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League Values and Coaches
37 Plays1 year ago
James is back - the boycott continues?
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Good evening, League of Hard Knocks. This is episode five, week four in the League of Hard Knocks. Stoned by Cornbread coming at you live during a boycott, but the job's not finished. We will keep going on. Got to keep our loyal listeners in Germany.
00:00:21
Speaker
engaged, got a great show for you tonight, a few fun segments, a lot of fantasy football talk and not a lot of feather ruffling. So should be a fun one. Let's get into it.
Guest Introduction: Bob Leonard's Insights
00:01:02
Speaker
And we're live baby joined by my co-host Blake Marshman who held down the fort with Mr. Bob Leonard while I was away on the Oregon coastline. How you doing Blake? I'm doing wonderful, doing wonderful. Big thanks to Bob for joining the pod. I thought he brought incredible insight and, and an overall bitterness towards injuries that I don't think anyone else in the league really brings to the table.
00:01:31
Speaker
Injuries get to Rob more than, than anything I've seen in any league member. I think most people still just accept injuries as part of the game, but every time they happen, Rob is he's shocked. He's shocked when injuries happen, which I love about it. He's like, Oh, the biggest takeaway is injuries. Rob every year, the biggest takeaway is injuries. So, but anyways, I digress Rob. Thank you so much for joining the show. We had a lot of fun and.
00:01:59
Speaker
Since you're not here this week, we are going to, we are going to finish what we started at some point.
James' Return and Trip Recap
00:02:04
Speaker
James, now that you're back, uh, we are, we are still gonna compare each league member to a former or current NFL coach later on in the show, which I'm incredibly excited about. But how was your trip out West? James, we missed you. Oh, it was, it was wonderful. Just all the golf you can eat buffet and beautiful views.
00:02:28
Speaker
Good times, good to get away before, as we call it in the biz, O-N-D, when things start ratcheting up in the sales world. I am refreshed, ready, and I'm back. Welcome back. We had a chaotic
00:02:46
Speaker
chaotic couple of weeks in league of hard knocks.
Week Three Recap and Standings Discussion
00:02:49
Speaker
Group chat aside, this league is wild. We have what we have myself, a one and two team sitting in a playoff position currently.
00:03:00
Speaker
Uh, results were all over the board in week three, quick recap, Larry held on Monday night, thanks to Josh Allen getting benched for most of the second half and still putting up 31 points. Uh, Larry held on and beat me by a score of 105.7 to 101.8 bomb squad with this first win of the season. Shout out to the commission.
00:03:23
Speaker
The only problem is he's still intent, so it didn't improve his position, but he takes down, he takes down Rob 93.2 to 58.8. Rob as the very much low score of the week and self-declared trade loser falls to ninth. So, so that, that battle was a battle at the bottom and it stays that way. James, you're so.
00:03:50
Speaker
The, the high scoring showdown of the week, a one 18 to one 11. When over, over the West Hill, Billy's preserved by pilot, you moved to three and Oh, not quite good enough for first place. That is still held by Larry and the West Hill Billy's false to two and one. Good enough for third place. Bottom of the table is getting murky. The white rhino out of nowhere, the norm.
00:04:15
Speaker
by the way, screw you Norm, slaughters the old men. And the old men are in a complete tailspin. They fall to one and two. They only put up 68 points. White Rhino busts out. Kyron, Amon Ra, Dak finally have massive games. And the White Rhino takes it 107.1 to 68.9. Huge gap in numbers there. Finally, in a battle of, I would say mid table,
00:04:43
Speaker
Yes, chef with his first one in the season, looking pretty good. Aaron Jones, 20 points, Chris Alave on the board with 15 takes down Andrew who was coming off a massive, massive win. Andrew only puts up 75 points. Yes, chef takes it 87 to 75. So.
00:05:03
Speaker
fascinating week of results, which leaves a team like myself at one and two actually in a playoff position. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven teams sitting at one and two after week three. James, I don't know the history, but that seems like it's the first time it's ever happened.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little early to have this big of a log jam.
Wide Receiver Injuries and Strategy Shifts
00:05:26
Speaker
We get it every year, but to see it at this point is interesting. I think there are some teams at one and two feeling very good about where they stand and some that should be very, very concerned. Kind of back to your point on the injuries and how that affects Rob. The one thing that I've noticed.
00:05:47
Speaker
And tell me if I'm wrong on this. I have never seen this many wide receiver injuries this early in the year or at all. You know, we're very accustomed to this running back injury plague that has caused a, a shift in drafting styles in our league format even, uh, which I'm sure has been discussed too much at this point. But I find it really interesting if you went against the grain and the draft.
00:06:17
Speaker
and got a lot of running backs, you're probably sitting pretty AKA Larry. So there's something to be said for going against the grain and I don't see a ton of guys doing it right now. Maybe this is an outlier season. We'll have to see.
00:06:35
Speaker
Well, I think we've got a lot of credit to Larry, which traditionally we've given him a lot of flack. He went against the grain. He's stuck with running backs in a receiver heavy draft, which may or may not have been skewed by the rule change, which I'm sure we'll discuss here in a few moments. But Larry, Larry is dominating the league right now. He's, he's playing, he's playing really well.
