00:00My general viewpoint of Monday Night Football.
00:03Welcome in on a, can we say it's fall now?
00:08You're Mr. Solstice.
00:10Is it technically fall?
00:11Well, I think 8 o'clock tonight.
00:14Okay.
00:14It's actually 5.55.
00:165.55 becomes fall?
00:18Yes.
00:19All right, well, it's fall weather.
00:21And my football season's over.
00:23We have a lot to get to today.
00:25Not over.
00:25It's over.
00:27We have a lot to get to, including the latest and greatest in delusion,
00:31a.k.a. Jalen Duren.
00:32I got Dan Campbell update on Kirby.
00:35It are not good.
00:37We'll also do a little Lions divisional talk.
00:40But I want to start with something.
00:42We have a multitude of things out of Monday Night Football.
00:44First of all, off the air, I made a bet with Corbin.
00:48Lunch, because Corbin has an affinity for the Rams, and I'm a Giants fan.
00:53And I said, don't worry about the spread.
00:54We'll just play to win, whatever.
00:56Well, six plays into the game, Jackson Dart dies.
00:58Now, before Dart's crumpled body hits the turf, my phone is ringing, and it's Big G.
01:04As I texted you last night, Big G is unwell.
01:08You did show me something very funny, though.
01:11And I'm appreciative of this, as the audience doesn't give a damn about me.
01:15They just wanted you to check on my dad.
01:18That's true.
01:20Forget Mike.
01:21Mike, someone check on Big G.
01:25Okay.
01:25Rico, you're the good son.
01:28Make sure my guys are doing okay.
01:31Well, I have.
01:31That dark thing looked bad.
01:33And then somebody else.
01:35Rico, has anyone done a wellness check on your radio partner and his dad?
01:39This was the general sentiment last night.
01:42This is a call from Big G.
01:55That was basically football night in America for the Valenny crew.
02:01There's just no point.
02:02Sports are stupid.
02:03That's my takeaway today.
02:05This is all stupid.
02:07This is all stupid.
02:10I needed Jameis to pull this out, so I would have fodder.
02:15That was rule for radio for me.
02:16Like, and now your hopes rely on him, but he did not.
02:20This is all stupid.
02:22I'm sorry, Big G.
02:23Now, listen.
02:24I'm sorry.
02:24I have two questions out of this.
02:26Now, I'm going to pay off the bet because I'm a man of my word.
02:31No, I'm doing it.
02:33No.
02:33No, I'm going to buy Corbin because Corbin has a good relationship with his dad.
02:37I want to buy Corbin and his dad dinner.
02:38I'll take care of it.
02:40I think it's ridiculous.
02:42I think it's complete screw job.
02:44The football god screwed me here, but I'll pay the bet.
02:47Okay, you know what?
02:48How about you run it past the black caucus over here?
02:51Because I'm telling you right here, right now.
03:02Dad, it's okay, man.
03:03It's all right, buddy.
03:05At that point, Mike, it's voided.
03:09It's like the fanatic sports book.
03:11Don't listen to this, man.
03:11I still owe him a lunch because of the Australia game.
03:15That's stupidity.
03:16Ooh, that hurts.
03:19Your team just was drunk on a plane and decided to play five minutes after landing.
03:25Nobody got hurt.
03:26You're just stupid.
03:27You can't legislate the stupidity.
03:29Damn.
03:30Sorry.
03:31So you can't use that.
03:32Now, I'm trying to help you out here, son.
03:34You just said don't pay it.
03:35You're not helping me out.
03:36I am helping you out.
03:38It's integrity.
03:39Okay?
03:40They don't teach that in school.
03:41I'll take care.
03:42At Spex, they do.
03:42We're Spex, man.
03:43I want to offer two other things.
03:45Okay?
03:46First of all, and this is the bigger picture in all this, and maybe this is you and me and
03:53David showing our age.
03:54The NFL has a real injury problem, and I'm not hearkening back to the 90s.
04:01That's not what I'm doing.
04:02I'm saying even 10 years ago.
04:06Players drop like flies now.
04:08I mean, we've already seen six starting quarterbacks in the National Football League dead.
