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Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast mostly believes in aliens. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansens and I am joined by a room failed with heroes, Colleen Wolf. Yeah, there there's more, Chris Westling and Greg Rosatal. What's up? Boys and woman? Hey Dan, Hello, building it up? I don't know. Have you done two shows in a row? I think so it's been done. Thanks for remembering. Dan might have been gone for it. I think when you were gone first. Yeah, I think you're right. So do you know this counts? Counts the other ones counted to But yes, no, they're all good. They're all beautiful little flowers all the shows. This is the Thursday, and I apologize to Mr Flame, who you know. He sends us one of the best whiskeys in the world. And what happens the old zeuser forgets to let everyone know that the Around the NFL podcast is sponsored but Mr Flames economics class in the Hague Va, Netherlands. I think it would actually be funny, even though it would be a problematic situation for us if he sued us for Mr Flames suit is for forgetting to mention podcast on Tuesday. He's way too nice of a guy, I know, But that's what would make it even better. It'd be a rare case. Dan Dan always thinks about the show first. He would actually be happy that he that we get sued. He's like, that'd be a good storyline. It would be pretty good storyline as long as we didn't get fired because of it. And you know, if we didn't have to pay for Laura lawyering up on, it would be great. Yeah, you're getting a little too comfortable, I think with the sponsorship in what sense, you know, just taking gifts and forgetting to say thank you. Well, you know, the beautiful thing about Mr F is the he's the utter antithesis of like a gigantic corpo sponsor. He is, he is hands on, and you know, he's just an uberman. It's almost like we we should share him with the world like somebody else. If we find somebody that deserves a sponsor the way we deserve the sponsor, maybe one day we'll pass off Mr Flame with his How would you feel about sharing Mr F? I would never share him. It would be more like I'd let him go and let him journey off to someone else that that needs a pick me up, because that's what he's given our show. Just let him spread his wings. Yeah, by the way, this is the um. It's been a long time since the Patriot. The Falcons are in the super Bowl just in a cartoon vision of Dan pushing Mr f out of a nest January thirty one, The last time the Falcons were in the Super Bowl. Uh, Colleen, you were a three year old girl back then, something something like that. But here's some fun facts from what was going on in the world the last time. The fact I love this, You know, this is the most original talking point, but I love this. I love nostalgia. Matt Ryan was a thirteen year old boy about that after the Super Bowl. Family Guy premiered on Fox a long time ago. Hit Me Baby one more time? The number one. Were you a big brittany girl younger? Yeah, it was like in college concerts. No gas cost cents again, And I remember that I was. I grew up on the border of New York and New Jersey and the trick in the coal town because gas prices were more expensive in New York, you hopped over the border to Bergen County, New Jersey, and you got the gas in Montfale at a substantially cheaper rate, and they pumped the gas for you in New Jersey, so you don't have to get out of the car if it's raining or anything. Right, but that was always a little weird. That's a law. You can't pump your gas in Jersey. What's going on in the West side of Cincinnati? Wa. I think I had just decided that I was going to be an outsider, and it was like it was to be at the decision. It was the beginning of not carrying one one damn about pop culture. That's about when it started for Matth. I was just gonna be on the outside of society. So on January thirty first nine, Chris Wesling decided he was going to be an outsider. It was around when that girl was trying to engage yourself to me, so I had to necessarily get outside of society. Okay, well, now you work for eleven billion dollar corporation, I have to reconcile a few things. Dan. That was also the year of Summer Girls. That was that was She's all that number one moving in America. It's a great one. Saw that. How about uh, you know, Atlanta Atlanta's own maybe their greatest export outcast touring at that moment, off of their third and best album, aquim and I, alright, yep, there you go. Uh you know what was the uh and off? She's all that. What was the big hit? It was kissed Me by sixpence none the richer. If we had any rights to play me music on the show, um, I would love to play it right now. So instead, and it's not really a situation of settling. I'm going to throw it to las sid who's just a young oyle at that time. But she knows the song, because who doesn't give me a little sixpence said kiss me out of the bearded Barley nightly beside the green green grass swing swinging very good Mankind was the w w E champion? Who was who was that was? He was a wrestler. Didn't he write a book? Yeah? He has Cactus Jack Uh. Donald Trump was a Sea list celebrity. Uh. Bill Belichick was the defensive Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the Jets and Gregg. This one's for you, very literary mind. Southern Cross by Patricia Cornwell topped the New York Times best Seller's list for nonfiction or fiction. Excuse me, Southern Cross also the title of Crosby Stills in Nash's Greatest song. Um, I'm sure it is from that well thirty years West are resident historian. Um, so there you go. All right, today's show, we're going to uh do some news. We're gonna get Connor or on the phone. How exciting is that because Connor h is at the Pro Bowl in Orlando. He actually witnessed this the Skills Showdown on Wednesday's gonna tell us all about his adventures. Um. In the land of Mickey Mouse, Greg Rosenthal wrote a banger ranking the NFL coaching hires. Uh, we need something less. You know, what's lower than a banger. You know, it's sub banger perspective. But you know I'll work on that. Yeah, yeah, So way to pump up your piece though. So a sub banger will use the term for now ranking NFL coaching hires. And then we're gonna try again to get Mark and God's on the phone, uh, to get their update on their road trip. What is that branded? By the way, is it road to Houston? Hashtag road to Houston? Hashtag road to Houston. So that's the show. Let's start some news. Said, what was that? That was? That was my favorite new thing? Which is Kirk Cousins singing in an acapella group in high school. Oh my god, if you haven't seen the video, it's amazing. He has all sorts of crazy outfits. He is. Something else is that? If you watch that, if you're a Redskins fan, does that make you want to invest more in the quarterback? Or is it assigned to run for the hills? I think more. I think I tweeted it out and lots of people were excited about it and excited about their quarterback. Does it with confidence? That's the key? And Kirk Cousins, if you had to make a ranking of which which guy, what quarterbacks Sydney would be most into? Is like a potential date number is number one? That's your boy. What about Jimmy G I think he runs a little too fast for you. Yeah, he seems like he's too edgy. Maybe you need you need a nice boy in an acapella group. Listen, Kirk and I can go to Disney together. It'll be great. All right, let's start the news and we kinda we we blew it. We forgot to talk about Ryan Grigson on Tuesday. So let's talk about it now, because after weeks of speculation and radio silence and Indy, the Colts made the decision to part ways with their general manager, firing Ryan Griggson following a second straight dark January for the Colts. Or they conformed the confirmed this to our told reporters this over the weekend. Uh or Say also confirmed Chuck Pogano will be back as the Colts coach in two thousand seventeen, which is always creates a slightly uncomfortable situation when you mix and match regimes like this. Uh. The move comes just one month after they told rap sheet that the franchise was not planning to make quote wholesale offseason changes. Uh. Greg, I guess you could still say he told the truth, because maybe you could paint it as wholesale would mean you're getting rid of both your coach and GM. But that's still a huge part of the organization. What took so long and what's going on in Indie? I mean, who knows. This is a strange story, a strange situation. Gregson and Pagano had reportedly gone and you know, seen a psychologist. I hired a psychologist to try to overcome their issues. And I wonder I want to know what the story is behind the story, because I don't think it happens two or three weeks into the off season unless something's going on. If someone went to the front office, you know, went to ERSA and made a say, it's either me or him or I don't know why, why would it be happening now because it's not like he had a plan. He he didn't have a plan at all. That would worry me. He's just interviewing gms. At first, there was a couple of guys. Now it's expanded. It's like he didn't have a plan. He just did it. And that's probably why Pogano is still there because I can't imagine that he's prepared to go and have a search for both positions. It just seems like this sort of came out of nowhere and now he's going to be stuck with hiring a GM and maybe he doesn't like the guys that are left out there as head coaching candidates. Yes, how about this. He can't give any credit really for drafting Andrew Luck That was a no brainer of the century, even even though r G three was in that draft, whatever Luck was the number one guy. Is Griggs in the worst GM in the league because he takes that out. What has he done with that team other than hold back Andrew Luck from being in the middle of the playoffs every January. The rest of that two thousand and twelve draft was phenomenal as well. Okay, I don't think they take that away from him. That was one of the best drafts of the past half that came out of that one. T Y Hilton, Kobe Fleanard, Dwayne Allen, Vick Ballard whose career was ruined by a knee injury. Uh. I believe there was one other guy too, right, But Hilton and Luck those are two A plus guys right there. So he nailed that draft. And then two thousand thirteen starts the beginning to the end that Trent Richardson with which is his band of trade with I as we've seen, and he drafts Bjorn Werner in the first round, which is as bad of a first round draft bus as we've seen. Really, he he didn't even make it through his rookie contract before they released him, which you don't see what first round picks. And he had chances to overcome those errors, but he didn't. He had cap room two years in a row, which like top three or four in the league cap room, and he went out and signed guys like Gostar Cheerless and Lauren Landry and Eric Walden and all these guys who were not impact players. Even though he had tons of cap him to bring in guys Arthur Jones, who you know was injured the whole time. So I think he had so many opportunities to keep surrounding Andrew Luck with talent, but every move seemed to backfire. And then that provided a schism with the coaching staff because Griggs and kept saying I'm giving you guys talent and you can't develop it. Well. I think Pagano really hurt this organization by being so good in the room and convincing Jimmer Say a year ago for him to keep his job, because I think Ersay was on the right track there of starting over, and somehow Pagano convinced er Say to give not only Pogano but Griggs in a three year contract. Griggs is gonna get paid through two thousand nineteen or something like that, and and I think it's set back this organization, because whoever they hire here, it might be an internal guy Jimmy Ray. I feel like they're just wasting another year with Chuck Pagano. So there's gonna be another story like this in a year or two where they're starting over, which is ultimately wasting another year with Andrew Luck too. I mean, you have to fix that offensive line that hasn't been fixed in how long? What are you laughing at? Well? Next giggling paying for Griggs and extra couple of What does that mean he can't buy Buddy Holly's guitar now or something. I mean, Jim Mercy has got plenty of money. He's always spending it on all these weird auction items. I don't care if he's paying Griggs in for a couple more years. I get you're right, obviously it's a bottomless pit of money. But it's still the principle of it that you you gave him an extension last year and now you're gonna pay him to basically not be in your building for three years. It's just not a good look. Neither is the fact that so many ex players went out of their way to celebrate Gregson's fires on his grave. Pat mcinfie. You after him too. I've never seen as many players as vocal as they were minutes after the news came out, so awkward. How much do you think Grigson's hairstyle plays into people not liking a lot kind of looks like a mid tier wrestling heell, that's that's the way huge got huge guy. What's six? Yeah, I want to interviewed him at the combine, I mean at the Super Bowl actually right after he hired. Well, it was it was it was alarming, It was a little scary. He was an enormous person. I would say though, that it's impressive the list of guys who are coming out for this job. Now everybody wants to work with Andrews. Well, it's interesting. Some some guys around the league that rejected, uh the interviews are interviewing with the cults there he go, tells you a lot moving on one position that won't be opening up, much to the chagrin of many Packers fans. The defensive coordinator post Dom caper Teflon Dom, as he's known around these parts, He's not going anywhere. Mike McCarthy had this to say, this is no time for drama. Dom Caper's is an outstanding football coach. That doesn't change. He had a tough challenge in front of him this year, and once again that coaching staff dealt with a lot blah blah blah uh talking about injuries as being a major hurdle. Caper's back, not back. Colleen Wolf, also know as Countie Fox. Tom Clements, whose contract expires. He is the associate head coach Offense. His deal expired, they're not bringing him back. He spent eleven seasons with the team, starting his QB coach before being elevated to O C in two thousand twelve and then associate head coach. And you know one thing that is interesting about Clements, McCarthy made a big deal before the season saying, I am going to now start elevating some of my coaches to more EH profile roles to help them get head coaching look, so he made him the play caller, yanked that from him later that season, and now he's out of a job entirely. Yeah, he goes from play caller to totally out in a little over a year. But look, the injuries did not help at all when you look at what they were dealing with in the secondary and just their cornerbacks alone. When Sam Shields went down with the concussion in the season opener, they were playing with three second year corners. You have Damarius Randall, Quinton Rollins, and Ladarius Gunter. Now Gunter I thought that Bucky Brooks always calls him Waldo, like the guys on the team that you can sort of circle and those guys can be exploited, And in a lot of the games this year he was absolutely Waldo and that did not help. Also, they had the pass rush was so inconsistent this entire season that it really exposed that secondary, who was already hurting. I think when you look at the Packers roster, and I've been asked this a lot, what do they change next year to get better? You gotta get production out of Randall, Cobb and Clay Matthews, who are two year highest played players on the team, and our subpar regulars right now, that's a big problem that two guys after Aaron Rodgers getting paid the most are not assets anymore. Moving on, UH, Since that I Bengals saw enough um from Randy Bullock UH to bring back the kicker signed a deal that takes him through two thousand eighteen