IN THE BONUS with Doug Gottlieb

Doug is live from the site of the NFL Draft in Green Bay as he welcomes former Chargers and Raiders GM Tom Telesco onto the pod to get the GM perspective on the draft. Doug also welcomes comedian Frank Caliendo onto the pod to go through his impersonation process.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, this is the Doug Gottli Show. Heres in
the Bonus with Doug Gottl.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Radio, coming to you from Green Bay, Wisconsin, a place
called the Legacy Hotel which overlooks Lambeau Field, the Rest
Center and all things NFL Draft. And so what I
thought we'd do for the pod is we have an
event tonight at the Legacy Hotel where we're gonna have
some fun with Frank Calliando Dan Patrick is hosting it

(00:34):
with me, and Tom Telesco is stopping by Kyle Rudolph, a
couple other people, and I just thought we'd have some
extended football conversations, right Especially Tom's a dear friend and
he's been This is his first year not with a
team since nineteen ninety five, so as the thirtieth anniversary
of him being not working in the NFL Draft, we

(00:58):
got like thirty minutes with Tom Telesco, which is fascinating stuff.
Having been with Bill Pollan in Indy, with going back
with Bill Pollyan, I think in Buffalo, then Indy, then
of course fast forward to San Diego with the charge
of their GM, and then the Raiders this year as
their GM, and then the Great Kalian Frank Calliendo will

(01:19):
join us as well, and I think you'll be interested
to hear about how he made it big, like he
was a comedian, but how he made it big. So
without further ado, let's get to my conversation the Great
Frank Callendo. It's a Doug Gottlieb show, Fox Sports Radio
and my dear friend, who's have you won awards for what?

(01:42):
For comedy?

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Comedy?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah? They have any awards? Like when people introduced you
to they go they are Callendo.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
They introduced me like a magician, the Great Frank Kellia.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Do you like that?

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Now? I think it's kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, So if you were going to be introduced and
which you will, like tonight at our event or you
know now in the radio, how would you like to
be introduced.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
The magnificent Kelly Endo, like the magnificent Yeah, I don't,
I don't know. Usually they give your credits when you're
a comedian, usually it's you've seen him on the Tonight Show,
the Doug Gottlieb Show. Those are those are major achievements.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
You became like eight when when you when was the
moment you made it?

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I think I'm still waiting. I mean Fox Spring game,
that was the biggest thing. That was probably the best
thing I've been a part of, you know, being on
Super Bowl broadcast, that type of stuff. So in terms
of the level I've gotten to, I would say that's it.
I mean there are multiple levels above me, above where
I've gotten billboard on not billboard, but on in Times Square,

(02:53):
seeing myself in a giant electronic billboard. That's with the
city coming crazy with this sketch shows like that type thing.
So that those were moments I was by myself though too.
So I was doing press in New York and I
was walking around with a weird half green shirt, like

(03:16):
a lime greenish kind of thing with stripes, and I
look up. I think I was wearing pajama pants or something.
And I look up and there's the billboard with me,
and I took a selfie on a flip phone. At
the time, I'm like, well, this is the epitome of me.
The best I can do is be in these pajama
pants and this. I don't even know what I was doing.
I was just walking in New York City, so in

(03:37):
between events or something like that. But I think being
on a Super Bowl broadcast with Terry Bradshaw on those guys. It's,
you know, it's kind of famed by association A lot
of the time too. You're around Hall of famers, people
associate you with those people, Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw, Michael Strahan,
A lot of that I think, can Jimmy Johnson comes.

(04:00):
You know, they think they equate, they equate your fame
with their fame sometimes and it's, like I said, fame
by association.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
There have been people I know that don't like you
because you've done you do impressions of them, right, Yeah,
that happens. But you, I mean, you would make fun
of Terry all the time.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
It was pretty much a rule. It wasn't an actual
rule out of the rule book. It was one of
those unwritten rules, an unwritten rule. I couldn't. I couldn't
come up with the word underwritten. Yeah, but it was.
It was really if you had a new if you
had a Terry Bradshaw joke, you could do one really
good one a week. If you didn't have it, don't

(04:43):
do the Terry Bradshow joke. But if you go to
a second Terry Bradshaw joke in the bit, it better
be great. It better not be an easy ball joke
or an easy jump joke. It better because he would
get he would get a little annoyed with He was
fine with one, but if there were a couple and
nobody else was getting hit, it's kind of like, what
what's going on?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Do you?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
And it was honestly, you just didn't. I didn't have
enough that week, So we go.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
That's just Uh, you would have a bunch of Terry's
in there. You would have like three Terry three years.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
It was really good. Yeah, yeah, it was good. The
next week sometimes it was like, don't do any we're
not doing any Uh. We got him pretty good this
week and he it wasn't even It wasn't I think
that he would be in a bad mood about or anything.
It was just everybody around would think they'd get worried
about him. Some Yeah, he was always a great sport.
He's I make fun of me, Frank, make fun of me, dude,

(05:31):
whatever you want, but it better be good. Better be good.
My grand pappy. You haven't had a grand pappy forever.
What he went, well, he was alive. He wouldn't Okay, Terry.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Ray Kelly, I know my guest here Doug got Leave
show Fox Sports Tradial. It honestly is my favorite part
of all of mine now last twenty five years of
my life, but even going back to playing. But it's
the everybody's in the place you go, the people you meet,
but also the people that you feel like you're friends with.
And what's really interesting about our relationship is if you

(06:04):
go back a year ago, right about now, you and
I were texting each other about me trying to find
a place for a kid who was in the portal.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh right, right, right rightah.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Like literally that's what we were, Like, what were you
doing last year this time? Like, yeah, I was texting
Frank Kelly Indo about it about a kid who I
was trying to help him. I was just trying to
help him, guide him to a good portal spot.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
That's something people don't realize about you is you have
helped a lot of people facilitate and get things done
in the past and just help kids for no other
reason than just you're just trying to get kids in
good spots.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sure, and well that was what my dad did, and
then he did it forever and then he ended up
making make it into like a cottage business. This was
before the nil days, and what he would do is
the parents would pay him because they were so thankful
for a kid getting a college scholarship, you know, or
even Division three kids where you know some of these
elite Carnegie mails Williams's all the elite academic institutions. Their

(07:03):
kid couldn't get into NYU on their own, but with
basketball they could. So that's that's where it kind of
comes from, right, It's that that just trying to help
guys live the dream of being a college basketball player,
and the parents lived the dream of not having to
pay for college. Now of course it's changed with getting
paid as well while you're there, But the point was
more it's interesting that or maybe not an interesting My

