LIV Golf is being SHUTDOWN? NFL Draft Thoughts + NFL Offseason Mailbag

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. The volume. What is going on, my people? How are we doing John Middlkoff, throwing out podcast? Another beautiful day. We are officially a week away from the National Football League's draft. Very, very excited, cannot get here soon enough. Today, I wanna do some big picture stuff because the big story today is this live golf league funded by the Saudis is gonna eventually crater, whether it be soon or at the end of the year. And it got me thinking like, why do we watch sports? And one issue we've had over the course of the last week with the Rossini story is conflict of interest. A story today about Troy Aikman and the Dolphins and their draft. And I just kinda wanna dive into that as well as the advantage some of these long time GMs have when it comes to experience on Thursday and Friday of next week, as well as we'll do a couple of mail bag questions at John Middlkoff, at John Middlkoff is the Instagram, fire in those DMs, get your questions answered here on the show and we'll bank some of those out and we'll just keep chugging away. So you guys know the drill. If you listen on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe to 3&Out. If you wanna watch the show, it's on Netflix, no big deal. Check that out, set an alert, you never miss an episode. And that's where you find me. So 3&Out podcast on Netflix, let's talk some sports. But I did wanna start with money in sports because the NFL is a good example, right? Their salary cap number has never been higher. The teams have never been worth more. The players have never made more. We just had a center from the Raven sign with the Raiders for $27 million a year. The LiveGolf operation that was funded by the Saudi investment firm, PIF, just started buying players years ago, right? They gave Phil Mickelson a couple hundred million dollars, Kepka, Dustin Johnson, recently John Rom got supposedly $300 million. They literally just bought talent. And this has happened before. I was just, I was in the plane, I didn't record any podcasts. I didn't, my internet wasn't working. And I had Steve Young's book on tape that I was like 70% through. And, you know, this is a long time ago for you young people, but there was a league in the mid-80s that bought guys like Steve Young and Reggie White and tried to have this startup United Football League that ended up going belly up. And I think one thing that, and listen, the LiveGolf story for me, who loves the sport and who likes aspects of business, I thought was really fascinating. But in hell, I even went to an event last year with Colin and it was cool being on the grounds, Kepka came up and talked to us, Sergio Garcia came up to Colin. It was, it was a vibe there. But the events never resonated with people because I think in sports, history matters. And now you're talking about the NFL that has been around for a long time, right? Since it merged with the AFL and it's been, the Super Bowl era has been going since the late 60s, early 70s. The NBA has been rolling in terms of fame and big time players now since well before I was born. Obviously Major League Baseball was a really big deal like the 20s with Babe Ruth. So the history behind these sports make for us that watch it as entertainment. And I do this for a job, but when the game is on, I still enjoy being entertained. When the college football playoff was going on, and Indiana was trying to take down Oregon and Alabama, it never crossed my mind. Oh, Fernando Mendoza is making a couple million dollars. Or Dante Moore, if he comes back, he'll make seven or eight. Obviously we talk about it and it's interesting, but when the events are actually going on and the reason we watch has nothing to do with that. Right? And even now, and I was thinking about the week one last year, it was the bills against the Ravens. And the Ravens were kicking the shit out of the bills. And remember Derek Henry fumbles and the bills have this crazy comeback. And never once during the game were we thinking, do you know that Josh and Lamar make combined $100 million? It was like, these are the two of the most talented guys in the league, two of the most physically gifted guys we've ever seen. And this is just really enjoyable. These are two of the best teams in the league. Two teams just played in the playoffs last year in the second round. Like this feels like a really big deal because of what's on the line for these guys' legacies. Can they ever get over the hump? Who's better between the two? Right? These guys are polarizing guys because they had pole position right behind Patrick Mahomes as the best quarterbacks in the league. And the money doesn't matter. It's like, can the bills ever win a Super Bowl? Will Lamar Jackson, the Ravens ever get over the hump? And I think Liv serves as a pretty good example. And Scott O'Neill, who is the CEO of Liv, just came out with a comment who, again, took really good care of me and Colin. Really impressive guy. Like, I really enjoyed my time with him. I think he will be successful at whatever he does if Liv goes under this week or at the end of the year. I immediately texted a picture to Howie Roseman because he's a Philly guy and they're really close friends. Like, high level people like this guy, he's a high level guy. And I was blown away. I'm like, Liv has a, you know, I know Greg Norman took a lot of crap, but this is an impressive guy. This is someone you would meet that would be involved in the NFL. This guy was part of the NBA with David Stern. The problem is, is when your events are just bought and paid for, it doesn't feel important. Regardless how much talent you have and how much they're making, right? Part of these tennis tournaments when Federer was going against Nadal or now it's Alkaraz against Sinner, you have a lot of history and context behind those events. It's why people in Philadelphia when some of these articles and these podcasts come out against Jalen Hertz, they get his back because they go, this guy has been a starting quarterback for two Super Bowl teams. And in one of them, fucking was awesome and we won. And last time I checked, winning the Super Bowl means a lot, you know? And we can debate if 15 different guys could have won the Super Bowl as a starting quarterback. They didn't, he did. And we have context between all these leagues, all these events. It was like Michigan going up against UConn. When the game was going on, it wasn't like, this guy's making this, this guy's making this, NIL heroes, just, you know, this is a historic program in Michigan. This is a historic program in UConn. And this thing is a war zone. I mean, UConn played that game like it was football. That was one takeaway I had from that national championship game is I don't think, and maybe it's a little hyperbolic, but I don't know if I've ever seen a team play harder than UConn. Like the effort in which they played was a 10 out of 10. Like their effort, you know, when you're taught little league or high school basketball, or even some of these college football product or prospects, when they've been at Miami or Ohio State, like you can play harder and you can play harder and you can play harder. We need you to play harder. And