Joe Burrow's Perfect NFL Schedule

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We are those guys we hope to be your guys as we continue to navigate the NFL off season, racing towards training camp, which is right around the corner.

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Which is why I've got my guy with me who has been to at least a dozen NFL training camps that I know of, Nick Ferguson, former 10 year NFL safety with the Jets, the Broncos, everyone's favorite.

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What's going on, my man? Nothing much, man.

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How's it going on your side of the world? Well, I mean, we're about to talk about.

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A perfect schedule.

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So I have to ask is a four day weekend, July 4th, part of Nick Ferguson's perfect schedule, or are you going to hit me with a Bill Belichick? No days off.

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Well, to be totally honest, yes, I am.

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There's no such thing as a days off in the world of sports.

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And even though.

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By the calendar standpoint, we may have days off, but the media news cycle never stops.

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There's always something in the news, hence why there's no such thing as an off season or day off.

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Well, there's a difference between an off season and a day off, Nick.

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I mean, I'm just talking about not having to show up to my 9 to 5 and uh, being poolside on, on July the 4th.

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But, uh, when I teased, uh, Talking about a perfect schedule.

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We heard from Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who joined the PMT podcast with Big Cat and PFT commenter.

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Shout out the great work that they've done for years and years and years and really drawing out kind of, uh, a platform for Joe Burrow to, uh, Discuss what he think would be the perfect NFL schedule.

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Now, Nick, as long as NFL owners have moved from 14 to 16 to 17 regular season games, that must mean that 18 regular season games is on the way and you get players like Joe Burrow that are, that are co signing, that are down with it.

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But there's always one caveat, Nick, what's that? It's the bye week.

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You need two bi weeks and Burrow had a unique take on it saying that let's say week 13 Everybody's off for their bi week And you just hold the Pro Bowl in the middle of the season, much like with baseball and with the NBA, their all star break happens in the middle of the season, games take a rest and all eyes are on the exhibition that is the Home Run Derby or the Slam Dunk Contest.

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We've talked about it right here on those guys.

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So my question to you, Nick, is this just sort of a Gen Z type of thing where you are interested in a Pro Bowl in the middle of the season, or It's, um, I don't know.

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It's just a fresh take on a, on a, on a topic that we've debated for years and years and years, trying to get more and more games in the regular season.

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Well, for me to be frank and transparent, hell to the no! Here's why, listen, I know it sounds great, but there's a couple of things that Joe Burrow's theory opens up the players for.

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Once again, we were talking about an 18 game season and no one thought it would get to that point.

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Like when the league jumped to 16 games, everyone was like, wow, I mean, what, what's happening? So what Joe Burrow is presenting, while it sounds great, where, you know, do like major league baseball, do like the NBA and have it in the middle of the season, have like a week, week and a half hiatus.

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And then you jump back into it.

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Here's what the owners are thinking.

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You know what, Joe, at first, We didn't like that concept, but we like it because now you know what? We don't just want 18.

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We want 24 weeks in a regular season.

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That's what we want.

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And you gave us the perfect opportunity to throw that bye week and kind of give people a break.

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But here's why another reason why it won't work.

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I mean, listen to the Joe saying, listen, this would be a opportunity to have that break, Pro Bowl, have the 707 do everything they're doing now.

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With the new Pro Bowl, like they didn't do in years past.

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And it leaves an opportunity for your players, having your best players available when you need them the most in the back half of the season.

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Now, if my memory serves me correct, it is called the Pro Bowl, right? Yes, still is.

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Still it's called the Pro Bowl, and that means as though some of the top players voted in to playing that Pro Bowl will be participating, correct? Well, in years past we haven't quite seen that.

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Shout out Pro Bowler Tyler Huntley.

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Right, but this now opens the door for those guys who said at the end of the season, I can't participate.

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Yes, you can now.

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Correct.

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And who's to say that those players, even though it's a watered down version of the Pro Bowl, let's just say they were to get injured.

