0:03

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode

0:05

of the mm QB Week in Review

0:08

podcast. I'm Mitch Goldich,

0:10

joined by Jenny Vrentis and Albert Brier.

0:12

We've often joked about how earlier in the summer

0:15

this podcast was not every week,

0:17

but most weeks and sometimes infrequently. Well, we're

0:19

back after a little bit of a break. It's been a couple of

0:21

weeks since we did this. There was one week we took

0:23

off. There was one week I interviewed

0:25

Kaylin Kaylor about her story on

0:27

KGB at the MMQB. But we're back. We've got

0:30

most of the gang, no Connor or,

0:32

but three of us are here. Jenny, Albert, how you guys doing.

0:34

Welcome back to the podcast. Hey,

0:36

Mits, Mitch. It's

0:39

nice. We have like a little reunion here. It's

0:41

like we say what time we're

0:43

gonna start the podcast, and then we hang

0:46

out and talk and catch up for fifteen minutes while

0:48

our producers Shelby just patiently waits

0:50

for us to get going with the program here. But

0:52

good to see you guys in the zoom screen. So

0:57

for those of you who are new to this podcast, uh

1:00

this we call it our week in Review and it basically

1:02

starts as an opportunity to just talk about some of our stories

1:04

that are up at the MMQB this week, some

1:06

of the things we've been writing. And then, because the

1:08

summer has been so weird in

1:10

this country, it's turned into

1:12

a thing where we talked about what we've been up to. And

1:16

it started as books and movies

1:18

and TV shows and things to fill our time, and then it

1:20

turned into activities and arts and crafts and all kinds

1:22

of things. But we always enjoy just going around

1:24

the horn and talking about things we've been doing since we

1:26

were last all together. So, Jenny,

1:28

why don't you go first? Why don't you give

1:31

us a little slice of your week

1:33

so far? Well, I went home

1:35

to visit my parents last week. That was my big

1:37

venture. So I

1:40

tried to self isolate for

1:42

about two weeks ahead of time, didn't

1:44

go to the grocery store for ten days or

1:46

so, and then made the trip home to Pennsylvania.

1:49

Um, and you know, tried to

1:51

wear a mask when I went on walks with my dad

1:53

and tried to stay as distant as I could.

1:56

It's hard in the house, I mean, better than

1:58

a New York apartment, I suppose, But Uh,

2:00

but yeah, it was good to see my parents,

2:03

and you know, it's just weird these

2:05

days. I didn't hug them. Um.

2:08

When I came back, I was panicked for five

2:10

days, if you know, I potentially

2:12

brought something home to them. Um.

2:15

But you know, it was nice

2:17

to get that time. This first time I'd seen them

2:19

since the pandemic came

2:21

to the US, So it was it

2:23

was much needed visits. So that was my

2:26

my highlight of the week. What was What

2:29

was it like there? Because obviously it's way different

2:31

than where you live, you know, like way more sparsely

2:33

populated and everything else. Like how different

2:35

was it for you to get out of the city and go to a place

2:37

like that. Yeah, I mean so I didn't

2:39

see much, right, I kind of went to their house

2:42

and I stayed there. But yeah,

2:44

they live in State College, Pennsylvania. So

2:47

it's going to be interesting, I think when

2:49

the students come back, which I believe is still

2:51

the latest plan is for the students

2:53

to come back when the school year begins.

2:55

So I did kind of want to go now because

2:57

I think that there's going to be bombs

3:00

in a lot of college towns where there's not a lot

3:02

of outside traffic. The case numbers have been

3:04

really low in Center County because it's kind of an

3:06

isolated place. Um. But yeah,

3:08

when the students convene from all over the state,

3:10

all over the country, all over the world. Um,

3:13

I'm interested to see what happens

3:15

and if they still go forward with that plan. Um.

3:17

But you know, I went for walks with

3:19

my dad. It's everyone's kind of spread apart. Like

3:21

in New York, if you go for a walk, you have to wear

3:24

a mask because you passed so many other people.

3:26

You're in your building. Stay college people

3:28

were just kind of like on their own. You don't really get

3:30

close to anyone. So no one was really wearing masks

3:32

on their walks. But but I was because I was next

3:34

to my dad and I was still nervous. But um,

3:37

so yeah, it was just like a more

3:39

spread out, spaced out situation.

3:41

And um, you know, my my our

3:43

neighbor brought over fresh grown

3:46

lettuce from his garden. His garden is really flourished

3:48

during the pandemic, so he brings over lettuce

3:50

and tomatoes to my parents once or twice

3:52

a week. So that was nice too. I've

3:55

got a lot of people their gardens are flourishing.

3:57

That's a great stay at home activity

3:59

when you can't go anywhere else. Um,

4:02

And that's good. You brought your New York attitude

4:04

out to State College. Wearing the mask a good role

4:06

model. We need that we don't

4:08

travel too far. But if you are going to travel, it's

4:11

nice if that just kind of rubs off on people because

4:13

we're in a mask is important and we all feel that

4:15

way. Yes, Albert,

4:17

how about you? What have you been up to? Yeah, so you guys

4:19

know, I was on vacation for the last few

4:21

weeks and I this is my first full week back.

4:24

Um, but I had Yeah,

4:26

I like I would the

4:28

one thing I will say, like, and you're going to

4:30

we go to Nantucket every year for a couple of weeks. Um.

4:34

The people there took it very,

4:36

very very seriously. And

4:38

I think a huge part of it

4:41

is there's like a I

4:43

think the community there like it's a

4:45

there an island. So if if if

4:47

it gets if somebody gets it, like it would

4:50

be really really like if there's an outbreak, it'd be really

4:52

bad. And then the second part of it is so

4:54

much of their you know, commerces over this summer

4:56

and you know the restaurants and all

4:59

of that, and so, you know, I

5:01

think that, like it was really interesting

5:03

to see how when you walked into

5:05

town there right, like and so there's like a

5:07

town and then it's like more sparsely populated once

5:09

you get out of town. But in town

5:11

there are signs everywhere that's say masks zone.

5:14

And this isn't inside stores, right, so what I'm

5:16

used to living in my suburb here outside

5:18

of Boston. Like you it's

5:21

like Jenny said, like you wear your mask, like

5:23

everyone's wearing masks, and the stores, everybody's

5:25

wearing masks. When you go grocery shopping,

5:28

when you're inside anywhere, like when you're inside any

5:30

public area, you wear a mask. But you

5:32

know, because you're in the suburbs, if you go for a walk,

5:34

you might not be wearing one. And that's

5:37

not the way. It wasn't Nantucket at all. Like

5:39

in the in town in Nantucket, like

5:41

there were signs everywhere that said masks zone,

5:43

and everyone followed it. And I thought that

5:45

that was really interesting because

5:47

it's sort of I think it was an acknowledgement

5:50

that that community would really

5:52

be devastated if there was an outbreak over the

5:54

summer. There and you sort of like it's

5:56

sort of like kind of like crystallizes the impact.

5:59

This hasn't every buddy. You know that

6:01

there was the newspaper there in town

6:04

was reading a story and there had been like a small outbreak

6:06

because the people coming in from different parts

6:08

of the country and everything else, there's been a small outbreak

6:11

in one of the restaurants and

6:13

in this newspaper. But the restaurant

6:15

closed right and had to close for I think fourteen

6:18

days, and um, the restaurant

6:20

like you know, like the they

6:23

didn't name the restaurant in the story because they didn't want

6:25

to damage the restaurant's business. And

6:27

then they had quotes from other restaurants

6:29

in the area, and um,

6:32

you know, like a lot of these managers were saying, if we have

6:34

to go take out again, like half of us are going to go out

6:36

of business. It was just so interesting to

6:38

see, you know, like a place

6:40

where you know, we've all, you know, I think we've

6:42

all tried to do our part in helping you know, the

6:44

small businesses and everything in our areas. And I think we all

6:46

know like that restaurants are really

6:49

in a critical spot right now. It's really

6:51

hard for them. It's just interesting, is

6:53

going to a place where so much of the commerce

6:55

in a small area is based on things like that,

6:58

how low the margins are, and how

7:00

if everybody doesn't do their part, the

7:02

restaurant can do everything responsible, but

7:04

if everybody else doesn't do their part, it

7:07

could literally put some of these people out of business.

