Eric Wood X Emmy Award winning sportscaster Josh Reed | Centered on Buffalo Podcast

In this episode, Emmy award winning sportscaster Josh Reed hops on the pod. E wood and Josh discuss personal experiences, including an upcoming RV trip and Eric’s recent hole in one. They also talk about the Buffalo Bills’ offseason needs and potential changes, as well as their thoughts on head coach Sean McDermott. The conversation shifts to the new coordinator hires and their impact on the team. Finally, they share their predictions for the Super Bowl and discuss their favorite stories from past games. In this conversation, Josh Reed and Eric discuss various topics related to football and other sports. They express support for the San Francisco 49ers, particularly due to their personal connections with Anthony Lynn. They also highlight Anthony Lynn’s coaching career and his potential for future opportunities. The conversation then shifts to the admiration for Christian McCaffrey’s skills on the football field. Eric shares his preference for other sports, such as hockey, basketball, and golf. They also discuss Kyle Shanahan’s offensive genius and his ability to create successful game plans. The conversation concludes with plans for future topics and appreciation for their friendship.

Takeaways
Personal connections and conversations can enhance the listener experience.
The Buffalo Bills have several offseason needs, including wide receiver and pass rusher.
Sean McDermott’s coaching and consistency have been key to the Bills’ success.
The new coordinator hires bring energy and potential to the team.
The Super Bowl predictions favor the San Francisco 49ers.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Conversations
03:22 RV Trip and Offseason Plans
06:22 Hole in One and Personal Achievements
10:43 Bills’ Offseason Needs and Potential Changes
19:28 Sean McDermott’s Coaching and Future Success
23:39 New Coordinator Hires and Their Impact
31:17 Super Bowl Predictions and Personal Experiences
40:50 Support for the San Francisco 49ers
41:46 Anthony Lynn’s Coaching Career
42:15 Appreciation for Christian McCaffrey
43:09 Preference for Other Sports
44:08 Kyle Shanahan’s Offensive Genius
45:06 Future Topics and Conclusion

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Welcome back to the Center on Buffalo podcast. We are here today with Josh Reed, the Emmy award winning sportscaster who now resides in Buffalo, covers the team, get to see him each and every week. So it’s an honor to sit down with him. It’s always a pleasure.

This will be probably similar to our conversations that we generally have the night before the game over a beer, out for a bite to eat. But let’s hop into this one. Josh, welcome to the Center on Buffalo podcast, brother. Thanks for having me man. I appreciate it.

Some of my favorite nights are when we’re out on the road just sitting around having a beer and you know I think I think a lot of your listeners, you know be surprised to find out that a lot of the times We’re not even talking about football.

We’re just talking about life and everything else that comes with it Yeah, yeah. We probably should be grinding on the content for the game the next day, but we ended up telling stories and linking with buddies in whatever town we’re at and having a good time.

But that’s, that’s the perk of the job being the radio guy. You know, if I was working for CBS, which I was trying to get Jay Feely to meet us for wings when we’re snowed in Buffalo, he said, bro, I have a two hour production meeting from three to five.

Then we have another meeting later in the night. I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it work. And you know, you get an extra full day to prep and those guys still can’t even So being the radio guy, although my salary is not the same, definitely has its perks.

But real quick. So, you know, we’re here recording at 10 a.m. As an like, were you born with your hair like that? And you’re just destined for TV. Yes, you know, I sleep with one of those bags over my head so that you can so it

Doesn’t get messed up though No, you know when you don’t sleep, you know, I’ve got I’ve got three kids under the age of four So I don’t sleep a whole lot. So when you’re sitting up and you never lay down your hair doesn’t get messed up.

So Yeah, but No, yeah, we’ve got we’ve got a bunch of little ones running around But yeah, I do the best that I can it’s not bad for what 40 going on 47, it’s holding in there. It’s definitely holding in there. So for those that don’t know, you just had your fourth boy.

You got three in the house. How’s life with three young boys running around. Well, you know, when we had the most recent came a month and a half ago. So when it was two under the age of three, you’ve heard of like organized chaos.

Well, this third one, baby came and now it’s just chaos. It’s just trying to survive. March Madness, the whole survive in advance, that’s become my daily motto. It’s just make, today is make it to Thursday. You know, just trying to make it to Friday,

Get one more day in the future, but it’s fun, man. You know, I think you would agree with this. There’s no better reward than being a dad. I mean, it’s just what it’s all about. I mean, you know, they’ll drive you up the wall, but at the same, the next minute

They do something and you go, that is what it’s all about. I come home from work for a dinner break, and when the two-year-old sprints at me yelling daddy and gives me a hug, I mean, that’s… That’s why we work. That’s why we come home from work. It’s everything.

Yeah, that’s, that’s well said. You and your wife are going to take an RV trip across the country. How are you, me and Leslie have been talking about that. Like, are you expecting a lot of ups and downs a lot of the way?

Or are you hopefully optimistic that it’s just going to run completely smooth? Okay. mean it’s just not. I fully expect, I embrace the chaos. I mean that’s kind of what you have to do at this point. Luckily my wife is the most patient person in the absolute world. She is a gem.

So yeah you know I we bought an RV you know I think a lot of guys like their dream is hey One day I want to buy an RV and I’m going to drive it across the country. I want to see everything.

