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Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split.
I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. We got a lot to talk about with Amy from a new head coach in Carolina to the Dallas changes, but not at the top. Obviously getting ready for the Final Four and Championship Sunday. So we're pleased to welcome her. She's a 30-year CEO with the Raiders or 30 years with the Raiders, a longtime CEO now with that other pregame show on CBS Sports Network and pops in here and there. She's an author. She's a leader and she is one of my favorite Amy's.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us for a few minutes, Amy. A lot of people are big fans of Frank Reich around the NFL. You hear people speak very highly of him. What does he bring to the table as he takes over now with the Panthers? Well, certainly as you noted, he has a history with the organization.
He was their quarterback many, many, many years ago. And he is a very, very well-respected coach throughout the league. And it's not mutually exclusive to say that Steve Wilks did a tremendous job there and had the absolute support of the locker room. Players spoke out saying they wanted to play for Steve and he may well have gone on to do terrific things with that team. So too may Frank.
Those two comments are not mutually exclusive. And I hope Steve gets another chance somewhere else. But it'll be interesting to see how Frank does. And by the way, how exciting is this for Frank and for Panthers fans and Colts fans? Like the Colts go to Carolina next year.
So that should be an interesting matchup. The Panthers are an example of a franchise in recent memory who have just continued to change. That's really been the constant for the Panthers, for the Colts, for the Browns, even for the Giants before this year with Brian Deball.
How does it affect the players and the coaches in a locker room? Well, you know, it's interesting you mentioned that about the Panthers because since Ron Rivera was terminated, they've been through, if you count interim head coaches, you know, they had Ron Rivera who they fired. They've had two interim head coaches. They've had Matt Ruhl who they fired. They have been changing coaches a lot since Ron was terminated. And, you know, Ron was there for a while, but then they haven't been able to find someone that they were satisfied with. Although, again, I'll note that Steve did a tremendous job, really without a lot of assets in various positions on the team. And boy, if you look at the list of quarterbacks Carolina has been through since Cam Newton, it just goes on and on and on and on. So you're right. There hasn't been stability there at coach or at quarterback.
I have this phrase that I use on the radio about sports in general, but it certainly does apply to several NFL franchises. Constant change equals constant losing. There is a correlation between the two. When all you're doing is pulling out the plants that you've put down, they never have a chance to grow roots and everybody else is in constant flux as well. You know, it's an interesting conundrum because if something really, really isn't right and you absolutely know it's not right and can't work, a very strong argument can always be made that consistency is simply for the sake of consistency doesn't work well at times.
But to your point, you're absolutely right. If you don't give a plant a chance to grow its roots, by the way, great analogy to bring plants into this. I love that. And by the way, I do not have a green thumb. So while we're on the plant concept, I'll just let you know that when I put plants in the ground, I explain to them that it's going to be the Darwin theory in my garden. Only the strongest plants are going to survive. Survival of the fittest.
Right. Listen plants, I'm putting you in the ground and only the strong plants are going to be able to live here. My lack of a green thumb aside, you know, it's a great analogy you use because you really do need plants to take root in order to survive. But again, you don't want consistency for the sake only of consistency.
And I think that's a very fine line between those two. I'm a big time plant person. In fact, I'm wearing a t shirt that says I have too many plants said no one ever. And the whole front of the t shirt is covered by various types of plants.
I highly suggest naming them. Actually, that seems to work for me. Okay, I love plants too. I just don't have a green thumb because you know, you gotta you gotta take care of them.
Maybe I'll just turn my plant situation over to you. That sounds like fun. Amy Trask is with us. Longtime Raiders CEO and now long time analyst for CBS Sports. You can catch her on that other pregame show on Sundays.
It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. What do you make of this coaching carousel that has seemingly ground to a snail's pace? Well, we did see the hire today that you mentioned earlier in the show or earlier in our conversation. And oftentimes what we see is a little bit of a domino effect that when the first one is hired, other teams mobilize a little bit more quickly, perhaps fearing that all right, one's gone. Now we better make our move before someone else does. So I wouldn't be surprised over the next few days to see additional positions filled.