00:07:03
Speaker
He has 363.7 points going into week four. The closest member is yourself, but you're a good 30 points away from him. He's won all three of his games. And the separation, I guess I'll flip it back to you here. You and Larry sitting at three and oh, with all these teams at one and two, all of a sudden you've opened up a two game lead only three weeks in, you gotta be feeling pretty good. I mean, how are you feeling about your playoff chances?
00:07:32
Speaker
sitting at sitting at three and oh, and such a large jams standings. Yeah.
Drafting Strategies and Current Successes
00:07:37
Speaker
I mean, I don't use this podcast as a platform to stroke myself off in front of the league, but I did think I had a good draft. Literally nobody else did league members and fantasy pros and ESPN were like, this was a bottom three draft. Yet all the while I did feel good about it.
00:08:01
Speaker
And despite having yet to pick the right quarterback, you know, the gift is the curse when you have two top five guys. I do feel good about being three and oh, despite the injuries. I'm an early candidate for waiver pickup of the year. And I've been pressing the right buttons for the most part. I do see the quarterback issue, uh,
00:08:27
Speaker
getting me in the next few weeks. It's unavoidable that I'll choose the right guy and leave 30 points on the bench, just how the cookie crumbles in fantasy football. Yeah. And I think we'll see what shakes out this week. I think there's a lot of one and two matchups.
00:08:47
Speaker
Uh, the one and two match ups this week are pivotal. I just don't see teams going to one in three, having a good shot at the playoffs. Uh, and, and, and week four is normally not a huge swing week, but I play the Amish, Mr. Mr. Rob. We're both one in two. You're playing the 10th place bomb squad. If he goes to one and three and stays in 10th, what does that mean for his season? His, his shame off chances. Uh,
00:09:16
Speaker
AJ is playing a Red Hot Billies team. AJ could fall to one and three. Larry is going up against Andrew. That's kind of a traditional rivalry there. Could be a shootout, but if Larry can go to 4-0 and put the bandwagon to one and three, that could be wild. And then one of the rhino and the chef are going to one and three. We could have a lot of separation as well with the playoff teams. And then everyone else is just fighting for fourth place.
00:09:44
Speaker
So early days but dramatic times in the league. James, you missed last week from a podcast perspective. I know you're up to date on kind of the status of the league. What's going on right
League Boycott and Cultural Reflections
00:10:01
Speaker
now? It's a bizarre landscape. I realize that maybe you and I talking about the league is a little bit polarizing and I can own that. But things have gotten a little bit personal.
00:10:14
Speaker
You could say that I feel like we've taken it past the normal levels of just joking around trash talk. And now it seems like maybe it's a midlife crisis, but, but there's a lot of people that are getting a lot more upset than, than prior seasons. Yeah, I agree. And, and part of it is I feel like this amount of feather ruffling and ribbing each other has always gone on. So I don't know why.
00:10:42
Speaker
this early in the year, it has reached this crescendo to the point where I'm not even sure how many people are boycotting. I did my best to keep up with the league while I was gone, but I felt like Jake after not opening the Signal app in a while and you see all those messages. I mean, I don't know who started the boycott, where it stands, where our sponsorship deals are.
00:11:11
Speaker
I just think there's a lot of people that don't like the podcast right now. And I'm seeing it, you know, in my tenure as commission, sometimes it can have a galvanizing effect. And what I did notice on the signal is people are kind of galvanized around Bami. So kudos to him for taking chaos and creating something positive out of it. I'll give him that. Yeah.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there seems to be a pretty big rift in the league right now. I know that Larry labeled it as the radicals versus the rationals. I tend to think it's more, and this is obviously a biased perspective, I think there's some people that aren't really interested in fun. I think there's a strong contingent of what I would call the
00:12:06
Speaker
the anti-fun contingent, maybe the AFC, if you will, or maybe the anti-fun league. And it kind of started with Bami, but I think Will has seized an opportunity and somewhat of an alliance with the commissioner in joining up with this anti-fun, where
00:12:36
Speaker
Will, will brought a good point to the table. He said, we need to get back to our league values as, as if we have league values. So I'm just curious, what do you think our league values are and what was will referring to league values? I'll get into in a second. Uh, will is a, he is the best politician in the league. We have to hand him, hand him that. I mean, he's, he's sat as commission.
00:13:05
Speaker
He has pushed legislation. He whips votes better than anyone. I mean, Will's a good leader and people rally around him because he's got non-emotional, clear thoughts that he presents. So I can see why people want to get behind Will. I wouldn't even hate having Will as commissioner again. I'll go as far as that. Does he want to take it on again?
00:13:33
Speaker
Maybe, maybe not. And Bomby's doing a good enough job for now. We don't want to scare Bomby away from the role. I would love for every commissioner to at least endure two to three years just to see how it goes. But in terms of the anti-fun, fun, and league values, tension is good for the league.
00:13:59
Speaker
Tension, just like it's good for the country. The day we all agree on something, besides a day to draft, I'll be probably worried about the league. It's good to have all these different personalities. It's good to clash, rib each other. I mean, none of this is meant to be taken personal, right? We are kind of like South Park. We're an equal opportunity offender.
00:14:26
Speaker
And on the podcast, you and I almost go into character, much like at least half the league for the entire season goes into character. But the lines get blurred because some people aren't playing characters and some people are. And it, it really creates a fun environment for me. But to the league values, before I ramble too far, I would, I think Will would probably be referring to brotherhood.