(07:27):
favorite part of my life is people like yourself, people
that I know that I've become friends with, that I
think are really I struggle with people who I don't
think are good at their job, right, Like I couldn't
be friends with the comedian and I thought wasn't funny. Right,
I got youa you know what I'm saying for you
because you said guilt of fame by association. Do you

(07:48):
have the same thing where you're you're you're in a
room and you're like, I can't believe them in the
room with Barack Obama, and oh.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I've had that. One of the one of the
moments was actually with Terry Bradshaw on Franco Harrison, the
hands seeing each other for twenty thirty years or something
like that, and it was like, I'm in the green
room with these guys hanging out and nobody's asking me
to leave. That's kind of an amazing in a in
a green room with doctor phil talking to him. Uh,
earlier on those.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
What were you thinking? What is your problem? If you're
gonna stretch the word out the four syllables, I understand,
you know.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
So uh, it's those moments that nobody's kicking you out
of the room that is pretty amazing. I've had quite
a few of those throughout the years. So so yeah,
I forgot what the question.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
I don't worry about it. It was. It was a
terrible question.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Because it was it was it was it was your
doctor Phillin.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yes, that that's exactly what happened. What's more annoying people
trying out their impressions to you or people trying to
use you like you're a jukebox and get get you
to do the batting for me? Do do do do?
Do job?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Do you have reflex doesn't even talk about a man
when somebody says duke managers going, you know that kind
of thing, and it sets it. It's when they want
you to do more and I'm like, here's a guy.
I get a little greeting now. So those are moments
when people do their impressions for me. That's more difficult
because you don't know how to cut them off. And
sometimes they're very good, but they have nothing to say,

(09:18):
or they're doing my act and I'm like, I know
that's that's bits I've done. They're just doing it, which
is a compliment that they know it. But at the
same time, it's like, hey, you can move on and
we can just talk. I'd rather talk to somebody as
a human being. They would rather show off, even their kid.
And I've even done it with my own kids to
people before, made them do an impression for somebody. But

(09:40):
my kids are pretty good at it, you know. But
so it's those moments where I realize what you're doing.
It's somebody you've seen on TV and you want to
your kid does something and some kids have these really
funny and great impressions and stuff, and sometimes the adults
do as well, but it's you don't have anything to say,
and they're just trying to prolong them. I'd like, well

(10:00):
prolonged the moment. Let's just talk as human beings. I
would rather it be that.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, But they just don't know how to handle it.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
They just can't people get I'm still amazed when people
see me and they're like starstruck, and I'm like, I
just get if you get over it, we'll have a
much better conversation because I'm not that famous. I know
you think I'm more famous than I am, but it's
like I'm fairly well known.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, especially I haven't done any Are you comfortable with
your level of fame because because there's like, like I
think I've just the right level of enough, people occasionally
will recognize you. Yeah, but not like stop traffic and
I don't.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Know how nobody jumps out of their car to come
have you take a picture.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
That would be super uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, I think that could be done. I mean, it's
nice when somebody recognize you and they like you. I've had,
you know, the situation where I was on the Baseball
Playoffs around two thousand and seven, where I was every
commercial and in between commercials for me were commercials for
me watch Frank TV, that type of stuff. So there
was somebody who got in an elevator one time in
Vegas and said, you ruined the baseball players. I'm like,

(11:01):
I shot the commercials. I didn't decide when to air.
I don't know anything about that. So yeah, I mean,
we're in Wisconsin right now. I'm way more famous in
Wisconsin because I grew up in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Milwaukee area.
Then I would be an I don't know, probably in
let's say Missouri.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Or I disagree. I mean, yeah, probably the NFL.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Team, especially if there's an an NFC team that I would.
I'm more known in those NFC areas. But it's been
I mean it's been ten fifteen years since I've been
on Fox.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I understand, but You're it's I think you are a
staple of the draft. I think the You're staple of
the draft, the Madden imitation and then Fox NFL Sunday.
So it's like, if you're thirty or older, you're synonymous
with Madden, with the NFL yeah, I would say yeah.
And with the Fox Free game Shan.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
There's a lot of in kids of parents who were huge.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, I don't know that. But also think about this,
and again I can't. I don't know if did CBS
ever do have a comedian. Yeah they did.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, even it was looked at hire me away from
Fox at one point too.

Speaker 6 (12:13):
No, but I mean before you, the CBS had nothing
because Kimmel was before me at Fox, and then I
took over for Kimmel and then they did a cartoon
at CBS for a while, and it was me up.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Against the cartoon. And at the time, you know you're
talking no, you're talking pre Twitter and Internet. Rudy Martski,
who wrote about the sports podcast sports Broadcasters in USA Today,
was important to the executives.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
And so they read that, oh, you know, CBS, that's
super important.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
And it was ridiculous that it was that important because
nobody really cared except for them. But I think the
cartoon was considered to be much funnier than me one week,
and I'm like, well, you know, they do have lots
of people working on those things. I watched the cartoon
like I must have been really bad this week. And
that was what they thought was better.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
So but my question was again, I guess Kimmel was
before you, but it did feel like you were breakthrough.
You were different than anything anyone else in here. It
was more like sketch like that. Nobody had done that
full of a sketch type of situation. He was more
a guy sitting on the couch. And they didn't want
me to do that. They didn't want me to be

(13:22):
just like jim Jimmy on his couch. They wanted me
to I actually start out at a bar and throwing
to myself as a character, and it was like too
quick of a little bar segment and then doing the impressions.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
David who was Hill, who was the president of Fox Sports,
wanted it to be something relatable and then the character
stuff and that's how I kind of wanted. But it
was so short at the beginning. You didn't get a
sense of what I was doing as Frank the bartender
for three weeks and I just said hello and then
threw it to myself after a setup. It was so
weird and thrown together, you know, pieced together like to

(13:55):
like I said, too jagged and not enough of a
smooth segue from guys to just the sketch that they
started throwing the sketch and those guys all the writers,
the Rudy Marski's of the world at the time they
were writing calli Endo's on his way out. They're already
cutting half of his segment. They're like, well, they actually
made the right decision to move it right to the sketch.
As much as I wanted to be seen on there

(14:16):
as myself because it was too little bit of me,
but then I was on it for nine years and
I was always worried about getting fired there too. The
jim Rooms sketch was the first thing that I did
that hit, and Jimmy Johnson loved it. The other guys
weren't sure what to think of me, because the whole
idea was, let's not make fun of Terry and the
guys as much as Jimmy Kimmel did. So I started

(14:37):
out doing sketches at the beginning where I didn't make
fun of them at all. They didn't want that, and
they'd gotten rid of the picks, or they had the picks,
but the guys weren't picking against me. I don't think
there was something weird about that I can't remember what
it was exactly, but there was a thing where there
wasn't the competition between me and the guys as much.
And that added to it too, because then if somebody

(14:58):
won the picks that week, you'd have some then to
go back at them with. So I did a jim
Rome sketch and it was incredible, probably the best sketch
that anybody had seen in a long time. And the
guys weren't still weren't sure what to do, and Jimmy
Johnson loved it, and Jimmy was the one who was
saving my job at that point. And then we did
Jimmy the next week and Jimmy loved that as well.