7:09

So, I mean, I think it's sort

7:11

of like one of my big takeaways I think from

7:13

that vacation in general, and like, when I look back

7:15

on it is going to be like how it

7:18

really did feel like that entire community is

7:20

pulled together and everybody is trying to be as

7:22

responsible as they possibly can, and

7:24

not only responsible but for yourself, but

7:27

responsible for everyone else as well. Yeah,

7:30

it's been really devastating reading some

7:32

of these articles, you know, and I live in

7:34

New York now too, but the New York Times is that

7:36

all kinds of articles. It's about just these restaurants

7:39

and small businesses that have been open for thirty,

7:41

fifty eighty years and

7:43

they're just not going to survive the coronavirus

7:45

and just hearing that is so sad, and

7:48

seeing not just individual businesses but

7:51

the larger like character of the city and

7:53

just how much things are going to change in certain neighborhoods

7:55

and areas, and it's just awful.

7:58

I'm you know, there's so much bad news every

8:00

day about things we're going through now, and the lasting

8:02

effects of this time are going to go on for

8:05

forever, you know what. Like it's just sort

8:07

of like it kind of brought to life to like

8:09

what the NFL is facing. I mean, if we want to bring this

8:11

to what what we cover here, I mean, it's you

8:14

can do everything. And I think the NFL has done like a

8:16

pretty good I got the protocols are pretty good, I think,

8:18

you know, but if you're not gonna be in a bubble um,

8:21

then you know you And

8:23

look like number one is like all these guys being

8:26

responsible and not doing dumb dumb

8:28

stuff, you know what I mean, Like like, but

8:30

there's another part of it you just can't control,

8:32

you know, Like in that um, some

8:34

of these guys players and coaches are gonna have kids

8:36

going back to school, and some of these players

8:39

and coaches are gonna have spouses

8:42

that are going back to work, and so there's a lot

8:44

of this that's just sort of out of everybody's control,

8:46

you know. And so that's why it's like and

8:49

it's again like just seeing this like

8:51

kind of way that everybody was trying to do their

8:53

part when I was on vacation, it's like,

8:56

like, you know, it's just everybody, Like I

8:58

just think that that like when you see that, it's just I

9:00

think it's a good sign of the strength of a community

9:02

when people are just trying to do everything they

9:04

can to minimize the chance

9:07

that something out of everybody's

9:09

control hats And you're totally

9:12

no. I was gonna say, you're totally right. So many people when they think

9:14

about possible issues with

9:16

NFL players, they think about the twenty

9:19

three year olds who are millionaires for the first time

9:21

and have waited their whole lives to

9:23

go out and spend money and party in whatever. And

9:25

You're totally right. There's so many of these guys who

9:28

they have kids at schools and and spouses

9:30

with jobs and all kinds of things, and you know,

9:32

it's not just a matter of certain like a

9:34

small number of players being responsible, like some of

9:36

them are in situations where they literally that you know, they

9:39

can't do anything that you know they have Uh,

9:41

you know, if if schools are open and kids have to go to

9:43

school. That's you know, that's one thing, and it's it's

9:46

not like just the the issue

9:48

of the players possibly acting irresponsibly.

9:50

It's about their families and some of them live with older

9:52

relatives, and it's just, you know, there's so many

9:54

issues that so many of these people And maybe

9:56

I'm just jaded by idiots

9:59

on Twitter, uh spouting

10:01

off about things, but like there are so many issues that

10:03

a lot of people just aren't thinking about that they

10:05

have to deal with as just normal human beings

10:07

like the rest of us. Yeah, I think Sean Payton

10:10

distilled it down pretty well. I Mean, you can put plexi

10:12

glass between lockers, you can distance in the

10:14

cafeteria, but for two and a half hours

10:16

you're going to be in close proximity on

10:18

the football field. So I think

10:20

all of the protocols that they have in the facility

10:23

are great, but you know, there's

10:25

a point where you know, you can't maintain

10:28

that same kind of distance. So I kinda

10:31

I kind of looked at the plexiglass thing

10:33

for instance. You know, I think the Lions put

10:35

that out and like, okay, that's a great physical

10:38

barrier in place, But then when these guys

10:40

are out on the practice field, it kind of goes out the window.

10:43

So yeah, and it's gonna be interesting too because

10:45

I think, like we

10:47

looked at the Marline situation, and I guess we're

10:49

gonna get into that with you with because Mitch

10:51

was sort of like I guess Mitch inadvertently was like

10:53

sort of in the teeth of that, right, Um,

10:56

But yeah, like the Marlin situation, Like I that's

10:58

why I've said, like a few times in a few different places

11:00

this week, like I I don't think

11:03

it's the NFL learned so much about go

11:06

what like went into it because

11:08

and like it sounds like there was a little like

11:11

Jackassari and fell there too,

11:13

like stuff that they shouldn't have been not doing. But

11:15

I think the NFL, probably in all sports leagues,

11:18

probably learned more coming out of it, Like how

11:20

quickly can the Marlins contain this? How quickly

11:22

can the Marlins get back on the field, what sort of having

11:24

does this rekon freak on the schedule? Like

11:27

I think that that's probably the better

11:29

learning tool for all these sports leagues, is

11:31

not like how it happened with the Marlins,

11:33

Because to some degree, some of this

11:35

stuff is going to happen. I think it's more like,

11:38

okay, like now it happened, how do you come

11:40

out of it? Yeah, so

11:42

I guess we can move right in. Uh, we're

11:45

gonna talk about what I've been up to. Actually,

11:47

I went to a live sporting event a

11:49

week ago today, last Friday, which

11:52

is something that I maybe at one point thought

11:54

I would not do at all the rest of the year.

11:57

But yeah, I went to the Phillies

11:59

home open or against the Marlins

12:01

on Friday night, and then they

12:03

played two more games, and those

12:05

are the only three games either of those teams have played

12:07

as they've paused their seasons because the Marlins

12:09

had an outbreak and then the Phillies have had people

12:12

test positive as well. So the Phillies future

12:14

series got uh not

12:16

canceled, postponed because there it's possible they're

12:18

gonna make them up with double headers, but I mean, who knows. They have

12:20

so many issues with scheduling, um, But

12:23

yeah, it was it was a very interesting experience.

12:25

So I grew up outside Philly. You know, we

12:27

talked about the Eagles all the time, but

12:30

you know, and I've been a Phillies season ticket holder,

12:32

so I've been to a bunch of Phillies home openers

12:34

in that ballpark, and so I thought it would be interesting

12:36

to go and just see what it was

12:38

like a game in a totally empty stadium and

12:41

drawn some of my experiences from past

12:43

traditions the Phillies have had an opening day and

12:46

uh, you know times have been in that park and just

12:48

wrote about it, and you know, it

12:50

was it was very weird, uh, being

12:52

an empty ballpark. And I'm not alone, you know, a

12:54

million people have now written that story from

12:57

various parks across the country. But it was it

12:59

was just very interesting to see it. And

13:02

I'm sure baseball and football are different

13:04

and so the experience of seeing a game

13:06

with no fans will be different. But it

13:08

was definitely very weird just being in an empty,

13:11

uh ballpark and watching

13:13

a game there, and uh,

13:15

you know, I'm glad I had that experience and got to

13:17

see it. You know, we were basically confined

13:19

to the press box, which was open

13:22

air and socially distant. They had

13:24

us everyone in assigned

13:26

seats two seats away from the next

13:28

person over, and they had exes of

13:30

tape on the table so you don't get too close, and

13:33

everyone had their masks on for most of the game,

13:35

unless you know, take it off to take a quick sip

13:37

of water or whatever. Um.

