Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey Browns fans, this is your chance.
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[00:00:46] Speaker B: Browns alumni come together for the trip of a lifetime.
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[00:01:17] Speaker B: Time for the burning river sportscast. It's time to hang the mistletoe and kiss on strangers because the Browns are nine and five and a near lock for the postseason. In a game where it seemed the Browns were playing spin the dreidel for roughly three quarters when the chips were down, our quarterback savior jumped up from his manger and resurrected once again the Cardiac kids mantra, setting up Dustin Hopkins for yet another game winning field goal. Despite more Browns finding their way to the injury report on Sunday, this team has maintained its ability to fight through adversity once again as they put down a pesky Bears team. Call it a Christmas miracle. Call it the eternal optimism of a Cleveland Browns fan, but this team feels special with nearly 25% of their salary kept on the injured reserve. Still, this team feels special. Can Joe Flacco continue to elevate this offense to new heights? Has David and Joku finally broken through as one of the NFL's elite tight ends? And is this team one and done in a playoff scenario, or are they poised to make some noise and keep the Polar Express rolling all the way to beautiful Las Vegas to cap off a truly magical season? We'll break it all down for you next on the burning river sportscast.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: I'm dasher. I'm dancer. I'm Prancer and Vixen. On common, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph can have the day off because the sleigh will be guided by the warm glow of the burning river sports cast flames tonight.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: The LA Chargers have started four quarterbacks since Drew Brees. The Browns started four quarterbacks in October, and we don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan we're from Ohio.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Nice. Dustin Hopkins is up to 121 points scored this season for the Browns.
Does anyone remember what the single season franchise record for a kicker previously was? And I said previously, oh, my goodness. He broke it. He broke it. It was 120 by Phil Dawson in 2007. So dhop is your new franchise record holder for points in a season. Yeah.
Joe Flacco is to Cleveland what Santa Claus is to children all over the world.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: He really is. He's just giving gifts and eating cookies, man.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: Is it real?
[00:03:36] Speaker A: He's a big fat man in a red suit.
And speaking of awesome things happening, Danny DeVito, your boy made an unpaid appearance at a New Jersey pizzeria after a.
[00:03:48] Speaker C: Is his name Tommy?
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Danny DeVito. I called him Danny DeVito. Tommy DeVito. You got me dopest logo in the game.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: A really, really great logo. Their merch is on fire.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Their merch is on fire.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: That's what happens when you team up with burning river sportscast. Everything's on fire.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: It's lit. It's so lit.
Yeah. I think the thing is this Houston's team. Houston's Houston. Houston.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Houston.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: This space city, dog pound team.
Don't just be a part of the problem, be the whole damn problem. And Merry Christmas.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Yes. Filthy animals coming for that crown.
Merry Christmas. Welcome into 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, joined as always, by former prices, right. Showcase showdown runner up, red hot Ronnie Jams. And on the board today, 18 time rub and Tug champion, the Big Bone man. For any of our audience that may be confused by the term rub and tug in a colloquial sense, can you tell our fans about the actual game of rub and tug, which has nothing to do with the more commonly held connotation?
[00:05:15] Speaker C: I refer to it as bulldozer, and it involves trying to.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Keep going. Please. Well, enlighten me.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: My two daughters hop up on the bed and I try to crush them like a bulldozer. And they jump over me, and then.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: I make noises like otherwise known as the rub and tuck back.
I'm done.
Good start, USA. Two questions, yo.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: On this episode of the Burning River Sports guest, who can our fans look forward to us talking to this week?
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Big Phil Taylor. That's who's going to be on Big Phil Taylor. Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: And number two, where can all of our listeners find all of the Burning river sports guests? Exclusive interviews with Browns backers and former Cleveland Browns players all season long in preparation for what is going to be the most spectacular and delightful social event on your 2024 calendar. Yes, I am talking about the only place you can rub elbows and tug stories from your favorite former players, the Cleveland Browns fan cruise presented by Seaside events.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: You can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartradio, podcast, Castro, good pods, and so many more. And don't forget to subscribe on YouTube, the only place that you can find our video podcast and the video version of all of these interviews that you just spoke of. And check us out on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Our handle for all those, including 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, check out our merch ww thetappandmedia.com backslash shop. We've got all kinds of stuff in the shop. We got the cruise line, the chubb line, cold weather gear. The cold Weather gear is dope. How's your hat, Zach?
[00:07:01] Speaker C: It's sweet. It's warm.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Is it warm?
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I like it a lot.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: Great color.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Nice. My hoodie is very warm as well. I needed to order a size up, though. Bad job out of me. You get any cold gear yet?
[00:07:11] Speaker B: No, I got a cruise shirt.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Oh, how's your cruise shirt?
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Very soft.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Very soft. Nice. So check all that stuff out. We're constantly adding more to the store and buy something. It might not ship in time, though. We're really close to Christmas now. Yeah, I can almost guarantee you.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: We've been warning you.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: We've been warning you. Yeah. But anyways, the Browns are on a two game winning streak and have once again turned into the cardiac kids. Cool. Joe is out there just slinging it and collecting passing yards like they're pokemon cards. He's got this city excited and ready to believe. And here at Burning river sportscast, we believe. So with that, with that, let's talk about what today's show has in store for all of you today. We've got week 15 recap of the exhilarating victory over Dubairs Dubas, an interview with the space City dog pound out of just north of Houston. There, we've also got an interview with another alumni, Browns alumni that will be joining us on the Cleveland Browns fan cruise in March of 2024. That's in the second half of the show. Today's guest, as you mentioned, big Phil Taylor. Big Phil Taylor. And finally, we rounded the show at the week 16 preview of the game against the CJ Stroud less Houston Texans.
And so on Dasher, on dancer, on Prancer and vixen, on common, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen and Rudolph can have the day off because the sleigh will be guided by the warm glow of the burning river sports cast flames tonight. Now let's get things started the right way with the burning Rivers news story of the week.
All right, so breaking news this week. Amazon is in talks to take over streaming rights for the blue Jackets, Cavaliers, guardians and Cincinnati Reds. So we don't really care about the Reds, but taking all these over from the bally, from bally, from the ballies. I am officially 75 years old. I add thee to everything from Bally's. The partnership would allow Diamond Sports Group, which is the parent company of ballies, to stave off liquidation and continue to broadcast from networks such as Bally Sports Ohio on cable networks. But the big thing here is that you'd be able to watch all Cleveland teams on Amazon prime. Let's fucking go.
Let's go.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Generally, monopolies are bad, but in this case, I'm for it.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Amazon is taking it all over.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: And I know that Amazon already has some success with this because they are.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: We are not sponsored by.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: But they. They purchased the largest share of the. Yes. Network that does the. I think the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Yankees this year. So they were already streaming New York Yankees games. So they have some experience doing this. So it would be cool if it was just an integrated experience for all of our Cleveland sports now as well. But I guess we'll just see where this goes, because it sounds like this could be a lengthy endeavor to make any kind of purchase here.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'm excited about it, though, just because it's been an absolute mess.
They're bankrupt. Nobody really knows what's happening. There's big outages, all kinds of bad stuff. Nobody gets to watch their games. It's been awful.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: And on top of that, you have all the stupid Peacock games that get picked up where you have to stream on separate services and on Apple sometimes.
At least if most of them were on Amazon and you knew you could consistently catch them on Amazon, then that would make things easier because Bally's and the Bally's app have been a disaster.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So with that, let's go ahead and get into the week 15 recap.
You Cleveland Browns continue to somehow find a way to win games despite playing with Shane Falco, Clifford Franklin, Daniel Bateman, Nigel the leg gruff and the rest of the replacements. They did defeat the Bears this week, 20 to 17. I got a lot of giggles out of you guys. You guys like that one?
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that was good.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Shane Falco.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: But they did defeat the Bears 20 to 17 this week, and it took a mighty effort in the fourth quarter to come back in this one.
And we'll start, as we always do with our opponents this week, obviously, the Chicago Bears. We'll start with their offense. Justin Fields, 19 of 40 for 166 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, seven rushes for 30 yards, and the Browns defense absolutely bottled him up most of the night.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: This was exactly what I expected from a Justin Fields game, playing for the Chicago Bears. I mean, this is pretty much how he's played the entire time. He's been there for one reason or another, whether that's his fault or coaching staff or a million other things that have gone on there in Chicago.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: I think the biggest thing is you can see on multiple plays throughout the night, you could see the ability and you could see flashes, but he just really has nowhere to showcase it because they don't have a team around him.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: I mean, they were a drop tail Mary away from winning. I mean, he launched that ball.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: It wasn't just a drop Tail Mary. I mean, it was in his hands. They won, they lost.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: And he had another big drop on that drive, too, coming down a stretch. That was that Mooney that dropped it like on the 50.
Yeah. I mean, he's not getting a lot of help because again, the front office made a bunch of poor personnel decisions.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: The biggest thing with this is just so funny to me that they're already talking about possibly getting Caleb Williams or somebody else in the draft and replacing Justin Fields. Like, you guys aren't going to be any better. You still don't have a team.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Well, I think that's the exact problem, right? Is they have not committed to Justin Fields as a starter. And as long as you play that game, we saw it a little bit here with Cleveland and Baker and they weren't sure what to do. It's like you're never going to build it unless you decide.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah, and I will say it doesn't matter.
There's multiple different playing styles that work currently in the NFL. You have true pocket passers that run to throw, you have guys that throw to run.
You have guys that just run nonstop. And there's success in every different style of quarterback.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: That's what makes the game so much.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Fun to watch and to your just, you have to commit to it and you have to build around it. You can't just.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Yeah, the Ravens, if the Ravens didn't decide, hey, we're going to build this offense around Lamar Jackson.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: And even with his contract dispute and all that stuff before the, like they were committed to for years, they've been building around Lamar Jackson. So it.
Justin Fields needs to get out of there. I hope to God in the season that they do draft a new quarterback and he's able to find a new home and actually show us what he can really do somewhere else.
[00:13:58] Speaker D: Agreed.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: But for this game, this was exactly what I expected out of him.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Sorry not to get on Justin Fields rant. You can tell we have a soft spot for Ohio State guys. But next up, running backs collectively, might.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: I say, a flaccid spot.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: I put running backs collectively for the Bears because between four running backs, literally nobody stood out. They had 19 carries for 61 yards, no touchdowns, five receptions for 28 yards between four guys, as I'm thinking now.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: I can't even name a Chicago running back.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Nobody can. That's like the trivia question of the week, and everybody loses.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: DJ Moore, four receptions, 52 yards, no touchdowns. Tyler Scott, three receptions for 49 yards, one carry for negative three yards, and then Cole Comet. Is that how I say his name? Five receptions, 23 yards and a touchdown.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: And I think that's what was so frustrating about this game was because for three quarters, you're like, are we getting beat by this team? They weren't good.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: No, they are not good. And their defense, they did have four sacks. They did force three turnovers. And there's your answer for how they stayed in the game. Their defense even had a touchdown in this one. Tremaine Edmonds with the pick six on Flacco. In fact, all three of those turnovers were picks. But Tremaine Edwards, Edmonds, I'm sorry, returned his for a touchdown. So special teams for the Bears.
Cairo Santos, one for one on field goals, two for two extra points. So not a lot of damage, but he was perfect with the responsibilities that he had.
And that'll take us to the Cleveland Browns, where it gets exciting because we actually care about the Cleveland Browns. We'll start with the offense. Joe Flacco, 28 of 44 for 374 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions. He did make some mistakes this week, but the dude kept battling. And I know you're excited, Kenny, and you want to talk about Joe Flacco for this entire podcast. But be brief because we will talk about Joe Flacco again here soon.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Look, I'll say it again. He's the best quarterback I've seen in a Browns jersey in my lifetime.
He made mistakes early on, but he did exactly what a veteran does. You just keep moving on, you keep pressing on. I thought it was telling at the end of the game when they interviewed him on the field and he was like, I'm still not even sure what's going on. I know that I hurt the team he went through, literally was like, if you look at the points scored against us over the last two weeks, they've all been a result of my turnovers. So I just feel like trash.
That's a leader right there. It's a leader right there. And it's a guy that has a hell of an arm. Still plenty of gas left in the tank. He's not mobile at all. He reminds me a little bit of Jacobi Brissette running around back there when he's trying to get away from defenders. A touch slower, less athletic, but he does just enough with his feet to get out of trouble and deliver the ball. I mean, it's amazing with this ragtag offensive line, the ability of Joe Flacco to avoid pressure and make an on time throw and it's over and over and over again and he'll clean up the mistakes. Look, I think thing is, in the past we've had a lot of quarterbacks throw three interceptions. We haven't had a lot of them follow it up with close to 400 yards and touchdowns to offset them. No, Joe Flacco is that guy that he can just keep going and eliminate the last play, forget about it, move on to the next one. And that's why I think it's so special and such a special moment right now for Browns fans because I don't really know how else you explain this season to anybody outside of Cleveland.
We haven't had a quarter. I was reading a stat that the LA Chargers have started four quarterbacks since Drew Brees. The Browns started four quarterbacks in just. It goes beyond, they think they've got it back, any realm of sensibility. But here we are with this team, nine and five and you feel like it is maybe in the best shape it's been all season, even though you're missing.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: It's so weird because it feels like every single week, at some point during the week, you're like, oh my God, it's over, the sky is falling. And somehow this team just keeps on.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Keeping on during this game, through three quarters, I was like, yeah, I'm preparing myself for the show, going, look, at some point, the injuries catch up to you, the attrition of the NFL catches up to you, and there's just nothing else you could do.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: You know what the Browns say to injuries?
[00:18:14] Speaker B: I wouldn't have blamed them for that.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Do you know what the Browns say to injuries? They say f them.
Yeah, right. Injuries don't phase them. And I like that you kept it brief with Joe Flacco. Thank you for that.
Thank you for that. But anyways, we'll move on to the running backs. Jerome Ford. Eight carries for 20 yards, four receptions for eleven yards. Again, don't know why they continue to kind of talk him up like he's going to be some sort of starting, solid starting running back in the NFL due to average 2.7 yards of carry.
So there's that. Not to be outdone, Kareem Hunt, seven carries for eight yards.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: Yikes.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, look, this offense struggled mightily. I mean, this game was basically Joe Flacco's arm, and that was it that you had on offense. So on the flip side of that, our receivers had nice days.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: They did. And we're getting into that right now. We'll start with Amari Cooper. Four receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown. Finally topped 100 yards again. Question mark.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: And a touchdown.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Did I give a question mark? My bad. Run it back. Red flag.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Who added a question mark to the teleprompter?
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. No, but, yeah. Four receptions, 109 yards. You finally got over 100 yards again for the first time in I don't know how many weeks now. It seemed like to start the season for the first five, six weeks, it was every week, and we'd been missing that for a while.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: And to be honest, half of those yards in that touchdown came on one play. But it was fine. A ridiculous, ridiculous. It was the most ridiculous throw I've ever seen a Browns quarterback make. And it was most ridiculous catch I've ever seen.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: A definition of threading a needle.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: I mean, between three guys, the guts.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: To throw that ball.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Amari was, I think, shocked that he caught.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Just kind of squirted out the back of it.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: He was like, oh, God, there's no one around. I guess I could score now.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: I'll walk into the end zone.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Because he was fully prepared to take a hit on that. He had tucked the ball and then he was like, oh, there's no one. They're fighting over the ball still nobody there.
[00:20:12] Speaker C: Nobody tackled me.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was nice.
Next up, David and Joku. Ten receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown. So again, I'm telling you, David and Joku and Amari Cooper get together after practice. They're like, what do you want to do? You want to drop everything this week or you want to catch everything?
What's the game plan?
[00:20:31] Speaker B: What is the point of that?
[00:20:32] Speaker C: His touchdown catch was.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: I mean, and I guess that's kind of, we've talked about Njoku a lot, and we all love Njoku, and we think he has probably the most, in my eyes, at least the most potential, or at least close to the most potential of anybody on this offense that is playing right now, I will add, because Nick Chubb's not in the game, but he has a ton of potential, and it seems like he's never actually been able to reach his.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: There's always some drops to Bones point.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Yeah, there's the drops. But to bone's point, he makes the most ridiculous catches. So, you know, the ability is there, and we just want to see it more consistently. But these types of games is what moves you from, as we've been talking about, it moves you from that fringe tight end, one like potential to be an elite tight end to, okay, now we're talking about he's an elite tight end.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: You start catching eight and ten balls a week. I mean, you're in that. You're in that class now.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: And I think Joe Flacco helps that because I think he does a better job finding the tight end than a lot of our other quarterbacks this year.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: And here's the thing. You look at other tight ends in the league, what they don't have is David Joku's athleticism, because when that guy is in the open field with the ball, it's not that he's the fastest guy on the field, but he's fast enough and he's just big and strong.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: He's big and strong. He has a big enough repertoire of moves because, I mean, he uses the hurdle. He can juke a little mean. He has it all. He's got it all.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: I feel like once a week, you know, like in the movie, we had the big guy who just puts his hand on top of the small guy and he crushes them. I feel like he does that as he's, like, running down the field and, I don't know, it's almost like slow motion sometimes, but he's just like.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: It's incredible to watch.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: I know you guys mentioned the catch in the end zone. But, God, that throw, I mean, the balls it took to make that throw, he just basically said, both those touchdown.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Passes that we just talked about took, like, the biggest balls, didn't it go.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: Through the linebacker's hand?
[00:22:34] Speaker B: He just looked at the backer and said, he's not looking at me. Yeah, and Joku's looking at me. I'm going to trust my guy that I've known for three weeks to just go up the ladder and get this thing on a guy that's not looking at me. And he did. It was amazing.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there's something else. And hopefully anjoku and Cooper can keep playing at this level because it was just fun to watch.