then when I'm evaluating you at the combine or during the pro day, it's like, I wish you would have played a little harder. No one who watched UConn play that game went they could have played a little harder. They literally played as hard, not as good. Obviously, they could have been better. But in terms of effort, it was elite. And that entertained me because the game, in terms of like the shot making and the enjoyability of quote unquote great basketball, you know, it was somewhat forgettable. But the effort was not. And as a fan, like I found that really enjoyable. Not because Braille and Mullins is a seven figure guy, or how are they going to, who are they gonna buy in the portal after this game? I didn't give a shit. No different. I think this speaks to the Indiana story. I think this speaks, you know, this year when it comes to the Super Bowl to Seattle, there was, and this is what I said about Sam Darnold's story. It was just really genuine. You know, it wasn't about that, you know, he was the third overall pick and he signed a $40 million contract because people were like, well, you had to become a backup. He was already filthy rich. And then when Seattle signed him to a team friendly deal, he still making $30 million a year. I don't know about you. I don't know that many human beings that are making a W2 job, making $30 million a year. Like the guy has generations of money. But the reason it resonated with actual people, Google the average income in America that can't relate to that level of money or that level of lifestyle or that level of fame because it was, most of us can relate to, like we've been through some shitty times. We've hit adversity in our life. We've been in the fucking mud. Life sucked for a period of time, maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe you went through a bad five year stretch and you just kind of crawl your way out of it. You hope to get a break. Maybe someone throws you a, you know, a lifeline. Maybe someone throws you a job opportunity and it sets your life on a positive track. And all of a sudden you come out like Andy Dufresne on the other end. And Sam Darnold by all accounts, great guy, high character, seems like a very likable human who could get along with a lot of people. And I think most people, unless you're a Patriot fan, in that suitable, we're just kind of rooting for the guy. Why? Because it was an easy story to get behind. And that's what sports is. Rory McElroy, I mean, the Masters has done like historic ratings the last couple of years in on Tiger Woods. And I think the reason it is because Rory's story was just something that draws people in. He can't get it done. He can't win this tournament. He's never gonna win this tournament. And then he finally wins the freaking tournament. And then a year later, all of a sudden, he's kicking everyone's ass. He's like, he's just gonna do it again. He won a decade plus, couldn't win a major, let alone this tournament. Most times he underachieved and wasn't even in the mix. And now he's gonna win back to back. And then what happened? He started falling apart. One of the most relatable things in sports, watching someone play golf and struggle and not play well. It's why I think millions upon millions of people watch that tournament. And we don't have that many events anymore that a lot of people watch together, right? I might watch a show. You might watch a show. You might watch a show. They could be on three. I'm watching this one on HBO Max. You're watching something on Netflix. And I'm watching this show every day on Paramount. And it's like we get to the water cooler or if we play golf together, we all are not watching the same. This isn't 1998 where everyone watched Seinfeld or in 2004, everyone was watching The Promise. That's not really the world we live in anymore. Everything's really fractured. So the couple things that draw most of us, especially as sports fans to a television, really have little to do with money. And the reason Liv failed is because their whole business model was based on cash. Without it, I had a buddy that works in finance. And he's in charge of dealing with a lot of people who are trying to get funding, loans, right? Support from a financial institution. And some people qualify. These are businesses, right? Trying to get a line of credit, $5 million, $10 million, $50 million, whatever. And it's all based on what they're making. Hey, we're doing this much revenue. We project this much revenue, here are our costs. And they go through their books with a fine tooth comb. There is not a soul in America that would have invested in Liv's venture given what they had to pay to get everyone involved. Not a soul. Now, one single investor, not named the PIF, would have been interested. And that's why it never resonated with anyone. It's just a fake operation. Because without this unlimited fund, it wouldn't have existed. And listen, a lot of startups happen and then fail. But at one point in time, they were able to pitch it to someone in a room to give them a check to go, you know, that's a pretty good idea. And the one thing that has never changed and still is thriving are these live sports events, specifically football, which is the most unique of all the sports because it's a one-off every week. There's only one game. Basketball, you're playing three or four. Baseball, you're potentially playing six or seven. And in football, you're playing once. And all the games matter. And you can't fake that. I know it, you know it, we all know it. And that's what, like, I understand, like, listen, we're on Netflix. The world has dramatically changed. Ten years ago, when I got out of radio, it was so evident to me my biggest advantage was this phone in my hand. Because when I got into a car, we had at the time maybe five plus years of cars in the, you know, from 2010 to 2015, 16, 17, when I really got into podcasts, it was probably 2017, 2018. So we had a five-year stretch where people connected their phone to their car. And I just started thinking to myself, over the course of the next decade, really, where we're sitting now, there are going to be a large percentage of people who get into their car and never turn on the radio. And turn on, whether it's Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, connect to whatever they listen to and will never know channels, whatever they are. Like I did as a kid because that option didn't exist. And then we're 10 more years of existing of radio as we knew it in the 90s and the 2000s will not exist. It will not be a viable outlet. And I got lucky. I got forced into that life and it was very evident to me very quickly, like this isn't just the future. It's literally happening right now. And we're never going back. And so I've always supported when people push back and one story that doesn't interest me that much is this collusion and these politicians going after the NFL. When there's actual substance behind it, I will get interested, but I don't have the bandwidth with a kid to read legal jargon. But I also know and I've supported these leagues from going into business with all these different streamers of they have way more money than these traditional networks. So if Netflix wants in on more NFL games, guess what? They can blow away the competition