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Go to Shopify.com/MLB podcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Hey, it's Rob Bradford with Sabi Technologies, the world's hottest cloud storage provider recently asked themselves what good is storing data if you can't access what you need when you need it. Their answer? Wasabi Air is the first intelligent cloud storage with built-in AI auto-tagging capabilities. Now, everything you store with wasabi every game ever played, every movie ever produced can be first through quickly and easily. Go to wasabi.com to see how wasabi air can breathe new life into your content. Instead, with his sports entertainment friends from around the world, this isn't just any former jocks podcast. Welcome to the Brett Boone podcast. I'm Brett Boone and today on the program I'm joined by a friend of the program's brother, Rob Ryan, infamous Ryan family of the NFL, kind of mirrors the Boone family of major league baseball. Rob joins us earlier this year. Please welcome ESPN analyst, host of Sunday NFL countdown. He's also get up on Monday with Mike Greenberg. Welcome Rex Ryan to the program, Rex. We had a lot of technical difficulties. We're here. We made it. We made it. We're good. Let's do it. We had Rob on, I've had Rob on about four or five months ago. He's coaching with the Raiders, your twin brother. He talked a lot of shit about you. Tell me something I don't know about your brother. Man, oh man. He was a punching Judy hitter. He looks like he'd have more power when he was playing baseball, but he was more punching Judy type. The other thing is he beat me in one category in baseball because the twin brothers and you guys being brothers, you always compete with who's going to have the higher batting average and home runs and all that. He beat me in on base percentage only because he got hit by like 18 pitches. I think, I mean, I was like, no, he's supposed to hit the ball and not get hit by the ball. It's the only reason that he beat me in on base percentage, but other than that, he was something. I got to tell you, one story, Brett was a great one. We're a baseball story. We're facing some kid and he's throwing like 90, which you never see in high school. We never did. One kid, I think. Either way, my brother's hitting like third or something. I was hitting fourth and he comes out and he hit a little plate bouncer like a little, I'll call it. He grouted out to the pitcher, but he rolled out to the pitcher and so he comes back and he's like, you know, I don't think he's done that. The next time he comes up, he strikes out on three straight pitches, never swings the bat and he goes, man, I swear to God. That last pitch sounded high to me. I go, it sounded high and so if my brother's hearing improved, I think he would have been a better hitter, you know, so, but anyway, that was the story and honest to God here, the rest of that story is a Ripley's believe it or not one. I had lost a contact lens. So I was playing with one contact lens and I was like, all this guy was doing was throwing heat and I'm like, usually I can hit that. I can't hit anything else, but I can hit a fastball. So honest to God, I go, bro, give me your left contact lens. I put it in my eye and I hit a two run shot on him. So either way, it's a Ripley's believe it or not story, but it actually happened and then I was going to give him his contact back and he goes, nah, that's okay, I can't hit him anyway. So that's how the rest of that day went. It's pretty funny. I'll tell you what, it all disclosed for the Brett Boom podcast right now, all the listeners out there. So I met you, I had Rob on the program and then I get a call from Rob a couple months ago and he says, "Boney, hey, we've got this kind of this family fantasy baseball thing going on and Rex is on it now, you know, a lot of my family members." And I see every team is something Ryan and I said, you know, I've never played fantasy for baseball before and I said, well, yeah, it'll be fun. I'll get it. I'm getting my clock cleaned. I'm something like two and 14. Next year I'm going to have to take it a little more serious and pay attention to what's going on. I was talking to Aaron this morning, I told him I was having you on today. He said to say hi, as I mentioned, huge Eagles fan and he had stories, he's like, hey, tell him this story about when Buddy was coaching and cutting him, went down and then McMahon went down. They still went 10 and six because of that unbelievable defense and they didn't make the post seat. That's the type of fan Aaron is and I said, you be amazed Aaron, the Ryan brothers, how much they love baseball. You wouldn't think it football has been your life, been your brother's life, your dad's life, but you guys are baseball players at heart. Yeah, no, it's unfortunate we didn't have any ability or we'd be, we would have got a different route. But honest to God though, and I got sports memorabilia from all over the place, all baseball, no football, just nothing but baseball stuff. So I have a Roberto Clemente game use bat, a side Babe Ruth, baseball, I got all kinds of stuff and probably hundreds of thousands of baseball cards. And so literally, that's when my brother and I grew up, man, that's all we did. We collected baseball stuff and, and, and, you know, I still have it. You know, he sold me his, he got married and decided he wanted to catch. Probably not a good thing on his part, you know what I mean, all those baseball cards and stuff. But, but yeah, for sure, we're, we're definitely huge, huge baseball fans and I remember that about your about Aaron was, you know, a big Philly, you know, Eagles fan. But of all things, you know, that probably doesn't sit too well in New York, but, but he is a huge Eagle fan. Yeah, I mean, to the point where he's kind of a nerd, you know, I'm kind of embarrassed for him. He stopped short of paint in his face for the, for, for a Sunday football game. But it's interesting. Oh, you've coached in the, in college in the NFL so much a head coach for, for a lot of years with the Jets and the Bills, part of a Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl 35. Now you're in the media, you're an ESPN analyst, I'm on the media side of things right now. Your brother's coaching with the Raiders. My brother's managing New York Yankees. What, what, I know what my relationship is. When they're going bad, I stay away. When they're going really good, I stay away because he'll blame