0:07

The Season with Peter Schrager is a production

0:09

of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.

0:22

What's up, everybody, Welcome to the season. I'm

0:24

Peter Schrager. I'm joined by my friend

0:27

and producer Slash Wingman

0:30

on this thing, mister Aaron wang Kaufman,

0:32

who seems to have a pep in his step right now

0:35

because Aaron's team, the Bills,

0:37

went from being the eleven seed a few months

0:39

ago to now sitting pretty in the two spot

0:41

of the AFC playoffs, getting a TJ.

0:44

Wattless Steelers coming in having

0:46

a home game the following week if they win that

0:48

one. Aaron, if I told you before

0:51

the season started and all the drama and everything

0:54

that you'd be the two seed in the AFC, would you

0:56

sign? Oh?

0:57

Well, yeah, I mean I would happily

1:00

accept that. There was a time, I'm

1:02

sure like on this show, you know,

1:04

that I was down trodden

1:06

and was like, we're not gonna make it. We're

1:09

a mess, We're not even going to be in

1:11

the playoff race, like eoring

1:14

it up over here and here we are.

1:16

Yeah, I feel like we could go through the files

1:18

and I was actually really bullish after

1:21

a loss when they lost it at Eagles. I came

1:24

on here and I was like, there's actually a path if they get

1:26

their crap together during the bye week that they can do this. They

1:28

haven't lost since. It hasn't been pretty. I mean

1:31

again, I told you last week like this

1:33

isn't like this red hot team coming in. It has not

1:35

been pretty. They threw two red zone turnovers. They

1:37

barely won last week, but everyone

1:39

else lost also. So here we are the two seed

1:41

bills and then whether or not it was pretty or not, there's

1:44

no standings for aesthetics.

1:46

And they're where they are and they're likely

1:48

hosting Patrick Mahomes in the second round

1:50

of the playoffs, and that's something you would have signed up for

1:52

before this season. Let's move right along. The matchups

1:55

are great, but if you listen to this podcast,

1:57

you're in the coaching hiring and firing

1:59

world. So much going on right

2:01

now. You can find the different lists of the different

2:03

teams and what's going on real

2:05

quick. Hard wins the national title

2:08

this week. He has a head start

2:10

on all of these coaches due to the

2:12

NFL's Rooney Rule and the way things

2:14

have been shaken out during the Competition Committee.

2:17

This past year, no

2:19

coach currently with an NFL job, whether

2:21

it be head coach or a coordinator,

2:24

can interview for any other jobs until

2:27

January twenty first, which is after

2:29

the divisional round of the playoffs. Harball,

2:32

however, he's exempt from

2:34

that, so he gets first DIBs on this. Now,

2:36

every team is going to have to go through the Rooney rule.

2:38

He can't just meet Harbaugh on higher him. You have to

2:41

meet at least you know fit

2:43

those requirements, meet minority candidates,

2:46

meet people of color, and then you can make your decision.

2:48

But Harball, hypothetically speaking

2:50

Aaron this week, he can knock them all out.

2:53

First impression is important. He can say,

2:55

here's who my staff is. Let's get this

2:57

thing going and a team almost.

3:00

I guess by you know, a formality,

3:03

we'll meet with other candidates.

3:05

And I guess that's not what the NFL I was looking for. But I

3:07

think Harbor is really interesting for the LA Chargers.

3:09

I've mentioned this on Good Morning Football. I've been saying it

3:11

for weeks. I'm sure they're doing their due diligence

3:14

on several candidates, and they've put offers

3:17

or submission for a question. But Harbor,

3:19

to me, you're talking about a guy who

3:21

has won right away everywhere

3:24

he's gone. That's the University of San Diego,

3:26

that is Stanford, that is

3:28

the forty nine Ers, and that is

3:31

Michigan. And he does it almost overnight.

3:34

That is what the Chargers need right now. They are in a

3:36

fight for relevance. They are playing in Los

3:38

Angeles, which has a bigger team than them

3:41

in the Rams right now as far as relevance

3:43

and wins. Talking about the USC

3:45

and UCLA, USC of course

3:48

just had Kayleb Williams, a recent Heisman winner.

3:50

UCLA just got to commit from

3:52

Hasselbeck's kid, who's one of the highest

3:54

rated prospects. You've got a lot of

3:57

things to do in LA. They're opening

3:59

up a brand new facility that's supposed to be insanely

4:01

cool in Orange County. They've got

4:03

this quarterback under contract in Justin Herbert,

4:06

and they've got a fledgling

4:08

fan base in LA that's looking for a reason

4:10

to believe. To me, that's

4:13

the fit for Harball go

4:15

there. Maybe in the last time around, it

4:17

wasn't maybe five years ago for

4:19

the Chargers, it wasn't at this moment

4:22

in time that franchise they

4:24

need a leader. They don't have a GM right now. Let

4:26

Harball come in as the coach, figure out who

4:28

he wants to bring in as GM. Let him

4:30

have the power, hand it over to him.

4:32

Fix us. I don't know if he's

4:34

for everybody, but I think the Chargers make a

4:36

lot of sense. Also, as we're recording

4:38

this, Mike Vrabel and the Titans are

4:41

no longer together. Verbel

4:43

was just let go by Tennessee

4:45

and Amy Adams Strunk the owner. She put

4:47

out a statement saying they redid the front office

4:50

last year. They gave this a year

4:52

of him and ran Carthon and what they're doing in the front office,

4:55

and they're now going to relook at how they have

4:57

their coaching staff assembled. Vrabel

5:00

not for everybody, tough but

5:02

also a winner. He's a former Coach of the Year

5:05

and several plays are swear

5:08

by him and say that he's a player's coach.

5:10

As tough as he can be. He might not be everybody,

5:12

be for everybody, but I think he's going to be a viable

5:15

candidate for all these different vacant

5:17

head coaching jobs. And I tweeted this out

5:19

Aaron, and I think it's interesting that

5:22

coach of the Year award. It really means

5:24

because you get a piece of hardware and it's cool,

5:27

But in a lot of ways it really

5:29

means nothing. In the last couple of years, we've seen Jason

5:31

Garrett win it and fired shortly thereafter.

5:33

So Ron Rivera win it after a fifteen to one season

5:35

with the Panthers. A couple of years later, David Tepper fires

5:37

him. Matt Nagy won it. Three

5:40

years later he's fired by the Chicago Bears,

5:42

and Mike Rabel wanted a couple of years ago when the

5:44

Super Bowl was in La I remember being at SOFI

5:47

talking to him at the NFL honors those

5:49

two years ago. Fired, so the NFL

5:51

Coach of the Year. I'm not saying it's a cursed

5:53

award or it's bad luck, but usually

5:55

it goes to a guy that can turn a team around overnight

5:57

or can get a team to make a giant leap despite

6:00

great adversity. It doesn't mean you're

6:02

given a Supreme Court justice job and you can't

6:04

be fired. Rabel's just the late head

6:07

Coach of the Year winner who

6:09

is fired by that very same team. Last,

6:12

but not least, I want to talk

6:14

real quick about the matchups this weekend. We've got

6:16

great ones. The schedule as you

6:18

see it. I'm going to use this as a public service announcement

6:21

as we're doing it. It's AFC,

6:23

AFC AFC. Then the three NFC games

6:25

follow, with the Monday Night game being on Monday with

6:27

the with the Eagles traveling

6:29

to Tampa and what becomes a very interesting

6:32

game where they played earlier this season. The

6:34

Eagles absolutely walloped them down

6:36

there in Florida, and right now I can't see that

6:38

same Eagles team doing that. But I want

6:40

to make a public service announcement for Saturday Night.

6:42

I don't work for these guys. I've

6:44

never worked for these guys, but the game

6:46

is exclusively on Peacock. Aaron,

6:49

do you have Peacock?

6:51

I do only because what

6:53

was it two to three weeks ago.

6:55

The Bills game?

6:56

That want it for the Bills game, and then last

6:58

night it was good to have. Because this

7:01

is all irrelevant. But there's this

7:03

like Direct TV streaming

7:06

debate or like they don't have the rights.

7:08

Oh doke TV. I'm not friends with DirecTV. They did

7:10

me no, but no favors. They're not with the NFL anymore.

7:12

Yeah, I can't stream Sunday

7:15

night football unless it's on Peacock

7:17

now interesting, or I watch the Spanish

7:19

language version, So okay, I do that sometimes.

7:22

So I

7:24

do now have Peacock in order to watch

7:26

the Bills game, and then this Saturday night

7:28

I'll be able to watch the Dolphins game. But

7:30

I do think even though we had Mike

7:32

North on here talking about it, you're still going to

7:34

have people who are gonna forget.

7:36

Yeah, and not only forget, not have the service.

7:38

And this is the gamble that

7:40

the NFL and NBC took. They said, we're

7:43

going to pay big money. We're going to put one of these games on

7:45

our streamers to promote the streamer. People

7:47

are already crushing the decision.

7:49

I've seen Bill Simmons crush it. I've seen Chris

7:51

Russo crush it. I've seen Mike Francesa

7:53

crush it. Okay, Well,

7:56

the more you crush it, the more the publicity

7:59

around it increases. I

8:01

don't think it's a surprise the NFL said

8:03

we're throwing the Chiefs on there. That legitimate is

8:05

is Peacock. This isn't the earlier game between

8:07

the Browns and the Texans, which a lot of people might say, well,

8:10

that's not a matchup. This is defending champions

8:12

are on Peacock. The defending champions

8:14

are on Peacock, and they're facing

8:16

Tyreek Hill in his first game back in Iowhead.

8:19

Mike Triko from what I gather, is on the call.

8:21

I don't know that's been announced yet, and I have to edit that out.

8:23

I've been told that that's not from NBC. But

8:25

someone said Tarico is doing multiple games this

8:27

week, which is mega and legitimizes

8:30

it in a lot of ways. So maybe Taylor

8:32

swifts in the building, maybe Travis Kelcey

8:34

goes wild. But that game is on Peacock.

8:37

And as you know, there will

8:39

be many questions the day of from

8:41

your uncle, from your aunt, from your friend.

8:44

Where's this game? How the hell do I get this game?

8:46

Can I stream this game Peacock?

8:49

It is on Peacock, Help them

8:51

sign up for an account. Get

8:53

encouraging that I don't work for those guys. I'm just telling you where

8:55

it is. I can sit up there.

9:00

I'm not chilling for Peacock. It

9:03

was up to me. All the games will be on Fox. Right here

9:06

we go. Our guest

9:09

is a guy that I really respect.

9:11

He is the president of the Los Angeles

9:13

Rams. And there is no person I wanted

9:16

to speak with more this week than someone who's

9:18

had a bird's eye view

9:20

of all of this stuff. The golf,

9:22

Stafford trade, the move to Los

9:25

Angeles, and of course the

9:28

season that has been one of the most surprising

9:30

and uplifting ones in all the football that the

9:33

Los Angeles Rams have had. I'm

9:35

really excited to speak with Kevin Deboff, the president

9:37

of the Rams. Right to this. I've

9:55

wanted to have our guests on the season with

9:57

Peter Schrager every week this season and

9:59

every week in the offseason. It hasn't come

10:01

together. And then this week I begged him, considering

10:04

the storylines at play and his vantage point

10:07

at what I would imagine is the

10:09

wildcard game of the weekend, the one that I'm

10:11

most excited for. It's taking place Sunday

10:13

night, It's in Detroit, It's their first home playoff

10:16

game in thirty years. And oh

10:18

who's coming to town. Sean

10:20

McVay, Matthew Stafford and the Los

10:22

Angeles Rams. This is the

10:24

president of the Los Angeles

10:27

Rams, for my money, maybe the smartest

10:29

guy that I deal with on a day to day basis

10:31

or a week to week basis, or in any

10:34

conversations that we have. I feel like he's got the

10:36

best thirty thousand foot view of the league

10:38

and always provides insights and has done wonders

10:41

in Los Angeles for this franchise. How's

10:43

that for an intro? Kevin Demoff, President

10:46

of the Rams, what's up, buddy?

