GOLF-NFL COMPS ahead of the PGA Championship ⛳️ ➡️ 🏈 | This Is Football

Kevin Clark is joined by Andy Johnson ahead of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. They make their comparisons on who in the golf world reminds them of figures in the NFL universe. Hear what NFL team reminds Kevin of Bryson DeChambeau. Plus, who is the NFL’s equivalent to Rory McIlroy?

0:00 Andy Johnson joins This Is Football!
14:36 Back of the US Ryder cup roster is the Cleveland Browns QB room
21:24 Phil Mickelson is Aaron Rodgers
25:37 Justin Rose is Russell Wilson
30:06 Rory McIlroy is the 2014 New England Patriots
36:51 Hideki Matsuyama is Matthew Stafford
39:33 Bryson Dechambeau is the Philadelphia Eagles
44:32 Bryson Dechambeau is the Lions front office

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All right. Andy Johnson is here. One of my favorite podcasters, Fried Egg founder. He also does a shotgun star with her buddy Brandon Porath. He is a Bears fan. Um I he he has the Fried Egg does some of my best YouTube does some of my favorite YouTube content. I actually did an interview with awful announcing last week and I just talked about how great fried egg was and then they they cut a lot of it. Sorry. They cut all of it actually. I I control effed and I didn’t see any. So it’s a thought that counts. Hey Kevin, been a big fan forever. I love your football stuff. Uh love that you do some golf stuff too. And uh I’d like to you know point out the shotgun start has maybe the saddest um football fan bases of all times. We have a Browns fan, a Bears fan, and a Jets fan. It’s really tough. It’s really tough. And I like when there’s a victory Monday and you kind of get to take some victory laps. But I think the biggest problem with Bears, Browns, and Jets in particular, and I’ve been listening to the Shotgun Star for eight, eight years, nine years. How old are you guys? 10 a decade. We’re I think we’re six years. So six years. No, fried fried eggs. Fried eggs a decade. So you’re you you guys did not start until 2019. Uh it was the it was the the first week was when the PGA tour was at Iran. I think it was 2018. Makes sense. Yeah. 2018. Okay, I get it. Um but the problem is is that there are so many things and I feel like this Aaron Rogers to the Jets is is in particular an example of this. There are so many things that should have worked and just didn’t. Like they they just didn’t work. Like Aaron Rogers for the Jets should have won them a division and then they made the playoffs. Like the Browns have Kevin Stfansky who’s an awesome coach and it just isn’t going to happen. And like that that to me is the most frustrating thing where it’s like like you have like a team like the Panthers where it’s like okay what was supposed to work here? Like what what what exactly supposed to work here? No. Bears, Browns, Jets. That’s depressing stuff. It’s the hope that kills you. I you know I feel like the NFL the whole system is geared so that your team makes the playoffs pretty regularly. Yeah. These are three three franchises that like never make the playoffs. I I was counting up since we went to the Super Bowl when I was in college 20 years ago. We’ve made it to to three we’ve had three playoff appearances and we’ve it’s just it’s insane. You know, the last one was five years ago and it we were like eight and eight. It’s it’s just it’s a it’s a dreaded dreaded fan base podcast. It’s it actually makes the show better, I think, because it’s so it’s so dire. Um I agree. You’re in the Bay Area though, right now, right? I am. I am in the Bay Area. Does it make it worse that there’s a Even though last year was down, like there’s a competent team in the area, that’s kind of got to be tough. like they do everything right. They have a head coach who’s going to fix everything. Everything seems to be going swimming. Is that is that bad? And I would say same for Brennan who’s in the DC area now with Jaden Daniels. Well, yeah. Now he acts like he’s a he’s a Commander fan, you know, but uh I would say I I can’t really handle Bay Area sports fans. They’ve lived such a like a charmed existence the last decade. Uh, plus with Steph Curry, uh, obviously the 49ers success, you know, the Giants have been pretty good. I, you know, one of the under undertold stories in sports right now is just how bad Chicago sports is in general. I mean, like, there’s no hope whatsoever. The Pope The Pope is like their first W in years. Yes. By the way, I need to talk about this real quick. The Pope. The initial wave of reports that the Pope was a Cubs fan is such a misread of Chicago. He’s a boomer who was born on the Southside when the White Socks were good. There was no way he was going to be a Cubs fan. Now, anyway, I love that people like dove into the the World Series footage and found him at a game. Like found a clip of nerously rocking back and forth. Yeah. It’s like I can’t believe that a somebody just like poured themselves into it and was just like I’m going to watch Yeah. all all of this footage and I’m going to see if I find the Pope in in this footage and then found him. You know, that was I honestly I was thinking about this. It would have been funnier if it wasn’t the World Series and was just like a random Royals game where like Calvin Pickering was at bat or something for the Royals. Like I feel like maybe you get you get caught when the only time you can be placed at the cell is the World Series. You do get some bandwagoner allegations is what I would say. I mean the the city being divided Yeah. lends itself to, you know, peak bandwagon situations, right? And that neither team is good enough uh regularly. So, you just have people that just hop over. I think Cubs fans are way more likely to hop over to the to the White Socks bandwagon because they’re kind of like it’s kind of like a big brother little brother vibe with with the Cubs and the White Socks. Like the White Socks hold all this animosity towards Cubs fans. And I’m a Cubs fan. I don’t feel much animosity. We play in different leagues. I I’m happy when when White Sox fans, many of my friends, my wife is a White Sox fan. When White Sox fans are happy, I’m happy for them. But it’s kind of the