Tampering is Trash! (Hour 1)

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Offers end soon. Call 562-314-4603 for details. Live from the Palisade, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Thursday edition of 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. dot com slash CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexin' or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got Stuart Kovacs, got Moist Mike rockin' a rollin' with me.

We'll take you, as always, all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Jeff Payne, the former NFL defensive lineman for the Texans and Jaguars. He's gonna stop by an hour from now with all the craziness that is goin' on inside the AFC South and the rest of the NFL landscape, with free agency officially getting underway yesterday at 4 p.m. Eastern time with the new league year. You have the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons already getting investigated for tampering with Kirk Cousins, who's now with Atlanta, Saquon Barkley, who is now with Philadelphia, and you learn something new each and every day, and I'm pretty plugged into the NFL. You know, I know a lot of people, coaches, players, league officials, things like that, but with the NFL, the rule book is so big that I feel as if each year you learn multiple things. I knew about the legal tampering window on Monday and Tuesday. Clearly, we've talked about that.

No crap. But the part that I didn't know is that the GM, like a Howie Roseman, who's being accused of having contact with Saquon Barkley directly, can't have contact directly with the player. But he could have contact with his representation. Now, he can have contact with the player if the player has no representation and represents himself. But that, to me, is such a dumb rule. Like, you allow legal tampering to occur on Monday and Tuesday, so a player can basically agree to terms on a deal and the framework of a deal, but they're not technically allowed to speak to the front office that is negotiating that deal to see if it's going to be a fit and get a one on one communication with that front office official until yesterday at 4 p.m. Eastern time. And let me just let you in on a little secret, because I once went on a big time rant on this network that people in Milwaukee loved when the NBA was selective tampering with the Milwaukee Bucks over. I think it was Bogdanovich who they were trying to sign, and then he ended up not signing there because of the investigation.

I don't understand why this rule is in place. But if you think this is the only time that this is that this has occurred, it's the first time it's occurred. Well, I have a bridge to sell you as well.

And I'll do so right when the show ends at 601 p.m. Eastern time, just line up right outside the studio at 345 Hudson Street, and I'll sell the bridge to the highest bidder. Like, come on, if you don't think all these players are talking to the front office officials, then you probably believe that a lot of other things that aren't true are true. It's just so stupid.

Like, I didn't want to ruin some kid's dream right there and talk about one specific holiday where we all know that someone is real. Like, I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to dash any dreams right now, right out of the gate. But this is just like a situation when it comes to Saquon Barkley and it comes to Kirk Cousins. Who gives a rat's ass if Saquon Barkley, and it was revealed by James Franklin, of all people, can that guy do anything right? All right, you can't win a big game.

Now you can't dominate a big moment, James Franklin. He was the one that revealed that, like, Howie Roseman was talking to Saquon and all that stuff, which is just wild. So Howie was talking to Saquon and then a deal gets done. Who cares? Kirk Cousins, I guess, was talking to Terry Fontenot. Who cares?

Like, Santa, this is the biggest non-story ever. It's like a rule that is there. And I get it. If a rule is there, you should follow the rules. But sometimes there is a rules that are there that everyone violates and everyone laughs at. And then the one time or the like another time, two times that it's actually going to be sought after and people are going to try to go get a punitive action. People are like up in arms today. Like if you're a giant fan and you're saying all the Eagles need to be punished or if you're a Vikings fan, you're saying all the Atlanta Falcons need to be punished. I'm going to say this in a very polite way. You're a loser.

All right. Like, just go on out there and be up in arms and be outraged about something else. Is this a big deal to you, Sam? Because I don't find this to be a big deal whatsoever.

And I think it's just a giant waste of time because it happens all around the league. It's like when the speed limit is forty five miles an hour, like you're not supposed to go over forty five, but everyone goes over forty five. So if you're going fifty, if you're going fifty five.

OK. But once you get past like ten miles over the speed limit, let's say, then if a cop pulls you over and you get a ticket, it's deserve. But if you're going forty five miles or the speed limits, forty five miles an hour and you get a speeding ticket for doing fifty two, it's like what the heck are we doing?

