The Big Suey: The MVP Case For Saquon Barkley (feat. Dianna Russini)
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Welcome to the Big Sui, presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching band to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

Stu Gatz is in full self-involvement mode. They're counting down and he's just yelling, I'm counting sales. It's doing great. And he just he's very excited and we're excited for him. What were you saying as I had to wave you off because they were counting us in live and you didn't know and you were counting your numbers? When they're there, when you write a book and you become an author and hopefully you'll be able to experience that one day, you get something called an

Author Portal. And I have a username and a password, and today I remembered it for the first time because today the book is on sale. I am telling you, there are few things better than watching a live count of your book selling, like watching the number go up. It is fantastic. Audience, thank you so much. I did this for you. Yeah. No, I do the same thing every week. Yo, chicken thigh. That's not right. I didn't do it for you. That's for supplementing.

That's what you do. Of course you would. I do the same thing every week with the Greg Cody Show podcast numbers. You know, I'm counting them. They're going up. They're rocketing. They're rocketing. It's good for your self-esteem. It does. You know what else is a thrill? Yeah. The day that when, and it happens with every book. Dan, you don't know this, but it happens with every book that you write. You get a shipment, a box of 40 or 50 books. Oh, wow.

arrives at your house and you open that box and you see stacks of the book that you wrote it's a thrill it really it was emotional when that happened to me i'm serious we'll see if stanzik picks up those books for stugatz and brings them to his house so that stugatz won't be home when he comes over i have them in the car right now

I brought one in for you, for the staff. I did. I did. I'd like to see it, please. Tony is joining us now. Diana Rossini is joining us in a little bit. We're going to go football intensive. I missed my brother last night because you had the Mannings over here, the Harbaugh's over there, the Kelsey's over there. A lot of brothers dominating our media airwaves. And Tony and Diana Rossini are going to carry us through this.

Baltimore ends up beating the Chargers, and I feel like I have this right, right? For as unpredictable as that sport could be, we're like all just sitting around. You can give me all the metrics you want. Baltimore's a little bit better than the Chargers. I don't know why I know that. Charger defense is great, but yeah, Lamar Jackson is going to do that to everybody except like a couple of teams.

They're like a couple of teams, but they're important teams that he's got to do it against. It's the Chiefs, Steelers, or playoff teams. But I'm saying any team seeing Lamar Jackson for the first time, it's like a spaceship has landed on the field, except the ones who play him all the time. Yeah.

That's true. Pittsburgh has his number. That was the best defense in the league. Lamar Jackson did that too last year. Yes, but I would say Lamar... He had 18 yards at one point in the second quarter. I think he's on his way to his third MVP. Lamar Jackson is the guy in sports now. He is the guy across all sports that needs to do it in the postseason. He is. He's the new guy. Wait, across all sports? Josh Allen moment bought him nothing because you forgot about him during a bye week? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. It's like an MVP performance. We all saw the signature moment. Mike, he has two MVPs. He's 6-6 in the postseason. Look at the offseason that the Bills had. It's got to be Josh. We're obsessed with quarterbacks winning the MVP awards. Saquon Barkley.

is the MVP of the NFL at this point. And you know where he is in the betting odds? About 14th or 15th. That's ridiculous. You know what? No one's ever come around and corrected because the book on Lamar Jackson was, you got to get this guy help.

Look at the amount of first-round draft picks as help that they've gotten Lamar Jackson. They got him one of the greatest running backs of all time, too, in the offseason. They have done a great job building out that roster around him. Mike, that organization, quietly, because we can have this conversation around Lamar Jackson every year, move the goalposts, yeah, MVP doesn't matter, I need to see it in the playoffs. Quietly, the Ravens, one of the...

best run organizations in all of sports but had the misfortune of playing when the Patriots were grabbing so many of the championships and we're changing the entire shifting culture into man third place you're a loser if you're third best even if you're third best for 15 years with different quarterbacks loser Tony oh yeah where are you you're standing somewhere and I don't recognize it are you on the top on the highest hill in all of South Florida

Dano in the shadow of the Palmetto in the shadow of winter wonderland or whatever the Ferris wheel we're at the top of the highest point in Southwest Miami-Dade. We're at the top of the Tropical Park Hill. As you can see, we've got everything around here. Kids learning how to ride bike. We've got a bunch of kites and trees from kids that failed to fly kites in Miami.