And my wife is kind enough to let me realize those dreams and go, hey, you know what, if you want to do it, don’t just talk about it, do it. And so we said, you know what, let’s do this. Yeah, I had never even driven an RV.

And this is one of those motorhomes. It’s like an A-class. It kind of looks like a tour bus. I’ve never even driven one until literally the day we purchased it. The guy was like, so you want to go out and drive it? Have you driven one before? I was like, nope.

So, and I got behind the wheel. It’s not as hard and as intimidating as you might think it is. But yeah, so we’re heading out across the country. Gonna hit every state. We’re going, you know, we’re gonna go hit Disneyland, which I know that you guys just went to recently.

Looking forward to that. The boys are looking forward to it. We get some friends out in California. We’re going to Arizona, New Mexico, then hit Colorado on the way back, Utah. Do that kind of stuff. Yeah, we almost did a West Coast trip during COVID.

Kids were out of school, but then the ACC was still playing ball and college football was still playing. So I had to go to all these college football games. So I had told her, I said, cause I wasn’t traveling for the Bills gig that year.

So I said, if college football gets canceled, we’ll go out West. And she was getting on board because my wife, that’s not her dream either. I just thought, how awesome would that be? We’ll just go steal some time with the family. Go out west, I got a question.

During the fall, you won’t be able to take any extended trips with this RV. Can this become my Madden vehicle? Ha ha. In fact, I’ve had a few people that are season ticket holders say, hey, you know, if I want to use that on a weekend, what do you think about it?

I say, as long as you’re not jumping through a table, have at it. You know, it’s for everybody to kind of share and enjoy amongst friends and family. And yeah, so I have a feeling it’s going to be parked outside the stadium quite a bit.

You know, I know a lot of times you jet right after the game to get back home to the wife and the kids and everything, but you stick around, we can have a beer, we can hang out at the RV post game. we can do centered on Buffalo post games from there.

I think that sounds like a great idea. Yeah, we just got to get you out of your post-game responsibilities or I’ll be hanging out another tailgate for too long that it won’t be any good content. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. We can figure that out. All right. Let’s jump into some stuff.

I know you want to hear about my hole in one from last week. yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we’re, hey, we are completely ignoring the elephant in the room. First of all, a hole in one, I mean, look, you’re a man of faith, and I admire that about you.

I mean, outside of having the kids, religious experience-wise, where’s the hole in one rank? Because, I mean, that’s gotta be, that had to be pretty sweet. It’s up there in mainly because of the circumstances. So I’m on day three of a guy’s golf trip at my country club, medalist golf club,

Which I’d never envisioned in my wildest dreams. I would join, be able to join a place like that down in Florida. It’s down in Hobie sound. I think seven of the top 10 players in the world play and practice out of their very small membership.

No one’s ever out there and it’s my happy place. I go there. My heart rate drops. Well, that day Leslie was flying down. And so she was flying down to meet me for three kidless nights for the start of a trip, just the two of us.

Now, my guy friends were going to be there. Still through that day, another couple was going to stay with us. But so Leslie’s flying down as this happens. And, and look, I used to, I love my wife to death and she’s my greatest encourager,

But she’s also my greatest, uh, reality check at times. I used to hunt up in Buffalo and she would always say, you go hunting, but you never kill anything. I’m like, well, I’m not going killing. You actually have to like be patient with it.

And then, you know, I play in all these golf tournaments, which are tough to win. And then finally we won one. And when I texted her, Hey, you know, you should probably come up here and bring the kids, we need to get a picture with the trophy. And this is that Bahala golf.

This is a Bahala golf club where the rider or the PGA championships being played this year. They’ve had the host of the rider cup. So I went in their last tournament before the PGA and she wouldn’t believe me on that one. And then when I told her, I got the whole one.

I think she just responded back like, no, dot, dot. But it was, it was an awesome experience. My favorite caddy, uh, this guy shone down at medalists who I absolutely love. We’re playing a fivesome with four of my best friends, hit it on my favorite hole out there.

I mean, it was, it was, it wasn’t a skunk shot either. It was a seven iron that absolutely smashed a little crosswind and it lands an inch from the hole and backs up into it. So it was, it was an awesome day. Uh, it? Did you know it when you hit it?

Did you go, that’s got a chance? Well, yeah, I did. And so did everyone else in the group. They’re like, Oh, this looks good. And then we just all went nuts because we could see it go in.

I was still like, just cautious that maybe it jumped over the green and it was an optical illusion, but going up and everyone’s got film on it. So if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s all over my social media because one of my proudest moments.

But but I’ll say this, it was really cool. So yeah, like everyone gets a drink on you in the clubhouse and that’s fine. And this isn’t a crowded golf club. So it’s not a I mean, you can have a good time there, but you know, people are generally going

There to party unless it’s maybe a tournament or you’re on a guy’s golf trip, you know, a lot of guys are there practicing, um, you know, to go out and play a competitive serious round. But I thought it was cool.

My buddies started buying me the drinks and we go out to eat that night and they had a, you know, a dessert made with a hole in one logo on it where we’re like, normally everyone’s like, Oh, your drinks on the

You know, the dude who got the hole in one, I thought it was cool that they made me feel like they, they brought it back and they hooked me up. So, uh, really awesome day, really awesome experience. And, um, it w it was everything. I’d hoped for.

