Hard Men Podcast
Hard Men Podcast
The Grill Americans: NFL preview, Fantasy Football, & Masculine Formation with Andrew Isker
Football isn't just a game; it's a cultural phenomenon and a formative experience for young men. Joining us is Andrew Isker, as we tackle the heated debates surrounding football's significance.
We dive deep into the role of sports in shaping masculinity, discussing how tackle football instills resilience, confidence, and strength in young boys. However, we also caution against the dangers of youth sports becoming an idol, where parents' excessive investment can sometimes overshadow more important aspects of life. Reminiscing about the golden era of Cornhusker football, we advocate for the revival of the fullback position and explore how economic and rule changes have reshaped modern football.
Our conversation doesn't stop at the field; we examine the intersection of politics and sports, including unusual endorsements and the impact of social movements on the game. We also provide an in-depth analysis of rookie quarterbacks and draft prospects, evaluating their potential as they transition to the NFL. From assessing Caleb Williams' career trajectory to predicting Bo Nix's breakout season, we cover it all. Plus, don't miss our week one NFL picks and commentary, where we offer insights and spirited debates on the season's opening matchups. Tune in for a comprehensive, entertaining, and thought-provoking episode that's sure to resonate with football enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Hard Men Podcast Fantasy Football League! This 16-team league for the $10/month Patreon tier is complete with competitive play, enticing prizes, and hilarious consequences for the losers. Check out the Patreon exclusive membership for more details.
Get 10% off your next Reformation Heritage Books order with discount code "HARDMEN."
Buy your plate armor from Premier Body Armor today.
10 Ways to Make Money with Your MAXX-D Trailer.
Alpine Gold Exchange Website: alpinegoldogden.com
Set Up a Meeting: https://calendly.com/alpinegold/alpine-gold-consultation
Talk to Joe Garrisi about managing your wealth with Backwards Planning Financial.
Buy your beef or pork box today from Salt and Strings Butchery. Use code "HMP" to get $20 off your next order.
This episode of the Hard Men podcast is brought to you by Joe Garrisi with Backwards Planning, financial, by our friends at Alpine Gold, by Max D Trailers, salt and Strings, butchery, premier Body Armor and finally, by Reformation Heritage Books. Welcome to this episode of the Hartman podcast. We have a special. We've got Andrew Isker here. Andrew, we're jumping into Fantasy Football League. We're going to be talking about sports ball today, particularly the NFL, on a scale of 1 to 1,000, how excited are you about this Hartman Podcast, exclusive sports ball, football and fantasy football league that we're going to be introducing and announcing today?
Speaker 2:Probably 999,. Right, that's pretty high. I'm reserving 1,000 for other things like the Eskadon and things like that.
Speaker 1:That's when you win. The 1,000 is for when you win the fantasy league.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, which, you know. I hope to win it. But I mean, the thing is, we want, we want everybody else to be competitive too. So maybe I'll, maybe I'll sandbag a little bit, I don't know A little bit of sandbagging.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I want to introduce that right away. So we're going to have a fantasy football league the $10 a month tier on the hard men podcast Patreon channel. We're going to be doing a 16-team league. We were talking just a minute ago about what the winner gets. It's going to be a pretty good swag package, and I think the loser is going to be. We're going to host a video. You're going to have to read the script that we write. Andrew and I are going to post this. There's going to be a lot of shame involved here, because that's what men do. That's right. And then we're going to have a swag package for the winner. So encourage people to check that out. Sign up on Patreon. We will have Andrew Isker hosting Fantasy Football or the Hardman Podcast listeners.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Andrew, one of the things that we're going to jump into first. We've got some major storylines from the 2024 season. We'll go through those. We're going to evaluate some of the rookie class quarterbacks, including JJ McCarthy, your very own. Let's go, poor meniscus, that's right. And then we're going to go into week one picks. We've got Super Bowl picks to follow that.
Speaker 1:But, andrew, first I want to answer this question because I think it's probably the biggest objection that we will have in doing this. It's the thing that I hear the most. I'm sure you've heard it as well Sportsball is gay. It's fake. Why would you guys be talking about sports ball? And I want to get your take on this, but you know my my view of it is football used to be great. It used to be this great american pastime, or I've read biographies of johnny unitas and these guys were like ripping heaters on the sidelines in between plays. Some of them had brass knuckles. I mean, it was just a great american sport. Most of them had to work jobs, uh, and so, uh, your take on that? What is? Is sports ball gay? Should we be, uh? Should we be, uh, hosting a fantasy league?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean that. That's. That's an objection I get all the time too, from people where it's like, why do you care about these things? That's, that's fake, it's not real. But I mean the.
Speaker 2:There's a reason why, um, the the global homo world has has begun to inundate, like the nfl and college football, um, because they know this is like the last vestige of of masculinity that gets celebrated in american public life, yeah, where, where men are are crashing into each other and hitting each other and doing, you know, violence in a controlled way that that people witness and watch and and are entertained by. Right, and it's one of the last means that, like, even young men have to attain social status in a in a masculine way. So, growing up, if you played football or if you played other sports wrestling, baseball, things like that that's a means socially to gain status. Otherwise, all you have left is just conforming to the longhouse. All you have left is is just conforming to the long house, right, that's the. That's the only means outside of of submitting to the long house for a young man to to gain any any kind of status and and and so ultimately it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a good thing, right, it's a good thing to enjoy these things, to watch these things. I mean, I think also, like in our little world, it's it's kind of disdained. It's like, oh, you care about sports ball, but I care about important things, right, I care about. Or sometimes you'll have a pietistic spin on it where it's like, well, I care about holy things more, I'm going to go read more volumes of theology while you sit and watch football. And it's like no people are allowed to enjoy things. Right, you're allowed to have fun, that's not a bad thing. And also the broader sphere of our entire culture loves it. Like this is the most popular thing in America by far. It Like this is this is the most popular thing in America by far.
Speaker 2:And and I think we do ourselves a disservice if we just don't talk about it. Right, if we're we're totally disengaged from that world where it's like I can go anywhere, like in my town here, as I'm currently in Minnesota, or when I get down to Tennessee, I can. Any random person I talked to I could be like, hey, what do you think is going to happen on Sunday? Do you think the? I think the Vikings are going to win? Like, what, what's? You know what's? How about that, sam Darnold, right, do you think he's any good?
Speaker 2:Uh, like, and, and you can talk to any random person and have a long conversation with them just by talking about that, like it's, it's, it's part of the social fabric and and so I think it's it's important that we, we pay attention to these things. I mean, there's so many, especially young men, that enjoy these things and and we want to poo poo it, we want to say, like that's, that's maybe bad, maybe, maybe, just don't even talk about that here, but it's not right, it's good to talk and it's it's good for for our guys to talk about and be conversant with, uh, to know what's going on, to care about these things. Because, right, I mean, you people talk about move, like we could do a podcast on movie reviews, right, even though, like, there aren't any movies that are being made that are even worth seeing. Right, you want to talk about. Talk about, like, how gay the NFL has become, where it's like, oh yeah, it's true. Like there is that ad right, football is gay that the NFL put out. Right, yeah, it's bad and we'll talk about Caleb Williams later, but everything is bad.
Speaker 2:But, like, no one would really bat an eye if it's like, oh yeah, andrew and Eric are doing a show reviewing movies, right, bad. But like no one would. No one would really bat an eye. If it's like, oh yeah, andrew and eric are doing doing a show reviewing movies, right, tons of people would watch and they'd be like, oh yeah, I love movies, but when you get into football, oh, I don't know, I don't know if you should talk about that. So, no, it's good, I think I think we should, we should care about this stuff. And if you don't care about it, well, you're probably not. You probably already turned it off by now.
Speaker 1:You never clicked on the link in the first place. That's right. It is interesting because, when I think about my background so I was in sports journalism, loved it, covered D1 sports, and it's interesting because, yeah, even then so this is like the OOs there was this huge influx, like you would sit among the sports writers. Much all of them were like absolute leftists, oh yeah, and so there was always this, this problem. You know, of course, espn being incredibly gay, yeah, but I think you're absolutely right. This is why it's been hijacked, and one of the things I've said to people is I don't want to give it away. Yeah, there's lots of institutions and lots of things that we should be interested in. I think, as you mentioned, grill, americans are interested in this subject. I also think it's really interesting that you look back and you can look at the turn of the 20th century and guys like Teddy Roosevelt were encouraging this form of muscular Christianity. Muscular Christianity, and a lot of it was. Our young men need things to do in our society, which is like, obviously now people are sitting at desks. They need things to inspire them to get involved in sports. It's kind of a replacement for a lot of the martial activities that had existed in previous civilizations. And so you had James Naismith inventing things like basketball for the YMCA Young Men's Association. That was originally because they wanted a winter sport that boys could play indoors. They could learn teamwork. I think that's another big part of it. When I talk to guys who played sports in high school or college, they value a lot of the things that are really good physical discipline, the mental study in football, particularly, learning plays, working together as a team. It requires a lot of masculine energy to do those things well and, as you said, it's one of the last places where you still get that. So I played a couple of sports. I played ice hockey in high school, never played football, played baseball, man. I look back on some of those things and it's like, yeah, it's become gay, but I still value them, or character development and that sort of thing. The other thing I think that is really interesting. I saw a tweet this past week and it was a picture of the homecoming King and the homecoming queen and she was a cheerleader and he was like the star quarterback and they were just talking before or after the game, I don't know, but somebody had had, you know, posted it and then said this is what they're taking from you, or this is what they have taken from you. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about it.
Speaker 1:I grew up in small towns in colorado, uh, pastored in a small town. Even to this day, friday nights in a small town when your team is playing, particularly like a homecoming game or something, man, it was a great thing. You talk about social fabric. It was a great thing for bringing everybody together supporting the players. It actually wasn't fake and gay. There was usually like a national anthem. In Meeker, we were the Meeker Cowboys and so every time the game would start, they would play Toby Keith should have been a cowboy. This is America, baby. Yes, I love this. Everybody played. It was a smaller school, so everybody played two ways, which most small towns, that's how it was. So it's like the running back was also the free safety and he'd get injured somewhere in like the first quarter. He'd like actually like high ankle sprain and the coach is like man, tape it up get back in there, like you're also the free safety so yeah, they don't do that stuff anymore now.
Speaker 2:Now it's like all right, we're taking him to the hospital. You, you know, safety, safety safety.
Speaker 1:But this is the thing I loved in Meeker too, was that you would have that, so the kids would be playing football and then, like Thursday nights, were rodeo night, and a lot of times the locals would participate. So these kids like to start. Running back is also like riding a Bronc.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, no wonder he's hurt all the time and I said to the guys one time I was like, have you guys read road bronx before? And they're like, oh no, dude, no, this is the first time. But you know what we got it and they would go out there. The masculinity, uh, that was on display. I think was really cool. Andrew, talk just a little bit about that. We've talked about it before, but just masculine formation in sports still an important thing. It's good for men. They have this desire, especially with bodies crashing together, being physical Young boys especially.