in the bits. Now, football, their advantage like UFC or WWE and WrestleMania is when an event is happening, everyone in that world knows. Like, I don't even follow wrestling anymore. I know the WrestleMania is happening this weekend. I don't follow or watch, I guess I loosely follow. I don't really watch UFC. But if something happens that everyone's telling me, this is historic, you got to watch, I'm kind of drawn in and I'm paying attention. It's why I've watched people can make fun of me. Jake Paul fight all these people. It's an event. That's what football has. It's why when they played on Netflix on Christmas, everyone knows about it. Now, whether you have time, you're at home, whether you're going to watch it or not, is up to you. But if you're a sports fan, you know where that is. It was over the years with Peacock when they first did the playoff game, Amazon Prime last year on Black Friday. You knew where it was. Well, last night's a great example. I don't watch the NBA anymore. I follow it. I know what's going on because I list some podcasts, but I don't watch games anymore. But if you tell me the play-in game, it's a winner get in, that peaks my interest. So I flip on my television. I don't have the cable box anymore. And it comes up and all the only game I see is the Phillies playing the Cubs. So I go, oh, they must be playing Wednesday and Thursday. That's when the play-in games are going. And then all of a sudden, I get an alert that the heat in the Hornets game is over. I'm like, these games are going and it was on a streamer. I didn't know. And basketball is a good example of someone who just made a lot of money on their television deal. And a lot of it was through the streaming platforms. The problem is, is unlike football, they're not a destination event operation right now. And it, I didn't have the opportunity to watch it because I didn't even know it was on. Now, if I had done a little more research, I guess I could have looked what channel was it on. But I got a kid. I got a wife. I got food going on. These aren't my teams. I'm not gambling on it. I don't care that much. And they made it a little more difficult. And the pushback on football always, are they making it too difficult to consume? And I'd say, well, if you have the means, you could argue it costs more. True. But it's not easy to figure out when the games are going on. It's very well established. What time and where they're happening. And I last night was a stark reminder to me. It's like football's advantage of their event operation is not even does it parallel any of these other leaks? Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, the official sports betting partner of the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. We talk football on the show, but the NBA playoffs are right around the corner. And with Hard Rock Bet, every night is a shot to build the same game parlay and score a major bucket. Maybe you like a hot hand to drop 30. The big man to control the glass with the double double point guard to dish out five assists. You can set it all up on Hard Rock Bet gives you tons of ways to stack your picks for an epic same game parlay. You miss the tip off of the big game. No problem. Hard Rock Bet lets you live bet all game long from the first bucket to the end of the game. So you're never too late to find a winner or grab that player prop that you had circled. 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Plus, you'll get the best choice of our free child place holidays. But now, with just a £60 deposit per person, enjoy our VIP customer service and go direct from London Gapwick. Nothing beats a Jet 2 holiday. Package holidays you can trust. Outdoor night or protected, subject to availability and conditions. Everyone make it bloom with British Garden Centers. One comment I've heard a lot lately is conflict of interest. And I've said this forever and listen, I like a lot of traditional media people that I've got to meet over the years. I have a lot of respect for their job and how hard they work. It's not easy to go into locker rooms and be a beat reporter. I respect it. I have a lot of respect for it. It's much more time consuming in terms of traveling and stuff than what I have to do. I wouldn't want to do it and I have a lot of respect for the work. But I think the media sometimes misses the mark on the fans. And this all exists. The media, the leagues, everything because of the consumer. I'd argue they're all that matters. They pay for everything. Without them, these leagues aren't getting filthy rich. These media entities like me couldn't exist. No one forever. Like they read the newspaper, they watch the shows, they watch the games. Without them, none of it matters. There are a lot of good golfers playing money games on Wednesday night. No one watches. So the fans are the heartbeat of it all. And you get on Twitter, I think companies make a mistake of looking at comments and thinking that matters. Because if a story comes out and if it's as salacious as Rosini and Vrable, if she's going to post something, people like she put out a trial balloon last week on Twitter, look at the comments. No shit. That's social media for you. What do most of us do if we're bored sometimes? If you click on something that you know is a polarizing post on Twitter, Instagram, for those of you on Facebook, we check the comments because we know what's coming. It doesn't represent. Do I think most people that watch football truly give a flying fuck about Rosini and Vrable? I do not. If you told me tomorrow, Rosini had the biggest story in NFL history and posted it, that's all I just want to consume it. And I think most fans would. And do I care that Schefter might get presents for his sources, my vacation with his sources, might do whatever it takes to maintain and gain news sources? I do not. I just want the information. I think most fans, when it comes to that job specifically, just want to eat the hot dog, they don't need to go to the factory to see other things made. They truly don't care. Now, I understand why this story of them holding hands at this exclusive resort becomes a big thing. Like I do. Like I was just talking to a buddy. If I was in that photo, I would not be in my office right now because I would have been kicked out of the house. That's just a fact. Like this, I say it all the time. I'm in a marriage that is a lot like baseball. There are a lot of unwritten rules. You know what's okay and you know what's not okay. And I would imagine a lot of people listening are in those as well. And that photo of holding hands on top of a bungalow at a $3,000 couple retreat resort in Sedona by the Red Rocks would be a no-go in my world. We all agree. But that's the thing. I don't even think this story is like that complicated. But I also don't like it feed me the information. That's all I want. Why did Twitter work and dominate the news cycle and make newspapers and some of these other entities kind of worthless and social media in general? Because it just gives me the story. And that's all we're looking for. Give me the story. And you could argue the consumer has never cared less about the context behind the story as they do in 26. Maybe they never truly did, but they definitely do not now. And so the story that