Transcript 0:00 [rock music] All right, all right. 0:04 Welcome on in to another action-packed edition of the Between the Hash Marks podcast, the post-Super Bowl Philadelphia Eagles Vince Lombardi Trophy champion extravaganza edition of the pod. 0:16 As always, I'm Matt Lombardo, joined by my friend, colleague, mentor, and fresh back from the French Quarter, Mike Tanier joins us. Michael, how you doing, my friend? E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles. 0:29 It's not hard, not hard to spell. [laughs] Not in any way hard to spell. 0:32 Not just our, our, our mayor in Philadelphia, but I believe it was the president of the team, I don't know who was speaking a few minutes ago, at the official press conference for the parade also misspelled Eagles. 0:44 I wonder if that was a gag. I wonder if, [laughs] if Don Smolenski, like, gagged. [laughs] It was Smolenski? Is that who that was? It, it might have been. I didn't see the press conference. I think, I think it was. 0:54 He's the president of the Eagles. Yes. And the mayor is next to him, and he's, and he's giving an emergency, like, text message. 1:00 Like, if you are, you know, on Broad Street and you see trouble and you need to text the police, te- text them, you know, whatever it was, as, like, ready Eagles. And that's ready E-A-G-L-S. Oh, no. 1:12 So he, so he can't be a gag 'cause he's giving you wrong- Not great... safety information. [laughs] Not great. Suboptimal. Not great. Very bad. And the mayor kind of jokes around with him. 1:23 Then the chief of police came on here and said, "I'm not even gonna try." [laughs] "I am not even gonna try." It's like let's, that's, that's good. That's good. 1:29 It, it reminds me of back in the day listening to WIP during the Flyers playoff run and people were struggling with the cadence of the "Let's go Flyers" chant. 1:38 That they, they couldn't get the cadence right of how to- Mm-hmm... like, make it sound. It sounded like, "Let's go Rangers," the way that people were doing it. And people would call up. 1:46 Wh- what happened to this city, that this proud- [laughs]... sports city that the fans forgot how to spell Eagles, the mayor forgot how to spell Eagles, for crying out loud? Well, I'll tell you something. 1:56 On, uh, Sunday night at m- midnight or 1:00 in the morning on Monday, typing up the e- end of my walkthrough, I couldn't spell Eagles either. [laughs] But I had a reason. I had a reason for that. Yeah. 2:07 I, I saw the column. I saw the, the, the- [laughs]... skeet on Blue Sky announcing the delay of the column. 2:13 I understand why it was a little bit late, and we're gonna get into the whole experience of Super Bowl Sunday, where both of these teams go from here, and a whole- Mm... lot more. 2:21 But if you enjoy the podcast, if you like what we do... And, Mike, I've gotten some great compliments off the air the last couple weeks- That's awesome... about the podcast, which has been really fun to hear. 2:30 Please go ahead and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. You can check it out on my YouTube channel, @mattlombardo975. 2:37 And if you're not reading The Too Deep Zone on Substack, if you're not subscribing to Mike Tanier, you're missing some of the best football analysis out there, so be sure to go and subscribe on Substack. Thank you. 2:49 Thank you. And I'm, you should be a Behind the Mi- a, a Between the Hash Marks subscriber now. And I'll say this, last week on this pod, both of us were musing a little bit, like, "You know, this could be an upset." 2:59 I mean, uh, not an upset, a blowout. "This could be an Eagles blowout." We were going back and forth about it a little bit. Yes. And, and then you had the, you made the bold choice to lead with it. Yes. You led with it. 3:09 It's like super blowout. I'm, I forget the exact words you wrote. 3:11 So the receipts, ladies and gentlemen, Matt Lombardo has the receipts that no one, no one on media row, no one in the media, and no one on ESPN was talking about the possibility of the Eagles blowout. Matt was. We were. 3:23 But if you can read it, you can check it out in the, the, the, the archives. I was saying, "Eh, maybe, kind of, sort of." You led with it. Oh, absolutely. I made the headline, "This Super Bowl has blowout potential." 3:32 Sure. That's what it was. It was the official pick Saturday morning. I went Eagles 31 to 20, and it turns out that wasn't even bold enough. Right. Right. You know, the, the, the inspiration was the podcast. 3:43 You and I were talking about this, and I think we both kind of agreed w- where's the matchup that favors the Chiefs? I mean, Chris Jones against the interior of the Eagles offensive line, maybe you talk me into that. 3:54 Yeah. But Xavier Worthy was completely neutralized, as I predicted, by Quinyon Mitchell. Mm-hmm. 3:59 You think about, you know, the Eagles defensive line against the Chiefs', you know, shoddy front, maybe the leakiest offensive line in football by the end of the year. Yeah. 4:08 There just wasn't anything that favored the Chiefs. And you and I, my friend, we can both kind of tip the cap to one another and take a victory lap because we were all over this. 4:17 If you listened to the podcast last week, if you read your, your final column from New Orleans post muffuletta sandwich- [laughs]... 4:24 if you read my prediction and you went to the bank and you went to the bookie and you went to DraftKings and FanDuel or Bet365, you made some money. And, and, and, and you're welcome for that. 4:36 And I just wanted to say that- [laughs]... we, we were all over this matchup. [laughs] Absolutely. By the way, I came back to, um, to Philly, went to Ha- well, to Collingswood. 4:48 Went to Haddon Culinary in Collingswood, and guess what was waiting for me there? Muffuletta sandwiches by the slice. What a b- It followed you. It followed you from the Quarter. It follows me. 4:57 It follows me everywhere now. I'm being followed by a giant ol- olive-smelling sandwich. Look, you gotta look out your, your office window. There might be one just, like, creeping up on you [laughs] at the moment. 