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journey today with Bite. Hey,

0:43

what's up everybody? Welcome

0:47

in to Tom Curran's

0:49

Patriots Talk Podcast. It's

0:57

actually a big week for the Patriots this week

1:00

because the rookie minicamp is upon us. I'll

1:03

be over there on Saturday at Gillette

1:05

Stadium for first glimpses of Drake May

1:07

and a Patriots uniform throwing footballs to

1:09

your Jalen Polk's, your Jevon

1:12

Baker's, getting a look at Kaden

1:14

Wallace and the rest of the

1:16

Patriots rookies. Meanwhile, the

1:19

team has also opened its GM

1:22

search. We talked about this

1:24

a little bit with Phil on Tuesday, but we have

1:26

a little bit more illumination on it as

1:29

more people have passed through the doors and

1:31

we're gonna get Mike Florio in here of

1:33

Pro Football Talk to talk about the GM

1:35

search, to talk

1:37

about what's awry with this GM search

1:39

in his eyes in terms of

1:41

final say, also to

1:43

talk about private equity and the

1:46

notion that the NFL is closing

1:48

in on granting the ability for

1:50

private equity firms to invest in teams. How

1:52

will that change the landscape in

1:54

the NFL? And we're

1:56

also gonna hit on a little bit of the

1:59

Kraft and Belichick tension. as related

2:03

by Julian Edelman on a podcast in

2:05

which he had Drew Bledsoe in as a guest. Tension

2:08

that you could cut with

2:11

a knife or actually the tension in that

2:13

room in the green room prior to the

2:15

event Edelman said he would cut flippant glass.

2:17

He did not say flippant. We'll bring

2:20

in Mike. Ladies and gentlemen,

2:22

here he is. It's Mike

2:24

Florio. He's got a million

2:26

bones to pick as he

2:28

always does. But first things

2:30

first, let's get a PSA out there. You have yourself

2:32

a colonoscopy this week. How are you feeling? Well,

2:34

first of all, I don't have any bones to pick. Why

2:36

do you think I have bones to pick? Why do I

2:39

get this reputation? Just because I tell it like it is,

2:41

people think I just walk around whining all the time. You're

2:44

whining about you calling me a whiner. How

2:46

about that, Tom Curran? You're a bone picking

2:48

son of a gun. Let's

2:50

get back to the colonoscopy, folks. I'm sure

2:52

everyone's dying to hear about it. Well,

2:55

look, it's an important thing that we all need to do

2:57

in order to take care of our health. And even if

2:59

you have no regard for your own health, there are people

3:01

presumably who care about you and

3:03

need you financially,

3:06

emotionally, physically, or otherwise, they need you to

3:08

be alive. They need you to be around.

3:10

And I remember resisting for

3:13

years, this idea of being number

3:15

one, knocked out, and number two, having a

3:17

hose with a camera on the end of

3:19

it shoved up my ass all the way

3:21

until the end of my colon,

3:23

like a couple crossing down. I didn't want

3:25

to do it. Didn't want to do it.