I used to joke with Les Albe. Like I would literally pay $10,000 and walk out the door and get a hole in one today. Like just pay that money, just want that experience. And, uh, I didn’t have to pay that, but it did live up to the hype.

And then when I walked into the pro shop afterwards, they had this, Gotti Michael Jordan golf bag that’s like one of three in the world. That’s like a custom jump man golf bag. I was like, I’ll take it. Just give it to me.

I got to, I got to give myself some kind of present. So really, really awesome trip. That’s great, man. That’s great. We should probably talk about Bills now, at least a little. I feel like, by the way, I feel like at this point, listeners and viewers are

Like, okay, this is what it’s like when they sit around and have beers on a Saturday before a Sunday game. And that, this is literally what you just heard for the last 11 minutes was what it sounds like. And then we normally get to Bills eventually.

What do you, you know, going to this off season, you know, a lot of. A lot of question marks here. They’re strapped against the cap man. I mean, Bean’s gonna have to do some magic and we’ve seen him do it in the past. No reason to think he can’t do it again.

But, I mean, when you look at the position groups, are there any that you look at and go, man, they’ve got to retool and kind of rework that one. Yeah, that’s, that’s a great question. And, and so I had been on the center of Buffalo podcast.

One of the questions I asked him was, is their salary cap real? Because you see teams like the Rams that can go all in and you’re thinking, how can you possibly fit all of those guys under the salary cap? And then you have other teams that can hardly fill out a roster.

Um, and they have maybe two guys that it seems like only two guys are getting paid on the team and he had a great explanation that You know, when you put stuff on credit, eventually you’re going to have to pay for it, you might not pay for it right now.

Now, if you have an owner that’s willing to constantly fork the bill on that, you can essentially string it as long as you want, they could string it out for, you know, every, every couple of years, keep stringing it out and 15 years from now.

Hopefully when, hopefully Josh plays, you know, that long, then, you know, you’re going to go through a transition and it’s likely not going to be a smooth one and you pay the piper then. And then you bounce back.

But when I look at what they could do and what they need to do, like, like if this team just gets healthy and is healthy at the end of the year, they have the best roster in football, in my opinion. And so there’s not drastic changes that need to be made.

When you look at the offensive side of the ball, the only spot I’m really looking at is wide receiver. And that kind of is what’s going to go on with digs. Is he going to bounce back and produce like he did at the beginning of the year?

Can we really trust what we saw from Shakir or teams gonna kind of figure him out a little bit like they did Gabe Davis and get up and press Gabe and not give him over the top. And then all of a sudden he’s, you know, going three out of four games without a

Catch at times. And so can they bring in someone that can truly separate? They tried to go bargain last year with Deontay Hardy and you know, he’s a gadget guy. And you know, he has the monster punt return against the Dolphins.

He made some impact plays this year, but you need someone that could come in and separate and produce. And so if you don’t have the money to pay those guys, you’re likely going to have to draft a guy in the first round. I mean, it is what it is.

This is from all indications. And I’ll admit I’ve watched the least amount of college football these last couple of years. I have my whole life, but from all I read, this is a deep wide receiver draft. There’s a bunch of studs out there.

So that would be on the offensive side of the ball. And then the defensive side of the ball, question marks at safety. maybe defensive tackle with the amount of free agents, but finding maybe one more pass rusher, whether that’s a Leonard Floyd type, pick them up in the summer,

You know, or that’s a draft pick, or that’s a development, kind of a next step from a Greg Rousseau, you know, next step from Ed Oliver in the playoffs. Something like that would stand out to me because ultimately when it comes down to

It, you can have studs all over the defensive side of the ball, but if you cannot put pressure, on a quarterback in the AFC and the playoffs, you’re gonna get bounced. And when the Bills had been bounced the last three years, the amount of points

They’ve given up to, and look, this is Burrow and Mahomes twice, but the amount of yards and points they’ve given up has been astronomical. And a lot of that’s because you just can’t blitz these guys. And if you can’t get pressure with a format rush, you’re gonna get torched in the playoffs.

So I said a lot, what’s your thoughts as the Bills look at personnel wise, heading into the off season? Yeah, you know, you mentioned Hardy. Kind of swing and a miss might be a little hard because I don’t maybe the expectations coming here were a little too lofty for what he what it’s.

Exactly so that’s what I mean, so I don’t you know and i’m with you, I think you got a draft you know I think that’s the wide receiver spots that you draft but for the you know maybe. Hardly not meeting the expectations that bills fans wanted to see Leonard Floyd was

The opposite of that we tend to tax I mean he led. The team in sacks, I mean, I think he signed in June. I think Brandon Bean got him in June. I mean, you would talk about an absolute monster signing that late in the process.

I mean, there, there had to be, you know, 30 other teams looking around going, what? Well, how did we miss this? How did we miss on that guy? I do. I think some of it’s that. And I think, I think, you know, I know they’re. There’s split thoughts on the culture.

You know, is it as important as some people say it is? I think for those players that believe it’s important, it’s very important. And I think that Leonard Floyd maybe gets inside that building and here’s Vaughn Miller preaching a certain message. And then here’s it from Sean.