00:14:56
Speaker
competition, camaraderie. He may or may not agree with those, but I think that's what he may be hinting at. What do you think? I mean, I don't hate the idea of league values. I just didn't know he had any, which sounds like a great, a great manifesto that we should implement. What are the league of hard knocks league values? What, what does this league mean? What are we committed to?
00:15:19
Speaker
Because at the very minimum, we have to be committed to staying friends. That has to be the utmost league value above all. And you bring up a good point. I play a character when I'm talking fantasy football. I play a character in the group chat. I'm somewhat playing a character here. It's kind of like one of those comedies where, and there's a bunch of different comedians that will do this. They'll go out in public and bring on
00:15:49
Speaker
bring on people that may or may not know that they're part of a bit or part of a show or part of a comedy. I think it's important for the lead to remember that there is a divide, like you said, between people that are not being serious and people that might be taking this really serious. And so I would say,
00:16:13
Speaker
To those league members, truly just as Blake from the bottom of my heart, I really want us all to be friends most often. That would be my number one league value. And I'm most of the time not being serious. And I really do love everyone in this league dearly. And the friendship this league has means more to me than any group of friends that I have.
00:16:39
Speaker
I just wanted to get that off from a serious perspective, but yes, I'm still going to talk shit. And yes, like this is all just a joke.
James' Apology and Content Improvement
00:16:47
Speaker
And I guess I have to always remember that for some people, they're not playing a role. They're not doing a bit.
00:16:57
Speaker
they're actually really upset. And to those people, I'm sorry, I'll try to keep that in mind. But that would be my number one league value. I don't have a second league value. I don't know if you have a second league value, but staying friends is of utmost importance. Oh, I totally agree. I even have some thoughts written down from my plane ride back from Bandon, but into the whole character idea. I'm curious if we have the same person in mind here.
00:17:24
Speaker
Who do you think is the best at going into character during the LHK season? It's a very clear cut one for me. This is a good one. I think if you went through the whole league and who plays the best character, honestly, it'd be the chef. Now, it might be different from your perspective, but we both know that Jake very much does care.
Comparing League Members to NFL Coaches
00:17:55
Speaker
He very much does care, but Jake's bit is that he doesn't care. And he is stuck to that for a long time. Stuck to that for a long time. It came out a little bit during the draft this year. When he made that bet with you, I think he slapped Will. Things got a little escalated, but Jake cares. And I think this whole character of I'm too cool to care,
00:18:21
Speaker
is a bit that has lasted a very, very long time. But I'd be curious to hear your, your take on this one. Yeah, I like that perspective. I think you're, you're definitely right with Jake. Uh, and it's funny, Jake has unknowingly been boycotting the podcast. I don't know if he's listened to it yet, but anyways, no, my answer would be Rosetta Stone because
00:18:46
Speaker
You know, we love calling him the keyboard warrior, but he is better at getting a reaction out of all nine league members better than anyone. It's, it's truly uncanny. I think it started with the Georgia stuff, but the way he goes into his, uh, you know, big Rosetta keyboard warrior is great because you will not find a sweeter, kind hearted man in the league than Andrew. If you're hanging out with him, having a beer.
00:19:17
Speaker
The way he goes into character is great for me because I feed off of it and I get to go into my character more. So anyway, I think it's all great, but I wanted to rattle off some thoughts. I know you had some, if, if I heard it correctly, some formal apologies to the league. It was a little bit of a somber tone last week. So I had some thoughts I wanted to share. Uh, I don't have any big J breaking news this week. This was more of like a.
00:19:46
Speaker
a think piece as I was flying back east, but the first one was, have I been an asshole on the pod? Probably yes, but as we previously discussed, that's kind of the whole point. Now, did the feather ruffling go zero to 100 very quickly? Yes, and judging by the boycott,
00:20:15
Speaker
Uh, I would say things went too far too quickly Maybe just we poked the wrong people and as a podcast And as one of the hosts We can get better we can learn who not to poke uh, we're we're not above criticism and Criticism is really good for the league I would argue as commissioner for five years
00:20:46
Speaker
And I've been the norm three times, some overlap with my tenure as commish. I've been subject to as much or more criticism than anyone else in the league. I even had, not one, two political slander campaigns by you and Will against me. Did I take it personally? No. I enjoyed the back and forth.
00:21:15
Speaker
I think criticism is good. It's it's good. It can be galvanizing as we've seen for balmy, even though we haven't criticized him that much yet. But it is good for the league. And the other point I wanted to get to, we discussed a little bit
Boycott Impact and Podcast Commitment
00:21:30
Speaker
already. Well, hold that thought really quick. We've never been balmy out. And I did just want to say that on the podcast. In fact, we haven't even been overly critical of the commissioner, other than this inability to lock down
00:21:44
Speaker
a live draft offsite, which was his fault and wasn't his fault. He needs to get ahead of it right now. I will stick by that. But we've never been bombing out. What we did was we put bombing in an uncomfortable position. And in hindsight, we probably should have better prepared him. And we kind of knew what we were doing. We were pitting two people that may or may not have been playing a bit or not playing a bit against each other.