3:28

And I had some symptoms that suggested maybe

3:30

things weren't 100% right. And

3:33

it wasn't until I did a hemical

3:35

test in conjunction with a physical that

3:37

I had in 2011, that came

3:39

back positive. It's the

3:41

little blood smear test and they looked at it

3:43

for blood. But I'm just saying you smear your

3:46

stool and they look at it for blood. And

3:48

if it's positive, you got a problem. So I

3:50

had the colonoscopy, I got over my fear, I

3:52

had to do it. There was a problem that

3:54

needed to be checked out. Turns out I had

3:56

Crohn's disease, still have Crohn's disease. I've had five

3:59

or six colonoscopies. I've lost track frankly because

4:01

I get them periodically just to

4:03

make sure everything's fine. I've had two

4:05

polyps, had one yesterday, 6 millimeters, had one several

4:07

years ago, 3 millimeters. And

4:09

the thing about getting colonoscopy, if they

4:11

find that polyp and some of them

4:14

never become cancerous, some of them could

4:17

become cancerous, you need to

4:19

get them out of there, you need to get

4:21

them tested, you need to get the cancer if

4:23

you have it spotted early. The sooner you get

4:25

it, the better, the sooner you find it, the

4:28

better, the sooner it's treated if you are at

4:30

that point, it can save your life. You know,

4:32

there are plenty of types of cancer that you

4:35

can't catch them before it's

4:38

a problem. This is one that can

4:40

be caught, it can be prevented, it

4:42

can save your life and it can also save

4:44

you having to go through the awful

4:47

process of surgery, radiation, chemo

4:49

and all the things that

4:51

would go along with having

4:53

colon cancer. So I

4:56

just, hey look, we have these platforms,

4:58

we use them as best we can

5:00

and every time I have a colonoscopy,

5:03

I use that occasion to tell anyone out

5:05

there if you need it, get it, it

5:07

could save your life. And I'm going to

5:09

springboard that with my visit yesterday to my

5:11

dermatologist who I have to see frequently because

5:13

I have had multiple squamous cell carcinomas

5:18

scraped off my head from the bald spot which thank

5:20

you Dr. Line, it was a good reason to go

5:22

ahead and get a few

5:24

plugs put in up there after that

5:26

happened. We had squamous cell cancer up there, we

5:28

had it behind the ear and then yesterday, my

5:30

friend Dr. Amy Chang, when I went and I

5:33

said, what's this dot? She goes, I don't like

5:35

that. I said, yeah, it just showed up.

5:37

She goes, oh, that's not good. Shaved it right off,

5:39

we got a biopsy going there but you have to stay ahead

5:41

of it because it could be

5:44

squamous, it could be melanoma, it could be

5:47

basically benign. So we're

5:49

keeping our fingers crossed but if you're there

5:51

all the time, doing those checkups

5:54

for your skin, if you were out there

5:56

in the 70s, 80s, early 90s, working outside like

6:00

I was, in lumber yards for

6:03

construction companies, spraying lawns

6:05

for landscape companies and taking care

6:07

of lawns, you were exposed

6:09

and you probably weren't putting on sunscreen because you thought

6:11

you looked like roast beef and prime rib if you

6:13

got a little color on you while

6:15

you were regretting it down. So, what are

6:18

you doing? I go every year to the

6:20

dermatologist for a full check. That's completely

6:22

non-invasive. You just take your shirt off

6:24

and any looks and you show

6:26

your legs and you show any other areas you

6:28

may have concerns about. I had

6:30

something on my leg a few years

6:32

ago. They did the shave biopsy. They

6:35

checked it out for melanoma and then

6:37

the scar, the mole grew

6:39

back in the scar and he was like, I

6:41

don't like that. Did the punch biopsy. I've got

6:43

a scar that I see all the time just

6:45

to make sure it wasn't melanoma and they sent

6:47

it away. It was tested,

6:49

some sort of special staining they

6:51

do to make sure it's not

6:53

melanoma because melanoma is the worst.

6:55

Melanoma starts with this tiny little

6:57

thing that goes inward and creates

6:59

all kinds of havoc. So, that

7:01

one's easy. You don't have to

7:03

do the prep. You're not

7:05

sitting on the toilet for three hours the night before.

7:08

You don't get knocked out. You

7:10

don't have any risk of complication. You just

7:12

have a dermatologist look at you and see

7:14

if there's anything that needs to be shaved

7:16

off and taken a look at. So, good

7:18

for you to do that as well. That's

7:20

another one that you can catch it before

7:22

it kills you. Yeah, and both of these

7:24

are once you get to a

7:26

certain age and that's 30 with

7:28

the skin. People abuse it.

7:31

So, get a regular dermatologist who you

7:33

can see regularly. Anyway, let's talk about football. Yeah, what

7:35

are we doing here? What is this? Is

7:37

that sort of a health podcast I wasn't aware

7:40

of? These are important things. Look, these are important

7:42

things. And for the younger people

7:44

out there, you eventually, if you're lucky, will be

7:46

old like us. And I remember hearing

7:48

about colon cancer when I was in my 30s thinking,

7:51

I don't have to worry about that. I'll

7:53

worry about that later. And I never wanted to deal with

7:55

it. And when you get to that age, you

7:57

are going to have to deal with it if you want to get even

8:00

deeper age and if you don't

8:02

want to go through a potentially

8:04

horrible experience and possibly death from

8:07

things that could have been prevented. All right. Yeah. No

8:10

one doesn't talk about health being the most important

8:13

commodity that anyone owns over the course of their life.