opposite going the the other way. I don’t think my mom um she’s a Maryland terrapin and but she and she roots for Miami because because of my emotional well-being, but then like she will be like, “Why aren’t you rooting for the Gators? It’s your home state.” And I’ll go, “What are you talking about? That’s not how this works. You can’t just be like, “Oh, I’m rooting for the Gators in the Final Four because I’m from Florida.” There are rules about this anyway. Well, I feel like they’ve lost some of the the Florida like the Florida Florida State the Miami Florida and Florida State rivalries have have gone a little bit by the wayside. I feel like the ‘9s was like peak. Well, yes. You had Danny Warfl, Fred Taylor, you know, like you all those great teams. You had it was essentially a semifinal for the national championship. You had two of them a year. Florida State would play Miami and then Miami or Florida State would play Florida on Thanksgiving and then like however that round robin and then every five or six years Miami would play Florida. And however that round robin shook out, one of those teams played in the national championship. And um and for me like it’s I I don’t know. It’s it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking. It’s like it to see now like I just just Miami is in it for the number one overall recruit and I just saw a tweet from Andy Staples being like before NIL would Miami ever be able to uh to to compete with Georgia and it’s like does anybody remember what Miami was like 15 years ago? It’s just sad. It’s sad to see. It’s like you know what it’s like it’s like modern golf. It’s like we’re a old great Northeast course that everyone’s just hitting 330 on now. Well, everybody now has the uh the Illinois Indiana game circled as, you know, potential national uh semifinal, national championship. Yeah, exactly right. I saw Illinois’s top 10 in some of these uh way too early polls. Here we go. We got We got Brett Bum leading the charge. I I hear he’s I hear he’s been in the gym. He’s been in the gym big time this off season. It’s going to be a big reveal when they get to, you know, the spring football games. I have a friend or not a friend, I have a guy who once told me that when Brett Bumma I think I think he was on one of the he was on the Patriots staff. I think they won the Super Bowl and that um that at the party he wasn’t that into the idea of the Patriots winning the Super Bowl and he was just the king of the open bar. That’s what I heard. I heard it was like the life of the party that it wasn’t like everybody else like so referential about the the the Patriots Super Bowl party and Brett Bilma was like making sure everybody was taken care of, making sure everybody was having a good time because he was like he was like whatever the assistant defensive line coach or whatever. He wasn’t that like well you know this isn’t like the highlight of his life and so he was just the mayor of the Patriots Super Bowl party. That is what my sources tell me. I think there are a lot of stories of his time at in Madison, you know, being the life of the party. He seems like a guy that would be really fun to have a beer with. That sounds right. That seems right. Um, all right. Let’s uh let’s do golf football crossover. It’s the PJ Championship. This is dropping on Thursday morning. It’s going to be on ESPN 2 on Friday. Uh hopefully no one like I don’t know. I don’t know how this become dated on Friday. Teres ACL or something um on Thursday. But this is uh this is what we’re going to do. I I’m going to be on the PGA Championship from 12 to 2 on ESPN 2 each day during the tournament. I think one day we go to uh 12 to three, but it’s going to be really cool. Um I want to talk briefly about golf before we get to the football part of it. Uh Quill Hollow, Justin Thomas comes out and says, “All right, we’re just going to do driver and we’re not going to do a lot of strategy.” I think this speaks to all of the problems with golf right now, which is that there’s just you don’t need to put thought into anything and it breaks my heart and I don’t know how you fix it. Like my my solution for the PGA Championship has always been it should be on public courses and it should be places that they don’t ever go to and this is we’re over two in that regard. But I think that’s how you get it to be special becomes the people’s championship. The US Open is always going to have your Oakmonts, you know, just just places that are exclusive. Wingfoot, you know, that that kind of thing. But if you Marion, if you end up with the PGA could become some sort of like people’s championship, just play big Publix, just play um Beth Paige Black, just play up Pebble Beach if it was available, just play places you could play. That’s how I would do it. But for this, it it just seems like it lacks charm and it lacks strategy, and I don’t know how you fix it. Andy Johnson. Um, that’s a great question. I think like what what this is well this is what people have been trying to do with the PGA for years is fix the PGA. How do you fix the PGA? I think when you look at it its issue is that it’s running against three other majors that have an incredibly strong identity. Like the Masters is an institution. It is the, you know, I always use it for my neighbors who don’t follow golf. I say it’s it’s the Kentucky Derby of golf. Um, the US Open is the the toughest test in golf. It also has a tremendous date. Father’s Day Sunday, right? That is it’s another day. It’s a day that if if you grew up in a golf family, you remember you remember watching uh the US Open with your dad. uh the Open Championship, obviously the only international championship and held at the oldest golf courses in the world, some of the great cathedrals of the game. So, with the PGA, I think you’re you’re on to the right idea. Like, how do we create an identity? Originally, it was a matchplay championship. That would be an interesting identity. That’d be awesome. Yeah, it would. Maybe matchplay championship at big public golf courses. Another one that could host that has kind of been sent by the wayside by the USGA would be uh Chambers Bay or Aaron Hills. Like these are other big public