Chiefs/Ravens is here, Cosmi extended

the Andy Poland show we got to go after this with everything we got figuring they're going to come with everything they got I'll start off by saying I'm bored I'm broke and I'm back the Andy Poland show on ESPN 6:30 starts right now once upon a time we didn't have opening night in the NFL we just had the first Sunday games would be played on Sunday Along Came Monday Night Football in 1970 and then in the 80s we got Thursday Night Football now I got football all the time and tonight is opening night there's another game tomorrow night there's a Full Slate of course on Sunday there's football on Monday There's football every Thursday what the hell they're playing a couple of games on Wednesday this year Christmas Day Netflix more money the more product the better for the NFL and they are not at all worried about over exposure but Lord football does make its return tonight and I'm sure if you're like me you're excited about that right this is a this is a great time of the year and if you've spent some summer Sundays going yeah I guess I'll watch the Nats for a while to now uh you look at the slate and you find out what time your team is playing whether it's the commanders or anybody else and how you're going to work in the Red Zone Channel and what games you're going to watch outside of that uh it is a whole new world for football and we're off and rolling tonight with the Baltimore Ravens playing their opener at Kansas City a rematch the AFC Championship game and we will be your home for Ravens football here on E on ESPN 6:30 throughout the season so our coverage is going to start at 7:30 they're supposed to kick off at 8:20 but uh I don't know probably going to be a little bit later because there's probably some kind type of ceremony for the Chiefs uh for winning the Super Bowl last year we're going to get to teams that are are tried to three repeat and now the Chiefs are making their attempt to three repeat uh we'll get to that plus uh Dan orlovski uh has a really good analysis of what to look for for rookie quarterbacks we'll get to that later this hour in comments from Jaden Daniels who is going to make his NFL debut on Sunday at Tampa and he does seem to be a cool customer but there is a learning curve which he understands for rookie quarterbacks and I thought his comments were uh quite telling from what he said yesterday and Travis Kelce getting ready to launch what he says may or may not be his last season in the NFL he and his brother are printing money with the podcast he's an international star now that he's dating Taylor Swift it's uh it's really remarkable for a guy who played at the University of Cincinnati and I think was a was he a third round pick of the Chiefs I believe so so we'll get to that in a bit but when we talk about comebacks in sports I don't think anything will ever top this what we saw Alex Smith do on a leg that doctors were considering amputating and if you've seen it now what it looks like I mean that was remarkable what he was able to do for Washington the Washington football team he left as a on a stretcher and then came back two seasons later and started a bunch of games for the commanders as they actually made the playoffs no they weren't the commanders yet excuse me they were the Washington football team and uh they did make it to the playoffs though he didn't get to play in the playoff game they gave it to Taylor hinei who uh became sort of a legend in losing that game you know he lost to Tom Brady in the bucks but he kept it close but uh boy that the comeback that he pulled off was remarkable but nothing will ever top what dear Hamlin is going to do or that actually he has done but will take the next step in doing on Sunday when the Buffalo Bills host the Arizona Cardinals and you remember that it was uh just 20 months ago 20 months ago so a little more than a year and a half ago that hello he died excuse me he died on the field okay he was dead and fortunately they had the people in place and the equipment in place to resuscitate him he was taken to a hospital in Cincinnati he was in a medically induced coma for two days they didn't know whether he was going to live or die two days in a coma uh doctors diagnosed that the cause of his heart stopping on the field was uh what they call Kio corditis or Cordis Kio Cordis which happens when a direct blow at a specific point in the heartbeat causes cardiac arrests cleared for practice and assured by Specialists that chances of a recurrence were slim he was gradually eased back into the game he appeared in five games as a backup last year now he has regained his starting spot with the Buffalo Bills and he'll be with Taylor rap in the secondary when they take on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday there cannot be anything else like this uh ever again I I you know hopefully this doesn't happen again uh will there be another player who literally dies on the field and comes back well I hope no player dies on the field but if it happens again okay we can say somebody else did it but this is this is really remarkable and when I saw last year that he had played in five games I kind of thought like okay you know he had he had proved that he could come back and that was going to be it but he's taken the next step in his recovery and has won the starting job because you know Buffalo had signed a player in free agency Mike Edwards fifth year player was a uh Second and they used the second rounder to take Cole Bishop so they had players competing for that spot but Hamlin won it and will be in the starting lineup when the Buffalo Bills play on Sunday absolutely remarkable all right uh threee and there have been teams that have had an opportunity to do what the Kansas City Chiefs have done nobody has been able to do it in NFL history no team except for and if you want to you know go back pre Super Bowl which I tend to do a lot of people don't want to do this but uh the Green Bay Packers did win three consecutive championships in the 1960s but in the Super Bowl era there has never been a team to three PE the Miami Dolphins got to three straight Super Bowls they got clobbered in by Dallas in the first one then beat Washington and then beat Minnesota but no team has ever won three straight and the Kansas City Chiefs are attempting to do that this year here's the thing about the Chiefs uh a lot of these teams they as as time has gone on they age uh players leave in free agency because you tend to get more attention when you play on a winning team on a Super Bowl team there's more desire for you in free agency last night Booger McFarland was on the ESPN pardon the interruption show and uh and he was asked about these Chiefs and he says hold on this team could be better than the last two I mean football-wise it's got to be a stronger position right uh if you look at receiver uh they get Hollywood Brown they add Xavier worthy in the draft from Texas who ran the 4-2 so they're going to be faster they're talking about going back to the Playbook that they had with Tyreek Hill so from a football standpoint offensively they should be better Chris Jones comes back you got George kofus on the defensive line with him he's a year older so everything says football-wise