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Speaker 1: The volume. Can you believe we're this deep into the NFL season? We got to make every second count. With Draftking Sportsbook, you can make the most out of every game. Bet on your favorite teams for a shot at winning big bucks. New customers can score one hundred and fifty instantly in bonus bets for betting five dollars on any matchup so right now get in on the action with Draftking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL. Download the app now and use the code John. New customers can score one hundred and fifty instantly in bonus bets for betting just five bucks on the NFL. Only on Draftking Sportsbook with code John. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called win one hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and y or text hope and why four six seven three six nine. In West Virginia, visit ww dot one eight one hundred gambler dot net. Please play responsibly. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eighty eight seventy nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. On behalf of Bootyal Casino in resort Kansas must be twenty one or older in eligible states, but ages vary by jurisdiction. See DraftKings dot com slash sportsbook for details and state specific responsible gambling resources, Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash football terms. What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff three and our podcast That's me, that's the show. How are we doing? Just watch a little Monday night football. Wanted to hate the game coming into it, and then I found myself on the couch going, it's pretty entertaining. I really kind of enjoyed it. Jake Browning Game of his life. Obviously, the story of the night Trevor Lawrence carried off the field does not look good. I'm recording this right after the game, so I don't know the injury. We've all watched football long enough to know it's probably not good, probably not good at all. So the implications of that. Some thoughts on the officiating and Big Dom, the Jets, Belichick, Caleb Williams, Little Debo talk a lot of football stuff. So here's the game plan. We got a lot of stuff on the YouTube channel John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast. Check out that YouTube channel. We put a bunch of content up there. And yeah, if you listening to this podcast, if you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe Three and outfeet appreciate everyone that has Other than that, I need to do something right now. Do you want to get a loved one a president? My girlfriend's birthdays right around the corner, and gifts are hard to get. They are hard, like for your dad, for brothers, for cousins, whoever you are around during the holidays. It can be difficult. I got you covered. Go to your cell phone, go to your iPad, download an app called game Time. It's the official ticketing gap of this podcast. And when you download the app, if you want to go to a game, if you want to go to basketball, football, hockey, you name it, any sport, college, pro concerts, comedy shows. Do something for someone else and save some money. So just download the game Time app, buy a pair of tickets, use the promo code John. That happens to be my name, j o Hn. That's how we spell it around here, jo Hn Promoco John twenty dollars off your first pair of tickets, have a get a present, do something for someone else, and do it on me. Save a little money while you're at it. Game time Promoco John. Okay, there's a lot going on. I mean, there's a lot going on in this game. I'm recording this. I don't know less than ten minutes after he hit the walk off field goal, so I don't have the information on what happened to Trevor Lawrence's ankle slash knee. Obviously there was collateral damage because Walker Little, the left tackle, went down, But I'm stating the obvious here. If it's a significant injury and he's out for a foreseeable period of time, obviously there's not that much season left. It's December fourth, But if he's out for the rest of the season, they're done. They're screwed. Like the Houston Texans are gonna win this division if that's the case. I mean, tonight was pretty devastating. It looked like not only the Jags were gonna win. Trevor was playing really well, even though Jake Browning's having the game of his life since he was in college. You're like, listen, it's Monday, night football. I say it all the time. Monday night football games late in the season against bad teams, like if it's a playoff level team against a bad team, always feel tight. I remember years ago the Giants might have been playing the Patriots pre like when the Patriots were decent, might have been a different opponent, and it was just a knockdown, dragout game. And it was one of those years pre day ball, when the Giants were really bad, even though they're pretty terrible right now, and just Monday night football game. It's a big deal to players, it's a big deal to coaches. I don't care how shitty your team is, you get up for it. And that's what it felt like tonight. Now, granted you're watching the Bengals, you go, well, they got Jamar Chase, who's one of the best players in the league. Joe Mixon's pretty damn good. Uh Amaruno, the defensive coordinator for the Bengals. I don't know. He was a finalist last year for a head coaching job. He's pretty damn good. They got some young players. They play hard, they're making open field tackles well. Their franchise player is on the sideline in a sling like that's It's like, God, he's he's really hurt. I mean, of course he is. He's out for the season, but that's that makes you go godness not ideal. Uh, you got some fight. These guys are pros. These guys get paid a lot of money too. I saw someone ask Tyreek Hill after he dusted someone on the Commanders and then they did one of the best celebrations you'll ever see. They did the roller coaster with like four guys. They put over the uh you know see you know, the the seat belts and then they all went the same way. I highly recommend googling it if you haven't seen it. But like Tyreek was like, were you offended? They didn't give you safety help. He's like, those guys make a lot of money too, Like their coaching staff is highly paid, and this is this is pro football. Like all these guys are making a decent chunk of change. So I'm never shocked when these games are tight. Now, when you have an injury like Trevor Lawrence, and this season's kind of been defined by quarterback injuries, think how many star players. I mean, it really started. It was like an omen with Rogers four or five plays into the season, he's laying on the ground. I mean, that's that still is the craziest injury I've ever seen when you factor in all the hooplah, all the hype, the trade and everything. I mean, we've seen worse, obviously, way worse injuries than Aaron Rodgers in terms of like the visual with bone sticking out, knees, you know, going the wrong way achilles. It actually isn't that hard to watch in the sense of it's not like a violent play on the player, you just know it right away. But think of all the other guys that have been KOed since and if Trevor Lawrence does have a significant knee, ankle, whatever injury, it's a devastating blow for the NFL because this was a playoff team. He's a young our quarterback at least star in the sense of former number one pick ton of hype. Everyone that follows football knows who he is, and that sucks. There's no there's no overcoming that, you know. I mean, think about Jake Brown in tonight, who probably on a bright note, honestly, how cool is that if you're him, if you're his family. One of the guys I follow on Twitter. He covers high school football in Sacramento, and Jake Browning played where I come from. D La Salle in the Bay Area and Fulsome High School in Sacramento are the two powers currently in you know, northern California, Non LA School and Fulsome High School. Troy Taylor, who's now the head coach at Stanford, used to be the head coach there and coached Jake Browning. And he went to the game with his son and he took the selfie and he sent it to this guy and he tweeted it and like, how cool is it that the guy's former high school coach. Is there anyone that knows Jake Browning? I mean, this guy played at Washington, he led them to the playoffs. I mean, he was a pretty heralded college player, but not in a million years that I think he'd be in the NFL. But here's the thing. You either get better, you get worse. I don't care what you do. You're either gonna improve or you're gonna get lapped in whatever profession you're in, especially any profession that is competitive. And here's what I will say about Jake Browning. He's clearly improved, Like to me, he looked dramatically better, as I mean, you should improve with age as an athlete if you're putting in the time, and Aikman said talking to him, like he's put in a lot of time. He was fucking fantastic tonight. I mean, you go thirty two of thirty seven on Monday Night football for over three hundred and fifty yards and a touchdown and to throw the dime down the sideline to Jamar Chase. But there was a poise, there was an accuracy. He made a sweet play with his legs. Like what a really really cool moment for him. It's one thing, you know, like Davido, Like it's fun to talk about Davido, to talk about, you know, the mob and Chicken Palm and all the jokes that are being had with his fam leg and viral. It's funny. I mean, it's legitimately kind of funny. But Tommy DeVito, I got news for you. Probably ain't gonna be in the league long. I mean I would bet against it, and more than likely is like not gonna have any more moments. Hell, Tyrod Taylor's probably coming back. We're not even gonna see Tommy DeVito, Like Jay Browning is starting the rest of the season. This team is six and six. I don't know if you noticed. I don't know why I watched the amount of this game that I did on Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers, who I just told stuck you the other day. I'm like, look at their schedule, man, they're gonna be eleven and four middle Coff, They're not gonna be fucking eleven four. They stick. They're awful. They wouldn't have beat the Arizona Cardinals had Kenny Pickett not gotten injured. I don't care how many tropical rainstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, whatever kept delaying that game came through. The Pittsburgh Steelers are not good. That they are not. And honestly, the Arizona Cardinals props to Kyler Murray. They're two and two since he returned. But like the Bengals are dead, they are just not dead. Look at the carnage that happened yesterday. No different than the Bills. Now, I like the Bills more than the Bengals because I would bet on Josh Allen over Jake Browning. But if this guy can just