Mike Vrabel Report is a Joke! (Hour 1)

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Daddy, I just want my soup. Oh sorry, sport app says it'll be here in a few minutes. Instacart for the win. Live from the play show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of Mandalay Bay inside day number two of Radio Row here in Las Vegas. This is the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Sirius XM channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming live on YouTube.

YouTube.com slash CBS Sports Radio. You can always give us a call. 855-212-4CBS.

855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb. We're broadcasting to you live inside Mandalay Bay at the convention center. We're here all throughout the week, all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific for CBS Sports Radio's coverage as we get you set for the big game.

Got Moist Mike to my right, Stuart Kovacs back in New York City, and we got an action packed show for you today. Sean Merriman's going to stop by. Will Levis, the quarterback of the Tennessee Titans, going to stop by as well. Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Former 49ers kicker Robbie Gould, and then Patriot wide receiver Kendrick Bourne as well.

So a whole lot cooking. We were at the zoo last night of opening night at the Raider Stadium, Legion Stadium, which is phenomenal. And I will say this, too, before we get into this Diana Rossini report talking about Mike Vrabel, which the whole thing just seems weird. We'll get into a little of Eric Bienemy and his future in the NFL in just a second. But I looked out of the corner of my eye last night and I saw something that was very special. And I knew we were in Las Vegas and I knew we would run into one person, bare minimum this week, that Michael Sampter has a pretty good relationship with. And I am shocked by how close the owner of Las Vegas Raiders and Mark Davis is with Moist Mike.

Last time he personally greeted you when you walked into the NFL draft. And he was right in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan, which we were staying at the last time we were here. A lot better than where we're currently staying, which I've already got a little bit sick and tired with the smell of our current establishment. But hey, it's all paid for. I'm having a good time. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk here, do the show.

So I'm not going to be one of those jags and radio that just bitches and complains about how they're not getting the esteemed conditions, let's just say the least. But last night I looked out of the corner of my eye and I just saw Moist Mike and Mark Davis with that disgusting looking haircut having a special moment. And there was a little twinkle in his eye and it was very nice that you guys could rekindle that relationship.

I mean, I don't want to say bestie, but it's not far off. I mean, I enjoy spending time with you, Zach, but when I see Mark Davis, there's just like a special connection. It's kind of like Bo Derek running across the beach in slow motion in that movie way back then. That's kind of, you know, how it feels when we see each other from across the room.

Maybe Travis Kelsey's in the way, maybe Patrick Mahomes is in the way, but nothing's going to get in the way of me and Mark Davis. And he was with a scrum and a crowd of people. He saw me and, you know, the embrace was just so authentic. He took off his hair piece and put it on your head.

Don't talk about my bestie like that, sir. And not only that, Samter and I, as we basically took over the Travis Kelsey media availability last night, which we'll get into that in just a second. And if you think that Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift is not the biggest story of Super Bowl week, then I have a bridge to sell you.

And I'll sell that to you at about 6.05 p.m. Eastern, 3.05 p.m. Pacific today. Because Patrick Mahomes, I've never seen a Super Bowl where Tom Brady is at, right? And anyone else usurped the quarterback.

Patrick Mahomes is kind of in that class now. And the first 48 minutes out of the 60 minutes that Travis Kelsey spent talking to the media last night was question after question after question after question in regards to Taylor Swift. There was really some scene last night inside Legion Stadium. And it's funny because we got there pretty early and we thought the crowd was already big when we got there. Getting out of the crowd after you got to speak to Travis Kelsey was harder than getting into the crowd because the crowd formed behind us. And when I'm looking at that picture in the newspaper this morning of the crowd around him and seeing where we were standing, it felt like the crowd was way bigger than I realized. Like while we were standing, I'm like, the crowd looks pretty big here. It's definitely bigger than Mahomes' crowd. Looking at that picture and walking out of that crowd last night, I've never seen anything like that. In the history of Radio Row, in the history of Media Night, in the history of Opening Night, in the history of the Super Bowl, I've never seen a crowd like that for a single player. So I was doing a hit on one of the local stations and they said, what's the biggest story Super Bowl week? I go, you really have to ask that question? Like I didn't want to be a pretentious radio guy.

I go, it's clearly Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. But they're like, what about the storylines on the field? And I go, okay, how do you talk about Brock Purdy? And then Patrick Mahomes and his ascension up the all-time great list. I go, the Mahomes storyline, we'll talk about for the next 10 years, as long as he has his good health. Brock Purdy, we'll see how we're talking about him on Monday.