And that's what I feel like with this rule right now. It's what the heck are we doing and why are we actually pursuing this? My thought, I guess either what they did was so egregious that, well, like you're saying, well, everybody was doing it. What they were doing must have been either so egregious or it's just kind of one of those things where, like, listen, if everyone's going seventy and Tom Brady did this whole, you know, well, you know, everybody is doing this. If you get caught, you get caught. You're talking about from deflaking deflaking.

Yeah, which it was the argument was most overblown controversy ever in sports. But so the idea that like, oh, get me started on that. I'm in a peaceful mood on this Thursday. You bring up Tom Brady and deflaking.

I could do a three hour show. You are you are poking the bear here. And the bear wants to just hibernate and enjoy himself on this Thursday. I mean, listen, I mean, the worst goat of all time, the biggest cheating goat of all time. But whatever. That's a whole other story.

Talk about all the Yankee players that you root for growing up. Everybody was cheating also. But that's the thing.

Also, same thing with baseball. Everybody was cheating. It was just certain guys who got caught. So you can't say because they got caught.

Everyone was doing it. So why are you punishing me? You got caught. And so all those other guys who were doing wrong stuff, if they got caught, would have gotten punished also. So I guess the issue is this more either a something really egregious happened. That's why the NFL is investigating. Or if everyone's doing something wrong and these are the only two teams who were dumb enough to get caught. Then you have to because, listen, Kirk Cousins said things in his press conference that made it sound like, you know, they were tampering. Yeah, Kirk Cousins said that he was talking to guys on Tuesday. Yeah, he wasn't supposed to be. So at the end of the day, it's just someone said something they weren't supposed to say.

And now it's public. And so the NFL has to investigate. It's going to be a slap on the wrist.

It's going to mean nothing. Lost the draft pick? Fifth round pick? I guess seventh round pick. Compensatory pick. Nah, you can't issue a punishment of a seventh round pick.

If you're going to actually punish, you got to give like take away a fourth or fifth. No, not for something that's like that. Like you're saying, if it's something everybody does and it doesn't really matter. Now I'm offended. Yeah, whatever. You would be.

You would be. You're the guy who defends the cheating goat and the coach. You know why? Because if this happened to the Patriots about 15 years ago, people would want the death penalty. But it happens to the Eagles.

It happens to the Falcons. And people are like, so what? And I'm saying so what as well. But let's just be consistent on what we say. So what? Like, I guarantee you this. And you're new to being able to root for a football team that's actually competent. So I have the whole playbook here.

I'll tell you how this goes. If this was Kansas City, let's say Kansas City got a big free agent. I don't know if it was Calvin Ridley or it was Saquon Barkley. Whoever it was to bolster their offense, and this was a story, people would be a lot more upset. And I know the Eagles are a good team. The Falcons are fine. I don't think either of those teams are polarizing enough.

Right now, where you're going to have the outrage over the player that they brought in, where people are going to say, hey, you got to take away a big time draft pick. And here's the rule, by the way. Tim McManus, who covers the Eagles and works for ESPN. He says teams are not allowed to talk directly to players during the negotiating window unless the player represents himself. So that's what's obviously been violated here. Who cares? I think the bigger thing that I wonder, because right, Sam, so you're saying how egregious was it?

Like, if everyone's doing this, what made them different than everybody else? And I do think you're right. It's because they said things in their press conference. And I didn't even know this until Pendergast. Sean Pendergast, who is co-host with Seth Payne, is going to join us later. And that's why we're having Seth on.

But I tweeted out, like, who cares? And he's like, oh, Mike Florio cares. Now, I love Florio. Florio is a friend of the show. Florio comes on all the time and is always an enjoyable interview.

We always have enjoyable chat with him. But I guess Florio was the one. And I've read the article on Pro Football Talk, which is a great way to cover football. But I guess Florio was the one that pointed out the whole Howie Roseman, Saquon thing and the whole Kirk Cousins thing being said in his press conference. And Florio brought it to attention. And once Florio brings it to attention, then a lot more eyeballs and a lot more ears will see it and will hear it. And now it's one of those things where it's like, OK, the NFL just can't ignore this, even though they probably should. But to go back to what you were saying, Samter, here's my question.