5:09 It's, it's like being followed by a moon shadow, but not quite as, uh, uh, not quite as romantic. Or more romantic, if you're like me. Yes. I do like sandwiches. A- and you know what? 5:18 I, I love that column, and it was reminiscent of Steve Politi, my former colleague at NJ.com. He covers the Masters e- every single year. Mm-hmm. 5:27 And he's won numerous, like, Sports Writer of the Year awards from the AP and all those things. 5:31 The muffuletta column belongs alongside anything Politi has written, whether it's going to the dry cleaner for who cleans the green jackets- Yeah... 5:39 whether it's discovering, you know, how they make the sand, and the sand, and the bunkers, and the dude who got arrested for trying to take some home and was banned for life from Augusta. 5:49 [laughs] Going to find the grandson of the creator of the muffuletta and introducing it to an entire, you know, subsect of readers, put it, put it in the Hall of Fame. Uh, Politi's ears must be burning. 6:01 We were on the media shuttle, and you can probably guess the individuals who we're talking about. Like, man, we wish we could do this like Politi. We wish we could do these type of things like Politi. 6:10 Uh, he, he went ice fishing in Minneapolis- Yes. I remember... at Super Bowl. Right. So all of us are in the, i- in the grind, and he's ice fishingWhich come to think of it, it was like five degrees. 6:21 Maybe the grind- It was... was better, but he created s- magic then. You talk about legendary green jacket stories and things like that. His ears have to be burning right now. A- absolutely. 6:30 And you know, just getting into the game for a little bit here, Mike, what stood out the most to you? 6:35 'Cause it's easy to say the Eagles defensive dominance, but there were so many things that went right for the Eagles and just never got going, and when they did, went off the rails for Kansas City. 6:46 It wa- I mean, the defensive dominance, part of that is some of the people who made plays. So we got Josh Sweat, he's been a starter on this team for years, so I'm not gonna talk about him. Jalen Hunt- Yeah... 6:57 making plays. Avonte Maddox, and y- you remember like this sort of long up and down career as this like important backup and then guy who getting it done. Avonte Maddox is out there making fourth down plays. 7:10 Jahan Dotson appears out of witness relocation and makes a, a spectacular catch and then makes another catch along the way. 7:16 I'm starting to lose track of like the, the second da- the tertiary guys who had to come in and be successful for the Eagles, and they were. Uh, Tyler Steed had to come off the bench- Yeah... 7:27 at guard for a while and play a couple series at guard, and I don't know if it was, I mean, he really did phenomenally, but like, like it didn't impact the team negatively. So many players like that that you wouldn't... 7:38 Uh, Williams, Milton Williams. Yeah. Oh, big time. Made himself a lot of money in that game. Right, yeah. Two good games. Half sacks. Yeah, he, he made himself some, some money going into free agency. Right. 7:47 The, like this is such a team effort, such a top to bottom effort that it really lives on. And, and, and the Super Bowl that the Eagles won against the, um, 7:56 the Patriots had a little bit of that too where, you know, Corey Clement and Mack Hollins before people knew who Mack Hollins were were making plays and, and, and, and Derek Barnett made a play in that game, and it's just, it speaks to the depth of the team and the depth of the accomplishment. 8:09 What, what stood out for you? Yeah, it's two things for me. One really big picture and one leaning into that defensive dominance a little bit. You know, th- they just harassed Patrick Mahomes all night long. 8:21 What was it, six sacks and like nine quarterback hits? Just something outrageous. And you could see- Yeah... the body language just get completely zapped- Yeah... 8:28 very early on, not only from Mahomes but the entire team, right? You, you could just tell that the Chiefs didn't have it when he just faced that barrage of pressure all night long. 8:38 Mike, they didn't blitz in the first half. 8:40 I'm not sure that they blitzed all game, and they still had a pressure rate north of 46, so that means they were, they were getting home, and they were relentlessly harassing Patrick Mahomes with their front four. 8:51 Mm-hmm. And when you can do things like that, when you can do that and you can drop seven into coverage, i- it's lights out. It's ballgame, it's blowout, it's game over. 9:01 Officially, they did not rush more than four defenders the entire game. 9:05 There was one very clear instance where Nolan Smith drops into coverage and Zach Baun blitz, uh, uh, rushes, so that would be a b- a blitz officially in like a, a playbook. 9:13 Um, one play that stood out that I've been talking about a lot, um, it was second and 14, and the Chiefs keep max protecting, so their five offensive linemen and Kelce and Pacheco are all in max protect. 9:28 And Kelce and Pacheco are, are, uh, trying to block Sweat, and I think it's Tunney has Jalen Hunt, a rookie, a mid-round rookie on the other side, and the Eagles get a sack. 9:40 The Eagles get, just absolutely collapse his pocket. Sweat takes care of both of these guys, neither of whom really add up to one really good blocker, and they get the sack in that game. 9:49 And when you're seven against four, it's not happening. The next play after that, Mahomes escapes the pocket a little early, like a little skittish, and throws the pick six to Dejean. Yeah. 9:59 So y- you're seeing this like this is non-tenable. This is the... Like there's no we can scheme our way out of this problem. You, you're losing seven guys against four and you're losing, you're gonna lose. Yeah. 10:09 The, the column on Monday morning, I wrote, "That might go down as the greatest defensive series in Philadelphia Eagles history." I mean- It's amazing... you talk about the Jalen Hunt, the Sweat sack- Mm-hmm... 10:18 and then Cooper Dejean pick six in the Super Bowl to go up I believe, wh- what was it, 17 to nothing at that point? Up 17, yes. So basically put the game out of reach in the Super Bowl. 10:29 We could talk about individual moments and plays in franchise history, but I don't know that you can take a series on defense i- since 1933, since the Eagles- Right... 