they should be better but here's the deal guys they've won two Super Bowls in a row and human nature starts to set in like yeah we've been there and done that so my question is this where's their motivation are they going to be motivated to come back and win three in a row I know everyone says it Travis Kelce has said it Patrick Mahomes has said it we want to win three in a row but there's something about human nature that takes over and being complacent yeah we've been there with done that or you take it for granted and so I just wonder from that standpoint their mental makeup and I know Andy Reed may be the best coach in the National Football League right now since bill bich has retired can their mental makeup be where it needs to be for them to be three in a row because football-wise they have everything they need and booger let's extend this for a second if the makeup is where you like seeing it or it isn't give us three teams that you think could knock off the Chiefs this season well I'm going to start with the one that they're going to play tomorrow night in the Baltimore Ravens because I think the motivation is there you know Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott are in that same category of big-time quarterbacks that have come up small in the postseason Lamar has to get over the hump he he can win all the MVPs he want until you do it in the postseason and Lead Baltimore to a championship I think people are going to still question him so I would say the Ravens then I go on the other side of the bracket and I look at two teams the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers because I think Detroit is set up like they remind me of that old Buccaneer team they just keep coming and coming and knocking on the door and I just love their mentality we all made fun of Dan Campbell when he talked about biting elbows and knees and all these different things but it's amazing how tough and how physical that team plays and then you look at the 49ers Mike I'm going to steal a line from Tom Jackson if not now when for the 49ers like how many times are you going to get to the NFC title game and get to the Super Bowl and not win it all so Baltimore San Francisco and Detroit are three teams that I would take some Tony's money that still has dust on it from last season cuz he hadn't spent it and I would put on those three teams the true that's Booger McFarland last night on PTI yeah lions are really a trendy pick and the 49ers they're kind of flirting with Buffalo Bills territory now I respect what the bills did in going to four straight Super Bowls but they didn't win one and they stand out for that the 49ers continue to get to NFC championship games they either got knocked out because their quarterback was hurt uh as they had two quarterbacks actually against uh Philadelphia and then losing the two Super Bowls to the uh to the Kansas City Chiefs so they're in that that kind of uh kind of a category right now uh for a second on that on the opinion of Booger McFarland Dan orlovski was on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday and he also believes that the Chiefs may be a better team this year than last year it's odd to think that the team that won the Super Bowl is a better football team this year than they were last last year but I don't think it's even close that they're a better football team this year as long as Hollywood and Xavier worthy are healthy players because just the the the addition of speed now they got I was saying this yesterday I mean Patrick is by far the best player in the NFL right most important player in the NFL he's got a rookie starting at left tackle I mean you can make the case we often have the conversation who's under the most pressure in the NFL that left tackle rookie from BYU Bob you know he's he's got a lot of pressure on him so you know we got to see what that looks like but I do think if if they play to you know the way that the talent kind of aligns it they'll be a better football team so the expectation you know they're the team to be but I wonder if it's pressure or motivation to try to thre peat if I said pick one of the other for the Chiefs is there pressure to threat or is it motivation to three repeat uh I think it's an obsession to three repeat you know I don't you know they they are Patrick has long been different when it comes to the way he viewed his career I think that's why he took that long contract the same with Travis the same with Andy Reid I think there's this Obsession to go do it because no one's done it I think for Patrick it he realizes that places me firmly into the conversation with Tom Brady like because I'm I've done something that he's never done obviously Tom has the longevity and the Seven so I think there's an obsession within that group within that organization to go get it done I don't sense a ton of pressure um I I think it's more them wanting to go do something that's never done before that's Dan orlovski and the old Nick Sabin line about success is uh the biggest danger to success is Success that you tend to get satisfied and these Chiefs are saying the right things but internally how do they feel now let's take a look at the teams that tried to three repeat all of them have come up short starting with the Packers in 1968 though Vince Lombardy before the term was really invented for dick verm some years later Vince lardi was burned out he had coached the Packers for nine years they had won five championships including the first two Super Bowls and the pressure was just getting to him and the amount of work was incredible he was both the general manager and the coach so he thought he tried just being the GM hated that and then came back and coached the Redskins for a year in 1969 before he tragically died of cancer but he had turned the team over to his defensive coordinator in 1968 after they had won their second straight Super Bowl over the Raiders it was Phil Bankston and Phil Bankston was not a head coach they went 67 and one in his first season and the Packers went on a long drought they made the playoffs only three times over the next 25 years after 1968 then you have the 74 Dolphins now remember the 74 dolphins they followed up the team that went undefeated and beat the Redskins in 1972 that was after they had made the Super Bowl the year before and got gotten clobbered by Dallas then they came back and won it again The Following Season uh beating Minnesota 24-7 in the Super Bowl and then they get to the postseason again in 1974 and actually had a chance to move on but uh in the playoffs in the first round it was not the AFC title game but in the first round remember the famous sea of hands catch that uh that Kenny Stabler throwing in the end zone uh so the Raiders Advanced that year they ultimately lost to the Steelers but uh another thing that really hurt them as they tried to continue off of that team their three or three of their biggest offensive Stars Larry zanka Jim kick and Paul Warfield went to the world football league and the Dolphins went through a period of rebuilding under Don schula here's a team that I think really had the best chance to threee and and probably would have had they not had offensive injuries it was a runbase team Terry Bradshaw was