00:22:13
Speaker
And we were expecting sparks and instead we just fried the entire unit. And our commissioner has now removed himself from our conversations with his band of brothers, I guess at this point. But continue, I just wanted to state for the record that we're not bombing out on this podcast. Yeah, I mean, the Boycott brothers, I mean, they have every right to exercise
00:22:42
Speaker
a boycott and if it lasts all season, so be it. But like I said, we have listeners in Germany that we can't let down. So I'm not just going to stop because of a boycott. I mean, could you and I just FaceTime each other and have the same conversation? Yes. And I would enjoy it. But I mean, Helen's listening. My wife listens. She enjoys it. She's an accountant, so she doesn't have as many video calls as I do.
00:23:11
Speaker
A lot of times I'll walk into her office and I'll be like, Hey, what are you listening to? And she'll be like, I'm listening to your stupid podcast. And I'm like, that's great. That's another, that's another listen. I thought about sending it to my mom, but I don't know if I want to go that far, but you know, I think Fran's a listener too. She texted me that she wanted to join, but I've kind of backed off since the last time we had the commissioner on. There's more listeners than people think out there.
00:23:37
Speaker
And yeah, our idea with the commission, the bandwagon are on at the same time.
Commissioner Challenges and Communication
00:23:43
Speaker
It was a pretty big reach and a big swing and a miss, but we're going to keep taking a creative risk as we go here. The only thing I would really say about Bommie, I understand why he reacted the way that he did. That's fair. He's a human being, but the deflecting and blaming it on
00:24:07
Speaker
The podcast not starting on time was not what he was upset about. It was that he felt ambushed and disrespected. So that, I just wish you would be like, guys, what the hell? But he kept putting it back on the timing. And I was, I was running behind and unprepared that night. So Bobby, we apologize for the poor communication, even though you're not listening.
00:24:33
Speaker
Maybe Fran will listen and tell you. Or is he listening? Like we can't actually verify the boycott. That's the funny thing about it. Our numbers actually went up last week with Rob joining the show. We actually had more listens than the prior week. So we can't prove the boycott. When you like, people will announce on Facebook or Instagram or whatever they're on that they're
00:24:57
Speaker
Hey guys, I'm, I am taking a break from social media. I want everybody to know, or you could just not get on. I guess in an attempt to rib us back, they thought it would get under the pods skin to not have listeners, but I enjoy doing this regardless. So glove for the league to listen, but I'm going to have fun whether they are or not.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah. And I think a lot of them might be anonymously paying attention, but if, if they don't, then that's totally fine. That's, that's well within their right. I'm sure they have a lot better things to do. So I appreciate your thoughts James. I guess any other takeaways from the plane ride back, hopefully it wasn't just, yeah, just two small ones here.
James' Commissioner Reflections and Growth
00:25:49
Speaker
I think part of my issue is that during my tenure as commissioner.
00:25:56
Speaker
I tried as hard as possible to recuse myself from all of the ribbing feather ruffling behavior because I was trying to keep the peace at all times. And what I've realized is five years away from letting all that out, maybe I came on too strong initially. That could be part of the issue. Or maybe people just have really, really thin skin. I can't tell.
00:26:24
Speaker
but I can only work on myself and look inward. But what I did learn a long time ago in 110 days in a rehabilitation center in Jackson, Mississippi is with every situation in life, you can either be a part of the problem or the solution. In saying yes to being on this podcast,
00:26:50
Speaker
I thought I was being part of the solution for entertainment, alleviating some of the workload for you. And in the process of getting into having fun on the pod, I think I became part of the problem that has led to this boycott. Am I going to change? Not largely, but
00:27:18
Speaker
I will try to make this a fantasy football podcast and not solely based on feather ruffling and made up rivalries and and so on so forth. So that's really we've covered all that I had to think about the league while I was gone. It was just some thoughts I had to get off there. But I know, Blake, you have a really good talking about fantasy football almost 30 minutes in.
00:27:45
Speaker
You have a really good segment you couldn't get to last week and I'd love to hear it. Just kidding. We're not going to play that song. I have a better song. Yeah, I'm very excited about this. So Rob and I were going to break down the past or present NFL coach that is most like the league of hard knocks league member.
00:28:16
Speaker
and I did a lot of thinking on this. And I think this is gonna be a lot of fun, James, because I think you bring a unique perspective to this. I think that there's a couple league members we'll both agree on, 100%, just going in. I will say, hey,
00:28:41
Speaker
This league member is this NFL coach and you will say 100% yes. And then I will think there'll be some league members that we go totally opposite directions. So I'm curious, going into this segment, do you already have someone in mind for each league member? You know, I once upon a time I did this, the same segment, except I think I went a little off off book and I may have had some guys as NFL owners because I thought,
00:29:11
Speaker
Andrew was kind of Jerry Jones, but the league of hard knocks But I do have some in mind. I I don't have any prepared or written down There's there's really just one that sticks out to me and I'm curious if you came up with the same one All right. Let's start with will now will will as a league member has Had I think a pretty good a pretty good history in this league someone say he's a league founder He did found the league
00:29:40
Speaker
But at the same time, Will carries an attitude. He carries a stigma. He has a pull. We've already talked about how he is the best politician in the league. And I thought about this for a long time and I was like, all right, who, who is the best politician head coach in the league right now?
00:30:04
Speaker
Who is a guy that, that pulls in the votes, maybe even when he doesn't deserve them. And you know what I said, history be damned. I think Will is Nick Sirianni. I think Will is Nick Sirianni. Will finds something to complain about, even when there's nothing to complain about. And then he gets into a groove.