10:47

I think I should just end on that note, right, that's

10:49

the mic drop of I've

10:52

wanted to do the podcast too though, so this is we

10:54

finally had a reason to

10:56

do it. As we sit here on in Wildcard weekend. What

10:58

a fun It's such a crazy time of year

11:00

in the NFL. You have fourteen teams excited about

11:03

Wildcard weekend and then probably the other half

11:05

for dealing with something crazy

11:07

on their own. So it's probably my favorite time

11:09

of year in the NFL, just from a sheer

11:12

excitement and interest.

11:14

Yeah, I think that's where we're at. And

11:16

like today on Good Morning Football, we started the show

11:18

and we talked Belichick and

11:21

then we went into Wink

11:23

Martindale and then we went into Kirk

11:25

Cousins' contract and we had a bunch of viewers

11:27

being like, hello, there's fourteen teams

11:29

playing football. But that's the crux right now.

11:31

It's like we're at this intersection of teams

11:33

trying to rebuild and do it on the fly in January,

11:36

then the rest of the league who's still around actually

11:38

trying to compete for a Super Bowl title. Let's start

11:40

with the latter with you. This

11:43

is to me, this is golf versus

11:45

the Rams. This is Stafford versus

11:47

the Lions. This is McVeigh versus Golf.

11:49

This is oh storylines

11:52

that are so rich and so seeped

11:54

into personal intersections.

11:57

You are the president of the Los Angeles Rams.

11:59

You were the president of the Los Angeles Rams when they

12:01

drafted Jared Goff out of cal first

12:03

overall trading up to get him.

12:06

And then you were the president of the Rams when you traded

12:08

Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford.

12:11

Let's go into the Jared and Matthew you

12:14

know storyline. Let's start with the Jared

12:16

Goff storyline and where the Rams

12:19

and you personally stand

12:21

as you look to travel to Detroit

12:24

to face the guy that you guys took out of college

12:26

and then eventually shipped off to go

12:28

get Stafford. Where do you stand as far

12:30

as Jared Goes and his relationship to the Los Angeles

12:32

Rams franchise.

12:34

Well, look, I love the idea of Matthew Stafford

12:36

coming back to Detroit to play in the playoff game.

12:38

I just wish it wasn't against Jared Golf right

12:41

Like for me personally, I

12:43

think for our franchise, if there's

12:45

one person outside of our fifty

12:47

three players I pull for on Sundays, it's Jared,

12:50

and you know means so much to our

12:52

franchise. He's the first pick we trade up in two

12:54

thousand and sixteen. He's the first

12:56

pick of the Los Angeles Rams in this

12:58

era of twenty sixteen. You

13:01

know, I remember sitting down with him after the twenty sixteen

13:03

season when we made the coaching change, in him looking

13:06

me and saying, this will never happen again. I

13:08

will promise you we will get

13:10

this fixed, and we

13:13

hire Sean. The next year, we

13:15

go to the playoffs, we win the division, Jared

13:17

goes to the Pro Bowl, We have the number one offense

13:19

in the NFL. A year later, we're in the Super Bowl. You

13:21

know, we went from two years of sitting

13:23

in my office saying, I promise you, I will get this

13:26

fixed to being in the Super Bowl,

13:28

and that was you know, largely the Seawan Jared

13:30

pairing, Jared's leadership, and

13:34

I know it did an end the way we all wanted

13:36

to, with Jared delivering a super Bowl at Sandras but three

13:38

playoff appearances in four years, two

13:41

division titles, a super Bowl and

13:44

just one of the best human beings you'll ever meet.

13:46

And when the trade went down,

13:48

you know, my two kids were at the time, probably

13:51

eleven and nine, on the floor in tears,

13:54

crying. You know, their their favorite

13:56

player ever and still

13:58

cheer for Jared. You

14:01

know my daughter will still text with him, you

14:03

know every now and then, like this is just one

14:05

of the people you will for every day of the week

14:07

and just maybe not Sunday at a PM.

14:10

I hear you, because you know, there's like

14:12

this, like Rams legacy of Jared Goff,

14:14

And you'd hate to think the legacy of Jared Goff

14:16

is the Rams trading him to Detroit.

14:18

No.

14:19

I remember NFC Championship

14:21

game in New Orleans, down thirteen

14:24

to nothing, and this guy grits out of

14:26

victory. I remember Seattle during the COVID

14:28

season. He comes off the bench with about nine fingers

14:31

because one of them was broken and he beats Russell

14:33

Wilson in his building. If you can encapsulate

14:35

the good of Jared Goff during his Rams

14:38

career, it was really, really good.

14:41

There's a picture right outside my office

14:43

of him doing the finger roll on Monday

14:45

Night football after he ran in the ball, you

14:48

know, in that epic game against the Chiefs, Like I

14:50

remember that, I remember, you know,

14:52

one of the greatest passing performances I've ever

14:54

seen Thursday Night against the Vikings, you

14:57

know, on Thursday Night football, when you

14:59

know, the first primetime game, you know, regular

15:01

season at the Coliseum. You know, just

15:03

all the good he did donating backpacks

15:05

during the pandemic to kids in need

15:08

in Inglewood who had no WiFi, who had no backpacks.

15:10

I mean, if you needed something, Jared Goff

15:12

was there, if you needed a community event. For what

15:15

he did for South La Watts

15:17

Inglewood and those kids, For

15:19

what he did for our football team, for what he did for

15:21

our fans, Like he's awesome,

15:24

you know, simply put in what he's doing in Detroit.

15:26

You see it on a daily basis, both on the field

15:28

and off the field. He encapsulates what

15:31

you want in a franchise quarterback to

15:33

represent you know, your organization.

15:35

And I think all these players now in this era

15:37

of social media and you know, immense

15:40

focus on the NFL. They go through ups and downs.

15:43

And you know, when.

15:45

I talked to him the day after the trade that night,

15:47

I should say, one of the hardest conversations

15:50

you ever had, Like this person was single handedly

15:52

responsible, you know, along with our coaching

15:54

staff for getting us, you know, on

15:56

the map in Los Angeles. So you

15:58

know, you can never boil it down to could they

16:00

make a play? Could they do X, Y and Z. You

16:03

know that diminishes so much of who Jared Goff

16:05

is and what he brings to his teams

16:07

in this league.

16:08

Go back to the drafting of golf, because I think we

16:11

forget now that it's been seven years ago, but

16:13

you guys were not a top five pick. You

16:15

trade up and then you work out Jared

16:18

Goff and I remember this from I think a Mike

16:20

Silver article that ran on like NFL dot

16:22

com whipping rains, like

16:24

the scene was set and Jeff Fisher lays eyes

16:26

on him and sees him throwing in the rain when they said

16:28

maybe we should postpone it, and Goff says, no,

16:30

let me throw today in horrible weather,

16:32

and he just like, can't miss. You were there

16:35

that day, right, were you? President?

16:37

I remember landing in Oakland,

16:39

you know, and into a driving rainstorm. We go

16:41

to the hotel and we're like, you know, we can

16:43

postpone this until because it was early March,

16:46

you know, we hadn't even made the trade.

16:49

Really at that time.

16:50

We just thought we might and

16:53

so we went to work out Carson Wentz and

16:55

Jared Goff and back to back days and it's pouring

16:57

rain, like, we'll do this another time, we'll come

16:59

back, and I think you have to go back

17:01

in time. I think there was something about Jared having

17:03

small hands with the combine. Yeah, he was one

17:06

of your initial you know, Kenny Pickett,

17:08

small hands guys, and so you

17:10

know, the rain and all this, and he's like, no, I want

17:12

to go throw, and so so we go throw

17:14

and he's on the field. Now I'm I

17:17

was a little bit of a whimp after like the first time minute

17:19

time inside of course, I went and

17:21

stood in the tunnel and watched. But

17:24

he's driving the ball, He's throwing a grade. And you

17:26

walked away from from that experience

17:28

being like Okay, like this guy can throw

17:31

it, you know, great leader,

17:33

great personality. You just connected

17:35

with him and you know, fearless. And I think

17:37

that was always the one thing about Jared. There was never a challenge.

17:40

He thought that was too big. And you look

17:42

at what he did a cow turn that

17:45

program around for I think on one to eleven to

17:47

get them in the Armed forces. Bolly, he comes to the Rams,

17:50

we go from four to twelve and death to in

17:52

the super Bowl. You look at what he's done in Detroit.

17:55

This is a person who knows how to turn franchises

17:57

around.

17:59

I think about golf and it's

18:01

like, you know, we

18:03

saw him on Hard Knocks the first year with you guys when

18:05

William Hayes is to talking about dinosaurs. We see

18:07

him on Hard Knocks. The second year when you guys

18:09

are with the Chargers doing joint Hard Knocks,

18:11

and then he gets a year with the Lions.

18:14

So it's like we've had three experiences on Hard Knocks.

18:16

That's like eighteen episodes of Hard Knocks. Like, okay, I

18:18

get the Jared Goff thing. And then this year,

18:21

I don't know if he saw this, he was doing Thursday

18:23

Night Football the Lions when they bring him on, and

18:25

before the Thursday night game, Fitzpatrick

18:27

said he's a poor man's Matt Ryan, to which

18:30

Jared Goff went out of his way on the

18:32

panel and looked at Fitzpatrick, who was like, I'm

18:34

a poor man's nobody, like what and

18:36

he was and I'm like, oh, there's some edge to Jared

18:38

Goff. So he's not this pushover. He's not

18:40

this guy that just gets a beating in the media

18:43

and takes it. Was the first time I've seen him publicly

18:46

respond to some criticism or response

18:48

to those saying he can't get over the hump? Did

18:50

you see that side of Jared Golf? And is

18:52

that just a side that people take for granted

18:54

and say, oh, he's just a nice guy and Stafford's

18:56

got the edge, but Golf doesn't have that in him.

18:58

Jared has an edge, like it may be harder

19:01

to find. You don't see it every day, but he's competitive,

19:03

you know, and he believes in himself and he believes

19:05

in his teammate. And I always feel bad,

19:07

you know, the first hard knocks. I

19:10

think people went out of their

19:12

way to portray him as a kind

19:14

of clueless rookie.

19:16

So that to show.

19:17

Okay, he's far away and he's not going to start the

19:20

season. I don't think that that was fair to Jared

19:22

or the narrative. And

19:25

look, as much as I love Hard Knocks, you can still have

19:27

some element of reality TV when you're with

19:29

the team twenty four to seven, which you choose to show

19:31

and what you don't, And I always thought that was a

19:33

really unfair narrative, you

19:36

know, for him. But

19:38

I think his personality, he's laid back. He's

19:40

California, you know, and people

19:42

sometimes mistake that for being nonchalant. He's

19:45

not nonchalant. Now,

19:47

He's not you're high strung

19:49

either. He can be a great balance of the

19:52

two, and I think he's found that mix as he's

19:54

gone through his career.

19:55

Where were you for the Trade? I remember the stories where

19:58

McVeigh was in Cabo and he's texting

20:00

you guys, and then Stafford is

20:02

also in Cabo and there's not tampering

20:05

going on because the Lion were like, you're open

20:07

to search for our trade. There's all these different

20:09

teams involved, and then it goes

20:11

down and it's like, Wow, this is really happening, and

20:13

I know someone has to make that call to Jared Goff,

20:15

and this is fresh off a playoff appearance

20:17

against the Seahawks and a loss in Green Bay. Where

20:20

were you during all that and what are your

20:22

memories of really executing what was

20:24

at the time considered the

20:26

trade of the decade.

20:29

You start John Wolford in the wildcard game against

20:31

Seattle. Jared had broken his thumb two weeks

20:33

earlier. In Seattle, John

20:36

gets a concussion. Jared's got to go back in,

20:38

you know, eight nine days after surgery.

