Jason Cole: 49ers are still the class of the NFC

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Find out how to bring your ideas to life at dell.com slash welcome to now. And now, sitting in for Rich, here's Brian Weber. Final hour of the program, still plenty of time for you to express your opinion. If you don't have a chance to get in today, jot down the number because apparently now I just crank phone calls. Who am I?

What have I become in the opening hour of the show? We have back-to-back, effective and insightful callers. Probably not going to have much of a chance to have you chime in today. But I'm back with you tomorrow and then you don't have to deal with me probably until Memorial Day. 844-204-7424 is the number to call and I check out Twitter during and after the program. B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. If you want to pass along your thoughts, I can tell you what I will not be doing later in the day. Well, the good news is the gym is open once more. Steam room a necessity. Nothing sadder than a middle-aged man trying to just have a modicum of cardio skills.

I caught myself trying to jog in the neighborhood yesterday. Not a good idea. Not a good idea at all. So, Uncle Brian will be easing into the hot tub.

That's an image you do not need to process, especially if you're off. But here's what I'm not going to be doing. I'm not going to be watching the quick lane bowl that's about to kick off in Detroit. Although it will be a good crowd because Minnesota is going to travel over to Michigan taking on Bowling Green.

I will not be watching the first responder bowl. Although Texas State, because I love college football, great story. Remember they shocked Baylor in the opener taking on Rice. Decent crowd there with the Texas connection. A game being played in Dallas.

I might watch a smidge of the guaranteed rate bowl coming up tonight in Phoenix. Because UNLV is a fabulous story. Real good year in the Mountain West. And Kansas, you'll recall, was in the hunt for a while in the Big 12.

Lance Leipold has completely transformed that program. If you thought about Kansas and football, you thought about Gale Sayers and nothing over the last 60 years. They're actually a relevant program now. So, with having established that I have mixed emotions when it comes to college football this time of the year, in 40 minutes I'm going to talk big picture about what's going right and wrong in a sport that I love dearly. If you care at all about how I wound up in this chair, I got a very lucky break early on to be deeply involved with college sports. And my alma mater traveled with football and basketball. I've covered multiple Final Fours. The current state of football, we'll just keep it there for the purposes of the upcoming discussion. Really bothers me on a lot of levels.

I know it's not going to change, but I'm paid to express my opinion. I've got a strong one. We'll get there coming up in 40 minutes. And because today is Boxing Day, many happy returns. Apparently, based on a tweet I just read, Deion Sanders wants to return his entire existing roster other than his son, Chidor.

I've got the particulars coming up. Prior to that, in 20 minutes, and I will be much more mindful of managing the clock, we go round the NFL with Jason Cole, longtime NFL insider now working for the 33rd team. Want to pass along an item that I overlooked early in the program as we're going to kick things off here in the last hour of the show, getting back to the fallout from that beatdown applied by the Ravens to the 49ers. Should have been the game of the year. Turned out to be the worst game of Brock Purdy's young career. Just from a standpoint of confidence, poise, self-belief, it is fair to wonder how he bounces back moving forward after you pick the adjective. A wretched performance? How else is a logical person supposed to summarize four interceptions?

Now, context matters. A couple were batted balls, but he just looked overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment. It didn't help that Lamar, who had a shaky start to the game, found his way and Jackson, the vastly superior player, I thought came in with a real shot at winning the MVP, clearly locked it up last night. He's going to get that individual award for the second time in his career.

Still, we're all looking for motivation. Friend of the program, Mike Florio, apparently was a catalyst for what Lamar and the Ravens did. Now, yesterday, hopefully you enjoyed my Christmas gift to you.

Actually, I got the gift from Rich. He said, do you want to work? And I was happy to be in the chair because there's nothing better, especially this time of the year, than to avoid your family, make a couple bucks, and spend a wall-to-wall program going through everything that had occurred across the NFL weekend thus far. But as I was getting you fully lined up for the potential Super Bowl preview between Baltimore and San Francisco, I did mention, and I didn't think it was just trivial, bulletin board fodder, if bulletin boards even exist anymore, a couple guys on the Ravens said they were aware of the spread and they thought it was completely disrespectful.