We've got vultures flying around. There might be a dead raccoon somewhere. I am feeling extremely grateful to show you guys one of the hidden gems of our city, the Tropical Park Hilden. And right there is where John Ruiz's stadium is going to be, right behind Tony. Right over, yeah, right over my right shoulder, right over there.

Billy, weren't you supposed to, as a grid of death punishment six years ago, supposed to run to the highest point in South Florida? I've never seen video of that. Did you ever pay that punishment? Well, I mean, I've done it many a times. They asked me to do it this morning because he was going to be there. But they said get there at nine. And I was like, the show needs me. I can't just be here at nine and show up to the show at 1030 after I finish doing that. So we're going to get to it in a later date. TBD.

Well, it's six years old. Yeah, well, I mean, what do you want me to do? I'm going to just miss the show today to go run up the highest point. It'll take all day. I want you to pay your penalties within six years. He's getting to it. I'm trying. Tony, OLI. Dano, first I want to say that Tony's Top 5 is presented by DoorDash. Get all your game day faves delivered. Head to DraftKings.com slash DoorDash to play for free. Restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. Dan, we're going to start off, like you said, in the OLI. It's Thanksgiving week.

And what I wanted to do as part of the OLI is to stop and appreciate the football we had on Sunday with four incredible games that went down to the wire. Dan, we're going to be missing this in June. So I wanted to give a shout out. I wanted to give flowers to the NFL for providing incredible games going into Thanksgiving. Which is it? Are you shouting or are you giving them flowers? Are you doing both? Are you shouting them out while giving them flowers? Yeah, I'm shouting out because they're kind of far away. So I'm shouting out here.

Okay. As I extend the power. I get it, yeah. Kind of a two-in-one there. How high are you? Oh, look, talk to that guy. You want to interview that guy? Look, a jogger just went by. Somebody, look at these mountain climbers. Look at them. Yes. Look at me, Louie. You guys having a good workout? Good workout? Yeah.

So, Dan, if you look over behind me, there's some kids that are going to struggle mightily to try and get their little bikes up this rocky terrain because there's actually no grass there. It's straight gravel. I think a bee just blew my mouth. Excuse me. But it's going to be tough. Bee? Again, it's high up here. They're pollinating all the flowers and little things around. There's no hive around. Okay.

There's some vultures in the back over there, too. You've mentioned that. Do you smell the raccoon? Is there a dead raccoon? You smell the raccoon? There might be. Obviously, being upwind, we smell something, and they're circling above me, so I'm going to try and make this fast. Maybe it might be me, Dan, that they're trying to be interested. Those kids couldn't make it up the hill. Look at those little lazy bums. They made it, though. Nah, you made it. He's got an electric bike, man. You've got to ride up on the bike. Cheater.

Come on. Oh, look, they're helping. He's helping them. Let's not zoom in on the kids, please. All right. That's a good job by that kid. Good job, guys. Good job by the executive producer. Good job by that kid. Cody's kid. Team players. All right. Last of the OLIs. It was a beautiful Disney Channel moment for Bryce Young on Sunday. He lost. The reason why I say Disney Channel? Yeah, but it's a Disney Channel moment, Dan. The reason why is because...

Bryce Young is the kid that nobody wanted on their high school football team. All of a sudden, the star quarterback gets injured. He gets thrown in. He's playing the big bad team from across the city. And all of a sudden, you think they're going to win. They're trying. They're fighting hard. He's making incredible plays. They end up losing. But we all know the heartwarming story of you never give up and you always fight till the end. And that was a beautiful Disney Channel moment for Bryce Young. He was the number one draft pick. The kids made it down the hill, by the way. Yeah.