the quarterback but they lost both Rocky BL and Franco Harris to injury so they really had no offense their defense the 76 Steelers after winning the back-to-back Super Bowls they may have had a team that was capable of winning and may have won and probably had the best defense they ever had because they had allowed less than 10 points a game in regular season but in the AFC Championship game against Oakland they lost 24-7 and then the Raiders went on to win the Super Bowl that year then you had the Steelers of 1980 remember they they went back toback twice so this was the second of their repeat teams and uh they had beaten the Rams in the Super Bowl but the following year they finished N9 and seven missed the playoffs for the first time since 1971 and that was the end of the dynasty the players were getting older and they were getting ready to move on Chuck null remained the coach but uh all those great players that they had in winning those four Super Bowls had pretty much aged out there's another team that I think really had a great shot to win and probably would have were it not for an unfortunate Roger Craig fumble that's the 49ers of 1990 they had won their second straight Super Bowl this was uh this was after that Bill Walsh had retired and uh they still had enough talent to dismantle the Broncos 55-10 in the Super Bowl but they played the Giants in the NFC championship game not only did Roger Craig fumble but Joe Montana got hurt late in the game missed most of the following year that was the Giants team that beat the Buffalo Bills in that Super Bowl when Scott Norwood kicked it ride wide right the 94 Cowboys okay I have absolutely no doubt that if Jimmy Johnson were still the coach they would have three repeated they might have won five in a row that's how good they were that's how well they were built with with the draft they were poised to win but the egos of Jerry and Jimmy got in the way Jimmy left after winning a second straight Super Bowl coach coach Gunsmoke comes in Barry Switzer he was not an NFL coach Troy Aman hated him and in 1994 uh they did not make it back they actually made a run at it they were down 21 to nothing to San Francisco in the NFC championship game came back but lost by 10 points 38-28 turned the ball over five times in that game uh and that was really uh the difference there but uh the following year they did win they had they had so much talent that in spite of Switzer they won a Super Bowl but their chance to three Pat Uh didn't happen for them in 1994 as the 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl the 99 Broncos this is totally explainable uh John Elway retired after winning two straight he's the only quarterback to do that no other quarterback has won back-to-back Super Bowls and said see you later but he did that is KN was in bad shape he thought it was time to go they went to Brian greasy as the quarterback then they had big injuries including losing Terr Davis in the fourth game of the season for the year and they finished six and 10 over the previous three years they had lost only three games so that team really was not a factor I don't think to win three straight the Patriots maybe uh this was the team that had won in 2003 and 2004 remember this that early in the season in 2003 they lost at FedEx Field it was the coach Spurrier team and actually sper got his team to three- one with that win Patriots didn't lose again until the following season till the 2004 season but they still repeated they beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl but the next year they entered the AFC divisional round against the Broncos but they just couldn't hold on to the ball again turnovers big they they've turned over five times Champ Bailey had a 100 yard pick six they lost 2713 the Broncos first playoff win since they had won Super Bowl 33 and New England uh finally had to bow out but they had uh they would win more there would be more days of success with them so we'll see where the Chiefs fit into this but you know a lot of it'll be determined by health of course but what you're hearing from Booger McFarland and Dan orlovski is the offense which which struggled last year remember that this was this was not a great year for Patrick Mahomes and the offense they got it going in the playoffs but the defense married them so the defense comes back and they made some additions on offense which could make them better and you know like Sabin says the biggest enemy of success is Success so let's see what happens let's see how they overcome that fat and happy feeling or do they still have the hunger to make history and uh and I'm certain that momes does because in The Brady conversation Not only would this this be Super Bowl four for him but he would do something that Brady was not able to accomplish and that's win three straight Super Bowls and it all starts tonight as they take on the Baltimore Ravens coverage here on ESPN 6:30 gets underway at 7:30 coming up uh we've got a new contract for a non-skill position player this did not happen in the days of Dan Snyder they did not give extensions to offensive linemen but Sam cosmi has one and we'll get to it next it's the Andy Poland show ESPN 630 the Andy Poland show on ESPN 630 the sports Capital you would have to agree that the Josh Harris group has done a pretty good job of scrubbing away the toxicity of the Dan Snider era I mean they've owned the team for little more than a year right it's been 13 months 13 and a half months and there have been big changes there and one of the changes that will happen either this season or at the end of the season is that Jason Wright will go he'll be out as uh as team president he's uh he's in his last year of his contract and he's going to go and a lot of things that happened under his watch remain an embarrassment um including the name for for many um I don't think the the name commanders has been embraced in any way by the fan base and the way they rolled it out was very ham-handed and uh just just poorly done the the ways that they would Trot out the carcass of uh of Shawn Taylor to try to honor him when things were going the wrong way and uh I don't know if if this was a hire by Jason Wright but he was definitely promoted during the stewardship of Jason Wright in 2022 his name is Rael en n teen he's identified as the Commander's vice president of content he'd been with the organization since 2000 that's the same year that Wright came in I'm not sure whether Wright hired him or he's hired before he'd work with the Jets so we had a background in the NFL and until yesterday nobody had heard his name you know and that's was probably a good thing in in the job that he had but he had a big title vice president of content well there's a Media Group called o'keef and this basically was a sting here I don't know what prompted it but there was a woman who was posing as well she I guess you know set it up so that they were dating and it was more than one date and she had recorded him saying some things that I'm certain will get him fired for the moment he's been suspended by the team but in the district of Colombia it's legal to record a conversation if only one party knows it's being recorded So in this case uh clearly anen didn't know he was being