That it started at five and a half and it got close to a full touchdown prior to kickoff. Apparently, these guys know how to use the internet. And they look at their phones, which is always fascinating because I've done this long enough not only in this forum as a bloviator spouting opinions. Early on in your career, you do different roles, so I cover teams. As a TV reporter, you stand in locker rooms posing questions, or if you're timid, you hold a microphone still, you're there. You see how these sound bites get generated. And in the old days, typically it was a newspaper writer who would lead the way because they're in that locker room every day. They have more access, more rapport, but you hear the entire conversation and then you read in the paper or you watch the news later. Again, these are ancient memories.

What is chosen as the money quote? Bunch of Ravens said, heading into this game, we have been disrespected. But it's also balanced by the fact that I've talked to hundreds of athletes and asked them about motivation and most of them say I never look at my phone. I turn off my radio. Now they will concede that they get chatter, bits and pieces from family and friends and they say, hey, did you hear what that loudmouth said? So it is an interesting disconnect that players always get back to these bromides that we've known for a long time. Control the controllables.

Tune out the external noise. Dare I say, take it one game at a time? I'm doing my best to give you 120 percent as a fella, not just 110 percent today. I'm Brian Weber. Aim for Rich Eisen. In 15 minutes, we take you around the NFL with Jason Cole of the 33rd team.

So that's the setup. Evidently, it was not only the Sharpies in Vegas that perturbed the Ravens, Mike Florio, good friend of the program. He's built a media empire at ProFootballTalk.com and all the brand extensions, plenty of video as well. He does a Pick'em segment with Chris Simms.

I wonder how Chris got that job as nepotism is also running wild in our industry. And Florio apparently came across with a strong opinion that the Niners were going to kick the bleep out of the Ravens. OK, he might have actually said the word because it was a digital only offering. Or you could say what you want in most spaces, not on this show. It's family friendly entertainment. Now, that's a strong opinion, but it's just an opinion. And with all due respect to Mike, who has built, I'll say it again. And I used to fill in for Mike on Pro Football Talk, the radio show on the late great NBC Sports Radio. I have immense respect for him personally, professionally, and all that he has built. Mike was a lawyer. Mike realized there was an audience for NFL centric content 24 seven and he's monetized it.

He is a brilliant businessman and a respected NFL insider. Still, it's just his opinion. You could walk down the street and two people could be yelling at each other about whatever the topic is. Right. We all know what opinions are and what they can be connected to.

We all have opinions and we all have other things connected to our body. Evidently, what Florio said, and maybe it was the extreme nature kicking the bleep out of the Ravens, miffed Lamar Jackson. So coming off the field in Santa Clara in the Bay Area last night, he mentioned and Mike's not going to like this. But hey, as long as you get close to your name being uttered, doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. Apparently, Lamar thought his name was Mike Flores.

All right. But he got the F and the L and the R right and was asked about it postgame because he was pretty fired up. And Lamar came back with the I can give you some of the highlights here. This quote, summing up why he felt there was disrespect in how Florio selected the Niners to demolish the Ravens.

Here's Lamar speaking quote. We're in the NFL. We play ball. Not to take away from that team, but you just can't discredit us. We're grown men.

We have to feed our families. He went on to say Flores slash Florio can have his opinion, but don't talk like that. That is disrespectful.

Okay. I can't disagree with Lamar. Now, I don't know why he felt the need to go public with those sentiments other than he was being emotional coming off the field.

And here's the other thing that Lamar has got to be smart enough to realize. We all know you're on camera now your entire life. Now the good news for you as a consumer of this program. I am not on camera. I'm probably on a security camera that's broken or the videotapes going nowhere.

