NFL Combine Quotes That Could Haunt Coaches and GMs

Hey-o, welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast. Dan Hanses with Mark Sessler. It's our thing. Well, we can't do it alone. That's why Connor Orr is here. That's why Justin Graver is here on the ones and twos. The fearsome foursome. That's strong. I'll modify that. There are four of us. Welcome to another show. You know, this is Combine Week. And, Connor, you put it well right before we started. So I want your thoughts on this first. I look at this day in particular and tomorrow, you know, the press conferences for the coaches and GMs. And it's not just on the platforms. It's also the side gangbangs with the local reporters on what comes out of there and what comes out of the whiskey-drenched steakhouses of the next couple of nights, any storylines or discussion points. But anyway, if you look at the NFL season, and especially like when I say season, 2026 season, which doesn't start for months and months, but many of the subplots, if you look at this as a big pot of stew, and it's now boiling up, we're thrown in the ingredients. Like, what are we going to be talking about, like it or not, for the next six months leading to real football? And it all kind of starts, the ground zero is at the Combine still. And it's hard, too, because Justin will know this, but like Brian Callahan, for example, a couple Combines ago was like, I'm going to build a fast, physical football team. And then when the Titans are like 1-13, the beat reporter goes, do you feel like this is a fast and physical football team? and then the guy wants to slam his head in a... It sounds like you got Koharskied there. Am I mistaken there? You are not mistaken. I remember that. And it was Koharski. Old Crank Hog. Koharski, up to his old tricks. Crank Hog. But this combine in particular, I've noticed that GMs and coaches, at least so far in the press conferences, seem very unafraid of providing sound bites that are going to make them look horrendously stupid in about four months. God bless them. I'm all here for it. Yeah, I'm taking notes. Well, we have more first-time head coaches than most any year and first-time GMs and their experiences watching other people do this. And I think you've got to grab the attention because the one thing that's changed about the combine, the schedule would shift from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and you'd be stuck there until Friday morning watching people talk. And I think they want to get this thing into a one-day coach's breakfast type of mishmash. It almost all happened today. If you look at the schedule that's out there, there's a little dotting of coaches and jams tomorrow and the day after. But it's almost all today. And so maybe it's your only chance to speak, grab the headline. But I think the combine's changing in terms of how much accessibility they want to give officially. Yeah, I wonder how much the very uncertain nature of NFL Network in its current state, if that maybe plays into it at all in terms of how they budget things and how they want to set this up and where they want to move things around as they get to the underwear Olympics this weekend. But yeah, I do love like God bless these coaches and GMs. They all have very healthy egos. And it's like last season, it was the equivalent of playing Madden and you make it to the Super Bowl. And then the computer decides like, no, you're not going to win this game. You're down 38-14 in the fourth quarter. So you just hit reset and just like, OK, let's try this again. And once you hit that reset button, you wipe away any self-doubt or like self-loathing or any thought that you don't have the utmost abilities to build your organization into a champion. So out tumbles from your mouth incredible amounts of optimism and confidence. And then, yeah, we get to Kaharski them throughout the year. So nice. When the secret, though, is always and it's miraculous. Like this is true in politics. It's true in business. It's true in sports. The secret is always like a humility where you acknowledge the situation and you don't just try to plow through it with like obnoxious platitudes. And yet for decades, like only like a very small number of people can foster that power and use it effectively. I'm trying to think, are there notable figures in the last 25 years that were masters of their domain in that regard? Guys that just always kind of hit the right notes, didn't create mass hysteria, never put their feet in their mouth. In the NFL versus beyond. NFL, yeah. In this type of platform. I know as much as we all got on Belichick, Belichick only gave you exactly what he wanted to give you, which was often nothing. I would say Sean Payton has gotten pretty good at this, but then he has his quarterback getting on his ass for revealing medical details. that was a unforced error by Sean Payton. How about I'm like not, I've often visibly hung over at these pressers, which may help tone down some of the energy, but I thought John Elway never really had a massive misstep where he kind of blew up the Broncos. It's like, it's John Elway. I'm cooler than you to begin with. Yes, I have 48 whiskeys in my bloodstream from the night before, but I'm not going to create a media meltdown. Yeah, and he strategically always was last, latest in the afternoon, last up, when maybe a lot of people have already kind of moved on from that portion of the press conference. And also, Elway, I think Elway really took advantage of, he became like the team builder there. They got into that Super Bowl 50 window with Peyton Manning. Then the defense got great. And then he was able to coast for three or four years until they were like, I don't think John's actually any good at this. We're going to have to get rid of him. And this is going to be awkward because he's John Elway on the Denver Broncos. But there was a lot of coasting for Elway, I think, from Super Bowl 51 through 56 until they they brought in what I think General Patton wasn't. Yeah. Bruce Arians is another good one. I always. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, good stuff. So let's dig into it. We got a lot to get through. Why don't we start with quarterback stuff? Got to hit it. And who are the big quarterback teams? Well, one of them, obviously, is the Miami Dolphins general manager, John Eric Sullivan, the old hyphenated first name. Where do we come down on that? Low. Don't love it. Unnecessary. Just don't expect me. When you do something like that, you're not guaranteeing that I'm going to call you both. And I know that you want it to be called both because it's like a rhythmic thing and it's like Southern or whatever. but I might call you John or Jonathan. Yeah. And on top of it, and you're going to hit me with a, a non-traditional spelling in this case, J O N like don't expect me to get that. The only person who I think cracks the code here is of course, Michael Sean Dugar, just masterpiece. But he's iconic. I mean, that's like Prince. It's different. Yeah. I'm cool with it when it's, I mean, it traditionally was female, like Annie May comes walking down the street. Like we're not questioning the hyphenated name there as much, but when it's a guy in modern society, like one of the, like, I know, I know. Mark doesn't understand modern naming. So you mean you feel like Anne Marie has gotten a pass while a John Eric gets buried in a big spot. You know, I think he's, I think it's fair if he is, I don't know about buried, but like, I think it's fair that we question how that came to be. But yeah, I said to Justin, we were going to get right into things today. So let's do it. Let's plow ahead. John Eric Sullivan, the GM of the Dolphins. Tua, they have a major issue with Tua. You know it by now. I'm not going to belabor it, but he has a ton of money owed on an extension signed in 2024. He's no longer appears to be in the franchise's future, and they have to figure out what the hell they're going to do about it. Here's a little bit about what they may or may not do with their one-time franchise passer. As it pertains to Tua, I know that question is coming, so I'll just get ahead of the curve. We've had conversations with Tua and his representation. Everything's on the table, including the potential of a trade. We don't know which way that's going