Cris Collinsworth on Flag Football, Joe Burrow's Comeback Season, Bengals Chances, & 18 Game Season

okay my next guest needs no introduction but here he is not only a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver but an Emmy Award winning I believe SE 17 Emmys is a lot Chris 17 where do you put them uh around just around there's one in all those drawers back there we of course are excited to see you is this the worst set you have of anybody I mean this is so pathetic so I'm just GNA get up for a minute do this all right so back in the day when I first started doing this thing yeah you had to get the tapes to watch the game so these drawers like this is the Eagles and this is the Red Skins and this isons and it looked like you store like body parts in there right and now it's it's like it's ridiculous looking and and I'm my wife tells me you got to fix the thing up you look so unprofessional the lighting is terrible the lighting of the door is better than the lighting of me at this point and I've got I've got I'm trying to you know do something but it glows in the dark where I don't want it to glow in the dark now so I'm just gonna do the interview like this I just I wasn't ready for a Collinsworth breakdown of of your uh surroundings but I'm here for it and I love it I feel like the next interview I just want to talk to your wife because we always end up talking about her and I just feel like she's the real star of the family you and Jack can scram oh I'm just tell if she would do it now she does not like to do it she does not want to do the but she would like you she would she would enjoy it because you're sort of the queen of the of the Queen City no that's not true the princess of the Queen City you're too young to be the queen you're the I don't know I don't know about that Chris I'm I'm also doing the doing the show like this you know covering all sorts of things over here on this end uh tell me about your summer vacation because you're saying that you have bad lighting but that is a tan and you're just lying to me so yeah I'm doing all right down in Florida we just got back and uh got to hang out on the beach down there a little bit and uh but mostly now just chasing the the I got grandkids now so that's that's like you take them to like the water parks and the and the slides and so they try to kill you in every way possible you know you're off ropes and down these slides and you know and then you got to run because you can't let them out of your sight you know so then I mean it's like you got to go chase them back up the thing and we went 400 times down the end the water so that was that's how I got tanned that is your summer vacation and I absolutely I don't think anybody has a better life than you I really don't it's good stuff it's it's good stuff I've got two more grand babies on the way so a grand total of five my my one daughter will have four that lives in Orlando and my other daughter who's here is pregnant for the first time and so we're ped so they'll they'll maybe Ashley's GNA have a baby too wow congratulations Grandpa absolutely I love that big love to you and the family and by I mean by 2028 La Olympics you'll have a full flag football team it sounds like of grandkids that's right and I'm bringing Joe burrow and Jamar Chase with me and and I'm gonna coach them up that'll be good are you I heard they wanted to play that's great I I didn't know they would want to play I think that's cool although I if you ever watch flag football it's it's legit it's like a different sport I I don't know that NFL players are going to be able to just come right off the field and go win at flag football I mean they have plays they have crazy plays they they throw it up in the air and they tip the ball from one guy to the other and there's I it's it's a little bit of a different sport it'll be interesting to see if they just can sort of roll the ball out there and and do great is there a position that you think translates better than others like is there I'm curious about that with what that would look like as far as the rule changes like what sort of NFL player would make a great flag football player well I you know the Tyreek Hills the quick guys I think are the ones that that are going to be able to do it but you know there's nothing wrong with putting LeBron James out there and throwing the ball up high and let them go get one too so it's I think it's G to be really exciting though and I I do not think it's a layup because of the uniqueness of the sport I I I think somebody could put together a team that has just phenomenal athletes and they do these weird plays now the NFL guys should be able to win if they actually want to play in the thing but it it it's intriguing to me I would love to be the announcers for that I I was about to ask listen you haven't worked in O I've never brought it up before I would love to do that though i' I just looked I said oh I wonder if he's going to Paris to work you're not you're just like the one NBC employee that isn't that doesn't have to work the Olympics 2028 you better get your butt to to be calling flag football yeah but I've got I've got a tough assignment I have to babysit Al Michaels and Bob Costas at the