Troy Aikman is going to be in the Dolphins' draft room. Right? He's a consultant. He helped hire these two guys from Green Bay. He's been on the record forever saying that like, you know, at one point in time, he thought he was going to be a GM and then, you know, his daughters and it just didn't work out. And I bet if you were having some beers with Troy and just maybe a hard cocktail and truly getting deep, he'd be like, you know, one regret I have is I see guys like John Lynch or some of these former players like Dan Campbell and Vrable being coaches. Like I miss being in the trenches because of what I learned from Jimmy and running the cowboys as the quarterback. Like I know I could have done a good job. And he's kind of alluded to that in different interviews, but I think he misses being in the trenches. You know, I do. And is there a conflict of interest of him now being the right hand man and being a guy that the GM and the coach probably going to lean on when he goes into other organizations? Yeah, if you are Howie Roseman or Elliott Wolfe or Brandon Bean, I understand being uncomfortable with Troy Aikman and giving him some dirt on a backup that maybe he could steal, right? Or a practice squad guy that he could tell his guys about and then they claim off, you know, your practice squad. Totally understand. But as long as he on Monday Night Football lets it rip like he always has, I don't give a shit. I truly don't. No different. Same thing with Tom Brady. Like it's it's an issue for Andy Reed or Sean Payton or Jim Harbaugh. Like I get them. But to me, if Tom Brady is calling the Eagles against the Cowboys and he's doing a good job, that's all I care about. From my vantage point of just the consumer, that's the only thing that matters. And I truly believe this and maybe some of you disagree. I truly don't believe the fans care. I really don't. Because whether they get a story from, you know, having sex or get a story from what if I pay for two nights for your family to go to the Four Seasons and get you a gift card to the nicest steak restaurant? Like I just give me the story, give me the trade, give me the information. And I think the media and a lot of traditional media people now have transitioned to the digital space, they get very offended because that's their profession. They follow or have followed the rules. I've never been a big rule follower, you know. Now, I don't think, you know, Dan Campbell's gonna try to sleep with me to give me, you know, intimate information on the Detroit Lions and his life. But I've been lucky enough to know some of these guys and have close relationships or build close relationships through this. And I'll do whatever I have to do to maintain those relationships because it's good for my business. And some of these guys, I consider friends. I like them a lot. Like I admire them as human beings. So I think some of this stuff gets lost in the TMZification of this world. And where most people are just kind of having a laugh at it. And those same people like throw on the game, no one actually cares. Before we dive to the mail bag, one thing I saw and it got me thinking is Howie in his press conference yesterday said that he thinks every single day about the first rounders that he's missed over the course of his career. And obviously he's been a GM for, if you subtract the one Chip Kelly year for 15 plus years now, right? So he's made a lot of draft selections over the course of his career. And one advantage you have when you're John Schneider, when you're less need, when you're some of these guys do have been in their position for a long period of time, you have made awful selections and you have made great selections. And you have a bank of information and then a human interaction with those players to know why this worked and why this didn't work. I say it all the time. There is no such thing as a safe traffic. You are dealing with human beings. These aren't widgets. These aren't companies with EBITDA and revenue flow and set expenses. These are human beings who are young, who ebb and flow on emotions, who ebb and flow on success and failures. Some of them have never had that many failures. It is a very difficult position to be in. But when you have done something for a long period of time that is pressure packed and very highly scrutinized, the more experience you have is a massive advantage. And I do think when the draft time comes around, you see some of these guys, like let's look at the Jets and the Cardinals. The Jets GM is the second draft. The Cardinals GM has been there for several years, has not had much success. He doesn't even have that much to go off of. You know, SpyTex in his second draft, you don't have, and there's a big difference of, well, they've been a part of multiple decades of drafts. John Eric Sullivan, the new GM for Miami. If you watch his press conference, you go, that's a high level cat. But as being the number three and number two for a long period of time in Green Bay, there is a big difference in life when you make suggestions and when you make decisions. Think about it when you're a kid. You give a lot of suggestions to your parents. We should do this. We should do that. Let's do that. And then you become a parent and you make all the decisions. Every single one in the house. Hell, when you get married, you know, you go back and forth. There are certain things she decides on, certain things you decide on. And you give suggestions on and she gives suggestions on, but ultimately it's one person's the decision maker. Ideally in certain big decisions, you come to it as a group, but most decisions in life, big ones get made by one human being, not by a group. And I just think when you look around the league, these teams that go, we've had three misses, sometimes that works to your advantage in a draft coming up, because you know what to look for and to avoid. And I'm not even just talking in the player attributes. I'm talking the person. Hey, we've, the two guys we missed on, they had these three things in common, off the field in their personality. In your write up on this guy and us bringing him in on a visit or talking to him at the combine, he reminds me a lot of that guy. And I'm not comfortable doing that. And vice versa. Hey, and sometimes some of your biggest hits can be in the second round, the third round, the fifth round. The reason that guy picked or hit and has become a pro bowler and a multiple contract guy, and one of the biggest stars in the league is because we undervalued X, Y, and Z that he brought to the table. Or maybe it wasn't like that in college, but when he got here, we fostered it, and now he brings that to the table. So, so many people have opinions on the draft, whether David Bailey will work and whether he won't work. Here's the other problem. And I talked to a lot of people in the league about this, is the transfer portal makes things a lot more complicated. Because if you talk to David Bailey, the coaches at Texas Tech, well, what are they going to tell you? They fucking love the guy. Why? He just had one of the great past rusting seasons in the history of the league, or I mean of college football. He dominated in all the production statistics, I think statistically legitimately based on his snaps and based on his