I can't remember the last time a Browns quarterback threw for 374 yards. And both these guys are a big part of it. Next up here, Marquise Goodwin. Yes, you heard that right? Marquise Goodwin. He only had one reception, but it was a big 157 yards on his reception. And he kind of showed that what he's known for, right. Like, he's a burner. That's what he does. And he might only have one or two receptions a game, but it's going to basically, each reception is 50 yards.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: The thing is, that takes the top off the defense, right? I mean, that makes them respect. You finally have a quarterback that can throw that route in the game and you have a guy that could catch it. And I think that was big going down the stretch for this team because then all of a sudden they had to respect that in the last quarter. They were going, oh, we got to make sure that we're keeping everybody in front, back.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: And he's like, I was just thinking that. I feel like that was almost like the play of the game because after that point, it was gloom. I thought it was kind of gloomy before that, and all of a sudden I was like, I didn't even know he was playing. I thought he was hurt, and then, bam, he catches that pass. And exactly like you said, we're good to go.
[00:23:51] Speaker D: Opened it up.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Yeah, we're off to the races again.
But, yeah, I mean, it was fantastic to see, and we've been waiting all season long for Marquise Goodwin to get involved, so I had to point that one out. Next up here, Cedric Tillman. Yeah. Cedric Tillman. Four receptions for 52 yards. So it's really good to see the rookie getting involved here.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: Look, and I think he had one bad drop, but look, he's a rookie, and I think to continue to see him get more targets, more yards, like, have productive performances.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: If we fired guys after bad drops, David and Joku and Amari Cooper would not be on the team for several weeks now.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: No, I just say that to like, if you're getting that kind of production of Njoku and that kind of production of Cooper, and then you can supplement that with a solid day by Tillman and some of these other guys that are here and there just to make first downs.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Well, I don't know about you guys. I've seen enough from Cedric Tillman to be very confident in their. Yeah, he's a solid, I would say possibly number two, but definitely, like a solid number three receiver on roster.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: I think he's already better than where Donovan peoples Jones was.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree with that.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: And if he was a two all year, to me he's a two or one. A almost to Amari.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: You speak of DPJ, and I just want to talk about that for a second. You remember when he got traded and.
[00:25:06] Speaker E: Everybody'S like, oh, he's going to go.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: To the Lions and be so good. Has anybody heard his name since?
[00:25:11] Speaker B: I don't know if he's heard or what, but I have not heard his name.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: I didn't think so.
Yeah, clearly he wasn't that good.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: But Tillman is fielded nicely. I'm really excited about the potential there. I think that he's just going to get better and better and better.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I also have no love for DPJ because he's from Michigan.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: We don't give a damn for the.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Whole state of Michigan. Whole state of Michigan. Whole state of Michigan. We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: We're from Ohio. Nice. Good job, guys. Didn't expect that in the middle of that.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: This is a good rendition.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So that'll take us to the defense, though. The defense looked good in this one. They only gave up ten points because obviously there was the pick six that got them to 17, so they only gave up ten points. Not a lot of yards in this one. They had three sacks, three turnovers forced. If Miles Garrett could get a goddamn call, they would have been even better.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: I mean, Miles Garrett's officially in the same class as, like, LeBron James, right? Where he's so much better than the cop competition.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: The only way to stop him is to hold him.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: The only way stop is hold him. And if they called it on every play, we wouldn't play any games. No, every play is holding.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: I'm not sure which play it was. It might have been. It looked like from afar, it looked like he literally was swung by his face mask.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: A couple of times. It's crazy where he was wrapped up high and held around all the way to the back and flung. I'm like, Miles Garrett doesn't get flung around unless somebody's doing something they're not supposed to.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: No, he's the biggest guy in the field.
You talk about LeBron James. He's every bit like the size of LeBron James. Yeah.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: And he's exactly in that class now because they won't call holding.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Because.
[00:26:53] Speaker C: Are they holding the comments against him right now, you think? I kind of think they are.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: I don't know. Because at some point you got to say it. And I feel like the league doesn't want Miles Garrett to fail. So the refs, we won't get too far into conspiracy theories here, but the refs are controlled by the league. And if the league is saying, hey, you guys are holding a star back and there really are bad calls here, there's no way the refs are going to be like, we're holding this against you.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: I don't know. Does the NFL really want Miles Garrett to succeed?
[00:27:21] Speaker A: He did hit Mason Rudolph with a helmet one time. Yeah.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: I mean, that's still fresh in a lot of people's browns fans memories.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: Well, and then with the racial accusations that came with it afterwards.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Well, and then they magically lost the audio that they have the audio for every moment of every game of all.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: I'm just saying, it's not that one beyond the realm.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: Like I said, let's not get too far.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Doesn't want Miles to be the face of the.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I don't.
The. We'll start with Miles Garrett for the defense. We always do because the defense kind of runs through him. But he looks like he isn't having any trouble with that shoulder anymore.
He did not get a sack in this one, but he was disruptive the whole game, and let's just go ahead and get back into it. If he gets some damn know, people would have stopped holding him. He probably could have had two or three sacks in this one.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: I thought it was nice that Kevin Stefanski came out this week, and finally, for the first time, I can remember him being here, advocated for one of his players instead.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: I agree that was surprising, but it was a breath of fresh air.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Essentially the best defensive player in the league and deserves to be the head of that.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think his exact quote was, he's the best player on the best defense in the league. So he's defensive player of the year, right? Yeah. That was really nice to see that happen once. Next up here. J-O-K. This dude continues to play great football. I mean, especially down the stretch here. The second half of the season, he's been phenomenal. He had six tackles in this one, one sack, two pass breakups, and he was all over the place.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Quickly becoming a household name because he has to be because he's in on every play.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Jim Schwartz getting the most out of J-O-K. What we've been waiting for. Yeah.
[00:28:58] Speaker C: His change of direction and just like, I mean, on that sack, he was back there so fast, and then he can't get whiffed. I feel like nobody's out juking him or running around him or whatever.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: That's almost one of the best things I think that he's done this year is just his ability to recognize a play. Like he'll recognize his matchup and where a lot of guys will wait for a play to develop. He just goes. If he knows I'm one on one against this guy and this guy's fiddling around the backfield, I'm just going to go back there because they're probably throwing a screen or something and then he's always there to blow it up.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: You know what he reminds me of? He reminds me of Nick Chubb. But on, like, as soon as he takes the time to see the field, and that's all the time he takes, as soon as he sees it, he makes a decision and he goes. And that's what JLk does. He takes it all in real quick. He makes a decision and he goes.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: There's a lot of guys playing a backer position that'll sit and squat and squat and squat and squat and wait it out at least until the play hits line of scrimmage, J-O-K is like, no, my guy's back there and it's my assignment.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: I'm going to get him.
It's time. And then next up here, Dalvin Tomlinson. Six tackles of his own, and he seemed to be stuffing the run all night. This dude, for a defensive tackle, he was everywhere.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Look this defensive line. And they've know some of their own injuries here and there where they've had to rotate guys in and out. I think Taki, taki Ika got in the game for the first time, like all year this week. Takitaki and different.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Just making sure you realize for a little bit.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: And then you had Saki Ika in the game for the first time, I think all.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Um.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, look, they've just continued to do as much as they can with a talented group of guys, even though you've had guys like Maurice Hurst go down well.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: And I was going to say, speaking of injuries, ika's return is huge because he was all season long when they drafted him. He was supposed to be counted on as like another piece for that defensive line.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: He wasn't.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: No, he was, what, third round or second or third?
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I think they're expecting production out of him. So, yeah, it was good to see him on the field. But look, you're right, Dallin, Thomason. But this defensive line in general has just played.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Oh, they're phenomenal, outstanding. I don't think people understand how many tackles, six tackles is for a defensive tackle. That's a lot of.
He was tied with the team lead, I believe, which is insane.
Next up, the secondary looked great. Only allowed 166 pass yards and only two passes allowed over 25 yards. The rest was just dinking and dunking.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: The whole game did seem like Denzel was on a bit of a pitch count and he wasn't out there all the time. So that coming back from an injury.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Playing not a great team, hopefully he'll.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: Continue to get healthier and healthier. But I felt like that was where we got burned a little bit in that passing game, which wasn't a ton, but I felt like just him not being able to be out there all the time was.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: I know Newsom was credited with, I think, two or three pass breakups. MJ Emerson got one or two of his own.
Remember, pass breakups aren't like you hit a guy and he dropped the ball. Pass breakups are. You actually get a hand on the ball. So defensive backs played pretty well in this one.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: This defense is good. It's really good.
Just like Joe Flacco. It's the best defense I've seen in a break.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: If you hold everybody to, I'll say, ten points because the pick six is not their fault. If you hold everybody to ten points, you're winning a lot of ball games.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: It's just amazing, though, that despite the fact that they continue to lose guys just like the offense, that they just continue to plug and play, and there doesn't seem to be any drop off.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: No, it is between 1st second. I will say this, I think there's been a tiny bit of drop off from the beginning of the year to now with all the injuries.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Okay, maybe for the entire unit, but I'm talking about, like, from one player to another.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: It's minimal difference.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: You would think that by the time you're on your third string defensive tackle.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: How many times this year have we all said to your point, like, somebody goes down, you're like, oh, gosh, this is not good. And really, you don't even notice the difference. Right.
But that'll take us to special teams. Dustin Hopkins, your boy bone, two for two field goals, two for two extra points, including the game winner.
And so where's the bone meter at?
[00:33:09] Speaker C: It's high.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: He's back. It's got to be an all time high, right?
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Yeah, all time high. Another game winner, right? Game closer, whatever it was. Game winner.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: I mean, solid field goals, extra points, all game.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Are you as hard?
[00:33:22] Speaker C: Never in question.
Yes. Is it safe to say it's Wednesday now? So, I mean, it's cooled off a little bit. So this isn't the day after.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: I will say the game winner was a little sketchy.
[00:33:36] Speaker C: Were you a little scared? I think it was just the one camera.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Did you die?
But did you die?
[00:33:41] Speaker B: If the kick was longer than that, he'd have missed it.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: But it wasn't, so he didn't.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: He just faded it right inside of there. Yeah, he did get it in.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Oh, he's getting close to that record.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We'll talk about that here in just a minute, Zach. All right, so that'll take us to coaching, and we'll start with Stefanski. Yes, Stefanski. I have no idea how we keep winning.
Look, I want to be mad at him for us going into the fourth quarter, losing to a ship Bears team by ten points. But in the end, somehow he finds a way to will this team to victory week after week, despite yet another Browns player going down early in this one with an injury and the team being down to just one original starting offensive lineman from the beginning of the season, when I take a big step back and I just look at all the variables, right? All the injuries that have happened all season long, all the adversity that the Browns have faced, it's truly remarkable that they are in the position that they're in. And I think a lot of that comes down to Kevin Stefanski. And so with as much shit as we give him when he makes boneheaded calls, and we've even been ready for him to get fired in the past, we've called for his firing on a couple different occasions.
I will say this. This season has made me come to respect Kevin Stefanski. Will I still give him shit. When he does dumb things. Absolutely. But I think this man has earned a contract extension here in Cleveland.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I think we're always here to hold truth to power, but I agree with you.
I would say I make the motion before Christmas that he's Stefanski.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: The rest of the year, he's earned it. The rest of the year, he's earned it. Like Travis Benjamin used to do back in the day.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: He's earned his full name back. We can still hold him accountable when he does the wrong thing.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: But what if they lost all three games in a row?
[00:35:35] Speaker B: They won't.
[00:35:35] Speaker C: Who's paying you?
[00:35:39] Speaker B: I'm on the payroll.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Oh, my. It's official.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: I'm carrying. Whatever.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: No, I'm actually, listen, here's the deal. I'm good with it because like I said, he's earned my respect this year. Just the fact, again, with everything that's happened, the fact that this team continues to stick together, and like you said, most of the time it doesn't even seem like we really missed that much of a beat.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Like I said earlier, think about trying to explain this season to another outside of Cleveland.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: You can't explain it. It doesn't make any sense.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: What do you tell them?
Our defense has played really well.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: 25% of our payroll is on injured reserve.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: We've played four quarterbacks.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: We've played four quarterbacks.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: The most recent, just leave it at that. 40 years old.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Just leave it at that. Those three things. And they'd be like, you guys are like one in 14, aren't you? Yeah.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: Like, we're in way worse shape than 80% of this league, and we're nine and five. I mean, you look at the only. Not the power rankings. Look at just the rankings of the NFL. You're, like, in fourth place.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. It's amazing because then you start thinking about, okay, well, Kevin Stefanski did that with this team. And then you start actually wondering about the next year. Like, okay, when everybody's healthy again, imagine what this team could be.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: What's interesting, though, is, I mean, I'm.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Still living in the present. I want to see what happens this year.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: But when I think about the last two years, though, of Stefanski, it's like the first year, Stefanski, really good. And what was the constant theme of that year? It was like, Covid. Adversity, fighting through.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: It's like, there needs to be problems.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: For Kevin, that's when he's at his best, is when he's got his backup together.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: So did we have it wrong. All like, it wasn't that he wasn't good at rallying the team, it's just that he needed to rally them around adversity.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Yeah, he needs adversity to win because last year was kind of a lost year with Deshaun, and then the year before that was the last year with Baker, but there wasn't enough adversity to do anything with because they just expect you to be decent. But this year, all of a sudden, again, it's like there's a fire under this guy. You hear it in the locker room after games. And again, we talked about the press conference where he's calling out miles, saying, hey, this guy deserves respect. It's a different Stefanski than we've seen. So, yes, I make the motion to eat Stefanski the rest of the year, impressed with the job he's done. If they lose the rest, they're nine and five right now. If they lose the rest of their games, that's what happens when a quarter of your team is on the injured reserve.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: All in favor? Yay.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: Aye.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Bone gave us an eye, actually, we.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Took an eye from bone and a yay from us. So I guess that passes. Motion accepted.
Next up here, Jim Schwartz. Look, the defense looked good again, and I will say this, watching this game, I think the defense is starting to get that swagger back that it seemed like they lost for a couple of games.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: The Schwartz swagger.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the Jim Schwartz, Jim Schwartz swagger. And look, they made the Bears play the game the way that the Browns wanted to play the game, but it didn't end up well for the Bears.
So I think this defense will keep us in any game against any opponent in the postseason. Yes. At this point, it's that time.
Fans need to start thinking about the postseason because we are damn close to clinching. In fact, we could possibly do it this week against the Houston Texans.
Kenny, do you have the scenarios on hand by chance?
[00:39:03] Speaker B: I mean, do you want me to run through them?
[00:39:05] Speaker A: I want to hear a couple of them, if you could pull them up real quick.
I know there was a few.
Were there any attainable ones? Let's just start with that.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: So let me just tell you, there are eight total playoff permutations as of right now. So that's a Cleveland win, a Denver loss or tie, plus an Indy loss or tie, plus a Buffalo loss, plus a Miami winner.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Tie.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: That's number one. Two. Cleveland win, Pittsburgh loss or tie. Denver loss or tie. Indy win, Jacksonville loss, three. Cleveland win, Pittsburgh loss or tie. Denver loss or tie. Miami win or tie, plus Buffalo loss. Four Cleveland win, plus Pittsburgh loss or tie, plus Denver loss or tie, plus Miami winner. Tie, plus Indianapolis loss, five. Cleveland win, plus Pittsburgh loss or tie, plus Denver loss or tie, plus Miami winter tie, plus Jacksonville loss. Six Cleveland win, plus Pittsburgh loss, plus Buffalo loss, plus Miami winter tie, plus Indianapolis win, plus Jacksonville loss. Seven. Cleveland win, plus Pittsburgh loss, plus Buffalo loss, plus Kansas City win, plus Indianapolis win, plus Jacksonville loss. And finally, Cleveland win, plus Pittsburgh tie, plus Buffalo loss, plus Indianapolis win, plus Jacksonville loss.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: The crazy part is, if you were able to keep up with all of that, several of those are pretty.
That could happen because a number of those teams that you were saying, like, in different scenarios, they had to win or lose given the scenario, right?
[00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: A lot of those teams are, like, right there in the middle where they're like, they could win or lose every game. You don't know. It's like 50 50.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Number two seems really probable to me. That's Cleveland win and a Pittsburgh loss. Or tight. Let's just call it a loss. Let's call it Pittsburgh loss, a Denver loss, Indianapolis win, and a Jacksonville loss.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: No reason that couldn't happen.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Trevor Lawrence's concussion.
[00:40:48] Speaker C: Is playing Mason Rudolph.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: That's always a loss.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: They're going to lose. So then it just comes down to, can Gardner Minshew win and can Denver lose?
So, yeah, there's some very plausible scenarios here. It's just right now, because of the timing, there's a lot of things that have to happen to actually clinch the playoff berth. But that being said, guys, we're in December before Christmas, and we're talking about the Browns clinching a playoff berth.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty wild.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: What happened?
[00:41:15] Speaker A: What a Christmas present this is. Where are we?
[00:41:16] Speaker C: This is freaking nuts.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: What year is it?
[00:41:18] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy. So again, we'll get back into playoff talk here in a minute, but bottom line, for this whole thing, we got off the rails a little bit, but the defense is fantastic. Way to go. Jim Schwartz and finally, Bubba Ventron. The special teams continues to look solid. I think between the defense and the special teams, I think they're both still ranked number one overall for their.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: What's Dustin Hopkins hit? Five game winners this year.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: He's the best there is, plain and simple. Except for that dude down in Dallas. Dallas, that dude's pretty good. But Dustin Hopkins is the second best kicker in the league. I accept. So, overall on this one, total yard. Chicago, 236. Cleveland, 377. 1st down. Chicago, twelve, Cleveland, 14. It's amazing. We only have 14 1st downs with 377 yards. Time of possession, Chicago 29 minutes. Even, Cleveland 31 minutes. Penalties, Chicago four for 19, Cleveland nine for 48. And turnovers, Chicago and Cleveland both had three.
We already talked about this, but the way they keep winning despite these injuries is amazing. And I'm not going to get back into it. I just want to just put it out there again because marinate. Every time I think about it, I'm just like, I don't understand how this team continues to win games, but they do. And you're confident watching it. I know it was a little iffy for three quarters of this game, but basically, to Bone's point, as soon as they hit Marquise goodwin long play, you're like, yeah, we're going to win this game. It's time.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Look, I never felt like we were out of this game even when we were losing. It just felt like they just hadn't started playing football.
Weird. It's such a weird position to be in because I'm elated and excited about this team in a playoff run. I actually feel good about where the rest of the league is compared to where we are in terms of can we play with some of these other teams? I mean, I don't see, there's not a team that I'm afraid of right now. I would put this Browns team up against any other team, and half the time they win. Half the time we win.