10:38 were founded and say it was more impactful and more dominant than that. No idea. Maybe something happened with Big Nerak in 1960. Right. Great Grandpa can tell us about it. I, I, I would be willing to listen. 10:47 But yeah, and that's kind of a turning point. Like, the turning point in that game to a degree was like the kickoff or whatever, but the Eagles offense is struggling early. They get a turnover early. 10:56 When it's 10-nothing, you're, you're, y- you are sitting there thinking, "Okay, Mahomes makes one play, it's 10-7," and the Bills know how that feels and the Ravens know how, and the Texans know how that feels. 11:05 We've seen that story, uh, play. When it becomes 17-nothing after that series, you're like it's gon- it's, it's out of the range of two miracle plays now. 11:15 Now it's gonna require eight miracle plays, and this, this team is not going to have eight miracle plays. 11:19 By the way, in the first half, I think Aaron Schatz told me, the first half defensively, it was the best Super Bowl defensive performance ever. Wow. Better than the 1985 Bears. 11:30 When you pull it out to the third quarter, the Bears, 1985 Bears slipped past the Eagles. And then because the fourth quarter the Eagles take off the gas, they fall bel- below the Bears. 11:41 That Ravens team that like sa- that intercepted Kerry Collins 3,000 times and the, um, the Buccaneers team that knew the Raiders playbook 'cause they- Yes... had seen the plays. 11:51 And like while the Eagles took their, their feet off the gas, I'm okay being on the same list with th- those teams, right? Right. To, to me, that makes it even more impressive. Yeah. 12:00 Because those other teams, the best of my knowledge, the Bears didn't rest their starters in '85. They didn't have the opportunity to.They might have. I don't know. 12:07 But yeah I, I'd have to go back and look, but if the Eagles are ranked that high playing three quarters of, quote unquote, competitive football- Mm-hmm... that, that puts it in the pantheon for, for me. 12:17 May- maybe near the top of the pantheon. But the other big story that, that... my big takeaway was, and you kind of alluded to it, it was the unheralded players who- Yeah... 12:26 really jumped i- in- into the fro- the forefront of how this game was won. 12:30 I, I, I decided going into the game, I thought there were six future Hall of Famers on the field, maybe seven if you start talking about Steve Spagnuolo, but there's only one assistant coach in the Hall of Fame. 12:41 So Steve- Yeah, yeah... Spagnuolo, he had the resume certainly going into Sunday. Maybe still after that. It's gonna be a tough haul. But you start breaking down the performances by each of those six players. Mm-hmm. 12:52 Lane Johnson might have punched his ticket to Canton, 'cause he was just- I-... phenomenal and a, an all-time performance by Lane. Saquon, th- this is where we get- Oh... a little bit silly. 13:02 And, and I, I- This is where Saquon... Sa- Saquon went from not being anyone who would ever get into the Hall of Fame this season to somebody who has now a good strong base of a Hall of Fame case. Yes. Yeah. Yes. 13:12 But, but I'll get a little bit silly and say that- Right... because the Chiefs sold out so hard to stop Saquon Barkley, that maybe you make an argument that he should've gotten MVP votes because- [laughs]... 13:23 it opened up everything else. Yeah. It opened up Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. But it, it's just, you know, Chris Jones got- Yeah... banged up, but before that, non-factor. Mm. 13:34 Patrick Mahomes, i- it's a burn the tape game for him. It's also a game that's gonna haunt him personally for a decade. Mm. Creed Humphrey, eh, n- not, not... the entire interior line wasn't great. No, no, no. 13:46 I haven't had a chance to look through the film yet. But you just look at the guys that went into that and you're thinking they could be Hall of Famers one day. Mm-hmm. Super Bowl Sunday defines legacies- Yeah... 13:55 it just didn't for these guys. Right. Now, some of them, their legacies are already set, so it's like- For sure. And Kelce, Travis Kelce, the best ever- And Kelce, right, right. Yeah. 14:03 It's like he's the, he's a Hall of Famer. Chris Jones is gonna be a Hall of Famer, things like that. 14:06 But that sort of magic sparkle that put, that, that puts the extra shine on it and says, "Well, we're just gonna, we're just gonna carry you into Canton on a pillow," some of them lost the opportunity to get that. 14:16 And yeah, this is a legacy changer for Barkley. The whole season is a leg- legacy changer for Barkley. 14:23 Um, and, and Lane Johnson, this sort of like y- we, when w- we have to make a case for Lane Johnson, two teams where he's leader on the great offensive line, Super Bowl, now he's got a running back for 2,000 yards and a Super Bowl when we talk about Lane Johnson, and putting him and Kelce both in the Hall of Fame on that line, I think the case is there. 14:41 I'll say this about the MVP. If you're not giving it to Hurts, it absolutely had to go to Josh Sweat. Yes. Two, two and a half sacks. Um, the interception by Bond was caused by Sweat slamming, uh, Thuni into Mahomes. 14:53 There was another... I think Sweat has a pressure on the, Dejon Pick six. Uh, if not, he's got a pressure where, uh, something else dumb happens. It's the best single defensive performance. 15:04 Now, or I say it reminded me of Justin Tuck against, uh, Tom Brady, where I believe one game he had two and a half sacks and a safety. Yes. It was worst football and safety. 15:15 That level of dominance, where again, 20 years later, Hall of Fame, not Hall of Fame, that's not the case. You remember this is the guy who did the thing in that game. Right. Absolutely. 15:23 And, and Sweat came out and said that he thought he should've been- Yeah... the, the Super Bowl MVP, and I don't blame him for that. I mean, he- Yeah... played his ass off. 15:29 He was disruptive as you can be at any point i- in a Super Bowl on that stage against that quarterback. Mm-hmm. But, but, you know, at the end of the day, th- th- this was Jalen Hurts' award from, from start to finish. 