But thankfully you don't have to deal with me yet. Although I'm going to talk my way in for at least one show before I retire and that's coming up sooner than you think. I will be in that studio for the Emmy nominated simulcast on the Roku Channel. But we're all on camera all the time because we all have not only a phone, a computer, a video device. We got it all in the palm of our hand.

It's a production on the move. So Lamar came up the field was emotional. The video got plus you got a army of reporters there for the game of the year and somebody's looking for an angle.

Now, Lamar could have shut it down. Just could have said, hey, I was in the moment. No big deal, but clearly that bothered him. And it is amazing because we forget sometimes I was talking about the human component of what Brock Purdy is going to have to deal with moving forward.

And here's a big word, but I think it's useful for all of us compartmentalize. He's going to have to shake off what was a horrific performance last night. And it's not all on him, but when you're that bad and you have that kind of supporting cast who did not come up with a series of unforced errors, he's got to own that.

But now he's got to figure out the path forward. These guys are always looking for motivation, which is amazing to me. Lamar Jackson is at the top of his profession, finally got paid long overdue, and I gave you my rant about the fact that no one even signed him to an offer sheet. And I don't want to get into the minutiae of the franchise tag, boring stuff, but it is amazing to me. And another reason why I still love sports and maybe I'm not as bright as I pretend to be on your radio. It's the human component to it. What's the old line from Wide World of Sports?

When the dude from Eastern Europe is tumbling down that long ski jump, and thankfully it was okay, the human drama of athletic competition, we overlooked that. Especially now with fantasy football and gambling, we think it's all transactional. This is painfully important to these guys. Not only is it their livelihood, for many of them, it's their entire personal identity.

That's why so many struggle in retirement because they can't find anything that comes close to the competition and the camaraderie. So I'm sure Florio will have fun responding. This is great for Mike.

More content, pal. Gotta feed the beast. I am surprised Lamar decided to go down that road, but when you win, you can say anything you want. And perhaps it was the way Mike was so forceful and the word that he used that Lamar thought that was a bit unseemly.

Unseemly is another way of describing Brock Purdy. And it feels like I'm piling on, but folks, we all watched that game together. And what I thought was most disheartening, again, I'm not rooting for anybody, I just wanted the game to live up to the hype. So we had the potential game of the year in the NFC Championship game rematch between the Niners and the Eagles. And we know how that played out. Wah wah wah.

Nothing in the realm of our level of expectation. And while last night was theoretically close at the half, 16-12, after Baltimore settled for all of those field goals, if you watched the game, it was clear the Ravens were vastly better. And now San Francisco's got a regroup moving forward. And this is, if you're a Purdy fan, the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate, okay, he can put it behind him.

Life is problem solving. And the next time he's in a game of this magnitude, he delivers with four touchdowns and not four picks. And then guys like me on the radio say, okay, you're back to.500 now. But until he has redemption, until he figures out how to rebound from a night to forget, this is going to stay with Purdy even more than all of his accomplishments because that's how it works, it's unfair. But he hasn't won anything yet. Because in the two biggest games so far, unfortunately, he almost got his elbow ripped off his body by the Eagles early on in that beatdown in the MC championship game. And last night, he could not get out of his own way. And yes, let's credit the Ravens for having a lot to do with that.

A pair of batted balls. Kyle Hamilton was everywhere. But for the Niners, and their typically steely front seven, the most effective way to slow down Lamar Jackson last night was the umpire taking a spill, backpedaling in the end zone, who got in his way. He goes down with the intentional grounding call.

And there's your safety for the funky start to the game after that. It was all Baltimore in large measure because Brock Purdy wasn't ready for prime time. It's going to be fascinating to see what he does in the remaining two games of regular season.

It's a get right opportunity on the road against Washington. The commanders played that insane game against the Jets. I think I was one of seven people who cared on the red zone coverage. That thing would take me an hour to explain how the Jets had that huge lead with Trevor Simeon, of all people, back under center. Because poor Zach Wilson now is broken physically as well as emotionally.