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Now you are not having those players available for the back half of the season like Joe presented.

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I'm trying to see if, you know, like we haven't, uh, we haven't seen anybody like Robert Edwards who blew out his knee, um, years and years ago for my New England Patriots at the Pro Bowl.

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I, you know, in the last few years, we haven't seen any injuries at these modified, you know, exhibition drills.

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We haven't seen anybody carted off in the middle of the dodgeball game or the closest to the pin, you know, chip and putt challenge, but, you know, It doesn't mean that a first isn't right around the corner.

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And I understand that there are concessions, Nick.

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You say yes to 18, all of a sudden, they're going to be 24 regular season games right around the corner.

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But the fact of the matter is Nick, you were part of the generation of footballers that played the first games on Thursday night.

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Well, every day of the week but Tuesday, just a decade later, has a football game on it.

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So, I understand that in order to get something in the way of an additional bye week, coming at week 13, so assuming you get both of your bye weeks in before week 13, Players do get more rest, even though they are adding an additional regular season game, or maybe it's a wash, because you'll play, on average, 7 games in a bi week, 6 games in a bi week, and 6 regular season games to finish out your season.

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Um, I just You know, it seemed to be congruent for me with that number and also extending the season one more week, you've got the Super Bowl, and finally that national holiday, President's Day Monday.

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Falls right after the Super Bowl.

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So we finally get Monday off a national holiday that we all deserve.

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The day after Super Bowl Sunday, that's the nail in the coffin for me.

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The reason why people want that day off, because wherever the location of the Super Bowl, most people are traveling that day.

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And then if you're watching at home, you're watching, you're having a party.

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There's a possibility that you might be intoxicated or your guests may be intoxicated.

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So everyone wants that day off logistically because it allows them to get over their sports hangover, literally and figuratively speaking.

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But at the same time, it is quite interesting that We're having this conversation and the Pro Bowl still hasn't been resolved and I guess the petition for the Pro Bowl still hasn't been resolved, but this is why it's different from some of the other leagues.

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You think about baseball, you think about hockey, you think about, um, uh, the NBA.

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With exception, maybe because of hockey, the level of contact isn't going to be there.

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Like, in the NHL kind of all star game, guys are not forward checking guys against the glass.

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No, no, and that was a big point of contention at the, uh, at the previous all star game, for sure.

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A hundred percent, because that's a fan base that expects that type of contact.

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The NFL, we've sort of resided to it in the last 20 years or so, but it's really only been phased out recently since they switched to, I think three on threes for a majority of the all star game.

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Right.

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So, so while the, the, the, the theory may be great, the practicality of it isn't solid because there's no way.

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You put the Pro Bowl week 13 and you say, Oh, we're trying to save the players.

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And even though we know it's a fluff piece with the Pro Bowl, the way it is, guys do start to compete.

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Even in flag football, we've seen it in years past guys on offense, one defense.

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Some guy gets injured, but my point is putting in week 13 is not going to make more fans go, you know what? Guess what would be this weekend in front of the TV watching the Pro Bowl.

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No, that's not gonna bring people back.

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You never know.

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It's star power, right? Listen, it can't get much worse than what we just dealt with the last couple of years.

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If the stars, if Joe Burrow wants to be there, eyeballs and the public audience is going to follow.

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Simply put.

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Like we'll, we'll run down, you know, the list of, you know, I threw Tyler Huntley under the bus, but Mack Jones was there too, because he was the fifth alternate.

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And if you actually get the stars of the league and you don't keep it at Disney world in Orlando, if you actually give the players an incentive to go somewhere.

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Uh, we, we may actually have something that, that grabs our attention again for a football starved audience.

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And it's all, you know, we do this all the time at the NBA all star game.

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It's what happens outside of the court.

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It's Kevin Durant and, and Stephen Curry, uh, communicating with one another to link up in Golden State.

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You've got Harden, KD.