Even though Kyle Shanahan flirted with Brady last year, it's clear that he's going to be their starting quarterback next year barring an injury on Sunday, which would just be that terrible. Those storylines, they kind of seem pedestrian. And I know you could have the macho man football guy go, well, I don't need to hear you talk about Taylor Swift.

I don't need to hear you talk about Travis Kelsey. It's a fun storyline. It's good.

There's nothing negative about it. And I know a lot of people are lecturing now and a lot of people are trying to just sell this storyline. I don't see how anyone could actually legitimately be annoyed with Travis Kelsey or Taylor Swift. These are two people that I think I was ahead of the curve on this. I do think they love each other.

Ooh, I said the L word. And it's fun to see how many more eyeballs she has brought to the sport. And you know this, the NFL doesn't need more money. The NFL doesn't need more attention. The NFL doesn't need more people watching the games when you look through the analytics. But she is maybe the one person that has been able to drive so much more attention and bring extra buzz to the NFL. And a lot of times when we're at the Super Bowl, there's always like a negative storyline or two that comes out where the league looks bad or the NFL did something shady.

This is a positive story. So I don't get unless you're a little human being and you're just a nerd that is only football, football, football, football. And I only care about football and you can't have any personality or any fun.

I was with Perloff last night. And he's like FaceTime and his daughter saying, hey, this is Taylor Swift's boyfriend. And I know I make jokes about it all the time where he's one of the greatest head ends of all time. And I say, oh, Taylor Swift put Travis Kelce on the map? Like, he was a big deal, don't get me wrong.

But he's now turned into an icon. Like, it is insane, the coverage. And it's not just traditional media here.

Like, don't get me wrong. To the left is NBC. To the right is Fox. Obviously, we're CBS. You have a lot of traditional media here that comes to the Super Bowl every year. But the amount of gossip blogs that were around last night was just wild. And I will say, if you live in New York or if you don't, the New York Post, you know, sometimes I don't always write the nicest things about CBS Sports Radio. But if you look at the New York Post today, you can do a little Where's Waldo? And you could find yours truly and Sampter on the back page of the New York Post today.

And it's all about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Now, I'm not surprised, my friend, that in a crowd of how many people were probably around him last night? 550, 600 people? At least.

Yeah. I stand out because I am a gargantuan human being. I am a tall human being. The fact that we could see your face smack right in the middle with all those people, Sampter, and I know that your Twitter handle is BigMikeCBS. You know how to get on the back page of a newspaper, though, because even you said to me last night, I'm shocked you could see me in this photo.

And of course, in the picture, I'm looking down at my phone because that's basically what I do all day anyway. But yeah, I was kind of happy. It felt like Where's Waldo?

Yes. Right? You should have put a little red cap on you, a little chief's cap. Well, I sent it to my wife. I said, find me. And it took her a little bit, but she eventually found me.

She had to get her the magnifying glass. That's not the first time. What? I don't know what you're talking about. I think that was a shot at yourself.

That was a self burn. Wow. We are growing here with Sampter. Not me. I'm not growing.

I stopped growing about 30 years ago, and it wasn't a very big growth spurt to begin with. So anyway, I want to start the show off today because we got a bunch of guests stopping by. Sean Merriman coming up in 10 minutes. Will Levisca to join us. Trevor Lawrence as well. Robbie Gold.

Kendrick Bourne. But I got to play you this report. And the actual reporting isn't dumb because Diana Rossini is credible. Diana Rossini is plugged in. If she says something, I don't think Diana Rossini is just saying this to kind of gain clout or make a headline.

She is an old school style reporter, and she is plugged in. But whoever this anonymous general manager is, I will say it right now without even knowing who it is because it's an anonymous GM. He is the dumbest GM that I've ever encountered.

And if this is true, because sometimes you may say something to someone, and I think we've all told like a white lie or something in the past and you massage, you know, the truth a little bit. But if this general manager is actually serious, it is just maybe the dumbest thing I've ever heard in the history of watching and covering football. This is Diana Rossini via The Athletic on a conversation that she had with a anonymous general manager on why Mike Vrabel may not have been hired in this cycle. Do you know I had a GM at the Senior Bowl who mentioned to me Vrabel's physical build, that he's a very large human being and can be very intimidating to people in an organization that are going to be part of these decisions. And that is a factor.

What are we doing? Football, last time I checked, is a large person sport. So you're going to tell me now because Mike Vrabel, a former player, is jacked.