Speaker 2:They need this. Oh, absolutely. I mean, and that that's the thing that I think you know in bringing up like this is the last avenue that young men have, right, there aren't any other things. Everything else has been invaded, invaded or made co-ed, like there are no all male spaces anymore for you to. You know, form these kinds of hierarchies. I mean that that's part of it too. It's like it just instantly, right, you get like 10 or 20 boys on the playground to play a football game when you're in like fourth grade, and immediately everybody knows who the quarterbacks are going to be, everybody knows who the wide receivers and the running back are going to be and who's the leader, right, those, those hierarchies form instantaneously and no one, no one votes on it, no one decides that. It just happens and and that's that's a great thing, that's a good thing, that's that's how the world actually works, and the entire structure of our world is to subvert those things now. And so those things are great, they're really good, I mean, I think.
Speaker 2:For for me, when I was, you know, a young boy, uh, we didn't start playing tackle football until like seventh grade, when we first got to put pads on. Now, now they're playing at like third grade in my town, like the little, the wee little like eight year olds are, are in these tiny shoulder pads and helmets and they look like bobbleheads and helmets and they look like bobbleheads, um, but that that was the first time I put on pads and helmet and everything else. And I remember, right, I was a really, really timid little kid and I'd never, to that point, ever been in any fights or anything like that. Um, and so I, I, I was kind of afraid, like the first time, I would get hit like it's just going to hurt, am I going to, am I going to die? Right, and you know, the first time I got hit it's like, oh, that wasn't so bad. And then you discover, oh, actually, I, I'm pretty good at hitting other people too. I run into them and they go backwards, and then the play happens and we move the ball forward. That's a great feeling for a young guy when you discover that A, when there's physical contact, you're not going to die, you will survive and you can also inflict, um, uh, something on the other person as well. Right, that that like changes who you are. Right, it forces you to be a man in a way that, like literally no other experience can, until you've been popped in the face, until you've um, gotten hit really hard and had the wind knocked out of you, and like that, that changes, that changes you, that forces you to grow up, it forces, it, changes your entire psyche actually.
Speaker 2:But the hard thing with all this stuff because it is the only avenue that's left, like you see, especially in youth sports, right, this tremendous amount of idolatry, I think and of course idolatry is a word in like the evangelical world that just gets thrown out Like it's totally inflated, its value more than the dollar, or deflated the value is gone to it, right. But I think it is a real thing where you have, you know, little Johnny who's six years old, going to football camps all summer long. His parents are paying thousands and thousands of dollars having him be in travel leagues and he is doing nothing but sports all the time. They don't go to church on Sundays because he's got a game and it does become this idolatrous thing because everybody wants to get ahead. It's like, well, this is the only avenue for my son to have success. So I'm going to devote thousands and thousands of dollars I want him to go play this sport in college. I think maybe he could be in the NFL.
Speaker 2:Right, every dad thinks that, like, in our town we have this big youth football jamboree where dozens of teams come to play. And I'll ref, like high school games and be involved in high school games and like I just did one yesterday actually a ninth grade game and nobody yelled at me, right, none of the coaches even like, looked at me funny when I made a call. They didn't like and. But when you get to these like third grade or fourth grade games, right, the dads and the coaches, there it's it. This is like the Superbowl for them and they're screaming at you when you make an obviously correct call Be like, what was that? Where was it? Like, I mean, these guys, it is their entire world, their entire life for their little boy to one day make it into the NFL. And it's like man, he might not even make it to the varsity when he gets, when he turns 17. Right, and and so like.
Speaker 2:There there are problems with that, but you could, you could see why, right, when we, when we look at stuff that becomes idolatrous, right, the question we should ask is not oh, you know, this is so bad. Why do these people do this? Well, the reason they do this, the reason all of their energy, all of their wealth, all of their time is focused into these things, is because that's the last thing that they have left that they're allowed to do to let their son have success and set them up for the future, right. That's why the idolatry goes there, and so you can see it. And so, right, even doing this and talking about this is like we're not going to be able to just fell that tree simply by saying, well, we're not going to do that, we're going to ignore it, we're not going to care about these things. It's rather like we have to show people a better way to care about sports and football and use sports for our sons right, and put things in their proper perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's been a big thing, even with starting a school here in Ogden developing sports for the boys, particularly so we've developed a wrestling program. Headmaster Love had been in wrestling and so he knew a bit about that but we've even had that. We thought about participating in some of the leagues with the local high school. You know, those conversations didn't last very long because they're like oh yeah, by the way, we have female wrestlers. We're like, yeah, absolutely not. So a big part of it for us has been okay. So we have, uh, they do practices and then we have tournaments that we host ourselves just with our kids.
Speaker 1:At this point, but I think what you're're going to need and this is kind of a thing in, I would say, the new Christendom is reclaiming sports where they have their proper place. We're not skipping worship for them. It's a couple times a week and then you have your tournaments and stuff like that. But I do agree with you, I think it's one of those things where it's like we shouldn't just jettison something because it's been hijacked. You want to reclaim and redeem it and then point it in the right direction and then again giving your boys the opportunity to participate in sports without it turning into this crazy all-consuming thing.
Speaker 1:It's interesting too because my oldest we got involved in sports I think two or three years ago we had some homeschool leagues that were pretty cool for basketball in Colorado, but then when we moved to Utah it was interesting because he started playing tennis. He really got into that and one of the things I found was like tennis and golf, like the tennis program, because it's low key, it's not treated like football here. So they're like yeah, we've got like I don't know like eight tournaments during the year. The season's not very long. Of course you can go do lessons and you can play in adult leagues, but it's pretty low key. And so that you know that was one where we kind of found was like there's there's no females competing against men, that's plus.
Speaker 1:So I think there are still some vestiges where you can still get something good out of it. You know, even Friday night football, you know it's not on Sunday Generally, there's no, all tournaments on Sunday. So that can be pretty good as well. One of the things I think that's interesting I mentioned this before but like Johnny Unitas and what football was, most of these guys were working jobs. Getting to the nfl actually wasn't like you weren't going to become a billionaire, even a millionaire, from being a football player. Even if you go back to the era of like roger staubach, like these were still like blue collar guys who were playing sport. Many of them served in the military. They come out and play football. Um, I again. I think there's a way to kind of return in many ways.
Speaker 1:Those things, andrew, I want to ask you as we move into some of the storylines for the 2024 season. I think probably the most important thing that we'll talk about in this show is the necessity, as a part of project 2025, of bringing back the fullback.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, let's, let's play this here. We've got a video. Yeah, let's, let's play this here. We've got a video. Yeah, let's play this. Let's see here If. I yeah, let's go. Cornhusker football this is. This is from like 1993. I think this is just great. Let's go. Look at those shoulder pads, man. I want you to watch the quick feet here, though. Here we go. This is a better shot. Watch this leap that was like four inches off the ground. Six foot Six foot Two forty five is a age Nineteen Age, this Age 19.
Speaker 1:It gets shared a lot in our circles, but like the picture of the linemen from Nebraska, yeah, yeah. I mean golden age of college football.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're wearing the letter jackets. You know, it's beautiful. They're sitting on like a child's slide on a playground. It's just glorious. Man, heritage America is what we call it. Yeah, and like they all, they all have no neck at all. It's just a big head sitting on top of massive shoulders, like they don't even need to wear shoulder pads, like just these big boys. And yeah, like that was, that was the way it was, and one day it used to be, you know.
Speaker 1:Now I think the focus is on, like, these elite, the guys who seem to do really well, elite offenses and these complex schemes. There was something to appreciate, though, about like the triple option Nebraska offense. That's really what I grew up with. I remember, in fact, one of the best games so see you buffs fan, because I lived in Colorado in a rivalry between Bill McCartney's buffs and Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers. I mean legendary. And I remember one game I think this is after Bill McCartney.
Speaker 1:I think it was Chris Brown, one of the running backs. He rushed for six touchdowns against Nebraska at Folsom Field. I mean that was the era, oh man, but it switched right. The running back is like a throwaway player now. Usually, a team will carry like three or four running backs. Their main goal is like catching a pass out on the flat, or something like this. You know the Dinkin' Dunk Dunk, drew Brees and Tom Brady offense. There's got to be something to be said, though, about the sheer physicality of the old style. I mean it used to be. The running backs were the heroes in the sport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the last non-quarterback to win NFL MVP. You know who that was right who? Adrian Peterson, really Interesting. You know who that was right who? Adrian peterson, really interesting. Yeah, yeah, and so that was. That was the the very last, the very end of the era of the running back is he the last 2 000 yard rusher? Um, yeah, I believe so I don't think anybody else has. Um, even come close. Uh, then I mean they just don't get enough carries at this point to even do that Like the bell cow running back.
Speaker 1:Chris Johnson, 2009, 2006 yards. Yeah, Chris Johnson did. 2012 was Adrian Peterson. Okay, so 2020 you have.
Speaker 2:Derrick Henry. I was going to say Derrick Henry would be the only one I could think of. He's kind of the last bell cow back and yeah, what is he like? Six foot three and 230 pounds, yeah, but also fast, right, or at least he was. And that's the thing. Like, that's part of part of it is just like the economics of the game Like like football is has gone through the same kind of managerial revolution that baseball did with Moneyball 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:That's certainly come to the game of football as well over the last 10 or 15 years, where you just do a basic economic calculation where it's like, okay, well, passing is a much more efficient play, right, if you're just thinking about it in sheer numbers, like if you're doing football on a spreadsheet, right, passing is a much more efficient play and so you are going to, you're going to score more points, the easier it is to get yards right and so, right, obviously they're going to go more toward passing. Plus, the way the NFL, and college football as well, have have set up the rules They've they've wanted to incentivize and interpret, interpreted the rules and called the game. The NFL rule book is kind of like this Byzantine code where it can be interpreted kind of however you want. The letter of the law really doesn't matter nearly as much as how an individual crew of referees calls it, because before a certain game, oh, we have Bill, you know Bill Vinovich, and he, he calls like no penalties at all, right, so the defensive backs could just assault the wide receiver. So, like this is going to be a low screen, and like the sports books do this too, where they they look and see who the referee crews are and they, they know, right, this where to set the line on a game and and the overall scoring, because they know, like this, this crew versus that crew is not going to call as many penalties, yeah, and so they, they've incentivized passing as much as possible and you can see why, like it makes money, right, people, most people don't watch it for like the reasons I, I would like, I, I want to, I want to see this, this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I want to see, you know, six foot, 245 pound fullback do three yards in a cloud of dust. I love that stuff, I love like it. Like the ideal football game is one that like would be like a final score of three to two. Right, that would be, that would be the best game ever. I mean, actually last year the Vikings, after Kirk Cousins got hurt, they played the Raiders and it was maybe the worst football game I've ever seen in my entire life and it was 0-0 going into the last three or four minutes of the game. Wow.
Speaker 1:Was that Nick Mullins?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was Mullins and Jaron Hall. I believe in that game. Yeah, mullins, yeah, it was Mullins and Jaron Hall. I believe in that game. Yeah, mullins was just atrocious. Justin Jefferson, I think he had gotten hurt again, or something like that, early in the game and so there was no offense for the Vikings whatsoever. And then the Raiders who did they have? They had that rookie quarterback. I can't even remember his name anymore. I bl he was. I blotted it out of my mind. Uh, aiden O'Connell, right, so bad it was so terrible.