And then here’s it from Eric Washington. And then here’s it from Bobby Babich and so on and so forth. And then. just kind of percolates and you just constantly hear it and it gets you in a

Spot where you go, this is a safe place where I can grow my game a little bit. And not to get off topic on that, culture is important in a place like Buffalo. And look, the culture doesn’t have to be the Patriot way.

The culture can be, hey, we got a bunch of dudes, we work hard, we have fun, Josh has people over his house. That used to be Vaughn at their time in Denver. Now it’s Josh has people over after games and the guys get together.

Well, when you’re paying New York state taxes and you’re not in a destination city, having a great culture. and having great management, having a brand and being in the building, which everybody loves. Everyone loves him. Okay, that makes that makes a difference. Go ahead. Yeah, no, I mean, you can speak on that.

I’m not going to ask you to throw management onto the bus and stuff like that. But I mean, it also helps when you’re winning because it’s easy to sell culture when you win. And I think that was so important for Sean.

I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, for him to end that drought like that, it’s easy then to sell your message. Am I wrong? Yeah, 100% because if not the trust, the process, the, the grind, the rigidity that Sean can bring to the table each day.

And, and look, Sean will have music on and meeting rooms before we get in there. There’s a basketball hoop in the, you know, in the indoor complex. He might have video games where an offensive defensive guys, uh, you know, do

A two minute drill to see who’s got to run after practice and meet meetings. So there is some like fun competition, but like, when you show up at the you know you’re going to get ready to work and, and Sean will have a little bit of

Fun like that at times, but he’s going to grind you and he’s going to grind you to through the entire season. So yes, if you’re not winning, eventually you’re going to say, okay, the schnicks over. And so them with them, that staff and, you know, that regime winning early definitely helps.

And then you, you hit the nail on the head. It could be as fun as you want, but the only thing fun and pro sports is winning because if you’re not winning, you’re going to lose your job and your buddies are losing their jobs.

And there’s nothing fun about, you know, the couple that you’re best friends with getting fired in week 15. Like there’s nothing fun about that. There’s nothing fun about turning over the roster every year. And so even when you can have a fun culture, which was at times during my

Career, maybe for a couple of years, we had a lot of fun. We just didn’t, honestly, we didn’t have the quarterback play, which you need in the NFL, obviously. And so. Yes. The winning culture is the most important culture, but how do you get to that winning culture?

It can be done a number of different ways, but I say a lot of times it’s just consistency. It’s a consistent approach by the head coach message. Cause otherwise everyone’s going to read through it and say this dude’s a phony.

Yeah, and let’s stick there with Sean because I know that obviously he caught a lot of heat throughout the season You know, there’s a there’s still a pretty decent size amount of Bills fans that think that he’s not gonna be able to get

Them Over the hump to where they can win a Super Bowl. I’m not in that in that group I believe I’m not there yet at least I mean I’m not saying that that’s not something that you sign up for eight 15 years from now,

They’re still losing in the second round that you’re cool with that But most recently I thought about Peyton Manning, all right? And I thought about Tom Brady. And you start to see Patrick Mahomes rack up all of these Super Bowl appearances.

And at some point, do you wrap your head around the fact that maybe what we’re looking at is Patrick Mahomes is Tom Brady 2.0, and maybe Josh Allen is Peyton Manning 2.0. And guess what? If he plays 17 years and you get two rings, and I know that Manning did one

With two different franchises, but I mean, I think you sign up for that because nobody looks at Peyton Manning and thinks of him as less than, right? So if Josh Allen has to play second fiddle, if you will, to Patrick Malmsey, I think that’s something you’d sign up for.

And Manning did win his first Super Bowl until year eight. Right. Yeah. He was 30 years old, uh, came into the league and led the league and interceptions, maybe set an NFL record for most interceptions by a rookie quarterback. Part of that is I understand he was a number one overall pick.

So they were just going to ride with him through the interceptions as opposed to yanking a rookie and not letting them cut his teeth because he wasn’t the number one overall pick. I say all that, you know, I would sign up for that, that run.

Um, if you could guarantee that in, but I mean what the chiefs have done, I mean, it’s It’s remarkable. There’s, there’s a lot of teams around the AFC that are unsatisfied with their results because of what the chiefs have done, not necessarily anything that

They’ve done, but because of what the chiefs are able to do year in and year out, sometimes it’s offensive firepower and a lot of that’s my homes. And then this year it’s the defense and they’ve invested so much draft capital into that defense. But when I look at Sean.

There’s nothing in me that says we need to get rid of Sean McDermott. He’s been the model of consistency and Look, I grew up a Bengals fan and we were the worst team in the league at that time the longest playoff drought In all of pro

Sports and then I go to the Bills and then we take over that title But then Marvin Lewis takes over and I understand they couldn’t win a playoff game But they go to the playoffs what seven years in a row or seven of eight years and all my buddies

Are like man The bills got to get rid of the Bengals got to get rid of Marvin Lewis. I’m thinking man, do you remember how bad the team was before Marvin got there? You know, it can take time and they’re consistently winning, enjoy the ride.