13:39

And then no, we didn't come anywhere close like

13:41

people were asking because the Marlins tested

13:43

positive. You know, were you talking like? No, I wasn't in any

13:46

clubhouse or anything. And I didn't see any

13:48

player or staff or whatever. They had postgame

13:51

availability over zoom, everyone

13:53

in the press box pulling up zoom

13:55

to do the interviews. So you

13:57

know, I feel safe if I did. I got tested after

13:59

the game. I haven't gotten my results back yet, which is a whole

14:01

other story. Um. But you know,

14:03

I felt like it was safe to

14:06

go, or else I wouldn't have gone. And I did think they

14:08

did a good job. You know, I got a temperature scan

14:10

on my way in and sat

14:12

basically, you know, socially distanced away

14:14

from people watching the game in front of me. Um.

14:17

But you know, just it's it's a it's

14:19

a very weird experience, um,

14:21

being in an empty stadium and watching a baseball

14:23

game. What was the weirdest thing about it? Um,

14:28

I mean the the well, the

14:30

weirdest thing was the JumboTron putting

14:32

up make some noise graphics and

14:34

that was the lead of myself like

14:37

like, why did you like, why did they do that? I

14:39

don't know. I mean it was the seventh bitting and

14:41

they didn't do that the whole game, But I saw that.

14:44

That was the moment that it hit me like what the hell

14:46

are we doing? You're like, who is that for? And

14:48

so that you know, you're sitting there and you guys

14:50

know this feeling sitting there and you've you've

14:52

got observations and anecdotes, and you're like, well,

14:54

what's like my story? And I saw that and I

14:57

was like, that's the first sentence of my story. It

14:59

just has to be. So that was the weirdest thing. But I mean,

15:01

it was just obvious how low

15:03

energy it was. You know, usually the

15:05

home team is down by two runs in the

15:07

eighth inning and the tying run comes up to the plate,

15:10

and opening day it's a sellout and you've got rally towels,

15:12

and it was just, you know, it's just

15:15

quiet and empty. And so I actually I wrote a little bit about

15:17

how everyone's calling the sixty game season a sprint,

15:19

and it is, but I wrote about how

15:21

for the players it's still going to be a grind and

15:24

it's still sixty games in sixty six

15:26

days, and there's no crowd energy to

15:28

feed off of, and it's still you know,

15:30

for being empathetic for these players, it's gonna be long

15:33

and uh, kind of a grueling experience for

15:35

them. They're still traveling and getting tested and worrying

15:37

about all kinds of things. So that was one

15:39

of the things that I wrote about, and how the grind

15:42

of the season could be even tougher when you're just playing night

15:44

after night in an empty ballpark, recording

15:47

Friday morning Brewers Cardinals

15:49

game has been postponed as well because of

15:51

a positive test. So yeah,

15:55

I I uh, I was sort of wondering about

15:57

that too much because I like sort of like thought like, what can

15:59

I compare us to write? And I remember

16:01

covering like high school sports, and so I was like, is this

16:03

like high school baseball? But

16:06

at least when you like we're coming a high school baseball

16:08

game, you're like right there, so you at least get

16:10

the energy of like the players talking

16:12

to each other, and you know, like there's

16:14

like it's not like the energy of

16:16

being in a ballpark, but

16:19

like there was at least that energy. So it's just

16:21

like like I've sort

16:23

of like like, where is there anything coming? Like it's

16:25

just like from a reporting standpoint, at least,

16:28

it would seem like it would be like almost completely

16:30

sterile, like, which is really weird. Yeah,

16:32

and well, the Marlins dugout actually did

16:35

bring it, like and we were people were talking about it

16:37

in the press box Friday night. The Marlins were

16:39

loud and they were cheering their teammates and hollering

16:41

and everything, and the Phillies were more quiet. And

16:43

then the stories came out on Sunday that the

16:45

Phillies were concerned watching

16:48

this knowing that the Marlins had positive tests,

16:50

and you know, it's impossible to totally socially

16:52

distance, but there were supposed to be protocols

16:55

to be away from each other in dugouts, and they have

16:57

temporary seating in the stands for

16:59

people and and staffs was to have masks

17:01

on. And apparently the Phillies were looking out

17:03

at the Marlins like, hey, shouldn't they be doing a better

17:05

job of this? So on Friday, the

17:08

handful of people I was nearing the press box, we're watching

17:10

it, like, oh, that's pretty cool. They're into the game. This

17:13

does feel like, you know, college College World

17:15

Series or whatever, cheering on teammates

17:17

and then looking back, it's like, you

17:19

know, it's a little bit, you know, it leaves

17:21

a bad taste in your mouth, knowing like, well, maybe they

17:24

should have been farther apart and uh,

17:26

you know, not screaming and everything. And I don't

17:28

know the whole thing is, it's just complicated. There's

17:30

so many layers to everything. I

17:32

will say that the one thing we've talked about, Albert, I know

17:34

you've said NFL teams want to push the schedule

17:37

back. It is interesting to see how Baseball

17:40

they're now canceling games, having to reschedule,

17:42

and maybe there is a big benefit to starting the season

17:44

on time in case you have to, you

17:47

know, reschedule games later and then you can

17:49

extend the season and make it longer. I know the NFL

17:51

it's a much trickier puzzle with

17:54

teams and rematches and and uh

17:56

common opponents and things like that, but it does

17:58

show you that there's benefit to if you know, if

18:00

the goal is to play as many games as you can, just play

18:03

games win you can, and then you might have to fill in more

18:05

games later. So I thought that was interesting, Like

18:07

so like Oklahoma. I think it's been and

18:09

I think Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma have been very very

18:11

responsible right way, so way more

18:14

so than the other school in their state. And

18:16

um, you know, like I so, they had

18:18

a hundred I think it was a hundred and thirty

18:21

whatever it was hundred thirty eight COVID

18:23

tests zero positives in their football program

18:25

the other day, and um, the

18:27

one thing that they did that I thought was interesting because you

18:29

saw the SEC is pushing the start of their schedule

18:31

back right like to the end of September. Oklahoma

18:35

actually took its opener and moved

18:37

it up a week because they want

18:39

the extra week to like kind

18:41

of move around potentially, which

18:43

I thought was an interesting move where it's like it's

18:45

like, I think what you're talking about their mitch, which is

18:48

like, we want the extra dates. We want to stretch

18:50

our season out over a longer period of time

18:53

so we have more time to work with, which theoretically,

18:55

I guess the NFL would have because

18:58

they could move the Super Bowl to any of those

19:00

Sundays in February. Yeah.

19:02

Just the trouble is it's hard to start early because they're

19:04

already talking about ramping up in their

19:06

phil No, no, they

19:09

can't move up. But I'm I'm just saying, even in general,

19:11

people are concerned about week one, and

19:13

I mean we're also we're seeing a rash of picture

19:15

injuries in baseball and so many guys because they had

19:18

the layoff, and I know people are concerned

19:20

that football is gonna have the same thing. So the

19:22

the argument to push back week one, a lot

19:24

of that is for player health and safety, even

19:27

not related to COVID. And

19:29

you know, if the argument is COVID is a good reason

19:32

to keep it at week one, there are other reasons

19:34

to push it back, and it's just you know, you're between

19:36

a rock and a hard place. All

19:38

right, Albert, why don't we talk about

19:40

one of your stories from this week? You're

19:42

a few good to have you back. By the way, I know a lot of

19:44

people have been joking about the whole pandemic

19:47

and how they don't know what day of the week it is because every day

19:49

is the same. And I've been saying I haven't really had

19:51

that problem because I edit your columns

19:53

on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and it helps keep me anchored.