play under control. Now there's one thing Monday Night Football a little extra rest. You know, I'm not gonna put act like he's gonna continue to play like this, but very cool moment. I think sometimes we talk so much like is this guy overpaid, this guy underpays, this guy overrated, so they trade this guy? This guy need to get fired instead. And I'm guilty of this probably more than most talking about all that stuff. Would we just be like, what a cool freaking moment, What an awesome game for that guy, pro athlete, backup quarterback on one of the better teams in the NFL over the last several years. No one ever, no one even knows the guy's name, really because ideally he's never gonna have to play. When you got Joe Burrow and he comes in, he has a moment like that on Monday Night Football thirty two to thirty seven. What a game, What a freaking game by the guy, And ultimately you help lead your team to a victory like against a you know, a really good team. Now, once Trevor Lawrence goes out, who was also having a really good game, you know you're not necessarily beating him, I would say, in full strength clearly. But that was very impressive by the Bengals and not tapping out, not quitting. I know their head coach can be polarizing sometimes. I thought the easiest way to help any average quarterback, and definitely a backup quarterback, is to get easy plays. You know in basketball you call them layups, right, get to the rim, like get to the foul line. One football, run the ball, Just run the ball. Don't even ask him to do anything. And when you get positive yards on the ground, enables your quarterback to play a little freer. It's much harder to play quarterback when you ask them to, you know, operate like Joe Burrow and they did this a week ago. It's like, Bro, you get in positions. If he's incomplete on first down, you're in second. You're in passing situations, second and third down, and if for some reason you have a penalty, something happens all of a sudden, you're in second, third, and not even close to manageable. I mean you're talking third and forever. So you put a guy like that in those situations, it's gonna be very difficult. But when I get you in second and five, second and two, third and one, like, we got a chance for success. And then because of the talent that you have on offense, you can be explosive. Now. I think a lot of people like if you just went to Twitter when Boyd threw one of the worst picks you'll ever see. It was the second double pass the Bengals busted out. That shows you Zach Taylor coming into this game, didn't have that much faith in this quarterback. He thought he was gonna pull have to pull off like all the you know, bells and whistles, throw everything, throw the kitchen sink at the Jags, just to have a chance to win, which I understand coming into the game. But I would say by like early second quarter, you're like got the Bengals can just play with them. You don't need to outthink them. Sometimes you need to pull some of these trick plays because you're not as good as you're Tonight, look like equals, just play the game. Now they avoided it. It felt like that was gonna be the moment. Remember when Chuck Pagano called the whatever the hell that was that fake punt with McAfee and he got tackled. It was like the worst play in NFL history. It kind of felt like that tonight when the Bengals when he threw the ball right to Alan, the defensive end literally hit him right. He jumped, but he did not need to jump. Underrated play. Also, even when it is a ball right to you and something like that, if you are a pass rusher, if you are a d lineman outside linebacker and you pick it off, that's not easy. Like most of your time during the week is not spent on the judge machine. So it just kind of being an athlete, you know, kind of throwback to when you were a kid. Just make a play, and he did. But big win for the Bengals. Obviously, the story of the night. We'll see. Maybe by the time you listen to this, we have some concrete evidence. But listen, we've all watched enough football to know that did not look good. He clearly threw his helmet, you know, paining frustration. And I think sometimes when you you know, just watching sports my entire life, you know, it's really bad, And I think there's a level sometimes there's just a level of shock. Right when you get injured. You see it a lot in basketball. You're like, got it. He just rip every tendon and ligament in his entire body, and then like ten minutes later, they're back in the game just because you kind of freak out. And then there's when something like that happened the night you get bent back in the wrong direction, how your left back ones of leaving the game as well, and you know it's really bad. Still can't quite understand why they made him walk, you know, to Miami, Florida, Like, can someone give the guy a ride. This is a player that you're probably gonna give one hundred and fifty hundred and seventy million dollars too in the next eighteen months. Let's get the guy in the cart. But they literally just kind of carried him, you know, slash walked really slow, which must have taken forever because they panned to him after commercial and they're still walking under the tunnel at like baby speed. But you know, you gotta be careful with that knee, so ankle or whatever the hell. It is just a devastating loss in every way imaginable for Doug Peterson. I also had the thought, is Doug's Dougs has some terrible injuries happened to his quarterback? Now, obviously the one in Philadelphia worked out in his favor when Foles came in and became magical and they won the Super Bowl. I think I'm I'm not breaking any news here that's not happening in this situation. That's not happening with CJ. Bethard. If they were to make the playoffs and Trevor can't come back, They're not winning a playoff game with CJ. Bethard, I would bet my life savings on that. Right now, I don't give a shit who they play. I read a lot today just searching through the headlines. This is what I usually do to just see what, you know, what are the people talking about out there? Should what should we talk about on the old podcast? And you know, in my world, a lot of Niner people, a lot of Eagle people, just a lot of green law Don Desandro talk. And if you listen to the Other Day listen, Dom's one of the coolest motherfuckers I've ever known. I spent so much time eating with him, talking with them. When I lived in Philly, I gravitate toward, you know, I would say people that just color outside the lines. Not only they entertain me, but I just some about them that I don't know see myself in. I don't know what it is, but I just I like those type guys. I love Don Desandro. Most people do that have been around him, and I saw I actually have this epiphany last night because I'm laying in bed. It's hard to sleep for me. After Sundays, I get all worked up. I do a bunch of podcasts just talk about football, and I'm just like all amped up. I have to take like seventeen Melatonins just to kind of doze off. And I watched this side view of the green Law and I love Drake Greenlaw as well. I mean, Drake Greenlaw to me is an underrated heartbeat of the Niners. Fred said it to Greg Olsen on the broadcast, Like I try, and he's known as like one of the most violent players in league, and friends like I try to hit as hard as Dray When Drey's on the field healthy, there's a violence to the forty nine ers that no one in the league can match. Dude is just on the edge of craziness, I mean, and sometimes he crosses it. But this is this is the NFL, this isn't peewee football. I need some guys to cross the line every once in a while. But I saw this. My epiphany was I saw this sideline view of the dom Dre Greenlaw thing, and when you put things in slow motion, totally understand it with did you get two feet down right? Did a guy catch the ball? Did did the ball touch or the foot touch out of bounds? Right? I understand sometimes the need for slow motion in football. When you do slow motion in a fight, right or just an altercation, I think it makes it worse, look fifty times worse because I saw the full speed. I don't even want to call it an altercation, just the moment between green Law Devonte Smith. It was a nothing burger. And I said this yesterday, and I've been beating this drum forever. I've always hated in basketball, and I'm specifically talking about Draymond because when I lived in the Bay I watched the Warriors. Kind of suck now and they're boring, but in their heyday, I watched every minute of every Warrior game. And Draymond does things, or at least did things over the course of his career to get tossed like he earned it right. No different Dennis Rodman, Rashid Wallace, like some guys you know, are legitimately crossing the line on certain nights, but then they're also treated on other nights, and Draymond wasn't alone. It always bothered me in a pro game when a player said like f you to another player and get tossed for that, even f you to the ref like, this is not the peeweez, This is not junior high basketball or football. This is not college sports. We are not teaching life lessons. There are millions of dollars on the line. This is a business. None of that other shit nobody cares about. This is an entert product, which is a business. You gotta let things go. And to me, where the officials really screwed up in that moment, and it just it's bothered me since that play. No one needed to get tossed. It was honestly barely. It wasn't even a scuffle. Dom tried to separate him, green Law pointed at his face. I saw Howard Eskin, who's the sideline guy for the Eagles, said that John Lynch, Drake gree Law, Dom and a couple other Eagles were laughing about it in the holes of the Lincoln Financial Field After the game, nobody gave a shit again beside the referees, the consumer US who pay for everything are there watching the game. For the players and the coaches. Everyone that paid a lot of money to attend that game is there for the game. The officials too often in professional sports, whether it's basketball, baseball, football, inject themselves into things that don't need to be or don't need their hand involved. If you have a malice at the PA and Ron our Test is beating the shit out everybody, yeah, time to get involved. If there is some eighties nineties old school brawls where guys are throwing haymakers at each other, yeah, maybe some guys need to get thrown out. I'm sorry. That was a fucking embarrassment for the NFL. And when I see these headlines like that they're gonna go after the Eagles, what are we doing? That was one of the biggest nothing burgers I've ever seen. Nobody should have gotten any trouble, No one should have got ejected. Separate them, call the next play. I think sometimes and maybe it's like the network's getting