But at the same time, I'm like, none of this is sustainable. This can't happen again next year. Like, we can't lose a quarter of our roster, not have a starting quarterback all year.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Well, it's funny because I think we actually talked about it on the podcast in the offseason, in the early offseason, and I said that last year's Browns team had statistically one of the most unlucky seasons of all time because luck does play a part in winning, like, every close game, every scenario that could possibly go against them did, and it was detrimental. Whereas I think this year, I don't think we're having the best luck by any stretch of the imagination because obviously personnel for sure, but I think that we're having just better luck.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: The ball bounces your way a little.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I think that if you look at that, because there actually are things you can look up for luck of the team, 50 50 things that go their way. And we're like, right there in the middle this year.
[00:44:19] Speaker B: They make up new statistics every day.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. 99% of statistics are made up on the spot.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: And I love the statistics now that when their quarterback throws a bad pass, it's an interceptable ball. Whether it was intercepted or not. He threw an interceptable ball.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: That's an OD example that you have tracking. Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, you can look at those things. And as far as luck goes, the browns are kind of like, right there in that 50, like right in the middle of the league. And so just with that little bit of luck coming our way, I think that helps you. It kind of puts you over the edge. And a lot of those things that went against us last year, I just.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: Feel like Joe Flacco is the good luck charm.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Well, yeah, he's only been here for a couple of games.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: It's the right time, the right place, the right system, the right coaching staff.
I mean, hell, even the weather has played a factor in December in Cleveland. There could be a foot of snow on the ground, and these games could be just.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: And you want to talk about luck? Let's talk about these next few weeks. You got CJ Strouds not playing for the Texans this weekend.
Bone, what were the other two that you were?
[00:45:21] Speaker C: I think the jets are. What is it, Zach? What's his face? It's going to be the starter.
[00:45:25] Speaker E: Yep.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Aaron Rogers said he's not coming back because they've been eliminated from the playoffs.
[00:45:29] Speaker C: Jamar Chase is out.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: Jamar Chase is like, talk about just browning a quarterback. Yeah. The planets aligning for the Cleveland Browns. I mean, hell, they could win out.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Very easily. That's what's so strange about this team is they could win out or they could lose out, and neither one of those would surprise me. But this team feels like they could beat anybody on a roster right now.
[00:45:52] Speaker A: And so with this win, though, the Browns chance of making the playoffs now stand at 88.9%.
One more win should get them in, even if that doesn't clinch it this week. One more win as the season plays out should get them in.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: And I think they win at least two more of these three games.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: I would agree with that. And they also now have the 10th best ods of winning the Super bowl at plus 5500. Don't know what ods mean? I'll be honest with you, I'm not a betting man, so I have no idea what ods actually mean. But this also equates to about a 1.8% chance of winning it all. And so what I have to say is, you're telling me there's a chance.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: I read you.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I'm pretty excited about this. The fact that they're probably, if they don't clinch this week, assuming they win one of these next two games, that's when they'll clinch.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: If the Browns win the next two games, do they rest their starters in week 18?
[00:46:45] Speaker A: Are we actually talking about a Cleveland Brown team resting? Well, because at that point, it might not matter seating wise. You might just be, like, the top wild card, and then it doesn't matter where you're at. Yeah.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: No one's going to catch you, and it doesn't matter if you win or lose.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Holy hell.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Do you rest a 40 year old Joe Flacco?
[00:47:02] Speaker A: You almost have to. And you're still trying to get DT.
[00:47:04] Speaker C: Bengals will be. Be probably fighting for playoff chances, right?
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're still trying to get DTR some.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: Yeah. It's fucking wild to even think about, man. I don't even know.
[00:47:13] Speaker C: Or it could be the difference of playing Jacksonville or Kansas City in the first. You know, something silly like that.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: I will say this. The thing that I keep hearing over and over and over again, though, is that it's sure fact that Flacco's gone and Deshaun Watson's your quarterback next guy. Still early. We haven't made the playoffs yet, but if this team makes a run in the playoffs, I don't know how you can at least explore the option in the offseason of having.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Well, even the fact that. Here's what people don't understand, and I don't care how mad Deshaun Watson may be at this, but let's just play the scenario. Joe Flacco takes the Browns on a magical run, and they win the Super bowl. Yeah. Right.
Why wouldn't you bring him back and make him the starter and say, we're already paying Deshaun Watson so he's the backup when Joe Flacco retires in maybe a year. Sure. Then Deshaun Watson's the starter again.
[00:48:03] Speaker E: Right.
[00:48:03] Speaker B: I mean, keep playing winning balls as long as, you.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: Know, I like Deshaun, and I think Deshaun still has more in him than what we've seen him do for the Cleveland Browns. But at the same time, I mean, you ride the hot hand, and maybe.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: That is a good thing for Deshaun to not have a. The pressure of being the starter right away next season and to have a chip on his shoulder to go, I'm getting beat out right now by Joe.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Fucking at the time. It'll be a 39 year old man.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: I got to get my life together.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: I'm literally like ten years younger than this guy. Yeah.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: I mean, start showing these guys at practice and things that you are the man. And that way when you get into a game, there's no talk of rust or, I haven't played in this long. No, it doesn't matter anymore. Be the best player on the field. And right now, Joe Flacco, for all intents and purposes, has been the best quarterback on the field for the Browns all season long.
[00:48:57] Speaker C: Wouldn't you love to be able to fly on the wall, like, in the receiver room, hear them actually talk?
[00:49:03] Speaker B: How could they not be excited about flat?
[00:49:05] Speaker C: Are they candid about it? You know what I mean? Exactly.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: I feel like they save that for when they get away from the.
[00:49:11] Speaker C: Yeah, probably they're not talking the facilities.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: Like they say when they're hanging out by themselves.
Maybe just with their wife, consistently throws for 300 yards.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: If you're a receiver, how do you not love?
[00:49:22] Speaker A: That's all. I've been begging for it all year. Like, literally every week, I'm like, I wish somebody would throw for 300 yards. Oh, and by the way, I'll save that for just a second. I added it to the. We'll talk about a second. But anyways, we'll move on to Dustin Hopkins here because we're going to be talking about Joe Flacco again in just a second. So Dustin Hopkins is up to 121 points scored this season for the Browns.
Does anyone remember what the single season franchise record for a kicker previously was? And I said previously, oh, my goodness. He broke it. He broke it. It was 120 by Phil Dawson in 2007. So dhop is your new franchise record holder for points in a season. Yeah.
And then the single season franchise record for any player is 126 by Jim Brown in 1960.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: Go down this week.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: So I fully expect the new Cleveland Browns franchise record holder for points in a season after this week to be Dustin Hopkins.
[00:50:18] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Who had that on our bingo card?
[00:50:21] Speaker A: Damn, what a story this guy's been now that he's broken Phil Dawson's record, I saw in a couple of different Cleveland publications this week, it finally got some traction. We've been talking about it for weeks. I've been tracking this thing, but they finally picked it up and said, man, what a story Dustin Hopkins is. This know everybody's talking about Joe Flacco right now because he's the quarterback and the quarterbacks obviously are a bigger story in general. But Dustin Hopkins, just the resurgence in his career, and he came to Cleveland and literally had the best season of his career in Cleveland to be fair.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: The question I keep asking you guys, how do you explain this team to someone else outside of Cleveland is defense has played out of their minds.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Don't tell them how many kicks he's had. Just tell him Dustin Hopkins is your kicker after being cut by the chargers. It was the Chargers, right?
[00:51:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: So tell him that we had to cut our starting kicker and bring in Dustin Hopkins.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: But he's been the key. It's Dustin Hopkins making every kick and the defense playing out of their mind.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Yep. And so regardless of him breaking Phil Dawson's record, I'm going to continue tracking this one for bone man over here so we can see where he ends up. Like I said, fully expect him to break Jim Brown's record this week. That's a big deal for any Cleveland Brown. I don't care who you are.
And bone kind of wild. I think the bone meter is going to break it.
[00:51:43] Speaker C: Kind of wild.
[00:51:45] Speaker B: The bone meter has to explode.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Look, earlier in this episode, I mentioned an extension for Stefanski and we gave his name back for the rest of the year. Look, let's get this man an extension while we're at it. Like, make him your kicker for the next, like, six years.
I'm ready. Dude. Literally is breaking the franchise record for points. How can you not?
[00:52:13] Speaker C: How old is he?
[00:52:14] Speaker A: I think he's like 32 or 33.
He's not, like, old, but he's not young.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: Yeah, he's not old, but he's not young.
[00:52:21] Speaker A: A six year contract might be pushing it. Maybe like a three year contract.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Lock him up either way.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:26] Speaker C: Five year, $230,000,000 contract for our kicker.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: Worth more than the other one.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: Absolutely. So that'll take us to the bird of sportscast dog of the weekend.
[00:52:53] Speaker B: Doesn't matter, man.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: You got to play tough, people in the National Football League.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: You got to be ready, and we.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Got to be the dogs that we are every time we step on there.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: On Sunday and be ready to attack.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: And don't stop until we're in that locker room.
Okay, so for the third consecutive week, the burning river sportscast dog of the week is Joe Flacco. As we mentioned earlier, 28 of 44, 374 yards, two touchdowns. He did throw three interceptions. As I mentioned earlier, he did make some mistakes, but he stayed calm and just kept battling. And my God, did he show up in the fourth quarter. And I will say this, Brian Sype.
He matched another feat accomplished by Brian Sype. He is the first Browns quarterback to throw back to back 300 yard games since Brian Sype in 1980. And so, kenny, I let you do this a little bit earlier, but I'm going to turn things completely over to you right now because I know how excited you are for Joe Flacco. So I just want to hear it. Just tell us all about Joe Flacco. Tell us what's in your heart. Right?
[00:54:15] Speaker B: I just. There's nothing but love in this heart, right?
Man, everything about this feels like a movie. It feels like this was the team of down and outers that nobody really had faith in, that has faced all kinds of adversity all year long. And Joe Flacco comes around and just writes the ship.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: This is wild, hearing it come out of your mouth.
[00:54:40] Speaker B: As the defense struggled, a 38 year old Joe Flacco comes in and says, that's okay. You guys are struggling. I'll pick it up. I'll throw for 300 yards a game. We'll get some extra time on the clock, keep you guys off the field. Everything's fine, and everything's fine. And I think this whole team believes now that they have a veteran at the helm, that they are never out of a game. I mean, we've talked cardiac kids a couple of times in this episode. It's true. Like, this is cardiac kids 2.0. I never feel like they're out of a game, this team, I expect them, when there's less than two minutes left in the game, they should win the game.
And it's just amazing what this guy's doing at 38, because we have looked for decades for a franchise quarterback, and it's almost like just by the sheer luck of just everything that's happened this year, a guy that was a good franchise quarterback ended up on our team through no reason other than just absolute chance. And it's like I finally feel like what other teams feel like they have a good was. I was a big baker guy. I thought Baker had a lot of potential.
I feel more comfortable with Joe Flacco behind the helm than ever felt with any quarterback.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Joe Flacco is to Cleveland what Santa Claus is to children all over the world. He really know.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: He's just giving gifts and eating cookies, man.
[00:56:03] Speaker C: Is it real?
[00:56:04] Speaker A: He's a big fat man in a red.
No, I mean, I said it at the top of the show, but we believe. We believe.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: I do.
Every Cleveland moniker, he is just embodies it. Embodies all of it. And he's a leader, he's a gunslinger. He's not afraid of anything. He's not afraid to make a mistake. He's not afraid to come back from one. And we've seen so many quarterbacks crumble under every other variable in this game for the last 22, 23 years. This is the only guy that brings it every week, and he doesn't care. He's just here to play football.
[00:56:43] Speaker C: I have a confession.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: What do you got?
[00:56:45] Speaker C: I lost hope during that game for a little bit. I was like, dude. I was like, we're down four or five linemen. I'm like, he just can't overcome. Like, there's just too much going on. It's just looking bleak. I'm like, he's coming down to earth a little bit, and then he hits that pass to a good one.
[00:57:01] Speaker A: Well, Joe Flacco. Joe Flacco put you right in your place, bone man.
[00:57:06] Speaker C: He did. And I was so happy. I was so freaking happy.
[00:57:09] Speaker A: He learned.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: You don't forget.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Joe Flacco is unbelievable. It's just wild.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: I mean, what are the chances, too, that you're heading in, you're into December, and you have a quarterback that played in Baltimore for a decade, won a Super bowl, played his college ball in Delaware. Like, this guy's built for the AFC north in the playoffs and snow and wet and rain and cold, and he's here now, and he's showing you that he's still got gas in the tank and he's on your team.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:38] Speaker B: I'd put him up against any quarterback right now in the division and in the league.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: I mean, he just threw for 374 yards. Yeah. I feel good about him.
[00:57:46] Speaker B: The only quarterback that played better than him last week was Baker Mayfield.
[00:57:49] Speaker C: Yeah, that was nice.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: I'll take one dig at Baker real quick, is the best thing about Joe Flacco. Right. So he came back in this game. Remarkable comeback. And what did he say in his post game press conference? You already talked about it, is he said, you know, I made some mistakes, and those were bad, and we can't have those if we're going to win games. Baker Mayfield, he'd have been like, I don't matter. We won the game. So I was cooking in the fourth Quarter, and they got to watch it.
[00:58:19] Speaker B: I mean, he was cooking at Lambo. He's the only quarterback to ever have a perfect game at Lambeau outside of Aaron Rogers.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: That's fine.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: Ever.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: I know. Every time.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: Ever. Every single 388 yards forward, touchdowns, 22, 28, ever.
[00:58:35] Speaker A: I don't care.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: And we were like, you know what? Let's get a sex predator.
[00:58:39] Speaker A: I don't care. Baker Mayfield, every single time he has one good game, he's been garbage most of the season.
[00:58:47] Speaker B: No, he has. He's thrown for 3500 yards, 25 touchdowns and like, seven interceptions. Are you stupid?
He's by himself. Better than all Browns quarterbacks collectively for the year.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: No.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Yes. If you had his production, we've already went through this. You're up 40 or 50 more points for the entire season.
[00:59:03] Speaker A: You do know he plays for another team, right? Yeah.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: That's in first place in their division.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Like one of the worst divisions in football. Okay.
[00:59:08] Speaker B: They're still in first place in their division. And a guy that's going to probably win. A guy that's probably. I don't know why you're still fighting. He's probably going to win comeback player of the year. You're the only one that's not saying, well, Baker sucks.
[00:59:21] Speaker E: We would have not been better off.
[00:59:22] Speaker B: With Baker, even though we would have.
[00:59:23] Speaker E: Scored 50 more points as a team.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: Oh, he had a perfect game of lamb, but the only person ever to do was Aaron Rogers.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: He sucks. You suck. You bring him up every show.
[00:59:30] Speaker B: You have to bring him up because.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: Talk about how Baker were here right now.
[00:59:35] Speaker B: You'd be the number one seed in the NFL right now, but you got kids running your front office.
The thing Deshaun Watson apparently walks on.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: Well, agree to disagree, I guess. I don't think Baker Mayfield's the answer.
[00:59:52] Speaker B: Well, he's clearly not going to be.
[00:59:53] Speaker A: Now.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: Joe Flacco is going to have to be the answer. And I'm happy with Joe Flacco. I'm just saying you were building something with a sustainable quarterback. That could be great.
[01:00:02] Speaker A: We had a really good thing going here. And then you got into Baker Mayfield.
[01:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, I'm just telling you, this has.
[01:00:07] Speaker A: Been a great show.
[01:00:07] Speaker B: 22 or 28. Three eightyat four touchdowns. No picks.
Feeling dangerous. Too dangerous for you.
[01:00:15] Speaker A: All right, so that'll take us to the division roundup.
Ready? Down. Put.
All right. So this week in the AFC north, the Ravens dominated the Jaguars 23 to seven.
I was the only one that picked the Jaguars in this one. So you guys were both right and I was wrong.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: Feels bad.
[01:00:43] Speaker A: To be fair. Trevor Lawrence got concussed.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: He did.
[01:00:47] Speaker A: That will never win you a game.
Concussions are bad. Okay, next up, the Steelers lost to the Colts 30 to 13. And Mike Tomlin, for the second year in a row, is in danger of finishing under 500 for the first time in his career. They're currently seven and seven frauds.
[01:01:04] Speaker B: If you go eight and nine, though, in the new under 500, doesn't matter, does it really? Count, though.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, counts.
[01:01:10] Speaker B: Because if you won eight games before the.
[01:01:12] Speaker A: Are you under 500? Game, are you under 500? But then you're always, do they change records?
[01:01:18] Speaker B: But you can't beat 500. You're either over or under now.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: If you win eight games, you still won eight games.
[01:01:25] Speaker A: It doesn't matter. You're under 500.
[01:01:28] Speaker B: I guess typically a bad letter of the law. I'm just saying, visually, looks like, is eight and nine worse than eight and eight?
[01:01:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:01:40] Speaker C: Isn't it crazy? They're, like, actively talking about getting rid of Mike Tomlin.
[01:01:43] Speaker A: Oh, we're getting to that. Don't jump the gun, bone. We're getting to that. Don't worry. But anyways, bone man and I were right in this one. Kenny, you were wrong.
You picked the Steelers.
[01:01:55] Speaker B: Well, I had to play Mason Rudolph.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: We've already mentioned how that's never good.
And next up, the Bengals beat the Vikings and are making a playoff push of their own. Surprisingly, with Jake Browning, a quarterback, and we were all right in this one. After a few weeks of his decent play, we picked him and his team over the Vikings, who have no idea who's playing quarterback at any given time.
And they beat them pretty easily.
And then finally, we have the Browns beat the Bears in a close one. And we were all right in that as well. And so, for the AFC north, the standings are as follows. In order. Baltimore in first place at eleven and three, Cleveland in second place at nine and five, Cincinnati in third place at eight and six, and Pittsburgh in last place, which is always fun to say at seven and seven.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: I hate Pittsburgh.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And so for king of the north, which we'll talk more about later, let's just update you on the records. Bone man has taken over first place alone.