20:41

You know, finds a way to get us to win. We score thirty

20:43

one points, which is unbelievable. We go in the next week

20:45

to green Bay, play

20:48

well, but lose. They were the number one seed

20:51

that year.

20:51

So we fly home.

20:53

You kind of go through the end of the year stuff, and you

20:55

know, Sean goes to Cabo, runs

20:59

into Matthew Stafford.

21:00

That story is kind of well known.

21:01

But it's really the first weekend we've had off since July,

21:04

and so you're trying to get a little bit as far away

21:06

from ball, and you still have the conference

21:08

championship games that that weekend, but you're

21:10

trying to take a break from football. Your family

21:12

hasn't seen you, and I really remember

21:15

about eight a m. That morning, you

21:17

know, Less snead Our GM had talked

21:19

to Brad Holmes and he said this thing could go down today.

21:21

So I hunkered down to my home office, you

21:24

know, all day and you know, kind of just

21:26

progressed throughout the day. And you're like, I thought

21:28

this would take two to three weeks,

21:31

you know, post super Bowl, you know, we're

21:33

you know, hey, you go to the Super Bowl this.

21:35

Date, you know.

21:35

And I think one of the things that happened is there was

21:37

a report Friday afternoon that

21:40

we were interested in Stafford

21:42

because it had come out to the lines that were giving them the permission

21:44

to have a trade. And at

21:46

that time and still I think we worked so quickly

21:49

lest Sean our organization that

21:51

all these teams that were kind of sniffing around Stafford

21:54

at the time, Washington, Carolina, Indianapolis,

21:57

UH got aggressive and

22:00

that really drove the trade.

22:03

And you know, once

22:05

that happened, and it was going to be within twenty four

22:08

hours, and so you know, Less at eight

22:10

am you go to sit in your home office and I

22:12

think the trade got done at six forty five pm.

22:15

Yeah, done. And

22:17

then Stafford comes along, and now what does this

22:19

mean you think for Matthew if you've spoken to him this

22:21

week, going back to Detroit where he

22:23

played for what is it thirteen seasons, he

22:25

was a Detroit Lion, and then he comes over

22:27

to the LA Rams, wins a super Bowl, and now he's

22:30

going back there, so hopefully for you guys

22:32

spoil their first home game in thirty years

22:34

in the playoffs.

22:35

Yeah, I haven't asked for about it. I'm sure no one will

22:37

last Matthew at all this week.

22:40

It's not a topic, not a topic, you know, but.

22:42

I think it's probably different for him, right like

22:44

you get traded at Los Angeles, you win a Super Bowl

22:47

to playoff appearances in three years? He

22:49

you know, you go back to twenty twenty one, he had the monkey

22:52

on his back of.

22:53

Couldn't win a playoff game.

22:54

He hasn't won a playoff game. Then he wins four. I think

22:56

he's now the second leading quarterback

22:59

behind like Patrick Mahomes in terms of playoff

23:01

wins. Is that Joe

23:03

Flacco may now have him be right like I

23:05

didn't. That wasn't of my you know, bingo card

23:07

a month ago. But you

23:10

know, I think for Matthew it's going to be the

23:13

you know, probably the weight of the expectations

23:15

from his time in Detroit and trying to go flip

23:17

that franchise. But I

23:19

think probably from a Rams perspective, I would imagine

23:22

this is probably a little bit harder for

23:24

Jared than it is from Matthew, just from my perspective

23:27

of, Hey, you got to go win the playoff game,

23:29

you got to go advance in the playoffs, you

23:31

know. I mean, I think you know, there will be

23:33

talk this week who won the trade,

23:37

and I think it's the true I said, you know, it's

23:39

a win win. We won the Super Bowl.

23:41

Matthew's done a great job for us. We're thrilled to have

23:43

him. I don't think there's anybody else, you.

23:45

Know, we'd rather have.

23:46

Obviously, Jared and the Lions have had great success,

23:48

not only with Jared, with the picks they

23:50

got. And I think it's great for once to

23:52

see a trade in the NFL work out for both sides, right,

23:54

you know, and that people don't have to, you know,

23:56

pick.

23:57

A winner or loser.

23:58

But I'm sure for Matthew it'll be meaningful.

24:00

I think he said, you know, the

24:02

Hey, once it kicks off, it's football, It'll

24:05

be interesting. That building will be rocking. You

24:07

got to know, Oh my gosh, that place is

24:09

always rocking. And you

24:11

know, so thirty years they've been waiting for this moment

24:14

in prime time.

24:15

I can't wait. It'll be an unbelievable atmosphere.

24:17

Yeah now, and we'll watch it in Tarico,

24:19

who lives in ann Arbor, Michigan, is going to be on the

24:21

call. Like there's a lot of cool symmetry here

24:23

between the two franchises on this podcast,

24:26

as you know, we talked to coaches, we

24:28

talked to gms. There's also this other wrinkle Brad

24:31

Holmes, who's the general manager and the architect

24:33

of this amazing Lions roster. He

24:35

comes from the Rams also, and you guys helped

24:37

nurture him and we had him on the podcast and he

24:40

has nothing but glowing stories about his time

24:42

working under Lesson in LA I mean,

24:44

how impressed are you with what Brad's done in Detroit?

24:47

So impressed?

24:48

And you know what I love about Brad

24:50

is, you know, and it's great for people to remember

24:52

this time of year and everybody's thrown around candidate

24:54

names, nobody was talking about Brad Holmes.

24:57

You know, in twenty twenty one and really, you

25:00

know, I remember trying to sell him to the Lions,

25:02

less trying to sell him to the Lions. You

25:04

know, the Falcons had a little bit of interest in the really

25:07

did, and once they interviewed them, they

25:09

were excited.

25:09

And what I love.

25:10

About the Lions is they've been

25:12

built in a fearless manner, right, you

25:14

know, you go against the grain and you draft Jamiir

25:16

Gibbs, you draft you know, Jack

25:18

Campbell. You know, they have not just

25:21

followed what I would call the normal NFL script.

25:23

And I think if there's some piece of DNA

25:26

Brad Holmes has from the Rams, it's be

25:28

yourself, be different. You know, you can't

25:31

win in this league following the same blueprint

25:33

everybody else does.

25:34

It's impossible.

25:35

No organization, no team is good enough

25:38

to do the same things everybody else does and just be

25:40

better at all of them. You have to pick a lane

25:42

to go be different. And that's what I've loved

25:44

about how Brad you know, and Dan

25:47

Campbell have built the Lions. They've done it

25:49

in a uniquely lined way, and that's what makes

25:51

it really hard to play them, to beat

25:53

them, to compete with them, because they're

25:55

zigging when everybody else is a zaga.

25:57

Yeah, and I think you know, if anything

25:59

was the foot the Rams

26:02

was well, you know, these picks, and it was like, let's

26:04

go get these veterans for years and then for

26:06

Brad Holmes, to your point, drafting a running back and an inside

26:08

linebacker with two first round picks was f

26:11

your draft guide. And I love that about

26:13

them, and the fact that they hired Dan Campbell, who

26:15

was a tight ends coach and wasn't exactly

26:18

the first in line as the hot new coordinator, and

26:20

he's been perfect for them top

26:22

to bottom. I know, you respect a bunch of franchises.

26:24

You have to. As the Rams are looked at as

26:26

one of the crown jewel franchises in the NFL,

26:29

and how they've been built and how you guys have operated, You've

26:31

got to look at Detroit and say they're right there too.

26:33

When you look at what Detroit's done, and you know, I

26:35

think starts with Sheila and kind

26:37

of trusting you know, from Rod Wood,

26:40

Mike Disner, who I think is one of the smartest

26:42

executives in the NFL. I love

26:44

Brad, you know, I probably

26:47

like everybody else in the world. He didn't know what to make of Dan

26:50

Campbell at the time he got hired. Yeah,

26:52

but having done coaching searches, people always

26:54

spoke reverentially about

26:56

Dan Campbell and you know what

26:58

they've built, what they've done obviously, Ben

27:01

Jonson, I really like Aaron Glenn, you

27:03

know, always done a nice up like they have a really

27:05

good, solid franchise. And

27:07

I think when you you know what their success

27:10

is not just because they've had picks. It's

27:12

because you know, they had a plan, they went

27:14

and executed it. And that's what you love to see

27:16

in the NFL is when someone says,

27:18

Okay, we've got a plan, We're going to go build

27:21

it, whether it's patient or not. And

27:23

look, I think you get back to where we started this show.

27:26

The great part about right now is there are fourteen teams

27:28

are in the playoffs with hope. They're also

27:30

a whole ten other franchises probably now that

27:32

their fans have hope for the first time in months.

27:35

Hey we have a high draft pick, we're getting a new coach.

27:37

We're getting new GM.

27:38

You most of the league right now is in the hope

27:40

phase, and that's the best phase of the NFL.

27:43

And you know, the Rams story.

27:45

You know from twenty sixteen on, you know,

27:47

when we were one of the worst franchises, you know on

27:50

the field in the NFL and the Lions.

27:52

That's what makes fans to make the NFL the

27:54

best product. How quickly you can turn

27:56

it and become one of the special franchises,

27:59

the leader.

27:59

All right, let's go back to twenty sixteen.

28:02

Fishers fired midway through the season. Golf

28:04

finishes it out. Who was the

28:06

interim coach? Bones? Bones stopped

28:09

at John Fossil, Yeah, John

28:11

Fossil. And now you're starting from scratch.

28:14

You're new in LA and you've got to

28:16

go on a coaching search. And right now there are

28:18

seven teams who are about to start their

28:20

coaching search. You guys looked

28:23

at this thing having done it already when

28:25

you got Fisher a couple of years back. Take

28:27

us through the coaching search and how you ended up with

28:29

Sean mcday, a thirty year old head coach coming

28:32

to Los Angeles.

28:33

Yeah, I think it really starts with you have to go back

28:35

to the coaching search. And you know in twenty

28:37

twelve, so I when I got to the Rams, I was hired

28:39

a couple of weeks after they'd hire Steve Spagnolo, who

28:42

I love, and you know I would love to see get

28:44

another head coaching opportunity. When we

28:46

made the change with Steve after three

28:48

years, I remember writing a note to myself, don't

28:51

wait until you know black Monday.

28:53

You know when you.

28:54

Because there's so much craziness

28:56

that happens at the end of the season. You

28:59

find yourself behind in the coaching search, and

29:01

to be fair, you can't call, you

29:03

can't really do homework and other people you can't.

29:05

You've got to be all in for your

29:07

current staff. And so I remember

29:09

that note. So as it got to the point, you know, we

29:12

had started three and one in twenty sixteen,

29:14

had a pretty good start, and then you know we were

29:16

four and ten, four and eleven, you

29:18

know, we decided to make the change. I remember with Jeff

29:20

we were going to go play the Seahawks on a Thursday

29:23

night football, and if he had lost that

29:25

game, he would have set the NFL record for losses,

29:28

and you know, we just kind of said, I

29:30

don't think it's fair to him to break the record for

29:32

losses. And you also don't want to go into

29:34

a Thursday night where the whole conversation is, you

29:37

know, are they making a change, what are they going to

29:39

do?

29:39

How is this going to go? And so we made the change on

29:41

a short week.

29:42

But what that really did is that gave us a month to

29:45

really investigate our franchise.

29:48

You know, when you change a head coach, everybody just

29:50

playing as a coach, it is an organizational failure.

29:53

Really go dig into your franchise. What's working,

29:56

what's not, what's on the coaches,

29:58

what's on the organization, what's on

30:00

the personnel side, you know, what do you need to

30:02

fix to get ready? But also to go to a deep

30:04

dive on all of these coach candidates

30:07

because you may go in with a leader you

30:10

know at the time and what you want to do, but you're

30:12

going to go meet people, You're going to go investigate people.

30:14

And so we made calls. You know, really

30:16

for a month it was myself, let's need Tony past

30:19

Georgia works with us, just doing as much homework

30:21

as we can on candidates.