involved because this is such a big television show. Create the drama. It's almost like the reality show that's truly reality. They're just playing a game. Now, you can think the game's rigged or not, but I don't believe that is. I'm not sure that Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni got a script when the season began that you're gonna get your ass kicked by the forty nine ers. But just let the reality on the television on the field play itself out, and referees like try to stay away as much as possible. Whatever happened to just separating them and just moving on, that doesn't happen anymore. In sports, we're constantly throwing guys out. Our time is way too valuable. These guys are being paid way too much money to go hit the showers for nothing. If you take your helmet and you slam it on some guy's face, okay, if I point at your face and I have no clue who you are as an opposing player who cares. That really was a really embarrassing moment for Roger in his operation. And listen, I've been on the referees. I don't even waste that much time talking about it over the last calendar year because rinse, wash, repeat. But when you start sending guys to the showers, when you start doing things like that, that's inexcusable. Now you could argue that the buzz it's going to create if they play again in the NFC Championship a huge storyline, and it is, so it's good for everyone's business that's in the broadcasting of the game. So maybe they like doing that crap. But if I'm Roger Goodell, like, can everyone just take a deep breath? Can we just try to get the calls on the feel right and not worry about throwing guys out or getting some guy in trouble over something that was pretty innocuous. I mean, I honestly believe that if you watch it in slow motion, yeah, it feels like Connor McGregor fighting Mike Tyson. If you watch it in real time, it's like, fuck, I saw this crazier thing that happened in the gas station today. Like, let's be better, NFL. We're too important to the fabric of society at this point. You're the number one television show in America. Just let's figure out our referees and just how to tone them down a little bit. For the love of God, please, for me, for you, and for everyone who enjoys this sport, Can we just try to corral that group because it feels like they're a bunch of village idiots right now. A lot of other stuff going on. It kind of hit me today. You know, Belichick lost six nothing at home, six to nothing, and I read that Belichick and the Patriots are the first team since like the late thirties to lose three games where they held the opponent to ten points or under. I was thinking, like, if you played three games, whatever their record is, you know they've played eleven or twelve games. But so you know we're talking thirty to twenty five percent of your season. Your defense is playing awesome. And obviously they've had other games when the team was in the teams or the low twenties. Belichick is still coach defense. Belichick knows how to play an opposing team with a star, highly paid quarterback, with other good weapons, especially if his team is healthy, give his team a fighting chance to compete defensively. One thing is clear. He doesn't know how to evaluate offensive skill guys, especially wide receivers. And if the quarterback position is screwed up, i e. Tom Brady not there, and he doesn't have some other plug and play top ten player, he's fucked. But think about a couple of years ago, when Mac Jones was just serviceable as a rookie, he had Josh McDaniels. Well, I was thinking about today, Josh McDaniels doesn't have a job because I've texted with so many people, like middle Coff, you really think I'm not going third person Cam Newton style. I'm just saying that's what they say to me that because I saw he did an interview with the part of my take guys, he says he talks to third person like every other sentence. It's like Cam just talking about like a normal human. It's like, what do you think, Cam Newton? No, Cam, you are Cam Newton. But Belichick's offensive issues this year. He doesn't have his offensive coordinator. Well, his offensive coordinator is gonna be available. So if you hire Bill Belichick this offseason, because let's face it, there is no possibility of him returning zero. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense for Bill Belichick to return or to let him have the power to draft one of these quarterbacks slash draft other people in the draft. I wouldn't let him touch it. It's an easy one to go your separate ways. But then the question mark is, like, is Bill Belichick a viable candidate. And I've been saying for weeks like I think he's gonna have the pick of the litter. Well, he's gonna be able to say, well, why don't I just bring Josh with me as my offensive coordinator? You guys see what I can do on defense. I get Josh calling my offense, and boom, we're cooking with gas. I actually think it makes him more valuable on the open market when he can just say I know exactly how this guy works. I don't have to even think about it because when he's gone to Patricia and obviously Bill O'Brien, they're completely screwed. But when he has Josh, who is an awful head coach right just like Belichick, without him as the offensive coordinator, they're gonna have issues. But you put those two together. I mean, hell, a couple of years ago, they took Mac Jones to the playoffs. They made the playoffs with the rookie Mac Jones. Think about that. So I wouldn't count Belichick like his career is just over. He's proving it on defense. Think how many teams right now would give anything for a guy like that to influence their defense how many teams who are just putrid on that side of the ball. The Lions think of what the Lions would do to just have him just give them some tips on how to improve, and they got no clue. I mean, they're just at any moment, you can score like twenty one points on the Lions in like a blink of an eye. That's why that you feel less and less confident about them when the playoffs are, you know, coming around the corner. But if Belichick's a coach next year, Josh mcdam is gonna be his offensive coordinator, I'd put that bad boy in sharpie. The other team, the Jets. You know, you saw Flacco who just showed up off the couch throwing some deep The guy's always throwing a beautiful deepole. Listen, Joe Flacco, great hair, can't move, beautiful deepole. That's what I think when I close my eyes and think of Joe Flacco and yesterday you just let's be real. You watch the Eagles and Niner game. It was hard to keep an eye on everything else, But I had a little screen going. I'd peek over there, everyone's all and that ball would just loop out, just like God Flacco can still sling that thing. But the Jets rolled into the season and I said it early on, and listen, Zach Wilson had like a game and a half stretch where you're like, god, he's kind of capable, and then he just resorted back to shit. He'zac. They tried to have their cake and eat it too. Someone in the NFL in the know around the Jets was like, we were done. He was done, Like he was not coming back. I mean, it was kind of public as well, right, Zack Wilson was not gonna be on the team. But then the Aaron Rodgers situation, you know, kind of played out and Aaron's like, you know, I kind of like the guy. I'll help him out, and then he just they kind of kept him around. But I say it all the time. It's one thing if you got a backup wide receiver you can mix another guy's or a backup d lineman. When that is your backup quarterback, you are one Achilles stare from that guy becoming your starter. And of course it wasn't utter debacle. And now they're talking about potentially putting him back in the lineup. Listen, these guys are probably gonna survive simply because of Aaron Rodgers. But and I want to like Robert Sala as a head coach because I loved him as a defensive coordinator. I like him as a guy. It's pretty ugly, man, it really is. Nathaniel Hackett without Aaron Rodgers is might as well be Joe Judge or Matt Patricia. I mean, he he's fucking terrible, has absolutely no clue what to do. Their personnel has issues. It's so easy to say, well, we'll just wait till twenty twenty four and Aaron Rodgers gets back. We say this a lot with the draft, like Todd Bowles, just just get to twenty twenty four and draft a quarterback who or whoever the bad team is. Well, you have to go through that season where it's pretty ugly, right, and once you start watching it on a weekly basis, is like the Jets. That's about as shitty as a football team in terms of watching, right there with the Patriots. But at least, I mean the Patriots might draft number one overall. I think they have like a fifty to fifty shot to have the number one overall pick. Right to me, the Panthers are gonna end up winning a game or two. Patriots cannot move the ball that they definitely can't score any points that they get even close in the red zone, no chance, So it's hard for them to even to get there. Like I do think the Panthers, you're gonna look up and they're gonna have a weird win. It would not shock me at all if the Patriots gets the number one overall pick. But the Jets, Like, the Jets are gonna win five or six games, and you're like, that might as well have been a two win team. They fucking suck. So anytime that you suck that bad in your one excuse as well, Rogers has an achilles. Well that's great. Are we confident at all that you guys know what you're doing, that you guys that Robert as a head coach, Nathaniel Hackett as a play caller, Do you guys know what you're doing? Because I do think it's fair to say, like you watch them and go, yeah, they don't know what they're doing at all, Like there's not much faith, So it's getting really ugly. I think we can also put to rest the conversation that Caleb Williams is up in the air about what he's gonna do with his decision in terms of declaring for the National Football League, and I think it's pretty clear he's gonna be the number one pick in the draft. Drake May was not good the second half of the season that he officially opted out of the bowl game, which to me, I'm number to that. What do the bowl games even mean? Beside honestly the two playoff games. I think the bowl games have lost so much luster. Remember when that was a conversation like he opted out of the bowl game, and now it's like do any of these bowl games matter? Does anyone give a shit? Hell? Have? These guys don't even opt out of the ball game. They go to the transfer portal. You look up this morning, You're like, Ohio State's quarterback is in the transfer portal, Like, didn't you just start on an eleven to one team? And then clearly Ryan Day and the coaching staff is like, you're not starting here next year, bro, or maybe they already know they got cam Ward. It's