recorded but the woman who did it did know but that's that's okay in the District of Columbia and among the things that he said uh he described NFL fans as high school educated alcoholics said about the players a big chunk is very lowincome African-Americans that come from a community that is inherently very homophobic he also described NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a $50 million puppet I would describe him the same way but I'm not a vice president of the team I don't work for the NFL he at the moment does although he's suspended and and certainly will be fired but um this is just another example of of some of the people that have remained in the organization and uh you know they they haven't had time to clean out everything but this is I don't know how pervasive this is among other people there but uh you know if if there are other people who feel this way uh either they keep it to themselves or if if they actually want to express these things they they probably need to go as well and you know he said among other things and this is maybe insightful maybe it's it's not true who knows but he indicated that remember when the uh the pipe burst in the club section A couple of years ago and the team said oh no no no that's rainwater well he indicated they knew it was sewage and they were lying to the fans on purpose so uh again this is this is something that I'm sure will come under the watch of the new president and there have been reports that they're close to hiring one and maybe this is going to be the Tipping Point maybe maybe this is the point where they bring in the new president and they say you know hey Jason you know you can sit in your office and do whatever you do but this guy's now in charge he's your boss if you'd like to leave now you can that kind of thing and and you know they they have to have somebody in that spot and whatever Jason Wright does I I think is duties have been diminished because ever since the new ownership took over you never hear from him anymore but uh you know these are the kind of things that have festered within this organization for a long long time and the cleanup takes longer than you might think you know you can't you can't completely clean house in one day and I know it's been a year but they had so much to do when they took over in July of 2023 and you know many of the things that they put in place they were very careful in how they looked at it how they an analyzed it and how they came to the conclusion to make the moves that they made so I I really uh I really can't get angry at them for this guy still existing in the organization ation but at at some point soon he's going to be out the team released a statement saying the language used in the video runs counter to our values at the Commander's organization we have suspended the employee pending an internal investigation and will Reserve further comment at this time uh and of course anen did not respond for comment meantime they're doing things that they have not done before and should have done Brandon sheriff is one of the best guards in the NFL they should have worked worked out a contract extension for him instead they used the franchise tag on him and he was allowed to walk to the Jacksonville Jaguars where he got his money uh they're not fussing around with this stuff anymore Sam cosmi who's going into his fourth year with the team he's been here for three years so he was in for two years of Dan Snider ownership and now one year of uh Josh Harris ownership though there were a lot of things that they had to address last year including the facilities and so you know the organization was going through a kind of a slow transition things have ramped up in the off season and I think this was a two-way thing although it's an awful lot of money $74 million with $45 million guaranteed and that makes him the fifth highest paid guard in the NFL uh but this was something that they did not do they did not extend linemen you Clinton poris got an extension you never give a running back a contract extension that that just isn't the way things are done in the NFL these days yes Terry mclen getting an extension should have gotten an extension understood but they've ignored this the linemen and here's a guy who's emerging as one of the top guards in the NFL and as Dan Quinn said yesterday this was a move that we knew we had to make for um Adam and his staff to get that done prior to the season that's a big deal and uh this guy's a commander you know through and through he's tough plays Square he strong and we're really you know are fortunate that he'll be an anchor inside you know for years to come it's a big deal now remember he was drafted as a tackle and credit the Ron Rivera regime for moving him to guard that was they did the same thing with Sheriff uh although that was under the Jay guden watch but sometimes you you take a guy and and and a lot of people thought well the the sheriff thing is a disaster you took him in the first round as a tackle moved him to guard but if you got a guy who's going to be one of the Premier guards in the league you're going to do that and so this is cos me uh and remember we say that success is the biggest enemy of success uh he's not looking at this as something that uh okay he's achieved what he wanted to achieve he says this basically is going to motivate him more from last year as each game progressed I felt like I was more and more you know fitting that role um and you know I had a mentality of being one of the best guards in the league every time I stepped on the field practice you know walk through and on the game you know during the game so uh that mentality will not change that mentality will be even more motivation to be one of the best guards in this league um and so I think and I'm I'm grateful that they were able to see that watch the tape see that and just see how you know training camp all this stuff went uh to see what type of player I was and am and he will start to get the awards that go along with it he was not all pro last year but he says there's a reason for that and he's here to help put him in the direction of getting those Awards if the team's successful then you'll have the success I think last year was a prime example um I play I think I played at a all proo level last year um being the first first time I've playing guard and stuff like that all pro all and and Pro Bowl level but you know there's we all know there's a little bit of politics that comes into that and how depending on how good your team like you look at San Fran Philly um you know uh the the Chiefs and stuff like that how many po alternates all Pros do those guys have you know a ton and that's because the team success so if the team is successful everybody else you know will be successful yeah kind of a no-brainer there um and also um he's looking at uh the idea of you know being part of the new era the change and uh and to be one of the cornerstones of that very important to Sam cosmi I'm excited to be a part of it it's it's so much it's so different from the past three years that I've been here and so um to fill that to the atmosphere is just different and you can just see that I think everybody sees it um and so we need to put it together