me if they lose after we have a conversation. I picked my spots with Aaron, Aaron just called me this morning when things are going good. If they go four and three, that's a good time to call because we're not too high. We're not too low. And you know what people think with my family, probably your family, when you talk, you're talking football all the time, or we're just talking baseball. Really baseball is the last thing we talk about. It's more the kids. How are the kids doing? How's Laura doing? Which is his wife? And you know, we might touch on what's going on in the game right now a little bit, but that's not the bulk of our conversation. Today we're getting our plans together for Christmas and we had a big group going to Mexico. So we're sure in that up. And I touched on them. You know, I talked to them a little bit, I said, yeah, it's good. You got standing back because yeah, we're starting to roll again, but our conversation was about 30 seconds on baseball, probably 15 minutes just getting, getting acquainted because we talk, you know, weekly, sometimes biweekly, what is I'm interested to see it? What's your relationship with Rob once the season kicks up? When you're on NFL Sunday, but he's coaching, whether he's going good, bad, Rangers are having a good year, bad year, what's your interaction with your brother? Yeah, we talk, we probably talk two or three times a week, just, you know, just shooting the breeze, shooting the stuff and, you know, occasionally we'll talk football, but it's a lot of times you're right. That's just brotherly stuff and talking about, you know, families and all those type of things. Brett, I also have a son coaching. So he's with the Lions and he's going on his 70 or 80 year coaching in the NFL. So I definitely still get football fixed through my twin brother and my son. But yeah, a lot of times it's just, you know, it's anything but that. You know, we'll talk about, you know, everything under the sun, but we will touch on it. You know, I'll still bring it up, you know, about, you know, especially about like some of the opponents I see him playing against or something like that and because I guess you never lose that coach in you, you know, I'm always like, Hey, I think you guys can attack this team on the open side away from the protection or whatever. So if I see something, I'm still going to bring it up to them. But yeah, it's, you know, it's about anything. It's just, you know, it's just, you know, brothers. And that's what you do. You talk about each other's families, you talk about different things and we're no different. But the family business for us is football. For you guys, it's baseball. It's always been that and, but it's interesting, you know, like you said, I'll still, you'll talk to Aaron, he'll talk to you about the Eagles. I'll talk to my, you know, my son, by the way, he's with Detroit. He's the only Seattle Mariners fan in Detroit. Like he grew up, he was an Ichiro fan and to this day, I don't know if I could have him on the program. He's an Ichiro fan. Oh, no, I'm just telling you, he's that, that's, that was his guy and, and he tried to emulate him, you know, same batter stance and doing the same, I don't know that bow and arrow thing or whatever he did. But yeah, it was just, it's funny, like he, and he ever since that time, he stayed with the Mariners through, through good and bad times, obviously better times now, but there were a lot of lean years too mixed in there. So he, you know, but he's, he was actually a true fan of the Mariners and, and you know, we'll, we'll talk about the things. He's still waiting on his guy Julio Rodriguez to get healthy. You know, that thing, he's had a kind of a up and down year this year, more of a down year. But yeah, we'll talk about anything like that and, and it's, you know, I still have a friend of mine pitching. He's pitching with the Cardinals, Lance Lynn is still pitching in the league. Yeah. Big Lance is, I don't know if there's a bigger picture. He's like six, five, three hundred and I just remember asking Lance, I go, I don't know if you would go after him, Brett, but I go, has anybody ever charged them out and he goes, nope. Oh, that's pretty good move. I wouldn't, yeah, when you're that big and yeah, Rex, you know, when it comes to what the media side, you being an ESPN analyst, sometimes I have to go on WFAN in New York and, and obviously the, the, the Yankees and Aaron are going to come up and, and I need to have that professional side where I can separate brother from content. Do you ever find it tough? If you have to critique your son's son's team, if you have to critique Rob's team being, being with the Raiders, do you have a tough time doing that or is it business as usual? I got to do what I got to do. No, I mean, I got to do what I got to do when I think anybody in the business understands that. And, you know, when things are going well, you're going to be very positive. When they're not, you're going to be honest and you know, I've done the same thing with the Jets. I'm not a friend still in that building, but I'm going to be, I'm going to be a hundred percent honest. And I think that's what we sign up for. That's what the fans want to hear. They want to know that you're going to be honest and, you know, like for the Yankees, like, yeah, we get it like Eric can't pitch, you know, for him, but, you know, he's done an amazing job. However, you know, when you see the pitchers, you know, like cold, kind of, you know, struggle a little bit coming back from the injury and then they've had other things. So we got to be honest about it, and I think we'll lose credibility to you and I will lose credibility if we're not honest. You know, so I think that comes with the territory and, and I know last year I said, you know, the Lions could beat the championship game. And I'm like, they'll remember that game for the rest of their lives because they gave that game away. And yeah, it's harsh criticism in my sons there and everything else, but it's the truth. And you're up 17 points, you got to, you got to win that game. And as much as I love, you know, Dan Campbell, a company, which I do, he's done an amazing job. I also have to be the truth and, you know, tell the truth and, and I think that's what fans expect from us and, and, and I don't disappoint him. I absolutely 100% will tell the truth. What I believe to be the truth, all right, back to the family a little bit. You ever, how many times you get called