kind of crazy, the musical chairs that goes on with a college football transfer portal, which most of the players I can't even pretend to care about the quarterback thing is pretty interesting, like where they all go. And obviously it has a huge influence Bo Nicks, Michael Pennix. Right, you see these players, you know, influence the playoff race. Yours at Texas originally started at Ohio State. But Kayleb Williams not playing the bowl game, of course he's not. I mean I don't even holiday Bowl. I wouldn't play either, But he's going to the NFL Draft. Like, we need to stop having this conversation. We need to start stop this kind of you know, he's in LA, maybe he's close to Lebron, you know, playing it up, you know, creating some drama like, Bro, you're going to the NFL. It's okay, Like just just say it. It's it's it's not gonna kill you. Like, just just get it over with. You don't need to do this dog and pony show, you know, leak stuff out, don't say anything. We all know it, and rightfully so you've earned it. You're, you know, an excellent prospect. Excited to watch you know, the whole process play out in terms of the going to the combine, the interviews, the whole thing. But it's just one of those stories that It's like I can't It's like the Rogers making us comeback. I can't take that story. I there are certain stories that are just like I immediately either change the channel or keep scrolling. It's like, yeah, I'm not paying any attention. So this will be the last time we discussed Caleb Williams on the fence about declaring for the NFL unless he actually goes back to USC, which in what world would he go back to that team? I mean, that would be the crazy story. It's like, wait, you're going back to that team. Like I understood when certain guys returned to school, like last your Pennix or bow Nix or you know, if JJ McCarthy returns to Michigan or whatever. You like, Yeah, your team's really good. Totally understand it. At USC team, they're fucking terrible. I said at the moment he came back, like kamr is gonna be their quarterback moving forward. I mean, I don't think people quite understand. I played golf today with a guy that had played for the Cardinals back when Bidwell took over, you know, in the mid to late two thousands, and we were just disgusting just how cheap you know and the Cardinals still to this day, or you know that that Players Association survey that came out about how they charge you took for to go boxes. I mean when I worked in the NFL for the first couple of years in the office, I lived on to go boxes. If they would have charged me, Jeffreylewry would have taken thousands of dollars from me. So the Cardinals, from a cheapskates standpoint, are nonumber one in the NFL. It ain't even close. So if you think that this owner paid this guy signing bonuses, paid him a lot of money to trade him, you're crazy, especially when, like let's face it, there is a lot to work with Kyler Murray. Now, you know, winning some of these games when you have your quarterback, winning and losing when you suck doesn't matter as much. It much more impacts you if you want to draft one of the high quarterbacks. So it's a big deal, especially you know they're two and two with Kyler Murray. Like I said earlier, So if I'm a Cardinal fan, we just need to get a lot more talent around this team because we don't have that much. It's more just the Steelers. Don't know what's going on there, but I think Kyler has had a very very positive return from a football standpoint. Looks healthy, that the team has just a lot of positivity around them, not that negativity last year with Cliff, the call of duty contract, just everything surrounding the operation. Say what you want about him, they do. They feel like the polar opposite right now. Now. Obviously they're playing with house money, zero expectation. No one expects them to win a game. They're huge underdogs every time they play. But I would say it's been a positive step. One thing that has not been a positive step has been the Derek Carr New Orleans experience. I don't know if I thought he'd be good, but I definitely thought he'd just be, you know, middle of the road starting quarterback. Their team's pretty talented, they're gonna go ten and seven division sucks. He's just gonna be solid. Now. He ended up having a good third quarter before he got knocked out for the second time this season. I think it's a second concussion. He threw three touchdowns or I think he accounted for three touchdown. I don't know if he threw for them all, but they got right back in the game, and it was like twenty eight twenty one, after getting their ass kicked early, but through the first half when they were just beyond putrid. He's getting booed someone. A bunch of people hit me up on social media like why don't they just go to Jamis? And then I looked up his contract. They gave him a forty million dollar guarantee. They essentially are gonna give him sixty million dollars over two years. His dead cat next year is really high. They can't cut him, like he's on their team now and he's just not very good. And I think sometimes like this is where I respect the guys that are polarizing, like Cousins and Dak are good examples because for a long time, Derek kind of hovered in that group Jimmy Garoppolo did earlier in their career. Kirk Cousins stayed at that level, and you could argue this year was like his best years of his career. Kevin O'Connell's like, I've never seen this guy play that well, and he's watched him play forever. Dak Prescott continues to get better, Like it sounds cliche, it sounds stupid. It sounds something like a coach would say, but it's fucking true. You either improve or you get worse. Nobody in football stays the same over the course of years, right, So you either trending up or trending down, and car just starts. He's been trending down, Like I thought last year was more like Josh McDaniel's outlier situation. You watch him this year, he doesn't look that good. And I'm saying this as someone who's known him since he was a senior in high school. But he's just not that good to a player anymore for whatever reason, doesn't want to get hit, lost his confidence. I don't know. I don't have the uh like, I can't pinpoint it. I just know from watching the guy's career, his since college through the Raiders. You watch him play for the Saints, you're like, this is not a very good player right now. And internally, when you make a move, listen, you missed on free agents. It's part of football, right because a lot of the times when you sign a free agent, that guy's a free agent for a reason, like the Aaron Judges and Lebron James and Kevin Durantz and these players in these other sports that hit free they never hit free agency in the NFL, and if they do, it's usually because it's toward the end of their career. Right Like Tom Brady hit free agency he was forty two years old. Peyton Manning hit free agency. They didn't think his neck worked. It's usually like, God, can you believe that Aaron Donald that twenty seven hit free agency. Like that's just not the way the NFL works. So when you sign a free agent, there's a lot of risk involved, right, It's why usually a lot of the top guys the do change teams through trade, DeVante Tyreek, Khalil Mack back in the day, like players like that. Looking back, Derek was legitimate, had a lot of baggage and had a lot of red flags, and he was a free agent for a reason. He was you know, say what you want about Josh mc daniels. He shorted him and he might have been right. And I would say, based on what we've seen this year, he was right, and the Saints are Dennis Allen isn't a very good coach, so it's not all on Derek. I don't think Dennis has any clue what he's doing and he's gonna get fired at the end of the season. But Derek has played a role in that him losing his job for sure. Okay, let's get up to our Morgan and Morgan player. That made it look easy if you're going to talk as much shit as Deebo talked since the Super Bowl and Debo went to this Super Bowl and did the media rounds like he was. You know, older players typically do the media rounds and they hit everything like Dan Marino for you know whatever, old person Viagra or Nutritia or whatever the hell he's pushing, Joe Montana, our friends, a Guinness, you know, stuff like that. They hit everybody that they don't discriminate whether you're Coward, Dan Patrick or a local radio show in South Dakota. They are pushing that product. Usually the younger players, like if I'm still in the league, I get paid a lot of money from Company X, and I just hit the big boys, right, I get my fifty one hundred whatever eighty K and I do like six or seven and I get out of there and I'm wherever the super Bowl is, Like, I go out that night with my girlfriend, my boys, party hangout. Deebo treated that thing like he was a nineteen seventies Hall of Famer anyone with the mic. I'm gonna tell you what I gotta say, and what I gotta say is I think the Eagles secondary stink. I think James Bradberry couldn't cover me in a phone booth. I don't think they got a snowballs chance in hell to slow us down. And a lot of people, rightfully Sow were like, sour graves man, Deebo, you gotta wear this one. And Deebo never backed down. He never shut up about it all off season, all season and leading up to the game. They went right to his locker Monday of this week because the Niners played on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. They had practice on Monday and all the reporters are in there and they're like, Deebo, anything to say about you know what you said for the last nine months. I take nothing back? Like he did in no comment. He was like, say what I said, I stand on it. It's like God, Debo, you know, I know you can back it up, but ken your team to go in that game, to have three touchdowns and to essentially dance on their graves and somewhat validate everything you said, Like James Bradbury can't cover these guys, the safeties, the linebackers, they got no shot, like they got no shot, but most specifically Debo, they don't got an answer. And he's a serious problem for them because the way Kyle uses him, he's not like ultimately like aj Madson plays, the safety's gonna miss some tackles, but like you can double him because he's just running rounds. Depo gets the half. His touches are like coming in the backfield end a rounds quick screens. It's just more difficult, it's just more unique that way. But to back it up like that in Philly with a big smile on his face, Fly deebo Fly. So that was my Morgan and Morgan player. That make it look easy. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to fourth People dot com slash John or now pound law pound five to nine from your cell phone. That's f o R Thepeople dot com slash John or pound Law five two nine. The volume