Olympics so yeah they they they're bringing them back they brought back AI Al did you hear about all that tell me so Al is doing for the Olympics an AI version of himself where they do the highlights the following morning and Al is voicing it but Al is not in it it's AI out so he and and I go you are a genius I've never seen anybody smarter than you he's gonna get paid so much money to have his voice on the Olympics when doing zero work he will be doing as little as I'm doing and not getting paid and he'll be getting paid the man is an utter genius but he does have one of his billionaire friends that we get to go on his yacht when because we're going to go to Italy afterwards and go hang out down there I gotta work on my tan a little bit and so he's got a billionaire guy down there we get to go hang on the yacht okay well I'd like to be invited to that thank you very much and while you guys are gone I'd like to use your private plane to go to my training camp tour thank you I'm glad we figured that all out ail how how soon is it until you uh Lobby for that in your deal so you can make more trips to Italy that sounds pretty good AI Chris is pretty cool yeah coming to a show near you on PFF is all I will say on that oh what yes yes yes just I we I saw my first have you heard your voice in AI yet have you I'm not interested at all I want to go live in Jackson Hole and not deal with any of these AI things chat GP none of it I don't want know I have't why is it different no it's it's it's unbelievable so all you have to do is have somebody write out we'll do this for you PFF do great so we do all these game scripts and storylines and all these things about the the and do it in your voice right yeah and you just stay home so they just put put a picture of you up there and you stay home and you got a whole show and it sounds just like you if you haven't heard it yet you got to do it you got they they they did a thing of me doing like PFF highlights in in my voice and you sit there and you go you you can't even believe it I mean it's and it has it's not like taped it's not any part your voice it's like they put old audio tapes of your voice in a machine and then comes out of it's you like all the the different stutter for me all the different stutters and starts and stops and all the different exactly how I talk it's it's unbelievable you way do you hear Al Michaels do it you'll think it's out and he'll be sitting in the swimming venue with me cheering on our USA so I'm worried about what will happen to the shoe industry if we all just uh you know work from home and you're just Barefoot for the rest of your life you know because you don't have to go to work what will happen this oh when I stood up I was I oh gosh I didn't think about that I'm like I'm like one of those guys doing the Nightly News in their underwear kind of thing you know I'm sit there it's not good wait so is there a world where we hear AI Chris and AI Al calling football games again um I I doubt that I doubt that but I I do think that you're going to begin to see like because right now you've got all these people who don't want their voice stolen right singers comedians entertainers like no you can't use my voice that's how I make my living you can't do it and then somebody like Al Michaels is gonna come along and go you're going to pay me okay you can use my voice no problem and and you know I was talking to all about it and it was like he goes it is about 98.7% me when I listen to it you know there's always a couple little things in there that you can do it but it's gonna be it's a strange New World out therey slope I don't I don't know about that and I I don't think Tom Brady's using Nei so while you and Al and Bob are swimming in steak freets and steak tartar at the Paris Olympics doing no work and some of you getting paid for it and hanging out with billionaires Tom Brady also hanging out with billionaires but also preparing to be in the booth what is your advice has he called you how insane and intense do you think he's being um is insane and intense as he always is and yes he calls what does he ask I he he he should have asked me about the roast out of said stay away from it what are you doing man what is that all about holy cow I mean I can only watch that in like 30 minute segments I'm like oh my gosh he got bombarded now Tom's a great guy he's gonna be great I mean who who our whole life we've been trying to anticipate what Tom Brady was thinking when he came to the line of scrimmage and got right now we're gonna hear it right and he's studying hard he's working on it he's done a thousand different you know practice games and I was like Tom just just be you you know people know who you are just be you go on there and talk about football and have some fun and and uh he'll be great is you're making it sound easy Chris what you do is not easy well I mean for Tom Brady you know I mean you know who was like I I'll say this uh John mackenro when he started doing like John mackenro is one of my favorite announcers period of any sport of anything because you knew going into it you were going to get complete utter honesty right you knew because John played the game that way he screamed at the referees he