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March 18, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
55:25
It's So Hard To Say Goodbye
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Alright everybody, welcome back.
It is Friday's Finest and we're all together again as the gang is all here.
Oh-wee-oh, oh-wee-oh, the gang is back, yes.
And I'm a little bit more excited right now because I do not have to listen to Justin Fields coming to Atlanta.
Aww!
But James, who will be on with us in just a moment, we're gonna have to be gentle with James today.
An interesting thing happened on the way to the free agency board, and we'll talk about that and give James plenty of chances to go through it.
Chip will be with us here in just a minute.
We've got a lot to talk about.
Hey, it's amazing to me, folks, and Chip and I hit on this in the first part of the episode, I think.
It's amazing to me how tone deaf Democrats have become about Israel and about immigration.
It's really interesting that the far left has pushed the party to where they feel like they can't move.
And this was pointed out to me the other night, and many of you have commented I was on doing State of the Union last week.
And I talked to one of the Democrats who was on with me.
He made this comment.
He said, now that Biden has shown that Trump is the Republican Party.
And I stopped him right after he said that.
I said, okay, if you were saying Trump is the Republican Party, then Biden is the Democratic Party.
I said, you can't have that innuendo out there that Trump is a negative and he's the party of Republicans and then not have Biden and all of that that Biden owns as well.
And he sort of laughed.
Honestly, folks, I've been on the podcast and I've been with y'all for and y'all see me on TV. The reporter who was there that night, I looked over at him as I said that, and if he had water in his mouth, he'd have spit it across the room.
It was the most hilarious moment we've seen.
So a lot going on, but we had free agency, we had the Oscars, Oppenheimer wins, Barbie undoubtedly didn't do too well.
Okay, we'll talk about that as we go.
And then we also got to talk about it after the break.
There could be a new candidate lurking, could not be more of an outsider, but instead of the quarterback for the New York Jets, could it be Aaron Rodgers, VP?
All of this here today on Friday's Finest.
We're glad you're with us.
After the break, we'll get started.
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All right, we're back.
We're after the break now.
Chip, you're here.
James is appropriately in a dark screen for the day after free agency.
Chip, though, let's get started.
We'll get to James.
We're giving James a chance to warm up here.
I made this comment in the opening, Chip, and I said that to me it's amazingly how tone-deaf Democrats, and look, Republicans have tone-deaf places as well.
Don't get me wrong.
I think we do as well sometimes.
But it is amazing with the polling showing immigration and the support that is historically there for Israel.
It's interesting to me because just earlier, just within the last 24 hours, Chuck Schumer goes to the floor of the U.S. Senate and basically calls for tampering and for overthrowing the Israeli government.
I mean, that's for lack of a better way to do it.
Is that surprising to you seven months out?
You know, I would love to say yes, it is surprising to me.
I mean, if you're just looking at this politically, yeah, it's very surprising.
But, you know, when you peel back the onion a little bit and realize what the National Democratic Party has been about over the last five to seven years, it's nothing but identity politics.
And, you know, and and so, you know, you you can't support a country like Israel.
It's strong on national defense and is is, you know, waging a an all out war to extinguish Hamas, the terror terrorists that are Hamas.
And then with regard to immigration and, you know, the situation at the border, you know, if you're strong on border policies, you're quote unquote racist and, you know, I mean, that's the holy grail of democratic politics right now, right?
And so, you know, it's just they can't, you know, they're just stepping all over themselves to avoid it.
I mean, look what happened after the State of the Union, Doug.
I mean, you know, President Biden called Jose Ibarra the savage guy Butcher, brutal murderer of Lake and Riley in Athens, Georgia, called him an illegal, and then he apologized to Daylight.
That's crazy.
Well, what got me, Chip, was, and again, knowing you and knowing, I wonder how long this person would have lasted in one of your campaigns or one of your, when the White House spokesman said he absolutely did not apologize.
He did not.
That was not an apology.
The man said, I regret saying what I said.
That is an apology in any language.
Yeah, look, I mean, you know, look, being a White House spokesman for this president, you're put in that situation, you know, time and time again.
And, you know, instead of answering the question and saying, no, I don't have any regrets.
So what if he was undocumented?
You know, he came to this country and he committed a savage act of murder against our citizens.
And I have, you know, You know, absolutely no respect for somebody who wants to come in here and do something like that.
Instead, he just went on defense and cowered in the corner like a baby and was like, yes, I regret calling him that.
It was almost like he was hoping he didn't offend him.
I mean, come on.
Well, it's just amazing, too.
And again, I just was looking through some clips, and I was on an interview to ask about this the other day.
And it was interesting because they stopped it.
They said, well, you know, we come with receipts.
I think it was Harris Faulkner.
She said, Harris, we come with receipts.
And she played a clip.
Two or three clips of Obama and Chuck Schumer both saying illegal aliens.
Obama said it many times.
And Schumer went as far as to say, we've got to quit calling them undocumented.
They are illegal in this country.
And it's like, I mean, it's just like brain cramps.
Doug, that kind of makes my point, right?
I mean, that was in the past.
That was when the Democrats weren't worried about language.
Yeah.
