I was dang and he got away. So I'm with you there. But like I said, the most important parts of the game for a quarterback are starting to finish. Right.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: That's what was so frustrating, because the pass rush was there. It wasn't like the bad so he just got out of it.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: So decent game out of gino.
Kenneth Walker the Third. This guy's name is cool. It's like your name mixed with my name. Luke Skywalker's name. Yeah, he's got everything. But anyways, Kenneth Walker II, eight carries for 66 yards, one reception for four yards.
He had a decent game. I mean, he put up more, especially in the yards per carry stat category. He did better against the Browns than most players do.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Look, he's known Nick Chubb, and I think he's been banged up a little bit, too, with, like, ankle thing. So maybe that's why he's got limited carries. But I think he's another running back that, for whatever reason, they just don't give him the ball enough to be super impactful because he was impressive in the limited action he got.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And then Kenneth Walker the third, not to be outdone with his yards per carry. Like I said, that eight for 66. Zach Charnet. Is that how you say it?
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: I thought on the radio, they said, Charminay. And I was like, OOH. Charmin. Samsonite.
[00:12:31] Speaker D: I was way off.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: But anyways, Zach Charnet, five carries for 53 yards. So apparently we had no answer for that guy.
And then we'll just go down the line here with their receivers. Tyler Lockett, eight receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: I keep waiting for this guy to fall off.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: I just don't understand. And for whatever reason, even though DK is obviously the better receiver at this point, for whatever reason, the Browns have a ton of problems with Tyler Lockett every time we play them.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: It's frustrating for sure, but he's just ageless. And like you say, he's not in the premier talent. Like you don't go, who's the best wide receiver in the NFL?
But this guy, week in and week out, puts up ridiculous production that, like I said, she waiting for him to fall off and he's just there every year.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure if you got him in like the fourth 5th round in fantasy, you're probably pretty happy right now.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: He's probably one of your top performers.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Next up, DK Metcalf, five receptions for 67 yards. And then Jackson Smith and Jigba. Ohio State boy finally found the I think this was his first NFL touchdown. Three receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown. So no better team to do it for or do it against than the team from your state that you came from as far as not only that.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: It was basically a walk off, 25 seconds of the clock.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: And then finally Jig Bobo, which great names throughout this game. I just want to point that out. We got Charnet, we have Smith and Jigbo, we got Bobo. And then that's not even mentioning some of these guys that they were just randomly rambling off on the broadcast. I was listening to this on the way home from Halloween festivities, and I was like, man, the names in this game are fantastic. But anyways, Jake Bobo, two receptions, 23 yards, one carry for three yards and a touchdown. So touchdowns all around, apparently, for their receivers. Except for DK metcalf. He was unable to find the end zone.
Their defense, three sacks, two interceptions, one fumble recovery. So their defense played pretty well against us, but it's kind of hard not to when we're playing with backup. Running backs, backup linemen, third string quarterback, you name it. We're not playing starters real quick.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Before we jump on to the next thing, just wanted to throw this out there. We talked about Tyler Locket and how productive he's been. I think the stat came up at the beginning of this game that he's caught 35 balls for 350 or so yards, which is a decent pace, right? For about 1000 yards for the season this week.
Tyree Kill became the fastest player to 1000 yards in the season.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: You know how I know? You don't read the show notes.
Let's move on.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: This was before your show note even existed. This was my show note fair. I mean, think about that for a second. 1000 yards in eight games. These guys are pacing 1000 yards for a great season. He's got 1000 yards in eight games.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we'll talk about hell. We're having a whole conversation about that soon.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Wild.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: That is wild. It's one of the craziest stats I ever heard. But like I said, their defense, seahawks defense, three sacks, two interceptions, one fumble recovery. So they played well against our backups, basically.
And then special teams. Jason Myers, one for one on his field goals and three for three extra points, which will take us to the Cleveland Browns. And I mentioned we are playing still our third string quarterback. We'll start with the offense. PJ. Walker.
15 of 31 for 248 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, six carries for 27 yards and one fumble lost. Look, here's the deal. I don't have anything against PJ. Walker. I actually kind of like PJ. Walker. I think he's played as tough as he possibly can. He was put in a terrible situation, and he's done the best that he possibly could. But here's the deal. PJ. Walker is not that good of a quarterback. NFL standards, he's not very just. Just why haven't we done more to bring in a veteran presence? I mean, this guy, he's like a turnover machine. I think he's averaging three turnovers a game. He finally had one this game that ended up costing us the game.
And he was my guy to watch this week, because, as I said last week, the game will most likely hinge on if he can take at least a step and be better in this game. And while he was slightly better and finally got that first touchdown, he still had three turnovers in this game. So we lost.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: How much does it cost you to get your oil changed?
About $100, $100 or so. It'd be like if you let a four year old change your oil and you give him a you say, Well, I paid him the going rate.
Why'd my car blow?
Why did he not do a good job? It's not PJ. Walker's fault.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: No.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: That he's not a premier talent in the NFL. He's a journeyman backup. And that's unfortunately, I think with his ceiling, he's probably better off in a spot play where he has to play one game in a course of the season as opposed to six or seven.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: He's just not that.
And the thing is, in any other Brown season, maybe you get away with that because you don't have the expectations. You don't have this team around you that feels like it really could do something. But this defense feels like it's a generational type talent.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Well, and that's the problem, right, is we're completely wasting the efforts put on not only by the defense, but even the special teams. I mean, our special teams have been excellent this season besides running it, trying to tackle punt returners when they're fair, catching the ball and stuff like that, the special teams have been fantastic. So we've got two of the three major facets of the game. We are dominating and we still can't win games because our offense and specifically our quarterback play is so bad.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: And what's doubly frustrating is not only is that defense played out of their minds and the special teams has been good.
You're missing Nick Chubby. I get that. That sucks. You're missing deshaun. That sucks, too. But you have other good players on this offensive roster. The offensive line is still very good. You have good skill position players in Elijah Moore and Amari Cooper. And look, I'm starting to become a peer strong fan and Kareem Hunt has been, I think, getting stronger and stronger every week. So, look, then David and Joku is pretty special.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: He is.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: So you're not only wasting the effort you're getting out of this defense, you're wasting the potential of this offense.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And so moving on here, though, with running backs, we'll start with Kareem Hunt. 14 carries for 55 yards and another touchdown, another solid day out of Kareem. Pierre Strong, as you mentioned. Ten carries for 41 yards, one reception for 41 yards. So 82 total yards of offense out of Pierre Strong. That's phenomenal. Jerome Ford, nine carries for 37 yards. So our running backs all played fairly well. I mean, none of them played poorly.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: And gets the effort by Jerome Ford. I didn't think he was going to play this week at all.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Well, it came out like Thursday or Friday. They finally said he's actually going to.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Play this week is the dreaded low high ankle sprain.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Is that what they call it, the low high ankle sprain? It's a high ankle sprain, but it's as low as it could be.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I was surprised to see him play and he wasn't great, but the.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Fact that he got that much work is crazy, too, right?
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Well, that's why I was really surprised was he got so much action and.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Then with the wide receivers, amari Cooper, six receptions for 89 yards. And you mentioned David and Joku, but we will get back to David and Joku. He had himself a decent day. And we're going to talk about him more here in just a minute. Let's move over to the defensive side of things. Another solid effort, although pretty unexciting in this one. I'll say it wasn't anything like prior weeks. I will say I wouldn't call it a step back because they didn't play bad. But every other week I feel like I'm like, oh, my God, this defense is so exciting to watch. And this week it was just kind of like, yeah, they're doing their job, but they could not win the turnover battle again this week. But that's probably because our quarterback gave the ball away three times.
But I still saw defenders swarming, bodies still flying all over the place.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the thing is, for three quarters and 13 minutes, this team really was in control of the game. They had a rough start at the very beginning. They went down 14 quick.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: I give the defense props. There they were. The main reason why we got back into it is because they just got stop after stop after stop 100%.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: And then once they did though that team, this was a Browns game that I was watching. I'm going, Kevin Stefanski is going to pull this off with an XFL quarterback for a third time in a row. I was confident about that until we got to that third and three.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: We'll get to that here in just a moment. But, yeah, I just wish we had a little bit of offense to help these guys get some relief.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Just wish we had a quarterback here. Quarterback away.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Right. But obviously we always start with Miles Garrett on the defense because he's the heart and soul of that defense. He had a pretty quiet night. He was in the backfield quite a bit, but he wasn't able to get home very often. He only got the one sack, and it was the only sack that the Cleveland Browns had on the entire night, which I think actually more props to Gino Smith for getting out of all the sacks than really a knock on the Cleveland Browns for not getting home.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Agreed.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: And I will say for Miles Garrett, I wasn't saying that as a negative on that. That sack came when we absolutely needed it the most towards the end of the game.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: It's like we always talk about, right? Like sacks are nice because they clean up a stat sheet and you can go, oh, wow, these guys had six sacks in a night or eight sacks in a night. A defensive line can make an impact on a game without having sacks, by having sacks, by being disruptive, and forcing the offensive guy, whoever is your matchup, to change what he's doing and do something different. Puts him out of position, get the quarterback's face, knocking him down, all those things don't show up on a stat sheet.
And that's how this game went. I mean, it wasn't like the defensive line played bad and Miles had his one sack, which is great.
Who did he come dressed as for Halloween?
[00:22:34] Speaker A: He came as the creature from Jeepers Creepers. Jeepers Creepers beating you, be eating you.
Have you watched those movies? Have you ever seen them?
[00:22:46] Speaker B: I've seen. Jeepers creepers.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's the license plate on the creature's truck.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Every 23 years for 23 days, he gets the feast.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: You know a lot about the Jeepers Creepers.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: It's my wife's least favorite movie of all time. She like cringes every time she hears the song. Come on.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Really?
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Just sing Jeepers Creepers to her one time. She's going to be pissed that I'm putting this on air, but just sing Jeepers Creepers to her one time and she'll be so mad.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: I'm just going to start sending her snapchats to see that.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Oh, man, I'm going to be in big trouble.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Here's the thing, Miles. I don't know if you should sell at Halloween anymore. It seems like every time we do.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Every time we get to his Halloween party week, we lose.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: We lose in ugly fashion, and the.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Highlight is always Miles Garrett and all of his quarterback graveyard. And they lost the so, yeah, I don't know. I mean, whatever. The players could do what they want, but yeah, I don't think we've won a single game on Halloween weekend for oh, no, I take that back. Last year, we beat the Bengals on Halloween weekend, so last year we did.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: It true.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: But anyways, I digress Mo Hurst one interception in this game, which was pretty damn impressive. He got the ball batted down at the line and then turned around and ran back and dove and caught it. It was pretty agile for a defensive tackle there.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know how often they drop back. I mean, he was playing defensive tackle, wasn't he?
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker C: Like how often they drop back a defensive tackle.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: But that play, I don't know that they actually called it, like, where he was dropping back in coverage. To me, it looked like he read the play and knew what it was and was like, hang on.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: I mean, if he did, that all props to him. But it seemed like he rushed. He almost faked a rush and then dropped back. But if he read the play and was like, I know this is going to be a crossing route, and I'm reading the quarterback size, that was awesome.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Phenomenal play nonetheless, regardless of if he was in coverage or not. And then MJ Emerson got another pick in this one, so I was one game off. I said, he would have got another pick last week and he ended up getting a pick in this game. So phenomenal job out of him. And the last two to highlight here on the defense, grant Del Pitt, six tackles was all over the place once again and Juan Thornhill with seven tackles of his own. So good job out of the safeties.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: And just again, I think those are some of the highlights of the defensive stat sheet. But this whole defense unit played really well again outside of the very end of the game and the very start of the game. Which know sometimes those first couple drives are get right drives trying to figure out what they're going to do on offense, how they're blocking, how they're to.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Your point, they just put the clamps on after those first two drives.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Oh yeah. I mean they were great after those first two drives.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: And then special teams for the Browns, dustin Hopkins continues to put on a kicking clinic this season. Perfect again in this one. Bone man. Your boy. Two for two field goals, two for two extra points. Dude's a dog. Where do we stand with the confidence meter?
[00:25:33] Speaker C: It's super high. He continues to be a stud and.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: I'm just is this as excited as you've ever been?
[00:25:43] Speaker C: I felt like the game was actually kind of quiet on his part. Like our field goals were just like they weren't big time field goals but.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: They were just so easy though.
[00:25:50] Speaker C: And they just came at times in the yeah, he made them all, which was the most important mean, I wish we would have won the game but.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: I feel you.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: But needless to say Bone Man is still full masked for Hopkins.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: So I'm going to give Zach a Swedish penis enlarger for Christmas and just write Dustin Hopkins on it.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Nice. Do we have that on air? Can we give the gift giving on.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Air anytime he's feeling lonely?
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. I like that. I mean, I don't like that you're giving him that, but that's cool.
[00:26:22] Speaker C: Maybe that can be part of the King of the north loser sweepstakes.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Just keep pumping and see what happens. Oh man, that sounds terrible. Anyways, we'll move on to coaching. Here. Stefanski, or Stefanik as we like to call him, because we have no respect for him. Look, here's the deal. I gave this guy props last week and it we got to give him some props because at the time we were at four and two with a ragtag bunch of players on offense that we shouldn't be winning with.
But you see what happens. You see what happens. I give him props.
Here's the deal. He just turned right back into Stefanik because this is why we don't respect this guy. Just run the goddamn ball. Just run the damn ball.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: We even give him an S bag last week.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Yeah, he was to Phoenix or whatever he was. But no, look, why does. This guy have to be the smartest guy in the room on every single down? I just don't understand. He thinks there's somebody that's trying to outsmart him, and so he's trying to outsmart them, but in turn just outsmarts himself again.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Why couldn't he just pick the smartest three yard run play they had?
[00:27:33] Speaker A: It didn't even have to be the smartest. They were averaging four and a half yards of carry at the time.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: Have you guys listened to any of his press conferences where they I mean, every question is, what was the thought in going into that? Passing the ball on third and three? I feel like he was asked it, like, ten times, and he just deflects every single time and said, you know, it's a team loss, team win.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Like, how can you get asked the same question ten times and not give a single answer?
[00:27:55] Speaker C: I'm just, like, take some responsibility for one play. Be like, Dude, I call it a pretty good game, but on that play, I Effed up.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Yeah, you could even not eat the humble pie. Totally just eat it for that play.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: And I would even agree with that. I texted you guys during the game. I said there was the one on the double screen.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: That's the best call that I've ever seen out of him.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: That was the best calls you make.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: That was an innovative play call. I was not expecting it, and I.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Thought he called a good game up until then because like I said up until that point, I'm going, god damn it. This guy's going to do it again. He's going to pull off three wins with an XFL dump quarterback without his best player on the field.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: No.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: And then he went and did it again.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: But I feel like this is his trend since he's been here as coach. He makes those calls in the worst opportune moments, loses us games and going back, I feel like just like that call there's been calls in the past, whether it's Pittsburgh or the jets last year, whatever the hell it is. He loses his games by making stupid ass calls in the worst time.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yep. Making Bone Man so angry, he's banging on his desk.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: Have you made your decision?
[00:29:02] Speaker A: For Christ.
Yeah, you're exactly right, Bone. I mean, it's just really frustrating. It's always when the game is on the line. It's always when we need something, and it always goes wrong, and we almost always almost win because of it. So I'm just getting really sick of it.
Just a couple of things I wanted to highlight in this game. We got to see the patented reverse for Negative Six. That was a play in this game.