this this season and I think we will and I think we get the the guys to do it so I'm excited for this season and if not this season uh they're going in the right direction and of course A lot of it rides on the quarterback well you know this is part of the picture for rookie quarterbacks is that you got to protect them uh and you know there's the feeling that the reason that CJ stad did so well in Houston was they had a good offensive line around them and I think if you look at at any Young quarterback and how he develops he's got to have some security behind the line of scrimmage so you not only have a guy who was going to come back anyway but a guy who's here for long-term stability and you know helps his leadership position a lot of things that go along with this so it it made a lot of sense a lot of money you know $45 million guaranteed a guard $74 million but that's the cost of doing business uh at this time and it's also the the way that business is being done these days and this is more from Dan Quinn on not just the ownership getting this done at the time they got it done but what they have done in this period of time remember last year uh the team got terrible grades from the players about the facilities like an f and and you heard Josh Harris say yeah we we took that seriously we understand it we're not making excuses but we didn't have time to to turn it over because we had didn't get control of the team until July this year they had the time they've done the things to make it right and Dan Quinn who's part of the new wave here uh recognizes what the ownership had to do to get things to at least this point with Josh and being with him during the Spring um you know we had talked about some things that needed you know changing and so I think Adam tells the story he saw the snow melt and there was an AR you know astr Turf feeli said what the hell's that and so like he was like that's AstroTurf bro and uh my point is um Josh uh recognized um some things had to change in betterment for the players and so for them having their own space as a player Lounge um meeting rooms that were um you know more conducive for the learning that they needed those were the things and so to have those areas better for the players um that was a big deal and Josh was right at the front of that uh knowing that changes had to be made but it's still him that's a big commitment and uh he was all in for it he said Yep this needs to change I remember just being out on the field with him and uh knowing that he felt that way too um it was a great feeling for Adam and I to know that we had his trust to say man let's let's make this better for the guys they deserve it and and I would think that Josh Harris's experience owning other teams helped them here too uh owning the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils he you know facilities mean something the players you know they they make a lot of money wherever they go but if you got good locker room facilities good meeting room facilities that make makes a difference to them it really does and um the money you know Sam cosm's life is it is it remarkably different today than it was yesterday now he's got $45 million guaranteed no probably not but when he goes to work if he's got the right facility to work in ah it's going to make a difference so we'll see you know how it all plays out it all rides on five this year certainly and uh the new coaching staff and the new front office structure but finally this is being run like a professional organization all right much more on the commanders as they get ready for the opener and it was 35 years ago today that a controversy was created on morning television when there was a woman who sat down next to Jane Paulie and things were never the same we'll get to that in more as we continue it's the Andy Poland show ESPN 630 one of the things we're going to do tomorrow on a big football Friday as we will be recapping the Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs game and previewing the opener for the commanders is we will look at opening games over the years I've got a list of the three worst and the four best I couldn't narrow the four best down to three but uh was pretty easily able to come up with the three worst the best is not necessarily what you might think I think your mind automatically goes to the RG3 debut which believe me was spectacular when they went to New Orleans as six and a half Point underdogs and shock the world with this new offense that they were running that they kept under wraps in the preseason and a star was born with Robert Griffin I third in fact I remember Tony corn Heiser calling it the era of unbridled optimism which unfortunately didn't last very long but we're about to launch a new one with Jaden Daniels making his debut and done a lot of comparison comparisons of the two training camps for the two and you know I I I don't think that you can say oh all the problems that ultimately resulted with RG3 will never happen with Jaden Daniels uh there could be other problems but I don't think the ridiculous narcissism will rear its head uh there doesn't seem to be any indication of that from Jaden Daniels and understanding that you know there are going to be some issues there that it's it's not always about him uh and and Griffin we we tended to ignore some signals there because it' been so long since they had a quarterback and the year before was God was disgraceful that John Beck and Rex Grossman yeah grman had gone to a Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears but he was an interception machine and John Beck he was hyped but he was terrible he he he played three games started three games for them got worse in every one of them really I mean and by the third one oh my God he was just dumping it off he he played a game against the Buffalo Bills and he was sacked 10 times this is a game where the bills were trying to draw some interest to get people to uh Pony up some money for a new stadium which they're ultimately going to get but uh back at that time 2011 uh they were playing a game in Toronto like hey we could move to Toronto if things don't go well here uh they went well for the bills that day they went terrible for Washington John Beck was was God aful so we looked at RG3 uh as a guy oh my God he's he's everything they're not and he was great with the media and he was you know very chatty and all that and yeah I mean ultimately it it it blew up I don't think that's going to happen with Daniels but he's still got a show that he can play and that's that's going to be a big thing starting on Sunday uh the glimpses that we had of him in the preseason looked pretty good all indications from training camp are that he's ready to go but until you start playing these real games you're not going to know you're you're really and and really not that the old propaganda machine isn't cranking it out like it used to it at Ashburn there's still some of that there's always going to be positive vibes coming out of there uh when you're in this situation until you've started losing games why wouldn't you why wouldn't you say now you know sometimes you can read between the lines as to what players say you can parse their words and find out what they're saying but