I mean, if they did that, they would lose the mantle of the identity party, the identity politics party, and they can't do that.
It's just too much in their DNA. It's too much in their fabric right now.
It is.
Well, and it's also bad that because you and I both witnessed the Republican Party try its hand at identity politics, and we don't do it very well.
No.
And they don't either.
They just don't.
No.
They're too stupid to realize it.
Yeah, it's just bad as we go into it.
You know, looking at it, Chip, as we talked about it, last week, and I made this point, and I want to make a point here on the podcast, because I want conservatives to turn out.
And look, I get, and I made a tweet about this, post about this the other day, and said, look, It goes back to what we've dealt with all along.
When primaries are over, Republicans have a choice, just like Democrats have a choice.
You're either going to go with the party that most identifies with what you believe in.
You may not agree with it all, but most identify.
Or you're going to either stay out or you're going to vote for the other one.
And both parties are sort of at that point now with the Democrats, you know, dealing with this sort of revolt from the left.
You've got some of the Republicans.
We had one of our...
Reporters that you and I have dealt with over the years, I thought it was hilarious, and I sent it to you, I think.
One of the reporters at the AJC the other night, his first take on the election was, wow, all these people voted for Nikki Haley.
There's a big division.
And Trump won 73 or 74% or more here in Georgia the other night, and they focused on that.
The issues, though, that are coming up, I think it's gonna be more based on, and I'm gonna say this, I think this is gonna be a long-term race that's gonna stay close until the end, and whoever wins the last four weeks is gonna win this race.
Yeah, I think that's right.
I mean, look, we're a divided country.
We have, you know, we have people that, you know, we know who they are, who are going to go out like they do every four years and support the Democratic nominee.
We have people on the Republican side who are, you know, going to go all in for Trump and always have.
And, you know, and there's a segment of this country that might not like the choices that they have for president.
But doesn't that happen every four years?
And, you know, look, this is going to be a close election.
And, you know, it's going to just have some variations, you know, polling spikes and decreases between now and November.
But, you know, I don't know, Doug, that we'll know for certain going into election night.
I mean, I'm curious to see if...
You know, what the betting markets are going into election night, I bet one candidate's not any more than a 65% favorite, which is, you know, I mean, which is a close race, right?
I mean, it's a real close race if it can go either way.
So I think you're spot on with that assessment.
Well, I think so, too.
And one of the things I encourage conservatives is, look, I know it sounds good to have a full audience.
And look, as being a candidate, it helps you up.
You go into a room that's full, you get excited.
You go into a room that's about half full or not there, you really question life.
And as someone who's had his name on the ticket many, many times, I know what that feels like.
You walk into a room and, you know, it's not as many as you thought were going to be there and you take it personal in some ways that you've done something wrong or people don't like you and it is kind of crap.
And it just gets in your head.
But we've gotten to where I think one of the things I want to say, I'm glad to see the turnout.
I was with President Trump last weekend in Rome.
Talked to him.
He was in good spirits.
His speech, by the way, has some of the best lines and best writing of any speech I've seen from him so far.
He likes to go off and tell stories, and he actually, Chip, for the first time I've ever heard him say this, he said it in the middle of the speech, He went into it and he goes off script.
And you know how he does this.
You can tell when he's off script.
It's very obvious when he is.
And he said, you know, basically he said, I'm off script.
He said, but you know, y'all come and y'all wait in these lines and people are outside.
He said, I've got to give you something more than just, you know, basically he said 45 minute speech.
He said, that's why I tell stories.
I've never heard him actually just say it.
And he told a story about Arnold Schwarzenegger and everything else.
He just went off.
But, I mean, he had a line in the speech the other night that I think is the themes are starting to build.
I'm starting to see the Susie Wiles, Chris LaCavita influence into this campaign.
And they've sort of decided he's going to be Donald Trump, but if we can get him focused in these areas here, then we're going to make our message.
And one of the lines, and I'd love to get your comment on this, he made a great line out of the State of the Union.
Whoever wrote this was spot on.
He said, the other night, Joe Biden was yelling at America when the actuality, America should have been yelling at Joe Biden.
That was a good line.
Really good line.
Yeah, really good line.
And think, Doug, you mentioned the influence that Susie and Chris Lasavita and Jason Miller and that team have had on him.
I mean, there's been no turnover in this race so far.
I mean, eight years ago at this point in time, He was on, you know, on campaign manager number three, maybe.
And then, you know, four years ago, there was, you know, a decent amount of turnover.
I mean, the nucleus of Trump's campaign staff today is exactly what it was when he, you know, got in the race a little less than a year ago.
And so, yeah, I think that's a great thing.
And I think that gives, you know, that That gives people that might have been concerned about a third Donald Trump candidacy but don't like Joe Biden and want to see Trump be successful and Biden lose.
It's got to make them feel good that this campaign looks a lot more stable and it looks a lot more grown up, candidly.
I think that's a good thing and not a bad thing.
Yeah, I do too.
I think it was really good.
And I think the president relishes it.
I think when he's on point, you and I talked about this over a year ago, when we started first seeing him go to like East Palestine and these places where he's in the mode and he does that, he's hard to beat.
When he's handing out pizzas, when he's in that mode, he's just extremely hard to beat.
