Rams land in Melbourne 28 hours before kickoff vs 49ers

0:00There it is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, 100,000 plus. Some of the sight lines may not be ideal. The seat's not necessarily at the right angle, but that's okay. That's why we have necks. We can turn our heads. Look in the direction of what we want to see. Hey, you can't see. You got a neck. You got to turn it and you can see. They've got that. The field was like it reminds me of one of those basketball games where the court is elevated. Yeah, it's like on top of the ice or something, right? Yeah, I don't know. That's an interesting look at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Again, that place is going to be hopping tonight. Well, slash. Keep Friday morning. That's just going to be weird to watch. A game being played in broad daylight at night. And totally is. I'm with you there and keep this going guys if you don't mind because you mentioned the sight lines, right? And I was thinking the same thing, but I was thinking the sight lines for a quarterback.

1:03Now, look how far the stands are from the field behind the, you know, sidelines. I mean, what is that? 50 yards on the sidelines before the stands are there again? Maybe more? I don't know. But I will say this. I would hate those sight lines if I was a quarterback. The best stadiums to throw a ball in are the stadiums that are on top of the field because it makes the sight lines. It doesn't mess your depth perception up as much. When you're in these wide open stadiums like this, it can be hard as a quarterback because you go, wait, you know, I don't, how far away is he? I don't know. You know, the backdrop kind of messes with you that way. That's why places like Lambo Field, you know, the old RFK. The, the, the, the, what was the other one? Oh, the link in Philadelphia. As a quarterback, I hear people say it all the time. Oh, I like playing there because the stadium is on top of the field and it doesn't mess with your depth perceptions. That's something that I look at tonight and go.

2:04That's not a quarterback friendly stadium at all. And one of the issues when you play in these non-traditional stadiums, where's the play clock? The Vikings had that issue against the Steelers. I remember that last year when they were playing in Ireland, they're trying to force overtime and there was an issue with the play clock. Where is it? And unless they're going to put a portable one at the back of the end zone, you're going to be straining to see the play clock that is back up against the stand. So that's part of the disorientation that a quarterback is going to experience playing a game in a stadium. He's never played it in before. It's part of what you got to get used to. So the Rams quickly getting used to being in Australia. They landed 28 hours before kickoff. 28 hours. They had a brief practice at Marvell Stadium before visiting the Melbourne cricket grounds. Said Sean McVeigh, where well rested we feel good. The whole idea was they're going to lay down.

3:07They're going to sleep. They're going to rest during the flight. And they're going to get there. They're pretty adjustment by just chilling and not doing anything for 19 hours. It's still. I don't care. It's still a big deal. And there's a huge debate that will rage into and through this game as to who did the right thing. And we're just going to assume and I say we collectively sports media and fans are going to assume that whoever wins they won because of their travel plan because the travel plans are so. Dramatically different. Yeah. I mean, yes, on all. And it is like an amazing psychological experiment. My thing is it makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways. I get that. But this as you know, and as we've all discussed is a different animal. It's literally on the other side of the planet. And within that too, like there. Are they going to be able to sleep the first night they're there?

4:07And as you've heard me say, like when we played in Tokyo as a rookie and we went over there, I remember I woke up in like one in the morning and I was like, damn, I'm awake. Like it's on my white awake. And then I heard a few things in the hallway and I opened up the door and like half our team was sitting on the floor in the hallway. People were out there like on the phone. They were looking at the newspaper. And I was like, well, it could be interesting too. Can they go to sleep tonight to rest themselves once again to be sharp for the game that next morning or whatever? It is fascinating and it will be fun to watch tonight, especially if they slept the whole way over. Yeah, right. Right. And they all had the giant beds. The Rams usually travel with the finest of luxury. So, right, I believe everybody has a first class seat to where they can totally lay out like a bed. You know, it's different. The 49ers, I think a lot of the star players had that.

5:08But we saw in their playing, they had a lot of guys back in economy. And they just like, oh, you have three seats and you can lay that which is, which isn't worth a damn for big people. Oh, great. You gave me three crappy shitty seats to try to get comfortable in. I mean, that's not worth a damn. So, yeah, you're right. That's another thing that you know is to take into account here. It is weird to see. It's not weird to see the criticism and the questions as to the two approaches. It's weird to see the sensitivity that at least one executive has. I don't know if you saw this. I noticed this last night. David Lombardi, who covers the 49ers, made this observation on Twitter. An actual business trip would involve the Rams taking the time to actually grow their brand. There's a reason the Rams don't own L.A. It's related to their current mentality, moving to Anaheim and then St. Louis severely hurt the cultivation of a fan base. 49ers benefit.