30:23

And you know, I would say,

30:25

you know, we started with the list, it was forty or fifty

30:27

people just trying to get information

30:30

and you know, you try to whittle it down,

30:32

whittle it down, so that when you get to this phase,

30:35

you know, the post Black Monday,

30:37

when you can start to do interviews that you know,

30:39

hey, these are the eight to ten people we

30:42

really want to talk to, we have the most interest in.

30:45

And it's not just guessing, because you

30:48

know, you get these calls out

30:50

of the blue.

30:51

You make a change, and you would be amazed

30:53

to calls, right, you.

30:54

Know, and you're talking like a random college coach that

30:56

you never thought would he gon to be available as like hey I'm

30:58

interested.

30:59

Yeah, you know, like you know, Vince

31:01

Lombardi's ghost and most shem Beckler,

31:04

you know, you know Arab partsy like

31:06

hey, you know, I haven't coached in twenty years, but you

31:09

know you're like LA

31:11

and I think you have to go back in time too. You

31:13

know, we were new in LA. We had all this fan

31:15

fare and we just stunk. I mean, we're

31:17

the thirty second offense. We're four and twelve,

31:20

and you know, a fan

31:22

base felt like it was dwindling and people thought we needed

31:24

to make a big splash. And I think

31:26

there was an element of us that we definitely thought

31:28

about that. But it's like, Okay, go through and

31:31

find the coach who is the best fit

31:33

for your organization at this time. You know, winning

31:35

the press conference is great, selling tickets is great,

31:37

but it doesn't work and you're back here.

31:39

In two three years. You've already

31:41

screwed up.

31:42

And if you could find someone you could really grow with

31:45

and you know, who would be uniquely ours,

31:47

you would go through that.

31:48

And that was kind of the guiding principle.

31:49

And I give Stan Kronkey, our own er, a

31:51

ton of credit who understood the pressure, you

31:54

know, about to build a stadium. You've got to go sell seat

31:56

licenses.

31:56

A suite.

31:58

But you know, he had always

32:00

had this belief that hey, let's go get the

32:02

right coach for the l A RAMS And

32:04

you know, so we had that month to do homework and you

32:07

know, I'm not ashamed you and I chatted during that month

32:09

and it's like you're trying to pick everybody's brain.

32:11

You know, what do you know about these candidates?

32:13

And one of the things we did, and one of the reasons you and I

32:15

would always talk is, you know, media members who

32:17

sit in production.

32:18

Meetings with coaches talk about it. It was

32:20

one of the way we call it.

32:21

Every you know, network person we knew tell

32:23

us who makes you sit up straighter in your chair,

32:26

tell us who grabs your attention because they

32:28

talk to coordinators every week, and

32:30

they talked to Coat. That to me was a way

32:32

to find out a little bit more beyond, you

32:35

know, and everybody kind of said, you know, Sean McVay, Sean

32:37

McVay, And we would ask a question at the end

32:39

of every conversation, who's who's

32:41

the coach? Nobody's talking about who's going to be a superstar.

32:45

And I would say, ninety percent of the time the

32:47

answer with Sean McVay, and who.

32:48

Are you talking when you gusked that, Like, I don't think it's you talk

32:51

to me about this. Probably I would imagine other guys in

32:53

the media, like Schefter probably got asked, and

32:55

all the all the guys who called the games, probably Aikman.

32:58

I talked to Joe buck, Al Michaels, Mike

33:00

Turico, you know who the time was at ESPN,

33:03

you know Bruden at the time, collins

33:05

Worth. We talked to all them, you know, just

33:07

to get get a sense, and then you go through your

33:09

normal channels. You know, we're fortunate

33:11

we picked the brains, you know, some of

33:13

our legends, you know as

33:15

well you know, we made calls to you

33:17

know, successful Pea gms who had

33:20

done the search and kind of you know, the Tony

33:22

Dungees of the world, just to get a sense when you have time

33:24

you can make you can be thorough.

33:27

That's where Shawn's name came up every time. And everybody

33:29

go in two to three years, he's going to be great.

33:32

Down the line, he'll be great, but not yet, but down the

33:34

line.

33:35

And I'm thinking to myself, well, two to three

33:37

years, if we're doing the search again, it's not me, it's

33:39

someone else, right, Like, we're all fired,

33:41

and you know, And so we moved

33:44

Sean kind of to the top of our curious

33:46

list. And I remember vividly

33:48

they were at the time. They were supposed

33:50

to be the sixth seed. They go into

33:53

the Giants.

33:54

This is the Washington Redskins. They had a week

33:56

seventeen game against a Giants team that

33:58

had nothing to play for.

33:59

If I'm not mistaken, yeah, nothing to

34:01

play for. I

34:03

think the Giants already clinched. That was I want

34:06

to say that the year they.

34:06

Wanted to boat the boat trip.

34:08

This is the boat the Boat trip.

34:09

Yeah, but they eliminated the Redskins in that win.

34:12

So they eliminate the Redskins and they score seven

34:14

points and you know that put

34:16

Detroit into the playoffs.

34:18

Yep.

34:18

And at the time we were looking I

34:20

think at both Detroit coordinators.

34:22

Uh.

34:23

And so now they can't interview that week and

34:26

Sean comes available. We were expecting

34:29

is coming off a seven point effort against

34:31

the meaningless Giants and not exactly something.

34:33

You say to the local fan base, Hey, look what we just.

34:35

Got correct And you know, the local

34:38

fan base, by the way, thinks, you know, we're going to hire

34:41

Bill Walsh's head coach.

34:42

Yep.

34:43

And you know, Mike Shanahan is offensive

34:45

coordinator, Nick Saban is defensive coordinator,

34:48

and you know what, We'll let Belichick do special teams

34:50

like that was their vision for

34:53

you know, what the twenty seventeen LA rams were

34:55

going to do. And so I remember we flipped

34:57

it. I called Sean Monday morning and I said,

34:59

hey, you know, and he and I

35:01

had been together on staff in Tampa in two thousand

35:03

and eight, but if we had talked five times,

35:06

that might that might be a lot. And

35:09

I said, want to get you out of LA for an interview Wednesday

35:11

or Thursday, and He's like, I scored you

35:13

know, typical Sean. I scored seven points? Yes, why

35:17

are you calling me? And you know, so we got

35:19

him lined up and you know, we had five

35:21

or six interviews in LA that week and he comes

35:24

out Wednesday. And you go in to that

35:26

meeting saying, how on earth

35:28

can we hire a third year old head coach? And I would say, you walk

35:30

out being how on earth do we not hire

35:33

that guy?

35:33

Yes?

35:34

And so we you know, he crushes

35:37

the interview and we kind

35:39

of look at him and say, hey, can you stay. We

35:41

called Jared Goff and we're like, hey, can you come meet,

35:43

you know, with Sean? And they

35:46

come meet. They headed off. Shawn's brought

35:49

his computer. He's showing film with Jared and what they

35:51

can do together. So then we're like, we got

35:53

to do something else, so, you know, kind of keep him in

35:55

town. We take him to dinner with all of our wives

35:57

and you know, just you

36:00

hit it off, but he was number five

36:02

in the search and you still wanted to go do kind

36:05

of the thorough search.

36:05

We flew in a way England. We met with both Josh McDaniels

36:08

and Matt Patricia.

36:09

We flew to Florida and finished with Anthony

36:12

Lynn and Doug Morone, you

36:14

know. And and the thing is, at the time,

36:16

no one else had interviewed Sean, right, so you

36:18

kind of feel like you've got this jas

36:22

no one's talking about.

36:23

And then you know, so.

36:27

I remember Sunday night we finished with you know,

36:29

the interview you know, in Florida,

36:31

and I at that time, the Niners decided they're going to

36:33

interview Sean.

36:34

And his grandpa was the GM there.

36:36

You're like, ash, yeah, you know, and

36:38

you know, you kind of kind of keep track of all

36:40

this. And so I called him and I said, Hey, I want you to come back

36:42

out to lah meet

36:45

with the owner and.

36:46

All of us. Again, I said, I know you're a interviewed

36:48

with the Niners tomorrow.

36:50

Do well, but not too well, you

36:52

know, and whatever you do, do not accept the job

36:54

on the spot. So we're flying back

36:56

on Monday and we're

36:59

flying back in texting him

37:01

are you out of the meeting? Hey? What time?

37:02

Wing? Three hours? Four? Ur nothing?

37:05

And I'm fuming.

37:06

We're on plane and I'm looking at Lesson

37:08

Tony and I'm I'm leaving.

37:10

How do we let him leave the building.

37:11

Yeah, I'm losing my right,

37:13

Like, I can't believe we just didn't offer this

37:15

to him. You know, we should have done this.

37:17

And what was crazy about the search was, you

37:20

know, on the plane ride we've now done

37:22

in our ten interviews and we're

37:24

comparing notes, we all had sean number

37:27

one, we all had different number

37:29

twos and threes.

37:30

So the backup plan wasn't even unanimous.

37:33

We didn't have a backup plan. Like we were like,

37:35

what do we do if he says no? And we're like we

37:37

finally we stop in

37:40

Texas to

37:42

refuel and finally get a hold of him

37:45

and he's like I crushed, And I'm like you're still on the plane

37:47

and he's like, oh yeah, I'll see you, you know, tomorrow

37:49

and so now. But the crazy part about this

37:51

too is we land back in LA and

37:55

I go to dinner that night with I

37:57

understand cranky and he's owned multiple

38:00

teams, had great success, but he's always had veteran

38:03

head coaches. So you think about Arson

38:05

Vanger at Arsenal Ledger a coach, George

38:07

Carl, Jeff Fisher, you know, Joel

38:09

Quinnville, like and you go through all the sports and

38:12

you're like, hey, I really think the

38:14

best person is this thirty year old you've never

38:16

heard of.

38:16

Who just lost to the Giants, and we who.

38:19

Just lost the Yeah, isn't

38:21

playing in the playoffs. And we're

38:23

watching the Clemson Alabama

38:25

National championship game and Hunter Renfrow

38:28

and Deshaun Watson score and I'm like,

38:30

look, we'll go to dinner tomorrow to do

38:33

it and what I what else?

38:34

Remember? The same time, we get back to LA and.

38:38

I walk back in the office and Joanna

38:40

Hunter, who works for us, who helps

38:43

run our communications along with artists Wiman, and she's

38:45

like, you know, everybody thinks

38:47

you tony and lesser morons and

38:50

you've never won anything, and you're running this coaching search

38:52

and everybody else is hiring consultants and now they

38:54

are all these rumors you want to hire a thirty year old, Like,

38:56

do you guys know what you're doing? I love

38:59

this and I'm like, I think we do, but

39:01

maybe not. She's like, you know, you should get

39:03

some other validation before you do this,

39:05

And so I sit down and I think, you

39:08

know, all right, I love.

39:09

That Joanna is in the office and she's like,

39:11

someone's got to be a voice of reason here.

39:13

And anybody knows Joanna, She's always the voice

39:15

tell you yeah, you

39:18

know. And

39:20

and so she goes, what about someone like Marshall fulk And I'm

39:22

like, Marshall thinks we should

39:24

hire a veteran coach. So I call him and I'm

39:27

like, no, no, I'm not going to do this, and like we

39:29

all do our best thinking in the shower. The next

39:31

morning, I'm showering, I'm like, you know what, She's

39:33

right. So I call Marshall. I'm like, hey, we're going

39:35

to dinner tonight, Stan myself,

39:38

Sean, would you join? And he goes, oh,

39:40

I'd love to. He goes, but you should hire

39:42

a veteran coach, like you need offense

39:45

to do this. I'm like, that's why you're perfect. You don't

39:47

believe in this guy. So and

39:49

you know there's been a lot made, you know, the Spago

39:51

story has been written.

39:52

That's after the fact, right or is that that's that's.