And I think that's where Joe Biden obviously cannot do.
But did it surprise you?
And we're talking crowd strength here for just a sec, because you know a lot of the Democratic operatives in Atlanta, and I do as well.
I was down on the House floor in Georgia today honoring David Ralston, who was a former speaker, a good friend of mine, yours, and a lot of folks.
And he passed away almost two years ago now, a year and a half ago.
But...
I was down on the floor of the House and I was talking to a lot of Democratic colleagues, which, by the way, is the difference you see in state houses as opposed to the U.S. House.
We were talking.
But did it surprise you, knowing that Trump was going to be doing a fairly large rally in Rome, Georgia, that they put him...
I mean, there was...
Chip, there wasn't 150 people at the Biden rally.
You can't tell me...
That Democrats won't show up.
I mean, it's almost like they intentionally keep this in this way.
Yeah, they made it kind of an insider's event, right?
With elected officials and operatives and all of that, right?
So it was weird.
Pullman Yards, and it was like they wanted to check the box to get into the state.
And, you know, to get on the TV networks and ruin traffic for everybody in Metro Atlanta, like, that doesn't happen every day.
And there was just no energy, right?
And it, yeah, look, I mean, the Trump rally up in Rome, sure, it was, you know, it might have had, you know, it wasn't outside at an airport hangar, didn't have 10,000 or 12,000 people there, but none of that matters.
I mean, look, I worked for Hersha Walker in the general election last cycle, Doug, and we drew crowds...
He was exponentially better than anybody running on the Democrat side or the Republican side.
It wasn't even close.
But he was the only Republican on the ticket that didn't win.
You know, Brian Kemp didn't draw crowds like Hershel Walker did, but he got a lot more votes than Hershel Walker did.
And so, yeah, I mean, I think sometimes, you know, we all look too much into it, right?
And that's why I wanted you to make that point, Chip.
I mean, because like I said, I want us to focus on having a large turnout on either early voting or on voting day.
I want us to be voting.
That's my key.
One thing here, and I want, as we got, you know, folks from all across the country who listen to this podcast, An interesting thing is happening here in Georgia, and I would love to know in some other states if this is yours.
So go to the DougCollinsPodcast.com, hit the email button.
We'd love to hear from you.
We're breaking it down right now, Chip.
But so far, we've gotten about a quarter of the state, almost half of the state done.
And something that I brought up to some of my folks who work nationally and some of the folks who are dealing with this presidential campaign is Georgia does not have a unifying, or they don't have the Races that you and I both know generate the most.
As much as we love the presidential race, a good hard-fought sheriff's race in a county is gonna turn out more people, okay?
A down and dirty commissioner race is gonna turn out a lot more people because they know these people individually.
This is church, you know, turning out church group, little league team, I mean, parents, all this.
We don't have a lot of that in Georgia this time.
Trump's at the top of the ticket.
We got some, I think some judgeships that are statewide, but really nothing else.
And when we look down into the sheriffs and county commission, state reps, state senate races, there's about 15 races in the state house, state senate side that'll be of any consequence come November, and very few of these others.
What do you think from a political operative perspective Do you have to take that into account, or do you just think this presidential race will overcome that in these counties?
And frankly, about probably 40, 50 counties that have no race except the president on it.
Yeah.
And, you know, look, for those of you listening that don't know, I mean, Georgia's got 159 counties.
We have a lot of counties.
Doug's right.
I mean, you know, I can't think of, you know, I can't think of a cycle where there were fewer candidates that qualify.
I mean, I looked at the roster of candidates in the state Senate, both on the Republican and Democratic side, and I mean, it's thin, right?
I mean, 12 Republicans didn't get opponents.
You know, at least eight or nine Democrats didn't get opponents.
I mean, gone are the days where, you know, there were seven, eight, nine, ten people qualifying to race.
You know, Doug, historically, I think that would make a big difference.
But, you know, we've, over the last three election cycles, the last six years, we have shattered Voter turnout numbers shattered, and it's absolutely destroyed the argument that Stacey Abrams and the Democrats have made about voter suppression, so much so that Rob Manfred, after he took the All-Star game away from Atlanta, is now bringing it right back.
That doesn't happen unless you're absolutely exceeding historical turnout, which we've done.
You know, look, you know, I don't have a crystal ball.
None of us do.
I mean, if, you know, this was 10, 12, 14, 16 years ago, the answer to your question would be yes, of course, a lack of, you know, information.
Big races at the local level, sheriff's races, legislative races, county commission races, and there's no U.S. Senate race this year, Doug.
So it's not like that race.
I'll have to talk, you know.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I tend to believe that with Trump on the ballot and with the presidential race going on that we're going to see high turnout like we have.
I think that's going to continue.
But it's...
It's going to be fascinating to see, I'll tell you that.
Well, it will be.
And I think one of the things, you know, you hit on it there, and we're not going to sit on it because we'll talk about this at another time.
I'm about sick of the argument from Merrick Garland and from the Democratic apparatchik that basically say that Voter IDs are bad for turnout, that there's so many voter suppression laws.
Georgia has done nothing but increase.