(15:20):
So that got me on a roll to working through
the end of the year. And yeah, I had like
a two year deal. Then I would re up every
couple of years. So that was when that was when
it started a roll. The first that like week six
or something like that in my first year and it
started going. And then it was always tough because you

(15:41):
had to go, you had to come up with something.
It was in some ways it was better than trying
to do it now because there was no internet, there
were no podcasts, there was nothing nationally doing sports jokes
for everybody to see. If you were to do a
comedy segment that you had to tape on a Thursday
morning that would air on Sunday, it's stale at this point.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
In the world. That's what happened to Bill Simmons with
his HBO show. You remember, they used to tape it
right and then they'd aired on a Sunday, and you
can't do it.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
The world used to wait a couple days. That's why
Saturday Night Live was always such a big deal and
still is. They can do comedy. Any other sketch show
is generally shooting weeks in advance and can't be as topical.
They can be up to the minute. They can change something,
you know that day, put something in the news, the
weekend update, that's just happened. If you're recording two weeks ago, now,

(16:36):
it might as well be a year ago. At this point.
It's and I remember at the time they're talking about
how newspapers were absolutely compared to what was going on TV.
It's like, well, it's not even close to it. Now,
Twitter X you can get stuff immediately and there's thousands
of jokes immediately that even if you're doing something at
the end of the day or the next day, it's late.

(16:58):
If you're doing it three days later, you might as
well skip it.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
You you'll work on some characters on social media, at
least you pretend to. I don't know the real.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Working through them. Yeah, well it's yeah, it's kind of
it's a it's not it's in a way, it's teaching
people how to do it, but it's more entertainment. But
it tells you a little bit about stuff. Like the
Morgan Freeman to get Somebody, it's it's condensed. It's a
year's worth of work put into you know, to a
minute and a half or forty five seconds or whatever.
It is one of those examples. Be like with Morgan Freeman,

(17:30):
you start out with a really deep voice, any deep voice,
You go, ah yes, munch aye, Yes, it's not close
to Morgan Freeman, but you have to get in that register.
And then you try to find his actual voice by
playing with the pitch a little bit, ah yes, ah yes,
And then you start to play the notes of the instrument.
Ah yes. Now you find a longer phrase factor the

(17:51):
matter is, and then you play. So you build it
in steps and then when you've done that for a while,
you build an impression and then you can say more
in or stuff. A lot of times you're not a
person isn't fluent with an impression, so to speak. Then
just be like you can say a line like there's
a lot of YouTubers and stuff like that that just

(18:12):
do a single line and it's from the movie and
they try they force it in somewhere. That's old school
Vaudvillion impressions as well. So what really works is when
you can take them out of a fish out of
water and create a different situation. And if it's logical,
it's pretty good. That's what I always trying to do,
is logical, And nowadays it's almost gone back to a

(18:32):
weird Vaudvillion type of thing. I was like, what if
Jeff Goblin worked at Chipotle? I think it would go
something like this, Ah, yes, howo how about beans? Yes,
black beans? Very good? You know so, And it's just
taking simple everyday stuff. Sure you don't need the setups anymore.
And that was always what I prided myself on in

(18:53):
stand up comedy. With impressions. I wrote bits for the
voice and then did observations and acted it out with
the voice like Pacino is curious. Yeah, so he's a
great actor. He's curious, but he's he's so curious to
that to the point you're going, does he really not
know that? Like somebody flips the light switch? He goes,
you flip the switch over there and light goes on

(19:14):
over here. WHOA, this is sorcery. So it creates the character.
Now I have a point of view for the character.
So as opposed to just doing okay, here is Jack
Nicholson as a fry cook. And remember Dennis Miller said, no,
how about you as a fry cook, Chachi. So come
up with a bit so that that was a bit
more to me. Come up with something, have the observation,

(19:36):
and then act out the observation like any comedian would do.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
What the shows this summer?

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Well, I'm I'm head to the Appleton this weekend, which
is right outside of Green Bay. And part of the
reason I put this together doing this stuff with you.
And then Milwaukee and that's the Skyline Comedy Club and
it's one of the first clubs I ever did. When Milwaukee,
Milwaukee is Sunday, it's already sold out, so you can
I can get us see probably Milwaukee sold out Milwaukee

(20:06):
or Minnesota. Minneapolis is Tuesday Wednesday, those are sold out.
And then I have des Moines, Iowa at the Funny
Bone there. So all that there's a bunch of different shows,
whether it's Washington, d C, Philadelphia, a whole bunch of
other ones. And it ends in Lawson, Oklahoma. Is where
a lot of rapin Lawton, Laton, Oklahoma. Yeah, Longtown, Lowtown.

(20:27):
Almost got a last suit for the Lawton Lawton, Oklahoma
at the Apache Casino. That is at the end of
near the end of May, mid to late May. And
then I we the family flies out to Italy. We
all fly out to Italy the home We'll help me
and then up the maino from the fresh volcanic soils.

(20:51):
Uh So, last time I was in Italy, which I'd
never been to before, end up getting I posted in
front of the coliseum a picture of me. I got
a from a guy named Jeff Leonardo who is Gruden,
John Gruden's right hand man. He goes, did you know
John's in Rome right now? I'm like, I have Grudar,
why would I know. I'll tell you what mender you know?