Speaker 1: The volume. Can you believe we're this deep into the NFL season? We got to make every second count. With Draftking Sportsbook, you can make the most out of every game. Bet on your favorite teams for a shot at winning big bucks. New customers can score one hundred and fifty instantly in bonus bets for betting five dollars on any matchup so right now get in on the action with Draftking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NFL. Download the app now and use the code John. New customers can score one hundred and fifty instantly in bonus bets for betting just five bucks on the NFL. Only on Draftking Sportsbook with code John. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called win one hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and y or text hope and why four six seven three six nine. In West Virginia, visit ww dot one eight one hundred gambler dot net. Please play responsibly. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eighty eight seventy nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. On behalf of Bootyal Casino in resort Kansas must be twenty one or older in eligible states, but ages vary by jurisdiction. See DraftKings dot com slash sportsbook for details and state specific responsible gambling resources, Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. Terms at sportsbook dot DraftKings dot com slash football terms. What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff three and our podcast That's me, that's the show. How are we doing? Just watch a little Monday night football. Wanted to hate the game coming into it, and then I found myself on the couch going, it's pretty entertaining. I really kind of enjoyed it. Jake Browning Game of his life. Obviously, the story of the night Trevor Lawrence carried off the field does not look good. I'm recording this right after the game, so I don't know the injury. We've all watched football long enough to know it's probably not good, probably not good at all. So the implications of that. Some thoughts on the officiating and Big Dom, the Jets, Belichick, Caleb Williams, Little Debo talk a lot of football stuff. So here's the game plan. We got a lot of stuff on the YouTube channel John Middlecoff Three and Out podcast. Check out that YouTube channel. We put a bunch of content up there. And yeah, if you listening to this podcast, if you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe Three and outfeet appreciate everyone that has Other than that, I need to do something right now. Do you want to get a loved one a president? My girlfriend's birthdays right around the corner, and gifts are hard to get. They are hard, like for your dad, for brothers, for cousins, whoever you are around during the holidays. It can be difficult. I got you covered. Go to your cell phone, go to your iPad, download an app called game Time. It's the official ticketing gap of this podcast. And when you download the app, if you want to go to a game, if you want to go to basketball, football, hockey, you name it, any sport, college, pro concerts, comedy shows. Do something for someone else and save some money. So just download the game Time app, buy a pair of tickets, use the promo code John. That happens to be my name, j o Hn. That's how we spell it around here, jo Hn Promoco John twenty dollars off your first pair of tickets, have a get a present, do something for someone else, and do it on me. Save a little money while you're at it. Game time Promoco John. Okay, there's a lot going on. I mean, there's a lot going on in this game. I'm recording this. I don't know less than ten minutes after he hit the walk off field goal, so I don't have the information on what happened to Trevor Lawrence's ankle slash knee. Obviously there was collateral damage because Walker Little, the left tackle, went down, But I'm stating the obvious here. If it's a significant injury and he's out for a foreseeable period of time, obviously there's not that much season left. It's December fourth, But if he's out for the rest of the season, they're done. They're screwed. Like the Houston Texans are gonna win this division if that's the case. I mean, tonight was pretty devastating. It looked like not only the Jags were gonna win. Trevor was playing really well, even though Jake Browning's having the game of his life since he was in college. You're like, listen, it's Monday, night football. I say it all the time. Monday night football games late in the season against bad teams, like if it's a playoff level team against a bad team, always feel tight. I remember years ago the Giants might have been playing the Patriots pre like when the Patriots were decent, might have been a different opponent, and it was just a knockdown, dragout game. And it was one of those years pre day ball, when the Giants were really bad, even though they're pretty terrible right now, and just Monday night football game. It's a big deal to players, it's a big deal to coaches. I don't care how shitty your team is, you get up for it. And that's what it felt like tonight. Now, granted you're watching the Bengals, you go, well, they got Jamar Chase, who's one of the best players in the league. Joe Mixon's pretty damn good. Uh Amaruno, the defensive coordinator for the Bengals. I don't know. He was a finalist last year for a head coaching job. He's pretty damn good. They got some young players. They play hard, they're making open field tackles well. Their franchise player is on the sideline in a sling like that's It's like, God, he's he's really hurt. I mean, of course he is. He's out for the season, but that's that makes you go godness not ideal. Uh, you got some fight. These guys are pros. These guys get paid a lot of money too. I saw someone ask Tyreek Hill after he dusted someone on the Commanders and then they did one of the best celebrations you'll ever see. They did the roller coaster with like four guys. They put over the uh you know see you know, the the seat belts and then they all went the same way. I highly recommend googling it if you haven't seen it. But like Tyreek was like, were you offended? They didn't give you safety help. He's like, those guys make a lot of money too, Like their coaching staff is highly paid, and this is this is pro football. Like all these guys are making a decent chunk of change. So I'm never shocked when these games are tight. Now, when you have an injury like Trevor Lawrence, and this season's kind of been defined by quarterback injuries, think how many star players. I mean, it really started. It was like an omen with Rogers four or five plays into the season, he's laying on the ground. I mean, that's that still is the craziest injury I've ever seen when you factor in all the hooplah, all the hype, the trade and everything. I mean, we've seen worse, obviously, way worse injuries than Aaron Rodgers in terms of like the visual with bone sticking out, knees, you know, going the wrong way achilles. It actually isn't that hard to watch in the sense of it's not like a violent play on the player, you just know it right away. But think of all the other guys that have been KOed since and if Trevor Lawrence does have a significant knee, ankle, whatever injury, it's a devastating blow for the NFL because this was a playoff team. He's a young our quarterback at least star in the sense of former number one pick ton of hype. Everyone that follows football knows who he is, and that sucks. There's no there's no overcoming that, you know. I mean, think about Jake Brown in tonight, who probably on a bright note, honestly, how cool is that if you're him, if you're his family. One of the guys I follow on Twitter. He covers high school football in Sacramento, and Jake Browning played where I come from. D La Salle in the Bay Area and Fulsome High School in Sacramento are the two powers currently in you know, northern California, Non LA School and Fulsome High School. Troy Taylor, who's now the head coach at Stanford, used to be the head coach there and coached Jake Browning. And he went to the game with his son and he took the selfie and he sent it to this guy and he tweeted it and like, how cool is it that the guy's former high school coach. Is there anyone that knows Jake Browning? I mean, this guy played at Washington, he led them to the playoffs. I mean, he was a pretty heralded college player, but not in a million years that I think he'd be in the NFL. But here's the thing. You either get better, you get worse. I don't care what you do. You're either gonna improve or you're gonna get lapped in whatever profession you're in, especially any profession that is competitive. And here's what I will say about Jake Browning. He's clearly improved, Like to me, he looked dramatically better, as I mean, you should improve with age as an athlete if you're putting in the time, and Aikman said talking to him, like he's put in a lot of time. He was fucking fantastic tonight. I mean, you go thirty two of thirty seven on Monday Night football for over three hundred and fifty yards and a touchdown and to throw the dime down the sideline to Jamar Chase. But there was a poise, there was an accuracy. He made a sweet play with his legs. Like what a really really cool moment for him. It's one thing, you know, like Davido, Like it's fun to talk about Davido, to talk about, you know, the mob and Chicken Palm and all the jokes that are being had with his fam leg and viral. It's funny. I mean, it's legitimately kind of funny. But Tommy DeVito, I got news for you. Probably ain't gonna be in the league long. I mean I would bet against it, and more than likely is like not gonna have any more moments. Hell, Tyrod Taylor's probably coming back. We're not even gonna see Tommy DeVito, Like Jay Browning is starting the rest of the season. This team is six and six. I don't know if you noticed. I don't know why I watched the amount of this game that I did on Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers, who I just told stuck you the other day. I'm like, look at their schedule, man, they're gonna be eleven and four middle Coff, They're not gonna be fucking eleven four. They stick. They're awful. They wouldn't have beat the Arizona Cardinals had Kenny Pickett not gotten injured. I don't care how many tropical rainstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, whatever kept delaying that game came through. The Pittsburgh Steelers are not good. That they are not. And honestly, the Arizona Cardinals props to Kyler Murray. They're two and two since he returned. But like the Bengals are dead, they are just not dead. Look at the carnage that happened yesterday. No different than the Bills. Now, I like the Bills more than the Bengals because I would bet on Josh Allen over Jake Browning. But if this guy can just play under