Now, here is a real problem, and we don't have enough time today to talk about this, but there's just been, I think, a lawsuit filed, and I believe it was Michigan, and there could very well be getting ready to have some here in Georgia, because the ballot The number of folks on the registered to vote exceed the number of registered voters census-wise in the county.
And we got several of those places where you're seeing, like, if you have, just to break it down in a small term, if you had 100,000 eligible voters from a position of age and citizenship, position to vote, you're having 115,000 registered.
And then what it says is, It doesn't say that 115,000 are going to vote, but what it says is they've not kept the rolls clean or managed the rolls to make sure that they're actually removing those who've moved out of the county, adding those that have come into the county.
And that's been the problem I think a lot of people have.
No matter what you feel about elections, both sides can sort of see that issue.
Well, and let's be honest with it.
Let's be honest about it.
You know, every time Republicans try to purge voter lists to fix that problem, they get two or three lawsuits filed against them, and then there's an injunction in federal court.
And until that case is adjudicated, two or three years later, all those voters that were supposed to be purged because they're no longer eligible to vote, either because they moved or they're deceased.
Yeah, I mean, of course that...
Of course, but it's, you know, I think a lot of that's tied up in litigation and, you know, when a federal judge, as you well know, you know, says, well, you know, we're not, you know, we're not going to make this purge until, you know, the parties have a chance to make their case in court.
You know, that slows things out two or three years.
And Doug, once you die, you die.
Yeah, it's not like you're going to come back.
When a voter's deceased, He's deceased or he or she is deceased before the lawsuit is filed.
And guess what?
When the lawsuit is adjudicated, that voter is still going to be deceased.
So it just defies basic common sense.
But that's the world we live in right now.
Yeah, real funny.
I was watching in California, in the primary from the other side, the Super Tuesday primary had California, and they had this voter, liberal voter.
I voted for Biden, and they asked him about how hard it was to vote.
He said, oh, it wasn't hard at all.
I just walked up.
I took my ID. They didn't even ask me for it.
And then he made the...
The honest statement, like Biden saying he was illegal.
This gentleman said, he said, you know, I could see how that could be a problem.
He said, because if somebody knew it, they could just go.
Because they never, he said, they never looked at anything.
They just took me at my word that I lived at that place.
And it was like he admitted on this interview exactly what everybody's been fearful of.
And this was a liberal panel and everything else.
Just sort of crazy.
All right.
Politics out on the side.
By the way, at some point in time, and I'm not today because you and I would have way too much fun and we're not going to do it.
The No Labels group is vetting their candidates at this point.
We'll let them vet and then we'll come back in on that one.
But right now, Chip...
We need that.
We gotta move on, is what you're telling me.
Oh yeah, we gotta move on, or you and I, we'd have a big problem here.
But we gotta move on now, because we gotta bring in, back to our Friday's finest fold, we gotta bring in James.
James...
no James you have to talk today well James I'm glad I got you out of your morning stage there that you're saying goodbye Bye.
James, I have to admit to you, I never thought that Kirk Cousins would be coming to Atlanta.
I've said it for you.
You don't even have to say it.
But Kirk Cousins is bringing the bling to Atlanta.
I think I've decided it's better to be delusional and irrational than sad.
So I'm not going to be sad about this forever.
You won't get to know how to send you a Falcons jersey?
Yeah, so I can set it on fire.
Man, you know what's incredible about this?
I saw he signed and they didn't show the number yet.
And I was like, four years is a lot, but man, we could have used them for another four years.
JJ still got to sign, blah, blah, blah.
And then I saw it was $184 million.
And in my head, I went, okay, as a rational human being, I can't yell at Kwesi, our GM, and Kevin O'Connell for not signing a guy who's 35 years old coming off an ACL. To $184 million.
There was no way the Vikings were going to do that, and I just have to deal with that mentally and emotionally for the next three years while I watch a shuffle through Sam Darnold.
For some reason, the ongoing conspiracy that we're going to trade up and get J.J. McCarthy.
What is happening?
What is happening?
It was three, four months ago when they were like, you know, Michael Penix might not be a bad idea.
Then he stinks it up in the finals and has one of the worst games anyone's ever had in that game.
And now all of a sudden, J.J. McCarthy is the best quarterback in the draft?
What is going on?
And now the Vikings are going to trade up?
So what are we going to give up?
We don't have anything to give up.
I can't do it.
I'm fine.
I think I'm fine.
James, some of the funniest memes this week on social media have been the memes of Justin Jefferson.
First, seeing everybody gone, and then the next, hearing that Sam Darnold was going to be his quarterback.
Oh, when I heard that, I was like...
I kept seeing all these people say, well, if there's anyone that can fix Sam Darnold, I don't care.
It doesn't matter who can fix Sam Darnold.
I know Kevin O'Connell is a genius.
I'm not debating that.
I love him.
I love that he's our head coach.
He basically got Kirk Cousins that extra plus million because the last two seasons, Kirk Cousins has been on one because of the way Kevin O'Connell runs that offense.
But Sam Darnold, for God's sakes...
I gotta hear him say he's seeing ghosts or something out there on the field again.
I can't do it.
I can't.
I won't do it.