15:42 I mean, it just goes out there and he was workmanlike in the first half when he had to be. 15:47 The s- the first drive getting the ball back at the end of, at the start of the third quarter after the Chiefs go three and out, and he just... 15:54 They, they take six minutes and 43 seconds off the clock and you start to think, "Okay, after the Bond pick, i- interception happens at the end of the first half and they don't score- Yeah... 16:04 at the start of the third quarter," the game was over right then and there. And then Hurts, I know they didn't score a touchdown on that first possession- Yeah... but took nearly seven minutes off of the- Yeah... 16:14 Patrick Mahomes magic meter. They- Yeah. [laughs] Right, right, right. They invested the chance significantly o- of that fourth quarter nightmare from an Eagles perspective and heroics from Mahomes for the Chiefs. 16:26 It's, it's like the video game character who has, like, the Super Scion meter, and when it reaches a certain thing you can push the button, and he can do the magical attack that murders you. Yes. 16:34 He, he kept going down and down and down. He's losing mana as it goes, and that was key, 'cause again, l- and I, I wrote about [laughs] it's like, it's like, you know, I, I have severe anxiety issues. 16:44 It's halftime, I'm trying to watch Kendrick Lamar, I'm sitting with my wife, and it's like I'm a nervous wreck. 16:48 'Cause if the Eagles lose this game now, they will be the biggest comeback losers, uh, in history, and I don't think the city's civic self-esteem or my self-esteem can handle this. 16:58 So Eagles go out and they force that three and out, and then this, this, this slow, methodical drive, and Hurts is making those plays and, 'cause, 'cause Barkley is pretty much contained for much of it, and it whittles all the way down to field goal range and they kick the field goal. 17:12 And then I look up, yeah, there's seven minutes and 48 seconds left. Like, that's it. That's it. That, that, that clock killing was as valuable as the points. 17:20 And you wrote, but you wrote about it in your, uh, Monday column as, like, the redemption of Jalen Hurts after this weird anti-Hurts thing, both in the Philly community and, like, in the community of, like, quarterback experts, for him to come out and, and, and answer those critics like this. 17:36 Yeah, and I, and I've never understood that criticism because, you know, I, I don't know that he's as prolific a passer as Joe Burrow. Yeah. I don't know that he's as mobile as Patrick Mahomes. 17:48 I, I don't know that he has that skill set to be a top three or four quarterback in the league. Mm-hmm. But the guy just wins. Right. And his teammates run through brick walls for him. Right. 17:55 And any time you talk to Jalen Hurts or hear him in press conferences, I've long had this belief that he has that Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods mentality- Mm-hmm... 18:06 that he's going to do what it takes to, to level his game up- Yeah... little by little every single year, and he has the motivation to do it, goes out and does the work. 18:15 A- and, and you look at it now, okay, two Super Bowls in his first four seasons as a starter. He's been to the playoffs the last three years. Three years. He has the Lombardi Trophy. Yeah. 18:24 He has a Super Bowl ring on his finger. Mm. A- and it's like, what more can you ask for from this guy? 18:32 And he absolutely now be- belongs in that conversation of the top five to eight quarterbacks in the sport because of- Yeah... what he's accomplished- Yeah... 18:39 and the fact that he's only 26 years old.He has a signature play that only he runs, that now for three years only he runs, that Josh Allen can't seem to run. 18:48 I know they were running it, the Bills were, but they didn't when it mattered. So you've got this thing, and I go back to, and 'cause g- you'll hear the, "Well, you know, there's this limitation and that limitation. 18:57 Does he get to his second read?" And I said it, I think, last week to you, I said it to all people around, around New Orleans. 19:04 When he connects with DeVonta Smith, and there was an early third down in that game where he throw, it's a spot throw to the sidelines and Smith kind of appears and catches it, that level of elite timing- Yeah... I think 19:18 that particular skill is on the same line as Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison had. Wow. Yeah. Put it, put it to a place, and it's not that different, or it's, or, or it's like one rung below that. 19:27 It's one rung below the Mahomes-Kelce thing. They have that kind of chemistry that they've honed over the course of years. That's special. That takes a lot of work. 19:37 That compensates, and it s- kind of replaces some of the other skills in his game, and it's one of the reasons the Eagles can do this. 19:43 One of the reasons why they struggle when DeVonta Smith wasn't out there for a week or two l- last season, but if you rank quarterbacks, if that's the thing you do, and you're not looking at, well, what's happened in the postseason- Right... 19:56 what happens in these meaningful games, you're doing it wrong. You're missing the point. You don't understand what you're doing. 20:01 You're, you're busy watching Tuesday afternoon five-yard passes, and you're missing touchdowns in the Super Bowl. And, and he was the MVP, in the MVP race until about, what, week 10 or 11 last year- Yes... 20:11 before the season came off the rails. Yes. A- a- and with the Sup coming off of the, the tailwinds of a Super Bowl appearance- Yeah... the prior season, and he outplayed Patrick Mahomes for much of that game. 20:21 He had the costly fumble, but, but you- Yeah... you know what I'm saying here, that he belongs in that conversation of the upper echelon quarterbacks. 20:27 And, you know, the Super Bowl, uh, i- in my house is a little bit chaotic. I had, you know, my, my divorced parents were, were in the house. My, my- Oh, my God... sister was in the house. The kids are loving it. 20:37 They're running around. The food w- we're, we're still eating the leftover food. I had Buffalo chicken dip for lunch today. So, you know, you talk about- Great... 