We already talked about it. But you didn't run the ball on third and three when we're trying to run clock with a lead at the end of the game. Running backs are averaging four and a half yards per carry.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Worst case scenario, you take your good punter, pin them back, one of the.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Best punters in the NFL with no timeouts, pin them deep, and give our defense a full field to work with. But even before that, on that same drive, the running backs ran out of bounds three times, or at least twice, I think it was, but still, what are you doing? It's a drive under four minutes. The first thing you say when you go in the huddle, if you're Kevin Stefanik, is, hey, guys, if you're getting close to the sideline, just go down. The clock is more important than the yards right now, so just go down.
And it just doesn't seem like he ever has that conversation because this isn't the first time the running backs go.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Out of bounds over and over and over again.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's simple stuff like what are you doing? And why is your most experienced back, Kareem Hunt, on the bench in this situation?
Yeah, there's a lot of people out here that don't like this. And I saw actually a lot of support for Stefanik after the game. And you might not like our takes and you might think we're wrong, but here's the deal. After the game, there was a crack in the armor of everybody being behind Kevin Stefanik and thinking that or always having their coaches back and whatever. Cream hunt was actually asked about not getting a chance on third and three and also his role down the stretch. And he said, and I quote, I didn't get a chance the whole fourth quarter. So it's cool. I don't know. I just go and play my role. I feel like I could have helped win.
Hunt's final touch, in case anyone was wondering, came with 336 left in the third quarter. He didn't touch the ball from then until the game was over. He didn't have a single touch the rest of the game and all that with a QB three behind center. So what are you doing?
[00:31:26] Speaker B: I would have gambled with Kareem Hunt and the Wildcat on third and three right after he had touched the ball for a whole quarter and said, whatever happens, happens, and I'll live with it.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: Right. But instead we decided that we wanted to put the ball in PJ. Walker's hand. XFL a guy, again, that we have no problem with him personally, but he's just not that good of a quarterback. Like, he has no business running an NFL offense for an extended period of time. And that's the guy we go with when the game's on.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: You know who he is?
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Who?
[00:31:55] Speaker B: He's Willie Beeman Steven.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Steven. Willie Beeman Steven. Oh, man. But anyways, I don't want to just spend our entire podcast lamenting Kevin Stefanik. Even though I could, I absolutely could. I could come up with a lot of things to say about him. I'm going to move on here. We're going to talk about a guy that we actually love Jim Schwartz. Just frustrating Jim Schwartz. Look, we've said it before, we'll say it again. This is a championship defense. They're still the best part of our team.
I will say, for the first time, like I said, it seemed like they were just a little they just weren't as exciting to watch as the rest of the season has been because they've literally been just unreal. And they did give up some yards in this. They did give up some touchdowns, but, I mean, all in all, that's not a knock on the defense. I'm just saying, it was just not quite the level we've been used to this season, but still a solid effort out of them. They just don't have a damn offense to give them any help whatsoever.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's tough to bring that every week when you're not getting any help.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Well, it's got to wear on the unit, right? Like, just the defense as a whole as the season goes on. So what do you think about that? You think they're kind of starting to hit a point where they're like, god damn, I really wish I had some.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: Help over here, but I don't know that they've hit that point yet. I think if anything, this was probably just a combination of the fact that it was a West Coast trip, and I think Pete Carroll is a good play caller and a good schemer. So I think that they had a good game plan going into this. They knew what they wanted to do to attack our defense. And Gino played a really decent game for a guy that was left for dead in the NFL.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: All fair points. Like I said, I don't think they played bad by any means. So I wonder how long this can go that they don't get any help before the defense starts to turn and they're like, this is not even that.
They may have some bad games just from the mental standpoint of like, god, this is getting exhausting carrying this team every single week.
So just a thought, but Bubba Ventron special teams look good, so no qualms there.
Overall, though, cleveland total yards cleveland 385, Seattle 362. 1st downs cleveland 23, Seattle 17. Time of possession Cleveland 36 40, Seattle 23 20. Don't know how you lose a game when you win the time of possession battle. That lopsidedly. I don't think that's a word, but you know what I'm saying. Penalties Cleveland four for 25, Seattle seven for 43. But the big one and the one that we lose week in and week out, ever since PJ. Walker has taken over as quarterback, turnovers cleveland three, Seattle two. And that really I mean, that extra turnover is what cost us the mean. We had a discussion about the that's it for the want to one thing I want to throw out there as we're kind of closing this out here for the recap, we had a discussion about the refs helping us last week and this week, they remember that they hate the Cleveland Browns. So terrible and obvious hold on DK Metcalf when the Seahawks scored at the end there. But what did we say last week, Kenny?
[00:35:22] Speaker B: The ref shouldn't determine the outcome of your game. You should be better than that.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: That and bad calls happen all the time this week. And last week is actually a really good example of this. Some go your way, some don't go your way. I still hate the refs, but they shouldn't be the ones that are determining your game. And in all honesty, they didn't determine it this time. Sure, it was a hold on DK Metcalf, but who's to say they wouldn't have scored the very next play?
[00:35:46] Speaker B: I didn't even think it was that bad of a hold because, honestly, because he let go as the guy went around think I think that's how you coach it up, right?
[00:35:54] Speaker A: People on the Internet, though, they get to pause it right at the time where he's holding it.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: It looks terrible, sure, but you could do that on any play, and it looks bad. But to me, he had the inside of the shoulder pads right where you're supposed to hold onto a guy, and he let go as soon as Jigma went right around him, and there's nothing to see.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yep. So like I said, we said it last week, we'll say it again. Regardless of how you think he's doing for the and I'm moving on to another subject. I apologize, but regardless of how you think he's done for the Browns so far, we need Deshaun Watson back, I think is kind of what I take out of this game. And if he doesn't come back soon, the trade deadline is we're recording on Monday. The trade deadline is tomorrow. You got to make a move because we can't afford to keep giving away games like this. I mean, that's literally what we did. We had the lead late in the fourth quarter with a chance to run the clock out, and we gave the game away because we didn't have somebody that could pick up a single first down.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Look, I don't have anything else to say about that at this point, because if they don't make a move to go get someone to bring in to back up Deshaun for the rest of the season, what are they telling you as an organization?
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Well, what are the players thinking? What do you think to yourself as a player when you say, look, we literally have all the pieces right now. We just need somebody that can bridge the gap until Deshaun Watson comes back.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: And what does it say to you that they're not willing to give up a six round pick and $3 million to make something happen?
[00:37:26] Speaker A: You know who they are able to give $230,000,000 to?
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Well, just estimated they don't care. They don't care.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: Well, why should anyone else? And it goes back to I think it was Andrew. Barry had a comment and press conference not too long ago, and he kind of started to almost tell Browns fans to tamper their expectations for this year, even though we've had a hot start, because he said, look, this is always a five year plan and we're in year two of a five year plan. So are you telling me that this year literally doesn't matter to you? Is that what you're saying?
[00:38:02] Speaker B: I would say if they don't bring someone in to help play quarter, I mean, what the hell happened to Kellen Mond? He's a man, somebody else's practice squad. You can't go snag him up. James Winston. You can't make a trade for James.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: James Winston, Kobe Brissette, those are trades, and you got to give them some assets for them. But on the other side of it, I mean, even like, Carson wentz, matt Ryan. Matt Ryan.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: I mean, these guys aren't dumps shit.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: Call him Tom Brady. Just take a stab.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Tom Brady? Yeah, I mean, make an effort.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just really frustrating that it doesn't seem like there's any movement on if.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: This Brown team went and signed Jacoby tomorrow and he lost every game from now until the end of the season, I would at least let them off. I would let them off the hook on that and say, okay, look, you made an effort. You tried to bring in a veteran guy. You did what you could. And unfortunately, the attrition of this game with losing your best running back and know other players along the way just couldn't get it done. And that happens in the NFL, so that's fair. But to just stand by and do.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Nothing, just super frustrating. Bone, you got anything to say about this?
[00:39:03] Speaker C: I think they need to make a move. As you guys were, pointing towards them, not doing something sends a terrible message, I think just to the team, because it's like, PJ. Walker, he has three turnovers a game. All the guys are saying, we like them. It seems like they're good camaraderie on the sideline, but they're teammates. But behind closed doors, it's like, this isn't sustainable. How is this our know?
[00:39:29] Speaker A: We talked to the Browns alumni, and they talk about their friends on the team and all the stuff that they went and did during the week or after the games or like, I can't imagine the private conversations they're having about like, god, we're really good, but we don't have a quarterback that can get us there. And it feels bad, and it doesn't seem like management has our back to be able to get us somebody that can get us there.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Imagine you're at dinner with Miles Garrett and Joel Petonio.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Right.
I can't imagine the conversations that they have because, you know, they talk about this stuff. I mean, we played football not at that level, obviously. I'm not saying that, but even at high school or college levels, the players all talk to each other. And even if they would never say it in public, they got stuff to say about the coaches or they've got stuff to say about other players if they're not getting the job done and are continued to be put in a position where the team's relying on them.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: But here's the other thing.
Why does this surprise any of us?
[00:40:25] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: This is what they do. This is what this franchise has continued to put out for you every year since 1999. Whether it was the learners, whether it was Jimmy and D haslam it doesn't matter. It's the same shit, different day every year with this team. As soon as they walk into Berea, they forget all common sense and this just turns into a shit show. It's like, how bad can we screw this up week in and week out? How can we frustrate people all over the city? How can we be the worst part of their week?
[00:40:54] Speaker D: Because we'll be back.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. And I hate to say it, but, I mean, you're not wrong in anything you just said and it's really frustrating. But in other Browns news, here look. I've decided I'm never giving anyone who has traditionally asked props on the Browns ever again until they sustain decent play over an extended period of time. Because here's the deal. First, we already talked about Stefan. I gave him props last week, completely shit his pants this week. Now, Jed Wills, he had a good couple games. I gave him some props, I said, Good job, budy.
Well, here's the deal. In this game, I caught him at least three times, literally blocking. Nobody, like, just turned around, staring at the quarterback, getting tackled.
What the hell, man? Did you listen to Burning River sportscast too? And you said, hey, this guy thinks I'm doing pretty good. I guess I could take a break now. No, fuck you. Do your job.
Seriously, Jed will's like, what are you doing? This guy's ass. I'm done with him.
Sorry, I'm angry. You said I was the angriest man on the Internet.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: You are the angriest man I know. That's true. Look, I just it feels like they're so close to doing the right thing, but how are they consistently doing the wrong thing? And the question is, who is responsible for this? Who is responsible for letting Jed Wills just absolutely be a turnstile out there at this point? Is it Kevin's call to have him on the field? Is it Barry's call to have him on the field?
[00:42:25] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know. Whoever's call it is, you're wrong.
Just saying, whose call is it not.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: To have a veteran quarterback on this team? Is it Stefanski that says, hey, believe in PJ, we're good? Or is it who's?
[00:42:41] Speaker A: Who's got the power?
[00:42:42] Speaker B: Who's got the power? Who's doing this thing?
[00:42:43] Speaker A: I don't know, whoever it is, you're wrong. Yeah. But from bad play to good play, that will lead us to the Burger Sportscast Dog of the Week, baby.
[00:43:00] Speaker D: Doesn't matter, man.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: You got to play tough people in.
[00:43:02] Speaker D: The National Football League.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: You got to be ready. And we got to be the dogs.
[00:43:06] Speaker D: That we are every time we step on there on Sunday and be ready.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: To attack and don't stop until we're in that locker room.
Okay? So this week's burning river sportscast dog of the week is david Njoku. We mentioned earlier he had himself a decent game. Four receptions on eight targets for 77 yards, and he rode a defender like a boogie board in the Pacific Ocean into the end zone to score a touchdown. So that was pretty fantastic. Bone, man. I know this was your player to watch. What do you have to say about David and Joko?
[00:43:45] Speaker C: Yeah, he was a beast. Yeah, that play where he kind of like surfed on the defender across the goal line, I think I may have texted you that. I was like, that was badass.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: But you did.
[00:43:56] Speaker C: I mean, they set up some nice plays for him. Was that the tight end or was that the seam down the middle when he scored, or was that the tight end screen?
[00:44:01] Speaker A: That was a seam down the middle. That was the play call that Kenny actually gave Kevin Stefanik props on. He said, oh, my gosh, that was like the best play call I've ever seen from Kevin Stefani.
[00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, he had a lot of nice yards after the catch and, yeah, people were having trouble bringing him down. He looks like a giant compared to some of these guys out there, some of those secondary players.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: He does. And I'm not going to lie, I stepped away for a minute. I didn't see if he actually got it back. Wasn't there a play where the defender intercepted it and then he was able to almost knock the ball away and get a fumble recovery?
[00:44:29] Speaker C: He took it.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: He took it. But they said that even touching the ball at that point was down by contact.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: That's kind of what so I saw like, they started the replay and I had to leave the room for a.
[00:44:37] Speaker B: Second, but he clean sweeped it.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: I was like, I think it's going to go their way. But I was like, that's a fantastic play. And a heads up play by him to be able to even make that close to where you have to review.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: It, he was also wide open third and three.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: Well, that's a whole other story.
So, yeah. David and Joe crew the Burning River sports cast dog of the Week. And that will take us to the division roundup.
Okay, so the division roundup this week for the AFC North, the Bengals went to the West Coast and handed the 49 ers their third straight loss.
So I did not see this coming. Neither did Bone Man. Kenny was the only one that picked this game, right?
He really is impressed by Joe Burrow right now. The way Bone Man feels about Dustin Hopkins. That's how Kenny feels about Joe Burrow.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: I got a boner.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: Next up, Baltimore beat the Cardinals in Arizona, which isn't surprising. Almost everybody's beat the Cardinals this year. So we were all right on that one. Pittsburgh loses to the Jags at home.
I was right, Kenny was right and Bone Man were right on that one. Clean sweep there again. And then Cleveland loses to Seattle and the twelve S, which I still don't get. The twelve S, they don't even have tailgating there. I don't know why they have fans at all.
But me and Kenny were both wrong and Bone Man called this one right. The consummate optimist for the Cleveland Browns picked them to lose and was correct.
So for the AFC North right now, the standings are as follows baltimore is in first place at six and two. And then Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati in that order due to tiebreakers, are tied first, I guess you'd call it, tied for second in the division at four and three. So it's a tight race. And these are the types of games this game, these are the types of games you can't be dropping because you'll need these later on, right? But for King of the north, and we'll get more into that later, the updated standings and there's going to be a big discussion around this. I'm sure Kenny is super excited, but me and Kenny both sit at eleven and 13 and Bone Man has taken.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: The lead at twelve and twelve 500.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Nice. He got back there finally. But that'll take us to around the NFL.
As mentioned earlier in the show, the 49 Ers lost their third in a row. And here we go with QB questions. Apparently three losses in the honeymoon phase is over with Brock Purdy. People are calling for Darnold to start and it's getting pretty wild out west. You see what I did there?
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Nice one.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Some good news for the 49 Ers in this game though. Christian McCaffrey scored a touchdown in a record tying 17th straight game. He literally scored a touchdown for an entire season straight, which is pretty incredible. The 49 Ers do have a buy next week, so he will be going for that record to be the outright record holder in week ten against the Jaguars.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: Did you see they played the footage of him when he was in, I don't know, he was ten years old in the mascot games and he just torched him.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Did he?
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Like ten?
[00:47:57] Speaker A: That's phenomenal because usually it's the mascots just like terrorizing these children.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: He was sleeping in the dust.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: Nice.
Next up here, Sean Payton and Russell Wilson came together to end the Broncos 16 game losing streak to the Chiefs. And after the game, the team blasted Taylor Swift music in the stadium. And Sean Payton was asked about the win, and he said we're going to be playing in bigger games than that, when amazingly, this dude still thinks his team isn't trash. I don't really understand it, but he's really confident.