8:16

All right. Meanwhile, there's a

8:18

commodity owned by the New England Patriots by

8:20

the Kraft family, and that is the New England

8:23

Patriots. That's the segue right there. They're

8:25

engaging in a GM search right now. We've

8:28

gone over it multiple times, the head

8:31

scratching nature of the GM search, the

8:33

fact that Elliot

8:35

Wolf has ostensibly had final say

8:38

throughout. And now

8:40

they're going to execute this GM search, which

8:43

seemingly, Mike, they have

8:45

satisfied the Rooney rule. So whether they're

8:48

bringing people in now to serve as

8:50

assistants, it's very oblique,

8:54

opaque. It's hard to figure

8:56

out what in God's name they're doing, and

8:58

it's not oozing a level of competency post-Bella

9:00

check. Well, look, there's a combination

9:02

of factors at play here. You've got the

9:04

Rooney rule that must be complied with, and

9:06

I don't know whether they've already

9:09

complied with it going forward. There's

9:11

two different phases that I think are relevant

9:13

here. Redraft, when they

9:16

made no changes to the front

9:18

office after firing Bill Belichick. They

9:21

elevate Giraud Mayo pursuant to the contract that was

9:23

already in existence. The Rooney

9:25

rule wasn't relevant to him

9:27

because the deal was

9:29

already in place. That's permissible under

9:31

league rules. That's happened in the

9:33

past with coaches like Jim Mora,

9:35

Jim Caldwell. It hasn't happened in

9:37

a while, but it is permitted.

9:40

As it relates to the front office,

9:42

they basically just kicked the

9:44

can through the draft on

9:47

who was already there. And that's

9:49

fine as long as

9:52

no one in any

9:54

of those jobs was regarded

9:56

as the chief football official

9:59

in the court. the organization. Now,

10:01

the point I made today, Tom, you can't have

10:03

it both ways if you're the Patriots. Either

10:06

Elliott Wolf was in charge,

10:09

and they violated the Rooney rule by

10:11

not doing the proper search before giving

10:13

him final say, or final

10:15

say rested with ownership.

10:18

It's one or the other. And

10:21

if what the league told Doug

10:23

Pied of the Boston Herald earlier

10:25

this week about the

10:27

pre draft, none of the titles

10:29

changed. Nobody was the top football

10:32

person in the building pre

10:34

draft, and it can only

10:36

be ownership. And this is relevant simply

10:38

because there's so much chatter about how

10:41

involved his ownership and the Apple documentary

10:43

and who's claiming credit. So they're very

10:45

sensitive about this right now. But the

10:47

bottom line is this, they either violated

10:50

the Rooney rule by giving final say

10:52

to Elliott Wolf before they should have

10:54

without doing the search, or ownership was

10:56

making the call, not just with Drake

10:58

May, but with every draft pick trades,

11:00

non trades, whatever it was, it's being

11:02

made by ownership, which is retaining final

11:04

say after Bill Belichick was let go.

11:07

Yeah, it's it's they on

11:09

paper had final say but allowed

11:12

Elliott Wolf to pretend he was

11:15

GM dress up, but

11:17

they still had final say, they can't

11:19

say they didn't have final say. So

11:21

they're going to say publicly, we didn't have

11:23

final say to not

11:25

appear as if they're being puppeteers, but privately, they

11:28

violated the Rooney rule, that's the thing, they can't

11:30

get out of this maze. And they've painted themselves

11:32

into this corner. If they say we didn't have

11:34

final say they violated the Rooney rule, if they

11:36

say they did have final say, then

11:39

fine, you had final say and all the

11:42

this is one of the realities of the NFL. Every

11:44

owner is involved. It's a bit their business

11:46

course, these are big decisions. Only

11:49

Jerry Jones is completely honest about his involvement

11:51

because he's the GM. These other owners hide

11:53

behind you know, they collectively like to hide

11:55

behind as you call them the world's highest

11:57

paid pin cushion in Roger Goodell. And

12:00

individually, they hide behind the coaches, the

12:02

GMs, whoever has final say, but they're

12:04

back there pressing buttons and pulling levers

12:06

and working the, you know, the marionette

12:09

strings and getting what they want

12:11

because it's their business. And that's fine. Just be

12:13

honest about it. And I think that's the problem.