[01:02:55] Speaker D: Whoa.
[01:02:56] Speaker A: 27 and 20. I am in second place, currently at 26 and 21. And Kenny is bringing up the rear at 21 and 26. Very long shot that he won't come in last again.
So with that, let's take a quick trip around the NFL.
So this week, in the NFL, more coaches have been fired. Last week, the Chargers fired, which we missed on our show because it happened after the show recorded. But the Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco.
[01:03:47] Speaker B: Well, they got to be like 100 to zero.
[01:03:49] Speaker A: Well, yeah, it was bad. It was real bad. It was 42 nothing at halftime. Yeah, they've had a pretty bad, pretty disappointing year. And then that happened. So, yeah, everybody had to go, so they got rid of everybody. And it looks like more coaches will be losing their jobs soon. Fresh off a loss to the God awful Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank was asked about head coach Arthur Smith's future with the team, and all he would say is, we'll let the season play out and go from there.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: I can't wait until he's fired because the fact that the owner and the head coach are both Arthur just bothers me and it confuses me. I just need them to have a normal name for their head coach so that I can distinguish between the two.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: Fair. But that's not good if all that the owner will say is, we'll see what happens.
[01:04:33] Speaker B: Well, it's never good for a vote of competence, either.
[01:04:35] Speaker A: No, good answer, point blank. Will he be the coach next year? I don't know.
[01:04:39] Speaker B: The fact that people are asking the question is the problem.
[01:04:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Another place that seems to be going off the rails despite a win this week is Indianapolis. They announced this week that they have suspended receiver Isaiah Mackenzie and cornerback Tony Brown for three games each for conduct detrimental to the team, which ends both of their seasons. It's very rare that NFL teams suspend their own players. Typically, the suspensions come down from the NFL and not from the organization themselves.
[01:05:06] Speaker B: Unless they know something that's, yeah, something.
[01:05:09] Speaker A: Bad happened there, and I'm kind of curious to see what comes out here. But again, not good.
And earlier we mentioned that Mike Tomlin may finish the season under 500. And as our board op astutely pointed out, it's crazy that people in Pittsburgh are actually talking about firing this man, but it's happening. People in Pittsburgh are indeed calling for his job. And as always, I will say, I will be the first one to please, please fire Mike Tomlin. Please fire Mike Tomlin because I don't want to have to deal with him twice a year.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: We just went over this in facts for days last week. His career statistics are almost identical to Bill Cowers.
[01:05:50] Speaker A: Nobody called for Bill Cowers.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: 170 wins, 100 losses, and a tie in a Super bowl. But people act like cower walks on water.
[01:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there's people in Cleveland that are.
[01:06:00] Speaker B: Still are excited about Bill Cower buying a house in Strongsville.
[01:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah, he's coming to Cleveland. He's coming. He's coming.
And to add insult to injury, now people in Pittsburgh are going after George Pickens, arguably the best player on their team, for his effort. Well, maybe second best TJ Watts, the best player. But for his effort and emotions during games after this past week, he appeared to not attempt to block somebody on the goal line and then later stated, when asked about it, that he didn't block on that play because he didn't want to get rolled up on and injured.
Look, that part of it's bad. You definitely need to put in some effort. But the fact that at this point they're trying to run him out of town, essentially.
Dude's a premier talent on a shit team with shit quarterbacks. Of course he's pissed off and doesn't want to give it at all, but yeah, please get rid of him, too, because I'd like to not have to deal with George Pickens twice a year.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he's the only good player on their offense. If he could go, that would be great.
[01:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah, they would lose every game from here on out for the foreseeable future. And speaking of the foreseeable future, get rid of those two guys. Make the Steelers the bottom features, features bottom feeders of the AFC north for the foreseeable future and it'd just be great. Just give them a taste of what the Browns have been feeling for the past, what, three decades.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[01:07:19] Speaker A: So it would just be phenomenal. Because there's no fans that suck. Pittsburgh fans, they suck, man. Because not only will they tell you how your team sucks, but when they suck, they'll say, but we have this many Super Bowls and you don't. I mean, what's the number.
[01:07:38] Speaker B: Six?
[01:07:39] Speaker A: Seven?
[01:07:39] Speaker B: We don't care because there's always stairway to seven. But I think Tommy won the 7th, right?
[01:07:44] Speaker A: I don't know, but either way they just sit there and rub their Super Bowls in your face from years past and they haven't won one since what, 2011?
[01:07:51] Speaker C: Yeah, before the end of the world. We're probably never catching that. I'm just saying.
[01:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I would probably agree with that.
[01:07:58] Speaker B: Flacco place, at least 45.
[01:08:00] Speaker A: That's true. He wins seven in a row.
But yeah, I mean, the Steelers, I'm just so glad that they suck.
[01:08:07] Speaker B: Look, I think the Steelers, they need to fire Mike Tomlin because they need to understand what it's like to have to change things up because as soon.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: As they fire Mike Tomlin, you know what's going to happen. They're going to go through like 40.
[01:08:16] Speaker B: Coaches and that's what I'm saying. They don't realize how bad it can be because it is so hard to find the right guy and the right staff.
[01:08:24] Speaker A: And guess what Mike Tomlin's going to do? He's going to get a job somewhere else and he's going to win instantly.
[01:08:29] Speaker B: Because he's a good coach.
[01:08:30] Speaker C: You know what's going to happen is they're going to get rid of Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh is going to come in and just be a stud and then dominate again.
[01:08:36] Speaker A: Great.
The Harbaughs, you know what I'm saying?
[01:08:39] Speaker B: That's terrible.
[01:08:41] Speaker A: Well, especially with all the stuff coming down on him right now. He's definitely leaving.
[01:08:45] Speaker B: He's definitely going to the NFL.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: He gone.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: If things went worse for Stefanski, I'd be on the hardball train right now.
[01:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I agree. Sure.
[01:08:52] Speaker B: But the Browns have done okay, so I guess we're stuck.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: Actually don't agree with. We're stuck with Stefanski.
[01:08:58] Speaker C: I hate John Harbaugh.
[01:08:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I take it back. I don't agree with that because he's the coach of Michigan and I hate him.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: Okay, but he won't be when he retires. I hate him when he leaves there.
[01:09:06] Speaker A: I don't care. I hate him. I just said I don't like DPJ because we don't give a damn for the whole state. We sang this song. We sang this song.
[01:09:12] Speaker B: I know, and I like the song and I'll sing it again. But I think that he's the best coach out there for a prospective NFL team that wants to win.
[01:09:19] Speaker A: Now, what about Mike Tomlin?
[01:09:21] Speaker B: That is not an NFL head coach.
[01:09:23] Speaker A: He's going to be fired, though.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so if I had to interview Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh for the same position next year to be the coach of the Carolina Panthers, I'd have a hard time making that decision.
[01:09:33] Speaker A: All right, well, okay. Next up here, Aaron Rodgers. We spent too much time in the Steelers. I don't like it. Aaron Rodgers has announced that with the jets eliminated from the playoffs, he will not be returning this season from a ruptured achilles. Dude, if he would have returned because he was talking about it. He said if they were still in playoff contention and they needed to make a push at the end of the season, he was going to return it. He actually just got. He's not fully medically cleared, but he got cleared to practice and all that stuff this past week.
[01:09:58] Speaker B: Was this whole thing just a ruse?
[01:10:00] Speaker A: That's possible. He actually said on a podcast, wanting.
[01:10:03] Speaker B: To be center of attention, he actually.
[01:10:04] Speaker A: Said on another show this week that he said, realistically he was never going to be 100% before the end of the season, but he was going to give it a go even at like 70% because he thought 40% of him.
[01:10:17] Speaker B: Was better than Zach Wilson, which is probably true.
[01:10:19] Speaker A: That's probably true. Very true.
I'm a little disappointed that they aren't still in playoff contention because that would have been one of the most remarkable stories I've ever heard. That a dude came back from a ruptured Achilles after three months and then.
[01:10:32] Speaker B: On the third play he reruptured his Achilles.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: That would have been even crazier. Story.
[01:10:36] Speaker B: The amount of money that they spent in draft picks.
[01:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that would have been wild. It just ended his career.
Yeah, I don't know. But speaking of quarterbacks, Drew Locke started for the Seahawks this week and led a game winning drive with a minute 52 remaining.
[01:10:49] Speaker B: Did you watch this game?
[01:10:50] Speaker A: No, I did not.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: It was really impressive. Like, I'm not a Drew Locke fan. I know he has a losing record overall as a starting quarterback, but it was a gutsy, gutsy effort at the end of that game.
[01:11:02] Speaker A: With a minute 52 remaining, they got the ball back. He threw on all ten snaps of the final drive and went 92 yards for the touchdown to defeat one of the top teams in the NFL in the Philadelphia.
[01:11:14] Speaker B: They're streaking right now, man. They're having a hard time.
[01:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah, they are. But they're still one of the better teams.
[01:11:22] Speaker B: Sure.
[01:11:22] Speaker A: He did that in the last minute and 52. Yeah.
[01:11:25] Speaker B: It feels bad to be beat by Drew Locke.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: And who caught? While we're talking, we've had a lot of Ohio State and Michigan talk this week. So who caught the winning touchdown?
[01:11:34] Speaker B: It was a fly down the right sideline to Jackson, Smith and Jigba.
[01:11:38] Speaker A: Former Buckeye and rookie standout wide receiver Jackson, Smith and Jigba.
[01:11:44] Speaker B: When I say he caught the back half of the ball, oh, it was mean. It was the back half of the ball.
[01:11:50] Speaker A: Dude's got hands.
[01:11:51] Speaker B: He stretched all the way out and that was still all he could get was the back half of the ball. But he pulled it in.
[01:11:57] Speaker A: And I will say this is a pretty big deal for Drew Locke, but does this mean the end of the Gino Smith comeback? Is it officially over? Are they going with Drew Locke?
[01:12:04] Speaker B: I don't think so because Gino didn't get benched. Gino's hurt. So Gino was on the sidelines.
[01:12:09] Speaker A: Hasn't he been playing? Not that well this year, though.
[01:12:11] Speaker B: He hasn't been.
[01:12:12] Speaker A: Not like terrible. He just came back down to earth.
[01:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he hasn't been as good this year. I forget where he ranks overall, but he hasn't necessarily been bad either.
Where does he end up? Here Gino is 3000 yards, 15 touchdowns, nine picks.
[01:12:32] Speaker A: So he's like middle of the road.
[01:12:33] Speaker B: Middle of the road.
[01:12:34] Speaker A: Yeah. More quarterback news here, though. Brock Purdy is still the favorite to win MVP this season, and I just can't believe it's going to happen at this point. It's pretty much a lock, especially if they beat the Ravens this week. He's going to win MVP. Mr. Irrelevant is going to win MVP. As much as I don't think that Brock Purdy is a great quarterback by any stretch of the imagination, I think this is pretty awesome that we're going to see the last pick in the draft win an MVP.
[01:13:05] Speaker B: I love it. I love his story. I hope we beat them again if we have to play them in the Super bowl. But I'm still not convinced that he's going to win the MVP. I still think even though they had came off a bad loss this week, I still think Dak Prescott has a shot to win MVP. His numbers are almost identical to Brock Purdy and they just get.
[01:13:24] Speaker A: But they're lower in every category. We do have three games to play, though, and the 49 ers, I think, have the tougher schedule.
[01:13:31] Speaker B: I mean, he's thrown for 100 more yards than deck and one more touchdown. Everything else is like identical.
[01:13:36] Speaker A: I thought he had a few more. Few less picks, too.
[01:13:38] Speaker B: No, seven picks. Seven picks and 28 and 29 touchdowns.
And I just think that that Dallas team is really playing good football right now, even though they just came off a bad loss, I think in Buffalo, but they have a losing record against.
[01:13:52] Speaker A: Teams with winning records.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: I think know the whole can't. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. It's saying America's team, Dallas Cowboys, they get every primetime game. The NFL loves the Cowboys. The NFL wants Dak Prescott to win more than Brock Purdy to win.
[01:14:09] Speaker A: That's fair. I just hate the Cowboys.
[01:14:12] Speaker B: I don't like the Cowboys either.
[01:14:14] Speaker A: It adds more to it than it's the Cowboys and the 49 ers.
[01:14:17] Speaker B: But the fact that even that he's in the conversation to win MVP is incredible.
[01:14:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's phenomenal.
[01:14:23] Speaker B: It's an incredible story.
And he's probably one of those guys that we're going to deal with for years to come.
[01:14:30] Speaker A: And speaking of awesome things happening, Danny DeVito, your boy made an unpaid appearance at a New Jersey pizzeria after a.
[01:14:39] Speaker C: Is his name Tommy?
[01:14:43] Speaker A: Danny DeVito. I called him Danny DeVito. Tommy DeVito, you got me.
Even the MacBook auto corrected it to Danny DeVito. Nobody knows who Tommy is. Tommy DeVito made an unpaid appearance at a New Jersey pizzeria after. We'll call it a misunderstanding with DeVito's agent.
So basically, what happened again, we're talking about the dude in the pinstripes. In case anybody hasn't seen it on the sideline, we're talking about that dude. He's well dressed. Yeah, if you're in the mob.
Exactly.
[01:15:15] Speaker C: Want to talk to my clients?
[01:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. If you're in the mob during prohibition, then he dresses very well. But basically, what happened, according to the pizza shop owner, was that Devito's agent agreed in principle to an appearance by DeVito for 2 hours, 250 autographs, $10,000. That was the agreement. However, when Tommy DeVito led the Giants to a comeback victory over the packers on Monday Night Football last week, the agent called back and said that they hadn't signed anything yet, and so nothing was in place, and the price had now doubled to $20,000. It's like classic mob move. The price just went up.
Basically, what happened was the pizzeria owner went on Instagram, made a post about it, ended up gaining traction, going viral. DeVito saw it, and he went in and did the appearance for free.
And again, it's that shady dude in the pinstripe suit.
That dude thinks he's slick. He legitimately thinks this is the 1920s, and he's just, like bone said, just going into a shakedown. Like, the price has now doubled.
This is what happens. I just don't know. This whole thing is out of, like, a bad movie.
[01:16:31] Speaker C: Twenty K and a free pepperoni pizza.
[01:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Filthy animal.
[01:16:37] Speaker A: I just don't understand.
The Tommy DeVito story continues to just get, like, it's a legend. It's just otter and otter. It's like the legend of Joe Flacco. It just continues to grow.
[01:16:49] Speaker B: Just.
[01:16:52] Speaker A: You guys have anything else to add about.
[01:16:55] Speaker C: That's nice of him to. Whatever, kind of make it right. Come do the.
[01:16:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I wonder if he's, like, my damn agent again. First he was on the sideline looking like a 1920s mobster, and I had to. There's memes upon memes upon memes about that.
[01:17:12] Speaker B: I mean, I think you kind of have to fire him at this point, don't you?
[01:17:16] Speaker A: I would.
It's playing into bad.
[01:17:21] Speaker B: Nothing about the optics here have been positive.
[01:17:23] Speaker A: No, it's just playing into bad, bad everything. Bad optics, bad stereotypes. Just bad everything.
[01:17:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the stereotypes is the worst part of the whole thing, because, I don't know. I feel like I can't even talk about it because I don't want to get canceled.
[01:17:41] Speaker A: They're literally just setting everybody up for all the jokes right now.
Stand up comics are just having a field day with this. They're like, oh, yeah, this is the easiest. It just writes itself. I don't even have to do anything.
[01:17:53] Speaker B: They love it.
[01:17:54] Speaker A: I'll show you a picture. And this is what happened last week. The whole thing I just told you sounded like a bit.
[01:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:18:00] Speaker A: And it wasn't. It actually happened.
But anyways, moving on. This is the big one that I wanted to talk about, and that's why it's closing things out here. Former Steelers receiver running back Richard Mendenhall sent an interesting tweet this week, and I'll read it here. It says, I'm sick of average white guys commenting on football. Y'all not even good at football. Can we please replace the Pro bowl with an all black versus all white bowl so these cats can stop trying to teach me who's good at football. I'm better than your goat. So there's a lot to unpack here. But first, I'm just going to kind of turn it over to you guys. I want to hear what you guys think about this whole thing right now.
[01:18:42] Speaker B: Look, I would say, first off, before we even talk about, because there truly is a lot to unpack here. You could have a thousand, so much.
[01:18:53] Speaker A: 240 characters.
[01:18:54] Speaker B: The first thing is Richard Mendenhall is an absolute clown. Well, yeah, that's not worth anyone's time to even listen to this guy or respond to this guy.
[01:19:06] Speaker A: We're going to.
[01:19:07] Speaker B: Anyways, though, just an absolute clown. We're going to respond in 2023.
Get a hold of yourself. Like, this just isn't how you conduct business in a professional way.
[01:19:18] Speaker A: Is this how you conduct business in a democracy?
[01:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
So look, I think the way we respond to this is like, how close do you want to get to the edge? Because what do you want to do? You want to have the all white and the all black draft?
[01:19:37] Speaker A: Just a lot.
[01:19:37] Speaker B: Who would win?
[01:19:41] Speaker A: I don't know. In a day when we're trying, a day and age, we're trying to defeat racism, you literally just, you propose segregation.
[01:19:48] Speaker B: Like, who does Patrick Mahomes play for?
[01:19:50] Speaker C: Exactly.
[01:19:51] Speaker A: He can play for anybody.
[01:19:53] Speaker B: He's just all day quarterback.
[01:19:55] Speaker A: All day quarterback. He's a friend of both.
Like, it's just such a weird comment. And by the way, you're not better than if we're strictly talking about white and black.
[01:20:07] Speaker B: What white goat is he talking about to begin with?
[01:20:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I would like to know who.
[01:20:11] Speaker B: You think a white running back, quote.
[01:20:13] Speaker A: Unquote white goat, Tom Brady. Well, let's go either way. Right? So Tom Brady is the goat in football, period. And he happens to be white. And so you're not better than Tom Brady. One, you're a failed quarterback out of college.
You were a college quarterback that got drafted as a running black. Running. Wow.