And now I say that when you have Josh Allen, your expectations is to get to and win a Superbowl at some point. Now I’ll say this, Sean McDermott, you know, he comes in and he’s got a staff of guys that he had to find from around the league, essentially.

You get hired from a staff with Ron Rivera in Carolina. Well, you can’t just… poach all those coaches, those great coaches that yet under you, uh, that Ron Rivera had. And so he pieced it together and I’ll give Sean credit. Over time he’s molded his staff to how he’s wanted.

And then he, you know, eventually hits a home run with Brian day, ball is offensive quarter. But whenever you do that, those guys are going to leave. And so then it’s okay. Do we find a proven offensive mind or do we give a guy like Dorsey a chance? Okay.

It didn’t work out after a year and a half. Cool, I’m going with Joe Brady and I’m going to make that switch. And then the bills get hot. He’s willing to make those changes. And I’ll say this, I don’t know if Bobby Babich is going to call plays or not, but

Everybody wants that young, hot offensive coordinator, defense coordinator to be their head coach. Okay. We still have a fairly young head coach in Sean McDermott, who’s the model of consistency. Okay. Well now we got Joe Brady and Bobby Babich leading the offense of the defense. They have that young energy that.

Uh, that’s Sean McVeigh style of leadership where I bring the high energy. I can relate. I’m not this old school rigid cuss you out, tell you how much you suck on this encouraging build you up, get you to play your best. Cause now you’re empowered type.

And that’s what everyone wants to lead their organization. Okay. Well now we have it on both sides of the football and we have a proven head coach. Uh, that’s a proving winning head coach. Like I’ll sign up for this, you know, kind of trio at the top right now, the coaching staff.

Any day of the week. What’s your thoughts on the new coordinator hires? Yeah, you know, you mentioned Ron Rivera there. So I’m going to tie all this together. I went over to his podium, right after the Bills had hired Sean McDermott to be their

Head coach and he had a podium at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. So I go over there because I want to find out about the Bills new head coach. I mean, what better guy to ask than Ron Rivera. So I said, Hey Ron, what advice did you give Sean?

He said, I told him as a first time head coach in the NFL. Surround yourself with experienced coordinators. What’s Sean do? Rick Denison, Leslie Frazier, right? And it’s crazy how it’s evolved now. Now that Sean has all this experience under his belt, now he’s able to go

Younger in both of those important spots. I mean, I looked this up last night, because I don’t know this off the top of my head, but I mean, Leslie Frazier and Rick Denison were born in the 50s. Wow. Babich and Joe Brady were born in the 80s.

So, I mean, that tells you where that, where the shift, the paradigm kind of shift there happened with Sean as he kind of looks at the coordinators. I think, like you mentioned, I think they bring an energy to that staff that’s needed.

I think both of those guys are gonna be excellent at their job. I think we got a taste of it already at Joe Brady. Bobby Babich is the guy that fans don’t quite know yet. that they should because every position group that he’s worked with, you’ve seen success from his position group.

And I mean, what he was able to do in kind of helping Tremaine Edmonds get a little bit closer to the player that he could become before he left via free agency. You know, Matt Milano was already a polished product, so I’m not going to give him credit on that one.

I mean, I could coach Matt Milano. I could be like, hey, Matt, just go out and do Matt Milano things. You say that, you say that, but my buddy who coached him at Boston College was not as optimistic that he could, you know, he coached him, he loves him to death.

And he was like, he’ll have a long career. Um, he’ll start off as a special teamers could develop into a starting linebacker. Like he’s one of the best three off all linebackers in football. It’s incredible. I don’t know though that I give, I probably give the assistance that came

Before Babi Babich at that linebacker spot more. Yeah, exactly. So, but what he was able to do for Terrell Bernard. I mean, that’s sensational. Look, you know, not to get too far off track, but you know, you get a healthy Matt Milano with what Terrell Bernard turned into.

That linebacking crew suddenly, boom, is one of the top pairing you know, especially athletically in the NFL. That’s gonna be fun to watch. But yeah, I like what they did in both coordinator spots. I really do. I think it’s gonna be fun to see how those two kind of develop and everything.

And of course, at the end of the day, what’s gonna happen? If they’re successful, they’re gonna end up finding a head coaching job somewhere. And that’s kind of what you want, because if you’re not successful, they don’t have a job for a completely different reason.

And this is one, I got a bunch of buddies. I live, I live in Louisville. I’m from Cincinnati. A lot of my buddies are bangles fans, Lou Anna Ramos, struggling to get a head coaching job and I don’t know what it is.

He’s almost got the Eric B enemy effect where every year his units perform and they don’t get the head coaching jobs. So you’re like, can we just get a video of one of their interviews? Like, are they just awful in these head coaching interviews? But in, in.

I don’t know this, that this ever happens and there’s, there’s enough ego and enough pride in this business where you want to get to the top. But okay, let’s say Joe Brady absolutely crushes it again this year. Uh, and he gets eight head coaching interviews next year.

If I’m a Terry Pagula, I might say, Hey Joe, that organization’s in a bad place. You know, if your family really likes it here, how about I give you five and a half million dollars a year to stay. I mean, what’s that worth? You know, to me, like you let these coordinators walk.