West a little surprising. Uh. Some people call him fat Randy. I call him big boned Randy. Uh, Randy, Husky Randy Randy. Now it's edging back into mean territory again. I was going for less husky guys. We don't like, you know, that kind of stuff where it's like it's like, hey, big guy, Well you know, we'll just call me fatty all right. The waiters are like, hey, big guy, excuse me. I can't wait to call you big guy. Uh. Uh. Big Bone Randy went five for six on field goals and six or six on extra points in three games with since but that one miss was a doozy, a forty three yard or on Christmas Eve night that gave the Texans the division, but one of the worst misses of the year. He stutters staffed. I think he almost crapped himself and then missed the kick. Uh. You know, Big Bone Randy West still in our lives. This is like the January version of a camp leg right, teflon teflon Randy. They're gonna draft somebody or pick someone else up. I don't think. I don't think Old road to On Randy's gonna be handed a job. That's a better one. Moving on, Hey, guys, that happened January two thousand seventeen. What happened? See, we need more of that around this place. Guys, take after our colleague. Take it notes over here. We achieved lift off on the Blake Bortles redemption tour. Uh. Here's comments from GM Dave Caldwell, Uh this week of the Super Bowl on Blake Bortles. I've said it said this time and time again. I think we can win a lot of games with Blake. I think we can win a super Bowl with Blake. I think he needs to improve, and I think we need to approve around him to an order for that to happen. Greg called will better be right here. He survived the acts. Gus Bradley got sent packing late last season, but they got Tom Coughlin in the building, who easily, I would think, can make called all redundant. If Jacksonville doesn't improve on three and thirteen and the way he's talking, they're gonna try to go it again with Blake Bortles. Do you agree? Well, I think that's the reason he kept his job. Is that called Well and Maron somehow convinced owners shot Khan to run it back with Bordles, that we can fix it. That let's not really change. I mean, if you look at what the Jaguars did, they really didn't. They changed as little as possible. They promoted Moron, they kept called well, they're keeping Boardles as their coach, and they kept the exact same defensive coordinator, which kind of went under the radar. Todd wash Is his name is still the defensive to out. Yeah, he was under They're running the back and it supports my theory that they gotta win. This is a very short lifeline here for Moron. They gotta win right away or Coughlin's gonna get called well out of there, get Bortles out of there, and get Maron out of there and start the whole thing over with his own guys. And this is Bortles is a prime candidate. I wrote about this on the End Around. Please check it out NFL dot com. One of the most popular tropes of the NFL offseason Struggling Quarterback X primed for back bounce back season and now listen to all the factors, all the other sub tropes that connect to Bortles. Let's play a little Blake bingo. Here portals bingo. We have about choice there all right. Here we got player X showed flashes and seasons final weeks. Oh yeah that check player X has semi recent track record of success. Check Player X is still, you know, pretty young. Check prayer Player X will benefit from coaching change. Not buying that one, but it will be all right, lou posited. And finally, my personal favorite, Player X spent offseason undergoing complete mechanics rebuild with quarterback quarterback Guru. Why he's already done that too, just bring it back, bringing it back. He wait until you see the shape he's in. And that's a thing with Bortles. We'll hear how he's taking his craft more seriously, but we never get the article before the year where they weren't taking it seriously. Like you never get the Blake Bortles not really ready for training camp. He's kind of you always hear the whisper the other direction. And about week twelve, I think you know the Super Bowl and then compare that to Blake Bortles. It tells you everything you need to know. That Tom Brady, while he was suspended, worked with Tom House, the biometrics guru mechanical guru. For many times during that suspension. Matt Ryan flew Tom House and Adam Day do the other I working for Tomhouse into Atlanta throughout the season during the season to work on his mechanics, and Blake Bordles pretty much ignored his mechanics during the off seasons. One of the worst wind ups you'll see. That throwing motion is so bad. They trying to pick somebody off second. We gotta get someone in there. I mean, I was as high as Bordles as anyone after I h even in his best season he led the league in interceptions and sacks. It's not like, even even in the season that that he did all the great things. He was a he was a flawed, you know, kind of middle tier quarterback. He absolutely has all the physical tools you could want, but mentally he's not there yet and it's an all consuming job. Um. Finally, little Boston talkg your home region, New England. Uh you you heard the news over the weekend that a East Boston man had broken into or not broken into, had got himself into the team hotel where the Steelers were staying at near uh the airport up there in Boston. Logan and yanked a fire alarm allegedly on the second floor, you know, waking up some players, and you know, he was trying to upset the Steelers on the eve of the a f C Championship game. Harrison reportedly told the police this, according to The Boston Globe, upon his apprehension, he just kind of stumbling away from the grounds. I'm drunk, I'm stupid. I'm a Pats fan. Now, which that doesn't speak for all Patriots. I'm not. This is I'm not bringing this up Greg as a way to left. I mean, at least he was just saying it. Harrison was in court. He's twenty five years old. Uh, he was in court this week where he pleaded not guilty the charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and setting off a false fire alarm. First of all, who hasn't done any of those before? You know, we could say this for the law podcast. I'm just gonna say something. I am not accredited. I have not been to law school. I do not plead not guilty on this. Dennis Harrison, you have the cops have you on record saying I'm drunk, I'm stupid, I'm a Pats fan. You were. You were arrested on the grounds of the hotel where you weren't staying. It was four am plea out, bro, But it's an alternative Factlet plea out. And one last note with this Hooters, Colleen, have you been to a Hooters establishment. I have one of my friends work. They make a good chicken wing. Look at you, Hooters. The Saugust, Massachusetts location put up a sign in front of the restaurant free wings if your name is Dennis Harrison, which is funny and a nice little promotion to tie in with current events and sports fans. But here's the kicker, and this is very this is very masshole. Dennis Harrison showed up and collected on that had a meal there on Monday. A manager that works at the facility. They ought to put this guy away for months through the book at You know, first of all, you don't mess with people sleep well, how about emergencies service workers who were racing to face fake alarm. It's second of all, what's your purpose enjoying this? Well, he's drunk and stupid, right you. It's somehow gonna upset the Steelers and they're not gonna play. Well, give me a break be better. Dennis Harrison, I think, uh, yes, you choose this take serious. I don't like at all. We're gonna talk you into Antonio Brown the other day got you on this one. It's a second rate prank. It's haven't even good. But well, if if the if the idea, it's like stealing somebody's mascot in two thousand seventeen has been It's been done seventy eight times every year. It's it's not it's not creative, but first, got your cockatoo for someone that's no state related to the two teams. He absolutely annoyed the crap out of the entire organization and disrupted their sleeping and you know sleep science saying people say that that stuff is important. Maybe it's you know that helps some one or two percent. There he's helping his team out. You're celebrating this criminal. Now he's an idiot. But but I'm not saying that it had no impact. Was he raised by this criminal? It's raised by wolves. Hey, that's what's happening in the news. All Right, Pro Bowls coming up on Sunday from Orlando. We have had and around the NFL employee uh writer on the site and um, it is time to welcome on the phone. And because Connor, we love Connor and and uh and we're happy to hear from him when unfortunately we're not going to see him at the super Bowl this year, which we're all bummed out about. But because he's coming on the phone. Worked with with Sydney UH to welcome on the show in a special way. A man's man got him mortgage drinks the brown stuff that rends up his poliage. The next beating Manton by not State Ballet got super Bowl snubs. So it's Connor or Fando today? You got some who are you kidding me? It's like Fats Domino. I love it again with the weight, Colleen, you know enough? Connor? Are you there? Hello? Everyone? How you doing buddy? I'm doing well? That was that song was really good. I enjoyed that. You said, well, you sound a little somber right now. What's going on? Take us through it? I got Uh. I got massively sunburned on day one, so I went down to UH. There's like a pro shop attached to my hotel. It's the largest Marriott in the continental United States. You're plugged out on the Marriotts too word. Yeah, sure, I've had conversations with Connor. He could break down in detail each of the tears to the Marriotts and uh and knows them on a regional base is as well. So this one is the largest in the country. Does that make it a good Marriott or just a big Marriott? Oh? I would say every Marriott's a good Marriott. It's like it's like a little slice of home even when you're away. Wow, that needs to be air sponsor. You're gunning for that side promotion avatorial work. Um, so why don't where? Where do we start? How? How is Orlando and what is the what is the vibe with around the players? I know you you've had good access with working on behalf of the shield. What do you what's the sense down there? As the pro Ball continues to explore ways to keep it relevant now sending it out of Hawaii and into Florida, I gotta say that bringing back the skills competition was actually probably the best idea that they've had. Um to try to regenerate interest, I was able to go to like um, I went to a walk through where they brought some of the players in early before yesterday's taping Wednesday's taping, and uh, you know, people were into it, especially the quarterbacks, and they were doing kind of the accuracy challenge and stuff. I thought that was definitely, uh, definitely something. But the other interesting thing about Orlando is there's no restaurants here, which I thought was interesting. Excuse me, a lot of strip malls, right, yeah, I don't know. I'm just like I was like driving around like one stretch of land for like three hours and there's just no no restaurants my memory of Orlando as well. Can you can you reveal who won the skills challenges? Little breaking news that we announced we could this is this is how we can before you answer, Connor, because it is embargoed until Thursday night, but we could hold the show a couple extra hours and that will allow us to talk all the results of the skills show down. Is it worth it? I don't think that's worth it. I would say yes, but there's an armed guard right that follows me around until after the until after the taping air, So I'm not sure I want to all right, we want to upset him without without I can talk, I can talk Pro Bowl, you know, skills challenge, just I can't reveal without revealing the winners. What were some of the more interesting happenings that the Skills challenge? Who should we look for that might have made a fool of themselves? Are really thrived? Take us through it, I would say, Uh, during the dodgeball, Uh, I saw one of the greatest individual athletic performances by any human that I've ever seen in my entire life. Um, and it was sort of like like it made me, as a person who was picked on in dodgeball, feel like really connected and uh, you know it was it was an emotional moment for me. I know, Jason Garrett really got into it. We were standing near each other, saw him kind of rooting on this person even though it you know, it wasn't his player, and you know, so I thought, I think that's something. What division was that player in? This is fun? Um one of well, one of the two big ones, one of the two big divisions. Okay, man, they really have you clamped down on Huh. It's also just fun not to Yeah, just to mess around me and have you had any because Kevin Patrick, once upon a time, UH covered a Pro Bowl. We had him on this very podcast and he ended up talking books, I believe with Alex Mack then the Center for the Browns. Have you had any nice one on one conversations that have been enlightening on some level. I talked to Joe Thomas today and I will say that, like our show only talks to Brown's offensive lineman. I liked how he knew exactly what like he had worked out in his own mind percent probability percentage. Uh that uh, them drafting a quarterback number one overall would actually work out, which I thought was pretty interesting. And like speaks to the new brain trust in Cleveland because they've they've definitely got him, uh, numerically focused more so than he was already. And uh he says it's about twenty five, So I think he's encouraging him to go in a different direction. Wow, how about this? How about this again? You don't want to give away any faces, but I remember talking Pro Bowl, you had some interesting stories about players last year. Can you give us a blind item about a player that perhaps you know, maybe got a little carried away at the bar, or you saw something, saw them do something disturbing, not revealing the player, but maybe sharing their behavior. Who put you on the spot here. I'm sorry, No, that's okay. It's very early in the week. I will say that I've I've seen a lot of I've seen a lot of crimes of fashion. I've seen players a lot of cowboy boots in warm weather. Um, you know, and that that was kind of bother sin to me. A couple of guys getting a little out of shape, you know, which is funny coming from me, and uh, you know, just oh yeah, I will I won't say who it is, you know, but you shared a hall of famer this on our on on on our instant messenger client had now he had devolved from kind of athlete heavy set, too heavy set, heavy set, a hall of famer. Okay, No one's wanted to go over and be like, I know, like exactly what's happening to you? And you know it's gonna be okay, you know not Antoine Walker, who was featured on NFL Network rather large that surprising. Um? Alright, and and Connor, you have any other takeaways from from I know it is early, um or does is there a sense that the players are excited? There was one interesting uh quote? Uh that who loves it? Who said it? Uh? Oh? It was Mike Evans had just found out when he was in Orlando that the winners shares sixty four k and the loser shares is thirty two thousand, and that made him decide he's gonna play hard. Uh any of that sentiment, does it seem like people care? It's good that that's getting out now, because like I remember, I was on the sidelines for the Pro Bowl in two thousand and fourteen when the game and uh, one of the players found out, like in the fourth quarter and they were down by a touchdown and he begged his coat to put him back in because he's like, I was an undrafted free agent. I'm still in my first contract. He's like, I need this money. It's not like you know, I'm not I'm not just messing around. And a lot of these guys, you know, they go ham at the bar. They got all their friends down here. You know, the difference between thirty two and sixty four is breaking even for the