control. Now there's one thing Monday Night Football a little extra rest. You know, I'm not gonna put act like he's gonna continue to play like this, but very cool moment. I think sometimes we talk so much like is this guy overpaid, this guy underpays, this guy overrated, so they trade this guy? This guy need to get fired instead. And I'm guilty of this probably more than most talking about all that stuff. Would we just be like, what a cool freaking moment, What an awesome game for that guy, pro athlete, backup quarterback on one of the better teams in the NFL over the last several years. No one ever, no one even knows the guy's name, really because ideally he's never gonna have to play. When you got Joe Burrow and he comes in, he has a moment like that on Monday Night Football thirty two to thirty seven. What a game, What a freaking game by the guy, And ultimately you help lead your team to a victory like against a you know, a really good team. Now, once Trevor Lawrence goes out, who was also having a really good game, you know you're not necessarily beating him, I would say, in full strength clearly. But that was very impressive by the Bengals and not tapping out, not quitting. I know their head coach can be polarizing sometimes. I thought the easiest way to help any average quarterback, and definitely a backup quarterback, is to get easy plays. You know in basketball you call them layups, right, get to the rim, like get to the foul line. One football, run the ball, Just run the ball. Don't even ask him to do anything. And when you get positive yards on the ground, enables your quarterback to play a little freer. It's much harder to play quarterback when you ask them to, you know, operate like Joe Burrow and they did this a week ago. It's like, Bro, you get in positions. If he's incomplete on first down, you're in second. You're in passing situations, second and third down, and if for some reason you have a penalty, something happens all of a sudden, you're in second, third, and not even close to manageable. I mean you're talking third and forever. So you put a guy like that in those situations, it's gonna be very difficult. But when I get you in second and five, second and two, third and one, like, we got a chance for success. And then because of the talent that you have on offense, you can be explosive. Now. I think a lot of people like if you just went to Twitter when Boyd threw one of the worst picks you'll ever see. It was the second double pass the Bengals busted out. That shows you Zach Taylor coming into this game, didn't have that much faith in this quarterback. He thought he was gonna pull have to pull off like all the you know, bells and whistles, throw everything, throw the kitchen sink at the Jags, just to have a chance to win, which I understand coming into the game. But I would say by like early second quarter, you're like got the Bengals can just play with them. You don't need to outthink them. Sometimes you need to pull some of these trick plays because you're not as good as you're Tonight, look like equals, just play the game. Now they avoided it. It felt like that was gonna be the moment. Remember when Chuck Pagano called the whatever the hell that was that fake punt with McAfee and he got tackled. It was like the worst play in NFL history. It kind of felt like that tonight when the Bengals when he threw the ball right to Alan, the defensive end literally hit him right. He jumped, but he did not need to jump. Underrated play. Also, even when it is a ball right to you and something like that, if you are a pass rusher, if you are a d lineman outside linebacker and you pick it off, that's not easy. Like most of your time during the week is not spent on the judge machine. So it just kind of being an athlete, you know, kind of throwback to when you were a kid. Just make a play, and he did. But big win for the Bengals. Obviously, the story of the night. We'll see. Maybe by the time you listen to this, we have some concrete evidence. But listen, we've all watched enough football to know that did not look good. He clearly threw his helmet, you know, paining frustration. And I think sometimes when you you know, just watching sports my entire life, you know, it's really bad, And I think there's a level sometimes there's just a level of shock. Right when you get injured. You see it a lot in basketball. You're like, got it. He just rip every tendon and ligament in his entire body, and then like ten minutes later, they're back in the game just because you kind of freak out. And then there's when something like that happened the night you get bent back in the wrong direction, how your left back ones of leaving the game as well, and you know it's really bad. Still can't quite understand why they made him walk, you know, to Miami, Florida, Like, can someone give the guy a ride. This is a player that you're probably gonna give one hundred and fifty hundred and seventy million dollars too in the next eighteen months. Let's get the guy in the cart. But they literally just kind of carried him, you know, slash walked really slow, which must have taken forever because they panned to him after commercial and they're still walking under the tunnel at like baby speed. But you know, you gotta be careful with that knee, so ankle or whatever the hell. It is just a devastating loss in every way imaginable for Doug Peterson. I also had the thought, is Doug's Dougs has some terrible injuries happened to his quarterback? Now, obviously the one in Philadelphia worked out in his favor when Foles came in and became magical and they won the Super Bowl. I think I'm I'm not breaking any news here that's not happening in this situation. That's not happening with CJ. Bethard. If they were to make the playoffs and Trevor can't come back, They're not winning a playoff game with CJ. Bethard, I would bet my life savings on that. Right now, I don't give a shit who they play. I read a lot today just searching through the headlines. This is what I usually do to just see what, you know, what are the people talking about out there? Should what should we talk about on the old podcast? And you know, in my world, a lot of Niner people, a lot of Eagle people, just a lot of green law Don Desandro talk. And if you listen to the Other Day listen, Dom's one of the coolest motherfuckers I've ever known. I spent so much time eating with him, talking with them. When I lived in Philly, I gravitate toward, you know, I would say people that just color outside the lines. Not only they entertain me, but I just some about them that I don't know see myself in. I don't know what it is, but I just I like those type guys. I love Don Desandro. Most people do that have been around him, and I saw I actually have this epiphany last night because I'm laying in bed. It's hard to sleep for me. After Sundays, I get all worked up. I do a bunch of podcasts just talk about football, and I'm just like all amped up. I have to take like seventeen Melatonins just to kind of doze off. And I watched this side view of the green Law and I love Drake Greenlaw as well. I mean, Drake Greenlaw to me is an underrated heartbeat of the Niners. Fred said it to Greg Olsen on the broadcast, Like I try, and he's known as like one of the most violent players in league, and friends like I try to hit as hard as Dray When Drey's on the field healthy, there's a violence to the forty nine ers that no one in the league can match. Dude is just on the edge of craziness, I mean, and sometimes he crosses it. But this is this is the NFL, this isn't peewee football. I need some guys to cross the line every once in a while. But I saw this. My epiphany was I saw this sideline view of the dom Dre Greenlaw thing, and when you put things in slow motion, totally understand it with did you get two feet down right? Did a guy catch the ball? Did did the ball touch or the foot touch out of bounds? Right? I understand sometimes the need for slow motion in football. When you do slow motion in a fight, right or just an altercation, I think it makes it worse, look fifty times worse because I saw the full speed. I don't even want to call it an altercation, just the moment between green Law Devonte Smith. It was a nothing burger. And I said this yesterday, and I've been beating this drum forever. I've always hated in basketball, and I'm specifically talking about Draymond because when I lived in the Bay I watched the Warriors. Kind of suck now and they're boring, but in their heyday, I watched every minute of every Warrior game. And Draymond does things, or at least did things over the course of his career to get tossed like he earned it right. No different Dennis Rodman, Rashid Wallace, like some guys you know, are legitimately crossing the line on certain nights, but then they're also treated on other nights, and Draymond wasn't alone. It always bothered me in a pro game when a player said like f you to another player and get tossed for that, even f you to the ref like, this is not the peeweez, This is not junior high basketball or football. This is not college sports. We are not teaching life lessons. There are millions of dollars on the line. This is a business. None of that other shit nobody cares about. This is an entert product, which is a business. You gotta let things go. And to me, where the officials really screwed up in that moment, and it just it's bothered me since that play. No one needed to get tossed. It was honestly barely. It wasn't even a scuffle. Dom tried to separate him, green Law pointed at his face. I saw Howard Eskin, who's the sideline guy for the Eagles, said that John Lynch, Drake gree Law, Dom and a couple other Eagles were laughing about it in the holes of the Lincoln Financial Field After the game, nobody gave a shit again beside the referees, the consumer US who pay for everything are there watching the game. For the players and the coaches. Everyone that paid a lot of money to attend that game is there for the game. The officials too often in professional sports, whether it's basketball, baseball, football, inject themselves into things that don't need to be or don't need their hand involved. If you have a malice at the PA and Ron our Test is beating the shit out everybody, yeah, time to get involved. If there is some eighties nineties old school brawls where guys are throwing haymakers at each other, yeah, maybe some guys need to get thrown out. I'm sorry. That was a fucking embarrassment for the NFL. And when I see these headlines like that they're gonna go after the Eagles, what are we doing? That was one of the biggest nothing burgers I've ever seen. Nobody should have gotten any trouble, No one should have got ejected. Separate them, call the next play. I think sometimes and maybe it's like the network's getting involved