19:56

And I don't know why I'm telling the story out loud, but

19:58

I did say this to my and

20:00

at some point in the middle of your vacation, I was

20:03

like, man, I've become one of those people who doesn't

20:05

know what day of the week it is. I need Albert to come

20:07

back to help keep me balance,

20:09

et cetera. Because there was a day I was like, I I don't

20:11

know if it's Wednesday or Thursday, because you know, and normally

20:13

I would edit a mail bag or a game plan. So anyway,

20:16

good to have you back. Today is Friday. Um,

20:18

I think you want to talk about your game plan story

20:20

where you talk to Marquis Goodwin, who

20:23

we've seen a lot of players, I think

20:25

more players than many people may may

20:27

have expected, who have already made the decision

20:29

to opt out of the season, and you talked to

20:31

Markie's Goodwin about it. And what was interesting

20:33

to me is that actually we've talked about

20:35

how, oh, it's such a tough decision for these guys, and it sounded

20:37

like it wasn't that tough of a decision for him.

20:41

So why don't you tell us a little bit about

20:43

that that interview? Yeah, So, I

20:45

like, I just sort of like, like

20:48

earlier in the week, you know, you you see the names

20:50

come out, and I just I figured there'd

20:52

be I wanted to get somebody who was

20:55

the name that that people knew, But I also wanted

20:57

somebody who had a story that was sort of I

21:00

think, like illustrate what what what some of these

21:02

guys are facing and the decisions that they're making.

21:05

And UM, you know, Marquise was a

21:07

good one just because of he and his wife

21:09

have been through a lot and so,

21:11

UM you know they you

21:14

know, he I think he's taken

21:17

COVID pretty seriously all the way through. And

21:19

they have to because um,

21:21

he and his wife, and his wife was an elite athlete

21:23

too, was Um I think like

21:26

and this is this, this is what this is what only happens

21:28

in a sport like track. A nine time All

21:30

American at the University of Texas

21:33

UM and tracks she was, so

21:35

she was an incredible like athlete

21:37

as well. Obviously, I think most people know Marquis

21:41

is actually an Olympian too in the long jump

21:43

and so, UM, so you know that they

21:46

they're very healthy people, you know, and

21:49

but they've had a lot of issues, um

21:51

over the last few years. Um

21:53

they've lost three babies, and um,

21:56

you know, and uh, a

21:58

son in two thousand and seventeen, and then

22:00

UM and then twins in UM in

22:02

two thousand and eighteen, and

22:04

so um they have a five month old

22:06

now. And I think just sort of the story

22:09

was that over the course of the off season, it

22:12

you know, the idea of just rolling

22:15

through COVID was sort of a non

22:17

starter for him, But in

22:19

March and April it was sort of

22:21

still seemed to them. He and his wife

22:24

like this far off thing, and

22:26

I think, you know, his attitude,

22:28

his his feeling on it was probably reflective

22:30

a lot of the country, like this is really terrible

22:32

now, but we're gonna get through it once football

22:35

season gets here, We're gonna be ready

22:37

to go. And so March April

22:39

they're monitoring what goes on, what's going on,

22:42

but he's getting ready to play his first season with the

22:44

Eagles. He'd just been traded there from

22:46

San Francisco, and

22:48

um, you know, as as April became May and May

22:50

became June. Now all of a

22:52

sudden, you're starting he starts to look at it and says,

22:54

okay, well what do we do? And

22:56

he and his wife got to the point where they were talking

22:59

about it pretty much daily. And

23:02

you know, I think before they

23:04

really had an idea, like

23:06

like gotten from the union what their options

23:08

would be, UM, they had sort

23:10

of made the decision it just isn't gonna

23:12

work for us, because we've already lost

23:15

so much, and we have a baby,

23:17

and we have a little daughter at home, and

23:19

it's just not worth it to us to put her at any

23:21

sort of risk, or put any of our family members

23:23

at any sort of risk. UM. And

23:26

so before the APPTJE

23:28

actual opt out was offered, UM,

23:30

they had sort of made the decision like, we can't take

23:32

that risk. And you know then, you know,

23:35

I I know Marquis was on UM all

23:37

the nflp A calls over the last few

23:39

weeks, and and by the time I got to the end

23:41

of it, Um, you know, it was, like

23:43

you said, Miniche, just the decision

23:46

was academic. It was we're gonna

23:48

take the opt out. Um. And

23:50

he loves football, he still wants to play football, but

23:53

to him, which just wasn't worth it. And

23:55

I think you'll find with a lot of the guys who opted

23:57

out, UM, you know, there

23:59

are there are there there. There There may be a

24:01

newborn involved, There may be an underlying condition

24:03

involved, but with a lot of them, these are very serious

24:05

decisions and I and I think some of the

24:07

reaction that that Marquis got

24:09

on Twitter from some fans was a little disheartening.

24:12

But um, you know, I think one thing,

24:14

that one thing a lot of people

24:16

don't realize about. I think a lot when

24:18

the one thing when people like look at like player

24:21

extra player, why opting out? They

24:23

just look at it and they say to themselves, well,

24:26

like this guy, this guy's letting his teammates

24:28

down. He's letting the fans down, Like they

24:30

don't understand like how hard these decisions

24:32

are and how hard it is to walk away from football

24:34

for these guys. This isn't just a game

24:37

for them. Like most of these guys have

24:39

put on put in fifteen twenty

24:42

years of work to get in a position that they're

24:44

in, and so walking away is something

24:46

they take very very seriously. It's almost

24:48

by definition, there has to

24:50

be something very serious going on in their lives

24:53

for them to take the measure

24:55

of walking away from something that's a dream

24:57

for so many of them. And so I

24:59

thought it was you know, I'm

25:02

really appreciative that he was willing to share his story

25:04

because um, it is a very very personal

25:06

one. I think it's reflective of what we've seen with

25:08

some of the other stories. You saw Marcus Cannon. Of course

25:11

in New England, he's a cancer survivor um

25:14

nate soldier. Everybody knows the story about his

25:16

his son and what his family has been through in New York

25:18

and so um, I just thought

25:20

it was important that these you know, I thought it

25:22

was it's great

25:24

that he was willing to tell his story to us, and you know,

25:26

I think it's reflective of what

25:28

you know, a lot of players have wrestled

25:31

with the last few weeks, is as

25:33

some of these guys have tried to make decisions on whether they

25:35

want to opt out or not, you know, along

25:37

those lines about people saying you're letting your teammates

25:39

down. I liked how Marquise

25:41

told us about his conversations with

25:44

Howie Roseman and Doug Peterson and just hearing

25:46

about how supportive they were, and

25:48

also that it's not like he's just quitting

25:50

on him and they're never gonna hear from him, Like he's still his

25:52

contract tolls to next season, and he still

25:55

has the Eagles playbook, and I forget

25:57

if he's going to sit in one all

25:59

You're like, I don't if he's gonna be like every

26:01

week in the game, but but he's like part of the team, and

26:03

he's gonna be on the roster, expects to be on the roster

26:06

next year. He's not like they all understood

26:08

the decision and that he's still part of the franchise.

26:10

And I thought it was really to me, it was like it

26:13

was good to hear that how he didn't try to talk

26:15

him out of it, you know, and met you're an

26:17

Eagles fancy, you know this like

26:19

like the whole idea of having like a speed receiver

26:21

was a big deal for the Eagles this offseason,

26:24

right, Like, so they had a roll carved

26:26

out for him, they trade for him, um,

26:29

and so this was like a point of epans is they drafted

26:31

one too, and Jalen Reagor, and so I

26:33

it was cool to hear like

26:36

that how he didn't try to talk

26:38

him out of it, and that Doug Peterson

26:41

talked about his own you know, beliefs

26:43

on the like, like his own faith and

26:45

everything. I just thought, like the

26:47

fact that there wasn't somebody

26:49

that tried to talk him out of

26:52

it, that's good

26:54

too, you know what I mean, because they let that they

26:56

they made sure like, hey, listen, dude, don't

26:58

worry about us, We'll be this is your decision.

27:01

Yeah, and I will say, as as an Eagles fan, I was

27:04

I'm I fully support him opting out.