Bone man, this is a question for you. Is Russell back and ready to tussle?
[00:48:30] Speaker D: Russell?
[00:48:31] Speaker A: Still boy, I will say this about Russell right now. His current NFL ranks passing touchdowns to interceptions. So his touchdown interception ratio, he's second in the league. Passing touchdowns. He's fourth in the league. Passing touchdowns per attempt, he's first in the league. And his pass rating, he's fourth in the league. And in fourth quarter comebacks, he's first in the league this year. All pretty good numbers. Yeah.
[00:48:58] Speaker C: Hot dog. I didn't realize that. But he's still putting up numbers.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: So are you saying he's officially tussling again?
[00:49:05] Speaker C: He's tussling, yeah.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Russell.
[00:49:06] Speaker C: He always has been. I don't know what the issue has been.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Russell does tussle. Oh, boy. So, here's the deal, though. These are things the Broncos defense has done in the last month. They have given up 70 points to the Dolphins, and then they've held the Chiefs to nine points. So I don't know what that says about their defense, but it says something.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: I mean, those are two, really just the wildest things that have happened all year.
That alone makes me hate this whole league.
[00:49:33] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: I mean, I guess if nothing else, it just shows you how parity reigns in the NFL. I mean, a team can give up 71 week and then hold one of the best offenses in the league to nine points.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: Is it seriously as simple as, like, who has better breakfast today?
[00:49:47] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: They're like, we had great breakfast. Breakfast at the hotels.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Maybe it is because Tom Brady won a lot of games and he's famous for having the strictest, most regimented diet of everybody. Maybe he always had the best breakfast and they always won.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
And next up here, the longest winning streak, by the way, is now held by the Jaguars at five.
Amazing. Whatever that does for anybody.
And then next up, one of Kenny's boys, sam Howell. And I call him one of your boys because you defended him earlier this year when I shit all over him and said he wasn't very good.
But let me just throw this out there. Patrick Mahomes, passing touchdowns to interceptions, 15 to eight passing yards, 2258. Completions, 209 attempts, 304. Okay.
Sam Howe, passing touchdowns to interceptions, 13 to eight passing yards, 2146. Completions, 206 on 308 attempts. So, almost identical numbers to Patrick Mahomes.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: He's almost as good as Pat Mahomes.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: I mean, I guess maybe I was wrong about Sam Howe. Maybe he's not as bad as I thought. I don't know.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: Look, I just think he's, like, a very average quarterback in the NFL. I don't think he's great or bad. He's not my boy. But he's your boy. I just don't think I think because no one knew his name, sam Howe is your boy. Sam Howe. But if you watch him play, he's not terrible.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess so. But anyways, onto your other boy, your real boy.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Will Levis gets his first start and does not disappoint. 238 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and the Tennessee Titans beat the Falcons 28 to 23.
Will Levis was asked about it after this game, and he just said, this is a dream come true, man. That's all he had to say.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: You know what, he did really well.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: What did he do? What, did he throw touchdowns and not interceptions.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: He found his best receiver and threw him the ball all day long.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Well, it's funny you mentioned DHOP. DHOP. The original DHOP. Not our DHOP. He had three of Will Levis's four touchdowns and he recorded an instagram live coming off the field. And he basically said he know everyone's out here writing me off. I feel like I'm Gino Smith out here. And he really did have kind of a resurgence game. And I think this actually spells what we can expect from DHOP. I'm assuming this takes him off the trade market and they'll probably utilize him a lot more going forward. I mean, the Titans are not out of it.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: It's a real good true, true, but no, I just always wondered this about a young quarterback who is struggling.
Why not just throw it to your best player? I think you've seen Baker do this in Tampa Bay a lot this year. Just throw it in the air to Mike Evans.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: He'll catch started, he's come back down to just don't I don't understand, like.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: When you have a guy like DHOP. On your team, why was Tannahill not use of having a talent like that?
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Well, especially when hasn't Mark Henry or Mark Henry?
[00:52:44] Speaker B: Mark Henry? Oh, no sexual chocolate is here.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
No. But hasn't Derek Henry been banged up and not like himself? Good this yeah, like, why wouldn't you take advantage of the best player on the field? Yeah, it doesn't make sense. But on the other side of the ball on that field, desmond Ritter was benched in favor of Taylor Heinecke for the Falcons in the second half of the game. So apparently quarterback controversy is brewing.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: Well, here's the thing.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: I love quarterback controversy.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Desmond Ritter does suck. He's what you think he's a nobody and should have never had any business starting in an NFL football game. He's sloppy, he turns the ball over, he's ass. He's athletic to an extent, because he can move a little bit, but God, he's just not anything special.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: He's asked. That's what you're trying to I mean.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: He'S done after know guys like, shoot, what's his name? Nathan Peterman and Blaine Gabbard have made a career as backups in NFL, so maybe he'll find some way to hang on. But. He's in that class of just ass.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: If you want one way to describe Desmond Ritter ass SSS. So yeah, QB controversy there or just Taylor. Heineckey's taking over either way. Gotta love it. Another team that may open themselves up to quarterback controversy if their starter needs to miss any time. The Steelers lost Kenny Pickett this week to a rib injury in the first half of their game. He did not come back. He is now day to day. They're talking about he may miss Thursday night. And if he does, and Mason Rudolph comes in and plays well, what do you do? What do you do?
[00:54:21] Speaker B: Well, Mason Rudolph's not going to come in because Trubisky is.
[00:54:25] Speaker A: Well, I saw some reports out there. They might skip him and go with Mason Rudolph, but if they play Trubisky, he's probably better than Mason Rudolph, to be honest with you. Yeah. Especially because Mason Rudolph's brain is scrambled after Miles Garrett hit him with a helmet.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: But trubisky is not good.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: No, but is there going to be a quarterback? Kenny Pickett's not that good either.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: I'm more worried about Kenny Pickett than I am Trubisky.
[00:54:48] Speaker A: As a opponent, you mean?
[00:54:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Okay, that's fair. I still don't think Kenny Pickett's that good.
[00:54:53] Speaker B: I just think Trubisky, I don't think he knows where to throw the ball.
[00:54:56] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: He can't throw it to anyone in particular he throws.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: Like Johnny Manziel, who never watched a moment of film in his NFL career, throws the ball. Yeah.
[00:55:05] Speaker B: Hopefully somebody gets that.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: But also in that game, Deontay Johnson ripped the officials after the Steelers game and said that the officials cost them the game. So a few things here. We already mentioned it in this episode.
One, try being a Browns fan.
Two, Steelers are seriously whining about not getting calls. The Steelers get more calls than anybody I know.
Three, the refs are bad. It is what it is. I don't know. Yeah, we'll probably continue to complain about it, too, but the refs are bad. It is what it is. Side note, should the NFL just and this is just my own thing here. Side note, should the NFL invest in AI refs?
[00:55:43] Speaker B: Yes, 100%.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: I mean, AI is in everything else, right? So why not the NFL? Why can't they take over as refs?
[00:55:48] Speaker B: Agreed.
It's funny, I heard although it'd be.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: Funny because every play would be like holding.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: I heard our boy John Greco on the radio this morning and he said, look, I was in the building a lot of days when that package came in from the NFL that says, hey, sorry we missed these three calls that might have impacted the game on Sunday. What did that do for us?
It's like I was there a lot of the time. We didn't change the outcome of Bill K game, so we still lost.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: John Greco's got good stories. Yeah.
I don't know. So quit whining. Deontay Johnson.
[00:56:25] Speaker B: All a man can do is smile.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: You know that's deontay Johnson's take. But let's switch gears and talk about a wide receiver. That's actually good. You mentioned him earlier in the show. Tyreek Hill surpassed the thousand yard mark in just the 8th game of the season. And when asked about it, he said, I've been calling my shot since I came in this league. So clearly a very humble man. But no, I mean, that's unbelievable. A thousand yards in eight games?
[00:56:49] Speaker B: I can't even comprehend that. The funny thing is, man, I just go back to when he was first traded and everybody's kind of like, why'd you go to the Dolphins? And he came out and he says.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Tua is the most accurate quarterback.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Tua is more accurate than Pat Mahomes. And everybody was kind of like, what are you doing? But here we are.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I'm pretty sure the stats, if they don't back it up, they're pretty damn close in completion percentage.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: If two could stay healthy and not miss a bunch of time, his stats probably would be on par with where Pats are.
[00:57:22] Speaker C: Tyreek called for a 2000 yard season.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: He did.
[00:57:26] Speaker C: He beginning of the year?
[00:57:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why he was talking about calling a shot. That's specifically what they were asking him about. Like, you're on pace, so you're actually ahead of pace.
Besides that, I mean, injuries everywhere this week. We already mentioned Kenny Pickett. Minka Fitzpatrick also left that game and may have to miss some time with a hamstring injury. Kirk Cousins done for the season with a torn Achilles.
[00:57:49] Speaker B: Feels bad. He was having a good season.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: He was.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: His team was not.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: But he was putting up a lot of yards because they had to lean on him.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: One of the best seasons of his career.
[00:57:56] Speaker C: Who's their backup?
[00:57:58] Speaker A: I don't even know.
[00:57:59] Speaker C: I have no idea.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: I don't make it a point to follow. The Minnesota Vikings.
[00:58:05] Speaker B: Right, right. I know who it is, though.
[00:58:09] Speaker C: I'll look it up. I'll get back to you guys.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: Yeah. You're the board man. What are you doing?
[00:58:11] Speaker B: You're the board man.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: Patriots top wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, who is having a decent season, done for the year with a torn ACL. Falcons star defensive end Grady Jarrett, done for the season, torn ACL.
Rams QB Matthew Stafford had to leave the game with a thumb injury and did not come back. He's been diagnosed with a UCL sprain. They're hopeful they can get him back next week, but with that diagnosis, I don't know that that's going to happen. If it does, he's definitely not going to be at 100%.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: How much longer is Matt Stafford's? Least there in La.
He was kind of an older guy anyway when they made the trade for him. They won the Super Bowl. They got what they wanted.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: He should have retired.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: He's kind of been injury pro in the last two years.
[00:58:48] Speaker A: Did you see his wife got into an argument with the rapper that brought Strippers to the game.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: Yes, I do. Like, his wife.
[00:58:56] Speaker A: She blasted the rapper on Blueface. Yeah, Blueface on social media because he brought Strippers into the game and was throwing dollar bills at him while they were performing. And she was like, Come on. And he was like, who are you? I don't care.
[00:59:10] Speaker B: It was his birthday.
[00:59:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:11] Speaker B: If that was my birthday, that's what I would do.
[00:59:13] Speaker A: But anyways, so, like I said, he has an injured thumb, injured UCL hoping they can get him back soon. And then anyone that played in the New York Giants versus jets game seemed to get hurt. Tarod Taylor ended up getting taken to the hospital with a rib injury. Darren Waller may have to miss some time with a hamstring injury. Multiple linemen went out in this game. I think they were down to, like, their fourth string center or something.
[00:59:35] Speaker B: What was the deal with Tarod? Because I was watching a good bit of this game and I missed the injury that happened. But then they came on a half hour later and they were like, he's been taken to the hospital, which seems odd in the middle of a game.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: It was a rib injury, and there was some swelling and some other stuff going on. No, he actually didn't end up breaking anything, but it was, like, really deep bruised to where he was having trouble breathing and some other things, and they took him to the hospital for from what I understood, at least reading this morning was it was more of like an evaluation thing overnight to make sure nothing there was no complications.
[01:00:08] Speaker B: All right. I mean, I guess it's easier to get to the hospital during the game than after the game.
[01:00:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Did anyone see any of the Giants I know you mentioned you just watched some of it, but did you watch the Giants game at all?
[01:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was really asked.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: The Giants had negative nine net passing yards in this game.
[01:00:25] Speaker B: They had some guy named DeVito out there.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: Negative nine net passing yards.
[01:00:29] Speaker B: Know who quarterback 15 DeVito is?
[01:00:32] Speaker A: No team has had fewer yards since 2000. Fewer passing yards.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: They were playing some guy named DeVito.
[01:00:37] Speaker A: I don't know. Danny DeVito was playing for him. I don't know.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: He looked like he was 150 pounds.
[01:00:41] Speaker C: Speaking of that, Minnesota is playing some guy named Jaron Hall. Jared, he's a rookie out of BYU.
[01:00:47] Speaker A: Horse, that guy. Yeah, everybody knows his name.
But yeah, the Giants had, like, the least passing yards since 2000. I don't even know how that's like that's hard to fathom for me. Negative nine net passing.
[01:01:02] Speaker B: How are they worse than the Browns?
[01:01:04] Speaker A: I don't know. But even with that even with that, this is the more impressive part. The Giants were up ten seven with 28 seconds left in the game. But don't worry, they found a way to lose and lost to the jets. In this one. So that was pretty crazy. And I will say throwback jerseys this year. Changing gears. Throwback jerseys. Not this year. This week. Three and o this week. Seahawks, Dolphins, and Titans who wore the Oilers jerseys, which were dope ass, which.
[01:01:28] Speaker B: There was quite a bit of conversation about this week with TJ watt. Kind of a travesty that the Titans own the rights to those jerseys and that the city of Houston doesn't.
There's no history there in Nashville for the like yet everything that is Houston and what was that team in that community like?
[01:01:47] Speaker A: It should be the Texans there in Houston because Texans have a team now, luckily. I'm glad the Browns were able to figure all that out and keep our history here in Baltimore 100%. But speaking of the Browns, I think what this is telling us is that they should wear their throwbacks more often than they do.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Which throwbacks?
[01:02:03] Speaker A: The ones we have this year.
[01:02:04] Speaker B: The all whites are those throwbacks, though. Those are like modern. Like, they're almost like color rush.
[01:02:09] Speaker A: No, the white ones are literally they are like the same exact jerseys that they had back in the know.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: But they're like color rush, though. They're like very modern look.
The rest of our jerseys didn't look like that in the 60s. These are very cool.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: They're literally a throwback jersey, man.
[01:02:25] Speaker B: Not really.
[01:02:27] Speaker A: They list them as a throwback jersey.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: I don't even think they had them, though. I think they listed as an alternate. They didn't even have an orange stripe on them in the don't know. They only spray painted them orange because they couldn't tell the ball because the ball looked white on TV. And so the helmets I don't even.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: Know what to say to you right now. But anyways, what I learned this week basically is playing football is dangerous.
[01:02:48] Speaker B: Lots of yeah. Oh, yeah.
[01:02:50] Speaker A: So that'll do it for our trip around the NFL. Kenny, would you like to talk to another Brownsbackers chapter?
[01:02:56] Speaker B: Fuck yeah.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: Okay. He's excited. So something that we started doing this year is our Browns Backers Interview Series. What we wanted to do is highlight Brownsbackers from across the country and across the world. And we wanted to do this for several reasons. Obviously, these people are all diehard Browns fans. They root for their Browns come rain or shine. That part is obvious. But we also wanted to highlight the fact that most of these groups do a lot of community service, a lot of charity work. And that's something that even the casual Browns fan who knows who the Brownsbackers are doesn't know about the Brownsbackers organizations. So with that, let's go ahead and get into the next interview in the series.
[01:03:44] Speaker B: Powered by Riverside FM.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: All right, so this week for our Browns Backers interview series, we have the opportunity to talk to Jesse from the Northwest Tucson Browns backers. Jesse, thanks for joining us. How are you?
[01:04:10] Speaker E: I'm doing great. Thanks, guys. Good to be here.
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I know everybody's busy, so thanks for taking the time. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about your chapter.
All right.
[01:04:21] Speaker E: I run the Northwest Tucson Browns Backers Club. There are two clubs in Tucson, Arizona. I have the one on the Northwest side. There's another one on the other side of town.