weekend. So you know, this is uh, this is uh, this is big. I'm I'm looking I'm looking forward to some trickeration. You know, there was a little uh Michael Bennetts u sail back today, So you know. I mean, there's it's a world of mystery down here. It's not just mouses and roller coasters. It's everything, not restaurants, but everything else. Restaurant there's no there's there's no no restaurants here. It's it's unbelievable. Are you gonna get into a little trouble at any point this weekend? Yeah, I mean I think so. Um. I like to tell people that I've got I've got pro bowl fever, so um, you know wherever that takes me. I mean that's there's there's miles of open road here. So yeah, well you deserve it, big guy, Thank Paul. You know what Colleen is fat shaming right now because I told her twenty minutes ago that I didn't I didn't enjoy when when uh waiter is another type of people refer to me as big guys. So she's actually shaming you. One of the pretties you're going after. You know, uh, it's not it's not the first time, and we're going to be better because of them. Yeah, you're right. Connor, alright, Connor or my not State's uh favorite son, adopted son, and I will get you that box of goodies when you get back to your haunted mansion in New Jersey. But okay, I'll see you when I see you. People. It's been got him Borgage drinks the brown stuff and rends up. Is Polidge man not State Ballet sit on backing box got super bowse snubs? So it's Connor or Fando today? Did he got Sellow snubs? So is counterful Landow today? Are you kidding me? Um? Connors? I ran that by him yesterday, said I was thinking maybe working up a song for you. I said, my only request is that you work in that. They're not sending me to the super Bowl. Nicely done, nicely done. We will miss Connor. Connor should be at the super Bowl. He is a Pro Bowl selection though, So that's good. That's true. That's true. All right, So there you go. That's Connor or Greg. Let's talk your sub banger you wrote. You're not particularly proud of it. I'm not unproud. But if every if everything's a banger, you know, it's sort of cheapens. What's a banger? Hey? When you're right, you're right. So you wrote a you know, a piece of and uh, it's got the headline ranking NFL coaching hires Anthony Lynn at number one. That's the exact headline. By the way, check out Connor stuff at NFL dot com, slash or a lot of good Pro Bowl kind. He's writing a ton of good stuff, and follow him on on Twitter where he's posting fun videos and things for that nature. But back to Greg, Greg, you have Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers the number one coaching higher. Now can you break this down this from perspective, UH for Anthony Lynn, what kind of job he's taking or the team's uh decision making bringing the person in on? Well, I think the content the information in here is good. The ranking itself is kind of is a little is a little silly. If I was power ranking the most meaningless rankings that we make throughout the year, you know this might be number one in the power ring. It's because I'm just you know, they haven't even then. Now Anthony Lynn ends up being number one here because I'm picking who I think is going to have some success, who has surrounded himself, first of all with a good staff. He's got Gus Bradley as his defensive coordinator. He's got Mike McCoy as his h off. I mean sorry, Ken wizzen Hunt as his offensive coordinator. He's got Philip Rivers, He's got a nice roster and listening to Anthony Lynn, you know what, what can you go off of? You listen. I listened to his press conference. I've listened to him in a couple of interviews. In terms of with Matt Moneys, I like I like the cut of his jib. I like the messages that he was sending. I like that he was saying, I'm not worried about the running game anymore. I'm the coach of the whole team, and he was talking about it, and he's been preparing for this day since he started coaching. I liked your point in there that the two coordinators there former head coaches too, so it shows that he's not He has a lot of self confidence in that right he wants to hire head coaches. Shows to me that you have some self confidence. West is laughing over he well, I mean with the caveat that it's sort of a ridiculous exercise anyway, and no one, none of us can really know anything ahead of time. He picked two of the biggest punching bags and tomato cans from this podcast over last three years as guys that you have faith in and Ken Wizzon hunting Gus Bradley well, but I think they can. I think Ken Wizzen it's a good coordinator I liked. I like having continuity for Sandy. You don't think that he did a good job with the Chargers the last two years. I think I like the continuity that you don't have to create a whole new offense. You have Philip Rivers in a familiar system. And Gus Bradley. I'm not worried about him as a as a coordinator. I think he did a good job in Seattle. He wasn't ready to run a team. I think Kyle Shanahan's brilliant. He has a brilliant football mind. I would take him over all three of those guys combined. I had him fourth because I think that situation is so toxic that he's not gonna who's he gonna hire as his defensive coordinator he has I agree with that's that's a disaster. Uh, there's there's you know, there's whispers about Kyle Shanahan. The editors, you know, kind of wanted to take this this part wanted to be taken out but doesn't Kyle Shanahan kind of fit the mold of the guy who does not necessarily rub everyone the right rub some people the wrong way. Uh, just rub fifty three people into the super Bowl. That that's fair talking Kyle Shanahan. No, I remember reading all of those never. Oh, like, how's Julie. I can't wait to see how Julio and Matt Ryan deal with Kyle Shanahan. I think we found out. I mean, he he walked out essentially on the Browns, and it was smart. It was a career move. He thought that was gonna hurt his career, and it did, but at different spots. He's had certain controversies behind the scene. Now he has to run an entire organization and it's just a tough situation. And number two on the list, I'm gonna I'm gonna thank you. Take exception to it. Okay, just a little strong. It's not like I'm hurt or anything by it, but that he got Sean McVeigh, thirty years old, took the job of the Los Angeles Rams youngest coach in league. You have him number two on this list, which and this is based on their likelihood for success in their respectative success. But yeah, okay, well you should have put real success. Okay, I'm just saying I'm reading. Yeah, he's judged on a different scale than you know, Vance Joseph for instance, based on their likelihood for relative success and their respective tenures. Uh. He seems to me to be behind the eight ball because he might be stuck with a Ryan Leaf level bust. Well, part of this was everything is uncertain with all these new coaches. Five of them are first time head coaches, the other ones Deag morone. What certain is that Wade Phillips is one of the greatest defensive coordinators of all time. And that's that's enough for me. That that's something I know, and you know, this guy will see if he's as impressive, you know he he said he makes a good press conference. I don't know if that makes for a good coach. He certainly was a good interviewer. He learned from Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan and John Gruden, three of the best offensive minds of the of the twenty one century. So he's got that going for him. And he seems like an exceptionally bright guy. His players love him, and the guys he's worked with love him. Those are all positive marks. Careful with the Ryan Leaf thing. Come on, well, I mean Ryan out. Now we're gonna say we shouldn't be thrown dirt, and you have been let it leading the charge to barry Jared Goff. I buried Jared Goff because he wasn't ready to play. That's what I've said consistently all along. But Ryan Leaf didn't make it because he was Ryan Leaf, because he didn't want to play football. I mean football was not a priority for him. Two overall pick. He was that level of the first rounder. I don't mean Ryan Leaf. He kind of stands in his own I shouldn't have used that example because people know him more. Is not just a bad player, but a total nightmare as a guy in the locker room. He was the mcdown Cain mcnown's good JaMarcus. But also he comes with baggage to we haven't heard anything. How about blame Gabbert. There's some warning signs that he could be that type of bus. But it's early. Yeah, it's early, al r. Let's get back on track here. Number three, Greg, you advanced Joseph. I like this job. I put him all the way up at number one. How about that. But he certainly takes over the easiest job, and in his coordinators I think are a plus overall. Mike McCoy, who's been there in Denver before. Joe Woods, we don't know anything about him, but he had a strong enough reputation people wanted to hire maybe elsewhere, and he's been in that system coaching up the best secondary in the NFL. They know him. So I kind of trust John Owe implicitly that you know, this guy knows what he's doing, but he's never really running you know, he's never run an offense, I mean, or a defense. I mean, you've never run a team or a defense. So he's just getting the job because of all of these recommendations. Well, he had a reputation as kind of the right hand man even though he was a position coach for Ry Kubiak, for Marvin Lewis, for Adam Gaze when he was a coordinator, all of those guys you know, reportedly gave him really strong recommendations that, look, this was kind of my guy that I went to that that was an important asset to me, and he must interview. Well. Elway liked him a couple of years ago when he interviewed. I think the trickiest thing for him is that. And there's no we're not gonna pass judgment in Paxton Lynch either yet because it's so early, but he's the first round pick and they're gonna probably want to see him at some point. Trevor Simeons did a nice job last year, but he didn't do a nice enough job where you table any discussion about anybody else. As quarterback, he enters kind of a difficult situation with a young two young quarterbacks and trying to figure out who's the guy. I think you're seeing, and I think Mike McCoy is ultimately going to have a huge part in that, and we'll see how how he handles it. I think you're seeing more teams look to these guys as kind of the CEO type rather looking for some sort of offensive genius or defensive gene. I mean, vance Joseph ran one defense and it wasn't very good, and they hired him because they thought he was going to be a leader. And that was kind of what Gary Kubiak got hired for two number four. We spoke about him. Kyle Shannon Shanahan, who's not technically the coach of the forty Honors yet, but everything points to him becoming the Hontors coach once the Falcon season is over. Is this a situation, Greg, where you like Shanahan and his potential, but the job is just so bad that he's in a tough spot, right, and we'll see how he handles running an organization. I think giving a guy that's never been a head coach like that all the power that he's going to have, he's expected to hire the GM. That's why his dad got fired. Mike Shanahan. The GM got Mike Shanahan the coach fired. And if Kyle Shanahan has as much power, let's say, as a Bill Belichick type, he's hiring the GM, that's a lot. It's a lot to ask taking over what I would say that is the worst the worst roster, maybe the worst organization in the NFL. Number five model own you've got Doug Moron and the Jags. Uh. You know, he had the strange departure from Buffalo two years ago, kind of went underground, became the old lined coach, worked his way back up and surprised people by holding out to the job after having the interim label ripped off Mike Malarkey. We had some fun at his expense going into last year and that worked out. Maybe. Dug Moron is another case. Well, I think I did this exercise last year, and Malarkey, I'm sure it was at or near the bottom. I'm an idiot. No, Well, a lot of us thought the same thing. I'm just saying he he has a chance. I mean we kinda I kind of pointed out how they haven't really changed much. I don't know, you don't know what you're getting. Doug Moron, like, what was he in Buffalo? How would you like to be known as the new Malarkey? Well, here's the question about the Jacks just in general. I've went three and thirteen last year with Gus Bradley there most of the way with a better coach. I'm not gonna say Belichick, but who's like a tier below Bell. Let's say Andy Reid. Andy Reid is the head coach of the Jags last year? Is that a winning team? I I would I would trust in Andy Reid to do something? Is that a nine ten one team instead of a three? It does a coach make that much difference for the Jags? It all depends. I mean, no, nobody, nobody was fixing Blake Bortles. If he came to camp with his mechanics that bad. It doesn't. You could have had Bill belichicken you're not gonna win. But and Andy Reid comes with probably a better planet on defense than keeping this guy better staff. Probably. Yeah, that's interesting because what Jalen Ramsey said how they needed a total change right that, that's a little bit of an eye opener. I mean it's you know, it's just one player. But literally after the season they asked, you know, Jalen Ramsey, and he said, we need to completely change our coaching staff and completely change our scheme. How would you like to be? Todd wash showing back up into the room being like, hey, thanks for thanks for campaigning to fire me, was like, wash out, see yourself out of he is my defensive room. Now. Uh. People give Dug Moron a little too much credit for going nine and seven. That was that was the world's getting too much credit from someone that was Jim Schwartz's defense. They were variants have nice things to say about him this week. Cook, I'm science kno n head, you know what I'm saying, Hey, can I but we know we can relate to young players. So that's good speaking because I mean, now we heard it. Can I also hear because I always love to hear uh Doug's take on hip hop culture and what it's all about? What are the roots of the rap of the New York City thing? And it ain't nothing about race culture New York City? Good old dog. So he left Buffalo And now you know, Bills fans they deserve they deserve a medal that they wear around, a medal of honor for sticking with his team. Because Greg has Sean McDermott as the worst head coaching higher in in his sub banger and why is he Why is he at the bottom of the six pack right, Well, someone has to be last. You know Bill's fans have been the Bill are sick of hearing that. They've been blowing up my They've been blowing up my mentions and you keep doing it. Hey, someone's gotta be last. They can eat it. Here's why Sean McDermott and his staff have proven I would say, less than any other staff. And the situation is difficult and the expectations I think are too high from ownership. They think this is some sort of playoff, you know, championship contending roster. Sean McDermott has made his name under Ron Rivera a defensive coach. He's had two top ten defenses in eight years as as a defensive cordiners, So it's not like the Panthers have been lighting it up as a defense. Rick Dennison is well respected. He's always been under Gary Kubiak, basically Kubiak being the guy that runs the opposite We don't you know, we don't know much about this guy. I don't know. You were still running Rhodo World, you would have written this article with bullet points instead of numbers. Would not have called it ranking the new coaches. You would have just provided analysis. I think that puts you in a bit of a pickle your thoughts on that, I don't mind. I mean, it's all the same information in there. Anyways. The information is is good. I'm just like, how do we know if if Sean McDermott's number six or number Wow, that's fair. We don't need to argue who's I think he's got a very tough job, though you disagree, doesn't