Cancel running back wide receiver because you weren't good enough at quarterback to play in the NFL. And then at running back. So let's go with running backs. And we're talking like Christian McCaffrey then, right? So is who I would say. Hell, I don't even think Richard Menenhall is as good as hell. Yeah, he smashed the guitar.
You talking about him earlier and him smashing the guitar is what made me think about, like, you're not better than Hillis. So, like, Peyton Hillis's best year was far better than your best year.
[01:21:07] Speaker B: I just take umbrage, too, with anybody that this is like the weakest argument in the game is that people, by.
[01:21:15] Speaker A: The way, that was the first in a black versus white thing. We just wanted to point out some absurdity with. Absurdity. Yeah, exactly.
[01:21:23] Speaker B: But just this idea I take umbrage of, it comes up in political debates a lot and just discussions a lot where things get heated is like, you can't have an opinion if you're an mean. If you walk outside every day and the sky is blue, you learn that the sky is blue.
So that's the belief that you would hold to watch Richard Mendenhall play football and then watch Nick Chubb play football. It's not easy to see Nick Chubb is a better running back than.
Not hard to see that he's a better running back than I take over again with this idea that you can't have an opinion because you didn't do it or you weren't in the game or whatever the case may be. Experience sure is good, but it's just like Sean Payton was a commentator last year and got run out of town. You tell me Sean Payton knows more football, has forgotten more football than I'll ever know, but couldn't cut it on network tv because he didn't have people skills and he wasn't good at objectively making observations on the spot where guys like, just because.
[01:22:40] Speaker A: Just because you're football mind does not make you a good commentator.
[01:22:45] Speaker B: And just like, skip Bayless is annoying, doesn't make him a bad observer.
[01:22:50] Speaker A: I promise you. Skip Bayless was never good at football.
[01:22:53] Speaker B: He was never good at football. Yeah, he's not good at it, but he can still watch football and basketball.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: And he's one of the most popular.
[01:22:58] Speaker B: Commentators, help in the game and help drive the conversation around who's good and who's bad.
[01:23:04] Speaker A: And here's why such a shit.
[01:23:06] Speaker B: I mean, I think anybody that can explain why they think something is allowed to have a public opinion on it.
[01:23:13] Speaker A: It's not just you're sick of guys commenting on football. I'm sick of guys like you because this isn't the first time somebody's come out and said, well, all these people don't know what they're talking about because they've never played football. So that's kind of where I take issue with it, is it's not only the fact that you're saying what you're talking about, like you can't have an opinion because you're an observer.
You go out and say you can't have an opinion because you've never played football, you've never been around the game. Right. Exactly what you said. Okay, well, if you're an avid fan, you pick up a lot about the game. Football is not a hard game to understand. It really isn't. I mean, there's some intricacies that you learn, but it's not a hard game.
[01:23:51] Speaker B: Bill Belichick was not a good football player. Most likely he was a ball boy. He wasn't the best football. We don't know Bill Belichick because he was the greatest football player.
[01:23:59] Speaker A: No, he was a ball boy because he couldn't play ball.
[01:24:02] Speaker B: He couldn't play ball. But that dude knows a lot about football.
[01:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And guess what? He learned probably most of it after he was an adult. He learned a lot growing up. Once he started taking over as a coach, he learned more. So I don't know, it's just such a shit take it really kind of rubbed me. We were talking about rubbing tug earlier, so it rubbed me the wrong way. And I was like, I would say this.
[01:24:27] Speaker B: Richard Menenhall doesn't get to have an opinion on this because he's never been white.
[01:24:32] Speaker A: That's fair.
[01:24:33] Speaker B: He doesn't know.
[01:24:33] Speaker A: How does he know?
[01:24:34] Speaker B: How does he know?
[01:24:37] Speaker D: How can you?
[01:24:38] Speaker C: It's funny, I was just going to know. You lose the argument when you boil something down to the way somebody was born. It's like, well, you get discredited because you were born a certain way. Whatever it is, you lost your credibility right there, my friend.
[01:24:52] Speaker A: Right. It's on both sides of the argument. Like, if somebody's racist against black people and they think that they're inferior just because they're black. You've lost the argument before. You've had it. Because.
[01:25:07] Speaker B: It'S such a sad commentary about where people still, their minds still are, even though that we feel like we've come such a far.
[01:25:16] Speaker A: We have come a long way, but it's still there. Society, no matter how far we've come, it's just like things like this pop up and show you how far we.
[01:25:23] Speaker B: Have to go, and it's disappointing.
[01:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So closing out the trip around the NFL on a low note, there something that we just had to mention. But, Kenny, you know what will get your spirits up?
[01:25:37] Speaker B: Interviews.
[01:25:38] Speaker A: Yeah. You want to talk to a Brownsbackers group?
[01:25:40] Speaker B: Hell, yeah.
[01:25:40] Speaker A: All right. So something that we started doing this year is our Brownsbackers interview series. What we wanted to do was highlight brownsbackers from around the country. We wanted to do this for several reasons. One, these people are all diehard Browns fans and love our brownies, regardless of the record. That part's obvious. They show up every week, week after week at their viewing locations, and they watch the Browns rain or shine. But we also wanted to highlight what most people don't know about the Browns backers, and that's the fact that they do a lot of good work around their respective communities. And so with that, let's go ahead and get into the next interview in the series.
All right, so this week for our Brownsbackers interview series, we get to chat with Corey from the space City Dog Pound. Corey, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
[01:26:49] Speaker D: I'm good. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me.
[01:26:52] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. And we really appreciate you joining us. We know everybody's time is valuable, so for you to take some out of your day and sit down with us and talk about your chapter, that's awesome.
And with that being said, can you tell us a little bit about your chapter?
[01:27:07] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. So we're a space City dog pound, and our club was founded in 1994, which, as you know, was just right before the move to Baltimore. So the bulk of our history takes place after that.
But I've been watching Browns games with these same guys for more than 20 years now. So it's been a pretty good club. We're one of the biggest clubs in Texas.
Dallas has a pretty good club, too, and so do Austin, San Antonio. But ours is definitely one of the bigger.
Now, this year, we have three locations across the Houston area.
We had expanded from two to four last year. One of our locations on the south side of town, unfortunately, that bar had closed down, so we had to reduce back down to three, but it's still more than we had a couple of years ago.
Our main location is Stats Sports bar on Luetta, and that's one that we have a lot of our longtime Browns backers to meet at.
We have one. It's now at Ducky McSweeney's, which is in Galleria, more in the central part of the city, and it's a new one. This year, we moved from one location from craft Republic to Ducky McSweeney's, and so far, the feedback's been great. Fans love it. I've heard some fans say this is almost too nice for us because we're Browns fans. We're not used to nice things.
And then we have a third location on the north side of town in Magnolia at draft 1488. So all three locations have been pretty good this year.
On an average game day, we might have anywhere from like 20 to 50 fans at each of those locations, especially beginning of season, there's always huge crowd, but then tends to dwindle a little bit towards the end of the season. But of course, this year, we're having a pretty good year and the attendance has been sticking around.
Yeah, go ahead.
[01:29:25] Speaker A: I was just going to say. So, at each of your viewing locations, do they kind of put a space aside for you guys? You have your own room or how does that work?
[01:29:35] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely.
We've had multiple locations over the years, and the locations that I've visited, we've outlasted a lot of the bars that we viewed at.
When we started watching games at Stats Sports bar, initially it was more Texans, and that bigger area was for the Texans fans, and we had an off to the side area. Well, over time, they realized that the Browns fans were more dedicated to watching games there than Texans fans, and that swapped. We got the big area and they got off to the side, and now it's almost to the point where there's only a handful of Texans fans up there at all. We pretty much have the whole bar to ourselves there.
Nice. Ducky McSweeney's is a bar that's actually owned by someone from. And so that's how we got to make that arrangement this year. And I don't think they were a location that had a lot of football fans go to before us. So we pretty much have the run of the whole place there as well.
[01:30:41] Speaker A: That's why they have a good name, the dudes from Cleveland.
[01:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:30:46] Speaker D: And then at draft 1488, we have a dedicated side of the bar that we get every week. So every time we have a viewing location, we try to have that kind of arrangement where we have a whole section, at least, of the bars assigned to us with sound so that we can see the game, hear the game, and make sure that the staff is there to support us and have enough staff on end.
[01:31:15] Speaker B: So being that you're in Houston, I got to imagine that the fans you interact with from the Houston side, is it generally pretty easy to get along with? It's almost like there's kindred spirits in the fact that they've had a team pulled and then returned.
Is there conversation about that, or is it more standoffish than that with the group down there?
[01:31:42] Speaker D: We're friendly with our Texans fans down here. We're not division rivals anymore like we were back in the days of the Oilers, where we might have been a little bit less friendly.
[01:31:51] Speaker A: But.
[01:31:54] Speaker D: We get along with the Texans fans pretty well. And like you said, they've also experienced getting their team ripped away, so they know what it's like, and most of them are pretty good people. We definitely don't mind Texans fans as much as we mind having Steelers fans show up, which hasn't been as much trouble in recent years. But I know a while ago that one of the locations we went had fans from almost every club show up, and there were quite a few Steelers fans that would come sometimes, and we got into some heated debates with the Steelers fans.
[01:32:34] Speaker A: Was it heated debates with your fists?
[01:32:37] Speaker D: Not quite, but there were times.
[01:32:43] Speaker A: So one of the reasons that we do this, Corey, and highlight different brownsbackers groups across the nation is because obviously we all know that there's Browns fans everywhere, but what a lot of people don't know is that all these brownsbackers groups are also involved with a lot of charity or community service work in their communities. So are you guys involved with any community service or charity work down there?
[01:33:06] Speaker D: Definitely. We pick a charity that we want to support every season, and for the past couple of years, we supported the same charity, which is called Sydney Song, and that's an organization that supports a girl that's from this area that has this rare brain.
So everything that Sydney song raises goes to NBIA Disorders association. And they actually last year had a conference in Houston, and we were one of their primary sponsors, so they were definitely grateful for what we were able to do for them last year through our efforts last year, I think we donated about $6,000 to them. So that helped them a lot with hosting that event last year, and it's a charity was brought to our attention by Stats sports bar. They were already supporting them. And we heard about the story and you were know, we want to make a difference in this community, not just support a generic national charity. We want to support something that we can see where we're making a difference. So that's been something that we've been really happy to support over the last couple of years. And last know, we had a game here in Houston as well. So this is our second year in a row hosting a game. And last year, one of the big reasons we were able to make that much of a charitable contribution is we had a huge number of fans attending our events last year with that game. Because that was actually the first game that Deshaun Watson came back to play after his suspension. So there's a lot of hype, a lot of buz around that.
So we had a backer bash the night before that game. And we had over 400 people attend that backer bash the night before the game. So many they had to turn people away at the door because they started to bring in the extra police presence and fire code like, okay, we can't let anymore in.
[01:35:19] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:35:20] Speaker D: But that was a huge event last year. We had Webster Slaughter and Eric Metcalf there signing good guys. Yeah, they're great guys.
So through them being there and our raffles and our t shirt sales, we're able to raise a lot of funds. And then we have a tailgate every time.
Every time there's a game in Houston as well.
And last year's tailgate, we had 230 people that bought barbecue tailgate plates from us. And that was also part of our charitable fundraising.
[01:35:59] Speaker A: Nice. And so a couple of things here.
First of all, you mentioned the game Deshaun Watson returning last year. And that was significant on our show because we talked about it and how the know, when they started the whole suspension process, they were very high and mighty and talking about how we need to come down hard on him and this, that and the other thing. But then the weird thing was the suspension got reduced to the day that would have the best tv ratings, which is when he returns to Houston to face his former team.
So we remember that well. But the other thing was, I mean, you mentioned all these events that you guys are doing, and that takes me directly into my next question here, which is, do you guys have any upcoming events that you're hosting or looking forward to? Obviously, the game is in Houston this week or even if there's something in the offseason here?
[01:36:49] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. We're doing the same events like we did last year. We have the backer bash the night before. So this year that's going to be at Ducky McSweeney's.
[01:36:59] Speaker A: How many people signed up so far?
[01:37:02] Speaker D: Well, it's kind of hard to gauge because it is Christmas Eve Eve, right? So there's a lot of people that are out of town for Christmas. I'm expecting a smaller crowd than last year for that reason and because there's a little bit less buzz around Deshaun Watson's first game back. So I'm expecting a smaller crowd this year, but I'm still expecting a pretty good number of people to come. And we have a better site this year to host this right next door. They have an adjacent event space, so we're going to have that whole event space. We'll be able to set up for our raffles and our t shirt sales, and we have some appetizer sample plates that will be available. We have those available for presale. We've already been selling those.
I think we've already got like 30, 40 of those sold, but I'm expecting somewhere probably around the 200 ish range. I'm expecting not as many as the 400 we had last year, but you never know. There's always fans that come in from out of town, and they're not necessarily coming from Cleveland. They might be coming from neighboring states or other areas. If they don't get the Browns coming to their town, they often pick other cities where they can attend a game since they don't get to have one in their. We get. We get clubs, of course, from all over Texas that come to us. We get a lot of fans from Louisiana and all across the country. And then, of course, all the fans from Cleveland and Ohio that want to come down last minute, my phone will be ringing off the hook. I'll be getting all these emails and texts, hey, where's all the events? Where can we go? So I'm expecting still to have a pretty good event. We have a lot of great raffle prizes for Saturday night, and that starts 05:00 at Sweeney's on Post Oak.
[01:39:04] Speaker A: I was going to say with 200 people. So you're telling me it's still going to be a pretty damn big party is what's happening?
[01:39:10] Speaker D: That's what I'm thinking it should be, yeah. And people told us last year they couldn't believe how great the atmosphere was last year. And I got some feedback through our social media channels and through email and people tell me how it felt like they were back home in the flats or was that was good to hear that people enjoyed it and it brought them back to what an event in Cleveland might be like.
[01:39:41] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And so with mean, obviously, again, just a huge party this week. I'm sure you guys are looking forward to that and everybody else that's in the Houston area. But let's talk a little bit of football here.
[01:39:53] Speaker B: Can I ask one question for you, Corey? Can you give me. You guys have one of the more unique logos and names in terms of they do a Brownsbackers group. Can you give me a little insight? Just like, was it always Space City Dog pound? Was that a relatively new moniker that you guys have adopted?
What's the history and the story there?
[01:40:10] Speaker D: Yeah, so I did happen to have a shirt ready in case you talked about our logo, but the Space City Dog pound.
[01:40:18] Speaker A: Hold it up just a little higher.
[01:40:19] Speaker D: Yeah, there you go.
So it is the name that our clubs had since the beginning.
I think they wanted to make it sound a little bit more unique than just Houston Brownsbackers. And Space City is the nickname of Houston because of NASA Space center being here in town. And then our club wanted to design a logo that looked like one of those NASA emblems that you would see on a mission. So we had somebody that had some artistic talent and put this together for us. So we've been using this for the last, I don't know, six, seven years maybe.
[01:41:02] Speaker A: That's a very good logo. We're weird about logos and we just like the design process and everything that goes into it. And I actually was talking to him earlier today. I said, man, this is a good logo.
Well done to whichever member had the artistic ability to come up with that.
But yeah, onto the football side of things mean first things first. What are your thoughts on the game against the Bears this past week? What'd you.
[01:41:34] Speaker D: We. I think all of us were thinking that game was going to be a bit easier than it turned out to be being against a team that's really struggled this year in the Bears and being at home, where the team has really played its best football year at home. So it was a bit scarier in the second half than I was hoping it was going to be coming into it. But it's the NFL. Anybody can win any given week. You can't take anybody for know. I thought we got a slow start in that game. I was hoping that we'd take that opening kickoff and go down and score an opening TD on our opening drive and get that lead established and set the tone for the rest of the game. Fortunately, we weren't able to get on the board and then it took us a while to start putting some points up and we were in the third and fourth quarter and we were still sitting at seven and it was really starting to look like we would be in trouble of being able to pull that game out. But I had faith that Joe Flacco would use his confidence to help us drive down the field towards the end there and get us in position to try to win the game and it actually turned out to be the case. So it was a great win for us.
I wish that they didn't make us sweat it out quite so much every week, but it's always good to come out with a.
[01:43:06] Speaker A: Thank God for Dustin Hopkins, right?
[01:43:08] Speaker D: Oh yeah.
[01:43:12] Speaker A: With know. Obviously the Bears game, like you said, was much closer than we thought, but how do you think the Browns have looked so far this season? And I actually have a second part to that. Obviously the team has more injuries than any team in the history of football ever.
So how do you think they've done coping and coping with those and overcoming those as.
[01:43:33] Speaker D: Know they've been doing well, overcoming the diversity from injuries, especially big players like Nick Chubb, one of our favorite players and rock of this team and our offense. And he's been out since early this season. So when he went down, we were worried for sure, but the defense has, as you know, stepped up in a huge way this season.
Jim Schwartz has got this team playing really great defense, keeping us in games, even games that are a little bit ugly where we're maybe struggling to score points. That defense has been able to keep us in those games and give us a chance to win. So we're definitely feeling pretty good about this team despite those injuries, but it would be nice to see some more comfortable wins coming through like we had earlier in the season when we helped some of those teams to three points or even a shutout.
So they'd like to see a little bit more consistency.
[01:44:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:44:36] Speaker B: Corey, in your time watching the Browns, can you remember a defense that's played this well, this cohesive all year long?
[01:44:45] Speaker D: Probably not since the late 80s, back when we had the original Dog defense with Amford Dixon and Frank Minafield and in the backfield there and Clay Matthews and that those days we had a really strong defense that I could also trust to keep us in games and come up with big plays when we needed them. So it's been quite a while since I really felt this good about our defense.
[01:45:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just so hard because thinking back, even just from 99 forward, we don't have any frame of reference for it really truly is special, but it's like, how special is it? Obviously we had some really strong teams there in the late 80s, mid 80s for sure, but I think that's about as close as we can get. Right? I can't think of another Browns team that's had a defense that's played this well and overcome so much over course.
[01:45:39] Speaker A: I've never seen one.
[01:45:40] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't think we've really had a huge number of personnel changes, so the core of that defense was really in place. It was just, I think the coaching has made a big difference this year and getting the team to perform to the maximum of their abilities. Of course, Garrett's just been a beast all year this year, keeping us in games, putting a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks. And as of late, Emerson's really been standing out at cornerback and making some big plays with some interceptions and some past defense. So liking what we're seeing out of.