They used to be one big club, and the former president had moved back home to Ohio to take care of his kind of each location kind of drifted to become their own club. And that happens to be mine on the Northwest side.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: Okay. And when were you guys established? Because it sounds like there was probably the Tucson backers and then you guys oh, yeah.
[01:04:50] Speaker E: No, this club has been in Tucson, I mean, forever. I won a barking contest in 1989.
[01:04:55] Speaker A: At this club nice.
[01:04:57] Speaker E: Back before the split. So it's been around that long. My incarnation of the Northwest Side Club has been going since 2009.
[01:05:04] Speaker A: Okay, cool. And what's your guys'numbers how many members do you have there?
[01:05:10] Speaker E: Okay. My club, I've got about 75, give or take. The other club in town is bigger. They have 150 maybe.
[01:05:18] Speaker A: Okay, nice. Collectively in Tucson there, we're up over right around 225 members. That's pretty solid. Oh, yeah.
[01:05:26] Speaker E: Browns fans travel, man, we are everywhere.
[01:05:28] Speaker A: We are indeed. And what is the viewing location for the Northwest Tucson Brownsbackers?
[01:05:34] Speaker E: We're at Native Grill and Wings on the northwest side of town. Cortero. And I ten.
[01:05:40] Speaker A: Perfect.
[01:05:41] Speaker B: Do they put aside like, a banquet room for you guys or is it just kind of open bar and just some chairs around, some different TVs?
[01:05:48] Speaker E: So they have put us in like, a separate room, but we have kind of overflowed that room, so we kind of bleed into the other sections.
[01:05:57] Speaker A: Yep. That tends to happen. We find when we talk to these Browns backers group, it's like, yeah, well, they give us a spot, but there's a lot more of us than they thought there were.
[01:06:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:06:06] Speaker E: They underestimate the staggering drawing power of the Cleveland Browns.
[01:06:10] Speaker A: I know for some reason, year after year, we just keep following our you.
[01:06:16] Speaker B: Are you from Cleveland originally, Jesse?
[01:06:18] Speaker E: Yeah, I was born in Youngstown, originally from Northeast.
My family moved here after the steel mills shut down. So this was the early know. I'm from Ohio, but, I mean, I learned to drive, grew up out.
[01:06:37] Speaker A: Know, we know that, like you said, there's a lot of transplants. The Browns fans. Definitely.
And besides the Browns backers organizations just being Browns fans that are all over the place, that love to watch Cleveland Browns rain or shine, the Browns backers groups are involved in a lot of community service, a lot of charity work. So is there anything that you guys are involved with out there in Tucson?
[01:07:03] Speaker E: Yes, absolutely. We support our local community food bank. We take some of the money from our raffles and we do christmas and Thanksgiving dinner for the community food bank and then at the end of the know, basically whatever money is left, they get half.
[01:07:22] Speaker A: Oh, nice. No that's that's awesome. And that's what people I think just the casual Browns fans don't really understand. I mean most people have heard of the Browns backers but I think most people on the surface just think of it as, oh, it's just a bunch of Browns fans that get together at a bar and watch the game. But there's a lot more to it to that than that. There's a lot more that you guys do for your communities across the nation and across the you know, kudos to you. We really, really appreciate that and we know Browns fans are good people. We're from the midwest and we like to give back where we can. So again, we appreciate that but let's kind of turn to football a little bit. Jesse, what are your thoughts on this last week's game against the Seattle seahawks? What do you guys think about know.
[01:08:09] Speaker E: It was a close game on the road in a tough know, we don't have a lot of our starters.
I don't love that we lost. But I mean, I think they put up a fight. What can you say about it?
That third and three play at the end. A lot of people say run the.
[01:08:25] Speaker A: Ball, run the ball.
[01:08:26] Speaker E: But I mean I'm not the know, I don't have to live or die by those.
[01:08:33] Speaker A: That'S fair.
[01:08:33] Speaker B: That's fair.
[01:08:34] Speaker A: It is funny. I mean our whole show is built on stressing out about these things that we literally shouldn't be stressing out about at all, but we do on a weekly basis. So we let the Cleveland browns dictate our mood in life and here we are.
[01:08:49] Speaker E: Right.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: No, but I agree with mean it was like you said, hostile environment. We have a lot of injuries. So it's weird because as much as we all wanted them to win the game, it's almost like it's not surprising that we lost.
[01:09:02] Speaker E: Honestly, I feel like we owed the universe one after the last couple of weeks.
[01:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean we've won a couple close games that we probably had no business winning, so it's about time we got ours.
But no, I mean yes.
How do you think the browns have looked so far this season?
[01:09:23] Speaker E: I mean the one game against Tennessee where I feel like I was watching the team that I was led to believe we would expect and that game went okay. The rest dealing with all these other challenges, I feel the front office maybe let us down a little bit by not having a veteran quarterback in the building. I think maybe they could have done more to find another running back.
But we're coming up to the trade deadline. Who knows what might happen.
[01:09:49] Speaker B: Let me ask you, so you said there was not the team that you were led to believe who led you to believe it was different?
What was the narrative that I guess that you guys were hearing out there?
[01:10:00] Speaker E: Well, I mean, on paper, we hear that a lot. On paper, we have all this talent.
[01:10:05] Speaker A: Right.
[01:10:05] Speaker E: We have all these good players.
[01:10:07] Speaker A: My favorite phrase in sports.
[01:10:08] Speaker E: Right. And so we have better players than the team that we've seen on the field most of the time. I feel like we can do better.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: Do you attribute that to the front office, to the media, to the players.
[01:10:21] Speaker A: Of the team coaching?
[01:10:23] Speaker B: Coaching.
[01:10:23] Speaker E: Well, I mean, I feel like it's on Browns fans to a certain extent because we always assume that this is our year. And when I get any kind of reflection of that from the greater world, be it the media or other fans, it makes me feel validated and like, maybe I'm not wrong.
[01:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Like I said, I will say we all kind of just side of me coming into the season. It seems like every year, even when we have, looking back, in hindsight, being 2020, a terrible roster, we're like, yeah, it's going to be a good year.
[01:10:54] Speaker B: I feel like instantly Jesse has called me down.
[01:10:58] Speaker A: He brought you back to earth.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: He was like, wait a minute, guys, it's just football. It isn't this series.
[01:11:04] Speaker A: Jesse is the calming voice that we did not know, the voice of reason.
[01:11:11] Speaker B: We didn't know we needed.
[01:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah, so we really appreciate that. Jesse, we've been fuming the whole first half of our show today and you've helped calm us down a little. I mean, with that being said and the fact that we are not mean going forward, what do you think we can expect the rest of the season, including this game coming up against the team in your backyard, the Arizona Cardinals?
[01:11:35] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, we could see the return of Josh Dobbs to know. I think we should have held on to that.
Like, I feel like having him available to us would be worth more than the fifth round pick that we gave up to send him off. But now he's coming back to town with a very real chance to beat us and so we'll see what know. I understand.
I hear that Arizona is not a great team. I've heard some say that maybe Youngstown State could beat them. I don't know about all.
[01:12:06] Speaker A: But I've.
[01:12:08] Speaker E: Been led to believe they're not a strong team and we should win, but we'll see.
[01:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that depends on who we've got.
[01:12:15] Speaker E: Playing quarterback and maybe even running back.
[01:12:18] Speaker A: No good points know. Who knows? Because everybody's talking about PJ. Walker not being very good.
Like you said, the trade deadline is coming up. So are we going to get another one? Are we not?
[01:12:30] Speaker B: If you were the GM and you had to stress out about this type of you, if you could bring in any quarterback, I guess right now just to kind of play tread water here until the sean gets back. Who would it be?
[01:12:42] Speaker E: Well, I mean, I hear a lot of noise that people want Jacoby Pursette back, and I liked him as a quarterback, but, I mean, he's backing up a rookie and would cost us draft assets to bring him back. I feel like there are other quarterbacks that are veterans that are out there that wouldn't cost us draft mean, what's Joe Flacco doing? What's Matt Ryan doing? I mean, he's on TV, but he said that he would play if someone made the phone call.
I hope that we will make the phone call. There are other quarterbacks out there that should be available, and I don't feel like we tried very hard to bring any of them to town.
[01:13:15] Speaker A: Well, even younger than those guys. I mean, I look at like a Carson Wentz who I mean, he's not good by any stretch of the imagination, but he's got to be better than PJ.
[01:13:23] Speaker D: Walker.
[01:13:24] Speaker A: Maybe make a move for a somebody.
[01:13:27] Speaker E: Yeah, there are guys out there that are not on a team that are maybe better than the guy that we signed, and I will leave it at that.
[01:13:40] Speaker A: It is frustrating, though, that they're all out there and some of them are just sitting there literally playing for nobody. And here we, uh, we're just happy trotting out PJ. Walker every week to his three. Um, and not that we have anything against PJ. Walker. I mean, on the know, we understand he was put into a terrible situation. He was brought to the team and then immediately told to start, I don't know, four days after he got here. So it's not been an easy road for PJ. Walker, and he seems like an okay guy, but he's just not very good at know, we need we need some help there, and it's distressing that we haven't done something about it, but can.
[01:14:21] Speaker B: We take a quick step back? So were you guys altogether when the Pittsburgh game came on? Were you guys watching that? That.
[01:14:30] Speaker E: Was a tough one, man. We should have won.
[01:14:33] Speaker B: What was the reaction, I guess, just in general, when Nick Chubb went down?
[01:14:36] Speaker E: Oh, man, not only do we like him as a player, but he's like, the lifeblood, like, the driving force of this team and the offense. And just when he went down, it's like the air went out of the room. Really?
[01:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah. No, it really wasn't. I think it was devastating for all Browns fans, I think, just to get over the fact that he was hurt and the realization, like, he's definitely done for the season after you see the hit, obviously.
Yeah.
[01:15:06] Speaker E: Part of what you do. I mean, that's tough all the way around.
[01:15:09] Speaker A: Yeah. But it took us, like, a full week, if not longer, to get over it. We were like, oh, it's just so depressing coming back to the Browns every day knowing that Nick Chubb isn't going.
[01:15:17] Speaker E: To be it's true. Like I wish it was a bad dream.
[01:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I kept saying for sure.
[01:15:24] Speaker A: And so real quick back to your chapter here. Do you guys have any events coming up that you guys are looking forward to or that you're putting on?
[01:15:34] Speaker E: Like I said, we meet for the games every week. I tend to do little prize raffle, some announcing, that kind of stuff.
We don't usually do like a big event until the offseason and we will have our get together usually before the Super Bowl.
[01:15:52] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:15:53] Speaker B: So is most of your charity revenue driven just by events during the Browns games or do you do any other activities, I guess to try and drive any kind of revenue for that or is it pretty much primarily just what you guys collect during the games?
[01:16:07] Speaker E: It's primarily during the games. Like I kind of run this club by myself. There's not an extended staff of people that I can rely on, know, call and bother businesses to donate things, know, that kind of stuff.
I want to get to that point. Yes, we do sell. We have our club t shirts and from our website Nwtucsonbrownsbackers.com, there is a link to the merch store and people can go on there and just buy t shirts, hoodies, coffee cups, that kind of stuff.
[01:16:38] Speaker B: Do you wear a lot of hoodies.
[01:16:39] Speaker E: In know I have tons, but I.
[01:16:42] Speaker A: Rarely get to wear like I went.
[01:16:45] Speaker E: Back to Ohio for a weding not long ago and I took all my hoodies because I would finally get to put them on.
[01:16:49] Speaker A: Thank God. Yeah.
Oh man. No, but listen, so if anybody else out there is kind of thinking about joining a Brownsbackers chapter, if they've moved away from Ohio and are looking for those like minded individuals, what would you say to somebody that's thinking about joining?
[01:17:10] Speaker E: Definitely join. Go on. Clevelandbrowns.com fans. And they have links to all the fan stuff, including the Brownsbackers, the backer tracker where you can go and find a club located near wherever you happen to live. I think we have them in like 172 countries or something like that. There's bound to be one close by.
[01:17:30] Speaker A: I know I was visiting Ireland earlier this season and I know that there's a Dublin Browns backers group, but I'm pretty sure there was like three other ones just in Ireland. And I was like, jeez, we're literally everywhere.
[01:17:42] Speaker E: Yeah, there's a couple in the UK. There's one in Germany. I mean all over the place.
[01:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah, the Germany one. That one would be a fun one to talk to too, especially. They're starting to get more football games over there, so they'll be excited if the Browns ever make it out that way.
But listen, Jesse, hey, it's been fantastic talking to know. What can we say? Like I said, the Browns backers are always out there doing great. Things, not just rooting for the Browns, which is phenomenal in itself, but doing great things for their community. So I'm sure Tucson really appreciates what you do. The food bank out there probably really appreciates what you you know, we appreciate you being on the show. We loved having you. And we look forward to score for this week. Oh, yeah, I forgot to ask you. That's an important one. What's your score prediction for this week's game?
[01:18:31] Speaker E: Let's see. I will say 20 717 Browns.
[01:18:39] Speaker A: I like that.
[01:18:40] Speaker B: Book it.
[01:18:40] Speaker A: Yeah. If you get it right, we'll have to give you a shout out on our social media. I know the girl from the who do we talk to? Jessica from Seattle Brownsbackers last week got the score right, but it was the wrong.
So we'll give you a shout out if you get the score right. But, yeah. Thanks for joining us. Like I said, we know that your time is valuable. So thanks for taking a little bit of it and joining us on the show.
[01:19:07] Speaker E: Yeah, sure thing, guys. Have a good day.
[01:19:09] Speaker A: Take it easy.
[01:19:10] Speaker B: Awesome. Go Browns.
[01:19:11] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[01:19:22] Speaker E: We are the Northwest Tucson Brownsbackers and you're listening to the Burning River sportscast. Go Browns.
[01:19:38] Speaker A: Good talking to Jesse out there, huh?
[01:19:40] Speaker B: I gotta get me an Arizona hoodie.
[01:19:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I think what we should start doing is just because all of these funds go to charitable causes, we should just start buying merch from every single Brownsbackers group. We could actually do this retroactively. We'll go back and buy merchandise from all the Brownsbackers that put on a wall somewhere. Yeah. We are getting a new studio soon.
[01:20:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:20:04] Speaker A: Keep an eye out for that.
[01:20:05] Speaker B: This studio is going away.
[01:20:06] Speaker A: It's going away.
[01:20:07] Speaker B: It's going away.
[01:20:08] Speaker A: It's going to be gone soon. But that'll take us to the birdie versus sports, guys. Hot take hotline getting down. He wasn't able to get the same excitement that we usually get out of it.
[01:20:20] Speaker B: You do me this time.
[01:20:21] Speaker A: Boom. Talk about the hot take. Hotline it.
[01:20:25] Speaker C: Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes.
[01:20:32] Speaker A: That might have been the best one we've done so far. We want hot takes. You heard it here first. So 330-227-8080, bone. 3302-2780-8033-0227-8. Call now. Operators are not standing by. Nice.
[01:20:50] Speaker B: Perfect.
[01:20:50] Speaker A: He nailed it. And guys, guess what?
It's time. It's time for a quick revenue break.
[01:20:58] Speaker B: Profit break.
[01:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to take that quick break and then we'll get back here to talk to Browns alumni alumni alum browns alum Dave Zastadil and then preview the week nine matchup against his former team, the Arizona Cardinals. Yes.
Oh, I guess I'm doing this right now.
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[01:22:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:22:47] Speaker A: Nice.
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[01:23:03] Speaker B: Do the right thing.