This legal tampering window, which you could you could tell the NFL is annoyed that it's called the legal tampering window because one of my best friends in this business, a guy that really loves me. And he's a guy that guy. Oh, he could find a way to take a lot of jokes.

That's my pal. Andrew Siciliano hates my guts because I had a little fun with him back in the day by saying Scott Hansen says that he doesn't go to the bathroom during red zone to you. And then he took a shot in a jovial way and handsomely put it out on social media. And he was all annoyed because he accused us of just being clickbait. But the other day when the NFL network coverage and I think it was Siciliano, I had it on in the background, so I wasn't actually watching. But Siciliano was like made it clear he during on Monday or Tuesday on the NFL network, he was like, this is not a legal tampering window. That's not what this is.

Like, I forget what the term he was using. So the NFL is clearly annoyed that people are saying it's a legal tampering window, because when you do that, you imply for all those other years that all these people were tampering before free agency started, which was the truth and which was the case. And that's why the NFL implemented this however many years ago that they did. But the question now becomes, Sam, sir, if you allow something to be legal that was once illegal and you open up a two day window, when does the new illegal stuff actually start?

If that makes sense. So if Monday is the day where the old illegal stuff can be legal until Wednesday when it becomes official, when do the other smart GMs like Howie Roseman and Terry Fontenot start dialing up the phone to Captain Kirk and to Saquon Barkley to already arrange the deal before every one of every other of our fan bases, the other 30 law abiding fan bases and law abiding teams are operating things the right way. Unlike those disgraceful Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons. Asterisk if they were to make the playoffs to win the Super Bowl. First round pick just like they did to Bill Belichick multiple times.

Losers. Jalen Hurst should be suspended for the entire season. The entire season. Yes, and Kirk Cousins should never be allowed to go to Magic City.

He should never get those lemon pepper Lou wings. You know, this might be a conspiracy theory, but I think the reason why Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce retired was because the NFL forced them into retirement because of this terrible scandal of pampering conspiracy. I'm just saying that I may or may not have heard from a birdie that Jason Kelce was forced into retirement because the NFL was so upset about the tampering. So when you were taking a week off after the AFC and NFC title games and you were very secretive on why you were off, I think I know what was going on. You were in a dark cave with Aaron Rodgers doing ayahuasca potentially coming up with conspiracy theories. I'm not gonna lie. I'm on ayahuasca right now. Are you?

That's why I'm laughing at everything you're saying because it's actually funny right now. Jeez. Alrighty. Santa's on ayahuasca.

Alrighty. I've never had a producer before on ayahuasca. How's the experience? It's fun?

I'll be honest. It makes the show a lot more entertaining. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break when we come on back talking about conspiracy theories. I didn't even know there could be conspiracy theories about what we're going to talk about next, which is absolutely disgusting. But Aaron Rodgers is saying that this conspiracy theory that he's being accused of is not true.

Can Aaron Rodgers be the quarterback of the Jets and can Aaron Rodgers potentially also be vice president or in the running to be vice president of the United States? What a doozy of a show this is today. You know what? Now I know that Santa actually is on ayahuasca because the first 15 minutes of the show was nothing that we have planned.

And the next 10 minutes of the show after this break is also not a planned segment. Santa right now is currently dancing around the studio. He looks like he is attending some fish concert or something like that. Moist Mike, you want to see him?

YouTube dot com slash CBS Sports Radio. You know what? You would probably be great out on the dance floor, Santa. You're probably good at doing the robot. Or have you ever done the shopping cart?

Have you ever seen the shopping cart dance move? Yeah, the shopping cart, the microwave. I'm very good at as well.

The lawnmower, the sprinkler. I can do all those pretending to do something. Gotcha.

Yeah. Maybe we should put Santa up for hire to come to your like wedding bar. Mitzvah, bat mitzvah, Sweet 16, quinceanera, whatever you have to celebrate.