Mike Vrabel is a large human being. That this is why he's not getting hired, because he's too intimidating and he has a presence around him, so let me get this right. They think in the decision-making process, when you have to get into a room and make a decision, they're going to, the general manager or the president of the team or the owner, is going to have urine run down their right leg because they're going to be shaking in their boots because Big Bad Mike Vrabel is buffed. So you're telling me then Dan Campbell shouldn't be the head football coach of the Lions. Antonio Pierce then, he shouldn't be the head football coach of the Raiders.

What Diana said and what she is reporting, I'm not knocking that someone didn't say that to her. But whoever this anonymous GM is shouldn't be in football. And if that's an actual reason why he got passed up on this cycle, then a lot of these other teams, if let's say they operated this way and that's not why they hired him, they need to reevaluate the entire, and I mean the entire hiring cycle process. This is just so stupid, stupid beyond belief. If you would have told me a day ago we'd be sitting here at the Super Bowl and we would be saying why Mike Vrabel didn't get hired is because he looks too intimidating. WTF.

Seriously. That is some of the dumbest, and I mean dumbest piece of information that I've ever heard. And I want to know who that anonymous general manager is and I want to smack him right across the face.

Because I don't need to hear that bull junk, as Coach Prime would say, come out of his mouth anymore. So I guess my question is are we going after the GM for relaying information that he heard from within an organization? Whoever, whoever, GM or whatever organization operates that way, whoever your owner is should be forced to sell the team.

And my thought would be that it's only one specific organization, right? And I don't know which one, it could be the Commanders, it could be the Falcons, it could be the Seahawks. It can't be the Panthers because David Tepper would just throw a drink in Mike Vrabel's face and tell him to cool out, so it can't be Carolina. First of all, David Tepper's throwing drinks in drunk Jaguar fans' faces, he's not throwing a drink in Vrabel's face because Vrabel would pound Tepper to the ground.

But I will say, I love Matt Ruhl, he doesn't look intimidating, I love Frank Reich, doesn't look intimidating, so maybe it is Tepper. It could be, listen, I would imagine that it's not multiple teams saying Vrabel is really intimidating. Now maybe Vrabel comes off as intimidating when you speak to him, right? Maybe he's one of those guys that, forget about just his size, but like you walk around the office and like he frightens people with the way he approaches them and talks to them and maybe his attitude.

He's a football coach. Right, but we robbed Dan Campbell and Antonio Pierce, maybe they have more positive demeanors and it's not their size per se that is intimidating, it's the way they approach people. So maybe, and I don't know Mike Vrabel, but I've seen him doing the Bustin with the Boys podcast, he seems like a fun, cool guy. You know what, if you want to tell me you're concerned because he said he would chop off his piece of deal to win a Super Bowl, okay, that would be a more valid reason than Mike Vrabel looks too intimidating.

This is the, once again, I'm not going after the reporting of Diana, but whoever told this to Diana could be one of the dumbest you-know-whats that I've ever talked to. You know what, Sean Merriman's coming up in a few minutes. I'm afraid to interview Sean Merriman because this dude's jacked, he looks intimidating, so I don't think we could hire, I don't think we could sit down with Sean Merriman. Like whatever jack wagon operates that way, why you can't hire a football coach, you know what, let's just have everyone slap the players on the ass and go, whoa, this is football, let's go play patty cake, let's not hit anybody, this is absurd. I understand the new philosophy of a coach is a player's coach that's not a doormat, but Mike Vrabel looks too intimidating. That's why we can't hire him.

Whoever that organization is, you're a loser, you're always going to be a loser, and you'll be hiring a new coach within three years, less than three years, you could guarantee it. Alrighty, it is the Zach Gelb show, live on Radio Row, Super Bowl 58. I think we brought some energy and some life into this place on day number two inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. I'm just waiting for someone to come over and they're going to be like, shut this guy up, he's too loud, he's bleeding over into all of our stations and going over all the affiliates. So, we're on multiple stations. I think I'm the only guy that's been also picked up by Fox and NBC and Pro Football Talk and 98.5 the sports, I'm all on the same day because I'm definitely bleeding into all these stations right now.

Alrighty, we'll take a time out, one of our favorite Sean Merriman going to join us when the Zach Gelb show continues live at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in five minutes. When the whole family comes together to watch the game, nobody wants to miss a second of the action to run to the grocery store. With Instacart, you can get all your weekly groceries in as fast as an hour.

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A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl. Alrighty, day number two, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center now joining us. This guy's on with us all the time in studio in New York City. So now we come to his turf and he goes, I got to come on.

Obviously, that's former All-Pro linebacker Sean Merriman, who now has this great lights out extreme fighting and you could check it out all the time on Fubo Sports. And I feel like this just keeps on getting bigger and bigger, my friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got another big one next Friday.