[01:23:04] Speaker A: Do the right thing.
Okay, everybody. So before we get into the week Nine preview, let's take a few minutes to talk to another Cleveland Browns legend that will be joining us on the Cleveland Browns Fan Cruise.
All right, so our next guest is a master of special teams, which any of our listeners know we appreciate more than most. Born and raised in Northeast Ohio and resides here still, his career statistics include 869 punts for 38,016 yards. That's 43.7 yard average, in case you were wondering. 285 punts inside the 20. And NFL records include most punting yards in a season. 5209 in 2012. And in that same year, he had the most punts inside the 20 in a season with 46. But let's let him tell you about it himself. Please welcome one of the punning grades, Dave Zappedale.
Dave, how are you?
[01:24:20] Speaker D: Hey, I'm doing good, guys. Thanks for having me on.
[01:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for taking the time to join us here. Now, before we get to some of the questions that we have for you and about you yourself, we want to talk about a big event that we have coming up that you'll be attending with us this spring. I'm talking, of course, about the Cleveland Browns Fan Cruise. In March of 2024, it is confirmed you'll be there kicking punts off the back of the ship to the trained orca whales that SeaWorld has released into the wild. All right, maybe that's not happening. But still you'll be there. You'll be having fun with us. We are MCing all the events on the cruise. We'll be on the cruise kind of hosting everything, and we can't wait to join you. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about the Cleveland Browns fan cruise?
[01:25:06] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. It's going to be a really fun event. Anytime you can get former players know, in a socially relaxed environment, not only, you know, people alumni from all different decades coming to this, but you're going to have kids on the cruise, you're going to have families and to get everybody together and have activities on the cruise, walk around, be with kids, see everybody, just have a good time. All that does is really bring together the Browns organization and their alumni back together to really enjoy a good time, to help promote just a fun event that I don't think the Browns have ever done this in the past, and I know there's been organizations that have done it. It's been very successful. I know past players and talking to them have had a great time on these cruises, and that's one of the biggest reasons I wanted to take part in this, is really to be with the fans, talk old memories, get those guys excited about the Browns. Whether it's this year, going into next year, it's truly going to be fun. And it takes place in March. And if you haven't gotten a ticket or tickets are still left, come aboard. We'll have a good time.
[01:26:17] Speaker A: Absolutely. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Everybody's definitely excited about this. And we will come back to the fan cruise and talk about that a little bit more. But while we have you on the program, we want to talk about you.
So let's get into your story a little bit. I know that, like I said in the opening here, born and raised in Ohio, where'd you go to high school.
[01:26:38] Speaker D: So I went to Bay Village High School about 20 minutes west of Cleveland for nice. Maybe there's some people that aren't familiar with the area, but yeah, I went there, graduated in 1997. I was born and raised. I know everyone always talks about St. Ignatius and St. Ed's around here, the big football programs, but we had a great senior class and grew up playing with those kids, and I wanted to see what we could do and had a great high school career. One of the best, probably the best moments of your life is Friday Under the Lights. No matter what area you play in, what level you play in, you can't beat Friday Night Lights.
[01:27:12] Speaker A: It's funny that you say that. We were literally just talking about that before we started recording here. My board man and I were saying if we could just live our lives and have our adult lives, but also play high school football and feel like you felt after a high school football game and not be hurting real bad afterwards. It'd be like the greatest thing that could ever happen.
[01:27:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And then we wish our bodies now felt like they did back when we were 18. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
[01:27:37] Speaker A: No, we did an alumni game for our high school. It was probably, I don't know, 510 years after we graduated. And I felt like I got hit by a truck next day.
[01:27:48] Speaker B: That wasn't fun.
[01:27:51] Speaker D: I don't know if I could do that.
[01:27:54] Speaker B: So were you a specialist all the way through high school, or did you dabble in and try and play other positions?
[01:28:00] Speaker D: Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to start at quarterback my sophomore year. And so I played quarterback sophomore, junior, senior year. The head coach, one time, he didn't have a punter, and he says, hey, guys, line up on the side of the field, and on the other side of the Bay practice field, we have a bunch of trees, and there's about four or five of us. And he said, Whoever kicked that ball farthest, you're my punter. I mean, it was really that simple. So I think I was the last to go, and everybody got it just across around 52, 53 yards away. And I think my punt went, like, up in the trees. So he says, as little, you're my guy. And so when I was in high school, I punted, was a quarterback, and then my senior year, I became the place kicker as well. And with those positions, I didn't play too much on defense. When I did, it was more at the safety position.
[01:28:45] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:28:46] Speaker A: Just a stroke of fate there, I guess, like here, kick the ball as far as you can. And you happen to hit a good one that time, right?
[01:28:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I always had a pretty good leg when I was a kid playing youth soccer. And back then we played a ton of kickball, and so I always just kicked that ball, and it was just a God given talent. And once I kind of started working at it a little bit, I said, wow, I think I could probably do this in college. And that's kind of where that kind of led to. But, yeah, I wanted to play quarterback in college more than anything, but I was only good enough to play Division One as a punter, so I took that.
[01:29:22] Speaker A: And that's that's awesome. And you mentioned college. You did end up at Ohio University, if I'm not mistaken. So tell us a little bit about your time at Ou.
[01:29:30] Speaker D: Yeah, so I went on a couple of recruiting trips. I was recruited heavily by the Mid American Conference. A lot of the big schools back then, Ohio States, the world, the West Virginias in the world, if you're looking at a couple of big time schools. I was recruited by they want you to come on and walk on because they get everybody that wants to play there, so they get ten or eleven punters, and then you compete and then your preferred walk on. Well, when I went to Ohio University, it's where my mom went. My dad and brother went to Miami of Ohio, so it was kind of split right down the middle. And at the end of the day, I liked what Jim Grove was doing at Ohio University. Came over from the Air Force Academy and we had a great class. I mean, I loved everyone I met. I loved the facilities, loved the university in general. I kind of made the decision that if I got hurt, tore my knee up, tore an Achilles, is this the place I'd want to get an education at? That was kind of a big part of choosing Ohio University. So, yeah, went there, and I was a third string quarterback my freshman year, and Jim Grove brought in the option. And so I got crushed in the spring game because I run like a 4940. He pulled me aside, he said, Zaxidil, you're just going to be our punter. And that's it. I was red shirted, and then for four years, I had some pretty good awards, pretty good accolades, and it led to some good things. But yeah, first I tried to prove that I was a quarterback at Ou, and it just didn't work out.
[01:30:50] Speaker A: So in another stroke of fate, the worst offense that they could possibly install for you got installed in your quarterbacking days.
[01:30:57] Speaker D: By far the worst. Yeah, exactly.
[01:31:00] Speaker A: It could have been worse.
[01:31:01] Speaker D: It worked out.
[01:31:02] Speaker A: No, that's awesome. And I know you said you had some accolades. You're being pretty modest. I know you were an All American as a freshman, max special Teams Player of the Year as a sophomore.
Pretty big awards that you won there.
[01:31:17] Speaker D: Yeah, I always looked up to a guy named Brad Maynard. Brad Maynard punted about 17 years for the Bears, and he went to Ball State. And so our recruiting coordinator was a guy named Ray McCartney. And Ray always talked about his times of Ball State, this Brad Maynard guy who I think was the only punter ever to get defensive Player of the Year in a conference. So he'd show me some tape, and I remember going through it saying, I kind of want to become the best punter in mid marriage conference history. And I took on that challenge, even though Maynard had some unbelievable awards and some stats behind him, and who knows how that ever ended up, but he kind of motivated me to be a great punter, and I took him very serious. Sometimes you wish you can go back and realize that maybe going to the bar one night during the week wasn't good for practice, but at the end of the day, I matured as I got older, worked out really hard, and then good things came from it. But I really, really enjoyed our time at the Mac.
[01:32:15] Speaker B: At what point did you kind of realize that you had the leg, an NFL leg, obviously, you kind of started in high school there, booting it over the trees. But what was the moment, or was there a mentor or coach that kind of was know you have what it takes.
[01:32:31] Speaker D: Yeah. Probably one moment that always sticks out to me is we were playing Wisconsin my red shirt freshman year at Wisconsin and we didn't have a chance to win, so we punted a ton. And I was extremely nervous because it was my first big time game, big environment, and I just wasn't hitting my first two balls very good. But in practice, I was hitting 65 70 yarders. I was placing it where I wanted.
Remember Jim Grove coming up, grabbing me by the shirt and literally almost punching me, but getting my attention know, you are good enough to be one of the best punters in this league for a long time. Relax and just do what you do in practice. And I think it just kind of dawned on me know, he really believed in me, and then I finished that game really strong with a good average, and after that, my college career just took off. I relaxed. I realized I could do it.
And it's always one of those moments or twos that just stick out with you and him kind of getting my face going, hey, man, you're good enough to do this. I've seen you do it in practice. Just pretend we're a practice and then things change for the better. And I started really booming the ball after that.
[01:33:38] Speaker B: Phenomenal.
[01:33:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. I think we all have a moment with a coach. Even if we didn't go on to do greater things where we're like, it just really sticks out as a leadership moment that helped you along the way.
One thing I did hear you mention, too, was you said part of the reason you chose Ohio University was because if something was going to happen and you weren't playing football anymore, you wanted to be able to get a good education, and that was where you wanted to do it. You are a double major in finance and marketing, correct?
[01:34:08] Speaker D: That's right. Yeah.
[01:34:10] Speaker A: So all while playing football, you double.
[01:34:12] Speaker B: Major and spending nights at the bar.
[01:34:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
It's easy to do that down in Athens. It's easy to do.
[01:34:23] Speaker A: They are I think they're known for partying a little bit. I could be wrong.
[01:34:27] Speaker D: You know, my my dad was always in business growing up, and my dad was always a big stickler on grades all the way through high school, junior high. And I would say, in all honesty, my brother and my dad was very analytical. They'd see something they remembered forever where I was more of. I got good grades, but I had to study. And I remember that work ethic that he kind of installed in me really led me to get into High University and say, hey, if football ends, which there's a good chance I'm not going to play after college. At the time, and that work ethic that I think he installed with me allowed me to do the double major take on that challenge and realize, hey, do some internships when you can, everything you can do to set yourself up in life. And I think that was part of the reason why I took on the double major and why I did internships and why I'm somewhat in a pretty good career after football was all because of having that, I guess you could say, father figure installing that man as a young guy.
[01:35:27] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
I know you said there was a pretty good chance you weren't going to play after college, but in fact, you did play after college and you were drafted by the Ravens in the fourth round in 2002. I know you spent a few years there. We're not going to focus on them because we don't really like them.
We're going to talk about the Cleveland Browns, and you did come over to the Browns as a free agent before the 2006 season. So tell us about your time with the Cleveland Browns.
[01:35:53] Speaker D: Well, it's funny you mentioned the Ravens because when I got to Baltimore, it was still the same staff that was in Cleveland when they moved. I mean, the same trainer, Ernest Biiner was my running back.
Ed Tessendorf was a trainer, Ed Carroll. I mean, the stories about Cleveland was fantastic to me because I grew up going to Municipal State with my dad. So I'm sitting here in the Raven facility talking about old Browns days all the time and I don't know if it got like too much, but it was kind of cool because Ozzy Newsom sometimes will talk about it and that was kind of fun. So I told people I played for the old Browns and I played for the new Browns, so it kind of worked out.
[01:36:28] Speaker A: So before you actually talk about your time with the Browns, that you actually mentioning that it reminded me of something. Do you have any stories about was there a lot of bad blood between the Ravens within their organization, towards Cleveland? Because I know, obviously it's a big rivalry.
We all say they took our team, so we hate them, but is it reciprocal? Do they hate us as much as we hate them over there?
[01:36:56] Speaker D: No, I don't think so. They were still somewhat of a new organization. They were just coming fresh off a Super Bowl. So the last thing on their mind was really Cleveland, right? I mean, they were focusing on how to we became that next year and a think. I think I came there in the second year, but we became the youngest team in the history of the national football league like that. I mean, they went from a Super Bowl to going to a super young was. They just weren't very good. They had that good year under. So, you know, I think for the Ravens, it was always Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. I mean, that was always back then when we played them. And honestly, the Tennessee Titans, those were the big rivalries back then with Steve McNair and Eddie George. So the focus wasn't really on Cleveland as much as Cleveland's focus was on Baltimore because of the think, you know, that rivalry slowly has become a little bit more of a rivalry in the past two to three years.
[01:37:54] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[01:37:54] Speaker D: But I'll tell you a funny story real quick, and I know we got to move on, but when I got to Baltimore, they were not happy. They drafted a punter in the fourth round. I mean, it's like Cleveland drafted a punter in the fourth round. This guy better be Sebastian Janakowski on steroids. Right.
[01:38:11] Speaker A: We drafted Kit York in the fourth round. You saw how that worked out.
[01:38:14] Speaker D: Yeah, right. So it was a neat position. So I get to Baltimore, and their equipment manager comes up to me, and he hands me number 19. He goes, hey, I just want you know, this has been a pretty historic number in the franchise with Johnny Unitis. Nobody's worn number 19 since Johnny Unitis has. And I go, hold on. I said, give me any other number besides this. There's no way I'm going to come in as a punter. Nobody's happy to draft it, and taking Johnny Knight, that's too much pressure for me. So they end up giving me number 15. So I was thankful.
[01:38:45] Speaker A: Man, that is crazy. Of all the numbers they could choose, they came with 19.
[01:38:50] Speaker D: I don't believe it.
[01:38:51] Speaker A: Yeah. But like I said, tell us a little bit about your time with the Cleveland Browns. I know you were there 2006 to 2010, correct?
[01:39:00] Speaker D: Correct. Yeah.
Phil Savage, who helped draft me in Baltimore, became the general manager, and at the time, they were really looking to fill the position, the punter position. I know Chris Gardaki was a very consistent guy. They had then they had a couple of years that the position just wasn't panning out the way they wanted. And I felt 2005 was a great year for me, and I was coming into my prime, and I knew coming to Cleveland, there was advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were I got family here. I grew up a Browns fan, lifelong dream to play for them. Disadvantages are you got terrible know, you got know, November, December games. As a punter, it's not easy to kick in Cleveland, and I think you found that out on Sunday. But I went out to dinner with Jerry Rosberg, the special teams coach, and Phil Dawson, and spent about a good 2 hours with both those guys. And Baltimore is doing everything it could to resign me and Phil's like, no, no, we want you to come back to Cleveland. At the end of the day, you're making the decision on I got an organization for four years, treated me very well, brought me in the league, took a chance on me. But it's know, and I think for me, it came back and going, I want to fulfill a lifelong dream. But it wasn't an easy decision because you're leaving a team that really got you in the NFL, believed in you, and that was a hard decision. But got to Cleveland. Romeo Cornell was the coach. I just think under know we were a very young team. We are a little bit of an immature team. And I think Romeo was the perfect head coach for a veteran. I think, you know, when he left, they brought Mangini on to bring kind of, hey, we're bringing a tough mentality, hard nosed mentality. And I think a lot of people don't agree with me. But I think Mangeni's, last year he was here, he was starting to turn the ship. It was starting to go in the right direction, and the players believe that because he went away from trying to be kind of that Bill Belichick disciple. And we started to see Eric Mangini, the way he was in the personality he had come out. We were beating New England. We were beating the Giants. And I really believe if he had another year or two, I think we would have been really given up in that right direction. So I was personally sad to see that happen. But at the same time I left the team, I had a bad injury.
Rehabbed. And then Reggie Hodges goes down with Achilles. My agent, Neil Cornwich. Him and I discussed we went back to Cleveland and said, hey, Dave Zassel is ready. He wants to resign with Cleveland. He's fully healed, and for some reason, I believe it was Tom Hecker at the time just didn't want to go down that road.