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And, uh, and, uh, and who is the third Kyrie? They were doing it a year later.

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They ended up in Brooklyn.

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So these types of things, if you've got rivalries at stake and these guys all see each other in a, in an exhibition type format.

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Nick, I'm just trying to sell this to NFL ownership for whatever reason.

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I don't know why this is the side of the fence I've taken, but this is where I'm standing.

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No, if, if Beryl or anyone else wanted to put this out there, say, okay, well, if you want to put the Pro Bowl On week 13.

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Okay, let's do this, for instance, because we're not getting a good competitive product on the field, right? Each player who is representing his team in his neighboring area, he gets a chance to vote for a kid.

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In this area to play maybe for the team NFC, AFC, but it's flag football, competitive flag football, right? And when we say that we can go teens if we want to, but let's get some grown men out there who's representing Cincinnati, Miami, Houston, put that team together and let those guys play.

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That would be more of a competitive game.

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Then watching current NFL players play in a 7 on 7 tournament.

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He's Nick Ferguson.

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He's very opinionated about the Pro Bowl.

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I'm Alex Hardy.

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I'm also very opinionated about the Pro Bowl.

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Uh, it is interesting, and maybe the Pro, this, it was fascinating to me that Joe Burrow's mindset is tying the Pro Bowl into the 18th game, because that seems to be win win.

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Um, you know, to just provide change to both of those things seems to be Uh, an incentive for ownership.

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And I'd be curious to see what the reaction to the NFL PA may be.

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And you may have very well, the same guys in the middle of the season, you know, for the same reason that there are certain guys that aren't participating in the home run Derby.

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I've got the rest of the season to worry about.

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I'm not going to get messed up in this exhibition thing.

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You know, I'm getting my paychecks to perform for those regular season games.

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So.

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Interesting to see Joe Burrow feel one way.

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I would imagine that a majority of the veterans would not feel the same incentive, but much like the all star game for 95 percent of the player and the labor workforce, uh, they're just getting a week off, so it all comes down to.

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Who is affected within the margins when it comes to those types of things.

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Uh, you know, another few pieces of news from around the national football league is we're going to continue to look ahead.

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And, um, I mean, there there's, we can go team by team.

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We can go, uh, chasing headlines down and we're always going to have something from the Dallas Cowboys who are going to have multiple contract holdouts.

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And that's always going to be out there, but for this week, let's keep things In the AFC North, because we started with Joe Burrow and we'll stay with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Uh, the big news coming from Pittsburgh, Cam Sutton, the veteran corner, suspended the first, uh, eight of the season due to what the league was calling contract Conduct detrimental, uh, to the league.

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Um, according to multiple reports earlier this year, he had no warrant out for his arrest related to a domestic violence, um, uh, allegation.

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He evaded police after the warrant was put out and he has finally turned himself in earlier this off season.

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He turned himself in a very long winded way of saying that there's a punishment Was, uh, uh, you know, something that has no place in our society, let alone what the NFL feels is, is appropriate.

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And so he's going to miss the first eight games, no appeal.

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The effect that that has on that defense, I think looms large because they, uh, you know, brought Cameron Sutton back, they're relying on a second year, Joey Porter jr.

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And this is a team that is changing its identity, both at quarterback and on the defensive side of the football, adding Patrick Queen.

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So for a team that wants to run the football and play defense, talk about the impact of losing a starting corner for the first eight games of the season, Nick.

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Yeah, it changes what you want to do on both sides of the ball.

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Let's start with the defensive side.

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It affects how you play in the back end.

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And let's be totally honest that Pittsburgh still is defense, even though they had Minka Fitzpatrick back there.

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Enjoy Porter Junior last year.

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I mean, they were, they were a little maligned last year as far as giving up explosive plays at times, like though they were not on the same page.

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And I mean, when you think about Watts and the guys they have up front.

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In order for those guys to get home on a consistent basis, the coverage in the back end has to be solid and it starts with communication.