Long Beach, California. Lights out extreme fight in 14. We'll be live on Fubo Sports TV. But this one, this is a little different. This one, this one's different. We got some up-and-coming superstars, album Morales, Tommy Aaron, A.J.

Hodgkin, that's a play linebacker to Oregon. He's opening the car. He's our first TV fight of the night. But we're introducing the Lights Out tech gloves. It's going to be able to measure speed, power punch, impact, G-force, and be able to display some of this data up on the screen. So this is a big step with us and something I've been planning for the last year.

So to be able to introduce this tech and give the fans somebody's knockout power or speed of a punch or where it landed at, I think it's going to be very interactive for the fan at home. So you work in an intimidating business. The NFL is an intimidating business as well. And I'm listening to this Diana Rossini report the other day that an anonymous general manager told her that the reason Mike Vrabel didn't get hired could have been he's too intimidating. And that could be a problem when you get into the decision-making room. People could be afraid of him.

Like, what are we doing anymore? I understand player safety is important. I understand the my way or the highway type of coach doesn't work anymore. But now Mike Vrabel, who's a damn good coach, could not be getting hired because he's too intimidating?

I think that's total garbage. It's some guy that was behind a copy machine and ran into him on an accident and probably got scared of him. That's now a general manager. I'm just saying that the locker room is filled with massive human beings. Not only just the players, you got former players as coaches. These guys ain't that much smaller than when they played. Everybody's used to being around big guys in the building. I just think that's more of a shot at Mike Vrabel than anything in China.

You need something, right? Because we can't understand. We don't get why Mike Vrabel doesn't have a job right now. And so somebody somewhere has to come up with something to say this is why. Because outside of that, what's the other reason why he doesn't have a job?

There is none. The only thing that I can think of is that he's a very smart dude. And sometimes when you are the smartest guy in the room, that, good choice of words here, intimidates someone. But I don't think it's because he's too strong, he's too jacked, that's why you don't hire him. And also the other thing, I really do believe he wanted out of Tennessee. And I think he had his eyes set on New England, but New England promoted from within with Gerard Mayo. So the other part is, how active was he really in trying to pursue a job in this cycle? I don't think he was that active, to be honest.

Obviously being outside of Tennessee. And let's say this, he hasn't had all the best talent, running back positions, some other positions, but he ain't had a franchise quarterback. No, and not only that, they've been a number one overall seed, they've been to an AFC title game, and I've never looked at his teams and said, they have a great roster. So it even is more of an endorsement on Vrabel as a coach.

Yeah, because it's just the same thing with Dan Campbell. He instilled a mentality with this team. They have never, they had a couple superstars and Derek, they had positions. Never at the quarterback position, and outside of maybe with A.J. Brown, a wide receiver. But again, if you don't have a quarterback drawn to them, how great can A.J.

Brown be in the first place? And they relied on running the ball, being tough, playing tough defense. That's the mentality that Mike Vrabel instilled. What other 31 teams don't want that?

What other 31 teams don't want that mentality in their locker room? So there's something else, and if it is that he was looking at that Patriots job and didn't get it, and that was the only one he had his eyes on, that is crazy to me because there's plenty of highs right now. Seattle would have been a great, right? You basically would have been getting a younger Pete Carroll, man. You would have got a younger Pete Carroll, a guy that can understand plays, play the game that's established, that now he got a better roster than he did in Tennessee other than at the running back position.

The team that I think is the most ridiculous, as Sean Merriman's here with us, the commanders. They wanted Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson didn't want them. So he goes back to Detroit.

Nothing against DQ Dan Quinn. Good football coach. But that seemed like an underwhelming hire to me. You would have had a lot of excitement, more excitement I think than you would have if you hired Ben Johnson if you would have brought in Mike Vrabel. I think that Mike Vrabel comes in with a lot of, like you said, and not just he's been the smartest room, he's imposing, just an outspoken, commands a room.

If you get around Mike Vrabel, forget about him being big. He has his personality who he's going to command and respect of the guys. And maybe that passed down that they didn't want that much pull in the locker room or pull in an organization.

So for Mike Vrabel to be on the street right now is one of the most ridiculous things that I think we've seen in some time. This is an alpha sport. I don't want some guy walking in the locker room that isn't intimidated and doesn't have confidence. I'm not saying you have to be a drill sergeant, do 3,000 up-downs when something doesn't go your way.

That doesn't work anymore. But you've got to connect with grown men, and I don't need some guy that isn't going to be confident in that locker room. That's how you're going to be destined to fail, and the players won't respect the coach.