We shall see if that happens. Of course, the whole Sean Payton issue is very, very interesting. He's out there. He's obviously not going to Carolina. There's been rumors that Denver might be a spot for him, although Denver is also looking at a number of other coaches. I know this, if I were the New Orleans Saints, I would take a whole lot less in draft compensation from an AFC team than I would from an NFC team because I wouldn't want him in my conference. So if there's an AFC team out there like Denver, if I'm the Saints, I get word to them, hey, if you want Sean Payton, I'll take less from you than I would from an NFC team because I don't want him in our conference. Well, and it would have to be less with Denver because they gave up so much to get Russell Wilson. So they're a little draft capital strapped, if you will. Why is Sean Payton worth the wait in your opinion?
Well, I think he's a terrific head coach. Is it the question, are you willing to wait or are you willing to pay the draft compensation? I don't know that anyone's going to be willing to wait a particularly long period of time. It's a very win now league in many respects. Not all organizations are that way, not all team owners are that way, but many want to win, particularly if they have a roster geared for winning now. If you have a team of players ready to win now that might not be together for a long period of time, then you're not going to wait. But the draft choice compensation is an issue, as you noted, particularly for teams which have given up a number of picks.
But again, if I'm New Orleans, number one, I want to do the right thing by Sean. But number two, I'll take a lot less to get him out of my conference. But it does seem to happen that when one team hires a particular type of coach, offensive coordinator comes from Sean McVay's staff, something along those lines, a lot of the other teams will try that pattern. Who are a couple of other names out there that you think will make solid head coaches, or at least should get shots at opportunities?
Well, D'Amico Ryan's is obviously a name that is and should be atop the list of many teams. But another name is David Shaw. David Shaw, most recently the head coach at Stanford.
And I can't say enough good things about David. And by the way, I went to Cal. So here's this Cal girl raving about a Stanford head coach, but I had the opportunity to work with David when he was with the Raiders.
And I just think the world of him. I actually loved him in college because if I had a son or a daughter who was a collegiate athlete, he is precisely the man I would want coaching them. So I loved that he was in college. The only day I rooted against him during the year was when Stanford played Cal. But I think he would also be a tremendous head coach in the National Football League.
Amy Trask is with us after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. The Dallas situation fascinates me too, because head coach is staying. Defensive coordinator has chosen for the second year in a row to stay put as opposed to go somewhere else where he could have been a head coach again. We don't yet know about the OC, but a bunch of coaches underneath Mike McCarthy have been let go.
What's your reaction to that? Well, one person I was particularly disappointed to see let go was running back coach Skip Peet. Skip is someone with whom I worked as well. And I think Skip is a tremendous coach and a tremendous man.
So that was disappointing. Dan Quinn remaining is very, very interesting. And we of course don't know precisely why he chose to stay or commitments made to him that enticed him to say, did he just think, you know what? I'm really happy here. I'm happy doing what I'm doing.
I don't need to look for the next opportunity. We don't know what went into that decision. But it was a decision that is very much to the benefit of the Cowboys. I got to ask you this question, because I asked my audience and we got a pretty diverse reaction. Which team suffered the more disappointing end to its season, Buffalo or Dallas?
Yes, the answer is yes. I'll go with option C. Tremendously disappointing for both. You know, I guess the only thing that would push me a bit to the Buffalo side of that equation is Buffalo was home for that playoff game. Dallas was on the road. Buffalo has one of the most magnificent home field environments. Those fans are cacophonous.
Very, very hard place to go. And by the way, as I talk about this, I think I'm having PTSD about us going there in the playoffs and losing 51 to three. And we lost there another time in the playoffs. And I raised that because it is a hard, hard place for a visiting team to win. So, you know, my answer is tremendously disappointing for both teams.