And Santa could be the ball of fun to your party and just get the crowd going. It is the Zach Gelb show. CBS Sports Radio. I don't know what. Is that the robot right now that you're doing? What is that? Is it not obvious?

I don't know that that arm was just very limped of yours for a second. We're coming on back. Yo, next round is about to start.

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It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I think when you accuse someone of something, especially when it's a serious allegation, you need to be right. Like there's a difference when we're talking about things in like the sports world where you're like questioning a player's effort. But there is a difference in the bubble we are in when it comes to sports and then like real life things. And often and sometimes, unfortunately, those two worlds intersect. Like I like to keep this show for the most part, like 90% of the time.

And I realize there's times that we got to go into another world pretty much. But I like to keep this show about sports. And usually I like to use this show as a distraction for people.

If they're going through a tough time or from real life issues, if they're positive, negative, whatever you tune into the show. It's three hours of fun. We have a good time. We'll rant and rave about sports topics and whatever the big news of the sports world is. But there's been like the last few years and it's not just the last few years, but there has been such a kind of just merging of sports and politics. So sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's unintentional. I always think we have to do these topics.

They turn out to be a little bit uncomfortable. But if something's in the news that is controversial, we have to talk about it. Now, when we get to the Jets quarterback or the Jets general manager or the Jets president, however you want to describe them, Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers made a serious allegation months ago, if you recall, about Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel. And he was basically accusing him of being on this Epstein list and not to beat around the bush. He was basically calling Jimmy Kimmel like a pedophile.

Like that's a serious allegation. And I understand why Jimmy Kimmel, whether you like him or not, it's irrelevant, would be so irate because you could call people a lot of names. Like if someone calls into the hotline and says, oh, Zach Gelb is like a fat jerk or Zach Gelb is a loser or Zach Gelb is an a-hole. Like I could survive. I have thick enough skin where I'll be OK. And like when someone online goes, what sports did this loser play? Or now anyone has a platform, any nerd has a platform, blah, blah, blah.

Like I'll be fine with your kind of weak shots that you take at me. But if someone like called in and said, Zach, you're a pedophile or Zach, you're a misogynist or like something like that, like there's a line that you just don't cross. Like back in the day, my dad worked for Don Imus and Don Imus obviously would say a lot of offensive things on the radio. And my dad sold commercial spots for for Don's radio show. And there were a lot of times where that or Don would attack my father on the air and would berate him and say not so nice things.

My dad never gave a rat's ass. Besides one day when Don just said it. And this is what Don did back then.

So like if you listen to it now, it's like, oh, well, why would you even make the accusation if it wasn't true? This is what Don just did. But one day Don said like Bob Gelb's a pedophile.

And like that was the one day my dad actually went into Don's office and he's like, you could call me fat. You could call me this. You could call me that. You could say this about me.

And I beat up this person. He goes, you can't call me a pedophile because there's a certain line or there's a certain thing that's said about you where then if it's repeated and it's clearly not true, then it gets to a point where you just don't recover from something that said even if it was in a jovial context. So Rogers threw that out there and it was wrong and it was stupid. But now it's getting thrown out there about Aaron Rodgers, not from the pedophile standpoint. But Aaron Rodgers, according to CNN, I guess once believed that Sandy Hook was a conspiracy theory, which that to me.

But let me just be abundantly clear about this. And I'm not saying Rodgers believes this. And there's some beliefs that Rodgers have that I think a lot of people question and it's fair to question.

I'm going to give Rodgers the benefit of the doubt here. And I'm going to say, regardless of what you think of Rodgers, he's not at the sleazebag level of saying Sandy Hook is a conspiracy theory. Like there's a lot of things that you could accuse people of. There's a lot of things that you could name call people. But if you accuse someone or you say you have proof of someone saying that they believe in a conspiracy theory about children getting shot at school.

And if you actually believe that that's a conspiracy theory and there's something more to that, you're a sleazebag. All right. And I could say a lot of different words on the radio, but I'm not going to because, you know, we are on during the day.

Right. And there could be some some children listening and I don't want to offend anybody. So this gets out there what yesterday and Rodgers responds to it and say what you want about Rodgers. I don't love Aaron Rodgers. I don't hate Aaron Rodgers. I'm kind of indifferent to Aaron Rodgers. In the last year, there's been some things that Rodgers done that I've liked.