to go. There's a lot of different factors at play, a lot of conversations being had. But evaluating the roster, Quinn did a nice job towards the end of the year. excited about what's ahead for him. No, you're not. Two, I thought, even though things didn't go well at the end of the year, did some good things along the way. And it's my job to infuse competition into that room along with every other room as we go down the road. All right, John-Eric, pretty good answer there. A follow-up then is Malik Willis. Now, why is he asking about Malik Willis? Well, if you didn't know, John-Eric was an employee of the Green Bay Packers, starting as a football operations assistant way back in 2004, all the way until last season when he was the vice president of player personnel. Malik Wills, of course, shined in limited duty as Jordan loves backup. Maybe that guy comes to Miami. Thoughts? As it pertains to the Miami Dolphins, listen, I think I'd be lying to you. Any team that is potentially in a quarterback situation, a needy quarterback situation, If they tell you they're not talking about Malik Willis, that would be a lie. But we've talked about a lot of people, a lot of free agents. Malik's just one of them. We have no idea what that's going to look like in our room. Is it going to be multiple draft picks? Is it going to be a free agent along with Quinn? Who knows? We have so many factors at play. We've got a lot of decisions to make as we move through the next couple weeks. But I wish Malik the best. A lot of like for the human being. He's a great kid. Thoughts? I mean, the coach and the GM know him. That leads to more information on how to use him. He's the number one free agent, I would argue, in terms of the fact that I'd always put a quarterback. Well, I think it's not an illustrious free agent class, but in a year where you can't get a quarterback like Malik Willis, is he being overvalued? He's being valued at least by these two guys that know him from inside the building. No, I guess I just mean if that is, I haven't really dug into all the different free agent lists out there, but if Malik Wills is number one on those type of lists, that is a sorry, sorry state of affairs where we're at. And that's not me saying that I don't think Malik Wills can turn into a player in this league, but given his very limited sample size, Connor, it just more speaks to a reminder. It's very difficult to find your answer at this possession in free agency to the point where someone and multiple teams are probably going to want to give Malik Wills a lot of money based on what, like 12 and a half quarters of game film last season? And somebody's going to give Kirk Cousins a fully guaranteed contract, and somebody's going to call the Texans and beg them to trade them C.J. Stroud, even though I guess they probably won't. Somebody's going to do, like, the desperation here. The Steelers are waiting with bated breath for Aaron Rodgers. Like, how are we back here in this state and point in time? But the fact that the Dolphins are here specifically and uniquely and the fact that I actually give John hyphen Eric credit a lot of John hyphen Eric a lot of credit here because I thought that he did as good of a job of saying in plain English like there's no way this guy is going to be on our roster next year. Right. I mean, and I think that there was a level of honesty there and realism there. And the fact that he is there is exactly why the like they're depending on this awful free agency class to fill a room that's completely devoid of talent. That's the situation where you have to hire a new general manager. And I was a little dismissive, perhaps, of Quinn yours. But I don't know. Sometimes you just know. But he has to say it. He has to say it like this guy's he's in the room because he is in their conversation. in a conversation that is bleak because of the situation they put themselves in when they paid Tua and then immediately almost regretted it. Justin wasn't doing the hook'em thing for a while, and I was like, is everything all right with him? Because normally that's like he trips up. Go ahead, Justin. Jump in and vouch for Quinn Ewers as the answer in Miami. Go ahead. Right. 30 seconds. I didn't jump in right away because I'm not sold on Quinn Ewers as the answer for anyone. Hook them, though. I don't know if I've ever heard you speak at all, critically, of a University of Texas football player. So that should be telling to the audience. Right. I even jumped in to say hook them quickly for Justin Tucker recently. So, like, yeah. Yeah, we got to. Where's the limit? We haven't found the limit. There is a boundary line, yes. For some of us. Most of us. But not all of us. In other news, let's check in with the Cardinals, of course. GM Monte Austin for, Oh, we have this wrong in the rundown. They, they fired Monte Austin for it. Oh, they didn't. No, he's. Oh, they didn't. No, no. Really? He spoke today. Now, should they have? You're joking. He spoke today. He is still employed by the Cardinals. Was that, was that an oversight? Is that a corporate over? Is it, they put them on the plane and everything. They put them on the plane from. This is, you know what this is like? Somebody I'd like to have on the show, former SI reporter, Everywhere Reporter, Jeff Perlman, who told the great story of People Magazine, their most beautiful people magazine list. And they once wanted to give Rich Gannon of the then Kansas City Chiefs a spot as the most beautiful man in sports or whatever. But there was a mix up with a photographer. So they instead the photographer sought out Elvis Gerback, who was significantly less beautiful to be kind than Rich Gannon, a legitimate hunk. Right. So once they realized the error and they got the photo proofs back, they were like, we we can't back out on this. So they just ran it with Gerback as the most beautiful NFL player alive. That's what I think happened with the Cardinals. I think they forgot to fire Monte Austin for it. And they were like, is this going to look really bad and be embarrassing if we fire him now? So they're just rolling. Anyway, here he is talking about Kyler Murray and the QB room to start his availability at the NFL combine. You know, I know I know a lot of you're going to be on top of your mind is our quarterback situation. So, you know, here's what I would say is I've said before, I'd say all options are on the table for us. OK, we got Kyler, Jacoby, Keaton all under contract. as it pertains to that position, as it pertains to every position on our team. We're going to look at every avenue to improve, and we're going to continue and go through our process with that. Can I just say one quick, two quick looks items. I'm looking at Elvis Gerback from that shoot. Here's the thing, looks-wise, I mean, neck up like a solid 6.5 out of 10. But we're talking about a big-bodied NFL quarterback as well, So that adds points to it. But I think he's got to know in his mind, he had to be wondering, like, if someone told me I was the hottest blogger or podcaster in the country, I'd be like, something's not right here. Like, I know I'm not. Like, did Elvis Gerbeck know I'm not the hottest athlete in the realm? I mean, by the way, it was it was world sexiest athlete in 1998. You know, he I'm sure I'm sure he was surprised. But then was like, yeah, my wife says I'm hot. So like, yeah, one of those things, you know, it would be cool to slip into thinking that's true. But like, yeah, I would struggle with that. And I don't know who I don't know if it was Perlman who actually broke the news or if it leaked out and became like the stuff of lore. But if I was going to go through with it, putting him as the cover boy there, they should have kept that thing in the vault because then you just make them look really bad. It's a really embarrassing story for the guy, you know. But anyway, that's that's Sports Illustrated in a nutshell. You know what I'm saying, Connor? It's people don't drag Sports Illustrated. Oh People Magazine Yeah Don drag us into this I sorry I apologize You right It was People Magazine World sexiest SI would never do something In a million years Not on an annual basis. So despicable. So despicable. They, SI, would never objectify anyone. Make sure you get the swimsuit issue. I was going to say once a year. Once a