12:15

They don't want to be openly candid that they're

12:17

running the show because then the question is, how

12:19

long have you been running the

12:21

show? And going forward, how

12:24

extensively will you actively be looking over Elliott

12:26

Wolfe's shoulder and telling him what to do?

12:29

Yeah. And when Robert Kraft says that the owners meetings,

12:31

I want to talk like quarterback, but our people are

12:33

going to make the decisions on that. If you're an

12:36

untitled GM with the hope of being the GM, you're

12:39

basically on notice, don't

12:41

come out of this draft without a

12:43

quarterback, please. Regardless, I think, Tom,

12:46

here's the thing. How are they going to hire

12:48

anybody but Elliott Wolfe? He just drafted their franchise

12:50

quarterback. How do you hire anyone but Elliott? Well,

12:52

Hey, Elliott, thanks a lot for getting our franchise

12:54

quarterback. Now we're going to give the job to

12:56

somebody else. Oh, and it may be somebody who

12:58

thinks Drake May isn't any good. To

13:01

me, and the compliance

13:04

has traditionally landed with

13:06

a woman named Robin Glazer, who works

13:09

alongside Jonathan. And, you know, when

13:12

Gerard Mayo was hired, there was a

13:14

lot made of a title change for Robin

13:16

Glazer, which made it sound like she

13:19

was going to be more intimately involved with some

13:21

football decisions. Seth Wickersham, I believe, had a piece

13:24

soon after that said that

13:26

Jonathan Kraft and Robin Glazer were

13:29

kind of overloading football. And the Patriots

13:31

have labored, and I believe this to

13:33

be the case, to say she's not

13:36

doing football. She does compliance, she does

13:38

contracts, she does a million

13:40

things that don't have to do with evaluating

13:42

players. All that said, they're

13:45

now in this compliance abyss

13:48

already. And it's as if

13:50

they're screwing up a one-car funeral here. It didn't have

13:53

to be this hard, did it? No,

13:55

It didn't. Just Do your search before the draft. Do

13:57

Your search. I Mean, they didn't have to do it.

14:00

Do a coaching search. Society resources

14:02

were spread thin. Do your search

14:04

for a new Gm. Or.

14:06

Whatever the title is going to be the person

14:08

who has final say approaching the draft. Do It.

14:11

Before. The Draft. They thought they

14:13

found a loophole, but they might

14:15

about smart of themselves. By.

14:18

Painting themselves into this corner where now that

14:20

we're paying attention to it, try to understand

14:22

it. I had gotten questions from people with other

14:24

teams ahead of time like not of the

14:26

patriots of would comply with the Rooney rule.

14:29

They. Put Elliott Wolf in charge. How do

14:31

they Not comply with The Rooney wrote

14:33

before they gave him that position and

14:35

again, you can't have it both ways

14:37

either. They gave him final say in

14:39

violated. The Rooney wrote. Or. They

14:41

didn't the and they retained final say as

14:43

a made the decisions and you could say

14:46

it's a distinction without a difference because the

14:48

end of a day or a making a

14:50

final decision on doing whatever L a Wolf

14:52

recommends you have with still I think if

14:55

we're going to be honest with reality here.