production, it is the most highest level in the history of college football. But if you talk to the people at Stanford, and I did it at the combine, it's not as rosy. So, how do you balance that out? And here's the other thing, and this is, we haven't talked that much about this, is the Big 12, for example, how many offensive linemen was he going up against that are going to be in the NFL? Kansas, Kansas State, do all these teams have University of Arizona, do they have NFL tackles? You got to factor all this in, there's not a right or wrong answer. That's what makes this whole thing so difficult. So, the more experience you have, doing that job and making the selections of guys to fall back on is something that is just so advantageous come Thursday and Friday, and really Saturday as well. Saturday is a little bit more of a crapshoot, but Thursday and Friday, when you're drafted in the first and second round, those are intense picks. It's very, very serious in those rooms. It's a really big freaking deal, and getting it right comes down to getting the person right. Okay, let's dive into the mailbag. Adjohn Middlkoff, Adjohn Middlkoff, firing those DMs, questions answered here on the show. We will start with Alex. I feel like we get a lot of Alexes that listen to the show. Followed you on the old platform now on Netflix. Why do you think the type of material covered for the NFL versus the type of material covered for the NBA is so different? NFL content creators seem to be better at talking about the actual sport, while NBA creators seem to be set on talking about the storylines like it's the WWE. Has it always been like this, and am I just noticing it now that I'm older? It's a good question. We talked about this earlier on the podcast, and I think it's pretty simple. If I do a reaction to Monday Night Football, let's say there's a big Monday Night Football game, and it's the Eagles versus the Cowboys, and a bunch of other people that talk about football from Colin to Orlowski to McAfee to whoever. The amount of people that you know all watch the game, whether you're an Eagles or a Cowboys fan, or just a football fan, are watching Sirianni vs Schadenheimer, Dak vs Hertz, and you have thoughts on the plays of the game. Whether it's a play call, whether it's a stupid time out, whether it's a miss field goal, or 10 men on the field, or whatever happens throughout the game that feels really pivotal, or an individual, let's say Saquon goes off, or CD Lamb goes off, or whatever, we're all watching the game, millions upon millions upon millions of people. It's one of the rare instances in America where we all sit down and consume. In football, we all think we are offensive coordinators, or general managers, or whatever on our couch, so we all have similar opinions and thoughts, whether we agree or disagree with each other, but we're all going through those mental gymnastics. I'm a good example of someone that follows the NBA through a couple of podcasts. I listen to Wind Horse, I used to listen more to Simmons, and Rosillo, I try to listen to Simmons and Zack Lo, it just doesn't do it for me. But when they talk big picture stuff, I find it interesting. When they start breaking down rotations, I'm not watching the game so it doesn't interest me. And I think less and less people are just watching the Pistons play the magic on a Thursday night, so to break down the individual games can become very niche very fast. And I think talking big picture with the topics of basketball is the only way to keep people engaged because they're more following it through a 30,000 foot view. Where if I just found a Packer fan, right? Not only does he know a lot about his team, he watches probably a big football fan, meaning he's probably watching Thursday night football, Sunday night football, or at minimum paying attention. So he's pretty locked in how the Bears are playing, how the Niners are playing, like the other teams that they might see in the playoffs, maybe paying attention to the Chiefs and the Bills and the Broncos, like he's going to have some takes on players, on coaching, on what they're doing operationally, where I think in basketball, like what's the take to be had for a lot of people. Now there are some diehards, but I just used to watch a lot of, I mean I grew up loving the NBA, it was in the 90s, watched it through the 2000s and even through the 2010s. I just don't find the product is good, doesn't entertain me as much, so I just don't watch it. But I would say the same thing for baseball. I find the Dodgers fascinating, but I'm not watching their games. If I was listening to someone break down the fourth inning of a hit and run or them yanking a guy early, I wouldn't even resonate with me. But if you talk about like big pictures, is Dodger team the greatest team ever, is the best Dodger team ever, how great is Otani, like that kind of, I like that talk. Now can you do it every day, day in, day out for a decade straight? And I think the NBA has turned into that a little bit, right? Legacy talk, this guy versus that guy, which is gonna be really difficult. You could do it with LeBron and Steph, but it becomes a lot more challenging, like Shay's gonna win the MVP again, the Thunder, I think I know these stats from, sometimes I go on Colin and obviously they talk a lot of basketball, it's like I don't have like hardcore takes, you know? I just don't really care, it's not really the business I'm in. But in his business, like he's talking big picture shit. If we were breaking down the individual games, like he would do during football, I would be a fish out of water. But it's like, is this Thunder team interesting? And that's not really what is like the bills. Is their defensive line good enough? Right? Is the bills, have they drafted well enough? The bills, are their wide receivers good enough? Like you're talking specifics, where in basketball, most people are not doing that because the amount of people watching, it's different and it would be hard to capture an audience against a lot of other people content creating. Untraditional question for the pod, I'm a part time farmer, full time agronomic consultant in Pennsylvania. When you talk about your dad's brother's farm in California, it always brings me to smile, a smile on my face. What was your involvement in the farm as a kid? And how do you think that shaped your professional career? Well, I didn't grow up on a farm and my dad was more of the numbers guy for the farm. I wouldn't say he was out there with a shovel or fucking driving a tractor. But you know, I grew up during harvest season, going with him, spending spring breaks, driving around with him. Obviously his job, he was, you know, the farm was very close to my house and his office was, I mean, probably less than seven, eight minutes away, door to door. So it was very easy to get back and forth. I was around it a lot. And then when I was probably in junior high, if I would get in trouble, you know, at school or with him, I remember one time I got in really big trouble. And for like a week straight during the summer, I got dropped off with the hoeing crew for tomatoes. And he basically told me the first day he's like, you better bring a lunch. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, if you don't bring a lunch, you're not eating. I mean, I was in big trouble. And I just remember and like, I was thinking in my head like, fuck you, I'm gonna bring a lunch. And I just got dropped off out there at 6am. You know, this is probably 30 minutes outside of Sacramento is probably 108 degrees. And you just worked the hoeing crew for, I don't know, 10 hours straight. Luckily, the people on the crew were cool to me and it gave me some food. I didn't make that mistake the next day. And then as I got in high school, I worked it every summer, you know, from driving tractors to you know, doing all sorts of miscellaneous stuff. It was pretty evident like that wasn't my skill set. It never really interests me. I wasn't good at the things that needed to be done. Even though the stuff he was doing, there was probably more numbers based deal with banks interest me now at the time that definitely didn't interest me. And then all like the labor stuff on the ranch, I just didn't have that skill set. Like I don't bring that to the table. So I didn't bring much the table out there. I enjoyed it because I worked with the guy that ran the whole the owner of the operation son, who actually my brother now works for. And my brother is much more equipped. I'm like a white collar redneck. And my brother's got a little bit more, you know, he's much more of like a hunter and a fisher and kind of an outdoorsman, you know, drives Jeeps up in the Rubicon and Tahoe, which you know, I don't my outside operation consists of like a golf course. So it's like a specific skill set that it just I don't know for whatever reason, I never really got into it. And my brother resonated with him a lot more. But like I, you know, I remember one time, you know, technology back in the early 2000s, now my brother was telling me they had tractors, you just press a button, it's like a Tesla, you know, it just runs itself. I remember ruining a field, because I was driving this tractor, basically leveling it to then plant the tomatoes on it. And you kind of had to be careful, because the disc behind you could get one, the disc could break. And two, there could be like a basically like too much dirt could get behind it. And then you kind of get stuck. You just kind of got to look behind every once in a while, right? And I just remember it had a radio in it. I was listening to Jim Rome, like slamming a Gatorade feet up, you just kind of go long field, just kind of turn the corner. I ruined this field. The other time I was driving a bank out wagon, and the bank out wagon is basically a wagon that goes next to the harvester, which the harvester puts into the wagon, which then the wagon takes to the big semi trucks that you see driving around with tomatoes or whatever in it. And the bank out wagon can haul ass probably goes like 3040 miles an hour, but it's like this. It's enormous, you're way up in the air, it looks like kind of like a monster truck ish. And I remember backing it into this guy's car, but they were meeting like around this tree so they didn't see it. And I don't think they heard it. And I just took off. I just pretended nothing happened. And it was pretty clear when he came back, this guy's like dual cab F 150 was just indented with a V. It's like, damn, what the hell happened to your truck? It was like, it had to be me. So that was more me out there on the ranch. I would say it shaped me and still to this day. In my first year in college, I work construction, kind of like a demo crew, like that's hard work. Like that level of life, like what I do, like working long days or nights or, you know, seven days a week, like this ain't hard. Like that is hard. And I'm very, very grateful for those experiences. And I still get to be around it when I go home and go to my brother's office and just kind of see what the hell they're doing. I went to college where I went to college at Cal Poly. The ag program is massive. And a lot of the the big farmers kids all went to school there. So there was a big AGR like an ag frat, we used to hang out with a lot. And these guys now are probably running the biggest, you know, all the farms around California that, you know, when you see the GDP of California, it's like they love talking about Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Like you guys realize from Sacramento down to Bakersfield, like the farming community in terms of financially is bringing in a lot of coin, but they never really gets talked about. But it's a lot of those guys running it now. And their lives were hard because when they would go home for spring break, if you ran, you know, a massive dairy or whatever, they had to work. You know, we go home for spring break, we like went to Cabo. They, you know, if you were truly doing, you know, going to work on the farm where a lot of those people were, which I never was going to do. I'm curious to hear your take on golfers carrying long expandable golf ball achievers in their bag. It seems to me like they're usually carried by hackers who are slow enough as it is. If we can't ban them, what about making them at least count as one of the clubs in the bag? I, if you're playing with a guy, it would probably tend to be like a Muni course that has one of the golf ball pond removers in the bag. I would try to get with a different group. I, that that would be an auto no go. Like I would go back in the pro shop and be like, I'm not playing with this guy. This ain't happening. That would be my response. The other thing is like when a golf ball goes in the water and it's been there a while, even if you yank out the, you know, pro V or nice ball, it's been soaked in water. Like it ain't the same question for the pod. How do you think the Patriots will attack this draft? What are your thoughts on the dynamic of Ramon Dre and Henderson backfield? Well, I think the big question with them is, what is Vrable going to talk like is Vrable going to do a press conference on Thursday night? Because if he is, that's the, that's the number one press conference I want to see after the draft. Two would be the A.J. Brown. Like are they trading a pick for A.J. Brown? Is A.J. I was just writing down because I, I realized last week I haven't talked about Travis Hunter in that situation. We'll, we'll do that tomorrow because that was pretty interesting to me last week. I think Trevion Henderson could be a really, really good player. Is he ever going to be like Jamir Gibbs or something? I don't know about that, but I think we saw flashes down the second half of the season, that explosive speed in the open field, utilize him in that offense, which is obviously extremely difficult to learn with Josh. Once you get a better grasp of that, I could see him being a monster. I'm very high in Henderson. You know, I think, I think a lot of the question marks with the Patriots are, is Will Campbell going to get more technically sound, which a lot of, like, offensive linemen believe he needs to do? Does A.J. Brown end up on their team? And, I mean, anytime you're drafting at the end of the round, I mean, they're probably not going to come out of this with that many impactful players. Hey, John, know you're a big lover of marquee events. And with the World Cup right around the corner, here's a couple decently priced teams that I think has a win come