golf courses. Kiwa Island a few years ago when Phil Mickelson beat Brooks Kepka, alltime major, one of the great majors of the last 20 years. You know what’s interesting about the PGA is it’s had a lot of great finishes. It’s just something about the whole tournament. the um it just I think there’s such an overt we’re making money um ploy with the PGA also underlying like they they they are the kings of commercialization that it it also yields a lack of soul for the major championship. Well, I don’t think we got any closer to solving it. Would the players not like the match play part of it? Do they not like that level of competition? I I I don’t I don’t know them well enough. I think the the where they where they struggle with match play is players love fair. And if if you play 72 holes of stroke play, it’s a completely different style of play, right? You’re almost like it’s like you’re building a house. You’re building like early rounds, you’re building your foundation. You just want to stay in the stay in the tournament. In match play, anything can happen. So, I think if you wanted to build a really a a matchplay tournament that players would really get behind, there has to be a stroke play qualifying component. You’d have to be like you’d have to be like two days of stroke play and then have a cut and then rank everybody one through 16 maybe. It would be electric if you did 36 holes of stroke play, top 16, go to go to match play, and you play match play the rest of the way out. It effectively con conceptualizes who’s playing well and then you go and I think people would be really into it. The one thing match play always that people always struggle with with match play is you get to the last um day. So Sunday of the PGA is going to be exciting. They always seem to cook up a great Sunday. Everybody’s in the mix. Match play. The big detriment to match play is you only have two players on your last like at the peak thing and there’s a lot of dead air and this is something that other sports don’t deal with necessarily like football it is just I think that’s the thing you think about with football is like you can’t get up and like go fill your water while the play is going on right in golf especially when you get match play situation it takes them 3 minutes to walk from their T-OT to the ball you know, and what are the announcers doing? That’s the tricky thing with match play. All right, here we go. Three comparisons. It can be anything. So, I’ve done quarterbacks, golfers with you, I’ve done the golf channel, and then I did it with Tron a couple years ago as well. So, I I open this up, we did teams, you and I did teams, but I open this up to everything. If you want to do a golfer and a coach, if you want to do a golfer and a team, golfer and a quarterback, golfer and a defensive end, I don’t care. I just want to open this up for everything heading into the PGA Championship. You have the floor, Andy Johnson, for your first comparison. All right, so this is a uh PGA centric one. The PGA of America runs the PGA Championship. They also run the RDER Cup, which is this year at Beth Page Black. Uh it will be a huge event, may probably the biggest event of the year, uh outside of Rory’s Masters win. So, I have the back half of the American Rder Cup roster is the Cleveland Browns QB room. Oh no. Oh no. Who’s doing Gabriel? Not not a lot of clarity, but we will know more in October and it might not be good. Might not be good. Not be and also there there has to be some sort of Kirk Cousins kind of spectre looming at some point. I don’t know who that would be. Well, so if you look at the the American, it’s not been a good it’s been a great year for the European team. Yes. Like all the winners, all the top performers on the PGA Tour for the most part have been European. Like it has been a banner year for the European Rder Cup. And if you go four years ago at Whistling Straits, the big story was how is any how is Europe ever going to compete with this US team? And they went down the list. It’s young. It’s powerful. Right now, if you look at the back half of the roster, you’ve got Andrew Novak, who’s had a sensational year year. Not a household name. No. Maverick McNeely, Brian Harmon, Patrick Kentlay, who’s been a stalwart, but not been playing his best golf. A lot of the reason he’s even on the list is he played really well last week. Uh JJ Spawn and Harris English. This is long from the days of Brooks Kepka. Like who, you know, are who’s not going to be on this team, right? And it they looked young, they looked strong, and now all a sudden the Europeans actually look like the better team. Wow. Um I don’t like hearing that. Uh Brennan Por’s not going to like hearing that. You’re our our friend who’s a Browns fan because he’s going to understand that pain. Um yeah, it the the bench is not deep. The bench is not deep. And I’d say this, I don’t know about Keegan’s coaching because Stfansky is actually a good coach. We have no evidence whether or not Keegan’s going to be a good coach. No, Keegan might be a player coach. You know, Keegan might be a player coach. The other thing is he could be Flacco. He’s Flaco. The other thing about it is it’s very similar in that the Beth Page fans and and the Browns fans want to support you, but they will turn on you very quickly. And if if things are going bad, everybody’s like, “Oh, that Beth Page crowd’s going to be pumped up.” I know these people, okay? I might be out there. All right? They’re going to be behind them until it becomes convenient not to be and then they’re going to be loud and drunk and even with the expensive ticket prices, they’re still going to be very angry. Maybe angrier because of ticket prices. Uh I think Phil and Gabriel, to your earlier question, I I hate to do this, but just because of their dimminionative nature. Oh no. Is Brian Brian Harmon. Brian Harmon. It’s a big Beth Paige is a big golf course. The NFL quarterbacks generally are big guys. Beth Paige really really favors the a big hitter. Brian Harmon is not who you want to see running up the running up the RDER Cup rankings. If you’re Did you see the the reporter the other day in Cleveland who mouthed during a press