(21:14):
And so he goes text him, and uh so I
texted him. I end up having dinner with John Gruden,
John Gruden, the family, my family and his family, and uh,
you know, we're talking to just all kinds of stuff
in general. It's pretty cool to hang out with John
Gruden in Rome. When in Rome, man, and we're we're
talking about the coliseum, it's like, I'll tell you what, man,

(21:35):
you ever you ever see that movie Gladiator, Man, my
name is Maximus discmus Meridius. That guy gives a pretty
good pregame speech.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Man, The point of the actual question that you forgot
actually answered right now?

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Oh good good?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
What was the point of the question? Was like, is
it was kind of more bragging? Isn't it cool? All
the people we've gotten to meet and hang out with?

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Oh yeah?

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And for you and for you it was I was
in Rome, yeah, and I happen to have dinner with
John Gruden his family.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
When in Rome, man went in room do as the
Grudens do.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Huh? Appleton Thursday.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Appleton is Friday Saturday. This week is the draft is Thursday,
so it wouldn't work that day. So Friday Saturday, I
mean second round, it's you know, the later rounds are
the weekend, but Friday and Saturday Appleton Skyline Comedy Club,
then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday that's all sold out, and then Wednesday, Thursday,
Thursday of next week two shows in mini episode. Thursday

(22:32):
of next week is the Des Moines Funny Bone frankonstage
dot Com for tickets for all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
And we've been friends since his team was getting ready
to take on Peyton Manning and the Broncos and some
of our old neighbors in Connecticut. Actually, Andrea grew up
with you when with my wife with your wife in Buffalo.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
No, upstate New York. Queensboro, New York.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Where's Queensboro and Remuffalo.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Let's see what it's the other side of the state.
So Queensberry is about fifteen minutes north of Albany. That
helped Saratoga Springs. Okay, yeah, yeah, that tracks there you go.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
So so is Andrea Pulley now, and so we meet
in the parking lot of old Qualcom as you're walking
into the game. That was and that was seventeen probably
probably twenty seventeen, maybe twenty eighteen.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
No, I think it's earlier than that. This is San Diego.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Oh, that's right, right, This is the first time that
I lived in California. So this is it's around twenty
and thirteen twelve or thirteen twenty thirteen. I think it
was twenty thirteen, twelve years right, Since then, eleven years
with the Chargers, one year with the Raiders. Okay, so
last year around this time, did you get the job
yet at this time last year?

Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Okay, so you get this you get fired by the Chargers, right,
and take me through the process of how the Raiders
thing actually happened.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Yeah, you know, it's certainly interesting because as you probably know,
like as a GM usually get one shot at it,
very really does a GM get hired a second time
around and every now and then, but it just hasn't
happened very often. So for me, after eleven years with
the Chargers, I was very content, like I had a
great run, really enjoyed it. I just couldn't get us
over the top. And after eleven years, Like I understood

(24:34):
like it was probably time for them to try somebody else.
So I was trying to figure out what's next, but
not thinking next would be a GM. I was just
trying to think, Okay, what's the next step on the journey?
Whatever it is?

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Wait, can I prevent a second? Okay, what's that like?
When you get home? And you'd like because that season
was so it was so hard. I was as a
fan and as a friend, I'm watching right because the
year before you've made the playoffs and then you lose
to the Jaguars, and then there was so much hope,
and then it was one of those seasons where if

(25:07):
there's a game you could lose, you guys would find
a way to lose it, right, But what is it
actually like when you come home the day you.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Get think about from my standpoint, from from that playoff
loss at Jacksonville in the next three during sixty five
days after that, it was it was rough. It was
hard for me, and I a lot of gyms say
the same thing. I mean, it's a mentally stressful job.
You do it for ten plus years. I mean it's
just it takes a lot audious So when when the
charger let me go. I mean, obviously it's like it's

(25:36):
a it's a hit you pretty hard. I mean I've
kind of felt like it was coming, but it's still like,
you know, the next day, like I don't have anywhere
to go to work, I don't know what's next.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, but well you come home, but just take me,
take me to like this. Who was Spanos College? You?

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Who?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
How did it have? How's it got? How's it?

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yeah? So so dinas son John came in and just
you know, talk to me as Hey, we're gonna go
a different direction. Yeah, I say, totally understand. I gave
him a hug. They walked out. I called my wife,
I said, hey, they got me today. Because it was
it was in December, the season that had hadn't ended yet.
I didn't I thought it may come at the end
of the year if we didn't make the playoffs. But
I say, call the kids, let them know, or text them,

(26:12):
let them know so they don't see at the bomb
of the screen. And then you know, go home and
obviously you're just drained. I was just drained. And after
that when I had got let go the night before
we had lost to the Raiders whatever, one hundred to three,
whatever it was. I was just burned out at that point.
So next couple of weeks, you know, it's Christmas time,
just enjoying time with the family and just you know,

(26:34):
I don't know what's next. And then the season ends
and the Raiders call about interviewing for their job. So
you know, I'm thinking, you know, am I ready for this?
I'm kind of burned out, but yeah, let's I'll take it.
I mean, you have to take an interview.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
No, you and I spoke on it and spoke about it,
and you're like, yeah, you know, guys only get usually
one shot. I'm gonna just go up and do the interview.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
Yeah. Yeah, So I go do it, and you know,
when I walked out of the interview, I mean, you're
juice to start to get flowing a little bit again.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
You know.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
It's just like, you know, these jobs don't come along
very often. You were talking football. You're with a different team.
It's a really football centric organizations, that iconic team Great Resources.
I walked out of there, I'm like, you know, this
is pretty interesting.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
But then you know, kind of week or two goes by.
I didn't hear really hear much, and I kind of
figure they're gonna go a different direction, which I totally got.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Wait is that long?

Speaker 4 (27:23):
I would say at least ten days. I didn't think
I was in the running anyways, But and then I
got another call to come back in talk again, and
then assume the next day I'm doing a press conference
as the gam with the Raiders. That's the way the
NFL works sometimes, you know. I think they were looking
for somebody with experience in the NFL, that kind of
pair with Antonio Peers and I had experience, and away

(27:45):
we went. And then I'm you know, I'm moving to
Las Vegas, and away we go.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
You you worked with obviously so many different coaches with
the Chargers. What what was it like to work with
Antonio who's a former player but hadn't climbed the proverb
a ladder? And you kind of got you got a
guide while doing your own job, while kind of changing
everything from a front office perspective.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
I'll tell you what for for somebody you know obviously
long playing background. Had high school coach at Long Beach
Polly for a couple of years, and then a college
coach for a couple of years, and then it really
an NFL position coach for a couple of years, so
not a long background of coaching, and being a head
coach in the NFL is just completely different than anything else.
I mean, you're you're the CEO. There's a lot of
stuff you're doing. It has nothing new with x's and no's.