04:15Every week you're watching, somebody's out for the year, and it's in, like, multiples.
04:21I just simply do not remember the league being this way, and the product, it's reliant upon the players playing.
04:33You can't have a Pete Harper at safety and David Kirkus at wide receiver or Jameis Winston talking to himself
04:43at quarterback.
04:44Rico, I want to know if fans see it the way I do, is watching as much football as we
04:50do, I never remember the injury bug being this bad.
04:55It's brutal.
04:57Go look right now at the stars that are on IR right now after two weeks of the NFL.
05:04Well, it's jaw-dropping.
05:07It is.
05:08That's one.
05:09Here's the other.
05:10The other is, and you as a Lions fan, hopefully you don't have to endure this.
05:16You've had a very lucky 20 years of luck at quarterback, basically, where your QB hasn't died.
05:23I'm telling you, there's no worse feeling.
05:26I'd rather lose a game by 50.
05:28I'd rather my team never show up.
05:30Your six plays into a game, and the star of your team, dead.
05:35And with it, you seize.
05:37There's really no point.
05:39I was sitting there last night, and I'm going, why am I even watching this now?
05:43This is pointless.
05:45This is an app.
05:48Yes.
05:50Yes.
05:51What was that?
05:56And then Big G said.
06:08That's basically the phone call between me and my dad.
06:11This is pointless.
06:12All of this is pointless.
06:14But I'm going to pay to bet.
06:16But I want to have a conversation about the NFL and injuries.
06:18Because I feel like we're in outer space right now.
06:21Go ahead.
06:22What do you want?
06:23Well, first of all.
06:24Substation.
06:25You know all about it.
06:26I was about to say.
06:27You're talking to the wrong person right here.
06:29Well, I have Lion.
06:29Lion.
06:30Lion fan says only injuries happen to us.
06:33Regards.
06:34Wah.
06:35Every wide receiver.
06:36Gone.
06:37But it's league-wide, man.
06:40I think a lot of it, if you don't have a substation sitting right outside your practice
06:44facility that $9 million later, there's nothing to see here.
06:48Nothing to see here.
06:50Mike, actually, in all seriousness, I think a lot of this goes back to training camp and
06:56the lack of playing in games.
06:58Where in week one, if you think about it, is the first time that any serious hitting
07:03goes on.
07:04Especially if you opt out of those controlled practices where you play other teams and at
07:09least you get to hit somebody and you get a feel.
07:12But if you just opt out of that and it's just all two-hand touch and seven-on-seven drills,
07:17you're not going through the same things that back in the day.
07:22Game number three in preseason, your starters played and they played until the third quarter.
07:27And you kind of got a glimpse of what your team was going to look like.
07:30So when week one rolled around, they had already gotten hit.
07:34They had already gotten smacked.
07:35Everything had already happened.
07:37But now, if you're only playing for three preseason games, your starters may not play in any.
07:43Especially if you're paying them a ton of money.
07:45Yeah, I don't need to see Jameer Gibbs out there against try-hard guy trying to make a team.
07:50So you just go ahead, put the headset on, put on your jogging suit, and you sit on the sideline.
07:55I think that's where a lot of it comes from, from me.
07:57All right, Rico says lack of hitting.
07:59Lack of playing in the preseason.
08:01All right, that's his silo.
08:02What else?
08:03I have a theory, but I want to wait.
08:05What else is it?
08:06David, A, do you agree with me?
08:09Like, I'm not going back to like 2004.
08:12But like, if you want to just on a lighter level.
08:15Like, let me put it in terms that people understand.
08:17If you used to play fantasy football in the 2000s, you'd draft Jamal Lewis and you got him for 17
08:23weeks.
08:23You'd draft Preece Holmes, you got him for 17 weeks.
08:26You'd draft Steven Jackson, you got him for 17 weeks.
08:29Now you don't get guys 17 minutes.
08:32You're watching games every week and you're going,
08:35I was watching an Eagle game this week.
08:37Saquon, dead.
08:37Dallas Goddard, dead.
08:39You turn on some of these games and you're going,
08:41Oh, this team's missing our own.
08:42Look at the Lions.
08:44I mean, it's just, so what is it?
08:47Rico says, okay, they don't play in the preseason.