year. All right. Let's, anyway, shout out to Elvis Gerbach. They can't take it away from you. They can mock you deeply after the fact, but they can never take away what happened in that 1998 issue of People magazine. But back to Cardinals news here. Yeah, so Ossenfort says all options are on the table. And, you know, we'll see what Mike LaFleur thinks about all of this. But he did say, he said at the Combine that Murray Kyler was always a problem, referring to his time facing him for other teams. I know the defensive coordinators I worked with facing Murray wasn't fun. It wasn't a fun week for them. A lot of respect for him as a player. And that is, Mark, that's coach speak. That's deeply coded for this time of year. He's a good player. He's a great player. But I'm not going to tell you what I think of him, whether I want him on my team, which is telling that that's not what he's saying. They probably want to turn the page if they can. It's different to me than Tua from money on down. I do wonder if John Harbaugh rolls into Team X, he's got undeniable control. Mike LaFleur, who looks about 22 years old, is in a first-time role here with an established meaning only that he was there in the GM and the ownership on down. They might want to just get rid of Kyla Murray. But part of my question would be, like, Connor, like, why, if you hire Mike LaFleur, isn't there some belief that at least for this season that we find out what he can do with Kyler Murray, who at his ceiling has played really, really well in a quarterback market that is absolutely dead unless the organization is done with the person? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great question. And I don't know the answer to that. Like, it would be interesting to go through their interview process and to talk to some of the candidates who have who interviewed there and didn't get that job. Like, what was the tenor of that interview? Was it that we need to make this work with Kyler? Because everything that came out after the Cardinals hired LaFleur was like, we're pretty much assuming that he's not going to be here. And so was that the tenor of the interview or are the Cardinals just really sitting pat and, you know, keeping their options open, hoping that they're blown away by someone in the draft, hoping they get an offer for Kyler? I don't know. I mean, this could just be one of those situations where you're trying to stay so painfully neutral because you don't know what's going to happen and you don't know how the market's going to develop. And here's the other part of it, because everyone's always going to wonder whether the Cardinals are done with Kyler as a person because of some of the melodrama in the past, specifically his previous contract that had the video game clause and the whispers about, you know, his passion and his desire to be a true number one quarterback. They could also just be flat out watching the tape and be done with him as a player. And if you look at a lot of his advanced metrics and just as straight up statistics, he has declined heavily as a player in addition to his injury issues. So you put it all together and it's just not a great look. And you can understand why someone like Milf, Mike LaFleur, would look at everything in front of him and be like, man, I got this. I got a job. I'm a head coach in the NFL. I would love to have a fresh start and figure this out in a different way because I don't believe in this guy. And we don't know if that's where he stands, but his decision not to vouch for him on any level, I thought, is telling. One thing that I've just enjoyed about both of these, by the way, is both Monty Awesome Ford and John Eric Sullivan both noted that they anticipated the question. And they were just like, I knew I was going to get asked about this. It's like, do you want points for expecting to be asked about the biggest question mark on your team? Is that supposed to make you seem savvy or well-prepared? I mean, that is just like if you didn't expect that and someone was like, what are you going to do with Tua? And you were sitting there like, holy shit, I don't know. I mean, you'd be an idiot, right? Yeah. In other quarterback news, the Houston Texans, they're in a pickle. They have an issue. GM Nick Casario has a very, very good team in many ways, a championship ready team. But now they might have a problem at quarterback because C.J. Stroud has not developed as anyone expected after his explosive rookie year. And yet on Tuesday in Indianapolis, Nick Casario dug in in terms of his support of Stroud. He told reporters that the thought of a trade of C.J. Stroud was, quote, moronic, said he's not going anywhere. And let's listen to a little bit more. Yeah, he's our quarterback. He ain't going anywhere. We have a lot of confidence, a lot of belief. I mean, I'd say the philosophy that D'Amico and I have, we're going to support our players and do everything we can to kind of help them. And no loss. I mean, look, the stock market's been going down for five days, so everybody's probably panic selling. So, you know, really what you're doing is you're investing more. But anyways, we have a lot of confidence in CJ. We've got a lot of confidence in our players, and I'm glad he's our quarterback. He's got to tag that with, this is not investment advice, and he didn't do that. So got him. Yeah. File this one under the lady doth protest too much, but also file this under there are a bunch of top 50 free agents articles out there that have literally Malik Willis is number one. Like I get it. I get why Connor, I get why if you're the Texans, you were as disappointed with CJ Stroud's performance as anyone, especially in the playoffs. But you're probably thinking we're better off trying to fix this guy. and give him slightly different coaching and maybe better surrounding talent than give up on him and just dive into the waters with someone that's probably not going to be an upgrade or it could be even worse. I'm going to push back on this because I think it's the perfect time to do it, right? Because if you think about where you are as an organization and how you're set up as a team, you took two of those guys in the top five of whatever that was, the 2023 draft. So you're going to have to sign Will Anderson to the top edge rusher contract on the market at the same time as you're signing C.J. Stroud to presumably at least Brock Purdy contract as the floor. And if he has a decent season next year, you know, something much higher than that, 60 plus million dollars a year, that is going to completely hamstring. And it's a good problem to have, but it's going to completely hamstring your setup. Whereas right now it's a down market. And you look at teams like the Steelers and Mike McCarthy, who could use like a sturdy dropback quarterback, you could still probably get two first round picks for him. And like, you know, how much worse, how much worse? This team was three and O when Davis Mills was starting last year. And I'm not saying that they're comparable as players, but like when you're a defense forward organization, you're thinking about things that when you want to run the ball and You want to control the clock. Like, do you even need CJ Stroud? And if you're not sure, you're going to hold on to him and you're going to have to pay him. I don't know. I think this is a perfect time to let him go. But I'm a moron. I don't know. It feels I get where you're coming from. But I don't think it's a guarantee selling low on CJ Stroud in a good market, though, that you get two first round picks for him. I just don't know if you get that. And do you sell him at a devalued price if it's less than that? when I think one of these things that we kind of look at, it's like, oh, he had eight picks and 19 touchdowns and blew up in the playoffs. And it's like, maybe move on. To move on to Davis Mills, sure. Until four games into Davis Mills, we realize, wait a minute, there's a reason we replaced this guy. But I just think that there's a human side too, where inside the building, the front office that picked him and the coaching staff that's been with him day after day seem to believe in him. Like he's a puzzling quarterback because of what's happened to him, rollercoaster ride. but like do you really like i'd want my team to trade for him no