he have among the toughest jobs of any of these guys. Yes, Greg, now that we've analyzed your article, do you have any regrets? No, no regrets. Okay, there you go. Check it out. Greg wrote a sub banger. Uh, the rankings of the coach has check all this stuff out at NFL dot com slash Rose withal. Make sure you print that out and read it because I I sit in but I sit right in between Greg and Ali BONPORI who's in charge of the features, Greg, I mean making a blazing a trail and forth, wearing out the carpet, planning all different features for super Bowl week. So make sure you bookmark that author page. A lot of super Bowl content, I mean we got marks. Road to Houston long Form West has a banger about how Tom Brady stuck it to Handsas this year by reversing the aging process. Super Bowl content coming up. That's gonna be the vanity or I'm just gonna rerun my August calm every year by the way dot com slash Brady sticks at the Handsas. Go ahead, Go ahead, Tom, good luck next Sunday. All right, before we go, it's time to try again. Get him on the phone. Uh, no song for them, because we don't know if We're gonna talk to them because who knows where they are in America right now? Hopefully the reception is better. Uh, Mark Sessler, John Gonzalez, are you on the line. Well, we are, and we're in a elegant hotel room with absolutely pristine WiFi. Excellent, excellent as it sounds, Uh, nary a crackle behind you? Uh? Where are you right now? What's going on with your journey as you as you drive from southern California to Houston, Texas? Uh? Hashtag road to Houston. Hi, guys, I'm there to Yeah. I wanted to say how exciting this is because of after years of writing countless stories about the NFL and also years of being married to Colleen, I finally made the pot as Marks Valet, this is great. I'm gonna have to keep amount of accidents and gods. I believe you're aware that your wife, and you can tell by her laugh, Uh is with us right now. So this gives her a chance to catch up with you and perhaps you know past as you I don't know, go after you a little bit. She's has some issues right now related to the house that I do. I do I do, John. I believe that if there's a lot of things to to maintain at shaken Valde. We're having a grand time right now now that we're on the road for I mean for the listeners and also for you guys. This is not today. We spent the day in the desert looking for an alien crash site, which is like not probably the weirdest thing I've ever done with Mark Sessler one time he drives me to a house in Venice that apparently was a murder house where many grizzly homicide had happened. So it's just on the left, just another just another thing. We had a fascinating day because we woke up you after we were loved Texas at the moment. Started the day in Santa Fe, which is I've never been there. It's a beautiful town in New Mexico's you know, took about a three hour drive south to Roswell and how did circle up and down the highway to find this little tiny dirt road where if you continue up that road for an hour, which we chose not to do, you would be at where apparently this this alien craft, you know, spiraled to earth, right, I believe in nine in that realm. Is there any reason to go there. Now, Well that's what we were looking into. And there is a stone pillar there with so you know, someone had carved out an inscription about what happened. The much better site that we've found was the Museum, which is another fifteen minutes up the road. And I didn't know if if Gonzo was going to be a fan or not, but he was having more of a good time than I was. He was. You were bopping around, You enjoyed yourself. I prior to this trip was sort of alien agnostic, uh, and now I'm all in, so I'm coming. That was actually gonna be one of my questions whether Gonza would be made a believer. Um, I have a question for you, Mark, and this is uh an honest question. Why are you doing this? It's a good question. I came up with the idea of about a month or so ago and just thought it would be fun to get in the car and see what's in between Los Angeles and the Super Bowl versus just for me this time just flying there. And I really went in thinking that I was going to go alone and have to drive and you know, record whatever happened at night on a laptop in a lonely room. The best decision and what made this I think quite fun so far, is going with someone else and maybe next time it could be all of us. You know, there were budgetary concerns and the road concerns from our employer. But John, he's a free agent, literally, and he was able to go. And he's been an absolutely perfect traveling partner. All right, let's let's stop there. I'm gonna bring in Chris Wessling. Now, how about the idea that Chris is a little hurt that he's not on this Carolacs journey to Houston. Let's talk about that a little bit? Sure? I mean I, as I mentioned to Chris and Dan immediately covered his face. Mark, I want embarrassed after he asked this ridiculous question, but it is I hope Chris has not hurt. I think Chris knows that we would love to number one. We should speak, Chris, speak for yourself, Chris, I can explain the reason after this. I am not hurt at all. I am happy for Mark because I know that this is something he wanted to do and he's the perfect person to do it. Am I a little bit jealous? Do I wish? I is with him. Sure, sure, I wish this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do. Where does that leave you with Gonzo? I love Gonzo great and I can I will say this, this is genuine. I cannot wait to read the finished product. Yeah, that's Mark. So when you write this up and where we heard it's gonna land early next week, it's going is it gonna be about football? What's what's? What is this going to be about? Do you know what is about? Yet? Well? I decided not to actually write anything. I'm myself. We're having a great time. I don't know if that's part of its relevant. But they're on the run right now. We're just on the run. I'm not even sure we may pass through Houston, keep going right through that wall to Mexico. But I would say that what what was the question? Again? What? What why am I writing? And no, just in general, like, what are in your your plan when you sit down to write about your adventure? Is it about football? Is it about just the journey to Houston? What do you have a general idea about the direction that of the piece that we're we're all excited to read. Well, I hope it will masterfully you know, inter interweave vote because we've talked to a lot of people along the way about football league. For instance, when we were at the Alien Museum, we got an interview with the executive director of the museum, an old fellow and a really nice guy. But we all got talked a little football. So excuse me, you got him. You were able to book the executives are you know, about ten people the museum and he was busy, But I got in there and I got in that office and I got quote, He's like, I'll give you three minutes. But that sounds cool. No, it's talked to upwards of three or four Junny's waters. It's really been amazing. Well we are now here's the thing. I think it's going to pick up the team from the football because we're gonna be in Fort Worth in Dallas over the next day. Tonight we're in Lubbock, which is a big college town. Guy at our hotels and you've got to get out Tonight the huge night for the college kids, which are roughly about twenty years younger than us. So we'll see how that goes. But we'll we'll continue to talk to people. People have opinions, I think one thing I'm talking to fans is they just they don't they're not trying to save face or you know, build bridges with anyone when they have a football opinion. They don't cut any corners. That's cool. And and you brought up Gonzo, Um Denny's now Mark. We're always fascinated by Mark's eating habits. And Colleen had told us on Tuesday that when she first started dating Gonzo, she noted, uh, internally, that that Gonzo kind of ate like a serial killer. Have you guys noticed each other's kind of idiosyncracities when it comes to eating stuff, So we've been kind of feeding off each other's rhythms on that front. Today, for example, we got up early, you had a cup of coffee, uh, and then went looking for alien crash sites and haven't eaten yet. So we're gonna do that next. But this is there in the afternoon, you haven't eaten, But it's actually a central time. And I also think it's not just the eating rhythms. We are starting to as you would adopt each other's phrase, get phrases and and and the way that anything would be described. You know, Gonzo is starting a revolution with his I think Colle knows whether it's his GC terminology or all or great call, depending on it. So we just you know, we're starting to John, it's not going to be a thing. Is not happening, Sorry, Colleen. That's a thing. So if somebody makes a point that you're plugged in on John and you agree with you just go GC. You could be that's a good one where you say, hey, have you guys listen to me around the NFL podcast this weekend? Nice GC. Very It's very kind of like, now, you don't know, it's not a thing. It's good. I'm personal. I'm standing in my ground on this one. Are you interrupt I'm out there? Well, yeah, you know that randomly, Gonzo, we have a lot of like connective tissue because I just found out that you have a blue pen phobia, as do I. I threw an app before the show and back in college I try to start something my senior year that I try to catch on with my friends and the dorms, which was LBS, which meant, let's be serious. Oh, I like you, now, this is gonna be great. We'll have not to be confused with say not to be confused with ibs. Irritable bowels to pound differently struggle, but I'm on board with it. We can do. This will be a free exchange of acronyms. Can I tell you why won't work? It's the same number of syllables? Is a good call exactly. That's one of my playing All the cool kids are abbreviating these days. John also likes to throw this g's up for Gonzalez. Oh well in that case, yeah, I like some of these things. We're in love it. They throw their guns up for the Redorators, so we'll do instead of the guns. One of my favorite things about this rip is face timing with the both of them to say good night as they share a hotel room. And last night, um they I guess Mark had broken into the mini bar and they had a key I don't know, some delicious master key to every mini bar, watch some HBO and then fell asleep at the skeleton key. The whole are We were very into the Young Pope and we were trying to watch the latest episode. A disaster occurred that I lost my glasses, which means fundamentally will not be able to see what's happening during the Super Bowl. So Gonza inform me that I can buy something called readers. Readers. Yeah, that's gonna look. Sorry, you're not driving then without the glasses because I think we've we've made the right choice about who should be doing the majority, if not all, of the driving from the minute the trip started, and it's not the person speaking. Did you drive at all? Sessler? Well, here's the thing, honestly, this is what has been so great. Because I'm writing on on my phone or on the on the laptop. Well, John does the driving, and like we've had pretty short it's not majorly long segments. It's you know, a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there. First day was a little rough, but that's okay because the division of labor has been wonderful. Like we said, we're really getting into each other's room. He's writing, I'm driving, neither of us are eating, and then your beer, Like, what are you getting paid for this by Mark? John? Uh, Well, he's not paying for much at all. Let's put it that way. If they paid for vacation, and you know vacation, I'm flying him, I'm flying him home. They're on a buddy moon right now. This is honestly, this is what Mark has always wanted to have a friend that doesn't need to eat like him, and we always we've been letting him down in this department on the open road. What could be better? Imagine how much time and like and part of the whole serial killer eating habits like isn't us the fact that he doesn't eat, but also like John will take if he's eating a stack, if he has a couple of cookies or something chocolate chip cookies, he will put them on top of each other based on size and then eat the smallest one to the largest one. He also has certain rules for eating Reese's cups, for eating like pizza, for eating various items. This all makes sense to me. That feels extremely accusatory. Having spent a couple of days with Gone, so I think he's eating habits are really beyond critique. All right, So there you go. There's the update. The next time the listeners will hear from Mark, he'll be with us in Houston next Tuesday, and you guys, nothing is promised. That's the schedule. That's the plan anyway. So gentlemen, thank you for the update. Good luck with the rest of the journey. And it sounds like you're having a good time, and it's just in general, it's really cute. The whole thing is very cute to me. It's adorable, but definitely back, I'm having a great time and I look forward to being on the pot again. The next time one of you needs show, there we go John Gonzales with of course Mark Sessler. Follow their journeys Mark at at Mark Sessler NFL, uh Gonzo at Underscore, John Gonnes uh so you can follow along with them. Mark also on Instagram. I'm sure Gonzo is on Instagram as well right now? Okay, so, and then Mark's Land long formal Land. We're hearing early next week. So there you go. All right, that's it. That. By the way, our schedule people are going around the schedule, and you know, I'm gonna get a lot of We'll probably get a lot of tweets Sunday asking when the show is going up? No show this upcoming Sunday. It's a travel day for some of us to Houston. So, um, the next time you hear from us will be Tuesday. From Houston. We're gonna be doing the show from a radio station downtown. Uh So we're excited about that and uh that. Well, we'll be able to talk about you know, really start start to now turn our attention to the game and talk about media Night, which will happen the day before. Uh, Colleen, I mean what can we say? You what I mean? You came on the show. Thanks for having me on again. This is great, big guy. Yeah, I'm gonna get you for this. I'm gonna find out what annoys you A real media show. This was will never be on the show, the last one. That's my big guy, promise you the day. All right. So yes, you'll hear from us on Tuesday. Thank you for everyone for listening. Thank you to Connie for joining us. Thank you to the first Lady Sydney for a double voxwork both in backing vocals on the Connor song, and uh also your sixpence on the Richer, which was really that was great. Thanks. I never thought this is where it would lead me, but I'm glad we're here. Yes, you and and Kirk Cousins. I don't know. Is he married, Yeah, he's got kids. See this is this is the conundrum, is that he also has an autobiography that came out two years ago. Okay, let's calm down with that everybody is, you know, an awful lot about Kirk Cousins. Rosie just shrugs. He just gives me my job, all right. Whatever the problem is that Sydney. We wanted to get We wanted to settle down with a rich quarterback. But those goody two shoe guys, they usually get married by the time they're like twenty two to the college or high school sweetheart. We gotta find somebody. I want a flawed quarterback, West, but also very pure in mind and spirit. Yeah, if you feel like you're like Kirk Cousins, you can tweet at around the NFL. Do you mind that we're matchmaking for you. Awfully hard to find an unmarried quarterback period, West knows say, look at him, girl married? All right, we'll ast you cut to the core of the conversation. Does she want Colin Kaepernick? Not her speed? Not her speed? All right. We will be back tuesday. Thank you to everyone. Until then, this is Dan Hanson signing off four Connie Fox, the mail man, the old boss, and new money. Here we go off to Houston till Tuesday.