Nice. You got to roll down the hill. That's what we used to do as kids at the Tropical Park Hill. You roll down sideways. Get dizzy. I'm not going to lie. I expected more from this hill. You guys really built this thing up. No, you're not seeing it. You're seeing it from the top. Okay. It's a lame hill. Yeah, I'm at the top. Those trees behind him are probably 1,000 feet down. Yeah, those trees are probably like 150 feet tall. If Jay Leno fell off of this thing, he wouldn't live to tell the tale. No, se muere, se muere. Number five. Down! Down!

Number five, Jaden Daniels' new nickname, Dan, the magician. Do you know why? I don't know why. Because he makes victories disappear? He always seems to pull a rabbit out of a hat when the commies need it most.

They lost. What? He didn't do it. This always does. But he didn't at the end. They lost because of the long snapper. The long snapper threw a pass back down. Snap. The holder tried to do his best. Siebert missed it by a mile. Jaden Daniels at the six-yard line threw a 94-yard pass to Terry McLaurin for the game-tying touchdown. But...

A game they never should have been behind in. He threw like a 12-yard pass to Terry McLaurin who did all the work. Tony, how can you celebrate Jaden Daniels after that particular game, losing that game? How does that get into your top five? The magician, Dan, always pulls a rabbit out of the hat. Somehow, someway, he just always does it. Except the last time. The Hail Mary, that pass.

Well, the last time, if I remember correctly, was the Hail Mary. Veteran football guy Greg Cody hates that as an observation. I mean, you know, pick a game when he's actually the hero and a nice victory. I mean, come on. The Hail Mary? Exactly right. Number four. Thank you. Number four. Stu Gatz is going to love this one. Baker is the Al Horford of the NFL. He's got the trifecta. Gatz.

Guile. Moxie. If you give me 11 Baker Mayfields across the field. Terrible team. I'm winning that football game. My God, you're getting crushed in the trenches. You are going to get bulldozed. Did you see the Baker Mayfield block 30 yards downfield? Second time he's done that. It's crazy. 56 yards. Yes.

And I will remind you, Al Horford of the NFL, I will remind you he's got experience. He was running scout team DN for the Carolina Panthers. I think I'd put him like at two spots on the field. Like quarterback and maybe tight end. Your defensive line is getting bulldozed if you've got four Baker Fields. Yeah, but the vibes are going to be immaculate. Exactly right. Sins are going to be overflowing, boys. Number three.

There's the guy we were promised. Caleb Williams special on Sunday. Dan, did you see the throw to DJ Moore over two safeties to force overtime? Do you have any winners in your list of top fives? Anybody who won a football game this weekend? First off, yeah, Baker won. Thank you, Mike. It's your list, Tony. But Caleb Williams...

Thank you. He made four plays that were incredible plays. Did you see him roll out of the pocket, jump over a guy, throw the ball 45 yards down the field over the shoulder to DeAndre Swift? Did you see that play, Dan? Yes, yes. He made four plays. Okay, game-winning play. Game-winning play. That's a winning play. How about the one where he was in the pocket, muddy pocket, broke down, jumped over a defender, and then got a first down? Winning play right there. It's not a game-winning play. None of them were winning plays.

Because they lost. They're winning plays in my book. Your personal record book. You're talking about results. You're talking about results. I'm talking about the process. The pass over the middle to DJ Moore was an absolute laser. It had mustard. It was. I don't know if you guys will get that reference. It was a great throw. I don't know if you guys will get that reference, but somebody will. Ah, thank you. Okay, perfect. Number two.

Saquon Barkley is on pace for the greatest statistical season in running back history and is making it look easy week in and week out. He should win the MVP. Thank you. He should win the MVP, but he won't because we love quarterback, Stan. That was Greg Cody's take earlier. Nothing to say, no love, no...

Yeah, I heard it. I heard it. I was here at the top of the hill climbing for 40 minutes. It's cool. I was at the top of the hill climbing for 40 minutes. Oh, did we keep you waiting? Sorry. We were doing a show. Yeah, yeah. Apologies. It's okay. It's okay. No, it's all good. It's all good. Number one. Yeah.