conference that he’s taller than Dylan Gabriel? Did you see this? I did not. Uh it became a thing. I will say this. I have also met Dylan Gabriel or I’ve been next to him. I went to the Heisman ceremony. I am also taller than him. Um, that’s not a particularly good sign for a NFL quarterback. I I’m like the average male height. I would say I’m like 5’11. I don’t you know the Shadur circus is going to be amazing to watch. I just don’t understand like Shadur is going to be inst I know someone said that Dylan Gabriel um looked better or something in the first OTAAS. Shadur will look better in camp. So, like the whole thing I heard was that Dylan Gabriel was selling himself kind of like probably some of these RDER Cup guys as like I’m just going to be great in the room. I’m gonna be a backup. I’m going to do my job. I’m not trying to be flashy and that’s why he got drafted in the third round. Um, but Shadur has way more talent. So, like I don’t know what the point of having both of them is. And I know this is not new. I’m not breaking you know news here by saying that they kind of played it wrong. But what I am saying is I don’t know how like August comes around and Dylan Gabriel’s not QB4. I don’t know. Whatever. You know, I love I love where they got Shadur. Awesome value, but it also makes you question the third round pick if you’re getting them there. 100%. Well, no, I so I say this on my show when it happened, but like I uh the thing I kept texting people who have quarterbacks in like the fourth round being like, “Why don’t you just take Shadur? like he’s he’s good and he’s in the four available in the fourth round and the actual answer was that they didn’t do any work on him because it there’s cascading effects right it’s like a rude Goldberg device like once he starts falling well none of the teams thought he was going to fall so and I’m making this up like the Eagles probably didn’t meet with him because they were like what was the point of meeting with him it’s not like some guy like you would have met with Dylan Gabriel because you’re like I don’t know like maybe we would take him in fifth round, but you would never meet with Shidar Sanders because you didn’t think about that. So, I’m just sitting here texting guys on who work for teams and they’re like, “We don’t know anything about him.” Like, we can’t take a guy. We never met him. I was I also was thinking about like what what level quarterback do you have to have for the media not to make it like a QB controversy? Because if if my Bears took him, I could see it’s like Caleb and Shadur are duking it out for QB1 and it’s like that’s not what’s happening. I was thinking all the way up to like Detroit with Jared G. People would be saying, “Well, maybe we Jared G throws five interceptions in a game.” Like last year, somebody would be like, “Well, it might be Shadur time.” Well, that’s also the similar situation for Dion as a coach. Like if if he went to the Giants, people would be like, “Oh, why don’t we just replace Dave Bowl with Deion Sanders and that and that.” But like again, Detroit, no problems there. Like Dan Campbell’s gonna be the coach for a while. All right. Um I’m I’m going to start with my three. That was a great one. Great start. We mentioned I said I was going to take We texted you’re going to take the non-supstars. I’m going to take the superstars because you know a lot more more about golf than me. So it’s just an accident that I have three very famous people on my list. But I’m going to start you. I love that. I naturally zagged. Yeah. Um I’m going to start here. It’s the most obvious one and it was a comparison I made 5 years ago that got completely off course and now has returned. These are two people who we thought we understood what their path was going to be. It was going to be all-time great player into elder statesman into media titan working for a network in a booth headset on Monday Night Football Masters the whole deal. Then they started to say weird stuff. Then they started to get weirder and weirder and weirder and now because of all that and their advanced age they’re now underrated. I heard this week on a gambling podcast on one of the DFS sites Mr. Michael Block is $100 more expensive than Phil Mickelson. Phil Mickelson was third in Hong Kong, sixth in Miami. Now, I’m not saying that that’s the greatest the greatest accomplishment in the history of golf. What I am saying is he can still give you something. So too can Mr. Aaron Rogers and I just feel like this is I can’t believe it was one to one about eight years ago and it’s one to one again. It’s it’s amazing that somehow in both cases their off off-field offc course baggage now is the first thing that’s talked about before their all-time greatness. Also used to be that the how charming and personable they were was also like a first bullet point. I never believe that as a Bears fan. Uh let’s let’s get that out in the open. You know, part of me has has has very much enjoyed the demise of Aaron Rogers as a Bears fan who, you know, as he said, he he owns us, which was not an untrue statement. Um, the Phil blocky thing with Phil is insane. I I saw Golf Digest did a ranking where where Michael Block’s like ahead of Cam Davis in the power rankings. They did a power rankings. It’s like, wait a sec, Cam Davis is like a top 40 player in the world. What are we doing? I mean, Phil Mickelson won a PGA in this decade. Yeah. He won. Yes. Yes. But it’s very similar to six majors. But it’s very similar to Aaron Rogers where he became because of the way it ended with New York and I think that there were some issues with him like checking into passes and stuff like that. And I think that they were and I understand why Aaron Glenn wouldn’t want to be a part of it. But I he can still give you so he can still be a lot Aaron Rodgers can still be QB14 and I don’t think people believe that because of the way it’s been trending. I’d much rather have Aaron Rodgers than Mason Rudolph and some and anybody on the Cleveland Browns roster. Like there there’s a he can still give you the basics and so can is he is he going to play this year? is going to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think