(28:29):
But I will say when I was there, like he
handled things really really well. He had a big picture
perspective obviously with the team like his his communication with
the team, motivation was excellent. But he had a really
good feel for people. And I just even my year
with him, I never felt like he was in a
position where he was in over his head. It just
never really felt that he had a good feel for it.

(28:51):
Now we just have a good enough team around him
that that was the biggest thing, and that was, you know,
a lot was my fault. We just weren't we to
have a quarterback. That was the biggest problem. But we
were building and it was going to take a couple
of years to get there. But no, it was really
really much better experience than I anticipate going in thinking,
but I may be here to try and really kind
of help him along. I really never felt like I
had to do that.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Okay, So now let's get back to around this time.
You're getting ready for the draft last year with the Raiders. Okay,
so you've been doing all your emails, you've been doing
all your draft prep, and then you get let go
by the Chargers. Now you have a whole different scouting department. Right,
What was that process like of getting ready for that draft?

Speaker 4 (29:33):
You know, in one aspect, it was pretty cool because
I had everything to prove the Chargers, you know, really
either in my head or in my computer as far
as what the scouts thought. And I get to the
Raiders and I have everything that they thought. So really
it's like trying to combine the two. Now, the problem
with the Raiders is their scouting staff. I didn't know
very many of them. And a lot of scouting evaluations
is when somebody's telling you about a player, is if

(29:55):
I know that scout and I know what he looks
for or how he graised players, it's a little easier
to get a picture for the players. So that I
had to get used to it. But when I did,
when I got in there, I didn't change anything. I
just I didn't change a grading scale. I didn't change
how we did evaluations. Look, I'm gonna adjust to you
guys for this first draft. Now after the draft, we're
going to make some changes as far as how I
want to get things structure. But this first draft, I'm

(30:16):
just going with how you guys did it in the fall.
So that good took some getting used to. Luckily, they
had a really good staff there, and the staff is
still there. I don't think they've made any changes, so
you can kind of see. And those guys have been
through a couple of different gms. David Ziegler, myself now
Spy Tech that's there. Some of them were hired by
Mike Mayock, which is even before that. Some were hired

(30:37):
by Reggie McKenzie before that. It's great, they had a
lot of different gms, and those guys have done a
great job and we had a great draft. I thought
a lot of it was was was those guys and
some of it was some blind trust in my part.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
But it worked out okay. But you did make the
decision to draft Brock Bauers, who's a great player, but
you probably lost your job because you didn't have a quarterback. Right,
So looking back was a mistake, right because if you
think of it this way. If you draft a quarterback,
even if it's not any good, people go, ah, you

(31:08):
started a rookie quarterback, don't worry about it, right, You
draft the best rookie offensive player in football, and they're like, yeah,
but you didn't have a quarterback, Like, what do you
want me to do here? So again, looking back hindsight
being twenty twenty, do you do it differently?

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Well, if what I know, no, only had one year to
get it done, yeah, maybe I would have.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I don't think does a quarterback. Does a rookie quarterback
by you time? It?

Speaker 4 (31:32):
Potentially could? I think in this situation, I think things
just changed above me that they figure, hey, like we're
starting from scratch or starting over. So I don't know
if it would have made a difference if we had
gotten a quarterback or not. I'll never know. It just
didn't work out. So we went with the next player
that we thought could really help us, which is brock Powers.
But yeah, as you're building the team, and when we

(31:52):
had a lot of needs with quarterback being the priority one,
it may take a couple of years to get there.
It didn't necessarily think I had to get it all
done in one year. But I don't think it would
have mattered. I think there were it was gonna be
a complete change. We're starting from scratch and here we go.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I know. But when they let you go into but
I I drafted, drafted Rock Bowers like I did.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
We also didn't win very many games.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I got it. But again, what is your job? You know,
get better players? You did your your job. Maybe that's
selfish friendship.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
And if we would have won more and made the
playoffs of the wildcard, maybe things would have been different.
But we didn't happen.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Okay, So what about the process of your sitting there
with your draft board and when did you go like,
oh my god, he's going to be there for us.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
So I'd say about two weeks before. You know, we
do a lot of draft management of what could happen
and then how it will adjust.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
We do it all before this than that.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
Yes, if this then that we hadn't talked about Bowers
a lot. Number one. We thought we was gonna go
pretty much a lot earlier where than we were. You
know that the regime before had drafted Michael Mayer from
Notre Dame. You know, we want to go back to
back tight ends. That doesn't sound right. So hadn't talked
light in the process a lot about it, and in
two weeks before I'm looking, I'm like, you know, there's

(33:03):
a scenario where he could be there, thought about some more.
I run downstairs to Antonio's office and I'm like, hey,
I didn't tell him what I was thinking. I said, Hey,
if we get to this spot and this guy's gone,
this guy going, this guy's gone, and brock Bowers is
there and then these other two players, what do you think?
And he's thinking and he's like, should I'd probably go
brock Bowers. I'm like, no kidding, I said, so would I.

(33:26):
And with the thinking being like, look, we need some
juice on offense, like we got a score, and if
we don't have a big time quarterback, we're gonna have
to build around him. And look, brockbar I know he
plays tight end. I'll shoot, I'll put on the car,
I'll put receiver and I'll send it in. I don't care,
like he's a big slot. So two weeks before we
had that conversation, I said, all right, let's sleep on it.
Let's this was an old Bill Polly, and let's sleep

(33:48):
on it. Let's look at some tape tonight. I'll come
back tomorrow, I'll talk about it again. So we slept
on it, did a little more work, came back in
the morning, and we both felt the same way, like, hey,
look if he's there and these guys are gone, and
let's let's do it. So when the draft was rolling,
when he was, you know, we had a plan like, look,
if he's there in this situation, that's that's the guy
we're going to go with.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
It's crazy, it's it's really interesting because the juxtaposition of
okay that with the Quentin Johnson draft pick. Right. So
I texted you I think the next day.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
I think.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I let it breathe for a second for the next
day and I was like, man, can he catch? And
You're like, actually, his was this catch ratio or something
is about.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Eighty nine eighty eighty nine somewhere on there, right at
the threshold.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
For me, what's that? What's what's you want? Ninety percent?