Twenty-nothing Jets, 27-14 on the fourth, and they needed a bomb from Legatron, Greg Zirline, at the gun to win that game. And Robert Salah is coming back. In fact, if he had good spies, he would have known he was coming back before that game. And Rich is a long suffering Jets fan, I'm sure has strong opinions.

Because the owner of the Jets, Woody Johnson, told the beat reporter for the New York Post, prior to the game, not only was Salah coming back, but GM Joe Douglas as well. I'm Brian Weber, in for the aforementioned Rich Eisen. Jot down the phone number, I'll have the thought of taking a phone call or two tomorrow.

844-204-7424. More of your tweets a possibility. B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Got to get to the college football. We'll do that coming up in 25 minutes. Coach Prime calling out basically his entire team on social media. But straight ahead, back to the NFL. After last night, how does a realistic MVP ballot look now?

Certainly Lamar Jackson belongs in the top spot. We will cover it all when we check in with Jason Cole, NFL insider for the 33rd team. Weber in for Eisen as we continue on this Tuesday installment of the Rich Eisen Show. Alright folks, let's talk about game time and let's talk about buying tickets to big time events.

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844-204-7424 is the phone number. You can hit me up on Twitter, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's. Let's keep the NFL momentum going with one of the best in the business, an old friend, Jason Cole. He provides quality content for a variety of platforms. Among them, the 33rd team. Jason, happy holidays.

Thanks for taking the time. Did Santa bring you new Stanford ACC gear last night? He gave me a love letter to give to all FSU fans. They want Oregon State more than our Cardinal.

We'll save that for our podcast. Alright buddy, coming into last night's game, what were your expectations for how that showdown between the Ravens and Niners might play out? And what were you thinking as Brock Purdy imploded? I was expecting the San Franciscans were going to win this game, and I was expecting they would win it by 7-10 points. But the turnovers just create, when you have four interceptions, it changes anything that you expect out of a game. And I'm not trying to say that the Ravens didn't outplay the 49ers.

They clearly did. But there are some chance things that happen in the game that you say, okay, if they were playing again, would this game be closer? Would it be a lot more interesting game? And I think, look, you've got one interception that comes off, the Ravens hit Purdy in his arm, okay, ball floats out. You've got two that happen on deflections, right?

One that's clearly his fault early in the game that he didn't see Hamilton come back into the play, and he also let the third drift too far. Purdy did not play well, but I don't know that you can recreate three of those four interceptions that easily. That's what I would say to that, and I don't know that the game gets that lopsided. I will also say this, that I'm very concerned about when the 49ers are behind in the second half, they're just not the same. And Purdy is not built to come back from deficits, and neither is Kyle Shanahan. The way he's built his offense, and the way that they like to run it, and the fact that Purdy, because he doesn't have overwhelming gifts as a thrower, being behind by a touchdown in the second half is a problematic position for them. Talking football with NFL insider Jason Cole. So Jason, yeah, I mentioned I had it as two of the interceptions were batted, but thank you for providing further context. So with those mitigating factors, do you view last night as an outlier, an aberration, or are there major concerns about Purdy now heading into the postseason?

Well again, I think there are major concerns about Purdy in given situations. I think that again, if he and Shanahan together are in a comeback situation, that's going to be really, really difficult for the 49ers. They have to play from a lead. That's just what they have to do. If they don't play from a lead, I don't know that the team can win, which is why it's so important for them to be at home as they go through the playoffs. It's critical for them to hold onto that, to be there. I know that they want some big games on the road as well, but I think that when you come playoff time, it's going to be a little bit more critical.

So I'm concerned. At the same time, look, if you look at the totality of the NFC, I just don't see a big challenge or two. I don't see a team that I think right now is going to just run away from them in any way, shape, or form. So I still think they're the class of the NFC. The question comes if you get Baltimore again, which is a team that wants to match them physically. A lot of teams talk about being tough. Baltimore is tough. San Francisco is tough. Philadelphia, when they're right, they are tough and they're very physical. I just wonder about how the 49ers match up in that game on a neutral site if you get Baltimore again.