Speaker 1: The Around the NFL Podcast mostly believes in aliens. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hansens and I am joined by a room failed with heroes, Colleen Wolf. Yeah, there there's more, Chris Westling and Greg Rosatal. What's up? Boys and woman? Hey Dan, Hello, building it up? I don't know. Have you done two shows in a row? I think so it's been done. Thanks for remembering. Dan might have been gone for it. I think when you were gone first. Yeah, I think you're right. So do you know this counts? Counts the other ones counted to But yes, no, they're all good. They're all beautiful little flowers all the shows. This is the Thursday, and I apologize to Mr Flame, who you know. He sends us one of the best whiskeys in the world. And what happens the old zeuser forgets to let everyone know that the Around the NFL podcast is sponsored but Mr Flames economics class in the Hague Va, Netherlands. I think it would actually be funny, even though it would be a problematic situation for us if he sued us for Mr Flames suit is for forgetting to mention podcast on Tuesday. He's way too nice of a guy, I know, But that's what would make it even better. It'd be a rare case. Dan Dan always thinks about the show first. He would actually be happy that he that we get sued. He's like, that'd be a good storyline. It would be pretty good storyline as long as we didn't get fired because of it. And you know, if we didn't have to pay for Laura lawyering up on, it would be great. Yeah, you're getting a little too comfortable, I think with the sponsorship in what sense, you know, just taking gifts and forgetting to say thank you. Well, you know, the beautiful thing about Mr F is the he's the utter antithesis of like a gigantic corpo sponsor. He is, he is hands on, and you know, he's just an uberman. It's almost like we we should share him with the world like somebody else. If we find somebody that deserves a sponsor the way we deserve the sponsor, maybe one day we'll pass off Mr Flame with his How would you feel about sharing Mr F? I would never share him. It would be more like I'd let him go and let him journey off to someone else that that needs a pick me up, because that's what he's given our show. Just let him spread his wings. Yeah, by the way, this is the um. It's been a long time since the Patriot. The Falcons are in the super Bowl just in a cartoon vision of Dan pushing Mr f out of a nest January thirty one, The last time the Falcons were in the Super Bowl. Uh, Colleen, you were a three year old girl back then, something something like that. But here's some fun facts from what was going on in the world the last time. The fact I love this, You know, this is the most original talking point, but I love this. I love nostalgia. Matt Ryan was a thirteen year old boy about that after the Super Bowl. Family Guy premiered on Fox a long time ago. Hit Me Baby one more time? The number one. Were you a big brittany girl younger? Yeah, it was like in college concerts. No gas cost cents again, And I remember that I was. I grew up on the border of New York and New Jersey and the trick in the coal town because gas prices were more expensive in New York, you hopped over the border to Bergen County, New Jersey, and you got the gas in Montfale at a substantially cheaper rate, and they pumped the gas for you in New Jersey, so you don't have to get out of the car if it's raining or anything. Right, but that was always a little weird. That's a law. You can't pump your gas in Jersey. What's going on in the West side of Cincinnati? Wa. I think I had just decided that I was going to be an outsider, and it was like it was to be at the decision. It was the beginning of not carrying one one damn about pop culture. That's about when it started for Matth. I was just gonna be on the outside of society. So on January thirty first nine, Chris Wesling decided he was going to be an outsider. It was around when that girl was trying to engage yourself to me, so I had to necessarily get outside of society. Okay, well, now you work for eleven billion dollar corporation, I have to reconcile a few things. Dan. That was also the year of Summer Girls. That was that was She's all that number one moving in America. It's a great one. Saw that. How about uh, you know, Atlanta Atlanta's own maybe their greatest export outcast touring at that moment, off of their third and best album, aquim and I, alright, yep, there you go. Uh you know what was the uh and off? She's all that. What was the big hit? It was kissed Me by sixpence none the richer. If we had any rights to play me music on the show, um, I would love to play it right now. So instead, and it's not really a situation of settling. I'm going to throw it to las sid who's just a young oyle at that time. But she knows the song, because who doesn't give me a little sixpence said kiss me out of the bearded Barley nightly beside the green green grass swing swinging very good Mankind was the w w E champion? Who was who was that was? He was a wrestler. Didn't he write a book? Yeah? He has Cactus Jack Uh. Donald Trump was a Sea list celebrity. Uh. Bill Belichick was the defensive Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the Jets and Gregg. This one's for you, very literary mind. Southern Cross by Patricia Cornwell topped the New York Times best Seller's list for nonfiction or fiction. Excuse me, Southern Cross also the title of Crosby Stills in Nash's Greatest song. Um, I'm sure it is from that well thirty years West are resident historian. Um, so there you go. All right, today's show, we're going to uh do some news. We're gonna get Connor or on the phone. How exciting is that because Connor h is at the Pro Bowl in Orlando. He actually witnessed this the Skills Showdown on Wednesday's gonna tell us all about his adventures. Um. In the land of Mickey Mouse, Greg Rosenthal wrote a banger ranking the NFL coaching hires. Uh, we need something less. You know, what's lower than a banger. You know, it's sub banger perspective. But you know I'll work on that. Yeah, yeah, So way to pump up your piece though. So a sub banger will use the term for now ranking NFL coaching hires. And then we're gonna try again to get Mark and God's on the phone, uh, to get their update on their road trip. What is that branded? By the way, is it road to Houston? Hashtag road to Houston? Hashtag road to Houston. So that's the show. Let's start some news. Said, what was that? That was? That was my favorite new thing? Which is Kirk Cousins singing in an acapella group in high school. Oh my god, if you haven't seen the video, it's amazing. He has all sorts of crazy outfits. He is. Something else is that? If you watch that, if you're a Redskins fan, does that make you want to invest more in the quarterback? Or is it assigned to run for the hills? I think more. I think I tweeted it out and lots of people were excited about it and excited about their quarterback. Does it with confidence? That's the key? And Kirk Cousins, if you had to make a ranking of which which guy, what quarterbacks Sydney would be most into? Is like a potential date number is number one? That's your boy. What about Jimmy G I think he runs a little too fast for you. Yeah, he seems like he's too edgy. Maybe you need you need a nice boy in an acapella group. Listen, Kirk and I can go to Disney together. It'll be great. All right, let's start the news and we kinda we we blew it. We forgot to talk about Ryan Grigson on Tuesday. So let's talk about it now, because after weeks of speculation and radio silence and Indy, the Colts made the decision to part ways with their general manager, firing Ryan Griggson following a second straight dark January for the Colts. Or they conformed the confirmed this to our told reporters this over the weekend. Uh or Say also confirmed Chuck Pogano will be back as the Colts coach in two thousand seventeen, which is always creates a slightly uncomfortable situation when you mix and match regimes like this. Uh. The move comes just one month after they told rap sheet that the franchise was not planning to make quote wholesale offseason changes. Uh. Greg, I guess you could still say he told the truth, because maybe you could paint it as wholesale would mean you're getting rid of both your coach and GM. But that's still a huge part of the organization. What took so long and what's going on in Indie? I mean, who knows. This is a strange story, a strange situation. Gregson and Pagano had reportedly gone and you know, seen a psychologist. I hired a psychologist to try to overcome their issues. And I wonder I want to know what the story is behind the story, because I don't think it happens two or three weeks into the off season unless something's going on. If someone went to the front office, you know, went to ERSA and made a say, it's either me or him or I don't know why, why would it be happening now because it's not like he had a plan. He he didn't have a plan at all. That would worry me. He's just interviewing gms. At first, there was a couple of guys. Now it's expanded. It's like he didn't have a plan. He just did it. And that's probably why Pogano is still there because I can't imagine that he's prepared to go and have a search for both positions. It just seems like this sort of came out of nowhere and now he's going to be stuck with hiring a GM and maybe he doesn't like the guys that are left out there as head coaching candidates. Yes, how about this. He can't give any credit really for drafting Andrew Luck That was a no brainer of the century, even even though r G three was in that draft, whatever Luck was the number one guy. Is Griggs in the worst GM in the league because he takes that out. What has he done with that team other than hold back Andrew Luck from being in the middle of the playoffs every January. The rest of that two thousand and twelve draft was phenomenal as well. Okay, I don't think they take that away from him. That was one of the best drafts of the past half that came out of that one. T Y Hilton, Kobe Fleanard, Dwayne Allen, Vick Ballard whose career was ruined by a knee injury. Uh. I believe there was one other guy too, right, But Hilton and Luck those are two A plus guys right there. So he nailed that draft. And then two thousand thirteen starts the beginning to the end that Trent Richardson with which is his band of trade with I as we've seen, and he drafts Bjorn Werner in the first round, which is as bad of a first round draft bus as we've seen. Really, he he didn't even make it through his rookie contract before they released him, which you don't see what first round picks. And he had chances to overcome those errors, but he didn't. He had cap room two years in a row, which like top three or four in the league cap room, and he went out and signed guys like Gostar Cheerless and Lauren Landry and Eric Walden and all these guys who were not impact players. Even though he had tons of cap him to bring in guys Arthur Jones, who you know was injured the whole time. So I think he had so many opportunities to keep surrounding Andrew Luck with talent, but every move seemed to backfire. And then that provided a schism with the coaching staff because Griggs and kept saying I'm giving you guys talent and you can't develop it. Well. I think Pagano really hurt this organization by being so good in the room and convincing Jimmer Say a year ago for him to keep his job, because I think Ersay was on the right track there of starting over, and somehow Pagano convinced er Say to give not only Pogano but Griggs in a three year contract. Griggs is gonna get paid through two thousand nineteen or something like that, and and I think it's set back this organization, because whoever they hire here, it might be an internal guy Jimmy Ray. I feel like they're just wasting another year with Chuck Pagano. So there's gonna be another story like this in a year or two where they're starting over, which is ultimately wasting another year with Andrew Luck too. I mean, you have to fix that offensive line that hasn't been fixed in how long? What are you laughing at? Well? Next giggling paying for Griggs and extra couple of What does that mean he can't buy Buddy Holly's guitar now or something. I mean, Jim Mercy has got plenty of money. He's always spending it on all these weird auction items. I don't care if he's paying Griggs in for a couple more years. I get you're right, obviously it's a bottomless pit of money. But it's still the principle of it that you you gave him an extension last year and now you're gonna pay him to basically not be in your building for three years. It's just not a good look. Neither is the fact that so many ex players went out of their way to celebrate Gregson's fires on his grave. Pat mcinfie. You after him too. I've never seen as many players as vocal as they were minutes after the news came out, so awkward. How much do you think Grigson's hairstyle plays into people not liking a lot kind of looks like a mid tier wrestling heell, that's that's the way huge got huge guy. What's six? Yeah, I want to interviewed him at the combine, I mean at the Super Bowl actually right after he hired. Well, it was it was it was alarming, It was a little scary. He was an enormous person. I would say though, that it's impressive the list of guys who are coming out for this job. Now everybody wants to work with Andrews. Well, it's interesting. Some some guys around the league that rejected, uh the interviews are interviewing with the cults there he go, tells you a lot moving on one position that won't be opening up, much to the chagrin of many Packers fans. The defensive coordinator post Dom caper Teflon Dom, as he's known around these parts, He's not going anywhere. Mike McCarthy had this to say, this is no time for drama. Dom Caper's is an outstanding football coach. That doesn't change. He had a tough challenge in front of him this year, and once again that coaching staff dealt with a lot blah blah blah uh talking about injuries as being a major hurdle. Caper's back, not back. Colleen Wolf, also know as Countie Fox. Tom Clements, whose contract expires. He is the associate head coach Offense. His deal expired, they're not bringing him back. He spent eleven seasons with the team, starting his QB coach before being elevated to O C in two thousand twelve and then associate head coach. And you know one thing that is interesting about Clements, McCarthy made a big deal before the season saying, I am going to now start elevating some of my coaches to more EH profile roles to help them get head coaching look, so he made him the play caller, yanked that from him later that season, and now he's out of a job entirely. Yeah, he goes from play caller to totally out in a little over a year. But look, the injuries did not help at all when you look at what they were dealing with in the secondary and just their cornerbacks alone. When Sam Shields went down with the concussion in the season opener, they were playing with three second year corners. You have Damarius Randall, Quinton Rollins, and Ladarius Gunter. Now Gunter I thought that Bucky Brooks always calls him Waldo, like the guys on the team that you can sort of circle and those guys can be exploited, And in a lot of the games this year he was absolutely Waldo and that did not help. Also, they had the pass rush was so inconsistent this entire season that it really exposed that secondary, who was already hurting. I think when you look at the Packers roster, and I've been asked this a lot, what do they change next year to get better? You gotta get production out of Randall, Cobb and Clay Matthews, who are two year highest played players on the team, and our subpar regulars right now, that's a big problem that two guys after Aaron Rodgers getting paid the most are not assets anymore. Moving on, UH, Since that I Bengals saw enough um from Randy Bullock UH to bring back the kicker signed a deal that takes him through two thousand eighteen West a little surprising. Uh. Some