And what, what if you just made them extremely high paid, like, like beyond what a coordinator has ever been paid before to keep them around, I don’t know if the, this is, this is coming from a former center saying this, I don’t know if

The defensive side of the football justifies it, especially with Sean at the top, but on the offensive side of the ball. So you have a defensive head coach similar to Cincinnati with Zach Taylor on one side. Well, Lou and Arumbo is running everything on the defense side of the ball.

Zach Taylor is not even walking in those meeting rooms all year. And so to me, I wouldn’t shy away from paying Lou and Rumo $6 million to stay and say, Hey, look, Lou, you’ve been here for a while. I’m sure your family likes it at this point. It’s a great town.

You know, yes, you’re going to give up the head coaching title for a few years, but I’ll give you a $30 million contract to stay and make you the head coach and waiting in case something happens with Zach.

You know, if I know the head coaching business, you know, you want to get in the coaching business, you want to get that head job. But to me. I could see that as an evolution of the coaching industry. Okay, then let me play devil’s advocate. If you’re a player, right?

All of a sudden you see. not only the head coach making more money than you, now you’re seeing assistant coaches making more money than you. If I’m a player, I’m going, wait a second here. And there’s gotta be a cutoff somewhere. Now look, I’m not saying player 53 should be worried about that.

Player 53 needs to worry about being on the roster. But player 11, you know, on the starting offense might go, hey, wait a second. Why does the offensive coordinator make it three times more than I am? Because unless you’re a quarterback, he’s got more impact than you or, or a star receiver.

I mean, look, I mean, you can get the starting center out for a game and the line doesn’t move and not to say that he’s not a valuable piece, but a guard, whoever it is, like Joe Thune, he being out for the chiefs doesn’t move the line one inch,

It doesn’t move at a half a point. And so to me, the offensive coordinator can play a much bigger role if he’s that type of dude. If he’s that guy that can, you know, year in and year out produce a solid offense,

He can also give you some wiggle room to pay other guys on the other side of the ball because you know, he’s gonna be able to get that side of the ball to play well. I will say this about salaries and coaches.

It’s often awkward at times when the players are making so much more than the head coach. And not that, and I’m not referring to a quarterback head coach deal because, you know, the quarterbacks paid because he’s the CEO of the, or, you know, he’s the most important player person in the organization.

The head coach could miss the game cause he’s sick and you know, the line’s not going to move nearly as much as if the starting quarterbacks out. But when I remember a time when we made a guy, the highest paid defensive player in

Football and his effort wasn’t quite there for a few games. And it became really awkward when There was nothing you could do about it in meetings. Like there was just, you can say all you want and he’s got all of his money and the

Head coach has paid a third of the amount as that guy. And it just, it just becomes awkward in that instance. And so, um, yeah, there’s no perfect solution to this. You know, those circling back to the coordinators, like eventually they’re

Likely going to want a head coaching job and have it run, you know, an organization, how they want. And that’s, that’s likely why they’re all in this industry. But in the meantime, pay those guys, especially when they’re on the opposite side of the ball from the head coach.

Yeah, that’s you mentioned to any there got a big one coming up Sunday. Obviously the Super Bowl should be a good one. I mean, I think both teams are absolutely stacked with talent Vegas, man. That would have been pretty sweet to be there right about now.

Are you going to go out and what’s have you? Have you done Super Bowls before when you were playing? And have you done that many sets? Yeah. So when I was playing, I would generally go to every city. The Superbowl was, and there’s gifting suites, you know, I was a Nike client.

So I’d go to the Nike suite. I was with athletes first, the biggest football agency, and I’d go to their gifting suites and there’d be all types of brands there. I would intentionally pack a very small suitcase so that I could get all the stuff

Home, uh, that I was going to get Superbowl weekend, cause you just show up everywhere all day, you know, you get a cocktail here, you meet this, you know. celebrity at this deal. And look, for a kid from the West side of Cincinnati, I was like, this is truly unbelievable.

The people would see the experiences we have every night is a series of mega parties with, you know, last year at the Superbowl, I saw Drake at a 200 person concert. I saw Machine Gun Kelly, we saw Usher, I mean, the concerts that are at these parties are just out of this world.

And so, you know, when I was playing, it was more kind of hang with the guys. I might do a play 60 event, or I might do one year I did Garth Brooks charity that it was a football camp up in Indianapolis. Like I’ll do more of that kind of stuff back then.

Now that I don’t make, you know, one 50th of the money, now I’ll do, you know, some appearances for the bills and, you know, pop around for some dinners. Last year I met this group of Australians that came in for the game and just talked to them about football and the rules and.

You know, they were looking for betting advice and whatnot. And I’m like, man, you guys are a trip. Like, and it was, it was so refreshing. It’s like, uh, sometimes when I’m watching a football game with my wife, she’ll ask

Me a really good question that I’ve taken for granted for just so long. And that’s how these Australians were. So this year, I’m not going out to Vegas. Um, I have a speaking gig in Vegas in a week and a half. I’m not dying to go back there twice in two weeks.

And then, uh, a casino up in Buffalo. paid me to come up and do an appearance this weekend. So I’ll be up in Buffalo. I also am knocking out one of the dinners for the Evan Wood Fund Auction. So I will not be out in Vegas, but there will be some serious FOMO.