June. Japan 55-1. They can win their group and have a favorable path to the final. I'll be honest, I don't know much about the Japanese roster, though I was just talking to a guy in the sauna maybe like two weeks ago who just got back from Japan. And every time I talk to someone that goes to Japan, I think to myself, I want to go to Japan. I'm not a huge, I'll be honest, I don't need to travel that much. Like, hey, I like where I live. I'm not huge in hopping on planes and like flying all over to Europe. Like, that's not how I fill my cup. But I really want to go to Japan. And that is the destination that I want to attack over the course of the next, I don't know, decade. Uruguay 65-1. They have World Cup prestige and a very underrated squad. Brazil at plus 750. They're not even in the top four in betting odds and have the best coach and attorney alongside a very solid defense. And I can't really add much there. I would say Brazil, plus 750 feels pretty good. Here's what I know, and I'm not going to fall for this, is when we lose and we go 0-2-1 in group play and then don't advance, and everyone's like, things got to change. Guys, things are never changing. We're never going to be as good as these other people. We don't prioritize it. We don't care about it. We clearly don't cultivate the talent here. Just, unlike the WBC or our hockey team, my expectations for our team would be like, they score a goal. I'll give them a thumbs up. My expectation is 0-Zilch. I have a hard time closing my eyes and in what's the farthest Japan has ever made it in the World Cup. Because it's like, can you close your eyes and see Japan win over Italy, Spain, Brazil? But I do like those tasty odds. Management. Hands on learning with cutting edge facilities, including the Cannington AirQuine Centre and National College for Nuclear. Register now for our next event, Wednesday the 29th of April from 6 until 8pm. Search UCScollegeGroup.ac.uk. How do you evaluate John Lynch? The last couple years I feel like the Niners, Drafts and Signings have been big misses. Does he need a great draft class to keep him off the hot seat? Geez, you're putting John, he just, they were sitting the second round of the playoffs. I think the thing with John Lynch, and I get told this by a lot of people in the NFL, and Kawakami, who covers the 49ers, talked about this. I was talking to another GM that knows the 49ers pretty well, and he says John's number one job is to handle Kyle. I don't even know what that specifically means, I just know Kyle's a lot. He's a lot on his coaches, he's an intense, he's just a lot. And John's skill set of like, Kyle couldn't work with most GMs. This ain't Andy Reid. His personality is a little different. And I think John's skill set to handle the star coach is extremely valuable. And not to diminish anything that John does in the front office, Kyle, a lot of the draft picks, like the two defensive linemen, the second rounder last year Collins from Texas, that was Robert Soligay. The coaches have a lot of juice in the 49er land. At what point do you think there will be an 18th game? And how does it affect the start time of the season? My guess would be in the next five years. So I would say the over-under would be like two and a half seasons. So this is 26, 27, I'd say somewhere 28, 29, I think we're there. I think my guess would be the start time would be the same, the season would just go longer. Could be wrong. I guess they could start a week earlier. But my guess would be start time similar, kind of that first weekish in September, and just go to the end and just push it back. So you go even deeper. And that way you can push the combine back, you can push the draft back, and you can just put the whole flow of the season because OTAs mean a lot less now. So my guess is season starts, similar time, it just goes a week longer. I've been hearing consistently that Wemby is the freak of the NBA, and Ohtani is the freak of baseball. Who's that guy for the NFL? Who would fit that bill? I don't think there is anybody. I mean, I don't think there's a comparable to either one of those guys. I think there are a lot of freaks in the NFL, Miles Garrett, Trent Williams, you know, Sonny Stiles about to come into this league, right? You have a lot of guys that are physical freak outliers, DK Beckhaff, right? But I don't think there's one guy who's clearly the best player and biggest freak currently. That's the best part of the NFL. There's a lot of them. Good question though. Question for the bag. Might be a long one. I heard you mention Rice on the podcast the other day and I read a headline recently where he said to an interviewer he thinks that he deserves JSN money. Of course, any realistic football fan knows in no world does Rice deserve anywhere close to that type of money, but his headline made me start thinking about how allegedly, physically, allegedly abused a girlfriend. The NFL closes its investigation and dismissed it. This also made me think of how he crashed into the back of a family minivan on a crowded highway while racing with his friends and he leave multiple people injured. Ohtani was caught on dashcam footage running off from the scene. After the NFL investigated that incident, he got six game suspension. How does a player with so many public incidences get so much slack from the NFL? I think it's pretty simple. I think the NFL years ago wanted to get out of like we don't want to be the judge and jury on everything. Like that is when you crash into somebody or there's an issue with a female. Like that's on the court. That's on the judicial system. We're in business here and our business is to make money and grow. If a guy's getting trouble, it's on the judicial system to figure did this happen, did it not happen? That's on the cops, the detectives, the lawyers, and if like he's not going to jail, is that the NFL's problem? I mean, it sounds like John. Not really. You know, if I get a DUI and I work for a company, does that impact me at all? If they don't know about it or if they do know about it? I don't know. You tell me because I mean, I've never got a DUI and I don't work for your typical like, you know, corporation. But like if I get a DUI and I work at Apple, do I get suspended? Obviously, if you get a domestic abuse and you're beating your wife or girlfriend, you're probably getting fired if your company finds out about it. But if you get an incident and you tell your employer like, this did not happen, and then it comes out, nothing happens to you and the case gets dismissed, you're probably not going to get fired because you'd have a legal recourse to sue your company. Would be my guess. I've never been involved in any situations. But why is it the NFL's job to suspend someone if the judicial system does nothing? Now, you could also argue the judicial system is when you have money, you have a huge advantage. I'd say the number one advantage that's always been to take a mind walking into a courtroom is like, if you're poor, good luck. If you're rich, huge advantage to you. You're walking in the courtroom with Jordan and Pippin going into an NBA game. That's kind of the way it works. And I just think the NFL is just like, we don't want the he said she said, it's just we don't want to be in that business. And I'm with