people call him fat Randy. I call him big boned Randy. Uh, Randy, Husky Randy Randy. Now it's edging back into mean territory again. I was going for less husky guys. We don't like, you know, that kind of stuff where it's like it's like, hey, big guy, Well you know, we'll just call me fatty all right. The waiters are like, hey, big guy, excuse me. I can't wait to call you big guy. Uh. Uh. Big Bone Randy went five for six on field goals and six or six on extra points in three games with since but that one miss was a doozy, a forty three yard or on Christmas Eve night that gave the Texans the division, but one of the worst misses of the year. He stutters staffed. I think he almost crapped himself and then missed the kick. Uh. You know, Big Bone Randy West still in our lives. This is like the January version of a camp leg right, teflon teflon Randy. They're gonna draft somebody or pick someone else up. I don't think. I don't think Old road to On Randy's gonna be handed a job. That's a better one. Moving on, Hey, guys, that happened January two thousand seventeen. What happened? See, we need more of that around this place. Guys, take after our colleague. Take it notes over here. We achieved lift off on the Blake Bortles redemption tour. Uh. Here's comments from GM Dave Caldwell, Uh this week of the Super Bowl on Blake Bortles. I've said it said this time and time again. I think we can win a lot of games with Blake. I think we can win a super Bowl with Blake. I think he needs to improve, and I think we need to approve around him to an order for that to happen. Greg called will better be right here. He survived the acts. Gus Bradley got sent packing late last season, but they got Tom Coughlin in the building, who easily, I would think, can make called all redundant. If Jacksonville doesn't improve on three and thirteen and the way he's talking, they're gonna try to go it again with Blake Bortles. Do you agree? Well, I think that's the reason he kept his job. Is that called Well and Maron somehow convinced owners shot Khan to run it back with Bordles, that we can fix it. That let's not really change. I mean, if you look at what the Jaguars did, they really didn't. They changed as little as possible. They promoted Moron, they kept called well, they're keeping Boardles as their coach, and they kept the exact same defensive coordinator, which kind of went under the radar. Todd wash Is his name is still the defensive to out. Yeah, he was under They're running the back and it supports my theory that they gotta win. This is a very short lifeline here for Moron. They gotta win right away or Coughlin's gonna get called well out of there, get Bortles out of there, and get Maron out of there and start the whole thing over with his own guys. And this is Bortles is a prime candidate. I wrote about this on the End Around. Please check it out NFL dot com. One of the most popular tropes of the NFL offseason Struggling Quarterback X primed for back bounce back season and now listen to all the factors, all the other sub tropes that connect to Bortles. Let's play a little Blake bingo. Here portals bingo. We have about choice there all right. Here we got player X showed flashes and seasons final weeks. Oh yeah that check player X has semi recent track record of success. Check Player X is still, you know, pretty young. Check prayer Player X will benefit from coaching change. Not buying that one, but it will be all right, lou posited. And finally, my personal favorite, Player X spent offseason undergoing complete mechanics rebuild with quarterback quarterback Guru. Why he's already done that too, just bring it back, bringing it back. He wait until you see the shape he's in. And that's a thing with Bortles. We'll hear how he's taking his craft more seriously, but we never get the article before the year where they weren't taking it seriously. Like you never get the Blake Bortles not really ready for training camp. He's kind of you always hear the whisper the other direction. And about week twelve, I think you know the Super Bowl and then compare that to Blake Bortles. It tells you everything you need to know. That Tom Brady, while he was suspended, worked with Tom House, the biometrics guru mechanical guru. For many times during that suspension. Matt Ryan flew Tom House and Adam Day do the other I working for Tomhouse into Atlanta throughout the season during the season to work on his mechanics, and Blake Bordles pretty much ignored his mechanics during the off seasons. One of the worst wind ups you'll see. That throwing motion is so bad. They trying to pick somebody off second. We gotta get someone in there. I mean, I was as high as Bordles as anyone after I h even in his best season he led the league in interceptions and sacks. It's not like, even even in the season that that he did all the great things. He was a he was a flawed, you know, kind of middle tier quarterback. He absolutely has all the physical tools you could want, but mentally he's not there yet and it's an all consuming job. Um. Finally, little Boston talkg your home region, New England. Uh you you heard the news over the weekend that a East Boston man had broken into or not broken into, had got himself into the team hotel where the Steelers were staying at near uh the airport up there in Boston. Logan and yanked a fire alarm allegedly on the second floor, you know, waking up some players, and you know, he was trying to upset the Steelers on the eve of the a f C Championship game. Harrison reportedly told the police this, according to The Boston Globe, upon his apprehension, he just kind of stumbling away from the grounds. I'm drunk, I'm stupid. I'm a Pats fan. Now, which that doesn't speak for all Patriots. I'm not. This is I'm not bringing this up Greg as a way to left. I mean, at least he was just saying it. Harrison was in court. He's twenty five years old. Uh, he was in court this week where he pleaded not guilty the charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and setting off a false fire alarm. First of all, who hasn't done any of those before? You know, we could say this for the law podcast. I'm just gonna say something. I am not accredited. I have not been to law school. I do not plead not guilty on this. Dennis Harrison, you have the cops have you on record saying I'm drunk, I'm stupid, I'm a Pats fan. You were. You were arrested on the grounds of the hotel where you weren't staying. It was four am plea out, bro, But it's an alternative Factlet plea out. And one last note with this Hooters, Colleen, have you been to a Hooters establishment. I have one of my friends work. They make a good chicken wing. Look at you, Hooters. The Saugust, Massachusetts location put up a sign in front of the restaurant free wings if your name is Dennis Harrison, which is funny and a nice little promotion to tie in with current events and sports fans. But here's the kicker, and this is very this is very masshole. Dennis Harrison showed up and collected on that had a meal there on Monday. A manager that works at the facility. They ought to put this guy away for months through the book at You know, first of all, you don't mess with people sleep well, how about emergencies service workers who were racing to face fake alarm. It's second of all, what's your purpose enjoying this? Well, he's drunk and stupid, right you. It's somehow gonna upset the Steelers and they're not gonna play. Well, give me a break be better. Dennis Harrison, I think, uh, yes, you choose this take serious. I don't like at all. We're gonna talk you into Antonio Brown the other day got you on this one. It's a second rate prank. It's haven't even good. But well, if if the if the idea, it's like stealing somebody's mascot in two thousand seventeen has been It's been done seventy eight times every year. It's it's not it's not creative, but first, got your cockatoo for someone that's no state related to the two teams. He absolutely annoyed the crap out of the entire organization and disrupted their sleeping and you know sleep science saying people say that that stuff is important. Maybe it's you know that helps some one or two percent. There he's helping his team out. You're celebrating this criminal. Now he's an idiot. But but I'm not saying that it had no impact. Was he raised by this criminal? It's raised by wolves. Hey, that's what's happening in the news. All Right, Pro Bowls coming up on Sunday from Orlando. We have had and around the NFL employee uh writer on the site and um, it is time to welcome on the phone. And because Connor, we love Connor and and uh and we're happy to hear from him when unfortunately we're not going to see him at the super Bowl this year, which we're all bummed out about. But because he's coming on the phone. Worked with with Sydney UH to welcome on the show in a special way. A man's man got him mortgage drinks the brown stuff that rends up his poliage. The next beating Manton by not State Ballet got super Bowl snubs. So it's Connor or Fando today? You got some who are you kidding me? It's like Fats Domino. I love it again with the weight, Colleen, you know enough? Connor? Are you there? Hello? Everyone? How you doing buddy? I'm doing well? That was that song was really good. I enjoyed that. You said, well, you sound a little somber right now. What's going on? Take us through it? I got Uh. I got massively sunburned on day one, so I went down to UH. There's like a pro shop attached to my hotel. It's the largest Marriott in the continental United States. You're plugged out on the Marriotts too word. Yeah, sure, I've had conversations with Connor. He could break down in detail each of the tears to the Marriotts and uh and knows them on a regional base is as well. So this one is the largest in the country. Does that make it a good Marriott or just a big Marriott? Oh? I would say every Marriott's a good Marriott. It's like it's like a little slice of home even when you're away. Wow, that needs to be air sponsor. You're gunning for that side promotion avatorial work. Um, so why don't where? Where do we start? How? How is Orlando and what is the what is the vibe with around the players? I know you you've had good access with working on behalf of the shield. What do you what's the sense down there? As the pro Ball continues to explore ways to keep it relevant now sending it out of Hawaii and into Florida, I gotta say that bringing back the skills competition was actually probably the best idea that they've had. Um to try to regenerate interest, I was able to go to like um, I went to a walk through where they brought some of the players in early before yesterday's taping Wednesday's taping, and uh, you know, people were into it, especially the quarterbacks, and they were doing kind of the accuracy challenge and stuff. I thought that was definitely, uh, definitely something. But the other interesting thing about Orlando is there's no restaurants here, which I thought was interesting. Excuse me, a lot of strip malls, right, yeah, I don't know. I'm just like I was like driving around like one stretch of land for like three hours and there's just no no restaurants my memory of Orlando as well. Can you can you reveal who won the skills challenges? Little breaking news that we announced we could this is this is how we can before you answer, Connor, because it is embargoed until Thursday night, but we could hold the show a couple extra hours and that will allow us to talk all the results of the skills show down. Is it worth it? I don't think that's worth it. I would say yes, but there's an armed guard right that follows me around until after the until after the taping air, So I'm not sure I want to all right, we want to upset him without without I can talk, I can talk Pro Bowl, you know, skills challenge, just I can't reveal without revealing the winners. What were some of the more interesting happenings that the Skills challenge? Who should we look for that might have made a fool of themselves? Are really thrived? Take us through it, I would say, Uh, during the dodgeball, Uh, I saw one of the greatest individual athletic performances by any human that I've ever seen in my entire life. Um, and it was sort of like like it made me, as a person who was picked on in dodgeball, feel like really connected and uh, you know it was it was an emotional moment for me. I know, Jason Garrett really got into it. We were standing near each other, saw him kind of rooting on this person even though it you know, it wasn't his player, and you know, so I thought, I think that's something. What division was that player in? This is fun? Um one of well, one of the two big ones, one of the two big divisions. Okay, man, they really have you clamped down on Huh. It's also just fun not to Yeah, just to mess around me and have you had any because Kevin Patrick, once upon a time, UH covered a Pro Bowl. We had him on this very podcast and he ended up talking books, I believe with Alex Mack then the Center for the Browns. Have you had any nice one on one conversations that have been enlightening on some level. I talked to Joe Thomas today and I will say that, like our show only talks to Brown's offensive lineman. I liked how he knew exactly what like he had worked out in his own mind percent probability percentage. Uh that uh, them drafting a quarterback number one overall would actually work out, which I thought was pretty interesting. And like speaks to the new brain trust in Cleveland because they've they've definitely got him, uh, numerically focused more so than he was already. And uh he says it's about twenty five, So I think he's encouraging him to go in a different direction. Wow, how about this? How about this again? You don't want to give away any faces, but I remember talking Pro Bowl, you had some interesting stories about players last year. Can you give us a blind item about a player that perhaps you know, maybe got a little carried away at the bar, or you saw something, saw them do something disturbing, not revealing the player, but maybe sharing their behavior. Who put you on the spot here. I'm sorry, No, that's okay. It's very early in the week. I will say that I've I've seen a lot of I've seen a lot of crimes of fashion. I've seen players a lot of cowboy boots in warm weather. Um, you know, and that that was kind of bother sin to me. A couple of guys getting a little out of shape, you know, which is funny coming from me, and uh, you know, just oh yeah, I will I won't say who it is, you know, but you shared a hall of famer this on our on on on our instant messenger client had now he had devolved from kind of athlete heavy set, too heavy set, heavy set, a hall of famer. Okay, No one's wanted to go over and be like, I know, like exactly what's happening to you? And you know it's gonna be okay, you know not Antoine Walker, who was featured on NFL Network rather large that surprising. Um? Alright, and and Connor, you have any other takeaways from from I know it is early, um or does is there a sense that the players are excited? There was one interesting uh quote? Uh that who loves it? Who said it? Uh? Oh? It was Mike Evans had just found out when he was in Orlando that the winners shares sixty four k and the loser shares is thirty two thousand, and that made him decide he's gonna play hard. Uh any of that sentiment, does it seem like people care? It's good that that's getting out now, because like I remember, I was on the sidelines for the Pro Bowl in two thousand and fourteen when the game and uh, one of the players found out, like in the fourth quarter and they were down by a touchdown and he begged his coat to put him back in because he's like, I was an undrafted free agent. I'm still in my first contract. He's like, I need this money. It's not like you know, I'm not I'm not just messing around. And a lot of these guys, you know, they go ham at the bar. They got all their friends down here. You know, the difference between thirty two and sixty four is breaking even for the weekend. So you know, this is