I got invited to play in the Pickleball, which is like the big pickleball, social media accounts, the PPA, they’re putting on an event out in Vegas and Golden Tate knows that I play in pickleball tournaments and whatnot. So he was like, dude, let’s team up and take it on.

And we both got invited. I was like, oh. that one’s gonna hurt. There’s a few golf events and whatnot. The live tours out there, and I’ve become buddies with some of those guys. But I just spent, we talked about the whole one. I just spent five nights and six days in Florida.

It’s like, if I can be gone for one night and get the essentially the same payment is being gone three nights. I think it’s best to be back home with the family. But I generally take off before the game starts. So I watched the Super Bowl with my family and friends.

Back in Louisville, which is always a rough 6 a.m. flight heading home from wherever city we’re at. But it’s always fun. And, you know, last year I stayed at Richie and Cognito’s house and we spent three days together and bounced around together. And you connect with old teammates.

And for someone that, whose career ended early and I wasn’t ready to be done playing football, just being around football guys for a few days, it’s good for the soul, but I don’t need, the hole in one was good enough for the soul for this month. So. That’ll get me through.

Do you ever head out for the game? Yeah, you know what? I did once I covered the Ravens Niner Super Bowl down in New Orleans, which was I mean outside of Vegas. I can’t imagine a spot Where it would be crazier.

I mean they literally paused Mardi Gras The hostess I mean they paused the biggest party maybe you know of the year in this country Pause Mardi Gras to have the Super Bowl. It was it was sensational Like you said, the concerts are just everywhere.

Lil Wayne played the GQ party, and it was just like, like you said, it was like 200, 300 people. It was crazy. You would be at the GQ party. I was looking for fashion advice.

See, and then I got my favorite one was I got a chance to go to Mike Ditka hosted a cigar party. Yeah, it was unbelievable. I mean, just getting a chance to talk to him. You know, my dad isn’t a huge sports fan.

He just, you know, he’ll watch it if it’s on that kind of thing. But for whatever reason, I think I know why. the guys of his age, like Ditka spoke to him. Like it was like, ah, Ditka, like that’s a guy I like.

Like that’s, and I think that, so when I told him I had a chance to meet my Ditka, it was really cool. And Ditka’s a Pittsburgh guy, and I grew up in Northeast Ohio, so it’s not too far from each other. A similar type of towns, Youngstown, Ohio, Pittsburgh.

So I got a chance to talk to him a little bit. We ended up talking family. He asked me what my dad did, cause I told him he was a huge fan. I said, well, he owns his own business, excavating business, but he used to work in a steel mill.

Dick, it was like my dad worked in a steel mill. And suddenly there was that little, it all takes that little bit of a connection there. It was so cool listening to him tell stories. I look over at the door, Bart Starr comes walking with a Hall of Fame jacket on.

I’m like, where am I? It’s almost like I died and went into football heaven. And I’m like, look at all these. What am I standing in the middle of right now? So that was a really cool experience for one of my favorite experiences of a little over two decades in this industry.

Is there, who do you like? I mean, obviously I’m assuming that it’s hard for you to pull for the Chiefs, but who do you like? You like the Niners, you like the Chiefs in this one? Is there a reason, maybe a personal relationship why you would pull for one team over the other?

Uh, no, I’m pulling for the 49ers. And the main reason is because I’m so petty. And like we talked about my homes kind of separate himself from Josh. I’m good enough buddies with Josh. And I I’m such a fan of his that I don’t want him to be so much further separated

From the homes. And if he adds another ring, he truly would be other than that. It doesn’t matter that much to me. If they win another Super Bowl, does it allow them to attract more free agents? Maybe it could also make their players and their free agents more desirable to other

Teams where they get cherry picked for free agents. So you can kind of look at that from both ways. I’ve never met Kyle Shanahan. He’s really good buddies with Bobby Babich from when they’re time in Cleveland. Like they’re really close. Bobby’s a huge fan of his.

I’ve heard legendary stories about his dad and the parties that they would have post training camp that will save for a another podcast, but I’m a, I’m a Kyle Shanahan fan. I loved watching his offenses. And so I’m, I’m pulling for the Niners and mainly I want to see Kyle win one.

And then Brock Purdy to me, just get it. So my first game I ever called was for Fox and it was Iowa state, Kansas state Brock Purdy’s freshman year. And their coaches raved about him. Campbell, their head coach at Iowa state was like, this kid is unbelievable.

If he doesn’t tear his ACL in high school, he’s at Alabama. Instead, he’s here with us. Well, then he plays well at Iowa State throughout four years. He becomes the last pick in the draft cause he’s, you know, six, two, and he’s

Got some mobility, but not a ton and not a cannon and you know, he’s a good looking kid, but he doesn’t like necessarily look like Jimmy Garoppolo. And so you put all that together, it becomes the last pick in the draft. And to me, I don’t know.

He’s just easy to root for his comment the other day about if he could build a fantasy team, who would he put on it? And he said, our skill guys and Josh Allen. I’m like, okay. That’s about all I needed to know. So I’m pulling for them right now.

They’re a two point favorite and I could see him covering it. I truly can. This chief’s defense is susceptible against the run. We saw it against the bills at times. The bills ran downhill on him and really controlled that football game until those last three possessions.