he told them it was going to happen. The I will say this, the only I think that he’s holding out. Hey, we just had Breer on and we talked about how uh I everyone’s starting to believe the theory that he was waiting for the schedule release so that they couldn’t give him like five prime time games in the first month like they did with the Jets and then the whole thing gets ruined. Um, it really does sound like uh Aaron Rogers, to borrow a fill line, is is is uh taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Like he’s exerting his power. He is exerting his power and waiting until the last second. He’s able maybe, hey, maybe do this roster stuff. Like that was the one thing I think that he had to tell them he was coming before the draft. Otherwise, they would have drafted a quarterback. They would have drafted Shadur. they would have drafted Shooter or Jackson Tart or any number of people. Um, Tower Shock. Um, all right. Who’s your second? All right. Uh, both of these guys have been really good for a really long time. One has one major championship in golf. One has won a Super Bowl. He’s a QB. Both of them took great advantage commercially for their success. And they both also have a very interesting social media presence. that are very into selfies. Maybe mixed locker room vibes. Okay. Russell Wilson and uh Justin Rose. Whoa. Okay. I didn’t see that coming at all. Okay. Russell Wilson and Justin Rose. Okay. Um I love this. Only obviously it’s not one to one because Justin Rose can still compete in a major and Russell Wilson I mean Russell Wilson made the playoffs. He did. That’s true. That’s true. You can’t probably can’t force the playoff with the best in the game, but yeah. No, that that’s it’s a in the middle of the season there were questions. Are the Steelers the best team in football? Yeah, I I don’t know who was asking that, but yes. No, I understand that. I heard it. I heard I’m a I’m a ardent supporter of many NFL. I heard I heard the question being floated. Didn’t Russell Wilson once flip a golf cart in a at a Denver golf course? I think so. I mean, like you got the team Rose, you’ve got Russell Russell doing Let’s Ride. Like, there are there are so many parallels there. There, you know, their personalities you could describe many different ways, but they they generally rub people different ways and and I think just in general, people might describe them as a little bit corny, both of them. So, I completely agree with that. Um, if there was anybody like if you took the name off and a golfer had what Russell Wilshshire had, which was their own office in whatever golf course they were playing at, Justin Rose would be one of your first guesses, right? Like if you were to find out that there was a guy who just like asked the president of the club like, “Can I have an office for this week?” Like a top five guest would be Justin Rose. I, you know, this reminded me of a story I once heard about Jimmy Walker. And Jimmy Walker would show up to his club every day. He’d be there all day and every day he’d be just kided out in his full sponsor gear. Now, like you get paid to wear your gear with sponsor logos when you’re on camera as a golfer. I think most most players go to their clubs and they wear, you know, shorts, different shirts, different hats. They aren’t But like he would just sit at the club just decked out in his sponsor gear. Maybe, maybe Jimmy Walker, another one-time major winner. Is it possible that Jimmy accidentally signed one of those NASCAR deals where like if you use any other brand, all of your deals are voided? Like, wasn’t that the whole thing with the NASCAR guys? Like if you sign with Pepsi and you’re you’re caught drinking a Coke, like everything is voided. Maybe Jimmy signed a NASCAR deal. He had to wear and he’s like sponsored by like law law firms. Like ridiculous. It’s even funnier that it’s not just like titalist. It’s like I’m just going to use a titleist hat. It’s like no no no everything. We’re doing everything. We’re getting the Accenture out there. We’re getting we’re getting the the tra the airline whatever it is. I love that. Um great one. What’s your next one? I’m excited to see by the way Russell Wilson in New York especially as like it gets in because he wanted to be there. I know someone knows him pretty well. He wanted to be in New York like years ago. Like he really likes that that market. And so I’m intrigued to see how it all develops. Also, has he become more likable though as he’s aged? I don’t think so. But I also think that what what he’s going to be able to do. So the Giants love class and they love being like m Mr. Mara and like you know that whole thing. I think he’s really going to pivot towards that. I think he’s really going to pivot towards like the Giants class. He’s going to go to Broadway shows. He’s going to go to all the gallows. Like I think that there’s going to be a way for him to become like a weirdly beloved Giant in a even if he doesn’t play that much. I think he can he can get into Giants fandom because it’s become less about wins over the past couple years. He’s going to become like a franchise icon. Just just a representation of the franchise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Maybe on and off the field because he’s not very good anymore and the Giants aren’t very good, you know. I’ I’ve noticed that they are quite bad. Um All right. I went back and forth now to phrase this and I think I I think I nailed it frankly. Incredible start. 