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So when you move Sutton out of that secondary, from the early parts of the season, it may create somewhat of an issue, but if you know that he's going to be out eight weeks, now you have an opportunity to start to make your adjustments, make sure guys are prepared going into the season and just say, okay, well, we're just going to have to put a bandaid on it until Sutton comes back.

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After week eight, but here's a bigger problem.

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See, this is not just a Steelers problems.

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It's not just an NFL problem.

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It's a societal problem.

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Of course.

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The idea of physically putting your hands on a female that shouldn't be tolerated and for sudden to even just double down on a situation where you are evading police officers.

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Right? Of course, he's not going to appeal the suspension.

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There's nothing to appeal, right? You're guilty as charged, and I'm surprised.

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I am surprised that he was only given eight games.

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Remember Ray Rice, at first he was given two games, then the commissioner saw the video and made it six games.

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So in these situations, you do let the legal process work itself out.

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But at this point, with Sutton, why would you just make matters worse by evading the police? It baffles me and the case by case basis the NFL has with certain, um, certain arrests and charges and things like that.

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You can't, you can't keep consistency around it.

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So it's just, it's mind numbing to think that, uh, every single punishment is going to fit every single crime appropriately.

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But more often than not.

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You're right.

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Eight games for, you know, a third degree felony that for the average Joe could put you in prison for five years is just a different set of circumstances that, that played out in the eyes of, of the commissioner.

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So it, it's, you know, it's a football team in Pittsburgh that, you know, very much holds true to their identity.

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And hearing about what other teams have done, you know, when it comes to, um, other arrests and DUIs and things that aren't quite as, I mean, it's all serious, but in the name of domestic violence, you know, players have been cut for much less.

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So it is kind of interesting to see You know, the ball is kind of in the Steelers court if they just roll them out week 9 or week 10, depending on their buy, and just try to pretend to make us move on from it.

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It's going to be kind of hard to do that, though, because the Pittsburgh Steelers are the latest.

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I know, I know, we just got one of these a couple weeks ago, but they were the latest to be included in HBO's Hard Knocks because we had the training camp version, we had the regular season version, We now have the New York Giants featured in the first off season one.

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We'll get to that momentarily.

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And the Pittsburgh Steelers, the in season with the AFC North, where you've got the NFL schedule.

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And we're going to put on our tinfoil hats here, Nick, if you can adjust yours real brief.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers don't have a division game until week 12.

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The AFC North largely doesn't play a majority of their preseason games.

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I'm sorry, their in division games until later in the season.

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And months after that schedule was formed and people had all of these questions, HBO and NFL Films say that they're going to have camera crews rolling around for November, December, and into the NFL playoffs following the division.

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So we're moving away from Cam Sutton, obviously it becomes a storyline when a starting member of the defense comes back into the fold.

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But, the NFL schedule being manipulated by what NFL Films wants to do in terms of their third iteration of Hard Knocks.

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Well, they say that money talks and you know what, you know, talks to marathons.

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I'm not, I'm not off base on this, right? I know it was a point of emphasis that we want the division games later in the season.

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We don't want teams clinching week 13 or 14 like those Indianapolis Colts or even your Denver Broncos used to do, right? This isn't just about NFL films, is it? No, it's not about NFL film.

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Just, just for a second.

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Think about what NFL films is kind of built on.

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It's about creating that drama.

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And usually we see that drama created before the season.

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Now you got the end season drama.

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Now you, you cover the, the division in a certain way and knowing as though the schedule has been manipulated, like you said, the way that it is to build up the anticipation because it is the division games that are so vital and so important.

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Right.

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And in some cases, like we would always say, when I played those division games, even though they go one for one, but we looked at 'em like they counted two or three points.

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Like, like, you get a division that comes down to the last couple of games, and whomever wins gets the number one seed, makes the playoffs, or they're eliminated.