And so I think they’ll be able to run the football, which will then open up the passing lanes and they got weapons that can separate on the outside when they do run their goofy pressures with man, defense behind it. your favorite story from the game? Yeah, I love the Brock Purdy story, Mr.

Irrelevant. Shout out to Matt Campbell. I’ve known, go back to Mount Union College in his playing days. But yeah, the Brock Purdy story is great, Mr. Irrelevant. I enjoyed the first time the story happened when it was called Tom Brady.

I mean, you know, if he wins the Super Bowl now, it kind of… And then if he can win another one, then all of a sudden the Tom Brady story becomes, well, I mean, he wasn’t Mr. Irrelevant. I mean, kind of a weird thing that we could be watching happen again.

I mean, and then you start wondering if NFL teams start to go, hey, you know, maybe we should throw a dart at a quarterback late in the draft. If there’s a purdy sitting around, I know it doesn’t happen often, but hey, all it takes is once. Yeah, exactly. Same drift.

I like the Niners, probably for more personal reasons. I got to know Anthony Lin and his family when they were here in Buffalo. I think Anthony’s a standup guy. He’s a running backs coach now for the Niners, assistant head coach. They’re just a great family.

He’s got a couple, I think two, maybe, definitely one ring as a player. So it’d be kind of cool to see him get one as a coach. And you know, A lot of people forget that, you know, he had that one interim game. I think it was just one, right?

You probably remember that he took over for Rex when Rex was. Thank you. Okay. Two or three. So and then he goes on against that Chargers gig. You know, his head coaching record is actually over 500. So it’s kind of weird that he hasn’t gotten a sniff at all.

And another chance now, I know that, you know, the trend is we’ve talked about this already of the younger. more Sean McVeigh type guys and maybe Anthony doesn’t fit in that mold. But I’d like to, you know, for Anthony and his family, I’d like to see the Niners get it.

Like you said, Brock Purdy’s a great story. And I personally love watching Christian McCaffrey play. I think what he does on the football field is there aren’t many, and I’m going to ask you this too, there aren’t many guys that we’re very fortunate in our jobs that we

Get a chance to get paid and go watch these guys play, right? There aren’t many guys in any sport that I would pay my money to buy a ticket to go, I’m going to go watch that guy play.

He is one of the few guys that I’d go, I’m going to give my money to go watch him play. Is there a guy that stands out, you know, outside of the Bills building? Because I think we both would agree Josh Allen would be at the top of that list.

Is there a guy though in the NFL where you go, I’d give my money to pay a ticket to go watch that guy play? You know, I definitely in the era that I grew up, like when I was first coming into

The league, my first Superbowl that I went to was it was down in Miami, but it was Indianapolis in New Orleans. Like Peyton Manning was one of those guys. Tom Brady was one of those guys. And then it becomes really awkward when you see them in the captain’s circle.

And you’re like, do I, do I DAP them up? Do I shake their hand? Do I bow? Like, how do we do this? For me, for me, it’s more, um, like. hockey, basketball, golf, getting great access and just watching them up close

Because look, and I never even touched the football beyond the snap in the NFL. So I’m not saying I can do what all these guys do, but I’m just so used to seeing it. Man, I mean, going to the PJ championship and standing inside the ropes and watching

Those guys warm up and just watching them hit in how their routine is and all that, like to me, that’s what I would pay my money to go see, not necessarily a football game. just because you know, you’re just kind of used to seeing it in person.

And then you just assume we’ll, we’ll get, we’re going to Santa Clara next year. So we’ll go see Christian McCaffrey in person next year. One more quick thing on Kyle Shanahan. And I heard this yesterday when he was with the Falcons and they lost in the, in epic fashion.

You know, Matt Ryan was the MVP that year, which I kind of took for granted. And you kind of forget like how good of an offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan truly is. That was the. eighth highest scoring offense in NFL history with Matt Ryan at quarterback. And I’m really struggling to name.

They had Julio Jones on the outside, but it’s like, and then they had Devante Freeman, he did nothing after that. They had, um, one other smaller running back as well who did nothing. Maybe, but it’s like, Kyle Shanahan in, in

What he’s able to do on the offensive side of the football and kind of an old school under center way is just remarkable. And I’ve played with guys that played for him and it’s all details. It’s details. And then just attacking like, Oh, you’re going to make this adjustment.

Oh, you’re completely screwed now. Like, and it’s, you know, they might not score on the first drive and you give, you give a Shanahan those pictures after that first series, he’s going to have you dialed and they’re, those chunks are going to start coming. So we,

There’s also, there’s so much more 45 minutes in there’s so much more we get to. We’ll save it to another one. We got Kentucky Derby stories. We got restaurant takes and wing takes and all that. We’ll, we’ll be chronicling your trip around the country as well, likely, but

We’re going to get Josh as a mainstay on this podcast. Uh, he’s got two more to go to match fits, but I have a feeling that, uh, Josh is going to, uh, surpass Fitzpatrick’s, uh, number of podcasts on this one. So I appreciate your time buddy as always. And I always look forward.

To catch it up with you. Yeah, let’s do it again, man. I appreciate you as always. Appreciate your friendship and everything. Yep, likewise, brother.