No, 100%. And then, too, somebody's going to establish a mentality from day one. Because every year Mike Vrabel is coach, even when his teams wasn't that good, what do they do?

They're physical, they run the ball well, they create turnovers. That's the mentality passed down, regardless of if they had a star quarterback or not. One hire that was exciting, Jim Harbaugh with the Chargers. That's a big-time feel, and it puts the Chargers in L.A. finally on the map.

Yeah. I know everybody's saying congratulations to the Chargers. I think it was a big move on both sides. It was a big move. One for the Chargers, I think that was the only move they could have made. To be quite honest, with the fan base being disgruntled with Staley, the entertainment with Staley, just not being able to fulfill the Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert actually regressed this past year, and the only way that you establish faith back in the fan base, around the organization, get people happy about and feeling good about walking into work every day was to go out and get Jim Harbaugh.

That was the only decision, and vice versa. I know we talked about it's a good move for the Chargers. This is a great move for Jim Harbaugh.

You get Herbert. You look inside that division right now. Everyone's chasing Mahomes. The Broncos have a coach. They don't have a quarterback. The Raiders have a coach.

We think they don't have a quarterback. Now you have a great coach, and you have a quarterback that's good, who has the potential to be great. Jim Harbaugh has turned around teams that are way worse than the Chargers' talent was.

Way worse. And got them going in a short period of time, and kept them going for a good amount of years. Now, he's walking into the best. If he was looking to make that jump to the NFL, it couldn't be a better situation, because what other coaches they can see as open, they've got a star quarterback there. They've got a wide receiver there. They've got two pass rushers.

DNs like a Derwin, James. Nobody else is loaded like this. You could have made that jump to the NFL. So that's why I say it wasn't just a great move by the Chargers. It's also a great move by Jim Harbaugh. When you look at this game coming up on Sunday with the 49ers and the Chiefs, Super Bowl 58, what's the number one thing that stands out to you, Sean Merriman? The Chiefs have been there.

Like, they just... The Buffalo Bills were better than them. Talent-wise. Better team. The Ravens were better than them. Yeah? Everyone thought the Ravens were going to win?

Yeah. Better than them. Somehow, someway, the Chiefs find their way back into this situation again because they know how to win. They're not making no boneheaded mistakes. They're not... No penalties. And look, the taunting penalty that Flowers had and stuff like that, that guy, he has a big ceiling.

He's going to be great in the league for a long time. But you can't make those things happen. You've been on teams that have been close. Yeah. I'm not saying as close as the 49ers. They've been in a Super Bowl before. When you've been that team that's been close and you're going up against the guy, the team that's been there, done that, how big is that from a player perspective, mentally, you trying to get over the top of that mountain?

It is something that you dream about, right? Because you get an opportunity to go in the field with somebody that's been there as many times as they have. And you know with Patrick Mahomes on the field, they always got a shot. This will never be a game, a blowout game or something, to just get out of hand. It will never be that because Patrick Mahomes is there. So, going into this game, you're like, the first thing you got to look at, we got to make no mistakes. That's the one thing that makes the Chiefs so good because they capitalize off of your mistakes, very much so like the Patriots used to do because when the Patriots kicked us out of the playoffs, AFC Championship games, we were a much better team than them.

But every single time... Hold on, hold on, hold on. No, no, no. When you guys were 14 and 2?

Yes. Yes, you were the better team. Oh, seven. We were better team than 07. They were undefeated. And we were a better team than 07.

But I'm going to tell you this. You were right on 14 and 2. You're wrong. You are wrong on the team that was undefeated. They might have had a better record.

We still had the better team, even in 07. The fact is, Phil Rivers walked in. He got the ACL. He got his knee cleaned up just to play in that game. I had a knee. LT had a knee. Gates had a foot. Nick Harwick had a knee. Lorenzo, we were all like crawling into that game.

And I'm not saying it as an excuse. We were a better team than the 07 Patriots. But again, you get on the field with somebody that's been there so many times, they will punish you for every mistake that you make. And that's what the chief's going to turn around and do. The chief's going to turn around and punish the 49ers.

Any small, minute mistake they make, they will take advantage of it. All right. Here's my biggest question on the game, Sean Marriman. Do you think eventually Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are going to get married down the road? Yeah. Absolutely. And I think this is genuine. I do.

I think it's not only genuine. I think that not too often you got one of the best Titans to ever play against the biggest hardest. It's weird. No one needed to put Travis Kelce on the map. He was already on the map. Right.

But this has gone to a new level. The last night at the opening night, everyone was there. I don't think the guy took one football question.