screamed at the fans you were G to get whatever he thought and that's all any of us can give you right I think the danger in any announcer is when the the audience knows that they're pulling punches right they're not they're protecting somebody they don't want to hurt a friend they don't want to say something that's going to be offensive and it's not completely and utterly what they really believe that you know what they really are thinking if they were sitting on the couch with a couple of friends and what they would say it's something different than that and as long as Tom can break through that barrier you know and just really say doesn't have to be right I tell people all the time I'm not always right I I don't expect that I got to be right but you're G to hear what I'm thinking if you were sitting next to me at a ball game or sitting on the couch watching a game with me you're going to hear what I was thinking in that moment and that's all you can ask out anybody and you get somebody as knowledgeable as time as Tom who's been as successful as he's been it's gon to be great when you started if you could take yourself back to the the Chris Collinsworth that was green and getting reps and all of that what was the one hardest part for you whether if it was like a small little thing or a timing thing what was the most difficult thing um that I sucked doing it it was it was impossible I so this is a true story the first game I ever did was in Cleveland and so I'm up there and David Michaels is the producer Al Michaels brother who's a great producer and so he comes in and he knocks on my hotel room door and he goes how you doing and I said okay I'm just trying to get the names together so I've got one of those like manila envelopes is that right where just fold it open you know I wrote the the off yeah I'm just that's what I got so I got I wrote the the offensive names on the top of it and the defensive names on the bottom and I flipped it over offensive names on the top and the defensive names and he get he got and he looks at it and he goes what's this and I said well this what I'm gonna use in the game to call the game he goes oh my God you know he makes some gutteral sound that I thought he was gonna puke all over the desk he goes oh God I can't believe they gave me another rookie to do this with he just growling and he calls Bradshaw who he had worked with oh wow and Bradshaw had these big magnificent boards and spaced out and be able to do all these different things and you wrote the names and so he he fedexed some to me and so I got to use Terry branch and I did it for the first three or four years that that I was doing the games but it all happens so fast I mean when when you are calling a game so the play-by-play guy Mike too calls the play and and so then he finishes up and so while he's finishing up the play I will call down to Rob Highland on the talk back and tell him what I see or what I would talk about and then Rob has the the choice of either putting something really cool that that he saw on the screen and then he's got to tell me what that is or he's going to put up what I saw and then I get a chance to to talk about that and you've got about three seconds to communicate it and about 10 seconds to say whatever you want to say right and at the same time Mike may still be talking and sometimes he will ask me a question or say something to me but I've got the button down so I can't hear what he's saying and I'm talking to Rob and being able to so that part of it it it's the mechanical part of it is really hard if you haven't done that before and so that's that's the the trick to the whole thing is you know not what does Tom Brady or Chris Collinsworth know it's how quickly can it get communicated from me to him and listen to him and get the replay up and get it back on and somehow try and circle the right guy without messing up and then you got to if you don't have the number memor right now you got look at boards to figure out what the number was and who made the tackle and what was his name again and you know so it's it's it's easy to screw it up just say that it's easy to screw it up with how fast it goes and it's good advice and and you know we'll post this Tom will see it I'm sure he'll call you in five minutes to discuss um in 18 different ways with 19 different questions how annoyed do you get like how pissed do you get at the mcvet of the world these Maniacs going no huddle all the time uh it makes it harder it does make it harder and and it really turns it into a little bit more of a hockey game you know how like you do you watch hockey I don't know if you watch hockey game game seven of the hockey was one of the the last best seven minutes I've ever seen in my it was unbelievable and I don't watch that much hockey but in the little bit I do I love that one um but you know how like the play-by-play announcer really kind of controls it and then there's a little break in the action and the color guy jumps in right so when they get in the two-minute offense or they get to the hurry up you know there's not so it's like Mike Mike Mike Mike and then you jump in and do something and then might you know and there's an incomplete pass or there's