39:55

The next night, so we go to dinner

39:57

and Marshall was walking in and he's telling Stan like,

39:59

hey, I really appreciated becoming like,

40:02

I don't believe in this kid. Whatever you

40:05

know, Sean and Mark Shoal and knock

40:07

it out.

40:07

Of the park and

40:09

they took two of the smartest football people who ever met.

40:11

Right, Marshall, Funk is brilliant. You listen to talk football

40:14

rush of Funk like he he could be an NFL

40:16

head coach right now if he wanted to be.

40:17

Yeah, And he walks out of dinner and he turns

40:19

the stand and he goes, if you got you let that guy leave the building,

40:22

you.

40:22

Know, shame on you.

40:24

Oh, And that's you know, that's how we

40:26

wound up hiring Sean. But I would tell you

40:28

like running a coaching search for the two most

40:30

grueling weeks probably of your

40:32

life. And I'm

40:34

so glad the NFL has now stretched out the calendar

40:37

to allow for better decision making,

40:39

because it is really

40:42

hard and intense and a drain on

40:44

your organization. But the one thing you

40:47

know that you go through you meet all these people, You get

40:49

a chance to build all these you

40:51

know, great relationships.

40:54

You know, And and I'll tell a funny story.

40:57

Coach we saw this year. At one point we

40:59

interviewed in our head coaching search who kept calling

41:02

Tony Pastors who works with us. He kept

41:04

calling him by the wrong first name. The whole inner, I

41:09

won't and we never stopped him. And so now

41:11

every time we see this coach, he

41:13

walks over and he's like, hey, Kevin,

41:15

he goes, great to see you, Paul.

41:17

That's what you called Tony Paul the whole time

41:20

and relationship.

41:23

And by the way, this coach still finished in our top three,

41:26

got across the board like great, dude.

41:28

And and so you know, you

41:30

get all these stories and you meet all these people and

41:32

you go through it, but you also learned so much about your

41:34

building. I remember one coach who interviewed

41:37

was not the same one asked us a question and

41:39

he goes, hey, when I get in your building up you hire

41:41

me? Who am I going to find out? Is the problem

41:43

that you didn't tell me about?

41:45

Yeah?

41:45

Good question, and it blew us all

41:47

away, and we actually left that meeting. We all kind of

41:49

stumbled our way through the answer because you don't want to like

41:51

pull someone there, and we wound up making

41:54

two changes the following week as a

41:56

result of that question.

41:57

Do you have an animus answer? That person's toxic for

41:59

the building, But that's thanks for putting the mirror on us.

42:02

Ye, And those are the elements I think when you

42:04

have a coach insearch and you make a GM change, you

42:06

actually have to be pretty introspective about, like are

42:09

you setting the next coach up for success or are you

42:11

just hoping that they're a miracle worker

42:13

who can fix everything that was wrong before.

42:16

Not.

42:16

Usually the issue is in your building, and

42:18

the coaches emblematic of that more

42:21

than it's just the coach themselves.

42:23

You mentioned the Spago story, which might

42:26

be legendary lower in our circles,

42:28

but the listener might not know it. Can you share us

42:30

the Spago story?

42:31

Yeah, So we go to Spago and Uh,

42:33

a restaurant in Beverly Hills. Wolfgang

42:36

Park is the owner, chef famous, you know,

42:38

one of probably the first star celebrity

42:41

chef.

42:42

Yeah.

42:42

And so he comes by the table and he knows

42:44

Stan pretty well and

42:47

he goes, Stan, we

42:49

got to hire a coach. You know who

42:51

are we hiring?

42:52

I'm so excited. I'm such a fan.

42:54

And Sean's sitting right there and

42:56

he's like, oh, Marshall Falk, that's great, nice

42:58

to meet you. He's looking at Sean like he's the

43:00

intern, and you know, he's

43:02

asking. He's like he's like, I hear we may

43:05

get and he rattles.

43:05

Off a bunch of names.

43:07

Yeah, and like in Sean's sitting

43:09

right there, probably shrinking back in his chair, you

43:11

know, and so we're just kind of laughing.

43:13

We go through it.

43:14

Uh, Fergie and Josh dou Hamm will come walking

43:16

by like, hey, who are

43:18

we going to hire?

43:19

Like and your tables? Sean

43:22

has he already accepted the job or no, no.

43:23

We haven't even offered it to him. This is like his final

43:25

interview.

43:26

Oh my god, I've been in these rooms where everyone where

43:28

everyone's looking at everyone else, but you I understand

43:30

where Sean's feeling better, you.

43:32

Know, and you know. So we go through the sun

43:34

and then you know, Sean tells the story even better than

43:36

anybody. But we get to the end of the night, like Sean crushes

43:38

it. So we go to the hotel. He and Stan

43:41

are standing across the street and

43:43

he's expecting Stan to be like, hey,

43:45

you crushed it. You're my guy, Like let's go do this,

43:47

and stands like all right, great, I'll see tomorrow

43:50

Like no, no, no,

43:52

Sean. Sean wakes up the next day and he's

43:55

like he's laying in bed. He's like, you know, you got a

43:57

good job in Washington. You're a coordinator and the rest

43:59

is his history, and you know, so

44:01

grateful to have him. But you know, I

44:04

still it's hard for me to believe that was

44:06

seven years ago.

44:07

Crazy because like yesterday, I remember being in Atlanta

44:10

because I was doing a playoff game, Seahawks versus

44:12

Falcons. I was the sideline reporter, and I remember talking

44:15

to Sean from his vantage point going

44:18

into those meets, and I think you guys had him staying

44:21

at like the Four Seasons in Westlake Village

44:23

maybe or it was maybe the Chateau Mormont. It was some

44:25

fancy hotel, and he was impressedly He's

44:27

like they told me I could order anything from room service for

44:29

free, and I'm like, I love this about you, Like you're he's

44:31

thirty years old, never been treated like this, and like,

44:33

you guys really rolled out the red carpet. But he had no idea

44:35

he was getting offered that job.

44:37

No, I mean, I think he knew he had crushed it both times.

44:39

And there's no one more self

44:42

confident in a positive way than

44:44

Sean McVay. But you know, you got to

44:46

go convince the owner, who's like, I'm

44:48

really going to go trust the future

44:50

of my franchise in LA. This bet that I've

44:52

made Sofi Stadium, moving

44:54

a team on a thirty

44:57

year old and you know, I would say

45:00

the history of the Rams can be written by Stan

45:02

Cronckey making the two biggest bets in the NFL

45:04

the past decade.

45:05

Hey, I'm going to go build a stadium in LA and go for it.

45:07

And I'm going to go hire a thirty year old head coach. And

45:09

you know we're fortunate enough to hoist a Lombardi

45:12

Trophy in Sofi Stadium Super Bowl fifty

45:14

six.

45:15

You know, those two beats came to fruition.

45:17

I said, to start this thing the thirty thousand foot

45:19

guy. For me, you look at the entire league as a

45:21

whole, but you also know pretty

45:23

much every piece of the organization. Here's

45:26

a question I have when these coaches are interviewing

45:28

and they say, yeah, my defensive coordinator is going to be this guy

45:30

and my offensive coordinator is going to be that guy. Is

45:32

there a budget for that or is it like, how

45:34

does that work with a team or is that team specific. I know

45:37

it's very in the weeds, but as these coaches are all interviewing

45:39

right now. They come in with a plan, but maybe

45:41

the twenty year defensive coach has a

45:43

different price tag than the assistant

45:46

who is, you know, three years into his NFL

45:48

career.

45:49

Well, the really funny part is if you do ten of these,

45:51

eight of them say their defensive coordinator is going to

45:53

be the same guy, same guy, right right, So you

45:55

do the meat, you do the interview in the morning, and they're

45:58

like, you know, hey, you know Raheem

46:00

Morris is going to be my defensive coordinator And

46:02

you're like, okay, Like I kind of like Raheem, like that's.

46:04

A great addition.

46:05

Then you do the to be the next thing like, hey, and I talked to Raheem

46:08

Morris, he wants to be in my DC. And then you

46:10

realize it's all you know, that

46:12

part you have to throw out, Like and

46:15

even now when I advise coaches to interview,

46:17

I'm like, don't don't talk about

46:19

names, because you don't know if you can get

46:21

them the salaries, the budgets, the

46:24

competition. They go talk about your vision for

46:26

what you want each coach to be. Hey,

46:28

my defensive coordinator, do they play an attacking style?

46:31

Are they blitzing or do they play more, you know three

46:33

four four three, you know offense or

46:35

we a play action team, or we a deep shot

46:37

team, or we a run heavy team.

46:39

And then say the guys who fit that are

46:41

this?

46:42

You know walk through you know your vision

46:44

for each coaching position because

46:46

the names, you know, you might get enamored

46:48

with a name. Whether the coach can deliver

46:51

them or not, you have no clue. And

46:53

you know, especially you know you might make the last

46:55

tire. You might hire someone after

46:58

the super Bowl and that coach has said,

47:00

you know, hey, I can't wait. I got to take a sure thing. That's

47:03

really the hard part. You know, when you

47:05

go through this conversations. Now I'll remember, you know when

47:07

Seawn interviewed, he said, Wade

47:10

Phillips, Waite Phillips is going to be so we called

47:12

Waite Phillips, you know during the break

47:14

and like is he real Sean

47:17

Puller And he's like, oh no, Wade love Sean.

47:19

You know, he'd loved to go and sure enough, like it's

47:22

a great credit to Sean. And where he was at thirty

47:24

he got everybody he listed.

47:26

That first staff was who it was Wade, it

47:28

was Joe Barry, it was on offense,

47:31

the floor first or no, Yeah, Matt Lafleur

47:34

was Zach came on as Zach

47:36

Taylor was our assistant wide receivers

47:39

coach. Think about that.

47:40

Yeah, so that staff had Shane Waldron

47:43

was our tight ends coach.

47:44

The OC in Seattle right now, No, the o C Aaron.

47:46

Cromer was the line coach now the OC kind

47:49

of the assistant OC in Buffalo. Then

47:51

you had Matt Lafleur trying

47:55

to think of QB coach was Greg

47:57

Olsen who's now ye, who's

48:00

now in Seattle and went on to become the Raiders,

48:03

you.

48:03

Know o C under me.

48:05

Yeah, yeah, And so you know, just

48:07

that staff, you know, on the offense, they've all gone on to

48:09

you know, the great things. But you think about like our basically

48:11

quality controlled coach is now one of the best head coaches

48:14

in the NFL, and Zach Taylor, and then you

48:16

go to defense, you had you know, Joe Barry,

48:18

you had wayde Phillips, Bill Johnson, Aubrey

48:21

Pleasant, uh, Jiro

48:23

Everro.

48:23

You know, I mean, just like great

48:25

great staff.

48:26

Out of the gates. That's such a test. I mean, think

48:28

about that, this is a thirty year old coach.

48:31

And convinced John Fossil to stay, which was you

48:33

know a great you know, someone who had been

48:35

the interim coach, who had great opportunities to like thirty year old coach

48:37

put together a great staff. But you know, everybody's

48:39

got a budget versus and coaches. You know, it's

48:42

but it's kind of like a salary gap, right, no matter what

48:44

it is, you're going to pay the mode you get. Go

48:47

get the defensive coordinator. Hey, maybe

48:49

I won't spend as much on the linebackers coach, Go

48:51

get the OC tight ends coach.

48:53

I can fudge a little bit. You know, it's

48:56

no different than that.

48:57

You know, you go with the people that

48:59

are the foundational pieces, and you want

49:01

to make sure you get the coach you know everything

49:03

you can and and like all budgets, you

49:05

know, they usually go over or sheepishly and

49:08

you kind of just let him do it.

49:10

It's no secret that, uh, Sean's

49:12

a friend, and I've been a fan of Sean's. There's no

49:14

secret that guys like Kingsbury and

49:16

Salah and Hackett I've got great relationships

49:19

with. But if there's one guy in

49:21

the league that I'm rooting to have success

49:23

and get another shot at a head coaching position. It's

49:25

your current defensive coordinator, Raheem Morris.