10 years in the wilderness getting close trying to figure it out. Rory Mackoy right now heading into the PGA is the 2014 New England Patriots. So go I thought about making the Tom Brady comparison. I don’t think you can compare anybody to Brady except Tiger Woods. I really don’t. I just think that you’re just talking about that kind of rarified error. But I don’t think people now remember what the 10-year gap was like with the Patriots. Um where Pton Manning wins the Super Bowl. Deion Branch, they’re losing playoff games to the Broncos and the Jaguars and it just didn’t you wondered if the roster was ever going to get to where it needed to be. Um they lost some of their assistants. You remember Charlie? Remember Charlie how much no one will remember this. Remember Charlie Weiss’s first year at Notre Dame? How much hype there was about him that he got a huge extension because uh someone from like the New York Daily News wrote that he’s going to get huge NFL interest like the Charlie Weiss mania. My I shouldn’t say this. I really shouldn’t say this. Well, I have a family member who’s a huge Notre Dame fan. He called me during Charlie Weiss Mania to confide in me that he was concerned because obviously Charlie Weiss was going to like be the like be the next new Rocky basically, right? He was concerned that Charlie Weiss was so overweight and that he might die before they win like multiple national championships. That’s that’s what that’s that’s what it was. That’s the only thing that could have stopped Charlie Weiss from winning national championships in my in my family members’s eyes. Well, what’s amazing is that this man’s football career, I believe, ended uh at Kansas at He was offensive coordinator for the Gator right after that, too, I think, if I’m not mistaken. Maybe that was his son. Maybe actually may have been one of those scam things where he he tried to get his son a job. I got to I got to find this. I think it was one of those things where like Charlie Weiss Jr. was a offensive coordinator like in waiting or something. Let’s figure this out. Yeah, he was the Florida OC under Will Mush Champamp in 2011. Oh, then he went to Kansas. So a So he goes Notre Dame. He I don’t remember this at all. He was the offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in 2010. I have no recollection of this. This is what the Chiefs were before Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. Charlie Weiss made a one-year stop gap there under Todd Haley Parcell’s connection. Um I mean the Bellich uh coaching tree I it’s kind of similar in a way to the uh the Shashevsky where there haven’t been like it it was it’s been all it was all the rage but there really when you take a step back you’re like how many successes were there? Well, the whole thing about Bichc is the thought of that he compartmentalized everything so no one saw the full picture is that if you’re on offense, you don’t know what’s going on on defense. And then so I think Eric Manini had a really good point about this years ago. I think it was on the Simmons podcast when he was joined to be Bill because so like he wanted to Manini wanted to be good with the media but he didn’t want to do that because he thought if he was Mr. Chuckles with the media he would be saying he knows better than Bill, right? Like how who am I to show up Bill and be Mr. Friendly with the media when Bill was an to the media? And so it all like every the wheels were all spinning. Like I think didn’t Wes Welker say that like when he was with the Broncos he would every time he did anything he would still think like I wonder what Bill thinks of this? Like I think that he just got in people’s heads and then everything they did afterwards was shaded by him. It’s a little bit like what SNL people talk about with Lauren Michaels where he is their kind of northstar even after they leave his purview. It it it could be like Butch Harmon. Uh, I had I had a a player once tell me, you know, I like to go see Butch every once in a while because, you know, he tells me stories for an hour and no matter what, I leave feeling really good about my game. And it’s like, and it’s like in the back of your head, you always have like, well, this is what Butch says, and I I you know, you can call back on that. I like that. All right. So, anyway, let’s go back to Rory. So, Rory gets the masters out of the way. He’s got quail hollow this week. By the time this airs on ESPN 2, he’s probably going to shot have shot his his 76 um in the first day and killed the not at quail hollow. No, I know. I It just seems so obvious between Rory and Bryson. I don’t remember two guys where it seemed so obvious they were going to be one two, but that’s just not really the way golf works. It seems obvious like you made a great point on your part with Johnson Wagner where like if you Rory proof the course that also plays into Bryson’s hands because of their distance and then like you know Rory is really the only guy if you look at the strokes gained where the further away he is from the hole the better he is and like that’s what Quill Hollow was set up for. That’s what every major is set up for frankly. That’s why I think he’s going to have a lot of success and so Quail is long. Rory’s won there a bunch. Bryson would be his biggest competition. But I’m looking at this now and I’m looking at Quail. I’m looking at the British Open in his home country, even though he hasn’t played. Uh I think he missed a cut there last time he was there. Um but I’m looking at this and I’m saying, man, there’s a chance here for a Patriots second dynasty run. There’s a second dynasty run on the table for Roy Moy just like the 2014 Patriots. Also, also the 2014 Patriots won the Super Bowl. They’re they got the monkey off their back after the 10-year absence when they’re in the wilderness in a back and forth crazy game. They easily could have lost, easily could have blown. Seahawks should have won that game. Didn’t matter. Once they won it, they were off to the races. I think the other thing you could point to with this comparison is that Rory is past his peak physical prime. Yes. But he might be a better golfer now. And like Brady where like as he got into his mid30s he became the best version of himself. Rory it might be the best version of himself now. Um I think he’s got the monkey off his back at the Masters. Everybody talked about for you know almost 15 years how perfect the Masters the Augusta National was for Rory. It still is. Now he’s got like exercise some of those mental demons. I think he’s he’s very driven to be the to be without a dou doubt undisputed best European golfer of all time and I think he needs a few more majors to do to be in that position. Maybe he gets it this week. Um all right, who’s your last one? All right, my last one here. Uh I got they’re both when they’re good, when they’re physically right, you wonder are they