you on some of these crashes, but I don't know. I mean, I just don't think the NFL wants to deal with it. And if you're not getting in trouble, they just kind of give you minimum games because you've tarnished a headline, but it's not I don't think they care that much. Do not go to the NFL or any of these pro leagues for setting the moral standard for society. That's not the business or the world they're in. They do not care. Truly, they can pretend they do not care. And I'd argue they probably shouldn't. That's not the business they're in. Well, they have a lot of impact on the youth. It's on their parents to teach them life lessons. Not on fucking cow Shanahan, Sean McVeigh and Josh Allen. Definitely not Roger Dell. He doesn't care. Week before the draft, is there a chance there's already a handshake deal between AJ Brown to the paths and some picks. I think a lot of deals get loosely put in place. And you hear about this after there's like a big trade in the first round that we had talked about this on Monday or Tuesday. But there's no, you know, part of a handshake deal is there's no guarantee. When we signed something, like if I signed a player to a contract, he's on my team. Or if I trade you and it goes into the league and everyone signs off on it, it's done. But a handshake deal is like those can fall through. So I'm sure they've had a lot of conversation. And now it's just going to come down to is anyone going to pull the trigger? But I think there's already been this is what we're willing to offer. Are you willing to accept the offer? Doesn't that happen a lot with most business deals? So I would tend to say, yes, there's probably loose negotiations and whether they're far apart or not. You know, we don't have a Racini on the beat anymore. So I don't know. Jay Mac on the herd said that Kubiak is upgrading going from Darnold to Mendoza. Is that the consensus around the league? I feel like Darnold is a prospect and a player is superior. Sam Darnold was a better prospect coming out of college than Fernando Mendoza. And here's the thing. Fernando Mendoza has not played an NFL game. I like Fernando Mendoza and I think he's going to be good in Kubiak's offense. Two years ago, Sam Darnold threw 35 touchdowns on a team that won 14 games. And then last year was the starting quarterback on a team that won the Super Bowl. And it had an NFC championship game against Matt Safford where he was excellent. So like a prospect, we could debate Mendoza as a prospect, but that's what he is. Sam Darnold is an NFL starter who's currently underpaid. We hope Mendoza turns into that. Now, the power of hope and the unknown is real. Right? It's like this draft class in the NBA, AJ DeBonsa, it's like, well, yeah, if he turns into Tracy McGrady or if the dude, what's his name on Arkansas, turns into Kyrie Irving or Chris Paul, it's fucking awesome. But what if he doesn't? What if he never makes an All-Star team? A cuff, right? He might be Jared Goff, but he might not be. That's part of the draft. There is no guarantee that Fernando Mendoza is going to be a good NFL player. None. Do I think he will be? I do. Would I bet my life on it? 100% no. I wouldn't bet my life on any draft prospect ever. We have way too many examples. So I would say that they hope Fernando Mendoza in a couple years is as good, is 75% as good as Sam Darnold is now because if they do a good job building up a team, they'll go to the playoffs. This guy sent me a picture and this kind of has gone viral that Rory McElroy won the Masters twice since the last time the New York Jets got an interception. At what point does Justin Jefferson get beyond frustrated with his quarterback situation? I know he's been an ideal teammate in a good sport so far, given the ups and downs, but I cannot see another year with poor quarterback play and believe he will remain He has to believe he is the best in the league and we have not seen any Diva out of him, but I think another crap quarterback year could bring the Diva out. I think the Vikings need to draft a running back in day two of the draft. I've heard this is a bad running back draft. I mean, obviously Jeremiah loves Sweet, but most people say the next best prospect who is explosive returner, good player out of the backfield, price the other running back from Notre Dame, then I think a lot of guys are not viewed as like top 100 players. This is not one of those drafts where there's like Quinchon Junkins and Travion Henderson's in the draft. So I would not, for my people that have been banging the bushes, watching a lot of the running backs, not a great draft. I would say with Justin Jefferson, it's naturally a Diva position because you're on an island, you then become a star when you're good, but you also are very dependent on someone else. So if it's not working, the thing that's not working makes you look bad even though you're balling. Right? Last year, he's running all around in JJ McCarthy, can't hit water if he's in a boat. So I would say this is a big year. I don't like the Vikings this year. I'm out on the Vikings. Like I think it's not going to go well. Not because I don't think Kevin O'Connell is good. Not because Justin Jefferson is on a star. I just think that they got some question marks with the roster. The division is good. And I just can't see this Kyle Murray experiment going. And I think if it starts slow, I think it could get weird. And I know they went nine and eight, but at one point last year, they were four and eight. So I think this season could get really weird really fast. And anytime a wide receiver, most people are not Larry Fitzgerald. They just put a smile on their face and are like the ultimate teammates. Most wide receivers, worst case scenarios like Torello and or Antonio Brown, but a lot of guys become somewhere in the middle. Larry Fitzgerald all-time outlier. Things will get really ugly. He just kept smiling his face. Justin Jefferson, I think, would have a hard time doing that. There were moments last year where you could tell he was frustrated. I didn't even blame him. Then I met him at the Super Bowl just high level dude. Justin Jefferson is really impressive. But yeah, I mean, if this doesn't go well, the Viking, I think the Vikings could get weird. I think the Vikings could. They don't have a general manager. Who knows if they're going to hire one after the draft. I know they've kind of said they might, but who knows. And it's Kevin O'Connell making all the draft picks. They do have a good, you know, having Kevin O'Connell and Flores obviously can carry you a long way. But I don't know. I just think you get the caps a little off. They've missed on a bunch of draft picks because Questy was terrible. I think I might get my gut sitting here right now. Maybe things change. Vikings could get really weird this year. On booking.com, it's easy to book your holiday home. And thanks to flexible cancellation, there's no more lodges or book folks. Oh, Kaz and Robert coming now. With booking.com, you're free to be flexible. Oh, easy. So you can go from home to holiday home with no dramas. Bigger place booked. On booking.com, finding a holiday home is easy. And relax. Booking.com, booking.com. Yeah. Terms apply available on selected properties. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.