27:06

I support anyone who wants to be

27:08

safe. And it was nice to hear that reaction from those guys

27:10

because you know, so many of these teams have

27:12

so many issues behind the scenes, and a

27:14

lot of times, as a fan, you want you want

27:17

to be rooting for good people, and many of us

27:19

are not in many sports, or

27:21

that's the players themselves with people in the front office

27:23

that and you know, we never know the full story, but like,

27:25

this was nice to hear, Like I was happy to hear that

27:28

that the team was supportive and everything, and

27:31

um, and you know it's fine. Carson

27:33

Wentz can throw to anybody, as we learned

27:35

on the stretch last year. But yeah, no, I was

27:37

happy to see it. And um, you know, it seems

27:40

like everyone handled it. And I think that's true around

27:42

the league too, that a lot of these teams seem to be

27:45

that you know, they totally get it. Um,

27:47

this is completely unprecedented,

27:49

but it makes sense, and uh, you

27:51

know everyone's dealing dealing with it,

27:53

and you know, everyone's lives have changed

27:55

the same way we all have, and everyone's watching the news

27:57

and seeing and um, you know,

28:00

glad people are being smart. Yeah, it's

28:02

going to be stressful for those who

28:04

choose to play, you know, for a

28:06

lot of different reasons. Among them that

28:08

like, there could be stops and starts in the season

28:11

we're seeing with like the Marlins and baseball

28:13

is going through. There's going to be difficult decisions

28:15

along the way and changes in schedule,

28:17

and so there's a whole additional

28:19

roller coaster ride in you

28:22

know, along with the health concerns

28:24

and need additional protocols. So

28:27

if you if you play this season,

28:29

you have no idea exactly like what that

28:31

is going to entail in a lot of ways,

28:34

I think, yeah, And I think that

28:36

that probably played into the rash of Patriots

28:38

that walked away, honestly, Jenny, because

28:40

I think that there are a bunch of those guys like high

28:43

Tower and Chung are probably the two best examples

28:45

of it, but guys who have

28:47

like one of them has a new born, the other one has

28:50

a kid in the way they're in their

28:52

thirties, they've made a

28:54

ton of money, they've been responsible with their money,

28:56

and they have rings. Like you can certainly

28:58

see where a guy would in

29:01

that position would look at exactly

29:03

what you're talking about, Jenny, Like,

29:06

hell is that I don't want to do that, you know what

29:08

I mean, Like like I'm good, Like I like,

29:10

I'll come back and give it a try next year, Like

29:12

I don't. I don't need to go through all of that.

29:15

And I think that that's probably where, you

29:17

know, like it's it's like anything else, like people

29:19

who have financial security, who've reached

29:21

the level a certain level of accomplishment, have more

29:24

i think freedom to make decisions, um,

29:26

you know in situations like this. Yeah,

29:28

I mean that's always there's going to be that gap,

29:31

right, and there are some people who feel

29:33

like they can't opt out. But good for the union

29:35

for negotiating a way that

29:37

allows people to have this choice,

29:40

um and being a pretty good spot

29:42

if you do, you know. Um, so I think that

29:45

was a real, real positive way to

29:47

kind of make sure that players have the choice. But yeah,

29:49

I mean, if you're at the end of your career

29:51

or you're a rookie, you don't feel like you

29:53

have the same options probably, um,

29:56

but at least you know those who, at

29:59

least some are extra sizing the option that is

30:01

available to them. I will say this too,

30:03

I think it's good that some guys like

30:06

that were notable names, like like

30:08

a Good when other players have heard

30:10

of him, High Tower, other players have heard of him, Nate

30:12

Solder, other I think it was good that

30:15

some of these guys made

30:17

those decisions. And I think Laurent Duveni

30:19

Tardif above all of them because he's

30:21

the one who's an actual doctor, right, Um,

30:24

but I think all of them, like, I think the fact that

30:26

you had some big names come out early and do

30:28

this, to me, that was really

30:30

good because it gave everyone else

30:33

cover, you know what I mean, Like now

30:35

that you've had some like Dante high Tower

30:37

is a freaking captain, you know what I mean.

30:39

Like he's a captain of a three time super Bowl

30:41

champion. So if there's some other guy

30:44

in another place who wasn't completely comfortable with

30:46

it, Like it's really hard

30:48

to say, oh, you're letting your teammates down, dude,

30:51

when there's somebody like high Tower over there

30:53

who's opting out. So I think that that was one

30:55

positive here is that some of these guys

30:58

who are high profile making the decision you

31:00

quickly at least gave guys

31:02

cover to think about it if they weren't comfortable

31:04

with going forward with the season. And

31:07

also the players, high

31:09

profile players supporting the guys who are

31:11

doing it, like Patrick Mahomes

31:13

coming out and saying that he supports

31:16

Tardif and then uh, Damian Williams opted

31:18

out, And like the fact that the high profile guys who

31:20

are playing are backing

31:22

up that message and saying, no, they're not letting us

31:24

down. We're happy for them. Like that's

31:27

that's just as important because you know they Patton,

31:29

who's a bigger name of Patrick Mahomes, you know, Tom

31:31

Brady, Sure, but like Patrick Mahomes coming

31:33

out and supporting his teammate, that says

31:36

a lot, and that echoes through thirty

31:38

two locker rooms saying, hey, we're gonna

31:40

you know, we're gonna support guys who make these decisions.

31:43

And it also it squears with the trend

31:45

we've seen that so many guys are walking away

31:47

from the game completely and retiring early for

31:49

all kinds of reasons. So you know, in

31:51

that respect, it shouldn't be surprising how many guys

31:54

are willing to take a year off in the middle

31:56

of their career because we are seeing that it

31:58

it is becoming more common people who

32:00

could physically play and would have a spot on the

32:03

roster to decide. You know, hey, no thanks, I'm

32:05

good for now. Yeah. Absolutely,

32:08

so I'm going to take over the role of point guard

32:10

briefly. Um, while we

32:12

were on our break from the Weekend Review podcast,

32:15

Mitch wrote his NFL

32:18

Octopus Awards and year and review.

32:20

It was a big year for the octopus, Mitch.

32:23

Year for the Octopus made it all the way

32:25

to a prop bet for the Super Bowl

32:28

on if there would be an octopus in the game,

32:30

which there was not, But this was

32:33

a big moment in Super Bowl

32:35

week when the octopus was featured

32:37

on TV it was being discussed

32:40

as a bet for the game. Um,

32:43

how do you remember when you first saw that or

32:45

how do you were feeling when you first saw that? Mitch,

32:48

So, yeah, it was it was

32:50

a big moment. It was during Super

32:52

Bowl media night. We

32:55

were at of all places on earth,

32:57

we were at Marlins Park. We're talking about

32:59

the Marlins on this podcast. That

33:01

sounds like it's like ten years ago now. But

33:04

we were all at Marlin's Park and I got some

33:07

tweets and texts and they were

33:09

like, Mitch, they're talking about the octopus

33:11

on the Daily Wager on ESPN.

33:14

I don't think it was on ESPN proper. I think it

33:16

was on one of their streaming channels or ESPN two

33:18

or something. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it was. I'll just tell people it was

33:20

on ESPN. But people started

33:23

sending the screenshots and it was like,

33:25

they are talking about this on TV. And

33:27

I was like, you know, I'm busy. I'm trying to

33:30

talk to Harrison Butcker here, like, give me a

33:32

magna. I can't process all of this. I

33:34

was tracking down both of the backup quarterbacks. Um

33:37

No, it was very exciting. I should probably back up

33:39

and explain what the octopus is. Oh yea up.

33:42

I just felt like it was, you know, widely

33:45

known, I like to think, but for

33:49

the book in in Vegas, I think you're

33:51

we're good, right, match, Well, I think

33:53

so well, and we've talked about it on this podcast before,

33:55

maybe not this one, but during the season,

33:57

I did the Friday Gambling Show

34:00

with Gary Grammling and Jimmy Traina and we would

34:02

talk about the octopus frequently. But so

34:04

basically, it's when a player scores a touchdown

34:06

and then the same player scores

34:08

the two point conversion. And this happened

34:10

Tori Smith did it in and

34:13

I noticed it while I was watching the game, and

34:16

I just tweeted, like, there should be a name

34:18

for this, like what do we call this? I like it?