6:09And that feeds into the idea that the Rams specifically wanted this game to be played in Australia to avoid another embarrassment of the Rams. Rams House. Rams House. My took us Rams House. Not when the 49ers play here's what is weird about this Kevin Demoff. The president of the team president of the Cronky Sports Entertainment Group. He went after this guy. I miss this. It's nice to see you taking a break from your Brock party obsession to start to care about how we can do this. About how we run our team and the decisions we make. I simply can't understand why you and the rest of the 49ers media is so obsessed with the Rams brand. But I take it as a complement. That's just odd that it's all odd that you're bothered by that and would engage with that and react to that.

7:11And I just wonder if because the two approaches are so different, everyone's feeling a little sensitive and it may be that the Rams did this 28 hour thing because they're thinking about week two. And they may have outsmarted themselves and I know that you know as we were talking it through in the trailer yesterday, I got the sense that the. The Valing view was the 49ers did it right and the Rams may have stepped on a rake here. Yeah, and we'll find out. Yeah, well, it makes for a more exciting game tonight. It does. Well, the rivalries real here. I mean, we know that. I mean, Shanahana McVeigh, they are friends, of course, work together. But it's like the most competitive coach rivalry in football. Let's be serious. Come on. That is like Shanahana. He relishes that he's gotten the best of McVeigh right. McVeigh relishes the go. I got the best of you and the biggest matchup we had and I went on to win a Super Bowl and you don't got a Super Bowl.

8:11So there is that now the one thing I'll say with the Rams and everything they're doing, you know, to the to the tweet from the 49ers executive. The Rams don't give him. Yeah, Rams executive. Yeah, but the 49ers guy started it, right? As far as the guys covers it 49ers, he wasn't in the exact same way. Oh, sorry, sorry. The grand that's sorry. I misunderstood. So the guy that covers the 49ers, what I would say is, you know, I don't think the Rams give a damn about their brand. They're going there to win the game in the way they think and what's best for their team. They're not like, oh, we're going to go spread the Rams way in Australia. That's just they're not worried about it. So yeah, they're just there to be at their best for that game. And then yeah, I think they're a little bit of a look forward. So it doesn't ruin us than the next game too. And they're trying to have the best of both worlds there. But yeah, this rivalry is real. We know this. These have been two of the better teams in football. Rahim Morris, who was the defensive coordinator for the Rams when they won the Super Bowl. Now he's coaching the 49ers.

9:12Shana Han and we know the 49ers were pissed off. Sorry, London, that they even had to go to this game and they feel like the Rams for nagled things behind the scenes to make this happen. So all of it, yeah, it should leave to some really good TV tonight, but tomorrow. But tonight, but it's tomorrow there. That's right. Time travel is real and we will be watching a game being played in the future tonight. And hopefully all things go well. I will get home in time to watch that game. But it's on Netflix and be able to watch it anywhere just like last night. Pull up peacock watch the Patriots. See how the game anywhere miles Garrett estimated as a full participant in Wednesday's practice. It's so weird to have the practice the day before a game. Not be. A real practice. No estimate of what would have happened if you had had a real practice. Garrett has been limited during training camp in the preseason with knee swelling. He's expected to make his debut in the game Thursday night slash Friday morning.

10:14And for the 49ers, George Kittle off the injury report. That means he is good to go awesome with the 20 killies tendon. So Nick Bosa, good to go, George Kittle, good to go. Christian McCaffrey back from his tightness. And it may be that the planets are lining up for the 49ers to be healthier than anybody expected them to be. Yeah, I mean, that's great news. There's no doubt about that. You know, we're not I don't think it's going to see totally 100% George Kittle, but having him out there. He's awesome in the run game. He's one of the best blocking tight ends in the sport. And we know, of course, yeah, even a little hindered with the injury. He's still going to be a factor in the past game, especially the way they play their play action pass and use him off that. And so many great ways there. But, but yeah, it is good. Nick Bosa. Yeah, that's huge. Definitely huge. I was worried about that. This game's got a lot of things, right? We've talked about and you know, with the 49ers and where I can, you know, speak to at least the thing that I would be worried about them. And I've kind of said this to you a little bit.

11:14You know, Shanahan's the ultimate ultimate crowd codecracker. And especially when he's got some film on you to start going, oh, okay, this is what they're doing in this formation. And they like to do this and okay. So then he can devise that. The unknown about tonight is to me going to be one of the biggest struggles for Shanahan and the 49ers. How are they going to play? They think they know how the Rams play, but the Rams got some different pieces on that defensive side of the ball now where I don't think it'll be exactly the way they played last year. So there's going to be some new wrinkles and a new approach that can make things tough on the 49ers. And so that'll be interesting. And then, you know, on the 49ers, thank God Nick Bosa is healthy on that side of the ball because now they've lost Alfred Collins, like we talked about yesterday. I mean, they're thin up front with defense alignment and especially quality defense alignment. And that's going to be something to watch as well. I mean, if Bosa tweaks something or whatever and he's out of the game, then you're going to start go, oh my gosh.