20:46 like you sitting there, you know, worried that I'm gonna have to come in like, uh, Clarence- [laughs]... to your George Bailey at halftime with the Eagles, you know, at that big lead. 20:58 I- I'm at halftime trying to scratch out the beginning of the column, and thank goodness it was a blowout because I could at least start to formulate some thoughts in my head- Right... 21:06 and pray that unlike the 28 to three Super Bowl, when I had a column written that needed to be deleted and started over in the final- Yeah... 21:15 47 seconds of the game, fi- needing to file shortly thereafter, I could at least sit down and write a little bit. What did Sophie think of the game? She was, dude, she was all in. She was all in. 21:26 [laughs] She made like, before halftime she made like an Eagles Super Bowl banner to hang in front of the TV. Uh, she's star of the week. Her, her classroom has star of the week. 21:36 They, they like highlight one of the kids in the class for a week and let them bring in like show and tell things and fu- and fun stuff like that. Mm. 21:42 So she came off the Super Bowl winner going to, into star of the week for her class, so she had a lot of fun. Luka, you know, he actually learned to spell Eagles last week. My wife like got him in on the- Run for mayor. 21:54 Yeah, run for mayor. Run for mayor, Luka. [laughs] That's awesome. That's awesome. 21:59 I, I, I, I had to run something up to, to Mike at, uh, at Rowan, and like, you know how you can tell when, when someone's really hungover? [laughs] Oh, well. He looked at me and I- Just talking to you that morning? 22:12 [laughs] He looked at me and I looked at him and I was like, "Yeah." 22:15 And he's like, "And so- so some of the guys," I don't, he, he didn't do it, some of the guys actually went from Glasgow into Philly and it's like- Oh, wow... well, what was the report like? 22:23 It, it was kind of like the Warriors. Yeah. Yeah. Clink, clink, clink, clink. [laughs] But that's great. That's great. I, it's cool to be able to spend that, that, do that kind of thing with your family. It's amazing. 22:36 Yeah, and you and I both had the experience a couple years ago, you again this week, covering Super Bowl week, flying home on Friday- Right... 22:43 and, you know, your column on Monday morning, I r- I read it every week, but I was, the experience of, of living through Super Bowl through your eyes, it, it was a phenomenal read. 22:54 Anybody who cares about football or is an Eagles fan should go check it out. It was great. I enjoyed it. It was a, a scene setter of all scene setters. I, I was distracted. 23:03 There, there's an exterminator next door, so give me a mo- thank you. Thank you very much. I love being able to share some of those stories. And you and I are in the same boat. 23:09 Like now we can talk about the Super Bowl a little bit afterwards, we can joke about the parade, whatever. 23:14 It's hard to contextualize the actual Super Bowl and write a game story that anyone in the world really gives two poops about. Right. We all watch the game. We all form our opinions. 23:24 You as a listener, you as a fan, can come away with that game with the exact same opinions we have. 23:29 So you either are Peter King and you can go meet and, and, and have a, have a, a cup of, uh, I guess cocoa with Andy Reid for an hour and get secret information, or you're just like the rest of us. 23:39 So I, I was, you found the right tone with the Jalen Hurts thing and, and I did what I did, and also was not 100% sober for portions of it. Yeah. I, I noticed. 23:49 I saw, I saw the, what, what was the cocktail at the bar in the, in the Skeet? What was the, what was the cocktail? Do you remember? Just a Crown Royal on the rocks. Okay. 23:55 Just a Crown Royal on the rocks, and then whatever the D- Double Nickel Brewery here. 23:59 The, my little town here, you don't wanna get too complicated with the cocktails at the joint, especially when the place was absolutely just, just everybody was wasted. Everybody was wasted. 24:09 A guy, a guy walks up to me, couple people walk up, they know me as neighbors. They've been neighbors, you know, or I was a teacher years ago, I taught their kid. "I know you. You're that sportswriter." 24:18 You're, like- [laughs] I am. I am. They're like, "I follow you." It's like, "Oh, do you follow me, uh, at my Substack or from Bleacher Report?" "No, I follow you from S-," "Oh, well, dude, what's your name? 24:29 What's your name?" And I was just gonna say San Antonio. Oh, Jesus. [laughs] But I didn't. But I didn't. So it was, but that was a level... 24:38 And I wanted to try to talk to him just for a minute about the game, but he just started get- distracted and just started wandering off. 24:44 There was- That's- [laughs] There was another dude just- People tend to when they're, they're so happy like that. You know what I mean? Like, the, the, the, the, the happy drunk just wandered- Yeah... 24:52 to the next guy to interact with. Right. Right. It was, it was just gonna be, "What do you think? Go Birds. What do you think of the game?" Anything like that, and he was distracted. 24:59 There was, like, another guy at the pool table with, like, a thick beard just going like this to, to, like, Thunderstruck. 25:04 You know, doing the Mummer strut to AC/DC's Thunderstruck, which takes a little bit of, um, inebriation to, like, get that to work from a- I, I, I gotta give a tip of the cap to Sophia's bus driver. 25:16 Uh, he had the foresight on [laughs] Friday- Uh-huh... to tell the kids that there would be a substitute bus driver [laughs] on Monday. That's amazing. Be- because he was having an Eagles party. 25:26 And, and [laughs] that's great. And ladies and gentlemen, in, in general in life, if you think you're going to be out on Super Bowl Monday, always call out ahead. Always plan your substitute. 25:37 I, I have some teacher friends who put their personal days in, I think, after the Rams victory. It's like, "We're just gonna put the personal day in." Just in case. Huh? Just in case. Just in case. 25:48 Get it organized, get it settled. And then, you know, when you're celebrating you can take pictures of yourself on Bourbon Street or South Street or whatever, and you didn't leave anybody in the lurch. 