And then there's been some things that he's done that I'm like, OK, I could do without Aaron Rodgers. So Rodgers responds to the CNN report and he says, as I'm on the record saying in the past what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place. Again, I hope that we learn from this and other tragedies to identify the signs that will allow us to prevent unnecessary loss of life.

My thoughts and prayers continue to remain with the families affected, along with the entire Sandy Hook community. I'm going to believe Rodgers in that case. Maybe I shouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt, but I will. Because there's also a clip when Sandy Hook happened where he was on an ESPN station in Milwaukee, basically saying what he just said in this tweet all those years ago. So that's one thing. And I'm going to assume here and sometimes you assume you know what happens, but I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt here that as crazy as you may think Aaron Rodgers is from time to time, he's not at a level where he's going to believe that there's a conspiracy theory that actually happened at Sandy Hook. And if that is true, that he does believe that, you know, he could screw off. And if you believe that, that there's a conspiracy theory with Sandy Hook. I don't need to listen to this show.

You could bleep off as well. Alrighty. Now, I do find it interesting, though, Samter, because in the last week there's been two stories out there about Rodgers. The one about the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory, which is so ridiculous and he's vehemently denied. But the other story that's out there is that RFK Jr. is trying to tap Aaron Rodgers to be his vice president on the ticket for the election coming up. As RFK Jr. is going to run as an independent, I know there's some hurdles to, you know, with the signatures and things like that, that's way above my pay grade. But he is exploring Aaron Rodgers as his top choice for vice president. Now, he's not going to win. Whichever, not that I'm going to become a political expert here. This is not CNN. This is not Fox News.

This is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I'm going to give you a hot take. Either Donald Trump or Joe Biden is going to win the election. It's not going to be RFK Jr. as your president and your vice president is Aaron Rodgers. But I do find it interesting, Sam, that there is a serious allegation out there about Rodgers over conspiracy, which immediately he said, this is not true. And I've been on the record before talking about this situation that did occur, but he still has not commented on the whole vice president thing. And I'm not saying that you need to comment on every little thing, but those are two big things in the news around the Jets quarterback. And it's not just like a traditional news station put it out there, like even Adam Schefter, who is like the king of all NFL media for reporting and things, even put his own story out there or published whatever article that he took it from and wrote his own article about that.

So this is now a story that is out there. And I do find it very interesting, Mike, that this one he so quickly says is not true, which is good. You know, it better not be true. If you want to hear a rant on this show, this comes out that Rodgers actually believes this.

I will obliterate him on the air and it will be deserved. But the whole maybe being RFK Jr.'s VP, he has not denied that yet. So that leads me to believe that I don't know what behind the scene conversations are happening and what the process is and all that once again above my pay grade and above my level of understanding. But clearly, Rodgers is entertaining the VP part of that, which now brings up the case. You got a football season rolling around come the fall. It's not as if you're still in Green Bay. You're in New York and you know, the New York media is going to eat this up.

This now becomes, you know, a distraction. And you trade for Aaron Rodgers. It's basically like the Nets when they brought in Kevin Durant, they handed the entire franchise over to him. You know, when Kyrie gets here, they handed the entire franchise over to him. Whatever comes with that, as long as he's on your team, they've been all in. And it's not going to be one of those situations where, you know, Jerry Jones says you're all in and then you have Skip Bayless tweeting my ass like the Jets are all in on Aaron Rodgers. So you got to put up with this stuff when it does happen. But I would hope from Aaron Rodgers and hey, you know, if I had a situation, regardless if you like the person or not, that's running. If I had a situation where someone came to me and said, Zach, we want you to be the vice president of United States, I would probably decline it because I'm not qualified and I know I'm not qualified, just like how Rodgers isn't qualified for you.

But Gelb stamped for 2024. It is something that you have to entertain. Like I'd be lying to you if let's say and I and I do not know RFK Junior. Right. I know nothing really about his beliefs, so I'm not making a political statement here. But if RFK Junior called us up at eight five five two one two four CBS eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven and said Zach, would you be interested in being my vice president? I would hear him out.