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Think about what happened last year between Buffalo and Kansas City.

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That game with the Peacock.

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Could you, could you imagine that happening in the, the AFC North where the teams are so physical and so talented that the league did that it builds that drama, but it also builds that paycheck.

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Talk about short arms and deep pockets.

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That's the whole idea.

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I, I I'm just at a loss for trying to figure out exactly.

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Is it the chicken or the egg? Do we have the games to make the money or is it the money that makes the games, Nick? It's so hard to Uh, feel, uh, you know, feel unskeptical about this whole situation with the NFL's most important games being dictated by camera crews rolling around and picking up on what certain second string players are going to say, because you and I both know.

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We're not going to see your guy, Russell Wilson.

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We're not going to see Mike Tomlin.

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We're not going to see TJ Watt.

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Right.

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It's, it's just going to be an added feature onto the NFL schedule.

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You know, whatever light night it is.

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Um, is it Wednesdays? Is it? You know, Tuesday is the one day that we don't have NFL games on it in the NFL season.

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That's when we get hard knocks.

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So the NFL addicts will get their fix every single day of the week.

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Um, listen more power to you.

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Uh, there's clearly a demand for it, but.

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You know, a completely separate conversation.

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If we talk about my Boston Celtics ownership or Mark Cuban selling his stake in the Dallas Mavericks, you have to expect at a certain point that the fat pig is going to get slaughtered.

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I we'll, we'll just have to wait and see.

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And in the meantime, You've got the New York Giants, which their off season hard knocks just kicked off a week ago.

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Hey, we get to see them go, well, we don't want to pay Saquon Barkley, uh, 12 million dollars, uh, but Daniel Jones, here's 40 mil.

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It's, it's, I, I, I just, I, I don't really have an interest in it.

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I really don't.

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Just get me to the games.

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Get me to training camp so I can figure out certain, uh, you know, position battles, and I can, I can rank my fantasy football stuff.

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There I am feeding into the machine, Nick.

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Fantasy football being its own industry.

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I had my first, my first draft this week with the Scott Fishbowl.

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Shout out Fantasy Football Cares and everything that they do to raise money for Toys for Tots and everything else.

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Like there can be some good in it, but we also get hard knocks like four days a week.

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Well, really quickly, you said, does the money make the game? Does the game make the money? It is the game that makes the money.

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Why do you think everyone is so kind of over the moons for fantasy football? Like you, you mentioned, uh, the, the, the, the Scott, uh, fishbowl, right? And then you look at the streaming services.

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This is why direct TV no longer has NFL package.

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And there's now YouTube money, Thursday night, football, Amazon, right? You think about Sunday night, NBC.

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Uh, you think about Monday night on the four letter network.

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Yes, it is the game that makes the money.

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And that's what the league is banking on.

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And this is why I go back to this, Joe Barrow's idea of week 13, uh, somewhat of an extra buy for me, no, you're just giving the owners exactly what they want, an opportunity to make more money and extend the regular season.

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But yet I digress, but.

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Let's talk about that Scott Fishbowl.

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Sure.

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So, uh, roughly 3, 300 people, including myself for the first time, it's their 14th year that they've done it, um, participate in fantasy football leagues.

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So it's, it's hundreds and hundreds, I guess, thousands of 12 team leagues that.

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Uh, that, that the draft, the, uh, a lot of the drafts are in person.

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That's something you're able to do is a huge incentive for people to fly out to Vegas or Nashville or any major city.

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I believe they have them in Denver too.

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Um, a lot of industry professionals, um, and a lot of people that fake it.

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Like I do, don't worry.

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I didn't use my credential as the podcast host of those guys.

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Uh, but.

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It's just a fun way to donate for a good cause, which I certainly did before joining the league and now the draft is ongoing.

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Uh, and I just wait and see.

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You've got some special, um, stat categories and with the new kick return this year, one of the new rules they've added is points for kick and punt return yardage.