buddy or Rob? Because I'll tell you, since I've retired, people have come up to me, oh, you're, you're the, you're the manager of the Yankees. No, I'm not. Or I remember when you hit that walkoff home run against the Red Sox. No, I'm the better player that was in Seattle. No, but how often does that, how often does that come up? You ever get, hey, buddy, again, no, I'm Rex. Yeah, it's funny. Like I'll get the Rob whenever now that I think he's, well, I'll get that occasionally, but the one I get is hilarious. I'll get Bill Parcells all the time and I guess it's gray or whatever. And you know, you're looking good. I'm like, you know, first off, Bill Parcells is 90 years old right now. I hope I don't look that damn old, but either way, but I will get that. They, they, they're, they're seeing, hey, this guy's, you know, he's a football coach, New York. And I'll get that. I'll be like, man, you're out of your mind. But yeah, I never got, I never got the buddy very much, but I would get, I would get Rob certainly have to get Rob a few times. Yeah, it's, it's tough when they go with the dad. I've never been called Bob Boone by mistake. I'll get the bill for ourselves. That's worst. The big, the big, but to their correct, they're giving you, they're giving you the 30 years ago. Right. That he's kind of out of sight out of mind right now. Remember that guy in the sidelines running up and down inside base NFL is in training camp right now. Time for hard knocks to come out. I think baseball should do a version of hard knocks. I think it's really entertaining. You were a part of the show when you were the head coach with the Jets. You were, you laid it out there, a little language. It was, it was PG 13, at least I'm being kind. But did you have to sign off on that? How, how much input did you have to whether you're going to do the show or not do the show? And once you agreed to do it, how, where are the cameras? Were you and the guys? Well, I think first off, no coach wants to do the show. Nobody wants to do it. But when your owner sits back and says, we're going to do the show, you're like, Oh, absolutely. Yeah, sure. You know, what, you know, but we're going to do it. But I did say this. I told our team this and I'm like, unlike a lot of teams that are in it, we're not going to be phonies. We're going to be ourselves. We have nothing to hide. So we're going to go ahead and be ourselves whether they like us or not come hell or high water. And I certainly was myself in that show and so are our players. And I think that's why it was the number one rated hard knocks in the history of that program. I think it won like nine Emmys. But it's really because we weren't afraid we knew, you know, I could care less if people never liked the way I coached or what, you know, I totally does you a guy that I completely respect, sit back and go off on me or whatever. And I said, Hey, they do. First off, you're a Christian guy and all that. I'm surprised that you would judge me number one being a Christian because we're going to be judged by the same person at some point and you ain't him. But I invited him. I said, once you come out, spend a couple of days with me, you don't know anything about me. I think it used a different word. And he's like, okay. And he actually showed up. So I admired that about Tony Dutchy. He showed up for two days and he came back, this man like these guys love you. They're in a bad word about you. He said, but that language wrecks I can never hire you. And I said, well, you've been the best coach you ever had in your freaking life. And that's the truth. And that's a true statement. So he would have missed that opportunity. And I said, but you know what? Here's the difference. Here's the higher too. And that's why I don't judge. And I think he kind of was taken back by it, but that's just who I am. I don't judge people for language or anything else. I'm certainly not, you know, I've made a million mistakes in my life. The difference is I don't judge people and I never will judge people. I know we all make mistakes. Every one of them. Tony Dunchie is a great man. I love Tony Dunchie, but I'm sure he's made a mistake or two in his life as well. Yeah. And I think it's so true when it comes to coaching and styles, I've played for so many different managers and so many different styles and some had that. Some were kind of, you know, F bombs are flying and it was effective. And other managers I've played for, that wasn't their style. They had a different style, but they had a way of getting the same message across to players. And it's not about how you do it. It's about how effective is what you do, you know, and I beat this drum to death and I hate to, you know, when you feel like you repeat yourself all the time, because I really do feel this. Being a head coach, being a major league baseball manager, it's really, especially major league baseball, because there's not as many X and O's as you guys have. But it's about how you do, it's about managing people. It's about managing egos. It's about managing. I got to stick my foot in this guy's butt. And I got to give this guy a hug to get the same reaction to get the, I got to put them in the frame of mind to be the best player they can be to help the team as a whole. And there's a lot of different ways. I didn't understand that Rex is a young player. You know, I remember sitting there in a day, Davey Johnson was my manager in Cincinnati. And man, was he tough on me. But a teammate of mine and I love him the death, Reggie Sanders, man, he treated him so good and with love. And I'm like, he's kissing Reggie's butt, he's on my ass. But he knew. And years later, he goes, booney, that was my job. I knew by treating you a certain way, I knew what I was going to get. And I knew by treating Reggie a certain way, I knew what I was going to get. And it was really interesting as you get some experience and move on through life that he knew a lot more than this 25 year old snotty nose kid knew, you know, I thought I knew it all. But I'm looking back, I'm like, was kind of genius. And to this day, Davey Johnson probably is the best manager I ever played for. You know, not my favorite is Lou Penelope, my right there with him was Bruce Bocey. But as far as handling personalities and pushing buttons, I never saw anybody do it like Davey Johnson. Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express business gold card. You can earn four times points on your top two eligible spending categories every month, like transit, U.S. restaurants and gas stations. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Four times points up to $150,000 in purchases per year. Terms apply. Learn more at American Express dot com slash business gold card. Hey, fantasy football owners, the road to winning your fantasy football championship starts now. I'm Matt Harmon from reception perception. Join me and James Co as we take a deep dive into the position that's going to make or break your fantasy roster. Wide receivers. We analyze route running, target share and all the metrics that matter, giving you the insights you need to draft the best wide receivers. As you prep for your draft, let us give you the coverage you need. Follow and listen to a reception perception on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all gotten back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday and you can even watch up to four different games at once with multi view, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sunday's more magical and also YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/bsdevice and content restrictions apply local and national games on YouTube TV and if I'll Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. Well, you know, Brett, the one thing I know for sure, my dad taught myself this, my brother this, and I've taught my son this. You got to be yourself. A player will see through a phony in a second, and if all of a sudden I was going to be like, you know, Bill Belichick, my players would would know that's not me. And I think that's why a lot of his his proteges are not successful. They try to go out and be Bill Belichick instead of trying to be themselves, you know, I'm not trying to be buddy Ryan, you know, I wasn't near as tough as my dad. I was tough, but I wasn't near as tough as my dad. You know, he fought in the Korean War at 18 years old. He was a master sergeant in the Korean War. If I grew up that way, I probably would have been a lot tougher too. But I knew enough to be myself, and that's why I could reach players, and I also think it's you're right. You talk about reaching players like different ways. There's some guys that perform a lot better when you hug them around their neck and there's others you got to get after. You know, I've never been harder on a player in my life than I was on Bart Scott and on on Mark Sanchez, yet those are two of the two of my favorite players of all time. But I had to be hard on them to get the most out of them. And if they mark to take it, all right, and that's why I love about Mark. He doesn't get any anywhere close to the credit he deserves for us, you know, winning the games that we did when he was playing. He took all the bullets. You know, I took them and he took them. We put it on two guys and was us, because he could handle it. Bart Scott was a guy who grew up with like, you know, five sisters or something like that. Man, he had to be tough on him, and he could handle it. He performed better when you would get on him. And then there's other players that would sit down on you. I had a great player named Sam Adams, who came from Seattle as a great player. But if I ever got really pissed at Sam or really went on, you know, like, went off on Sam, he'd sit down. He ain't gonna play. Yeah. That wasn't how you reached Sam. You'd reach Sam by putting your arm around him and say, "I love you, and I need you." And Sam would play. And so each guy's a little different. You know, Sarah Goose, you could have done the exact opposite too. But you got to know your guys, know what is going to get the best out of them. But they also have to know that you love them. And I think that's a big part of this game. I think it's missing in this game. I don't think you have those relationships that we used to have growing up that way. I think people are taking jobs for money, they're taking it for whatever. I don't see them reaching the players they used to. But again, you know, I think it's important that way. You know, the player doesn't care what you know until they know you care. And when you use that example of Davey Johnson getting after you, because he was just trying to get you to be at your best. And if he thought that it would be by riding on you, that that would get the best out of you, then that's why he did it. He had nothing to do with respect or anything else, he respected. I know Davey Johnson, that was a tough dude. But his job is to get the best out of his players, but he always cared about his players. And that's what I know about Davey Johnson. That's what I know about myself as well. And to the hard knocks, when that stands out to me, and I remember this episode, you get to a point and you just go, let's go get a fucking snack. Yeah. And that was your way of going, all right, let's go, let's go. Yeah, I just ripped their ass. You know, I was all over their asses because, you know, all that, but I would always end every meeting before a, you know, that night, like I would go into things like I'd ripped the opponent, I'd say how we're going to be and I'm going to do whatever. But that was time I had to chew my guys out. But at the end of the day, all right, let's go get a freaking snack or whatever it was. It still tells them I love them, but the game I was pissed off, you know what I mean? But we're going to move on. And I think that's what it, what it kind of is about. And yeah, that's, that's just what we do, you know, it's like Saturdays before a game. That's what we'd say, let's go get a freaking snack or whatever it was. And it's just, the timing probably looked a little odd, but I also wanted to know that we're moving on, you know. Well, it was, it was a subtle way of saying, hey, I love you guys, but it's almost like raising a kid. I mean, I can't tell you, I still got two 20 year olds and they're knuckleheads, man. And they're great kids and I love them to death, but they frustrate me. You know, you ask them to do something, yeah, I'll do it tomorrow. And then tomorrow comes and you know, they're not going to do it. So eventually you got to wear them out and, and you know, you beat them down enough and you think they get the point, you take away what you got to take away from them. But at the end of the day, you love them and you just say, listen, man, I don't want to, I don't want to get up your butt like this, but, but my responsibility as a dad is to teach you these things. So sometimes I got to be a little