uh, this is uh, this is big. I'm I'm looking I'm looking forward to some trickeration. You know, there was a little uh Michael Bennetts u sail back today, So you know. I mean, there's it's a world of mystery down here. It's not just mouses and roller coasters. It's everything, not restaurants, but everything else. Restaurant there's no there's there's no no restaurants here. It's it's unbelievable. Are you gonna get into a little trouble at any point this weekend? Yeah, I mean I think so. Um. I like to tell people that I've got I've got pro bowl fever, so um, you know wherever that takes me. I mean that's there's there's miles of open road here. So yeah, well you deserve it, big guy, Thank Paul. You know what Colleen is fat shaming right now because I told her twenty minutes ago that I didn't I didn't enjoy when when uh waiter is another type of people refer to me as big guys. So she's actually shaming you. One of the pretties you're going after. You know, uh, it's not it's not the first time, and we're going to be better because of them. Yeah, you're right. Connor, alright, Connor or my not State's uh favorite son, adopted son, and I will get you that box of goodies when you get back to your haunted mansion in New Jersey. But okay, I'll see you when I see you. People. It's been got him Borgage drinks the brown stuff and rends up. Is Polidge man not State Ballet sit on backing box got super bowse snubs? So it's Connor or Fando today? Did he got Sellow snubs? So is counterful Landow today? Are you kidding me? Um? Connors? I ran that by him yesterday, said I was thinking maybe working up a song for you. I said, my only request is that you work in that. They're not sending me to the super Bowl. Nicely done, nicely done. We will miss Connor. Connor should be at the super Bowl. He is a Pro Bowl selection though, So that's good. That's true. That's true. All right, So there you go. That's Connor or Greg. Let's talk your sub banger you wrote. You're not particularly proud of it. I'm not unproud. But if every if everything's a banger, you know, it's sort of cheapens. What's a banger? Hey? When you're right, you're right. So you wrote a you know, a piece of and uh, it's got the headline ranking NFL coaching hires Anthony Lynn at number one. That's the exact headline. By the way, check out Connor stuff at NFL dot com, slash or a lot of good Pro Bowl kind. He's writing a ton of good stuff, and follow him on on Twitter where he's posting fun videos and things for that nature. But back to Greg, Greg, you have Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers the number one coaching higher. Now can you break this down this from perspective, UH for Anthony Lynn, what kind of job he's taking or the team's uh decision making bringing the person in on? Well, I think the content the information in here is good. The ranking itself is kind of is a little is a little silly. If I was power ranking the most meaningless rankings that we make throughout the year, you know this might be number one in the power ring. It's because I'm just you know, they haven't even then. Now Anthony Lynn ends up being number one here because I'm picking who I think is going to have some success, who has surrounded himself, first of all with a good staff. He's got Gus Bradley as his defensive coordinator. He's got Mike McCoy as his h off. I mean sorry, Ken wizzen Hunt as his offensive coordinator. He's got Philip Rivers, He's got a nice roster and listening to Anthony Lynn, you know what, what can you go off of? You listen. I listened to his press conference. I've listened to him in a couple of interviews. In terms of with Matt Moneys, I like I like the cut of his jib. I like the messages that he was sending. I like that he was saying, I'm not worried about the running game anymore. I'm the coach of the whole team, and he was talking about it, and he's been preparing for this day since he started coaching. I liked your point in there that the two coordinators there former head coaches too, so it shows that he's not He has a lot of self confidence in that right he wants to hire head coaches. Shows to me that you have some self confidence. West is laughing over he well, I mean with the caveat that it's sort of a ridiculous exercise anyway, and no one, none of us can really know anything ahead of time. He picked two of the biggest punching bags and tomato cans from this podcast over last three years as guys that you have faith in and Ken Wizzon hunting Gus Bradley well, but I think they can. I think Ken Wizzen it's a good coordinator I liked. I like having continuity for Sandy. You don't think that he did a good job with the Chargers the last two years. I think I like the continuity that you don't have to create a whole new offense. You have Philip Rivers in a familiar system. And Gus Bradley. I'm not worried about him as a as a coordinator. I think he did a good job in Seattle. He wasn't ready to run a team. I think Kyle Shanahan's brilliant. He has a brilliant football mind. I would take him over all three of those guys combined. I had him fourth because I think that situation is so toxic that he's not gonna who's he gonna hire as his defensive coordinator he has I agree with that's that's a disaster. Uh, there's there's you know, there's whispers about Kyle Shanahan. The editors, you know, kind of wanted to take this this part wanted to be taken out but doesn't Kyle Shanahan kind of fit the mold of the guy who does not necessarily rub everyone the right rub some people the wrong way. Uh, just rub fifty three people into the super Bowl. That that's fair talking Kyle Shanahan. No, I remember reading all of those never. Oh, like, how's Julie. I can't wait to see how Julio and Matt Ryan deal with Kyle Shanahan. I think we found out. I mean, he he walked out essentially on the Browns, and it was smart. It was a career move. He thought that was gonna hurt his career, and it did, but at different spots. He's had certain controversies behind the scene. Now he has to run an entire organization and it's just a tough situation. And number two on the list, I'm gonna I'm gonna thank you. Take exception to it. Okay, just a little strong. It's not like I'm hurt or anything by it, but that he got Sean McVeigh, thirty years old, took the job of the Los Angeles Rams youngest coach in league. You have him number two on this list, which and this is based on their likelihood for success in their respectative success. But yeah, okay, well you should have put real success. Okay, I'm just saying I'm reading. Yeah, he's judged on a different scale than you know, Vance Joseph for instance, based on their likelihood for relative success and their respective tenures. Uh. He seems to me to be behind the eight ball because he might be stuck with a Ryan Leaf level bust. Well, part of this was everything is uncertain with all these new coaches. Five of them are first time head coaches, the other ones Deag morone. What certain is that Wade Phillips is one of the greatest defensive coordinators of all time. And that's that's enough for me. That that's something I know, and you know, this guy will see if he's as impressive, you know he he said he makes a good press conference. I don't know if that makes for a good coach. He certainly was a good interviewer. He learned from Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan and John Gruden, three of the best offensive minds of the of the twenty one century. So he's got that going for him. And he seems like an exceptionally bright guy. His players love him, and the guys he's worked with love him. Those are all positive marks. Careful with the Ryan Leaf thing. Come on, well, I mean Ryan out. Now we're gonna say we shouldn't be thrown dirt, and you have been let it leading the charge to barry Jared Goff. I buried Jared Goff because he wasn't ready to play. That's what I've said consistently all along. But Ryan Leaf didn't make it because he was Ryan Leaf, because he didn't want to play football. I mean football was not a priority for him. Two overall pick. He was that level of the first rounder. I don't mean Ryan Leaf. He kind of stands in his own I shouldn't have used that example because people know him more. Is not just a bad player, but a total nightmare as a guy in the locker room. He was the mcdown Cain mcnown's good JaMarcus. But also he comes with baggage to we haven't heard anything. How about blame Gabbert. There's some warning signs that he could be that type of bus. But it's early. Yeah, it's early, al r. Let's get back on track here. Number three, Greg, you advanced Joseph. I like this job. I put him all the way up at number one. How about that. But he certainly takes over the easiest job, and in his coordinators I think are a plus overall. Mike McCoy, who's been there in Denver before. Joe Woods, we don't know anything about him, but he had a strong enough reputation people wanted to hire maybe elsewhere, and he's been in that system coaching up the best secondary in the NFL. They know him. So I kind of trust John Owe implicitly that you know, this guy knows what he's doing, but he's never really running you know, he's never run an offense, I mean, or a defense. I mean, you've never run a team or a defense. So he's just getting the job because of all of these recommendations. Well, he had a reputation as kind of the right hand man even though he was a position coach for Ry Kubiak, for Marvin Lewis, for Adam Gaze when he was a coordinator, all of those guys you know, reportedly gave him really strong recommendations that, look, this was kind of my guy that I went to that that was an important asset to me, and he must interview. Well. Elway liked him a couple of years ago when he interviewed. I think the trickiest thing for him is that. And there's no we're not gonna pass judgment in Paxton Lynch either yet because it's so early, but he's the first round pick and they're gonna probably want to see him at some point. Trevor Simeons did a nice job last year, but he didn't do a nice enough job where you table any discussion about anybody else. As quarterback, he enters kind of a difficult situation with a young two young quarterbacks and trying to figure out who's the guy. I think you're seeing, and I think Mike McCoy is ultimately going to have a huge part in that, and we'll see how how he handles it. I think you're seeing more teams look to these guys as kind of the CEO type rather looking for some sort of offensive genius or defensive gene. I mean, vance Joseph ran one defense and it wasn't very good, and they hired him because they thought he was going to be a leader. And that was kind of what Gary Kubiak got hired for two number four. We spoke about him. Kyle Shannon Shanahan, who's not technically the coach of the forty Honors yet, but everything points to him becoming the Hontors coach once the Falcon season is over. Is this a situation, Greg, where you like Shanahan and his potential, but the job is just so bad that he's in a tough spot, right, and we'll see how he handles running an organization. I think giving a guy that's never been a head coach like that all the power that he's going to have, he's expected to hire the GM. That's why his dad got fired. Mike Shanahan. The GM got Mike Shanahan the coach fired. And if Kyle Shanahan has as much power, let's say, as a Bill Belichick type, he's hiring the GM, that's a lot. It's a lot to ask taking over what I would say that is the worst the worst roster, maybe the worst organization in the NFL. Number five model own you've got Doug Moron and the Jags. Uh. You know, he had the strange departure from Buffalo two years ago, kind of went underground, became the old lined coach, worked his way back up and surprised people by holding out to the job after having the interim label ripped off Mike Malarkey. We had some fun at his expense going into last year and that worked out. Maybe. Dug Moron is another case. Well, I think I did this exercise last year, and Malarkey, I'm sure it was at or near the bottom. I'm an idiot. No, Well, a lot of us thought the same thing. I'm just saying he he has a chance. I mean we kinda I kind of pointed out how they haven't really changed much. I don't know, you don't know what you're getting. Doug Moron, like, what was he in Buffalo? How would you like to be known as the new Malarkey? Well, here's the question about the Jacks just in general. I've went three and thirteen last year with Gus Bradley there most of the way with a better coach. I'm not gonna say Belichick, but who's like a tier below Bell. Let's say Andy Reid. Andy Reid is the head coach of the Jags last year? Is that a winning team? I I would I would trust in Andy Reid to do something? Is that a nine ten one team instead of a three? It does a coach make that much difference for the Jags? It all depends. I mean, no, nobody, nobody was fixing Blake Bortles. If he came to camp with his mechanics that bad. It doesn't. You could have had Bill belichicken you're not gonna win. But and Andy Reid comes with probably a better planet on defense than keeping this guy better staff. Probably. Yeah, that's interesting because what Jalen Ramsey said how they needed a total change right that, that's a little bit of an eye opener. I mean it's you know, it's just one player. But literally after the season they asked, you know, Jalen Ramsey, and he said, we need to completely change our coaching staff and completely change our scheme. How would you like to be? Todd wash showing back up into the room being like, hey, thanks for thanks for campaigning to fire me, was like, wash out, see yourself out of he is my defensive room. Now. Uh. People give Dug Moron a little too much credit for going nine and seven. That was that was the world's getting too much credit from someone that was Jim Schwartz's defense. They were variants have nice things to say about him this week. Cook, I'm science kno n head, you know what I'm saying, Hey, can I but we know we can relate to young players. So that's good speaking because I mean, now we heard it. Can I also hear because I always love to hear uh Doug's take on hip hop culture and what it's all about? What are the roots of the rap of the New York City thing? And it ain't nothing about race culture New York City? Good old dog. So he left Buffalo And now you know, Bills fans they deserve they deserve a medal that they wear around, a medal of honor for sticking with his team. Because Greg has Sean McDermott as the worst head coaching higher in in his sub banger and why is he Why is he at the bottom of the six pack right, Well, someone has to be last. You know Bill's fans have been the Bill are sick of hearing that. They've been blowing up my They've been blowing up my mentions and you keep doing it. Hey, someone's gotta be last. They can eat it. Here's why Sean McDermott and his staff have proven I would say, less than any other staff. And the situation is difficult and the expectations I think are too high from ownership. They think this is some sort of playoff, you know, championship contending roster. Sean McDermott has made his name under Ron Rivera a defensive coach. He's had two top ten defenses in eight years as as a defensive cordiners, So it's not like the Panthers have been lighting it up as a defense. Rick Dennison is well respected. He's always been under Gary Kubiak, basically Kubiak being the guy that runs the opposite We don't you know, we don't know much about this guy. I don't know. You were still running Rhodo World, you would have written this article with bullet points instead of numbers. Would not have called it ranking the new coaches. You would have just provided analysis. I think that puts you in a bit of a pickle your thoughts on that, I don't mind. I mean, it's all the same information in there. Anyways. The information is is good. I'm just like, how do we know if if Sean McDermott's number six or number Wow, that's fair. We don't need to argue who's I think he's got a very tough job, though you disagree, doesn't he have among the toughest jobs