34:20

And then it was one of my friends who suggested the octopus,

34:23

and I said, yeah, that's perfect, We'll call it the octopus

34:25

um. And then I wrote an article about

34:28

it last year, sort of coining the

34:30

phrase, and I wrote about the history of it and

34:32

I listed thanks to some help

34:34

from Pro Football Reference, I got a list of every octopus

34:37

ever and found out that Todd Gurley

34:39

and Randy Moss had the career record

34:41

with three each, and Bryce would our graphics

34:43

guy made this great graphic of like Todd

34:46

Gurley reaching an octopus across the pylon,

34:48

and so I just wrote this thing and then it

34:50

took off a little bit, and it was very

34:52

fun because then during the season I was obviously

34:55

watching for it. It's just become habit now that when the team

34:57

lines up to go for two. My eyes just

35:00

and like, okay, where is the guy who scored the touchdown? And

35:02

like, let's see it happened here. And people

35:04

were tweeting in the all season whenever it was close

35:06

or if they saw one, and it was just a lot of fun. And

35:08

then Caesar's made it a prop bet, like you said, Jenny,

35:11

and so I thought that was going to be the highlight. I was like, wow,

35:14

we've made it. What the crazy thing?

35:16

Talking about a big year? It ended up being really

35:18

popular. It was the It was Caesar's

35:21

biggest liability of any prop bet on

35:23

the board because everybody

35:25

no one's gonna bet no octopus,

35:28

and the odds are set up that people were betting

35:30

yes, so they were they were going to be out

35:33

of The quote was high six figures.

35:35

These are other reporters were then rewarding

35:38

on this and tweeting about it, and if

35:40

there was an octopus it would have been very bad for them.

35:43

Um, but as you said, there wasn't. Um,

35:45

So it was It was a really fun year for me

35:47

to take this thing that I made up on

35:49

Twitter and then released into

35:51

the world in and then watch it grow over

35:53

the next year. We had to give out had

35:55

to give out awards. Yeah, it's funny that it came

35:57

up on media Night too, because that night it was actually

36:00

asking Chiefs players about this play

36:02

that Andy Reid had drawn up called doctor Octopus.

36:05

Um, and it was like all of these routes across

36:08

the field, which you can imagine when you draw it up,

36:10

it looks like a lot of legs. And then he was saying it

36:12

was kind of representative of his time

36:14

in Kansas City and that it carried meaning to a

36:16

lot of different people. Um. But

36:18

anyways, back to the Octopus

36:21

award. So you picked your favorite octopus.

36:23

Now you can describe it. My

36:25

initial um question

36:27

was if the octopus you picked as

36:29

the best octopus of the year was influenced

36:31

at all by the fact that you saw it live. Amazingly,

36:35

I went to two football games last season.

36:37

I went to the Super Bowl and I went to the

36:40

Bills Texans wild card game went to

36:42

Shaun Watson had the octopus of the year. That

36:45

influenced it a little bit, But it was also, I mean,

36:47

this is a great octopus. First off,

36:49

it's in the playoffs, it's on that stage, and

36:52

so I have a spreadsheet tracking them

36:54

where you've got the score of every game, and

36:56

so some of them it's fun one of teams down

36:58

by eight and they tie it, or when

37:01

the team's down by seven and they take the lead on

37:03

the octopus. This was a classic. The

37:05

Texans were down sixteen nothing and

37:07

they cut the lead in half, and they needed

37:10

two touchdowns and two two point conversions, and they actually

37:12

got it and sent the game to overtime. It was like

37:14

a great play where Deshaun Watson runs

37:16

it in from twenty yards out. I think I embedded

37:18

the highlight in the story and then the two

37:20

point conversion he's out running out to the right and diving

37:22

for the pylon again and uh,

37:25

you know, the stage, the octopus,

37:27

the player, all of it. It all contributes. But

37:29

I thought it was pretty clear that this was the best one we

37:31

saw and a nice little treat that I happened

37:33

to be there in person. Yeah, I agree,

37:36

it was definitely the best one last year, and

37:38

you happened to be there. I did chicken

37:40

out. I could have raised

37:43

my hand in the Deshaun Watson

37:45

press conference after the game said DeShawn,

37:48

you know, what do you think Octopus

37:50

of the year, And then nobody

37:53

in the room would have had any idea what I was talking about.

37:55

This was a month before it was the Super Bowl prop

37:57

that um, you know you Bob

38:00

Claim and whoever else, the Texans

38:02

media and all all the folks who were there. It

38:04

would have been, uh, it would have been. It

38:06

would have been a bold move for me

38:08

to step in and ask him about the octopus, as

38:11

if he knew it. Um. But I you know, I

38:13

chickened out. I'll until I get the

38:15

opportunity to talk to a player about an octopus

38:17

post game. I will regret that. I was gonna

38:19

say, take it to my grave, but I like to think at

38:21

some point in my life I'll redeem

38:24

myself. But it was you should

38:26

call. You should try to get girly like.

38:28

You should definitely try. You should try to get

38:30

girly like, because that's I think

38:32

he would actually like this. So

38:35

I I tweeted, and so Todd Gurley.

38:37

I gave him the bronze medal Octopus of the Year.

38:39

It was a lifetime achievement. Yeah,

38:41

he set the career record. He was tied with

38:44

Randy Moss. He had a fourth one took the lead.

38:46

So I did mention the very

38:49

thirsty of me and I don't always do this, but I did

38:51

tweet with the like the gold medal

38:53

emoji and I mentioned all three of them, and Shaun

38:55

Watson did fave the tweet. I don't

38:57

know if that was him or one of his people. I

39:00

was like, Sean, you've got a reply or retweet,

39:02

but we did get the Deshaun Watson fave um,

39:05

so they're aware of it. I did reach out to the Texans

39:07

and ask if they but it was such a crazy

39:09

summer and this was in like March or April.

39:11

I asked them, and with everything going on, and I

39:13

was like, that's fine. I don't I don't want to

39:15

push and be a bother, but yeah,

39:18

I think at some point I may have to talk to Todd Gurley, who

39:20

is like, how how many

39:22

active players are there with multiple then other

39:24

than girly. Well, there's a handy chart

39:27

in Mitcha's story there. But this is

39:29

all time individual octopus leaders,

39:31

so it's not just active players,

39:33

right. But we could hang on a second and I'll

39:35

pull up. But Todd Gurley is

39:38

the learning all time individual octopus

39:40

leader with four. He is one

39:42

better than Randy Moss. So vant

39:45

is to threats to girly right now, will be Davante

39:47

Adams with Alvin Kamara has

39:49

two, He's definitely a threat. I

39:52

mean Antonio Brown like like

39:55

we'll see as that's in the

39:57

original article that I

39:59

wrote a year ago. I said Antonio

40:01

Brown was a perfect threat to

40:03

take over. And then he, you

40:05

know, has has played one game since. So

40:08

I guess the only active guy so be Randall

40:10

Cobb. Nate Burlson's in there. How about

40:12

that. We gotta get them talking about

40:15

this on Good Morning Football. We're gonna have to reach out you

40:17

know what, I I can reach out to Nate for you.

40:19

We have So there

40:21

are three right, like so it's well, other than

40:23

other than Girly, it's Adams, it's

40:26

Camara and Davante Adams did

40:28

have his second one on Sunday Night Football

40:30

during the season that was an honorable mention.

40:33

And it's Randall Cobb. Those are the I think,

40:35

right, those are the only three.