Speaker 1:Oh, future hall of famer Aiden O'Connell, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right. Uh, gardner Minshew's backup now. Uh, trump's Trump supporter. Gardner Minshew, there you go. That's right, and and it was. It was just. It was abysmal, man. It was so terrible because the Raiders they had a pretty good defense and they were just shutting down the Vikings offense and then finally they eat together this pathetic field goal drive with a couple of minutes and at that point in the season I'm like I was fully on board with just the Vikings tanking and losing every game. So I was like actually rooting for the Raiders to pull ahead with the game and and they finally, you know, kicked a field goal and and put us all out of our misery.
Speaker 1:We remember the. These were like the classic games, like Steelers Ravens, when their defenses, you know, were elite. You had Ray Lewis.
Speaker 2:I mean that's 13 to 7 game. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's how those games were, but it was good defense, it wasn't sloppy play.
Speaker 2:No, and it wasn't that the offenses were bad either, it was just the defenses. Are that impressive, right? It's one thing, yeah, like I mean there's going to be some games this year, I'm sure, cause there's some really bad teams that will be like that, that are just pathetic and horrible, but they're also great defenses, and I hope that you know it starts to swing back to the other side, where, where defense is played really well. I mean, the hard thing with football in general is, right on defense, it is kind of this weak link system where you really need all 11 guys to be at least above average and you need several guys at each level that are legit superstars to have the kind of defense that's just going to shut down another team, and so you need, like a corner that's going to lock down the top wide receiver. You need at least one pass rusher, probably two, that is going to put pressure on the quarterback, right. You need linebackers that can cover the middle of the field and shut down the run, and if you have that, it's a beautiful thing to watch, it's glorious. That's maybe the last remnant of this kind of football that we're talking about is when you see an elite defense do their thing. But now it's all offense, it's nothing but Patrick Mahomes all day, all the time.
Speaker 2:And I mean that that stuff is fun, like I mean for me growing up. I remember when I first fell in love with football was 1998, when I was 12 years old. Like we'd watched, you know, with my, my grandpa I'd watched Vikings games right, He'd had it on or or Gophers games on Saturdays, and it was, you know, it was interesting, it was cool on Saturdays and it was, you know, it was interesting, it was cool. But then when this, this rookie wide receiver joined the Vikings and he was so big and so fast and he just run down the field and and the best was when the camera would have to like pan out to show the entire field and he just watched the ball in this like rainbow motion go and there's Randy Moss like 10 yards in front of everybody and just hauling it in, and it was like wow, it's amazing it was, I have to say, if there was ever a Minnesota Vikings team that should have won the Superbowl man.
Speaker 2:So that year, of course, they would have beat your Broncos, for sure, man oh yeah, atlanta in the Superbowl, which we crushed them.
Speaker 1:But I thought that year I was like man. If the Vikings they should have won the game against the Falcons First of all miss field goal, you guys have a history of those.
Speaker 2:Oh man, don't tell me about it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Blair Walsh, anybody in?
Speaker 2:Minnesota. I remember where I was every time with each one of these things.
Speaker 1:I mean the look on Zim's face when Mike Zimmer, when that field goal is missed, like it was like a 15 yard field goal there's a 25.
Speaker 2:I mean it should have gone in and and like that game they were playing it outside because they were building the new stadium and it was like five below zero, uh. I mean it had to be miserable out there, like I actually had gone to the the last regular season game that year against the giants and that was the coldest I've ever been in my entire life and it was like one one above zero, cause you're sitting on these like concrete seats and bleachers and and out, exposed to the wind and everything, and so it felt like it was 20. And you're just standing there, right. Usually if, like I'm out hunting or something in the winter, like you're moving around, you're staying warm, but if you're just sitting there or standing there the entire time for three hours, it is really really cold. And my buddy I was with right he was like I had like snow boots and thermal underwear and everything on. He came right from work, so he had like dress shoes on. He's like dude, I think I got frostbite in my toes. I think I'm gonna lose a toe. It was cold, it was so cold. So like the weather does that play a role in it? Like the ball is like literally frozen right, maybe? Uh, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was such a disappointing game. It was so it was, and and the worst part too, is like um, the the vikings were on the upswing, their defense was really good. You had this young quarterback who was starting to emerge and teddy bridgewater, and then the following offseason, right, his leg explodes and he's done forever. Uh, so like was I mean disappointment on top of disappointment? You thought like all right, now they're going to take the next step. They should have beat the Seahawks and got a playoff win. Now they're going to be good. And then that same team, with Case Keenum a year after that, went to the NFC Championship game. That was a great team and that's the thing that's been in the news. I don't know if it's been nationally, but at least locally here in Minnesota. Is that like Mike Zimmer finally finally talked about his firing, and it was. It was nuts. Like how bad things were at the end there. Like he and the GM, like they didn't. They literally didn't talk to each other for like the last two seasons, really At all.
Speaker 1:There was a big deal with Kirk Cousins and him over. The vaccine wasn't there? There was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it wasn't, I think, any kind of ideological thing, cause, like, if there's a single head coach or former head coach in the NFL that I would be like that guy is voting for Donald Trump Right, it would be Mike Zimmer. So it wasn't like an ideological thing, it was just like I want to win football games at any cost, like I would like. This is a guy who he he had like a detached retina and couldn't fly and he wore, like you know, a big patch over his eye for like half a season and they were playing in Jacksonville and he's like just just hire someone to drive me down there, right, I can coach one eye. Right, I don't care if I go blind.
Speaker 2:I got the other eye and like, like that intensive guy, like he wanted to win at literally any cost, like he would give his own right eye to win a football game.
Speaker 3:The Proverbs say the soul of the lazy, one craves and gets nothing. But the soul of the diligent is made prosperous. With the aim of diligence, I realized I needed help navigating the world of tax efficiency and investment strategy. Time and knowledge were barriers to these issues. I could either be lazy and merely crave knowledge of these things or utilize someone specializing in tax and investment and life insurance strategies. That's why I work with Joe Garrisi at Backwards Planning Financial. His guidance empowers me to make informed financial decisions and helps me to be diligent with my finances. Joe works with one of the world's largest and most trusted financial service companies. He will customize a plan for your specific needs. Visit BackwardsPlanningFinancialcom. Specific needs. Visit backwardsplanningfinancialcom. That's backwardsplanningfinancialcom. Or call 615-767-2555 to speak with Joe to prepare for the future.
Speaker 4:Hmm, oh yes, hey Dan, what are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm just checking my mutual funds, my stock portfolio.
Speaker 4:Mutual funds stock portfolio. What did Dave Ramsey tell you to do? That Maybe why? How's your return looking so far this year?
Speaker 3:Well, they just did come out with unemployment numbers and they're a little higher or lower than I thought.
Speaker 4:Ooh Well, have you ever thought about diversifying your portfolio into things like silver and gold? I mean, yeah, yes. Well, you know gold and silver are having pretty good years. I mean, gold is up 20% in the last 12 months 20%, yeah. Have you ever thought of investing in it? I hadn't. How would I do that? Really good question. Just go over to the guys at Alpine Gold. They're right here in Ogden. They're members of Refuge Church, the church that you pastor. You should know this. If you give Alpine Gold a call, they'll talk you through the steps of how to move your TradFi, mutual funds and even things like IRAs into precious metals that you can use to start building durable wealth. Sounds great. Call Alpine Gold today or go to alpingoldogdencom. Again, that's alpingoldogdencom and link is in the description below.
Speaker 1:America is built on the backs of hardworking blue collar Americans. That's why we're so excited to join forces with Max D Trailers, a Texas-based and family-owned company, to bring you this episode. We're proud to partner with Max D to see the vision of new Christendom established, one small business at a time. Max D builds innovative, hardworking trailers for the builders, fixers and growers of the world. You can follow their stories by checking out Max D Trailers on Instagram or by visiting the link in the show notes by checking out Max D Trailers on Instagram or by visiting the link in the show notes. Learn more about Max D Trailers by visiting maxdtrailerscom, where you can check out the article 10 Ways to Make Money with your Trailer.
Speaker 2:And so I can see why he'd be like dude, I don't care if it kills you, just get this thing. I disagree with that. I actually 100% am on Kirk's side in the whole equation. But you can kind of get that perspective right. Why? And? And like he didn't like Kirk ever right, cause he thought, right, we're going to bring in this quarterback who's just, he's good but not great, we're going to pay him like he's the best in the world and it's going to ruin our team. And he was.
Speaker 2:He was vindicated in that take. He didn't want him day one and they had exactly one playoff win in the six years that he was there Five years under Zimmer and so he was right, he was proven right. And what do you do when it's out of your hands? The thing that that interview revealed was he had zero say over the roster. He had none Because he didn't want him at all. He's like no, I don't want him. Uh, and so you can't like. You just can't operate a football team that way at all. But it was no. It's amazing for his high level.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of that stuff is, and then later guys will get fired, whatever, and you hear the full story, yeah, and the amount of dysfunction that will exist on a team. I mean you think because you're paying people so much money that they're going to be like the best leaders in the world, or something like this, but often not the case. I mean we had the same thing in Denver with Nat Hackett and Russell Wilson. I mean it got so bad at a coaching standpoint that the crowd in Denver would yell out the play clock so that they wouldn't. I remember this game. Yeah, it was like you can't get the plays in and then they had to hire another coach to basically manage the game because he was inept.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you see this all the time in the NFL, like the Peter principle played out, where you have these guys who are like brilliant offensive coordinators that have tremendous success, right, and, and defensive coordinators too, and then they get made head coaches and they are horrible, right. They're terrible Like you. You see that like it just in terms of like leadership, right. There are tons of lessons there where it takes a certain kind of person to manage an entire organization, right. It goes beyond just like do you know how the game of football works? Or how to evaluate players and put people in the right position, and things like that. It's like no, you, you have to manage people, and managing people is really hard, and there's especially with the idea of millionaire athletes with like with agents and whole you know giant posses and PR agents and things like that.
Speaker 2:Egos and all the all the rest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like each, each individual guy, you got to know how he ticks. Like some guys you got to just yell out, yell at and get angry at other guys, like you know that that's going to crush them and you've got to be their best friend and their buddy and like and understanding those things. That's hard to do, right, that's, that's extremely difficult. Plus, you have like pressure from above, like you've ownership, you have front office that you have to keep happy, and so you got to be able to balance all this kind of stuff. And so, like leadership at that kind of level, right, I think it instructs a lot of people and it's, it's, I think, like being interested in watching the game of football. We're kind of given this uh um, apologia uh for for loving uh football. Right, it, it shows you what what leadership actually entails. Right With with head coaches, where it's more than just X's and O's, it is it is managing everything in an entire organization. Right, I mean, even here in Minnesota you know this this off season right, the kind of stuff that Kevin O'Connell has had to deal with Like he has a one of one of their rookies that they had really high hopes on a cornerback, which they desperately need, is killed by a drunk driver. A cornerback, which they desperately need, is killed by a drunk driver during their break between OTAs and training camp. So he dies and that's horrible. And then the other young corner that they drafted last year blows out his ACL in the first training camp practice.