I would probably decline because I don't want to step into that political wacko world, but it is something that you have to consider. So Rodgers is probably considering it. And we know he loves the attention. We know he is a drama whore. He will probably, I guess, take him up on it. But just in the last two stories that have come out about Rodgers, one, he has denied the other. He is letting it marinate and letting it just still stay out there. And this becomes a story now of will Aaron Rodgers be able to be all in on the jets and maybe be a part of trying to become the next vice president of this very fine country?

And you wonder if it's possible. I mean, you talk about campaigning. Right. He has press conferences two, three times a week. He has the Pat McAfee show. He has postgame press conferences. So like he's going to be in front of microphones constantly, just automatic state of the union every week.

That's what I'm saying. He might not even have to go on the campaign trail. He's going to have national media around him at all times.

Well, here's the thing. Do you think Rodgers, is he actually going on a campaign trail? Like maybe he goes, would he go to one? I could see Rodgers going to one debate. But this would be a thing where you open yourself up to more than just sports media, where then you start having all like the big media outlets requesting to go to Florham Park and go to Jets training camp and go to a Jets Tuesday or Wednesday practice in the season as he maybe just beats the Buffalo Bills.

And then the next day he's trying to figure out how to how to become the VP of the of the USA. Well, this is my point, though, like he might not have to go and campaign around the country. He'll have media coming to him.

And plus, the Jets have eight road games. So he basically will be campaigning around the country. He'll be in, you know, Miami, he'll be in Minnesota, Minnesota, wherever the Jets play.

Right. He's going to be in Buffalo. He's going to be on the road campaigning.

So like the reality is, can he do the things that he has to do on the football field while also doing what he needs to do to run a campaign, a campaign that likely will lose? But Rogers has one, maybe two more years of being a quarterback. He has a lifetime after that. I know he said three or four years. He said four more years. Yeah. Four more years.

Maybe he was on to something. Four more years or something else. But like, even if it's one or two more years, even three years of football, he's got 30, 40 years of life after football, whether that's politics or or ayahuasca or, you know, being a sage and and and and a spiritual leader for people.

Who knows? But you can tell this is a guy who got into jeopardy. This is a guy who's, you know, done a lot of his own research. He you you can tell he wants to be able to impact people and the world in a bigger way than just being a football player. So, yes, being a vice presidential candidate on the on a serious ticket to vote won't win, but will actually get people like talking is going to matter to him.

And so at the end of the day, maybe that becomes more important to him than football. Is this serious? What? Is this a serious ticket? It's a ticket. There's really only two serious tickets. And I don't even know if they're serious with Biden and Trump. Listen, I don't want to get overly into the history of politics, but there have been multiple third party candidates who later who have lost but have made an impact. Nader, Ross Perot, my guy Teddy Roosevelt back in 1912 actually beat the Democratic the Republican ticket of Howard Taft.

Wait, wait, wait. You're you're making a 1912 reference. I'm just saying Teddy Roosevelt ran under the bull moose party that he made on his own. He beat the Republican, his old vice president, Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson became the president. But Teddy Roosevelt in a third party came in second. So I'm not saying the RFK wins. He doesn't even come in second. But he's going to get probably at least enough attention that people are going to be talking about it and therefore it's going to matter to Rogers.

And once you get that foot in the door of the political world, which seems like Rogers is interested in, when you have 40 years of life potentially in politics versus two years in football left, maybe he makes that change. And if you're the Jets, you've got Tyrod Taylor right now. You haven't traded Zach Wilson yet.

You have the 10th pick. How does this impact the Jets? Do the Jets have given Rogers everything? So do the Jets say, you know what, whatever you have to do, we'll still have you be our quarterback? Or do the Jets say, hey, if you want to do this, go for it, but you're not our quarterback in 2024? I don't know what's going to happen, but the Jets have literally given everything they can to Aaron Rogers. You know the Jets don't have the cojones to tell Rogers not to pursue this. That's my point. He's going to be their quarterback while he's campaigning.