49:28

I see that he's been asked to interview at a

49:30

few places. You see raw

49:32

every single day there in the building. Make the

49:34

case for Raheem Morris NFL head coach.

49:37

One of the best leaders in culture builders I've ever

49:39

been around. Wow, and I was with Raheem

49:41

and Tampa. But this is

49:43

the guy who makes your building better. He's the glue

49:46

guy who brings everywhere together,

49:48

your equipment staff, your training staff, your pr

49:50

the building and the I can coach like

49:53

and I think, you know, I start with the culture

49:55

and you know leader, because you

49:57

know that's what you see every day. I look

49:59

at this year's defense. You know PFAF

50:02

had US rated thirty ninth. I think on

50:04

defense coming into the year, you know, everybody

50:07

just killed.

50:08

You know.

50:08

We had national media show up to camp like

50:11

it's like major league, Like, who are yeah?

50:15

Yeah, the groundskeepers sitting there, you

50:17

know, you know, can't say, you know, you

50:20

know these guys are blank, you know, and

50:22

you know it's Aaron Donald and ten nobody's And we

50:24

come out of the gate and we shut out Seattle

50:27

in the second half more than thirteen points, and we've

50:29

had five shutout halps this year.

50:32

I think the defense finished.

50:33

Seventeenth, eighteenth made impact plays

50:35

brought. I mean, Kobe Turner should win Defensive

50:37

Rookie of the Year. You know, nine sacks

50:40

from an interior position, Third round pick Pyron

50:42

Young number two in sacks as an outside

50:44

linebacker.

50:45

Both rookies. Unbelievable.

50:47

Both rookies are starting Darien Kendrick

50:49

and Russy Yeast.

50:50

It's safety.

50:50

I mean, Christian Roseboom, guys

50:53

we had hopes for, but nobody's heard. Sure

50:56

you know of these guys and turn them into a unit.

50:58

And you know, look where I get frustrated. And this

51:00

isn't a knock. I'm a big Brandon Staley

51:02

fan, and Brandon did an amazing job

51:04

for us in twenty twenty. You know, led the

51:06

league in defense, you

51:09

know, but we go to the playoffs, we give up five hundred

51:11

yards to Green Bay in the divisional

51:14

round and we get forty four

51:16

slips for Brandon Staley

51:18

as head coach and he can have his pick of jobs. In twenty

51:20

twenty one, Raheem Morris wins

51:22

the Super Bowl. You know, nine

51:24

sacks in the second half.

51:26

You know, we have this.

51:26

Year and you're fighting to get people

51:29

to interview, and you know,

51:31

to me, that's just where the system you know, is a little

51:33

bit broken in our world. And you

51:35

get in a room with Raheem and he was fortunate enough to get

51:37

pretty deep with the Colts you know, last

51:39

year. But he has a vision for

51:42

how he wants to play football, how he wants to lead.

51:45

You know, I left Tampa the year

51:47

he got the head coaching job, and you

51:49

know, obviously he took that team to ten wins.

51:51

And with Josh Freeman and a bunch

51:54

of guys no one knew, and they went ten games.

51:56

And you know, from two thousand and eight

51:59

until Tom Brady showed up, that franchise never won

52:01

double digits.

52:02

Raheem Morris had their only double digit season.

52:04

He goes to Atlanta as the interim coach, you

52:06

know, does a great job beat I think

52:09

holds Patrick Mahomes to his lowest total,

52:11

you know, of the year during.

52:13

I remember that in Arrowhead, Yeah, and.

52:15

An Arrowhead, And so I think you have this dynamic

52:17

coach, you know who who has learned

52:19

under a nuts stay. Sean McVay,

52:22

Kyle Shanahan, dan Quinn, Mike

52:24

Tomlin, John Gruden. Mine,

52:26

I mean Jay, I mean like Mike

52:28

Shanahan, like he has been with the Pantheon,

52:31

you know of coaches, he'll he'll go crush it, you

52:34

know. Kyle Shanahan says if he had if you were

52:36

telling an owner of the first person I.

52:37

Saw this, I'll be honest. The quote

52:39

was, if an owner was to ask me, the

52:41

first person who they should hire as a head coach

52:44

is Raheem Morris. And that's not a staff member

52:46

on his team. I saw Mike

52:48

Tomlin came out and had a very public

52:50

statement about you're talking about the luminaries

52:52

of the NFL right now. McVeigh, Shanahan

52:54

and Tomlin. I'll say that he's the guy. So what

52:57

what are we doing?

52:58

Yeah?

52:58

No, And I think that to me is, you

53:00

know, I'm hopeful of this cycle. And look,

53:03

let's also be honest. He's got an amazing opportunity

53:06

Sunday night. Ben Johnson right now

53:08

is fifteen dollar

53:11

man, and you know, so

53:14

you know, I am hopeful, and not just that we

53:16

go win the game, but what a great

53:18

opportunity for us as a team to go in.

53:20

But it's certainly also for for Raheem

53:23

for this defense to go have a shot at,

53:25

you know, one of the hottest coordinators. And I'm hopeful

53:28

that that will be, you know, just one

53:31

case for him that the people can make coming

53:33

out of Sunday night. And you know, I am

53:35

hopeful we walk you know, off that

53:37

field, a Ford field on Sunday that everybody says,

53:40

Raheem Morris is the guy I got to have as our head coach.

53:43

I love that. I'm gonna wrap with you soon, but I've got a couple

53:46

other things for you. I hope that's okay, waits

53:48

right now, a couple more things. I love this, let's

53:51

go, Let's go, but more of this being

53:53

a pitch to Hollywood studios and

53:56

to a very saturated

53:58

sports doc community. I mean, I don't

54:00

there might not be a sports story that hasn't had a documentary

54:02

made about it in the last five years. Streamers. Hello,

54:05

uh, Kevin. We have talked about

54:08

this stage in your career where you

54:12

you jumped at an entrepreneurial

54:14

opportunity in the boom

54:17

of the Internet in your early to mid

54:19

twenties. Can you explain the story

54:21

and the pool of talent that you had

54:23

around you and you guys just

54:26

being a little early on what feels like what

54:28

could have been the Facebook of sports.

54:30

Yeah, I know.

54:31

So my first job at a college is a company called Broadband

54:33

Sports, which was

54:36

I would say today it would be an amalgamation of

54:38

the Athletic Bleacher

54:41

Report, SB Nation, Rodeo World,

54:44

and maybe the Player's Tribune. So we had a bunch of player

54:46

websites so you could go to you

54:48

know, Kobe Bryant dot athletes

54:50

Direct dot com.

54:53

We did.

54:53

We built team websites for the Cowboys

54:55

and the Raiders, which is one of the ways I got my introduction

54:58

in the NFL.

54:59

You know.

54:59

We built homepages for if you went to

55:01

go look up Los Angeles Rams on AOL. That

55:04

was all of our work and our content.

55:06

Do you have a staff that would like that would write the

55:08

articles or it was you guys.

55:10

We did a little bit and we outsourced and we you

55:12

know ap B like I remember, we tried to hire

55:14

Adam Schefter from the Denver Post Intercoming,

55:17

Oh yeah, from you know, from the offices,

55:19

and you know, we we wound up doing all

55:21

these crazy things.

55:22

And so this was based out of light. It was an internet company

55:25

and it would make individual sites. But were you guys

55:27

licensed by the NFL or it was all just.

55:28

So we were getting licensed by the NFL and by the

55:30

Players Association. And you know, this

55:33

is the time when when we did the Cowboys, we paid

55:35

them for the right to do their website with this idea

55:37

that you know, we would go sell you

55:39

know, merchandise and ads and content

55:42

around it. And you know, this is the height of the dot

55:44

com boom. So I was the thirtieth employee in what

55:47

years, nineteen ninety nine.

55:49

I love this dude, all right, And you

55:51

know.

55:52

Three months, you know, four months later, we're in brand

55:54

new offices in Santa Monica, were three hundred

55:56

employees, were the number two IPO on

55:59

Wall Street behind

56:01

Krispy Kreme. And I

56:03

think I turned down a job and you and

56:05

I have to talk at Fox Sports and

56:07

they gave me an extra like fifty thousand

56:09

shares, and I'm thinking, this is the greatest thing on earth.

56:12

Who's at this crew in broadband?

56:13

No so, and it wound up being you know, Mark

56:16

Silverman, who now helps run Fox went to the Big

56:18

ten network. Was it was one of my bosses,

56:21

John Collins, who went on to the NFL and now I

56:23

think owns the Islanders, you know

56:26

was one. You know, you can kind

56:28

of go through the list of talent

56:31

that have shown up in all kinds of crazy

56:33

places. I

56:35

left three months later, there are three hundred people. Nine months

56:38

later they were out of business.

56:39

So tell me how it goes down, because everyone knows pets

56:41

dot com. But like, literally, how does it bust?

56:43

You know? Well, I remember, so we get the AOL

56:45

deal and they pull us into

56:47

this. We had this big, fancy room called the Athletes

56:50

Lounge that they had built that no athletes ever went

56:52

into. But it was a really cool spacetic

56:55

chairs, the table, and

56:58

they do this mean They're like, hey, and I had kind of worked on this secret

57:01

project on teen pages for a while and they said, hey,

57:03

AOL is going to take our content. I remember walking out

57:05

next to some guy and I'm like, I'm twenty

57:07

two. I was a history major. I'm like, I don't know anything

57:09

about business, Like how much is AOL paying

57:11

us? Like, no, we're paying them seventeen million

57:13

a year for the right to do this, and go

57:15

why we're doing all the work doesn't make sense.

57:18

That was my first hint that you know, hey,

57:20

this may not be you know, the sound

57:22

is financial model.

57:23

So you know, you know, we're right up

57:25

there.

57:25

With pets dot Com and so you know,

57:28

my my one hundred thousand shares that

57:30

I have, you know are worth as much

57:32

of you know as those bobbleheads behind

57:34

you.

57:36

All Right, So you're twenty two and then people

57:38

don't know that in between that and your time

57:40

in the NFL, there was a amazing

57:42

time in the Arena Football League.

57:44

Yeah, I went.

57:45

So I wound up leaving Broadband

57:48

Sports to go to the Los Angeles Avenders who played the Staples

57:50

Center. There an expansion franchise and in case

57:52

C. Wasserman, who people know now who owns

57:54

Wasserman Media and Sports Group,

57:57

and it's done greaton.

57:57

Is you know, CEO of LA twenty eight and the Olympics.

58:00

He started an expansion team in the

58:03

Arena League with this idea maybe he could ultimately

58:05

own the NFL LA team.

58:07

Just experience and.

58:08

So get recruited to go over there. They're put

58:10

in a CBA. We kind of hit it off and go

58:13

join the Arena League for four years.

58:15

So is the job what was the job with the Arena League? Basically

58:18

GM kind of Yeah, twenty

58:20

three years old.

58:21

Twenty three.

58:22

And you know what was so cool about

58:24

the Arena League is it's the same job as

58:26

today, just nobody knew who we were,

58:28

you know, far less zeros. You know,

58:30

you'd go to renegotiate a player contract and you

58:33

had to go to their house and you're trying

58:35

to get them to go from twenty five

58:37

thousand to twenty eight, you

58:39

know. And you know,

58:41

I remember this one story we go to We had

58:43

a player who played for

58:45

US who got an offer from Canada and

58:48

we were paying him twenty six thousand. He got an offer

58:50

from Canada for thirty thousand, and

58:52

he's like, well, you got a match.

58:53

I'm like, well, was it an American or Canadian?

58:55

I need to know the currency?

58:56

And he goes, I don't know, and he goes calls back and goes Canadian.

58:58

I go, well, that's less money than we're offering

59:01

you. And he goes, well, you still got to match.