Speaker 2:Or JJ McCarthy yeah, jj McCarthy getting a reckless driving ticket for going 140 or 150 down 494 in the Twin Cities. And so you have to deal with idiots like that. You have to deal with tragedies. You have to deal with the normal ups and downs of football, like major injuries, and you have to keep everybody on an even keel and provide leadership, because it's incredibly easy, like if you've ever led any kind of group of people in anything. Where it's like here's our goal, here's our objective that we're trying to get to, keeping everyone striving toward that goal. It's tough. People want to be, they want to give up Everyone's like this is too hard, I'm done.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to coast, right, that's the default position for everyone. But keeping everybody going like that is is huge right it. It is what separates great coaches from from just okay ones and and so like. That kind of stuff is is fascinating to witness and observe as well. Right, how, how these things, these things are done by men leading other men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really true. I've always been fascinated by that. On the leadership aspect, by the way, adrian Peterson, most rushing yards in a single season 2097. If I'm doing the math right, that's like 130 something yards per game on a 16 game season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was getting like. Actually, that season, the Vikings had Christian Ponder as their quarterback yes, yeah, and we'll talk about rookies in a moment but like Christian Ponder was the quarterback, I believe he averaged more yards per carry than Ponder averaged per pass that season. I'll have to double check, which is insane. Like it's insane for any era, much less right. You're getting into the you know, 2010s and 2020s, where everything is turning over to passing right For running. I mean, the most deserving MVP ever where, like, a running back has some more yards per carry than the quarterback has. Yards per pass, right, which is nuts. Like six yards of carries, crazy. Um, like a good running back today averages like four, oh yeah, like a great one. Like I mean, like I didn't even what did christian mcafree, uh, do? I think it was maybe maybe four and a half or five, oh yeah, and so like that's, that's an insane. That's an insane. That's like a. That's like Barry Bonds when he hit 70 home runs. Kind of season, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's insane. Andrew, I want to ask you, as we jump into some more headlines for the season or a tie in as some more headlines for the season, of course, a tie-in, by the way. Christian Ponder, sam Ponder, his wife gets fired from ESPN this year. She was Dave Wetz's face from Bleacher Report. They had a longstanding feud, if you remember this, where he said like your daughter's retarded, you should have aborted her Longstanding feud. Horrible people, yeah, terrible people. That's kind of how this industry is for the most part. Speaking of some interesting people, though, christian Molnar, who is the director of team relationships for the Eagles, walked me through this situation. This one was kind of breaking yesterday Jack Posobiec posts and I was like no, that can't be real, that's got to be some kind of troll.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell us what happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they're like. At a bus stop in Philadelphia there were these posters put up that said you know, it's with Kamala in an Eagles helmet and it says the official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles and it's like that's, that's gotta be somebody doing a prank, right? They're putting these posters up Like that can't, that can't be real, that's not a real thing. And apparently the yeah, director of team relationships, so like a PR guy for the Eagles, is like no, that's real, that's real Like. And the strange thing is it's not like they put out a press conference or said like yeah, or like the owner Jeffrey, like mega lib, by the way. So it makes sense. It's like. It's plausible. Is endorsing Kamala Right, but it's entirely a different thing when he has, like his team sponsoring her, right. That's. That's never been done before in like any sport, to my knowledge, right? It's not like you know, the Kansas City Royals in in 1972 endorsed Richard Nixon or something like that. That's never happens, that's not. That's not a thing.
Speaker 2:And maybe it is now apparently, and you know, probably the only team that would endorse Trump if teams are starting to do that now would be the Kansas City Chiefs. That would be amazing, by the way.
Speaker 1:It would be fantastic. What is interesting? Because in the past I remember especially pre-2020, you would go to sports as sort of a refuge from all the political craziness, everything going on in the world. People would kind of unite around the game, which was seen as sort of an apolitical thing, of course. Particularly with the NFL in the last decade, that really changed.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of stuff going on, with BLM players dealing on the field Kaepernick, yeah, colin Kaepernick, and then 2020, this is in the baseball world, but I was watching baseball, which was awful during 2020, and the COVID craziness the great sham, demick. It was really interesting, though, because every announcer got turned into a Pfizer shill, and what I mean was like I turned on the Rockies game and they were like oh, ladies and gentlemen, covid, of course, is still going on, make sure you are masking up. Mean was like I turned on the Rockies game and they were like oh, ladies and gentlemen, covid, of course, is still going on, make sure you are masking up, and make like it became a propaganda thing for the total state. I think it was super depressing, but it brings me to the next thing I want to talk about, which is okay. I'm a lifelong Broncos fan. If there's two teams I'm sworn to hate, it is the raiders and it is the chiefs, and the chiefs are good. So I have to hate the chiefs, but I've had a hard time hating the chiefs. Yeah, because, yeah, despite t swizzle and travis kelsey, we'll get into that one.
Speaker 1:Uh, you have harrison butker, who goes to this commencement at a catholic college, I believe, and he delivers this speech and it's basically stuff that we would be saying on the Hard Men podcast. Yeah, you know, women are made to be mothers. You should rejoice in motherhood, and he catches a lot of flack for this. But one of the most interesting things was the chiefs backed him. Not only did they back him, they re-up his contract. He gets like one of the most lucrative kicker deals in league history. The owners come out uh, this is the the hunt family. They're posting on social media, on instagram. They're like no, we support, you know, christian families and you know, yeah, they're they're.
Speaker 2:They're evangelical christians, the hunt family, as far as I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, so they come out in support and then you have you. You know I don't like Patrick Mahomes. I have to hate him because I'm a Broncos fan. He eats us alive. They've won all these Super Bowls.
Speaker 2:Did you watch the Netflix series Quarterback? I did not. No, oh man, I did, because you know Kirk was in it. Oh man, um, I did, cause you know Kirk was in it, so I wanted to see that it was. It was really cool to see, uh, and, and it made me, you know, just love the guy in a way that I hadn't in the past.
Speaker 2:Cause, you see, like here's this, here's this awesome dad, you know what a, what a, what a great guy, right, uh, like there's a scene where he goes into a Barnes and Noble, right, and this dude right is worth like hundreds of millions of dollars at this point, right, he goes in there and like, oh, it's, buy one, get one free, my lucky day. And, like you know, his wife is dressing him in clothes from Kohl's. Right, like he could have, like designer, everything, right, he could have. You know our polos right now, they have logos on them. He could, he could have everything without a logo on all his clothes, right, custom made, everything, right, and and it wouldn't, it wouldn't even factor into any, any of his budgeting ever. But he just goes to Kohl's. You know where's the stuff his wife picks out for him, right, so the other quarter.
Speaker 2:I mean they had Marcus Mariota on there. He was pretty boring. But then Patrick Mahomes, obviously, and his wife and Brittany Mahomes man, I had to turn the volume down anytime she spoke. She was so grating, so obnoxious. She was like quintessential basic white girl. Yeah, it was like pumpkin spice gal man and I couldn't handle it. I was just and my wife, we were both watching together. She's like I really don't like her, andrew, I don't, I don't think I can be friends with her.
Speaker 2:Uh, I could be friends with julieousins, but not her, not her at all, and it just just, yeah, just extremely obnoxious. And so I was predisposed to just I don't like her, I despise her. Every time she'd be on the TV, it'd be like, oh, taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes, oh no, this is the worst. And then what happened? Like two weeks ago?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you have Brittany like first of all liking a very pro Trump. It was a post by Trump, yeah, on Instagram. Yeah, so she likes it catches flack. And then I mean, she was like I'm not letting up. Yeah, forget you people for calling me out on it. I like who I like. Yeah, forget you people for calling me out on it. I like who I like, yeah, yeah, yet another. I was like yeah, I want to hate him though, but it's. I know and I.
Speaker 2:I didn't like like watching him either, cause he's just like super mouthy, trash talking the entire time, and it's like I hate that stuff. Like we talk about like real football, like men just pounded each other, grinded and threw a game, and it's like, here's this like showboat guy, right, constantly, constantly foul-mouthed and and trash, talking the other team and and wanting the whole world to see how good he is. Right, it's like, yeah, we get it. Man, like you are the best in the entire world. Right, just just do that.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, you look at Tom Brady or Peyton Manning like they didn't, they didn't act that way. Right, they knew they were great and even though, like Brady, yeah, I mean, and and Peyton, right, you, you get the unedited NFL films Like they, yeah, they cursed a lot and they were angry and fiery and things like that and got excited when they won games. But it's like this is a different level, it was just gross and so I didn't like him. I didn't like Brittany Mahomes, but now she says this and it's like all right, well, I'm glad to have that basic white girl nastiness turned against people that I hate. I'll take it, man.
Speaker 1:This one time I will accept it. It was in the right direction. One of the things I want to ask you about too there was a story that broke I think I saw it this morning but somebody apparently got ahold of a contract between Travis Kelsey and it's the whole T-Swizzle thing. So last year for people who are unawares which, if you watch any NFL football, I don't know how you could be Not possible. Yeah, it actually. This is the one that was funny to me. So it got Al Michaels, one of the greatest sportscasters of all time. It got him removed. He's a fairly conservative guy. It got him removed from calling the playoffs because he said I refuse to make the NFL game TMZ, in which I'm talking about Taylor Swift the whole time. So if you notice the games that he did I think he was doing Thursday nights he refused to talk about it. He was like I'm not talking about Taylor Swift not doing it, but the rest of the games that the Chiefs were on it was basically the Taylor Swift show.
Speaker 1:Now, a lot of us said at the time, andrew, we said this is a publicity stunt. A lot of people had speculated that the relationship wasn't even real. Of course they were talking about weddings and all sorts of stuff like this. Travis Kelsey's social media following like triples, quadruples I don't know goes way up because of Taylor Swift. There's a huge Taylor Swift effect. She's involved with the Biden campaign, yada, yada. It goes on and on. Now here's what's interesting the contract, if that's true, could be fake, right?
Speaker 2:we don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But if you see it on Twitter, first assumption it's got to be true, it's on the internet. Well would this surprise you. But if you see it on Twitter, first assumption it's got to be true it's on the internet.
Speaker 2:Well, would this surprise you if they have a contract and this was all just a marketing gimmick? Not in the slightest. Yeah, like, I mean, that was just my working assumption the entire time is this is fake, this is fraudulent. Likelor, swift's whole persona is manufactured, right, you take this country starlet and turn her into a superstar, right? I mean all these things. It's not like. Yeah, she has musical talent and things like that.
Speaker 2:Like I'm, we're gonna draw all of the the hatred of of the swifties. This will be a good promo when it gets out on the internet, because that's me anyway. That's, that's. That's right. That's how you, that's how you built your media empires hating Taylor Swift, um, you know, getting free advertising from them, right? Um, but, like, there's nothing really remarkable about her in any way. Like you could, you could have replaced her with hundreds of other talented, good looking. You know, young blonde girls, young blonde girls, um, you know, 20 years ago, and it would be the same thing, right, she, all of her songs are, are produced by a legion of of like writers and and producers and everything else.
Speaker 2:Where it's it, it's, it's manufactured, right? It's not. It's not a real thing, right, her whole persona is is manufactured specifically to have to have a superstar for you know, young Zoomer, white girls to to love, right, and that's, and like, every pop starlet is that way, right, that's not like somebody who is just so musically talented and it's just a cut above the rest, that, like that's, that's not how the music entertainment industry works for decades, right, it's not like, oh, here's this great band that that's really good, that you've never heard of and and now they're a huge deal. Like that, those things don't happen anymore. Right, there's, there's like that's all, like the indie scene and things like that, where people come up that way and so it's, it's this manufactured persona. And so, of course, right, of course this yo, oh, she's, she's dating, uh right, the second most well-known player. That's definitely real.