matter what's happened i would so don't you think most teams would want to trade for him well yeah i would say if he ended up a free agent which he's not going to be but if he did he'd probably be the number one free agent in this class right like hundred percent people would and and from the texans perspective they're like this guy's 25 years old we don't have to pay him yet right you can kick the can here you pick up his fifth year option you could kick the can here and maybe we could fix him because it's not like he suffered connor any type of catastrophic knee injury or some reason why he he's not the guy that he is it's they're probably thinking there's doubts there has to be doubts now but it's like if he showed it to us once why can't we get him back there again or we can get kirk cousins or we could trust davis mills like it's you know it's a sticky wicket as duck phillips would say yeah i'm I'm just saying, you know, and maybe I'm feeling sensitive about it. Just don't call it moronic. Like if the Pittsburgh Steelers call and say two first round picks, yeah, like and then go get Kirk Cousins for $15 million. Well, I agree with that. I mean, you should pick up the phone with all due respect to Jamal Adams. You should pick up the phone and see what people are willing to offer. But if you're going to offer me a two and a three for CJ Stroud, I'm going to say, you know what? I'm going to stand pat and give this guy another year. Yeah, and also in a league of like the reclamation quarterback where we're going to dump C.J. Stroud after just a number of years where there have been, you know, coordinator play caller changes, offensive line issues, a lot of injuries at wide receiver injuries at a running back scenario where there is not there's not been a good ground game. Like he's not put into the perfect situation. So do you dump him now and he goes wins two playoff games somewhere else next season? I don't know. Then you look egg on your face at that point. You know what you look? Moronic. Moronic. You're the morons. Let's take a break, and we will continue on. All right, we are back. It is, of course, it is, of course, Combine Week in the NFL. I thought before we go back into the news, it would be a fun little exercise to get in the DeLorean and see what were the big headlines that came out of the Combine in 2025. and I thought that could help maybe inform us or educate us, you know, the things that we're all hot and bothered about right now, whether they matter or not. Did it turn out to be a big subplot in the season? Justin, do you have something that could help us, a little roadmap from last February? All right, here we go. Here were the big headlines. NFL team submits proposal to ban the tush push. The play made most famous by the Eagles is a short yardage quarterback sneak in which he's shoved forward by teammates from behind. Funny how that's not as big piece of the discourse when the Eagles weren't a big time team this year. I don't sense there's a lot of momentum around this one this year. Is that... None. Is that fair to say? 22 teams voted for it a year ago. So the Eagles are not infallible on this play and so everyone runs away? I would imagine if the Eagles ran it back as champions again, probably it would be gone, but the Eagles stumbling now. Maybe that's not a big thing. Anyway, source colon, Miles Garrett not open to Brown's extension amid trade ask. That's right, Mark. We were in the middle of Miles wants out until the Browns cut him a check with many, many zeros on it. Yeah, I mean, it's funny that a year later, I still think for where that team is, this would be an incredibly forward thinking concept, not just because you two are annoyed at his poetry. I don't love his poetry, by the way. I went back and listened to that. Not thrilled with the fact that he's not talented in that regard? Nope, but it's like I've never seen any poetry for him where it doesn't rhyme. And I think the next level avant-garde poets from yesteryear don't even consider that. It's all imagery and weirdness. And that would be the next move for the girlfriend thing. But another team could maybe take that on if the Browns could get a franchise-changing, multiple first-round pick Hall form. A year later, they seem more dug in than ever. But for the purposes of this exercise, I think it's good to point out that Miles Garrett was not open to a Browns extension at mid-trade ask. So think about maybe the pass rusher in Las Vegas right now, Max Crosby and Trey Hendrickson, guys that it seems like they want to get the hell out of Dodge or whatever, and maybe they'll stay because money talks. And the weirdest thing is that Miles Garrett was told, here's our plan at quarterback, and that's what won him over. And a year later, like, I'm sorry, what was that plan? Like, I'll leave it there. We could sniff through that now in retrospect, right? That's all bullshit. He just got the most money ever for a defensive player. And he was like, ah, f*** it. That was your quarterback. Ah, f*** it. It's like, actually, Miles, this is going to hurt us in our ability to bring in another quarterback. Wait, can I see that check again? We're good. I don't hate on him. I'd be the same. I like Dylan Gabriel just as much as you do. Let's see. Bengals Tobin. Jamar Chase will be NFL's top paid non-QB. T. Higgins contract. All right, there you go. That all played out. How about Giants GM Joe Shane? Happy for Saquon Barkley. Defends New York's decision to let star running back walk. Well, that's obviously, you look at that, what a disaster that was. And that's why Joe Shane was fired, as he should have been in January. and the Giants have moved on with an entire new regime. You've got to make the right moves. The Tiffany franchise is back on its feet and making the right moves. What? I don't know. You've done it again. What? You're in the reality we should be in, potentially. With what? With the career of Joe Shane, who remains firmly seated in Giants. Just looking to close the door in the bit. I just needed you to say it, Mark. Thank you. Joe Shane's still there. Unbelievable. I have one little other thing. I was thinking about when we used to go to the Combine, you write 14 articles a day, and we were with Wes, our great friend, who had really never been to the Combine before and got tagged with what I think was one of the more explosive middle-of-the-day reports, if we can put this up, Justin. this is this was mike petten um up at the podium when whispers and word came down that the browns and petten got asked about this i believe had pursued jim harbaugh before hiring him and west had got put in this happened west all the time one of those things were drop everything go write a massive in feature on this basically and west just disappeared and sweat and like annoyance and waiting to drink beers later that night but put out i read this article today he did an incredible job with this breaking news. But this was one of the bigger combine, explosive combine items that I don't think happens if you aren't at the combine, reporting-wise. You mentioning Wes, and any type of road trip reminds me of Damoshek. And Shek had this long-running bit. You're not going to believe it, but Shek had a long-running bit where anytime we were traveling with Wes, he would affect the Wes voice and be like, what's the deal with all these skyscrapers? Oh, man, look at all these city slickers in their three-piece suits. And Wes would just laugh and scratch his head. That's not me. All right, back to quarterback talk. Back on subject. Back where we need to be. The Steelers back with Aaron Rodgers. Is it possible? Speaking of moronic, I don't know. Again, Malik Willis, number one free agent. but Omar Khan the GM said he's been in communication with Aaron Rodgers oh my god there's no deadline according to Khan but he said he doesn't foresee this going like it did last year let's hear some more from Omar you know that's a question for Aaron I mean he knows how we feel and I think we know how he feels about us it was it was a good experience uh for both sides uh unfortunately we didn't we didn't reach our goals on you know winning the games that we wanted to win um at the but you know there's a mutual respect there yeah I think the circumstances are a little different but just conversations