00:30:30
Speaker
Nick Sirianni is also petty and Will is incredibly, incredibly petty. As we've seen from this so-called boycott, he completely rejected our offer to be on the show today, which I think we should talk about. We sent him a text and he didn't even give us a response. He completely ghosted us, acted as if we did not even exist.
00:30:58
Speaker
That's a Sirianni type move. Sirianni's the guy that will take a timeout while the other team's kneeling it, beating him, just because he has two timeouts to burn and he just wants to be petty.
Closing Thoughts and Call for Participation
00:31:10
Speaker
Sirianni's the guy that will fire everyone underneath him and never take the blame himself. He's got a incredibly junior staff now because last year was not his fault. It was totally his coordinator's fault.
00:31:25
Speaker
So yeah, Will is Nick Sirianni for me. I'm not going to go into further depth on that, but just by his lack of response, it's petty. It's petty and it's unnecessary, but love you, Will. You're Nick Sirianni in my opinion. What do you, what do you have for Will here? What comes to mind when you think of Will? I kind of like the Sirianni comp. I see Will just like Sirianni. He's a CEO head coach, so he's not
00:31:53
Speaker
super dialed in to the offense or defense. He just kind of wants to stand back and operate from afar. It is funny, you know, it was Will and Larry we invited on. I didn't realize, I probably didn't read enough of the signal messages. I guess Will started the boycott. So it was probably a bad text to send off not knowing that. And it was funnier.
00:32:21
Speaker
As I was thinking today with no response, the last time that I got ghosted via text message was probably 2015, the year before I met my lovely wife. It's been a long time since I got ghosted. I was like, oh, damn, that's interesting. I remember hanging out with you in 2015. I think there was a brief moment where we were both single.
00:32:48
Speaker
And, uh, yeah. And you just met Hannah. Yeah. The ghosting days. It did happen. It did happen. Uh, everybody league member. Yeah. The only other guy that comes to mind for me would be Mike McCarthy. You know, Wills won a championship before just like McCarthy. And he loves being in the limelight like Mike and in Dallas.
00:33:14
Speaker
And he's a pretty successful guy. People rally behind him. I kind of like Mike McCarthy, but I can see the Sirianne comp. Let's go to Rhino. I think we need to talk more about the norm. I think he flies under the radar too much, which means that, in my opinion, he's got to be Dan Quinn. Dan Quinn. Flying under the radar. Made a Super Bowl.
00:33:41
Speaker
Almost beat Belichick. He was up big. Footed around as a D coordinator. All of a sudden, he's the head coach of the Redskins slash commies slash Washington football team. He's got a great rookie quarterback. He's putting together a good squad. That's how Rhino operates, but you still don't hear anything from him. When was the last time you saw Dan Quinn quote on Sports Center? Rhino's Dan Quinn. Who you got for Rhino?
00:34:08
Speaker
That's such a good one. I can't come up with with another at least not right now. I think you nailed it Okay, AJ I'm gonna let you go first AJ someone who used to be really successful he's been Knocking on the doorstep for a while I would say
00:34:36
Speaker
Kyle Shanahan. I love that. I love Kyle Shanahan. I have a better one for you, but it's in the same vein. Used to be very successful, even won a championship, but it's been a long time. Everyone forgot about him. And now he's just coaching a trash team. It's got to be Sean Payton. I love that.
00:35:06
Speaker
Got to be Sean Payton. Think about it. Sean Payton on the Saints. Absolute, absolute legend. Now he's coaching Bo Nicks. Which granted Bo Nicks had a, he had a good week. He had a good week last week. AJ had one good week as well this year. The first week when I called his team out.
00:35:31
Speaker
And, and I, I will go back to ruffling a few feathers here because there were some statements I made going into the season on our second podcast after the draft. And I almost have accurately predicted them down to a T I'll just go back through those predictions. Just a bunch of old men. I said, it was no longer just a bunch of old men. I said, they were gonna fail. I said, I wouldn't want to touch from Andre Stevenson with a 10 foot pole.
00:36:00
Speaker
or any Patriots running back for that matter. Well, Remondre Stevenson put up 0.3 points last week. I said that Kenneth Walker will undoubtedly get hurt at some point in the season and Kenneth Walker got hurt in week one and has not played since.
00:36:18
Speaker
I said that Anthony Richardson was trash and unproven and Anthony Richardson, after a 26 point week, one has not cracked 10 points. He put up 9.8 and five points from a quarterback position in weeks two and three. So my final statement with the Etienne was not all that he's cracked up to be. And he's ended up in a terrible, terrible Jacksonville offense.
00:36:46
Speaker
And now he's in a split backfield with tank big fee. So Sean Payton, AJ, I hate to say it, but this one just makes way too much sense. I won't always come at you with a, a flex of this nature, AJ. And I probably don't, don't deserve it at this point, but I mean,
00:37:11
Speaker
I mean, I hope you can pull it together with, with the squad you got. You might need to pick up Bo Nix though, and just fully embrace the, uh, the Sean Payton role because you were relevant at one point, but it's, it's looking, it's looking rough for you. I think that's a great one, Blake, especially with the past success. It's, it's nailed for AJ. He's.