40:38

Gregors didn't

40:40

scroll down far. Yeah, So I mean,

40:42

I Camara is a threat honestly

40:45

though. I mean Deshaun Watson who only

40:47

has one, he could easily get another one,

40:49

even like you know, guy like Lamar Jackson who

40:51

doesn't have any money. I'm

40:53

shocking. I'm with you though, my

40:56

my, my money would be on Camara because

40:58

of all like the like you could totally see,

41:01

you know, it's just the direct snap stuff whatever

41:03

it is, like the stuff that he like, like the

41:05

Peyton would do with Chimara. A

41:09

big part of it is the teams that go

41:11

for two a lot, like Tomlin

41:14

had that year a few years ago where he just went crazy

41:16

and going for to all the time, like first touchdown of

41:18

the game. What's interesting about Girly he

41:21

is the only player ever who had two in a single game

41:23

because it was a game two years ago

41:25

when Johnny Hecker got hurt and

41:28

they had their or not Johnny Hecker um

41:30

who zero

41:33

line got hurt and so Johnny Hecker kicked a field

41:35

goal and so they were just going for two

41:37

on most of their touchdowns instead of kicking the

41:40

longer extra point with their punter, and

41:42

so that sort of that inflated his totals a

41:44

little bit, and a lot of it's just circumstances

41:47

and who knows what happens, but so much of it comes

41:49

down to being on the type of team. That's actually

41:51

why I think Lamar Jackson even though he doesn't

41:53

have any yet. Could be a sleeper because the

41:55

Ravens and what they're doing, and I could see them going

41:57

for two a lot, and and you know, I

42:00

would I put it on the board that I would expect

42:02

Jackson to have one next season. Okay,

42:04

so that would be your like OCTOPI

42:07

producer to watch. Yeah,

42:10

the watch list,

42:13

Oh my gosh, yes,

42:16

on eight eight, you should do an Octopi watch

42:18

list match. Oh my god, that this

42:21

is now asking a lot for me to publish two stories

42:23

on the Octopus in the off season. We're gonna

42:25

have to clear this, uh with the editors.

42:27

No, I think, I think I like that eight

42:29

eight Octopus watch list. Let's don't

42:32

forgive me if I've missed this.

42:34

Is there a quarterback list to like of like

42:36

guys who have thrown like

42:39

our this does not count. You got

42:41

to score all the points.

42:45

It doesn't count. But it would be interesting to see

42:47

if like who's they're

42:49

out there? It's it's a it's a much bigger list

42:51

though, and the numbers would

42:53

be bigger. Ye, it's

42:56

way easier to accomplish and to be the one.

42:59

Yeah, we're the you have to be the one crossing

43:01

the goal line, right, the ball's got

43:03

to score all the points. Okay, that's

43:05

what made Deshaun Watson's exciting. Aaron Rodgers

43:08

had one the year before that was fun and a big

43:10

comeback against the Jets. So anyway,

43:12

this is uh, this is the only thing I do

43:14

on Sundays. I just watch I just watched

43:17

Red Zone waiting for OCTOPI and

43:19

uh, you're welcome to join me. Um. I Now

43:21

I get people tweeting at me when they see

43:23

one in a college game that I'm not watching somebody,

43:26

because you know, I have a bunch of Eagles fans who follow

43:28

me. Someone during quarantine at one point was

43:30

watching an Eagles Cowboys game from like

43:34

and they texted me like or tweeted at me. Corey

43:36

Clement just had an octopus in the Eagles

43:39

Cowboys came that I'm watching. I was like,

43:41

thanks. We didn't know the term existed

43:43

at the time, but I'm happy to know about

43:45

it now retroactively. So this, I

43:47

guess if you have to be known for something, I'm

43:50

fine being known for this. I can be the octopus

43:52

guy. I mean I leaned into it. I have the octopus

43:54

in my Twitter name, in my

43:56

display name. Um, So if anyone's

43:58

ever wondered why, this is the reason. Yeah,

44:01

let's let's keep an eye on Clyde Clyde Edwards

44:03

Hilayer to here with the h I

44:05

think he would be just because, like Jenny

44:07

mentioned Andy Reid's

44:10

creativity and he's just like

44:12

a fun player that I think, And I

44:14

think like they're really going to go to the lab with

44:16

how to use this guy both you know,

44:18

both Andy and Eric the enemy. So I

44:20

put like, let me just put

44:22

Clyde Edwards a layer on your on

44:25

your octopus.

44:28

Will there be eight players on the watch

44:30

list? I think there have to be. Think yeah,

44:33

and like Lamar Jackson wears number

44:36

eight. I mean he's really just like an octopus

44:38

waiting to happen. That's

44:41

gonna be the that's the tweet

44:43

to tease this episode of the podcast. Lamar

44:46

Jackson is an octopus. Way it happened? Perfect?

44:48

Thanks Jenny, great glad I could help.

44:52

Alright, should we move on to our final segment

44:55

where we quickly uh we start off with

44:57

what have we been up to? But we end with one

44:59

good thing, which was a Jenny idea way

45:01

back seemingly months ago. I guess it was actually

45:03

months ago. But do you guys want to share one

45:05

good thing from this week? I

45:09

got mine. So I mentioned I visited

45:11

my parents, but still a lot of good things

45:13

came out of the visit. But one that's very

45:16

is that my mother is something of a pack rat.

45:18

Um She accumulates items in her

45:20

basement and you know, accumulates

45:23

items she thinks I might need a few years from

45:25

now. But the benefit

45:27

of this despite the fact that general

45:29

packrat tendencies give me the shakes

45:31

a little bit because I live in a small New York apartment,

45:34

so like, you can't really accumulate things here. But anyways,

45:36

my mother had, before the pandemic accumulated

45:39

a nice supply of Clorox wipes, so,

45:42

as you know, very difficult to still

45:44

buy Clorox wipes. So I went home

45:46

and I got a nice three pack of Chlorox

45:49

wipes, which I hadn't seen in months,

45:51

and so I brought those back with me to New York.

45:53

So this was a time when it is good to be a

45:55

stockpiler of household supplies.

45:58

I feel like that's still but I heard the it's still.

46:00

That's the one thing that's still, like when you walk into

46:02

the grocery store, the shelf is still

46:05

empty, Like most

46:07

of them, They've done a good job of getting everything else

46:09

where it needs to be, like even like paper

46:12

towels. I don't think we have as much of a problem anymore.

46:14

But those Clorox whites are like like you

46:16

cannot find them, and

46:19

like articles are coming out where they say, you

46:21

know, it's really it's airborne, and

46:23

surfaces are not the best. But

46:26

but still so many people and I'm in this category

46:28

to like I rented a car this weekend

46:31

and went down to Philly's game and then something else I'm gonna

46:33

talk about in a minute, but like the car, they're disinfecting

46:35

the rental cars and I'm still I got it,

46:37

and I brought Clorox wipes and I'm wiping down the steering

46:39

wheel and the dashboard and the events and people

46:42

who are waiting for their cars are

46:44

looking at me like come on, and I'm like

46:46

you think I'm the idiot, Like no, like you're not gonna

46:48

give me that look like I'm wiping down this car

46:51

like I don't care, Like you can wait in

46:53

two minutes for me to wipe down Uh,

46:55

you know everything my hands are going to touch this weekend.

46:58

Um, and so yeah, I I good

47:00

for you. I totally get that. That's a nice feeling

47:03

knowing you've got all the Clorox wife, Thank

47:06

you, Thank you. Be be judicious

47:08

with those, Jenny. Um,

47:11

I'll go I uh

47:14

like so I'll be I'll be the suburban

47:16

dad here again. And I uh, you know, childcare

47:19

is challenging, um right

47:21

now, and uh you know you're around your kids

47:23

a lot and you're looking for stuff for them to do. So

47:26

UM, friends of ours, UM who

47:28

we've like kind of like got a little like almost

47:30

like a pot of people that we just we hang out

47:33

with. It's like two other groups of kids

47:35

and UM and their parents. And

47:38

uh, one of one

47:40

of my wife's best friends here in town, I'll

47:43

give her shout out here, Peyton Connelly

47:45

has basically opened her pool to uh

47:48

to us and uh

47:51

this other group with this other family and

47:53

UM, you know, like it's just I

47:56

feel like, you know, as you struggle to find things

47:58

for your kids to do, it's like

48:00

other people doing nice things for you really

48:02

helps. And you know,

48:04

giving them the activities like my kids

48:07

getting excited to go to the pool now, and

48:09

um, you know, like we can't like in our town,

48:11

like you actually, like the you know, health

48:14

club that we're part of, you actually have to

48:16

sign up for an appointment to go to the pool there,

48:18

and so that that's kind of a non starter when you

48:20

get little kids. And so you

48:23

know the fact that like I think, I think in

48:25

a lot of these towns, you've got like little groups of

48:27

people that get together and are just helping each

48:29

other out. And the value of having a

48:31

pool right now if you have little kids is huge.