Brock Purdy, congratulations on the 2024 NFL MVP. It's all yours, buddy. Dan, your buddy Charles Barkley talks about bus drivers and bus passengers. When did we figure out, I think it was on Sunday, that Brock Purdy, bus driver for the 49ers. We thought it was all the weapons. We thought it was Debo. We thought it was Christian McCaffrey. We thought it was Trent Williams. We got a coach that's great in Shanahan. It's incredible. Everything's great until you sub in Brandon Allen and you're like, ooh, that looks terrible.

Why? Oh, maybe Brock Purdy might be the MVP of the league. Who knows? Dano, that's Tony's top five from the top of the Tropical Park Hill, the hidden gem of South Florida right here where families come to enjoy, vultures come to scavenge all you want, all you need right here at the TP. Thanks.

Thank you, Tony. We appreciate it. A celebration of losers there with the 49ers at the end. What he says of Saquon, I don't really want to do that show, but can you explain to me as a group why it is that Tony and Greg and every time I look up at any of the NFL programming, they're arguing Saquon?

who should be the MVP of the league every week for the last couple of weeks of programming and why can't we just say that there are five or six really valuable players? Well, you can't do that. You have to pick someone. That's the job. It comes with the territory. It can't be Saquon Barkley. It

I'm sorry. The Eagles made the playoffs the three years prior to getting Saquon Barkley. The Eagles made it to a Super Bowl without Saquon Barkley. The Giants would be no better with Saquon Barkley. It has to go to a quarterback because that position is simply the most important position in sports, period. If I may hold up a stat to counter argue, getting 200 plus touches, no one has had that.

this yards per carry outside of Jamal Charles and Jim Brown in NFL history so far. His yards per carry is insane when you consider his output. He's having an insane season. I'm not doubting that or questioning that. I'm just saying the Eagles were good before he got there. They were a play away from winning a Super Bowl without him. And they were also figured out. And he's provided them a much-needed extra dimension because they didn't have much if they didn't get that from Saquon Barkley. Okay, but they got there with Miles Sanders.

who's playing in Carolina and doing nothing now. Different team. They've been figured out. Yeah, they've won seven in a row now. I think other than Detroit, I think they may be the best team in the league. It's a refreshing season when Patrick Mahomes is not given the MVP award. I don't think he's even in the top ten yet.

This is an extraordinary season for Saquon Barkley. He could rush for 2,000 yards. I'm just saying, if you have a season where he's doing that and you don't have a quarterback having that extraordinary season, and you can make an argument for Josh Allen or whoever you want, I think it's absurd that he's 15th in the betting odds. That's all I'm saying.

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Void in Ontario. One bonus bet per customer based on amount of initial touchdown bet and expires 168 hours after issuance. One single-use boost per customer that only applies to winnings. See sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos for additional terms and responsible gaming resources. Don Levitard. Ron, I can't walk around my house naked because I fear that the cat would be traumatized. Stugatz. Like if your cat or dog suddenly saw you nude walking around your house naked,

How would they react to that? Probably wondering why I don't have spines at the end of my penis. Yeah, like a cat. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugats.

Let's do this here. Diana Rossini is on with us. She is married to a Lunatic Eagles fan. And if that Lunatic Eagles fan were listening right now, he would say to us, Hey, you guys do realize you guys have been talking a lot about the 49ers skill guys for a long time. But she told us about five weeks ago when people were questioning this, Hey, the Eagles are obviously one of the good teams in the league. Whether you think they've figured out Jalen Hurts, whether you believe in Jalen Hurts or not,

Whether you believe Jalen Hurts is Brock Purdy, those skill guys are crazy. Those wide receivers are crazy, and you add Saquon Barkley to that. I'm talking about when I say crazy, I'm like, I know Goddard's not Kittle, but I wouldn't want to try and be covering that dude. Like, I don't know how you could. They've got one of those mutant tight ends, and they don't need him very much because their other skill guys are so good, and now they've got a running back that has made the entire defense

Giants organization collapse in his wake. The whole thing fell into the sewer the moment that he left and we watched on television on Hard Knocks how they got rid of Saquon Barkley trying to save dollars and coupons over here as you lose your locker room because they're saying, why'd you guys pay Daniel Jones before you paid this guy? We know the freak he is. The problem with the Giants is it's not letting Saquon go. Again, they weren't very good with him. The team wouldn't be any good with him this year. It's who they let him go to. That is the problem. Letting him go to Philadelphia is the

My point is, though, where we talk about the 49ers for the last five years and talk about Trent Williams, that offensive line has been the best unit in the sport for many years now. And so you put all of those skilled guys behind that offensive line, and Diana, your husband has a lot of reasons to be happy because he knows how good his football team is.