hard on you, but then it comes out the soft side. So you know, hey, I'm just not this big mean guy that wants to ruin your life or let you have less fun in college. It's just, I want to, my job is to not be your friend. My job is to make you a good young man that's doing the right things and building his life. So you're going to grow into a real man. So yeah, I think it's a lot, I think when it comes to dealing with young athletes, it's a lot like your, your kids. Okay, you got to be tough and you got to be tough and you got to know, you know, what the limits are, but then there's a soft side too where you give them a hug and, and, and just say, Hey man, I love you, but this is why I do it. If I didn't give a shit, I'd just walk away, but we do care. We do care as coaches. We do care as parents. Yeah. My, my, the worst thing I would have in the year was when I had to cut somebody, I hated that damn job and, but that's part of the job. But damn, I dreaded that thing because I'd see good in every one of these kids. You know, I know if I had him, I still people, I go, like colleges or in high schools. I'm like, how the hell? Like play your entire roster. I would play my entire roster on the NFL, whoever I could have up for a game was damn sure going to play. And even if I had to pick this guy's going to play two snaps on defense, well, he's going to be the starter on the Spartan team. He's going to be the starter on Seminoles or whatever it was, you know, that package because I was going to get every single player involved. And the reason you do that is it galvanizes your team. And it's when you, when you win, everybody wins, you share in that victory together and you know what happens, Brett, your practices become a hell of a lot better and you become a better team. And it's not about the individual. So many people now, like all the kids are different, oh crap, kids are the same. You know, yeah, they're on social media and all those types of things. And you know, they want to do the more individual stuff. That's great. But it's still a team sport. And you still, if you're not trying to cultivate your team, then you're missing it. You're missing a point and you know, yeah, sure, do they have individual times more than we ever did? Absolutely. But it's never been about that. It's been about can you can, can you get this team, those, those young individual players to care much about the team as they do their own success. If you can, you've got a great chance to be successful in my opinion. Yeah. And you've had, you've had so many, you've been around so long, you've had so many different teams and I'm, I'm see, I'm sure you can contrast the great clubhouses, the great cohesiveness versus some teams you've been on where it just ain't there. As a baseball player for a long time, for years, I thought, you know, you get the best talent and you steam roll your opponent. That's what I thought. I said, oh, this team camaraderie, the chemistry, I thought it was, that's kind of BS, get the best team to win until I went to the Seattle in the early 2000s. And I became a believer because I was on a team that was different than I'd been on some really good teams. I'd been on some tough teams. And I weren't very good. But those early 2000s Seattle, we were so good and that clubhouse was unbelievable. You had every guy pulling on the same end of the rope. And we established that. I think it had something to do with the core group and Lou Panella at the helm, but it was something special that we had that for nine innings every night, man, we were in, we were in the fox hole and I had 24 legitimate guys with me. You know, you have a lot of teams where you can get some of the guys, but you always have this, this, this group isn't very good. They don't really mesh. For the first time in my life in the early 2000s, I really had 24 guys with me that were, it was unbelievable. And I couldn't explain it to people. I said, I used to think it was about talent. Yeah, you got to have talent. If you don't have the horses, I don't care how great that clubhouse is over a long time. Over 162, you're going to get your butt kicked. But if you've got some talent and you got that chemistry in that clubhouse, there's something to be said for it. I think it's a real thing. And I'm sure with all your experience, all your years in the NFL, I'm sure you've seen the great chemistry teams versus the not so great. And if you don't have that overwhelming talent, you can't make up for bad chemistry. Yeah, Brett, you bring up a great point. I mean, I always said this, there's no coach can win without talent. You have to have talent. We understand that. But maximizing the talent, getting that team to give a crap about each other, man, that's the beauty of it. You know, coaching is not a science. Coaching is an art. And that's part of it, man. It's trying to build that chemistry with your team and all that type of stuff. It's important. You know, Brett, you've probably been on some teams where sometimes you have so much talent, you can overcome it. You can overcome it. And I used to say this. It's like a great group of guys can carry like, you know, I say there's ants and roaches. All right. And the difference is ants, you can shake up adversity, throw them out there, and they get right back in line. Roaches, as soon as adversity comes, you flip that light up, then flip it back on. You're going in an opposite directions. Yeah. But if you have enough ants, they can carry a roacher too. You just can't carry too many. And so you might have a bad apple. We can carry him. We might be able to carry too bad apples. We can't carry a whole mess up. And that's what I see when you've got a whole team that is, that's playing like ants that really give a, that care about each other, man, you can overcome a ton of stuff. And you don't have to be the best team to win. And I think that's, again, the beauty of sports, the beauty of team sports in particular. How do you say connected to the game, not being on the field? Well, it's tougher, but the great thing is I watch every single game, every single game I watch. I never did that when I was coaching, but, you know, I'm not breaking them down like I did if I'm studying an opponent, yet I am connected with every single team. I figure that's what I owe the fans when I cover the sport. I owe the fans that. And I give them a unique perspective in the fact that I was a head coach for eight seasons and been around the game all my