But I guess I would give the edge to Buffalo simply because they were at home. I sometimes talk about the Warriors and how they went to those five straight NBA finals. They've been so good now for this stretch with their core group of Steph and Clay and Draymond and obviously Steve Kerr.
And how many other teams in the West in the NBA would have had great success, maybe would have reached the NBA finals or won titles if not for playing in the era of this Golden State Warriors team. And I think about the Bills and all the promise and of course the sky high expectations. But right now they're playing in this era where the Chiefs and the Bengals have become the teams to beat. And sometimes it's not just about you. You gotta go through the best to be the best.
Well, that's exactly right. And one thing everybody has to remember is injuries and it's part of the game. And I remember early, early, early in my career we had suffered a bunch of injuries and I was in talking to Al Davis and I was moaning and groaning about the injuries and he said to me, no one cares. He didn't mean that no one in the organization cared about the players. Of course we did. He didn't mean that fans didn't care about the players.
Some of course did. What he meant was at the end of the day people just want you to win. So they might care about the men who were injured but the fact is when he said no one cares about injuries what his intent was, what he was communicating was injuries are part of the game. Nobody's gonna pay attention.
Are you winning or are you losing? They're not gonna factor in those injuries. And the reason I raised that is the Von Miller injury was a big injury for the Bills. And yes, other teams have had injuries as well. And yes, injuries are part of the game. And as Al said, when people are expecting you to win it's go win, we don't care whether you've had injuries or not, go win. But that was a big injury for the Bills. Do you think that would have applied if we didn't have Patrick Mahomes available this weekend?
Well, you know what, in the sense, and again, I wanna be very, very clear. I'm not saying that nobody has compassion for an injured player. I'm not saying that no one cares for the man who is injured. But what Al was expressing and the quote I shared was his point was, you gotta win. People want you to win.
The goal is to win if Patrick Mahomes couldn't play or if Jalen Hurts couldn't play. I mean, that is, as they said, I think it was in the Wizard of Oz, A Horse of a Different Color. Is that the Wizard of Oz? You are the first who's ever broached the Wizard of Oz, which is perfect. I used that in an interview earlier. And I said, when Carolina made the decision to move on from Steve Wilkes, I said, Steve Wilkes did a magnificent, magnificent job there.
And Carolina may come to realize there's no place like home. Remember when Dorothy said that? Amazing, of course. That was the first movie I was ever allowed to watch.
The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music when I was seven, eight years old. Getting to the Promised Land, the yellow brick road on your way to the Super Bowl. Yeah, I might work that in. Amy Trask is a longtime Raider CEO. We always love her stories about working with Al Davis, even those that include shouting matches. Even as we head into Championship Weekend here on CBS Sports Radio, the Giants have both a quarterback and a running back that are coming off really exceptional seasons. They would like to keep them both, but sometimes you can't pay them both. So I am wondering, in your opinion, how do you value running backs when you see rookies come in and make a huge impact right away? Or say a Tony Pollard has had a better season than their highly paid running back. Where do you fall and how do you value running backs when it comes to trying to divvy up your resources, Amy? 32 different teams, 32 different head coaches, 32 different general managers, 32 different ownership groups, and they're going to evaluate it differently in every circumstance.
There is no one size fits all for that question. I value the running game. Um, look, the running game and the passing game are inextricably connected. The better you run the ball, the easier it will be to pass the ball. The better you pass the ball, the easier it's going to be to run the ball. If you're running the ball effectively, that's going to have to be defended and it's going to open things up in the passing game. I love the running game. That doesn't mean to the exclusion of the passing game, but, you know, different people evaluate it very differently.
Well then, do you give your running back a big deal like the one that Ezekiel Elliott got? Um, look, I'm going to apologize now for being your persnickety guest, but I am the one that went to law school. So I'm going to say in my legal background and with my training, your honor, that calls for a hypothetical objection. All right, all right. I like persnickety too. That's a good word. Persnickety is a great word. Okay, so we've got four teams still remaining. Our final four in the NFL.