[01:46:19] Speaker A: Those guys, for sure, yeah, absolutely. And so with that, let's look to this week. So what are your thoughts on the week 16 matchup with the team down there, the Houston Texans?
[01:46:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I'd say at the beginning of the season, this is another one of those games where we looked at, and we might have been counting an easy w on this, looking at it on paper at the beginning of the season, but Houston's really turned things around this year. Demiko Ryan's, their new quarterbacks, really got them played well.
CJ Stroud, although he's out, I think, this week still, he's had a great season all year and as a Buckeye we like to see him be successful, but he's definitely helped this team turn things around quickly and this is no easy matchup, I would say, for sure, even though it's a little bit easier with CJ Sprout still out, the team still playing pretty well even without. So, you know, definitely not one that I think is going to be easy.
It's always tough to go into NRG, especially when the Texans are playing well and the home fans get in there.
[01:47:34] Speaker A: And make a lot of, uh, I.
[01:47:38] Speaker B: Was going to ask. So obviously last year, game landscape was entirely different.
Sean, coming back to town, given the emergence of CJ Stroud this year, is the thought kind of like Deshaun, who there in Houston now, or is there still scuttlebutt around just everything that went down and just the whole situation in general?
[01:48:00] Speaker D: I think a little bit, yeah. They're Deshaun who they kind of want to move on from that and forget about it because the way that his tenure ended here in Houston really left fans on a sour note and they're ready to look ahead and move forward. And CJ Strauss really gave them that hope that they've been looking for for the last couple of years.
[01:48:26] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And so you mentioned the hope is it just completely rejuvenated that fan base. I mean, I know they were probably feeling pretty down. So I mean, is it like a total 180 since he started?
[01:48:42] Speaker D: I don't know if it's quite there yet. I think there's still some skepticism amongst the fans. Is this team for real?
But definitely the fan base is more buzed about the Texans than they were at the beginning of the year.
I still think that they could get a little bit even more behind this team as time goes on.
In terms of how the crowd will be at NRG this weekend, I think you'll see a lot of Browns fans there again like we saw last year. I'd say last year the Browns fans were louder in NRG than the Texans fans because they were having a bad year and they were just kind know they came and booed Deshaun early in the game and then they kind of didn't have much to cheer about. But this year they're going to have more of the home crowd in there supporting their team and if they're having a good game, it'll be a lot tougher for us to play there than it was last year.
[01:49:44] Speaker B: Actually surprises me a little bit that there's not more energy there. Given CJ, given the name of the.
[01:49:49] Speaker A: Stadium is energy droughts season.
[01:49:54] Speaker B: I mean, you have a rookie quarterback come in that's going to who's arguably in the MVP race for 4000 yards and 25 plus touchdowns. Probably if he gets healthy, he gets to play before the end of the year again. But I would think that that would turn the tide quite a bit. But it sounds like they still have some work to do to kind of.
[01:50:08] Speaker D: Win fans, you know, and I kind of judge based on their turnout for the Texans fans at the bars that we watch at like stats. At first there used to be a pretty good Texans fans presence, but now it's still trying to recover from what it used to be. They're not all the way back to where they were before, but when Deshaun Watson was playing his peak and didn't have the controversy, the fans were really hype here in Houston about this team and they're still trying to get back to where they haven't got all the fans back on their side yet, but.
[01:50:50] Speaker A: They'Ll get so real quick. What are they saying locally about the Browns? I mean, are they viewing this game as like, okay, we could win this or they think the Browns are know, we do have a lot of injuries. What are they thinking down there?
[01:51:06] Speaker D: I'm thinking that they see us as a tough opponent. For know, they see our record just like the rest of the league. They know that we're solidly in the wild card race. We could maybe even clinch a spot maybe this weekend if all things go right.
And they know that the Browns are definitely a team that is no easy victory and that the defense is playing well. And I think they're expecting a really tough game.
[01:51:37] Speaker A: And so final question for the game here, Corey, what's your prediction for this game? What's the score going to be?
[01:51:44] Speaker D: Let's see.
I'm thinking it's going to be probably a little bit like last week against the Bears.
The defense is going to have to be what carries us through, I think. But I'm hoping for a little bit more on the offensive side. So I'm thinking maybe something like 20 717. Something like that. Cleveland, 20 717.
[01:52:13] Speaker A: Nice. I like it.
And so, real quick, before we go here, Corey, our time is starting to wind down, but I do want to talk about one thing, a couple of things we'll start off with. We wanted to mention that we are brought to you by who kenny Seaside events as the official cruise event provider of the Cleveland Browns and organizer of the Browns fan Cruise. And so with that in mind, they did run a competition a while back for brownsbackers. It is over. They did announce the winner. The winner was, I believe the brownsbackers of Pinellas sounds right.
However, we still do want to let everybody out there know that we will be mcing several events aboard the ship and there will be 17 alumni joining the cruise that fans will get to mingle with like normal people just walking around on deck. And if you see them, you get to talk to them, shake their hands, whatever the case may be. And so for anyone that's thinking about joining the fan cruise but has not booked yet, just go do it. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of cool events for Browns fans that you won't get anywhere else.
And that sets sail in March of 2024.
[01:53:22] Speaker B: And even though the Browns backers competition is over, there is still a promotion going on right now that allows you some cash back, depending on the cabin, until December 31.
[01:53:33] Speaker A: And then real quick, Corey, one more question for you. Anything else you want to say to Cleveland fans that may have kind of moved away from northeast Ohio? They're missing their fellow Browns fans and are potentially thinking about joining a Brownsbackers chapter out there.
[01:53:49] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. It's a fun thing to do. It's always better to watch with other Browns fans and have folks to high five with when things are going well.
And every city across the country has got Brownsbackers group of some kind. So if you move somewhere, just look them up on the Brownsbackers website. There's surely going to be one, two, three clubs in the area that you could start watching some games with and start making some friends and start having good time watching Browns with each week.
[01:54:26] Speaker A: Absolutely.
And final thing here, Kenny, you want to tell them?
[01:54:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we just have one final thing here if you'd like to share with your group. We do have something as a part of our show called the Burning River Sportscast Hot Take hotline. That is a voicemail box. It is open 24 7365, ready for messages for incoming Browns fans to either appraise the team, complain about the team, share your thoughts, share your hot takes, anything that you want to get off your chest, talk about play calling, matchups, anything at all. We love to hear. We love to hear from Browns fans all the time. And then we take the best calls and we put them on our show.
[01:54:57] Speaker A: We've literally set up a voicemail for Browns fans to call and vent. Like the best thing that could have ever happened.
[01:55:02] Speaker B: A little bit cathartic, a little bit therapeutic. So if they want to call that number, we'll put it up on the screen here on the video podcast. But for the audio version, it is 330-227-8080 I'll say it one more time, 330-227-8080 for anyone that would like to call and share their thoughts with us here on the Burning river sports cast.
[01:55:20] Speaker A: Absolutely, Corey, it has been great having you. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it and we hope to get down there to Houston area to meet you guys in person sometime.
[01:55:32] Speaker D: Yeah. And just one last thing to mention to any of the Browns fans are coming to town for the game, we will have a tailgate in the orange lot.
You have to pre purchase your parking tickets for that lot. None of the parking NRG is cash, so you have to order it through stuffhub or Ticketmaster or wherever. All you have to do is get inside and then find the orange lot. And look for all the orange brown. There'll be a bunch of us there and we'll have our barbecue tailgate. And even if you're not participating in our fundraiser barbecue, you could still just come and hang out with us all and have a good time.
[01:56:10] Speaker A: Did you guys pick the orange lot on purpose?
[01:56:12] Speaker D: I think so.
[01:56:15] Speaker A: Well, again, Corey, we really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining us, sir.
[01:56:20] Speaker D: Thank you, guys. Thanks for having me.
We're the space City dog pound and you're listening to the burning river sportscast. Go browns.
[01:56:56] Speaker A: Man. Good time talking to Corey?
[01:56:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like quite the organization down there.
[01:57:02] Speaker A: They hit dopest logo in the game.
[01:57:04] Speaker B: A really, really great logo. Their merch is on fire.
[01:57:07] Speaker A: Their merch is on fire.
[01:57:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:57:10] Speaker A: That's what happens when you team up with burning river sportscast. Everything's on fire.
[01:57:14] Speaker B: It's lit. It's so lit. Yeah. No, but I think it sounds like they got some really cool things going for them with their venues down there.
[01:57:22] Speaker A: It's going to be a big party this weekend.
[01:57:24] Speaker B: What was it? McCluskey's. And what was it?
I forget the name now, but it was funny and it sounded like a good place to go eat dinner.
[01:57:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And it was started by a dude from Cleveland.
[01:57:35] Speaker B: Yeah, all good stuff there.
[01:57:37] Speaker A: Go back and listen to the interview again and that's where you should go.
[01:57:41] Speaker B: We wish them all the best as they have a big party planned this weekend, so should be good for them.
[01:57:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that'll take us to the burning river sportscast hot take outline.
Okay, you guys know what to do. Don't forget to call in and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember sticky take. These are hot takes. We want hot takes.
[01:58:05] Speaker B: We want hot takes. We want hot takes.
[01:58:07] Speaker A: 3302-2780-8033-02 27 80 80 33 02-2780-8033-0227 80 call now. Operators are nowhere. Not standing by.
[01:58:23] Speaker B: Nobody's there.
[01:58:24] Speaker A: Nobody's there. It's just the answer machine.
[01:58:26] Speaker B: But the box is open 24/7 that's what he said.
[01:58:29] Speaker A: She said 365.
[01:58:32] Speaker B: You can give a calls on Christmas.
[01:58:34] Speaker A: We'll put the good ones on air.
[01:58:35] Speaker B: We'll be watching football on Christmas.
[01:58:37] Speaker A: But anyways, let's take a quick break and then get back here and talk to Browns alum Phil Taylor and preview the week 16 matchup against the Houston Texans.
[01:58:46] Speaker B: Hell yes.
[01:58:48] Speaker A: Topath Distillery. Topath Distillery, an award winning craft distillery located in Akron, Ohio, Topath Distillery focuses on high quality spirits. Carefully made in small batches. Topaz lineup includes an ultra smooth, award winning premium vodka, a small batch silver rum made from the highest grade molasses, an american craft gin made with nine botanicals and a blended straight bourbon made from corn and rye. Topath distillery now available locally and in 44 states. Visit topathdistillery.com to place your order online, or find an OHLQ retailer near you. Topath distillery handcrafted, award winning, small batch, local and family owned all Cleveland coffee all Cleveland Coffee is a coffee company that launched earlier this year in Cleveland, as the name would suggest. Founded by Browns legend hall of famer Joe Thomas and six time heavyweight champion of the world in the UFC, Stipe Miocic, along with a team of several other brilliant Clevelanders, all Cleveland coffee is on a mission to give 1 million meals back to the community through an official partnership with the Greater Cleveland Food bank. How will they do this, you ask? Well, with every bag purchased, three meals get donated to the food bank. It's such an awesome idea and a bunch of great individuals were involved with it. And the result is the best coffee in Cleveland, bar none. It comes in three roasts, light, medium and dark. Dark is what Joe Thomas enjoys every morning. Me and my co host here, Kenny, we're medium roast, guys. Right, Kenny swag all Cleveland coffee. Visit all cleveland.com today to order your coffee and donate a few meals in the process. All Cleveland coffee, ethically sourced, premium roasted and three meals donated for every bag purchased.
All right, so before we get into the week 16 preview, let's take a few minutes to talk to another Cleveland Browns alumni that will be joining us on the Browns fan cruise. Guys, our next guest was one of the biggest dogs on the dv line for the Cleveland Browns. His career statistics include 109 tackles, seven sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and pro Football weekly all rookie team in 2011. But let's let him tell you all about this. Please welcome big Phil. Phil Taylor.
Phil, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
[02:01:03] Speaker E: Doing good, man. I appreciate you having me on.
[02:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. And before we get started here and get into some of the questions that we have for you, we do want to talk about a pretty big event that we'll be attending together next spring. And obviously we're were talking about the Browns fan cruise in March of 2024. It is confirmed. You'll be on deck soaking in the sun with the rest of us. So we have to say, being that we are brought to you by the Cleveland Browns fan cruise, and we will be on the Browns fan cruise and them seeing several events on the Browns fan cruise. We're really looking forward to sharing that Browns fan cruise with an awesome guy and a Browns alumni such as yourself. So, Phil, can you tell our listeners a little bit about the Browns fan cruise?
[02:01:42] Speaker E: It's an awesome event, man. I guess it's the first year they're trying it and I'm excited. I don't know what to expect, but I'm just excited to be around the fans and get to kick it with everybody who loves Cleveland.
[02:01:55] Speaker A: Hell yes. And I know we're stopping in Jamaica, the Bahamas. It's going to be a good time. A few days at sea, a few days on the beach. It's going to be really fun activities in between. Yeah, absolutely.
And I know we'll talk more about that here soon, but before we get back into it, we actually want to talk about you and your story. So let's start things here. We know you went to Gwen Park High School. Tell us a little bit about your kind of early life in your high school years.
[02:02:26] Speaker E: Gwen park, small little high school in Maryland.
We only went to four a, we were three a, but we had a good coach, Danny Hayes there and he coached the mess out of us and we end up my senior year, we know in one states, so we got a state championship ring and that was the last time they've been.
But he's still coaching, he's still fighting strong.
[02:02:55] Speaker A: And hear you were kind of a monster in high school.
I believe you had 30 pancakes your junior year because you played offense and defense. Then 77 tackles and ten sacks your senior year, if I'm not mistaken, right?
[02:03:10] Speaker E: Yeah. At our school, the best players, they play both sides of the ball. We didn't have the luxury of having just offensive line, just a defensive line. So it was more of get it how you live. You got to play where you're going to help the team. So that's what we were about.
[02:03:29] Speaker A: And so from there, I know you ended up at Baylor, but I also know you did have offers from Florida, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, among others. So I got to ask, man, what the hell?
You didn't want to be a.
[02:03:44] Speaker E: Mean? That was one of my picks and I know this is going to piss you all off, but I actually started my career at Penn State. I was at Penn State for two years and then I ended up transferring to Baylor.
But I'm a Baylor bear. I'm a Baylor bear now, so that's all that matters.
[02:04:03] Speaker A: It's better than being a Penn State Nitney lion I guess.
No, we're just joking. But obviously you had a great career at Baylor, so can you tell us a little bit about your time there?
[02:04:16] Speaker E: Baylor was awesome. During my time there, I had coach R browse, and that was the year we got rg three when he came in as well. He was a rookie and it was fun. It was a lot different from Penn State going down to Baylor, which is from big ten to the big twelve. So it's a whole different style of football. But big ten, I was used to defeating the run blocks mostly, and the big twelve is like you snap the ball and you're looking left to right because they're throwing out to the wide receiver that quick. So it was a different thing, but I adapted quick and it was an awesome experience, and it ended up being the right move for me to excel my career.
[02:05:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. And how many years were you at Baylor before you went pro?
[02:05:07] Speaker E: I was at Baylor for.
I set out one year and played two.
[02:05:14] Speaker A: Nice. Okay.
[02:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, gotcha. So, obviously, Phil, you had a great high school career, and we're know recruited, coming out, had your choice of a lot of different schools.
Was the NFL always kind of the end goal there or the end dream, or was it just kind of, hey, let's get to the next level and see what happens?
[02:05:30] Speaker E: It was always kind of like a thing I wanted to do, but in high school, you think about it, but you don't really think about it until you get your first letter and like, oh, somebody's actually looking, you know what I mean? So that gives you motivation. And once the offers started coming in and things like that, and then you get to college and it starts over again. So I switched from Penn State to Baylor and I kept it going, and I think what really helped me was more of the senior bowl and doing those things that going up against the better players in the country, that really helped me out.
[02:06:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know after that senior bowl is kind of when your draft stock skyrocketed, you did end up getting drafted by the Browns in the first round, as we all know, in 2011, and you were with the Browns from 2011 2014. Before we get into your career, tell us a little bit about your combine, because I know that you put up some impressive numbers at the combine.
[02:06:34] Speaker E: It wasn't that impressive for me, I don't think, but I think 40. It was a five flat and bench press. I want to say it was like 31 32 at 225.
[02:06:46] Speaker B: That's pretty impressive.
[02:06:48] Speaker A: Pretty good.
[02:06:49] Speaker E: Yeah. And the other ones I don't really remember like that.
[02:06:52] Speaker A: What's the most times you've ever benched 225 pounds in a row?
[02:06:58] Speaker E: It might have been in training. I might have hit 33, 34.
[02:07:02] Speaker A: Nice.
No, that wasn't specifically the one I was talking about. Somebody could put 225 up 30 times.
[02:07:10] Speaker B: 30 plus?
[02:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah. That's incredible.
[02:07:13] Speaker B: Can you tell us a little bit about just the draft process in general? I mean, not so much to you in the combine, but did you get an agent? Did you have agents reaching out to you? How did you go about that process? Piece of the process. And then obviously being a first round pick is a pretty exclusive group of guys that end up being picked in the first round. Can you just talk about that a little bit?
[02:07:36] Speaker E: I got an agent basically right after the bowl game, and it was I picked between three and I ended up going with Peter Schaefer.
[02:07:48] Speaker A: And it was cool.
[02:07:50] Speaker E: He wasn't one of those agents that's kind of all up in your stuff.
He's one of those agents. He sit back when you need him, he's there and he gets his deals done.
He's also Joe Thomas's agent.
He's a good agent.
What were you saying?
[02:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah, just around being a first round pick. It's obviously an exclusive group of guys that get picked in the first round. Can you just talk about, were you certain you were going at a specific number?
[02:08:23] Speaker E: I didn't know. Honestly. Yeah, I didn't know. It was one of those things that I felt like I worked hard and I kind of boasted my stats the last couple of months before the draft with the Senior bowl and the combine and things like that. And I end up eventually. I got invited. It was at Radio City Music hall that year, and it was one of those things. If I go, I go. If I don't, I don't. Whoever gets me, I'm going to just work my ass off.