I'm gonna mute every Vikings game so I can just watch and cry as the Packers get ahead of us, the Lions get ahead of us, and now probably the Bears will be ahead of us.
But on the bright side, you guys paid $184 million to win the NFC South, so that's something.
Hey, I think at this point, Arthur Blankchip, what do you think?
I think Arthur would have paid most anything to win something.
Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, as an Atlanta Falcons fan, I'm jaded, right?
I'm happy to hear that James likes Kirk Cousins so much.
I have no reason not to like Kirk Cousins.
But to James' point, he's 35 years old.
We signed him to a four-year deal for $184 million.
$100 million of that, which is guaranteed.
He's coming off a serious injury.
And we don't have Justin Jefferson on our team.
You do have Greg London, though.
We got Greg London.
And Ron Gilmore and Mooney.
You guys just went.
Yeah, so look, I expect good things from Kirk Cousins in the first year.
Hopefully the second year.
Does Kirk Cousins have four years left in the tank?
Probably not.
You know, he'll be 38-39 at that point in time.
But, you know, with what we've been dealing with, Doug, in the quarterback rotations, you know, it was worth a shot.
And look, I had...
I had just resigned ourselves to the fact that we were getting Justin Fields, and I had finally gotten okay with that, right?
I mean, Justin Fields, 25 years old, he grew up here.
Kirk Cousins, 35 years old, his wife grew up here.
So, you know, both of them have a lot of ties to Atlanta.
Look, we've spent a lot of political draft capital to get skill position players like Drake London, like Bichon Robinson, like Kyle Pitts.
And now we have a quarterback who has been successful and thrown for a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns at a lot of different places.
And so if he comes down here and stinks, then we know that we're jinxed and there's just nothing we can do for him.
Well, you know, Chip, we also, James, you got to look at, one of the things is, by the way, if you haven't heard, Desmond Ritter is now going to another place in which they have forgotten football altogether, and that's in the desert of Arizona.
Oh, my God.
What are they doing?
The Cardinals have Desmond Ritter and Murphy.
I saw the Monty Jones tweet.
That's a perfect way to tell Kyler Murray you have all the confidence in the world.
Exactly.
Exactly.
That way Kyler knows he's number one.
Yeah, number one, baby.
We ain't going nowhere.
We got a vote of confidence.
Okay, but speaking of, okay, I just have to laugh at this one.
We haven't had a chance to talk about this.
Our boy Russell Wilson.
I mean, there's so much you can say about this.
But the thing that just amazes me first, that he goes to Pittsburgh.
Now, number one, anybody could have picked up Russell Wilson for a steal.
I mean, a million dollars because Denver's on the hook for 80-something million dollars.
It's a great move by anybody who picked him.
But here's the most hilarious part of this whole story.
If Pittsburgh was trying to improve their offense, They brought in Russell Wilson and Arthur Smith to run the offense.
I mean, if you're a skilled player in Pittsburgh right now, you've got to be saying, do you just not like me anymore?
No, they said that last year.
Believe it or not, it's an upgrade.
Kenny Pickett is horrid.
Horrible.
It's kind of the perfect move to have Arthur Smith, right?
Because he doesn't care which running back takes the ball, and Pittsburgh has no idea who their running back is, so he's just going to mix it up until it works.
Arthur Smith is a classic coach or classic player of Madden or something.
I don't care what your name is.
I'm just going to keep running plays.
Yeah, that's right.
It's baffling that they signed him, but also...
I'm sure you all know Steelers fans.
How they talk about Steeler Nation.
We don't screw around.
This is the Steeler way.
Could they have brought somebody in who's never even sniffed the Steeler way in one way or another?
He's the furthest thing.
If somebody said pick a quarterback who isn't a Steeler, I would say Russell Wilson right off the bat.
It goes to show you Where the leadership brass of the Steelers are in their head with regards to Kenny Pickett.
Oh, absolutely, yeah.
This is your last shot, champ.
And so, yeah, I mean, it's just, I mean, you know, having, I had George Pickens, you know, on my bench last year.
You know, almost all season, because Kenny Pickett was throwing to him.
And, you know, I expected a little more production out of George Pickens, but...
Everyone did.
I mean, he came in as the golden child next to Garrett Wilson, right?
Yeah.
Fantasy team.
Can I say something, though?
Sure.
Talk about all these teams making moves.
But I want to talk about one team that's actually in your division.
Are you guys praying every day that you guys have the Panthers in your division?
Because are they not the most poorly run franchise?
They got rid of Brian Burns for a second and fifth round pick.
They got nothing in return for him.
While at the same time, they were the worst team in the league.
They could have had Caleb Williams or a number one pick this year.
That's how bad they were.
They have no idea what they're doing.
And I saw somebody post this yesterday.
Did you know that they talked about the resurgence of Baker Mayfield last year?
Yeah.
How that's why they chose him as their head coach because he was the offense coordinator.
You know they had the 22nd or 20th offense in the league last year?
Oh, wow.
I didn't know Tampa had the 20th offense in the league.
So in other words, they got a guy who's going to be below par with...
With one of the worst quarterbacks in the league right now.
You guys gotta just think to yourself, wow, we just walked into this division.
Kirk Cousins is gonna roll through this division.