Speaker 1:I almost wonder too that the chiefs, obviously they've, they've been good, but it's sort of encapsulates middle America. You know he's in middle America, yeah, kind of like your traditional Midwestern team. The thing that was really pushed on the propaganda side was you know, this is the great all American love story. You know, you know goodlooking white tight end and this, you know, blonde lady it was like the, the homecoming king and queen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but 20, you know, in their mid to late 30s but I think by 20 years they were trying to take that.
Speaker 1:But then what is all the baggage that's attached to it is Pfizer yeah, you know getting the vaccine. The Pfizer deal with Travis Kelsey and then with Taylor. It's, you know, shilling for the Democrat Party, of course. Kind of this interesting backstory too, that her, the rights to her music, is purchased by Alex Soros, and so you've got a Soros connection here. What's actually going on? It's just interesting. I don't think it would be that big of a stretch to say that this was, like you said, all curated, manufactured for a certain purpose of potentially driving Middle America to more leftist causes. Now, I do think it's interesting. The Chiefs are one of the few teams I think this was two years ago, but they played the Black National Anthem at the Chiefs game on one of these primetime games, and it was interesting because they tried to make a big deal out of it and all the fans were booing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they were like the announcers on the sideline.
Speaker 1:they're like they're playing the Black National Anthem and the fans here in Kansas City really love it, and all you could hear were the boos.
Speaker 2:It was a little bit like the CNN, like it's a mostly peaceful protest here, or it's like the NASCAR game race, where it's like oh there's they're saying let's go, brandon.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, nobody believes that we can hear it with our own ears. That's right, so it is interesting. I I think this is one of the things, probably for the people who are turned off by football. That's an obvious reason, uh, that I think a lot of people you just check out, um, what I want to do now, andrew, I want to jump into. We've got an interesting class of rookie quarterbacks and I want to start with really your favorite, um, I think, probably just in terms of manliness, uh masculine energy. We've got caleb williams and, uh, he paints his fingernails pink at the draft party and wears weird stuff.
Speaker 2:Uh, so, yeah, he was in gq right wearing a dress. Oh yeah, right, yeah, yeah. So I mean, you want to talk about um, like taylor swift and travis kelsey pushing left-wing stuff on on middle america, like that? That? This is it too right. Here's the, the next superstar quarterback, and he's this intentionally effeminate guy, right, I mean, and even even harry styles thing, right like showing magazine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's in like female attire yeah, yeah, I mean there's that.
Speaker 2:And even even, just like, strip all that stuff away for a moment. Like just his, his final season at usc, right, um, right, is bawling on the sidelines when they lose a game. Right, like, come on man, what like you? You want to play in the NFL and lead a team and you don't have the emotional composure to handle losing a game in college. What? What is wrong with you?
Speaker 1:It's interesting too, because you've probably seen this trend in sports where a player will forfeit a match ahead of time. I've seen it in tennis, seen it in other sports and then they're like they're celebrating them, but they're like I couldn't compete because I had to take care of my emotional well-being, my mental health, my mental health or like simone biles in the olympics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and she gets celebrated more for quitting than than winning gold medals.
Speaker 1:Yeah can you imagine, like if you had, like Dick Buckus or like any of the old football players? Like Dick is like, yeah, my mental health is not in the right place and I need to opt out of this game. We celebrated those guys cause they were tough, right? Mike Singletary, mike Dick, even the you know the famous Mike Singletary rant about I don't even think this would happen or he'd get in huge trouble His Vernon Davis rant Do you remember this? And the like can't win with him, can't play with him, can't coach him. Like I need to see you guys.
Speaker 2:That stuff was great but I think that is what's gone now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the psychobabble has infiltrated sports as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every team has psychologists and therapists on staff. Oh yeah, right, and, and it's like, I mean it's a tough game I, like I, I, I don't think I could do it Right. It's a tough game like I, I, I don't think I could do it right, I mean it is. It is a difficult game. Where you are, you have this level of pressure on you that few human beings ever experience and on top of right, on top of the violence of the game, I mean guys coming at you literally at like 15, 20 miles an hour that you have either be hit or or or hit them and and constantly the threat of excruciating injury all the time. Like that. It requires a level of toughness, uh, that that few people can attain to.
Speaker 2:And our culture is such that, right, we don't, we don't push those things, we don't celebrate those things, we don't incentivize that level of toughness. We, we want to make it easy and and um, and promote a kind of softness, right, um, and and so, yeah, it's, that's, it's so tough to see, that right it is, it's, uh, I don't even have words for how much this kind of disgusts me. And and not because, like, people don't have genuine mental problems and things like that, like that's, of course people do, but within this kind of game, right, it's a microcosm where it's like it's, it's this facsimile of warfare. I mean, I think that's a big reason why football is so revered and adored in American culture, because it's mimicry of war.
Speaker 1:Red meat is a staple of a healthy, protein-packed diet, but not all meat is created equal. That's why I buy my meat from Salt Strings Butchery. Salt Strings is owned and operated by my friends Quinn and Samantha Bible, and the meat they offer is raised, harvested and processed exclusively in Southern Illinois. It's cut and packaged by my friends Quinn and Anthony, and not only is it the best meat I've ever had, well, all their meat is sourced from local farms that share our Christian values. Salton Strings is now offering a beef and hog box that can be shipped directly to your door. The 15-pound beef box features 100% black Angus beef and includes ribeyes, t-bones, sirloin, chakros, fajita meat and ground beef. You can order your beef box today for just $259. They will send it directly to your door. The hog box is $239 and features premium Duroc pork, including eight thick pork chops one of my all-time favorites pork steaks, cured and sliced bacon, ground pork, bratwurst and breakfast sausage links. You can place your order today at saltandstringscom or use the link in the show notes, and also be sure to follow Salt and Strings on Instagram. We'll also include the link in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Your normal everyday life Think bulletproof laptop case or lightweight armor insert that fits into your favorite bag and stops most handgun, shotgun and even rifle ammunition. Unlike much of the tactical industry, choosing Premier Body Armor not only ensures that you're getting amazing armor, but you'll be doing business with a family-owned Christian company. Visit premierbodyarmorcom today and use promo code KINGSHALL for 10% off your order today. Got questions? Reach out to customer service or send their president an email directly at alexatpremierbodyarmorcom and you can speak to him yourself. Don't wait to invest your family's security, but reach out today to Premier Body Armor. Don't carry a bag, no worries. How about a moisture-wicking athletic t-shirt with minimalist and lightweight soft armor panels built in? Check the link in the show notes or visit premierbodyarmorcom today.
Speaker 1:Want to start reading the Puritans but don't know where to begin? Puritan Treasures for Today from Reformation Heritage Books makes the riches of these godly writers of old accessible for the modern reader. With updated language and helpful introductions, these classic works from John Owen, jeremiah Burroughs and more are the perfect starting point for the curious reader. Learn more about the Puritan Treasures for Today at heritagebooksorg. Slash Puritan Treasures. Also. Follow the link in the show notes to get 10% off with the code hard men.
Speaker 2:And so you think of this right you wouldn't go out into the battlefield and be like man. I just I need an emotional health day. I need to go back to the back to the rear and just take a day for my mental health. Right it like no, you are are bearing, uh, unbelievable suffering that nobody can can even comprehend, and just do it because you have to right, because you have a duty to do it well, that was part of the forever.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't see that. The american spirit, right, yeah, toughness, uh, the resiliency to conquer the frontier and all the atrocities that you had to deal with with, you know, comanche, ind, indians and stuff like this, yeah, and yeah, I think it's. You know we've covered in the past on this show, but like Abigail Schreier's book, bad therapy, how it's actually weakened everyone you know. Because we want to get in touch with our feelings, I want to ask you on Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1:So we kind of have a rule in our household where we dislike the RG3 clone mobile quarterbacks. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but I think we've been burned so many times because it's like, look, a guy can run around for so long in his career, he's eventually going to get exposed when defenses get, you get to the playoffs and defenses start having exotic blitzes and it really requires a high processing level for quarterbacks. I watched the preseason with Caleb Williams. Everybody was like, oh my gosh, he's so amazing. And then I'm watching the plays and, first of all, preseason is like the most base, yeah, high safety defense you will ever see nothing exotic happening.
Speaker 1:They're going to show you nothing in those games the defenses are all in, like Tampa 2, and you know, caleb, almost every single time flushed out of the pocket, throws a wing and a prayer, the guy catches it, whatever everybody's excited. But I watched this in the Broncos tenure with Russell Wilson and I've gotten to the point where I'm like I want a guy who can process. I want a guy who's a true quarterback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stand in the pocket and deliver it on time.
Speaker 1:That's right. So that's kind of my bent. I don't know if you feel the same way, but I think that Caleb Williams for that reason I'm not as high on him as a prospect as a lot of people. I feel like Chicago should have learned their lesson.
Speaker 2:I mean, you guys just went through Justin Fields well, I think, I mean, I think he is, you know, clearly different than Justin Fields, where that guy, I mean I watched a lot of him because he he played the Vikings, um, and he a spectacular runner, right, I mean, with the ball in his hands, um, extremely, extremely good, but but throwing the ball like he could, he could not read a defense and would just stand there and stand there and stand there until he would either get sacked or have to have to try to escape and he, he did not know where to throw. He's like paralyzed with fear. And I think Williams is quite a bit different, like, I think he will be capable of playing, you know, traditional quarterback role. I think, you know, a lot of people have likened him to like Aaron Rodgers, when he was younger, where Rodgers had right, all of that kind of escapability. Like he was younger, where Rogers had right, all of that kind of escapability. Like he was very dangerous outside the pocket but but right, he's bread and butter is inside the pocket.
Speaker 2:Making, making throws, right, but then then he, if he improvised, he would be, he would be really good, whereas right, that was Wilson at his, at his best, that was all he did. Or it's like all Wilson at his best. That was all he did. Or it's like all right, he rolls out. Now he's running away from three different guys going back and forth scrambling, and then there's Golden Tate, wide open down the field and he just gets a 40-yard gain right when it's kind of like backyard football kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:I think it was interesting too because you had Pete Carroll who gets fired, forced into retirement, whatever. And then that's when he finally opens up about the Russell Wilson situation. So he goes on one of the local radio shows in the Seattle area and it was interesting because they kept saying let's talk about the quarterback Russell Wilson. He kept referring to him as an athlete. Yeah, one of the things he was saying. He said if you looked at Russell when he was really good and when we were winning, he would rush for 700 to 900 yards a season. And he said when that started to diminish, he wasn't effective and that was part of the reason that I mean they fleeced the Broncos. The Broncos were obviously made a very bad call on that one. We're still paying him. I think we had to pay him $85 million to walk.
Speaker 2:To go play for the.