I don't know why. We don't know why. So then I got an opportunity with Arizona, but fans don't really know that we pushed hard to resign in Cleveland once Reggie Hodges unfortunately went down with the Achilles.
[01:41:44] Speaker A: Well, it was Cleveland's loss because obviously in 2012 with the Cardinals is your best year of your career.
[01:41:51] Speaker D: Yeah, I end up having a good few years in the Cardinals. And that's what we said to Cleveland, hey, man, I have some good years left. I feel really good. But that's the NFL right? There's decisions you don't understand, but as long as there's an opportunity knocking in Arizona, I had an opportunity to play against the Pro Bowl alternate, a guy named Ben Graham, big, big Australian guy. Chances weren't really good for me to make the team, but I went in, worked really hard, rehabbed and beat out.
[01:42:19] Speaker A: Ben and earned the job that's. So with some of these experiences, I got to ask you, do you have any advice that you have for current players? Especially as they're kind of trying to navigate their careers, maybe switching teams or doing things like you?
[01:42:36] Speaker D: Know, first of all, I hate to say it this way, because football is still a sport and the fans get so honed in on their own players, but you really have to talk to your family about decisions like that sometimes. It depends. When you're a young guy, you'll go sign anywhere because you want to get good tape for other teams to see and you want to show that you're a good player. And if the opportunity presents itself with that position opening, you have a good chance to make a dent as a player in the league and get on film.
The other side of that thing is, too, as you get older, you have family. You have kids that start getting in school districts, and it's hard to keep moving them around. If the wife's happy, they like the school system. You started making friends. So I think it just depends on what stage you are in your career that helps make those decisions. But at the end of the day, guys unfortunately, we don't play this game very long. So when you see guys holding out for the money, you see guys not taking a hometown discount. A lot of times I don't blame them because most of these guys were out of this league in five, six, seven years, and you miss that first five, seven, eight years of getting experience in the real world, you're already behind the eight ball. So the most money you can save, put away and invest. It's a big advice I have for those guys, and I see so many guys blowing their money, and they don't realize until they're out of the league how big of a mistake that was.
[01:44:01] Speaker A: Yeah, no great advice there. I do know there are a lot of horror stories out there about guys that were big names in the NFL that are dead broke now and have no money to do anything with.
[01:44:16] Speaker B: Let me ask mean, you were a punter, so obviously you kind of know your place in the order of football. Did you ever envision being kind of the fan favorite, that you were just being a specialist receivers and quarterbacks to get all the accolades, but everybody in Cleveland still loves Dave's Asset. Your name comes up, people light up like, oh, yeah, even though they weren't good teams. I think it was because we saw a lot of you. I mean, you kicked a lot of balls for the Browns, but Dave was always booming.
Ever. Does that ever just register? What are your feelings around that?
[01:44:49] Speaker D: Well, I think it's great. Probably what influenced that a little bit is the fact that I was born and raised in Cleveland or the west side of Cleveland, went to college in Ohio. I wanted to come here. I was part of that free agent class with Joe Jervicious, with Charles Bentley, Bob Hallen, guys that were from Ohio to try to get the team to understand what it's like to really be a Cleveland Brown and influence that locker room. So I think that probably had a little bit to do with that. And that's okay with me. I'm just as big as a fan of the Browns and probably everybody in those seats in the stadium, but also we had a lot of opportunities to punt the ball. And I think at that time, with the teams we had, if Phil Dawson could make field goals, if Dave Zasidal could punt him inside the 20 or change field position, it gave an average team a better opportunity to win a game. And I think fans in Cleveland understand the game of football. They understand how big special teams are, and I think that they appreciated the work that Phil and I did. I just wish I could have done it a little bit longer. And I didn't even learn that end over end pooch kick until I got to Arizona. So I wish I had that in my repertoire. In Cleveland, I think I would have been a lot more dangerous and a little bit more effective than I was.
[01:46:03] Speaker A: That's a scary thought, because you're still pretty dangerous.
[01:46:07] Speaker D: Yeah, but once you learn that end over, like, it's like no different than golf. You start getting around the 40 yard line, you know how hard to hit it, and most of the time it's going to spin backwards at the seven, eight yard line. And man, once I learned that I had that down pat, and I was like, man, if I had that in Cleveland, I think I would have been even better than some of the fans think I was.
[01:46:32] Speaker B: No, totally fair. But again, you were incredible the time you were here. But other question I had, too, is, just from your perspective, what separates some of the better specialists from the ones that just don't have it? So I think in Cleveland, we've seen a lot of punters come through that have been here a year or two or replaced kind of interchangeably, whereas you kind of had decent stints everywhere you went. I mean, you were there for four or five years and had a nice long career kicking the ball.
What's the difference between the better specialists and the ones that are kind of transient out there that can't find a place?
[01:47:11] Speaker D: That's a good question. I think the biggest thing is consistency. You have to be consistent. You'd have guys that come in the league that had some of the biggest legs I've ever seen, but they'd hit a bomb, they'd hit a great kick, they missed two, hit a great kick, missed two. And the ones that stayed around a long time, the guys that I grew up watching, like the Craig Hendricks of. The world I love was when he was punting, was very consistent, had great legs, but you're always going to look back at your career and always wish that you're always hard on yourself. So I always thought I could be more consistent than I was, and in a lot of times I thought I could be better than I was. But at the same time, there's a lot of conditions that come into play of where I've kicked Baltimore, Cleveland for my first eight, nine years. Know you had a lot of tough weather half the year that you had to really try to drive that ball place it a little different. Lower the drop because of the wind in your face and the crosswinds because you're playing in the AFC North. So it changes a lot. But I do think today's punters, for some reason, I watch football all the time. They're big, they're strong, they're consistent, and I just think that's just the evolution of the game know, guys really working on their craft. And I think when you're younger now, even in high school, because I see my own kids in high school and in junior high, there's so many more avenues now for kids to get better and start these things at an earlier age. I just punted because no one else could do it. I always want to be a quarterback. But now you got kids that are doing just kicking football, punting camps, long snapping camps, and that's all they're doing. And it's good to see because the game's evolving, the position is evolving. Now you got guys doing different types of drops on their punt, knuckleball kicks. It's just really evolved more than the average fan would think, because they don't really pay attention to those things. They just want to see wins and losses. But it's amazing how much kids these days have an opportunity to excel at something than when we were younger.
[01:49:06] Speaker B: For sure.
[01:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And kind of wrapping up with your time in Cleveland here. I know spending time with the franchise, it's more than just playing football. You become really close with your teammates, really close with your community. With that in mind, do you have a favorite off the field memory from your time in Cleveland?
[01:49:25] Speaker D: I got a couple, but it wouldn't be appropriate for this show.
Do you have any PG rated ones?
Yeah. No, it was nice because we had a really good group of younger core guys. Joe Thomas. Lived in Westlake. He'd always have us in his know, he'd have college football on some days. On Mondays when we had day off, we'd be in his backyard on Cookouts. We'd be playing everything from cornhole to some fun drinking games. Just some fun things to do on your day off. And I think at the end of the day, it was those memories of building team camaraderie. We had really fun Halloween events where everybody come dress up. You kind of meet there and try to see who had the fun costume. But at the end of the day, the off the field things that we did know, dinners as a group, like I said, Joe's parties, Halloween parties, those are really where you're like, listen, instead of being on the field. All the time, coaches yelling at you guys, pointing fingers. Sometimes that's really where a team comes together, is when they build those kind of relationships. From Camaraderie off the field, my curiosity.
[01:50:36] Speaker B: About Joe Thomas's Halloween party is growing. It's continuing to grow because we were.
[01:50:41] Speaker A: Like the 6th or 7th person that we've heard talk about Joe Thomas do it out there.
[01:50:48] Speaker D: Yeah. I can promise you nothing ever got out of hand, but it was really fun. Joe was just a know, he's a great teammate because he was always laughing, always joking around, always having a good time. And when Halloween came around for a personality like that, it's perfect for him to get those things coordinated and hosted for sure.
[01:51:09] Speaker B: I know you mentioned dinners with the team in the group too. Do you guys have a favorite place downtown that was like your normal spot or kind of bounce around all the different places?
[01:51:19] Speaker D: We bounced around a lot of times. We always go to Hyde Park in Westlake after the game. They kind of keep Sundays open for us a little bit late when people left, which was kind of nice, but it was kind of cool because Hyde Park, they would have certain if you have or have not been there, they got a menu, and it's not a place you go to every night. It's actually kind of almost a date night place, but it was kind of confined. We got this little bar area and they had names of former players on their menu, and they treated us very well. We had some events there, and the general manager always treat us well, but it was very private. We could kind of stick to ourselves, and we wanted to be private, especially after we lost. We don't want to be around people after we lost, so they kind of kept that good for us, but we would bounce around. But that was probably our go to place back then.
[01:52:03] Speaker A: Nice. So I got to say, obviously fantastic career for you. Special teams, as we've mentioned, is often overlooked. But we really appreciate everything you did to try and make the game easier for the other units while you were here in Cleveland. But I do know for most guys, they get sort of this whole second life after football. So can you what you're up to today? Are you involved with any charities?
Are you involved with the game still? What do you got going on?
[01:52:30] Speaker D: Yeah, so I can answer that three ways. Number one is I was part of the pregame radio show from Gosh. I would have to say 2019 to 2021. We're working with Ken carmen and Rizzo and those guys. But then it took away so much from my kids sporting events on Sunday, so I unfortunately had to take a break. I love doing it. I still call in time to time with Baskin and Phelps. They asked me on some time to time to come in and talk. But my real career for the past eight years is I work as a commercial insurance broker on the property and casualty side for a company called Gallagher. So it's one of the big three global brokers. So I do a lot of property and casualty insurance, mostly in the manufacturing sector, nonprofit, some construction. So I've been doing that for eight years, doing well, having fun with it.
And then also in the nonprofit space. Yeah. There has been some charities that I've always been heavily involved in, especially a good friend of mine started one when his brother, unfortunately, at 27, passed away of throat cancer. So that was a heavy heart to be part of that charity. But it was great and probably the biggest thing I'm part of now. I've been coaching the 7th grade class in football for the past three years, and we had back to back undefeated seasons. That was kind of fun, being involved in football and coaching. And then we started a nonprofit board for Bay football. It's called the Bay Football Club. From K through 8th grade, we try to promote each grade of how we can help get kids involved in football grow the program. And it's a nonprofit that we're heavily involved in. So we got a big event in February at the Bay Lodge. It's a poker night, so you'll start seeing that on social media. Everybody can come if you're welcome.
[01:54:13] Speaker A: Nice. So you heard that. Make sure you get signed up for the event and you head on out and support Bay Village. Right?
[01:54:21] Speaker D: Bay Village.
[01:54:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:54:21] Speaker D: Youthful.
[01:54:22] Speaker B: Yeah. If you want to tag us in that, we'll help share whatever information you have on that. That sounds like a great event.
[01:54:28] Speaker D: Yeah, now I'm thinking about it. There's only a limited amount of seats, but, hey, we can always bring in.
[01:54:32] Speaker A: Vents and heaters and you always take donations.
[01:54:37] Speaker D: Yeah, right. If you guys repost it, we may have to get this at, I don't know, like, a warehouse.
[01:54:44] Speaker B: I know we're kind of running short of time here, Dave, but I did want to get your opinion on obviously you're involved in the youth sports aspect of it. I think we've heard for the last 15 years or so, it seems like there's less and less kids coming out. It's just kind of a concerning trend for those of us that love the game and want to continue to see the game grow. Do you have thoughts around that? I mean, have you seen that personally yourself, or do you still feel like you're getting good numbers out?
[01:55:11] Speaker D: It depends. I think it depends on the class of kids. I think it depends on Malta. In the past probably five to seven years, there's been an enormous focus on concussions. And I think rightfully so, I think based on what you see with some of these athletes in football, with CTE and those, you really got to take care of them. And I think the way that they're going about concussions now is better for the players long term health. But you also have parents, when they see that stuff and they hear about it, get a little concerned with their son playing a fifth grade football with tackle, even 6th grade, even fourth grade, probably has something to do with it. I think another thing is you have the evolving sports out there that we didn't have as a kid. I mean, we never had lacrosse. Now you got some of these players that all they do is want to play lacrosse. And that's their sport. They train year round for it. So you have some things like that that come into play. But I think at the end of the day, football is America's sport. At the end of the day, we will always have kids that want to come out and play at all different levels. And now they even have more things that you can do. In Canton Hall of Fame. They have the National Flag Football championships. Our team played in that. In sandusky. You have anything from 1011 and twelve u state championships? After their league games, they place it by school. So attendance in school, the enrollment, and then they bracket those schools together. And it's a way for kids to continue to play after their season. And that place, I think, in the last three years has gained almost 20 30% of more teams every year. So football is here to stay. But I think concussions and some other emerging sports have affected that too.
[01:56:47] Speaker B: I think the Olympics just signed flag football.
[01:56:49] Speaker A: I did it too, in 2028.
[01:56:51] Speaker B: I think it'll be official sporting Olympics now.
[01:56:55] Speaker D: I hope the NFL doesn't keep changing the rules and we turn into fight.
[01:56:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it'll be that soon, right?
[01:57:00] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's a topic for another day. We'll save that for the cruise. Speaking of which, I am going to bring this back to the time that we get to share on the open ocean. So let's talk about some of the things that everyone should look forward to on that cruise. Dave, what's the event or activity during the entire cruise that you are looking forward to most?
[01:57:19] Speaker D: Honestly, there's going to be a lot of fun events throughout the day, all across a cruise ship, great activities for kids. But I think what I'm looking forward to most is I think at night, from what I'm told, we're all going to be able to eat together with families and fans. And that's the time where you can really spend some good quality time with everybody. Answer questions, tell them stories, locker room stories, things you don't hear about every day. So I think the moment that's a little bit more intimate, a little bit more time to really talk to people, walk around, introduce yourself, take pictures with kids, give them some autographs, I don't know. They probably look at me now and look at me as an old man, but hopefully they'll still have fun with some older alumni. But that's really what I'm looking forward to is the intimate time of talking with the kids, spending time with them, activities. They come and go, right? The kids want to do the activities. They're just going to run around, climb walls, cornhole, whatever we're doing on the ship. But I think that night when we have a chance to sit down, have dinner with them, look forward to that.
[01:58:19] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And just so you know, I'm coming to you first for an autograph.
[01:58:24] Speaker D: I will save my pen. I won't open it until you come.
[01:58:26] Speaker A: There is a Browns backers competition out there that I want to talk about for the Fan Cruise. And so basically 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 autographed football. And so with that in mind and knowing that there's a competition for Brownsbackers out there to get some of these cabins booked, do you have anything that you want to say to Brownsbackers across the nation and honestly across the world?
[01:59:06] Speaker D: I just want to say thank you.
It's been unbelievable when I played and when I'm seeing it, even today's game, going to San Diego for a game and seeing a Brownsbackers know, going down to Columbus and seeing the events that I've been a part of, down mean Browns fans are everywhere, and they are the best fans in football. And I think what's going to happen as we continue to win as an organization, which I think this year we're going to keep that momentum.
Everybody around this globe, everybody around the nation, other teams are going to finally see because you're going to start paying attention to teams that are winning. And I think when the Browns start winning consistently, everyone's going to see the kind of fans that we really have. And the only people that really know are the opposing players that come in our stadium because they always have told me, man, what a blessing it is for you to play here because these fans are outstanding.
[01:59:57] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So I guess talking about the momentum this year and stuff, one last question.