12:15Did they really have a chance? Can they stop the Rams in the run game? Or are they going to have to overload the box, which is going to lead these wide open passes down the field? And that's the, you know, another thing that I think the 49ers are certainly be worried about tonight. I got something for you and for everyone else who is watching and listening. The thing about the first game of the season for us, usually on a Sunday, I'm reacting to the developments of the day. I'm not holding in my back pocket some broader nugget of news because the reality is it's impossible to make that hold when I have it.

13:25So long the name Kirk cousins because they were waiting for Mendoza to step up and he just didn't. So that's just an example. We're looking at all the things and with Pukin, Akua and his status not put on paid leave because he's not currently facing any criminal charges. There's a civil lawsuit against him arising from an incident that allegedly happened on New Year's Eve where he allegedly had a woman in the back and the photo or the shoulder, the photo of it. It's like so perfect. It's weird. It's like the the shark mouth from jaws. Like it's the entire like you'd have to hold still for that. Right. Like you're getting a tattoo. Like how does that happen? But regardless, that's out there. And there was a reference in an item from the California post over the summer about Pukin, Akua being eligible for a diversion program in lieu of a misdemeanor. Prosecution and that's when I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that becomes a potential personal conduct policy issue for Pukin, Akua.

14:28So I put my Fedora with a little card that says reporter on it. And I gather some information. We didn't use it last night. There was a couple of things that I would have preferred to get. It also would have taken a little too much time to explain to a broad audience. Yes. And I'm going to try to explain it right now after I spent three minutes setting up the explanation that hopefully won't take three minutes. Under the personal conduct policy, you are immediately subject to discipline. If you are convicted, plead guilty, plead no contest or enter into a diversion program or something similar deferred you to cation. Some sort of a deal. Any sort of agreement that acknowledges as part of that agreement. That you did something you shouldn't have done or you may have done something you shouldn't have done. And it locks in the case and it activates the discipline.

15:32So with Pukin, the thing that everyone's been wondering about is will he be put on paid leave will he hasn't been charged so no. But the moment you enter into a diversion agreement for this alternative to a prosecution in theory, that's when the NFL can activate the process of suspending you. And I say all that because Pukin has already commenced compliance with the steps that if they're all satisfied will result in a completed diversion agreement. And in California, the specific procedure he's using, you don't reach the agreement. You just do all the things. And if you do all the things, it's treated as if you reach the agreement. And it's completed. So how is the lead going to handle that? And that's what I've been trying to find out. Yeah, so little loophole.

16:35And I'm going to expressly sign the paperwork to enter the diversion agreement, but he's doing the things that you have to do to get qualified for a final disposition as a diversion agreement, which means that somewhere somehow a prosecutor has said, OK, that's fine. Go ahead and do all this. And it'll be over, which means there isn't agreement. It's semantics. There isn't agreement. You're not just, you're not just doing the things necessary with no idea that you're going to get what you want. Right. So it, it tells me depending upon how the league deals with this, and I asked them about a point blank. First I asked them a hypothetical and they said, well, it's kind of hard to answer our hypothetical. I said, OK, how about this? How about this? And that's when they didn't respond, which makes me makes me wonder what's happening. But my point is this. And these are serious issues. Now it's not a strict classic domestic violence situation because this isn't somebody puked previously new, but anytime you've got violence committed by the

17:44professional athlete against a female, that's something significant. The NFL's attention. So the point is, forget about paid leave. There's a chance that he's going to get suspended during the season. And I know that I've seen some reporting that their confidence is not going to get suspended during the season. I think that's wishful thinking. I think they know there's a way these dominoes fall that because he's already embarked on the steps necessary to comply with the diversion program. Just because that may not end until after the season. It doesn't mean that the NFL won't say, hey, he's agreed to comply with the steps of the diversion program. He's going to be suspended. Yeah, that'd be interesting, Mike. I mean, I hear you there all the way. Maybe the NFL knows something we don't know. I don't know, but you're right. You would think that something would be coming. Now when you put the fedora on with the feather in the cap, do you, you know, you're like, hey, champ, champ sport sport. What have we got going on here? Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

18:44Hey, hey, hey, throw on the ball. Yeah, but that is feather. It's the card that says press. Oh, that's right. It's the card. That's right. That's right. Yes. Yes. That is good. Good. My dad had one of those fedora. You look good. You should try it. Yeah, I'm not a hat guy. Not a hat guy. Yeah, on hat guy. Well, you know, the hat guy, not a glass. This guy. Sun glass is okay. Regular glasses. I look like Jerry Lewis in the Nutty professor, which is a very dated. Your eyes are still pretty good, though, for being the old man you are. You know what? First of all, G FY and second of all, every year I get perfect marks. Now I sound like someone else. I get perfect marks. I got the best eyes they've ever seen. I have the best eyes anyone has ever seen. I have all the right vision. I think I've memorized the chart. I think that's what happens. I get a physical in the same place every year. And when it's time to sit down and look in the thing. I remember like because they have you read the most clear line you can see and like with my left eye, it's frying five and with my right eye, it's line six. And I think I've memorized it.