Speaker 1:Steelers yeah, to go play for somebody else. But I think that is one problem, and you know. Back to Caleb Williams. I think it'll be interesting to see. I think being a rookie in the NFL is really hard. So being a rookie in the NFL is really hard. So time will tell, but I think it would be better than Justin Fields. I don't know if you think he will be. I don't think they're making the playoffs.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. I mean plus, like the division is really tough, like you have right, you have green Bay and Detroit in that division and both those teams are extremely good. I mean they played in the deep into the playoffs last year and right, the Vikings, they, they could go either way, right, and and the bears I mean the bears team is a lot better than it had been previously, but they're not winning that division. No, they're not going to win the division against Detroit or green Bay, so they'd have to get a wildcard spot and I think Williams is going to have a lot of struggles early on.
Speaker 2:The game in the NFL is so, so different that you've seen many other times where, when things get tough, right, is he tough enough to meet the challenge or not, or is he going to wilt under pressure, right, I? I don't know if he can. I mean maybe he can, but that I mean that's in in this sport. I mean it's so many different sports where you go from high school to college, like in high school you are, you are the best athlete in like your area of the state, and then you get to college and now you're playing with everybody who is also like that, and now it's hard and you've never had to experience anything hard in your travel because you're faster and stronger and bigger than everybody else your entire life. Now it's hard and you're experiencing adversity for the first time ever and you don't know what that's like. And the same thing from like college to the NFL, where if, like you're, you know head and shoulders a better athlete than all of your peers, right, you're used to that your whole life. And now you're in a place where everybody is as good or better than you are and you you crumble, and so that could be a thing that happens to him.
Speaker 2:I could easily see that happening, or or I could be totally wrong Like his talent would just carry the day. He's got so much natural talent that he's just awesome, right, and we will. Right, we'll find out. Maybe maybe this week we'll find out if he's got it or not. I mean, I think you do see in the preseason a little bit where he's facing rushers that are not even like their second or third string right now he's going to have to go up against like legit NFL pass rushers where he can't just run away from them easily like he did in college or even in the preseason, and so he might struggle, at least initially, and whether he overcomes, who knows.
Speaker 1:I also think the thing with these young quarterbacks to keep in mind is who their coaches are. One of the benefits for a Patrick Mahomes is that he had arguably one of the greatest NFL offensive minds to ever exist in the game, so I think that certainly helps. It's one of the reasons I'm high on a guy like Bo Nix. You've got Sean Payton A lot of experience there. The one that's also interesting on this list is Jaden Daniels, so he's one of the rookies that's been named a starter. You've got Dan Quinn and I refuse to call them the commanders the Washington Redskins, the Redskins, redskins.
Speaker 1:Jaden Daniels, though if I had a concern, certainly one of the concerns would be his stature. He just looks like a college frail college player yeah, yeah, he's not very big like you.
Speaker 2:You, um, I'm sure you've seen some of like the highlight reels of the hits he took when he was at lsu, yeah, where, I mean you, you had guys that would just body slam him into the ground and it's like, how do you get up from that? Right, like, and that's in college right now you're gonna have, uh, nfl linebackers and linemen and safeties that that are even bigger and stronger and faster and hit even harder. And, yes, I mean he is a spectacular athlete. The ability to run that he has is is amazing. All right, really strong arm. Uh, apparently a pretty smart guy too.
Speaker 2:So, like he can, he can operate an offense, but is he going to survive the season Like I, if he makes it through? Like, cause you, you had this with Anthony Richardson last year where and that's a big dude that's like the same size as Josh Allen yeah, and he is injured almost right away because it's such a different game and that's part of it too is like, in your head you think the game is the same as when you were playing in college and you can do the things you did in college and you can't. You're going to get hit really hard college and you can't right you, you're gonna get hit really hard. So I mean, if he makes it through the first four games without uh, without getting injured, uh, seriously, I will I'll be kind of surprised yeah, uh, one of the next ones drake may, with new england's of course, announced I think last week that he would not be starting.
Speaker 1:Jacoby brissett is going to be the starter. Drake I watched him in preseason. I thought he looked like a rookie. I think of all the early round draft picks he was one that people said, yeah, he's got some development to do forward, basic quarterbacking stuff. I think a lot of people expected that he would not be a polished finished product for the start of the season, so not really a surprise there. Change in coaching will be interesting to see in New England as well. It's not that Bill Belichick was doing it. I mean they had some hard years Quarterback carousel, so it'll be interesting. It's hard to lose.
Speaker 2:Tom Brady. Yeah, it's hard to lose Tom Brady.
Speaker 1:Who would have thought? Obviously one of the goats. It'll be interesting to see too. So this strategy they're employing, obviously, is the sit and wait. A lot of guys have done this. Jordan Love did this. It's sort of the green Bay model as well. Sometimes it pans out, sometimes it doesn't. I think it's interesting. People are always like if they sit they're going to be great. I'm like Brian Hoyer sat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not everybody. Yeah, sometimes they sit because they're bad Right and they can't play.
Speaker 1:Not good, so I think that one will be interesting to watch.
Speaker 2:And then again, probably, you know, it's probably good for him to sit anyway, because that that Patriots team, especially on offense, is maybe the worst in the whole NFL. Awful you, maybe the worst in the whole NFL.
Speaker 1:Awful. You may just be setting him up for failure if you put them in there.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you'd have like a David Carr situation where you get thrown out there and he's just going to get pummeled and lose all of his confidence, like I mean, we talked about this earlier, where it's like, you know, there's a level of toughness you have to have and you make it even harder on a guy where you, you and you make it even harder on a guy where you strip away all of his confidence. Because here's a guy who's drafted very high, very successful quarterback in college, riding high. You think you're the man, I'm so good. Then you get out there and you're terrible and you might never get it back. It's a confidence shatterer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your psyche is broken at that point. And so if he sat for the entire season and they, you know, retool they have a whole bunch of cap space and they sign some receivers and build a better offensive line Right and have him ready for the next year, that that may be the best possible thing for him. Like in the in the draft, I really wanted the Vikings to get him because like the talent he has with his arm is like nobody else out of all these quarterbacks.
Speaker 2:And I'm like man that would be pretty cool to have, but the Patriots said no, we want every first-round pick. You will ever have to get this third-round pick. So they're like that's a little bit too rich for us. I don't think so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. One of the guys that we'll talk about, JJ McCarthy, obviously gets injured. I liked what I saw from him in camp when he was playing during the preseason as well. I thought he looked really good. Do you have any concerns for him long-term about his physical stature as well?
Speaker 2:No, not really. What did he do? Like 6'2", right, so maybe a little bit on the shorter side, 6'2" or 6'3" for an NFL quarterback, but that's like the same. I think that's the same size Kirk Cousins did, and it's one of those things where it's like a freak injury. He never got hit really hard or anything like that it was hard to identify what play where he tore his meniscus on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so pretty, pretty decent sized guy for for the quarterback position and and like injuries just happen, right, it's. It's awful, apparently, like every Vikings quarterback has knee problems at some point or another, but uh, but. But so I'm glad he's getting it out of the way now. Uh, but it is. It's not really a concern, I think, long term. I mean, the hard thing is like I mean, yeah, it'll get a little bit bigger and stronger too. I mean because he's only like 20 years. I think he's turning 21 in like the next couple weeks. He's still 20 years old, young kid. So I remember, you know, I I got bigger after 20 and 21 too.
Speaker 2:We all, we all kind of did right, maybe not the same way that an NFL player, but but man, like now I think I think he has an incredible amount of talent. I was a little bit worried like they took him, because I'm like he hardly threw the ball in college, when you can run the ball for five or six yards every single time. That's what Jim Harbaugh did and so he threw like 20 or 21 passes, a game which is not very many today, and so it was kind of an unknown. It's like, oh, he could be good or he could be terrible, we don't really know and and so they took the bet on him and in in training camp and in the one preseason game he did play, like he looked, he looked the part like that's. When I watched that game and I think like the entire state of Minnesota watched that like preseason game was probably the highest rated preseason game, I think, um, in ever in uh, history, uh, here, um, and I I watched it thinking all right, like uh, I'm gonna watch this game, thinking like, okay, because the vikings have drafted like fifth or sixth round quarterbacks for years, right, every couple years they'll take like a developmental guy, and you're always kind of hoping like, oh, maybe this guy will be good and they never are. But I watched it like thinking like that, like compared to those guys, right, how does he look? Right, cause they're always playing the same kind of competition second or third stringers and and I watched it and I'm like Whoa, this looks like an NFL starting quarterback. This doesn't look like one of those kinds of guys.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you have first round picks where they do look like the, you know, late round developmental quarterbacks and and so I'm like I think he might be really good and like he threw an interception on the very first series, which obviously you don't want to see, right, you're like that'd be bad. But I kind of wanted him to struggle a little bit at first and see how he bounces back where it's like, throws a pick and now, oh, he leads a field goal drive, then he leads two touchdown drives after that and gets more confident and comfortable out there. And so, yeah, it was. Yeah, it was fun to watch, and I was so disappointed that he gets hurt because I just wanted to watch the rest of the preseason.
Speaker 2:I didn't even care about the season for the Vikings. It's like, ah, this is a red shirt year for the team, and so I'm like I would just be waiting until they put him in and then we get to watch the real quarterback play. But no, I think it'll be, he'll be really good. He might there's a chance he might be the best one on this entire list. Uh, when it's all said and done, uh, certainly, I hope more than kayla williams yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:Uh, speaking of minnesota vikings connections, yeah, we have kirk cousins who goes to atlanta, atlanta. This caused a stink in the draft with Kirk for a half minute, yeah, or he regained his composure, but they draft Michael Penix jr Kind of an interesting situation their GM and coach talked about. You know, the reason for doing this is we don't anticipate that we'll be drafting anywhere near the top in years to come, so we want to get a future quarterback, michael Penix, of course, not going to start. You've got Kirk cousins in Atlanta. Were you surprised by that pick at all?
Speaker 2:Oh, extremely surprised, right? Cause I'm I'm sitting there watching draft night Cause the Vikings, like, are going to pick a quarterback early in the first round for the first time since I before I had gray hair, at least like like 10 years, Right. And and so you're like sitting waiting now thinking like are they going to trade up and they can trade up what's going to happen here? And then Atlanta's on the clock and you think, okay, well, they got Kirk cousins, they don't need a quarterback, Right?
Speaker 2:And I thought he was going to the Raiders. Yeah, me too. That seems like a perfect fit. I think the Raiders probably thought he was going to the Raiders as well.
Speaker 1:Even in the draft picks I was reading that kind of a bunch of the teams had talked to each other about who was taking who and the Raiders had asked the Broncos like you know what are you guys doing? They said no appendix will be there, don't worry about it. And then Atlanta steps in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like it was supposed to be, like. I remember looking at mock drafts, you know, as as one does the entire offseason, right, and every single time you get to number eight and it's like Dallas Turner, dallas Turner, dallas Turner, dallas Turner, dallas Turner, they're going to take a defensive player. You need a pass rusher. And then you get to that spot in the night and they take it and I'm like what? What? Oh, poor Kirk cousins man, he's got to be furious. Uh, and it makes no sense either, because like, and next because like Penix, what is he like? 24, 25? Like he's older.
Speaker 1:He's older and one of the one of the issues I saw with it it's like obviously people were watching some of the late CFP games at the end of the college football season. Penix plays pretty well. Final game doesn't look good. No, it's pretty stymied in that game. Yeah, they're overmatched against Michigan yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean just didn't look good and that's probably a closer. You know Jim Harbaugh, you're like, okay, this is kind of what he would look like against a good defense. Did not look impressive at all but also had injury issues throughout his career. I think played at Indiana before going to Washington. Yeah, like two ACLs shoulder issues yeah, that was a little bit surprising for such a high round pick. Of course, that's why Atlanta is Atlanta. We'll see about that season.