again all Positive Vibes and uh it starts with the coach Dan Quinn who is about to coach his first game in Washington on Sunday going into training camp you know we knew this was going to be a tough camp we were going to put him in tough spots work a lot of game management situations um couple trips on the road so we wanted to test the players and put them into difficult spots we had a lot of competitions that we wanted to go through so those were the markers you know that I was looking for and then as you get closer to it now some of the roles start to emerge and how guys can be featured in those specific roles so when you go from 90 down now these puzzle pieces all start to come together and so those were the markers I've seen leading up to it Road trips you know the practices against other teams or practice against one another that we just kept improving and that's usually um you know what I'm looking for to see a team that's always you know looking to compete and improve so he likes what he sees you what another thing we haven't heard from Quinn I'm just thinking about this uh we did hear it from Ron Rivera quite a bit uh Rivera took a team to a Super Bowl as Quin did and he lost and with Rivera's team they they didn't produce I mean Denver won that Super Bowl with pton Manning literally not being able to throw you know he he won that with his brain he he really couldn't launch the ball anymore that's why he had to retire after that Super Bowl and you would hear you know references to Carolina and he brought all these Carolina people with him Dan Quinn really hasn't done that now I don't think he wants to talk much about the Super Bowl blowing the 28-3 lead against Tom Brady and the Patriots that's a tough thing especially when you're fortea defense when you're a defensive guy and that game got away from you a lot of reasons for it Kyle Shanahan should have run the ball instead of throwing it late in the game to run some clock but okay uh they they lost that game but he's he's been pretty good about that I think you we'll see what happens as as the year goes on but you're not hearing a lot of Atlanta references there he's talked about how he learned from Atlanta and how he may have made some mistakes there that he wants to correct but I give him some credit for that um that he's not he's not referencing Atlanta and and uh the play the coaches that he brought in yeah some of them work with him in the past and and some of them have come from Dallas with him and things like that but it's it's not really you know that kind of a situation with him uh players from other organizations though than Bobby Wagner's one of them he played for Quinn When Quinn was the defensive coordinator in Seattle and the Seahawks won the championship uh he's a guy that that and I've talked about this throughout the preseason this is an old guy reference he's since passed away uh he went on to a a coaching career in various spots including here after he played but I I've I've referenced this a number of times that when George Allen came here in 1971 this is a team that had had a winning season under Vince Lombardi in 1969 but by and large through the 60s they were horrendous and and rightfully so because they didn't start to get black players until 1962 uh there was a racist ownership in George Preston Marshall he didn't want to do that and finally they they started to get with the times and uh 15 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line they got players of color here and started to get better but uh it had been a long haul since they had been a good team back in the 1940s with Sammy B and Allen looked at the team looked at the offense where you had you know future Hall of Famer and Charlie Taylor a marginal Hall of Famer in Larry Brown I think you should get some consideration for that um uh Bobby Mitchell had retired but Jerry Smith great tight end also guy who probably should get some consideration for the Hall of Fame he had offensive guys and he knew he had to beef up the defense and that's when he made all those trades with the Rams to get his former players the ram skins the Over the Hill Gang and the linebacker middle linebacker on that team was Jack parie and Jack Pary was up there he was in his upper 30s and he was only going to play two years wind up being two years but in that first year he established something that was so important to that defense they had some players Chris hamburger is in the Hall of Fame from that team Brig Owens was a great player Pat Fisher they had some defensive talent but he was the one that brought it all together and he was like a coach on the field and he had players in the right position all the time I remember the first game Richie pedone intercepted three passes from the Cardinals uh they were just and they had four interceptions overall excuse me in that game um Wagner I think can have the same kind of effect here you know Ron Rivera was a linebacker he never got the linebacker position right he took Jamon Davis in the first round Jamon Davis the first they tried him at middle linebacker now an outside linebacker now he's going to be a defensive end essentially a pass rusher uh but Wagner is going to be a Hall of Famer he's going to go to the Hall of Fame as a linebacker he's won a Super Bowl with Seattle he's been in the league a long long time he's still only 34 years old led the league in tackles last year so when he talks about this team being ready uh yeah he could couch it a little bit but I'm buying what he selling I think it's just the feeling you know I think U there's a you can feel the the energy in the building you can feel the camaraderie you can feel um you know the guys taking uh the game serious and and having fun with it at the same time and so um what up Champion uh so I'm excited to get everybody out there you know preseason we have been able to get everybody out there but um you know it's been cool to have some of those um those uh joint practices um and so it's time to to it's real now so it's time to go out there this is another season opener for you I'm sure it never gets old what's so special about kind of that first game of a new season um because whatever happened that off season uh whether good or bad you have to sit with you know and work out and you know sorry you have OTs you have to sit through OTAs you have to sit through preseason and so there's a lot of stuff built up to uh to this first game the preparation the the goals that you write down the the dreams that you probably have and so this is just a a start to whatever you drum up this off season yeah so I I I buy it I I think that he he would I think he'd be the kind of leader that if he it wasn't so Rosy he'd kind of let you know that's that's I don't know him but that's just my perception here's something else very encouraging Nick Alig gry who's uh you know we used to have the Hogs here and they all kind of became media stars at one point George Stark did a lot of radio and television Jeff Bostic I work with Joe jacobe for 10 years doing pre and postgame shows on the other station uh offensive linemen when things are good can become Stars Nick Alig gry is a guy you should become familiar with he's going to be starting opposite of Sam cosmi at the