59:03

You still got to get them to thirty. But

59:07

just such a you know, we got that team off the ground. We

59:09

went to the playoffs a number of years. Like such

59:11

a fun experience to to learn

59:14

from the players and the coaches names,

59:16

all of them still close with you know a lot

59:18

of them. We had Greg Hopkins,

59:20

who was our big star, who is from Indiana

59:23

Firebirds who came to LA who actually

59:26

they they wanted to be the Bachelor after

59:29

the first season when they were uh

59:32

so they had Jeremy Bloom is that right

59:34

or not him?

59:36

Whoever? The Colorado guy was?

59:38

Who Jeremy was?

59:40

You know it was Ryan and Trista yes, Yan

59:43

so so the second one, they're like, great,

59:45

another football player Arena football in l

59:47

A. And uh they couldn't convince Greg

59:49

to do it. We had Chris Jackson who's now the receivers

59:52

coach at Texas. Steve Sarkis

59:54

and played in the NFL for a number of years too, is our best

59:56

receiver. Tony Graziani was

59:59

our quarterback. But when I

1:00:01

when I first got there, Todd Marinovitch really

1:00:04

was the quarterback.

1:00:05

Oh yeah, what kind of version Todd Marinovich

1:00:07

for you with what you're dealing with?

1:00:08

He he was talented.

1:00:10

Yeah, you know you could see all of it. But

1:00:12

then you know, I mean, yes,

1:00:15

it ended poorly. Uh

1:00:17

but just like you're

1:00:20

like Todd Marinovitch, I mean was hanging

1:00:22

around, was he not so much?

1:00:24

Not so much at that point, you know.

1:00:25

But uh, and that was right at the start of I

1:00:27

think Todd's artists phase. But you

1:00:30

know, and then Tony Graziani became

1:00:32

our starting quarterback for a number of years

1:00:34

and became one of the best quarterbacks in the Arena

1:00:37

Football League.

1:00:37

I feel like in LA there's like cult things, like everyone

1:00:39

likes to go see, Like you know, in Silver

1:00:42

Lake there's a band or there's a comedy troupe

1:00:44

that you know, you have to go to Largo to see. Was

1:00:46

this like kind of like Colt cool to like go to the area.

1:00:50

It was not Colt cool. We played at Staples

1:00:52

Center, all right, you know, and you

1:00:54

know it was It was fun,

1:00:56

but it was not Colt cool. But one of the cool things

1:00:58

about the job was you put T shirts

1:01:00

on seats. I got to hire a head coach shit twenty

1:01:03

four at Hodgkiss, who's now a really

1:01:05

good high school FOOTB coach in.

1:01:06

The South Bay.

1:01:08

I always say, before there was Sean McVay

1:01:10

ed Hodgkiss, he was four years old. He

1:01:13

was probably in his late twenties, but was

1:01:15

the Sean McVay of the Arena

1:01:18

League. Before there was Sean McVay.

1:01:20

I love this, and he he came and

1:01:22

turned around our franchise, a great guy named

1:01:24

Brent Winner, who went on to become the head coach

1:01:26

of the Boise Burn. Sure,

1:01:29

you know, we started two Arena minor league

1:01:31

arena football teams in Bakersfield and Fresno.

1:01:34

I mean, just you kind of go through all of it, but

1:01:36

it was it was a joy.

1:01:39

But you got to I mean I went to the airport and

1:01:41

booked, you know, got

1:01:43

plane tickets and boarded planes, did the buses,

1:01:45

picked up chipope, play for launch, did

1:01:47

did the dry cleaning, you know, but

1:01:50

you also got to do the cool stuff, negotiate contract.

1:01:52

You learn very facett that everyone

1:01:54

who does, you know, play by play for a minor league team

1:01:56

says, yeah, you do literally everything, and then you can go do

1:01:58

anything because you've done it. You've done every single

1:02:00

part of the organization.

1:02:02

I always tell anybody break into sports, go to the minor

1:02:04

leagues because you'll get to do everything and

1:02:06

you'll learn there's almost not a thing that happens

1:02:09

at the Los Angeles Rams right now that

1:02:11

I didn't do in my time between

1:02:13

the Arena League or Tampa or now at the Rams.

1:02:16

So I would say it's the best training ground

1:02:18

because rather than going to a big brand where you talk

1:02:20

about what someone else did that you that

1:02:23

you helped do a small part of you actually

1:02:25

got to do the thing, and you can

1:02:27

talk about your experience.

1:02:29

Real quick, rapid fire. We'll do just quick questions

1:02:31

and then we'll get you out it here. The first

1:02:33

one here, super Bowl Ride, your most

1:02:35

fondest memory, the thing that if you wake up

1:02:38

in the middle of the night and you just smile, what was it?

1:02:39

Which one? The one we won? The one

1:02:42

you won?

1:02:42

Yeah, you're hosting a Lombardi.

1:02:45

Super Bowl Ride.

1:02:48

Cooper cups catch in Tampa against

1:02:50

in Tampa because we're ahead twenty

1:02:53

seven three, right,

1:02:56

I mean almost you know twenty And I

1:02:58

get all these texts. They show the owner

1:03:00

suite at halftime and I look nervous,

1:03:02

and everybody's like, you're up twenty

1:03:04

three, Like you happy? Look that and I'm like,

1:03:07

we're playing Tom Brady ye right, like

1:03:09

there is no world in which you're ever gonna

1:03:11

feel good. We get twenty seven to three

1:03:13

and you're like, okay, like we got this, and

1:03:16

then they just you know, we Cooper Cup

1:03:18

fumbles can't like that never happens. He's

1:03:20

winning, and you blow

1:03:22

the whole thing and they score

1:03:24

and it's twenty seven. All in the places rock and you're

1:03:26

like, oh my god, and Matthew Stafford

1:03:29

and Cooper Cup connect on

1:03:31

a bomb and you

1:03:33

know, I think you go to enough

1:03:35

games in your life where it sid you can always

1:03:37

tell from the arc of a past whether it's gonna be caught,

1:03:40

Like you can do the geometry in your hand and

1:03:43

you're like, oh my god, like, oh my god.

1:03:46

You know, we get it, you know, we get it.

1:03:48

You know we we throw the ball down.

1:03:50

You're like, we're actually gonna go win this game in regulation,

1:03:52

which you thought had no prayer. You

1:03:55

kick the field goal and you get in the locker room and just crazy.

1:03:57

And one of the cool things about you know, so that

1:03:59

play and then Sofi Stadium and

1:04:01

knowing because we already knew the Niners and one we were

1:04:03

coming back to the new championship game. You

1:04:06

may know the Sofi Stadium is basically an led E

1:04:08

screen, So on the plane home, you

1:04:10

fly right over Sofi Stadium. We

1:04:12

had on the roof we ran the loop

1:04:15

of the Stafford to Cup pass

1:04:17

for our players to see as they flew

1:04:19

in. You know, back to LA for

1:04:22

you know, kind of the NFC Championship. I know, I remember

1:04:24

that, you know, I remember the tip pass

1:04:27

that wanted against you

1:04:29

know, the the Niners, all

1:04:32

all of that. But to to win an NFC

1:04:34

Championship against your you know, most bitter

1:04:36

rival, and to win a Super Bowl in your own building,

1:04:38

it's all it's all there, but the Cooper Cup

1:04:41

pass.

1:04:41

For sure, you're in LA.

1:04:43

A lot of celebrity fans come to these games,

1:04:46

maybe the most surprising or you

1:04:48

know, best celebrity story as coming

1:04:50

to so far, whether it be super Bowl week or whether

1:04:53

it be any regular season game that you've had a chance

1:04:55

to interact with that you're just like, what is going on

1:04:57

here?

1:04:58

You know, super Bowl was

1:05:00

crazy and you know that regard and you

1:05:02

kind of get used to.

1:05:04

I would take a couple weeks.

1:05:05

Ago, we had show hey o Tani for his first

1:05:07

game, and like Thursday

1:05:09

night game and you bring him in the locker room and he's hanging

1:05:11

with the players, and you know just

1:05:14

how wide eyed he was. And this guy is probably

1:05:16

the greatest athlete on the planet right

1:05:18

now. I mean, it'd be like if

1:05:21

Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons were

1:05:23

the same player, like,

1:05:25

I mean, you try to think about that, you

1:05:27

know, and you know, so then

1:05:30

you you get to, you know, all

1:05:32

of the entertainers and the fun and then you

1:05:35

know, you also get to, you know, the

1:05:37

silly things from our generation when you

1:05:39

know, the Sarah Michelle Gellers show up and you're

1:05:41

like, you know, you're like, yeah,

1:05:44

you're like teenage.

1:05:44

Kevin's fired up right now, you know.

1:05:47

You know, it's like when when Debbie Gibson

1:05:49

tweeted at me, yes.

1:05:51

You know, but you know what's so funny. I mean you

1:05:53

talk about memories.

1:05:54

I remember we had Warren g play halftime

1:05:56

of a wildcard game against Arizona Stadium's

1:06:01

Rocket. This is before the NFL

1:06:03

is done. They're crazy halftime show, which was awesome.

1:06:05

But you know, you just LA

1:06:08

is a special place when you get it rolling, you

1:06:10

know, but she's still magic Johnson,

1:06:13

Kareem, you know, the athletes

1:06:15

still always you know, Lebron they always

1:06:17

do well in LA.

1:06:18

Two all right, last one. And

1:06:20

it's too pronged. Underappreciated

1:06:22

player on the Los Angeles

1:06:25

Rams and then underappreciated

1:06:28

person in our NFL world

1:06:30

that you think is there's some shout out on this.

1:06:32

Podcast underappreciated

1:06:35

player in the Los Angeles Rams. I'm

1:06:37

going to go with two each side of the ball. Rob

1:06:40

Havenstein, you know, our right

1:06:42

tackle, who has been one of the foundational

1:06:45

pieces and he's one of the only

1:06:47

guys to have started a Super Bowl with both Jared

1:06:50

and Matthew like you just since we drafted him

1:06:52

in twenty fifteen. You know the rock and we're

1:06:54

so young on the offensive line. You got Alaric Jackson,

1:06:56

undrafted, third year Steve Avila,

1:06:59

first year Coleman Shelton's third

1:07:01

or fourth year, Kevin Dotson's in his fourth year.

1:07:03

I mean, Rob Havenstein's like glue young.

1:07:05

I mean, I think we're the second You had that great stat

1:07:07

about the Packers on Good Morning Football.

1:07:10

I think we're the second or third youngest team in football.

1:07:12

You know, so Rob Hevenstein is kind of that glue

1:07:14

of the offense, you know, certainly the offense

1:07:16

line. And then I say on the Ernest Jones, third

1:07:19

year linebacker, broke.

1:07:21

This great super Bowl.

1:07:22

That great in the Super Bowl, you know when you

1:07:24

talk about someone who handles that. We signed Bobby Wagner,

1:07:27

which kind of lessened his role last year. But

1:07:29

I think in terms of and this is a great life lesson.

1:07:31

I don't want to say for all millennials and gen Z because

1:07:34

that's you know, painting with wide brushes. You

1:07:37

know, has a sack and a tip pass in the Super Bowl knocks

1:07:39

away a four down ball. We bring in Bobby

1:07:41

Wagner who takes a back seat, but he

1:07:43

learns so much from Bobby Wagner as a mentor,

1:07:46

as a leader, and you see that pain dividends

1:07:49

that this year. And I think for all of us who get jobs

1:07:51

young, Hey, I'm

1:07:53

the man. I can do this, like, it's great to have mentors

1:07:56

being able to take a step back, take a lesser role,

1:07:58

watch someone. I mean you want to You're

1:08:00

not going to find a better human being on this earth than Bobby

1:08:02

Wagner. I could answer your second question, you

1:08:04

know, with with a Bobby you know Wagner

1:08:07

shout out. But

1:08:10

you know to me, you know, Ernest

1:08:13

Jones has been you know, the heartbeat

1:08:15

of this defense is our signal caller and

1:08:17

the lifeblood and just someone that you love

1:08:19

watching grow each day in his third year.