19:57I memorized the letters. So I can see well enough. And I'm being in law school 36 years ago, starting to think my eyes were maybe getting strained and friend of mine had a pair of glasses sitting on the tabletop in the classroom at the law school. And I like, I noticed. I was like, I was like looking at non HD TV and HD TV HD TV was coming through those glasses. I'm like, damn, there's a new world. That's Allison Wunderland through those glasses. But I've resisted in large part because yes, I look like an idiot with glasses. And I'm not putting tiny little pieces of plastic over my eye. I'm not going to do that. So I've made it this far 61. Until I croak without glasses. Let's take a break. When we return, Sunday start could be the most important of the Sean Watson's career as he tries to do enough to show that he's capable of playing in Cleveland. That's next, don't be up to live.

21:0315 live Thursday editions at 10. Or 10 soon as this show is over. I am heading to the airport getting on a plane going home and hopefully getting home in time to watch the Thursday night slash Friday morning game by Sunday. I'll be at MetLife Stadium sitting in the trailer watching among other things the Browns at the Jaguars first start since 2024 for quarterback to Sean Watson. His last win as a started in quarterback came against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Wow, and it's a big opportunity. It's an important game. It may be his last gasp in Cleveland. Maybe his last gasp in the NFL as a starting quarterback here is to Sean Watson from Wednesday on his mindset heading into his first start in two years. I can't focus on the future. I got to focus on now. If I try to look ahead and I get distracted on not focusing on what I need to do now, then who knows about the future of my hill.

22:05All I can do is control these moments now, these opportunities I have now. I want to be just like Tom Mugge said. He's 60, he feels like this is a shot. So, you know, me being on my last year of my deal and, you know, being here, you're 10. I feel like this is my opportunity to be up there. Go and showcase that I can still play in this league and I can want I want to continue to play in this league. So this is my opportunity to do that. It would be a miracle of miracles if he's in Cleveland next year. I think Shepty was on somewhere recently talking about Watson thinking he's going to be there next year. Like what the hell? No, this is the last year of the contract and they've layered it. So it will feel like he's still on the team because there will be salary cap charges into the future. And actually the way it's going to go. He's got some massive number that is guaranteed and it. It will kick in and they're going to have to cut him before then and what happens is they'll take cap charges 27 and 28, but they're not keeping him.

23:07They're not going to keep him without a negotiated contract or renegotiated contract. And he's not going to want to stay unless everything falls together just right. And even if it falls together so well that the Browns would want him. Why does he want to come back after everything that went down last month? Yeah, I hear you. If the Browns fans would want you at that point, there's going to be another fan base that wants you even more. Let's just go there. Yeah, it's a huge year. You know, like you said, like he said, this year is going to dictate a lot of, you know, how many more years he hangs around and whether he can be a starter ever again in the NFL, whether it's here or somewhere else. That's for sure. Hey, the one thing I'll say because we've scrutinized Watson in the past a little bit. That was about as positive and viby as I've seen him in a while. He gave off good aura. We've talked about that a little bit. I thought that was a positive sign right there. Now we'll see he's got a tough test this week. It's Jacksonville. Jacksonville is a Super Bowl contender for my money. I think a lot of people's money. We know that they got some young players at receiver there in Cleveland.

24:14I think that's probably a part of why they play them too. Just hey, we need a veteran guy out there with these young guys. Can they hang around? We know week one is crazy. Can be different. That Cleveland defense is still really damn good at all three levels. So can they make a play and you know, get a short field strip sack a Trevor Lawrence. It'll be interesting to see. But yeah, it is a big year for Dishon Watson. And I'm excited to kind of see what they can do under Todd Munkin. I think a lot of Todd Munkin and what he runs on the offensive side of the ball. They've retooled that offensive line as you know. And they got some good young talent to be excited about. But I don't know if that means they're ready to go to Jacksonville and be the team of that quality. And then and we'll see we'll see that on Sunday. They want to unleash Jared verse the guy that they had to have in order to part ways with Miles Garrett. There was a report yesterday and look, I. It's always interesting to see that the bills kicked the tires on Miles Garrett. But once they renegotiated Garrett's contract to delay the option bonus.