Speaker 1:One of the other ones I want to ask about obviously Spencer Rattler goes to the Saints, won't start there. You've got Derek Carr, so I think they're pretty settled in that position. He might play. Carr gets hurt a lot, he does. That's why I think they're pretty settled in that position. He might play. Carr gets hurt a lot, so he does. And that's why I think this one is interesting, kind of one of the less talked about picks, but a lot of people were pretty high on Spencer Rattler. We'll see about that. We've had some Oklahoma quarterbacks who are a little bit smaller, who've done okay, you know, with Murray, with the Cardinals, I honestly think one of the better ones was the resurgence Tampa Bay quarterback the name is evading me.
Speaker 2:From.
Speaker 1:Oklahoma. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was in Tampa Bay last year. They went to the playoffs. Oh, baker, mayfield Baker, thank you. How could you forget? I know how could you forget Baker, good old Baker. From Cleveland to Rams he resuscitates his career and then he looks pretty good at Tampa.
Speaker 2:Not always that you have to be a huge quarterback physically, but that'll be interesting to watch with the Saints and Rattler in college, like he was up and down when he was at south carolina and then, um, and then oklahoma, right, I mean, clearly has tremendous talent, yep, uh, but maybe is kind of a head case too, but I don't know. You get, you get, uh, you get things straightened out. Sometimes guys figure it out and and that's that's. I mean it's kind of like with the vikings andarnold, where, right, darnold was on two of the most pathetic teams in the NFL right, consistently the Jets and Carolina and now is on a team that has every possible thing you would want and so he might actually be good. Yeah, um.
Speaker 2:And so it's the kind of same kind of thing with Rattler, where, right, get a good coach. Right, dennis Allen might be, might be good the jury's kind of still out on him but you get a good coach, good offensive system Right, he figures it out, figures out a way to execute it, right, they, like he was one of those guys where it's like, ok, if you're kind of an, also ran in at the quarterback position, where you didn't you didn't get one of the top ones right, that he was going to be one, that was kind of interesting, like, cause, there's a chance that he turns out being pretty good, like kind of like Dak Prescott or Russell Wilson in the third round, where you kind of take a flyer on these guys and and sure enough they're, they're pretty good players. Um, so that that could happen with him. It wouldn't be a. It would be a shock, but not a huge one, if he ended up being a good quarterback yeah, I think so, andrew.
Speaker 1:I want to jump in kind of last segment here.
Speaker 2:You didn't talk about Bo Nix. We skipped right over Bo Nix.
Speaker 1:I got so excited about Bo Nix, bo Nix, my guy, bo Nix. I think that Bo Nix, I have no bias here in this situation, just a neutral, a neutral observer. I think that Bo Nix, I have no bias here in this situation, just a neutral observer I think he's going to be the best one. I think one of the things that helps Bo.
Speaker 1:I agree with you on JJ, like I think that if it would be a different conversation if JJ had played, but I think because of the experience in college, particularly with Oregon, I think a lot of things that people were knocking Bo Nix for when you watch the preseason it was about the most excited.
Speaker 1:I mean we have had a carousel of bad quarterbacks since Peyton Manning and I think when you watch him play it was like almost flawless in terms of reading the plays, executing the offense he was given. The thing that excites me most is how excited Sean Peyton is, so obviously somewhat of a quarterback whisperer with Drew Brees, tony Romo worked with a lot of great guys. I also like Sean Payton for talent evaluation. So he was one of the teams when Patrick Mahomes was drafted who was like no, this guy is going to be good. He said that was like his biggest regret is not getting Patrick Mahomes in that draft. So I think, judging on his excitement level, bo's performance in the preseason I think he's probably the most experienced of the rookie quarterbacks and a little older. The other thing that I like about him he's a lot faster than I thought would be at the NFL level and he's got the physique. He's kind of got the Josh Allen build.
Speaker 2:He's a little bit smaller, but yeah, yeah, he's sturdy, he's, he's sturdy.
Speaker 1:He's not one of these frail quarterbacks. We we, of course we drafted drew lock and that that's like I think. The first time he got hit he like separated his shoulder. It was like this is not good, this is not good. We had Paxton Lynch. Come on, man, I'm just this is just.
Speaker 2:Maybe Josh Allen, without the talent, was Paxton Lynch. It was horrible.
Speaker 1:Yes. So I think Bo will do well, I still think you're still going to have your rookie growing pains. Oh yeah, there's a joke. In Denver I saw somebody had taken a photo of Peyton Manning. It was a year after we lost to the Ravens. Ravens won the Super Bowl, I believe, against the 49ers. Next year opening game we get the Ravens and Peyton Manning throws seven touchdowns in like 500 yards, whatever it's like his revenge game. So what people did is they cropped out Peyton Manning from that photo with the stat line they put in Bo Nix. They said the Denver Broncos' expectations for Bo Nix game one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would temper those a little bit, Probably not going to be accurate. Yeah, I think he will be. He'll be good. Like I kind of look at him like I mean there are limitations there with the arm strength and things like that Like he he'll, he'll. He has a maybe a lower ceiling than some of these other quarterbacks, but probably a much, much higher floor. So he's going to be a guy who I think could be second or third tier within the pecking order of NFL quarterbacks, which you can win a lot of games with that. You can go deep in the playoffs with that. If you have everything else around him, that's really good and so what I hear you saying is good, no doubt.
Speaker 2:First, ballot hall of famer, yeah, or or kirk cousins, uh, one or the other don't waste that upon me well he's. He's a likable guy too, like he is, uh like I remember sending uh remember sending uh, yeah, there was a picture of him Like I don't know if Charlie Kirk went to Oregon to speak or something like, but he got his picture taken with Charlie Kirk and it's like a very conservative Christian guy Like, uh, um, he's probably probably going to vote the same way we are in November.
Speaker 2:And uh, and yeah, maybe, if he throws a whole bunch of touchdowns before then and and I don't know why why Trump would go to to Colorado. But uh, if he did, he'd bring them up on stage. Where's Bo, where's Bo at? Uh, right, Uh, maybe he'll do that in the white house, right, uh, I hope so at some point. But that'd be great, I hope so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, let's hope it goes well. Okay, so I want to jump in to the week one picks. So we're going to go through the schedule and I want you to give picks. We're going to evaluate these afterwards. We're going to see who won after week one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to check our records.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to keep score on this one. So first we keep score on this one. So first we open the season with, uh, the baltimore ravens at kansas city.
Speaker 2:So, andrew, who do you got I? I think the ravens win this one against the chiefs yeah, I think they get revenge, right?
Speaker 2:I think, um, I think they're going to, uh, let lamar jackson run this time, instead of saying, no, you're going to be a pocket quarterback, because you've got to prove that you deserve the MVP. That was the most bizarre playoff game I'd ever seen, because it's like why aren't they doing the things they always do with him? It makes no sense. That was crazy. And so, yeah, I think the Ravens win this one. I think they upset the Chiefs and it'll be only one, even though, like I kind of now, all of a sudden, I want the Chiefs to win, for reasons right, Okay, so just to be just so we get a good mix here I'm going with.
Speaker 1:Chiefs. I think that I think there's no hangover from last year. I think that actually, you know what's funny is, the last couple of years, like last year specifically, the Chiefs actually didn't play very well. No, quite a few points. I think they right that ship and I think Patrick Mahomes goes off. It's very possible. Maybe we're still thinking, but you know what? They supported Trump, so I'm supporting the chiefs.
Speaker 2:It's going to be every week.
Speaker 1:We all just take the chiefs every week, just the chiefs every week. So a Friday game actually this year, which is interesting In Brazil.
Speaker 2:In Brazil, you know, they said they're concerned about security and I was like over under a number of players getting kidnapped before the game Horrible.
Speaker 1:Horrible. Why would you do this? Yeah, so we got Green Bay versus Philly.
Speaker 2:This is painful for me to say, do it, but I think the Packers win this one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going with Packers too. I just think Jordan Love is going to have a breakout year. The second half of last year he looked really good, yeah, yeah, and I think he's going to continue that trend. Okay, so we got Sunday games. First one on there is Pittsburgh at Atlanta.
Speaker 2:Going with Kirk on this one, okay. And also, like the Steelers, I didn't even see who's starting. Is Wilson going to start? Yep, russell Wilson, I mean, that's how much I care about their whole situation is. It doesn't matter to me which one it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah and same here. I got to go with Atlanta just because I want to see Russell Wilson get curb stomped and can't stand that guy. He took so much money from us, andrew, and draft picks, draft picks I mean we're still paying for it. Okay, next game we got Arizona at Buffalo. If you take Arizona, I don't even know what I can say about you Of course.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, here's the thing the Bills we're going to see. They don't have Stefan Diggs anymore, that's true. This will really reveal, right, is Josh Allen the thing carrying everything else, or is it the system around him? Right, I think he's that good. Right, I think he's amazing. And so, yeah, I'm going to go with the Bills. Right, they're a great team. Josh Allen is a superstar, right, probably my favorite quarterback in the NFL right now, and so I'm going with going with the bills okay, same here.
Speaker 1:I've got atlanta and buffalo as well. We're the same on these picks. Now the next game is interesting because it is probably the premier game of the week. At 11 am on fox, we've got tennessee at chic.
Speaker 2:That one's tough. This is such a tough one, yeah. It's actually, I think, some of the tougher ones to pick are like when you just have two teams, that kind of suck yeah, oh, it always is tougher, yeah, it's going to out suck the other. I mean, I think the bear is probably the better team, even though I don't want Caleb Williams to win anything, right. I, even though I don't want Caleb Williams to win anything, right, I have to go with the bears, okay, I guess my I guess my new, my new state.
Speaker 2:I know this is hard. Who is starting at quarterback for the Titans? Will I keep forgetting his name? He's that. He's that is. That is that? Um, what is? Uh, now I have to look this up. This is terrible. Um, I know, um, will Levis. Oh, how could I forget? Yeah, will Levis.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's Tom.
Speaker 1:I think I'm going to go to the bears here that's going to.
Speaker 2:that's going to be like a 13 to seven game, right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that one will be brutal. Next game is a little. I mean, it seems like an easy pick, but you've got new England at Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like an easy pick. But you've got new england at cincinnati bengals. Yeah, I mean. But new england's gonna be so bad if they, if they win more than three games this year, I think it's gonna be that I'll be surprised. Yeah, they're gonna be bad. They're going for the number one overall pick so we've got next houston at indy.
Speaker 1:That'll be a good game.
Speaker 2:I think the probably the favorite. Like we don't have the betting lines on here, which makes it even more interesting, but I'm sure the favorite is probably Houston. But I'm curious if Anthony Richardson is any good right, maybe I'm going to go with the Colts upsetting the Texans.
Speaker 1:Okay, I will go with the Texxans, but I agree with you, uh, that it could be really interesting game. That might actually be one of the better 11 o'clock games, uh. Next one you got jacksonville at miami.