New Orleans got worse.
And I'm blanking out on the other team right now.
It's just the four of them.
Tampa Bay.
And Tampa Bay is going to be your only competition.
That's it.
You guys are winning right now.
Yeah, they just signed Mayfield for three years.
I tell you the interesting, as we look at this, but again, Chip and I are very much jaded Falcons fans.
28-3 is tattooed in our forehead.
And we look at it, and technically this year was supposed to be that year.
I mean, and we couldn't do it.
And it was just terrible.
Another one interesting, don't you, you gotta feel, it's sort of funny, Jason Kelsey, and I know Kylie, his wife, is killing us.
They bring in Barkley, they bring in his, he's like, why did you do this after I leave?
Listen, the Eagles are going all in though with that move because Saquon's, I mean, this is his last stop or it'll be his last starting stop probably.
Yeah.
The Eagles, this is their big decision.
I know it sounds crazy.
They're going to have to make a decision on Jalen Hurts right now.
He was not the same player last year, and there's questions of his leadership all of a sudden, and I haven't really heard that many people defend him.
Saquon Barkley is going to change them, and that's going to be a crazy running backfield.
But, I don't know, with Kelsey gone and a lot of those big player names that left, I don't know where the Eagles sit.
What do you think about Henry, Chip, going to the Ravens?
I think it's a good fit for them.
I think, you know, it's a good fit for Baltimore.
It's a good fit for Derrick Henry.
We all knew that, you know, especially the way he played his last game in Tennessee, that, you know, he was out of there.
And so, yeah, I think it's a good fit.
I think it's going to work.
And, At some point in time, Baltimore's going to figure out a way to win in the postseason.
They haven't done a real good job of doing that so far.
Well, the one thing you can do right now is if you're picking your fantasy football for the fall, do not pick any receiver or anybody for the Baltimore Ravens because all they're going to do is run.
Definitely go the run game there.
I'm also always surprised.
I know he played at Alabama and you saw him at Auburn.
We saw him a little bit, but Harry is huge.
That man is just a massive man.
Oh, he's massive.
It's going to be an absurd backfield.
So your options are get killed by Derrick Henry or get your ankle snapped by Lamar Jackson?
Those are your options?
No, thank you.
Speaking of dumpster fires, and this is the one that has gotten a lot of play on the mainstream media, especially the ESPNs and everything else in the world.
What's Jerry doing in Dallas, James?
You're our on-scene reporter in Dallas.
What's happening here?
Well, you all saw the viral tweet from Skip Bayless, correct?
Have we all seen this?
No, I haven't seen that one.
Boys, alright, we might have to bleep me out here.
There's a tweet, and it was from Skip Bayless, and he wrote, All in, comma, my ass.
Now...
We all know that comma is doing the Lord's work because that is a tough thing to post, Skip.
The Dallas Cowboys signed Eric Kendricks today, and that's it.
I think that's their only big move.
They are all in, apparently, and I think they're waiting.
We have to sign Dak Prescott.
We don't know what to do, and they're just going to hope this season works out.
I don't know what they're doing.
I don't understand it.
Yeah, they let Pollard go because he had one bad season under Mike McCarthy.
Surprise.
I don't know.
I don't fully understand what they're doing.
I just know.
I think this is Jerry Jones' way of saying, all right, we're just going to run it back.
If it doesn't work, everybody's getting fired.
That has to be it.
Well, it doesn't make sense, a lot of what we're seeing out there.
But let's go back to something that we've talked about in, I guess, a semi-positive up until free agency started.
And I mean this sincerely.
I didn't want to see Justin Fields come to Atlanta.
I just didn't.
I didn't think it was a fit.
I mean, there was a lot of reviews there.
But, you know...
You've got to feel bad in a way for Justin Fields.
Oh, I do.
Absolutely.
Justin Fields got screwed over on a team like Chicago that was terrible, number one.
Then they played around with it, saying, we're going to maybe get rid of you.
We're going to get Caleb Williams.
We're going to bring all this in.
And then all of a sudden, he becomes not even tradable bait when you have Cousins and Wilson.
Oh, by the way, I got one word for you, James.
You could always have your boy Darnold and get Garoppolo, and they could actually fight it out for the quarterback spot.
Why are you doing this to me?
Why do you want to even put that bad juju in the air?
If the Vikings were to sign Jimmy Garoppolo, honestly, I don't have a lot of money, but I would fly out to throw hands with everyone in the Vikings.
But anyway, back to our field.
Chip and James, have y'all ever seen a player just sort of get...
I mean, it reminds me of NASCAR. I love NASCAR. I've watched NASCAR all my life.
But it's like, you know, they're going down and they have the two...
The whole field's in the two-by, going down in the turn, and one person, they move just a little bit, and that guy right behind him gets out of the lane, not intending to, and everybody else closes real quickly, and they just get this guy out here, and they just start doing this.
What Chase Elliott, by the way, has done all year, for those of you NASCAR fans, He's like, picked the wrong line on every race.
I've never seen a football player stop that didn't do something illegal, immoral, or against a fall as fast as I've seen Justin Fields.
Yeah, he's a victim of circumstance, really.
He's a victim of what the quarterback market was this year, right?