other guard he was a backup and did some spot starting and uh actually was a starter last year with the Kansas City Chiefs and I I'm interested to hear you know what he sees versus where he came from you know he just came from a team that's going to try and win its third straight Super Bowl so this was this was yesterday and Alig gry on what he's seen here and why he thinks this has a chance to be a success uh just the the composure and the way we practce practice every day practice hard every single day uh and I think the thing that's awesome is the best players practice the hardest that's something that was was the case in my prior uh team and that's definitely the case here our our guys that are expected to do the most are the ones working the hardest and you know brings everyone else along with them so I I really like that and Ali grety played in the Super Bowl last year with the torn biceps that's that's a tough thing to do you're basically down to one arm so he's a tough guy and uh and really if you've seen any of his news conferences not that offensive linemen do that many but when he was introduced I was really impressed so look at him as a as being a media store we'll get some more football uh in just a few minutes Travis Kelce with a really good conversation with Rich Eisen the other day there's a a basketball story and I I again I continue to be baffled by the term in the NCAA recruiting violations what the hell is it now you know in the nil era where as Barry Switzer calls it now it's legal what is illegal what what is what do you do that that could possibly be illegal now it seems crazy but Penny Hardaway who could have been a Hall of Fame player in the NBA had he not had a knee injury which really derailed things remember it looked like it looked like the Orlando Magic was was poised to win a bunch of championships they had Shaquille O'Neal number one number one and then the following year they draft Chris Weber but they traded him for Penny Hardaway so he had the two big things that you needed especially at that time a great big man and a point guard and it just never materialized they didn't they didn't win at all they got to the fin the uh they did get to the finals and were swept by the Houston Rockets but uh it just didn't happen so Penny Hardway has moved on to was alma mater as the coach Memphis and there's been a lot of stuff over the years I'm kind of surprised he's still there but the latest is that the school has acknowledged the existence of an anonymous letter alleging widespread potential rules violation in the program and said that the letter has been passed on to the NCAA okay that's the school saying that off of that Penny Hardaway announced the firing of four members of his staff you the season launches in November you don't fire four members of your staff in September that doesn't happen unless there's something going on here the letter alleges hardaway's personal involvement in what could be major violations what are major violations now in the recruitment of a player who came to Memphis and a second Prospect who did not enroll at the school the letter claims those violations occurred in 2020 and 2022 it also alleges academic violations occurred academic violations what are they occurred in the 2324 school year the allegations in the letter have not been independently sustained hardaway's program previously was under investigation for alleged impermissible impermissible recruiting of James wisman yeah remember that he played just three games for them and then went to the NBA after he got a 12 game suspension um so he's he's run a program which has been under the microscope for a while uh but again what what what is what could you possibly do that would be illegal uh they had brought in some players that it didn't work out they they paid him a lot of money to do it as soon as the nil kicked in um but as we hear these stories about what went on you know the Michigan thing okay the sign stealing and Connor stallions I mean let's face it you know as uh as as Rick neisel said the other day you know he's giving it the old Gordon litty uh not to my recollection you know thing so you know okay they were ceiling Stein but in terms of you know the grand scheme of things big deal really I mean let's just make college sports what it is it's professional sports you go and get the players you can get the player decides whether that's a good situation for him whether it's the most money or the the biggest path to the NFL or the NBA and do it that way this stuff that keeps floating around in the water it's just ridiculous you know we find out what these things are who knows and and the academics stop stop how does a guy graduate I transferred one time in college I did I went from American University to Trinity University and they they took most of my credits uh I think there was one or two that they didn't take but these guys who jump from school to school to school uh are they really keeping up academically I mean do they they really monitor this anymore I don't think so and I bet you there's a lot of tanky Panky going on with that as well these guys represent the school they get paid a salary they make a lot of money for the school with television and these stadiums that se 100,000 people let's call it what it is and let's let's stop this hypocrisy about student athlete which does not exist anymore anyway 35 years ago today and it's amazing what a firestorm this created Jane Paulie had been the co-anchor of the Today's Show going back to 1976 and she'd worked with Tom broa who moved on to become an anchor and broa was replaced by Bryant Gumble and Jane Paul and Brian Gumble worked together I don't know how many years but it was probably close to 10 and everything seemed hunky dory you know the the perfect morning combo and Along Comes Deborah Norville now Deborah Norville uh at that time was very young uh she had uh blonde hair uh she looked younger than Jane Paulie who used to wear her hair in like a a ponytail and Deborah Norville wore the hairstyle of the time with a lot of uh hair spray in it and and poofy and things like that and she had been a quickly Rising Star she started out as anchor of NBC News at Sunrise which was the program that preceded the Today's Show she had very very good ratings and they said okay we're going to move her to the Today's Show as the news reader what they call it the news reader but they did something that was kind of unprecedented on these morning shows she after reading the news would take a seat next to Jane py on the couch and chatted up with Briant Gumble and one thing led to another and it was like oh boy you know you could like the shark approaching and she's going to push good old Jane Paulie out of the way and boy it didn't take long because on this day was the day that she got her seat on the couch and it was less than two months later that Jane Paulie left and here was the awkward departure Deborah 13 years ago I got a telegram from my predecessor bar Walters she wished me good luck and a good alarm clock you are already a veteran of the dawn patrol you already have my respect and my friendship here's my alarm clock than oh brother sister sister um waking up is going to be the easy part but um the hard part