It was Taylor Swift that, Taylor Swift this, Taylor Swift that. And the NFL doesn't need more attention. They don't need more money, but they'll always take it. She's the one person that I could remember in a long time that didn't play football that has brought more attention in a positive way to football.

Yeah. I'll tell you how much attention she brought. Almost $400 million worth of attention.

Can I get two mil? If you're the NFL, look, people can say what they want. And first of all, she's a great artist. I don't know personally.

I think we came across this show maybe one time some years ago. Whatever. But great artist. Scenes very respectful to people around her. She's up in the suite.

They love her. The NFL hasn't had her on longer than 12 seconds or 14. Whatever that number is. Under a minute in every broadcast. So we're talking about a very small part.

But when you have somebody that's such a global phenomenon, they don't need to do much. You remember. You remember.

All right. Last thing I'll ask you and then we'll get right back to everything coming up at Lights Out Extreme, fighting Sean Merriman here with us. You're in that locker room for the Chiefs. When you watch Brock Purdy, what would your thoughts be? What's going through your mind as you prepare for Brock Purdy?

You know, just get him uncomfortable. The games that they had that three or four game stretch. Now, he could have been hurt. I think he had a head or shoulder injury or something like that. He could have been hurt. You get him uncomfortable to make some of these bad throws and you start to hit him.

That's the key. When they lost those games, he was getting hit. He was getting dumped on his back. He was getting constantly hit.

And even when he wasn't getting hit, he was hit so much that he started to shuffle his feet and just throw bad passes. And he didn't have Deebo. He didn't have Trent.

He didn't have these guys. What I would do is I would get him uncomfortable early. Stay in his face.

Even when you don't get hits on the best. That's the only way because the truth to be told, whether you want to call him elite or not, he does elite things. And he wins games. And he wins games. We've never seen a quarterback in the history of the game be more scrutinized. It's lining up on the biggest stage on Sunday ever.

Yeah, and there's no reason to dislike the guy, too. You're not wrong. All right, one more time, Lights Out Extreme Fighting. Tell me everything we got cooking. Yeah, big fight next Saturday. Long Beach, California. Lights Out Extreme Fighting 14. You can get your tickets at LightsOutAccept.com. If you're in the SoCal area, we'll also be live on football TV, football sports.

And then we are a week later on Bileys as well. He is Sean Merriman. Sean, always good to see you. Thanks so much, my man.

Thank you. We're coming on back from Radio Row, and we return. Will Levis is going to join us. Let's send it back to the New York City studio.

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony, and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Wow, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years, and I still don't know. Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world, and we get weekly picks from a monkey.

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An Odyssey and paper kite production. Listen on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. We continue this Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Now joining us, quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. That, of course, is Will Leviss. Kind enough to join us on behalf of P&G on Radio Row.

Inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Will, appreciate the time. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So you got a little experience on the field this year in your rookie season with Tennessee. Just how do you kind of look back at what you were able to prove and show to the NFL in year one? Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. I mean, it was crazy, you know, very unexpected in terms of how the season went and, you know, when the opportunity arose and a lot of ups and downs, a lot of learning experiences. But all in all, I came away with a lot of confidence in myself and a lot of confidence in my ability to, you know, be the quarterback for this team. And I got to thank, you know, my great coaches and great players that I was able to play with that that helped me throughout it all. And, you know, with my career starting on draft night and going to here, I would have never knew it would have happened in between.

And even though it was a lot of craziness, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. And I made a lot of big strides, I thought. Yeah, we all remember that moment when you were stuck in the green room and then you fell to the second round. Everyone thought you were going to go in the first.

Clearly, it was surprising. What did that moment kind of teach you and how did you kind of turn it into a positive? I mean, it taught me that you never know what's going to happen. And all you can do and handle is your effort and your work ethic and how you approach things going forward. Don't only control what you can control. And I was I had the mindset of regardless if I was going to go first overall or 33rd overall, you know, it wasn't going to change how I was going to approach my day to day.

You know, work in the building. So to get the opportunity when I did, even though it wasn't like on day one, I feel like that was just the plan that was meant for me and the path that was meant for me in my journey. And, you know, it helped me a lot. And I love the spot I'm in right now. Well, Lev is here with us. You look back at Mike Vrabel. He was your coach for a year. I know he's since been fired and now you have Callahan.

So you learn the business and the changing side of the NFL rather quickly. When you got the news that Mike wasn't coming back as the head coaches, how did you process it? I was tough. It was tough. I mean, it definitely caught us off guard and we didn't really know what was going to happen or how it was going to go down or really why it happened. But, you know, it's it. It was weird.