00:37:39
Speaker
He's stuck in his ways and he got really close last year, but, uh, someone else grabbed the title. So got to keep it moving. Didn't mean to go off that, that foreign AJ Larry. What do you got? This one is a no brainer for me. Loves to be the underdog. Loves to rally his team. Always has the same kind of guys on his team. They're usually tough.
00:38:09
Speaker
some of the best athletes always looking good on paper and nobody rallies late in the year like Larry. And to me, that is Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin. I love it. I love it. That's actually who I had down for Larry as well. Just a late season guy. She's going to turn it on and he's just always there.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, and just unconventional tactics and even unconventional personnel decisions. Like this year, they're playing Justin Fields right now in the starting role. They just have Russell Wilson as a hype man. And they're undefeated, brilliant. Everyone knows that Russell has been an absolutely trash quarterback for the past several years. But Tomlin is brilliant enough. And don't forget, Larry's team last year was named Hustle and Russell.
00:39:09
Speaker
And Larry did not have Russell Wilson to play football. Larry had hype man. Tomlin has bottled it. He's like, this is perfect. I bring in Russ, even if he's not on the active squad, I don't know if you saw this, Russell Wilson still puts on full pads and helmet, even when he's not in the active squad. It was something like even Barstool was making fun of. But it's the most Russell Wilson thing ever.
00:39:37
Speaker
Brilliant from Mike Tomlin. Brilliant from Larry. You gotta have an energy guy like Russell. I think Larry's Mike Tomlin without a doubt. Let's go to Jake. I got Jake as Sean McVeigh. What about yourself? No arguments there. That's perfect. Variant to how he looks. Dress is sharp. Smart guy. Knows the offensive side of the ball.
00:40:03
Speaker
uh loves receivers very receiver friendly offense i think it's perfect former champ as well former champ former champ let's go to andrew uh i got mike mc daniel that that's my favorite one so far that that's incredible especially mike mc daniel this year in particular
00:40:32
Speaker
This is my favorite version. Yeah, I don't think there needs to be anything else said about Andrew and Mike McDaniel. Uh, I thought a lot about Jake potentially being Mike McDaniel, but, but gotta go, Andrew. Um, all right. Bommie, Bommie, this is a tough one because when you think of Bommie, you think of the chiefs. When you think of the chiefs, you think of Andy Reed. Bommie, I don't think it's been as dominant.
00:40:59
Speaker
in football as Andy Reid. So I actually have one that you've already used up, but I had Bommie as Mike McCarthy. I'm curious who you would put Bommie as. I haven't given this one a lot of thought. I do like Mike McCarthy for Bommie. I would almost even go Mike Shanahan.
00:41:25
Speaker
Kyle's dad, I think a blast from the past is better for Bobby kind of like an old-school guy No nonsense, you know serious only I Kind of like that, but I haven't given it too much thought for Bobby I did say this would be pastor-presence So I had an honorable mention for our commissioner and that would be that of Jim Mora the only reason I say Jim Mora is that Jim Mora was a
00:41:54
Speaker
one of the angriest, crankiest coaches when criticized of all time. He was one of those guys that his team would win by 60 points and he'd still walk off the field and be like, we just sucked. The offense sucked. The coaching sucked. Everything sucks. And, you know, he wasn't quite cower or ditka. I mean, those guys were just always furious.
00:42:17
Speaker
Is Jim Mora, Jim Mora, Jim Mora is fantasy relevant for this podcast, I think as well. Didn't you, didn't you meet Jim Mora at some point? Or am I giving a different NFL head coach that you bumped into? Yeah, it was, uh, it was out in the Palm desert on a work trip back in my Southern California days. I kept looking over at this table and I was like, that's that guy looks so familiar. And I started.
00:42:47
Speaker
doing the playoffs video in front of all my buddies. I'm like, that's definitely Jim Mora. And I had had, you know, a couple of drinks. So I just went over to him. I said, you're Jim Mora, aren't you? And he said, just I can't replicate his voice, but it was perfect. And he went straight into Jim Mora character, shook his hand, got a picture.
00:43:11
Speaker
The TO picture still tops that one, especially under the circumstances that night, but that was, it was fun to meet him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Rob. So for Rob, I have, uh, I have, I have, I have two. One is going to be Tom Coughlin. No, not Tom Coughlin is another guy that most people may or may not remember right off the bat, but.
00:43:36
Speaker
He was always just getting beat up by the wind in New York. He was always a little rosy of the cheek. And he always looked furious about his team's performance. And you could see his blood pressure rising with every touchdown scored by the opponent. But Tom Coughlin was a legend. I think that if you look back on Tom Coughlin's career,
00:44:05
Speaker
You know, he did a lot. He led the Giants to victory in a Super Bowl. I think actually he won, did he win two Super Bowls? I think he won two Super Bowls, which I think is kind of like Rob. Yeah, both against Tom Brady. Yeah. So pretty, pretty legendary coach, but one of those guys that you just think of is even with the success, he always was angry.
00:44:34
Speaker
Actually, I'm not even going to give my second mention. I did. Rob is Tom Coughlin without a doubt. Yeah. The only one that comes to mind for Rob would be Bill Parcells for similar reasons, just running hot all the time. And I appreciate that about Rob. He's, he's got almost no filter and that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Rob Rob is a fantastically member.