is going to be following in your footsteps cuz they're um they're awfully big shoes to fill this will help um like that time when I got up 30 minutes before sunrise and almost didn't make it in um Lord knows the last um the last few weeks haven't been easy for any of us um when I was asked to join the today program a couple of months ago as the news anchor I was I was thrilled um the chance to be a journalist on this program um I think is every reporter's dream um and it really was for me a dream come true and to work with both of you on a daily basis um and continue to learn from you as I have the times I've filled in and and to be your friend has has been a great deal to me and and the chance to to continue that was unbelievable and it was unbelievable the reaction to this because the viewers did not like her they did not like Deborah Norville and so when she went on maternity maternity leave she was replaced by a perky young woman who everybody liked by the name of Katie kuri now it ends fine as Katie had a long run with the Today Show and has done other things and then you had Deborah Norville who took over Inside Edition which she's been doing for like 30 years and Jane Paulie is still working she does the Sunday Morning Show on CBS but boy was that a big deal at the time oh it was you know it was all when People magazine was an even bigger deal this was all oh look at this look at what's Happening Here a cat fight and people jumped all over over it so uh Deborah Norville wrong place wrong time uh and it the whole thing did not end well for her in that circumstance though she was able to uh keep a long broadcast career going but boy that was a that was a huge deal couple of uh food stories to finish up with one of them is a guy who uh made a grilled cheese sandwich every day for a year and showed it on Reddit his name is pble conko uh working at a deli in Raleigh North Carolina started making grilled cheese sandwiches and posting them on Reddit uh devoting a segment to the dish and uh he labeled his first post day one of posting grilled cheese sandwiches until I run out of cheese types he thought it'd go for like a 100 days or so but he said the supporters of Reddit inspired him to keep melting cheese he said so he said okay yeah cheese is awesome so uh he continued to do it 31 years old old uh and he got this you know he's promoted in his job in in Raleigh to uh to the cheese clerk so he had access to all kinds of cheese and kept the process consistent to make the cheese the only variable he preferred a single slice cut on the thicker side which he says gives it a better stretch than the grated product or multiple thin slices leaves the cheese out for 30 minutes so he can cut it it's easier to you know cut it when it reaches room temperature and use the same bread the Toronto Panini style which he says has a neutral flavor lets the cheese sign shine he pressed each identically in the panini press and took pictures of them at the same angle so there's day after day after day people could count on that cheese and bread that's it and he said when you're putting in other things such as vegetables or meat you're making a melt right he's a purist and so he put out for his final post which is the classic grilled cheese that I think we all grew up with a double layer of craft singles right said it cost him about $2,500 to do this uh he doesn't know whether he'll do it with anything else but if you're into that thing and who doesn't love grilled cheese there is that and then there's this story which had a terrible beginning but a happy ending it's a couple of kids young kids ages what 10 and eight Rebecca and Josh Caldwell they live in Chesapeake Virginia and they did what a lot of kids do in the summertime they opened up a lemonade stand isn't that nice and they that the mother said yeah we've been doing that for years there never been any problems they boy cost of lemonade has really gone up they're charging $2 a cup but okay you know little kids making money with a lemonade stand what's more Americana than that well this is what happens in 2024 uh as she's running as the kids are running the the lemonade stand the mother goes inside to uh says to take a call I don't think she's answering a landline she's probably using her cell phone inside but she goes in for for a couple minutes and a guy drives up jumps out of his car and takes the money takes the jar which had about $40 in it oh my God so the mom anetta called the Chesapeake Police Department to report the incident when the officers arrived a Caldwell woman and her husband had shared footage from their surveillance camera showing the man stealing the money and driving off in a silver Toyota sedan well this is one of those things that local news love right so it's picked up by outlets and uh station started advertising the Saturday lemonade stand and his word spread people made plans to show up and so uh a guy by the name of Andrew Reyes said I'm the father of two kids so it resonated with me I wanted to gather as many people as I could so he decided to post about the upcoming lemonade stand in his Biker Group bunch of bikers how about that bike meet up and ride uh one thing in the motorcycle Community you don't mess with kids once we saw the story it had to be done on August 24th a group of more than 130 bikers rolled up to the lemonade stand over the course of the day about 650 people showed up including family friends neighbors strangers local firefighters Etc ran from 10: to 2: a.m. the uh the family and the kids they pocketed $6500 from this and donations that were made uh they also said that they were going to put it to good use their 20-year-old sister has an upcoming missionary trip to Asia and they want to finance that and they're going to use the rest to buy a four-wheeler and a dirt bike okay they earned that uh police did arrest a 19-year-old suspect on August 27th charged him with theft in connection to the case you know there's a lot of there's a lot of different angles to this um but you know just think about this that the way this story unfolds two kids have the unthinkable happen a guy jumps out of the car steals their lemonade money but there's a surveillance camera that looks at it the television stations pick it up a group of bikers show up you know a motorcycle gang shows up to support this the kids rake in $6,500 when they had lost 40 bucks and the poor schmuck not poor schmuck the stupid schmuck who had stolen the 40 bucks driving up in his Toyota to steal the jar there's a surveillance camera which finds him so I guess all's well that ends well uh I I if I were the bomb i' a little bit concerned that you know this happened and somebody else you know might do more than just steal the money um but it's it's a really uh fascinating story about lemonade stands in the 21st century I you know the the classic one is the kid sitting out there with a with a picture of lemonade and and cups and some ice and they charge 10 cents now it's two bucks a cup enough to accumulate enough money so that somebody robs them Mot motorcycle gang steps in it goes viral they get $6,500 crazy crazy crazy crazy all right that's a wrap for me Bram is coming up next and I'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.