What do you think is one factor that has powered them to this point? All right. I've never been one to pay attention to directions. I've let you every single report card my parents ever got for me, like from kindergarten through 12th grade, doesn't follow directions, doesn't listen to the teacher. So in that spirit, I'm going to give you more than one answer for each, because I just, I don't follow directions.
Every report card doesn't follow directions, doesn't pay attention, doesn't listen to the teacher. I wouldn't have thought that about you. Really? Okay, so here we go. Kansas City, magnificent, magnificent head coach and phenomenal quarterback.
Okay. When you look at that match up of, you know, there are a lot of teams with good head coaches. There are a lot of teams with good head quarterbacks, but when you look at Kansas City, tremendous head coach, tremendous quarterback, and by the way, phenomenal home field advantage.
Kansas City and Buffalo were the two, you know, in my experience, in my career, those were the two hardest road environments we played. So Kansas City, I'm going Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes. Cincinnati, there is just something special about Joe Burrow.
It's a, I'll use a little French, a je ne sais quoi. He is extraordinarily talented, but there's a swagger to him. Very, very special quarterback. San Francisco, wow, that defense, tremendous. Kyle Shanahan doing a phenomenal job. And I love the story about Brock Purdy because it proves a point I love to make. The draft is not a science.
There's no enigma code. They gave up umpteen draft picks to take a quarterback very, very high. They took Brock Purdy with the final pick in the draft, known as Mr. Irrelevant.
Mr. Irrelevant and look what he's doing. So I've got my eye and, but that defense is going to keep them in every game. And Philadelphia, wow. Oh, again, all four head coaches are good.
Let me just lay that out there. These are four, four good head coaches. I think, you know, Andy Reid is one who attracts my attention all the time because of his, you know, the long stretch he's had of winning. But all four of these final head coaches are very, very good coaches.
So I'm certainly, it's not a criticism by omission. I just put Andy atop the heap. And in Philadelphia, again, combination of coach and quarterback. Jalen is a tremendous quarterback. Yeah, you think about Andy Reid and his 20 playoff wins now, 10 with one franchise, excuse me, 10 with another. He's proven that it's not just about the people that he had really, or the place where he was.
Nah, he can do this coaching thing, this winning thing, wherever. So I like those answers. Those are awesome. Actually, I was being sarcastic about you not following rules. I can definitely see that about you. But yes, I'm going to remember that on every report card, refuses to play along, refuses to follow the rules.
Everyone, everyone doesn't pay attention, doesn't listen, doesn't follow the rules. I should frame those. What did your parents say about that? We'll save that for a whole nother time. Well, I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that all of my detentions were for talking.
You know what? Love it. It's worked out fine for both of us.
Yes, it definitely has because you are different and that's what makes you special, Aime. As are you. Thank you. She's a longtime Raiders CEO and she's an analyst of a different kind. On CBS Sports Network, you'll see the other pregame show, also an author, and just one of our favorite guests for Team Aimee. So on Twitter, at Aimee Trask, as always. Thank you, Aimee.
As always, absolutely positively, my pleasure. A treat to join you. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. Lizard man? I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split.
I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. The NFL playoffs live on Odyssey and Westwood One brings you the AFC and NFC Championship games streaming live for free this Sunday on the Odyssey app. The 49ers visit the Eagles. Touchdown, Jaylen Hurts. And then it's a rematch between the Bengals and the Chiefs. Wide open, Jamar Chase takes it in. Touchdown, Chiefs. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your playoffs, your Odyssey.
Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, Your Weirdest Fears, the show that explores the odd things that make your heart stop. I am so scared of the Grinch. He is bad vibes. We talk to everyone from therapists to exterminators to lizard man. I was 25 when I actually got my tongue split.
I have one tattoo that covers my entire body. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-01-27 08:46:44 / 2023-01-27 08:56:19 / 10