of any of these guys. Yes, Greg, now that we've analyzed your article, do you have any regrets? No, no regrets. Okay, there you go. Check it out. Greg wrote a sub banger. Uh, the rankings of the coach has check all this stuff out at NFL dot com slash Rose withal. Make sure you print that out and read it because I I sit in but I sit right in between Greg and Ali BONPORI who's in charge of the features, Greg, I mean making a blazing a trail and forth, wearing out the carpet, planning all different features for super Bowl week. So make sure you bookmark that author page. A lot of super Bowl content, I mean we got marks. Road to Houston long Form West has a banger about how Tom Brady stuck it to Handsas this year by reversing the aging process. Super Bowl content coming up. That's gonna be the vanity or I'm just gonna rerun my August calm every year by the way dot com slash Brady sticks at the Handsas. Go ahead, Go ahead, Tom, good luck next Sunday. All right, before we go, it's time to try again. Get him on the phone. Uh, no song for them, because we don't know if We're gonna talk to them because who knows where they are in America right now? Hopefully the reception is better. Uh, Mark Sessler, John Gonzalez, are you on the line. Well, we are, and we're in a elegant hotel room with absolutely pristine WiFi. Excellent, excellent as it sounds, Uh, nary a crackle behind you? Uh? Where are you right now? What's going on with your journey as you as you drive from southern California to Houston, Texas? Uh? Hashtag road to Houston. Hi, guys, I'm there to Yeah. I wanted to say how exciting this is because of after years of writing countless stories about the NFL and also years of being married to Colleen, I finally made the pot as Marks Valet, this is great. I'm gonna have to keep amount of accidents and gods. I believe you're aware that your wife, and you can tell by her laugh, Uh is with us right now. So this gives her a chance to catch up with you and perhaps you know past as you I don't know, go after you a little bit. She's has some issues right now related to the house that I do. I do I do, John. I believe that if there's a lot of things to to maintain at shaken Valde. We're having a grand time right now now that we're on the road for I mean for the listeners and also for you guys. This is not today. We spent the day in the desert looking for an alien crash site, which is like not probably the weirdest thing I've ever done with Mark Sessler one time he drives me to a house in Venice that apparently was a murder house where many grizzly homicide had happened. So it's just on the left, just another just another thing. We had a fascinating day because we woke up you after we were loved Texas at the moment. Started the day in Santa Fe, which is I've never been there. It's a beautiful town in New Mexico's you know, took about a three hour drive south to Roswell and how did circle up and down the highway to find this little tiny dirt road where if you continue up that road for an hour, which we chose not to do, you would be at where apparently this this alien craft, you know, spiraled to earth, right, I believe in nine in that realm. Is there any reason to go there. Now, Well that's what we were looking into. And there is a stone pillar there with so you know, someone had carved out an inscription about what happened. The much better site that we've found was the Museum, which is another fifteen minutes up the road. And I didn't know if if Gonzo was going to be a fan or not, but he was having more of a good time than I was. He was. You were bopping around, You enjoyed yourself. I prior to this trip was sort of alien agnostic, uh, and now I'm all in, so I'm coming. That was actually gonna be one of my questions whether Gonza would be made a believer. Um, I have a question for you, Mark, and this is uh an honest question. Why are you doing this? It's a good question. I came up with the idea of about a month or so ago and just thought it would be fun to get in the car and see what's in between Los Angeles and the Super Bowl versus just for me this time just flying there. And I really went in thinking that I was going to go alone and have to drive and you know, record whatever happened at night on a laptop in a lonely room. The best decision and what made this I think quite fun so far, is going with someone else and maybe next time it could be all of us. You know, there were budgetary concerns and the road concerns from our employer. But John, he's a free agent, literally, and he was able to go. And he's been an absolutely perfect traveling partner. All right, let's let's stop there. I'm gonna bring in Chris Wessling. Now, how about the idea that Chris is a little hurt that he's not on this Carolacs journey to Houston. Let's talk about that a little bit? Sure? I mean I, as I mentioned to Chris and Dan immediately covered his face. Mark, I want embarrassed after he asked this ridiculous question, but it is I hope Chris has not hurt. I think Chris knows that we would love to number one. We should speak, Chris, speak for yourself, Chris, I can explain the reason after this. I am not hurt at all. I am happy for Mark because I know that this is something he wanted to do and he's the perfect person to do it. Am I a little bit jealous? Do I wish? I is with him. Sure, sure, I wish this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do. Where does that leave you with Gonzo? I love Gonzo great and I can I will say this, this is genuine. I cannot wait to read the finished product. Yeah, that's Mark. So when you write this up and where we heard it's gonna land early next week, it's going is it gonna be about football? What's what's? What is this going to be about? Do you know what is about? Yet? Well? I decided not to actually write anything. I'm myself. We're having a great time. I don't know if that's part of its relevant. But they're on the run right now. We're just on the run. I'm not even sure we may pass through Houston, keep going right through that wall to Mexico. But I would say that what what was the question? Again? What? What why am I writing? And no, just in general, like, what are in your your plan when you sit down to write about your adventure? Is it about football? Is it about just the journey to Houston? What do you have a general idea about the direction that of the piece that we're we're all excited to read. Well, I hope it will masterfully you know, inter interweave vote because we've talked to a lot of people along the way about football league. For instance, when we were at the Alien Museum, we got an interview with the executive director of the museum, an old fellow and a really nice guy. But we all got talked a little football. So excuse me, you got him. You were able to book the executives are you know, about ten people the museum and he was busy, But I got in there and I got in that office and I got quote, He's like, I'll give you three minutes. But that sounds cool. No, it's talked to upwards of three or four Junny's waters. It's really been amazing. Well we are now here's the thing. I think it's going to pick up the team from the football because we're gonna be in Fort Worth in Dallas over the next day. Tonight we're in Lubbock, which is a big college town. Guy at our hotels and you've got to get out Tonight the huge night for the college kids, which are roughly about twenty years younger than us. So we'll see how that goes. But we'll we'll continue to talk to people. People have opinions, I think one thing I'm talking to fans is they just they don't they're not trying to save face or you know, build bridges with anyone when they have a football opinion. They don't cut any corners. That's cool. And and you brought up Gonzo, Um Denny's now Mark. We're always fascinated by Mark's eating habits. And Colleen had told us on Tuesday that when she first started dating Gonzo, she noted, uh, internally, that that Gonzo kind of ate like a serial killer. Have you guys noticed each other's kind of idiosyncracities when it comes to eating stuff, So we've been kind of feeding off each other's rhythms on that front. Today, for example, we got up early, you had a cup of coffee, uh, and then went looking for alien crash sites and haven't eaten yet. So we're gonna do that next. But this is there in the afternoon, you haven't eaten, But it's actually a central time. And I also think it's not just the eating rhythms. We are starting to as you would adopt each other's phrase, get phrases and and and the way that anything would be described. You know, Gonzo is starting a revolution with his I think Colle knows whether it's his GC terminology or all or great call, depending on it. So we just you know, we're starting to John, it's not going to be a thing. Is not happening, Sorry, Colleen. That's a thing. So if somebody makes a point that you're plugged in on John and you agree with you just go GC. You could be that's a good one where you say, hey, have you guys listen to me around the NFL podcast this weekend? Nice GC. Very It's very kind of like, now, you don't know, it's not a thing. It's good. I'm personal. I'm standing in my ground on this one. Are you interrupt I'm out there? Well, yeah, you know that randomly, Gonzo, we have a lot of like connective tissue because I just found out that you have a blue pen phobia, as do I. I threw an app before the show and back in college I try to start something my senior year that I try to catch on with my friends and the dorms, which was LBS, which meant, let's be serious. Oh, I like you, now, this is gonna be great. We'll have not to be confused with say not to be confused with ibs. Irritable bowels to pound differently struggle, but I'm on board with it. We can do. This will be a free exchange of acronyms. Can I tell you why won't work? It's the same number of syllables? Is a good call exactly. That's one of my playing All the cool kids are abbreviating these days. John also likes to throw this g's up for Gonzalez. Oh well in that case, yeah, I like some of these things. We're in love it. They throw their guns up for the Redorators, so we'll do instead of the guns. One of my favorite things about this rip is face timing with the both of them to say good night as they share a hotel room. And last night, um they I guess Mark had broken into the mini bar and they had a key I don't know, some delicious master key to every mini bar, watch some HBO and then fell asleep at the skeleton key. The whole are We were very into the Young Pope and we were trying to watch the latest episode. A disaster occurred that I lost my glasses, which means fundamentally will not be able to see what's happening during the Super Bowl. So Gonza inform me that I can buy something called readers. Readers. Yeah, that's gonna look. Sorry, you're not driving then without the glasses because I think we've we've made the right choice about who should be doing the majority, if not all, of the driving from the minute the trip started, and it's not the person speaking. Did you drive at all? Sessler? Well, here's the thing, honestly, this is what has been so great. Because I'm writing on on my phone or on the on the laptop. Well, John does the driving, and like we've had pretty short it's not majorly long segments. It's you know, a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there. First day was a little rough, but that's okay because the division of labor has been wonderful. Like we said, we're really getting into each other's room. He's writing, I'm driving, neither of us are eating, and then your beer, Like, what are you getting paid for this by Mark? John? Uh, Well, he's not paying for much at all. Let's put it that way. If they paid for vacation, and you know vacation, I'm flying him, I'm flying him home. They're on a buddy moon right now. This is honestly, this is what Mark has always wanted to have a friend that doesn't need to eat like him, and we always we've been letting him down in this department on the open road. What could be better? Imagine how much time and like and part of the whole serial killer eating habits like isn't us the fact that he doesn't eat, but also like John will take if he's eating a stack, if he has a couple of cookies or something chocolate chip cookies, he will put them on top of each other based on size and then eat the smallest one to the largest one. He also has certain rules for eating Reese's cups, for eating like pizza, for eating various items. This all makes sense to me. That feels extremely accusatory. Having spent a couple of days with Gone, so I think he's eating habits are really beyond critique. All right, So there you go. There's the update. The next time the listeners will hear from Mark, he'll be with us in Houston next Tuesday, and you guys, nothing is promised. That's the schedule. That's the plan anyway. So gentlemen, thank you for the update. Good luck with the rest of the journey. And it sounds like you're having a good time, and it's just in general, it's really cute. The whole thing is very cute to me. It's adorable, but definitely back, I'm having a great time and I look forward to being on the pot again. The next time one of you needs show, there we go John Gonzales with of course Mark Sessler. Follow their journeys Mark at at Mark Sessler NFL, uh Gonzo at Underscore, John Gonnes uh so you can follow along with them. Mark also on Instagram. I'm sure Gonzo is on Instagram as well right now? Okay, so, and then Mark's Land long formal Land. We're hearing early next week. So there you go. All right, that's it. That. By the way, our schedule people are going around the schedule, and you know, I'm gonna get a lot of We'll probably get a lot of tweets Sunday asking when the show is going up? No show this upcoming Sunday. It's a travel day for some of us to Houston. So, um, the next time you hear from us will be Tuesday. From Houston. We're gonna be doing the show from a radio station downtown. Uh So we're excited about that and uh that. Well, we'll be able to talk about you know, really start start to now turn our attention to the game and talk about media Night, which will happen the day before. Uh, Colleen, I mean what can we say? You what I mean? You came on the show. Thanks for having me on again. This is great, big guy. Yeah, I'm gonna get you for this. I'm gonna find out what annoys you A real media show. This was will never be on the show, the last one. That's my big guy, promise you the day. All right. So yes, you'll hear from us on Tuesday. Thank you for everyone for listening. Thank you to Connie for joining us. Thank you to the first Lady Sydney for a double voxwork both in backing vocals on the Connor song, and uh also your sixpence on the Richer, which was really that was great. Thanks. I never thought this is where it would lead me, but I'm glad we're here. Yes, you and and Kirk Cousins. I don't know. Is he married, Yeah, he's got kids. See this is this is the conundrum, is that he also has an autobiography that came out two years ago. Okay, let's calm down with that everybody is, you know, an awful lot about Kirk Cousins. Rosie just shrugs. He just gives me my job, all right. Whatever the problem is that Sydney. We wanted to get We wanted to settle down with a rich quarterback. But those goody two shoe guys, they usually get married by the time they're like twenty two to the college or high school sweetheart. We gotta find somebody. I want a flawed quarterback, West, but also very pure in mind and spirit. Yeah, if you feel like you're like Kirk Cousins, you can tweet at around the NFL. Do you mind that we're matchmaking for you. Awfully hard to find an unmarried quarterback period, West knows say, look at him, girl married? All right, we'll ast you cut to the core of the conversation. Does she want Colin Kaepernick? Not her speed? Not her speed? All right. We will be back tuesday. Thank you to everyone. Until then, this is Dan Hanson signing off four Connie Fox, the mail man, the old boss, and new money. Here we go off to Houston till Tuesday.