Yeah, things are good over here, especially with that offensive line in Philly. You make a good point because I thought that they would regress without Jason Kelsey. That was the biggest storyline about Philadelphia headed into the season of how would Jeff Stoutland, the offensive line coach, figure out a way to make this team good? Oh, we've got Makai Becton now from the Jets. He stunk there. Guess who's good now? Makai Becton, right? Really good coaching and being in a locker room with really good skilled players.

his level of play. So, yeah, the idea, Sunday in general, like just Sunday as a whole for Philadelphia and New York, it was so entertaining to just watch the collapse of one team, but

and the celebration of another because of that one team, because of the other team, because of their rival. I mean, New York by four o'clock, by the time we were having dinner, I was just thinking, man, this is so hard for the Giants right now. They moved on from Daniel Jones, something I think we can all agree here on the show that was probably the right thing to do. They believe that Tommy Cutlets, Tommy DeVito, who we talked to his agent on the show last week, was going to be that spark.

He was the animal, right? The Italian stallion. Well, not much of a stallion, more like a little chicken. He wasn't great. Wow. Wow. She called him a little chicken. She called Tommy Cutlets a little chicken. I was sticking with the Rocky theme. I was thinking Rocky. Oh, a little chicken, she called him. You know, the chicken that runs around. Yeah, I know. But I don't push.

Don't put it on him. I don't even put the guy was the third string quarterback and the Giants thought this would be the answer. This is going to be the guy to give us the spark and try to recapture what we saw last season. It is so difficult to do that. Meanwhile, you got Drew Locke.

who is on a $5 million contract to be the backup quarterback. Wait a minute. Diana, what is that in front of you? I can't believe I've taken this long to get to it. What is that in front of you? Right in front of you, near your right hand. Yes, there, Diana. Oh, my God. There it is. Look at that. There it is, a live copy outside of the studio. Show us that it's not a prop. Show us that there are words in it and there are pictures and there are things in it. There are words in this thing. It just happens to happen. Yes. Look at that. I go to my mailbox and...

And I see this package. And it's like Christmas at my front door every day. I get so excited when I get stuff, even though I bought it for myself and I ordered it most of the time.

So I open this up and I see, you know, I see that it's Stu's book and I've heard a lot about it. And he had asked me to, to write a review about it and just sort of, you know, pump his tires about how great this book is going to be. So I see this like little note in there and I'm like, I'll be damn. John wrote me a personal note. Like he, he's good. He, he,

finally opened up to say like, just thank you. Thanks for being you and supporting me all these years.

This note was sent to every single person. It was not handwritten. It was handwritten one time and then photocopied probably 150 other times. Not even a signature. My name wasn't even on it. I threw that thing right out. But I have had some time to take a look. My son, actually, my three-year-old son, Michael, lately, this is not, I'm not being funny, brings this in his crib.

I don't know why, but he's, I'm going to get, I'm going to get a picture of this thing tonight and send it to you guys. He sleeps with this in the crib. Oh, this is, this is because, this is because you've dated a bunch of Sean's as you told us last week. And then you married a Philadelphia Eagles fan and you will absolutely give birth to a baby Stugatz. Yes, you will. Yes, you are going to, you are going to try and raise somebody who is more evolved. And the Eagles fan is in your crib and he's, and, and he's going to get bigger. Yeah.

Now, look, the question you should be asking me is what other books are in there and what has he done to those other books? He rips them. So he enjoys in the middle of night when he can't sleep. He knows he's not allowed to get out of his crib. So he entertains himself and he just rips them up. He

done that yet. I just go in there, I get them out, and it's there. Diana, did you write anything for this book? Is there anything where you... She wrote a blurb for the book. It's, you know, promoting the book. I have her peg for chapter 12 of the next book, just so we're clear. And she had to pay for the book? No, she didn't have to pay for the book.