Speaker 4 (34:33):
There shouldn't be lower than eighty eight percent. If it's
lower in eighty eight, that's probably.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Not what we're because you've had it's like the mixed
bag of you adapted some really good wide receivers, and
especially in this town where everybody wants them to go
get a wide receiver, and they're like, you know, it's
kind of worked out what we've done here, So what
what is that? Like? What why is it? It seems
like positionally that's the hardest one to that. If it's
the lowest percentage of hit rate, it feels like.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Trying to think it's I know in freqency, it's very low, uh,
draft wise in the first round, Yeah, it's it's not.
I mean, look, the first round in general is about
fifty five percent, which isn't very good.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
So when I I by the way, I use your
stats all the time, when you say fifty five percent,
that means fifty five percent that they will hit on
long term starters. Long term starters is what a first
round draft pick supposed to be.

Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah, I mean ideally you'd like a Pro Bowl in
that first you know, difference maker Pro Bowl?

Speaker 2 (35:28):
No, But I mean what the percentage of if you're
if you're in the positive, it means that you've achieved
whatever the general standard for that draft pick is, right.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
Essentially, it depends. You can look at the studies a
lot of different ways as far as what your qualifications are,
but you know you're looking for long at the very least,
a long term starter for their first round pick, you know,
hopefully a top starter on and if you hit, it's
a pro bowler.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Uh, your favorite pick that you've ever made as a
GM can't do before you were for your GM. So
you had eleven with the Chargers, one with the Raiders.

Speaker 4 (36:02):
I mean it's like like I got three kids, which
one you like the most?

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Well, you know right now it's Harper, but it occasionally, yeah,
it does or just the best story, you know what.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
One of the good stories, you know, the the Justin
Herbert draft was the COVID draft where we had to
draft from our houses individually and leading up to the draft.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
I definitely won that draft, by the way, being in
Newport Beach, Like, there's a lot of other people like,
hmm to Lesco's winning this one. You and Kingsbury. Kingsbury
won that one.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
His house a little nicer, but no, our location was
pretty good. But yeah, it was about a month before
the draft. I'm on, I was on. I was on
the gym advisory committee and the commissioner asked us about
the draft about Hey, look, we're thinking about doing it
where you can't go to your building, you can't go
in the draft room, you have to do it from
your house, and you have to hook up with everybody
you know via Wi Fi and Zoom. And I stood

(36:58):
up and I'm like, there's no way that can have
is no way it's going to work. That we don't
have the infrastructure. We got to be with our people,
I got to be with our staff. Impossible, never work.
And he told me to pound sand and he was right.
It worked now. It took a lot of work. I
had no idea what Zoom was at that point, But.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Isn't that crazy that like literally and knowing it now
it's it's like an every every people use it every
single day. And it was all because of of COVID.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
It's COVID. So I had my dining room table, I
had about I don't know five laptops set up in
different Zoom groups. And then I was worried about if
the Wi Fi goes out, we can't get a pick in.
So I had an AT and T truck parked behind
our house for three days, had two guys sitting in
lawn chairs in the back of our alley, just sitting
there in case something happened. Since it was COVID, they
weren't allowed to come in the house, so we had

(37:43):
that covered. And then but doing the draft essentially by
myself at a dining room table with my family there.
It was just surreal. Now I had, you know, I
had you know, Anthony Lynn on a zoom, I had
the scouts on a zoom, I had ownership on a zoom.
But it was interesting, to say the least. But then
to get you know, to get that quarterback just you.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Know, okay, so let's let's talk about that quarterback. If
Tua was there and Herbert was there, in all honesty,
who would you've picked? Take it?

Speaker 4 (38:10):
I kind of had good confidence where two it was going.
That stuff wasn't.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
That's not the question that was asked, Senator. I don't recall.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
This is my can and it's been actually no issue,
but you forget, you know, two had a pretty serious
hip injury in college, and we had concerns about long
term with that hip injury. Now, thankfully he hasn't had
any issues with that at all. And you know, sometimes
it's a little bit biased. You know, we saw justin
Herbert a lot on the West Coast. Our scout saw

(38:39):
him a lot. We had done a ton of work
on him the year before because we thought he didn't
declare for the draft. He was our number our Kevin
Kelly was our college director, who's his number one quarterback
the year before, so we knew going in the year
we really liked him. You know, he's big, strong, athletic.
And the big thing too was Anthony Lynn really liked
him as well, so we were both in the same path.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
You know.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
Then the question was do we trade up to get him?
Do we not? Can we sit and wait? And we
had enough It was intually trying to gather information during COVID,
but we had enough information. We felt like two was
going to Miami, and I was hoping nobody else would
trade up in front of user in front of Miami
to take Justin Herbert. At that point, just sitting way,
you get a little bit greedy, like I don't want
to give up picks. I want to I want the

(39:19):
quarterback and I want my picks for later. But just
to kind of fit that mobility part that that Anthony
Lynn wanted, and then all the intangibles, he was the guy.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
No, he's he's unbelievable. Unbelievable. And you know it's interesting
this year they lose in the playoffs, he doesn't play
particularly well, and it's like, I get it, but did
you realize how well he played all season long to
get them to that place? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (39:43):
Tremendous year, tremendous And he has that that combination of
the physical talent and then the intangibles and the preparation,
the work ethic, and he's a perfectionist. And when your
quarterback works like that, everybody kind of falls in line. Now,
he's outstanding.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekday, he said, three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
What is it like? I've tried to express this to people.
When you have a long time starter like a Philip Rivers,
you know people have always brought up you know, when
the Packers drafted Jordan Love, how you know he had
to have some tequila And I'm and this probably goes
back even when you're in Indy when you guys had Peyton.