25:21Conversion and deadline from the middle of March until just before the start of the season, it was obvious that he was in play that that's why the Rams called anybody would have called the problem is that bills didn't have a Jared verse that they could put in the package the Browns. Reconciled the need to trade Miles Garrett with the opportunity to get a young. Yeah. Miles Garrett potential replacement, even if he's never going to be Miles Garrett, you get him close and it's a wash. You throw the draft picks on top of it. You draft and develop well and you end up OK. So they need verse to have a big game. And they need to win the game. If they want to have the Sean Watson is the quarterback week three. They got to win the game or come down close to it and Watson has to play well and we'll see if he can. Yeah, nobody knows. Nobody knows. He was better than Shudder Sanders. Shudder Sanders seems to be coming on and we both believe the plan is for Sanders to be the guy come week three unless they managed to beat both the Jaguars and the book and ears on the road to start the season. And as we said, two and a half weeks ago, if those first two games were at home, he was going to be the guy.

26:27And as we said, two and a half weeks ago, if those first two games were at home, it wouldn't be the Sean Watson started for the brides. Certainly not even the Browns are sufficiently dysfunctional to dysfunction that up. I know I wonder the same thing. I hear you there is this a huge I don't want to say second chance maybe third chance for Dishon Watson and within that has a coach that has been saying all the right things to support him. I think that's the big day's been building him up. I mean Todd Monkin is really defended Dishon Watson even when he had the self-inflicted horrible post game interview after that preseason game. He's spoken very highly of him and that should make the Sean Watson feel good. It should make Dishon Watson feel like hey, if I just go out there and play good, I don't need to be great. I'm going to be the quarterback here in Cleveland. I'm going to. So that's what we're going to see now does he have the same magic and abilities that he did in Houston.

27:27Probably not, but we can see he still ran pretty well in the preseason when he had to and then he's still got a pretty powerful. And like we said, with a good running back and the tight end of the receivers got they got some guys that can make some plays, but there's a lot of unknown. And it's five linemen that are new together. And yeah, it's a second year tail back and it's two rookie receivers who are going to be starting. And are they ready for prime time and what it's going to look like when they got to play, you know, NFL regular season football. And that's going to be the thing we'll tune into on Sunday said Todd Monkin to Dishon Watson. He has really embraced what we do offensively. I think for him, it's going to breath of fresh air new life, new opportunity also led foot. I don't know if you saw this Fox eight in Cleveland reports that on August 26. Two days after he was named the starter. Yeah, Watson was cited for going 86 and is 60 and he's got a bench trial coming up September 23.

28:28Third, settle that you got work that day. It's a Wednesday more PFT live after this. Thursday edition of PFT live. I had been checking the Vikings online depth. Oh, not you. To see who they would list is the backup. The starting quarterback, Kyle Murray, because we have had a feeling that Carson Wentz would be number two and the JJ McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft would fall all the way to number three. We had a feeling that's what had happened. And they finally confirmed yesterday that it goes Murray one. Wentz to McCarthy three, which also feeds into this idea that maybe they're trying to trade him. Yeah, maybe they thought about cutting him. They kept four guys on the roster. Initially, then they released Max Brozmer, who passed through waivers and they put on the practice squad. And I still think more Carthes in play. And I think they'll keep him in play. They've paid him the bulk of his compensation for this year. His money's guaranteed the rest of this year into next year.

29:35And who knows, maybe the sea hawks that we joked about it earlier, maybe the sea hawks do call up. And say, yeah, what do you want for JJ McCarthy? We need somebody other than Drew Lock and Jala Milro, if Sam Donald is going to be out for an extended period of time. So again, not a surprise, but it's still jarring when you consider how much they gave up to get him. They traded up from 11 to 10, could have had bone nicks. And he's only played 10 games. And now he's all the way down to number three, but they trust Carson Wentz to come in and run the offense. If Colomary gets hurt, he did it last year when JJ got hurt and played well for a guy who showed up late August to be a member of the Vikings roster. And he proved himself to the Vikings. And now he's had the whole offseason training camp at the preseason to get himself ready to go. So I mean, I'm comfortable with Carson Wentz. I think they've coached some of the left hand it throws in his own end zone out of him. And, and he can, and he can run that offense the way that it's intended.

30:40He was far more effective last year, connecting with Justin Jefferson than JJ McCarthy was. That's for sure. It is shocking. It's shocking because in the modern day NFL, when you're a top 15 pick, like we've talked about, you don't get nine lives. You get 20 lives. That the politics of the sports come into play. I give the Vikings credit for going, yeah, I know this looks bad. Yeah, it looks bad. But we're going to make him the third string because we think he's the third stringer. And as we've talked about to JJ McCarthy seems like he needs a reps guy. He needs reps kind of guy. He's not the guy that can just come off the bench and you go, Oh, he's going to run the offense and make all the appropriate throws. And then you couple that with, wait, Carson Wentz outperformed him the preseason. So that's for sure. And I think we all got a wonder where JJ McCarthy's head is at right now. Where's he yet? He's certainly not giving off like confident vibes and all that. We've talked about it all in the OTAs on the training camp. And he does seem a little mad and bitter about the situation.