25:56 And, that, that's a, that's the 2008 teacher, Mike Tanner, who remembers the Phillies parade. Yes. And had this, I had to sub for, like, 20 of my friends, and I had classrooms full of... 26:11 Each class only had, like, five kids, because most of the kids were out partying too. But, like- At the parade. At the parade. 26:15 But it's like, it's like if you had a sub, I wouldn't be taking care of your kids right now, buddy. I still remember, Sebastian. So, uh, you know, just keep, keep [laughs] that in mind. 26:24 M- Mike, Mike's teaching classes in the gymnasium to get everybody in one place. All the other teachers are on Broad Street and- Yeah... climbing up breeze poles. 26:30 Exa- And to be fair, by teaching I meant putting on the overhead and, and watching the parade- [laughs]... and joking around. But you know who's in the s- the school at that point? The, the sports haters. Yes. 26:39 And, and, and I'm not going to be like, you are welcome to be a sports hater. You know, I played Dungeons & Dragons, everything else like that. 26:46 But, like, some of them want to read quietly, and some of them are sitting there like, "Ugh, what is this? Sports ball." It's like, let us enjoy something. Yeah. Let us enjoy something. 26:53 When, when Lollapalooza comes to- Put the AirPod, put the AirPods on- Yeah... and, and l- well, listen to whatever you're listening to and let... Give a, give us our moment. Give us a moment. Give us our moment. 27:01 Absolutely. And, and I think that the Eagles, I'm gonna make a bold prediction here. I think the Eagles have a lot more moments like this coming up in the next couple- Yeah... years. 27:10 And I, I'm gonna go so far as to say you and I, I'll be there this time. We will be in Los Angeles in February of 2027. Yes. And we'll be wondering if the Eagles are going to be the first team to win three in a row. 27:23 Because- Yeah... you just start to look at this thing, right? Jalen Hurts, 26 years old. Saquon Barkley, 28 years old. DeVonta Smith, 26 years old. A.J. Brown, 27 years old. Jordan Mailata, 27 years old. 27:36 They're all under contract- Mm-hmm... for at least the next two seasons, and other than- Right... Saquon Barkley, all at least three to five more years down the line. Jalen Carter, 23. Nolan Smith, 24. 27:48 Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, 22 and 23 on their rookie deals. And is there anybody in the league outside of maybe Brad Holmes and maybe Adam Peters and maybe- Mm... 27:59 Brett Veach, who you think about as being a better drafter at the positions that matter than Howie Roseman to go and draft an offensive tackle to replace Lane Johnson, to go and get the safety who's going to ultimately replace C.J. 28:14 Gardner-Johnson? Mm. 28:16 Th- this just feels, and maybe it's getting ahead of myself in the im- the immediacy of watching how that game played out, but it feels like the Eagles, this was their launching pad moment into something that could wind up being historic. 28:29 I hope so. And we can sit here and we can be skeptical and list people like Bond, who are probably gone. Yeah. And they're gonna be, they will be hard to replace. But the Eagles are in position to do this. 28:38 And when you look around the NFC in particular, you can see the powerhouses. We all see the Commanders. They're there. They, they're, they're going to be an issue. 28:46 Do not sell me any team in the NFC South, because they're a joke. Uh, the, the 49ers are done. Goodbye, it was nice knowing you. The, the Rams are starting to face some... [laughs] No. He's just- [laughs] 29:00 Piece of- You know, and the... Uh, uh, yeah, yeah. You know- And the meme of the guy fading away is what I was doing. F- fading away, yes. Yes. Um, y- you know, what- The, the Lions will be back. 29:10 Detroit- Lions will be back, yeah. So you- Detroit's not gonna have 47 different guys injured through the course of a year again. Absolutely. Right. Yeah, so you got this three team list. 29:18 Just like when you go to the AFC, it's the three team list. Eagles are on that list. They've got a ton of guys under contract. They've got fewer question marks than anyone else. Absolutely they could be back. Right. 29:27 And, and, you know, I just want to dispel this notion that I've heard this week, Mike, about, like, this being the end of the Chiefs dynasty. I, I- No... I, I don't see it. No. Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes. 29:38 Whatever happened- Right... on Sunday, he's still Patrick Mahomes. That they- Yeah... it didn't change. And it's not like Brett Veach and Andy Reid didn't watch that happen and they're gonna think, "Oh, you know what? 29:48 Let's go get a running back," or, "Let's go get a- [laughs]... let's go get a corner." Yeah. They know they need to draft and sign about six or seven offensive linemen. It's just, it, it, it has to happen. 29:57 They have to re-sign Trey Smith. Yeah. That's gonna, you know, take some effort. But they have $11.5 million in cap space. They know what they need. 30:04 Similar to Roseman, Brett Veach is a perennial Executive of the Year frontrunner and candidate. Great drafter, great at restocking the, the cupboard. 30:14 They already have an heir apparent in waiting in, in, in Noah Gray when it comes to- Yeah... Travis Kelce and his ultimate departure. 30:22 L- don't, don't start dancing on the Chiefs grave just yet, because even in the AFC playoffs-The Buffalo Bills wilted when it mattered most. Mm-hmm. 30:31 Lamar, for as great as he was all year, probably should have won the MVP. Mm-hmm. In the big moment, Mark Andrews has the big drop, and don't f- don't forget about the turnovers that happened in that game. Right. 30:41 The interception and the fumble from Lamar. The Chiefs are still the Chiefs. I, I don't wanna dance on any graves- No... 30:46 and I don't wanna hear that we're gonna be shoveling dirt on the, uh, on, on the headstone that, that it's over and done with, because it's just- No. 30:54 N- no, that's wishful thinking for Chiefs haters, and they probably do have to adjust a little bit. Mahomes is 30. Yeah. He's going to be here, he's going to be great for a while. 