It sucked for that day or whatever. And then you got to move on and you got to understand that, you know, you're going to just work as hard as you can to be ready to, you know, undertake the challenge of having a new coach and maybe even learning a whole new offense and that trusting that with the decisions the organization are making in our best interest. So which we all believe and we're all behind, you know, our owner and in our in decisions in the organization. So we're looking forward to, you know, what we're doing going forward.

Yeah. What was the first thought when you bring in Bill, right? Brian, excuse me, you have a new head football coach and, you know, clearly an offensive mind that worked with Joe Burrow the last few years comes from a football family. It seems like this move that is going to even help out the offense even more, right? Yeah, I mean, I immediately saw the track record of quarterbacks that he'd been able to work with in the past, you know, Super Bowl winning quarterback, Super Bowl winning quarterbacks or at least Super Bowl, you know, appearing quarterbacks. And it's for him to be that young and to have that track record and have the impact and have the success he has. It fired me up for sure. And I'm looking forward to learning his ways and to taking as much in from him as I can.

On the way out with Will Levis. Now, you know, you're the guy from day one. What do you kind of hope to prove? I know you played a little bit last year, but now having your first full season, the first full offseason, knowing that you're going to be the guy in Tennessee. Yeah, I want to become, you know, greater in my leadership role on the team and being a rookie and feeling out, you know, what kind of leader I wanted to be for the team and being more comfortable, being more vocal and having the conversations with guys that need to be had.

I'm looking forward to improving in that respect and, you know, just being not only a great quarterback, but a great leader for this organization. Hey, Will, I got to ask you this question. I saw this was from Diana Rossini when talking about Mike Vrabel. She said that an anonymous GM told her that Mike's a very large human being and he'd be very intimidating to people in the organization. And maybe that's why he didn't get hired this cycle. You had experience with Mike. I never thought a coach's size could be a reason why he doesn't get a job. Like, do you just kind of laugh when you hear that an anonymous GM said that to Diana? I heard that. And I don't know if it was like taking out of context or whatever, but I thought I thought it was funny. I thought it was a joke.

I don't know. But no, he can definitely be intimidating, I guess. And, you know, he's a football guy. Some football guys rub the wrong way with non-football guys, you know.

So I don't know what the context was or whatever, but he definitely at some times can be. But, you know, why wouldn't you want to have that as an attribute in your coach, you know? Tell me what you're doing today on behalf of P&G, Will. Yeah, I'm excited to get down to Vegas tonight for the P&G Battle of the Battles.

Tomorrow is the second annual one. We got eight NFL players in a tournament style competing on the table playing some ping pong. I'm a decent player myself, so I'm excited to get out and show off my skills.

But you can tune into Overtime's season's YouTube channel tomorrow night, Wednesday, February 7th at 8 p.m. to watch us compete in some ping pong. And then I have to ask you, who do you have in the game? Oh, I mean, I'm not going to put out a formal pick, I don't think. I'm excited for both teams. It's hard to really pick and choose against either team.

I'm just looking for a good game. All right. So the last thing I'll ask you then, just a conversation with Brock Purdy. You know, I don't care if people call him a system quarterback, game manager, good quarterback.

It doesn't matter to me. But, you know, also like kind of similar to the Mike question I asked you, to kind of just laugh at the way that people obsess how you classify Brock Purdy as a quarterback. He's a winner. He's a winner. He won a lot of games. And for him to have, you know, people want to talk about an interesting draft night story for me. Are you kidding me? What about his story?

Like, how can you hit on a story like that? And I love how he's just taken all the criticism, you know, on the chin. And he always has the best answers. And he seems to be, you know, just a great individual and a great quarterback and a great leader for that team.

And I love to see him rocking and doing his thing. Well, Will, we appreciate the time. Thanks so much. When you get into town, enjoy it here in Vegas, all right?

Thank you so much. There he is. Will Levitz, appreciate him joining us via Zoom as the Zach Gelb show is on Radio Row inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center broadcasting here all throughout the week. By the way, the Defense of Player of the Week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the armed forces, DoD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at NavyFederal.org. This week's player is Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones. On the season, Jones was tied for the team lead with ten and a half sacks to go along with 30 total tackles and four passes defended.

And I think this is something that gets forgotten about because it was a week one storyline. Chris Jones, Stone Cold Jones for the Kansas City, how about those Chiefs? He is so important in what they do, and as the games get bigger, he just becomes a better and better football player.