It's crazy. But you can't, no one actually is taking this ticket seriously. And that's, like, he's never going to win. So it's like, you don't have to win to be taken seriously.

There is some situations where you can put all your effort into something and it could become a distraction, but you know it's not going to go anywhere. Say what you want about Woody Johnson. He's been a bad owner, but he's not a dummy. And Woody Johnson is going to be like, all right, let Aaron do what he wants. We know this ticket has no chance. He's not going to actually go on the campaign trail because of all the things that you just said. And he'll be there come week one, and he'll be running out onto the field with the American flag, getting everyone fired up, and just hopefully he could stay healthy this year.

But man, it does make for a fun conversation and a wacky conversation. But Rogers is letting it fester out there and continue to marinate. And he has not dismissed potentially being RFK Junior's VP.

Oh, my goodness gracious. This is the most Jets story ever. Imagine if it actually would be jet like for him to win. And then I have to retire and I'm not going to fit it like the Jets will be, I don't know, the elections in November, right? The Jets are on the verge of clinching a playoff spot.

And then Rogers wins and he has to walk away as the Jets have a team primed and ready to go. The Jets are going to be in Buffalo, Miami, New England, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Arizona, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Minnesota. Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida. These are all swing states.

These are all important. He's going to be able to be on the road campaigning while he's preparing for the Jaguars. Alrighty, I've had enough of this conversation. Should people be concerned about Caleb Williams? One Bears legend is he does not want him.

We'll tell you who and why. That is next update time first. Here is Rich Ackerman. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business.

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State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois. Alrighty, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Let's get into this Caleb Williams conversation. Because I just think it's got to a point now where when people are criticizing Caleb Williams, you got to give like actual tangible things that people can latch onto when you're criticizing. Not saying that Jalen Johnson did so, but Devin Hester did. Let's listen up to the Bears' cornerback, Jalen Johnson, who was on the NFL Network.

And he was asked about this whole dilemma with Justin Field. Do you keep him? Do you trade him? Or do you find a way to have Caleb Williams as QB1 next year?

Here's Jalen Johnson. I definitely think it is a little tricky knowing that we have Justin and knowing that he has been a leader vocally, physically. He's been one of our hardest workers on the team. He stays after practice.

He throws. I mean, just the things that we already know from Justin, I think it's easier for us to go out there and know that he's somebody who we can be confident that's going to fight, who's going to do everything they can to win this ballgame. But I think bringing in somebody else that's new, that's young, like I said, I think that's it. You have to wait and see. I think that's the biggest thing that kind of turns into a waiting game. You have to wait through camp, through preseason games and what they're going to do and who they can be. But, I mean, at the end of the day, you got to wait to see when the guns get blazing and things get hot and you see them big boys on the other side rushing you.

I mean, it's a lot to go into it. It's not college ball no more. So, I mean, I think Justin is one of those ones. I think that's the perfect answer by Jalen Johnson. Like, D.J. Moore, I think, has gone over the top, which he's not being a bad teammate.

He's being a great teammate, D.J. Moore. But he has given so much effusive praise to Justin Fields and, right, D.J. Moore said that Justin Fields is better or is more polished than any of these other guys that are in the draft. And you put yourself in an awkward situation if you're D.J.

Moore when this decision isn't in your power. And if Ryan Polls does what most of us think he will do and that's draft Caleb Williams, it's like, OK, how sensitive is Caleb Williams or how many receipts is Caleb Williams taking of things that were said about him in the past? So I don't think Jalen Johnson said anything that was out of line there. He praised his guy, Justin Fields, and then said, whoever comes in, if there is a new guy, then we got to see him prove himself basically to the team. And you find out a lot about someone when they get in the building because college is different than the NFL. I don't think Jalen Johnson said anything wrong there.

I think he was very politically correct in the sports world. Jalen Johnson right there playing the side of both Caleb Williams and then also the side of one Justin Fields. Let's get to Devin Hester, though, who just got announced that he's going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, going back to the Super Bowl. We all know he's a Bears legend. He was on the Up and Atoms show with with Kay Adams and he was asked, Justin Fields or Caleb Williams.