14:57

And we're going to press and see what

15:00

was really happening. This all my just be

15:02

elaborate cover for the fact. That. They

15:04

some their nose at the rooney rule. That might

15:06

be the truth. Is

15:09

really know what you're looking for When there's

15:11

a lawsuit, stop sending from Brian's Whereas former

15:13

Patriots employees really did circles around exactly this

15:16

type of thing the dog and pony show

15:18

interviews where again it it does feel as

15:20

if they were trying to have it both

15:22

ways and I think that's been an ongoing

15:24

thing. I said my email to use we're

15:27

talking back and forth, you know, Robert

15:29

Kraft I think. In the Patriots are

15:31

trying to have it both ways with the search, but

15:33

also I think Robert really wants to have it both

15:36

ways with Bill. Bill.

15:38

Belichick. People.

15:40

Out there who was lose podcasts who are enjoy

15:43

it and say i'm I'm doing a good job

15:45

out here. With this they're not gonna like this.

15:47

Bill earned the firing that he got. After.

15:50

For thirteen season after thirty nine and

15:52

twenty nine since Brady left it to

15:55

and six finished about season here and.

15:58

Here you know to have a shining hurts. owned

16:00

it as everything else. As a game day coach, he

16:02

didn't earn it. As the de

16:04

facto GM, I think that's how he

16:06

earned it. Don't you? Well, drafting and

16:08

developing and signing. Because I think the game

16:10

they just still regarded as a pretty good coach.

16:12

Yeah, he was. But I think that that reputation

16:14

snuck through. I mean, we watched a team that

16:16

played the Las Vegas

16:19

Raiders last year, and lost in some of

16:21

the most humiliating circumstances I've ever seen with

16:23

one of their best players throwing it backwards

16:25

60 yards to a quarterback, who then gets

16:28

stiff armed into the nether world. As Chandler

16:30

Jones went and scored the coaching was not

16:32

what it had been. And I'm talking about

16:34

scheming. I'm not talking about instruction,

16:37

like Yeah, but I mean, coaching part of the

16:39

coaching revolves around hiring the other coaches too, when

16:41

you have an office. I got it. I got

16:43

it. Well, yeah, 2022 was a shit show, because

16:45

of the whole

16:48

Matt Patricia thing. That's where it went off the rails. And

16:50

I think in that 10,000 word

16:52

opus from ESPN from a few weeks

16:54

ago about the final

16:56

days of Belichick and the Atlanta

16:58

stiff arm, the point

17:01

was made that Robert wanted to fire Belichick after

17:03

2022. And Jonathan talked him out of it, they

17:05

should have just fired him after 2022. And it

17:07

was a fireable offense to

17:09

put Matt Patricia and Joe judge in charge

17:11

of the offense. But the

17:13

coaching on game day, if you want

17:15

to say how am I going to stop that team from

17:18

scoring? No, he'll hatch a great plan.

17:21

But all the logistics around the

17:23

coaching had been allowed to skate

17:25

by because I think Bill was basically of a

17:27

mind that what's the worst that can happen. But

17:30

in terms of the firing being earned, Robert

17:32

Kraft did what in his heart of hearts felt was the

17:35

right thing to do. He

17:37

does want to have it both ways, though, with

17:40

the mutual decision, the hug at the

17:42

podium in January.