(40:27):
How do those guys react when you draft a young guy,
even if it's sixth seventh round.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
What's that like, sixth seventh throw? I think has no
effect on them. You take one in the first second round,
it's going to be an effect on them. I mean,
they they want to play forever, they think they can
play forever. But as a general manager and then a
head coach, when you're looking at your team, like, if
there's a big gap between your franchise quarterback and the
next one, then I'm probably not going to be there anymore.
So the thought process is if you can possibly do

(40:55):
it like the way Green Bay has and you keep
overlapping it, that's the best way to go. Now, there's
gonna be a certain point where you're a quarterback high
when you're the current quarterback is still playing well, and
you have to massage that situation. It's things that we
had talked about with the Chargers every year because you know,
we didn't know how long Philip Rivers would go, and
I ended up playing a pretty long time and it
kind of worked out. He played only one more year

(41:16):
with the Colts after he left the Chargers, and it
was happening to be the year that you know that
Justin was going to be available. So but yeah, it's
not an easy proposition. It really isn't.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
What what What's the couple of Bill poullianisms that ring
in your head when you're drafting it? And I bring
him up because I'm fortunate to coach Dick Bennett's program. Huh,
and he came by and there's about three or four
things that I absolutely live by. You know, his are
his are in order to find out who're gonna win with,
you gotta find out who you can lose with. I

(41:47):
love that find glue. It's like recruit glue, recruit glue,
keep glue. Glue sticks to all the good stuff. And then, uh,
he believes that the better the person, the more they're
going to improve.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
That is that That's an That's a Bill one right there.
That's there's no doubt. Smart guys get better. And and
no matter how good you are in college, once you
get to the pro level, I mean, it's so talented.
You have to have more than just talent. You have
to have work ethic. But with Bill a thing, especially
this time of year during the draft. What always brings
in my head, especially in the first round, He's always
say no big hits, no big misses. You always want

(42:23):
to make sure in the first round that we make contact,
Like we don't want these uh you know, high ceiling,
low floor players that we could potentially strike out on,
Like doubles are good, Doubles turn into home runs sometimes.
And that's why his percentage of the first round was so high.
I think we really stripped the board down, like anybody
that we felt like, just trying to mitigate our risk.

(42:43):
High character players, chronic medical issues, uh, scheme fits. We
kind of pull you know, pulled those guys out because
just evaluating.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Players low character, low character, yeah, low character.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
Yeah, kind of stripped those out and try and increase
our ris in that player hitting. And you know, he
had a lot lot of hits in the first round,
a ton of them.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
How do you evaluate toughness?

Speaker 4 (43:05):
See, that's where it's nice, That's where the scout's eye
is important. Like we use a lot of data, a
lot of analytics. You have to blend it with the
scouts toughness some of us by eye, by practice, by games.
I'm not so much about if I sat down with
you and interviewed you, I could get a feel for
your toughness. I'm probably not that good of a psychologist. Sure,

(43:26):
certainly playing the game of football. I think that's where
the tape will probably come into play pretty pretty heavily.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah, it just it strikes me as difficult, especially at
the multiple, multiple stops, you know, where you're trying to
like dig in and you don't have coaches like, yeah,
you know his freshman year, you know he'd lack this
and then he really worked and the outre Now it's
like one school, next school, next school, next school, so
they know a lot about them, but you'd be amazed.
Like even in recruiting now, I'll talk to coaches who

(43:55):
have coached players and like, I had no idea.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Yeah, you don't get that progression.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
One person, we got a player. We got a player.
True story. He committed to US, signed with US, and
I was talking to his mom about his dad passed
away eight years ago. She's like, how did you know that?
It was like, I got my job to know your kids.
She's like, his current college coach had no idea. I'm like, okay,
because they don't have the time or to do to

(44:23):
really really dig in. It becomes very transactional. And I
just to know if there's a way to a value,
if it makes it harder to evaluate when you had
the multiple stops.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
I mean it probably is. We just got you gotta
figure it out and got to deal with it. So
you know, every team has a lot of scouts. They
all have an area of the country. It used to
be where you could rely on one scout to have
all the background on one player, and now you have
to rely on three scouts to get that same background
the player. And then that's why we have meetings. You know, scouts,
you will all these they do hundreds of thousands of reports.
But then we sit and we talk and we ask questions,

(44:52):
and we go back and forth and we do connor
arguments and we put everything together at the end.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
What what about the league from a general manager's perspective?
Do you know that others have no idea about it?

Speaker 4 (45:09):
Seems like nowadays everybody knows everything. You know. The one
thing with the draft process is I think sometimes the
general feeling is a GM goes in his office, watch
his tape and then puts the board up and decides
who he's picking. And it couldn't be farther from the truth.
I mean, when a GM makes a decision on a player,
he's taking an information from his area scout, his crosschecker,

(45:31):
his director college scouting, his player personnel director, assistant, GM
head coach, coordinator, position coach, the analytics people, all the
data that we get, the doctors, the character back. I mean,
all of these things are kind of putting into a
pot and then I'm making a decision off that. It's
never one person just standing on the table. Hey, I

(45:53):
think we should draft so and so. So it's almost
more of a decision making job than I for talent job.
You know, I'm taking a lot of information and try
and make decisions that way. So I think people just
think that we just did I just watched tape, and
I'll look, AT's a great pick and brock Bowers, well,
you know about fifty people went into that pick. It
wasn't just that easy. Sure, And so if you're someone
on the outside who's evaluating the draft, like like like

(46:16):
DJ Daniel, Jeremiah Daniel can watch all the tape and
then he can get some information from teams, but it's
a little bit different. You're not. It's not just the tape.
The tape's important, sure, don't get me wrong, but it's
not just that it has to be scheme fit. It
has to be character and medical and psycho psychological testing.
I was very big on and then taking in all
the opinions from the people that we hire on the

(46:36):
psyche testing. What are you looking for just to get
a feel for the person. Not it's not necessarily to
disqualify them, but how do they learn it? You know,
visual or verbal? But the big thing for me is
trying to figure out, you know, drive and desire, the
two big things like does eva drive to be great
and desire to be great? Because at this level it's

(46:57):
just it's so competitive. It doesn't matter how good you are.
If you don't have that drive and desire to be
great and that work ethic, then you're not probably not
going to get to your ceiling?

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Do you? Is it asking the age old question do
you love football?

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I didn't get much out of that. I just you're
going to get a stock answer from whatever player.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
No, I'm not talking about the answer from the player.
I mean, is that kind of really what you're looking
for at its at its core? Like I bring up
I bring up toughness.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Because would be yes, But there's just other ways to
get there than just you know, sitting in a combin
interview and saying, hey, look, do you love football?

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Like?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
No, No, I mean I just mean, I mean, like again,
in the psychological testing, that stuff comes out right because well,
you know what what their motivations are? Yes, you know.
And it's like we talk about this all the time
with our group, and it's really hard because you're if
you're recruiting a guy who's played for four or five years,
So there's a lot of tape, But what we can't
see is like what's inside them? What's burning inside them?