31:40He's lost a little charisma when you hear the media talk to him. And I would just wonder, yeah, where he's at mentally. I think that's a part of it. But from what I saw, and I know you're not shocked. I'm not shocked. I think anybody that paid attention to the Vikings at all in the preseason, when you saw this come out yesterday, you weren't like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. I think we all thought it was going this way. That's why you were looking at our lads every five minutes to see what the depth chart looked like. Now I was going straight to the Viking. So I don't see what. Yes. Yeah. Our lives had Carson Wentz at number two. Our lads gets it. The Vikings finally admitted it. All right, we're going to take a break. Will Joey Porter, Jr. Be on the field Sunday when the Steelers host the Falcons to stay. The Falcons to start the 2026 season that's next on this Thursday edition of BFT Live. You know, I could never get used to this. I'm looking at our rundown for the show. And it says the target is 844 AM. And I look up in the left corner of my phone. And it says it's 536.

33:16I was involved in training camp with the preseason. They took him off the public list. When it was time to cut the roster from 90 to 53. He's done some practice yesterday. He was officially limited in practice with the back injury. And as we know, if you just walk out onto the field with your helmet in your hand, they'll put you down as limited. There's so much to count as limited in practice. There's a clear issue regarding his contract. I'm told it's up in the air. He'll play without one and the other thing that operates in the background and soon will be on the front burner the ever ticking clock toward the deadline of no new contracts once the regular season begins. what's going to happen. But it's contentious, nothing's imminent on a contract. And the reality is there will be a final offer on the table before week one. Yeah. At some point before week

34:18one, they'll put the final offer on the table. And he's got to ask himself, do I take this or do I go in the other direction with 3.924 million in compensation this year? And the possibility that I've got a back problem that's going to keep me from playing this year. And then I'll kick the can into next year when they'll have to decide whether or not they want to franchise tag me. Yeah. It is a interesting situation. I mean, you couple that with the guy's dad, of course, was a great player for the Pittsburgh dealers. And he's involved. Okay. And it's very involved. So that makes it a little more complicated. Joey Porter is a good player. But as you've heard me say, I don't think he's towards the top of the ranks as far as corners and football. And I think you can make a lot of cases that, Hey, Pittsburgh's pretty phenomenal at pressuring the quarterback and doing things like that that even make the corners look better than what they actually are. We know that everybody you talked to what we says that about Pittsburgh. Oh, there are blitz packages. What they do. They're creative. And of course, they got some talent up there. And three really three kind of high-end

35:23past rushers with what high Smith and her big. So that helps corner play out. But yeah, what is the sweet spot? And what is he asking for outright as far as average? And that's the interesting thing, you know, and it obviously is overpricing himself. Now, it's just where does the dealers think he lands? You know my thoughts. He's not in the top 10. I really don't know if I would as I go through it and I had a producer the other day kind of go, you know, go through it. Like, you know, and I was kind of like, man, I don't know. It's going to be close to whether I think he's top 20, really, that when you get down into it and really start to get into the nitty gritty of all the corners on some of these teams. I mean, so that's where it is. And what is the number he's asking for? I mean, now, from our basic basic tests that we always do, Patrick certains making 24 right now. Now, he's underpaid. We get that. But he we know Joey Porter is not Patrick certain. And, you know, is it going to be more around the would he take Doron Blan 22.5 a year or maybe the 24 year,

36:30but I get the sense he's asking and we talked about this a few weeks ago that he's he's looking for something closer to the 30 range. And if I'm the Pittsburgh dealers, there's just no way I'm doing that for Joey Porter. And that's where it feels like we're at. And it's going to be interesting here. These last, you know, 72 hours to see what happens. He's in a unique position because even though he was the 32nd overall pick in 2023, he's a second rounder. So he's one year away from the franchise tag. There's no fifth year option to hold him in place. Cam Hayward yesterday sounded off about the franchise tag. He called it stupid. He said all the things that we have said many times about at the problem is it's been such a fundamental part of the collective bargaining agreement since 1993. The NFL isn't going to give it up. And if they are going to give it up, they're going to want something huge in return because not only does it limit what you have to pay to your best player any given year by keeping him from the market where you would have to pay a hell of a lot more if you were competing with other teams to keep his services. Yeah. It also holds the market down.