I think last night was a bit of an outwire. It was a little more lopsided than you would typically see in these games, but I also think I was wrong to anticipate that the 49ers would be able to beat them easily. I don't think it's going to be as easy for the 49ers to win against the Ravens.

They can. I just don't think it's quite as simple as what I thought it would be. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen, taking you across the NFL with Jason Cole. Jason, I don't know if you have an NFL MVP vote, so I want to just ask the question. Do you have a ballot? I don't.

I do not have a vote. How did you see things prior to last night and now it's Lamar Jackson, right? It's Lamar Jackson. I don't think it's Lamar Jackson. I don't think it's finished yet. Some people want to say, Lamar won it last night.

I'm not quite there yet. I think it's too close. I've had this spirited discussion with Josh Allen fans today and I think that he's in the mix. What would the argument for Allen sound like? It sounds like, well, he's got 40 touchdowns combined between the runs and the throws.

Look at what this team would be without him. There's some persuasive things about Josh Allen and them not wanting to blame him for the losses. They had the lead in three of the four games. I bring up four games where he threw a lot of interceptions or a lot of interceptions in negative territory. They say, well, he left with the lead in three of those four games. He shouldn't be blamed.

I don't buy that argument. He created the problems that they had during the game with interceptions in negative territory and he does have 15 interceptions overall. But 40 touchdowns is 40 touchdowns and it's worthy of consideration because I don't think that there's one guy this year who just runs away with it. I don't think Lamar Jackson is running away with it.

I think he's got a lot of help, but he would be the leader in the clubhouse right now. I think that guys like McCaffrey, Purdy took himself out of it last night. McCaffrey is still in the discussion, I think. Tyreek Hill is still in the discussion, but those are kind of the top four. Then you get into the next group of guys that is probably led by Dak Prescott, probably has a defensive player like a Kyle Hamilton in there and a few others. But I think that there's four guys in some kind of order with Lamar Jackson at number one to me who deserve discussion and with two games left we'll see how it plays out.

Jason Cole always comprehensive with his analysis, our guest in the Rich Eisen show. Jason, as we think about Kansas City, they certainly had been mortal before all the issues yesterday and I could just go through the litany of problems. The receivers leading the league in drops, the defense now wobbly in recent weeks. Still, they are the reigning champs, so how much confidence do you have Kansas City can turn it on when they get to the playoffs? They can. We're talking about guys just catching the ball. Doing things that receivers are supposed to do. If you just catch the balls that are supposed to be in your hand, this team would have three, maybe four more victories and we wouldn't be talking about them in the same way.

But they haven't caught the ball and they're losing confidence. And I think we lost Jason. And that's quite alright and I'll speak directly to our technical producer, Art Martinez. Art, no need to call him back. He gave us 10 great minutes and I don't do half hour interviews. So we'll thank Jason for his time and that works for the podcast as well.

Occasionally gremlins pop in there and that will allow me to complete Jason's thought because I've been echoing those same sentiments. Now he put it into focus in a better fashion than I did because Jason's been covering the league longer than I have. You can, as a quality NFL receiver, have the ability to put those drops behind you. Fair point. But how many miscues have we seen all season long from the Chiefs?

Tony gave the officials no chance whatsoever not to throw the flag because he was so obviously offsides in the neutral zone negating what should have been the play of the year to beat the Bills. So my question and my pushback would be what's going to change just because the calendar flips to January and now a single elimination format. I realize that pressure crystallizes everything and that's why they're the champs and they'll have a chance to prove loud guys like me wrong. And maybe I'm a prisoner of watching too much. It's easier to have a broad opinion if you're not mired in all the details, but I watch games. For better or for worse, I sit there on Sunday with a red zone for seven hours.