I'm sure I did. I'm sure I'm going to see some charge on my Apple Pay somewhere. I'm just like, you know, $23.99, Stu. Like, what? I don't know if I misheard you, Stu Gantz. What do you think she wrote for your book? A blurb. Oh, okay. I thought you called it a blurb, and I wasn't sure whether you knew what the name was. A blurb. Diana, what was... Joe Buck wrote one. Diana Rossini. My thought was, too, Stu knows I work for the New York Times now. The Athletic was purchased by the Times. And my thought was, I know what he's doing.

He's going to try to get me to use the relationships I have with the New York Times and try to see what magic I can make and create to get him on the bestseller list. That's what I think this is about. This isn't about genuine thoughtfulness for me to have an enjoyable read or me to be part of this experience that he's doing. This is about Stu getting on the bestsellers list.

I have to be honest with you, that never dawned on me. I had no idea The Athletic was owned by The New York Times until you sent me a link to your column and I had to fire through a paywall and pay for it just to get to that column. But now you have me thinking. So I will call you after the show. We will discuss how you will go to your bosses at The New York Times and get this thing on the bestseller list.

which I think it already is. Well, Diana, help us with this. Would you please do a commercial right now, if you don't mind? Just read your blurb to the camera. Today is the big official selling of the book, so help us sell the book. Read your blurb. Do a little commercial for the Stugatz book, which is available in bookstores now, beginning today. It is a real thing. It exists. It is one of the great achievements in the history of modern media, not just sports media, modern media.

I gotta tell ya, I didn't even know what the book was about until I just opened this up. This is great! This has been sitting in my... You really wrote a book! I thought this...

thought this was just about just dumb stuff. You have really good things in here. I like this line. He even invites some of the biggest names in sports media, such as Scott Van Pelt and Mina Kimes to offer their rebuttals. Forgot about me, maybe? No, I told you. Next book, chapter 11. Chapter 11, bankruptcy? Yeah.

Everyone who feels left out because I didn't ask them to write in this book, I promise you, there's a next one. Diana, that's not much of a commercial. Can you give me the commercial? Read your blurb on the back. Is your blurb on the back? Oh my gosh, I just noticed that. Okay.

Everyone, go out. This is the perfect holiday gift to give your family members, the biggest sports fan in your life. It'll keep you entertained. And I can tell you from personal experience, reading this book at least five times by now, that it's like going on a lazy river of Stugatz's mind. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I didn't want the ride to end. Go out. Purchase Stugatz's new book. Chicken time. Hey, enough of the chickens.

The weekly fantasy contest. You called him a chick. You called Tommy Cutlets a chicken. It reminded me of the scarring yesterday of Mike and Billy bullying me into that damn listener league by calling me a chicken. Diana Lane Johnson.

And I don't want to obsess about the Eagles here, but when I see the stats on Lane Johnson in terms of never has a holding penalty, never allows a sack, and is just a beast who at one point had a steroid problem that needed a babysitter because he's, you know, he's a violent person who I wouldn't want to be blocked by. Is he Trent Williams for the Eagles?

Is he exact? Because Trent Williams, everyone says that he is the best lineman in the league, but the stats I see on Lane Johnson are nobody ever gets near the quarterback around him. Yeah, I think it's okay for them to be their own, to be individual.

to compare them is also fair because you're right in terms of what they're able to do for their team and how they're able to protect their quarterback and the offense that he's been able to really handle over the last year, which we've seen some bumps. And I think that's where you got to give Lane Johnson a lot of credit here with all the different quarterbacks he's had to protect. And now you look at what Trent Williams is doing and he's still consistently the best in football, but

If we're going to debate this and argue it, Lane Johnson needs to be in the conversation as one of the best left tackles in football without a doubt. Diana, the Jets found a way to lose the bye week, it would seem. And there seemed to be some residual stories that sprouted out of this story that came out earlier in the week about Woody Johnson, perhaps at one point in the season, arguing to bench Aaron Rodgers. What's going on out there? How does this story end?