we had I think neither neither side wants to have this drag on like it did last year yeah at what point Mark does Aaron Rodgers no longer have the leverage to dictate the terms of a standoff with a team about his future it I would think the Steelers who for all their warts at this stage as a team in this cul-de-sac they they know that they're gonna have to make a move and move forward if Rogers is going to hit him with the old okey-doke. I'll talk to you in a couple of months. Yeah It feels like they could have been a team that hired a younger different type of coach Not a knock on Mike McCarthy really but just like go in a whole new direction and maybe take a swing at number 21 on like a Ty Simpson or someone that rises up and like keep taking swings on young quarterbacks Like it feels to me, it creates a suspicious whiff if you're a Steelers fan about why anything here could be new or what's changed. Like it feels like the wrong run back for multiple reasons. outside of what we've talked about, the quarterback market being apocalyptic. You know, how about this, Connor? Like, and I know Aaron Rodgers played pretty well last year. Not great, but not terrible either. He was fine on balance. But there is something to be said. Like, I wonder if Rodgers is thinking what I'm thinking, which is I know I'm near the end now. Do I want to have the Peyton Manning final season where I'm getting benched for Brock Osweiler? Or I know he won the Super Bowl, but that's my point being, what his skills had deteriorated to or Brett Favre's last year in Minnesota, where he's just absolutely getting pounded and he's, he's limping to the sideline and his shoulders all jacked up and he's, he's terrible. Like I feel like does Rogers feel like a guy that's going to stay around until he can't play anymore? Or is it time to walk away? I kind of get the feeling he might be gone. Famous last words, your thoughts. That's why I, so I did my quarterback carousel predictions. The other day, Mark was gracious enough to join me on the MMTV pod. We talked about it. And I always thought, I mean, it was like the conventional wisdom now that everyone's saying that Rodgers is, if he's going to go anywhere, he's going to go back to the Steelers. I have it as like Vikings 1, Rams 2, Retirement 3, Steelers 4. And the reason that I say that is just because I think that Rodgers remains intellectually curious. I think he remains competitive enough to know that he's, what, 15, 20 touchdowns behind Peyton Manning, I think, for third all time on the NFL list. And that it probably is pretty sweet to go play for Kevin O'Connell and to throw the ball to Justin Jefferson. In a dome. In a dome. And it's going to be a lot easier than trying to make that Pittsburgh offense work. And him and Mike McCarthy, regardless of how patched up the relationship is, it doesn't matter. It's just like, where are my best options right now? And I think that Roger's intellectual curiosity probably takes precedence here. If I'm going to stay, I know what Mike McCarthy – I know what that situation offers me already. Why wouldn't I go somewhere else? That MMQB episode is, ratings-wise, just skyrocketed off the charts. Isn't it from another angle? Can't you see Steelers, Ravens week one, and Chris Collinsworth like, oh, the relationship just runs deep between Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. Like, shoot me in the head while we're at it. I'm totally sold. I've changed my opinion entirely, Connor, based on what you said. The echoes of Brett Favre's career on Aaron Rodgers, whether he wants them or not, they're just inescapable. Starting with the Packers, pit stop with the Jets, ending with the Vikings. Again, the big thing here, whether or not Aaron Rodgers is a great player anymore, which he's not, this market sucks so much that he's going to have a market. And you're right. if he wants to play, and he knows, he absolutely knows he could beat out J.J. McCarthy. I mean, we could probably beat him out, but we know Aaron Rodgers can. Okay. I'm sold on that. I don't think I could beat out J.J. McCarthy. If the four of us were like arm-in-arm, we could beat him out, maybe. That actually sounds harder. Well, if you took each of our best qualities, we might come in like eighth in a quarterback race if there were six quarterbacks. That would be interesting. Like, I mean, you'd want Dan's height. Right. because they have the best arm. Although I did see your catch with Russell Wilson, but I think I have the best arm of the group. I'm pretty confident there. Who's tall? You or Justin? I don't think I've ever seen you guys. I think Gravy has me. I'm about 5'11". Okay. So it would be Justin's height. It would be Dan's arm strength. It would be Mark's creativity. Mark was a cornerback, too. I think Mark was also a center. That's reading defenses. We would be an epic. Can you imagine people podcasting about us as a quarterback? It would not go well. We've got a 5'11 guy who thinks he's got a great arm. Like, I'm sure he does. I legitimately do. It's okay to be confident in certain abilities you have. I can throw a football. Always have been able to throw a football. That's okay. I can't run fast. I don't have great moves. But as a pocket passer in like a flag football scenario, I could handle myself. I would equip myself well. That's all. No doubt. I just think, sadly, if it's Justin's body, the quarterback cannot dunk. But it's a different sport, so we don't need it. The vertical leaves something to be desired. The vertical is my best. Connor was setting that one up. Connor was up in the sixth floor of the book depository on that one. Like, I'm not particularly quick or fast. I have good stamina, and I can jump high. That's my thing. High-ish. High-ish. I will always remember when we started the dunk part of that Don't say it again, don't tell us the story again It doesn't matter Before I actually attempted to dunk In fact, now you've just guaranteed that we have to play the B-roll of you not dunking again on the show and I didn't want to have to do that I felt for you when Connor set you up for the headshot from the book depository but then you have to go and tell the story again that you actually did dunk and it's just such a shame That's not the story I'm going to tell The story I'm going to tell is right before I actually attempted the dunk I was like sort of getting loose and I just went up there and just grabbed the rim pretty easily. And all of you guys were like, oh, shit, he might actually be able to do this. And then, of course, you're watching it. I failed. But I got a lot higher than you guys thought I could. Well, from a certain point of view, that's true. I agree with you on that. You came closer than I thought. You absolutely did. And that's why I think it's unfair what Connor just said to you. Thank you. well justin getting higher than we thought is not a that's just simply not out of place and mark your cerebral nature and your creativity in the well that was connor like like he he acted quick on the fly there over here but we've got one guy saying he's got this great arm and he's this and we get everything it's like he was fishing for something he could say about me as a quarterback and he did the best he could thank you our quarterback is gonna have mark's personality. It's incredible. Well, I'm glad you think so, you know. You're going to be a great quote, you know. We'll send you out to the dais, you know. I could do that. Get a quote out there to Ben Solak. See what he has to do. Have him chop that up and turn it into a column. Ben Solak, right? I don't know. It's dissolving. In other news, Falcom's GM, Ian Cunningham confirms the team has informed Kirk Cousins he'll be released on the first day of the new league year. Here is Ian Cunningham. I don't know about that one. Some of these names, I don't know. And then I did talk to Kirk and his representation. This is Ian Cunningham, huh? Letting them know that we will release him on the first day of the league year. I just felt that that was out of respect for Kirk. Dan always talks over the guys. What he's done in his career. I owe that to him. We owe that to him to allow him some clarity going into free agency. Good. What did I miss there, Mark? He went on and on about Kirk Cousins to a non-surprising conclusion. Cunningham