life, but I'm a fan of heart. And so I'm no different than them in that capacity, but I'm going to make damn sure I'm prepared to talk about these games, to give them a coach perspective, things that my IC. Players can give you that insight about being a player, but I see the whole thing. I see 22, I see the strategies, I see all of those type of things. And so I'm going to give my perspective and take my, like our fan base to where maybe they, you know, they can be their coach at that point. They're going to see it through my eyes, how I see it, and that's what I owe the fans that I'm going to be as prepared as I possibly can. In the booth, does the game look different to you? Games much easier to defend, like if back in the day, I think it was much tougher. You had way more protections, different past concepts. And now you got like a lot of these things, you know, people brag about, oh, look at the RPOs. The RPOs, the easiest damn thing in the world to stop, I'm just telling you, it's boring ass football. They call it basketball and grass. Well, that's where it needs to be in, you know, in a fricking basketball court. You know, I get it, you can make them defend it, but I would love to defend that, the crap I see out there right now, but it's, but at the same time, you know, I get it. You know, the rules are really helping offenses. You know, you can't be as physical with the receivers. These guys are really courageous going through the middle now. Back in the day, they weren't when Jack Tatum was there. Back in the day, they weren't when Doug Plank was there, they weren't when Steve Atwater was there, or Kenny Easley, or, you know, the Legion of Boom, they weren't so, you know, they weren't so courageous. Now, they're a lot more courageous because you can't, you, and rightfully so, we're protecting our players, which is a good thing. But I also think it takes a little bit away from it because, I mean, you had to, you had to have courage, man, to run that, you know, to run across the middle. I don't think you have to have as much as you used to back in the day. Yeah, I think, you know, they're always changing the rules to help the offense, and it seems to me being a defensive player in 2024, it's like everything's against you. It's got to be tough, growing up in your dad's generation. What do you see the biggest difference between the buddy Ryan years and the Rex Ryan years? Well, I think number one, protecting the quarterbacks, I think that was it. Back in the day, I mean, Reggie White, you know, was a minister of defense, man. He was a licensed minister and a God-fearing man and all that, but nobody knocked out more quarterbacks than Reggie White did. And when, when, if he took them down the way in today's game, he would have been flagged and kicked out of the dang league because they actually taught, like you would pin the arms on the quarterback and then you would drive them in the ground and lift your feet off the ground so your entire body weight would hit the tip, his shoulder, which would hit the ground first, used to teach how to take quarterbacks out. You don't do that anymore. You know what I mean? And rightfully so, man. Our league's better because we have these young quarterbacks are staying upright more than they have in the past, and that's a good thing. I'm a big proponent of anything that protects our players. I think, you know, that's good for the game. You wait till you see, if you haven't seen it yet, wait till you see the new kickoff deals. That looks freaking crazy, you know, but again, it's, it's, you know, it's there for the benefit of the, you know, of the players and try to protect our players. So, so it's a good thing. It's just going to look, it's going to look a hell of a lot different than back in the day when we were growing up playing. School is back and exporting goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks and more. Plus, the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Find your first day fits in-store or online at Dick.com. All-Star Closer, Ken Lee Janssen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? This boy isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Radford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago, and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod. There is another fact, so jump aboard the BIB Express. Follow and listen to baseball as I'm boring, presented by Wasabi High Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. I want to do a quick, rapid fire with you, and just give me a couple of lines on each one. We'll start off with Pat Mahomes. Oh, the most gifted athlete I think I've ever seen at that position. So will he go down as the best of all time? I don't think so. I still think Tom Brady's going to be almost impossible to beat in that, but this sucker is on his way, certainly. Deshawn Watson. Deshawn Watson won a national championship. My son was on his team. Thanks to the world at Deshawn Watson. Obviously, there's some things in his life, I'm sure that he'd have over, but everybody makes mistakes in life, and we're a country that gives second chances, so he's getting his second chance. We'll see the kind of quarterback he ends up being. Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow is the closest thing to Tom Brady I've ever seen. From a leadership standpoint, the poise he has, Joe Kool back there in the pocket, and the way he can deliver and elevate his teammates, he's absolutely terrific. Two more. We'll go Dak Prescott. Most underrated player in the league. Dak Prescott is a leader. First thing I see as a coach, I appreciate Dak Prescott. I appreciate him. He takes every single bullet for that team. Every single thing that is a negative, it's always centered around Dak Prescott and he takes it. Whatever makes excuses, owns up to everything, blames himself when things go poorly and never talks about himself when things go well. The man led the NFL in touchdown passes last year. Nobody says anything about it, but I love this guy, Brett, here's something that people don't know about Dak Prescott. He was a four-time captain at Mississippi State. Now, who the hell is captain? The captain is a freshman, he was. He's a rare guy, has that leadership and character that I think is hard. I mean, I don't see many people matching it. Last one, the underdog, Brock Purdy, and I was there. I go to maybe one NFL game a year, and it just so happens that when he got his first opportunity, I was at that