00:45:01
Speaker
Tom Coughlin built bar sales that that fits. I guess that just leaves us, James. So I can, I can kind of start with you and then, and then you can, you can name, name my head carriage. So this was a tough one for me, mainly because I feel like you've had such a roller coaster of a career and hard knocks. And I don't think you would disagree with that. So I have Lane Kiffin.
00:45:31
Speaker
Lane Kiffin, and this is more just spanning your entire career, a big Vols fan at one point. You know, some highs, some lows. Back on a high, he didn't spend that much time as an NFL head coach, did coach the Raiders at one point, and he was the youngest head coach in, I believe, NFL history at 31, which is crazy. Now that we're sitting here at 34, 35 as an average league member age,
00:45:59
Speaker
Can you imagine four years ago being an NFL head coach? Absolutely nuts. The other person I had you penciled in as is Andy Reid, which is probably a lot more flattering. And the reason I say Andy Reid is despite your success, I think you've also been through some lows. You know, everyone forgets how Andy Reid left Philly and everyone forgets how he was forced out there.
00:46:27
Speaker
He only won three games, I believe that last year in Philly. But despite his ups and downs, he's remained constant. And I think that's very indicative of you. You've had some ups and downs in your career. And not only that, he's a seasoned vet, but he's not afraid to continue to improvise and change and adapt and roll out
00:46:55
Speaker
new plays that we've never seen before, create positions that we haven't seen before, implement players in a way that we haven't seen before. And I think this is very indicative of your style. You're a mixture of old school, open-minded, especially when it comes to league legislation. So I didn't mean to go on a whole tangent, but Lane Kiffin came to mind initially, but as I thought about it more, you are Andy Reed and you are a three-time champ as well.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, the three-time champ, three-time norm makes me a very tough comp, but I have been very successful in this league, and I have had some very low lows as well. So I like that one. I've got one for you that just came to mind about 10 seconds ago. Not a guy that... It doesn't fit you in the term of ruffling feathers, but I thought about Matt LaFleur.
00:47:53
Speaker
You know, another guy with a great beard, very well groomed, dresses well, good shape. It just kind of, it kind of fits you, Blake, number one in the fashion rankings, making Sean McVey jealous because he's got to be taller than McVey, right? Kind of the you and Jake thing that's going on. I could see those two having a rivalry in real life.
00:48:18
Speaker
And the one part that I can't really complete, I think there is something to the fact that you have been successful, but you've also completely readapted your playing style, kind of like LeFlore with Aaron Rodgers and post Aaron Rodgers. You're showing that you can do it in a different way. You know, a fellow three time norm like yourself that the comp doesn't
00:48:45
Speaker
really go that way with LeFlore, but he has had some struggles and difficulty in the past. And, uh, you could say the Packers are heading in a good direction, at least with, with love coming back. I like LeFlore that can work. Uh, I appreciate the comparison. I do think that my team and my coaching style has adapted to where we're at as a league right now.
00:49:15
Speaker
to be candid, like my first norm, I didn't take the norm seriously. And, you know, when Matt LaFleur was back at the Falcons, which a lot of people forget, but LaFleur was the quarterback's coach for the Falcons when Matt Ryan took the Falcons to the Super Bowl and squandered a 28 to three lead to the New England Patriots and lost 34, 28 overtime.
00:49:44
Speaker
But that being said, I would can kind of compare that, that year with, with the floor to, uh, to my year with TiVo and, uh, maybe he didn't take it that seriously when he was up that big on the, on the Patriots. So anyways, I, uh,
00:50:05
Speaker
I think we need to, to go into the final session in section of this, uh, this pod tonight, James. Yeah, I, uh, let's talk about kickers. Let's talk about kickers. This is the Rob friendly, uh, section of the podcast. Uh, as we all know, Rob is trying to eradicate kickers from our league, but they have proven to be very pivotal, uh, in the league this year and.
00:50:35
Speaker
In the past, some kickers have carried people to titles. And so Brandon Aubrey came to mind this week, a guy who's been kicking a lot of balls through the uprights and carrying Yes Chef so far. And I've got a list of players that is incredible that he has outscored so far this season. Any guesses without looking? We're not going to do a whole trivia session here, but I'm curious.
00:51:05
Speaker
They're all big names here. Christian McCaffrey. Well, he's not on the list for obvious reasons. And speaking of McCaffrey, for our listeners in Germany, I believe he is headed there right now to get some medical treatment. So if you see C-Mac out in the streets, give him a wave.
00:51:24
Speaker
And tell him he was being discussed on stone by cornbread. Yeah. And this podcast doesn't, doesn't necessarily, uh, subscribe to fantasy pros or ESPN projections, but the, uh, the Amish, uh, on both have fallen to, uh, to, to tent out of tents since they made the McCaffrey move. I know Blake, these are all, these are all healthy players on the list and a lot of them first round draft picks. I'll give you that hint.
00:51:52
Speaker
Okay, okay, I'm gonna just give it a brief shot here. He has scored more than Jonathan Taylor. I know that. He's definitely scored more than C.D. Lamb, who I drafted in the first round. I would say Tyreek Hill. Bijan and Saquon have probably scored more. Jamar Chase had a pretty good week. I'm just trying to think back to first-round picks. Breece Hall's been good.