37:33Hold on. It's tied. Doesn't happen. Right. The other boats don't get left. It makes it easier to manage your entire salary cap if you know that your best player is never going at any given year, every given year. You can use it once a year. Whoever your best player is whose contract is expiring, you can squat on him with that. It's an incredible tool and they're never giving it up. It's ridiculous. And so I mean, you got to be careful if you're the union because if it's so stupid, why'd you agree to it? Yeah, it is stupid, but we agreed to it. It's the worst thing for the players. And you know, I thought we were, you know, most of these owners, I thought we're in the capitalism area. I thought it was all about capitalism. This is kind of, you know, you know, I thought we were in a free enterprise. We do all that. That's the whole world. I mean, we got, you know, five people that have more money than half the country. But capitalism only applies when it justifies the pursuit of money. And then it becomes socialism. Well, that's where that's

38:35where I lack most rich people from some of us. Exactly. Most rich people practice socialism. That's the hilarious thing. They want government subsidies and tax cuts and breaks here and breaks there and everything that way, which is socialism. But then when they have to pay the money out, they're like, I screw you. Screw you. They can think about it. And then we have so many states that practice socialism too. I mean, so many. I mean, so they go, let's just call it what it is. They are restricting freedom of movement. Exactly. Restricting the exercise of capitalism by these players, so they don't have to pay them. So you don't have to compete with the market. So you rig the market when it's you being the one who would have to pay the player. But when it's time to go pursue the profits, there's no artificial limits put on your. Exactly. There's no franchise tag that the networks can use to keep the NFL from jumping to another network with the package it's going

39:36to sell. So anyway, yeah, it's kind of it's crazy. It's actually a really interesting thought. And yeah, that's to me, the number one tool that's got it that the players got to fight against. That is the number one tool. That ship is set out and they're never giving it up. You're going to have to strike for it. You ever going to strike for the franchise tag? No. So just accept it and work around it. That's all they can do. All right. Next up, John Harboh. Got a little testy yesterday. Maybe the rough and tumble New York media finally decided to do a little rough and a little tumble. Let's see. And here Harboh next on PFT Live. There's a addition to PFT Live. Season is underway. The Rams and 49ers playing tonight. And if I scroll deep enough, I'll remember what the hell were supposed to be talking about. Oh, no. The Giants. So you already forgot yet a scroll. You just get just a touch. I have a Giants. I'm tired. I want to go home. I had enough Seattle. Tired and I want to go home.

40:42Boom, boom, boom, tired. And he wants to go to bed. He had a little drink about an hour ago. And it's gone right to my head. I didn't have a little drink about an hour ago. But I'm starting to wish. Second Jaws reference of the day right there. One was Puka. Now we got the song in right there. All right. So John Harboh yesterday meeting with reporters, test the exchange regarding the release of Darius Slayton. But I think it's also a combination of the questions about Malik neighbors. Here is Harboh after several questions regarding the availability of neighbors. Here's where it went from there. Have a listen. I think he's ready to go, man. We'll see though. I mean, it's just it's still four days, five days, four days until we play. So if he's ready to go and he feels like he's ready to go and he's, you know, it's the real play. If he's not and he's not ready and he won't play. I can just say this. I can just say this right now. We put a stop to all these questions because

41:45I'm not going to tell you who's playing in the game. I'm not going to tell you who's starting. I'm not going to tell you what package we have in. I'm not going to tell you what plays we're running. I'm not going to tell you any of that. Okay. So we can make it great and have a great press conference or we can make it uncomfortable. But I'm not going to tell you because when you know the Cowboys know or every other team we play knows. And that's not the competitive interest of our football teams. That makes sense. So I think you can respect that. We're back, baby. We're back. The G-men are back. Look, that's how it's supposed to go. You hold until the very end any question that may cause a reaction like that where the rest of the press conference becomes completely useless. That's how they tried to handle Bill Bellachek. If that question would even be asked, that's one of the realities of press conference. It's very easy for everyone to wait for everyone else to be the one to be the jerk. And ask the question is going to piss off the coach. But it's a power play. John Harbaugh is trying

42:50to mark his territory and he's trying to get things asked to certain way. So people will back off. He wants them to act maybe like they did in Baltimore. But the other side of it too is it's like squeezing a sponge. You got to squeeze the right spot to get the most water out. And there's no point squeezing the dry end of the sponge. And when you ask questions that are aimed at getting the person to disclose concepts and facts that fall within strategic objectives, you're wasting everyone's time. I mean, that's really what he's saying. You're wasting the opportunity to have a meaningful press conference by asking me questions. I'm not going to answer. You can ask me questions. I'm not going to answer. But I'm not going to answer certain questions. So there's a skill. It's a science and an art to get good information out of a head coach or anyone who's in a press conference. You don't want to ask questions. They're going to shut down on. Especially if they shut down so