17:45

And then again, on Sunday, look, I

17:47

know, Kevin Hart goaded them into at

17:49

the roast that

17:51

shot. Just do it

17:53

sheepishly understand how Bill must feel as they

17:55

do that. I don't really want to bury

17:57

the hatchet here, but I have to don't

18:00

lean into the microphone and tell everybody

18:03

that's the greatest coach of all time and nothing would have

18:05

been accomplished without him because you just fired him three months

18:07

ago. So to me, that's wanting

18:09

to have it both ways and it was

18:11

interesting to hear Julian Edelman say that in

18:14

a conversation with Drew Bledsoe, you

18:19

talked about it this morning on Pro Football Talk. Kraft

18:22

walked into the green room where Belichick was

18:25

regaling the group with stories and

18:28

the tension in that room said Edelman

18:30

could cut weeping glass, that was so

18:32

awkward. And this

18:35

again is this ongoing trying to have

18:37

it both ways. Understand

18:41

that it's not gonna be as

18:43

warm and fuzzy as you want, you can't dress it up,

18:45

you fired the guy. Do

18:48

you believe that Roberts showed up at

18:50

the toast, at the roast, excuse

18:52

me, where they had the toast, they had the toast

18:54

at the roast, you gotta have the roast before you

18:56

can have the toast. Who was the host? Do you

18:58

think he showed up at the roast where

19:01

they had a toast in front

19:03

of the host so that he

19:05

would not be the butt of

19:08

jokes? Because some of

19:10

the things I've heard, when

19:12

I saw Nikki Glaser explaining it to Howard

19:15

Stern, they were like afraid to say anything

19:17

about the massage stuff with Robert Thayer and

19:19

when Jeff Ross did, Tom did

19:21

the performative, get up and go over and

19:23

tell him, don't say that shit again, and

19:26

none of the others said anything. And it's

19:28

funny how it was a no holds barred

19:30

roast except where the holds were barred. Nothing

19:33

about kids, nothing about crap. We'll make jokes

19:35

that I think were on the wrong side

19:37

of taste about Aaron Hernandez, murders and suicide.

19:39

We'll make jokes about those, but we won't

19:42

make jokes about this. I

19:44

think Robert went there in part to

19:46

ensure that no one was going to

19:48

poke fun and it

19:50

wasn't gonna become a thing. Like heaven hearted

19:53

short, Rob Gronkowski is stupid.

19:56

Tom got divorced. Like it was three jokes

19:58

over and over and over again. It did get

20:00

a little bit old and I think the Kraft

20:02

massage stuff would have been lumped into that if he

20:04

hadn't been there in person. It seemed as

20:06

if just judging by the

20:10

ongoing conversation throughout the night and Brady expressing

20:12

thanks and people saying that he asked him,

20:14

I would imagine he asked Robert Kraft to

20:16

go and Robert might say, look, if I'm

20:18

there, I'm going to get assailed with workings

20:21

of Asia commentary throughout the night.

20:23

I'm not going to sit through that. I got

20:25

grandchildren, I got family, I'm supposed to

20:27

be an owner in the league, respected. I can't do that

20:30

and Tom and I said, look, I'll talk to

20:33

them. We'll make sure it's a red line.

20:36

We're not doing that and it's probably going

20:38

to be worse if you're not there. So

20:40

I don't think I would imagine

20:42

that's probably more of how the conversation

20:44

would go. I got that. I buy

20:46

that. I like that. But again,

20:49

they can't call it no holds barred if there are going to

20:51

be some things that they just

20:53

aren't going to touch. You can't sell

20:55

it as nothing was off limits if

20:57

certain things were off limits and maybe if the one thing

20:59

that should have been off limits, because I don't know about

21:01

you, the Hernandez stuff just felt

21:03

weird to me. Making fun of a

21:05

guy who committed suicide in prison seems

21:08

like a bridge too far. And I

21:11

look, I like a good joke and

21:13

I'm not offended by things and I believe in

21:16

free speech, but it's also part of the freedom

21:18

of speech to say, folks, I

21:20

think it's not right to

21:22

start digging at

21:24

that. I think the guys

21:27

not around to comment and it

21:29

just feels, it feels icky

21:31

to be making those jokes. But

21:35

you don't hate

21:38

OJ jokes. Well,

21:41

I don't hate OJ jokes, but I don't tell

21:43

OJ jokes, but you would tell an OJ joke.

21:45

See this thing is different. Let me say this.

21:48

Hang on. Let me finish. Let me

21:50

finish. I know it's your show, but I

21:52

don't care. You're the guest. If OJ Simpson had

21:54

blown his brains out in the back of that Bronco the

21:56

night he was driving around with a gun to his head.

22:00

I think it gives you a different feel, a

22:02

different vibe. And I don't know when, look, nothing's

22:05

ever off limits. I mean, how Brady made a

22:07

9-11 joke and people were like, oh. It wasn't

22:09

a 9-11 joke. It was a jet

22:11

joke. Okay. Two jets slamming

22:13

into something in New York in September of

22:15

2001. Okay. My point is,

22:17

my point is, OJ jokes

22:21

have a different feel altogether. If

22:23

the end of his story was he puts a

22:25

bullet in his brain in the back of the

22:28

Bronco that night in June of 1994. I'm

22:32

just saying, I'm just saying. The reason I

22:34

cringe. My point is some things are going to be

22:36

off limits and some things aren't either. Everything's off either.