31:02 And some of this, some of these things, you know, we talk about them here, they have to breathe a little bit. 31:07 You have to, everyone has to take a deep breath, and when it's time to be analytical and you look at the Chiefs, and then you look at the Bills free agent situation and things like that, you realize again, yeah, the big three or four teams are still there in the AFC. 31:19 We know who they are in the NFC. We'll learn in the days and weeks to come who can rise up or who's gonna be taken apart by free agency. Chiefs are not gonna be one of those teams. No, not gonna be one of those teams. 31:29 And then, you know, the, the Bengals will be back. The Broncos are charging down the, the rails- [laughs] Like a jail on rails. Like, the Broncos- Just something, yeah... are in the mix. 31:37 I- it, it's, it's just a matter of, it, it's going to be tough to get back. It always is. It's gonna be tough for the Eagles to get back, because everything went right for them this year for the most part, right? 31:47 Saquon Barkley didn't have any serious injuries. Right. EJ Brown came back from when he was banged up. Jalen Hurts was fully healthy until the playoffs, and they still survived to get through that. 31:58 It's tough to get back, but I think the Eagles are as well positioned as anybody we've seen outside of Kansas City to, to make that kind of a run next year. That's true, and the NFL's often injury ball. Yeah. 32:10 And you stay healthy, and the Eagles did stay very healthy this year, one. And then if you don't stay healthy, who's on your bench? 32:16 And that's where the Eagles have done a good job, e- both through salary cap attrition and when they've had other people step up, they've had those people to step up. Absolutely. 32:25 And you know, you think about around the league, w- what's one thing that you think might pop off this off-season? You know, g- g- give me an off-season bold prediction. Uh, I don't have any bold predictions right now. 32:34 I'm, I'm still, still hungover. Uh, I didn't look at, n- nor did I look at our, um- [laughs]... outline that you sent, um, in any way. W- uh, you give me yours. [laughs] Yeah. 32:44 I, I, I think, I think that Myles Garrett is back and might wind up sitting. I just can't see, I just cannot- Did he?... see the Browns acquiescing. Wow. I just don't see it. Wow. Yeah. That's, that's, that's nuclear. 33:01 [laughs] 'Cause that's, like, the, the most self-defeating, 'cause, like, this guy don't wanna play. You need picks. You need draft picks right now. Yeah. He can be turned into draft picks. 33:09 He can probably be turned into a first rounder. He is that level of play, almost certainly. And they're gonna, they're going to cut off their nose to spite their face. 33:17 Is it just posturing when Andrew Berry comes out to, at, at Mobile and says, "Under no circumstances am I trading Garrett?" Is it, is it posturing? Uh, maybe. 33:28 [laughs] I don't know, but that, the, y- b- that is a buckle up one. That is a buckle up one. I know you just, you just dropped one today about things that the Titans should do. Yeah. 33:38 It's the first of the, uh, the off-season series. 33:40 I'm going to m- make the v- the valiant effort [laughs] at checking in on all 32 teams across the league, and the three moves that they need to make this off-season to turn things around. Mm-hmm. 33:52 Going by the draft order, so we're starting n- not, not- Not great. N- n- a lot, a lot of material, but, but not great situations. Right. 33:59 Uh, the Tennessee Titans, the three things they need to do, you can check it out a- between the hash marks on Substack. Give me one. And first, the first bold, y- your check mark. Mm-hmm. 34:09 I think they gotta go sign Sam Darnold. Yeah, you know, that's fine. That's reasonable. Yeah. The trade Sam, sign Sam Darnold. Yeah. And then trade back somewhere in the top five or top 10. 34:21 Get yourself a first round pick next year so you'll have two first rounders. 34:25 It's going to be a deeper quarterback class from people that I've spoken to, or at least a, a, a higher ceiling quarterback class than what we have this year. Mm-hmm. 34:33 If you have two first round picks next year and you, you trade back to, like, number four, and you draft an elite corner or Abdul Carter or the top offensive tackle, well, okay, get Darnold. 34:45 Let, let him be the crash dummy for two years. Maybe you win some games on the fly. 34:49 But two first round picks in one draft and maybe a f- future first round pick, that gets you right in the mix to be in the top five again to get your quarterback next year. 34:56 I do get the impression that just grabbing Cam Ward is just spitting down a well for the Titans. Yeah. 35:02 I mean, if they do it, they do it, and it's like, well, you got the number one quarterback on the board, and that's how we, how we do these things, and you, you failed to do anything with Levis, and you failed to do anything... 35:12 May- maybe there was never anything to be had with the, the lad from Liberty, uh, Willis, a couple of years ago. But you're not doing this, you're not in a good position to do this. Maybe... 35:21 A- and h- and yeah, here is a, a functional bridge quarterback who won't cost that much. Right, and might be better than a bridge in that division. It's wide open. Yeah. 35:30 You, you could win on the fly, and the problem is, and I wrote this in the story, you kind of touched on it, if you draft Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders at number one and put him behind, uh- That line... 35:40 th- th- that offensive line- Right... you could Daniel Jones him. There, there's a risk of Daniel Jones-ing a number one overall pick in the draft. And if your infrastructure isn't ready- Mm-hmm... 35:50 this is how you torpedo a kid's future and you just keep spinning your wheels. Right, and that's just a bad... I mean, a lot of ti- every team that picks first overall is bad. 35:59 That team's very bad on offense, just very poorly put together. 