added, this is actually the most important line in the scrum with the local media. This is a term, it's a gangbang, right, Connor? That's my favorite beverage, Roy Rogers. He, separately in the gangbang, said, we won't re-sign Kirk. So any thought that they were going to cut him and then get into a different deal, Kirk Cousins will either be on a new team next year or he will be in someone's media hive because I feel like he has a future in that realm. But we shall see. Didn't they replace Gangbang with like side panel or something? I feel like they at some point. They did, but not us. Not our show. You know what I mean? I can't think of a more desirable group of people to be involved in a situation like that than the people you meet at the Combine in mid-February yeah things that we don't miss about speaking of Wes I love it we can get two Wes stories into one episode Wes listen Wes is a guy who grew up on the west side of Cincinnati and then he said that he needed a change of pace so he moved to an island off the coast of Georgia right where he just got to he got some space he got to be in the you know, being this like this river late. What was it? It was kind of just like easy living. It was like a Jimmy Buffett type song. That's how I think about Tybee Island. And then he moves to L.A., but he does it the right way where he moves to Venice and he and he lives Marina del Rey. He lives by the water and he finds that. But then you take Wes and then you throw him in an airplane, send him in a tube to Indianapolis, which I like as a city. But I mean, Indianapolis in February is pretty rough. And then you send them into the middle of a giant pack of middle-aged sports reporters. I'm not S-ing on middle-aged sports reporters. I was one of them. But it's a tough scene. There's a lot of sweatiness. There's a lot of beefy bodies. It smells. And that was another thing that Wes could not deal with, that he would be sent into those wars. The meeting you guys and I think that was one of the first times that we met like when I started working there and then getting to log on to like our company chat client together and first getting to digest like Mark and Wes's distaste for like big white bodies and being like in a sea of big white bodies was one of my favorite things ever because you know when you start a new job you don't know anything about your coworkers and you're not really sure what's going to happen. And about four of Mark's messages in on HipChat, I was like, my God, I love these people more than members of my own family. This is amazing. I can promise you also that Wes and I made up for it on the flight home from a number of those combines, specifically one. And I guess I guess it could use clarification. I did not enjoy being in those mixes either. There wasn't there was maybe not as much deodorant being used as necessary either. And some nights where it was dad, the reporters were dads getting away from the wife and kids for a few days and maybe not hygienically taking care of themselves in the way they should have been. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous when you think about it. Like the whole process, like there was a fight in Philly a couple months ago because like in order to get a press conference in a place – or a question in a press conference in a place like that, you have to start your question the second you think the person is done giving an answer. And that's how it is. And I remember doing this at the Super Bowl this year where I had to ask Josh McDaniel something and someone else is starting to talk and I'm just like, Josh, anyway, and I just scream over another person. And in what world is that okay? Like, why don't we, like, there should be like a ticket system or something. I don't know. It's extremely stressful. And for you, Connor, you've been in this life for your entire career. For people like Mark and I, as an example, that weren't as experienced, it was even more stressful. Because you're not only were you having to kind of get into that cadence of knowing when to jump in, You were surrounded with a lot of guys that did it for a living and maybe didn't even, wouldn't even want you in that circle to start with. And you could kind of feel that a little bit too. And if you were national media, that's just a little behind the curtain. They don't love you if you came from the league. And national media that works for the shield itself. One perfect example of that, when I was an intern. What a hard life we had. when i was an intern working at the newark star ledger there was two of us and then they were going to keep one so they sent me to the u.s open tennis for two weeks and then they sent the other guy to the little league world series for two weeks whoever gets the better shit is the one that gets a job at the end of this hunger right and so i am predictably at the end of my rope sanity wise like not sleeping um you know probably drinking a lot at that point because i'm in my early 20s and i have to do this story on venus williams there's this new technology espn uses where they're going to show her family reacting to her in real time uh during the match and so i have to get ask venus williams something and there's journalists from 30 countries here i'm battling with french people and german people and austrian people and i finally get in and i'm like venus like I'm like screaming. I'm like, and you know, I finally get her to like, look at me. And I'm like, I'm just like, I need this to go well because like, you know, my job's on the line here. And I asked the question and she says, I'm sorry. I'm only talking about tennis. And then I just like the, and then this other guy just jumps in and asks about her dress. And she gives it a phenomenal 45 minute answer about it. And I just remember like throwing my notepad on the floor and just walking away and being like, I don't think this is for me. You know, it's just a long way of saying press conferences will break you. You know, they have they have the ability to break you. Wow. That's an interesting one that they is a good job by that publication, because if you were to say to me, hey, you could either go to the U.S. Open or the Little League World Series and what, you know, your job depends on it. Like what's the U.S. Open was the better one because it's a bigger event with, you know, top of the world. athletes and all that. Whereas the little league world series, which I cover not, but only up to the quarterfinals and never did like the finals. Um, it's obviously kids playing sports. So were you, I can imagine whatever they would have sent you to that version of Connor pre TNC was probably annoyed that you wanted to be at the other one. Well, I was annoyed because the little league world series, it's obviously they're much easier to get and to access and their parents are walking around. Whereas it's like, no, go do a story on Roger Fetter. And it's like, you walk up to Roger Fetter and he's like, get the f*** away from me, whoever you are. But counter for you, Connor, because I was thinking the same question that Dan had. Kids also either could be great quotes or very dull, boring, scared quotes. But same with a lot of athletes. So I don't... You got to throw that in there. We'll end it here and we'll take a break. Who got the job, Connor? I don't want to put the other... Who got the job? I think we did. You did. Yeah. Damn right you did. Because you're Connor f***ing or. Don't you forget it. The other person's great, too. Still working. Wonderful person. We'll cut that out in post. Let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right, let's move on. Let's get out of the quarterback land and let's chat about A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown obviously was not feeling life with the Eagles last season, struggled with aspects of the offense and didn't seem to have a great relationship with head coach Nick Sirianni. He said, Sirianni, in the group chat with the local reporters that he can't guarantee that A.J. Brown will be back with the Eagles next season. Howie Roseman then came up and spoke, and he said, parting with A.J. Brown is, quote, not part of our vision. Not part of our vision. So this one seems pretty open-ended. This one feels like a coin flip to me, quite honestly. Where do you