The 21st pick came and the phone was ringing and it was kind of surreal. And my dad was like, hey, pick up the phone. So it's one of those things.
It's a blur now, but it was awesome. One of the most eventful things in my life, other than when my sons were born.
[02:09:17] Speaker B: Gotcha. I had one other real quick question before we get into, really, the NFL side of things.
I read that you took a two week trip with the Baylor team to Nairobi. Is that right before your senior season? Maybe, yeah.
[02:09:31] Speaker E: Nairobi, Kenya. Yeah. It was awesome. It was the Baylor sports ministry team and we were over there for two weeks and it was an eye opening experience and it really humbled all of the athletes that went, it really humbled us and it really showed how really good we have it and just made you work even harder and appreciate the things you.
[02:09:58] Speaker A: I mean, it sounds like you have a lot of experience and you've kind of gone through a lot of things throughout your career. We haven't even got into all of the Cleveland Browns stuff, but with the process of the draft and everything else leading up to it, do you have any advice for the current Cleveland Browns players, especially the younger guys that are just kind of getting started in the league?
[02:10:21] Speaker E: Work hard, man. Always be in the building, always being in front of your coaches, asking them questions.
Don't be one of those guys that you want to be the last one in the building, the first one out the building. Be there first. Get that work in. Stay late. Always ask your coach questions. Ask the older guys questions because these guys have been there.
Just be around. Be that player that wants to. Just saying that buys in and let guys pour into you. The knowledge is always out there.
[02:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Great advice there. I know some of the guys, especially you, were a first round draft pick, and I know probably some of the other guys in that same first round come in a little closed off, thinking they know more than everybody else or whatever. They don't have to work as hard or whatever the case may be. So it's great advice for young guys, for sure. And with that being mean, let's talk about it. How was your time in Cleveland? Tell us a little bit about your time with the team.
[02:11:22] Speaker E: It was awesome. Even though four and a half years I was there, I had three different head coaches, but just the guys in the locker room. I was around. It was awesome.
You learn quick that the NFL is a business and guys are in and out, and you got to work for what's best for the team and what's best for your livelihood. So you're seeing guys you think would stay and take better deals other places, and it's a business, and at the end of the day, you got to do what best for you.
But all in all, I'm a Cleveland Brown through and through, and my time here was awesome.
[02:12:07] Speaker B: Obviously. Yeah. You mentioned the head coach turnover there.
I was going back into my time machine. Was that Shermer Chaczynski? Petton?
[02:12:17] Speaker E: Yep.
[02:12:18] Speaker B: Okay. Can you talk about just the difficulty, just with head coach turnover in terms of learning new systems every year?
[02:12:25] Speaker A: How was that?
[02:12:26] Speaker E: Yeah.
That's the biggest part about having three head coaches in four years, and it's tough. A lot of guys couldn't do it learning a different defense every year and just a whole nother coaching scheme, a whole nother way you go about practice and whole nother weight room, coach and regiment. Only thing, I think that stayed the same, that was really the comfort points was the training room and the equipment staff.
But that's the thing about the league and organizations.
When things aren't going well and they get the coaches up out of there, everybody goes. So with the players, it's just you got to buy in to each system and just hope the system treats you right.
[02:13:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
You kind of mentioned it.
You mentioned comfort points. And so with that comment, I kind of want to ask, spending time with the franchise, it's obviously more than just playing football for the team. You become involved with the teammates, with your teammates, with the, you know, kind of with all that. What was your favorite off the field memory from your time here in Cleveland?
[02:13:52] Speaker E: Off the field, maybe when I think coach Petton was our coach and during training camp, and it was after like a morning practice, he took the whole team and we went paintballing. I forgot the name of the place. It was out here in Cleveland somewhere, but, yeah, it was like in the woods somewhere, but it was fun. He took the whole team and it was a real paintball, so it was cool.
[02:14:19] Speaker A: Anybody get hurt there?
[02:14:20] Speaker E: Nobody get hurt. A lot of bruises. A lot of bruises, but it was more like war wounds, I should say.
[02:14:29] Speaker B: But that was fun.
[02:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah. You guys didn't get enough bruises during the week of practice, so let's give you a few more.
[02:14:36] Speaker E: Yeah, but it was cool, man. It was a good thing to bring everybody together, so it was.
[02:14:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Obviously you had a pretty good career with the Browns, and I will say this, you had a monster rookie season.
Kenny, I know you had the highlights. You still have the highlights. Pulled up from his rookie season. Do you remember your rookie season? Because I just know it was phenomenal. I remember, oh, my gosh.
[02:15:04] Speaker E: If you bring it up, I remember it.
[02:15:07] Speaker B: I think it was 59 tackles, four sacks and a force fumble.
[02:15:12] Speaker E: Yeah, I remember me and Rube that year, we were like, both, like, top five for interior tackles, four tackles, and.
[02:15:18] Speaker A: I think it was a jabal sheard that joined the all rookie team with.
So you guys, you guys had a decent year that year. So that was pretty special. I remember watching. I was just like, man, these guys are everywhere.
[02:15:33] Speaker B: So thinking about. I just think about game planning, I think about this Cleveland Browns team today and the amount of injuries that they've had. Can you tell me what are the things that when you're game planning for a team, you see four injuries across an offensive line and one starter left. What are the things that are going through your mind? Just game planning. And also during the game.
[02:15:56] Speaker E: Me being a D lineman and I'm going against a team and the know saying the starters are know. You can be looking to have a good day, but at the same time, that other person, he's still in the NFL, so you can't take anybody.
You know, they can still play good in the system, you know what I mean? So they got five guys out there. We got three to four. So it's still Imano. Imano. You still got to go do your job and do your job correctly, because you can be going up against the second string, but if you're getting gapped and not playing your technique, you can be making these guys look like Pro Bowlers.
[02:16:33] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And I know probably on the defensive side, like you said, it's that battle. Everybody's in the NFL, but on the defensive side, you don't want to be that guy that had a bad day against the great career with the Browns. You were a force to be reckoned with on the field for sure. But for most guys, they kind of get this whole second life after football. So can you tell us what you're up to today and if you're still involved with the game at all?
[02:17:03] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm just coaching my son at the moment.
He just turned eight, and he played his first year of tackle football, second grade, and it was cool. It was a learning experience for him and me as a learning experience for me for coaching them and knowing these guys, knowing what I know and knowing what they don't know at all yet. So it's kind of like a fun medium to try to learn?
[02:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And is he cut from the same cloth as big Phil Taylor? Is he a big.
[02:17:35] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, he like in defense right now.
Right now he playing linebacker and quarterback, but I think he liking defense.
[02:17:47] Speaker A: So to kind of bring this thing back, I do want to talk a little bit more about the Browns fan cruise here and the time we'll share on the open ocean in March of 2024 and a couple of amazing stops along the way. We already mentioned them, the Bahamas, Jamaica. But let's talk about some of the things that everybody should look forward to. So is there an event or an activity during the fan cruise that you yourself are looking forward to, Phil?
[02:18:13] Speaker E: Nothing in particular, but anything that interact with fans.
Maybe if they get some video games on there, I whip somebody in Madden, maybe.
Who knows what they got planned. But I'm a competitive person, so just know I'm going to bring it. Whatever.
[02:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
We weren't given this responsibility, but I've taken it upon myself to become the unofficial suggestion box. So I'll send these over to seaside events and see if we could get video games, some sort of video game competition added to the list here.
[02:18:45] Speaker B: Are you a PlayStation guy or an Xbox guy?
[02:18:50] Speaker E: I got both, but I'm a PS five. I got ps five. I'm PlayStation all the way.
[02:18:54] Speaker D: Nice.
[02:18:55] Speaker A: Me, too.
I converted him a while back. He used to be an Xbox guy. He's a PlayStation guy now.
[02:19:02] Speaker E: Only reason I play Xbox is for Forza. A little racing game. That's why.
[02:19:07] Speaker B: There you go.
[02:19:08] Speaker A: And so, with the Browns fan Cruisers, I do know there was a brownsbackers competition that they put on earlier this season. The winning chapter, basically, the chapter with the most bookings, got a bunch of prizes. The winners were announced, and I believe it was the brownsbackers of Pinellas.
And so, with that in mind, do you have anything that you want to say to brownsbackers across the nation and really across the world?
[02:19:31] Speaker E: I love all the Browns backers. Special shout out to the brownsbackers in Naples, Florida.
We have some good browns backers in Denver, Colorado, Baltimore, Maryland. And until the next ones I'm going to meet, man. You know what it is, man? I love all the Browns fans and. Yeah, for sure, nice.
[02:19:52] Speaker A: And I believe. I don't remember which group was Denver? Was it Denver? Mile high brownsbackers?
[02:20:00] Speaker E: Yeah, I was at the mile high.
[02:20:02] Speaker B: We had just talked to their president out there a couple of weeks ago, and he mentioned you were coming out.
[02:20:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So we were excited. But no, Phil, listen, it's been awesome having you on. We really appreciate your time, and we look forward to hearing some great stories and seeing you in person in March of 2024 on the Browns fan cruise.
[02:20:21] Speaker E: For sure, man. Can't wait. Appreciate you guys.
[02:20:23] Speaker A: Thank you.
[02:20:37] Speaker E: Phil Taylor. And you're listening to Bernie river sportscast. Go brown.
[02:20:55] Speaker A: Big Phil, man.
[02:20:57] Speaker B: He's still big Phil.
[02:20:58] Speaker A: Just big Philly Phil.
[02:21:00] Speaker B: That is one guy that I would not want to be on the wrong side of an argument with.
[02:21:04] Speaker A: I just picture him doing the move that Mark Henry used to do where he just, like, claps your ears. You know what I'm talking about? Head flattened, just devastated.
[02:21:12] Speaker B: He looks like he could still do some damage out there, man.
[02:21:15] Speaker A: Who wins, him or Mark Henry?
[02:21:18] Speaker B: I mean, Mark Henry's probably got two decades on.
[02:21:21] Speaker A: Phil Taylor I'm taking Phil Taylor all day.
[02:21:23] Speaker B: He's more agile and faster and probably still stronger. Mark Henry still, even though Mark Henry is the world's strongest man. He was once, but I digress. Phil Taylor.
[02:21:34] Speaker A: Phil Taylor's a man.
[02:21:35] Speaker B: Is a man. Was a good interview there. It's good to hear from him and hear his story and look forward to catching up with him and hearing more of his stories on the inaugural Browns fan cruise next year in March of 2024.
[02:21:49] Speaker A: It is going to be super dope, but that'll take us to the week 16 preview.
So this week we have the Houston Texans.
Kenny, you got anything you want to say before I get into my matchups?
[02:22:23] Speaker B: CJ Stroud is out.
[02:22:25] Speaker A: Fair.
[02:22:26] Speaker C: Thank you.
[02:22:27] Speaker A: Anything else?
[02:22:28] Speaker B: That's pretty much what I had.
[02:22:30] Speaker A: All right, well, you're going to do the full injury report here in a minute, so I'll get into my matchups. It's funny you should say CJ Strat is out because my number one matchup here is Miles Garrett versus Case keenum.
Case Keenum is nowhere near the quarterback that CJ Stroud is.
And so here's what I'm looking for this week. Can Garrett get some calls? Finally, it's been two weeks of not only him, but sports commentators, coaches, whatever the case may be, all complaining about how he doesn't get called and showing replay after replay after replay after replay of him getting face masked, him getting just grabbed by his jersey, whatever the case may be, egregious non calls. So I'm hoping he can actually get some calls this week. And because of that, I think they loosen up on him a little bit and he gets home a few more times. I think this is an opportunity for him to have a big Miles Garrett game where he gets back into the top of the defensive player of the year race. I'm talking like, no joke, like three to four sacks. It's time.
[02:23:30] Speaker B: I mean, if Case Keenum is truly starting for them on.
[02:23:37] Speaker A: Sunday, I think they're Sunday this week.
[02:23:39] Speaker B: I'm all screwed up because I can't remember which.
We've seen Case Christmas Eve, we've seen Case Sunday, and he was here for a while. Like Case Keenum is the statue that I thought Joe Flacco was.
He's just not very good at this point. He's older, days are behind him.
He's not CJ Stroud. CJ Stroud changes the makeup of this game entirely if he were to play.
So I just think if Miles doesn't eat against a quarterback like Case, Keenan, like there's a problem.
[02:24:12] Speaker A: I agree. And then next up here, I have the offensive line versus the Texans front seven.
Look, I know he isn't what he once was, but this defensive front held Derek Henry this past week to nine yards on 16 carries.
I don't care what running back you're going up against in the NFL, if you hold a running back to nine yards on 16 carries, that's impressive.
[02:24:38] Speaker B: This is actually in terms of, like, ranking, that is their highest rank as they are number two against opponents yards per rush.
[02:24:46] Speaker A: Yeah, and so obviously our offense as a whole is much better than Tennessee's was this past week. That's who the Texans face, obviously. And cool Joe is a savvy veteran, so we've got that going for us. But we've got to see if this patchwork o line that's down to potentially just one original starter. I know they said Joel Batonio is on the injury report. You'll get to that in a second, but I think they said he's doing better than they thought he would be with his back injury. But, yeah, we could potentially be down to one original starter again. So we got to see if they can.
[02:25:19] Speaker B: Who was the original starter that hasn't been out, Miles or Wyatt?
[02:25:24] Speaker A: I think Wyatt Teller is the last one.
[02:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he's questionable for the week.
[02:25:28] Speaker C: Is he?
[02:25:29] Speaker A: There we go. So are they going to be able to somehow protect Flacco enough and open some holes for these running backs to get our offense going?
[02:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, at some point we have to be able to run the ball. The lack of being able to run the ball last couple of weeks has been really concerning. Joe Flacco has bailed them out, but this is not always going to be the case.
[02:25:50] Speaker A: So as a whole, the Texans are eight and six this season. They're coming off a close win against a terrible Tennessee Titans team. Overall, on defense, they sit kind of right in the middle, but against the pass, they're bottom six in the league, and against the run, they're top six in the league. So this is another dream scenario for Stefanski, who loves nothing more than throwing the ball 45 plus times a game, which at this point I'm not complaining about because it's been working. But on offense, they will desperately be missing their rookie savior quarterback, who is right in my opinion. His name is not really up there, but he was right there in MVP talks before his injury.
And so because of mean, honestly, the Browns should. Despite the injuries, the Browns should roll in this one on the back of their defense. If you ask.
[02:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the thing is this Houston's team. Houston. Houston's Houston's Houston.
[02:26:42] Speaker A: Houston.
[02:26:42] Speaker B: This space city, dog pound team looks, in terms of injuries, a lot like the Browns roster. It seems like every player that kind of caught fire for them at some point in the season for a game or two or three ended up then right on the IR, which has been unfortunate for them in terms of trying to build momentum. They've, I think, overachieved this year given what they've had. CJs, Troutsman's good and I think that they have some very promising future with Tamika Ryan's there as the head coach. So it's just a matter of they're as beat up or more beat up than we are. Yeah, they are this week. So tough for both teams.
[02:27:22] Speaker A: Perfect segue. Kenny, why don't we get into the injury report?
[02:27:25] Speaker B: Oh my, it's long.
[02:27:28] Speaker A: Well, hang on. Let the sounder play.
[02:27:45] Speaker B: So let's see here. Just for this week, this doesn't count. Guys that are like on IR for the Houston Texans, this is just this week in practice. 123-45-6789 players listed as questionable. That includes CJ Straud, a quarterback who's probably not going to play because he's in the concussion protocol, John Michi, the third wide receiver, questionable. Brevin Jordan, tight end Noah Brown, wide receiver Nico Collins, wide receiver. Laramie Tunsel, left out there, defensive back.
[02:28:20] Speaker A: Should have a good day.
[02:28:21] Speaker B: Offensive tackle Denzel Perriman, linebacker Shaq Mason, guard and Malik Collins, defensive tackle.
Before that, Blake Cashman, Will Anderson were also listed as questionable. So that was just yesterday. So that takes a total to eleven questionable. And if we go back to Monday, that takes tire tart on that list as well. And Tegan Quitoriano, tight end, was moved to injured reserve. So they've got a ton of guys that are banged up. They have a bunch of guys already on the IR as well, which I'm not going to go through because a lot of them have been on the IR for several weeks, but certainly missing some bigger names there that were important for them during the season, like MJ Stewart and Tank Dell, Tavier Thomas. So those guys all on the IR already, plus eleven or twelve newbies to the questionable fields for right now for the Houston Texans. Well, the Browns got going absolutely beat up there.
[02:29:26] Speaker A: I said they're the most injured team in the history of football.
[02:29:29] Speaker B: Yes, and the Browns right behind them. Wyatt Teller, questionable. Kareem Hunt, questionable. Jerome Ford, questionable. Still with the wrist.
Jaron Christian one of our backup tackles that was starting us, questionable. This is not good. Joe Flacco is questionable with a calf, was limited today, Wednesday at practice.
[02:29:52] Speaker A: He's 38 years old.
[02:29:54] Speaker B: Everything is questionable. Juan Thornhill is questionable with a calf. And then if you're coming out of the game this weekend, Jordan Kunachic, linebacker. Ethan Pochick, center. Agbo Akan Rockwell, and then Anthony Walker, linebacker, all this is questionable as well. So bunch of guys that are still beat up, it doesn't even count. Some of the guys that came into the game, like Batonio or got knocked out of the game. Batonio got knocked out of the back. Injury.
Mike Ford's had an illness and Grant Delcott obviously at the injured reserve before the last game. So bunch of guys on both sides of the ball. I think it's the end of the.
[02:30:35] Speaker A: Season, lots of injuries, the end of.
[02:30:37] Speaker B: The season, and this game very well may come down just to who is the healthiest bunch on Sunday.
[02:30:41] Speaker A: Football is a tough game, man.
[02:30:43] Speaker B: It is.
[02:30:44] Speaker A: All right, and so before we get into the king of the north, let's go over our players to watch.
Let's see, who did I start with last week? Nobody knows. We'll start with Kenny. Who's your player to watch this?
[02:30:57] Speaker B: Um, my player to watch this?