And when I say the quarterback market, I mean the free agent market and the quarterbacks that are available in the draft.
It's a quarterback-rich draft, and we don't always have those.
When Desmond Ritter got chosen two years ago, I think he was the second or third quarterback off the board, and the Falcons got him in the third round.
I mean, you know, you're going to have three quarterbacks off the board through five picks this time.
So, you know, look, he's 25 years old, you know, and I think he's getting better.
Do I think he's, you know, a quarterback that is going to lead a team to a Super Bowl?
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know that I'm willing to go that far, but I think the kid deserves better than what he's been given in Chicago, and I think he's going to get an opportunity.
I can't sit here today and tell you where that is, but clearly the book is not written and closed yet on Justin Fields, and I think he's got the ability to To find a new team, maybe not quite the path that it looked like he was going to find at one point in time, but I still think he's got several years ahead of him and he's got the ability to win a lot of games.
The Broncos and the Giants should be looking right now.
Okay, well I got a question for you though, James, and this is a philosophical question.
It's not why do bad things happen to good people, but when you see a Justin Fields and you see a Deshaun Watson, Yeah.
And again, I know Deshaun for years.
I still believe inherently somewhere beyond the Gucci clothes and everything else that he does now.
There's the kid from Gainesville, you know, that was there, but it's lost somewhere.
But you see somebody who's sort of skirted problems his whole time, arrogance.
I mean, the only thing you see him doing in the offseason is modeling clothes with his It's the Greg Hardy thing.
This, to me, always comes back to Greg Hardy.
Greg Hardy was a horrible person.
There was proof of him doing horrific things, but because he was really, really good at football, the Cowboys signed him.
This is what happened with Deshaun Watson.
They were like, oh, well, nobody's going to take him.
We'll just throw a bunch of money at him, see if he'll come to us.
And sure enough, that's where he goes, is the Cleveland Browns.
They made one of the worst decisions in franchise history.
And Justin Fields has to sit here, personally...
I think Justin Fields is going to end up getting a backup role somewhere, and he's going to take over because that team stinks, and he's going to turn his career around.
That's what I'm hoping for.
That's what I'm rooting for because I like him.
I still don't understand why Denver and the Giants aren't going after him.
I don't care what anyone says about Daniel Jones.
I don't think he's a good quarterback.
I don't think he's proven that once.
But also, and I know this sounds crazy, but if you're the Los Angeles Rams...
Yeah.
I know you don't have a ton of picks to give up.
Obviously, they proved that.
They said screw the picks and they won a Super Bowl.
But if you're the Los Angeles Rams and you have a genius like Sean McVay and you have probably, what, a year or two left with Stafford, maybe?
Maybe it's the right move.
Maybe it could save his career.
Can we talk about another quarterback, though?
Who's that?
That might save the future of America.
And Aaron Rodgers, who's basically going to end up becoming Flash Gordon.
Hey, look.
Quarterback for the New York Jets, save the world.
I still have hope that no labels will consider him for best.
Chip, could you and I come up with a baseball-football tandem there?
Oh, wow.
Don't even get me started.
Aaron wouldn't do that to himself.
No, you and I would get on a plane to whatever hut he's in in the darkroom.
He's smarter than that.
Yeah, don't do that.
Don't do that.
Yeah, but I mean, it's amazing though.
But here's the deal.
And for anybody out there, and this is a plug for sports and plug for politics.
Politics, as Chip has always wanted to say, that once you get into U.S. Congress, U.S. Senate, governor to appoint, or president, it's the NFL, baby.
I mean, it is.
I mean, for Aaron Rodgers, I mean, it's the top of the list.
And everything is on stage at that point.
And it was amazing to me from the minute Aaron Rodgers was even mentioned in this, all of a sudden there were about 400 reports on what he did or did not say about the Sandy Hook shooting 14 years ago.
Yes.
And it's like, Aaron, please stay away from this.
Only those of us who have been warped by society live in this swamp.
You don't want to come in this one because it is so bad right now.
Yeah, the the the when when a football game is is done concluded, they turn the lights off in the stadium and everybody leaves.
You step out on that stage and you can never leave and the lights are always on.
Oh, yeah.
It's just not even something you can look at.
I just don't get the...
I don't know.
Just say no now.
Like, just say no.
Don't say, don't be like, you know, his weird way of being like kind of mystical or whatever stupid thing he's thinking of that day.
I'm going to let the American people think I want to do this.
Just go play.
The Jets fans will not be able to handle this.
They won't.
They will melt into a billion pieces and we'll have to pick them up one by one and glue them back together.
Aaron Rodgers has to play at least a freaking four, two downs for the Jets.
For God's sakes.
Please.
I hate, I'm not a Jets fan, and I do not like Aaron Rodgers.
I think that's been pretty clear on this program.
But he has to play some time for the Jets.
Well, Greeny on ESPN was dying the other day.
I mean, it was just when he came out.
I mean, it was pretty bad.
Hey, one of the quick questions I want to get in before we get gone here.
And it's something that's been a theme to this discussion of free agency.
And we haven't even talked about running backs.
By the way, the only one that's been treated worse, in my opinion, than Justin Fields has been Aaron Jones and the Packers.