Yeah, let's go backwards a little bit. So remember, they play the Denver Broncos end of September. It's that rainy day at MetLife Field. And Bo Nix stinks, too. He's got like 60 yards passing. But Aaron Rodgers isn't that great either. And

Everyone panics after that game, right? They lose to a rookie quarterback at home. What are we going to do? So the next day is essentially the meeting of the minds. Every important person with the New York Jets organization, including the coaching staff, met with ownership and they sat and they just each individually had to go and explain to the room what they are doing to improve this team, how their units are going to get better over the next few weeks.

And Woody Johnson has a tendency to blurt out ideas and things that are often read as suggestions, as things that he wants the team under him to do. So he said, well, we should bench Aaron Rodgers. Now, people in that room that are close to Woody Johnson have shared that he was saying that in jest. Bench Aaron Rodgers to get a reaction out of the room. The coaching staff took that seriously as well.

The owner of the Jets wants us to bench the guy that we moved mountains for to make happy and to get here in New York. So at the time, the head coach was Robert Sala. The GM was Joe Douglas. Nathaniel Hackett was the offensive coordinator at the time. And they essentially were able to have a conversation with Woody to say this. This is not what we're going to do. This isn't right. One coach even laughed and questioned. Is he being serious right now?

Um, so after that, Robert Sala got fired a week later. Um, from what I understand, one had nothing to do with the other. It's not like Woody fired Robert Sala because he did not listen to that suggestion the week prior. Um,

But now here we are. They're coming off the bye. Obviously, Joe Douglas is out. Robert Sala is out. Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich spoke to the media yesterday, and he said that Aaron Rodgers is going to start against the Seattle Seahawks this weekend at MetLife Stadium. But there's a lot of...

conversations being had right now around the league about what the Jets are going to do in regards to Aaron Rodgers. There's some people who think that because he's dealing with some injuries that aren't all out there, he's pretty banged up like a lot of people are this time of year.

Is there an option to put him on IR? Is there an option to just sit him? Diana, hold on a second. Wasn't there a report that he refused to do anything with scans? This seemed like some convenient leaking all of a sudden as we're talking about benching him. Now he's all banged up with an assortment of injuries that he refuses to get scanned on. Dan, to your point, Diana, who gets away with just saying no to scans? And also, like Dan said, that's awfully convenient. There's this narrative of him being hurt, but there's also no

Yeah, I had heard all season that he was banged up. Everyone was telling me about this. But you're right. Nothing has been formal or on the injury report or even spoken about from the New York Jets about what Rodgers has been dealing with. And look, I look at it as a bit like when you're going through a breakup. It's a little bit of a chase of who's going to get there first to say that I want it out first.

That's the way it feels to me at this point because I think the Jets are ready to move on from this chapter. I think Aaron Rodgers is ready to move on from this chapter. He wants to keep playing offensively.

I just don't believe that Aaron Rodgers wants to play for the New York Jets. And the New York Jets are now in a position where they're hiring, you know, former GM Mike Tannenbaum to come into, you know, they're essentially going in the past to improve their future here. And they're going to try to figure out. That part's funny. To get Rick Spielman and Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum to hire Rex Ryan. The two failed Dolphin guys. They should hire Rex Ryan. No, it's so funny you say that.

Dan, you'll love this because you get annoyed with me about this stuff as well. So I write a Saturday morning column that you guys always read every morning. Thank you so much for the feedback. Every Saturday, not every morning. It's not every morning. I wish it were every morning. Oh, I don't have time for that. I do write a newsletter every morning. You should subscribe to it. It's for free. It just gives you everything you need to know around the league. But Saturday morning, I write a what I'm hearing column at The Athletic. It publishes around 10 a.m.

And this past week, I wrote about Rex Ryan's very public campaign to be the next head coach of the Jets, which good for him. He knows where the bodies are buried. This is somebody who believes in what he can do. He knows what this team needs. But I looked at it as somebody that has watched his organization for the last 20 years, never seemed to have the answer. And I suggested if you're going to go back and retread, retread.