You've seen the team so far this year. How do you think they've done and how do you think they will fare the rest of the way?
[02:00:12] Speaker D: I think the offense has been a work in progress. I think the defense has been outstanding. It's elite. It's not good. It's not great. It's elite. It's at that next level. And this game that we just played will only enhance their confidence, will only enhance that chemistry that they have. So they just got to stay healthy on defense. Special teams. You got one of the best punters in the league, you got one of the best special teams coach in the league, and you got a kid in Dustin Hopkins that shows that he can consistently make football, footballs plus 50 yard field goals. The only thing now that we have to continue to get momentum on is the offense, and that really revolves around Deshaun Watson. He had a really good game against Tennessee. It's unfortunate with the injury. We're hoping to see him build on that. But if he can continue to take that next step, this is going to be a team that's just complementing each other in all phases of football. And really, there's no ceiling. You've seen that we beat the best and you see the other teams out there. To me, there's an opportunity for this team. If they get hot, especially offensively, with the schedule they have, they could be a pretty formal opponent.
[02:01:21] Speaker A: So context for our listeners there, we are recording this right after the 49 Ers game. So Dave is talking about the hell of a defensive effort that they put up during the 49 Ers game. And I also want to say our board man Bone is a huge Dustin Hopkins fan. So, Bone, you want to shout out to Dustin Hopkins real quick?
[02:01:40] Speaker C: Yeah, he's great. I love Dustin Hopkins, man.
[02:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's been excited all season with what he's done, but no. Dave, we really appreciate the time that you've spent with us here, and we're looking forward to doing it again on the cruise.
I'm sure we'll have an interview with you again while we're actually on the cruise, catching up with you and hearing some stories about your time on the ship. So, again, really appreciate it. Thanks for being with us.
[02:02:05] Speaker B: Thanks so much.
[02:02:06] Speaker D: Thanks, guys, for having me. I appreciate everything you guys do, too. You're getting these fans an opportunity to really see what it's all about, hear from the players, and I know it takes a lot of hard work and time, so thanks for all your guys support, too.
[02:02:18] Speaker A: You're too kind. Thank you.
[02:02:31] Speaker D: I'm Dave Bassetto and you're listening to Bernie Rivers forecast.
[02:02:35] Speaker A: Go Browns.
Wow, good times. Talking to Dave.
[02:02:54] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during that.
[02:02:55] Speaker A: Interview, what were you? Nothing. Because you don't have thoughts because you're a brainless idiot.
[02:03:00] Speaker B: Wow, that escalated quickly.
[02:03:04] Speaker A: What were you thinking?
Bo man liked it. He thought that was funny.
[02:03:10] Speaker B: Being a specialist in the NFL is probably one of the only pro careers at least in the NFL, that kind of like you can do something with afterward.
Everybody gets slower. Everybody gets fatter, it gets less strong. But if you could kick a ball 60 yards, you could kick a lot of things 60 yards.
[02:03:30] Speaker A: Are you saying he could have a career after this? What can you kick 60 yards?
[02:03:34] Speaker B: You would always be the guy that has, like, party games. Like, hey, it's 4 July. Let's go watch Dave kick cans.
[02:03:40] Speaker A: Do you think that's what he does now? I would I don't think that's what he does. I was going to say, I really like the fact that he's just still living in Northeast Ohio, kind of running a business, raising a family. And you went with he's out there kicking, so you can run out of.
[02:03:56] Speaker B: Kick things really far.
[02:03:57] Speaker C: Can you imagine that guy at the family reunion kickball game?
[02:04:01] Speaker A: Oh, man, he's getting picked first every time. I mean, it's got to be one of these things, right? He's either like a professional kickball player now he runs his own business, which I think is what he told us, or at least helps run his own business. Or like, Kenny thinks he's just out there kicking cans.
[02:04:16] Speaker B: I'm just saying I think he could probably kick a lot of things really far and it was a party trick.
[02:04:20] Speaker A: That's actually what I thought coming out of the interview. You know, I bet Dave Zastadil could kick a can so far. Probably further than anybody I know.
[02:04:27] Speaker B: Look, here's the thing. I'll just say this. Most people's favorite player is not the punter, but Dave is just one of those carries mad at guys.
[02:04:36] Speaker A: It was awesome.
[02:04:37] Speaker B: It doesn't matter what position Dave played. Like, Dave's a likable guy.
[02:04:40] Speaker A: He is.
I could talk about Dave all day, but this will take us to the week nine preview.
These guys have seen a lot of love, but they're never going to say, all right, so this week we have the Arizona Cardinals. And Kenny, I know you're dying, so I gotta ask, do you have any previews or opposition research that you want to talk about?
[02:05:13] Speaker B: Well, this team is straight up mess. They didn't win many games this year. One, they got a goofy ass coach who's saying dumb shit in the locker room all year long.
And who knows who their quarterback is going to be because Josh Dobbs has officially been benched.
Not sure whether we're going to see Kyler or not. Gannon was kind of indecisive about that so far this week. And if he's not to play, it'll be some fella named.
[02:05:43] Speaker A: Cool.
[02:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, outside of that, this seems just not very good.
[02:05:47] Speaker A: Well, to piggyback off that one of my position matchups I had here, it was the Browns front seven versus Josh Dobbs.
One of the things I highlighted was Josh Dobbs knows Cleveland. So even though I think that the front seven should take it to him you can't sleep on the knowledge that he has of the Cleveland Browns, but that's apparently out the window. This is the perfect week to bench Josh Dobbs if you're the Arizona coach. What an idiot that guy is.
[02:06:09] Speaker B: What an idiot.
[02:06:10] Speaker A: But no, I mean, regardless of who it is, kyler Murray coming off an injury, whoever this tune guy that you said was possibly playing, I mean, this is the week. The Browns defensive line, their whole front seven, but specifically their defensive line needs to just go ham on this dude. They need to just eat him.
Like, I'm talking like four or five sacks.
[02:06:34] Speaker B: Well, yeah, and I think the other thing, too, is they've been injured at running back a lot. So they've been mixing guys in and out there that they really don't have a good running back. Kind of like in the same situation we are, where they can't find they can't replace who is a running back, james Connor or whoever.
So, yeah, they just don't have a whole lot going on.
[02:06:50] Speaker A: They just need to get after him early and often too, because you just can't let them get any momentum in this game because that's how bad teams stick around and steal games, is they just get a little bit of momentum. They just stay in the game and then they get a little bit of momentum right at the right time.
[02:07:03] Speaker B: Oh, and we love yeah, it next.
[02:07:05] Speaker A: Matchup I had was Browns running backs versus Arizona's D. The Cardinals ranked 26th in the NFL against the run in yards per game. Our running backs have actually started to play a lot better of late. So I'm hoping that they run the ball efficiently again and we can exploit that. But you know what that takes.
Kevin Stefanik has to run the damn ball.
[02:07:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[02:07:26] Speaker A: So I hope that Kevin Stefanik does the right thing, especially if you're playing with XFL. Again, let the running backs run the ball.
But as a team, the Cardinals are one in seven. They're coming off a close loss to the Ravens.
Let's just call it what it is. This team is really bad. But as they proved last week, they are still an NFL football team. So like I said before, if you let a team stick around for long enough, they will have an opportunity in the end to win it. The Browns need to go in there and take care of business early and just not let up. They need to just keep the foot on the gas, don't let the team stick around.
And if we want any shot at making the playoffs, you can't lose these types of games. This is a game like, in my opinion, even though it's not really a big game in general, it's a must win game for the Cleveland Browns. Like, you have to win this game.
[02:08:16] Speaker B: If you have any aspiration to do anything this year. It's a must win game. Sure you can't lose to bad teams. Like know everybody thinks that Josh Dobbs is the big Cleveland advantage this week, but I'll tell you what, fourth string center Shawl say Froholt, he's back. Kind of be the difference maker this.
[02:08:35] Speaker A: Week, because hell, yeah. Because we'll get there. We'll get there.
[02:08:39] Speaker B: Because John Gaines, Pat Elfline, Tristan cologne are all hurt, so they're onto their four strings. We know the power of Froholt as a force drinks.
[02:08:49] Speaker A: Hell, yes. Hell, yes. Way to go, Froholt. But that'll take us to the injury report.
[02:08:55] Speaker B: I just said all the centers hurt except for Yelta Froholt Sounder.
[02:09:05] Speaker A: You really stole your own thunder on this one, didn't you?
[02:09:08] Speaker B: I did, yeah.
[02:09:09] Speaker A: All right, say it again.
[02:09:10] Speaker B: All the centers are hurt.
[02:09:14] Speaker A: Do we know what's going on with Deshaun Watson yet?
[02:09:16] Speaker B: No, no one knows.
[02:09:17] Speaker A: So we'll start with the Cleveland Browns. Start with the Cleveland Browns.
[02:09:19] Speaker B: Oh, great. This is not what I do each week.
[02:09:21] Speaker A: I was just, uh you're gonna start with Arizona?
[02:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna start with Arizona. Obviously, Kyler Murray is the big question mark because if he's healthy enough to play, he would be a difference maker in this game. But it looks like we're going to see Clayton, toon. James Connors on the clayton, toon. He is six foot three and 220 pounds. So he's a big dude. He's a big tune.
[02:09:42] Speaker A: Bones got that in his pants.
[02:09:44] Speaker B: They're likely to have Amari di Mercado as their starting running back coming into this week.
Wide receivers are relatively healthy, but their line is a little bit beat up. Like I said, all the centers are gone. Left guard's got some issues there. Elijah Wilkinson's on IR.
[02:10:00] Speaker A: So as banged up as the Cleveland Browns are you're telling me they're way.
[02:10:04] Speaker B: In they're in rough shape, too. They've got two linebackers on IR and another end and another linebacker that were out last week.
Yeah, it's not good, that's for sure.
Where my notes go? Sorry, I broke myself.
[02:10:22] Speaker A: He broke himself?
[02:10:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Kevin Strong, Greg Dorch, and Chris Barnes. Those are the big ones we missed this week.
[02:10:30] Speaker A: What the Browns got going on?
[02:10:32] Speaker B: I mean, obviously Deshaun Watson is the.
[02:10:35] Speaker A: Nobody knows what's going on.
[02:10:36] Speaker B: No one knows what happens there.
We're surprised to see Jerome Ford play this weekend. He's listed as doubtful already.
[02:10:43] Speaker A: Marquis Goodwin must have tweaked that ankle a little bit.
[02:10:45] Speaker B: Marquis Goodwin is listed as questionable this early in the week as well.
David and Joku still lists his questionable from his burns.
[02:10:53] Speaker A: We expect him to play, though.
[02:10:55] Speaker B: He's played about, takes care of the offense and the defense. Again, relatively healthy. The only one that is even listed is takitake as questionable. So otherwise the defense is still in pretty good shape.
[02:11:07] Speaker A: So with that, before we get into our picks for King of the north, bone man, we'll start with you. Who is your player to watch in this game?
All right.
[02:11:17] Speaker C: I've been thinking about this. I'm going to go.
[02:11:19] Speaker A: Mark cooper.
[02:11:19] Speaker C: I feel like he is the only wide receiver in our team that can get open.
[02:11:24] Speaker A: I think it's not a good trait to have as a team.
[02:11:25] Speaker C: Well, get him the ball and if it's PJ. Walker throwing again, he seems to have a connection with know one way or another. He's been getting amari the ball, so stick with that early and often.
[02:11:38] Speaker A: Nice, kenny, what do you got?
Who do you got?
[02:11:47] Speaker B: Let's go. Juan thornhill. This week, actually.
I just think he's been playing really well of late, but he's kind of been like under the radar because he hasn't been like the top defender. I feel like it's one of these games.
[02:11:57] Speaker A: He's just one more piece of a super solid defense.
[02:12:00] Speaker B: I feel like it's one of those games where especially against a young quarterback, like he can have a pick six and really change the outcome of the.
[02:12:05] Speaker A: Game, might be able to roam a little bit, jump some routes.
[02:12:07] Speaker B: And even if he doesn't, he'll still have like seven rate tackles because he's just been like all over the place.
[02:12:11] Speaker A: That's fair. And I'm going to go with Pierre strong. It seems like he's been close the last couple of games. To really my number two to really breaking one. I think he starts getting more touches in this. I saw the last game, it seemed like the coaches were trying to get him involved a little bit more. So I think he continues to build on that.
[02:12:27] Speaker B: And he showed flashes.
[02:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And he actually is a threat in the passing game, too faster because I don't know if you know, he was the fastest running back in his draft class. He ran a four, three, seven I think is what it was. He was super fast. So fast and so to. I think he's going to score a big touchdown in this game that's going to kind of maybe ice the game or something along those lines. Or even if it's early, it's like at a point where it's like, okay, we're really running away with this thing now. So I think Pierre strong is going to show up in a big way. That's my guy. But that'll take us to the king of the door.
In case anyone does not know by now, you need to start watching our show, first of all or listening to our show. But this is our year long AFC north pick'em competition. At the end of the season, whoever comes in last place gets punished in the offseason. This past year, Kenny had a gross of eggs thrown at him by fans in the munilot before a preseason game. We haven't figured out what the punishment will be this year yet, but we will. Guys, off top of your heads, you got any more suggestions?
[02:13:38] Speaker B: Okay, so last week I told you about the fat suit and the milk and the cereal.
[02:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah. There you. Go. That was one.
[02:13:43] Speaker B: But instead of Greco Roman wrestling John Greco, what if we put that same person inside of one of those giant balls, okay. And then pushed him down a giant hill?
[02:13:52] Speaker A: Oh, I like this. There's not going to be a road at the bottom, though.
[02:13:54] Speaker B: Like nobody's going to park metro park.
[02:13:58] Speaker A: I like this. There's an idea. There's an idea.
[02:14:00] Speaker B: Drowning in a giant. Adding it in a giant ball. Giant ball cereal.
[02:14:04] Speaker A: Giant ball down a hill.
[02:14:05] Speaker B: You could probably just put all the milk in the cereal in a giant ball.
[02:14:07] Speaker A: Wow, this is getting crazier.
[02:14:09] Speaker B: Instead of in a fat suit. It makes for the human bowl cereal.
[02:14:12] Speaker A: It makes for better viewing, I guess. Bone, man. You got anything?
[02:14:16] Speaker C: How about we recreate senior hit day for the loser?
[02:14:19] Speaker A: Oh, that actually sounds good. We're going to feel like we've been hit by a truck for a week and a half.
[02:14:24] Speaker B: Are we going to find somebody to actually hit us or are we going to hit each other?
[02:14:26] Speaker A: We're just going to hit each other.
[02:14:27] Speaker C: Yeah, we're going to hit each other. So you get hit twice. So how this works is you get picked by somebody. At least this is how it was when we were a freshman and sophomore and a senior just picked.
[02:14:36] Speaker A: This doesn't exist anymore.
[02:14:37] Speaker C: It's not allowed in schools. Yeah, but I mean, this was literally in 2006.
[02:14:43] Speaker A: No, I'm in. Especially because if anyone doesn't recall coach Perino, if you're listening, you took away our senior hit day senior year. So I'm still mad about it. That and you not letting me be comanche.
But anyways, yeah, we'll figure out what the punishment is. We'll let you guys know as soon as we know. But let's get into this thing. First things first. I want to remind everybody that I am still the reigning defending king of the north.
[02:15:10] Speaker B: But you're not even in first place anymore.
[02:15:13] Speaker A: Let me get there. In an absolutely shocking turn of events, kenny is no longer in last place. Well, he's not alone anyways. I am right now right there with him. Because in case anyone again has not been paying attention, we've added our trusty bordo Bone Man to the competition this year and he has proceeded to take the lead in the standings.