Speaker 3 (47:52):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Are you coming here to get a paycheck? Are you
coming here to win games? And you'll do whatever it
takes to win a game.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah? You know.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
I lost a kid because I thought he was gonna
be a really good backup point guard. And he was like,
you know, I want to play for you because I
can play free. It's like, can you play free? If
you're only playing fifteen minutes a game? You can do that,
then this is the place for you, right. But I
just didn't think it would be I would start a
relationship with a kid on a one year basis if
I wasn't honest with him about the potential for a role.

(48:18):
You know, But again, you're still trying to find out
like do you love football? Do you love coming to
practice every day.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
I never had a problem with a player who was
maybe motivated by money as long as they had the
other the other part, like they still had a desire
to be great and to compete because the money parts
are there. I mean, it is what it is. I mean,
so I didn't have a problem with that. That was
the only thing.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Then.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
Obviously it's an issue, but the psychological testing it gave us.
Nothing's ever one hundred percent, but it gave us a
pretty good feel for the player. And then we would
combine that with all of our intel from from the school,
Like we were big on, you know, talking to coaches
and colleges that had recruited the player and knew the
family had been with them for multiple years. Now it's
even harder to have that. I'd get a lot more

(49:01):
from that than like a fifteen minute combine interview with
the player.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
You're one of the first to you let Melvin Gordon walk.
And that was when the running back markets started kind
of started to stall out, right, So Saque obviously had
an incredible year, right, there were really three running backs
that had big years that left you guys went to
the Josh Jacobs goes to the Packers, right, Aaron Jones

(49:27):
goes to the Packers, to the Vikings, he had a
good year, and obviously Saquon had a great year, and
they they re upped Saquon again, which I'm not sure
i'd totally understand. Right. My thought was the big fight
wasn't behind the first year. It was behind years two
and especially year three in those deals. Right, But did
running backs win? Did they? Like? What's the status of

(49:48):
running backs versus the general managers as of whatever it
is April twenty second, twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
To me, it hasn't changed at all. It's strictly supplying
to man There's just there's a bix of plyer running
backs there just is. There isn't a draft, usually isn't
a free agency, and the more there are available that
are you know, starting quality running backs, that just kind
of dilutes the market. But you also get like a
Sequon Barkley or Ashton gent in my mind, that are
just a little bit above that. There's just like gap there.

(50:16):
There are complete difference makers, blue chip players that are
worth that investment. I love Melvin Gordon, he was outstanding charger.
But as you're building the team and you have a
salary cap and deciding where money goes, there gets to
a point where you know, Austin Eckler was an up
and coming back, different style, but we're able to lock
him in at a different number and then use that
money somewhere else. And at that point we had some

(50:39):
big needs in other places, and we decide to use
that money other places. And I love Melbourne. I wanted
to keep them, but you know, you just have to
make team building decisions.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Last thing, what about you? You know you said, hey,
cams usually don't get a second shot of this thing
eleven years, But then you did get a second shot,
but only with the Raiders for a year. But again
we can say we won, but wins and losses. There
were definitely some wins off the field or in drafting
or whatever. What are you gonna do?

Speaker 4 (51:07):
I don't know yet. I don't know. I'm just kinda
gonna take this time. I'm helping out doing some like
an offensive assistant at the local high school, which like
that in front of del Marrow. I just I love
high school football. I love being around kids like that
keeps me in a practice every day. We got spring
practice tomorrow, I'll be back for and I'm just gonna

(51:27):
keep my options open. I mean, I've been a football
my entire life. The NFL has been my life. There's
no way I could just not do it anymore. And
we'll kind of see what comes down down the pipe.
But I'm gonna do some of that. I'm gonna go
see my son play some college football this fall, which
I couldn't do last fall, and just kind of see
what happens after that.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Pat Mahomes, you you took Mike Williams instead of drafting
Pat Mahomes. And I remember, I tell people all the time,
we had a conversation. I was driving to I don't
remember its covering and just watching your game against the
Chiefs his first start, and You're like this, this division
is in trouble for a long time because this kid
is really, really good. I liked him. You know when

(52:03):
when when the Triefs drafted him, did you have any
potential concept he could be.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
This O there's a there's a reason I'm a former
GM right now, right so.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I know, But like I I watched Pat Mahomes a
ton at texta tech like I'm a big twelve guy,
and like, I don't know footwork, but I know his
was bad. I don't know decision making, but I know
it was crazy. But like he's gone from that too.
He's going to be in any conversation with the greatest
quarterback of all time, and like, look, you you had Peyton,
you had Rivers, You've been around all this, all this greatness,

(52:37):
did you have Like what sense did you have of
what he would look like in an NFL.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
F I mean obviously not like this. I mean with
all these quarterbacks, like like Andrew Luck was completely polished
coming out of college. So few are like that. Like
all these quarterbacks, they have traits that you like and
you bring them in and if they're smart and they
have great work ethic, they'll continue to improve. If they
have any weaknesses, you can minimize them, but they're going
to improve and get better and get more polished as

(53:03):
they're with you. So with quarterbacks like you got to
look at the traits, see what they have, look at
their intangibles and go with that. There's just no ready
made prospects coming out as a quarterback, just not cam
Ward is not already made polished prospect. Lastyer's quarterbacks, they weren't.
They all have to improve and get better. So with Mahomes,
I mean that you saw the wild plays and the

(53:24):
traits that he had. And the Chiefs are the Chiefs
of the Chiefs. They made a great move. They traded
up to get them. Maybe I'm still in so to
seal with the Chargers of him if I make that move.
I didn't make the move.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
And yeah, Philip Philip Philip Philip Philip Man had death
threat death.

Speaker 4 (53:39):
That death wouldn't give me a death situation. But maybe
I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yeah, that's that's that's very possible. Look, Uh, I really
appreciate you coming out and coming on with this all
this time. I have defended you because Jason Stewart, who's
producing this here show, he's also a Charger fan. Uh,
he blames you for all things Brandon Staley. He's not
a Brandon Staley fan. Anything that goes bad, it's anything
in life that goes bad. It's Brandon Staley's fault, basically.

(54:06):
But he's a bit of a negative Nancy. But you know,
his Dodgers won the World Series. So now he's he's
he has at least a partial grid. Partial grid.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
You tell Jason that the charters have things on the
right path right now.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
They do, they do it. Thanks so much for joining
me right anytime.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
All right.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
That's it for the ind the Mots podcast. Check out
the radio show every day three to five Eastron twelve
to Pacific, Fox Sports Tradio, iHeartRadio App'm Doug Gotlie