08:50They don't hit enough.
08:51I'm not arguing.
08:52I mean, asking for ideas.
08:54Dan Campbell is saying, hey, we need to start hitting in practice.
08:58Probably don't want to do that when you got a bunch of injured players, but I digress.
09:02I'll give you my reason if you want.
09:03It's probably too simplistic.
09:07Players have gotten bigger, stronger, and faster, and the playings, the size of the field has not gotten bigger.
09:14You have 300 pounders that are running as fast as Walter Payton.
09:18And it just, human beings are not meant to be this way.
09:23So wear and tear on the joints?
09:25No.
09:26Freight train hitting a chicken.
09:29I got you.
09:29Like, it's just, defensive ends are not supposed to run as fast as running backs and carry 80 pounds.
09:36When you look, like last night, watch that Jackson Dart play full speed from the drone view.
09:42It's horrifying.
09:43It looks like a Marvel movie.
09:45That's where, look, we've been very fortunate in our life to be on field or sidelines, different things.
09:50You don't truly appreciate how violent this sport is.
09:54Until you're right up next to it.
09:57And that's not, you can understand it on TV.
10:00It is jaw-dropping if you are there and close to it.
10:05You hear it and feel it simultaneously.
10:08I just think science has ended this.
10:12Like, you can't hold up to the physicality of the, you have linebackers that are 250 pounds that run faster
10:20than Jerry Rice.
10:21Like, that's where we're at.
10:24Offensive tackles in 1985 averaged 258 pounds.
10:29They're almost 100 pounds heavier today.
10:34Yeah, I think Trent Williams has a word.
10:37Right.
10:37The worst part is they're faster than those players and bigger and stronger.
10:44That's my theory.
10:46Maybe it's too convenient.
10:47But I would love to know.
10:49Because I do think the NFL's got a massive problem on its hands.
10:52All jokes aside about Big G's mental state.
10:55But see, also, I'm going to add on to what you're saying, Mike, with the bigger, faster, stronger.
10:59I think there's just being too much weight is put on the body for joints and ligaments that aren't really
11:05meant to handle that.
11:07Which is why you still get a lot of injuries of people just like falling down.
11:11Not like, you know, Caleb Williams fall down.
11:14Well, that's looking worse and worse as time goes on.
11:16Jackson Dart's going to be out four to six weeks.
11:18He walked off the field.
11:20They wheeled Caleb out in a body bag.
11:22Caleb might play Monday.
11:25That's not aging well.
11:27He'll never hear the end.
11:28I'm surprised nobody's put that on the cover of Madden.
11:32You know what?
11:34He was the Madden athlete.
11:35He was.
11:36The curse is back.
11:38Is it, though?
11:39No, it's not.
11:40It's definitely not.
11:41David, we'll get some texts.
11:42I want to hear from you on this.
11:44But just, does the NFL have an injury problem?
11:47I mean, when you're through two weeks and six quarterbacks have already died, look at
11:52the wide receivers, the running backs, look at the defensive stars that are already done.
11:57AJ Brown, go on.
11:59Yeah, he's gone for 10 weeks.
12:00That's really what that's going to be.
12:01But I just, I don't know.
12:03It strikes you when you watch Red Zone or watch the games and you go, is anyone alive
12:11two weeks into this season?
12:12Because there ain't no one paying to watch Tyson Bajit and Jameis Williams, Jameis Winston
12:17or, or, or, uh, uh, numb nuts, uh, for Washington, Mariota.
12:23Dude, you see what the product looks like.
12:25So it's just, people wonder why personal fouls and why quarterbacks are protected.
12:30I don't know that you can protect them.
12:31You can't, but it's why I always said, uh, you know, you got to go get a real backup QB
12:36because.
12:37Okay.
12:37Hater.
12:39No, that's what line fans are going to do.
12:41Oh, okay.
12:41You know how that rolls.
12:42Okay.
12:43Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
12:45I want to hear from the people though.
12:46And yes, Corbin, I, I, I'm going to get you.
12:49You're not getting nothing.
12:51Oh my God.
12:52Nothing.
12:53If Mike buys you something, I'm taking it because it becomes mine.
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