48:34

And so you know, we're very careful about

48:36

everything, of course, but I just you

48:38

know, I want to give I want to give the Connolly's

48:40

a shout out because it's, uh, it's

48:42

incredible the way that like other people are

48:45

willing to help you out and

48:47

and and like make sure

48:49

that you're giving your kids the best experience

48:51

as they go through this. That's

48:54

a nice one. Yeah, I could use

48:56

a pool. Any neighbors

48:58

want to hop in their pool for me? A little

49:01

tougher to find around here. Um, you're

49:03

right, I mean, everyone focuses on the

49:05

negatives so much all the time, but there

49:07

have been so many stories about just people

49:09

helping other people and being there for each other, and that's

49:11

been very nice to see. Also, over the last

49:14

few months, I think Albert, you

49:16

had a tweet about how COVID

49:19

has the morons have been exposed

49:21

the last month. I think nice, nice people have been exposed

49:24

to That tweet doesn't go. It

49:26

doesn't spread as far maybe as your tweet about

49:28

morons. But I think I will say somebody somebody

49:30

like fired me up about something stupid would happen?

49:33

That where that that that was? That was not an unprompted

49:35

tweet. That was I saw

49:38

a couple of really dumb things that fired

49:40

me up. And so yeah, I guess it was

49:42

a little bit of subtweet. Fair

49:44

enough. We all need a sub tweet every now and then. So

49:47

I mentioned that I uh, going

49:49

to a live sporting event felt like something that wouldn't

49:52

happen. I did another thing this weekend that I didn't

49:54

think I would do. I actually went to a wedding

49:56

on Saturday, which was really nice.

49:59

Um it was a good friend of mine who I've known

50:01

since we were literally one year old.

50:03

We've known each other for over thirty years. And

50:07

you know, so many people have had their wedding dates

50:09

and you plan it so far in advance, and some people

50:11

have canceled or postponed

50:14

for a year until hopefully when things are better,

50:17

and then you've seen a lot of people instead just do the backyard

50:19

wedding and have it on zoom and things. And so

50:22

they were playing around with the date

50:24

and didn't know what they were gonna do, and then they decided

50:26

they were going to do just family on the original

50:28

date. And then because things got better

50:30

in New York and the wedding was on Long Island,

50:33

they decided pretty late in the game that

50:35

the bride and groom would both invite three friends

50:38

plus their spouses, and it was a social

50:40

distance wedding. People wore masks, there

50:42

was no dancing. It was just the

50:44

ceremony and then sit down outdoors

50:47

under a tent for a meal and still

50:49

like speeches and toasts and things, and you

50:51

know, the bridegroom did their first dance and they had a cake.

50:53

So it was obviously it was not the wedding they

50:55

dreamed of having with a huge number of people,

50:57

but it was actually very nice and well done and

51:00

everyone felt safe there and so it was just very

51:02

nice to be able to be there and um

51:05

a cool moment, there was a group of four of us

51:07

who we've all known each other for that long, um,

51:09

and two of the guys I hadn't seen in a long time. And then

51:12

the groom I'm in touch with a lot more obviously,

51:14

And uh, it was just very nice to go

51:17

to a wedding and like, you know, put

51:19

on I wore pants, like, you know, addressed

51:21

like a real person. Like it felt nice to

51:24

be like a human being with a social event.

51:26

Um. And you know, they did a good job with it obviously.

51:29

You know, they're like grandparents there, so they weren't gonna do anything

51:31

risky. This was not gonna be a super spreader eventum.

51:34

But it was really nice to be able to go to a wedding in the middle

51:36

of a pandemic, which they were able to do because the

51:39

State of New York has done a good job and everyone

51:41

was careful and did it safely. And even they had

51:43

the chairs set up during the ceremonies six ft away

51:45

from everyone else and it was outside and people wore

51:48

masks. I don't want to give people the wrong idea,

51:50

and like, uh, you know, but it was very

51:52

safe and careful and it was really nice to be able to go and

51:54

be there on my friend's big day and be

51:57

a part of that. That's awesome. That's my

51:59

one good thing. That's awesome because you hear some

52:01

I mean, I've had two friends who have who've

52:03

done what you meant what you mentioned, which

52:05

is like just gotten married with very

52:08

very small groups and postponed. And I think

52:10

a lot of those people are planning on having parties next

52:13

year or whatever. Um. Actually

52:15

a friend who was gonna get married in Switzerland

52:18

this summer and I had

52:20

to cancel it in May because they

52:22

had to cancel in May because they

52:24

weren't allowing US citizens in. So I think a

52:26

lot of people are like facing these sorts of situations.

52:29

So it's that's awesome that they could actually

52:31

do something with more than

52:33

just family there. Yeah, and they did have

52:36

the zoom set up, and I know a lot of people did watch

52:38

their people from farther away or couldn't travel, or

52:40

just given the limited numbers, we did say we

52:42

owe him a bachelor party. This is gonna

52:44

This is my theory that I think you're

52:47

gonna see just a wave of bachelor and bachelerette

52:49

parties after the fact. Like I think that's just people

52:51

are gonna be ready to get out and go on vacation.

52:54

I think in the next year you're going to see people with upcoming

52:56

weddings and weddings that have passed phase

52:59

out this our tradition, or

53:01

maybe the wedding industry kind of constructs

53:04

a little bit, which I think is pretty nice.

53:07

Trust me, Trust me, I paid

53:09

for a wedding like it is, like it's

53:11

like college tuition. It's like, I think there's gonna

53:13

be some things reevaluated after all of

53:15

this. So I mean, as a bride'smaid,

53:17

I've spent thousands of dollars on friends weddings.

53:20

So I hope that the industry constricts a

53:22

little bit. I think that's more in line with like what

53:24

wedding should be. It is just like a few people that you

53:26

really care about, you know. Yeah, it's

53:28

it's um, it's

53:31

yeah. Like I said, like, I think a lot of things coming out of this, We're

53:33

gonna look at the numbers of some of the things and like what

53:35

we've been spending on, and it's just it's

53:38

it's crazy, it's absolutely it's yeah.

53:40

So we don't need to turn this into something

53:42

that is not right. Right. We're

53:45

an hour endo the podcast at this point anyone

53:48

who's still listening to us as a

53:50

big loyal fan of the show. Alright,

53:54

well this has been fun. As always, never know exactly

53:56

what we're gonna end up talking about here on the Weekend Review

53:58

podcast. Um but Jenny

54:01

Albert, this was a fun one and hopefully

54:03

we'll have Connor back when we do this again next week.

54:06

And so thanks everyone for tuning in listening.

54:08

Make sure you subscribe to the emmett

54:11

to the what's it called the mm QB NFL

54:13

podcast? Is that what it's called? Now I'm having

54:16

we're doing it in the morning. Usually we do this

54:18

in the afternoon, and I'm more a learned I don't know, Um,

54:20

it's not that early in the morning anyway. Subscribe to

54:22

the podcast. We'll get shows five days a week. You'll

54:25

get the week Side podcast with Jenny and Connor,

54:27

you'll get Albert podcast, you get Gary and

54:29

Andy on Monday mornings. So make

54:31

sure you check it out, subscribe, rate review all that good

54:33

stuff and check out everything we're writing

54:35

at the m m QB. And we'll catch again

54:38

next week.