1:08:22

I love it all right now in our world in the NFL,

1:08:24

could be another player, could be another coach, could be a league

1:08:26

employee, could be an employee at the RAMS, someone

1:08:28

that maybe doesn't get enough love and

1:08:30

you say, hey, this guy is really good or this gal

1:08:33

is really good at what they do.

1:08:35

Look, I'm not going to say

1:08:37

anybody at the RAMS

1:08:39

because I'd have to go three hundred deep.

1:08:41

You know there. You know I love all my

1:08:43

children equally, and

1:08:45

you know.

1:08:46

So I love all our employees equally. I'm

1:08:48

going to go off the raid our NFL league office.

1:08:50

Dave Gardy.

1:08:51

Talk about Guardy.

1:08:52

You know, one of the bedrock has been there

1:08:55

forever. You know, someone who knows the

1:08:57

rule book inside out. When you know, when you're

1:08:59

angry and pissed off on a Monday and

1:09:02

you know you want to complain about it officiating

1:09:04

or something that the league did, Dave

1:09:07

gets the call from all of us and he handles

1:09:09

it with such grace, right, I mean,

1:09:12

I can't think of someone who's MFT more on

1:09:14

a weekly basis then

1:09:17

Dave Guardy, and he just he handles

1:09:19

it so well. He represents everything that's great

1:09:22

about the NFL. And you've had Mike North on

1:09:25

all the time. I mean, the choice words

1:09:27

I gave Mike North Sunday from

1:09:29

the locker room in San Francisco when

1:09:31

they were debating Saturday night or

1:09:33

Sunday night for our game. You

1:09:36

know, we we We've said, you

1:09:38

know, I did a couple of times on this podcast that's

1:09:40

nowhere near whether or

1:09:43

actually when we got our schedule on May and

1:09:45

I'm yelling at Mike North, Dave Guardy

1:09:47

gets on a weekly basis from all thirty two of

1:09:49

us. You know, he's the person who shows up at game

1:09:52

operations. He leads the competition committee,

1:09:54

you know meetings. He works closely with Troy Vincent.

1:09:57

Just one of those good guys in the NFL

1:09:59

who never gets gets any recognition.

1:10:01

And you and I talk about this all the time. You

1:10:04

know, one of the things that I disliked the most about

1:10:06

the NFL is that you know, one

1:10:08

man's downfalls another man's opportunity. And I

1:10:10

think that makes us you know a lot

1:10:13

caddye And you know, always

1:10:15

looking, you know what team who's getting fired?

1:10:16

And does that mean there's an opportunity?

1:10:18

Have you always say? Are they can in their coach? Okay? Well

1:10:20

if so?

1:10:20

You know, we need to be better cheerleaders of each

1:10:23

other, you know, at all thirty two franchises

1:10:25

and you know, the league office and when when

1:10:27

I say something like that, like they

1:10:30

you know, there's so many good people on other teams who

1:10:32

deserve shout outs, but Dave Guardy is the first one

1:10:34

that comes to mind for me.

1:10:35

I love that. Let's wrap with this. I always do this on the

1:10:37

podcast. You have an

1:10:40

elevator ride at the Combine or the Senior

1:10:42

Bowl, or you name it, the league meetings

1:10:44

in West Palm or Arizona,

1:10:46

and a young man or woman comes

1:10:48

in with a resume and a Manila

1:10:51

folder and they're a junior

1:10:53

in college, or they're a sophomore in

1:10:55

law school, or they're just off the street

1:10:57

and they learn that there's a big NFL event and

1:11:00

this is their opportunity. And you get in this elevator

1:11:02

and the elevator closes, and the young man or woman

1:11:04

looks at you and says, I'll do anything to

1:11:06

get in the NFL. What is your advice? And

1:11:08

you have just the elevator elevator ride to share

1:11:10

with them. What is your elevator advice for this

1:11:13

young man or woman?

1:11:14

My advice is always the same, you know, major

1:11:16

in whatever you want, because it doesn't

1:11:18

matter right you don't have to be a sports

1:11:21

management sports business major. If you

1:11:23

you want to major in Greek philosophy, be

1:11:25

my guest, like, go be the best version.

1:11:28

The first version people see of you all the

1:11:30

time is email. Make sure

1:11:32

your email is well written, clear,

1:11:35

concise. That's how ninety

1:11:37

five percent of the world's going to judge you when you're a first

1:11:39

and it's.

1:11:40

Not like pullo sport girl eleven

1:11:42

or it's yeah, you know,

1:11:45

and you know, make sure that at

1:11:47

gmail dot com.

1:11:49

You know, go volunteer at

1:11:51

your university in the football

1:11:53

office, at the athletic department. Don't just tell me you'll

1:11:55

do anything. Show me that

1:11:57

you've gone work. And I don't care if you go work, you

1:12:00

know, selling tickets for

1:12:02

sure, you know women's soccer, or if

1:12:04

you're the right hand to the head football coach, that

1:12:06

doesn't matter to me. I want to see you do that

1:12:08

so I can go talk to someone about your

1:12:11

work, ethic and your drive. And then finally,

1:12:13

if you truly love the NFL, there's so many

1:12:15

great ways, whether it's over the cap or PFF

1:12:18

for all these sites. Now you can go

1:12:20

learn some of that trade, and

1:12:22

you know you can.

1:12:23

Go do it.

1:12:23

Start a blog, start a podcast. Like

1:12:25

there's so many ways when you and I were coming up that

1:12:27

you.

1:12:29

Couldn't do this. And I

1:12:31

don't say that.

1:12:32

I'm not going to read your stuff and say like, oh,

1:12:35

you have this amazing insight about the offensive

1:12:37

line and we're going to go hire you. I

1:12:40

just want to know how you think. I want

1:12:42

to see that you can put it all together, you

1:12:44

know, and have that initiative, and look,

1:12:47

be be bold, be creative, and

1:12:49

look, if you decide I want to go work,

1:12:52

you know, at a factory or

1:12:54

at a tech company or Wall Street,

1:12:56

it doesn't.

1:12:57

Mean it's twenty two.

1:12:58

Your path is, you know, if

1:13:01

you don't get in football, if you don't go to sports, its not driven.

1:13:04

Go do what you're passionate about. You

1:13:06

will find your way to where you should be. Like,

1:13:08

be patient, you know, be optimistic,

1:13:10

and you know, don't just take any job,

1:13:13

take the one you really want.

1:13:15

Kevin, this is awesome, President of the Los Angeles

1:13:17

Rams, on the biggest

1:13:19

week of the RAMS season and

1:13:21

certainly the most dramatic Wildcard

1:13:24

game in a few days. I so appreciate you taking the hour

1:13:26

and change to sit with me. You're great

1:13:28

at what you do and obviously. We so

1:13:30

appreciate your time. Dude.

1:13:32

It's if we had been talking in May

1:13:34

and you would say the rams for ten and seven

1:13:37

in the wildcard hunt, I would have said, you're damn right,

1:13:39

we are.

1:13:39

So yeah, Yeah, I liked it.

1:13:42

Let's go have some fun this weekend. Thanks Peter, have.

1:13:44

Fun, dude, Thank you.

1:13:59

Yeah.

1:14:00

Look, I talked to them off pretty often because

1:14:02

he's got big picture stuff and it's not so much aaron

1:14:04

about like, you know, here is

1:14:06

the scoop on you know, this guy's

1:14:08

ankle injury. We don't talk. We talk big picture stuff.

1:14:10

You could tell that guy's a leader and you know, pretty

1:14:13

impressive in his own right.

1:14:14

Yeah, and I mean he like he was saying

1:14:17

that the amount of people who have come through that door

1:14:19

that he has worked with and to be there

1:14:21

for multiple regimes and like

1:14:24

the different the connections to different coaches as

1:14:26

well as different quarterbacks. Loved

1:14:28

hearing that, especially going into this weekend.

1:14:30

My big takeaway is it's

1:14:33

it's the frustration that

1:14:35

those who know have over the

1:14:37

Raheem Morris situation is

1:14:40

real and it comes from Kevin. I speak to Kyle

1:14:42

Shanahan about it. It comes to guys

1:14:44

like Lafleur, all of these

1:14:46

guys who have worked with Rahiema like that's the that's

1:14:49

the voice of the locker room, that's the voice who gets

1:14:51

the players. And yet year

1:14:53

after a year comes by and he's not getting a head coaching

1:14:55

job. We'll see how it goes. As we're recording

1:14:58

this, there's the several vacancies, and

1:15:00

yet I have no assurance that Rahee Morris is

1:15:02

getting one of these jobs this year. Either.

1:15:04

It's impressive to have a front

1:15:07

office like actively be

1:15:09

like we this, we love this guy,

1:15:11

we want that's a secure organization, so

1:15:14

we want him to get his shot at being a head

1:15:16

coach.

1:15:16

Yeah, that is wild. That is a

1:15:18

secure organization. Other organizations

1:15:20

would guard these guys like their gold. With

1:15:23

the Rams, it's like we've had thirty different guys come and

1:15:25

go like, well, we're happy for all of them. The tree

1:15:27

is what's important. Everyone go branch out.

1:15:29

I think he used the phrase we were trying

1:15:31

to sell him or sell the like

1:15:34

other teams on him, as opposed to like we're

1:15:36

denying interviews. It's like no, they yeah,

1:15:39

they're fighting for him, which is great. You love to see that from

1:15:41

an organization.

1:15:41

You love to see it, all right, So that's Rams versus

1:15:46

Lions Sunday night. I can't

1:15:48

wait for it. Let's do the Uber

1:15:50

Eats Delivering Results, Aaron, how's that sound?

1:15:52

Last week was Week eighteen. We

1:15:55

got to give it to somebody, and the person I'm

1:15:57

going to give it to is actually a Los Angeles

1:15:59

ram. I'm going to give it to

1:16:01

Pooka Nakula. Pooka Nakula broke

1:16:03

the single season record, which

1:16:06

is pretty impressive for not only hatches

1:16:09

for a rookie, but for yards for a

1:16:11

rookie in a season. He did it with Carson Wentz

1:16:14

throwing him dimes. Shout out

1:16:16

to Pooka Nakua breaks the record, gives the ball

1:16:18

to his mother, their smiles all abound. We'll

1:16:20

see what he could do this weekend. But when you break

1:16:22

two two long standing

1:16:24

NFL records like catches for a

1:16:26

rookie in a season and receiving yards in a rookie

1:16:28

season, and oh yeah, you're the twentieth

1:16:31

wide receiver selected in the draft

1:16:33

and you're a fifth round pick, you get

1:16:36

my love. I'm gonna say, Pooka Nakua gets

1:16:38

the Uber Delivering Results.

1:16:40

Uber Eats Delivering results where you can get almost

1:16:43

almost anything from Uber

1:16:45

eats. On that note, there's

1:16:47

a plenty of games this weekend Rams Lions

1:16:50

is the one I've got circled. I hope you guys enjoyed listening

1:16:52

to this. Such a good insight in hiring

1:16:55

coaches. McVeigh, Stafford Golf,

1:16:57

Aaron Wan, Kaufman, Jason English,

1:16:59

all the boys and gals on the West Coast,

1:17:02

and especially you guys, the listeners. Thanks for listening.

1:17:05

I feel like we're doing some pretty cool stuff over here.

1:17:07

They'll be not as viral as some other podcasts at

1:17:09

the moment. If Kat Williams wants to come on,

1:17:11

feel free, If Aaron Rodgers wants to voice

1:17:14

his thoughts on some

1:17:16

topics, feel free. We're

1:17:18

here. We're just doing our job the best way

1:17:20

we can. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you guys

1:17:23

next week. The

1:17:40

Season with Peter Schrager is a production

1:17:42

of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio.

1:17:45

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio

1:17:48

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1:17:50

you get your podcasts.