Look, I think it's Jerome forward. I think this running game has to get going. I think it has to get going for not only this week, but to have some kind of hope that we're going to be able to do something in the postseason. So whether that's a combination of Jerome Ford and cream hunt both playing better, the running game has to improve. I would love to see Pierre strong get some carries, but it doesn't seem like the browns want to give Pierre strong the football. So I think it has to be Jerome Ford because this running game has to start to look better as we round out the season.
If they're going to have any chance in the playoffs, they're going to have to be able to run the ball in January.
[02:31:39] Speaker A: Yep. Bone, who you got? Actually, I'll go. I'm skipping you. Well, I'm not skipping you. I'll come back to you. I got Miles Garrett this week. It's like I just mentioned a few minutes ago, I know he's a big name and you're always watching Miles Garrett, but I'm feeling a really big game from Miles Garrett this week. I think it happens here and he jumps right back to the top of defensive player of the year discussions.
And look, it's right there for him. And we know he's had the capability to be defensive player of the year for a while. We've known that, but it seems like something always happens to where he can't quite get there and it's right there this season. If you want to be that guy, if you want to be him, then these last three games are critical. You got to have some big games these last three games and really cement yourself as the player that needs to take that trophy home this year. So I think this is one of them. I think playing case Keenum is going to help him a lot. I think the advocating for more calls these past couple of weeks is going to help them with the NFL especially, like I said, with a lot of different shows showing tons of replays of him being held. That's all you've been seeing all week. I think he gets the benefit of the doubt this week, gets some calls and he gets home. I'm saying three or four sacks out of Miles Garrett this week. Love it, Bone.
[02:33:00] Speaker C: I'm going to go Cedric Tillman.
[02:33:03] Speaker A: Hell yes.
[02:33:04] Speaker C: I want to see him just get even more involved in the offense, just get more balls thrown his way. And another week of practice with Flacco and the team, I feel like he's making strides throughout the year, so just getting him involved and I feel like Najoku and Cooper are going to have good games as they have been. So, yeah, let's get a third guy in there.
[02:33:23] Speaker A: Yep. And in case anyone didn't know, we actually have a reel that's out there, a real or a short, depending on which platform you're on, where we talked about Tillman at length and how he's probably one of the bigger steals in the draft and you might not know him right away, but eventually he's going to creep up on you and you're going to know the name Cedric Tillman. And it looks like we're possibly getting to that point. So I'm excited to see what he could do as well.
[02:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, I don't want to get over my skis here, but I think Cedric Tillman one day can replace Amari Cooper as your number one receiver.
[02:33:58] Speaker A: Yeah, and we'll see how that progresses, but for now, we'll head to the king of the north.
Anyone doesn't know by now, 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 year, Kenny had a gross of eggs thrown at him by fans in the munilot before a preseason game.
That was the punishment because he came in last, because he sucks. But we're still working out the punishment for this year. Guys, off the top of your heads. Kenny, suggestions?
[02:34:44] Speaker B: Spinning wheel with different body parts on it. Whatever it lands on has to get pierced.
[02:34:48] Speaker A: Whoa. Nice. I like it. Bone, you got anything?
[02:34:53] Speaker C: Spinning wheel with different body parts on it, but it gets tattooed.
[02:34:56] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
You guys are all into body modification right now. It's weird.
But with that, let's go ahead and get into things. First things first, I want to remind everybody that I am still the reigning, defending, undisputed, undefeated king of the north.
[02:35:16] Speaker B: I'm going to dispute that because now Zach is in first place. The bone man is in. He's coming for that crown. I'm just disputing it.
[02:35:23] Speaker A: I'm the champion.
[02:35:24] Speaker B: Say undisputed.
[02:35:25] Speaker A: You can't dispute it. He has never been the champion.
[02:35:28] Speaker B: He is the champion right now.
[02:35:30] Speaker A: It's not over. He's never been the champion. You don't stop in the middle of the regular season and say, this is the champion.
[02:35:36] Speaker B: Now I'm disputing it.
[02:35:37] Speaker A: Well, you're an idiot. Your dispute doesn't.
[02:35:39] Speaker C: I'm the champion now.
[02:35:40] Speaker A: You're an idiot.
And Kenny is where he belongs. He's in last place. He's basically the gesture of this court. He's just over there being big guy, telling jokes. So thank you. Thank you.
[02:35:53] Speaker B: You're welcome.
[02:35:53] Speaker A: Dance, dance, monkey.
Also, in case anyone hasn't noticed, we've talked about him several times already. But we've added our trusty board up bone man to the competition this year, and he is currently in first place. So let's remind everybody of our current records before we make our picks. Bone man, first place, 27 and 20. I am in second place at 26 and 21, and Kenny is way, way back there in last place at 21 and 26. So let's get into this week's matchups. First of all, there's only three games this week because two of the AFC north teams play each other. And we'll start with that game. The Steelers host the Bengals on Saturday night or Saturday day, I don't know, Saturday at some point. So, Kenny, who you got in this one?
[02:36:42] Speaker B: Look, the Steelers are playing Mason Rudolph. He's probably the worst quarterback in the NFL, and Jacob Browning is just continuing.
[02:36:53] Speaker A: To cook, so he's the man.
[02:36:55] Speaker B: I go Bengals.
[02:36:56] Speaker A: Bone, who you got?
[02:36:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going Bengals as well. All those same reasons.
[02:37:00] Speaker A: All right, so we're all with the Bengals on this one because I am choosing them in this game as well. Next up, this is the big game of the week. The Ravens travel to California to take on the 49 ers on Christmas Day, Monday Night Football. We'll start with Bone. Who do you got, man?
[02:37:22] Speaker C: I'll go 49 ers because it's a home game.
[02:37:28] Speaker A: You don't like the travel for the.
[02:37:30] Speaker C: Yeah, they're firing on all cylinders right now, which I guess the Ravens are, too. But 49 ers are good. They're a good team.
[02:37:37] Speaker A: Fair Kenny.
[02:37:41] Speaker B: Outside of the Cleveland Browns, I think the Baltimore Ravens are playing the best football in the country right now.
I'll go Baltimore.
[02:37:49] Speaker A: Kenny's picking the Ravens. I myself am going to stick with the 49 ers in the front runner for MVP Brock Purdy. On top of.
In addition to Brock Purdy, they also have Christian McCaffrey, and he's just one of the best, most dynamic players in football.
[02:38:06] Speaker B: I just can't get over the fact.
[02:38:07] Speaker A: They lost to, you know, our defense is a generational defense, though.
[02:38:14] Speaker B: Baltimore's is like still second in the league, so could be a good matchup. I'm excited for mean it's going to.
[02:38:20] Speaker A: Be a really good game.
[02:38:20] Speaker B: I'm excited for a Christmas day game. That means we don't have to pick.
[02:38:23] Speaker A: Scores in these ones. If I had to pick a score, it would definitely be like one point difference.
[02:38:27] Speaker C: That's a great Christmas nightcap.
[02:38:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. And the Browns, your team heads to Houston to take on the Texans on Christmas Eve, Sunday night or Sunday afternoon, I should say. I apologize. I can't get my days and nights straight this week, but I'll start this one off.
I got the Browns winning this one and I actually think they win it fairly easily. I think the fact that the Texans have hardly any of their receivers healthy, they don't have Stroud like it doesn't bode well for their offense. And if you're going to beat the Browns, you got to have a good day on offense because the defense is so good that if you're not having a good day on offense, they're going to hold you to not very many points at all. So I got the Browns winning 24 to 13 is what I'm going to go with.
[02:39:18] Speaker B: Look, I've been calling for the last couple of weeks. I think this team is on the verge of scoring just a crap ton of points and just being too much for the Houston Texans to handle. I think that case Keenum is probably 72 hours or so away from throwing three picks and having three fumbles.
[02:39:36] Speaker A: Nice.
[02:39:37] Speaker B: In the same game. I think the Browns win this one going away. Let's call it 40 417.
[02:39:42] Speaker A: Whoa. Statement game to possibly clinch the playoffs is what you're calling for. Hell yes.
[02:39:48] Speaker B: Love it.
[02:39:48] Speaker A: Bone, who you got?
[02:39:50] Speaker C: I'm going to go Browns. 20 717.
[02:39:54] Speaker A: Oh, you gave them a little bit more than me on both sides of the ball, so I like that. That's pretty close. So we all got the Browns. We've all got the Bengals.
Me and Bone got the 49 ers. You've got the Ravens.
[02:40:08] Speaker B: I have to pick the Ravens.
[02:40:10] Speaker A: I mean, you're pretty much at the point now where it's over.
[02:40:13] Speaker B: I'm going to convince myself that the Ravens are going to win this game.
[02:40:16] Speaker A: That's going to keep you in it for one more week.
[02:40:18] Speaker C: You made a compelling argument.
[02:40:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's fine.
[02:40:21] Speaker B: It's fine.
[02:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah. But let me remind you to call the Burning river sports guest hot take hotline.
Don't forget to call and leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot only the hottest takes. We want the hottest takes. We want the hottest takes. We want the hottest takes.
3302-2780-8033-02 27 80 80 33 02-2780-8033-0227 eight.
[02:40:49] Speaker B: Oh so zero, zero.
[02:40:52] Speaker A: Call now. Operators are not sitting by.
[02:40:55] Speaker C: They won't ever be.
[02:40:56] Speaker A: There's an answering machine.
[02:40:58] Speaker B: Idiots answering.
[02:41:00] Speaker A: I take it back, listeners.
[02:41:01] Speaker B: You're not 24 7365.
[02:41:03] Speaker A: Absolutely. And be sure to check out our gear. That's at ww dot thetappinmedia.com shop. Click on show specific. Click on burning river sportscast. There's a bunch of dope shit in there. Go buy it right now.
[02:41:13] Speaker B: Right now.
[02:41:15] Speaker A: And that'll do it for us. Kenny, what can we expect next?
[02:41:22] Speaker B: Confused? I'm dumb.
[02:41:24] Speaker A: You don't even remember how our show works. What can we expect next week, Kenny?
[02:41:29] Speaker B: So next week we will have the recap against the Texans. We will have a big Christmas celebration preview. The Browns Week 17 matchup against the goddamn jets.
[02:41:40] Speaker A: The goddamn interview.
[02:41:42] Speaker B: Browns beggars chapter. The Browns beggars of North Jersey. And we're trying to pin down the next brown.
[02:41:50] Speaker A: We got like two or three remaining alumni interviews. I think we got two left.
[02:41:53] Speaker B: The good news is we have until March of 2024.
[02:41:56] Speaker A: We got a long time.
[02:41:57] Speaker B: We're trying to get them in with the season as it goes. So big thanks today to the Space City Brownsbaggers out in Houston.
[02:42:04] Speaker A: Space city dog pound.
[02:42:05] Speaker B: Space city dog pound. And Phil Taylor for joining our show.
My co host, Ronnie Red hot Ronnie James as always, and big Bowman on the board. Excellent job today.
[02:42:15] Speaker A: And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapin'media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. At the tapin'Media and burning river sportscast, that's. This podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning river sportscast, and on x at Burning river pod, you can find our podcast. Wherever you get your podcast, I'm talking Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartradio podcast, Castro, good pods, and so many more. And you know what that takes us to, Kenny.
Time for facts for days.
But about.
Can you do this in, like, four minutes?
[02:42:50] Speaker B: Oh, I could do less than that. All right, here we go. Bags for days, boys. Are you ready?
[02:42:55] Speaker A: I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. Sorry. Gone. Nice.
[02:42:59] Speaker B: Number one.
[02:43:00] Speaker A: Number one.
[02:43:01] Speaker B: Numero uno, trisodium nitrate, of course, is the secret ingredient.
The emulsifier to make any cheese into a smooth, creamy nacho cheese.
[02:43:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[02:43:16] Speaker B: Coincidentally, the chemical formula is n a three c six h five seven.
If you weren't following. That's nacho.
[02:43:31] Speaker A: That's incredible.
I like it.
[02:43:34] Speaker B: Number two.
If you were to start with one penny, one penny and double your money.
[02:43:40] Speaker A: Tomorrow, in, like, two weeks, you'd be, like, a millionaire.
[02:43:43] Speaker B: 28 days, you'd become a millionaire.
[02:43:46] Speaker A: I knew it was quick. It's fast.
If anybody ever offers you, I'll pay you one penny and double it every day starting tomorrow. Take it.
[02:43:55] Speaker B: So it begs the question, what are you guys doing? Why aren't you millionaires?
[02:44:00] Speaker A: All it takes is doubling a penny every day.
[02:44:02] Speaker B: Double your money every day. If you double your money every day, you have to double more than a penny every day. Double your money every day.
[02:44:08] Speaker A: I think it was implied. You knew what I meant. They knew what I meant. It is. It is.
[02:44:11] Speaker C: Number gets large.
[02:44:12] Speaker A: Yeah. It gets big.
[02:44:13] Speaker B: It gets big quick.
[02:44:14] Speaker A: It gets big. Go on for a year and you're.
[02:44:16] Speaker B: Like the big bone meter.
[02:44:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:44:18] Speaker B: Gets big quick. Number three. This is a good one. Are you excited?
[02:44:22] Speaker A: I'm ready.
[02:44:22] Speaker B: A single human male. One male, produces enough sperm.
[02:44:28] Speaker A: Sperm. One male, lots of sperm.
[02:44:31] Speaker B: In two weeks. Two weeks to impregnate every fertile woman on the planet. Holy hell.
Can you imagine? There's only one dad.
[02:44:43] Speaker A: I am supreme dad.
[02:44:46] Speaker B: All the babies were one man.
[02:44:47] Speaker A: That'd be wild.
[02:44:49] Speaker B: Bonus fact.
[02:44:50] Speaker A: Let's hear it.
[02:44:50] Speaker B: Since we were talking about sperm.
[02:44:53] Speaker A: You were talking about sperm. Let's be clear.
[02:44:55] Speaker B: Fat men officially make better lovers is empirical evidence. Now, as a result of a turkish study that explored the average performance time of several groups of men over the course of a year, which found that the average lovemaking of a big man lasted seven minutes and 18 seconds while our skinny brethren only averaged a total performance time of 108 seconds.
[02:45:20] Speaker A: Dang, I got to bulk up.
It's for your own good.
[02:45:29] Speaker B: Don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole problem. And merry Christmas.
[02:45:34] Speaker A: And only you can prevent river fires. Yes.
[02:45:38] Speaker B: Filthy animals.
[02:45:40] Speaker A: Burning river sports gas. Burning river.
River.
[02:45:50] Speaker E: River.
[02:45:52] Speaker A: We don't give a damn for the.
[02:45:55] Speaker B: Whole state of Michigan the whole state.
[02:45:57] Speaker A: Of Michigan the whole state of Michigan we don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan because we're from Ohio.
We're from Ohio we're from Ohio we don't give a damn for the whole day to Michigan because we're from Ohio.
[02:46:20] Speaker B: Good night, Cleveland Browns.
[02:46:23] Speaker D: Fan cruise and the burning river sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of?
[02:46:28] Speaker A: Motorboat. You play the motorboat, you motorboat son of a bitch. You old sailor.
[02:46:35] Speaker B: You know, I was thinking during that interview.
[02:46:37] Speaker A: What were you thinking? Nothing. Because you don't have thoughts. Because you're a brainless idiot.
[02:46:41] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:46:42] Speaker D: My name is utred. Son of Utred.
[02:46:48] Speaker A: By the way, I want my foreskin back. It doesn't matter what you think.
[02:46:52] Speaker E: Maybe if they get some video games on there, I whip somebody in mad.
[02:46:55] Speaker D: Maybe the weather outside is weather.
[02:46:59] Speaker A: The other one, the finger eating food.
[02:47:01] Speaker B: Fingers ejaculate all over my body and my genitals.
[02:47:04] Speaker C: Yes.
[02:47:05] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I have a bullet shed everywhere. What do you mean, funny? Funny how? How am I funny? Just work hard, man.
[02:47:14] Speaker E: Always be in the building. Always being in front of your coaches, asking them questions.
Don't be one of those guys that you want to be the last one in the building. The first one out the building. Be there first. Get that work in. Stay late. Always ask your coach questions. Ask the older guys questions because these guys have been there.
Just be around. Be that player that wants to. Just saying that buys in and let guys pour into you. The knowledge is always out there.
[02:47:47] Speaker A: All I do is win, win, no matter what. They called my house on three way, and I was fooled. I straightened up.
I remember one of my friends was like, I'm just goddamn.
I mean, he. He had his voice down.
He was like, I'm looking for Mr. Josh Cripp. I mean, it was his voice.
I can't reenact it. But, my friend, as soon as I said something to the affirmative, like, yes, sir, coach I mean, I heard all these different voices laughing and snickering, and I was just so embarrassed. Erroneous. Erroneous on both counts.
[02:48:34] Speaker B: Wow.
[02:48:34] Speaker A: But damn, the leads are weak. Leads are weak. Fucking leads are weak. You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years. What's your name? You. That's my name.
[02:48:46] Speaker B: You know why, Mr. Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80,000 BMW.
[02:48:53] Speaker A: That's my name.
I think we've officially lost all of our more conservative viewers.
I don't think they want to listen any longer.
[02:49:03] Speaker C: It's mother nature.
[02:49:05] Speaker B: Where's logo girl when you need her?
[02:49:06] Speaker A: I desperately want to make love to us.
[02:49:08] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now.
[02:49:10] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[02:49:11] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now. We need cheese girl, now.
[02:49:14] Speaker A: Eating that.
[02:49:15] Speaker B: We need cheese girl, now.
Who's canceled now? Who's canceled now?
[02:49:23] Speaker A: Probably me.
[02:49:23] Speaker B: You making a photo of fat people?
[02:49:26] Speaker A: I'm not just you.
[02:49:28] Speaker B: We're a whole race, basically.
[02:49:31] Speaker A: No way. You're just straight. Just finger banged or salad.
[02:49:37] Speaker C: You first get shocked, and then you get the shocker.
[02:49:42] Speaker A: You like to see almost naked.
[02:49:44] Speaker B: That's cool, man. Whatever.
[02:49:47] Speaker A: I am the one who knocks.
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