00:52:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say first round picks. He scored more than CD McCaffrey Tyreke, Jonathan Taylor, and I'm going to say Jamar Jase as well. Okay. Some good guesses. You got a few of these. I have not, uh, cross-checked this list with our, our league scoring, but, uh, the list starts with Stefan Diggs, uh, fewer points than Brandon Aubrey, uh, for the West Hillbillies and on the Hillbillies bench.
00:52:50
Speaker
for a lot of the season so far. Jamar Chase, number two. I guess correctly there. Slow start to the year, even though he boomed as I knew he would. Marvin Harrison Jr. Hmm. Wow. Cause he's gone off. He's gone off. I would not have expected that. Marvin Harrison's looks great. The sun God, Amon Ra. Wow. Slow start to the year for him.
00:53:18
Speaker
Bijon hadn't really had a breakout game yet. Davante Adams, obviously. He's frustrated and probably wanting out of Las Vegas, I would. Aubrey has scored more than these two quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and CJ Stroud. So Aubrey has scored more than Rob's starting quarterback.
00:53:44
Speaker
Correct and then you guess these last two receivers CD lamb and Tyree kill it's It's wild. I love the variants of kickers Rob for what it's worth. I won't be voting for your amendment. It's still Exhilarating to see your guy kick a 50 yarder. That is so much fun to watch It's of course. Yeah, if anything I would be in favor of a six point
00:54:15
Speaker
60 yarder if you want to if you want to subtract one point for missed extra points, I'd be all for that too but Just like real football Kickers swing big games and I don't want to take that out of the league no way no way kickers are so so crucial to the outcome of the NFL and
00:54:39
Speaker
And they should be crucial to the outcome of our league. I'm going to be anti removing the kicker. Uh, shout out Brandon Aubrey, a 15th round pick by the chef and arguably the chef's best draft pick. I mean, it has to be the chef's top score. I know we just went over the players that there were top scores, but as he scored more than Jalen hurts, I mean, I think that's probably the only guy on, on Jake's team that.
00:55:05
Speaker
He scored more than, uh, and in fact, I, I do have that data. Brandon Aubrey has 49 fantasy points week today. Jalen hurts has 51. He's he's Jake's second top scorer. That is wild. So kickers, kickers, Rob picking, uh, James, before we break, I, I'm so glad you're back.
00:55:32
Speaker
Welcome back to Stone by Cornbread. I just wanted to say that I appreciate you joining the show. Appreciate what you're doing for the league.
00:55:43
Speaker
And I would like to challenge the rest of the league that does listen to this podcast and made it all the way to the end. We want this to be collaborative. I'm just going to say this and this is not necessarily emotionally charged and this is not coming from an apologetic place. I had mentioned that I would be owning up to the fact that I'm a pot stirrer and I would stop playing the victim card, but we would like to have other league members join us. I think it's a lot of fun.
00:56:09
Speaker
We got turned down by two league members this week, Larry and Will, and we didn't even get a text back, which, uh, which kind of hurts. So if anyone would like to join the show, uh, you can throw it in the group chat or text us personally. We'd love to talk. Uh, I love this league because I'd love communicating with you all the darkest months or the months that there's no fantasy football chatter for me. I feel more disconnected from, from society and from, from this group of friends. So.
00:56:40
Speaker
We'd love to have you on the show. I don't know if you have any parting thoughts, James, but those were, those were mine. Yeah. To piggyback off that, if the podcast has to be one of the villains of the league, that's fine. That's great. One of my favorite things that I don't do very often anymore, and I don't really watch CNN or Fox news, but when they, they bring on
00:57:08
Speaker
a flaming liberal onto Fox News, the conversation is just better and vice versa with CNN and a MAGA conservative. It's just good content. So if anything, the conversation would just get better and you would have a chance to have the mic to tell us your thoughts, whatever they are.
00:57:36
Speaker
I would just I would love to have some healthy discourse on the pod, but if people aren't ready for that you and I will keep banging these out and We'll just wait until some form of boycott Is over and and keep chugging along but yeah, we would love to have guests It's it's great for the guests. It's great for the pod. It's great for everybody I agree. I agree
00:58:04
Speaker
So challenge to the league. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you. And I agree with you, James, like we're, we welcome the smoke. We welcome the criticism. This is all, uh, this is all for fun and somewhat of a joke in and of itself. So if you want to pass some legislation, if you're, if you're trying to, to round up some votes, this could be good platform to, to swing, to swing your critics.
00:58:31
Speaker
Get your voice out. Stop using your thumbs. Address the opposition. That's, that's all I got. Welcome back, James. Best of luck to you this week. I actually, actually know. I hope you go to three and one because you're, you're pulling away a little bit too much from the pack. Yeah. Can't help you there. I think my team has weathered a little bit of the storm and, uh, we're trying to go four. No team's getting healthy as we speak.
00:59:01
Speaker
No trips to Germany.
00:59:03
Speaker
No trips to Germany for the Achilles. Episode five, Stoned by Cornbread. It's been a pleasure. Good Thursday morning to you if you're tuning in. Late night on Wednesday. Hope you get some sleep. I got a hurricane headed my way that I'm going to try to avoid, but glad we're getting the pot out before my power cuts out. James, take it easy. See you wearing that orange hoodie. I guess GBO. This isn't a college football podcast.
00:59:33
Speaker
Things are looking pretty good on that front. Things are looking phenomenal. Until next time, League, I'm out. Peace.