Speaker 2:This should be interesting yeah, I mean trevor lawrence, like even though, like he signed a huge contract, like the jury's still out on him. Is he good or not, right, nobody knows? Um, and so I think I think the dolphins win this one. I think they're they're a great team and with some weaknesses, right, they can get exposed. But, um, I think, yeah, I think two in the Dolphins take this one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think, man, I think I want to be with you on that Miami. The thing is like they rolled the Broncos last year. They put up 70 on the Broncos. Didn't love them in the playoffs, but definitely in the regular season they were beating some people pretty handily. Next game, I mean, I think it's obvious Carolina is going to defeat the Saints at home.
Speaker 2:Carolina. How many games did they win last year? Two, two, I can't remember. They're bad and they almost beat the Vikings oh no, so are you going Saints. I'm going to go with the Saints, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going with the Saints too. I mean Saints aren't great, but Carolina's awful. Now most important pick for Andrew Minnesota at the Giants.
Speaker 2:Man, if the Vikings lose this game, it's going to be a rough season. You have to pick your place Because they're going to be I mean, they're going against Houston and the 49ers in the next couple weeks after that. It's like you don't ever want to say it like a must-win game, week one of the season, but it's a must-win. You've got to win this one. And the giants are so bad, so terrible, and their quarterback is it's maybe the worst one in the NFL, at least one that is like on a second contract. By far the worst Is Daniel Jones starting? Yeah, he is, and that was like even an open question right, is he gonna start or not? And and he is, but he's really bad. Um, so I think the vikings defense is much better this year and it wasn't terrible last year. So I think they can. They can make daniel jones look bad, even though, like Malik neighbors is probably gonna be pretty good. And you know, even with Daniel Jones, a quarterback like they can make it interesting. So I'm still gonna go with the bikes man there.
Speaker 1:They're gonna win okay, I got Vikings too. They better pull this out. Don't let me down. Next game should be interesting Las Vegas at Chargers. I'm gonna give my pick on this one.
Speaker 2:And then I want to hear what you have to say, I like.
Speaker 1:Justin Herbert.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think Harbaugh Is going to do pretty well from the beginning and I just think that the Raiders have been so unstable. If they play well at all this year, which will be a miracle they're going to have to I gel a lot as a team. I just think Harbaugh has a lot more to work with with the Chargers. Does he have any wide receivers? You don't need wide receivers in a Harbaugh offense. Come on, Andrew, Just line up four fullbacks.
Speaker 1:We're going to have just the you know, just like eye formation All season, single wing, that's right. No, weak, strong, nothing, just single. And we are yeah, I'm going Chargers.
Speaker 2:I'm going to pick Gardner Minshew and the Raiders. They still have very good players on there. Devontae Adams he's not holding out right, he's not demanding A trade right at this point. So I think they pulled this one off. I think, yeah, I think Long term, harbaugh is going to be great with the Chargers, but and Herbert Is excellent but they offloaded a lot of talent In the offseason and didn't really replace it yet. So I think this season, like if Harbaugh Is just a little bit over a lot of talent in the off season and didn't really replace it yet. So I think this season, like if Harbaugh is just a little bit over 500, right, if he wins nine games, right, that will be. That will. That'll be a great coaching job which he's capable of. But it's going to be hard to win them, especially in that division. So I'm until he proves it with. He's been out of the NFL for a long time Uh, I'm going to go with the Raiders.
Speaker 1:Okay, we got Raiders for Andrew. Next game, most important game the entire week, the season. I mean, it's just, that's right. Yeah, they, they, you know, absolutely jobbed us with Russell Wilson. Uh, I feel like not because I think they will win, we just deserve it. We need an absolute steamrolling. I'm going Broncos against Seattle. There obviously will be no debacle with being able to call plays. Of course you remember the Russell Wilson first game against Seattle and Monday Night Football and Peyton Manning is like why are you not calling timeout? Are these people dumb? Turns out they were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fact check True.
Speaker 1:So yeah, andrew, denver or Seattle, I'm picking Denver.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I think I think I, I and I, I'm excited to see that one, I think I think that one's going to be televised here at three o'clock. And I want to see Bo Nix. I want to see if he, if he's got it and and like Gino Smith, he had that good season two years ago, wasn't quite as good this year or last year I think he's probably reverting to the mean right after having a big pop-up season and so, right there, coaching change. Yeah, they're going to probably be in the running for a very high draft pick and getting a new quarterback, and so I don't, I, I think, right, the odds are the, the broncos. When you know what the line is on that one off the top of your head right now. I don't. I'm curious about that one where they set it, but I think the Broncos went like the Broncos. Their defense got better, their offense is definitely improved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, current line Seattle negative 5.5 over under is 41.5.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, so they are almost a touchdown. Uh, favorites, yeah, they're picking. Picking seattle at home I mean at home is one and a half points, so yeah, like a five, like five point. Uh, underdogs, um, yeah, I still think they're. I mean, some of that probably is just the unknown of bonix. Yes, feeding that um. So yeah, now, this is not a gambling, but gambling is bad. Don't gamble, um, do not do. I mean it's horribly degenerate uh, but at least gives you a good like. We can take that and see like who, uh, yeah, who's favored, um, but yeah, I think I think the Broncos, I think the Broncos are gonna be good and I can maybe eat my words next week. We'll see.
Speaker 1:I hope so. I hope they are good.
Speaker 2:Way. Gnashing of teeth from Eric.
Speaker 1:That's right. It wouldn't be the first time in the last I don't know eight years, nine years, so it's been brutal. Next game, we've got Dallas at Cleveland. I think this one should actually be pretty interesting Cowboys.
Speaker 2:Cowboys okay, cowboys. Sean Ross is bad man. He is so bad.
Speaker 1:I mean the amount of money they spent on him, the Browns. They've actually built a pretty good defense. This one does blow me away, though. Jerry Judy was awful for the denver broncos. I mean like stepping out of bounds on touchdown, catches poor effort, poor attitude, you name it, and the browns give him this giant lucrative contract. I know I was like why, in the words of steve smith, he's a jag, he's just a guy. Just a guy like jerry judy's, walking by him on the sid. He's a jag. He's just a guy. Just a guy Like Jerry Judy's walking by him on the sideline. He's like yeah, you heard me. I said you're just a guy, little trash talking. Gotta love Steve Smith. So you're going Cowboys. I think I'm going to go Cowboys too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a better team all around.
Speaker 3:And better quarterback.
Speaker 2:I mean Dak Prescott has his issues. Everybody hates him, but I think he's overpaid and all that. But he's a good quarterback, especially in the regular season. This is the regular season. I'm going with the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:I agree, we've got 225 on Fox. We've got the Redskins at Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2:Baker, mayfield and the Bucs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say you can't possibly pick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just a rookie quarterback, rookie head coach, or not rookie, but a retread head coach in his first year. Yeah, we got to go with the Bucs.
Speaker 1:So it brings us down to two games. You got Monday night and Sunday night. Sunday night game is really interesting. You got the Rams at Detroit A little bit of a playoff rematch. That's a tough pick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. I mean the Rams, especially late in the season, got a lot better, so they're on the upswing. I mean great head coach Matthew Stafford, always underrated, but that Lions team is really good, really really good, like in every position. Dan Quinn how can you not love that guy? Everybody in America should love Dan Quinn. How can you not love that guy? Everybody in America should love Dan Quinn. He's awesome. Yeah, even though.
Speaker 1:Lions are three and a half point.
Speaker 2:Favorites. Okay, even though, right, yeah, it's at Detroit, I'm gonna go with the Lions. I think, I think I'll go with the Lions, but yeah, this is one where there could be an upset very easily.
Speaker 1:I think there could be. I'm going to go Rams just because I think there's a little bit of revenge in this game. I think that I don't know, I got to pick something opposite of you just one time.
Speaker 2:We've had a few few. We've had a few uh, roll the dice.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'm going. Rams here. Okay, monday night is interesting. This is our final one. Does Aaron Rodgers run more than two plays before belonging? Well, I think you know, I think, what happened last season.
Speaker 2:I'm I'm on the record here, I think you know, I think what happened last season I'm on the record here I think you know Pfizer developed some kind of pathogen that would attack any quarterback that didn't get the vaccine and rupture their Achilles.
Speaker 1:You know, there's something to that.
Speaker 2:Kirk Cousins, aaron Rodgers, both blow their Achilles Like no, it's not that they're both in their mid to late 30s, no, no, no, no, pfizer attacked. So you know, now we'll see, we'll see. With Aaron Rodgers, I mean, every time I've thought like Rodgers is cooked, he's washed, he's done, I've been wrong. I mean, obviously at some point that will happen, right, father time comes for everybody. But like, this is a very proud guy, right, who is always been really, really good and always wanted to prove how good he is. And I don't know the 49ers, unbelievably well-constructed roster, but they've got to come down at some point. Brock Purdy is really good at what he does within the very limited confines of that offense, but I would, I mean the Jets defense still extremely, extremely good.
Speaker 2:Aaron Rodgers, right, he has been waiting an entire year to play football again and show that he still got it. And so if anyone in any game this week has any incentive to just light up the other team and throw for six touchdowns, right, it's him. And so, plus, like he grew up in Northern California, like he loves playing the 49ers and loves doing well against them, I mean, obviously every quarterback, every single week wants to win, right, but when you have a little bit more added incentive, right and picked alex smith over him. Like he still remembers that, he still remembers the like I mean, this is a grudge holder man. Like he still remembers the teacher in like seventh grade who told him he would never be, uh, an nfl quarterback and he still, like, uh calls that teacher 30 years later. And so I think it's Rogers and the Jets. I'm going with the Jets and the Jets.
Speaker 1:I think it should be a good game. I'm still with 49ers. I think that they carry their momentum Obviously tough, tough couple of years of playoffs, but some Superbowls in there obviously as well. But I think they regroup. I like Kyle Shanahan, I like their system. I still think they have a ton of talent and I think, more than anything, I think if this game was at the end of the year and Aaron Rogers is still healthy, I might feel different.
Speaker 2:Well, and McCaffrey would be banged up by the end of the year too, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:That's true, half the 49ers Roster will have major injuries. Yeah, but I think in this one, I think In this one they get it done. Uh, you also Got a home game for them, so I think they're, I think they'll get the job done. So I'm Going 49ers. We'll see, we shall see. Andrew, it should be a good season. I appreciate you joining me for this episode Of the podcast. Of course, once again Want to encourage people second tier Patreon join that. You'll Be a episode of the podcast. Of course, once again, I want to encourage people second tier Patreon Join that You'll be a part of. We have what? 16 slots, andrew? Yes, so this is first come, first serve. This is only the elite of the elite that you get to be a part of this fantasy league. See if you can go up against Andrew Isker, because it's going to be a. You've got Nick Butkus running the fantasy league. Andrew is just going to probably I mean he's going to bring his A game.
Speaker 2:You're saying this now. Watch me come in last. No watch. I have to record the video.
Speaker 1:Andrew will be doing the video explaining why he's so terrible at fantasy football, but I think it's going to be a good time. We'll have a good conversation on the Patreon channel, so but I think it's going to be a good time. We'll have good conversation on the patron channel, so check that out If you're not already a member, or if you want to upgrade, be a part of the fantasy league. Look forward to seeing you there, andrew. Once again, thank you for joining me for this episode of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, eric.