because this is such a big television show. Create the drama. It's almost like the reality show that's truly reality. They're just playing a game. Now, you can think the game's rigged or not, but I don't believe that is. I'm not sure that Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni got a script when the season began that you're gonna get your ass kicked by the forty nine ers. But just let the reality on the television on the field play itself out, and referees like try to stay away as much as possible. Whatever happened to just separating them and just moving on, that doesn't happen anymore. In sports, we're constantly throwing guys out. Our time is way too valuable. These guys are being paid way too much money to go hit the showers for nothing. If you take your helmet and you slam it on some guy's face, okay, if I point at your face and I have no clue who you are as an opposing player who cares. That really was a really embarrassing moment for Roger in his operation. And listen, I've been on the referees. I don't even waste that much time talking about it over the last calendar year because rinse, wash, repeat. But when you start sending guys to the showers, when you start doing things like that, that's inexcusable. Now you could argue that the buzz it's going to create if they play again in the NFC Championship a huge storyline, and it is, so it's good for everyone's business that's in the broadcasting of the game. So maybe they like doing that crap. But if I'm Roger Goodell, like, can everyone just take a deep breath? Can we just try to get the calls on the feel right and not worry about throwing guys out or getting some guy in trouble over something that was pretty innocuous. I mean, I honestly believe that if you watch it in slow motion, yeah, it feels like Connor McGregor fighting Mike Tyson. If you watch it in real time, it's like, fuck, I saw this crazier thing that happened in the gas station today. Like, let's be better, NFL. We're too important to the fabric of society at this point. You're the number one television show in America. Just let's figure out our referees and just how to tone them down a little bit. For the love of God, please, for me, for you, and for everyone who enjoys this sport, Can we just try to corral that group because it feels like they're a bunch of village idiots right now. A lot of other stuff going on. It kind of hit me today. You know, Belichick lost six nothing at home, six to nothing, and I read that Belichick and the Patriots are the first team since like the late thirties to lose three games where they held the opponent to ten points or under. I was thinking, like, if you played three games, whatever their record is, you know they've played eleven or twelve games. But so you know we're talking thirty to twenty five percent of your season. Your defense is playing awesome. And obviously they've had other games when the team was in the teams or the low twenties. Belichick is still coach defense. Belichick knows how to play an opposing team with a star, highly paid quarterback, with other good weapons, especially if his team is healthy, give his team a fighting chance to compete defensively. One thing is clear. He doesn't know how to evaluate offensive skill guys, especially wide receivers. And if the quarterback position is screwed up, i e. Tom Brady not there, and he doesn't have some other plug and play top ten player, he's fucked. But think about a couple of years ago, when Mac Jones was just serviceable as a rookie, he had Josh McDaniels. Well, I was thinking about today, Josh McDaniels doesn't have a job because I've texted with so many people, like middle Coff, you really think I'm not going third person Cam Newton style. I'm just saying that's what they say to me that because I saw he did an interview with the part of my take guys, he says he talks to third person like every other sentence. It's like Cam just talking about like a normal human. It's like, what do you think, Cam Newton? No, Cam, you are Cam Newton. But Belichick's offensive issues this year. He doesn't have his offensive coordinator. Well, his offensive coordinator is gonna be available. So if you hire Bill Belichick this offseason, because let's face it, there is no possibility of him returning zero. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense for Bill Belichick to return or to let him have the power to draft one of these quarterbacks slash draft other people in the draft. I wouldn't let him touch it. It's an easy one to go your separate ways. But then the question mark is, like, is Bill Belichick a viable candidate. And I've been saying for weeks like I think he's gonna have the pick of the litter. Well, he's gonna be able to say, well, why don't I just bring Josh with me as my offensive coordinator? You guys see what I can do on defense. I get Josh calling my offense, and boom, we're cooking with gas. I actually think it makes him more valuable on the open market when he can just say I know exactly how this guy works. I don't have to even think about it because when he's gone to Patricia and obviously Bill O'Brien, they're completely screwed. But when he has Josh, who is an awful head coach right just like Belichick, without him as the offensive coordinator, they're gonna have issues. But you put those two together. I mean, hell, a couple of years ago, they took Mac Jones to the playoffs. They made the playoffs with the rookie Mac Jones. Think about that. So I wouldn't count Belichick like his career is just over. He's proving it on defense. Think how many teams right now would give anything for a guy like that to influence their defense how many teams who are just putrid on that side of the ball. The Lions think of what the Lions would do to just have him just give them some tips on how to improve, and they got no clue. I mean, they're just at any moment, you can score like twenty one points on the Lions in like a blink of an eye. That's why that you feel less and less confident about them when the playoffs are, you know, coming around the corner. But if Belichick's a coach next year, Josh mcdam is gonna be his offensive coordinator, I'd put that bad boy in sharpie. The other team, the Jets. You know, you saw Flacco who just showed up off the couch throwing some deep The guy's always throwing a beautiful deepole. Listen, Joe Flacco, great hair, can't move, beautiful deepole. That's what I think when I close my eyes and think of Joe Flacco and yesterday you just let's be real. You watch the Eagles and Niner game. It was hard to keep an eye on everything else, But I had a little screen going. I'd peek over there, everyone's all and that ball would just loop out, just like God Flacco can still sling that thing. But the Jets rolled into the season and I said it early on, and listen, Zach Wilson had like a game and a half stretch where you're like, god, he's kind of capable, and then he just resorted back to shit. He'zac. They tried to have their cake and eat it too. Someone in the NFL in the know around the Jets was like, we were done. He was done, Like he was not coming back. I mean, it was kind of public as well, right, Zack Wilson was not gonna be on the team. But then the Aaron Rodgers situation, you know, kind of played out and Aaron's like, you know, I kind of like the guy. I'll help him out, and then he just they kind of kept him around. But I say it all the time. It's one thing if you got a backup wide receiver you can mix another guy's or a backup d lineman. When that is your backup quarterback, you are one Achilles stare from that guy becoming your starter. And of course it wasn't utter debacle. And now they're talking about potentially putting him back in the lineup. Listen, these guys are probably gonna survive simply because of Aaron Rodgers. But and I want to like Robert Sala as a head coach because I loved him as a defensive coordinator. I like him as a guy. It's pretty ugly, man, it really is. Nathaniel Hackett without Aaron Rodgers is might as well be Joe Judge or Matt Patricia. I mean, he he's fucking terrible, has absolutely no clue what to do. Their personnel has issues. It's so easy to say, well, we'll just wait till twenty twenty four and Aaron Rodgers gets back. We say this a lot with the draft, like Todd Bowles, just just get to twenty twenty four and draft a quarterback who or whoever the bad team is. Well, you have to go through that season where it's pretty ugly, right, and once you start watching it on a weekly basis, is like the Jets. That's about as shitty as a football team in terms of watching, right there with the Patriots. But at least, I mean the Patriots might draft number one overall. I think they have like a fifty to fifty shot to have the number one overall pick. Right to me, the Panthers are gonna end up winning a game or two. Patriots cannot move the ball that they definitely can't score any points that they get even close in the red zone, no chance, So it's hard for them to even to get there. Like I do think the Panthers, you're gonna look up and they're gonna have a weird win. It would not shock me at all if the Patriots gets the number one overall pick. But the Jets, Like, the Jets are gonna win five or six games, and you're like, that might as well have been a two win team. They fucking suck. So anytime that you suck that bad in your one excuse as well, Rogers has an achilles. Well that's great. Are we confident at all that you guys know what you're doing, that you guys that Robert as a head coach, Nathaniel Hackett as a play caller, Do you guys know what you're doing? Because I do think it's fair to say, like you watch them and go, yeah, they don't know what they're doing at all, Like there's not much faith, So it's getting really ugly. I think we can also put to rest the conversation that Caleb Williams is up in the air about what he's gonna do with his decision in terms of declaring for the National Football League, and I think it's pretty clear he's gonna be the number one pick in the draft. Drake May was not good the second half of the season that he officially opted out of the bowl game, which to me, I'm number to that. What do the bowl games even mean? Beside honestly the two playoff games. I think the bowl games have lost so much luster. Remember when that was a conversation like he opted out of the bowl game, and now it's like do any of these bowl games matter? Does anyone give a shit? Hell? Have? These guys don't even opt out of the ball game. They go to the transfer portal. You look up this morning, You're like, Ohio State's quarterback is in the transfer portal, Like, didn't you just start on an eleven to one team? And then clearly Ryan Day and the coaching staff is like, you're not starting here next year, bro, or maybe they already know they got cam Ward. It's kind of