22:38

Certainly. I just feel like more things should have been

22:41

off limits. If we're going to make exceptions for

22:43

Tom Brady kissing his son in that

22:45

documentary from Facebook from several years ago,

22:47

or anything and everything about Robert Kraft,

22:49

which is a very public situation that

22:52

everybody knew about and everybody was talking

22:54

about. The reason the Hernandez thing made

22:56

me recoil more

22:59

is because they were teammates and had already

23:01

been on the record. They're not just

23:04

roasters whose job it is to do that. They

23:06

have been deeply affected emotionally. We

23:08

talked to them. We listened to them. We

23:10

saw them deeply affected as

23:12

individuals who are public individuals expressing their

23:14

remorse, their sadness, their sympathy for Oden

23:16

Lloyd and the family, for

23:19

Hernandez himself not understanding exactly where

23:21

they personally could have gone wrong.

23:24

So then to see them put on another

23:26

mask, it deflates somewhat

23:29

or calls into question somewhat their sincerity in

23:31

the other ways. No. It's

23:34

dark humor. I'm Irish, you're Italian. We all

23:36

engage in dark humor. Suicide jokes, just

23:39

generally given the extent to which it has

23:41

an evident to me, it brought me more.

23:43

The suicide stuff was, was difficult to hear

23:45

the three different ones, but I think to

23:47

me it was harder because they were teammates

23:50

and I think the Grunk's reaction when they

23:52

cut to him was the most,

23:55

that was probably, that was a reaction I

23:57

had. Oh, that like, wow, man. Yeah,

24:00

I agree. But I think it has to do with

24:05

they occupied a different realm

24:07

in their life than a normal roaster would

24:10

have. It was a weird look. Hey,

24:12

mission accomplished. People

24:14

are talking about it and they're still talking

24:16

about it. We're talking about it four days

24:18

later. It took attention away from that God

24:20

awful Unfrosted movie. I love everything Jerry Seinfeld

24:22

has ever done except Unfrosted that debuted on

24:25

Netflix just before the Tom Brady roast. So

24:27

they want to get people talking. They want

24:29

to get people to watch Netflix. So be

24:31

it. People will be signed up

24:33

to Netflix in advance of the league announcing next

24:35

week that Netflix is going to have a couple

24:37

of Christmas games if Boomera Sison's information is accurate.

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at americanpress.com. Ask your fan. Mike,

25:44

do you think that

25:46

Austin Rivers was on the money? This

25:48

is a ham-handed segue too. And

25:51

he said that he can take 30

25:53

players right now in the NBA and throw them in the

25:55

NFL. And you can't take 30 NFL players and put them

25:58

in the NBA because I agree with him. They're

26:00

all going to play cornerback, wide

26:02

receiver, safety, and

26:05

tight end, but you can find

26:07

30 players in the NBA who could play

26:09

those positions. I don't know about that because

26:11

you're not talking about the same kind of

26:13

speed explosion and agility that you see on

26:15

a football field. I

26:17

think the deeper question is if you

26:19

rewind the clock back to youth level

26:21

when kids are picking which direction they're

26:23

going to go with their athletic careers,

26:26

how many NFL players could have gone

26:29

basketball and percolated all the way

26:31

to the NBA, how many basketball players could

26:33

have gone NFL and percolated all the way to the

26:36

top of the sport. I don't know, but

26:38

you're talking about very different skills. Chris made

26:40

a great point yesterday. TJ Ford was at

26:42

Texas when he was there. He came out

26:45

to the football field one day and he

26:47

was boy among men trying to run routes

26:49

and catch passes. It's a different use of

26:52

the body. Everything about the

26:54

sports is just fundamentally different. You

26:56

could be a great athlete. How far can you

26:58

get in either sport? So the top- Then you

27:00

take a guy like Nate Robinson. He

27:03

was a top tier corner at the

27:05

University of Washington and he was a

27:07

great guard in the NBA. I

27:09

mean, there's, there's, there are, it's

27:12

funny, Belichick told me this a long time ago when

27:14

my kids were playing youth

27:16

sports and were starting out

27:18

in football. I had a seven-year-old who

27:21

was just starting and he got

27:23

lit up by a nine-year-old because it was in weight limits.