43:51hard, they just don't give you anything after that. Right. Agreed. Agreed. And the first time I've seen John Harbaugh kind of give a little attitude. And not that it was bad. It wasn't bad at all. But it was the first time I went, um, okay, that's a little Tom Caffliny. That's a little bill parcellsy right there. Just a little testy. Yeah, we're getting close to game time. I don't know. They're feeling it. They know it's a big game Sunday night. It's the first game of his era. The wide receiver thing is a little odd. We know it's been talked about a lot in New York. Darius Sladen. I don't think was shocking that they released him the other day. I don't think that. I think there was a lot of team. He built a didn't know if he would make the team or the initial roster at all. They got a guy like him in Darnell Mooney on the roster already. And he's probably sick of asking questions about Malik neighbors. And yeah, like he said, he's not going to give you the recipe to the to the whole meal here. He wants the cowboys to guess and think about how the

44:53giants are going to approach this. So yeah, I mean, you said it, right? You ask how the status is a Malik neighbors. Then you got to ask other questions about, okay, great. What are the cowboys do? What do you see about them and move on? Because you they did. They answered, asked some questions where you go. You know, the coaching can ask answer that. And the Sladen thing made a little extra contentious. Yeah. And look, the bottom line is they did a bad contract with Sladen last year. He had nine and a half million fully guaranteed. And so they went to him to try to squeeze him to take less than what he was going to make beyond the guarantee. And the reality is, whatever they offered him is probably more than he's going to get who's going to pay him more than what he was already due to make from the giants. Because you could pay him less and the giants pay the balance up to nine and a half million. So I don't like the fact that teams are in a position where they can come to a guy late and say, take a pay cut or take a hike, but it happens. And his name had been lingering. They probably tried to trade him. They went through

45:58this ruse of he's the starter. He's the starter. He's the starter. And now he's not even on the team because they tried to get someone to bite and do a bad trade and give them anything for this guy and get his 9.5 million that they owe him for this year off the books. Let's take a break. We will wrap up this Thursday edition of BFD Live right after this. Good day. Amazing how for the same language the patterns developed in the way the words come out of people's mouths and it influences the other people around them. This weird topography that I resided in West Virginia where it goes from sounding like Pittsburgh to sounding like middle America to sounding like the deep sound sounding like Brandy Moss who is an amalgamation of all three. It's just crazy how the same words sound so different. That was yesterday. Gary believes that what is coming next is evidence that

47:01Aaron Rogers may not waste his time reading crap like that possibly waste his time watching crap like this. Here's Aaron Rogers on reuniting with Mike McCarthy and trying to decipher the very thick and impossible to understand Mike McCarthy Pittsburgh dialect. Here's his Rogers. Mike's good play caller. We got a good good relationship quarterback to play caller. There's a lot of trust going both ways and I'm excited about what it's going to feel like to hear his voice. Very Pittsburgh-East voice in my home again. Has the accent gotten better since he's been back in the last time you were staying in your home? Oh it's no better. It's no better. I mean it's tough sometimes. That's why you really got a study to plan because he'll say a word that if you just like spell it out even if you're doing hooked on phonics it would not sound anywhere near what he's saying. So you got another plan pretty well.

48:05To fill in the gaps into language barrier. That's pretty good. That's coincidental. He wasn't watching the show yesterday Gary. Gary's wishful thinking. Yeah. But it's very real and his Pittsburgh accent's only going to get worse when he's back in Pittsburgh. Totally. You slip into it even more deeply because you're hearing other people talk like that. It is the damnedest way and I didn't know that I necessarily noticed it. I think I did. Especially some of the Pittsburgh kids when I went to Carnegie Mellon 83. They had that. That's when it like really stood out. And people think I sound like I'm from Pittsburgh not like the people who really are from Pittsburgh. I don't know what that is. But you know I can speak to the quarterback you know coach exchange and the helmet. It is a you got to have a clear speaker. You know and the coach can't yell too much. He's really got to be careful with his tone because if he yells and it kind of gets muffled in your

49:08ear and you're like what did he say? Right. So I remember I had to tell Groot in a few times. And you're yelling and I can't make up anything. It just makes it kind of fuzzy. But it is hilarious and hey speaking in languages very important. I always have this funny story in Tampa. We had Luke McCown right. Josh McCown's younger brother. Luke was a phenomenal backup for the New Orleans Saints for a bunch of years. He was extremely physically talented. But he had the thickest Southern draw ever. And we would break. He would break the huddle sometimes in guys who make I don't know what he said. So Groot and God in the huddle one time was like hey Luke you got to speak freaking English. You're in there. 72 C's force in two C's more and everybody is like what? So that brought back memories of that. Luke was the awesome guy to be around and then he cleaned that up for sure. Well get ready to use some Australian accents tonight if they talk to the folks attending the game. Enjoy tonight's game. I'll see you from West Virginia tomorrow. Good day mate.