[02:15:32] Speaker B: And he's picking our ass.
[02:15:34] Speaker C: I'm going to continue to pick it.
[02:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I see it. Okay, so let's remind everybody what the current records are before we pick. Kenny and I both stand at eleven and 13. We're trying to get back to 500 there, but Bone Man's done it. He's twelve and twelve. And so, like you guys said, picking our ass. But let's get into this week's matchups. Pittsburgh and their own Picket over there gets the Thursday night game this week against the Tennessee Titans.
Let's start with Kenny.
[02:16:03] Speaker B: Kenny, who do you is? Kenny pickett is hurt and probably Trubisky is to start short week for these guys.
And Will Levis going off a big win. I'm going to go with the most interesting man in football, tennessee Titans, to win on Thursday night.
[02:16:20] Speaker A: Nice. I am also going with the Tennessee Titans. You mentioned Pickett being hurt. I also want to throw in there that Minko Fitzpatrick is hurt. So the best player on their defense besides TJ watt. So, yeah, I will say this, though, it was a tough choice for me because TJ Watt can wreck especially rookie quarterbacks by himself. Sure. And they still have Mike Tomlin, who's one of the best coaches in football. So tough pick for me, but I'm going with the Titans as well. Bone, man. Who you got?
[02:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going Titans as well. They still got they still got Derrick Henry. Yeah. Steelers are a little banged up like the Titans fair.
[02:16:55] Speaker A: So next up here, we have the Ravens playing host to the Seattle Seahawks. I'll go ahead and start this one. I've got the Ravens in this game. It was another tough pick. Actually, the Seahawks are playing pretty well as of late. Gino Smith continues to have a decent season. But in the Ravens, I'll be honest with you, it's weird because they don't really have a lot to write home about besides their quarterback, besides Lamar Jackson. I mean, what do you have over there that you're getting excited about? I don't know. But they continue to win games just because they're the home team. I'm going with the Ravens in this one. I think they win again, which sucks because I want them to lose so that we can get back into the division race.
[02:17:33] Speaker B: Kenny, who you got, man?
This is in Baltimore, this game.
[02:17:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[02:17:57] Speaker B: I'm going to go Seahawks.
[02:18:00] Speaker A: As I said, this was a tough one to pick.
[02:18:01] Speaker B: This team clearly just beat us. I think we're a better matchup than the Brown.
We are a better matchup than the Ravens are. And, yeah, I just think that there's not a lot outside of Lamar going on over there right now and their defense. But I think Gino can play with them because he played with us.
[02:18:18] Speaker A: Fair. Bowman, who you got?
[02:18:23] Speaker C: I'm going to go Ravens. Just simply because they're.
[02:18:28] Speaker A: I mean, that was the tipping point for me, too, was I had them basically dead even and I was like, but the Ravens are home, so I guess I'll go with them.
Next up here, though, Cincinnati hosts the Sunday night game against the Bills. Another tough match up here. The Bengals have played very well of late. So Bone man, I'll let you go ahead and start this one off, though.
[02:18:49] Speaker C: I'm going, bills. I think Josh Allen have a big night. And I really want to see Cincinnati lose fair.
[02:18:55] Speaker A: Kenny, what do you got?
[02:19:00] Speaker B: What was the poor kid that had the cardiac arrest last year on the field?
[02:19:03] Speaker A: You have his jersey, man, and I.
[02:19:05] Speaker B: Can'T think of his name right now I'm sick. What's his name?
[02:19:10] Speaker A: DeMar Hamlin.
[02:19:11] Speaker B: I think this is an emotional game for both teams because of that.
[02:19:14] Speaker A: That's who was playing. They were playing on Sunday night, if I'm not mistaken.
[02:19:17] Speaker B: And yeah, it was a prime time game. That might have been Monday night. I think it was Monday night.
So I think that was heavy on all these guys. And I think that the Bills win this game because it's one of those, like, win one for the gipper moments.
[02:19:30] Speaker A: Okay. I like that. Again, this was kind of a coin toss for me, but the fact that Cincinnati's playing at home and the fact that Joe Burrow finally looks like Joe Burrow again, he looks like that calf has completely healed. I don't know if you saw him get out of the play this past weekend where he got out of the stack like three times in one play and then threw a dart for first down, but it was wild.
[02:19:53] Speaker B: I get out of the sack every night and I'm not supposed to.
[02:19:55] Speaker A: Okay, well, with all that being said, I'm going to take the Bengals in this one. So I differ from you.
Yeah.
Which will lead to the Cleveland Browns playing host to the Arizona Cardinals.
I will go ahead and take this one first. Look, Arizona is really bad. They're not a good team.
Nobody knows who their quarterback is going to be. Even if it's Kyler Murray. I don't even know. That's an upgrade. First of all, I don't think Kyler Murray is a very good quarterback at all. And second, he's coming off a huge injury, so who knows what he's going to do? He's just now getting back with the team and taking first team reps. So I got Cleveland winning it pretty easy, 24 to ten. Bowman, who do you got?
[02:20:36] Speaker C: I also got Cleveland, and I just feel like we're the better team. I really feel like our defense is going to show up big this week, and I'm going to go back to teams not scoring touchdowns against us. So I'm going to go cleveland 17, Arizona six.
[02:20:52] Speaker A: I like it.
[02:20:54] Speaker C: Two field goals. There not a missed extra point.
[02:20:56] Speaker A: Is that your score, Kenny?
[02:20:58] Speaker B: I also have Cleveland 17 six.
[02:21:01] Speaker A: So our tiebreaker does nothing. We did not tiebreaker actually does anything. We've never really talked about that. On King of the north, we give scores, they don't mean anything. This is King of the north where the points don't matter and the scores are made up. I don't.
[02:21:14] Speaker B: Mean that was my score going in. So, yeah, I just feel like this offense with Clayton Toon or Josh Dobbs is no match for the Browns defense. And if Kyler plays kyler has not played football in like, two years. He's kind of got like the Sean Watson thing going on. So I don't see that offense scoring a lot of points. I also don't see our offense scoring a lot of points. So I wouldn't also be surprised if it was like a twelve six game. But to make the math work, I'm going to go with the easy math and do 17 six fair.
[02:21:42] Speaker A: So that's our picks for this week. We'll see how this thing shakes out. Hopefully I'm back on top next week. But that will take us to the Bernie River sports guest. Hot take hotline.
[02:21:54] Speaker C: Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot Take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. We want hot takes. 3302-2780-8033-0227-8, call now.
[02:22:09] Speaker A: Operators are not standing by. Gosh. I just want to let Bone Man do this every single time.
[02:22:15] Speaker B: I love it.
[02:22:16] Speaker A: This is great. It's just so much better when he does it. I just sit here and I'm amazed by his radio voice.
But don't forget to check out our gear. That's at WW Thetappinmedia.com Backslash shop. Click show specific. Click burning river sportscast. And there's all our shit, but that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next week?
[02:22:38] Speaker B: What can we expect next week? Hopefully I'm feeling a lot better as the first most important thing so that y'all can actually hear me next.
You sound like a bitch. Recap the game against the Cardinals in which we will probably play down to and find a way to lose to. And then we will preview a huge Browns week ten matchup against arch rival, the most hated Baltimore Ravens, the original Browns. And then we will also pick up another interview with a Brownsbackers chapter. I'm even surprised that Baltimore has Brownsbackers chapters out there because that place, it's.
[02:23:13] Speaker A: Kind of like Pittsburgh. It's tough sledding out there. But I found one. I found one.
[02:23:16] Speaker B: Well, hopefully they come packing heat because.
[02:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the Browns backers of Baltimore City, in case anyone's wondering.
[02:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that could get ugly. And then another interview with yet another Browns alumni who will be joining us on the Fan Cruise in March of 2024, mr. Ben Davis.
[02:23:35] Speaker A: That's going to be a good one. And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tap and Media is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at the tapin'media. Burning river sportscast. That's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast and on X at River Pod. And you can find our podcast wherever we get your podcasts. I'm talking Apple podcasts spotify. Google podcasts. Amazon Music. Stitcher Pandora. iHeartRadio podcast. Catch real good pods and so many more do you know that tickets do, Kenny?
[02:23:59] Speaker B: Facts for days.
[02:24:00] Speaker A: Facts for days.
[02:24:10] Speaker B: I know I should just let Zach do sex for days.
[02:24:13] Speaker A: Nice.
What do you got for me, man?
[02:24:17] Speaker B: Facts for days.
[02:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to know what you got.
[02:24:20] Speaker B: We're going to talk about animal husbandry this week.
[02:24:22] Speaker A: One of my favorite topics, the horned.
[02:24:25] Speaker B: Lizard is able to shoot blood from its own eyes up to a distance of 3ft away.
[02:24:32] Speaker A: But why?
[02:24:33] Speaker B: This rather bizarre and disgusting act is a defense mechanism to confuse predators. I would be confused.
[02:24:39] Speaker A: I would be damn confused.
[02:24:41] Speaker B: Their blood also contains why did this.
[02:24:42] Speaker A: Thing just explode at me?
[02:24:43] Speaker B: Their blood contains a chemical that is noxious to predators. For those who aren't paying attention, that's poisonous. And this isn't its only trick. Short horn lizards.
[02:24:54] Speaker A: There's more.
[02:24:55] Speaker B: Also capable of inflating their bodies up to twice their size to scare something else away.
[02:25:00] Speaker A: Incredible. You know who else is? Noxious. You.
[02:25:02] Speaker D: You're.
[02:25:03] Speaker B: Noxious, thank you. Number two.
Roosters. Roosters.
[02:25:07] Speaker A: Y'all hate roosters.
[02:25:08] Speaker B: You know, they go in the morning.
[02:25:10] Speaker A: Always waking people up.
[02:25:11] Speaker B: You know who they don't wake up?
[02:25:13] Speaker A: People.
[02:25:13] Speaker B: Themselves. Roosters prevent themselves from going deaf due to their own loud crowing. By tilting their head backs when they crow, it covers their ear canal completely.
[02:25:22] Speaker A: Dicks.
[02:25:23] Speaker B: They wake everyone up. They don't wake themselves up because they're like I don't have to hear this shit.
[02:25:27] Speaker A: Unbelievable. You mean to tell me that God made roosters with a built in earplugs? With built in earplugs.
[02:25:34] Speaker C: That's pretty cool.
[02:25:36] Speaker A: Bo, man. Who's God messing with with this one? I want to know.
[02:25:39] Speaker C: It's just sound design. It just speaks to intelligence.
[02:25:42] Speaker A: Fair.
[02:25:42] Speaker B: The average rooster crows at around 100 decibels, which is roughly the same as a running chainsaw.
They don't got to hear it.
[02:25:51] Speaker A: I hate roosters.
[02:25:52] Speaker B: Number three.
[02:25:53] Speaker A: Number three.
[02:25:54] Speaker B: A single cow.
[02:25:55] Speaker A: One single cow poo.
Not moose. Pooze.
[02:26:01] Speaker B: Up to 15 times a day.
[02:26:02] Speaker A: Ill disgusting.
[02:26:05] Speaker B: I didn't realize they pooze so many times a day. Which can be as much as 115 pounds of manure per day. Or approximately 21 tons per year.
[02:26:15] Speaker A: So much global warming.
[02:26:18] Speaker B: Yes, there is a lot of methane produced, but they often do put large quantities of poo to good use. They use it to fertilize or make biofuels. Biographs. Biographs. Biogas. To create electricity and heat for developing parts of the world. So sometimes poo is not all bad.
[02:26:38] Speaker A: Poo sounds like part of the problem.
[02:26:40] Speaker B: It is a part of the problem. If you're going to be a part of the problem, don't just be a.
[02:26:42] Speaker A: Part of the problem.
[02:26:42] Speaker B: Just be the whole damn problem.
[02:26:44] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires.
Burning river sportscast burning river burning river sports cast.
[02:26:56] Speaker B: Burning river burning river burning.
[02:26:59] Speaker A: River what song was I singing earlier? So we can sing ourselves out. Burning river what song? These eyes, these eyes I've seen a lot of love but I never got to see another one like I had with you these eyes crying with you that was Harmony.
[02:27:22] Speaker C: You guys.
[02:27:24] Speaker B: I'm not going to be able to talk tomorrow.
[02:27:25] Speaker A: Oh man. Burning river, burning river sports cast.
[02:27:30] Speaker D: Round fan cruise and the Burning river sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of?
[02:27:35] Speaker A: Motorboat.
[02:27:36] Speaker B: You play the motorboat.
[02:27:39] Speaker A: You motorboat son of a bitch. You old sailor, you.
[02:27:42] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during the.
[02:27:43] Speaker A: Interview what were you nothing. Because you don't have thoughts. Because you're a brainless idiot.
[02:27:49] Speaker B: Wow. My name is Utred. Son of Utred.
[02:27:57] Speaker D: But I think at the end of the day, football is America's sport. At the end of the day, we will always have kids that want to come out and play at all different levels. And now they even have more things that you can do.
[02:28:11] Speaker A: By the way, I want my foreskin back.
[02:28:13] Speaker B: You can touch me all the time.
[02:28:17] Speaker A: Horror Picture Show that she said touch me.
[02:28:20] Speaker B: Touch me.
So that's basically I'm going to get a shirt that says touch me.
[02:28:27] Speaker D: Yeah.
[02:28:28] Speaker B: It's not going to say feel me.
[02:28:30] Speaker D: It's going to just say touch me.
[02:28:31] Speaker A: The other one the finger eating food fingers.
[02:28:34] Speaker D: Browns fans are everywhere. And they are the best fans in football. And I think what's going to happen as we continue to win as an organization, which I think this year we're going to keep that momentum.
Everybody around this globe, everybody around the nation, other teams are going to finally see because you're going to start paying attention to teams that are winning. And I think when the Browns start winning consistently, everyone's going to see the kind of fans that we really have. And the only people that really know are the opposing players that come in our stadium. Because they always have told me, man, what a blessing it is for you to play here because these fans are outstanding.
[02:29:09] Speaker B: The weather outside is weather.
[02:29:11] Speaker A: All I do is win. Win no matter what. What do you mean funny? Funny?
[02:29:15] Speaker B: How am I funny?
[02:29:16] Speaker A: Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts. Oh, Lord.
[02:29:19] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:29:20] Speaker A: But damn.
[02:29:21] Speaker B: The leads are weak.
[02:29:23] Speaker A: Leads are weak.
[02:29:24] Speaker E: Fucking leads are weak.
[02:29:26] Speaker A: You're weak.
[02:29:27] Speaker E: I've been in this business 15 years.
[02:29:29] Speaker A: What's your name? You. That's my name.
[02:29:32] Speaker B: You know why, Mr? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW.
[02:29:38] Speaker A: That's my name.
[02:29:41] Speaker B: Where's Logo girl when you need her?
[02:29:43] Speaker A: I desperately want to make love to us.
[02:29:45] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now.
[02:29:47] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[02:29:47] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now.
[02:29:49] Speaker A: Eating.
[02:29:49] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now.
[02:29:51] Speaker A: Eating that.
[02:29:51] Speaker B: We need Cheese girl now. Who's canceled now? Who's canceled now?
[02:29:55] Speaker A: Probably me.
[02:29:56] Speaker B: You making a photo of fat people?
[02:29:59] Speaker A: I'm not just you. We're a whole race, basically.
Down goes Anderson. Go sanderson, go away. Just straight. Just finger banger salad.
[02:30:14] Speaker C: You first get shocked and then you get the shocker.
[02:30:19] Speaker A: You like to see almost naked. That's cool, man. Whatever.
[02:30:22] Speaker E: No.
[02:30:24] Speaker A: Brilliant.
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