Mangini, the guy drafted Hall of Famers, Darrell Revers, DeBricka Shaw Ferguson. Like there's so many players that he was able to find. I know we laugh at that like Mangini error, but when you look back at it, a lot of the success the Jets had with Rex Ryan came from the building blocks of what Eric Mangini was doing back then. So I make this suggestion. Well, well, well, well.

Fox yesterday, Eric Mangini, candidate, New York Jets. And he's on the show and they're asking him, do you want to be the head coach of the New York Jets?

And you see it in his face, like, I mean, what? Yeah, but what? And he actually had a great reaction live on the air. He was like, of course, because of the way it works in the coaching cycle. When you buy a house, you get fired. When you sell a house, you get hired. And he had just sold his house in New Jersey that he bought when he was the head coach of the Jets. That's how bad the market has been. He finally was able to get it sold.

So it was a great lesson of just people don't read. People read what they want to read. And I do think the Jets, unfortunately, have been such a circus of dysfunction that I could have said Bob the Builder was going to be the highest recommendation coming out of Mike Tannenbaum's mouth and people would debate if Bob the Builder could do a better job. Diana, you should float out there in a newsletter in one of your columns that Adam Gase is interested in and see if that gets any traction because he's still available. People start...

when tannenbaum got hired i started to see some of that and billy you're the perfect person to talk to about getting misrepresented in these spicy clips um that our shows like to do i under i know what they did to you it's dirty um i'm asking you guys what is the answer right credibility is my currency it is all i have so if i

I get misquoted, misrepresented because somebody else didn't read it the right way. Do you respond? Do you just put out your article? Like, I don't know what the right thing to do. I try to be the bigger person, Diana.

Which is? I just let it go. I let my reputation speak for itself, and then everyone else will figure it out. Let the work speak for itself. That's it. God bless football. The award-winning God bless football. You guys did it to me, too, though. You did it to me two weeks ago. I fought them on it.

Remember we talked about Daniel Jones and I said this was before the players came back in the building. I said, look, there are some hard conversations being had right now about possibly sticking with him, which was the truth, right? All I said was it was being discussed that it was an option. We clipped you. Our social media people, they're assassins. They trapped you. You took me out by the neck.

Yes, that's right. Oh, I see the comments. Asshole. Rossini went on Levitar. Daniel Jones is going to start. That's right. I hate you guys. Asshole. Social media assholes. Thank you, Diana. Good seeing you. Oh, I'm sorry. Billy's got something else. Yeah, Diana, why is Mike Vrabel still out there? Is he just kind of waiting for the offseason? Is no one reaching out to him? Because everyone mentions his name every time there's a firing, but it doesn't seem to be getting any traction yet.

Because most teams are they want to wait for the season to end. No team is just going like let's say let's say just for this example, the Jets get rid of Jeff Ulbrich. They're not going to fire an interim head coach to bring him on. They kind of want to wait for this thing to wrap up. And remember, he's a consultant for the Cleveland Browns. So teams have to go through that process of putting in a request for him during the playoffs like we see every season.

or at least in January, excuse me. So yeah, he's going to be, I will be shocked if he doesn't interview for at least three teams. Diana, how many teams, if Aaron Rodgers wants to continue to play next season, but doesn't want to play for the Jets, how many teams would be interested in Aaron Rodgers? I'm actually currently writing about that today for the weekend. I,

Um, I, I think this is one of those scenarios where first Aaron's got to figure out what he wants to do here and, and really take a look at himself and his age and his injury situation. Um,

The reason why I also strongly believe Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to stop playing is he does not want this. Yeah, why would you? This can't be the way that it ends. Gigantic blemish. This is one of the great quarterbacks of all time. He chose this, though. No, I understand, but you would also understand why he wouldn't want this as the ending. He chose it, but he's also looking at the scenario and going through these experiences like, what? What?

Like he can't believe the stuff that he's experiencing and seeing in the decisions being made. He's never dealt with something like this in terms of ownership down. So I think he's going to want to at least give himself one more season to just see if he's got something left in the tank to give an organization that's run really well. Diana, thank you for being on with us. She's the senior NFL insider for The Athletic. She's the host of the very popular Scoop City.

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