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So, all of a sudden, look out for, uh, uh, Rashid Shaheed.

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Or Braxton Berrios or the, you know, the, the underappreciated special teams guys in, in fantasy football.

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So I'm excited.

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I'm brand new to this.

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If, if you are, have participated or are interested in it, you can hit me up, uh, on, on, on social media at a underscore.

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H A H D E, Hottie, with the Boston accent, um, cause I've been tweeting about it, hashtag S B F, S F B 14, hashtag S F B 14, to get all your information, and Fantasy Football Cares.

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It's for a good cause, and I promoted myself, I'm gonna promote you, Nick Ferguson, at NickFerguson underscore 25, on all your major social platforms.

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Uh, and, and, uh, well, yeah, I was trying to get out of here, but Nick, we got to do Nick before we split.

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And I've got to be totally honest with you.

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This one is going to hit home.

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Nick, before we split, trending on, uh, on X right now is hashtag RIP Cartoon Network.

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There've been photos circulating of them pulling down the Cartoon Network letters down from the side of the building at their studios in Burbank.

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So Nick.

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So the story goes that with the merger of a number of Warner Brothers properties, they're going to stop producing cartoons out of that Cartoon Network building, which they've done, uh, for decades.

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It's something that's been long discussed, but today they saw the letters come down and you've got other animators guilds reacting to it.

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Uh, and so I don't know if it's official.

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I mean, you, you, you take down the open sign, um, And all of a sudden, you have to assume it's closed.

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So, Nick, before we split, kind of on a sad note, but you've got to give me some of those cartoons that either you grew up with or you enjoy now with your kids that, I don't know, made you, at the end of the story, at the end of every story, there was a positive lesson to be learned and we were all better for it.

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Yeah, for me, it's kind of odd.

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We're having this conversation.

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I was talking to my son today, uh, in the car, and we were talking about, you know, G.

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I.

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Joe, how I used to rush home after school, especially, uh, when there wasn't football practice to watch G.

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I.

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Joe.

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I would grab a bowl of Frosted Flakes and just kind of watch, you know, cartoons from, from Silverhawks to Thundercats, uh, you name it.

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Transformers, I was all into.

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you know, cartoons.

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And once again, I may be dating myself with this, but it was a huge part of my childhood.

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And once I used to live in California for five years, I used to roll past that Burbank studio and see Cartoon Network.

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But to know that those letters are now coming down and you're wondering, where am I going to find all my great comic books and comic book shows that I used to watch, is it going to now be forced to Streaming services.

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So it is a disappointing part, but, uh, like my six year old now, he's into Bluey and he don't know if Bluey is made out of the same studios, but man, if I have to go and tell him like, Hey man, you might've seen the last couple of episodes of Bluey, I don't even know if I'm ready for his reaction.

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Don't worry about it.

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I think, what, they, they got a, they're, uh, you find Bluey on Disney They've got that Disney, uh, like, payroll.

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They're, they're, they should be fine.

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It's, if you remember the numbers of, like, percentage of, uh, people that watch Netflix for The Office when it was on there, right? Yeah.

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Louis doing crazier numbers than that.

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It's not, it's not going anywhere.

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I'm sure that two, three, hopefully two or three years from now, before we put my son in front of the TV, same thing, Louis will probably be number one for him too.

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He's Nick Ferguson.

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I'm Alex Hardy.

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We are those guys.

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Again, we hope to be your guys continuing to keep you updated.

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On football and cartoons throughout the NFL off season.

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So you keep it right here.

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Ride the wave media, download us on Apple podcasts, YouTube, wherever you find your podcasts.

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And, uh, Nick, let's get out of here.

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What do you have for the people? Hey, leave the power techniques to the experts.

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Okay? No more bad news on social media sites because someone mishandled the fireworks.

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We don't want granny with a bad hip trying to run to avoid a roman candle.

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Please leave the power techniques to the experts.

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Bang, bang.