the best at what they do? You know, real balln knowowers really respect these guys, but you’re just not sure when they’re going to be right. So, I’ve got Matt Stafford is Hideki Matsyama. I love this. I love this. One huge moment of glory for each of them. A lot of back problems for both. Yes. A lot of lots of physical problems. Lots of physical problems. And also lots of physical problems out of nowhere. Like do you remember was it the players were everybody been in Hideki and then he pulled out on like Thursday morning? It was like after te times had gone off and and I remember either was either Pat May or somebody was like well the Japanese media had this a week ago and it’s like well tell the American media tell the American media that the dei was having back problems. Okay. Um but no it’s it’s very similar. Their bodies seem to be in a constant state of breaking down but they respect the game. Um they there’s a reason if you just watch them the eye test you can just see how good they are and as you said when they’re on they’re on. The other thing is you mentioned the real balln knowowers thing like I’ve joked about this before with with Mina and others whenever you do like the you ask CJ Stout who his three best quarterbacks are. Stafford is always in there or like uh I think I asked Kyler Murray that question. Stafford is always in there. They completely get it. Um and and I think that’s it it’s it’s it’s a it’s a perfect comparison. Yeah. I mean, and then they, you know, the Stafford had the Lions era, which like you can’t blame him for. You know, Hideki might have had some self-inflicted. Remember when he won the Masters and he was flying like commercially? Like there’s there’s been images of him in line at with Spirit Airlines, you know? So, there’s some like, you know, there’s some organizational decisions that have that have hampered them. Is there a Kelly Stafford in the Hideki Matsama universe? I I don’t know. I don’t know about that, Kelly. I was thinking about that when I made this comparison. I feel like everything’s really quiet with Hideki. You don’t Nobody knows what’s going on with them. I don’t know anything about him. I remember who was it that said that Hideki’s win was going to be most impactful in golf history because of the Japanese market. I I think it was somebody on CBS in the moment. It hasn’t materialized yet. We don’t know. We don’t know. We don’t know. We have no idea, right? We we don’t know. We don’t know. Um but also, you know, maybe maybe Matthew Stafford’s Super Bowl just revolutionized football in Highland Park, Texas. Maybe they just all we’re all in on football now for Texas in Texas for the first time. Who’s your last one? All right, I put I gave a lot of thought to this. A lot of thought to this. I saw I actually saw a video yesterday of a of a of a clip I think or a quote I think about a lot which is Steve Martin saying be so good they can’t ignore you. And I think sometimes there are golfers or teams where you don’t want to believe that they’re as good as they actually are until they just overrun you with brute force. And the Philadelphia Eagles in this last Super Bowl are certainly that. Like once you saw the mismatch with the defensive line and how they were stacking talent, you were going, “Oh, they’re they should win the Super Bowl pretty easily.” and the way they were able to take risks when they needed to. The daggers, all of that stuff, an incredibly online fan base that seems to come out of nowhere every couple of years. Um, they are these just speak to Howie Roseman. They understand analytics and how the house always wins and how to calculate little edges and take advantage of every single one. And they can be annoying. There’s there’s certainly Nick Syriani uh annoyances in that I that I see every once in a while and I don’t and the system but but the system works and at some point you can’t even be annoyed by it because of how talented they are and I think it’s pretty obvious here that the Philadelphia Eagles are Bryson Dshambo system works the push always wins the tush push exactly 100% the tush push uh or I’m not even sure which part is the tush push whether it’s the 3D printed irons or the whatever it is all that crazy stuff he’s doing, it works. He understands it. And I’d also say because of the golf part of it, how successful that is, that’s made him more likable. Like, and I don’t know how to describe that. I don’t know if it’s the like I I have to be honest with you, there are YouTube. So, I’m not a huge YouTube golf guy. I’m not. I I watch your I watch your stuff and No Langing Up stuff because it it relates to me like it’s it’s like a travel show to me, right? like you tell me about a course and I’m going to watch it and then you talk about the architecture and how it’s designed and all that stuff and it relates to the golf that I play. Watching other people play golf is not necessarily unless there’s another wrinkle to it is not necessarily something that I enjoy. Having said that, Bryson will come up in the algorithm. There was a video of him a couple weeks ago where he was at a course in Broward County, Florida, where I I’ve played a lot. He showed up, said, “What’s the course record?” and tried to break it. And I love this video. Did you watch it? Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. And one of the other parts that I learned, which I’ll now cope with, is like it’s a lot harder to play on those courses than it is some of these PJ courses cuz it’s bumpy greens and crappy maintenance and all that stuff. And he didn’t end up breaking it. Some guy named like John Michaels kept it because he shot a 61 or whatever 15 years ago. But it was really compelling and you learn about golf through that. I don’t think there’s a lot of learning in some of these YouTube videos. You learn a lot about golf. before he did a thing with uh he bought a golf set off Teeu and played I think a course maybe his home course in in Texas. He he played 18 on it and it was so crazy to see like what that looks like and you’re learning about golf. Hey, what happens if we play with the cheapest set of irons we possibly can? It was really interesting and you know what’s funny? I mentioned that how hard it is to play in some of those courses. I actually just just read about Pete Rose talking about this where he said that no one believes it, but the hardest the easiest place to hit in baseball is the major leagues because the lighting is the best. The pitchers are consistent. You know, the pitchers are so good that they’re always throwing the same pitches over and over again, even though they’re harder to hit. And they’re not going to be unwieldy. They’re not going to hit you in the head. And then the umpires are good. So there’s consistency. you have to start hacking in single A because the umpires are bad and they might call bad balls and strikes. And so like that video to me with Bryson opened up my mind on like what happens when a pro is on a crappy course. And I just thought it was awesome. And I’ve and I’ve said this for a few years now. I’ve learned to love Bryson Dambo and I’ve learned to love the Eagles. I I thought Nick Cerriani was going to get fired a couple years ago, but you see the brute force and like how can you deny the Eagles now? They are so good. And with Bryson now, I have no negative thoughts about him. I don’t root against him. I don’t even care with the Liv thing because I think he’s sort of outside of Liv. Like I I don’t really consider him When was the last time he really Well, 10 toes down for Liv. Well, the other thing is nobody watches Liv right now. So like right now or right now or ever. All these all these players on live kind of live in a world outside of Lyft because the only time people, you know, most golf fans pay attention to him is at majors. But with Bryson, he’s built this whole YouTube persona. It’s been incredible. He did a one club one with with Sergio Garcia where they played nine holes and they could only use one club. That was incredible. It was amazing to watch Sergio Garcia hit shots. I had for Bryson on my notes, I had the the Lions front office. Oh, they do a lot of unconventional things. They draft players that they’re like, “Oh, they draft Jir Gibbs in the first round. Everybody’s making fun of it. They draft that linebacker from Iowa that everybody had like a fourth round grade on in the second round.” And you know, they do these unconventional things, but at the end of the day, they always seem to work out well for them and and Bryson does these really unconventional does this really unconventional stuff, but it always seems to work out for him. I also think that the comparison is apt because the Lions front office and Bryson seem to think there are still doubters about their process and there just aren’t. Like Brad Holmes wearing a hat or a shirt that’s a positional villain. Like everyone was like, “Oh, the Lions are going to bungle. This is the one they bungle.” It’s like, “No, no, no, Lions, you’re good. We think you’re good. You don’t have to do this.” Like, you can just keep doing your stuff. We have been won over by the front office. And same with Bryson. Like you don’t need to be like, “A lot of people think I couldn’t do this.” No, no, Bryson, everybody thinks you can do this. We’re good. We’re all set. You don’t need to be have this posture anymore. Yeah. Bryson like one of the things he always talks about his equipment. Yeah. Like when he’s playing well like last year’s US Open, if you go back and listen, he like just talks about his equipment. It’s like you’re you’re by doing this, you’re just basically saying like your equipment won the tournament. Like you’re so skilled, you’re so good. You don’t need to bring yourself down. I remember writing a piece about him a couple years ago and the thing about Bryson is it’s it’s there’s a podcast everyone kind of makes fun of it called high performance podcast but uh they have a phrase called worldclass basics and like Bryson the year he came he took the tour by storm he was the top putter in golf in putts under 10 feet and it’s like that’s as important as anything else when it comes to scoring. Like you obviously add in the distance and all that stuff, but like he’s really good at everything. And I I think sometimes his persona again kind of like the Eagles and I think sometimes his persona makes it seem like he’s he’s a caricature and good at certain things and I think he likes it that way like the the Bay Hill kind of pump up long drive stuff and it’s like no no you’re you’re good at every single thing and I think sometimes only real golf fans appreciate it. Yeah, this I I feel like you could do these comps forever, you know? There’s so many of them. I had I I I went through I went through a lot. Like the problem is is like you get into guys like Patrick Kentlay and you’re just like I don’t know Todd BS you’re just going to be 15th for the rest of your life. I I you know it’s like you just don’t know. It just stops being compelling for the audience at some point. I had uh I had a Kyler Murray Minw Lee on the on the cutting room floor. Tik Tok quarterback and Tik Tok golfer. Wow. Both both speed demons but not as good as their online presence. Wow. Yeah, that’s a good one. Um I was thinking of the young guys, but there’s really no like crazy young guys that are even popping on the scene. Like people have been talking about that too about how the young guns haven’t even though we were all scared of all these distance monsters who could could you know carry at 350 in college, those guys haven’t really come on the scene. Maybe maybe they’re all Caleb Williams, Andy. Maybe they’re just 3 years away. I Well, I I almost Caleb Williams won, but I didn’t I didn’t want the the commies fans to come after me. You know, I didn’t need to incite the What was the Jane Daniels of golf? Ludvig. Oh, I think that’s where most people would go. You know, that’s where I was going to try I was trying to go with Caleb. Um but I was then like, uh, they aren’t going to do that. I had Jared Goff and Russell Henley. Both pretty good. Situation has to be great. Not a ton of arm strength. Henley doesn’t push the ball down the field. Um, but they’re, you know, but they’re good enough, but not great at anything. All right, Andy. Russell Henley is where we leave it. Thank you, buddy. All right, thanks, Kevin.