something like that but yeah it's when you go up and pton Manning was running a game and he was doing I was like oh this is like getting the night off tonight man pton Manning they were going to take a break the whole game that's amazing okay I want to ask you about some NFL topics here we've covered hockey we've covered water slides let's let's talk about you know I you were coming on and I said as a man who tries to keep the same denim genes in rotation from 30 years ago we have to ask Chris about the Joe bur fashion what did you make of Joe Burrow's appearance at Paris fashion week I mean look at him I it's the man has no back to his suit now that that is but he's a good-looking guy right I mean Joe burrow Jamar Chase those are good-look guys so when you're a good-look guy you walk down the street and people go oh that's really fashionable that's really cool if I walk down the street with that look right there they'd put me in a home somewhere like there's certain PE you gotta have like you could pull that off you could go to a fashion show and your sense of fashion and you know and people would go wow K is really cool look not you that is because that it doesn't it never has look that's why look at oh look at the hair is that hairthe so that was my one moment with a perm not kidding you I I have had the straightest hair my entire life and at one point A buddy of mine Turk shoner who was our backup quarterback got a problem okay he was he was sort of thinning out too and so he got aart and he goes Chris it's unbelievable you wake up you take a shower you don't have to use a blow dry you just shake your head and you're fully dressed and you're ready to go out I'm like really oh that sounds like a great idea I'm gonna do that so I got a perm and that's my perm right there and and but I did I made a mistake I did a commercial while I had the perm and the commercial it's a bank commercial it is lived forever it is just lived forever and my family brings it up at the the least opportune times all the time so it's not good I mean that will live on an infamy asell Joe Burrow's shirtless suit Jo bur is everywhere all of a sudden this usual quiet uh character at least as we know him in the NFL in front of the cameras he's really doing a lot of marketing he's doing a bit of a media tour here and he he was saying yesterday that he's forgotten he's been forgotten by NFL fans after the year that he had filled with injuries uh and then he has he's going to give everyone something to talk about this season what do you make of that good I want him as mad as possible I just I want him irritated I want him upset that that people don't respect the Cincinnati Bengals and don't respect him and and uh and then go get him I mean Joe burrow when he's right the Cincinnati Bengals can play with anybody right I mean we they give the Kansas City Chiefs as many problems as any team in the league um and but it it's the clock is ticking you know they're already uh starting to unravel that team a little bit because you know they have to pay Joe and they have to pay Jamar and they gonna have to you know so there are going to be some some people that that have to go Joe Mixon um had to go this year you know they have to save some money on on some different things so um yeah it's but when that guy is right he is really fun to watch and and I can't wait to watch the Cincinnati Bengals their problem is they got to try and slug their way out of that division yeah division they they were nine they finished last and they had a winning record last year you know and Joe burrow missed whatever it was six or seven games at the end of the year so yeah be good uh it's a tough division he missed a ton of games you keep saying when he's out there when he's out how worried are you about his durability uh not I'm really not I I think that he's had some bad luck um he had what an appendex in me one year he had the knee injury got the elbow thing now I I and they've done the right thing by going out and getting uh more help on that offensive line Trent Brown Orlando Brown you know if they could really Shore up the outside edges he does a pretty good job of getting the thing out of his hands um so it'll be interesting to see you know exactly what they're able to pull off here this amarius Mims who they sign and drafted is there just isn't a bigger human being on Earth than than some of the guys they have playing tackle for the Bengals right now so yeah I'm hopeful I'm hopeful that they they end up having a good year despite the fact that everybody in Cincinnati thinks I hate the Bengals but I know I'm always trying to help you out with that as the princess you know I'm always trying to like come on let's let's get and you're saying you don't you're not worried about the durability you think that they'll be a force if he's out there if he's healthy but the way you're talking about it do you feel like this is the window is it this year and then the wheels come off a bit how you know I guess I'm trying to get your focus on how important and pivotal this season is well you know it just makes draft picks all that much more important you know you just if you have a great quarterback that's that's the quickest path to being