Now I walk around and I'll be hitting the steam room again. I'm not trying to sound like a shut in, but I have seen so much of Kansas City going back to what should have been a glorious night. With the championship celebration on a Thursday to kick off the season and I realize no Jones. No Kelsey Lions still win that game in part because Kansas City was way too generous. And we've never in the brief and brilliant run of Patrick Mahomes seen him have to win in a critical spot in the playoffs on the road. And we're going to learn a lot more about Mahomes and again, I'm not burying him in any way.

He could certainly prove I am just riffing on the radio, but these are legitimate concerns. Same story with Philadelphia, who while they had a nearly identical record to start the year as they did last year on their way to the Super Bowl. If you watch games, your eyes are going to tell you this is not nearly the same team. How much confidence can you have in a Philadelphia team? You could say, well, they let down because they had a big lead, but the other team is on scholarship as well to use the old cliche and Tarod Taylor wanted to stick at the Brian Dable to say, okay, enjoy your Tommy DeVito mania.

Maybe if you give me a chance to get on the field, I can show you what I can do. That was a one score game. 33, 25 final seconds. Taylor gets picked off in the end zone.

Why? Philadelphia way too many miscues in the second half. You have guys running into each other on the opening kickoff. You had the ability of a secondary to bounce back after they got carved up on the game winning drive in Seattle on Monday night by Drew Locke, a chance to make a statement. They were back. And I realized Darrius sleigh is not back and that's a big difference maker on the shelf, but to see slate and get behind that secondary and go for the 70 yard touchdown.

So it really does point out what we know to be true. And if I was going to do power rankings, I would not because they're lame and predictable. But prior to last night, I would have had San Francisco one Baltimore to Miami three and then a massive drop off to everybody else. Now, I think you put the Niners slightly behind the Ravens, obviously head to head. But as Jason Cole provided important context, maybe I should say it's two and a half of the party picks were INTs.

Although I can't just yada, yada, yada my way past his underachieving the way he did last night as much as Jason tried to provide, I think, good and reasonable analysis. But how many teams do you really believe in across the NFL? And for Miami, the question was, could they finally beat a team with a winning record after going 0-3 against opponents with that description and the unmitigated disaster a couple weeks ago on Monday night when they were up 14 with three minutes to go against a lousy Tennessee team? I will give Miami credit for finally winning against a team with a winning record, but they beat Dallas who is miserable on the road. So parity has been achieved.

All these teams are nearly the same. I'm just surprised as Jason Cole laid out, the final score got that grizzly last night, but that'll happen when you have the weird development of four turnovers, even if a couple came on tips and deflections. I'm Brian Weber in for Rich Eisen.

Hit me up on the X, tweet at me, B.W. Weber, Weber with two B's as we get ready for tomorrow's program. Going to check in with Stewart Mandel, talking college football, longtime scribe for the athletic.

Spice Adams is a really interesting guy. Former NFL defensive lineman, turned TV host and comedian. He's affiliated with the Bears, also played for the Niners. So we'll talk about his run in San Francisco, how he sees this year's edition of the Niners defense after they got pushed around by Lamar Jackson and the Ravens last night. Plus, what's the outlook from Chicago? About a month ago, it was a foregone conclusion. The Matt Eberfluss was dead man walking, and I just enjoy saying Eberfluss, whether he's going to coach that team or not.

Well, very quietly in the game, most of us ignored for good reasons on Sunday. Chicago took care of Arizona. Bears now with six wins, doubling their win total of a year ago.

Is Eberfluss going to survive? And what are they going to do with the number one overall pick? I think all signs point to Justin Fields moving on. Caleb Williams will be the pick. But that's all coming up tomorrow.

Still, we have more to get to before we say goodbye today. It is bowl mania. Three more bowl games I laid out for you. Only one that I have any interest in coming up tonight in Phoenix.

Guaranteed rate bowl Kansas and UNLV, both with quality seasons this year. I will mention, beyond what I've been laying out and I've been foreshadowing, dropping the breadcrumbs, I will mention my bias as somebody older who liked the old system. I had no demand for a playoff. I was wrong.