guys come down? I tend to think that Roseman, who is one of the more open speakers just about the state of the team and his frustration with last season and the fact that they've got a lot of big decisions to make. They've got a lot of young players who are coming up on their second contracts, especially on defense. But his overall philosophy and comment was like, we don't believe in getting better by subtraction. That said, I think this whole dog and pony show, a little bit more of an elegant dog and pony show than some, is basically sending out an invite to call them with an offer that they'd very quickly take if it were the right offer. I think that this relationship feels tested, and it came into the media, and it changed the way we felt about that whole Eagles team. I don't know if you run that back. In fact I don think you do I think this is just one of those moments where organizationally you because it so funny how the NFL works Like sometimes teams just don call other teams and ask And if you're doing this in a public way and you're at least inferring it in a certain way, what you're doing is you're probably getting another coach or another owner or another GM fired up enough to ask or to call or to run it up the flagpole. And so it's really just about generating a conversation at this point, you know. On April 28th, 2022, Justin Graver remembers this well. In fact, I think we live streamed it from Las Vegas when we were covering the NFL draft. The Eagles traded the 18th and 101st overall picks. I believe that's a first and a fourth to the Tennessee Titans for A.J. Brown, who then signed a four year, $100 million extension with the Eagles. He's like one of those guys four years later where I could. Am I wrong that the Eagles could potentially get a similar trade package from A.J. Brown? I know he's four years older now, but I feel like a lot of teams would see him as, especially the contenders, as the missing piece and a guy that's a proven guy, a champion. He is still just 28. He's turning 29 at the end of June. And I think a first round price tag makes sense for him. And I would do it if I were one of those teams. You just got to make sure he's one of those guys like so many other wide receivers of his ilk. You have to keep him happy. And the honeymoon period usually is great. And then you got to be prepared for it to potentially sour. But the teams that would trade for him know that first year when you're trying to win a Super Bowl, probably going to be in a better spot. Yeah, because it worked for the Titans until it didn't. And it's worked for the Eagles very well most of the time until it isn't. And if you're talking about a team that's sitting in the back half of the first round, I don't think that's a crazy asking price. It has to be the right team that used, like you said, we are just missing an A.J. Brown type wide receiver. And we don't want to risk on a rookie becoming that guy in year one. We know this guy can become that guy. I don't know. it's like we're back to the old days where every trade conversation worked the Patriots into it. But the Patriots as an example, prominent example that we don't even know Stefan Diggs is coming back there because the nature of his contract, they believe they have a superstar young quarterback that just needs a true number one. Like I could see the Patriots making a move. The Bills and the Patriots are the ones who have Mike Vrabel, who was a key voice in smoothing over the whole Brown trade in the first place. Because you remember when Brown went to the Eagles, he felt betrayed by the organization. There was a lot of like family stuff, mental health stuff going on with him at the time. And I wanted, if I can remember correctly, when I talked to him about it, like Vrabel was one of the champions in his corner at that point. To quote the late, great Pee Wee Herman. Connect the dots. La-di-da-di-la. Speaking of Joe Shane, I like this the Giants GM here's a quote I'm still the general manager of this team and my role has not changed never good never good when you feel necessary to let the assembled media know that let's hear a little more from Joey yeah and Pat I'm still the general manager of the team and my role has not changed I'm still I'm still tasked with leading the entire football operation what are you saying and we're going to work in collaboration like most good teams do Sure. Of course, what that's in reference to is that John Harbaugh, everyone knows John Harbaugh had the giants over the barrel and is probably carrying the hammer in that organization behind the scenes. So what does that mean for Joe Shane? But he also talked about Kayvon Thibodeau, our old friend, and Dexter Lawrence. The plan is for Dexter to be on the roster right now. Okay, again, you've got to parse these quotes around this time of year. right now, Kayvon is going to be with us. Right now. Which makes me think right now might not be later, meaning week one, but we shall see. No, it's not wrong right now though. Right. And other, anything on this, anything on Joe Shane? Two things. One, John Harbaugh said that Donna Ponte, who is the, is also with the Giants now is, is going to be tasked with integrating. everything, which my guess is like, you know, it's like when you're a middle manager at a place and then they just hire another middle manager. It's like, oh yeah, that's going to be the one who's doing my job. Whoops. And while we're in the metal lands, Aaron Glenn, speaking of people that I could have swore were fired or should have been fired and yet are not fired. Aaron Glenn is still the coach of the New York Jets. And after a major offseason of upheaval for his coaching staff, he made it clear that the setup now with him as the play caller of the defense is what it always should have been. And only now does he realize that in year two of his head coaching journey. To me, play call is my superpower, really. Doing it for four years in Detroit. Yeah, man, just look at the maturation of those four years of how we improved every year and how I improved as a play caller. I really miss doing that, and I think it's a huge part of helping us become the team that I see us become, the team that I know Muj see us become, the team that Woody sees us becoming. Okay. Go ahead, Connor. I'll let you start this one. Yeah, I mean, I know this is, you know, I'll just kind of toss up the softball here, But like you couldn't manage a game as the CEO head coach. And now you're going to add play calling duties to the role. Claim they're your superpower in one of the nastiest markets in the sport and expect this not to get blasted back into your face every six seconds when you give up like a 30 plus yard touchdown. It's like stunning to me. Like you nailed it. That's the first thing I thought kind of tying it back to the top of the show with what you said, Connor. words that will come back to haunt these NFL figures. And if the Jets struggle mightily again and he's under fire, do you really not think that the New York reporters, who you did not treat very well, by the way, throughout your first season in the NFL, and if that continues and they start to smell blood, do you think someone, Brian Costello, Rich Cimini, Zach Rosenblatt, you name it, Steve Serby, you name whoever it is that's not going to step up and say you said that play calling is your superpower but the defense has actually regressed this season you are setting yourself up why do it it's unnecessary but that's Glenn has a habit Sessy of putting his foot in his mouth in the podium and again to use the parallels comment again going back to the way the Patriots realized their mistake with Gerard Mayo and went and got Mike Vrabel, I remember those Mayo press conferences where it was like, you're kind of like, ooh, I mean, there's a lot of hints here that this guy might not be cut out for this gig. And sure enough, he wasn't. And then they made the right move. It's tough to be in this place as a Jets fan where you want to be optimistic, but you kind of feel like you don't have the right guy leading the operation. And that's where I am. And I think a lot of Jets fans are right now. You also took away as a, we get it, like the number one most embattled head coach who we don't really buy being there after probably week 10, or at least in a lost