a Super Bowl Contender so let's let's not argue with the fact that Joe's making 50 million or whatever it is and jamar's going to make 30 to 40 million whatever he's going to make because you got to have those guys you got to have those players on your team but when you do that now you're back to really significance with the rest of the team you have to have young players that can fill in the Gap and play right away you know they really they lost some people in the secondary lost their two safeties a year ago and it hurt them you know and now they're they bring back Von Bell and they bring over Gino Stone who had the big year with Baltimore and a lot of interceptions and so those guys and and these young cornerbacks have got to play you know they they've got to get in there cam Taylor Brits of the world they've got to end up having big years and and uh and then when they get to where they're going to get paid $15 million $20 million then you have to make another decision about how do you go young again it's a it's an interesting mathematical equation figuring out how to put together a football te yeah and speaking of math equations burrow took it on in part of his media tour and he was talking about the proposal for a potential 18 Game season which affects you of course and you uh hobnobbing and gallivanting and water sliding across the Great water parks in Florida uh you know basically burrow said that you know he'd like two by weeks Pro Bowl moved to the middle of the Season around week 13 18 you know 18 games is a real thing that I'm sure you know that they're talking about could that format work your thoughts um it was a really interesting comment I I'm assuming like everybody else eventually we do get to 18 games I wouldn't mind if they tried it to begin with like I let's say that we we're in 17 Game season and obviously the games Seasons already played out but I have always loved the idea of an Allstar break in the middle of the year like I I really think that would be or or whatever that it they may want to call it but basically the entire league is off you know that we just take a week away you play half the games or you can't play half anymore but you play sort of half the games and and then you get a chance to sit back sort of evaluate that let the guys get healthy and then they make another run you know there's such a to me there's such an advantage or disadvantage as to where they place the by week and you know if you get it late in the year versus you get it early in the year and the the whole I I I just I I personally I would love to see an All-Star break right in the middle of the Season everybody gets the same amount of time off we come back you're playing a full schedule of games there's nothing better than on Sunday morning sitting around watching you know whatever your favorite version of Direct TV Sunday Ticket you know YouTube now and that whole thing so it's it's really fun for me to see the entire league playing and and plus the schedule gets so thinned out to where in the teams the star teams you know the best teams get thinned out to where all the prime time spots that they want to fill don't always have Prime Time games when they they carve an out gam so there's my manyi complaint there for U for your show I one last one one last one for you JJ wat's been out of league for a bit now uh there were rumor rumors of a comeback I talked to Nick ceri about it he didn't shut it down he it was between him and Deo now we get this photo yesterday does this look like a man who's going to come back is this a comeback training tour he's doing does that look any different than the picture you put up of me with firm I Mir images Good Golly I I maybe he's gonna run for governor of California here he's got a little that schwarzen look going right now you know JJ God bless him I think he can do anything he wants to do look at that maybe he'll come back out there we go this is who wore it better that's it I would say you did saw you do that I saw you do a who wore it better with Vince Wilford I can't believe that took a lot of guts because Vince is strong in those overalls that was that was good it took a lot of guts for you to have permed hair back in whatever year that was and those socks are back though that that fit Works Joe burrow wishes he could pull off that look is that really In Style again I think so yeah you're like a tall athlete like you could wear like what are you what are like the self-deprecation at some point has to has to end what are we talking about Chris I I tall side you know that was that was really nerdy one time when I was doing it it was not a good look it was not good you're the best enjoy Paris enjoy the steak freets enjoy the escargo whatever you're going to do there at whatever brasser in the afternoon with you in ail as I've learned very excited about everything going on with NBC you've got a big game of course kicking off uh with Sunday Night Football we are excited about so uh on that I think we'll let you go polish your emys D it's always a pleasure Chris Collinsworth over at PFF where there's some weird ai ai Chris thing happening guys not to mention all the amazing amazing info over there thank you so much from psf Fame