crazy, the musical chairs that goes on with a college football transfer portal, which most of the players I can't even pretend to care about the quarterback thing is pretty interesting, like where they all go. And obviously it has a huge influence Bo Nicks, Michael Pennix. Right, you see these players, you know, influence the playoff race. Yours at Texas originally started at Ohio State. But Kayleb Williams not playing the bowl game, of course he's not. I mean I don't even holiday Bowl. I wouldn't play either, But he's going to the NFL Draft. Like, we need to stop having this conversation. We need to start stop this kind of you know, he's in LA, maybe he's close to Lebron, you know, playing it up, you know, creating some drama like, Bro, you're going to the NFL. It's okay, Like just just say it. It's it's it's not gonna kill you. Like, just just get it over with. You don't need to do this dog and pony show, you know, leak stuff out, don't say anything. We all know it, and rightfully so you've earned it. You're, you know, an excellent prospect. Excited to watch you know, the whole process play out in terms of the going to the combine, the interviews, the whole thing. But it's just one of those stories that It's like I can't It's like the Rogers making us comeback. I can't take that story. I there are certain stories that are just like I immediately either change the channel or keep scrolling. It's like, yeah, I'm not paying any attention. So this will be the last time we discussed Caleb Williams on the fence about declaring for the NFL unless he actually goes back to USC, which in what world would he go back to that team? I mean, that would be the crazy story. It's like, wait, you're going back to that team. Like I understood when certain guys returned to school, like last your Pennix or bow Nix or you know, if JJ McCarthy returns to Michigan or whatever. You like, Yeah, your team's really good. Totally understand it. At USC team, they're fucking terrible. I said at the moment he came back, like kamr is gonna be their quarterback moving forward. I mean, I don't think people quite understand. I played golf today with a guy that had played for the Cardinals back when Bidwell took over, you know, in the mid to late two thousands, and we were just disgusting just how cheap you know and the Cardinals still to this day, or you know that that Players Association survey that came out about how they charge you took for to go boxes. I mean when I worked in the NFL for the first couple of years in the office, I lived on to go boxes. If they would have charged me, Jeffreylewry would have taken thousands of dollars from me. So the Cardinals, from a cheapskates standpoint, are nonumber one in the NFL. It ain't even close. So if you think that this owner paid this guy signing bonuses, paid him a lot of money to trade him, you're crazy, especially when, like let's face it, there is a lot to work with Kyler Murray. Now, you know, winning some of these games when you have your quarterback, winning and losing when you suck doesn't matter as much. It much more impacts you if you want to draft one of the high quarterbacks. So it's a big deal, especially you know they're two and two with Kyler Murray. Like I said earlier, So if I'm a Cardinal fan, we just need to get a lot more talent around this team because we don't have that much. It's more just the Steelers. Don't know what's going on there, but I think Kyler has had a very very positive return from a football standpoint. Looks healthy, that the team has just a lot of positivity around them, not that negativity last year with Cliff, the call of duty contract, just everything surrounding the operation. Say what you want about him, they do. They feel like the polar opposite right now. Now. Obviously they're playing with house money, zero expectation. No one expects them to win a game. They're huge underdogs every time they play. But I would say it's been a positive step. One thing that has not been a positive step has been the Derek Carr New Orleans experience. I don't know if I thought he'd be good, but I definitely thought he'd just be, you know, middle of the road starting quarterback. Their team's pretty talented, they're gonna go ten and seven division sucks. He's just gonna be solid. Now. He ended up having a good third quarter before he got knocked out for the second time this season. I think it's a second concussion. He threw three touchdowns or I think he accounted for three touchdown. I don't know if he threw for them all, but they got right back in the game, and it was like twenty eight twenty one, after getting their ass kicked early, but through the first half when they were just beyond putrid. He's getting booed someone. A bunch of people hit me up on social media like why don't they just go to Jamis? And then I looked up his contract. They gave him a forty million dollar guarantee. They essentially are gonna give him sixty million dollars over two years. His dead cat next year is really high. They can't cut him, like he's on their team now and he's just not very good. And I think sometimes like this is where I respect the guys that are polarizing, like Cousins and Dak are good examples because for a long time, Derek kind of hovered in that group Jimmy Garoppolo did earlier in their career. Kirk Cousins stayed at that level, and you could argue this year was like his best years of his career. Kevin O'Connell's like, I've never seen this guy play that well, and he's watched him play forever. Dak Prescott continues to get better, Like it sounds cliche, it sounds stupid. It sounds something like a coach would say, but it's fucking true. You either improve or you get worse. Nobody in football stays the same over the course of years, right, So you either trending up or trending down, and car just starts. He's been trending down, Like I thought last year was more like Josh McDaniel's outlier situation. You watch him this year, he doesn't look that good. And I'm saying this as someone who's known him since he was a senior in high school. But he's just not that good to a player anymore for whatever reason, doesn't want to get hit, lost his confidence. I don't know. I don't have the uh like, I can't pinpoint it. I just know from watching the guy's career, his since college through the Raiders. You watch him play for the Saints, you're like, this is not a very good player right now. And internally, when you make a move, listen, you missed on free agents. It's part of football, right because a lot of the times when you sign a free agent, that guy's a free agent for a reason, like the Aaron Judges and Lebron James and Kevin Durantz and these players in these other sports that hit free they never hit free agency in the NFL, and if they do, it's usually because it's toward the end of their career. Right Like Tom Brady hit free agency he was forty two years old. Peyton Manning hit free agency. They didn't think his neck worked. It's usually like, God, can you believe that Aaron Donald that twenty seven hit free agency. Like that's just not the way the NFL works. So when you sign a free agent, there's a lot of risk involved, right, It's why usually a lot of the top guys the do change teams through trade, DeVante Tyreek, Khalil Mack back in the day, like players like that. Looking back, Derek was legitimate, had a lot of baggage and had a lot of red flags, and he was a free agent for a reason. He was you know, say what you want about Josh mc daniels. He shorted him and he might have been right. And I would say, based on what we've seen this year, he was right, and the Saints are Dennis Allen isn't a very good coach, so it's not all on Derek. I don't think Dennis has any clue what he's doing and he's gonna get fired at the end of the season. But Derek has played a role in that him losing his job for sure. Okay, let's get up to our Morgan and Morgan player. That made it look easy if you're going to talk as much shit as Deebo talked since the Super Bowl and Debo went to this Super Bowl and did the media rounds like he was. You know, older players typically do the media rounds and they hit everything like Dan Marino for you know whatever, old person Viagra or Nutritia or whatever the hell he's pushing, Joe Montana, our friends, a Guinness, you know, stuff like that. They hit everybody that they don't discriminate whether you're Coward, Dan Patrick or a local radio show in South Dakota. They are pushing that product. Usually the younger players, like if I'm still in the league, I get paid a lot of money from Company X, and I just hit the big boys, right, I get my fifty one hundred whatever eighty K and I do like six or seven and I get out of there and I'm wherever the super Bowl is, Like, I go out that night with my girlfriend, my boys, party hangout. Deebo treated that thing like he was a nineteen seventies Hall of Famer anyone with the mic. I'm gonna tell you what I gotta say, and what I gotta say is I think the Eagles secondary stink. I think James Bradberry couldn't cover me in a phone booth. I don't think they got a snowballs chance in hell to slow us down. And a lot of people, rightfully Sow were like, sour graves man, Deebo, you gotta wear this one. And Deebo never backed down. He never shut up about it all off season, all season and leading up to the game. They went right to his locker Monday of this week because the Niners played on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. They had practice on Monday and all the reporters are in there and they're like, Deebo, anything to say about you know what you said for the last nine months. I take nothing back? Like he did in no comment. He was like, say what I said, I stand on it. It's like God, Debo, you know, I know you can back it up, but ken your team to go in that game, to have three touchdowns and to essentially dance on their graves and somewhat validate everything you said, Like James Bradbury can't cover these guys, the safeties, the linebackers, they got no shot, like they got no shot, but most specifically Debo, they don't got an answer. And he's a serious problem for them because the way Kyle uses him, he's not like ultimately like aj Madson plays, the safety's gonna miss some tackles, but like you can double him because he's just running rounds. Depo gets the half. His touches are like coming in the backfield end a rounds quick screens. It's just more difficult, it's just more unique that way. But to back it up like that in Philly with a big smile on his face, Fly deebo Fly. So that was my Morgan and Morgan player. That make it look easy. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to fourth People dot com slash John or now pound law pound five to nine from your cell phone. That's f o R Thepeople dot com slash John or pound Law five two nine. The volume