36:03 Maybe something a little outside the box, including an affordable quarterback who, again, there are people listening, there are friends we have, six weeks ago, eight weeks ago, w- eight weeks ago, Sam Darnold, $200 million quarterback. 36:16 J.J., uh, McCarthy to the Jets for a first round pick. P- people- People listening. Mi- like, me. Me. I, I disavowed myself from that opinion. [laughs] I wasn't calling you out. I forgot who said whatWe al- we, we also, 36:33 I, I, I'm, so I'm writing, I'm writing the, the, the nonsense ind- index. Okay. [laughs] Although I've, I've re-christened- Love it... I re-christened it the bull index. Yes. 36:41 Okay, 'cause I'm allowed to curse now, if not on this site, but on, uh, on Substack. And I write, it's like, well, I wrote one last year, and my lead last year was, "Oh, this hoopla about Saquon Barkley. 36:52 Oh, come the hell on. Who do we really think this guy is?" And like paragraph after paragraph of like, "You stupid Philistines, you idiots who think Saquon Barkley is gonna make a difference for anybody. 37:04 He's gonna sign with the Jaguars for two years." So we all, we all have our moments. [laughs] Yes. We all have our shades. We, we all wind up in the th- uh, freezing cold takes almanac- Freezing cold takes... 37:14 for one thing or another in our career. [laughs] Oh, my God. Oh, goodness. Are we done? So we, we, we touched on the series on Between the Hash Marks, the, the three things every team has to do, uh, this off season. 37:28 Gonna have some draft stuff, gonna have some free agency previews. Yes. But what's coming up on the Too Deep Zone i- in the days, weeks, and months ahead? And that's it. 37:35 We got the bull sit- the, the bull snot index coming up. Yes. And we got a mail bag coming up, and I'm starting to gear things up. We'll be at the scouting combine. 37:43 Um, there will be, it's gonna be called the Too Deep 96. I can't wait. 37:48 It's gonna be three, it's gonna be three rounds of draft analysis, and it's not going to be talking about somebody's foot frequency or shoulder torsion or things like that. 37:57 We will mention scouting points of, of course, but it's going to be for people who don't like draft coverage, who think draft coverage is a bunch of weirdos spitting jargon at each other. This is different. 38:08 I've been doing it for years, but I'm gonna hone it, crystallize it this year. So when you read about Abdul Carter, you're going to feel like you are informed and entertained and, and interested in Abdul Carter. 38:19 I can't wait. I'm excited for the Too Deep Zone 96. Can't wait to read it. Um, happy anniversary/birthday- Thank you... to the Too Deep Zone. 38:27 The one-year anniversary of Between the Hash Marks is coming up at the end of this month, but I, I started celebrating a little bit early, uh, with the Balvenie 14-year aged scotch after- Oh... the Super Bowl. 38:38 It was, uh, I figured it was fitting ending the first season approaching the first anniversary to sip some of the fine scotch that my father gifted me for Christmas this year. Um- Love it... 38:49 but, but I'm excited, and, and I know I speak for you on this, Mike, one year in the books for Too Deep Zone. 38:54 Uh, we can't express enough gratitude to all of the readers, all of the subscribers, everybody who listens to the podcast, follows us on social, and then clicks a link to read the article. 39:05 None of this is possible without you guys, and Mike really bet on himself. 39:09 I jumped into the foray to hopefully one day turn it into a big bet on myself, but we're both building something here, and it's not possible without everybody who's reading and listening and watching. 39:19 Yeah, you are here listening at this point, uh, watching at this point because you're somebody who recognizes that, uh, y- you need the independent voices, okay? 39:28 And you would rather hear Matt and me or Aaron Schatz or people who have independent voices than go to these SEO forums and see something that was thrown at you like a, like a, like a cheap burger's thrown at you at, like, the worst hamburger stand in the world. 39:40 And that means a lot to us. It makes what we do possible, and I, I can't thank you guys enough. Again, I was, I was able 39:47 to go to, actually go to Bourbon Street, I was actually able to go to the French Quarter, um, because of the support of listeners, readers, followers, subscribers like you. 39:57 Matt's also being able to do things, do some things his own way. We really appreciate it. 40:01 Absolutely, and I'm dragging your ass to Santa Clara next year, 'cause it's my goal, my mission to be at the Super Bowl next year, and I ain't going to, to San Francisco, Santa Clara alone. 40:11 [laughs] You might have to drag my ass on that one because g- we know, we know, we know what it's like to cover a Super Bowl there. Yes. Right? 40:18 We don't have to go into the inside baseball on this, but it's like, oh, let me get my walking shoes and my Dramamine for the, uh, for the shuttle up and down the freeway, so yeah. Yeah. 40:27 But, uh, big goals ahead for both of us. Uh, as far as the podcast goes, if you enjoy it, please leave us those five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. 40:34 They really do help grow the show, boost us up in the a- in the algorithm, make it easiest, easier for us to find. Subscribe to Mike Tanier's Too Deep Zone on sub- on Substack, follow him on Blue Sky and Threads. 40:45 Follow me on Blue Sky and Threads as well. Subscribe to Between the Hash Marks on Substack. Mike, in the off season we're gonna do once every two weeks. Yes. Every other Tuesday- Yeah... 40:53 you'll be hearing from us, and you can expect us to drop in your inbox and your podcast feeds. But, uh, what a, what a great first year of the pod, and if- Yeah. 41:01 Notice I've been drinking, sipping the Café Du Monde coffee straight from the French Quarter. The package arrived on Monday afternoon from Mike Tanier, so thank you for that, my friend. Much appreciated. 41:13 You're very welcome. I didn't get my wife anything. Oh, geez. [laughs] So you're, you're, you're extremely, extremely blessed in that respect. Wow, I feel special. [laughs] Mike, this has been so much fun. 41:22 Talk to you in a couple weeks. You too. Take care, everyone.