And we all know how elite he is, but he is so clutch. You go back to the last two times these teams met up in a Super Bowl where he deflected that ball down thrown by Jimmy G at the line of scrimmage that continued that comeback for the Chiefs where they were down by ten points with seven and a half minutes to go. They complete that play on third down. Maybe the 49ers already have a Super Bowl under their belt, and maybe Patrick Mahomes only has one Super Bowl championship to his name, but you go back to week one. And, Samter, I know you're a Chiefs fan, but doesn't that seem like forever ago when you go back to week one and he's in the luxury box for Chiefs-Lions? And I don't even think the Chiefs' defense was the reason why they lost that game. That was the start of some of the struggles for Kansas City's offense, and that kind of gave us the appetizer of what the season was going to be. Now you fast forward, still even when the Chiefs offensively aren't at their best, it's still better than everybody else in the AFC. But that night was one of the more wild storylines of the NFL season, and it ended up just being a small blip because the next week they figure out the contract and they get Chris Jones, who I guess was already in the building because he was in the luxury box, but ready to go to work is what I'm saying. And at the end of the day, Patrick Mahomes is going to go down as the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. Why are you such a rat?

We're having a good relationship now, and now you've got to start with that bull junk? But at the end of the day, I think what's going to really be the difference for this game is going to be Chris Jones. I don't know if you remember the Steelers-Cardinals Super Bowl years ago. Darnell Dockett had two and a half sacks and almost had another sack that would have broken the record. One of the great Super Bowls ever.

That was awesome. And he almost had another sack on that last drive that would have ended it, and Ben Roethlisberger got it out of his grasp. But when you have a defensive lineman, Aaron Donald, we saw two years ago, when you have a defensive lineman who can- Because you had Burrowhead, Jamar Chase open right down that right sideline. If he had a half a second or even a quarter more of a second, the Rams lose that Super Bowl. I remember before that play, Aaron Donald was lights out. Game wrecker.

He was a game wrecker. If you can have Chris Jones do what he's doing, and he can be disruptive to the run game and be disruptive in Brock Purdy's face. Now Brock Purdy's great against the pressure, but at the end of the day, if Chris Jones can take over this game, it almost doesn't matter what Mahomes, Kelsey, and the offense does. If Chris Jones can take over this game, he could be the x-factor for the game, and I think it's going to be so interesting to see the two sides of this. So Chris Jones to me, I get what you're saying, x-factor. I think he is too well known and too great to be considered an x-factor. X-factor may not be the right word.

Now, I'm not saying that's a sexy part of the storyline. You want to talk about, and this would go against my pick, because I'm taking the 49ers, or I think on a Tuesday I'm taking the 49ers. I kind of have to take the 49ers after yesterday.

I'm just sick and tired of everyone's picking the Kansas City Chiefs. You want to talk about a potential x-factor, and I'm not just saying this because he's a friend to the show. I'm not just saying this because we had a great 5 to 10-minute conversation with him last night and all the chaos, and he told us that his favorite meal is his dad's cooked steak. It's Drew Tranquil. Drew Tranquil swapping from an AFC West team in the Chargers to the Chiefs, and he sent the text that Andy Reid sent him, which is basically like, you want to come win.

You come join us in Kansas City. How elated he was just to be there. He's like, this is awesome.

You could just tell a guy like that. With a lot of these guys, Kansas City had been here. It's new. It's his first time.

He just appreciated it. He has been so athletic for them, and he has been such a big help to them, and he plays so many multiple positions on the defense because of his athleticism. Last year, Nick Bolton, defensively for the Chiefs, he stole the show in the Super Bowl. Defensively for the Chiefs, you want to give me an x-factor in the Super Bowl? I think it's our guy Drew Tranquil. He could be a Dexter Jackson or a Larry Brown.

Oh, how great would that be? One of those guys who has two random picks and a pick six or something. Or the guy on the Seahawks, Malcolm Smith. Malcolm Smith.

Remember him? Or maybe even a Malcolm Butler. I hope Drew Tranquil. I'm okay with the Niners winning.

I'm really forward to it. The dude's a great guy. I'm okay with the Niners winning if we get a Drew Tranquil force fumble. You mean the Chiefs?

No. Oh, yeah. I'm okay with the Chiefs winning if we get a Drew Tranquil force fumble or a Drew Tranquil interception in the game. Pick six, baby. That's how I will be saying, hands up, city. That's all good on your bandwagon. Well, you're actually the leader of the bandwagon because you jumped on the bandwagon.

Fugazi football fan. Alrighty, Zach Gilp show CBS Sports Radio inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Radio Row. We'll take a time out. We'll come on back and we'll update you to some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio with the news brief.

With diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know.

Right now, we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world and we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game of the latest failed entry and my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz, please.

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