I like the 14 format. It's changing. But I'm going to tell you why.

More is not always better. Plus, Coach Prime calling out his team on social media. What did Deion say and what did he mean? Details coming up. I'm Brian Weber. In for Rich Eisen.

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You never once saw yourself on Smallville. In the beginning, I used to look at myself all the time and love to. And then as I get older, I stopped. Why is that? I don't know. Maybe because I'm older. I was going to talk to you about that because you're 79. Yeah. How old do you feel?

11. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum, wherever you listen. I'm Brian Weber. Always a privilege to have the opportunity to keep the chair warm, rich, enjoying a much deserved week off event. He'll take New Year's Day off as well. I'm guessing I don't have Intel, but he'll find a way to be connected to the Rose Bowl with his alma mater, Michigan taking on Alabama. The other national semifinal should be a shootout. Washington against Texas will make the move to college football in more deep detail tomorrow when we're joined by Stewart Mandel of the athletic. In addition to the college football, I'm going to talk here. You can hit me up on Twitter after the program.

B. W. Weber, Weber with two B's. And clearly, while we did just a smidge of NBA analysis today, coming off the five games yesterday, tomorrow, all football all the time. And then I will say Happy New Year to you. And my buddy Dan Schwartzman will take you the rest of the way with Rich and the fellas back on Tuesday. As a veteran of hosting Weekend Sports Talk Radio, I cannot help myself. If there's a game going on, I have to give you the update. I'll keep you constantly posted. Quick Lane Bowl, if you care. It is Bowling Green in front of Minnesota 7-6 after one.

That's your update. It wasn't sponsored. I mentioned Deion Sanders, who, if we were handing out awards for the most fascinating person of the year in sports, going back to the old homage to Barbara Walters, one of the most fascinating people of the year. Remember when Deion Sanders was everywhere? Beyond our limited sports world, the old sandbox, if you want to sound like a Neanderthal. I'm not exaggerating. Deion was on every show seemingly every hour.

He was back on 60 Minutes for the second time in as many years. And then everything fell apart. But what an amazing start it was. The sideline for those early Colorado games felt like it was the NBA All-Star Game or a Super Bowl with all the celebs. And then it wasn't sustainable. But it was a really interesting conversation to have at the time. Is Deion Sanders creating a new model?

Can you hit the portal with that kind of overwhelming focus, blow up your roster and get quality results? And for a while it worked, although thinking about TCU, clearly they had taken a step back, losing Max Duggan to the NFL after their unlikely run to the national championship game. And then they got destroyed by Georgia. The Colorado State game was very interesting. The USC game was tightened down to the final 15 minutes and then Colorado reverted to the form that made them a one-win team the year before. So even though it all fell apart, you can't in any way argue with the results of making Colorado football relevant for the first time since, what, my friend Cordell Stewart throwing the Hail Mary at the Big House?

It has been more than a minute. And I'm old enough to remember when Colorado was a national power led by Bill McCartney and all of those great teams. Coach Prime is good at several things, foremost among them keeping his name relevant. So as I was going through your tweets, and you can have the conversation with me on social media after the program, B.W.

Weber, Weber with two B's. I think I'm on threads, but I haven't looked in a long time. Just keep it on the old Twitter machine. Here is Coach Prime.

Dang, I was, and he used the eyeball emoji, so we'll just say perusing the portal, doing the bank head bounce. Just when I thought Santa was on his way back to the North Pole, he dipped off Santa, please drop another DT defensive tackle, cornerback, linebacker, and one more pass rusher to Boulder. I believe, I believe, hashtag Coach Prime. And just going through that, I think he mentioned every position except for quarterback, which his son plays, and Chidoro will be in the Heisman conversation next year and going to have a nice NFL career. Who else could do that?

I don't understand. There's only one Deion because there's nobody like him in college sports. I still think he'll be on his way to the NFL, perhaps as soon as after next season, what Chidoro has done presumably with his college eligibility. And wouldn't Deion work even better in the pros?