Absolutely.
And, you know, the way, you know, leaving it out there, I mean, no place to go, you know, that kind of thing.
And also, mixing with the Bengals.
Running backs that were held, held, held, and then released, you know, after the moves we're already making.
And, you know, you got to feel bad for folks like this.
But here's my question to sort of end this.
And Chip alluded to it earlier.
Have we gotten now to where there's no such thing as drafting and building?
And I say that because, Chip, you made reference to it, and James, you did a little bit, but Chip made reference to the fact that basically you get one, if it doesn't work in two years, we'll cut you loose and go do something else.
Are we past the point with the fan bases that fan bases will allow you the luxury of drafting and building a team for three or four years?
Yes.
Yeah.
Chip, you want to go first on this one?
Yeah, I mean, the short answer is yes.
I mean, you basically got a year to rebuild.
And I say a year to rebuild.
I mean, I don't know that it's realistic that anybody thinks the Carolina Panthers, who were the worst team in the NFL last year, can win the Super Bowl next year.
But they better show progress, right?
Even though they got a new coach, one year rebuilt.
Because if you're not showing progress in two years with the money that's being spent now on these franchises and the amount of money that they're paying in free agency and the contracts that are signed out of the draft, you don't have time.
So you got a year, year and a half.
So yeah, Doug, I think those days are gone.
It is.
James?
Well, no, what I wanted to say was it's such an interesting thing because in basketball, they give you so much time to rebuild.
Yeah.
They really do.
You look at the Oklahoma City Thunder, that team is in second place or first place right now in the West because they were given time to turn around and make picks.
The problem with the NFL is how quickly teams are doing it.
The Bengals turned around in one year after getting Joe Burrow.
The Kansas City Chiefs were a good team, but it wasn't working.
Then Patch Mahomes comes in.
They have three Super Bowls.
The Bills are constantly in the AFC Championship game after, what, two years of Josh Allen?
And then you have, I know I'm blanking out, the Eagles turn around immediately after they lost Doug Peterson.
Like, it's happening so quickly, the same with the Texans, that the other teams can't be given an excuse.
And that's the reason.
That's it.
Yeah, that's it.
All right.
One thing we're going to say until next week, folks, and James write a note on this one for us because I want to get into NIL next week because you had Saban on the Hill on NIL and also some interesting comments out of Kirby Smart on NIL and how it's affecting recruiting and everything.
So we'll get to that next week, but I want to get a final round of thoughts here.
James, we'll start with you for final round after this week.
I already hated Atlanta because of 1998, but now when I see you, it's on.
Let me just make that super clear.
I don't want to talk to anybody from Atlanta besides you two, all right?
Georgia in general is already on the board, all right?
Georgia in general.
I know you guys aren't technically from Atlanta, but whatever.
My point is I'm against all of you, and I'm going to fight you forever on this, and I'm rooting for Kirk Cousins to go 0-17.
In Atlanta, we might understand it.
But James, aren't you going on a world tour in which you're coming through Georgia this year?
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.
I'm going to be there in, I want to say, March, a year from now.
So when I see you, I'm going to be upset because you guys probably just won the Super Bowl.
And I don't know what I'm going to do mentally.
But yes, when I come and visit you guys, I will pretend to like everyone.
I love it.
All right, Chip, your turn.
Look, I just, Kirk Cousins, 35 years old.
He's coming off an Achilles injury.
The irony after what happened last year to Aaron Rodgers, who was older than and had an Achilles injury.
I just hope that Kirk Cousins can make it through a game before he gets injured.
And so, you know, my fantasy football team every year is the all ACL team.
And I think James misspoke earlier in the show when he said, you know, Kirk Cousins is coming off an ACL tear.
He's coming off an Achilles tear.
So I hope that doesn't jinx his ACLs because he's got two of them.
I hope that doesn't jinx Kirk Cousins' ACLs for when he puts on a Falcons jersey.
But that seems to be kind of the path we're going down.
So my closing thought is I hope Kirk Cousins can stay healthy and provide a little excitement for the Falcons next year.
There we go.
I have two closing thoughts.
One being, I now know what it's like to experience an injury I've never experienced.
I've been in athletics for most all my life and going and saying, I had never pulled, and you've heard about this, especially in football and others, your quad, the top of your thigh, that muscle right there, About a week and a half ago, my foot slipped out from under me.
I didn't fall, but it was like if you're on a tile floor and there's water or something there and your foot will slip and your body tenses.
Well, undoubtedly, I tense and tore and stretched those muscles right there on the top.
I can walk, but golly, it is uncomfortable.
So now I hear all these football players, they said they have a quad injury and they can't come back for three or four weeks.
I now have complete sympathy in that.
The other one is this.
Closing thoughts.
If you're ever in Kansas City in the next little bit, it looks like you're going to be having a new steakhouse in town.
1587 Prime.
Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes set to open a new steakhouse in Kansas City, Missouri.
And with that...
That's the final word here on Friday, Friday.
I'll just leave that right where it's at.
As it goes.
But that's it for Friday's Finest.
Glad to have you on board.
Always a fun time with my cohorts, James and Chip.
Always good to see y'all.
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