season at some point around there, the scapegoat card. Like if you're calling the defense from A to Z, then you can't replace the play caller with yourself and be like, wait a minute, if there's an uptick, maybe we keep this guy around. I think that Aaron Glenn faces the problem that a lot of head coaches that come in talking a big game, like former Jets player going to tell us, like, the Jets are here. We're going to be different. Blah, blah, blah. You're a terrible football team. You've stripped your fan base, as we see with you and everyone else, of any sense of tangible hope. You don't have a quarterback. You don't have a master plan. He feels like a sitting duck, a lame duck. And you're out of turns. I don't know why they kept him. I'm with you that this whole thing needed a massive refresh, and they are a tough situation to even ponder watching another year of right now. Let me just say the other side of it, because I'm going to go from his viewpoint on this, right? He knows maybe that he wasn't lucky to get a second year, but he is fortunate because a lot of teams could have pulled the trigger and would have pulled the trigger given all the negativity around his first season. if you feel like that what you miss doing that and you watch steve wilkes trip all over the place last year it makes sense to me that he would say i'm taking this over i missed it and he also knows he's been having conversations uh obviously uh with muji and behind the scenes like they're going to draft i think very heavily on the defensive side of the ball and they are going to try to rebuild that defense and i think they should focus that on that this year and maybe next year they make a big push on the offensive side of the ball. So why not just put all your cards into this, put all your eggs into this basket. And if you do fail, Mark, like I don't even know if he has to answer those questions because he'll get fired, I think. So it's like he is all in. He knows he's gone if it doesn't work out and he's going to be in control of his own destiny. I get it from that perspective. Now, whether I believe it will work, I don't know about that. It really depends. That's a lot of that depends organizationally on if they could bring more players. Because the one thing we need to give him a little bit of grace with is that team sucked. That was a bad football team. And they need to give him some players to give him a chance to be successful. I don't doubt that. I mean, it's not he walked into a bad situation. And I was, if anything, extremely positive around the Aaron Glenn concept a year ago. And even the Jets, I think I foolishly took them in the over under scenario as an over candidate and got waxed for that. in live time on the show, as I should have. I don't need to do that right now. I hope he proves me wrong, but I'm not going to spin any sort of sea poems about this team that are positive. They are putting their fan base through hell and high water for the 40th year in a row, and I'm done with it. Last chapter, book closed. Well, thank you, Mark. Well, no, because I don't have to walk around feeling optimistic about the situation. No, nobody has to. You're the Jets fan, I don't. And nobody should. I think one thing that would help is they have a ton of money in free agency and they have a ton of draft capital. Let's check. Just for the Jets fans' sense of hope, let's see how they do over the next couple of months. But everyone, whether you're an outsider, a media person, a Jet fan, it's very fair to have a healthy dose of skepticism. I mean, how could you not? How could you not? All right. Good stuff. we'll be back on Thursday we're going to take a peek at free agency and we're going to any other loose ends from the press conferences and news coming out of Indianapolis I do say I'd be remiss because we forgot to hit this on the Monday show we have not checked in on Justin Graver's batch party Justin as you may or may not be aware eschewed the traditional bachelor and bachelorette party, or depending what part of the world you're from, a stag party, whatever you want to call it. Instead, he brought the parties together into one big weekend bash. This show had a strong stance against this decision by Justin. We thought it was not going to be something that would go well or be successful. Well, Justin felt very confident. Otherwise, it provoked a lot of debate from listeners and viewers of the show. And now, Justin, please let us know, how did the batch go? It looks you're back in one piece, and that's a good sign. No worse for wear. Your thoughts on the batch party? Yeah, I think it was a tremendously successful weekend. I can't say it went off without a hitch because, you know, you get a group of 19 people together in a cabin for four days. Wait a second. Something might happen, but I don't think it's anything that would make you guys like right and me wrong for doing this. What does that mean? Wait, wait, wait. Kind of, what does that mean? Without a hitch? What do you mean without a hitch? Well, you know, like there's always going to be some little element of drama with a group that large. Different personalities. Yeah, yeah. But for the most part, everybody got along. It accomplished our goal of blending the bridal party with the groom party. And now when the wedding arrives, everybody knows each other. And it was honestly, everyone came away from the weekend thinking it was a smashing success. You're Joe Shaning this a little bit. I got to be real. Is there a little bit of Joe Shaning going on here, Connor? What am I missing here? I feel like there's something going on. There is a thread that I think deserves pulling on. But this is a tricky situation. Who did you source this? Did anybody else say that it was a good idea, this thing, this bachelor party? Was there fun had? There was fun. Fun was had. Tremendous fun. With emphasis he says that. I would say great fun was had by all. We had a wonderful time. Just about all. By mostly all. And I'll just leave it there and let your imaginations run with that. But yeah, I mean, overall, I would say it was a good decision. And we have no regrets. Okay. You know George Bush said that about Iraq, too, right? So, mission accomplished, right? Justin has another quote. I'm still the groom of this marriage and my role has not changed. All right. I got a feeling maybe we're going to have to tug on that thread a little bit. Got some hardened journos here. Some big brother types that maybe tried to get you to avoid the situation. Well, there's plenty of other sources we can investigate. Yeah, there's 19 people to call, so I got some time. Uh-oh. All right. Well, we're glad. And the wedding is still on. And that's the most important thing, right? Yeah, absolutely. The bride-to-be is very happy as well. She had a great time. What's that, Mark? Well, so I'm just doing the math. It suggests that Connor, Dan, and Mark and our significant others are not even the top 20 people invited to this event. So I see us at a deep table far away sitting with like a lost aunt of someone. I get it. That's kind of nice, though. I like that. That's my wheelhouse. I like a no responsibility wedding, but I'm noting the pecking order. I can't remember the last no responsibility wedding I was in. So this one's going to be sloppy. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to find that remote microphone. I'm going to make a statement. Somebody get up here and tell me what really happened to a batch party. There's not a tightness light that spins around. What about you, Party Jay? Was Party Jay there? No, Party J is currently in Anguilla. Anguilla? Anguilla? How do you say it? Isn't it? Someone's going to have to. I think it's, I believe it's Anguilla. Oh, wow. I was way off. Anguilla. Sound off in the comments on how to pronounce, like sound it out, phonetically write it for us. Thank you. Do tell us. Yeah. All right. Anyway, good stuff. Can't wait for the wedding. That's coming up. We'll all be there. Maybe we should do a podcast from the wedding reception. We'll definitely do something from the reception. Let's go! We have no responsibilities, so we're going to do it. We've got to give some content. Again, we'll be back Thursday. Make sure you're there, and make sure to do what you always got to do. Heed the call. you