Now it would be harder for him because you can't blow up the entire roster every year in the NFL. Salary cap does get in the way. As much as people are having fun with the modern economic realities in an NIL world that we need, they say, a cap in college football. And by the way, I have not one single issue with these players getting every dime they can because they have been taken advantage of for decades. And let me get on my soapbox in the remaining four minutes and I say this as somebody who has made a large portion of my modest income in the college sports space. I've got a volleyball doubleheader by myself next week calling the reigning UCLA national champion volleyball team.

Might be a small audience, but I'll have a good time in the remaining months of Pac-12 Network. These student athletes should have been able to monetize their name, image, and likeness for years. I want them to make every dollar they can make.

If you're not paying attention, the judicial system is foreshadowing. They're about to make, deservedly so in my opinion, college basketball and football players part-time employees. Why? Because they generate the revenue and they deserve the opportunity to participate in that giant mountain of cash that has driven seismic changes. And since I mentioned the Pac-12, yeah, you could say I'm bitter.

It's not because I'm losing a job. I'll find a way to call games for the Big 10 or the Big 12 if I want to. I also think as I get older, those jobs should be in large part handled by younger people.

Give them the opportunity and let them connect to athletes their own age. But I'm sure I'll be a hypocrite and be doing games next year if the right situation pops up. But let's just say it was your conference. Let's just say you're an ACC fan because this could happen to you next.

And again, I am being myopic here, but I'm paid to express opinions. The destruction of the Pac-12 is a sports crime. It should never have happened. Now, a lot of it came down to the incompetence of the decision makers within the conference. They'll have to deal with that for the rest of their professional lives. But over 100 years worth of tradition is being destroyed for no discernible reason. There's no need to go from a power 5 to a power 4 other than the conferences that are accepting the majority of these schools now can make even more money. It's getting grotesque.

And the system has been broken for a long time. So forgive me if I don't have a great deal of enthusiasm now that we have 41 bowl games all in. Forty-one and a national championship game. And you're going to tell me next year when we go to the expanded playoff and I know you're all excited about it and I'm not trying to be a contrarian.

More football is a good thing. But when we get to the 12-team bracket, I'm not going to give a damn who the 13-team is and got screwed. Now the Florida State situation was the tipping point, but the format change had already been solidified. The decision had already been made and I have a great deal of empathy for Florida State, but I understand why they got screwed because they're not in the SEC and because Jordan Travis got hurt. But the conversation about who's number 5, who's number 6, who's number 7 to me at least is interesting.

We get to 12. If you're the 13th best team in the nation, who cares? And it's all part of an evolution of college football that I do not think has been a positive other than they haven't found a way to screw up the games themselves. Now I'm not talking about these unwatchable, meaningless exhibitions.

Have you noticed more and more stars opting out as they should? Florida State's going to get annihilated by Georgia because I don't think anyone's left on the Seminole roster and I don't blame those young people. Protect yourself for the draft. You're going to get hurt in a ballgame for who?

For what? But the college football experience on a Saturday is still unrivaled and I'm sitting here with the hand wringing and the histrionics and I know I'm not being truthful. I'll be watching next fall because we're addicted to it and we love it and it's better in many ways in the NFL because of the passion and because of the emotional connections that we have to either our alma mater or school we care about. But what's going on now isn't right and it isn't better. And none of these changes had to occur other than absolute grief. So we're ending on a high note. I will try to take a nap, lighten the mood.

We'll come back with virtually nothing but NFL tomorrow. I want to thank our guests. Talked NBA with Jonathan Lontobul, a decent, good NFL conversation with Jason Cole of the 30-13. Thanks to Rich Eisen, Bruce Gilbert, all the great people at Westwood One, Art Martinez on the board. I'm Brian Weber. We'll do it again tomorrow on the Eisen Show. Something to wrestle wherever you listen.