27:26

And he's like, I don't know. I don't

27:28

like, I didn't, my body's still vibrating. I

27:30

don't get this. So

27:33

I said, okay, you want to retire for this year and come

27:35

back next year? So I talked to Bill. I'm like, Hey, you know,

27:37

I know we're not supposed to do this whole thing. You know,

27:40

you never quit, but I don't want

27:42

the sport ruined for him if he's not interested

27:44

in going. And I think it's

27:46

really hard to preach physical toughness to seven-year-olds.

27:48

I'm just not signing up for that. You

27:50

get it later on. And he

27:52

goes, look, you know, football,

27:55

you can start that at any

27:58

time. Basketball, hockey. golf

28:01

all those other sports Baseball

28:05

it takes years to get good. I

28:07

can take anybody an athlete just haven't played

28:09

football Takes no time. So

28:12

no Look at how we

28:14

put look how I put receivers at corner

28:16

and corners at receiver and moving guys around

28:18

and Swiss Army Nice type players. Yeah, do

28:20

you do Neil off the wrestling mat and

28:22

you know, you see guys You

28:25

know Australian rules football or rugby players.

28:27

Well, that's not really I think we all we

28:29

all pick our paths If we have any athletic

28:31

ability when we're young and the best players gravitate

28:34

to the thing They're the best at that typically

28:36

is what happens you go out onto a football

28:38

field to get popped You don't like it you

28:40

get popped you like it How

28:43

you react in those moments is where you go

28:45

to where you're the best the real tragedy is

28:48

how many guys? Pick the wrong sport

28:50

where they could have been a pro in the other

28:52

sport and they picked the one where it fizzled out

28:54

Before they got there. You know what? I

28:56

gotta go. All right. I'm sorry Oh, this

28:58

is me for the thing you wanted me for

29:01

we didn't even get to What's

29:05

it mean? Well, all

29:07

it means is they're gonna be able to sell off pieces

29:10

of the team and raise some money But

29:12

when you look at how teams get passed

29:14

from owner to owner You're

29:16

gonna have this percentage that is always there and

29:18

you're gonna have these private equity firms It may

29:20

have a lot more influence behind the scenes If

29:23

they're allowed to hold pieces of multiple teams and

29:25

up to 30% of a team can go to

29:27

a private equity fund You're gonna have some people

29:29

who are hiding behind the curtain who we don't even

29:31

know who they are Who might

29:34

have influence over who gets to

29:36

buy a team who doesn't it's it's going

29:38

to be something that we need to play

29:40

out Over time, but it's gonna change a

29:42

lot of things. It's going to migrate away

29:44

from the mom-and-pop shop right now we control

29:46

spending more because I think we see that

29:48

with the Boston Red Sox to a degree

29:50

the family sports group and Satisfying

29:52

these different entities that are part owners

29:55

of the teams that that's the real

29:57

question. How much of the full discretion

30:00

that owners currently have of their businesses, because I

30:02

know like in Pittsburgh, you've got the minority shareholders

30:04

that are always trying to tell Art Rooney what

30:06

to do, and he tells them, piss up a

30:08

rope basically. How much more

30:11

influence will the private equity funds

30:13

have over these decisions? And

30:15

when you have one fund that's got ownership interest

30:17

in multiple teams, they may

30:19

be opening another Pandora's box here, all

30:22

in the name of, gimme, gimme, gimme, money,

30:24

money, money, gambling, private equity, gimme, gimme,

30:27

gimme, more, more, more, everybody wants more.

30:29

All right, Paul and Oskopee, Dermatology, Private

30:31

Equity, MBA, we did, we hit it

30:33

all. See you, buddy. Thank you. Thanks,

30:36

bye.