Niner game watching that, and I think we had a bet, I forget who they were playing. We're like, oh, this kid's coming in, this is a lock, and we got smoked, and ever since then, he's turned into what he is, Brock Purdy. Well, Brett, I was like you watching in total admiration when he came in. Guys don't do that. Guys don't come in cold like that, especially rookies, and there's a guy that throws that doesn't have great arm talent, yet throws the ball with such accuracy, timing and accuracy. It's just amazing to me, so he's got a little mobility, he's got some mobility, and at the biggest moments, he makes plays. I mean, I've never seen a guy struggle like as much as he did in the rain in a playoff game, but then, against the Packers, when they needed it most, he was at his best. But I love that kid, and he doesn't have the fastball, he's kind of like maybe a Greg Maddox or something like that. He's nipping at the corners, but man oh man, he's been impressive, and for a guy, I love the fact people just totally dismiss it, just because he doesn't have the big arm. He doesn't have the size and stature that you want, but I know one damn thing, he gets it done, and I would have loved to have him his quarterback certainly, but he may not look the part, but he damn sure plays it. All right, now on to the little fun stuff, and I'm going to let you go. Okay, last year, I participated in a fantasy football league for the first time. I sucked, not as bad as I am at fantasy guys, guys, which is you guys got me into. I know you guys love doing this, okay? What's the key for me to be better at both? Do I need to just pay real close attention, do it on the daily? Tell me what you do, why you beat my butt when we go heads up? Probably I'm not paying attention. I think I have a better team. There's a reason why my team's called the goat, but anyway, it's, but yeah, no, you got to stick with it, man, the daily thing, that's, you know, you can't have a day off, man. You got to keep looking at that roster, adjusting that roster. You know, there's a guy that comes, you know, I remember my brother, you know, he drops Corbin Carroll. I'm like, well, hell, I'll pick him up. You know, yeah, he was batting a buck 80 or something, but that's not him. But he's gotten better than that, you know, and, and eventually he's going to get back. But those are things that you look for opportunities and things and, and remember this in fantasy football, man, you've got to get a good running back early because if you don't, you know, I mean, you're going to end up, I mean, that kills you. So you got to draft a good running back early and, and, you know, so we'll see. But I love playing those things and quite honestly, the worst I'm at and all the fantasy sports is football because what happens in that is the injuries, man, all of a sudden you, your team's rolling and, and now you get injuries or you're in the playoffs and, and San Francisco decides to sit Christian McCaffrey and you're like, great. So you get a big donut in that spot instead of like 25 points. But it's fun. I love the fantasy part of it, especially football is much easier to play than baseball. But I think we have a lot more fans than football because of fantasy sports and whether you're, you know, novice to the game or somebody that's been around it all their life, male, female, whatever it is, everybody can play it. And I think it's added a lot to, to the popularity of football. And, and I think if people would, you know, we catch on to baseball, baseball is fun as hell when you're doing it. But it's, I think the football, the reason it's so popular, I think it's so much easier than baseball. You know, when you, when you talk about the game and what's good for the game and growing the game and getting eyeballs on the game, I'm all for that now, especially as an ex player. I'm, you know, I look at the playoffs and major league baseball. I'm not a big fan as a player because I like to, I think it waters down the postseason. Oh, I got to the postseason eight times. Well, anybody can get there when there's 12 spots, you know, so that's the player side of me. I, I like being rewarded for the 162 game grind and not just anybody gets in. This isn't the NBA. But now taking a step back being where I'm at as an ex player, as a fan, I love the format. I love the 12 because you don't know who's going to win. And if anybody tells you, Oh, well, this year so and so is going to win your crazy. We've seen recent history, it's not going to happen. But to my point of putting emphasis on the game, growing the game, playing fantasy football really brings a lot, a whole new genre of fans, hard knocks as much as you at first as a football guy for life going, I don't want to do that. I don't want to, it's great for the game because guys like me are watching them. That makes me watch football. I remember, I remember when I was playing and they first started this, they wanted to mic me up for the game. And I thought I'm a big league player. I don't get miked up. What are we doing? But if you look at the big picture, if you get miked up, that's what the fans want to see. And if you continue to grow the game, now look at what players are making. You know, you could be a mediocre player or make $10 million. So I see it. So I want more of that. I want the interviews during the game. Never in my day would you interview a manager in the seventh inning of a playoff. That's not time for that. Nowadays they do it. And I just think I see it because that's what the guys at home, the true fans, that's what they want to see. And now I look at it from a different perspective. If I had that opportunity, yes, heck yeah, I'm going to get miked up. This is for the good of the game. This is what growing the game is. And I think that's what it's all about. I think it's awesome when, you know, you got a shortstop, you know, all of a sudden a ground ball's hit to them. Oh, I got to make this play first. Yeah. I think it's cool. It was so cool. But you're also sitting back there and you're feeling things. The fans want you to take them where they can't go. Right. That's part of it. And you know, when you interview the manager, when you interview the players and things like that, they can't go there. And you know, we're putting, we're putting cambas in the locker rooms after games or whatever. Players are, you know, fans have never been able to go there. And I think it's good bringing those things out when they come out of