Listen up to this interesting response. It's a lot of stuff going on with Caleb right now. And me as a GM, you know, I don't want to bat him off anybody, but it's too much attention going on right now with their quarterback like that. It kind of seemed to carry them out throughout their career.

What kind of things? Things off the field. And I feel like the type of quarterback he is, Justin Fields is similar, but better with the brand and the ball. But these two guys are similar. I mean, I don't feel like you should go out and drive the quarterback similar to what you already have. I have a problem with how ambiguous Devin Hester was there. And sometimes you bring on a former athlete, you bring them on to the show.

And I've done this before, right? Like you bring on a former athlete that's a legend in a franchise. You want them to comment on the team. You don't know how plugged in they still are with the team or how they're following it. It seemed like Devin Hester there has just been reading things online. And in the moment, he doesn't actually know what's being said is actually true about Caleb Williams. Because there are some concerns, and I say that in air quotes, about Caleb Williams. Like if you think it's a concern that he reportedly wanted equity in the team, well, you knew that wasn't going to happen. You hear about, you know, the whole painting the nails with the bleep Utah thing. I don't think that's a big deal. If you want to say it's a big deal that he jumped into his mom's arms and cried after a loss. All right. That's your priority. You're allowed to say that.

I don't think you need to publicly show that, but I'm not going to slam him for doing that. But Kay Adams did a really good job there because she said, like, what? And it was a lot of humming, humming, humming from Devin Hester. And that's my one thing with this draft process. Sometimes the speculation turns out to be true in a positive or a negative way.

And usually the speculation is negative in this process. But I would like a little bit more concrete evidence about the concerns with Caleb Williams before we basically say there's concerns, there's whispers that are out there, and that's why the Bears should keep Justin Fields, who is the lesser quarterback. Because Justin Fields doesn't have the upside to the level of one Caleb Williams.

He just doesn't. So I was at a point where in season there was a three or four week stretch where I was like, yep, Bears should trade the pick, get a bunch back, you keep Justin Fields, surround them with a lot of talent. But now as we enter closer and closer to the draft, I kind of look back at that take and I'm like, it wasn't a bad take, but it's not a take that I still believe to be true today.

I think what the Bears will do and what the Bears should do is you trade Justin Fields, whatever it is, you draft Caleb Williams and you just hope he reaches his potential. But I'm not saying that the things that are speculated about Caleb Williams are totally not true. I just don't know enough about what's being speculated about him because people just talk about his team. People talk about him and all the drama and all the whispers and the hearsay.

I would just like to hear a little bit more tangibly about what those things are. And sometimes in this process where you have a few whispers, they get exaggerated a little bit. I think what scares some people about Caleb Williams is kind of like what happened to Russ, is that Caleb Williams cares about being an icon. Caleb Williams cares about a lot of the off the field things, which you could care about both. But with Russ, he cared so much about the off the field things that it significantly hampered his on the field play and took away from his on the field play. So can you find a way to have off the field things which every player does?

And also not let it interfere with your on the play. From what I've heard so far about Caleb Williams, where some people may have an eyebrow raised about Caleb Williams, I don't think it's enough where people say, yeah, this guy's called a generational talent. And now all of a sudden, because of the speculation and him jumping into his mom's arms or asking for equity of the Bears team, that that's enough or maybe not want to go to Chicago, that that's enough for me to say, yeah, I'm not going to take him with the number one overall pick.

But Caleb Williams, not to really investigate everyone's likes, but we'll do that anyway. He did like the clip from Devin Hester. So is that him put a little more fuel to fire or is that him saying, yeah, I'm keeping that receipt and I'm going to prove Devin Hester wrong? For the past 20 years, you've enjoyed the refreshing tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast. So in celebration of this milestone, we're bringing Baja Blast in stores nationwide. And for a limited time with every purchase of Baja Blast, you can collect coins for a chance to get Baja Gear or a Taco Bell deal. Twenty twenty four is the year of Baja Blast in stores now. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents. Eighteen plus subject to official rules at Baja Blast dot com and six fifteen twenty four.

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