that tunnel. Maybe they don't feel it 100%, but they're starting to feel it more. And you and I both know the beauty of our games, like it's special, man. And that's where, like, if there's things that, what do I miss the most? Yes, of course I miss the competition part of it, but I miss it all. I miss the camaraderie. I miss that locker room. I miss, you know, the competition and the games and all that. But this is a way where fans can get a little taste of it and you're right. And as a fan of the games, I watch the baseball things. I absolutely love it. I played in the Ryan's baseball league. I might. The Boone part, the Brett Boone podcast and the Boone family might have a fantasy football league. And if so, I'm going to send emails back you to play. Oh, you got it. And I'm taking them back early. Some quick NFL questions. Can anyone stop Kansas City? What's going on in Dallas? And tell me about the Eagles. Well, I think first off Kansas City, absolutely. That offense last year showed a lot of vulnerabilities. In fact, a team like the Raiders almost just totally dominated them. And the Raiders don't even have an offense, but they dominated them. So, yes, any given Sunday, look, the Ravens were the best team in the National Football League last year. And yet, that particular game, they decided to go away from the run game and make Lamar Jackson try to be Tom Brady as stupid as hell, all right? That's why Kansas City advanced past them. I think they're vulnerable. I really do. You know, so, yeah, I don't think it's a given that they're going to be there. Yes, do they have a great coach in Andy Reid? 100%. Do they have the best player in the league right now? Yeah, they do, but there's a guy named Josh Allen that might be nipping at his heels. So I think there's some vulnerabilities there with Kansas City. As far as Dallas, I think it's really interesting. I almost went there just because I know how talented that team is. But everybody's on a, they're kind of a lame duck. The entire coaching staff's on a one year, a one year contract, we'll see how that works. Is that a good thing, a bad thing? I don't know. I wasn't comfortable signing it. I can tell you that much. You know, I think McCarthy's done a great job, but, you know, at some point when expectations is kind of like the Yankees, you know, everybody expects the Yankees to be there. Well, you still got to earn your right to get in. And that's, you know, so we'll see what happens there, you know, with that team. As far as the Eagles do, I don't think I've ever seen a team that absolutely showed that they hated their coaches more than the Philadelphia Eagles did the year last year. I mean, they're 10 and 0 at some point and then they couldn't beat anybody. They were the worst team in the league to close out the season without standing players. So what happened is there's something in that building that chemistry was totally off. Now, they got rid of the coordinator, they changed them twice. They got a new guy in there, Vic Fangio, who worked under me, is a good coach. We'll see how that happens. But at the end of the day, if this thing doesn't go well in Philly, yes, I think they're going to be tremendous. But if things start to head south on them, watch what happens. We're going to find out what they think of that coach. If things head south and to me, judging by what happened last year, that's not a good thing. Can the Niners make it back? They can make it back, but they better watch out for the Lions. Lions were a better team last year. They shouldn't want that game. The Lions unfortunately have the fifth week they're playing there by. And I think that's for them to go all the way through and having a fifth week by, that's going to be tough sledding. If they get that number one seed, then that's different. But I like the Lions, because I think they've been proved by leaps and bounds on defense. Certainly the Niners are right there with them. But I think a team like Seattle has improved too. I don't think people give Seattle enough credit. So we'll see how they do. I love, you know, Gino Smith was a guy that I had for two years. He started for me for two years. And I remember when I left the building one day, Gino's coming in, he's coming in late, by the way. And I told him, I said, son, you got a chance. You're going to be an outstanding quarterback in this league one day. Unfortunately, it's not going to be for me. I never knew it was going to take him 10 years, but now he's back in. I think he does a nice job at playing quarterbacking and throw it with anybody. And now you got three outstanding weapons that he can throw to. A little kid from Ohio State in a slot, then you got Locket and you got Metcalf and that, you know, guy with the three word guy, he's pretty good. You got a good back. So I think that offense is really good. I think their defense will be much improved, will be a hundred percent better than that crap they were laying out there the last couple of years. So I think that defense or that team's going to be really improved. And I wouldn't be surprised if they pushed San Francisco for that division. You've been in the news recently, where are you going to come back on the field? For now, no. Right place, right time. Will we see Rex Ryan back on the field? I mean, I'll never say never, but it have to be the right spot for me to come back. And that means everything, you know, a chance to win to win it all. I'm not coming back just to be a, you know, being on a team that's 500. I want a chance to win it all. And then the money's got to be huge. But it's not huge. Why would I go? I love, I love doing this ESPN gig. And so this is my team right now. You know, I'll never say never. I was tempted. You know, I made a call for the Dallas was offered a job, never took it. So you know, we'll, we'll see if it, if it's the right situation, absolutely. But if not, I'm very happy doing what I'm doing. Very cool. Rex Ryan, this was a pleasure. Awesome. Yep. Continue to whip my butt and in fantasy, I'll learn my lessons on mature. I'm that 22 year old Brett Boone right now, and I'm going to be that four year old with some wisdom. I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate you coming on for all you watching the Brett Boone podcast now on YouTube. We have our own channel. Check it out for those of you listening to the podcast and the Odyssey app or wherever you get your app until next time. Keep it here. - Great. - Bye, folks. (upbeat music)
